Holiday Chaos

Last weekend I played my 4th ever (in ~30yrs of this hobby) 40k match.  What made it great was that it was with a long time friend Jack who mostly plays Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.  While he is fairly inexperienced with 40k, he had a lot of experience with his Chaos Daemons and table top games in general and it became evident fairly early into our match.  Nevertheless, the Legiones Astartes (sorry RT term - Adeptus Astartes as they are known now) of the Imperium of Man did not back down and stood to the last man...

Battleforged Armies:

This was my first match trying to add in Command Points.  This was also my first match playing at about 2k points.  Unfortunately, it was a bit much to keep track of especially since neither of us were well versed in the rules.

Jack's Chaos Daemons:

++ Supreme Command Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Daemons) ++

Chaos Allegiance: Chaos Undivided

+ HQ +

• Keeper of Secrets: Smite, Snapping claws, Witstealer sword
• Skarbrand: Bellow of endless fury, Slaughter and Carnage
• Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster: Axe of Khorne, Bloodflail, Hellfire, Rage Incarnate, Warlord

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos - Daemons) ++

Chaos Allegiance: Chaos Undivided

+ HQ +

• Daemon Prince of Chaos: Hellforged sword, Khorne, Malefic talon
• Kairos Fateweaver: Bolt of Change, Boon of Change, Flickering Flames, Gaze of Fate, Infernal Gateway, Smite, Staff of Tomorrow, Treason of Tzeentch
• Keeper of Secrets: Smite, Snapping claws, Witstealer sword

+ Troops +

• Bloodletters - . 9x Bloodletter: 9x Hellblade, Bloodreaper: Hellblade
• Daemonettes: Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos - 10x Daemonette: 10x Piercing claws
• Horrors: Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos, Smite - 10x Pink Horror: 10x Coruscating flames

My Forces:

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Space Marines) ++

**Chapter Selection**: Ultramarines

+ HQ +

• Primus Leo Exevio Faustus - Captain in Terminator Armor: Adept of the Codex, Power fist, Storm bolter, The Armour Indomitus, Warlord, Wrist-mounted Grenade Launcher
• Epistolary Cain - Librarian: 4) Fury of the Ancients, 5) Psychic Fortress, Force Sword, Bolter
• Lieutenant Aurelius - Lieutenant: Power fist, Storm bolter

+ Troops +

• Cornelius -  5 man Tactical Squad - Plasma pistol, Power fist, Flamer
• Kaiel - 5 man Tactical Squad - Plasma pistol, Chainsword, Lascannon
• Nero - 5 man Tactical Squad - Plasma pistol, Power sword, Meltagun
• Vitus - 5 man Tactical Squad - Bolt pistol, Chainsword, Missile Launcher
• Veteran Leonard -  5 man Tactical Squad - Bolt pistol, Power Axe, Plasma Cannon
• Nathaniel - 5 man Tactical Squad - Heavy Bolter

+ Elites +

• Terminator Squad - 5 man - Power sword, Assault Cannon, 3x Chainfists
• Terminator Squad - 5 man - Power sword, Heavy Flamer, 2x Chainfists

+ Fast Attack +

• Land Speeders 2x: 2x Multi-melta, 2x Multi-melta

+ Heavy Support +

• Land Raider: Twin heavy bolter, 2x Twin lascannon

Only War - Domination -   When we placed the objective markers, I was a bit bold placing mine further north in the middle of my deployment zone while Jack placed his both in the rear of his to the east and west.  I figured this was a bit risky but wanted to add some asymmetry.  Because it was domination, we would both scoring 2 point each turn from the initial setup.  Jack deployed his Chaos hordes aggressively, no doubt looking to charge.  I placed my units holding objectives and getting heavy weapons into long sight lines covering them.  I sat my HQs on the southern central objective and placed the Land Raider to the rear to support.  I was a bit aggressive with my placement of the Speeders thinking I could fly over to snag Jack's far west objective.

 Jack elected to take the first turn.

Battle-round 1:

Jack moved up his Daemons but they were unlucky with their advances.  His psykers smited a brother from Nero's unit to draw first blood.  He fell while holding the line on the northern objective.  The Bloodthirster was able to charge into the Speeders and eat one.  So much for the idea of flying by... 2 VP and First Blood?  (I am not seeing anything about first blood in the 8th edition rules though)

During my turn I shot at things.  Did some damage but nothing lethal.  I basically had that one chance.  If I had made full use of my Land Raider's weapons (see analysis below) I might have taked off those last 5 wounds on his big bad.  2 VP

Battle-round 2:

Jack's Daemons took us apart at the north objective.  He also finished off the Speeders, but in so doing he had moved one of his HQs off of the northeastern objective and so only scored 1 VP

During my phase the Terminators beamed down to contest both of his objectives, one directly on top of the abandoned one.  I was able to score 2 VP and splat some pink horrors.

Battle-round 3:

Jack turned his slow moving Bloodletters back up to the northwestern objectives as his HQs had eaten my central objective and were moving to take the southwestern one.  The northeastern Terminators fell pretty easily to his Keeper of Secrets who took the objective back.  I feel like they should have held up a bit better.  The big bads charged into the Land Raider and knocked it out.   His Big Psyker ate some perils of the Warp though which was pretty fun. 2 VP

During my turn I was able to charge in and take the northwestern objective.  Somehow, despite losing over half of my army at that point, still hold onto the west side of the board and get 2 VP.

Battle-round 4: 

At this point we called the game since we had run out of time.  I think up to this point I had held on, but I'm pretty sure he would have cleaned up my remaining forces and out scored me.  He probably would have scored 3 VP  this turn and 4 VP on the final turn.  Still, if my rolls had gone a bit better and I hadn't been making so many mistakes I might have had a chance.

Takeaways and Analysis:

1. I made a lot of mistakes around not being familiar with the rules.  The main one was that I was not firing all of my Lascannon shots on the Land Raider due to misreading of the rules.
2. I probably could have made better use of the Land Raider for holding the objective and moved up infantry to stall his advances more to buy time to score VPs.
3. I was a bit too bold and should have placed that central objective marker back in the corner to mirror the markers to the north.
4. I was trying to use random Psyker abilities just as Jack did, but really I should have taken Null Zone.
5. I kept holding onto my CPs either in waiting for something else to re-roll or just forgetting to use them entirely.  Meanwhile, Jack seemed to use his often and at the right time.  I think this will improve with practice.
6. Likewise I was always forgetting about special abilities and auras etc.
7. Finishing my Assault Terminators will be very important for fighting against this melee heavy army.

I think next time I'd like to play a smaller game so that we can focus on getting the rules down and smooth gameplay.  Also I found a post here that might be relevant: Tactics for Space Marine Gunlines

Jack's thoughts:

This was my first game since the month 8th edition came out and that game was a demo. I was really nervous about getting rules wrong or making an illegal list. I'm a big fan of AoS and have a YouTube channel called Rerolling Ones so I have a reputation to uphold 😉. I have a lot of Daemons which you can use in both 40k and AoS so the only thing I had to purchase was the Daemon codes. [2k points were chosen] as our point value which surprised me at first but I thought why not and I made my list. In hindsight it may have been a bit much. I learned Skarbrand and Kairos Faitweaver are nastier in 40k then AoS but I had fun reconnecting with an old friend and killing blueberries.

++++Tra-smiss--n: Adeptus Ast----s Ultra++++

Battle Report from ------ A----s

Date: ???

Location: Agro Worl- --------

Sub Sector: ??

FW: *V#*8d0----

Heavy Casualties reported

Faustus: WOUNDED

Aurelius: WOUNDED

Epistolary Cain: DECEASED

Kaiel: DECEASED

Leonard: DECEASED

Nathaniel: DECEASED

Nero: ---$

d.

v.f...dd---

REF: 8VM/50604-38666-545565022192

THOUGHT: Every man is spark in the darkness.  By the time he is noticed he is gone forever.  RT 93

MESSAGE QUALITY DEGRADED BY WARP ACTIVITY

 ++++Transmission Interrupted++++

Lieutenant Complete (not a primaris)

Lieutenant Aurelius was completed the other day and he has even participated in a battle!  He survived a point-blank Warp Spider ambush and even knocked one out himself.

So much fun.

As is standard for my army I sealed with dullcoat and then gave the cape brooch and chest eagle gems a layer of 'ard Coat glossy varnish to make them a real gem shine.  This, and the robes on my D&D (AoS) warrior priest are the first fabrics that I've painted - still need practice but starting to get the hang of it.  I had used this post (one of the top google searches right now) for tips on painting robes: http://gravengames.co.uk/how-to-paint-natural-coloured-robes-tutorial/

Free-handed skull icon and rank marking.

Terminators Complete!

Really happy with how my early era Terminators came out.  The orange highlights really warmed up the red and with the rest of the army they stand out as the elite troops as I wanted.  I ended up using paint on Testors Dullcoat instead of the usual spray on version because it got cold out.  It seemed to work ok.  I used two coats and made sure to open the window.  Here's the first post where I started

This one is magnetized and can serve as either a power fist in a 10 man squad or...

 ...as a sergeant in a second 5 man squad.

 Really happy with how the gems turned out with a little bit of 'ard coat.

Magnetized Arms

I have one terminator that I wanted to double as a Sgt for 2x 5 man squads or as a power glove for a 10 man squad.  Thus we magnetize!

The first magnets I got were small enough to fit into the standard arm hole, but as anyone that has done this knows, those magnets are a bit too small and so the arm will droop.  I had read this too, but of course I had to make the mistake myself.  Luckily the local gaming store (seems like the only ones left in my area) had 1/8" magnets which work better.  I would now have to drill both the arm and the body, but its ok.

I first snipped off the arm post from the body and since the mini is classic metal (I think pewter) it didn't cause other problems.  I then used the pin drill to put in a pilot hole.

Later at my dad's house we used the Foredom to drill out the holes.  This machine was handed down by my grandpa who was a jeweler, its great. 

The metal wasn't as hard to work with as I was worried about.  The main problem was just extracting the smaller magnet I had tried in one of the arms.  Again my dad's workshop came to the rescue, he has very fine dentist drill bits for the thing that allowed me to dig around and pry out the smaller magnet.

Then it was a matter of drilling to the correct depth and putting them in with a bit of glue.  I eyeballed the depth and got lucky I think.  The magnet into the body didn't even need glue.  One of the arms didn't quite seat properly, so definitely should be more careful next time.

And the arms stay in position!

Painting Schedule - Excel Nerd

I use Excel a lot at work, for everything.  It's like a swiss army knife.  Even in my hobby I find a way to use it.  I created a table to simply schedule things that need to be painted as I think of them, because sometimes I notice things are missing from finished models.  My hope is to avoid that by adding them to the list.  Another benefit is the list can be sorted to optimize color usage when working on multiple groups.  Finally it also lets me start estimating about how long things will take to paint.

Campaign Part 2 - Full 40k Game vs Saim-Hann

Continuing my 40k weekend with dad, Sunday we had a full match - Ultramarines vs Saim-Hann.  Our mini campaign started with a Kill Team skirmish in which the Emperor scored a major victory and routed the Xenos, allowing me to choose whether to go first or second (instead of a roll-off) for our second game.

Ultramarines list was all classic 1st to 3rd-ish edition minis:
1x Land Raider
1x Land Speeders (squadron of 2)
5x Tactical mini squads (5 men each)
HQ: Lieutenant Aurelius (classic mini)

The picture shows my Rogue Trader beakies as well who just wanted to pose, but they would have put me over the points limit dictated by the number of Eldar we had.  Back then it was ok to put camo on marines.

Saim-Hann list also classic minis:
1x Falcon Grav Tank
1x Wraithlord
3x Vypers in (2 units of 3 and 1 unit of 2)
1x Warp Spiders (4 models)
1x Dire Avengers (10 models)
1x Guardian Defenders (12 models)
1x Rangers (5 models)
HQ: Autrach Skyrunner

Mission was basic Only War with Domination victory condition.
Objectives included 1 atop a mountain in the center of the table, one in ruins in the Ultramarine deployments zone, and 2 in the Eldar deployment zone.

Deployment -
Ultramarines aggressively deployed at the edge of the neutral zone ready to take the southern objective and central objective.  The Land Raider was loaded up with 2 squads ready to get there.  The close by eastern ruins were guarded with one squad that stretched over to a nearby hill to set up a missile launcher.  Speeders deployed to the north to harass the northern objective deep in Eldar territory.

Eldar positioned to take the objectives in their deployment zone, but did not deploy as aggressively.

Round 1
Ultramarines:
Moved up to take the central mountain objective.  Fire from the Land Raider and Heavy Bolter squad killed 4 Guardians, 1 Spider, and put some damage on the Wraithlord.  The Speeders raced up and got some lucky Multi-Melta crits taking the Wraithlord down to half health.  The weak Xeno infantry lost more as they fled the battle.
Scored 2 victory points.

Eldar:
Moved into the objectives with infantry.  Vypers and Falcon moved to intercept the Land Raider which was a juicy transport target.  Only succeeded in putting on 4 wounds.
Scored 2 victory points.

Round 2
Ultramarines:
After dumping out the Emperor's Finest with blazing weapons, the Land Raider moved in to contest the southern objective.  Heavy sustained fire from the Land Raider, and 3 tactical squads succeeded in pacifying the Falcon (Is First Blood still a thing in 8th edition?).  A frag missile from range took out a sniper Ranger.  Damage was done to the Vypers which are surprisingly sturdy.  2 Squads charged and engaged the hover bikes doing some slight damage and the Xeno cowards would end up speeding off to the north.
Scored 2 victory points (and maybe another for first blood

Eldar:
Moved all units off the northern objective to engage the Land Speeder squadron doing moderate damage.  The Vypers also retreated from the southern objective to assist to the north.  In a daring move, the Warp Spiders and 2 Vypers flanked Lieutenant Aurelius but he was protected by the Emperor's Will.
Scored 0 victory points.

Round 3
Ultramarines:
Moved in to capture the southern objective and eliminated the Warp Spiders.  Lieutenant Aurelius personally delivered the Emperor's mercy.
Scored 3 victory points.

We ran out of time and also we thought that there was no way to recover for the Eldar so we called it there.

Analysis:
My dad and I both agreed that he needed to be a bit more aggressive with deployment positions and he didn't quite get the hang of the hit and run tactics that the Saim-Hann can do.  I think the critical mistake was focusing on the Land Raider on round 1.  He should have moved up forces beyond the southern objective to create a buffer and prevent the Land Raider from contesting it, while using the Vypers to also contest my own objectives in the back.  Meanwhile, I was focused on taking and holding my objectives and creating opportunities to deny/delay his scoring just to get ahead for the win.


++++Transmission: Adeptus Astartes Ultra++++
Battle Report from Lieutenant Aurelius
Date: 5863018.M42

Location: Rust Planetiod 492
Sub Sector: Sigmatus
FW: Primus Leo Exevio Faustus

Aurelius reports after initial skirmish with Saim-Hann, the main force was detected on 492.  Strike force was sent to purge the alien.

The Xeno threat was driven away from the Weapon Test site in a major victory for the Emperor, however, analysis indicates that their objective was to probe our defenses and withdraw.  Only a fool would believe they will not return with greater numbers.  Request Tactical Dreadnought Armor

REF: QLT/564138135486135486135483
THOUGHT: Do not waste your tears.  I was not born to watch the world grow dim.  Life is not measured in years, but by the deeds of men.  RT 113

 ++++End Transmission++++

First Kill Team Battle - Ultramarines v Saim-Hann

I have a small ~1.2k Eldar force passed on to me from a friend that gave up the hobby.  After repairing some minor damage, my dad was a good sport and agreed to try 40k and field them vs my Ultramarines.  They're well painted and are classic 3rd-ish edition so really compliment my antique army as well.

While we wait for the glue to dry, and to ease into the rules a bit, I decided it would be fun to do a mini narrative campaign with a Kill Team skirmish using a few of the troops today.  Kill Team was really fun and I think once we get the hang of it we will be able to play the games much faster.

With the Eldar force relegated to us, it wasn't easy to make an interesting team, so I actually customized the rules a bit to use Warp Spiders.  I changed up the flicker jump rules a bit to make them like flip belts per suggestion on reddit.  I think it worked ok.

Battle Report:
I had strategic advantage.  We placed 4 objective markers in a diamond pattern across the map, one in each of our deployment areas, and then two in the ruins straddling the neutral zone.
The random objective was Infiltrate - thus objectives in the enemy zone would be worth points.

Scout Phase:
Xenos scouted out enemy forces.

Deployment:
Ultramarines deployed with plasma gun sniper in overwatch down the road and Hvy. Bolter in cover position over both objectives.  Sgt. Cornelius and rest of team set up to run into the objectives to take and hold.

Xenos took position in the hills outside the ruins.

 Round 1:
Xenos had initiative but mostly remained non-aggressive.  Turns out I should have done a better job explaining the ranges before deployment.  Ultramarines advanced onto both center line objectives, but were unlucky with run progress.

Round 2:
Ultramarines had initiative and continued to move up.  Captured north objective.  Xenos began shifting to the southern objective.

Round 3:
Eldar initiative, continued cautious progress to south objective only around the hill.  Ultramarines moved up plasma gunner and comms spotter leaving Heavy Bolter on watch.  Heavy Bolter caught Xeno Warp Spider Exarch in the open and inflicted 1 wound at long range.  Xeno took shots at advancing marines but were ineffective.

Round 4:
Ultramarines with initiative.  Sgt. Cornelius advanced past the south objective to the hill to force the Xenos to come around out into the open to contest.  Marine elements behind ready for support.  Xenos took the bait and ran out of cover to attempt to eliminate Cornelius and take objective.  Cornelius shrugged off Xeno fire with the grace of the Emperor's will.  Return fire was ineffective.

Round 5:
Xenos with initiative.  Eldar move to surround the Ultramarine Sgt.  Ultramarines charged engaging a Warp Spider and  Dire Avenger in close combat.  Hvy Bolter fire elimiated one Guardian Defender at long range.  Close combat was a complete draw.

Victory Condition:
North objective - Ultramarines.  East and West objectives - no points.  Southern objective ended in a draw.  Thus it was a victory for the Imperium of Man and the Xenos warped away as suddenly as they appeared.

Analysis:
My dad tends to play things cautious and unfortunately he wasn't familiar enough with his army or the rules to have the right approach.  I think he needed to be a bit more aggressive with his mobility and move up to and past the central objectives right away.  He could have consumed my slightly smaller force (but equal points) with hit and run tactics and then held the objectives with lone defenders hiding in a corner.  Unfortunately also the map layout kinda favored my side a bit inadvertently.  Its true that he might have taken losses, but clearly the dice make it so that he could have had a chance.  Was a fun learning experience for both of us and tomorrow we will play a full 40k game as a follow up to the skirmish!

++++Transmission: Adeptus Astartes Ultra++++
Battle Report
Date: 5861018.M42

Location: Weapons Test Planetiod 493
Sub Sector: Sigmatus
FW: Lieutenant  Aurelius

Scout Kill Team Cornelius reports contact light with Xenos - Eldar.  Markings matching Saim-Hann from record.

Secured artifact coordinates.  No casualties.  Enemy sustained light losses before warping away.  Victory for the Emperor.

 ++++End Transmission++++

Termie Librarian

Filling in more HQ I have my terminator librarian - again Rogue Trader-ish era and purchased originally by me in probably early 90s.

I am going with a heraldic paint job with quartering alternating between white and blue.  I think it will look great when done, especially with all of the extra bits in terminator armor.  Furthermore, this is a throwback to a librarian in standard power armor that I purchased painted a long time ago to serve as a guide.  I'll post a picture of that later when I finish this one.

Hand Painted Ultramarines logos

Since the decal failure awhile ago I've been freehand painting my Ultramarine icons.  It kinda gives them a Rogue Trader look anyway so its good.

The first stage is to put in a gray circle with a horizontal line cutting through the top.

Next I do the interior part of the U which looks like a tear drop (or Blood Angels drop), then I kinda fill in the rest with a lighter gray.

Then we use blue to erase things that dont quite look right and to fill in the tear drop to be blue rather than gray.

Finally I use true white to complete the logo and highlight.

These are currently waiting the blue to erase some of the weird proportions and take out the dark gray in the middle of some (hard to see with this light).

You may recognize the LT here from the face painting post way back.  He still isn't quite done.  Told you I took a break, but I hope to complete him in the next few weeks here.

Update:

Here's some pictures of the finished Us