There has been a great deal of excitement swirling around the launch of the new edition of Warhammer 40k this summer. It has generated enough enthusiasm here in the Badger Hut to dust off my old Necron army, while Sebastian has been busily assembling an allied force of Dark Angels and Imperial Guard. I think his heart lies with the Dark Angels, but the Guard have helped him to beef out his army a little bit.
Kelvin has been assembling an 'old school' Eldar army for some time, so this was also an opportunity for him to bring the space elves into the action.
We organised a three way battle in the Badger Hut. There were six objectives in the game, which you can see in some of the photos, as they are marked with cactus plants. The battlefield was our arid terrain set up, with a fair amount of buildings and dry wadis to break things up.
I went with my usual Necron force, minus the Monolith, which I've still not completely finished and really should get around to completing when I've got the time. I managed to get the rest of the army in under the points limit. Sebastian was able to afford a squad of Terminators, two squads of Space Marines, a Librarian, some kind of Dark Angel hero (Space Marine Captain?), a brace of Hellhounds, and a pair of Guard squads in hover tanks. It was an impressive force for a first outing and he's worked hard putting it together.
We managed to play four turns of the battle, so 80% of its required length, before we had to call it as I was going out to a party. The new rules still feel like 40k, but with much of the complexity filed off. Certainly, the close combat rules, which always irritated me in 4th edition, have been streamlined.
I deployed my Necrons with my Destroyers on my right flank to take on the Eldar, my Tomb Spider and Scarab Swarms screening my centre, while my Overlord and two squads of Warriors formed a strategic reserve. Another squad of Warriors held the left.
In this battle, you scored points every turn you held undisputed objectives, and I prevailed in the first couple of turns, using my Scarabs as fast movers to good effect, while my Warriors on my left quickly took and held an objective ruin. It began to go wrong when the Terminators teleported into another objective building in the middle of the battlefield and a Hellhound drove through my Scarabs like so much putty. It turned out Scarabs are not so good at taking on enemy armour.
On my right, the Destroyers ended up in a firefight with some sort of undead Eldar, basically an Eldar knock off of Necrons (Wraith Lords, perhaps?) These were supported by a war walker, which the Necrons did manage to blow up, and an Avatar, who helped his troops become even more fanatical. It quickly become hard going for my Destroyers. I also realised that my Heavy Destroyer, the only unit I have that can competently engage armour, was in entirely the wrong part of the battlefield, with Sebastian's Hellhounds running rampant on the other flank!
Eventually I was able to bring up my Overlord and some more Warriors to assist the Destroyers, who were beginning to take hits.
The Necrons always start to get a little brittle in the later stages of a battle, and this happened to me yet again, with my Scarabs wiped out completely, my Destroyers caught up in a static firefight, which they were doing a very good job of losing, despite the additional back up from their Overlord, while one of my other Warrior squads was caught between a Hellhound and some Space Marines and summarily annihilated.
I had been holding my Flayed Ones in reserve - I like Flayed Ones, but I have yet to use them effectively in battle - but was finding it difficult to find somewhere they could teleport in without being immediately chopped up. In desperation, I finally brought them on in turn four, only to have them chopped up.
Suffice to say, Kelvin won with his first outing with his Eldar, Sebastian came second, in his first EVER game of 40k (we all felt he somewhat handicapped himself with his initial choice of deployment), while I came third/last.
I do like the new rules, and would like to play some more. A three-cornered battle game also played very well, and was extremely entertaining. I'll need to do some swotting up and more revision of the rules just to get them stuck in my head, but I do believe they are an improvement on earlier editions. We are also thinking about playing some older, second edition 40k at some point in the not too distant future...Kelvin has loaned me the Imperial Guard codex, so I'll see what I can cook up from that.
Again with the annihilation. Am I getting my tactics wrong, or is my force composition flawed? I think next time I'll add the Monolith and maybe some heavier infantry rather than the plain vanilla Warriors. I also think that I may not be using the Destroyers properly. I'll need to experiment. The size of the armies we used was, I think, appropriate for a three player game using these rules, and I would not be tempted to expand on that. We could potentially go larger for a full-afternoon two player game.
Thoughts also turn to my Tyranid army, which is a work in progress, but I'll be looking to get them painted and onto the table during the cold winter months, with any luck. More details on that when I get around to it...
More pictures and commentary on Kelvin's blog should you be interested.
Kelvin has been assembling an 'old school' Eldar army for some time, so this was also an opportunity for him to bring the space elves into the action.
We organised a three way battle in the Badger Hut. There were six objectives in the game, which you can see in some of the photos, as they are marked with cactus plants. The battlefield was our arid terrain set up, with a fair amount of buildings and dry wadis to break things up.
I went with my usual Necron force, minus the Monolith, which I've still not completely finished and really should get around to completing when I've got the time. I managed to get the rest of the army in under the points limit. Sebastian was able to afford a squad of Terminators, two squads of Space Marines, a Librarian, some kind of Dark Angel hero (Space Marine Captain?), a brace of Hellhounds, and a pair of Guard squads in hover tanks. It was an impressive force for a first outing and he's worked hard putting it together.
The Battle
We managed to play four turns of the battle, so 80% of its required length, before we had to call it as I was going out to a party. The new rules still feel like 40k, but with much of the complexity filed off. Certainly, the close combat rules, which always irritated me in 4th edition, have been streamlined.
I deployed my Necrons with my Destroyers on my right flank to take on the Eldar, my Tomb Spider and Scarab Swarms screening my centre, while my Overlord and two squads of Warriors formed a strategic reserve. Another squad of Warriors held the left.
In this battle, you scored points every turn you held undisputed objectives, and I prevailed in the first couple of turns, using my Scarabs as fast movers to good effect, while my Warriors on my left quickly took and held an objective ruin. It began to go wrong when the Terminators teleported into another objective building in the middle of the battlefield and a Hellhound drove through my Scarabs like so much putty. It turned out Scarabs are not so good at taking on enemy armour.
On my right, the Destroyers ended up in a firefight with some sort of undead Eldar, basically an Eldar knock off of Necrons (Wraith Lords, perhaps?) These were supported by a war walker, which the Necrons did manage to blow up, and an Avatar, who helped his troops become even more fanatical. It quickly become hard going for my Destroyers. I also realised that my Heavy Destroyer, the only unit I have that can competently engage armour, was in entirely the wrong part of the battlefield, with Sebastian's Hellhounds running rampant on the other flank!
Eventually I was able to bring up my Overlord and some more Warriors to assist the Destroyers, who were beginning to take hits.
The Necrons always start to get a little brittle in the later stages of a battle, and this happened to me yet again, with my Scarabs wiped out completely, my Destroyers caught up in a static firefight, which they were doing a very good job of losing, despite the additional back up from their Overlord, while one of my other Warrior squads was caught between a Hellhound and some Space Marines and summarily annihilated.
I had been holding my Flayed Ones in reserve - I like Flayed Ones, but I have yet to use them effectively in battle - but was finding it difficult to find somewhere they could teleport in without being immediately chopped up. In desperation, I finally brought them on in turn four, only to have them chopped up.
Suffice to say, Kelvin won with his first outing with his Eldar, Sebastian came second, in his first EVER game of 40k (we all felt he somewhat handicapped himself with his initial choice of deployment), while I came third/last.
Rules
I do like the new rules, and would like to play some more. A three-cornered battle game also played very well, and was extremely entertaining. I'll need to do some swotting up and more revision of the rules just to get them stuck in my head, but I do believe they are an improvement on earlier editions. We are also thinking about playing some older, second edition 40k at some point in the not too distant future...Kelvin has loaned me the Imperial Guard codex, so I'll see what I can cook up from that.
The Necrons
Again with the annihilation. Am I getting my tactics wrong, or is my force composition flawed? I think next time I'll add the Monolith and maybe some heavier infantry rather than the plain vanilla Warriors. I also think that I may not be using the Destroyers properly. I'll need to experiment. The size of the armies we used was, I think, appropriate for a three player game using these rules, and I would not be tempted to expand on that. We could potentially go larger for a full-afternoon two player game.
Thoughts also turn to my Tyranid army, which is a work in progress, but I'll be looking to get them painted and onto the table during the cold winter months, with any luck. More details on that when I get around to it...
More pictures and commentary on Kelvin's blog should you be interested.
I think 60 points was good for three players but yes, if we go to two, I would probably go up to 70 or 80.
ReplyDeleteI don't know Necrons well at all, as they didn't exist the last time I played, having been introduced as a playtest faction in the dying days of second edition. With that said, I think the Flayed Ones would have been better off going after the soft targets of either my Eldar or Sebastian's Imperial Guardsmen. One big weakness of my army selection is that I didn't have anything that was good in close combat -- aside from the Avatar and the Wraithguard, but they were tied up -- so the Flayed Ones could have had fun chopping up my Guardians.
I'm going to allocate a bit of time this week to getting at least one more unit painted and ready for our next skirmish!
Oh, and I also have the second edition Tyranid codex. Unit choice is a bit more limited in that edition, in particular in terms of the bigger monsters, but it's there if you want it.
ReplyDelete