Dust, rubble and the grind of tank treads: Cities of Death in 6th Edition

We gathered our forces for a game of adapting Cities of Death (COD) Mission, Relief Force, to a 6th edition set of rules. I pulled out some more terrain for the event and combined with my buddy's stash, we set the stage.

An isolated garrison of Tau Imperial troops holed up in a large ruined building. The position had been fortified with the COD strategems. Tau forces were allowed 2 strategems and a bonus key building strategem. The chose Fortified Building, adding +1 cover to units within it, and Plunging Fire, which confers a -1 cover save to units being shot from higher levels of the building.  The bonus key building strategem was Ammo Dump, which gives a single unit to-hit re-rolls each shooting phase.

The Imperial Guard were moving a large force through the area, after having located the isolated Tau troops defending the vital location. They chose to take siege shells for their demolisher and a demolition strategem which sets a bomb within a building to destroy it during the game. Both strategems were made for destroying buildings and it was clear the Imperial Guard were planning to flatten the area.

At the start of the game, Tau troops held the position with the rest of the army on the way in reserve. The plan was to stage a brutally efficient counter-attack against the numerically superior Imperial guardsmen and their armored vehicles. 

Aggression is the only valor here. 

Kroot meet the Imperial advance head-on while the Fire Caste plunges fire into the enemy. 

The heroic efforts of the Kroot are repelled as street-to-street combat erupts in the center of the board. Tanks ram through the buildings and force their way around and into the improvised bunker. 

Just as things begin to liven up, Tau piranhas race to eliminate the Guard heavy weapons. 

Battlesuits and skimmer tanks arrive to deliver their blows in hasty counter-attack. The Tau commander is blown to bits by a well placed demolisher round, a cry that reverberates through the Tau commincation system. The coordinated assault nearly spirals into a chaotic fight for survival but a wizened Fire Blade pulls it together. His calm determination enables the Tau to re-focus their counter-assault. 

But their pace is dragged down as imperial fire forces them to take cover among the ruins and wreckage.

 They watch as guardsmen pour into the building by leaping over damaged barricades. Close-combat breaks and the Tau hold their own...for a time. 

Their numbers weigh the defenders down such that none can escape the multitudes of enemies. Editors note: Those Kroot are on the Imperial side by the way, the splitters!

The victorious Guardsmen celebrate by unleashing the worst of what it means to be human. 

A couple notes about the game. 

We didn't really think too far ahead in adapting the old COD rules to 6th Edition so there were some decision points. The biggest disconnect is within the rules for setting up a game, determining deployment order, first turn and terrain set up. We pretty much winged it and even just gave Tau first turn since it seemed too much like a foregone conclusion. Fire Warriors and Kroot really can't defend themselves too well against heavy vehicles. However, in this game I feel they did rather well. 

The strategems really help in these kinds of special missions. They add flavor and narrative while enhancing what you can do on the tabletop. While the guardsmen didn't get to destroy any buildings, I would have loved to see that. What a thematic approach for the Imperial Guard - blow it to smitherines!

About the mission.

This is one I have been seeking out for a long time. For years I have mentally mulled about building a "take the town" mission and this one is fits the vision I had in mind, with some tweaks. Basically, the defending player sets up his troops units in a piece of fortified terrain towards the center of the board. His opponent then sets up his entire army and attacks. The remainder of the defending player's forces come in via the usual reserves rules. 

With this in mind, I realize I should have traded the plunging fire strategem for the Deep Strike strategem. Being able to deep strike my suits would have made for quicker delivery of burst cannons and missile pods in important points. 

Anyway, I think this mission provides a structure for a classic Take the Town, Bunker, Hill, whatever game. Additionally the use of strategems helps to add some more depth to game. 

That's kind of gaming I am looking for at least -theme, special missions, realistic environments and classic matches.

Infinity and a Columbus Day Discovery

Alright, if you hadn't already guessed it, the model I previewed below is the Hsien with Multirifle and AP CCW from the Infinity line. Pro pics are coming (I've got a lot to do) along with some other pics of things I've been working on.

He's looking pretty nice. An airbrush helped me achieve a very even coat of orange-brown on the armor which I then went back to and shaded and highlighted. The armor was then carefully masked off and I painted the cloak with the airbrush.

Because the cloak has a flowing shape, I decided to do my shading and highlighting with the airbrush. I sprayed down my basecolor, which was a 50/50 mix of GW:Red Gore and GW: Scorched Brown. Once that was dry, I mixed some GW: Moody Blue into it (from their original line, yes, their paint pots used to be so good the paint would last 15+ years) for the shading. Adding a cool color gives it some depth and more visual interest - which black does not give you.

Once the shading was dry, I took my original mix (minus the Moody Blue) and added some GW: Bubonic Brown, which is a yellowy brown. Yellow warms it up on the highlights and again adds more visual interest. It's important to go slow with airbrush when doing highlights or else you can really screw up your shading work.

The shading and highlighting was a bit stark, and even though I love contrast and vibrancy, I had to tone it down a bit. I mixed up my original color (SB and RG), diluted it with water quite a bit, and then sprayed over the cloak. The coat was translucent enough so that I did not ruin the shading and highlighting, but added enough color so that it tied it together.

This is a process I learned from M. Fontaine in his airbrushing seminar last year at Adepticon. He does it slightly differently - using blacks and whites instead of the warm and cool colors I used - but the process is essentially the same.

In honor of Columbus Day, my buddy Lo Pan and I discovered this garage in Reston, VA. Local inhabitants were already there, but we discovered it. So we began the process of raising an army to subjugate the locals. Below you will see the results of our labors.

Just a basecoat at present. Lo Pan is going to keep working on them and if I have time, I'll help out. Hopefully I can post to this blog as this army gets done.

Last Stand at Vodenhrad

I'm not really 100% sure what "narrative" gaming is, but our little gaming group is giving it a try. This is our first attempt and, boy, was it a real blast. 

We set the scene - beleaguered defenders of the Imperial Guard, holed up in a prepared defense against the onslaught of a mechanized Tau Empire force. Armored transports, heavy tanks and battlesuits would surely mean the death of the poor men - but they would never yield, these defenders of the Imperium. They knew the enemy well. Months of bitter struggle and campaigning had preceeded this day and the Guardsmen would not give that up for no greater good. 

They stood in defiance. They stood in defense of Vodenhrad, along the banks of the Velb River, a vital waypoint in the battle for the continent.

We started the game with uneven points - Tau had 1500, while the Guard had 1250. I wanted the Guardsmen to really get pummeled by the advancing Tau-  at least in the early stages of the battle. So we banned vehicles for the Guard and made all their defenders fearless - it wouldn't seem fitting for stalwart guardsmen to be running away would it?

The Tau had fewer restrictions but we wanted to give ourselves a challenge too. Considering we had to assault a fortified position., we removed the option to take Kroot. Hopefully this would provide a greater challenge - not sure if it worked though, because we also took XV9s and those things are deadly.

Seems unbalanced? It was. 

But game-balance wasn't the point. We wanted to build some drama. And what happens in the end of a Last Stand - either everyone dies or the calvary arrives to save the day. We didn't want the end to be certain death so we allowed the Guard some reinforcements - a Vendetta would be appropriate, some storm troopers, maybe Marbo shows up, and perhaps even Harker...

Then we got to it. We set up the terrain collaboratively. For deployment we chose to deploy on the short-edges instead of the long. 

Tau forces assemble a spearhead with XV9s and Hammerheads at its point. Fire Warriors mount up - their goal - take and hold a key building in the IG deployment zone. A Stealth Team infiltrates to harass the defenders while the force advances. 

To commence battle, Hammerheads train their railgun cannons dead center of the Imperial Guard lines. 

The stunned Guardsmen rush to the defenses. Some men shout commands, others make peace with their maker, while others still check their ammo. Suddenly a railgun round explodes in the midst of the assembled troops. Then another. showering their position with dirt, grit, and bloody guts. The rounds continue. Comrades exchange glances one second, only to be obliterated the next. The ground itself seems to erupt under the heavy fire from Tau hammerhead tanks. Yet the Guardsmen hold.

XV9s leap into the open, only to stumble and buckle under a hailstorm of disciplined lasfire, autocannon shells and flashing psychic powers. Drones go down, but the XV9s return the favor with hot pulse bursts.   Gaurdsmen fall like discarded rag dolls. Some simply slump and die where they crouch. Whole squads extinguish before their commander's very eyes. 

Their only hope - the quad gun. A lowly private rushes to its triggers. A deep rhythmic thudding undercuts the high pitched whine of burstcannons. The quad barrels pump back and forth, its shells hammering into the battlesuits, stalling their advance. 

On the right flank, Guardsmen scramble to form a line amongst the choas of the battle. Sergeants bellow orders to hold, while oncoming fire peppers the defence line. Muzzle flashes pop from the ruins. Dark shadows shift about - a Stealth Team picks off unwise guardsmen. Eyes widen, voices curse as a Devilfish to glide up the flank, unmolested. Until...

Like a cloud burst of lightning, a beam of blue laser annihilates a hammerhead. A Vendetta roars into view. Stormtroopers drop from the skies to wreck another tank with meltagun heatwaves. Tau officers curse their faulty intelligence and scramble to form a defense. Guardsmen cheer as the Vendetta strafes the battlefield. Harker and his boys come on from the right and come to grips with Tau Stealth Suits and Shas'la in a bitter struggle for survival. The field becomes a killing frenzy with both sides suffering horrific losses. 

In a last ditch attempt to take the defenses, Fire Warriors position themselves for a volley and unleash fire from long rifles, more men drop but the ensuing firefight forces the Shas'la to flee. The remaining Battlesuits advance, yet fall to the rallied men of the Imperial Guard. The Tau retreat, leaving only exhausted Guardsmen, lifeless bodies, moaning wounded and smoking ruins. 

Vodenhrad was safe, but the cost was great. 

Cheesy, but I hope you enjoyed it. 

For us, it was a win all round. With precious few gaming sessions per month, I've got the time to develop something with more depth than a pure 40k battle. This game was loosely based around the last scene from Savng Private Ryan - and it seemed to work well despite the unbalanced army lists. 

Narrative seems to work best by simply setting the stage and then playing it out. By adding restrictions to lists and reserves, we are able to create a cast of characters. By collaborative terrain placement, we can build the setting. All that comes next is dice rolling and tactical game play, there were no changed rules during the game and no GM...we just set the stage and let the actors play it out...

Frag Tournament, March 27th

Saturday, March 27th, I drove up to Glen Burnie with a friend to throw down at a Frederick Area Gamers Tournament. There were roughly 18 players present, 9 tables and pretty much good times all around. I took a cadre that I posted previously. I had little time to practice with this list in advance but I did fairly well with the army.

First game I was matched up with my long time adversary, Brian F., known on blogger as Mon-Keigh Reaper. The mission was old-school. Table Quarters and Victory Points and aptly named Cleanse, a throw-back from 3rd and 4th edition.

Brian brought his Ravenwing army with him and while thought it was going to be an easy kill, he did some things that I didn't expect. First of all he outflanked two or three attack bikes with multimeltas. Although I took first turn by seizing the initiative, turns one and two used the nightfight rules and he was able to pounce on my lines under the cover of darkness.

I also tried something new with this list. After reading Fritz's recent articles on the Null Deployment, I decided that I was going to play around with my reserves. I deep-struck all of my suits, reserved my Mechanized Fire Warriors and Piranhas and outflanked my Kroot. The goal was to have an army that would hit him from all sides. I would simply not have a zone to protect, but I would be at all places at once. The strategy is risky, but I felt it was necessary because I knew if I simply set up, the nightfight rules would allow Brian's Bikers to hit my squads on turn two to wipe me out. It only half-worked. My Pathfinder's Devilfish got wrecked so I couldn't re-roll deepstrike on my suits and I lost 4 Battlesuits to a horrible accident! In addition to that, his mobility and multiple numbers of scoring units won Brian the game on Turn 5. If we had gone one more turn, it might have been a different story as I still had a core force that could have killed off his remnant squads. I still have a lot to learn about Null Deployment. Good thing Fritz just posted 3 new videos to Youtube.

I must say that I really like how Brian's army is turning out. He's kept it strictly Ravenwing and he's nearly completed painting the majority of his Bikers. He's also learning how to protect his "weak" units like his Speeders and attack bikes, making them more effective and dangerous. I'm not going to go into too much details as I've already gone loads of Battle Reports against this army.

Although it was a  loss for me, I had claimed just shy of 1,000 points of victory points. I knew my army had the potential to rip marines to shreds and preliminary tests of the Tau Null Deployment are promising. So I was excited about the next game.

My new match-up against the Fabulous Orcboy, a regular reader here and an all around nice guy, had my Cadre meeting the Hammer of the Emperor in Urban Warfare. The game was a great time. Guardsmen poured fire from rooftops,  infantry crawled across mangled ruins and the outnumbered Tau Battlesuits and grav-tanks desperately weathering the horrendous pummeling from the Imperial Guard.  Very cinematic.

I am always amazed at the vast amount of firepower the Imperial Guard can bring to the table. Fortunately for me, the Orcboy (who's crotch can be seen above) had set up the majority of his forces on one side of the board. So I deployed on the other, relying on the range of railguns to do damage. Win-conditions were based on Kill Points.

The Imperial Guardsmen seemed to have a seasoned distaste for the Valkyrie's mark as the Pathfinders were the first to meet their hot lead. Once eliminated the Broadsides took on the brunt of IG shooting. They held out to enemy fire, autocannon and las fire ricocheting off their battlesuit armor. Evenutally they fell to the weight of fire, the last of their team fell around turn 4 or so. The Imperial Guard can really pump out the shots but with luck, Disruption Pods and careful use of terrain, the Tau army can be surprisingly resilient. my Grav-tanks managed to hold out till the end, with the exception of a Devilfish or two.

There were many highlights for me. Old Shatter Hands and bodyguard deepstriking down behind enemy lines in the last 2 minutes of the game, blasting a Leman Russ off the board for a final Kill Point and extra battle points for killing the most expensive unit. My Fire Warriors got some fighting in this game and I  was glad I had decided to field 8 of them in their 'fish. At one point in the game, one of my 'fish tank-shocked a large unit of Guardsmen, who fled in terror from the Xenos grav-tank. My detached Gun Drones escorted them off the board but tactically it was an error. I ended up trading kill point for a kill point by that move when I could have simply let them run and hope they failed to regroup.

End game kill point 7-6, Orcboy victory. What really lost me the game were the detached Gun Drones. Easy kills for the massed of autocannon fire peppering the ruined city. However. I did manage to get the secondary and tertiary objectives, bumping me up to table 6!

This table, once again a Cityfight themed board, had me matched up against Space Wolves. There were tall buildings and loads of cover in the deployment zone, but surprising little out in no-man's land. My opponent, Tom, showed me his list but I was too tired at this point to read it and instead went by the visual account of his army. He won first turn deployed a line of Rhinos and 'speeders and told me something about reserves but I didn't catch it.

This game's mission was to claim an objective in the center of the board. There were two other objectives that oly gave you bonus points. Whoever claimed the middle objective, won the game. With that task, I decided to deploy all of my non-essential units: the Pathfinders, the Skyray, the Crisis suits and Broadsides. I reserved my piranhas, all of my Devilfish and my Hammerhead for some help late game.

It was a good thing too because Tom had 4 pods in reserve which he didn't tell me about! Wolf Guard and Dreadnoughts rained from the sky and wrecked some key units. My Skyray was turned to white-hot molten metal. Old Shatter Hands and his boys had holes ripped through their torsos in the flurry of fire from the Wolf Guard. My Broadsides got punked by Jaws of the World Wolf and my hope of wearing a wolf-pelt home was shattered.

To be honest I was a little ticked at myself because Tom had told me units were in reserve but he did not show me what they were. I was tired and I failed to query any further. He had his pods in cases during deployment and I had not made a point of inspecting further. He gave me his list which was a little hard to read, (does anyone else find the Army Builder printouts difficult to look at?). In his run down of the army, he didn't say anything about pods. Was he keeping it secret? Or was it my fault that I failed to ask?

No matter what surprises Tom had for me, I was going to stick to the plan. Play the mission, keep moving and be smart. My first turn out, I decided to take out his fast units. My Broadside were at the top of a building with a wide range of fire. I could choose my targets. Who would it be?

The Broadside Team Leader called out, "Shas'Ui! The trap is set, you know your task." The hulking suits took aim and let loose with their particle accelerators  In an instant, three flaming wrecks fell from the sky. Three Space Wolf Speeders were done for.

Next order of business, knock out the rhinos. My Deathrains had one chance and one chance only. The following turn they would be dead. They let fly their missiles and immobilized a Rhino. Sidestriker too took aim and wrecked a Rhino. The next turn, one more Rhino got wreck by my fire. The first phase of the plan was complete. I had lured Tom to my board edge and knocked out his mobility. Now it mattered little what deaths were in store for my Elites and Heavy Support. Only my troops mattered now

On to the next phase.

Tom liked to spring surprises so I sprung one of my own. My Pathfinder's Devilfish, which was empty, made a mock-play for the objective. Assuming this decoy 'Fish was moving to claim the objective, the Space Wolves moved out to attack it. When it was wrecked and nothing piled out, the Space Wolves paused a moment in disbelief.

Then my Hammerhead came on and took aim. It downed the final Speeder, removing th threat of any Turn 5 objective grabs. I made a couple attacks with Sidestriker to draw attention. Crisis Suits act like magnets and the wolves went after Sidestriker and away from the objective. All the while my troop carriers moved into position.

The Space Wolves had been so pre-occupied with and successful at destroying my army that my opponent did not try to claim the objectve.

Turn 4 came and the 20-minute warning was made. Time to bomb the only objective that mattered. My troop carriers glided over the heads of Grey Hunters to the objective. These Grey Hunter were the only unit able to contest the objective at this point. The Fire Warriors on the objective disembarked to rapid fire. I knew it wouldn't be enough. I called on the one strength the Tau Empire has that no other army can claim as well as us. Mobile Firepower: the ability to bring the weight of your entire army on one point of the battle field. My piranhas moved into range. Another squad of Fire Warriors disembarked and set up shots. Remnant drones, scattered across the board, moved into position. There were 8 Grey Hunters to kill. I had no AP3 wepaons. Just massed S5, AP5 weapons.

I rolled the dice. Again and again. When I was finished, the wolves were gone. Game over, Tau victory! While I complain about the poor state of Tau in 5th edition, I must say that only in 5th edition can you get your ass kicked for 5 turns and still win the game!

Eldar Titan accompanies Tau to Battle: 10,000-Point Apocalypse Battle Report