Trying something new... 40k Battle report Imperial Fists/Imperial Knights vs Salamanders

Apologies for my long hiatus, but since its holidays time, I have plunging into the hobby to make up for lost time. I have for a while now been secretly working on a new 40k/30k army, and this is the first game that I could use one of those units as an ally, just to see how they go.

This is a 1000pt game. I decided I wanted to use my Imperial Knight that I just painted up, though conscious of the points level I made sure it was okay with my friend first, to which he said, go for it, which was very kind of him. We were playing long ways down the table and we used the mission cards, as I like the idea of the shifting objectives.

Here are my forces.

Imperial Fists
Captain Lachdannan
Artificer Armour, Relic Blade, Storm Shield

Tactical Squad I
10 Marines, Veteran Sgt, Power Fist, Missile Launcher, Flamer
Rhino, Extra Armour

Tactical Squad II
10 Marines, Veteran Sgt, Power Sword, Missile Launcher, Flamer
Rhino, Extra Armour

Imperial Knights Ally
Knight Paladin

Salamanders (from memory)
Vulkan Hestan

Dreadnought
Multimelta, Drop Pod

Tactical Squad
Veteran Sgt, Combi-melta, Melta gun, Drop Pod

Tactical Squad
Veteran Sgt, Combi-melta, Melta gun, Drop Pod

Tactical Squad
Veteran Sgt, Combi-melta, Melta gun, Drop Pod

Attack Bike
Multimelta

Devastators
10 Marines, 4 Missile Launchers

Turn 1

I won the roll of for the table sides, and deployed my whole force down. I tried to keep them close together to support each other, as I knew there would my a lot of Drop Pods incoming. My captain is a the foot of the Knight, so he can run out and eliminate the melta squads I know are incoming. Otherwise, my Tactical Marines were in position to take cover and shoot whatever comes. Time to dig in!

My Knight killed 3 of the Devastators (they were put into combat squads), and these failed their morale and fled 2". Then rallied. Otherwise not to eventful this turn.

How its looking before the Drop Pods thunder down.

3 Drop Pods comedown in his turn. They are represented by big cups as he hasn't assembled the vast number of Drop Pods he has. I'm sure its high priority at this time of the year. These guys popped out of their Pod, and let rip with their melta. Although I did have the Ion shield facing them, hey still got a hit through, which did 4 Hull points of Damage (explosion result which gives +D3 Hull points off).

The other two pods came down on the opposite side of my center building. They popped out and destroyed my Rhino with melta shots, though the Storm Bolters on the Drop Pod is what finished the job.

Turn 2

My Rhino burns out of these towards an objective, whereas my Captain sprints from the cover to take out the melta squad. The squad over watch, hit and wound with the melta, though my Strom Shield saves the instant death wound. The Assault phase sees my Captain kill 1 Marine, but the rest stay put.

My Knight faces off against the smaller walker. I manage to do a wound and Stun the machine, but that is all. I also fail my charge move (needed an 11). My 2 Tactical Squads open up on the small squad between them, and wipe them out.

Come get some!

The rest of the Drop Pods thunder down. The empty one lands in the middle of the the field, whereas Vulkan's pod lands bang on behind my Knight. You may notice he has only 1 Hull Point left, so he is very close to going down! They like the others open up with their melta, get through  my Ion Shield, though fail the Armour roll! (double 1). Unbelievable. His Dreadnought fires, misses and charges in. I think he put on the 4th Hull point of damage, In retaliation my Knight Destroys the Dreadnought. Good ol D weapon!

I think in the combat my Captain finally flares up and kills them all, though not before taking aound for his trouble. 

Turn 3

Lots of pods, though not many marines.

Warlords eye each other off. The whole squad that was with Vulkan got killed from all the shooting, though Vulkan refused to fail a single save. I decided to not assault with my Captain, as I thought the Knight would do better (and couldn't be hurt).

Here my Rhino moved up to claim the objective so I could finally cash in on a Mission card (up until that point, they were pointless). I managed to get 2 Victory points.

Vulkan moves up to my Tactical squad.

He flames them all, killing 1, but fails his charge.

Turn 4

Not too much shooting in my turn. I try and knock out some of these Pods. My Knight charges Vulkan and instantly kills him with his D weapon. So that is what a '6' does!

My friends turn just sees long range pot shots, and an attack bike that is screaming across the battle field in a B line right for my nearly dead Knight!

Shooting takes a toll on my tactical Squad II, though they pass their morale. I shoot at the attack bike with everything, though only cause 1 wound. He did jink though, so needs 6's to hit next turn.

Gutsy bike screams forward and shoots at my Knight through the window on the bottom floor. He hits on a 6, I fail my cover save, and he rolls low for armour! What a finish!

The game ended at Turn 5. The table still sees lots of drop pods and Devastator Squad at the back of the field. He also still has his attack bike. A very enjoyable game!

Final scores are:

Imperial Fists/Imperial Knights
Ascendency - 2VP
Slay the Warlord - 1 VP
Total - 3 VP

Salamanders
First Blood - 1VP
Line Breaker - 1VP
Total - 2VP

A very close game indeed! My Knight had a very close but entertaining game. Loosing a lot of Hull Points early made me play very conservatively, though despite that, he still killed Vulkan, a Dreadnought, and a few marines. Not too shabby for a first outing. My friend did a stellar job of trying to take him out, and came close many times. Drop Podding melta, especially mastercrafted melta seems to be something to watch out for. Still, it was good fun to roll some dice again.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers!

Void War - A 30k Battle

I have here a game I played with my friend Cail, which took place a month ago. I believe it was a 1600pt game. I took my trusty Imperial Fists, whereas I was up against Salamanders (Alpha Legion) spies.

I am sure we played a mission, But I was just there to roll some dice and have a drink.

Salamander deployment.

Imperial Fists deployment.

Ready to advance down the line. For this game we played Zone Mortalis rules.

Salamanders first turn.

A few marines from a Tactical squad go down due to the krak missiles.

In return, a melta biker went down.

My turn two, my forces advance, with my assult dreadnought going for the Av14 Salamander dread.

The rest of my tactical squad was wiped out. Those krak missiles (8 of them) do some damage!

Polux moves up with his Phalanx Warders.

I get a couple of wounds on the monster dreadnought, but it is not enough to fell the colossal machine!

My other dread gets in twin-linked lascannon shot off. Well, guess I know what he'll do now.

Polux and the damaged dread go in to hopefully take the enemy dreadnought down. Combat didn't go great. Took two turns to kill it, but by then, a lot of marines came in for support.

Polux and Phalanx Warder last stand!

Unsurprising, from the vast amount of shots, and then finished off in close combat. Brutal!

My veterans take some payback in their final turn.

So in the end, it is victory to the Salamanders. I killed very little, and he got loads of mine, so it wasn't close, even though I cannot remember the end scores. Probably a good thing!

A fun and enjoyable game.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers!

A Year and a half in the making...

It has been a very long time since I have had anything to post to these pages. With the death of Warhammer Fantasy plus an increase in work commitments meant that naturally something had to syffer, and thus was my hobby.

But before work gets intense again, I have something to post up. It was over a year and a half ago that I painted the first Veteran Sgt, and now I am pleased that I can field a fully painted veteran unit fro heresy games or Sternguard Veterans for 40k.

Here are the pics. Keep in mind this is with a new set up, so my painting looks horrible, but at least they are done. A year and a half is along time to paint a unit!

I am happy with the finished piece, and will be even happier if I can keep on going. I did recently have a 30k game, so I will hopefully find time to post that later this week.

As for what I am working on next, preferably something that will not take as long, an apothecary.

Since it is undercoated white, perhaps that will mean a quicker turnaround!

Thanks for looking (if there still is anyone!)

Cheers!

Crawling back some motivation...

Apologies for the long hiatus! Work has been hectic this last month, so much so, that even my birthday could not take me from its embrace. Still, nearly on holidays so its time to try and get some hobby done. I realise that Warhammer Fantasy has essentially ceased to be, but I really like 8th, and I'm not liking the models, look or feel of the new Age of Sigmar, so I'd really like to keep playing 8th.

I've played Warhammer Fantasy from 3rd to 8th Edition, and really do find that 8th was the most fun for me. The End Times was interesting, though I thought they should have played it out longer, instead of rushing through it. Ahh well, its not going to stop me from playing on inthe Old World.

Anyways, slight rant aside, I have been painting some Empire. I have a few 8th Ed games coming up, and I wanted to try out the good old Empire.  I haven't got any close up's as of yet, simply due to laziness, though I do have a selection of models to show off. Best thing is, they are all very old metal models. The best kind!

 The force as is on a dark, small shelf.

 A better lit angle.

 Some old Reiksguard on foot. I have 25, so I might use them either as Swordsmen or Greatswords. Not too sure.

 Some old metal archers, and the new cool model of the Witch Hunter. Figure it would be fun for them to run around.

 Again, some old metal crossbows. The models did not come with the crossbows, so I think I got some historical metal crossbows from Foundry, as I had heard they fit perfectly. Which they do by the way. Of course I have a Bright Wizard there as well. The fact he is on fire (literally) appealed to me. Plus I can say all the Firebat lines from Starcraft as I play. Bonus.

A nice big unit of Knights Panther, my favourite and the most iconic unit for the Empire in my opinion. I have painted up a mounted BSB in the form of the new Ludwig Schwartshelm, and of course a mounted general in the guise of Valten. This unit is a nice 15 models strong, which is a good start I think.

I'll endeavour to get some close pics of the characters I have painted recently. I'm trying to get the Knights Panther a bit more presentable before their debut match this Saturday.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Blood in the Badlands Campaign conclusion

I have certainly been idle for quite some time, mainly due to life. I figured I would post up some photo's from the conclusion game of our Blood in the Badlands Campaign. We decided to just have an all on all Triumph and Treachery game, with Gav and I having an addition 100pts (I think) for the extra territory we had on the map. We played this game 5 months ago, so I do appolgise, I just got too busy!

Anyways, you can at least look at the action and I'll leave a belated conclusion at the end.

 My friend Cail's beautifully painted Night Goblins engage the spectral Undead.

 My lovely gyrocopters fly around, attempting to be a menace.

 Fanatics make short work of it though...

 Good ol Dwarf movement is quite limited.

 30 odd Longbeards stare down the Night Goblin Deathstar with Skarsnik and lots of Big Bosses with Great Weapons.

 I lost a lot of Longbeards it seems, though I didn't break. They broke apart due to another fight being fought.

 The Lizardmen sally forth!

 I do recall my Longbeards staring them down for a very long time!

Hammerers with Grimwald the Surly smash into the Saurus. I believe they killed a lot, then ran them down. Either way, this was game at this point.

A very enjoyable conclusion to the end of the Campaign. Gav with his Undead came away with the game so very well done to him. I believe I was second as I had only 50 to 100 points down on him so close! Ahh well, perhaps next time.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!