Tuesday 29 May 2012

Badab War Part 2 Report Part 1

Having returned from Nottingham a couple of days ago it's about high time I posted copious numbers of photos and told you all about what can only be described as a brilliant weekend up at Warhammer World.

This is quite a long post so I hope you are sitting comfortably!

As I mentioned in my post last week I managed to get all of my painting done (by the skin of my teeth!) and so after making the trip up the night before headed to Warhammer World early on Saturday morning to register and get ready for battle. This was my first proper time (I say proper, I went up once when I was much younger after being a finalist in Golden Demon and being invited up I was 15 I think) at Warhammer World, and for those of you that haven't ever been I can't recommend going enough!

As it was a Badab War Campaign Weekend the games were all themed around the fluff. There were two factions - the Crusaders of Righteousness and the Heralds of Liberation, much like the parties involved in the Badab war you don't find out whether your side is on side of the secessionist or the loyalists until the end! Everyone got a free Badab Hero who would acquire abilities after each battle, and which ability depended on whether you won or lost. The format for the weekend was Saturday - 500pts game with 3 objectives followed by a 1500pts KPs and then a 2500pts KPs. Then in the evening a pub quiz followed by a Zone Mortalis Badab Hero bash. Sunday had a 2000pts KPs game followed by the 4000pts a side doubles match on a 6x8 board. Then lastly the awards ceremony.

Game 1 
Passage Of the Unhallowed Heart
Long before the Badab Sector became synonymous with mass betrayal of Space Marine against brother Space Marine not seen since the events of the Heresy thousands of years before, the Astral Claws, then led
by Chapter Master Rovik Blake met any threat thrown originating from the Maelstrom. But then the long
range augurs detected a space hulk emerging from the edge of the Maelstrom known as the Unhallowed
Heart. As it ploughed through space madness erupted all around as within the craft were daemons spreading
palpable waves of emotion and insanity, infecting all those nearby.

This mission represents the introduction of a new hero who enters the fray ready to defeat his enemies and
protect what he believes is vital. As the ship moves from system to system parts of it are raining down on the
surrounding planets. Each side intends to claim these fallen parts, and either place them in quarantine for
close examination by the Inquisition or harvest them in order to further their own power in the coming storm.

Points 500pts
Mission type Seize Ground with only 3 Objectives
Deployment Spearhead
Special Rules: The Maddening Warp is upon us!
At the start of each Game Turn each Objective moves D6” in a random direction decided by the Scatter Dice.
This represents the daemon possessed hull of the Unhallowed Heart wanting to diffuse into reality and
escape the clutches of its captors. (Note – this happens whether an objective is claimed or not!)
Hero Upgrades
• Fearless
• Re–roll Morale and Pinning checks

My army for this game consisted of a platoon with 3 squads (two of which were blobbed together with a commissar), the Highland Veterans, 3 chimera and the Commissar Lord who came with his own Chimera (well he's not going to walk is he!). My opponents were Raven Guard, their army was a unit of scouts with sniper rifles, a unit of bikes with attack bike and a tactical squad with their boss in a rhino.

I won the roll to see who deploys and elected to go first. 







I don't seem to have captured any photos of the fighting in this battle but the lack of enemy present in the photos tells the story well. I killed the scouts of pretty much immediately and then picked of the bikes after immobilizing the rhino with the marines in. My army lost the vets chimera before advancing to the objectives and sitting on them while theremaining Raven Guard assaulted me in a last ditch effort to claim objectives. The blob ably led by a commissar became a tar pit from which the bikes couldn't escape while the Commissar Lord and the vets engaged the Raven Guard Hero and his marines in combat. The game ended in a solid victory for the Praetorian Guard.

The game had been a great opener and my opponent was great fun to play against! I picked Fearless for the Commissar, figuring that further re-rolls wouldn't be of much use to stubborn LD10!

Game 2 
Negotiations At Shedim
Long after the Unhallowed Heart was destroyed, pyres of the Badab sector are burning bright as the Loyalists and Secessionists are annihilating one another. A parlay is reached which allows a chance to discuss what happens next in this titanic conflict and so bring it all to a speedy end. However all is not as it seems as conflict breaks out between parties, each claiming and counter claiming it was the other who orchestrated an ambush with the deliberate intention of cutting off the head of the snake.
This mission represents your Badab Hero taking the opportunity to eliminate the enemy commander whilst
his bodyguard are elsewhere…

Points 1500pts
Mission type Annihilation
Deployment Dawn Of War
Special Rules: The End of Negotiations
Both Badab Heroes must deploy with 12” of the board centre but no closer than 6” of the board centre (yet
still in their chosen board half) to represent negotiations breaking down and conflict erupting between sides. He may be accompanied by up to two Troops units which deploy normally in their board half as per the  Dawn of War deployment rules. All other units must be held off board as per usual Dawn Of War setup (so can come on in the first turn).
Hero Upgrades
• Preferred Enemy
• Hit and Run

For this game my army expanded considerably with the addition of a Banewolf, Leman Russ, Exterminator, Medusa, an extra platoon squad, the Command HQ and Rough Riders. My opponent was a Chaos Marine army which included noise marines a unit of plague marines, slaaneshi terminators, chosen, a land raider and and a rhino.

Our heros set up in the middle, the Commissar staying in his chimera and sensibly as far away as possible from the deamon weapon wielding nutter he had been sent to negotiate with. My starting troop units formed up on a bluff as far away as possible from the noise marines in cover at the far end of the table and awaited the advance of the enemy...


 As reinforcements arrived for both sides the Chaos Rhino and Land Raider raced towards the waiting guardsmen.


The Guardsmen manage to wreck the rhino and take down a few of the chosen chaos warriors with well timed volley fire.


On the other side of the battlefield elements the banewolf races forward to give the plague marines a taste of the the chem cannon. Meanwhile obliterators appear spelling doom for the Leman Russ.




Fix bayonets!!!


The brave Praetorians stand firm in the face of the Chaos charge.


Through sheer weight of numbers the guardsman pull the terminators down as the Command HQ rushes help. The plucky Highlanders fall to the axes and fists of the Chosen who are then gunned down by the watchful Praetorian armour.



The Lord Provost deals the deathblow to the final Chaos terminator.


After eliminating the terminators and chosen the landraider was the next to fall to the melta bombs of the command HQ. Having secured one side of the table any unit that could tried to lend fire support to the units on the far side. The chaos dispatched the Leman Russ and Banewold before the Rough Riders arrived and charge the obliterators, they managed to take the unit down to one with one wound but couldnt finish the job before being eliminated. The infantry squad in their chimera attempted to evade the chaos but ultimately lost their chimera to enemy fire. My fire continued to whittle down the enemy to the point where there was only the obliterator, a noise marine and the Chaos hero left! At that point the game ended and we were left to count up the KPs...

The result was a draw! despite having almost the entirety of my army still functional the loss of a chimera, rough riders, leman russ, banewolf and highlanders proved costly as despite almost tabling the enemy there just wasnt enough kill points to be had as I had also only scored five (despite reducing him to 3 men!!!).

Nonetheless another quality game with a great opponent who had a very nice looking army. We rolled off to see who got to pick the skill for the Badab hero, unfortunately I lost and was left with hit and run as the Chaos combat monster took preferred enemy.

Game 3
Devastation in the Sigard System
As civil war erupts throughout the Badab zone, entire armies lay waste to one another across dozens of
worlds. Forces on both sides simply vent their rage on whoever is close by whether they are combatants
or not. Loyalists and Secessionists alike vie for control of vital supply areas, allowing them to prosecute their
campaigns further. The battles are frantic and close fought affairs as commanders lose sight of their units
within the confusion and fog of war.
This mission revolves around your Heroes making the best of a chaotic situation. You must learn to evolve
and adapt to changing battlefield situations in order to achieve victory. Go forth and bring fury to those who
oppose you.

Points 2500pts
Mission type Annihilation
Deployment Dawn Of War
Special Rules: The Fog Of War
All units not deployed at the beginning of the game count as being in reserve (and must roll to see when
they arrive as per the reserves rule – Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook p.94), but must enter the table using the
outflank special rule (p.94), as keeping control of units in the confusion becomes difficult. Any unit that must
Deep Strike (eg Daemons or Drop Pods etc) may do so as always, but must re–roll any “hit” results on the
scatter dice and accept the second roll.

Hero Upgrades
• Furious Charge
• Feel No Pain


This game was quite frankly mad. For my army I took everything you see in the gallery and then gave a lot of units pointless wargear (grenades, melta bombs...) just to make up the 100pts I was still lacking. My Opponent had a Tyranid army that had a few units of 30 gaunts, a big brood of warriors led by his Brood Lord (Badab Hero), a Hive Tyrant, a few zoanothropes, a huge brood of gargoyles, a huge brood of stealers and a few tyranofexs, carnofexs and tervigons.

Problem with this game as I would soon come to realised was that I really didnt have enough high strength AP weapons to hurt the monsters and no soon as my tanks roll on some nids will run on right behind them and assault them! Lets see what happened...


There wasn't a great deal of cover on the board and my guardsmen headed straight for what they thought was their best chance of survival against the oncoming hordes.


The big beasties are deployed first and advance toward my bastion as the lasgun fire patters harmlessly off their exoskeleton.


My armour arrives almost exclusively on one side of the table only to be followed by a large brood of gargoyles and some Zoanothropes.


The Leman Russ squadron was elminated almost straight away by the arrival of some unfriendly tyranids.


T-minus 5,4,3,2....1 launc! The Deathstrike missile fires! Too late to save the Russ' but just in time to vapourize the broodlord 6 warriors! Worth every point


As the Tryranid hordes arrive and race towards my lines the storm troopers and another platoon arrive to waylay their advance.


The Rough Riders arrive in time to save the medusa and chimera from the gargoyles claws.


The massed guns of the Praetorians do little to slow the advance of the Tyranid monsters.



The guardsmen hold up the Hive Tyrant and Tervigon in combat for most of the game before dying to a man in the penultimate turn. The genstealers arrive eventually and wreak havoc on my armour while the sheer number of gaunts at the far end of the table spelt doom for all my units there.

The game ended in defeat for the Praetorians. I had been unable to cope with both the size of the units of small nids and the high toughness and wounds of the large monsters. The wacky deployment and reserves all outflanking ultimately meant I couldn't bring enough fire power to bear on any one unit. 

It had been good fun facing of against the nids and despite the result I still got furious charge for the commissar as the nids player picked the other for his broodlord. A guardsman S4 and I4 on the charge! Who would ever have thought...

One of the awards for the weekend was the Iron Halo for best Badab Hero, those who wanted to enter were invited to put their Heroes in the cabinet and everyone then got to cast a vote on who was their favourite. Here are a few of the entries.








The winner was announced at the end of the weekend and I'll tell you who won at the end of my report!

In the evening there was a rather frantic hero bash on the zone mortalis board. You had two lives and when you died you can spawn anywhere outside of 3 spaces of another character. Unsurprisingly the Commissar Lord didn't far too well. He managed to get one kill (an instagib of the only other commissar lord by virtue of a plasma gun shot!) but, along with the couple of other toughness 3 characters was a marked man and didn't last long.

That is enough for part 1, its turning in to quite the epic saga! I will post again in the next couple of days with the results of the last two battles, the overall results, the best painted army and best painted hero results!

Cheers!



Praetorian Infantry Gallery Post

Third and Fourth squad of the infantry platoon formed up to give volley fire.




Praetorian Storm Troopers Gallery Post

Here are some photos of Praetorian Life Guards.




Praetorian Lord Commissar Gallery Post

Here are some gallery photos of the Honourable Lord Provost Stern.





Friday 25 May 2012

Badab painting update

After 2 days of frenzied painting and a long drive I find myself finally resting at a B&B in Beeston. Horizontal makes a very nice change from the hunched painting position I've been adopting for at least 24 of the past 48 hours.
The whole army is finished! 2500pts of khaki coloured pith helmeted madness. Aside from the deathstrike, chimera, executioner and bane wolf I painted last week, I have now painted the lord commissar, 5 storm troopers and 20 guardsmen. In total that makes 14 tanks and over 70 infantry fully painted and with me in their cases.

Tomorrow begins the campaign weekend and I can't wait! 5 games (500pts, 1500pts, 2500pts, 2000pts, 2000 doubles) each with its own scenario from the Badab war, there is also a space hulk commander showdown which I fully expect to loose very quickly (unless he can take his chimera with him!) and a pub quiz at bugmans.

For the campaign my army must be led by a commissar lord (each race has a specified hq choice to take) who can cost up to 150pts. As it is otherwise impossible to spend 150 on a commissar lord he has his own chimera ( the salamander) a power sword and plasma pistol. After each battle he picks up skills, which skills depends on whether I win or lose (fearless, hit and run, stubborn etc).

I will post a whole raft of photos next week when I get back along with a write up of how the brave soldiers of Praetoria fair.

I think it is time for a drink and then an early night...

Sunday 20 May 2012

Sunday Update

Hello everyone, a brief update on my painting progress for the Badab War Part 2.

All armour has now been finished. If you check out the three posts just before this you will find photos of the Bane Wolf, Deathstrike and Executioner. The Chimera for the Life Guards was done last week and will be posted with the (currently almost) finished Life Guards.

I've been feeling a real lack of infantry in my army, and considering Praetorian infantry is why I have this army in the first place I'm determined to rectify this by the campaign weekend. I am going to get 20 Guardsmen done who will make up 4th and 5th squad of the platoon. They will be blobbed together with a vox and no special weapons, their sole purpose will be to 1st rank fire every turn as every guardsman (bar the 2 sergeants and bugler). Essentially 105pts of pure cinematic fun.

The Boss is almost done and will be given the title of Provost Marshall (Praetorian commisars need a more Praetorian name). His weapons are the last thing to be done there.

The Life Guards are also almost there. Unfortunately time has meant that it will be a unit of just 5, but never mind!

That'll do for now. Check out the previous posts for gallery photos of the tanks and check back in a couple of days when hopefully there will be some more photos!

Comments are always welcome.

Praetorian Deathstrike Missile Launcher

What could be better for vanquishing the enemies of the Imperium than excessive force. Here is the Deathstrike.



Praetorian Bane Wolf

Here are some photos of the Bane Wolf



Leman Russ Executioner

Here are some photos of the finished Leman Russ Executioner!



Wednesday 16 May 2012

Wednesday Night Painting Update

Moving up through the gears my finely oiled and poorly lit painting machine is picking up speed. Now that I have knocked 20 Guardsmen of the target (just far too time consuming!) the end is in sight. 

I have just finished the Exterminator and the banewolf and am finishing the insignia and missile on the deathstrike. The Life Guards have had their main colour done so that half the battle. 

If all goes to plan they might all be finished this weekend leaving me Mon-Thurs next week to paint the Commissar Lord and as many normal Guardmen in multiple of 10 as I can manage, that'll probably be the 10 half done then... Other than that I have a heavy weapon squad (2 las and a missile) that are undercoated and have an outside chance of being finished to add another 100 points of AT to the army. 

However should I pain the extra squad of 10 they surely need a chimera! Hmmm...

Sorry no photos today due to technical difficulties, but you can expect gallery shots of all the new finished tanks over the course of the weekend (probably Monday by the time I get round to it!)

Sunday 13 May 2012

Reinforcements for the Badab War

As I mentioned last week I went a bit shopping crazy and bought a load of tanks. Well, those tanks are just about finished (1 done the other need insignia and final weathering colour), in addition a squad of 10 guardsmen is coming along nicely, the Commissar is progressing and the storm troopers have also been started. Here are some photos of the works in progress...


The Praetorian Life Guards with their new Chimera (finished and ready to roll)


It's looking increasingly likely that a unit of 5 will be all I can manage for the Badab War. It'll be a shame to field 10 but I just don't think there will be the time! (The others are yet to be built)


A Deathstrike! Overkill or genius... Either way I'm looking forward to my opponents face...
(Tank needs insignia and metal on the weathering, I haven't really started on the missile yet, it'll mainly be white with red fins)


A Banewolf which will likely be in a squadron with the hellhound. (Once again insignia and metal weathering to go)


An executioner, primarily because it costs loads of points and I'm short! (insignia and weathering to go)


Another squad for the platoon, not sure how many guardsman I'm really going to have time to paint but I'd really like and other 20 in the army. Which I might then have to get chimeras for...


The Lord Commissar. Lots to do on him and I cant wait to paint him!


At the moment if all of the above is painted in time I will have about 2350 which means I will still be another 150pts short... Hmmm what to add next...

Thursday 10 May 2012

A small matter of honour... Part 2

In my last post I left the tournament at the mid way stage. 2 games down, 1 win and 1 draw.

Now that the 1250pts games were done it was on to a slightly creative 1750pts as I couldn't change the existing units and was rather limited by what I had painted.

The army was now joined by the exterminator, a commissar lord in chimera (salamander), more rough riders, a priest and sly marbo.

Game 3 1750pts vs Grey Knights

This was going to be interesting, my rather expansive army was going to face about a dozen models... Led by Drago there were paladins ( a few units of 1), a librarian, a vindicare and 2 dreadknights

The mission had 5 objectives, one in the centre of the board the others in the centre of each table quarter. Deployment was tricky for me as with scout his Dreadknights could assualt anything within 18" on the first turn so I castled in the corner.


The Grey Knight conga line of death.


Fire!



Boom! Scratch one dreadknight


The Grey Knights relentlessly advanced while I poured shot after shot into them. Targeting the walkers first I managed to eliminate them both by turn 3. The rough riders pictured below killed that one with their meltagun.


The only problem was I wasn't killing them quick enough, with everyone having at least 2 wounds, where they were in a squad together the wounds kept getting allocated in such a way that no one was dying. The Hellhound raced forward in an attempt get them all while they stood next to each other but every save was made.


The Grey Knights attempt to access the stargate...


Charge!!! What? You strike at Initiative 6??? Oh dear...


The game ended in defeat for the plucky Praeotorians. He had Paladins sat on 2 of the objectives who I just couldn't shift. Most of my troops had been killed when their respective chimeras had been destroyed so I held no objective. 

Despite defeat I took a moral victory as I had more victory points than he did. It was my first time against the Grey Knights, quite what they were doing fighting me when there are demons to kill I'm not quite sure but it was good fun. 

Game 4 1750pts vs Chaos

My opponent had an infantry heavy CSM army designed to get in close quarters. He had a few Rhinos, some bezerkers, havocs with autocannons, a terminator squad (deepstriking) and raptors (deepstriking).


Turn one I pretty much won the game. All the rhinos were either stunned immobilized or destroyed and the full fire power of my army was brought to bare on the chaos marines inside.


The Bezerkers run across no mans land was doomed from the start.


My opponent  had the worst luck in this game, the vast majority of 3+ saves resulted in a 1 or 2 as marine after marine was gunned down.


When the raptors finally arrived they misshaped and I placed them far away. The resulting run move was 2" and in my following turn the Leman Russ fired, rolled hit and killed the lot. When the terminators arrived my rough riders were quick onto the scene and wiped them out leaving the Lord by himself. The Rough Riders now bereft of their lances lost the next combat and fled leaving the Lord stood in front of a lot of Praetorians. His death blow was delt by none other than the Lord Commissar who dispatched him with a bullet from his bolt pistol.


The game ended with an immobilized rhino and one havoc left for my opponent while I had only lost a chimera and rough riders. KP 11 - 3

Conclusion

I finished the tournament in a respectable 15th place and in the Best painted was beaten into second place by one vote... next time! It had been a great day and after 4 games in a day thoroughly exhausting. The winner was a sisters of battle player and second place a friend of mine with Dark Eldar who won also won best painted. Here are a few photos of his army below. A stunning army that I had the pleasure of losing to many months ago.




Here are some photos of other armies and a few battles.
















Right thats your lot for now, I need to crack on with some painting. In just over two weeks time I need to have a ridiculous amount of stuff painted. If you look at the list next to how follows the blog you will see exactly what I mean. I hopefully post again on Sunday perhaps with a nearly finished tank or four...