Cultwar 40k game report

The gig is up. Inquisitor has unearthed the secret of the Brotherhood of the Yellow King, and though he barely escaped with his life (which is more than can be said for his retinue) he has called in reinforcements.

Thanks to comprehensively wining the Shadow War the cult are fully prepared and will have the advantage of numbers, but will this be enough to deny the wrath of the Imperium? Read on to find out.

So here we go, Cult skirmish properly turns into Cult war (or at least Cult Battle) as Lee and I escalate from Shadow War Armageddon to Warhammer 40,000. The first game would be a relatively small affair at 50PP, bigger games would follow later. I took a 5PP bonus for my victories in SW:A, one PP for each Promethium reserve I had over Lee. I needed it too, as Leman Russ tanks are EXPENSIVE. My dreams of a Endomaw PDF force pretty much ended there and I went back to the cult, anticipating some nice ambushes. I also took an (equally expensive) Valkyrie to harass whatever Lee bought along. I don’t actually have a Valkyrie so used one of my Corvus Blackbirds, a sneaky proxy.  A few squads and a couple of Sentinels and I was done, I did contemplate a Patriarch but it seemed a bit early for that, it would work better later on when things escalated. I also took a tech priest to keep the Leman Russ running.

Lee went full guard with some suspiciously diminutive Valhallans and a Taurox containing a squad of Scions as well as a bunch of nasty and brutish looking Ogryns. Other than that it was large squads of troops, a couple of Scout Sentinels (I had a couple as well) and he also had a Valkyrie with a squad of Squat Valhallans in too. This would be an interesting matchup.

The game was Secure and Control (one objective each) The Cult got the first turn due to my expensive vehicles. Lee started with his Valkyrie on the board, mine was in reserve.

Only the Cult vehicles start on the board, the Cult themselves wait in ambush...

GSC Turn 1:

Movement:

I used a CP to ensure a perfect ambush and bought on the Acolyte Squad and Primus in what I hoped would be a devastating assault on Lee’s back line.

The Neophytes rolled a 5 anyway and this enabled them to get near the Taurox, I wanted it out of the way before it discharged it’s Scion cargo.

The Armoured Sentinels moved forward and The Magus cast Might From Beyond to enhance the Neophytes (in retrospect he probably should have cast Smite).

Shooting:

The Armoured sentinels opened up with everything including the Hunterkiller missiles they were packing, taking 8 wounds off the Taurox (I used a CP to change a 1 damage to 5) 

Hunter Killer time...

 

The Leman Russes Battle Cannon failed to wound the Valkyrie but the Lascannon stripped 5 wounds.

The Neophytes totally fluffed their shots on the Taurox with the grenade launchers and it was left to the lasguns to take it down to one wound.

Assault:
The Acolytes charged the nearest squad, anticipating a decisive crushing victory but Lee had other ideas. Playing grenadier strategy he killed off 4 acolytes before they even got into combat!

Still, the Primus took down 2, and the Acolytes a further 3. Lee managed no hits back and the Squad promptly departed due to Batleshock giving me First Blood, Still, it left my unit horribly exposed and Lee had plenty that could hurt me. 

With Might From Beyond I might have had a pop at the Ogryns but I had rapid fired so an assault wasn't on the cards.

It was about this stage I realised I had completely forgotten to bring on the Valkyrie.

Guard Turn 1:

Movement:

The first thing that Lee did was to upset me. Using the Stratagem ‘Bring in the Second Wave’ to replace the squad I had wiped out. He then formed a nice little gunline to slaughter my dudes. I was glad that my Magus, not my Primus, was my Warlord. 

The Ogryns moved up along the Taurox, His Scout Sentinels strode to the middle of the board where they would have their pick of targets. 

The Valkyrie made a beeline for my objective, it had a cargo hold full of squats eager to get their stunty selves on it. 

Shooting:

The Ogryns immediately gunned down 4 Neophytes, the Commisar accounted for another. The crippled Taurox targeted one of my Sentinels but the heavy damage that it had taken ensured it did no harm to the cult walker.

Lee's Command Squad mowed down 3 Acolytes and then his first platoon what remained. The second targeted the Primus and he shook it all off except the mortar which inflicted two wounds. Thoughts of vengeance were dashed though as the sentinel laid him low.

Assault:

The Neophytes were unsurprisingly wiped out by the Ogryns and Commisar.

GSC Turn 2:

Movement:

I didn’t need to move anything but bought my Valkyrie on dramatically, zooming it over to Lees back line.

Psychics:

The Magus Smote 5 Wounds off of the Valkyrie and Hypnotised the Ogryns, preventing them from acting next turn.

Shooting:

The first Armoured sentinel missed but the second bought the Valkyrie down in sheets of flame, all the Squats within survived though (those Stunties are tough!) and annoyingly they were right on top of my Objective and Warlord. Bad Times.

The Leman Russ obliterated an Ogryn with it’s Battlecannon, the Valkyrie for all its dramatic entry achieved absolutely nothing when trying to finish off the Taurox. Super disappointing.

Assault:

The Magus and the Sentinels all charged the Squats that had survived the Valkyrie crash. The Magus killed two but that was all that happened. 

The Cult charge in to clear the objective. 

Guard Turn 2:

Movement:

Lee moved all his squads over, along with the crippled Taurox. He was going for my Valkyrie. His Scions jumped out of their Taurox before it moved, maybe he realised that it’s days were numbered.

Shooting:

The sentinels shot the Leman Russ to no avail, but the Gatling gun on the Taurox stripped a wound from the battle tank. It was ok though, the Tech Priest could repair it.

Lee declared first rank fire second rank fire on the Valkyrie but everything bounced off. The scions managed to take a couple of wounds off the flyer. 

Assault:

I use a command point to interrupt and the Magus kills a Squat, Lee then uses his squad on the sentinel but fails to kill it. His sgt attacks the Magus and wounds him but I elect to lose a familiar instead.

GSC Turn Three:

Movement:

Again, nothing is moving, the Valkyrie hovers, its more vulnerable this way but hopefully it will do more damage.

Psychics:

The Magus hypnotises the squad he is in combat with. Should have kept the familiar and Smited something, oh well.

Shooting:

The Valkyrie misses with it’s entire payload AGAIN!

Behold the worlds most useless Valkyrie

The Leman Russ however, lascannons a Sentinel to death and also takes a wound off an ogryn with its plasma gun sponson, everything else misses alas. Everything else seems to be in combat.

Assault:

Speaking of which, the Magus fluffs all his attcks! Thankfully the Sentinels crush two squats. Lee once again goes for the Sentinels. He does know the Magus is my Warlord right?

Guard turn 3:

Lee is committed to taking down that Valkyrie, it has 11 wounds left, Even his Scions double back to take it out. Using FRFSRF he takes it down to half wounds, most of that is done by the Scions, there is no other shooting.

Assault:

The Ogryns and Commisar charge into the messy combat in the middle. The commissar cuts down the Magus and Lee gets Slay the Warlord.

GSC Cult Turn 4:

No movement, I’m taking heavy losses and struggling to hold on. Now is the Valkyries turn though yes?

Shooting:

No. It misses with everything. AGAIN. I’m stunned by it’s incompetency. The Leman Russ is at least a little better. It manages to take a wound off the command squad at least. It misses with the battle cannon though and robs me of Slay the Warlord. Damn.

Assault:

The Armoured sentinel takes a wound off of the Commisar in an otherwise uneventful combat.

Guard turn 4:

Lee wants that Valkyrie dead, personally I don’t know why he is bothering. Still, its serving well as a fire magnet if nothing else. He shuffles everything over and changes tactics, electing Bring it Down. He didn’t, but he did manage a few more wounds on it.

The Commissar wounded the Sentinel which in return missed completely, the Ogryns scored a few more in the long (long) running combat.

GSC Turn 5:

Ok here it is, crunch time, time to roll metaphorical dice rather than real ones. I had to admit I was taking a hiding. I just couldn’t handle the stratagems and orders that Lee could bring to task, the Cult were really showing their lack of staying power and tactical inflexibility. But I still had one card to play (again it’s a metaphorical card) 

A last desperate ploy.

I had a squad of neophytes under the table and used my very last command point to ensure that I got a perfect ambush. They came up next to the objective. This was my last chance. I was going to shunt Lee off the objective and hope the game ended sooner rather than later. It was my only chance to make it even slightly respectable. I was never going to get Lee’s objective, I just had to try to secure mine and hang on.

The sentinels moved out of combat to allow the freshly arriverd Neophytes to fire.

One last desperate gambit...

Shooting:

The Valkyrie finally managed to kill something, the Command squad falling to it’s guns (Not Lee’s Warlord though, he was keeping him safe after the close call last turn)

The Leman Russ finally removed the Taurox with it’s Battlecannon. The Tech Priest had done a decent job of keeping it operational.

More importantly the Neophytes wiped out Lee’s troops at the objective. Could they hold on?

Guard Turn 5:

Lee used his last two command points to bring the squad at the objective back at his board edge. It looked like he was going to end the game with almost as many troops as he had started.

With those additional guns he did Bring it Down again on the Valkyrie, taking it down to one wound.

The Scions blasted away at my Leman Russ stripping it of a few more wounds. The Ogryns tried to shift my Neophytes from the objective but could only kill two.

The End Game. I am lucky that Ogryns are Elite.

Lee rolled to see if the game ended and got a 2 signalling the end of the battle. All that remained was to add up the victory points and find out how much I lost by.

GAME OVER

Lee easily controlled his objective. I barely hung on to mine. All Equal there.

Lee had Slay the Warlord. I had failed to kill Lee's General

I had First Blood.

Lee had achieved Line Breaker with his Ogryns, I was nowhere near Lee's deployment zone

End result Lee wins by ONE Victory point!!

Though that may have seemed a close game it really wasn't. Lee had quite comprehensively massacred my army and I was just about hanging on by the end. I'm pretty sure if the game had gone on one more turn I would have lost the objective. Two more and I may have been tabled.

My dead pile, substantial

But, lets do an analysis:

First off the Cult really showed their lack of tactical and strategic flexibility in this game. Very few stratagems to use and those they do have don't really do them justice. For example the Cult Ambush, used as a first turn strike is nearly completely pointless. However as a last turn smash and grab it worked just fine. If there was a stratagem to relocate after the assault (rather than hanging around to be shot to death, kind of like a blend into the shadows deal) then that would afford the Cult some flexibility that would overcome their natural fragility.

So yeah, the cult are a pretty weak army, unless you blend them with other Codices. However, they do have their codex coming up so hopefully they will be improved and given more flavour then. As it is at the moment they are supremely underpowered and one dimensional.

HOWEVER, my own performance left much to be desired. Forgetting the Valkyrie first turn was a schoolboy error, even discounting its horrific performance. I do have to make a point about that. I have NEVER seen a more ineffective unit in all my years. The dice were phenomenally bad it's true but I think the power points could have been so better spent.

The Leman Russ is the same, it's the same cost as the Guard one but has none of the access to the Orders or stratagem that go towards justifying that large points cost. Basically it's inferior in every single way. But without those heavier units the Cult Army really has nothing.

Still, lets talk about more of my mistakes. I should never have left the Magus in combat. I should have also have kept his familiar, he would have been more use casting two powers a turn. Especially seeing that Lee had no Psychic counter.

My Assault with the Primus and Acolyte squad was also ill considered. Even discounting Lee's masterful use of Grenadier, what was I thinking wasting that unit on an infantry squad? No, much later in the game would have been been a better idea.

But it was the first time out with the Brotherhood in force and I can only learn from this game. In all honesty, with Adeptus Titanicus around now which Lee and I have been eagerly anticipating for some time. I'll do a quick update article soon on that. Either way, the Cultwar isn't over yet......

Apocalypse! Memories from a day of carnage.

I’m quite select about my gaming group. Put bluntly, I prefer to game with friends. Lee has been my longest standing opponent, we have been waging war across the tabletop (or a floor with books covered by a blanket) for over twenty years now and he is as integral a part of my hobby as I can imagine as things have evolved around us. I also game with some other splendid chaps in a group we call ‘Team Handsome’ (a mostly ironic name) and have been doing so for a number of years. With these guys, like with Lee, I know what I am going to get and I know the game will be fun.

And the more models the more fun right? Neil has been pushing for an Apocalypse game for some time (ironic as he easily has the least painted models of all of us) and my Necrons of Abydos have been terrorising the group for a while now with a 100% 20 wins record (some would say a Handsome tally) therefore it made sense that they would feature. They would team up with Mike’s Necrons for a 10k Megaforce. Necrons are expensive so it wouldn’t be a massive army.

Up against this Malevolent Mechanical Menace would be:

‘Khorne Farmer’ Neil: -Eldar’
‘Gribbly’ Dave – For this game Shas’O Dave - Tau
‘Magos’ Matt – Knights and Mechanicus

‘Orky’ Stu – Imperial Guard
And Jon ‘The Usurper’ with his shiny Custodes.

We managed to find a weekend day we were all free (no mean feat when everyone except me is married with kids - I’m not meant to breed) and nailed the end of June as the date. I would have liked for Lee to join us as he has played with the Team Handsome lads in the past but honestly, we couldn’t accommodate anymore points.

Needless to say this kind of put a halt on my Genestealer Cult progress and the last event in the ‘Cultwar’ was Lee giving me a bit of a kicking as I found out just how much the Cult need a codex. In the weeks leading up to the big bash I started feverishly getting the remaining unpainted Necrons battle ready. I was determined that I would field no grey plastic! The Monolith, another Doom Scythe more Wraiths, Immortals, Lychguard, a bit of a queue developed as silver spray oil washes and pledge floor polish were applied furiously.

Final preparations...

With two weeks to go I had an idea. At the UKGamesExpo at the beginning of June I had seen some of TT Combat’s superb MDF scenery including a cheeky recreation of a couple of pieces very similar to that sold by Forge World yet different enough to escape litigation (I presume).  It was 8 quid, I took a punt and ordered one off ebay. It said it would arrive after the game (their stock was ravaged at the Expo) but you never know. Besides, Neil had decided to use Matt’s Warhound Titan instead of fielding Eldar (giving Matt more points to spend on Knights) so a superheavy would be welcomed.

A lot cheaper than the Resin version, and not bad looking. 

In any event it turned up the week before the game and sprayed silver and oil washed (though I had to spray varnish it to seal it first as the paint started coming off in my hands) it was game ready. Just in time. I kept this new addition secret from everyone but Mike, more fun that way right? ;)

Ignore that space top left. I just forgot to put the Pylon in, honest. 

The evening before:

We assembled at Wayland Games, our chosen venue, the evening before the bout to set up. As the armies were set up it became clear that there was no messing about. The Imperial guard had bought ten tanks, including a Shadowsword. Thankfully they almost entirely deployed on one side so I informed Mike that we would be refusing that flank entirely, putting some nice big buildings between us and those nasty guns. The other side was dominated by ruins and the Warhound. It was also where all the cover was so we deployed the bulk of our army there and centrally. In the centre was Dave's Tau, including a horrific amount of markerlights. Dave is a seasoned Tau player and would know how to use those to their maximum potential. Jon would deploy his Custodes the next day, it seemed a touch unreasonable to expect him to journey to Hockley from Kent just to deploy. The Alliance was going to get the first turn. They had less units than us. By far. We deployed with that in mind, keeping a substantial second wave under the table to strike at an opportune moment.

Stu's Guard 

The only place we could put our flyers they were safe from the AA. Turns out they can't come on from reserve. 

Dave's Tau

House Tenebrae walks. All Matt's models 

Deployment

The refused flank

Our second wave

Deployment

Deployment

On the way home, with our armies fully deployed, Mike and I discussed tactics and I explained exactly how we would use the refused flank tactic and a few other nasty strategies I had in mind. Mike had highlighted a few abilities from his crowd of Special Characters (he took them ALL) and I could only imagine the look on our opponents faces should we get one particular one to work .

The Battle:

The day of the battle dawned and with twenty command points each we went at it, 5 objectives, other than that standard rules. I took notes but gave up on that by the second turn so a lot of this is just from memory. But here is a ROUGH summary of the game. 

Turn One:

The alliance tore into the Necrons at full force. The refused flank had spared us a little of the wrath of the might of Stu’s guard but other than that there was a lot of firepower levelled at us. Dave's Tau lit up my Necron stalker and Anhilation Barge and heavily damaged them with his exotic weaponry. Stu’s Basilisks finished off the Stalker while his hydra destroyed the Barge taking advantage of it’s FLY keyword. Both machines went under the table. Our Wraith units also suffered greatly and if it were not for their 3++ save they would have been wiped out. It was almost as if the guys had met them before and were terrified of them. (mwahahah) Still, they had performed admirably as bullet sponges and I had a plan. Matt’s Knights also opened up with Helvigers and Paladins levelling volley after volley at the Necrons, only our quantum shielding saved us from further damage.

Mike's army moves forward

Other than that the destruction wasn’t too bad. We’d set up cannily, refused the majority of Stu’s firepower (He’d only had Scythes to shoot at and had damaged but not destroyed them) and were ready to respond in kind.

We started with resurrections and I used a total of four command points to ensure the Wraiths got back up, utilising two stratagems. Sveras buffed one unit of Immortals. Toughness 5, very nice and I used my normal trick of ‘my will be done’ on all the Immortal squads though I suspected they were out of range. Moving the Scythes, I moved mine over to try to take out the Basilisk in the corner and Mike shot his down nearly full length of the table showing just how fast they are. The Wraiths stormed forward and advanced, I had another nasty stratagem in mind to make things hard for the alliance.

That second wave, See that Knight at the bottom? It's dead 5 minutes later. 

First it was the shooting phase. We worked logically and methodically from left to right, Sadly a lot of our shooting was very ineffective and we didn’t really achieve a lot, although the Monoliths and massed Necron warriors (aided by their dynasty trait) managed to drop a few Custodes and strip a wound here and there from other targets. That all changed once the pylon opened up. Even though only two shots got by the rotated void shields (Matt utilising stratagem efficiently) and I rolled low for damage, the MACRO effect meant the Knight was taken out in one hit as 28 wounds were caused. Matt flat out refused to believe it but the Knight was removed and I asked if Matt wanted to roll to see if it exploded. He numbly said that it didn’t matter and I promptly rolled a six causing greater devastation to the center of the alliance line as the knights reactor went critical and exploded.

Mike's flyers storm down the board. 

As I suspected all the Immortals were out of range and our Deathmark assassin squad was pathetically useless (really need a buff those guys) failing to do a damn thing.

Looks awesome but they are out of range.

Time for Assaults. To my joy the vast majority of them came off! With high rolls all round. All my stuff made it in, the Wraiths weathering a storm of overwatch fire. The Flayed Ones charged into the Custodes while the Necron Lord and his Lychguard went into the Custodes Dreadnought. Only the Sentinel failed to make it to it’s target, taking some damage from overwatch to add insult to injury. The assaults results were mixed. The lord and his retinue managed to damage the dread, which was saved largely by it’s invulnerable saves. Then Jon interrupted using a couple of command points and his Custodes wiped the Flayed ones out in one round. Ooops. Custodes are NASTY. The Wraiths found damaging the tough Armiger difficult but stripped a few wounds.

Wraithswarm

Flayed Ones vs Custodes. 

Turn two.

'That thing has to die', said Jon, looking aghast at the Pylon. And die it did as EVERYTHING targeted it. Well over half the army blasting away at it until it was no more than a mangled pile of metal. Thankfully it didn't explode, (I used a command point to make sure) a shame, but well worth the 8 quid to one shot a Knight! You would think that with so much of the army firing at the Pylon that we would have escaped largely unscathed elsewhere but that was not to be as the Allies wreaked a heavy toll. When the shooting stopped a lot of Necrons lay fallen and even worse, full squads had been obliterated, the guys learning over the last few months to focus their fire. Mike's Praetorians, my unit of Warriors, Mikes Immortals. the Deathmarks, two Flyers, all wiped out. Our second wave had been heavily blunted. At least a third of our army had been taken out.

Things were to get worse as the Custodes charged into the Wraiths, wrecking two of them.  Elsewhere the assaults ground on, my overlord almost being destroyed by the Custodes dreadnought. (I totally forgot to use the Lychguard Guardian skill to defend him.) the only real solace was at least they had no psykers, I was surprised and VERY relieved to see that the guys had not taken advantage of the Necron's lack of anti psychic potential. I have to say at this stage I had to stop taking any notes as five lots of people asking me to roll saves and remove models comprehensively blew my mind and I struggled to function. It didn’t help that it was roasting hot in the Wayland building, I was waiting for the finecast models to melt

Mike was pretty downcast at this stage, we sure had taken a pummelling and he couldn’t see a way out. Thankfully I employed that line from Galaxy Quest. 'Never give up, Never Surrender', we could STILL win this, I wasn’t prepared to let my unbeaten record go without a fight! Besides we still had our trump card to play.

And After lunch….it was time to play that card. There wasn’t much movement, there wasn’t much left to move! My last remaining Doomsycthe zoomed across nearly the entire board desperately seeking a Spyder to repair it and keep it flying at least a little longer. We moved the Immortals forward, after buffing another unit with Sveras. Time to get them in range and start thinking about objectives, especially as we were losing Warriors so quick.

Arkhan? Oh, don't worry about him. Nice Titan btw....

Mike's pair of Annihilation Barges moved up opposite the titan, we had been peppering away at it and stripped about ten wounds, but we didn’t want it too damaged. Yet. We had a plan for that Titan. I bought another unit of Warriors in through the Monolith's portal.

And it was time to put that plan into action, with a flourish of a stratagem card we teleported Arkahn the Traveller and bodyguard to the building the Titan had chosen to lean against. Using Mind in the Machine we took over the Warhound Titan and used it to fire upon the Castellan Knight! Its Plasma destructor tore through the hastily rotated Void Shield (Matt does like that Strategem) and reduced it to Half Wounds! The look on our opponent's faces was priceless. Sadly we forgot to declare we were overcharging the cannon or the damage would have been even worse. Macro weapons make a MESS of Knights. The guys were learning that the hard way.

With that masterstroke out of the way it was time to continue the assault. We had completely given up with the right flank, trusting that the distance and scenery would mostly save us from Stu’s massed Tank brigade. We were looking good to grab a couple of objectives and we weren’t going to be able to play all day as the guys (STILL) had commitments, I must be the only one who has no life and can play all day. Still the heat was stifling and I’d not be sad to see the game end early. A tactical third and probable last turn started to take form in my mind. Through shooting I had managed to whittle down the Custodes and reduce the Captain to two wounds (he had shrugged off a truly astonishing amount of fire)

War rages on.

The combat between the Lord and Lychguard and the Dread ground on, it had been joined by a Dragoon and some Ruststalkers but we saw those off and left the Dread with one wound. My Praetorians charged the Vexila Custode who was standing all on his own for some reason and left him with a single wound as well. Things were looking a touch more positive now but we still had a third turn to weather from the Alliance. A unit of Warriors charged the Custodes and immediately regretted it as they were wiped out by the elite warriors. The Emperors finest were proving to be one hell of a speed bump.

Turn Three:

At the stage of the third turn it became clear that the Alliance had rethought things a little, possibly perturbed by how we had stomped over the left of the field. Matt had a few Battered Armigers and his Errant and Castellan, which he promptly repaired a bit. Enough to restore it to full functionality. Dave was pretty unscathed in all honesty and had redirected a lot of his force to support the Guard tanks that were rolling up the table. Most of his casualties had been from the exploding Knight the turn before (chortle). Stu had been mostly left alone on purpose, the Titan was hovering above half wounds and the Custodes had taken everything we had thrown at them and were still kicking, albeit with casualties. (I was hopeful of dropping that commander and nabbing Slay the Warlord.)

Dave moves up to support Stu.

Neil moved the Warlord back to the edge of the table, trying to ensure that it didn't have sight of the Castellan, another good shot could finish it off despite Matt's repairs. It shot and destroyed Mike's last Triarch Stalker and gunned another Doom Scythe out of the sky. Elsewhere it was the Monolith's turn to suffer as both were removed from the table in short order, Monolith's just don't have the survivability of other Necron units and it was all too easy for the guns of the Alliance to destroy them. The Castellan in particular more or less accounting for one on its own. Three Destroyers were also taken down as well and the Tomb Stalker and a number of Immortals, they were mostly failing to finish off full squads though, at last.

The Shadowsword tried to destroy the Immortals by the central objective and felled a fair few but couldn't wipe out the squad mainly due to cover and the Cryptek's presence.The Wraiths were still attracting  a lot of attention and Jon now moved in his Cuastodes to take out the squad menacing the Armiger

A bunch of Abhuman guard tried to tie up Arkhan, to stop him from taking over the Warhound again but though they made it into his Lychguard they failed to engage the traveller himself. Arkhan eyed the scout Titan malevolently, it was close enough though.

The Dread finally falls. 

The Custodes dread fell in the combat phase, the lord proving to be enough to destroy the golden behemoth with his Warscythe. The Custodes ground away at the Wraiths and vice versa, the toughness 7 Armiger was proving much more difficult to wound than the toughness 5 Custodes, invulnerable save aside. The Vexilia died too, overcome by the Triarch Praetorians though they had in turn been assaulted by a Knight that had killed a few of their number.

So this pretty much bought us to the end game. We had weathered the storm and now, given that this was going to be the last turn of the game, it was time for a cheeky smash and grab. For my part EVERYTHING I had left headed for the objectives, we could win the game here if we could just shift a few squads. We had successfully prevented Stu from being a major factor in the game (sorry Stu),  The Tau had been a pretty constant thorn in our sides due to their mobility and the Knights, the Castellan in particular, had ravaged our combined force. Things were made a little easier for us when Jon took his Custodes off the board to get an early start back to Kent. They were heavily depleted anyway, the Captain down to one wound, (I was annoyed I wouldn't get to kill him and had been denied Slay the Warlord) but every little helps so they say.

The Warhound had successfully squirrelled itself away behind a building so that it couldn't see the Castellan but Arkhan took it over anyway and used it to heavily damage one of the other Knights that we had fallen out of combat with. The Annihilation Barge had taken to the top of a building to nab an objective and took some shots at the Beastmen/Abhuman unit holding the central objective. The Immortals heading towards them also thinned out their numbers. The main bulk of what was left of our force took out the Castellan (finally) and for shits and giggles the Necron lord and his bodyguard charged the Warhound. I also manged to get into the Tau Markerlights at the back of the field, I didn't see why Dave should get off scott free.

FIGHT!!!

And with that final grab the game was over. The Necrons won but oh man did i think we were in trouble at one stage. It was an utterly brutal game. The Alliance held the right side of the battlefield but the Necrons had done just about enough to secure victory.

But how? Well, refusing the flank was a major part of it, this pretty much took Stu's tank brigade out of the game (Sorry Stu) and shielded us from a lot of firepower. There was plenty of firepower to go round though, in particular the combination of Markerlights and the Castellan knight were utterly devastating. All the guys have played mine or Mike's Necrons at some point and have become quite adept at fighting them, focusing their fire and maximising the damage to ensure that they took us down so that we couldn't get back up.

Without the Pylon to soak up the firepower in the second turn I think that the damage could have been a lot worse so that had an impact as well, the psychological impact that it had in one-shotting one of Matts knights alone made it worth the 8 quid I spent on it. A nasty surprise for the lads.

The second wave idea worked well too. The deepstrike got us up in the guys faces much quicker than we thought would be possible and although much of it was destroyed pretty much right after it served it's purpose.

Our flyers were frankly a disappointment., not only was the Tesla spectacularly unexplody but they were taken down pretty quickly. Note, Hydras are bad for Scythes. I also made a massive mistake by not moving the Immortals forward in turn one, robbing myself of quite a lot of firepower. Then again, it meant they were there for grabbing objectives at the end so it all worked out I guess.

The Custodes were utterly horrifying, a gleaming golden wall that we slammed ourselves at again and again to no avail. A wall full of spikes that really hurt us. Our firepower bounced off them and the Captain took forty shots without damage at some point. Really really tough.

The Warhound is not worth the points I think. 2k of army could have hurt us a lot more than that Titan. Especially if it had been 2 Castellans. In the end we just ignored it, (well apart from using it to shoot it's fellow war engines). *evil mechanical laugh*

The last thing we could have done a LOT better is utilise the characters. Mike taking every single one gave us a massive palette to utilise and there is no question in my mind that we failed to take advantage of that. The points could have been better spent.

Oh and I completely forgot to use my Wraith's pistol weapons for the entire game. Little things eh?

Overall it was an experience but in all honesty quite a draining one. Fun, but i'd only play Apocalypse once or twice a year at most.

Till next time.....

Now the Necrons of Abydos slumber once more. Till next time.

Lee’s Adventures in the US Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Gencon

So as I write this my eyelids are drooping with the latter stages of jet-lag recovery. A minor inconvenience really given what a great time I had last week attending Gencon for the first time, albeit in a work capacity.

The whole trip was very short notice, about three weeks worth after a colleague pulled out of attending which allowed me to stand in. I was kinda excited and terrified as I had a fear of flying, having only done it once to Amsterdam back in 2001 and even though it was a 40 minute journey I was rigid with fear the whole time, particularly when taking off or landing. This trip would comprise of four separate flights roughly totalling 16 hours in the air with the accompanying ups and downs not to mention the prospect of turbulence. Despite this a free trip abroad was not something I was going to turn up so I gritted my teeth and got down to the business of getting on with it.

The first flight out was the worst, from London to Iceland, but it was only 2 hours and allowed me to acclimate to the whole experience. Unlike my Amsterdam trip I wasn’t alone and didn’t want to appear a wuss in front of everyone so sucked my anxiety up and distracted myself with videos on my tablet, plenty of anime. Iceland is quite bland from the air. It’s not very big and only has a population of about 60,000. Was a nice place to visit though and I would like to get a better look round at some point. All in all it was a solid 26 hours of travel to get to our hotel in Indianapolis which we arrived at around 2am.

Tuesday and Wednesday we had some time to ourselves after setting up the Warcradle stand (it’s awesome, check it out if you can, it’s at most big events). We got to experience how big America is. Everything is bigger, their streets, their buildings, their food! I was very careful with the food. Everything seems to be fried and made of meat. Steak was on the menu of every restaurant we visited, even the breakfast and Chinese buffet places! I had steak and lobster at Red Lobster one evening! Most of us got sick during the stay and I was being careful with my intake in both quality and quantity. Its easy to understand why America has such a prevalent obesity problem given how hard it is to eat well there. On the two occasions I asked for a salad they didn’t have any leading me to believe it was only included on the menu for the sake of appearing to have a healthy option. Between frugal eating and a stomach bug I’ve lost over a stone and a half, so silver linings.

Thursday the show started proper. The convention centre Gencon is held at is huge. There are dozens of adjacent rooms all hosting an event of some sort and even a few attractions. I regret not being able to try the immersive star ship bridge simulator or take time out for a massage. It is so big it took longer to walk to the toilet and back than actually use it! It took me a good 15 minutes to walk from one end of the main exhibitor hall to the other and the main tournament hall was just as big.

It was so big that finding anything specific was a nigh on impossible task if the booth you wanted did not have a banner suspended from the ceiling. There was so much there that unless you knew the booth number and had a map you would have no chance. I was asked to pick up several things for people while I was there and did not manage to grab anything. It took me all weekend to find the thing that I wanted, the Transformers collectible card game! I had to do a Reddit search after the first day which led me to Hall B which was not accessible from outside. Speaking to one of the guys who was providing demos, Hall B was correct. Eventually I managed to gain access via the main gaming hall. It was being sold by a retailer stand as Wizards of the Coast were not attending themselves. I managed to grab a starter set on Friday afternoon but was told the day’s allocation of the Gencon exclusive set were all gone and to try again the following day from 10am. The following day the queue ran up the width of the hall and back so I had to leave it as I had work to do. Sunday I was there first thing and only had to wait 15 minutes after opening to get a set though the allocation had dropped from two per person to one meaning I couldn’t pick up a spare for a friend. Not very well managed.

Stands that caught my eye whilst on walkabout were the Wyrd stand, they had their new plastic scenery form Malifaux and The Other Side which looked impressive. The Fantasy Flight Games stand had a queue to buy things, staff only letting a handful of people in at a time but they were selling X-Wing second edition amongst other things so easy to understand why. I snapped some pics of their new Star Wars products when I got a chance.

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The Paizo stand was done up like an inn or feasting hall and looked to be hosting demo games of Pathfinder. The Munchkin stand had nothing to buy from what I could see but had a lot of games going on. Warhammer 40K Munchkin is due out in March for those who are interested.

Games Workshop were there and demoing a number of their games, Age of Sigmar being very prominent. Preview on display were the new Hobbit game and Adeptus Titanicus which is finally coming out! The models look great.

There was also the Warcradle stand (plug) which had a display board I helped design of a dock with a 34mm scale Dystopian Wars Union frigate as well as upcoming minis for Wild West Exodus and the work in progress Prussian Imperium fleet.

There were plenty of cosplayers about. They would take turns posing for photos in the main hall and there was a parade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcEiEUWJm0A so if you missed someone during the event there was a chance to view them all in one place. There were also a number of musical acts ranging from comedy bands, folk, steampunk and groups playing covers of requested geek tunes.

So, I enjoyed my time at Gencon, even the constantly looping and unattended video of Dragon Ball Super the card game running non-stop for four days could not dampen my enthusiasm. I think that if you are going to attend the full four days you need to book yourself into some of the tournaments as there maybe isn’t enough in the exhibitor hall to keep you going that long. There are seminars but they’re spread out and if there is only one game you are interested in then you’ll get limited use out of it.

The whole show had a really good atmosphere. Everyone I met was really friendly and enthusiastic. We were all geeks together and Indianapolis felt really welcoming to the attendees. There were banners welcoming gamers, local businesses were doing offers for ticket holders and even people that I spoke to at the bar we visited, Walmart, Meijer and the various restaurants we went to knew about Gencon. It is a big boost to the local economy and the locals seem to realise and appreciate it. I was especially impressed with how inclusive the event was. LGBT people were able to walk around freely without harassment and there were plenty of rainbow t-shirts, hairdos, tails and lanyards on show. I will definitely need a lanyard for PAX Unleashed this November in Philadelphia which is my next US show.