Campaign Update - The Desolation of Epsilon 19 continues

Pic blatantly thieved from the good people of Chimera Nottingham
http://chimeraccg.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/warhammer-40k-campaign-tuesdays-ripley.html

As I briefly mentioned in the last article, I started a small 40K campaign during December last year called the Desolation of Epsilon 19.  While I have run a number of campaigns in the past revolving around the Vogen campaign pack that was released by Games Workshop sometime last century (I've never fully realised just how much fun it is to say that until now) centred around a map-based campaign for control of a major hive city.  The first of a series of articles relating to this campaign can be found here.  This time around however, I wanted something that would allow for more freedom for players, allowing them to play or not at their leisure without the worry of letting their team down.  This time it was to be a free-for-all as everyone desperately scrambles to claim controlling interest over the planet Epsilon 19.

Hobby Update - Mandatory New Year's post incoming

So as I sit here, I'm perusing my blog feed, catching up on the adventures and progression of a myraid of projects / undertakings from a vast swathe of gamers, painters and all-round awesome people and in the process I'm reading my fair share of 'New Year' posts and as a result I'm feeling inspired to improve my own offerings to the peoples of the Internet after a pretty dismal effort during 2014.  Last year was a travesty solely due to a lack of drive on my part to actually sit down and transform my poorly-written notes into something legible and when I did, I never found the time to take the pictures necessary to make the article more like something that has the potential for entertainment and not some giant wall of text (think I failed on that one anyway, but hey-ho, that's just the way it is I guess).  But that's what these types of articles are for really - granting everyone a clean slate, a fresh opportunity to transcribe a more positive future for oneself.

Legion Update - Re-awakening the Dragon

For those who remember my blog back when it first began, I started a fairly short-lived army project associated with the Privateer Press game Warmachine / Hordes.  After a brief 6 months or so, I grew tired of the game and shelved it, convinced I would never again return to the Iron Kingdoms.  Life is funny though and two years down the line I find myself painting one of my shelved Legion of Everblight models and something unforeseen happened...

Campaign Update - Going Apocalyptic

Last weekend saw the Cities of Death campaign I ran for my local gaming group come to a resounding conclusion.  In a final attempt to wrest control of Vogen from the Forces of Disorder, the Salamanders led an armoured assault comprised of several Space Marine Chapters and a contingent of Natuesean Guardsmen on the Palace of Peace.  Accompanied by a pair of ancient Baneblades - 'Godhammer' and the 'Shield of Faith' and the noble Mecharius Vulcan 'Emperor's Voice,' they were set upon by a vast army - a foul conglomeration of Heretics and Xenos who desired the Palace for themselves.  Knowing that their cause was almost lost, the servants of Chaos enacted a foul rite of summoning - creating a warp rift that if left unchecked, threatened to consume the entire planet.  For the forces of the Imperium, it was no longer enough to capture the Palace, for the sake of the Khai-Zhaan itself, the rift device would need to be destroyed.

The quasi-massed forces of the Imperium

A close-up of the Blood Angel contingent

Masters of the Chapter Apoc Formation - the Marine equivalent of a
Colombian death-squad 

The hordes of Disorder gather at the edge of the table...

The 'Crons...

Da Orks....

The forces of the Arch-Traitor

The table...

When the dust had settled, the total were calculated and the results were announced.  The Forces of Order had scored a grand total of 41 Campaign Points, while the Forces of Disorder had used the Palace to close the gap to secure a hefty 39.  By a narrowest margin of 2 points, the Imperium had secured victory!  Many thanks are to be had to all the guys and girls over at Kingaroy Wargamers for making the day possible and for making the Vogen Campaign a success.  If you're keen to see more pics, Mark over at Project Circle spent a good many hours as our dedicated photographer and has collected some mad progress shots so I heartily encourage you all to head over there and check them out!

Catch you all later

Trev

Salamander Update - Preparing for the Apocalypse

This last week has been pretty much consumed by assembling miniatures for the upcoming Apocalypse game to round out the Vogen Campaign that I've been running for the past 3 months.  This has meant a great deal of time has been allocated towards getting the necessary marines built and ready to go.  Due to a fairly savage heat-wave that has consumed most of Australia, painting opportunities this week have been damn-near non-existent.  30 degrees celsius at midnight does not conducive painting weather make!!

Through some small miracle I've managed to build nearly all the mini's I need for this game assembled and ready for the table (though hopefully not too hard... don't want to break the little buggers now do we?).  After a reduction in points for my army, I was able to scale back the number of models I needed for the game by at least 1 or 2 Land Raiders.  I've included a couple of pictures to convey the (still sizable) scale of 2000 points of Space Marines.

For the most part, it's really just another 2000 point army in the end.  With the point restriction, I was unable to include any of the Apoc formations that suited my Fireborn (damn my lack of Thunderhammer / Storm Shield Terminators!!!). While this was unfortunate, it does mean that I can field more bodies on the table which is always good.  That said - in the realm of Apocalypse, I'm not sure if more bodies will make any difference; dinner-plate sized templates will frequently ruin your day and help you remove your beloved models by the handful.  Of the new additions, there are a couple of conversions which I feel are particularly cool, coming from my unit of Vanguard Veterans.

With all of this building going on, I'm not running dangerously low on Forgeworld Shoulderpads and am eagerly looking forward to February which will see a number of my colleagues and I make a collective order to Forgeworld.  In  addition to the mandatory pauldrons for Terminators and standard Marines alike, I'm hoping to pick up the Horus Heresy MK IV Power Weapon kit which will give me more than enough weapons to equip every character with something a little bit special.  Until then, I'll just have to be content with stripping and painting my first purchased model for the year - a Vindicare Assassin.

My first purchased mini for 2013.  Didn't even
make it a month :-)

Catch you all later,

Trev

Terrain Tuesday - Factory based and Fortified

Contrary to my previous post regarding the ineffectual use of spare time during my holidays, I have actually managed to be quite productive these last few days.  In a burst of sugar-fuelled terrain progress,  not only did I manage to base the Manufactorum, but I was also inspired enough to fortify the ground floor as well.  As per my usual basing process, I've used sand and PVA to create a durable base that will not only be easy to paint (i.e dry-brush) but is also hard-wearing and capable of enduring the rigours of gameplay.  And lets be honest here, if it can survive multiple games with my local opponents, it's damn-near indestructible.

While I was working on the base, I decided it would be a good idea to add some sand to the second level as well.  I mean, if you're going to get dirt all over the ground floor, some of it must make it to the upper floors right?  That is, unless you have a servitor whose sole function is to move through shattered buildings sweeping dirt etc off the upper levels only.  Hmmmm, might have to save that idea for a modelling project later down the road...

With the base sanded and sealed, I was pretty much ready to call it a day... until a flash of inspiration struck.  Gathering together a random collection of materials I've been collecting (white-out frames, pen components, even pieces from a double-sided tape dispenser!), I hobbled together a make-shift barricade before cementing it all in place with a generous serving of modelling paste and PVA.  As you can see, the finished product makes a very effective barricade that even an Ork would be impressed with.

With the barricade in place, I'm considering adding some extra details to the upper levels to simulate additional built-up of debris and detritus.  The modelling paste is great for quickly adding bulk to any surface (organic or otherwise) and I think I'll be using more of it in the future.

Catch you all later

Trev

Campaign Update - Turn 5 and 100 posts

So according to my stats, this entry is the 100th article to be published as part of the Triple Helix Project.  While it is a relatively small milestone for many of the more established blogs such as Fresh Coast 40K, Miniature Tim and From the Warp, but it is a milestone nonetheless. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has visited this site and made this all possible.  You guys are epic and I look forward to hearing from more of you in the future.

With the festivities out of the way, it's time to move onto the main topic of the blog.  As my regular readers will know, I've been running a 40K campaign for my local gaming club.  For those who would like to refresh themselves on the previous turns, I've included links here and here.  Since my last report, the campaign has covered another 3 turns, two of them spanning a two week stretch due to the intervention of real life.  In that time, both sides of the conflict have made advances in stops and starts with special events assisting in the conquest of a number of sectors throughout the city.

As was touched upon in previous articles, it has become apparent to not only me as the campaign organiser, but also to the other players that in games that only involved a single faction as the attacker and the city acting as the defender, the City was proving to be more stalwart then we originally anticipated; racking up victory after victory and generally proving to be a pain in the ass.  In response, I created an event that ran for a 2 week period that awarded faction players a bonus for every victory they gained in each sector.  Essentially this meant that every victory they gained would count as two, while each loss only counted for one.  By doing so, this resulted in a 50% increase in the number of sectors actually captured by each faction, allowing both sides to push towards the centre of the city, bringing them ever closer to direct confrontation  with one another.

The second event I held was integrated into Turn 4 of the campaign and was dubbed  'Operation: Head-hunter'.  This was an event that rotated purely around the identification and destruction of character models as a means of disrupting the command structure of either side. For every 20 characters killed during campaign games, the faction commander would be able to attribute a win to any location currently being sought after by the faction as a whole. The Forces of Disorder performed exceptionally, racking up an impressive 35 heads while the Forces of Order only managed to collect 22. On the upside, both sides secured an extra sector for themselves, allowing each side to push deeper into the city, swiftly closing in on the front lines on the opposing faction.

Now, after 7 weeks of hard fighting, the opposing factions have finally made contact - clashing on the outskirts of the Spaceport and securing a victory for the Forces of Order.  In addition to the special events, a series of mega-battles have been played on a regular occurrence, always involving multiple generals commanding armies on the same table.  These multi-player battles have been always close-fought events, with each game hinging on one or two Victory Points.  I though I'd take the opportunity to show you a couple of shots from our latest Mega-battle, a 2 vs 1 game, where the Salamanders and Space Wolves stood against a mighty force of Chaos Space Marines, specifically the renegade contingent of Red Skulls that are currently leading the assault against the City of Vogen.

So at the beginning, our battle-lines looked were set up pretty defensively, with the objective being to capture as many buildings as possible.

The battlefield looked like this:

The deployment zone of the Forces of Order looked like this:

The Forces of Disorder deployment was as such:

Now for some of the highlights - The Daemon Prince took a very offensive position, swooping towards the main concentration of Loyalist forces on the northern flank.  Before he was able to make his assault however, he was engulfed by heavy fire, forcing him to return to land heavily in front of the fortified Hab-Block.

Here he was engaged in mortal combat with a mighty Wolf Lord, the appointed Warlord of the Space Wolf contingent present on Khai-Zhaan.  A mighty battle was fought, with both combatants taking many wounds before the Daemon Prince was banished back to the warp.

While both sides traded heavy fire the Wolf Lord continued on to engage not one but two Hellbrutes, armed with flailing power-scourges.  With titanic effort, he destroyed both, shattering their warp-forged hulls and banishing the evil contained within.

But not all was to go well for the Forces of Order.  The Red Skulls possessed enough heavy weaponry to dominate the field, systematically decimating tanks and Marines alike.  Not even the mighty Wolf Lord was to be spared as a Predator's Lascannon finally felled the mighty warrior.  While not slain outright, the Wolf Lord would play no further part in the battle that was to come.

For the Loyalists, the southern flank was not as strongly defended, with both Vindicators being destroyed before they could effectively suppress the renegades with their devastating (however limited) ordinance.  In a cruel twist of fate, the mighty Warlord of Khorne that led the sortie was rewarded time and time again for his prowess, indiscriminately ending the lives of enemy commanders and their Lieutenants with ease until he was unceremoniously transformed into a gibbering spawn-creature whose existence was ended in a hail of mass-reactive shells from numerous bolters.

As the dust settled, the points were tallied, and it was discovered that the Forces of Disorder had secured victory by a mere 2 VP's.  A tight game indeed!  Many thanks to Dan and Ryan for participating in the event, I cannot thank you guys enough.  Hope everyone enjoys reading about the game, I know it's not a full battle report, but I hope it was still fun to read.

Catch you all later,

Trev