Monday, February 25, 2008

The Fleet Stirs Once Again

This is like the first real game I had in Galleria in... years. I had a game in 40K a few days back in Fortress against Romy and his Emperor's Children, a refresher match so to speak. I know I might play against a new guy, so for sure I will play my ace game and not disappoint.

I was matched up against a high school student named Jessie (he was still in his uniform when we played). He played Luna Wolves and apparently is the kid brother of another player there, and was relatively new in the hobby. Now seeing that I had years over this kid, the initial impression would be I'm just a big, foul-mouthed bully. And indeed I may have been a big, foul-mouthed bully, but that's how I play. Mercy is for the weak! Besides, one thing I learned with playing all the miniatures games that I play is to never underestimate your opponent.

The mission was Omega Take and Hold, with the objective being a tower in the middle of the table. My list was pretty much expected for any Necron list - Warrior Phalanx with Flying Circus. I opted not to go for the more common Destroyer Fleet build (wanted to try out commuting with a Monolith) or a Fear build (not enough models).

My opponent had a versatile mix of Marines with varied heavy weapons. His force was led by a Terminator Librarian who he attached to a Terminator squad. He also had another Terminator squad (assault) reserved for deep strike.

The boyz there said that he played a reactive style when Jessie gave me the first turn. Since a lot of his artillery were still off-board, my Phalanx advanced their slow 6 inches forward. On his turn I got to gauge which targets from my force he prioritized, but I got a pretty decent share of WBB rolls on the following turn.

The Lord veiled with the Immortals to thresh down his Lascannon squad, while two Warrior squads took my right flank to tie up his Assault Terminators. With the Lascannon Dev squad gone, all I needed to worry about him breaking the Monolith was his Predator and Razorback. Later on in the turn, I managed to bring those down, too, as my Necrons only received little casualties.

Reducing his squads to non-scoring units or immobilized vehicles, I had free reign to have my squads to get even more victory points from the objective at the center of the table.

I had to rush over to Fortress for some WARMACHINE so I had to leave after that game. But all in all, I was very pleased with how the Necrons played out. I had my share of bad rolls so I had to rely more on target denial for Phalanx safety and fire discipline for surgical removal of his key units.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The Aftermath

I got to play a mixed WARMACHINE/HORDES tournament last Saturday at the UPCFA hangar. The tournament was organized by Arvin Tan of Fortress/Pitshop. The tournament followed rules for Steam Roller 3 and Prime Remix missions.

I had hoped that there would be good exposure of the hobby since it was UPCFA week, but it did not happen as the tourney date was moved from a Friday (the supposed last day of the UPCFA week) to a Saturday (week-long event was already over).

Anyway, I intended still to give my ace game nonetheless. This time around, I tried using list with a warjack. And the Behemoth no less! I'm pretty much known of using jack-less lists, but I went on ahead and just enjoyed my games. Here's the list that I used:

Vladimir Tzepesci, Dark Prince of Umbrey
Behemoth
Man-O-War Drakhun
Man-O-War Demolition Corps (Kapitan and 4 Demolishers)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Kapitan, Standard Bearer, Sergeant and 5 Pikemen)
Manhunter
My first match was against Doclance (Laurence Tan). The scenario was Prime Remix's Crossed Lines, something that we at the bunker have already tried playing several times. And all those times, I never won. And all those times, it was against Cryx's Deneghra. So when Doclance brought out his minis from his case, surprise surprise, Dirty D! Vlad came up with Blood of Kings on but a hail of debuffs (Withering, Crippling Grasp, Helldiver's Sinkhole) made the Dark Prince a mewling kitten against a line of Bile Thrall Purges. No excuses on that one, save for that I know very little playing against Cryx. Continuous playing should remedy that.

My second match was against Pork and Ashlynn D'Elysse in a Pendulum scenario. Getting first turn, I had rushed all my models towards the center line. When Pork pushed up his force, Ashlynn was out in the open. With Signs and Portents, the Behemoth two-hand threw the Drakhun (via a diluted version of the Khadoran Pegasus). Drakhun charged Ashlynn, at the time was sitting on just four focus. Rolling 3 attacks for Flying Steel, the Drakhun successfully brought down the Highborn warcaster on his second attack.

The match was relatively over fast so EJ and I got to play a quick in-between game with his Coleman Stryker. The game was pretty evenly-matched but I had to throw in the towel because the next game had to start then.

My third match was against Fluffy with his Harbinger of Menoth in Divide and Conquer. It was then that I was served an annoying Protectorate combo, which pretty much centered on Harbinger's Martyrdom spell. I tried bringing down Vilmon, but I found out that even under Martyrdom he cannot be knocked down if he had a Paladin of the Wall in base contact. So I decided on pounding down the Paladin instead, which greatly injured Harbinger. But alas on his turn, all that damage was wiped away with focus healing and Doc Killingsworth. Seeing that I would not be able to repeat all that, and seeing an opportunity that Harbinger was on empty focus, I allocated three focus on the Behemoth's sub cortex and sent it walking with Vlad's Forced March through the center woods (and surviving Vilmon's free strike in the process - 1 damage box only). Signs and Portents plus a (what I had just discovered it was called) "god hand roll" (6, 6, 6 and 5) promptly put the Menite warcaster away.

My last match was against Jake and Major Siege Brisbane in a Moshpit scenario. Again I surged at the center but with key models under Vlad's Wind Wall. I had rendered his Ironclad crippled early, removing its legs. The Behemoth proved to be my MVP again, aiming away at Brisbane even with all his anti-range spells. Jake retaliated at the Behemoth but only damaged column 6 which spilled to column 1, not too effective. Again with Signs and Portents and focus, the Behemoth hailed down on the Cygnaran warcaster for the win.

More thoughts: I sorely missed using Widowmakers all throughout my five games. Looks like they'll be my obligatory American Express. The Behemoth's performance was surprising though. In 500 pointage matches, it is a heavy points sink but it does so many things in a round that it's pretty much alright. I would have hated if it got hit by Crippling Grasp or Ice Cage though LOL!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

A Slayer Valentine

And so came along lunch time and the computer here at work was stuck with a DVD burning task. Preferring not to wait for the damn thing to finish, I decided to go hunt for a South Park boxed set and a meal instead. An LRT MRT ride later, I came upon an old DVD mecca that Nelz shared with me way back - the Shaw MRT station.



Long story short, I found a concert DVD of Slayer, one of my more not-so-pleasant influences also from way back. And even if the trip back was a tiring and sweaty one, I came back to the office with a big grin on my face. I know a lot of folks out there don't agree at all with the "noise" that Slayer makes. Again, big grin on my face.

For the ignorant (from Wikipedia): Slayer is a two time Grammy Award winning American thrash metal band founded by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame as a leader of the American thrash metal movement with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, which has been called "the heaviest album of all time" by Kerrang!. The band is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal bands, along with Metallica, Anthrax, and Megadeth.

You can guess what's looped in my media player here at my desk now ^_^

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Dragon, The Anvil

I have tried playing using Legion of Everblight last weekend. Using Rhyas as my warlock, I tried out a list with the available miniatures at home. I have always liked LOE (Legion of Everblight) because essentially, you get to play with dragons. With models like the new Angelius and the ever-terrifying Carnivean, I penciled up a list using them. After a few minutes with the rulebooks, I decided on this list:


Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight
Angelius
Angelius
Carnivean
Shredder
Forsaken

I tried the list against Kei, who also opted to playtest a new warlock, Borka Kegslayer. It was pretty much a surgical removal of key warbeasts for me, as the main goal was a direct assassination using either Rhyas, a Rapport c-Rex and/or the Thrusts of the Angelius; and I can't pretty much do that if he has warbeasts that he can transfer damage to. The game ended after an hour with me scoring more VPs than Kei.

I tried the same list the next day against Lesther's wolf/all-female Circle Orboros theme build. Again I had successfully reduced many of his key units, but I noticed that I had not sent a model across the center, hence I reminded Les immediately of the scenario objective and accepted my loss.

I had also used a Khador list with Kommandant Irusk against Mando who playtested his Privateers Shae list (I will be posting the list I used on a later date). Having seen a similar type of army in action, I knew what I had to remove. In the end, I succeeded in winning the game after the casual one hour time limit. I would have preferred an assassination win, but my opponent was pretty tricksy in keeping Shae useful and still out of harm's way.

With a Behemoth and a Kodiak in "Tow" (insert punchline drum roll here), Karchev the Terrible proved to be a very fast build, even though I faced against a fast army in the form of Les' Circle (OK not as fast because it was Baldur and a pair of Woldwardens, but the rest of the army was fast ^_^). I got the hilarious and yet surprising Ass Slide trick in, catching both Wardens in the curtain, and Gorman putting in a lock with a well-placed Black Oil grenade. Between the Kodiak's Hammerfist attacks and the Behemoth's armor piercing hits, both Wardens were taken care of in two consecutive turns.

Joel (Larkin Vain of Glory and Coin) shared with me his macho 500-point list with Vlad as warcaster. Maybe I can get to fix my Uhlans and IFP in time for Saturday, as I think it would be a fun list to play.

All games I had played were all 500 points at my small place at home. Hopefully I can get to play this Saturday's tournament at UPCFA. And maybe get some fresh pics in as well.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Dark Heresy

You are an Acolyte in the service of the Emperors’ Inquisition. You stand in the front line of a great and secret war where your duty is to hunt out the foul stench of heresy, the vile alien, and the twisted influence of Chaos. You will tread where others fear, venturing to distant planets, ancient space hulks and the unsavoury depths of the under-hive.

You will never know fame nor reward, yet if you stand resolute your deeds will be whispered to the God-Emperor of Mankind and your name will be revered for millennia.

Fast character creation to get you into the game quickly, followed by a lifetime of possibilities with an expanded advanced careers system.

Dynamic rules for all eventualities th at let you handle everything from social interaction to deadly fast-paced combat, psykers and psychic powers to insanity and mutation.

Comprehensive background on the Calixis Sector, the official setting for Dark Heresy written by best-selling Warhammer 40,000 novelists Dan Abnett and Ben Counter.

A galaxy of guns to equip your acolyte, from lasguns to inferno pistols, chainswords to power blades.

Pitch your players straight into the midst of dark events with a complete adventure to get you started.The Dark Heresy core rulebook contains everything you need to start your adventure in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

+++

Raymund (PG Raymund Tesoro) generously sold the currently out of stock Black Industries RPG book, Dark Heresy, to me (actually me and Les will co-own it). I'll be running a campaign for it alongside Tiny's Dragonlance campaign and Lesther's World of Darkness campaign on a later date. I will be absorbing a lot of material from the many volumes of rulebooks, source books and White Dwarf magazines at home before I start the campaign. Miniatures for combat? We have oodles of those LOL

Sadly there are no stats for Necrons in the core rulebook T_T