Teun's Death Guard (Photo Dump 10/02)

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Homebrewed Teun: New Mission Type for 8th Edition

So the kids and I were playing 40k today, and we wanted to have a big 4-way battle! However, we wanted an interesting and flavorful mission to play a little bit more dynamic than your typical "King of the Hill" game that most multiplayer 40k games seem to devolve into.

So we created "The Hidden Relic." This is a fan-created mission, and borrows heavily from Games Workshop's own missions in their Warhammer 40k Rulebook, so take with a grain of salt!

THE ARMIES:
   Each player selects a Battle-forged army to an agreed points (or PL if  playing a narrative game) limit.

THE BATTLEFIELD:
   Create the battlefield and set up terrain. After placing terrain, Players then take turns placing Crates. 2 Crates must be placed within each table quarter, and the remainder within 6" of the center of the table, for a total of 12 Crates placed on the table. Crates may not be placed within 6" of a table edge.

DEPLOYMENT:
   The players roll off - whoever rolls highest determines which of the standard deployment maps is used in the battle and picks one of the deployment zones on the map for their army. Their opponent(s) then use the other deployment zone(s).

  The players then alternate deploying their units, one at a time, starting with the player who rolled lowest during the deployment roll-off. A player's models must be set up within their deployment zone. Continue setting up units until both sides have set up their army.

FIRST TURN:
   The players roll off- whoever rolls the highest determines which player will take the first turn. The player who finished setting up their army first gains a +1 modifier to this roll.

VICTORY CONDITIONS:
   At the end of the battle, if a model from a player's army is carrying the Relic (see below), then that player wins a major victory. If the Relic is not being carried, then the player with the model closest to the Relic wins a minor victory. If both player have models equally close to the Relic, then the battle ends in a draw. If the Relic has not yet been revealed, the game ends in a draw.

THE SEARCH FOR THE HIDDEN RELIC:
   Players are attempting to find the Relic. After the Morale phase, at the end of a Player's turn, the player whose turn it is may attempt to search a crate to find the Relic. To search a crate, the player must have more models within 3" of the center of a Crate than any opponents. Models that cannot control objectives normally cannot attempt to search a Crate. One unit can only search one Crate per turn in this way.

   To search the Crate, the unit rolls a D6. This roll cannot be re-rolled. On a natural roll of a 6, the Crate yields the Relic.

   At that point, all other Crates are then removed from the table, and the Crate that yielded the Relic now becomes the sole Relic objective on the table. The Crate now operates identically to the Relic, as outlined in the BRB mission "The Relic" (pg 223). If 11 Crates have been searched, and yield no Relic, then the 12th Crate automatically becomes the Relic.

THE RELIC:
An Infantry model can carry the Relic by moving into contact with it - that model then automatically picks it up. From that point the Relic remains with the model (move the Relic to show this) until it is dropped, which only happens with the model is slain or flees. A model with the Relic cannot embark in a Transport, leave the battlefield, or move further than 9" in any single phase for any reason.

Starting Skitarii

So if you have been following me on instagram, you already know that I had some major accomplishments lately!

First, I crammed in a whole lot of painting to get this force of Iron Hands ready for a tournament:



I managed to win a few prizes! It was the end of our escalation league, so I pulled off the most points overall from the league. So I was awarded Best Overall in our league!

Then there was a painting competition for the armies attending that day. I managed to snag the most votes for that, earning my army the Player's Choice for Best Painted! Super stoked to have received that honor.

Lastly, I was given Renaissance Man for having a terrible first two rounds in the tournament but coming back strong in the last round.

Putting that all together netted me a nice amount of store credit! It was probably the nicest early birthday gift that I could have received.

So I took the plunge and got something started that I have been eyeing for the last couple years:



I also started a new job recently. As a reward to myself, I bought some new toys!



With a few Castellax under way, I began to put together my Skitarii. So without further ado, here is what I have completed thus far:







2017 is shaping up to be the year of the Mechanicum at the Teun residence...

What's On My Table: 11/17/2016

After last weekend's event, things have slowed down a bit on the hobby front. The 40k Escalation League continues on, and I scored full points in round 1, putting me somewhere in the top 5 or so. Attempting to continue this momentum, I started painting up my new Medusan Immortals squad for 30k. I plan to use them as Command Squads in 40k, with storm shields and special weapons. They should be a pretty rock-hard unit :)

I am trying to convince my sweetheart to let me get a Caestus Assault Ram for them, but I may have to settle for a papercraft proxy until I can convince her!

Today an old friend of mine met me at the game shop to get in a League game. It was 1000 points, my Iron Hands versus his Orks. He was able to field a surprising number of units for 1000 points. I played an Anvil Strike Force, using an Armored Task Force and a Land Raider as my HQ. I was able to put a surprising amount of firepower out in the opening turns, but eventually I was reduced to my solitary Land Raider by turn 5. Despite being able to shoot 2 times per turn, it finally succumbed to the tide of green powerklaws and rokkits at the end of turn 5, signalling my tabling. AV13 spam is fun, but I would definitely had preferred to take more Dreads. I would have liked to drop the Tactical squad I was required to bring (league rules, I had to take 2 units I used in the previous round) and instead take another Contemptor, but I was already locked in so I had to make do.

It also would have helped to remember I had both a pintle-mounted stormbolter and a Multimelta on my Landraider. I would have inflicted much more damage had I remembered those...

ChowHammer 2016 - Carnage for Charity (Round 3 Report)

PART 3: Tau vs. Iron Hands at the Pagan Idol

For my last game, I was matched up against a fluff/narrative list of Tau that included an Ethereal, Fire Warriors, Breachers, Crisis Suits, Hammerheads, and some bigger suits that I don't recall the names of!

The mission was a modified Relic mission, with a strange figure moving about randomly on the battlefield. The Relic was actually a sentient being of great malevolence, attempting to steal the Cornucopia of Life. To hold it, you had to pass successful Strength and Initiative checks to lock it down.

I didn't get as many pictures during this round, as it was getting late and we were playing as quickly as possible.

Basically though, I deployed very aggressively and took the first turn, tearing the turret off of one of the Hammerheads before he had a chance to shoot with it by weight of combined fire from the razorbacks. I marched up with my plasma command squad, tearing into the Crisis suits. My Grav-Cents locked down the left side of the board, and my Dreads went straight up the middle.

Very quickly it started going pretty unfortunately for my opponent. He's a good guy, new to the hobby, but he grasps the rules very well and was refreshing to play against. I felt a little guilty having such a competitive list against his somewhat narrative list, but I suppose in a competitive setting my list was probably not the most competitive one he saw today.

He conceded in turn 4, after I had wiped most of his units. I held the Relic with my Dreadnought, but he scored a morale victory for himself by destroying my Contemptor (which was unscathed thus far) with a lucky shot from the big mechabot in the rear (yeah I know, I don't play Tau enough).

The rest of the evening, I roamed around looking at other people's models. I didn't happen to get any pictures, but luckily the shop owner did, and put them on the store's Facebook page: Here:

For posterity, I'll repost some of my favorites here- 

Warhound Titan

Mastodon

 

Harridan

Tau suit of some kind or other

Another shot of the Ork superheavy bomber

So I didn't win any of the main prizes. Our local group doesn't usually do painting prizes, which I was kind of disappointed with, considering that I spent the week preceding the event working furiously to paint and base enough units to field a fully-painted army.

However, for winning the Round 3 match, all winners of their 3rd round got a special prize for their effort and for sticking it out until the end...

The Bearer of the Cornucopia, now tribute to my victory over the Tau.

I am currently Bronzing the prize, and will be keeping it as my first trophy since playing Iron Hands :P

ChowHammer 2016 - Carnage for Charity (Round 2 Report)

PART 2: Orks vs. Iron Hands on The Barren Steppes

For my second game of the day, I played yet another Ork player. This time, it was a mechanized Meganob list coupled with a particularly brutal Bomber detachment, including the super heavy bomber! It was quite an impressive model, with the contents of practically an entire bitz box dumped onto it.

I wasted a turn of shooting on it before I realized it was a pointless exercise. I was under the impression that knocking 3 points off a Superheavy gave you a VP, but in this tournament that ended up not being the case.

This game went south pretty quickly. I strong-sided my right side of the board, on an objective on my side of the board. Grav-Cents and my Grav-heavy tactical squad hunkered down, dumping shots on an advancing truck full of Meganobz. I popped the truck and the Nobz hopped out, which I then proceeded to dump bucketfuls of Grav-cannon fire from the Grav-Cents. Unfortunately for me, my opponent had a large stockpile of event tickets (see prior report) and burned through a large number of them to give the Meganobz invulnerable save rerolls.

 

Once you let nobz into your Cents, you are gonna have a bad time...

I murdered most of them before they arrived, but his Warboss managed to make contact and begun to slaughter the hapless Centurions wholesale at that point.

Meanwhile, my poor tactical sub-squad (only a single grav-gun as the special weapon) tried to take the hill objective. Finding their weapons ineffective against the Deffdread, they quickly became fertilizer for Ork agricultural endeavors.

My Iron Father quickly leaped up to the top in order to continue the fight, shrugging off multiple hits from the Deffdread and slaying it in single combat with his mighty Chainfist. Unfortunately, however, his command squad didn't accompany him and found themselves beset upon by hordes of the greenskins!

In the end, I realized I should have read the mission objectives better. Thinking that all objectives were of equal value, I attempted to claim the hill, when in reality the objectives in our deployment zones were worth double points. So I lost this game pretty soundly.

ChowHammer 2016 - Carnage for Charity (Round 1 Report)

Part 1: The Feudal World

Intro:

The Carnage for Charity event is a great event held every year at my local game store. It's a fun and wacky day of gaming that directly benefits the local community by donating all proceeds to a local support shelter. We also round up tons of donations in clothes, food, and personal hygiene supplies. We also make it into somewhat of a pot-luck event, where everybody brings food! Thus, ChowHammer is a very popular event in these parts. Bonus internet points if you know which one is me!

Breaking previous records, we had a 22 player turnout this year. We raised $1148 for the MyHouse shelter, as well as a huge amount of clothes and food. For donating, players were awarded "tickets" based on an approximate value of their donations, which were used for fun in-game effects. You could use tickets on shenanigans such as rerolling dice, forcing an opponent to reroll dice, giving a unit FNP or an invulnerable save for the turn... etc.

You also could use the tickets you earned to gain entry for some very unusual units! The Points Limit for the tournament was 2000 points, but with tickets, you could buy "slots" for a Superheavy unit, or even use 30k lists! I had considered using 30k Iron Hands but decided against it this time. I stuck with a familiar 40k Fist of Medusa formation, with a decent mix of Grav, Dreadnoughts, and tough Command Squads.

PART 1: Iron Hands Fist of Medusa Vs. Ork CAD on the Feudal World

In round 1, I drew one of my old friends "from the good ole days." We have played many games together since I entered the game at the end of 4th edition, so it was a very laid back and fun game! He was playing Orks in a CAD, mostly mechanized in trucks, wagons, or riding bikes.

Mechanized Boyz with Heavy Armor, they used Trucks and Battlewagons to leap across the board. Using my superior ranged weaponry of the Lazorbacks and Dreadnoughts, I managed to explode a Battlewagon and wreck a truck, as well as break a unit of ork bikes, before they got too close. But it wasn't enough...

  

Didn't take long to get in my front lines!

On the other side of the board, my Command Squads made short work of a biker squad and a squad of nobz on foot, vaporizing them in a hail of plasma discharge.

The Contemptor put up a valiant fight, but fell to a band of Waaagh'ing Nobz with Powerklawz! The tactical squads were as grass before the scythe, however, falling in droves without inflicting much damage to the bloodthirsty horde.

Taking a battlewagon ram head on, the Drednought stood defiant!

Meanwhile, a wave of boys descended upon my centurions.

Grabbing the objective, my Dreadnought hunkered down for the remainder of the last turn. The boys turned their fury onto my Razorback, attempting to secure more VPs through unit kills. They succeeded in popping 2 out of my 3 razorbacks in the last turn, securing the win by a single VP! It was a fun and close game throughout.