Recon in Force

 Got together with Thunder today and fought the first mission of the Octarius pack, Reconnoitre. He used his excellently painted Navy Breachers (a little out of their element on the dusty surface of Octarius) and I used my upgraded Legionaries with the Blessing of Quintara (aka Nurgle) instead of Chaos Undivided as I try to find their first win.

The board is set up symetrical with four vantage points. You get VPs for doing a Recon action (1 AP) on top of them, with more VPs for the ones farther from your own drop zone (long edge).

Marines deploy heavy to the east.

Navy Breachers spread out.

The Navy Breachers advanced on the east side, securing the high and low ground, and in the centre taking advantage of their barricades to get a Tac op point for control of the centre of the board.

The Chaos Marines advanced carefully, not wanting to fall behind early. Despite the care, the heavy gunner takes some damage from the plasma gun breacher, but the overheating weapon hurt him as much as the marine. A bad omen.

The Shrivetalon marine ran up, whipped a krak grenade accurately to kill a breacher, then ducked into cover in the centre. The heavy gunner eliminated the plasma gunner to avoid any more plasma damage. 

The Annointed unleashed the daemon but failed to claw all the way through the shield. The Balefire Acolyte moved up to support.

The the centre the Shirvetalon came under heavy fire but his armour and blessing of Nurgle kept him alive.

As we moved into the third turning point, the breachers were feeling the effects of the loses while the marines had wounds but still standing strong.

The Annointed marine dispatched the sheild bearer and charged and killed another breacher in a display of daemonic fury.

The awe weilding breacher finally dispatched the Shrivetalon but came under heavy return fire from the heavy gunner and bled out under Octarius' red sun.

The chaos champion, inactive until now, finally reached the enemy lines and charged and killed one breacher, then shot with his overheated plasma pistol to kill another. Despite the wounds from the fight and the overheating plasma, this broke the back of the breachers and the remaining few retreated from the high ground.

Conclusion

Some bad luck dice rolls on Thunder's part combined with good rolling on my side early on meant that I was able to get a lead and roll on it to the end game. An early marine down in turn 1 or two might have made all the difference. 

Good game!

Opeation Vicious

 Yesterday my son Terjoe and I had a game of Kill Team, with him using the Kommando Orks once again and me trying to use the Voidscarred Corsairs decently this time. We chose the 1.3 mission of Soulshackle, Cryptogrammic Raid where the goal is to acitvate terminals for victory points. The board is not quite symetertic however and as defended Terjoe select the side with two hatchway access to two rooms, whereas I would need to blast some walls to get in to them quickly.

Both of us quickly moved to our small consoles and activated them (we could not activate the big consoles in our drop zones, but we could activate the big console in the opposite side for extra VPs) and I moved troops into position to guard the centre hall and blast into the Hololith console room.

The orks however wasted no time getting into the hololith room and setting the Snipa boy on guard duty, ready to blast the first pointy ears he saw.

I blasted the wall and my concealed Fatedealer dealt some fate to the Rokkit boy, wounding him in turn 1 and finished him off at the top of turn 2. First blood!

But for every action.... I opened up the cetnre hallway door and blasted the squig with my blaster. I rolled two hits (but no crits) and at AP 2 against a model with a 6+ save I thought that would be enough so i opted not to reroll the misses, but Terjoe rolled the 6! The bomb squig survived with 1 wound! OH NO!

Terjoe immediatelly activated the wound squig, and with half its face melted off it ran and threw itself at the Eldar. BOOM! First time ever the squig made it to combat. The blaster gunner who fumbled the shooting died into many pieces but somehow the Shade Runner survived without any damage.

Meanwhile, in the adjacent small console rooms both sides got ready for the breach. The orks detonated the charge but the Eldar rushed through!

The Kurnathia swordmaster easily dispatched the Slasha boy but the Dakka boy took revenge by shooting the Hunter and his bird through the door. It was a bloody fight! 

The Breacha boy ran into to prepare to fight the swordmaster next turn but before he could, the Shade Runner whipped a plasma grenade into the Dakka boy and killed him and severely wounded the Breacha boy. The Felarch and Soulweaver then prepared to join the fray.

Exiting the Hololith room, the Nob ran and krumped the Fatedealer earning two extra VPs for a headhunter Tac Op, but the duelist made him pay with fusion pistol deadliness. 

Meanwhile the Burna boy snuck up behind the Shade runner and Wayseeker in the centre hall and flamed them from the rear while the comms boy blasted them from the front!

AS the last turning point started, the Ork sole control of the Hololith started to tell as their lead became unsurrmountable and no amount of dancing could get me to the big console in the Ork deployment.

The wounded Shade runner tried to kill the comms boy but Terjoe use Just A Scratch to avoid death forcing me to use the Wayseeker. The Boy in the small console room finished off the Shade Runner while the Burna boy finished off the Wayseeker. But it was all just cleanup as the Orks won, 9 VPs to 8.

IN the hololith room, I could not kill the concealed Snipa boy but I prevent him from activating the console by hiding on the other side of it. In frustraiton, the Snipa boy whipped out a Sledgehammer and crushed the skull of the Eldar.

Great game, both of us with only two models left, but the Orks early advantage of activating two consoles to the Eldar one paid off. I got 4 Tac Ops VPs to his 3, but the console advantage won the day.

The Battle for Ghazgull's Shoe

 Got together with some friends and played some Kill Team, booya. The mission was an Octarius mission where there are three scrap piles and you have to search them for a relic, in this case, sumpreme Ork warlord Ghazgull Urg Thrakka's lost shoe. You get VPs for searching, VP for finding the relic (roll a D6, 6+ its found), and 2 VPs for controlling the relic at the end, 3 if an operative is carrying it.

I was using my sneaky Kommands against Steve and the Necrontyr Hierotek Circle. We deployed in opposite corners and got to work!

I started out splitting up in three directions, big force for left and centre, and a couple orks for the farther right pile.

The Necrons also split with the main man Technomancer controlling the centre with the infiltrating Deathmark getting prime real estate.

I decided to get aggressive and sent the Dakka boy to throw some slugs at Steve directly. I did not roll well.

The Technomanced took personal offense at that and nuked the Dakka boy.

But Steve's real fear was the sneaky Bomb Squig.

The Kommando grot swung into action (literally) and grappling hooked his way to the centre pile to do a search. No shoe, but I get a VP.

The bomb squig made its move, dashing over the top of the terrain to end turning point 1.

The Necrons reinforced the centre and started to remove Orks, the breacha boy was not quite hidden enough as arcane energy zapped him, and the bomb squig took a perfect shot between the eyes. 

But the advancing Nob, Slasha boy, and Snipa boy searched and found the relic in the far left jumk pile. Orks at 3 VPs, Necrons 0.

The Deathmark zotted the Snipa boy with ease, but the Nob and Slasha boy crashed into the Necron lines as the Burna boy charged up the middle and the regular Boy causes chaos in the far right.

 

The Nob charged the Technomanced and crushed him easily. The Burna boy killed a guardian. The Boy killed a plasmacyte. Things are looking good....

But the Necrons still have the better shooting. 

Turning point 4, the Technomancer and two other Necrons reaminate. The Technomancer retains initiative, and rushes to pick up the objective. The Nob can only chase but not enough action points to fight! Might the Necrons force a draw?!

The Slasha boy, with an extra action from the Nob. throws knives to wound the scrab drone, charges and kills the reanimated guardian, and then in overwatch with a -2 to BS, throws more knives to finish off the scarb. Play of the game!

At the end of the firefight phase, I use my last CP to allow the Nob to "Krump Him!" and fight the Technomancer immeditately! This time there is no escape and the Necron is vanquished, giving contorl of the shoe to the Kommandos. Final score, 5-0.