sit rep (FOW): 2012 battle of Klotzsche

First game with the new V3 rules took place in Klotzsche, the local FOW gaming groups HQ.  On the day my Luftwaffe infantry paired up with Hungarians against British, In summary an Irish guy playing Germans allied with Hungarians led by German called Attila versus a German playing Irish Guard. A nice quality vs quantity match-up.  We rolled “free for all” for the mission meaning the infantry were ordered to attack the tanks. Objectives were spread evenly in each table quarter

The forces

Irish Guards (Confident Veteran tank company) Commander Van Der Leir 1 HQ platoon with 2 Sherman and 1 ARV 2 tank platoons each with 2 Sherman and 2 fireflies 1 tank platoon with 4 Stuarts 2 rifle platoons each with 3 sections 1 gun battery with 8 guns 1 Spotter plane	Luftwaffe Reluctant trained infantry company 1 HQ platoon with panzerfausts and panzershreik team 3 rifles platoons with panzerfaust and 3 sections each 1 pioneer platoon with 3 sections 2 HMG platoons with 2 sections 1 mortar platoon with 2 sections 1 light AA platoon with 3 guns 1 AT platoon with 3 guns 1 AA platoon with 2 88's
	Hungarian Army Confident trained infantry company 1 HQ platoon 3 rifle platoons with three sections 1 HMG platoon with 2 sections 1 AT platoon with 3 guns 1 artillery battery with 2 sections

88 deploys to cover an attack on the village.The panzer wreck  in the top left is one of the Luftwaffe objectives. The Shermans redeploy(hide) on the first turn.

The Axis had a lot platoons and deployment was determined more by were would something fit instead any clever plan. However, the 88's where deployed near one of the Guards objectives.  The Guards got to go first and advanced everywhere except where the 88's were.  The artillery opted to dig since it could not fire this round.  In response, the Axis advanced across the whole front mainly to spread out to avoid the attention of the Guards artillery when it got going. The Hungarian AT platoon got the drop on the Guards company commander destroying him meaning the Guards would automaticily fail a company command check and flee if one could forced.

Next turn saw the British artillery make its present known. A large concentration of Luftwaffe and Hungarians in the centre was targeted. Heavy artillery mixed dense infantry does not end well for the infantry.  The British tanks continued to push forward towards their objective trading fire with the nearby AT platoons.  The Luftwaffe countered by pushing forward on one of their objective over watched by the 88's battery.  The AT platoons claimed a few Stuarts but not enough to worry the Guards yet.

The Artillery, now ranged in,  hit the centre again and this time a tank platoon rolled forward to hit the survivors. A Luftwaffe platoon cracked under the pressure and fled to the rear. The Luftwaffe brought forward some HMG and began to destroy the British rifles that were claiming a Luftwaffe objective. The British artillery continued to pound any concentration infantry that could be sighted while the tanks pushed closer to the British objective.

The Luftwaffe pioneers supported by a rifle platoon attempted to capture their objective after a vicious fire fight and assault both platoons were destroyed along with the company commander.  On the other flank the British tanks finished off the German AT platoon and a Hungarian rifle platoon at the cost of loosing the Stuart platoon. But they still faced a wall of anti tanks guns rifle men.  With the hour getting late both side called off their attack.  The Axis lost five platoons while the British lost just one.

Too tempting a target for artillery

Luftwaffe pioneers on the way to the front

Outnumber three to one the British rifles did little advancing

Luftwaffe move towards their objectives 

Covered by the 88s

Hungarians holding the center. The unit was hit early in the game and spent most of the game pinned.

British armour pushes forward

Luftwaffe capture the woods near their objective

Pioneers move into assault position.

Preemptive counter attack with infantry, tanks and artillery destroys the attack before it can begin

Sitrep (FOW): Operation Charnwood is a go

Normandy July 1944 

Mmm, smell like a campaign, .

Too Fat Lardies (TFL) published a rules set aimed at WW2 company level called "I Ain't Been Shot Mom" (IABSM).  Scenarios for the rules are published every six months. With a bit of tweaking the scenarios can be adjusted for FOW. We decided ( well, I told everybody to be more exact) we were going to try one of the IABSM campaign. The campaign mechanics are interesting on a couple of points. In a normal campaign the battles are linked over a period of campaign time intended to represent weeks or months of effort. This campaign represent a single day and the attempts of the British 59^th division attempting to break through at Caen in Normandy as part of operation Charnwood. All the battles fought are between 04.30 and 20.30 on the 8^th-9 ^th of July on the outskirts of Caen. The time period is too short for units to get experience and replacements. So any damage from a battle rolls over to the next battle.

Another interesting feature of the TFL rules sets is that they encourage people to play the game not the rules. So there is a strong role play element in the game. The British have eighteen companies, typical game of FOW involves one just company, attacking the German held villages at a time and location of their choice. The British must capture all the villages outside of Caen.  They even have a plan. The fun starts when the plan meets reality.

tactical map*

The British cunning plan

Phase one

Taskforce Micheal will attack Galamache at 04.30 hrs

Taskforce Paul will attack La Bejude at 04.30 hrs

Phase two

Taskforce John will attack Epron at 07.30 hrs

Taskforce Phillip will attack Malon at 10.30 hrs

Taskforce Gerard will attack St Contest at 12.30 hrs

Each taskforce consists of two rifle companies with Armour and regiment support. In reserve, are another eight companies with armour and weapons support.

* The map comes from one IABSM booklets. Well worth a look if you are interested creating scenarios in FOW, 40K, WHB, Battlefleet gothic, Areonautic Imperailis. 

Dig In (FOW): HMG nests

Rumors of a possible FOW campaign renewed interest in some FOW terrain. The campaign will be based on Normandy and included the 16th Luftwaffe division. The Luftwaffe infantry are not the best units in FOW, to improve their chances I made up some HMG nests based on the model dads blog tutorial.

1) First 12 matchstick were roughly cut 1.5cm long.  The "logs" were roughly glued 4-5 matchsticks high to make two walls. The walls were glued 8mm apart at roughly right angles to each other on a FOW medium sized base.

2)Polystrene was roughly cut to form the other three walls of the nest.

3) The walls and the outside of the nest were covered in wood filler and a mixture of cork bark and small stones was scattered around the base.

4) Once dried the inside of the nest was painted black

5) The top of the nest was then covered in more roughly cut matchsticks

6)the roof was then covered with more wood filler. While still wet the mixture of cork bark and small stones was scattered over the roof

7)Once dried the nest was covered in watered PVA glue to seal in the rubble. Then the exterior was painted grey

8) Once that had dried the logs was painted a wood color and the earth was painted and earth tone. The whole nest was then dry brushed with an off white color. Then a mixture of flocks was glued on. And the job is done.

PiP (FOW): Flames of War is starting to hot up

It seems that FOW has been big of the painting tray of late. Probably due to the release of V3 this month. Painting wise there is not much new method wise. But I am starting to use Vallejo mediums in painting. I just need to figure out how to get the most out of them. Below are some of the units completed this month

Tiger I's platoon

Sd Kfz 231 squadron?

Recon units (hopefully looking for my new rule book)

Sd Kz 222 squadron

schimmwagen platoon

Sd Kfz 251/16 section

Sd Kfz 251/16 section with Sd Kfz251/7 section in the rear

Buete panzer with Kfz 68 radio truck

Ferdinand with Bergepanther

Not shown but on the way is an is a Gebirgsjaeger company inspired by one of the local FOW players, Frank.  One of his airborne platoons is shown and more picture of his 101st can be seen here.  The best critism I heard of his army was that the stars and stripes on each figure was missing the full 50 stars :)

PiP (40K) Commissar Christina and Snarfa

Some models just grab your attention for me one of those models was officier disciplinaire viktoria skivlana available at eurobitz.  There was some minor conversion done, frist the less impressive bolt pistol was replaced with Forge World plasma pistol.  Snarfa comes from Wyrd miniatures.  The model was primed grey and painted a mix of Games Workshop (GW) and Vallejo (V) paints. 

Sitrep (40K): Warpcon2012 day 2

End of day one saw the Orks with two wins and a draw. They needed two good results from day two.

Round 4 Vs; Ivan Sheehy playing Imperial Guard

Deployment; Spearhead

Primary mission; Seize ground

Secondary mission; Annihilation

The enemy:

Command squad with Creed

Command squad with Straken

3 heavily reinforced guard platoons, Commissar, 5 lascannons, 5 meltaguns

There is 145 guardsmen bhind that building in the corner

Ivan's list was pretty interesting. With 150+ basic guards backed up with some heavy weight command squads. The Guard won the roll off and opted to go first and built up an impressive nest in their deployment zone, with a token command squad in outflank. Fortunately the primary mission was based on objectives so the Boyz did not really have to go anywhere near the nest. One Choppa mob deployed on one objective and close to two more. Two Loota mobs deployed in support. The rest of the army opted to go into reserve.  Snikrot opted to outflank.  Lacking good targets the Guard took pot shots with lascannons at Lootas. Meanwhile the Orks moved forward to secure three of the five objectives on the battlefield. Ork reinforcements started to arrive with a Shoota mob and Snikrot entering play. Snikrot’s arrival was a problem since the Guard nest was intact and the soft command squads were covered by layers of guards. The Shoota mob opted to secure a fourth objective, while moving through cover to the guard lines. Snikrot’s boyz assaulted the nest and destroyed a combo squad of guard before consolidating back towards the Ork lines. Outraged the Guard open fire on Snikrot, causing his mob to flee further towards the Ork lines. More Boyz and Kans started to arrive and take pot shots at the nest. The forward Shoota mob got into range and started putting holes in the nearest guard combo squad. Quantity making up for quality.  Snikrot opted to rally and consolidated out of line of sight of the guard.

Now 115 guardmens

Despite being down badly on the objectives the guard nest refused to break up instead opting to get into fire fight with the nearest Shoota mob. A second Shoota mob arrived and began work its way forward.  Getting a bit bored with shooting, the nearest shoota mob opted to assault. Which turned out to be a bad idea since Straken had moved forward to give a counter-attack bonus to the nearby squads. Plus some of the attacked squad where hidden in cover making the Orks strike last. The Orks nearly destroyed the combo squad but the commissar and a few Guard survived. The guards counter-attacked and wiped out the mob to break even on kill points. The outflanking command squad arrived near the nest since the other objectives were swarming with Orks. The last Shoota mob opened fire on the new arrivals and destroyed them. The game ended with the Orks holding four objectives versus the guard’s one and the Orks ahead on kill points by one.

 The result; Win Orks 17-3

Round 5 Vs; Dan Aherne playing Grey Knights

Deployment; Pitch battle

Primary mission; Annilation

Secondary mission; Seize ground

The enemy:

2 Inquisitors with a full box of fancy grenades attached one to each Purifier squad

1 Vindicare assassin

2 purifier squads in razorbacks

1 deep strike grey knight squad

3 grey knight squads with razor backs

2 Dreadnoughts

1 Dread Knight

The last battle put the Orks in first place for the final round. Unfortunately it put them against Grey Knights with Purifiers, which are a primary threat for the Boyz.  The Grey Knights won the roll off and castled up in a corner, with the intercept knights going in reserve.  The Boyz opted to deploy two Shoota mobs, a Choppa mob and the Lootas with the rest going in reserve or outflank.   Turn one saw the Purifiers and the Dread Knight move forward, the rest of the army opting to open fire.  Those in range opened fire on the lootas while does out of range opened fire on the boyz. The Vindicare dropped a Nob.  Most of the fire was minimized by cover but the boyz took an alarming amount of fire.  The Orks responded by trying to destroy the purifier’ transport but predictable they could not hit the side of the barn door. One mob moved forward to provoke the Purifiers. One squad took the bait and disembarked to assault the mob but failed to get into assault range. The other Purifier squad moved towards the Lootas and a their screening Shoota mob with support from a Dread Knight.  

Ork reinforcement began to arrive in the shape of killa kans and the Big Mek, who tried his best to act like a small Mek and hide from the Vindicare.  Shooting saw everything in range open up on the Purifiers decimating the squad but leaving a few survivors, which the damaged shoota mob assaulted. The mob got burned but finished off the survivors.  The other shoota mob opted to Waaagh and assaulted the Dread Knight pinning it in combat.   The last Grey Knight squad disembarked moved to rescue the Dread Knight. But they failed their terrain move. The Intercept squad arrived and destroyed a mob of Lootas.  

In combat The Shoota mob pull apart the Dread Knight

The remaining grey knights moved forward and destroyed the exposed Shoota mob and the last of the Lootas. In combat the Shoota Mob finished of the Dread knight and moved after the intercept squad.  Snikrot arrived on queue and got the drop on a Grey Knight squad.  The Shoota mob threatened by the Purifiers opened fire on the nearby intercept squad killing several. Annoyingly the squad fled denying the mob a chance to assault them and put some distance between the mob and the Purifiers. Snikrot took out a Grey Knight squad leaving just one survivor who fled.  A Killa Kan mob tried to assault the last purifier squad but failed to move through terrain.

In response, the Vindicare killed Snikrot.  The rest of the Grey Knights targeted the Kommandos who took a beating but stayed in play.  One of the fleeing squads auto rallied while another was under escort from the Kommandos. The Purifiers assaulted the Shoota Mob and destroyed it with easy.    The Orks continued to apply pressure with another Choppa and Killa  mob arriving.  The remaining Kans moved forward threatening the Purifiers and the Grey Knight objective.  The purifiers assaulted one of the Kan mobs. Their attached Inquisitor threw his psychotropic grenades causing the Kans to attack themselves*.  The Purifiers finished of the rest in assault.  The remaining Grey Knights split fire between the Kommandos and the a Choppa mob threatening an uncontested objective. The next turn saw the large Choppa mob capture an uncontested objective. The damaged Choppa mob moved to capture another objective.

The Purifiers assaulted another Killa Kan mob again the psychotropic grenades denying the kans a chance to attack. The Purifiers then destroyed the mob. Elsewhere the Vindicare shot another Nob while the Knights blasted the squad causing them to flee.

Under pressure with time running out the last Choppa mob assaulted the Purifiers. Between the Inquisitors grenades and the Knight's cleansing flame not a lot of boyz made it. Those that did killed the inquisitor and several knights. The game ended with the Choppa mob still holding their objective while the Knights held another. The Knights won on kill points by two.

Standard Ork 'eavz transport

  

The result; Ork loss 5-15

*Afterwards checking the FAQ it looks like the psychotropic grenades do not affect Kans Which would have made a more interesting game. C'est la geurre. Must bring all the FAQ's next time.

Overall Warpcon was top class. It was good to get back to the islands and see how the game is developing.  It will be interesting to see how it does on the mainland. 

Neat Eldar conversion

More photos of the event can be seen here

sitrep (40K); Warpcon 2012

Warpcon 2012

Intro

Last year the sisters went to Cork and fought their way up to table one for the final round only to be denied by a single plague bearer suriving two exorist volleys. This year the Green Tide march to Waaagh

The Green tide

Big mek with kustom force field

2 loota mobs

1 kommando mob led by Snikrot

2 shootas mob (fer shootin' and beatin' stuff up)

2 choopa mob (fer beatin' and shootin' stuff up)

3 kan mob

The Waaagh lines up for round one

Round 1 Vs; Gag playing Space Marines

Deployment; Pitch battle

Primary mission; Seize ground

Secondary mission;

The enemy:

Vulcan

1 squad of Sternguard in a pod

Two Dreadnought in a pod

2 combat squads in Razorbacks

2 Predators

1 squadron of Landspeeders

1 Devastator squad

1 Scout squad in Landspeeder Storm

Razorbacks secure the Marine objective

Orks won the roll off and opted to go first to deny the good cover to the Marines.  Kans when up front with shoota boyz behind and choppas in the rear and on one flank. Snikrot opted to outflank, while the Big Mek went for the center.  The Marines deployed the Razorbacks near their flag and one of the objectives with the Predators deploying one flank over looking the Ork's flag.  The Landspeeders went in the centre.  Devastator covered the Razorbacks while the Scouts opted to out flank. The Marines seized the initative (there may have been some expletives at this stage). Both Dreads drop near the Ork objective.  Speeders moved forward and everything started blasting the Kans and Lootas  Two kan mobs got battered and one loota mob was reduced to a couple of boyz

Dreadnought assualt on the Ork objective

Moving round the wreck of the kans the boyz started to advance. One shoota mob went after the dreads. Two rocket boyz ran behind one of them and destroyed it with a rocket attack.  The lootas targetted the speeders destroying one and stunning the other. A Choppa mob moved to support the Shoota engaging the dreads.  The rest of the Orks pushed forward.   Vulkcan decide not to arrive yet. But the scouts arrived and had to deploy near their objective.  The remaining Dreadnought flamed and assualted the shoota boy pinning them in combat.  The rest of the Marines poured fire into the Kans and Lootas badly damaging but not destroying anything.

Match of the Kans

On time Snikrot arrived and moved after the Devastator and Razorbacks.  The boyz opted to Waaagh.  Lootas, Kans and rokkits blazed away destroying the Land speeder, the Scouts and one of the Razorbacks.  Snitrot went in and destroyed the devastators and disembarked squad. A choppa mob destroyed the second razorback.

Vulcan arrives

With the line crumbling, Vulcan finally arrived.  The Sternguard used to poisoned ammo to whittle down one of the mobs.  The Orks countered by re-deploying to meeting the new treat. A damaged shoota mob screened Vulkcan while the rest of army finished of the last tactical squad.  Vulcan separated from his squad and assaulted a shoota mob claim a near by objective.  The Sternguard moved to re-capture the Marine objective .  Vulcan was killed by the shootas mob.  The Sternguard were badly shot-up, then assaulted and destroyed by the choppa mob claiming the Marine objective.  After eight rounds of combat the Shoota mob fighting the Dreadnought final destroyed to secure a near by objective.  The surviving kans and other mobs destroyed the pods.  By the end of the game the Marines were down to two Predators trying to protect each other from flanking rokkit attacks.     

Last stand of combat Varius

The result; win Orks 19-1

Round 2 Vs; Paul Quigley playing Necrons

Deployment; Spearhead

Primary mission; Capture and control

Secondary mission; Annilation

The enemy:

Anrakyr on command barge

Boss on command barge

1 Wraith pack

2 courts with light switch and re-roll

3 five man squads of Necrons in night scythes 

3 Annihilation barges

Orks version of getting into cover

Necrons are currently class as one of the major threats to the Green Tide. A match against them was going to be tight.  Orks won the roll off and let the Necrons go frist. The Necrons deployed everything with the Wraiths screening the Necron objective. In response the Orks deployed a single shoota mob in cover.  The Necrons moved forward and started the tesla torrent. The Orks went to ground but still took casualties.  Turn two saw more of the same with the mob slowly getting whittled down.  Ork reinforcements started to arrived a choppa mob move in to replace the badly damaged shootas. Lootas arrived and sprinted into position, with a kan mob also moving in. In response the Necrons finished of the shoota mob and started to lay into the fresh Kans and Lootas.  More boys started to arrive. Sniktrot arrived and destroyed the Wraiths a little too easily leaving him exposed.

Killa Kan Vs Annihilation Barge

The Necrons blasted Snitrot out of existent and destroyed a newly arrived lootas mob.  The Orks countered with a Waaagh, destroying two Command Barges that had move  close to the Ork line to contest the Ork objective.  The Necrons continued to pour in the Tesla torrent savaging Kans and Boyz.  The Orks started to hunt down Necron lords, killing Anrakyr; with the other lord barely escaping thanks to animation protocols.  The Necrons started to peel back to protect their objective while destroying kan mobs.  One kan got the drop on an Annilation Barge and destroyed it only to be destroyed in turn by the near by Cryteks.  The Orks tracked down the last lord and destroyed him  The game ended with both side control their flags and even on kill points.

Night Sycthe on patrol

The result; Draw orks :) 10-10

Round 3 Vs;Donal playing Orks

Deployment;  Dawn of war

Primary mission; Annilation

Secondary mission; Capture and control

The enemy:

Ghazghkull aka Ghaz

Weirdboy

1 mob of kommandos with  fake Snikrot

5 mobs of 25 boyz

2 loota mobs

1 Grot mob

Nuts, Donal had more boyz than the Green Tide and he had Ghaz but the Green Tide had a cunning plan. Donal won the roll off and opted to go first. Two mobs deployed up front with the rest of the army walking on on turn one.  Except the grots who went into reserve. Ghaz and fake Snikrot's mob that went to outflank Facing 150+ boyz, the Green Tide forgot the cunning plan and opted to all reserve with Snikrot opting to outflank. Ghaz's army moved forward on mass.  The Weirdboy lost the plot and teleport himself and a mob into another mob with fatal results.  With an enemy mob already destroyed the Green Tide began to arrive with all the lootas, a pair of Kan mobs, a choppa mob and a shoota mob arriving to secure their objective.  For Ghaz, the grots arrived but fearing Snikrot they deployed far away from their objective.  The rest of the army pushed forward.  The Green Tide started to arrived in strength with the Big Mek, last shoota and kan mobs arriving at the front with Snikot arriving at the rear. Snikrot's mob assaulted and destroyed a mob of boyz and a mob of lootas, foring the other loota mob to re-deploy.

Fake Snikrot and Ghaz go after a choppa mob

Fake Snikrot with Ghaz arrived and tried to contest the Green Tides objective but he was far and had to be content with destorying a choopa mob instead.  The last of the Green Tide units arrived in the form of a choppa mob which went after Ghaz.  The lootas and shoota opted to shot him up first to soften him up. Proper Snikrot in the mean time opted to multi assault another mob and lootas and again destroyed them both (obliviously, this was the real Snikrot).  Ghazgull was forced to Waagh to save himself but his kommando were not so luckz and were buried under a hail of choppas.  The next round saw Ghaz fall to the same choppas.  What was left of Ghaz's army moved to re-secure their obective. One mob blasted proper Snikrot mob out of existence out of spite..  The Kans moved forward and engaged and pinned the last two mobs in combat away from their objective. While the Lootas shot the Grots of the table.

Proper Snikrot flees the table after destroyng 68 enemy boyz in close combat.

The result; 18-2

Sitrep (40K) second day of the battle of Ratisbona

Day one had gone badly, Day two did not start off to great either when Max showed up carting a pair of Landraiders.

Round 4 Vs Max Haehnel

Deployment: Pitch battle

Primary mission: Breakthrough. Each squad in the enemy deployment zones worth a battle point. Whichever side has the most battle points is the winner

Secondary mission: Most valuable unit. The most expensive troop choice is automatically the most valuable unit. If this unit gets into the enemy deployment it counts as four battle points

The enemy: Black Templars

1 Grand Marshal

1 Emperor’s champion

1 Jet pack Chaplin

1 Predator

1 Jet pack squad

3 tactical squads

1 land speeder

2 land raiders

1 Terminator squad

1 Dreadnought in a pod

Max of Clan Haehnel made the trip with brother, nephew and son from Dusseldorf and reminded me of General Grouchy, if General Grouchy was less grouchy.

Not quite a MexiOrk village

Templar's with Landraider support

And more Landraider support

Max won the roll off an opted to go first. Most of the Black Templars went on one flank with the Marshal, Champion and Terminators in the middle in Land Raider. The sole predator occupied the refused flank.  In response the shoota boyz and a choppa mob lined up against the heavy flank while the kans and the other choppa mobs took the centre. Big meks reinforced both groups. While Lootas opted for high ground.  The orks failed to seize the initiative and Black Templar’s advanced. One lootas mob took fire and fled the battle.  The orks countered with both of the shoota mob moving towards the jet pack squad that had advanced to fire. The Orks opened fire at destroyed the jet pack squad. Typically, it took nearly every gun the army to destroy the squad while the kans sprinted forward.  Deranged by the loss of his squad the Chaplin assaulted at thirty boy mob and provided them with free consolidation move.  

Last charge of the chaplin

The Dreadnought arrived but scattered battle of target. Elsewhere, the marines tried without success to whittled down the Kan wall.  While the Marshal ans hid retinue dismounted to assault the kans.  The Orks started to surge forward one mob assaulted the dreadnought pinning him in combat. Lootas got a shot of the land speeder and sent it crashing to the ground.  The Marshal retinue and the Kans exchange blows a few terminators fell for a few damaged dreads.  

The Marines continued to try and stem the tide but there were too many orks, two tactical squads were swallowed by the mobs while the drop pod and a Landraider was taken apart by the Kans.   The Marshal retinue final finished of a the Kan mob it was fighting only to be swallowed by another Kan mob backed up by a Choppa mob.  In the end the Marines were reduced to a Landraider and a Predator that had been backed into a corner.

Result; Win Orks 17-3

Round 5 Vs Hannes Niedermeiser

Deployment: Spearhead

Primary mission: Seize ground. With three objective, one centre of table (worth two points) and one in each of the empty table quarter (worth one point)

Secondary mission: Seize the high ground. The highest point on the battlefield counts as an objective.

The enemy:

Swarm lord with two Brood Guards

Doom in a pod

2 broods of Hive Guard

2 Tervigons

5 Genestealer broods

The Doom seemed to be doing the rounds in Ratisbona. So unfortunately, were the Genestealers. The Bugs won the roll off and predictably picked the quarter with the highest point on the battle field.  The Orks deployed the Shootas on the flanks with Kans up front. Lootas were deployed at the back surrounded by Choppa boyz. The bugs then deployed all of the Genestealers on one flank.  

Orks line up for a fight

Stunningly, the Orks stole the initiative the Kans wheeled about to engage the Genestealers while the Choppa boyz started to push forward. Shooting savaged two broods of Genestealers and destroyed a brood of Hive Guard.  Stunned, the Tervigon spawned a brood of gaunt and then was empty. The Genestealers scuttled through cover towards the Orks while the remaining Brood Guard destroyed a Kan.   The Orks coniuted to pour fire into the Genestealer and savaged another brood as well as claiming a Tervigon kill.  

Lurking Genestealers

The badly depleted Genestealer swarm hit the Kan wall and stopped.  The Doom made an appearance but was denied good drop zone and had to deploy badly.  The Orks surged forwards two Choppa mobs broke the Genestealer swarm, while another finished of the Doom and its Pod.  

The Doom makes an appearance

With the line broken the Bugs tried to consolidate on what they had. Another Tervigon was destroyed by shooting and the Swarm Lord and his retinue were pinned in combat with the Choppa Boyz.  In the last minutes of the game the surviving bugs broke cover and rush to contest most of the objectives. The game ended abruptly before the Orks could wipe out the remaining half a dozen bugs.

Result  Draw 

Conclusion

Overall, Ratisbona was good funny. Two losses, two draws and one put the boyz in the middle of the pack.  I would have loved to have swapped tables with my opponents in games one and two. The hi light was probably against Max’s Black Templar’s. His English was as good as my German so we generally had to mime whatever orders were given the armies.  

The secondary mission added spice to the event. But I think the order in which they were declared could be changed. For example write down the scert lovers before deployment and declare it after deployment otherwise it is to easy just to pick the enemy unit in front of all your guns to be the target.

More pictures of the battle for Ratisbona can be found here