It was dawn, but human eyes saw only darkness as the corpse pyres of Armageddon’s ash wastes burned ever more fiercely.
The augmented eyes of the Astartes, however, could make out the different types of smoke. These pilllars, for example, might be from human cadavers – but there were also traces of machinery in the background, high octane promethium being guzzled in quantities hard for your average Guard Quartermaster to comprehend.
The lone Blood Angel sentry zoomed in on these traces and saw a looming dark shape, towering over the rabble of greenskins around it. His enhanced senses filtered out most of the visual interference and brought something as close to fear as an Astartes could feel…
That something is, of course “Big Red” – as she’s proven HILARIOUSLY oversized as an Epic Great Gargant, we chose to bodge some Stompa stats from an 8th Ed Codex we found online and stack Da Black Ork Cav up against the Blood Angels for another round of Retrohammer!
Da Kav deploy… rather thematically, we’d drawn Linebreaker as an objective while Dan’s Marines had drawn Engage And Destroy… so Da Kav would be seeking to batter their way in to the Blood Angels’ positions while the Marines sought to take down as many of the greenskin scum as they could!Ready to WAAAGH!Da Ladz win first turn and set off confidently..Dan’s Thin Red Line stands ready to greet them! LOts of guns, Devastators, Tactical squad and Terminators making their first appearance…Ork fire all over the battlefield.. unfortunately, none of it hits the bits where Space Marines are!Return fire downs some Grots and knocks a couple of guns off Big Red..
Da ladz and da Bosses get ready to pull a drive-by..The Blood Angels brace for impact!Under a barrrage of Krak and Melta missiles, the Stompa falls!Da ladz & bosses get stuck in as Big Red falls!“‘Ave it!”Ork Kommand assaults the Devastators on the hill!Turns out even Devastator Marines are pretty ‘ard..As Da Management find out!Surviving Marines enact their counterattack protocol.. it’s not pretty!But I guess it’s not supposed to be…
And with that, we hand victory very firmly to the Blood Angels – the minute the Stompa hit the ground we were on the back foot, but kudos to Dan, those Marines behaved like Marines!
So.. where do you want to see the campaign go next? Let us know in the comments!
The fan overhead beat rhythmically, echoing the antigrav pulse of the ubiquitous Silverbug engines. Alone in his bunk, Lt. Grant found it hypnotic. He’d been on this new assignment a week now – getting softer, getting weaker.. while out there, the Russians and Chinese only got stronger. He understood now why McAuliffe took solace in whisky – what else was there to do, when peace was just a dream.
The next thing he knew, he was being held under a freezing shower by two MPs. Clean shaven and with his most presentable fatigues on, he struggled not to sway as the Colonel briefed him.
Reading through his notes, Grant couldn’t believe they’d given him the right file. The officer they’d named had been a paragon of anti-Soviet resistance, even volunteering for and passing out through Foreign Legion training at age 38. Grant buried his resentment at the mission as best he could – but his platoon sergeant had no such reserve.
“We’re short and they want to take us upriver to kill a friendly? God F*CKING damn it! I thought you were going up to blow up a bridge, or some railroad lines? Ruskies and Chinese are piling in across the borders every day and we’re supposed to go kill our own goddamn allies?” Grant gritted his teeth. “This is my task force. We put this thing down where we need to and do what it takes to get the job done.”
Mac looked hard into his Lieutenant’s eyes. “Sir. Yes sir.”
Out on the landing fields, Grant watched the surf crashing against the beach, squinting against the low morning sun. Behind him the familiar pulse of antigravity boosters boomed out as the Silverbugs roared to life, the smell of ozone and cordite wafting across. In spite of himself, Grant couldn’t help but smile, he loved that smell first thing in the morning. It smelled like… victory.
Off we go again with anotherApocalypse: EarthSummerSmackdown! Hard on the heels of seeing what Dan can do with a soap dish and a biro, it’s time to put our newly reinforced League of European Nations forces to the test.. and a certain LoEN colonel, deep in the Southeast Asian jungles of an unnamed European protectorate has gone certifiably off his rocker, creating a new wonder weapon with the fruits of espionage on the secret Atlantic Alliance antigrav programs… and the Alliance need to get the situation under control! So who else but Buffalo 2-7, reconstituted after their encounters with a zombie horde and a couple of time warping, reality-bending scraps not to mention their heroic defence of Faslane naval base, to do the job?
Buffalo 2-7 deploy, armour to the fore, skimmer units and Rocketeers set up a flank manoeuvreBeen a while, hasn’t it lads?Ze Churmans, caught under Kurtz’s spell, rush to meet them!The Atlantic Alliance win the initiative, first shot from the lead Centurion demolishing the 88Gw laser as the rest of the LoEN force holds out in cover trying to weather the storm..Alliance forces push forwards at top speed across the exposed open ground, infantry taking cover wherever they canHaunebau makes its’ debit! And although the plasma cannons are laughably ineffective against the target M60 Centurion, those twin linked machine guns take a terrible toll on the Allied infantryThe state of play after Turn 1- note the burned out M60, a casualty of combined Ocelot laser cannon fire.. on the opposing side, one Ocelot destroyed and another one with a laser cannon blown off.It had to happen – boosted by a few Command Points spent on her, Silverbug shreds the Haunebau powerfields with her Avenger cannons and demolishes it with Stinger/TOW ADATS missiles! Still, at least it lasted a turn…Surviving Ocelots attempt to light up another M60…Kurtz’s HQ section manage to target the underside of the lead Silverbug and manages to penetrate it’s armour, causing a catastrophic explosion! Wingman arrives and scythes through the Jager squadron..With their armoured assets mostly stripped away by murderous Allied fire, von Hulkenburg gathers his platoon in cover preparing to counterattack the Allied infantry assaultThe surviving Ocelot prepares to go down swinging..Struggling to target von Hulkenburg’s regulars, the Allied APCs absolutely ventilate the territorials up on the hill guarding the objectiveThe jaws of the Allied trap begin to shut..Rocketeers vault up onto the clifftop and massacre the Territorials at close range, suppressing them However Territorial HQ wreaks a terrible vengeance!Despite the panzerfaust operator being unable to hit the side of a barn door, concentrated rifle and machinegun fire manages to cripple the two Humvees trying to flank von Hulkenburg’s regularsAs the Allied noose draws tighter, von Hulkenburg’s regulars knuckle up on the objective with the remains of the Territorial platoonBut they’re not quick enough as the minigun armed Humvee (bolstered by ALL my Command Points this turn) catches them out in the open, massacring a rifle squad and all Kurtz’ staff!A last ditch effort by surviving LoEN assault troopers land in by jump pack and massacre Bravo squadAn M113 draws a bead on Kurtz with a grenade launcher and two LMGs..Surviving Silverbug massacres the Territorial HQIt’s been a hell of a scrap!Surrounded by the Atlantic Alliance Command Element, and wounded by the M113, Col. Kurtz is helpless as Grant icily draws a bead and pumps three rounds at close range into his head…
The first round hit home. “For my men” The second round hit home. “For von Hulkenburg” The third round hit home. “For me”
Looking down at his foe, Grant saw him mouthing something. leaning closer, he could just faintly hear.. “The horror…. the horror..”
As the frosts of winter begin to recede and the rain gets steadily warmer, it’s time to warm up the shed once for more for some 2nd Ed 40k!
Recent terrain builds have all been of a certain retro theme and that’s been no coincidence, as we’ve been planning the next scenario in our vaguely narrative 2nd Ed 40k campaign featuring the 1991 Blood Angels against the miscellany of Da Black Ork Cav, and in their previous outing my red lads took an absolute kicking and were for the most part unable to hit the side of a barn door before their morale broke. This left Captain Tycho largely unsupported as he attempted to salvage Chapter honours by barrelling into the Warboss and his command section in a last ditch effort to deny them their objective.. and despite dishing out a beating to the various greenskin oiks around him, ultimately fell to a barrage of choppas.
Of course, Space Marines don’t die easy, and we figured it would be much more thematic for a second game if his 2ic, the Lieutenant, led a rescue party on the Black Ork Cav HQ building Jim put together some weeks back. This time, the Marine objective would be to reach the building (presumably Cap. T’s power armour has some sort of emergency distress beacon on it), while the Orks would be attempting to kill, break, or otherwise prevent them – so not quite true to the 2nd Ed Mission Cards, but should be fun.
That table is set – Black Ork Cav HQ garrisoned with Gretchin, the rest of Da Cav ready to counterattackBattlewagon with Warboss BludGuzzla and co ready to counterattackDa Dread stands ready to lead the push backGretchin stand to on the walls of the HQMarines dash forward hugging cover where they can, with missile launcher team providing cover“MOVE OUT”Closing in on the objective…Missile launcher attempts to take down the Dread.. misses.. of course!Gretchin fire patters off Marine armour.. at least they hit something, unlike the Dread!Battlewagon darts forward and drops off the Warboss and entourage.. like all sneaky Blood Axe gitz, they eschew a good honest charge forward and prefer to skulk around in cover… “taktix”, as they call itMarines gun their jump packs and leap into combat with the Warboss and his entourage Assault Marines fight a deadly brawl with Ork Warboss, Nobz, and OddboyzAssault Marines and Ork Nobz take a healthy toll of each other..Meanwhile, the second Assault Marine combat squad clears the hill in front of Black Ork Cav HQ Marines take the hill…Warboss & Bigboss take a toll on the Assault Marines..Da Black Ork Cav Don’t Quit! One lone Ork Boy disputes the hill..Marine Chaplain engages the Warboss in melee while the Bigboss barrels into the Assault Marine squadBEHIND YOU!!!!! Despite jamming it’s heavy bolter Da Dread turns it’s lascannon on the missile launcher Marine, turning him to superheated mist…With nothing but bolters to face down the Dread, support team leg it into coverMeanwhile, the assault group close in on Da Cav HQGretchin gulp down their fire and let fly with their autoguns, to little effect..The Chaplain finally batters the Warboss into submission, but the Bigboss is still well in the fight and presumably having the time of his life…A volley of frag grenades massacre the GretchinSurviving Assault Marines jump pack in onto Cav HQ roof top and go to town on the poor Gretchin!And that’s 20 Gretchin despatched without a scratch… raining Grot copses off that roof! (We figured it was quite a nice cinematic image to imagine these 7 foot behemoths hurling Gretchin off the roof with each swipe of a chainsword)That’d be Objective Secured then.. as the surviving Gretchin break and run for the hills
Right, so that’s Captain T rescued then. and the survivors of Da Cav legging it over the horizon.. a Dread, half the Gretchin, a Battlewagon and most of a Boyz Mob.. along with Da Snipa… so what shall we do for the next scenario? Jim has an idea for a “chase” scenario – stay tuned, and most importantly stay thrifty!
Apparently so.. aww, remember when we thought Donald Trump was a threat to world peace? And that Brexit was a genuine existential problem?
And so we come to 2023, having endured plague, economic catastrophe and war in Europe.. it really is true that you only realise you’re in a Golden Age after its’ gone. Still, at least it can’t get any worse, right?
RIGHT?
Anyway – we figured that a great way to wind up a pretty shitty year would be to get as far away from reality as possible, 38,000 years into the future and return once more to the world of Hazzard. Since our last scrap, we’ve added a HELL of a lot of kit to both the Ork and Imperial sides, not to mention a small contingent of Squat allies – so stay tuned, this should be a good one.
I rolled out Waagh-Bozzhog, recently reinforced with aDeath Skull clan – and of course Big Red from a few years ago – and the order of battle was thus:
Evil Sunz clan reinforced with Nobz Warbikes, Gobsmashas, Bowelburnas, Spleenrippas and Mekboy Dragster
Goff Clan reinforced with Lungburstas, Gutrippas and Skullhamma battle fortress
Bad Moon Clan reinforced with Braincrushas, Squig Catapults and Weirdboy Battletowers
Death Skull Clan reinforced with Bonebreaka and Stompas
Ork Warlord & Stompas
Slasher Gargant
“Big Red” – Great Gargant.
This lot topped out at 6,600 points, so yeah – game on!
Jim pondered and decided that after the Redeemers had taken such a kicking in their last game and it would take time to replenish their geneseed, it would be my DIY Guard and his DIY Squats taking centre stage. Standing up to the orkish horde would be:
So, with forces chosen, we rolled up a battlefield, placed objectives and had at it!
Look at all that delicious cardstockBattle lines are drawnThe Imperial coalitionMy ladz, Waagh-Bozzhog, bigger and stringer than ever!More shots of da boyzThe Hazzard 1977th prepare to roll forward on the Imperial right flank“We might need an Imperator…”With an almighty “WAAAAAAAGH!!!”, the ladz roll forwards – Goffs lead the Death Skulls with Warlord Bozzhog on the Ork left with the Slasher, Big Red anchors the centre, the Bad Moons roll into position to provide fire support and the Evil Sunz zoom off in a furious charge to take out the Squat artillery and tanksGoffs pour forward along the valley floor, Death Skulls in supportImperial armour wheels to face the Evil Sunz and protect the SquatsLeviathan faces down the Slasher as the Guard rolls into positionImperial guns open up on the charging Orks!Squat Grand Battery, Colossus and infantry all open up on the Evil Sunz, but will it be enough?
Massed fire from the Guard infantry bite into the Deathskulls and strip the power felds off the Slasher, allowing the Leviathan to administer the coup de grace!On the Imperial left, however, it’s carnage as the Breathless Vengeance falls to massed fire from the Bad MoonsEvil Sunz close assault the Squat Grand Battery, and a couple of the Guard Vindicators to bootThis ends pretty much as expectedLand Raiders & Warlord Titan combine to down Big Red, whilst the combined fire of the Bad Moons and their lethal Weirdboy Battletowers turn the town to rubble, slaughtering the Squat infantryEvil Sunz are in amongst the Imperial lines, causing havoc but taking serious losses in the processGoffs charge in as the Death Skulls retreat, whilst Warlord Bozzhog and his Stompa Mob turn their fury on to the Leviathan, destroying it utterly!Goffs assault into the woods, capturing Objective 7 from the GuardCarnage across the board! At this point Jim was keeping his Space Marines sheltered for a counterattack, having learned from previous games..Hard to say who’s winning here…
…but as it turned out, the Imperials had the good fortune to explode both the Gargants from internal fires, and had caused just enough casualties to break the remaining clans! Despite having lost a Land Raider Company, all the Squats, the Leviathan and most of the Vindicators there was still a solid core of Guard forces plus a Veteran Marine company as yet untouched… so yet again, Warlord Bozzhog’s dastardly plans have come to naught!
Jim admitted he really thought that was in the bags for the Boyz, crediting pure luck with the destruction of the Gargants, and part of me agrees woth him… ah well, all the more excuse to reset and go again! And how will the Squat community on Hazzard feel about seeing their forces massacred while the Redeemers Space Marines cowered in their Rhinos, I wonder… might have the war on Hazard taken another turn??
Before we start, allow me to apologise – I’m full of Christmas Lurgi, and therefore, whisky. For it heals ALL – well, I hope it does, at least.
It has been quite the year, and for all the wrong reasons – after the grinding misery of COVID and the shortages and disruptions that followed (and Lewis Hamilton being ROBBED, but that’s another story), it looked like this might finally be the year when the 20’s righted themselves and got going properly. And for a brief window of time that looked like it might happen.
And then… yeah, we all know what happened. A lunatic septagenarian with delusions of grandeur decides to try and resurrect his empire… and back we go into permacrisis. I wrote a brief but impassioned – some might reasonably say hysterical – analysis early on but I’m not going to apologise for that. If you’re of a similar vintage to Dan & I, then the world was always divided into NATO vs Warsaw Pact.. and on Feb 24 2022, it looked like the Warsaw Pact was rolling West. Like most people I fell into the trap of over estimating the Russians and underestimating the Ukrainians. That first weekend, watching the Ukrainian authorities handing out rifles to untrained civilians to defend Kyiv, the monstrous Russian column rolling in from the north… you just wanted to weep.
But we were wrong, weren’t we? The Battle Of Kyiv never happened. That monstrous Russian armoured column ran out of fuel and food. The Russians proved themselves to be staggeringly incompetent whilst the Ukrainians have proved themselves staggeringly resilient, brave and ingenious and have managed to inflict stunning reverses onto what we all believed was a peer threat to the US.. I’ve said it several times but I think NATO should be applying to join Ukraine rather than the other way around.
But this is not an analysis of the war. There’s enough of that out there, much of it done by those far more studied than I – and let’s not forget, it’s not over yet. I have a nasty suspicion, for example, that Ukrainian casualties are probably far worse than we’re comfortable thinking about… anyway, suffice it to say that’s why you haven’t seen too much of Lt. Grant and Lt. Polikarpov this year – it’s no fun playing the cartoonishly evil Soviet villain when there’s a real one killing real people near where you went on holiday back in 2013.
So, with our own game on the back burner, what did we get done?
Well, quite a bit, actually. A LOT of red paint applied on Dan’s side of things as the 1991 Blood Angels got a motor pool, some characters and – after a hiatus when my esteemed colleague discovered that freehand painting (if you have never done any of it before) is actually quite tricky – actually got their first game in! And in response, I bashed together all the Ork bits I had to hand and came up with an OPFOR – Da Black Ork Cav! There’s a lot still to do but it’s looking good so far.
I also managed to get my Levy platoon sorted for Firefight and the lads got their first game in, which is something we’ll be picking up again in the next few weeks, but my pet project for the year was (of course) Epic Squats! Evidently GW agreed with me as the Leagues Of Votann are the new big thing in 40k.. but my project is a lot more old school, based on the Squat force Commissar Yarrick fought with in the original Battle Of Golgotha (I’ve even done some themed terrain..)! So far the infantry complement is done, as is the Grand Battery, and although I haven’t tackled the Guild Biker force yet I’ve got some ideas on that… granny grating and greenstuff, is there anything they can’t do? 😉 And you may have seen my recent post in which a defunct asthma inhaler, with the help of some foamboard and various other bits and pieces, became a fully equipped Colossus! Which as we speak is out in the shed helping to shore up the defences of the world of Hazzard against the rampaging Ork hordes of Waagh-Bozzhog.. yep, we’re doing an Epic Rematch, so stay tuned for that!
So, we made it out of 2022, what of ’23? Dan has sworn faithfully to finish up the Blood Angels – and in fairness, he’s got the infantry complement complete – and we’ve got the next instalment of the Armageddon Diaries as the Marines can’t leave their gallant Captain Tycho in the villainous hands of Da Black Ork Cav.. for me, it’s building the aforementioned Cav up to full strength and getting the Squats into a more cohesive force.
And hopefully, this could be the year where history just stops happening for a bit – no more war, no more pandemics, no more upheaval. I think we can all raise a glass to that. Let’s end things with a couple of shots of the Epic game currently raging out in the shed:
I wasn’t going to write this… but Jim pointed out a) it was my turn after he’d done the battle report for the other week’s Hallowe’en game, and b) the god folks who follow this blog have been waiting over two years to see my 1991 Blood Angels finally get some action in!
We did the campaignsthat came with the 2nd Edbox set a few years back, (the Dark Age Of Peace & Sanity, if you will) with my lads in their former incarnations as Deathwatch Marines, but aside from no longer being able to locate the campaign book (oops) we fancied pitching in and doing a full blown “proper” 2nd Ed game. So, the table was set – well, pretty much left as it was from Yonkers the other week – and off we went!
We picked 1000 points, Jim knocked up a list from the newly christened Black Ork Cav featuring Warboss BludGuzzla, a Nob, a Bigboss, the Dread, a Battlewagon, a Dok, a Mek, two mobs of ten Boyz each and two of twenty Gretchin each… 64/65 infantry a Dread & a Battlewagon, pretty formidable!
To oppose them, I picked a Tactical squad with flamer & missile launcher (tooled up with frag, krak, melta & plasma shells) and figuring that the best way to oppose lots of bodies (mostly T3 Grots) would be LOTS OF GUNS I backed that up with a Devastator squad packing a pair of missile launchers tooled up with the same selection of shells and a pair of heavy bolters. Captain Tycho would command the force and after picking that up I was left with 32 points so I tooled him up with a couple of bits of wargear to help him in close combat.
We drew Mission Cards, me getting Engage & Destroy, Jim getting Take And Hold, and we agreed that his objective would be the ruined church in the middle of the open countryside. Orks deployed first as was their wont with a lower Strategy Rating:
The Black Ork Cav – quite a spectacle, I must say Jim!The thin red line of heroes deploys to meet them..They do say quantity has a quality of it’s own.. and looking at that lot I couldn’t help feel a little uneasy..To everyone’s surprise, the Orks got first turn and advanced, a barrage of autogun fire reaching out and knocking out BOTH my missile launcher marines! So, a good start… Frag missiles and bolter fire lay low a few Grots, but maddeningly they keep passing their morale checksSurviving Devastators take cover and loose pot shots against the Grot mob screening the Ork boyz
..and then a technical hitch seems to have stopped us getting any more photos.. which I’m thankful for because frankly my Marines – the ones I’ve spent the last TWO AND A HALF YEARS painting – performed utterly abysmally.. aside from a few Grots downed here and there, my sole remaining missile launcher whiffed to hit the Dread THREE TIMES before being killed by a Gretchin, heavy bolters jammed left right & centre and the only time I rolled higher than a 2 was doing the morale checks, then I couldn’t roll less than 11!
As a result, Captain Tycho’s entire command was either killed or ran off, the last pictures of the man himself show him heroically charging the Ork Warboss and Nobz in a last ditch attempt to deny them their objective:
And to be fair, he did a good job, Captain T is a MONSTER in close combat.. but after finishing off the Warboss, the Bigboss and the dozen or so Orks round him simply opened up and turned the proud Captain into Peter Weller from the opening scenes of RoboCop..
Jim, in fairness, didn’t gloat too much, and even admitted that my luck with the dice was beyond appalling, so we’ve agreed that a rematch must happen… and then we figured well, why just repeat the game? Surely Captain Tycho has now been imprisoned by the Orks and it now must be critical for the Marines to rescue their leader? Plus just what was Warboss BludGuzzla IV looking for in that ruined church?
So with that in mind, I think a 2nd Ed campaign may be in the works… of course if the Marines are going to raid Da Black Ork Cav home turf, we’ll need to knock together some suitable scenery.. and because we’ll be needing some armour I’ll need to finish my Techmarines… OK, I think we’ve got a plan!
It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that our pet game “Apocalypse: Earth” has been conspicuous by it’s absence so far this year. There’s a fairly straightforward reason for that – the setting is based around a rampaging Soviet Empire under a genocidal lunatic trying to enslave the world and this year that hasn’t really been escapist fantasy, it’s just been.. well, the news. And as such, neither Dan or myself have really felt in the mood for it.
But after spending a month last yearpainting a wholeload of zombies for a specially themed Halloween game, we both rather fancied the idea of breaking out the Atlantic Alliance to fight out a scenario based on the Battle of Yonkers from the brilliant novel (and passable film) World War Z.. if you haven’t read the book – well, you definitely should… if you haven’t seen the film – well, it’ll be on telly again before long, there’s no rush!
Basically the Battle Of Yonkers saw the US military making a concerted stand at the town of Yonkers, NY against a crowd of zombies numbering in the millions. There’s some fascinating descriptions of the effects of MLRS and artillery against the undead, as well as the Land Warrior system (which correct me if I’m wrong, never did make it into service in real life) and the famed “Silver Bullet” tungsten / depleted uranium armour piercing shells.. if you haven’t read it, I won’t spoil it but let’s just say it doesn’t go too well for humanity… the US Army being a finely honed instrument of warfare honed for a completely different war than it found itself fighting.
With this in mind we set up a half urban, half rural board with a bunch of woods on the rural side and ruins on the urban side to represent Yonkers city limits, and put our big group of trusty Airfix civilians (who seem to be forever getting caught up in this sort of thing) in the middle, and with a randomly rolled up mob of zombies either side, homing in menacingly…
Civilians approach Atlantic Alliance lines with shambling hordes closing in from both sides…
We were winging the rules as we went, but the basic idea was that each zombie mob would get reinforced by (Turn Number)xD6 zombies each turn.. and behind the Alliance lines were four spawning points that would spawn (Turn Number-1)x D6 zombies each turn.. trust me, it was simpler than it sounded! At the far side of the table was a waiting APC to shuttle out the survivors.
Buffalo 2-7’s infantry component take up station on the city limitsA crowd of civilians rush toward them, hoping for sanctuary from the undead..Lt. Grant leads his men forward to link up and clear out the zombie mobs approaching from the flanksBehind you! Bravo Squad wheel around to discover zombies shambling towards them.. Keeping the rear areas secure would prove to be a major tactical problem for the Alliance in this battleOn the other side of the street, Alfa Squad are dealing with their own problems..Grant ushers the civilians under his wingAllied rifle squads sweep the rear areas clean of undeadAllied troops gun down approaching zombies, holding them off to allow the civilians to escape inside the city limitsOut of the frying pan…It’s a trap! Zombies boil from their spawning points, getting up close and personal with the civilians and soldiers..Undead to the left of them, undead to the right of them… it’s getting sticky for the Allied troops!And still they come!Beset by crowds of zombies from all sides, the undead get in amongst the living…Lt. Grant falls! We ruled a 50/50 chance of a living model being reanimated as a zombie.. which he duly was!With Platoon Sgt McAuliffe now in command, the troops blaze away at the encroaching hores of zombies but the sheer numbers are just too much…Another zombie mob appears, interposing itself between the civilians and their escape route – Alfa Squad rush to take them down!In desperation, Alfa Squad cut loose the frag grenades despite danger proximity to the civilians – they cut a swathe through the zombies, but at the cost of two civvies!HUGE numbers of zombies now on the table, homing in on Allied forces from all sides and blocking escape routes!Alfa Squad are surprised and eaten!It’s looking grim…“RUN! DON’T LOOK BACK!” McAuliffe screams as his surviving men turn to face the oncoming horde, desperate to hold just a little longer…Last stand… Mac & the boys knuckle up to sell their lives dearly“It’s been an honour, gentlemen…” Mac & the remnants of 2-7 lock & load, ready for the final actThe boys give it their all but vanish under a horde of flesh-eating ghouls.. the last civilian catches Mac’s eye as he boards the APC, just to see the sergeant mouth the words “Remember us…”
Well that was a belter! Took a little time to get going but the gradual ramping up of zombie numbers turned what initially looked like a walk in the park for the Alliance into a lethal and cinematic last stand where once again, Buffalo 2-7 died gloriously to a man in defence of freedom! Great fun and hiding out in the gaming shed kept us safe from the attentions of wandering trick or treaters.. bah humbug! X-D
So, what next? What zombie-themed scenario could we investigate for Halloween next year? There’s almost a year to figure something out… drop us a comment and we’ll see you soon!
It’s the summertime and the weather is fine, and I’ve been out in the garden knocking back wine…
Time to step away from the Blood Angels for a bit – I’ve lost confidence in my eye for detail (nothing to do with ay criticism, by the way – all the comments I’ve had have been positive, in fact far more positive than I deserve), and I think I need to do a fair bit of freehand practice to get my skills up to snuff before having another go at my command figures. So it makes sense to go to a smaller scale, right?
Well… yeah, actually. See, the issue I had with the BAs was with the smooth surfaces and details like the campaign badges and banners (which also highlighted the downsides to painting with housepaints rather than model paints in some instances… X-D) . The details that are picked out for you on the sculpts – pipes, aquilas etc – I wasn’t too bad with. And with my Orcs, there’s plenty of those. This lets washes and drybrushing take care of the heavy lifting – plus any mistakes you can hide within a regiment of 30, right?
So here we are – a regiment of 30 Black Orcs (Orcs of Colour?):
These lads are the heavy hitters, the elite of the orc infantry, and 30 of them is a big solid linebreaker whether you’re playing Warhammer Fantasy, Kings Of War or Hyperian WarsPaint scheme was basically the same as the other ladz, but a black wash dulled down the skin tones.I gave myself a hand by priming these white and then prewashing with thinned Smokey Ink to get to the parts other painting layers can’t reach….Warchief Gazhrag The Bloody leads his armyA mighty horde!Fancy seeing this lot coming at you?
So that’s Gazh the Warchief, a regiment of 16 Archers, 2 regiments of 30 Orcs each, a regiment of 25 Savage Orcs and now the Black Orcs – one more regiment to go and then we’re on to the Shamans, and I’ve got a few ideas for support units…
Lt. Carruthers’ Sky Marine platoon deploys to the left, with support from an Artificial, Gazhrag’s boyz to the right. The objective is the sacred stones in the middle of the ruined temple… wonder what the Orc Warlord might be wanting with all these stones? Sky Marines deploy forward with command section and mortar anchored on the low hill in the centreAnd there’s the OPFOR…The ladz barrel forwardNo. 3 Squad takes casualties from surprisingly effective Orc archeryNos. 1 & 2 squads hold the hill overlooking the temple, but it looks like they’re getting company soonBlack Orcs crash into the Sky Marines on the hill Sky Marines retreat in good order despite taking savage losses, but the Orc regiment following the Black Orcs catch them in the openSky Marines fight bravely, but 30 Orcs are 30 OrcsCommand section let fly with rifles and mortar, Jim running down all his Command Points to hammer these ladz before they massacre his troops up close and personal. The “1” you can see is the regiment failing it’s morale check – being within 12cm of unsuppressed enemy troops they are captured (or cut down by quickfire .303 rounds and bayonets)Next turn Jim won the initiative and turned the attention of the command section onto the Black Orcs – concentrated casualties in the regiment’s rear quickly caused them to become suppressed and surrender too!However, the command section can’t face two ways at once and the second prong of the Orc attack strikesTwo survivors are all that’s left of No. 3 squad!Surviving Sky Marines consolidate on the low hill for a last stand
But to no avail, as the Orcs crash into them from both sides!
“Those creatures are tremendous in stature!”“Wait until you see the reds of their eyes, lads”
And so Gazhrag The Bloody scored another victory, albeit having lost half his archers, his elite Black Orcs and a regiment of regular Orcs in the process… and we ironed out a few more kinks in the Hyperian Wars ruleset, hopefully bringing the publication date to three days before the heat death of the universe.
Stay thrifty out there – Jim’s got something he’s really excited to tell you all about… 😉
As the Grim Darkness of the.. present day.. grinds on, we fancied taking our wargaming as far away from reality as possible- the other week it was Hyperian Wars (which gave us a load of ideas for game development), this time it was our 6mm “Epic” scale take on our rules engine in it’s sci-fi skin “Future Force Warrior”…
I laid out a somewhat similar battleground to last week’s fight, substituting the ruined temple with plasma reactors and the Valiant 44th command centre – codename Objective Hamilton – which would be the objective for both sides… so theoretically at least, it would be best commander wins!
Rebels win the deployment roll off, getting to pick the side and forcing the Imperials to start deployment first. Support platoon with E-Web blasters set up shop in the woods on top of the hill towards the bottom of the pic.Rebels set up using cover to screen their infantry from Imperial fire (they hope) – mechs lurk in the rocky gulch, speeder bike team in the woods to the bottom of the picOverview of the battlefield – Rebels stage left, Imperials stage right, Outpost 44 dead centreVader leads the Imperial attack from the front – “Leave them to me!”Rebel speeders burst from cover, performing a hit and run attack destroying one AT-PT and damaging another, using a command point to move them back into cover before Imperial fire can respondFirst blood to the Rebellion!…aaand back into cover before return fire hits!Rebel infantry storm forward to consolidate the objectiveYeah, we’ve got line of sight…. (say the Imperial support platoon)Where’d Yellow platoon go?!? The Empire Strikes Back!The first turn ends with the Rebels in control of Outpost 44 but they’ve taken significant casualties and Lord Vader is marching forwards…Red platoon double time forward to capture the outpost, successfully using a command point to gun down a Stormtrooper platoon caught out in the openMarching forward into cover, Imperial AT-PTs catch a Rebel speeder in the open and damage itImperial and Rebel speeder bike teams duel at point blank range in the forestInconclusive, but definitely bloody!
Imperial support platoon draws a bead on the exposed Rebel mechs… 6’s to hit?
That’ll do..Die, Rebel Scum!!Vader leads the remaining Stormtroopers in a last ditch attack towards the outpostThe moment we’ve all been waiting for! Vader engages Luke in close combat – “I AM YOUR FATHER!”“NOW YOUR FAILURE IS COMPLETE!” Vader fells Luke and the Rebel platoon look at each other nervously..…before annihilating him with the combined fire of a full platoon’s blasters! Actually in retrospect we should probably have done all this as close combat, maybe some form of Force shenanigans.. as it was, he took 18 hits, fluffed every Force save and every Hero save…. “NOOOOOOO!”Rebel speeder team carries the duel in the woodsWith the remaining Stormtroopers annihilated by the second Rebel platoon, the support platoon weigh up their options as the sole remaining Imperial unit and decide to retreat to fight another day… it was close, but the Rebel Alliance wins this round!
All in all, a fun little game – we need to finesse the “fighting in buildings” aspect, we were a little inconsistent with how we abstracted that, but on the whole, a solid rules engine and I think we’ve struck a good balance between alternate activation and IGO/UGO mechanics, as well as the range abstraction that dogs wargames… Till next time, May The Force Be With You (particularly if you’re Ukrainian)!
It’s customary in many a fantasy trope to regard humanity as besieged on all sides by innumerable hordes of vile creatures, united as one in their desire for destruction – but on the world of Hyperia, this ain’t necessarily so! As it turns out, be they human, elf, dwarf, or Baddie (TM) – pretty much everyone hates everyone else in roughly equal measure.
As some of you may be aware, we did a fair few HW games in 2019 and the ratmen kicked some ass and took some names… but then The Great Plague struck and gaming (and thus rule development) all went down the pan. Now, mercifully, we’ve just got potential WW3 to worry about, and until someone invents a facemask that can stop a Satan II ICBM warhead… well, we might as well stop worrying, crack open a bottle and play soldiers.
Dan brought everything he’d got finished, including a commander I hadn’t seen before (!), and because our Virum Nascii horde vastly outnumbers… everything, really, I decided to stick to the basics – warriors, slaves, archers, Plague Priests, Stormtroopers and Warlord. All the special weapons stuff would stay home for now. This was a rough estimate in points values, but also so I could beat him without fear of emotional blackmail – the Orca are tough – thick, but tough – and hit hard in big blocks but have little missile weaponry and no magic (yet).
Rules, for those interested:
Orcs:
Orc Warrior:
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
12
6
4
2
9
2
Regular
Default: Advance (Assault)
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Hand Weapons
1
Melee
8+D6
1
Orc Archer
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
12
5
3
2
9
2
Regular
Default: Advance (Assault)
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Bow
1
60cm
7+D6
1
Savage Orc
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
12
6
4
2
8
2
Elite
Default: Advance (Assault)
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Hand Weapons
1
Melee
8+D6
1
Orc General
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
12
5
6
3
12
4
Elite
Default: Advance (Assault)
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Hand Weapons
1
Melee
8+D6
2
Orc Shaman
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
12
5
5
3
10
3
Elite
Default: Advance (Assault)
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Hand Weapons
1
Melee
8+D6
2
Filth (4+): Target friendly unit within 12” gets Poison in melee next time it fights.
Cracks (4+): Target enemy unit within 12” takes 2 automatic hits with AP(2).
Sickness (5+): Target enemy unit within 18” gets -1 to hit next time it shoots.
Lightning (5+): Target enemy unit within 12” takes 1 hit with AP(4) and Deadly(3).
Frenzy (6+): Target friendly unit within 12” may immediately move by up to 6”.
Pestilence (6+): Target enemy unit within 6” takes 1 automatic hit per model.
Virum Nascii
Warrior
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
18
6
3
3
6
1
Poor
Default – Hold
Slaves
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
18
7
2
3
6
1
Untrained
Default – Panic
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Bow
1
50cm
6+D6
1
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Hand Weapons
1
Melee
6+D6
1
Poison Grenadiers
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
18
6
3
3
6
1
Regular
Default: Advance (ranged)
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Poison Grenade
1
12+D6
8+D6
3 (Blast 3cm)
Stormtroopers
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
18
6
4
3
6
1
Regular
Default: Advance (Assault)
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Hand Weapons
1
Melee
8+D6
1
Assassins
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
20
6
3
4
6
1
Regular
Default: Advance (Assault)
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Hand Weapons
1
Melee
8+D6
1
Warlord
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
18
5
4
4
9
2
Veteran
Hero
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Hand Weapons
3
Melee
7+D6
1
Plague Priests
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
18
6
3
3
7
1
Regular
Default: Advance (Assault)
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Hand Weapons
1
Melee
7+D6
2
Weapons Teams
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
18
5
3
4
7
1
Regular
Independent, Default: Hold (Ranged)
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Vrilrifle
1
48cm
20+2D6
2
Ratling Gun
6
36cm
7+D6
1
Vrilfire Thrower
1
Template
12+D6
2
Vrilgrinder Drill
N/A
N/A
N/A
Sets up Ambush*
*Ambush – This unit begins in reserve. When it is placed, it may pop up anywhere more than 18cm from an enemy unit. Any friendly Virum Nascii units not already deployed may follow through the tunnel and pop and deploy with a unit facing touching the tunnel mouth in the case of a regiment or in the case of an individual character.
Master Of Engineers:
Speed
Shooting Skill
CCR
Initiative
Armour
Hit Point
Morale
Notes
18
4
3
4
9
2
Veteran
Hero
Weapon
Rate Of Fire
Close Range
Penetration
Damage
Vrilfire Pistol
3
24cm
12+D6
2
Dan brought the Orca general, two regiments of 30 Warriors each, a regiment of 25 Savage Orcs and 16 Archers – I brought the Virum Nascii Warlord, a regiment of 32 Slave archers, 2 regiments of 16 warriors each, 28 Slaves, 6 Stormtroopers and 16 Plague Priests.
We decided on a specific objective – controlling the sacred stones within a ruined temple. To win, a player would have to have an unshaken (unsuppressed) unit within half a move distance, so 9cm for the VN, 6cm for the slower Orcs. To war!
The objective – some holy stones within a ruined. “Why’s dey ‘oly boss?” “Cause dey’s full of ‘oles, don’t ask stoopid questions”Virum Nascii win the deployment roll off, choosing their table edge and forcing the Orca to deploy first.Hordes of chittering Virum Nascii swarm forth! Using a new deployment rule to simulate the increased flexibility of faster armies, basically everyone can deploy a double move forward onto the board – meant 24cm for the Orca, 36cm for the Ratmen.Both side close for battle – Virum Nascii archers attempt to provide covering fire… this is comically ineffectiveOrca attempt a flanking manouevre
Cunning Virum Nascii warlord uses his slaves as bait to try and lure the Orca into doing something rash…Orca flanking manoeuvre hurtles ponderously toward Ratmen lines…Plague Priests ambush a unit of Orca warriors, catching them in the flank
Ratmen warriors ambush a unit of Orca warriors in the rear, causing them to rout!
Orca archers provide counterbattery fire, covering the advance of the Savage/ Feral (choose your poison) Orca – this is somewhat more effective than their Virum Nascii counterparts….…causing both the slave warriors and slave archers to rout! Warlord Ratticus does his best to rally the troops…With the Orca flank threat successfully dealt with, the Ratmen encircle the temple ruins…First Ratmen Warrior unit sent in is duly demolished by superior Savage Orca numbers and strength…But then (while the slaves are rallying) a second regiment of Virum Nascii Warriors attacks the Savage Orca from behind, routing them! …Plague Priests catch the fleeing Orca and annihilate them!Ratmen attempt to press home the attack in the temple, but the Orca are too strong and too many!Arrow fire routs the Slave archers… again…Lord Ratticus send in his finest, the Plague Priests – will they get the job done?At the height of the battle, Warlord Ratticus charges Ghazrag The Bloody!…and he is no match for his greenskin adversary!Seeing their warlord fall, the slave archers leg it as the Plague priests start to struggle, with the Stormtroopers looking for an opening..
The slaves rally…
..but the Plague Priests die to a rat to a crushing assault from Orca archers and Warriors!
With just the 6 Stormtroopers and 20 odd largely ineffectual Slave archers against 16 much more effective Orca archers and a block of 20 Warriors, as well as Ghazrag himself, the surviving Virum Nascii realised they had no chance to take the objective and conceded the game. Victory to the Orca!
Although this was by no means a strictly competitive game – we were tweaking the rules on the fly and working out mechanics as we went – it was still really fun and pretty cinematic watching two VERY different flavours of Baddie go against each other! There are still more Orca to come and lots of special units for the Ratmen too so expect another faceoff in the near future… and of course what happens when these meet the Sky Marines of the Grand Alliance or the massed ranks of the Ancien Regime?
Stay tuned for more fantasy wackiness as we get into summer, and who knows, we may even get these rules out and published before the heat death of the universe…..
Skinflint Games 