Kill Team - Ad Mech versus Tyranids

I went down to Tigers-King‘s to play a game of Kill Team (and to collect the rules). I prepped two teams - Space Marines Intercession (mix of assault and normal) and an Ad Mech Hunter Clade with a mix of Skitari Rangers/Vanguard and Sicarian Ruststalkers/Infiltrators to face Tiger-King’s Tyranids. I used BattleScribe to get the team roster done - now this was useful, but I couldn’t get it to print in a useful way (I think the default set are US letter rather than A4 Amy couldn’t work out how to change them on the iPad).

We were fighting over a crowded kill zone which was beautifully painted. We decided not to used tac-ops cards as it was both of ours 3rd game (and I’d hadn’t played for a long time). We did the scouting phase and I won the initiative.

The starting point for the half the Ad Mech - the other half moved forward into position but didn’t have any targets and were too far away from any objectives to make it worth using a dash action. Tiger-king’s terrain was also too high for my troops to get on to the vantage points in one turn with move/dash actions (which meant neither of us used it). I also discovered at this point that the Tyranids shooting was rather dangerous - However I manage the high point of the game with 3 critical saves - much to Tiger-kings chagrin. Unfortunately he took out my infiltrator in one shot … the Ad Mech with 7 to 10 wounds seemed a little fragile. But it was 1 all for victory points at the end of the turn.

The Tyranids advance into a moderately effective fire storm … I move the ruststalkers over to counter the genestealers in melee. The nasty ‘Nids shooting was taking out the numerical advantage the Ad Mech rather quickly. 

All 3 of the Vanguard were dead … and annoyingly the Tyranids had a counter to the Rad-saturated count as injured. I managed to kill a couple of genestealers, but virtually all of my troops were now injured - either from the shooting or melee - the damage was usually fatal for the skitari. However the Transuranic Arquebus, was being pretty effective, but not enough to actually kill a ‘Nid outright. But I was leading 3-2.

The brood lord and warrior having cleared out the Ad Mech left flank - at this point I think I had 4 skitari rangers left - but going into the final round it was all square 4 all in victory points. I also remembered to start looking at the tactical ploys for the Ad Mech. 

The final round with my key to victory or drawing was to hold the objective under the platform - but unfortunately the skitari was turned to red mist. This meant that at the end I lost 5 - 6. I had  used command points to heal wounds on 3 warriors, as this mitigated the injured penalties. My leader and Arc gunner were killed - which were the only fighter which could use overwatch - a downside of the Transuranic Arquebus is that it is unwieldy. So I ended the game with just one survivor … Tiger-King and his Tyranids had given me a good beating. 

An enjoyable game - which we have to play again soon. 

The poor run of form in either version of kill team continues for the Ad Mech - can’t be anything to do the command of the team ...

Probably the last game before Christmas - I wonder what Santa will bring. 

Morts 

Dartmoor in the Snow

On Saturday I was out on the moor with work for a training walk … unusually it had recently snowed, but I thought I would share so of the photos from the walk .

West Mill and Yes Tor. 

Oke and Steeperton. 

The north of High Will-hayes.

Dinger Tor

I think Yes and High Willhayes from Okement …

A view north west from Steeperton. 

A view east ish from Steeperton.

Another view with Steeperton in the background. 

A cracking day - really cold (stayed in 5 layers all day!). 

Morts. 

Bloodrage - 2nd game … after a long break.

 The collective got together for a festive game of Bloodrage - minus Sylon who was on his works do, so getting a little tipsy and Tiger-king who was claiming man flu illnesses …

The rest of us had played DK’s beautifully painted Bloodrage a long while ago, so effectively it was a first play (Bloodrage’s first play through is somewhere on the blog, but I couldn’t find it. Edit - February 9th 2019 so nearly 4 years ago).

As a quick reminder of how to play, each player is given 8 cards from which they pick one, then past to the left and repeat until each player has 6 cards (the reminder are discarded). The cards can upgrade each players clan, warriors, leaders or mystics OR they can improve your figures in a fight OR access monsters OR you can complete a quest at the turn. To play cards you must spend rage (action points) - once you have run out of rage you can’t do any of the free actions - pillaging an area … and some other things I can’t remember. 

Turn one - the area with the reward for pillaging - red more rage, blue more figures on the board and green  - I can’t remember … the game didn’t start well for me as I wasn’t sure what was going on - I had high fight cards, but my quest for for warriors to die …), so I finished the first age in a lowly 4th place - Steedo thwarting my quest (to get 4 warriors into Valhalla) by not pillaging areas where i expected him too. I had played a upgrade card that meant when I lost a battle I was able to place a warrior for free, which turned into a very useful card.

Some of the really nice figures from the game, expertly painted by DK … I’m not jealous … really I’m not … git!

The second turn was very good for me - as the drafting when around I was able to pick up 2 quest requiring at least 4 warriors in Valhalla before the Ragnarok and an upgrade to the clan so that every warrior returned to me after Ragnarok got me 2 victory points (the last thing I played so they couldn’t see the plan) … so my plan was to pillage when ever I could (and lose) so that I would get a warrior into Valhalla and on the board for no action points, so this appeared to be self perpetuating … meanwhile DK over populated the board which his figures - there is a maximum number of figures you can have on the board, unless to can upgrade your clan or gain the extra by pillaging a blue axe (?) area … this meant that DK had to remove a number of figures from the board, which did rather bugger up his plans. Steedo and Snake-eyes were going for area control quests to get victory points. However I managed to get most of my warriors in Valhalla, so completed quests and lots of points from the figures in Valhalla, which shot me into the lead … which was nice.

The final round also saw me as the first player - and must of the drafting worked for me. I was able pick up a card which got me 3 points for each figure in Valhalla - this stacked, so it was 5 points! But most of the cards were attack focused or area dominance (which I had avoided). I continued with my plan to pillage a lose … unfortunately the others allowed me some wins, as this stopped the repeated pillaging of an area (can only be done once) and meant I couldn’t place for free … I did force Steedo and Snake-eyes into a three way Pillage in the area about to be destroyed in Ragnarok (figures in that area got you extra victory points), so I could squeeze a figure in there myself. DK had a mare of a turn as Steedo thwarted has quests in the final round - upheld claims that he missed out on 54 points in the final turn …

Snake-eyes and Steedo got some of the area control, but the 5 points per figure in Valhalla was crucial for me. Final scores on the doors were DK 62, Steedo 135, Snake-eyes 136 and myself 151. A nice win for me, and such a surprise and unusual event, the collective have sent many nice messages.

Apparently I was playing the “Loki” strategy, which is a thing in the game - apparently with more plays it becomes less of a thing, as it can be blocked  in the card drafting, but this was effectively our first game. I am also not sure if we were doing the pillaging correctly, as this seemed to boost my upgrade and then amplified the Loki/Valhalla points.

A win and a fun evening - I then departed as I had a busy day on the morrow  .

The others stayed and managed to get in a game of Unmatched - Jurassic Park (win for DK) and Splendor (win for Steedo).  

Morts

Kings of War - Dwarfs vs Varangur and Orcs

After a long time Steedo and I got together to play Kings of War (2nd Ed) - I also wanted to use some of the fantasy stuff I had painted recently. Unfortunately I had been ill for a couple days, with a heavy cold - the first days off work for over 6 years. Anyway back to the game approximately 1600 points a side Dwarfs versus Varangur (Chaos) with Orc allies. 

The Dwarfs had 2 units each of warriors (ironclad), spears (bulwarkers), then one each of guard (ironguard), ironwatch (crossbows), earth elementals, a greater earth elemental and a steel behemoth (a steam tank).

The Varangur had a unit of Reavers, 2 units of warbands, a horde of cave trolls and a cave troll king. Their Orc allies brought along a boss, a unit of Ax warriors and a unit of gore riders.

Initial deployments … Steedo had tried to avoid having his trolls face off against my heavies - elementals and steel behemoth, but I had matched them… all was going to plan. With the Dwarfs being a bit slow I was planning to absorb the attack from the forces of darkness, and then pick up the victory points for the invade scenario. 

The first move saw Steedo throw his troops forward. The Dwarfs remained stationary, so they could use their crossbows apart from the elementals moved towards the trolls.

In the second turn saw the Reavers charge through the woods losing their bonuses and picking up a hindered charge - however they did put 5 damage on the dwarf guard, before the counter attack from the dwarfs put them to rout! First blood to the dwarfs … however the crossbows didn’t put any damage on the gore riders this turn.

The 3rd turn saw the warbands charge the dwarf left flank and to my shock take out the crossbow unit and isolating a unit of bulwarkers about to be flanked by the wolves … and my dice rolling had taken a turn for the worse.

The dwarf guard finished off a unit of warband only then to face the gore riders - meanwhile the bulwarkers held off an attack on two fronts with a “snake-eyes” roll with about 15 hits … much to Steedo’s annoyance, but would there stoicism be paid off.

Meanwhile on the other flank the elementals were taken out by the trolls - the regeneration of the trolls really hurt. It allowed the trolls to absorb the damage dished out by the elementals.

In the centre the Orcs managed to overwhelm the other unit of bulwarkers and the Chieftain of the Varangur took on the Dwarf King.

The steam tank charged the troll horde after they had finished off the elementals - I was hoping that the 20 + d6 attacks would be enough … but my dice rolling and the regeneration, kept the fight going.

The Dwarf king was surrounded by the Chieftain and now the Orc boss … 

The end of turn 6 all the Dwarf have left is the steam tank (which had just managed to destroy the horde of trolls), a unit of warriors and a stone priest (now slightly superfluous as the elementals were gone). Steedo’s forces of darkness still had the gore riders, ax warriors, wolves, warband and all their characters.

We should have rolled to see if we played turn 7 , but it was clear that I had been well and truly beaten. 

Well played Steedo.  

Kings of War is a good game - it has very clear rules and winning does depend on manoeuvring, which I did little of. I think I thought that the dwarfs high armour would allow me to take the attacks, then roll up the leftovers. This was obviously a poor plan - it also needed more characters and more ranged attack to take the sting out the attacks. It was fun and for a short while I thought I had this game, before reality kicked in - there were a couple of turns where it could have gone either way (but for the dice gods went against me in the end).  I know that there have been some rule changes from 2nd edition (what we played) and the current 3rd Edition has just had a compendium - But for now I’ll stick with 2nd edition, but we might look at some house rules such as thunderous charge bonus for coming down hill. 

Morts

Terra Forming Mars and Odin’s Ravens

On Friday evening DK, Tiger-King and myself  turned up at Steedo’s for a game of Terra-Forming Mars. 

This would be my second play of the game, so I thought I’d try a new strategy of trying to gain as many points as quickly as possible - rather than the last time I played by placing lots of woods and cities …. Unfortunately we were rather lack lustre in actually placing any forests or cities until the end. DK went for Jovian/Venusian strategy as we were playing the Venus expansion. Steedo’s and Tiger-King’s strategies were more difficult to spot - but then they have more experience of the game (50 plus online games for Speedo apparently).  

The early and mid game board above. 

Tiger-King kept stealing plants from DK in game which slowed the production of forests (and Dr Pepper in real life). The main picture shows the scores at the end of play - where my strategy of grabbing every point I could on the way had put me in the lead, with Steedo and Tiger-King in joint second. The insert picture shows the scores after final scoring, with Steedo and Tiger-King tied for first place - Steedo taking the win as he had the most money … a lowly 3rd for me. There is lots of nuance in game and obviously my plan was flawed - especially as some of my cards where played too early before cities were placed, so missing bonuses, which also impacted my Corporation’s special power of extra money for any city placed.  I also think I should have just bought some cities and forests for cash - but I forgot I could do that. A good game but I had a troubled night after overdosing on beige snacks …

Then on Saturday Steedo and I played a couple of games of Odin’s Ravens (and most of a bottle of port) after a trip to a proper good real ale pub (Jail, Bass, Wicked Wolf and others on draught). Odin’s Ravens ended with honours even (although a little slow this morning).

Hobgrots 2 - done

The last of the hobgrots have been painted. This lot have been converted to take Oathmark shields, after the original metal ones I had used appeared to unbalance the miniatures. I should have put some green stuff on their hands to show off the grips - but I was feeling lazy …

These were done with speed paints using the “slap chop” method as i understand it. Again a reasonable tabletop standard if you ask me. 

So I have to get the spray varnish out this weekend as I have now painted these …

But I am out walking and Evo has asked me over to have a go on his full size snooker table … which is nice. Hopefully the weather will be helpful when I go for it. 

Now I also need to try and get some of this stuff to the table.  

Morts

Chaos Marauders - finished

The last 6 Chaos Marauders have been finished with the speed paints. 

I converted these by adding some old shields I had laying around. Happy with these - got some Hobgrots to go - then the spray varnish will be out. 

Morts