Armoured Clash (Phalona Reach Campaign)

 Phalona Reach's horizon was changed by war, flashes of light, plumes of smoke and explosions were a permanent fixture now. Phalona Reach defence forces and Ultramarines clashed  in  the cities and the open land. the battle for the planet had truly begun.

The second battle of my little of campaign was rolled up and it was Pitched battle 

Pitched battle

10VP for killing a character

5VP for killing a unit

No objectives just a straight fight 

This game was 2000pts, so another large battle. As it was a battle for kills I brought as much armour as i can. Infantry would grant easy kills. My opponent bought an entire terminator list! (It was a joke we had talked about in the day as he was counting the terminators he owned.) so i was glad of all the tanks.

The battle started with guard searching for targets, only 2 squads of terminators and a Land raider to be seen the Guard commanders knew there were more forces waiting to teleport in.  Bulgryns on the left flank advanced to protect the artillery. The artillery pounded targets and slowed their advance. The tanks that could poured fire into the Land Raider and destroying it. Dutch (Sly Marbo) was on the scene and shadowing a squad of terminators and a captain. His attempts to shoot the captain down failed. 

The terminators slow deliberate advance carried on. The tanks poured fired into them and some terminators fell but the ancient armour carried many space marines through shots that would have ended even marines in Primaris armour. The Guard held the line well forcing the teleporting Ultramarines to stay in front of the lines. Dutch found himself fighting a squad of terminators and was struck down by a Chaplain....Will we see Dutch again?  

The Ultramarine advance was inevitable, as soon as they closed into close combat the tanks fell one by one. Valiantly fighting but unable to give themselves enough space to bring their full force to bear.

Smoke filled the air, the crew of the Rogal Dorn Phalona's Fury loaded and fired, loaded and fired. Commander Laricon searched for new threats. the slow advance of the heavily armoured Ultramarine's was unnerving. Even when some fell the others carried on regardless. The battle had started well but the closer the Ultramarines got the more tanks were pulled apart by their ancient weapons. The company vox screeched into life,

"This is the 1st company of the Ultramarines! there is no shame in retreating to fight another day. We stood against the best and showed them what simple men can do. Commander Laricon retreat with what ever forces are left." Colonel Dubri's  voice echoed around the tank.

Laricon rubbed his cordite stained eyes and looked towards Dubri's Leman Russ tank. Terminator chain fists ripped holes into the thick armour, fire and smoke poured from the rents made. Laricon saw Dubri  leaning out of his hatch firing a bolt pistol and cursing the Ultramarines. His tank fired one last volley before succumbing to the damage caused. Commander Laricon led the small band of survivors clear of the battle field, a sombre mood hanging over the Phalona Reach defenders.

The Ultramarines took a huge win here Ultramarines 54 VP to Phalona reach guard 6VP

Phalona Reach VP total for Victory: 1000

Phalona Reach Defence Forces: 38

Ultramarines :83

From the Imperium 

Chaplain Andronicus removed his helmet and took a deep breath of the smoke filled air watching the the traitor guard tanks retreat in disarry, he remained still and silent as Captain Vorenous stepped up beside him, the crackling buzz of his power sword dying away as he thumbed the power switch 

"Well we killed Colonel Dubri instead of capturing him and Commander Laricon's armoured unit is still a going concern though it has took casualties, command should be pleased"

     The chaplain's eyes narrowed and he let out a grunt before speaking his voice low "An expensive victory many of our brothers have fallen to help return The Emperor's light to this blighted world"

The Chaplain turned, the servo's in his armour whining, his eyes seeming to bore into Vorenous soul "We must continue our service" he raised his arm pointing his Crozious in the direction of the fleeing tanks "These heretic's have dared to raise arms against the Master of Mankind, our Primarch has tasked us to bring them to heel, it is our duty and our purpose" 

Vorenous nodded in response, before turning and marching back toward his men, Chaplain Andronicus lowered the Crozious glanced once more toward the dust clouds on the horizon before replacing his helmet and marching back toward the men.......

Warhammer World

 

Decided to take a spontaneous trip to Warhammer world as I have been wanting to see the exhibition for a long time. I have to say was good fun and I got to see some dioramas that I remember from white Dwarf in the 90s 

Space Wolves vs Tyranids

I remember this from decades ago!

and this one!

Recreation of the art work from the first box of space marines I bought

Warhammer Quest how I miss you 

This picture clearly tells me I need another super heavy tank

The Guard are the greatest aren't they

Was a good fun afternoon, seeing old minis, reminiscing about said minis, being blown away by the paint schemes, seeing new minis I have never seen before and looking at the huge Forge world minis with huge price tags to match!

Quick snack and a beer in Bugmans then headed home. really nice day

Battle is Joined (Phalona Reach Campaign)

 

The Sky lit up with defence batteries, planetary cannons fired at unknown targets past the clouds high in the sky. Smaller batteries sent tracer fire at the incoming craft of the Ultramarines, drop pods streaked down to the planet like shooting stars and following them Thunderhawk's slowed and flared to a landing disgorging grim faced angels of death. The defenders of Phalona Reach manned their positions. They knew the Imperium wouldn't let their cry for freedom stand, but they were a brave people and would stand for their planet.

The first battle of my vague attempt at a planetary campaign began on Monday night. using my own homemade missions. the first one we rolled was a nice simple Take and Hold. 

Take and hold

- 1 Home objective each 3 in No mans land. 

- 5 VPs for holding an objective. 

- 10 VP for holding your opponents home objective.

- 3 VP for killing a Character

- 2 VP for killing a unit

For this game we had 2000pts, so a relatively large first battle.  the battle started with a withering round of fire from the Ultramarines, the war glaive I had brought brand shiny new for the campaign was brought down to one wound and the Ultramarines advanced. The Guard moved to secure objectives on their turn and hit the space marines hard with return fire. 

Sly Marbo (Though for the purposes of this campaign he will be called Dutch as sly Marbo would not appear on technically a traitor planet) hunted down Vindicare assassin who was taking pot shots at the Phalona forces. Grimly holding onto objectives the Phalona defenders were treated to a swift and sudden deep strike. Jump pack equipped veterans coming down from the sky's and terminators appearing in a shimmer of light. The terminators charged a Rogal dawn and brutally attacked it with their chain fists, eventually destroying it. The Rogal Dorn blasted an already weakened land raider destroying it, unfortunately it had already disgorged its lethal cargo. Marneaus  was personally leading the unit that came out of the land raider. These guys charged my Sentinel's destroying one and forcing the other to fallback where it was eventually brought down by gunfire. A chimera sat burning while Kasrkin desperately tried to secure an objective.  It didn't end well and they all died defending their objective. Gaunts ghosts (Phalona Bravo Six zero for the purposes of the campaign) held their objective all game even though there was only one member of the unit left at the end. The middle objective was captured by Marneaus and his bodyguards. The infantry squad sent to stop them fell victim to a horrendous hail of bolter fire. 

Dutch knew the assassin was out there. He could smell him, sweat dripped down Dutch's face as he scoured his surroundings. He had secluded himself in a large ruins as that's where the shot had come from.  A large Ultramarine tank had prowled past his position and once it had stopped he could hear the clamour of fighting but he remained undetected. While monitoring the tank he almost failed to notice the Vindicare assassin silently drop down from the floor above in the ruins they were both hiding in. The Vindicare assassin leapt at Dutch slashing him with a knife. The wound stung deep but Dutch pulled out his blade and kicked out catching the assassin unawares making them stumble. Dutch then thew his knife impaling the assassin against the wall "Stick around" Dutch snorted

The battle ended so close the Phalona forces managed to hold onto enough objectives to take the victory by just 3 VPs

Phalona Reach VP total for Victory: 1000

Phalona Reach Defence Forces: 32

Ultramarines :29

Phalona Reach

 

Phalona Reach is a large planet on the edges of Imperium space. Surrounded by a an asteroid belt providing a plentiful supply of minerals meaning the planets population are quite well off compared to the average Imperium citizen and the planet it self is protected somewhat from the horrors of the galaxy. Recently elected to rule the planet is a man called Xavier Snarpe . A man with extreme views and charisma. He gives speeches about throwing the shackles of the imperium and most of the worlds populace are starting to agree with him. In an audacious move he stopped the Imperial tithes from Reach, using the minerals to pour into their own defences and military forces.

"For to long the imperium has ignored us. They take and take and what do we get? What does Phalona get from the imperium? I'll tell you........nothing!!!! The Emperor would never abandon us but the High lords of Terra? They would in a heart beat if they had hearts. Take and take is all they do, well now we are free and the minerals of this planet are all ours as is rightfully so. We are not blind to the threats we face human and xenos so must be ready and stand together! Our military will increase, our space defences will need bolstering and we most of all need you Phalona. Your selves, your sons and daughters to produce, manufacture and defend our sacred planet! Are you with me Phalona!!!!" - Governor Snarpe

The planets Arbites force was overwhelmed by a surprisingly well organised and larger than suspected PDF force and Phalona's time as an independent planet started. Years went by until an adminstratum drone found that tithes from Phalona has stopped and the slow gears of the imperium started to move. It was noted that an Ultramarines battle barge was in a nearby sector and would be rerouted to remind the planet of their duty to the emperor. 

In his palace Xavier Snarpe received word of the arriving battle barge from various inter system ships captains. He gathered his command staff . He knew this would happen he knew the angels of death would arrive at some point the imperium is slow not stupid.  He stood and headed to the command room

"So it begins"

From the Imperium perspective (written by Matt the Space Marine player)

The old satellite drifted around in orbit of the dirty grey planetoid as it had for centuries uncounted it's instruments still watching the depths of space, it's machine brain following it's programmed instructions dutifully. Suddenly with a violent screaming burst of red and violet energy space was ripped open the narrow breach opened a passage spitting a swarm of cathedral like vessels to sweep past the satellite there forms shedding waves of energy from there flanks as the translation was completed and tge breach sealed itself. Auspex's pinging waves across the system gathering data into the vessels cogitators, assessing the strategic situation the vessels manouvering thrusters fired bringing the bows around toward the target that had been selected and the main engines fired with a roar shoving the vessels forward. In the stratagium a towering figure in blue power armour stood stoicly looking at the main situation display his grizzled face giving nothing of his thoughts away, his right hand tightened into a fist causing the silver chain around his arm guard to chink, he showed no respose to the heavy footfalls behind him telling of an approching warrior, this warrior came to a halt next to him his dark green armour a vivid counterpoint to the first warriors blue, taking a deep breath the warrior in green spoke

"Lt Titus the enemy awaits us"

Titus turned away from the holotank strode past the warrior in green, he turned his head briefly to the Dark Angel

"Ready your men, we drop as soon as we are in range"

The Bug is back. Fetch the primer!

 After my small existential crisis I was so happy with how my Wookie's came out, I decided to paint some more Star Wars Legion stuff. I found out a squad of rebel troopers, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. I took my time though I did realise I had not done my normal sand dip to texture the base. A quick stop in Warhammer while I was in Birmingham and I picked up some mud texture paint.

Again I am well happy with how they came out.

I think they look really good. I am dreading painting the Empire side of things as that is a lot of white paint. Thankfully still got some rebels left to paint. 

New Adventures and a small Existential Crisis

My legend of a friend Alex gave me the Star Wars Legion starter set and many other models. Now I have a new game to fawn over and play. The models went together really easily and I have decent size forces for both the rebellion and the Empire. 

I am aware that a new edition has just been released and that would require lots of new cards and stuff printed out. I am very tempted to just play with the rules and all the nice looking cards in the box for now,  See where we go from there. 

I have built all the infantry now just left is a transport for each faction. Those models will require a bit more concentration. Now onto my existential crisis.

I have recently painted a new model (Don't want to say what it is until its finished) and after i thought I had finished it I sat and looked at it and just wasn't happy. I think I have become a bit to laid back with my speed paints. Rushing through models just so I could get them painted. This has left my last models not t the standard I want. So I have resolved to slow down my painting and take my time. I selected one unit to start and paint. Over 2 painting sessions I got them completed  and here is my first Star wars legion unit.

Wookie Warriors

I am really happy with these guys, I especially love the one Wookie dragging the Storm Trooper, he looks super mean.

I think I did a much better paint job without rushing so I hope you like them?

Phalona Campaign

As anyone that's read my blog for a while will know I prefer the narrative wargame to tournament play styles.  Now I love my 40k games but always wanted a bit of a campaign to them. Now I know GW have crusade rules but I wanted something a touch simpler than that. I read a lot of Goonhammer articles on different types of campaigns. Map campaigns, flow chart campaigns etc . All sound really good but a lot of effort to set up and good for multiple people but I mainly play my one friend ( gotta try and beat my introvertness and play other people) so I just wanted something simple. So this idea came to me!

Have a planet with a high Victory point target. We play games as normal, at the end of the game each player takes there VP total from that game and adds it to their plantery total. First one to reach the target takes the planet!! Simple what do you think?

We can fluff up each battle as we see fit for linking it all to one planet.

Now me and my usual opponent are terrible for remembering how to do 40k missions and secondaries so I made up some missions for us to use. They focus on one aspect and instead of secondaries you get VPs for killing characters and units. Will the missions work?? Who knows till I give them a go. I have 3 types

Skirmishes and raids 1k pts or less

Big battles 1k pts or more

Special Scenarios 

Each section has 3 missions such as Smash and Grab, take and hold and Last stand. This gives us missions to play with what ever force we have on hand or time to plan ahead. Only time to play a quick game let's do a Skirmish. Loads of time then big battle it is. 

Well we shall see how it goes and what works and what doesn't .