Playing more 40k! In Bromley!

Explorator fleet Porascus landed on the twelfth planet of the star system 34P-Epsilon-minor, newly designated as The Bromite System. Less  than twenty four hours after first touching down on the surface all contact was lost with the landing teams. What the Roxnien 67th Imperial Guard Regiment found when they went planetside would haunt them for the rest of their lives, but how long would that be?

Don't be afraid my Guard couldn't lose a fourth game in a row, could they?

This was my first time playing against two new armies as Lee, Charlie and I got through four games in one day.

First game of the day was Lee's redeisgned Necrons vs my Guard army. The mission we rolled up was, yeah you guessed it, Big Guns Never Tire (I'm starting to build up a complex about this mission, but not as much as the Relic as you'll see later). The set up was the conventional long table edge (Dawn of War I believe) and for once Night Fighting was in effect at the start of the game. 

Lee managed to win the roll off and chose to go first, so I knew all ready I was in for it. We rolled up 5 objectives, Lee ended up with a Scoring Warlord and my Commissar's LD bubble was boosted to 12". Failing to Seize the Initiative I branced for what was to come.

Stupid Veil of Darkness

Turn 1- As is customary when I play a game First Blood went to my opponent as they annihilated one of my chimeras. The rest of the turn consisted of Lee making an outlandish Deepstrike with his Obyron and Immortal unit into my deployment zone, my Ogyrns taking it to the face from therest of his army and despite causing 13 wounds from 16 grenade launcher hits on the Immortals only 2 ended up face down in the dirt after svaes and re-animation rolls.

Having discovered that Lee's Resuraction Arc is adept at making Jink saves Marbo takes a charge from the Immortals, it doesn't end well for the Guardsmen.

Turn 2- This shall forever be known as the turn my dice died. Not only did I have to watch my Ogryns, Warlord and Grenade Launcher unit vaporise (not really a huge surprise, just disappointing) I managed to fail so many armour pen rolls eve Lee was embarrassed (well, you know it's bad when you have two hits with meltas only to roll two 1s and a 1 and 2 for penetration). It was one of those turns that if it had come off wins you a game, as I had a bead and enough shots to take out all of Lee's vehicles that were bossing the game. Couple this with my continued inability to resist shooting lasguns in my flamer unit to ensure I can charge what is left left me missing out on finishing off a unit of warriors. 

Turn 3- I finally manage to kill some of Lee's vehicles (Arc and Barge) but it is in vain as I cannot stop his scoring units from spreading across the table like a robotic virus.

Turns 4&5- We trade blows and I do my best to take down Obyron and manage to get the chuckle brother down to one wound and but for a few armour saves I'd have had him. As the game ended turn 5 we totaled up the score and was 12-1 to Lee (I had the option of playing it safe to reduce the score but I had to try to kill his Warlord). 

I think I've realised that my army really suffers if it cannot get the first turn.

Second game is Charlie's Tzeentch Daemon's avec Chaos Marines vs Lee's Necrons. This one is the Emperor's Will (one objective each in your deployment zone) played short edge to short edge. Charlie's list has 3 units of three Flamers so can hit like a train if given the chance. Turns out to be a really close game, with lots of back and fourth but it all really comes down to Lee's Obyron unit making it's Deepstrike move for Charlie's objective:

You have to feel bad for those Marines. 

Lee had taken the advantage in the early game and this looked to be his Coup de Grace, but Charlie still had one unit of Flamers to come in.

How much damage can 69 pts of Flamers really do? Well now you see them...

...now you don't. That was only three templates and it didi more wounds than was in the unit.

After this it came down to whether Charlie could keep his Daemon Prince alive to get the point for the Linebreaker Secondary Objective. He does and as the game ends turn 5 it is a 2-2 draw. Lee got the points for First Blood and Kill the Warlord, Charlie Kill the Warlord and Linebreaker as neither had any troops left that could get near the objectives.

This all feels very familiar.

Game three was Charlie's Tzeentch vs my Guard in The Relic (it's like Tuesday all over again) using the corner to corner deployment. It was a great game that once again came down to just a few armour saves. Unfortunately, once again I ended up having to commit all my Troops and we played a game of kill the troops and fight over the Secondary Objectives. By turn five I had lost all my models once again. I really dislike this mission as I struggle to see how it is supposed to be be anything other than a scrum in the middle of the table. I have realised just how hard the Lord of Change can be to kill if you don't have Lootas to shoot the buggers with.

Lee and Charlie rounded off the day with some Daemon on Daemon action. It was a kill points mission with the early game going to the shoot Tzeentch and the late game to the snippy Slaanesh. With some hilariously bad rolling on Lee's part and some frustratingly good rolling for Charlie's Lord of Change's saves the game came down to a nail biting conclusion on turn 5 (all four games in one day) as none of us had been keeping track. In the final count up it was 7-7 with Charlie relying on his Secondary Objectives whilst Lee was a turn away from claiming enough points to grab victory.

Another great day of 40k and I've learned loads over this week. My main observation is that 40k is far bloodier and swings easily from one player to another, meaning you have to be able to compete in all the areas of the game if you want to dominate an opponent. I love it.