The Overlords have a monthly mini tournament to determine the holder of the spoon of shame – the most conclusively defeated player!  This month 4 of us took part in a 750pots challenge:

Powderfan, with Space Wolves

Inquisitor Steve, with Grey Knights (as Adeptus Custodes – they look fabulous, incidentally, check out the youtube vid on the overlords channel).

Steve, with Grey Knights

Myself (Kipper), with Sisters of Battle – my Order of the Argent Shroud!

We rolled off to see who played who – I started by facing Powderfan’s Space Wolves on table 1!  The missions and deployment were the same on both tables, so we’d get a chance to try all three types of game.

BATTLE 1 – Spearhead, Capture and Control

Deployment

Deployment – The Space Wolves won the roll for 1st turn, and set up in the top right corner.  Though the board images don’t show it, the buildings were complex multi levelled ruins with lots of narrow walkways.  The Space Wolf objective was on the ground – the SoB objective was two floors up surrounded by a Battle Sister Squad.

Turn 1 – Space Wolves (Sisters of Battle 1 Objective, Space Wolves 0 Objectives)

The space wolves roared forward with two of the Rhinos moving 12″ and the other, with the lead psyker in the centre moving 6, and attempting a psychic power.  Unfortunately the sisters proved just out of range.  The Long Fangs opened fire on the Retributor squad near the centre, but a combination of unlucky shots and lucky saves meant no damage was done.  The drop pod crashed down near the sisters objective, and the dreadnaught lumbered out, and opened fire, again failing to kill any of the waiting sisters thanks to armour and cover saves.

Turn 1 – Sisters of Battle (Sisters 1 Objective, Wolves 0)

The Sisters of Battle retaliated by opening up on a rhino with the Retributor squad, failing their act of faith, but managing to shake the crew.  The Battle Sisters in the centre shot the dreadnaught in the back, managing to shake the metallic beast, while Celestine and the seraphim advanced down the centre.

Turn 2 – Space Wolves (Sisters 1 Objective, Wolves 0)

The Space Wolves continued to close forward, moving the rhino of grey hunters up to their own objective on the right.  The dreadnaught couldn’t stand on the walkways of the ruin, so couldn’t assault.  The drop pod opened up with its storm bolter, killing a Battle Sister.  In the centre, bolter fire and psychic powers killed three seraphim, and forced the remainder to take dangerous terrain tests when they next moved.

Turn 2 – Sisters of Battle (Sisters 1 Objective, Wolves 1)

Risking the dangerous terrain, Celestine and the sisters jumped forward, only for both seraphim to perish.  Celestine destroyed one of the rhinos, which promptly exploded and caused her a wound, but pinned the grey hunters within.  The Retributor Squad opened fire to little effect on the rhinos, while the Battle Sister Squad again fired at the dreadnaughts back, to no effect this time.  A unit of seraphim dropped to contest the Wolves objective … and failed to hurt any of the long fangs with their flamers.

Turn 3 – Space Wolves (Sisters 1 Objective, Wolves 0)

The rhino tot he right tried to move forward, but failed a difficult terrain test and immobilised itself!  The dreadnaught and drop pod opened up on the defending sisters, hoping to break them, but the 2 casualties didn’t drop the squad low enough to force a morale test.  The grey hunters in the rhino to the right and the long fangs opened up on the seraphim … only for an amazing slew of misses and lucky saves to see them all through!  In the centre, the librarian smashed celestine again, but failed to kill her.

Turn 3 – Sisters of Battle (Sisters 1 Objective, Wolves 0)

The Battle Sisters in the centre shook the dreadnaught again, forcing it to cease fire.   Celestine massacred the grey hunters and regrouped towards the centre, while the seraphim failed to hurt the long fangs again.  The retributor squad smashed the storm bolter off the immobilised rhino, but didn’t do anything else.

Turn 4 – Space Wolves (Sisters 1 Objective, Wolves 0)

The Wolves annihilated Celestine in a hurricane of fire, who fell to the ground with a last prayer to the emperor.  A hailstorm of fire killed 3 seraphim, but they continued to hang in there, contesting the objective.

Turn 4 – Sisters of Battle (Sisters 1 Objective, Wolves 0)

Much to the Space Wolves displeasure, Celestine immediately got back up, and jumped forward to join the Seraphim as a single unit to hold the objective from the wolves.  The retributors stunned the rhino in the centre with the Librarian, while the battle sisters in the centre managed to immobilise the dreadnaught.

Turn 5 – Space Wolves (Sisters 1 Objective, Wolves 0)

The Long fangs opened up again, but failed to do more than kill a single seraphim!  The dreadnaught took down another sister defending the objective, but they passed their morale check.  A tactical mistake left the librarian in the stunned rhino, unable to shoot, so the turn passed quickly.

Turn 5 – Sisters of Battle (Sisters 1 Objective, Wolves 0)

The sisters continued the offensive, with the retributors killing 3 long fangs and their chief!  The Battle Sisters in the centre blew the arm off the immobilised dreadnaught … but it was still ticking over.  At the end of the turn, the roll for game end came up with a 1 to finish the game!

Summary – Sisters of Battle win with an objective held.

It’s been a long summer, I’m writing this as the rain pours down for the second time this month so it’s not the weather I’m talking about, its guests, friends coming to stay type of long summer. Now don’t get me wrong it was wonderful to see everyone and we had a great time but, all except one weren’t gamers! And as I’ve been told it’s rude to ignore guests ‘just to paint soldiers’ my painting, modelling and gaming has slowed to a crawl for the best part of 5 and a half months   .

It didn’t stop completely but the work I did was conducted furtively late at night or frantically between sets of visitors. One thing that I have been able to do is to catch up on a lot of reading, mostly non-GW stuff. The other thing that I have been able to do is to assemble most of my purchases’ of the latest Dark Eldar stuff from GW.

All this has set me thinking (I know, not something to be done on the spur of the moment), with the launch of the latest GW drive for greater detail (Citadel Finecast), quickly followed by Liquid Greenstuff (to fill all the little bubble holes), I’ve been doing a bit of a time and motion study on my modelling (bit anal doing something like that on one’s hobby but stay with me here).

The whole thing started over 50 years ago when my Brittons knights would besiege my wooden castle, my knights were purchased fully painted and all I had to do was to unpack them and play.

At the same time my room was quickly filling up with model planes, rockets and tanks! These were unpacked, cleaned, assembled and painted before adorning my shelves and ceiling.

Later as my war gaming tastes grew I found it necessary to purchase ‘unfinished’ figures, these required cleaning and painting, now I’m not going to do a complete blow by blow of my gaming life but ‘traditionally’ I’ve been a war gamer and (separately)  a scale modeller.

The point to all this is, the move to multi-part plastic figures, now this has been of great benefit to the hobby and gamer alike but with the Dark Eldar I for one am suffering from ‘detail overload’. I mean that each Wych or Kabalite warrior is made up of at least seven parts – not including the stand and any ‘fluffy’ stuff. Now I’m just completeing the last 10 of some 70 infantry figures, 2 Ravagers, 3 Raiders (one still to do), 2 Venoms, one Razorwing, 5 Scourges and 3 Reavers, oh and Lilith Hesperax and an Archon! . So, if I’m actually going to game with these figures this year (or next) it’s going to have to be unpainted (shock horror) but, I may never get around to painting them!

WHY?

Well I’ve come to the conclusion that I want things how they were, my wargaming figures to be just that, a single figure that is quick and easy to paint and my scale modelling to be separate from my wargaming (lots of rockets to build ).

The simple fact is that in the time it has taken to cut, clean and assemble the above I could have painted two complete 10mm armies (I have two waiting), or one complete 6mm American Civil War army (I have two waiting) or one 28mm Roman army (yes I have one waiting!), not to mention the Napolionic French, British and Russians or the 6mm Romans and Carthaginians or the 28mm Celts – I have a lot to get on with so GW I will NOT be purchasing any more figures from you…………….maybe

Don’t get me wrong this is not a rant against GW, the figures are great – they ARE expensive but still great. I’ll still be playing 40k, I’ll also be playing Warhammer Ancients and Napoleonic’s not to forget Warmaster and Lord of the Rings (and War of the Rings when I get enough figures painted).

Well I’m glad I got that off my chest, after this weekend I hope to get back to a routine of painting and gaming, the internet is still patchy (or not there!) and the strikes have delayed the ADSL connection, so I’ll post as and when.

A.

Eons ago, a strange saint arose in the outer reaches of galaxy.  Apparently professing undying loyalty to the Great Father and the Emperor, he wrought great turmoil through the subsector in the name of the Imperium.  After he perished at the hands of the Eldar, his closest followers buried him in two separate locations.  The pious believe that this was to symbolise the divide between the Ecclesiarchy and the local chapter of Astartes, the Tyrian Eagles … while Inquisition records show a much darker truth.  The Dining Saint was possessed by a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, which led to his destruction at the hands of a Autarch. 

This dark truth has fallen into the hands of a disciple of the dark lord Khenti, who has led a group of the Thousand Sons to reunite the bones, free the trapped Daemon, and gain dark power from a pact from the grateful warpfiend.  However, the local order of Adeptus Sororitas, aghast at the prospect of a beloved Saint’s tomb being despoiled, has moved to defend the tombs.  The Order of the Verdant Garden has taken the field of Battle once more!

Setup

The game set up was capture and control, with a straightforward pitched battle deployment.  Making the game more of a tactical challenge was the fact that we were gaming on a 5′ by 3′ table, rather than the more standard 6′ x4′.  Terrain was set up as follows:

The Thousand Sons chose to deploy and go first, and the Sisters failed to steal initiative.  The initial deployment was as follows:

Turn 1 – Thousand Sons (CSM 0 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

The Thousand Sons surged forward like an unstoppable blue tide, moving forward and smashing bolts of change, havoc heavy weapons, lascannons on predators and plasma cannons on the dreadnaught into the waiting Sisters of Battle’s tanks.One Exorcist was stunned, an immolator was annihilated, while the other was shaken, and a Rhino immobilised.  The only unfortunate opening move was on the right, where the predator failed to damage the waiting Exorcist.

Turn 1 - Sisters of Battle (CSM 0 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

Canoness Lilith, in her Immolator, hurtled forward on the left, as the fleet Sisters repentia sped past towards the Chaos Dreadnaught.  The Seraphim flew down the centre, led by Saint Evangeline, while on the right a squad of battle sisters in a rhino advanced next to the menacing shape of the Exorcist.  The Exorcist managed to blow a heavy bolter off the Possessed Predator, but the twin linked lascannons just swung menacingly to point at the holy tank!  Saint Evangeline used her Ardent Blade to kill two of the Thousand Sons in the centre, while the accompanying sisters bolt pistols killed a couiple more, followed by a charge into close combat.  The Aspiring Sorcerer wounded Saint Evangeline twice, while two more Thousand Sons fell, leaving the combat drawn.

Turn 2 – Thousand Sons (CSM 0 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

The Sorcerer Lord leading the Thousand Sons realised that the Havocs couldn’t hold their own objective – a strategic error.  He decided to lead his own personal squad back to the objective, with the intention of destroying the Sisters around their own shrine, and collecting the bones after the battle.  The defiler advanced to charge the Seraphim, while the dreadnaught only stunned the immolator on the left with a plasma cannon, before immobilising it in close combat.  In the centre, the havocs destroyed the Rhino, forcing the Sisters to pour out of the hatches around it.  On the right, the Exorcist was immobilised, but still in the fight.

Turn 2 - Sisters (CSM 0 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

The Sisters continued their counter attack, with the Daughters of Repentence assaulting the Dreadnaught on the left, while on the right the immobiled Exorcist blew another heavy bolter off the Predator.  The Retributor squad managed to destroyed the rhino, and flaming wreckage killed two thousand sons and a havoc.  The Defiler continued to rip seraphim apart, while Evangeline continued to slay Thousand Sons.  The rhino to the right decided discretion was the better part of valor, and started to move back to reinforce the sisters objective.

Turn 3 – Thousand Sons (CSM 0 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

Things were already looking bleak for the Thousand Sons hopes.  The dreadnaught fell to the Sisters Repentia, blowing up … but failing to hurt any of them in death.  The defiler killed another Seraphim as the aspiring sorcerer fell to Evangelines Ardent Blade, and the Predator finally wrecked the Exorcist on the right flank.  The Havocs destroyed the gun on immobilised exorcist in the centre, while the Sorcerer Lord and Thousand Sons continued to move to guard their own objective.

 Turn 3 – Sisters of Battle (CSM 0 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

 The Sisters of Battle continued their strong advance, with the Daughters of Repentia fleeting and assaulting a total of 18″ to cut the defiler into pieces … exploding!  The worst to wound rolls seen meant that the 15 sisters caught in the blast all escaped unharmed.  The Rhino on the right flank continued its retreat, while the Retribution squad killed another Havoc.  At this point, the Sisters position looked pretty firm!

 Turn 4 - Thousand Sons (CSM 0 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

The Thousand Sons settled in around their own objective, and the havocs and predator killed Saint Evangeline, and all but one of the Seraphim.  The Thousand sons hit the Repentia with Bolts of change, only to see a shield of faith roll preserve them.

 Turn 4 – Sisters of Battle (CSM 1 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

The remaining Seraphim (with hand flamers) jumped for cover, as the Canoness advanced and killed a couple of havocs with shooting.  The Daughters of Repentence seemed to feel their work was done, stumbling forward only a few inches over the difficult terrain.  The Retribution Squad pulled off an act of faith, and managed to immobilise the predator against its front armour with rending heavy bolters.

 Turn 5 - Thousand Sons (CSM 1 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

At this point, a mistake was revealed – the Raptors had been forgotten about, and no reserves rolls had been made!  They dropped down and opened up on the Battle Sisters defending the objective.  The Choas Havocs supported them, and they killed all but four of them.  Unfortunately for the Chaos troops, they made their morale roll.   The thousand sons squad killed two more of the repentia squad, but the fearless women continued their very slow advance over difficult terrain.  The predator opened up on the canonesses command squad, killing one of the Evangelists!

 Turn 5 – Sisters of Battle (CSM 1 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

Saint Evangeline slumbered this turn.  The Seraphim sister saw an opportunity, jumped forward, twin hand flamered the thousand sons, and charged into close combat, drawing the thousand sons off the objective … but she was quickly cut down, and they regrouped back onto the bones of the corrupt saint.  The Evangelists moved forward, and opened up on the raptors, with the remaining Battle Sisters, wiping them out.  The rhino on the right reversed again, disgorging reforcing sisters!

 Turn 6 - Thousand Sons (CSM 1 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

Running out of options, the havocs open up on the canoness and her bodyguard, but lucky invulnerable saves and poor shooting let them escape …except for the canoness, who rolled a 1 against an autocannon save and suffered instant death .. having escaped agaisnt a lascannon strike from the predator earlier!  The thousand sons whittled the Sisters Repentia down to just two troops as they continued their advance.

 Turn 6 – Sisters of Battle (CSM 1 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

Saint Evangeline rose from the grave and flew forward (with a full three wounds on the D3 roll), while the sisters ambled forward with appalling difficult terrain rolls.  The remaining Evangelists opened fire on the havocs, before charging into close combat.  To the south the sisters from the rhino moved to bolster their colleagues to hold their objective, slightly slowed by the craterous remains of the immolator.  The retributors failed their Act of faith test, and their shots bounced off the predator.

 Turn 7 – Thousand Sons (CSM 0 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

In possibly the sneakiest move I have ever seen on a 40k battlefield, the Thousand sons threw the dice to try to level the score.  The predator took aim at the immobilsed and weaponless exorcist in the centre of the table …   Why?  To hope for a vehicle explodes, and do enough to the battle sisters to force them to flee!  This was duly done … and if not for successful morale rolls, the Thousand sons would have, at the least, forced a draw.  Several more thousand sons died against Evangeline, and it looked hopeless for the sons of Magnus.

 Turn 7 – Sisters of Battle (CSM 0 Objectives, SoB 1 Objective)

The repentia squad rushed into close combat, and out of spite for their actions on the defiler and dreadnaught, the Thousand Sons cut them down, ignoring the living Saint.  The Celestians finished off the havocs, while the Retributors failed to finish off the predator.  It still left the SoB in control of an objective, while the living Saint had pulled the Thousand Sons off their own!

Outcome – Sisters of Battle Victory! (CSM Objectives 0, SoB Objectives 1)

Conclusion

The Sisters played well, and the Chaos had some truly unfortunate rolls.  Still, the main mistakes were forgetting about the raptors, and accidentally assuming the havocs could hold the Chaos objective, forcign a rearrangement that tied up a powerful unit.  The game could easily have swung the other way with a slightly different initial deployment.  Great fun for both sides, and more exploding tanks than I’ve seen before!   It was like a fireworks display!  Other thoughts are melta bombs are rubbish, as when you need them against dreadnaughts or defilers, they really don’t help with that roll of 6 needed to hit with the single attack!

Amazing the difference the smaller table makes too – weaponry becomes much more lethal, as range becomes less of a factor.

Well, this week I headed over to the overlords a bit late, and took on a force of Blood Ravens in a 1500pts battle.

The Scenario was Seize Ground, with 3 objectives, and the deployment was Spearhead, with the Sisters winning choice of turn (and took first turn).

The initial setup of terrain was as follows:

Followed by the initial deployments:

The Blood Ravens tried to steal first turn, but failed!  The game commenced!

Turn 1 – Sisters (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

The Sisters opened up aggressively, moving the exorcists forward to shoot at the Land Raider, while the rhino on the right flank moved to hold the objective to the north.  In the centre, the immolators and other rhino roared forward 12 inches, while the Repentia Squad realised they were well away from their targets, and started to race back across the board.

In an epically bad turn of luck, the exorcists fired 9 times, hit 8, and didn’t score a single hit against the land raider armour.  The Retributor squad opened up on the land raider too, but failed both the act of faith to gain rending, and the reroll from the simulcrum imperalis, so the unblessed bolts rattled off the hull.  Turn 1 passed with no marine casualties at all!

Turn 1 – Blood Ravens (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

The Blood Ravens sped the Land Raider, carrying the Assault Terminators, towards the Sisters.  The twin-linked lascannons opened up, one with a marine gunner, and one by the hand of the machine spirit … and missed or bounced off the front armour.  The Thunderfire cannon fired at the sisters in the tower, guarding their objective, but between scatter and armour saves, no one fell.  It was an entirely bloodless 1st turn on both sides.

Turn 2 – Sisters (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

The Sisters continued to pour across the table, charging like the light brigade through the centre, while the Exorcists moved forward to fire again (and failing to do anything!)  The Retributor squad again failed their act of faith test and reroll, leaving the bolts rattling against the land raider hull once more.  The sisters repentia moved further towards the blood raven advance, while celestine and the seraphim boldly hod behind the central wall.  Once again, the sisters hadn’t caused any casualties.

Turn 2 – Blood Ravens (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

The Blood Ravens started to spill blood, with the Thunderfire cannon taking down two sisters in the tower, and the land raider destroying the exorcist launchers on one of the exorcists, as it disgorged the assault terminators to head towards the objective to the north east. The devastator squad immobilised and destroyed the weapon on one of the immolators too.

Turn 3 – Sisters (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

The Sisters continued their mad charge, while the remaining fully functioning Exorcist back pedalled slightly, and opened up on the terminators again, with the retributor squad (who passed their act of faith, but didn’t roll any 6s to wound!)   The terminators passed every saving throw!  The sisters Repentia lurked in cover, getting ready to charge the land raider when the moment came, as did the seraphim.  The immolator with a multi melta took a shot at the thunderfire cannon, but the cover save saw it clear.  Turn 3 without a single wound or damage caused to the enemy

Turn 3 – Blood Ravens (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

The blood ravens continued strongly, advancing and running the assault terminators towards the objective.  The rhino carrying the supporting tactical squad zoomed up to hold it behind them.  The thunderfire cannon wiped out another sister on the tower, while the devastators destroyed the multimelta on the remaining immolator, while the land raider immobilised the remaining exorcist.  The stern guard continued their slow advance.

Turn 4 – Sisters (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

The Sisters Rhino and damaged Immolator on the right continue to advance, contesting the Blood Ravens objective over there.  The sisters Repentia line themselves up for a charge next turn, while the exorcist opens up on the terminators, as does the sisters unit in the rhino, which swang around the wall and opened up with flamers!    The damaged exorcist tank shocked the terminators, to no effect. Still no kills for the Sisters!

Turn 4 – Blood Ravens (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

The Blood Ravens continued their implacable advance, with the assault terminators wrecking the rhino in the north east of the field, while the land raider missed the exorcist.  On the left, the devastators destroyed the immolator, forcing the cannoness and celestians to pour onto the field., while the thunderfire cannons continued to take a toll on the sisters in the tower.  The sternguard continued to advance, as did the tactical squad in the rhino.

Turn 5 – Sisters (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

The Sisters of Battle come out swinging!  The seraphim and Saint Celestine jump the wall, and open up on the marines with lots of flame and the ardent blade, wiping out all but four of the sternguard … who are then slaughtered in the assault phase.  The canoness and the celestians advance, and try to take out the thunderfire cannon with storm bolters and bolt pistols, but miss.  The repentia hammer into the land raider … and fail to penetrate its armour, despite 15 rolls to do so!  The sisters in the north east open up with flamers and bolters, and manage to score a terminator kill!

Turn 5 – Blood Ravens (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

The Blood Ravens come back hard – tactical squads deploy from the rhinos, opening up on seraphim and celestians.  The celestians and canoness are wiped out by the combined fire of the entire devastator squad and tactical squad, leaving just a rhino contesting the objective.  Several seraphim perish, but the squad holds together.  The land raider finishes off the mobile exorcist, while the terminators thrash the sisters in the north east in close combat, winning by 5 wounds.  Somehow the sisters stay true with a roll of 3 for their morale!

End of game! (Sisters 1 Objective, Blood Ravens 0)

Unfortunately for the rampaging Blood Ravens, a roll of a 1 ended the game at the end of turn 5, leaving the sisters victorious!  A great, fun game, even if the sisters managed the least bloody win in 40k history!!!

Wonderful game, and all credit to bonjovi01 (at the overlords forums), my opponent – one more turn would have seen the objectives score flip around for a 2-1 or even 2-0 victory for the marines.

Setup

1500 pts per side, seize ground, pitched battle deployment

Blood Angels – two typhoon pattern landspeeders, one vindicator, one predator, rhino with command squad and tycho, rhino with assault squad (10 man), rhino with assault squad (10 man), 5 man combat squad

Sisters – two Battle Sisters squads in rhinos, retributor squad (5 sisters) with heavy flamer immolator, seraphim squad (9 sisters), celestians with multimelta immolator, Canoness, St Evangeline, 2 Exorcists, Repentia Squad (6 repentia + superior)

Sisters win dice roll, and choose to go second. Blood Angels setup first, Sisters fail to steal first turn.

(note – left and right is from the perspective of the Sisters of Battle)

The objectives were set up in a loose star pattern, with two on hills on the sisters side, and two on the flanks on the blood angels side.  In the centre was a hatch to an underground bunker.

The vindicator and a rhino with a tactical squad set up in the centre.  The command squad rhino set up to the right of centre, while the two landspeeders set up on the far left.  On the right was the predator, the other rhino, and the 5 man combat squad.

The retributor quad set up on a hill to the left next to an objective, with a rhino with a battlesister squad behind the hill.  In the open centre were the two immolators (with the canoness and celestians deployed inside the multimelta one), and the other rhino and battle sisters behind them.  The Exorcists were both hidden behind a major rock outcropping to the right of centre, and the seraphim, the living saint and the repentia sisters were to the right near the other hill and objective.

Turn 1

Chaos – all vehicles roar forward with scout moves and fast.  The Predator hurtles down the right flank with a turbo charged scout move (12″), then moves 6 inches and fires all guns at the side of an exposed exorcist, destroying a weapon!   The tactical squad in the rhino follows it down the flank, while the command squad advances cautiously just to the right of centre.  The vindicator on the right opens up on an immolator, but the charge scatters and bounces off the rhino armour.  The land speeders hurtle forward, and open up on the retributor squad with heavy bolters, killing one equipped with a bolter.  The fiv eman combat squad knuckled down around the chaos objective to the right.

Sisters – the Repentia squad hurtled toward the predator to carve it up in close combat, while the seraphim advanced toward the enemy objective.  The Retributor squad opened up on the landspeeders immobilising one (destroying it as a part of a squadron), and destroying the rocket launcher on the other, while the immolators advanced firing, though to no effect.  The damaged exorcist took off like a bat out of hell, acting as a mobile shield to the other tanks, while the other exorcist opened fire on the vindicator to little effect.  The sisters in rhinos moved around the rear of the field to little effect.  In the assault phase, the seraphim and the living saint tried to assault the command squad rhino through a hedge, but rolled a double one on the difficult terrain roll, failing to connect.  The Repentia sisters, on the other hand, carved the predator to pieces with 9 penetrating hits … unsurprisingly the tank exploded, killing one of  the sisters.

Turn 2 (Head Hunters 1 objective, Sisters 0 objectives)

Chaos – The chaos assault continues, with the tactical squad disembarking from the rhino on the right, before shooting and assaulting the Repentia Squad, killing all but the sister superior by the end of the turn.  The rhino itself tried to move through the predators crater in an attempt to shield the tactical squad from reprisals… but threw a track and was immobilised.  The command squad disembarked, shot at and assaulted the seraphim, while the 5 man combat squad opened fire but held back, protecting the valuable objective - by the end of the turn, only Saint Celestine was left.  In the centre, the vindicator reversed six inches and missed again, while the landspeeder managed to shake the crew of the immolator with the multimelta.  The other assault squad in the rhino hurtled to the centre of the table.

Sisters -   The flamer immolator roars forward up a hill, shielding the shaken immolator with the multi-melta (and the canoness and celestians, which ducked behind a hill.  The retributors immobilise the remaining landspeeder with holy bolter fire. The exorcist annihilates the chaos rhino, leaving a fiery crater and a unit of marines.  The sisters in one of the rhinos with storm bolters open up on the exposed unit, killing another.  The living Saint wins combat against the entire command squad, wounding Tycho and tying up the unit.  The chaos squad finish off the sister superior on the right, and regroup towards the objective on the right flank.

Turn 3  (Head-hunters 2 objectives, Sisters 0 objectives)

Chaos – The chaos command squad wins the combat against the living saint, but fail to kill her again! In the centre, the vindicator destroys the immolator on the hill, while the immobilised land speeder on the right manages to shake the canoness’s immolator once again.  the exposed troops in the centre knuckle down into cover, and destroy the damaged exorcist.

Sisters - The canoness and her immolator tactically advance in a negative direction 12″ towards the exorcist in the centre, while the retributor squad finish off the land speeder. The exorcist manages to shake the crew of the command squads rhino.  In the assault phase, Tycho and the command squad kill the living saint, and regroup towards the immobilised exorcist.  In the centre, a rhino with battle sisters carrying flamers opens up on the batterd troops in the middle, supported by long range shots from the sisters with storm bolters, annihilating 4 of the squad.

On the surface, things look bleak for the Sisters, who are trapped in a quarter of the board and the raging blood angels are pressing their attack!

Turn 4  (Head-hunters 2 objectives, Sisters 0 objectives)

Chaos – the command squad assault into the exorcist, destroying it utterly.  The vindicator opens up on the rhino carrying the flamer sisters in the middle, but the shot scatters into the assault squad killing two.. and they fail their morale check, beginning to flee.

Sisters – the sisters in the rhino near the centre disembark, flamers ready to destroy the command squad.  Celestine rises from the grave … with a full three wounds, and advances to flame the command squad as well.  The canoness disembarks with a heavy flamer and flamer ready to open fire.  The command squad is hit by huge amounts of holy flame, then charged … butchering the remaining men.  The captain falls, and the sisters regroup towards the other objective on the right, while the saint regroups north toward the chaos objective on the right.  The multimelta on the immolator smashed into the vindicator … destroying its main cannon.

Turn 5  (Head-hunters 2 objectives, Sisters 0 objectives)

Chaos – The fleeing marines in the centre would normally automatically regroup, but they were within 6″ of the sisters rhino, so they continued to fall back.  The rhino plowed forward, tank shocking the sisters in the centre, and squashing the sister superior in her bid for glory.  On the right, the chaos troops opened up on the battle sisters with everything they had to destroy the troops unit, but several survived.

Sisters - The another shot from the immolator with the multimelta immobolised the vindicator in the centre, leaving it helpless.  The rhino in the centre followed the fleeing marines, staying close enought to force them to continue falling back.  To the right, the living saint, celestians and battle sisters annihilated the tactical squad with huge amounts of flame and bolter fire, followed by a brief charge, where the living saint destroyed the remaining few troops.  On the left, the other sisters unit disembarked, and held their objective.

The roll for end of game meant the battle continued!

Turn 6  (Head-hunters 1 objectives, Sisters 2 objectives)

Chaos – the marines in the centre had to continue to fall back.  In an attempt to prevent the rhino following up, the chaos rhino accelerated at top speed and rammed the sisters rhino from behind, at a speed of 14″.  Unfortunately, neither tank was damaged.  On the right, the 5 marine holding the last objective fell back slightly to try and avoid the imperial onslaught, and the immobilised chaos rhino on the right finally self repaired!

Sisters – the living saint flamed the defending chaos marines with the ardent blade, and charged into combat, while the immolator missed the repaired rhino.  the other sisters regrouped in the centre.

The roll for end of game meant a 7th turn would be played

Turn 7  (Head-hunters 0 objectives, Sisters 2 objectives)

Chaos – Although the marines in centre were forced to fall back off the table, the chaos forces showed their cunning here.  They managed to slay the living saint in close combat, and fell back to their objective (a 2+ armour save is not proof against the dreaded snake eyes!).  The rhino on the right hurtled forward into the sisters objective to contest it, and the remaining rhino in the centre attempted to tank shock through the sisters near the objective on the left.  Unfortunately for the chaos forces, the tank shock failed thanks to a nameless sister, who immobilised the rhino 4″ away from the objective with a krak grenade!

Sisters - On the right, the sisters opened up on the chaos rhino – surely easy meat to the sisters with krak grenades, the multimelta immolator, and the celestian superiors plasma gun!  Alas, not a single sister connected!

End of game – Head Hunters 1 objective, Sisters 1 objective

Summary

A hard fought game, and a worthy draw!   The sisters really need to take the field in larger numbers, otherwise I feel the can’t pile on enough firepower – 1500pts seemed to feel much more fluid than the 1000point force – repentia, a retributor squad, an immolator, and the living saint and a few extra seraphim don’t seem a lot, but the additional firepower of the retributors played a huge difference here, as did keeping the battle sisters in the rhinos – a rhino effectively with twin flamers is brilliant, as is stormbolters – two stormbolter shots from a unit as well as the onboard stormbolter is actually a lot of anti-personnel shots a round at a decent range.  The immolator with multimeltas was OK (despite being shaken or missing a lot), but the immolator with heavy flamers is really useless with the slow move.  The blood angels should possibly have gone for more combat squads to hit multiple objectives, but that might have lessened the initial assault.

A brilliant fun game!  Warboss Shagga (or Captain Paul of the Head Hunters), I salute you!

As our Public Wireless Internet has remained active for the second day in a row and our guests have gone out for the morning I can do a quick update.

I finished the construction of another DE Raider (the 3rd) and have laid down the hull of a Ravager, not sure if I’ll get a chance to do any more for another 10 days or so

I’m putting the DE force together to mount a revenge raid on the Shrine of St. Aspira (see elswhere in this blog). In the original battle I gave the SoB a numerical advantage but restricted their setup to a parade ground turn out and allowed the DE the first turn and the element of surprise.

As it turned out the DE came out very much the worse partly due to the age of the DE codex and partly due to the tardy arrival and placement of their reinforcements. The Sisters reacted quickly and shot down all of the DE Raiders and Ravagers !

So a return match will be played once the holiday season is over and I can assemble the DE force (literaly) from the array of brilliant figures and kits from GW.

The fight will be a Planetstrike scenario with the Sisters on the defensive with the DE possibly having a slight numerical advantage.

Other News.

Not a lot.

Possibly another 10 days before we get a hard wired internet the good news is that we will only have about 50m of copper between our ADSL router and the Fiber in the road outside

Was on the internet in Manos yesterday and managed to locate a wargame box from Zvezda (Russian co 20mm or 1/72 historical figures and kits) of the Napoleonic Battle of Borodino, 160+ 20mm plasic figures and some terrain, bases, rules etc. for just over £65 incl shipping from the USA to Crete, thats another battle I’ll fight before I paint the figures – I really do need to get some wargaming in soon

I’ll post or comment again when I get a chance and remember even if it’s an ‘historicaly accurate’ game it’s still playing with toy soldiers

enjoy

A.

Well, having tried out the new codex on the battlefield, I though it was worth giving it a review.

First, the bad!

1)  Immolators, those beautiful wonderful chariots, are now pretty much worthless.  In the previous codex, you could move up to 12″ and open fire with sprays of flame … and you could fire from the firepoint with the passengers.  Now, there’s no firepoint, and you lose the fast move and fire.  It’s basically a more expensive razorback with short range weaponry….  it might be worth taking with multi-meltas, but then the extra cost is a little prohibitive.  I’ll still be fielding them as they look awesome, but they are crippled!

2)  No land raiders, no orbital strikes, no inquisition, no assassins … and nothing really to replace them.  The long range, hard hitting component of the Sisters is almost entirely removed, except for Exorcists.   What of Retributors, I hear you cry?  Well, though they are great value and cheap for their effectiveness, they lack long range punch – heavy bolters are great against troops, and multimeltas against vehicles, but multimeltas only have a 24″ range.  You lack that long range tactical ability the land raider or assassins gave, and the close combat punch the assassins gave too.

3)  Acts of faith are much more restricted – each squad has only a single type of act of faith, in line with their function, making the force less flexible.

4)  If, like me, you had a dominion squad based around the original rules of a five person squad number with up to four special weapons, you’re in trouble – you can now only field 2 special weapons for every five people in the unit.  I need to paint up more sisters to be able to field a dominion squad again!

There are a few good points, though!

1)  Saint Celestine loses hit and run, but drops to 115 from 210points!  Thats more reasonable, as I never saw the Saint fleeing much anyways!  Her resurrection facility is also nastied up – she comes back from the spot she died, with d3 instead of 1 wound, and she moves normally that turn – you don’t lose a turn with a deepstrike return to play, and she’s still in the think of things.

2)  Acts of Faith are much easier to track and use.  I think it integrates with the flow of play much better, and it gives the various squads more character – your role and faith determine your ability.  Its odd – I think depending on taste the changes are either positive or negative here.  Combining the Canoness’s ability with the Celestians ability gives you an absolutely brutal close combat round – Preferred enemy (reroll missed hits) and +1 initiative for the whole unit, while the Celestians give +1 strength and fearless.  That puts your squad superior to marines offensively with the reroll to hit, though the toughness 3 is going to count against you, but if you aren’t wiped out, you’ll tie the enemy up into their round, as you aren’t breaking!  Add celestine to that mix, and wow!

4)  Bolters, Bolt Pistols and Frag and Krak grenades are all standard, which comes in pretty useful.  I’m not sure how useful defending cover is any more though, since so many troops have grenades by default with the current codex crop.

Overall, this is just like the Blood Angels White Dwarf codex … a bit rubbish, but plays more in line with 5th Edition rules.  Its in dire need of new units to replace the Inquistorial options, but the sisters still play well and are rather fun.

I went along to my first Overlords gaming session last night, and had an absolute blast!

On the left is Inquisitor Steve, who welcomed me to the Overlords, and on the right is my opponent, Glen, who was fielding Blood Angels.  Blood Angels seem a very popular choice at the moment!

Set up

We had 1000pts armies each, and diced up Capture and Control with a Pitched Battle deployment.

The Blood Angels won the roll off, setup first and took first turn – the Order’s roll to steal failed, unfortunately!

Armies

Blood Angels – 2 assault squads, two land speeders, one tactical squad, one captain, sanguinary priest.

Sisters – two battle sisters squads with rhinos, celestians and canoness in immolator, two exorcists, one seraphim squad

Turn 1

The Blood Angels jump scarily forward towards the Sisters of Battle objective on the left.  A full assault squad, supported by the marine captain, and with two landspeeders, crashed forward, hoping to gain an early dominance.  Another Assault squad with their Sanguinary Priest hurtle down the centre towards the Exorcists on the hill tops on the centre right.  The final unit, a tactical squad, hunker down around the marine objective and fire off a missile launcher at an Exorcist to no effect.  One of the landspeeders immobilises the immolator with a multi-melta shot.

In return, The Exorcists swat three assault troops in the centre, the Sanguinary Priests feel no pain rule ineffective against the strength 8 hell missiles!  On the left, the defending  Sisters of the Azure Bolt shoot one on the right, while the Seraphim closed in on a landspeeder … but failed to penetrate the armour or use melta bombs in the assault phase.

Turn 2

The Assault Troops on teh left, led by the captain, annihilate the defending Sisters of Battle arround the objective in a brutal assault after an ineffective shooting phase.  The other assault unit jumped forward to get a meltagun in range of the Exorcist, but failed to penetrate its armour.  One Landspeeder kills three seraphim, while the other tried to soften up the defending sisters before the assault finished them off.  Again, the missile launcher in the Tactical Squad missed against the Exorcists.

In an attempt to save the Exorcist firepower for a different target, celestians and and Battle sisters in a rhino open up with flamers and heavy flamers, as well as some bolt and plasma pistols…. but to almost no effect with the Sanguinary Priests Feel no pain rule making a real difference.  The rhino on the left moves to cover the immobilised immolator, in the hopes of opening up with the twinlinked heavy flamer.  Finally, the Exorcists annihilate the Assault squad in the centre, leaving only the sanguinary priest.  Seraphim try hand flamers, no effect, on the assault squad on the left.

Turn 3

The Space Marine captain turns and kills the two remaining Seraphim, while the assault squad takes the Sisters objective and stuns the rhino with an assault.  A Land Speeder stuns the Immolator, while the other land speeder stuns the rhino.  The missile launcher from the tactical squad finally hit the Exorcist .. but a cover save meant no damage.  The Sanguinary priest fled on his jump pack to bolster the tactical squad.

For the Sisters, the options were limited.  The two Exorcists opened fire on the tactical squad, to try whittling down their numbers, but to little effect.  The Celestians and Canoness moved towards the taken objective, while a rhino containing the other battle sisters rumbled towards the Blood Angels objective.

Turn 4

The Assault Squad on the left charged the rhino, smashing the already stunned rhino to pieces with 8 krak grenades and a powerfist!  The landspeeders finish off the immolator with a shot to the rear armour, effectively destroying it by destroying its last (and only) weapon.  On the right, the marines opened fire on the advancing rhino with a missile launcher, only to hit an intervening hedge (cover save!)

For the Sisters, the rhino continues to advance on the right, while the exorcists picked a landspeeder each and annihilated them!  The Canoness let the celestians towards the assault troops hunkered down behind the shells of the burning Adeptus Sororitas rhino and immolator.

Turn 5

The Captain jumped out of cover, leaving the assault troops to hold the objective.  He used a hand flamer on the celestians, then charged into close combat, soundly defeating them … and breaking them!  The Sisters rand screaming for the edge of the board, while the captain moved to place his back against the burning immolator, prepared to face the worst.

The Celestians regrouped, and fired at the captain causing a wound.  The Exorcists opened up on the Tactical squad again, but with very few missiles, and the sisters disembarked from their rhino, opening up with flamers and bolters.  Only three defenders were left! 

Turn 6

The space marine captain charged the celestians again, winning the combat but suffering a wound, slaying all but the canoness.  The other assault troops remained hidden.  On the right, the remaining three marines charged into the Sisters of Battle, wiping them out in a single round.

In the Sisters turn, the Canoness struck down the marine captain!  The power of faith at work!  The rhino moved up to contest the marine objective, while the exorcists tried to finish off the tactical marines, killing another.

Turn 7

The Assault squad decided not to risk an assault or sneaky objective contesting from the canonness in her turn with an Act of Faith, so decided on a risky move – they charged, hoping to win in a single round, and consolidate back to the objective to hold it … and did so.  Only one marine was within three inches of the objective, however, with a special weapon.

The Exorcists opened up on the Assault marines, causing 10 wounds … meaning wound allocation came into play!  If the wound against the flamer marine near the objective wasn’t saved (cover save), the battle would be a draw.  Every cover save was made … except for the flamer!  Neither side held any objectives, making the game a draw!

Summary

It might have been a draw but we were both winners – Glen was a great guy, and we both had a brilliant time!  Glen made a mistake tactically by not using Combat Squads – he wanted a big assault, but it held him back towards the end, while I just forgot about Acts of Faith entirely!  The Exorcists (officially the MVPs and now referred to as my quarterbacks) did an amazing job.  You really need to keep sisters away from marines, though – I should have kept my Battle Sisters in Rhinos and relied more on fire power.  3 marines destroyed 10 sisters in a single assault phase!  Brutal!

I’m really looking forward to next weeks game against Phil (or Warboss Shagga on the Overlords site).

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The Order of the Verdant Garden was formed on the planet of Illustroma Majoris VI, in the aftermath of a tremendous conflict against a heretical rebellion.  Members of many orders of the Adeptus Sororitas headed to the planet,  but the naval ships carrying them were destroyed.  After the destruction of the rebels, the Sisters of Battle were at a loss – without naval or astropathic support, there was no way to leave the troubled world.  Joining together as a single force, the Adeptus Sororitas formed the order of the Verdant Garden, which maintained pease throughout the Illustroma Majoris system for over a thousand years before the Administratum sent a expeditionary force to check on the planet.

With such a length of tradition and roots on the world, the Ecclesiarchy granted their petition to stay as an independent order … something their founding orders do not necessarily agree with!

HQ

Canoness Lilith

The current leader of the Order of the Verdant Garden, Lilith is battle scarred and fiercely proud of her Order and accomplishments.  Some claim too proud…

Canoness with Bolt Pistol and Power Sword (75 points)  Rosarius (25 points) and Melta bombs (5 points) optional.

The Living Saint Evangeline

During the War of Sedition, Canoness Evangeline sacrificed herself to save a whole company of Adeptus Sororitas.  Sorely treated by her captors, she smiled serenely and detonated a hidden melta bomb, annihilating the rebellious command.  Over a thousand years later, she survives by the will of the Emperor, her eyes blinded to world around her, as she follows his divine guidance to aid her Sisters throughout the galaxy. 

Saint Celestine – 115 points

Elites

Celestian Squad – The Evangelists

Followers of Saint Evangeline’s devine creed, these sisters follow her example and strive to emulate her perfection in battle.

Celestian Squad with Heavy Flamer and Flamer, Celestian Superior with Plasma Pistol (120 points)  Option to take a Storm Bolter instead of the Flamer (-2 points) or Heavy Flamer (-7 points), or meltabombs for the Celestian Superior (5 points)

The Penitent Daughters

Some sisters lose their way, or believe that the ways of their original Orders are superior to the combined knowledge of the Order of the Verdent Garden.  These sisters are sorely chasitised, sworn to silence, and sent to the repentence abbeys.

6 Sisters Repentia and a Mistress of Repentance (124 points).  The Mistress may take optional Melta bombs (5 pts) or reduce the squad by up to two sisters (-17 points each)

Troops

Sisters of the Bloody Rose

The Sisters of the Bloody Rose believe firmly in the purifying virtues of flame, and as such carry flamers to destroy the very memory of infidelity to the Emperor.

Battle Sister Squad with Two Flamers (135).  The Sister Superior may take meltabombs (+5 points)

Sisters of the Azure Bolts

These sisters believe solely in the virtues of the holy bolter, using the shocking sound and damage to destroy the most zealous of traitors.

Battle Sister Squad with Two Storm Bolters (131 points).  The Sister Superior may take meltabombs (+5 points)

Sisters of Alabaster Purity

The Sisters of Alabaster Purity are the most devout of all the general abbeys.  They take the field as humble battle sisters, but are all trained in the ways of heavier weapons, allowing them to take the field as Retributor Squads instead, depending on the situation.  When taking the field as a Battle Sister Squad, they appear as follows:

Battle Sister Squad with Heavy Flamer and Meltagun.  Sister Superior has a power axe. (135points)  Sister Superior may take a melta bomb (+5 points) and the unit may take a simulcrum imperialis (20 points)

Fast Attack

The Angels of Vengeance

The Angels of Vengeance are trained in the use of jump packs and multiple weapons to smite the enemy from the skies.  Saint Evangeline was orginally from their ranks

Seraphim Squad with 2 twin hand flamers and four additional seraphim, and a power weapon for th sister superior (190) points.  The sister superior may take melta bombs (+5 points), or may reduce the seraphim by up to four (-17 points each).

Sisters of Domination

These sisters are not currently prepared to take the field, as recent changes in doctrine demand that at least two bear the holy bolter in a unit of five.

The new codex requires you to take a Dominion Superior, two sisters with bolters and two with specials.  You can field the full four specials only in a squad of ten sisters, while in the original codex you could field all four specials with a sister superior.  This means I need to add at least one sister with a bolter to the unit, or even five for a full unit.

Heavy Support

Sisters of Alabaster Purity

The Sisters of Alabaster Purity are the most devout of all the general abbeys.  They take the field as humble battle sisters, but are all trained in the ways of heavier weapons, allowing them to take the field as Retributor Squads instead, depending on the situation.  When taking the field as a Retributor Squad, they appear as follows:

Retributor Squad with heavy flamer, two heavy bolters and a simulcrum imperialis, and a power weapon for the sister superior (105 points).  The sister superior may take melta bombs (+5 points), and recruit up to 5 more retributors as ablative shields  (+12 points a model)

Refutor

Refutor is an ancient Exorcist tank, dating from a time when functionality was favored over function.   It has survived hundreds of years of warfare, bringing death to the heretics.

Exorcist (135 points) 

Mortis

Mortis is an ancient Exorcist tank, dating from a time when functionality was favored over function.   It is designed to defend the Adeptus Sororitas from sneak attacks, with brilliant white searchlights breaking the night.

Exorcist with Searchlight (136 points)

Dedicated Transports

Puritas

This ancient immolator was once the favored transport of the Sisters of Dominion, but their current laxity to doctrinal changes means that the techpriests simply keep the machine spirits placated for now.

Immolator (twin linked multimeltas) (80 points)

Infernus

This ancient immolator is favored by Canoness Lilith and the Evangelists as their chosen path into battle.  With heavy flamers burning a path to glory, it has been a tremendous example to the faithful.

Immolator (65 points)

Rhinos

The work horse of the Adeptus Sororitas, both the Sisters of the Azure Bolts and the Sisters of the Bloody Rose take Rhinos into battle for mobility.

Rhino (35 points each)

In the dark grimoires recovered from a looted imperial palace, Sorcerer Lord Khenti of the Thousand Sons discovered a most wonderful gem of information.  Millenia ago, the Eldar had failed to fully seal a daemonic incursion on a planet orbiting the distant sun of Felix Minor.  Many had tried to settle there – the Imperium had tried 3 centuries ago, and the ruins still littered the planet.

Most recently the foolish upstarts known as the Tau had chosen to bring the planet to life, unaware of the dark threat in their midst.  Determined to gather sorcererous power from daemonic pacts by breaking wide the portal in the midst of the Imperial ruins, he led the Thousand Sons to war once more.

This scenario was designed for Chaos Marines and Tau, though most armies could play it through.  The Temple of skulls was placed in the centre of the board.  The defending army set up first, choosing their table edge, then setting up anywhere up to 18″ away from the Tau board edge.

The Tau set up second, up to 6″ from their table edge.

In order to win, the forces of chaos need to have a sorcerer on the temple of skulls for 4 turns – he can be in combat or wounded, but he must be on the temple.  This can be any character with sorcerous powers – the thousand sons have aspiring sorcerors in their units.

The terrain is mostly imperial ruins, with some trees to indicate overgrowth and the temple in the very centre.

Battle Report

The Sorceror Lord and a unit of Thousand Sons set up in the very middle on the Temple of Skulls.  A full unit of havocs squatted atop an imperial ruin with a commanding view of the battlefield, while a defiler lurked on a hilltop, ready to rain fire down on any challengers, while a dreadnought stood in front of him to hold the left flank.  On the right, a predator guarded a rhino full of another unit of Thousand Sons, ready to advance into the enemy.

The Tau set up with most of their Fire Warriors in the center, guarded by drones.  To the right was the broadside battlesuit, hoping to take out the predator, and to the right were the pathfinders, ready to add accuracy and rail rifle fire to the assault.

Turn 1

The Tau started strongly on the attack, charging forward across the board.  They hammered the Thousand Sons in the center, killing 5, despite their invulnerable save.  Unfortunately (as with every time he has taken the field), the broadside battlesuit missed with his rail guns, and the missile pods bounced off the heavily armoured predator.

The Thousand Sons lashed back.  The Predator annihilated the broadside with a lascannon strike, and the defiler wiped out almost a full unit of fire warriors, and half their screening drones.  In the centre,Lord Khenti smashed the pathfinders Devilfish with a bolt of change, destroying it and leaving nothing but a crater.  The dreadnaught advanced, hurling insane curses as its plasma fire further decimated the Tau left.

Turn 2

The Tau’s second turn saw the ferocity continue undimished from both sides, though the advanced Tau weaponry didn’t seem as effective as normal – perhaps some chaos wizardry at work?  Commander Farside dropped behind the dreadnought, opening fire with his plasma rifle, but failing to breach the sturdy armour.  Another crisis team dropped on the right flank, annihilating the rhino carrying the thousand sons, who survived the ferocious explosion unscathed and settled into the crater left behind.  The remaining fire warrior lashed at the thousand sons, for little effect.

In the centre, it was a different story.  Here the fire was accurate, and all of the remaining thousand sons in the temple were annihilated … and Lord Khenti himself wounded.  Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, he quickly vactated the temple at the start of the chaos turn.

The dreadnaught charged Commander Farside after missing with his plasma cannon, only to find that Farside wasn’t the easy meat that most tau are in close combat.  He smashed into the dreadnaught for two penetrating hits and a glancing hit, beating the dreadnaughts initiative. Unfortunately for the Tau, that only managed to shake the Dreadnaught and destroy the plasma cannon, leading quickly to Farside’s destruction.  The defiler annihilated more troops, while the havocs took some shots at the distant pathfinders, causing a few casulties, diminishing the taus overall accuracy thanks to the markerlights.

The predator annihilated all but one of a unit of firewarriors, who remarkably refused to break!  The thousand sons in the crater fired firey bolter rounds into the crisis team who destroyed their transport, wiping out all three.

Turn 3

After the tremendous pace of the game so far, you think things would start to slow down, but instead, they sped up!  The Tau stealth team dropped in behind the temple, near the fleeing sorcerous lord, and blew him away.  The fire warriors continued to press the thousand sons trapped in the crater, while a unit of drones and firewarriors pressed fire into the side of the predator, destroying it!  Another unit of fire warriors destroyed the dreadnaught from behind, as it had turned to face Farside.

Suddenly realising thepower of tau weapons, but their weakness up close, the havocs made a brilliant choice – forgetting their heavy weapons, the 9 man squad poured forward firing bolt pistols, then smashing the stealth suits to pieces.

The defiler advanced down the hill, opening fire again with the siege cannon, but the scatter meant it caused only a couple of wounds, while the thousand sons advanced out of their crater and broke a unit of firewarriors with bolter fire before they could charge.

Turn 4

The last Tau reinforcements arrived as a unit of crisis suits dropped into battle.  With a whole range of any tank weaponry, they confidently unleashed a firestorm of epic proportions…. to absolutely no effect.  The pathfinders joined in, but to no avail.  A few remaining firewarriors and a single drone advanced towards the crisis suits, hoping to engage the rear or side armour if the crisis team fell.  To the right, the drones opened fire on teh havocs, hoping to pin them from charging, but with no success.

The havocs, in their turn, fell upon the drones like starving wolves, while the thousand sons picked off the few stragglers of the fire warrior units from that flank.  The defiler charged into the crisis suits, killing a couple, but not breaking them, forcing them to stay in close combat, saving the defiler from weapons fire.

Turn 5

The fire warriors and drone on the left flanks moved to both sides of the defiler, guaranteeing one a shot once the crisis suits fell, which they did in their own assault phase!  The pathfinders couldn’t see anything to shoot at, and the firewarriors on the right opened up on the havocs who had just destroyed their drone screen, hoping to break them, but causing no casulties!

The havocs charged forward again, almost raptor like in their approach to combat this day!  They quickly annihilated the fire warriors, tearing them limb from limb, while the three remaining thousand sons finished off a lone survivor of another unit.

No Tau were left on the right flank at all!  On the left the defiler turned and shot the firewarriors creeping up on it, but that exposed its rear armour to a single drone….

Turn 6

The defiler was surprised when the drone got a glancing hit, and blew its heavy flamer off!  The pathfinders tried to find a weak spot in its front armour, but to no avail.

In the chaos final turn, the defiler tried to use its siege cannon on the remaining pathfinders, but the shock of being shot by a drone must have thrown it off, and it scattered the blast zone well away from any Tau troops. The  havocs moved around the temple, but were too far away to intervene.

Result

Both sides claim victory – 4 turns with a sorceror on the temple was the victory condition for chaos, and they hadn’t managed that or a wipeout.  On the flip side, the Tau were losing badly by the end of the game, and a sorcerer was left to perform the ritual in the thousand sons on the right flank.  A tactical draw was agreed (though both claim bragging rights!)

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