Zengo December 21st

[Mike the Pike]

Sorry folks, it looks as though I won't be able to make it to this month's event as I have family stuff to do before I head back to New Zealand.

@Lovejoy: Sorry to pike on your Dredd game. I really wanna try it out at some stage.

[Lovejoy]

@MtP, not to worry. The silver lining here is that an even number of players makes the Dredd teams much easier to calculate. The Apocalypse War backdrop needn't be used either, being as the Sov's aren't coming just yet.
I think I may need to pair on the side of the Justice Dept since the opposing players will not feature Judges. Could be time for Brit-Cit Judge Inspector Gorse and Beat Judge Brewis to do their thing, ably assisted by Para-Squad Judge Strange.

Had a shufty at my empire models for Hail Sigmar.. They look better than I remember, and I feel quite excited about ranking the little fellers up again..although I can't consider them a completely finished army paint job wise. There are about 200 minis and they were basically basecoated, inked and based extremely rapidly within about 2 months.

[ashmie]

My son has a fever and my wife is sick also so I need to stay with them today. My back is also not good so I need to take a rest also. Too much work and no play. I hope to see you all in the New Year, lets try Hail Caesar next month Rich? I've Pm'd you so hopefully get this message before packing everything up. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

[Lovejoy]

Time to repack before the train. I'll just bring Dredd... Not sure what'll I'm doing in the morning though.

++edit++ I'll be a little later now, but aim for midday.

[job]

@ the morning 40k guys: I'll be 10 minutes late.

[Auxryn]

Thanks for the games, guys!

In the morning, the forces of anarchy descended on the pitiful humans and their wretched tau allies, mercilessly accomplishing objective after objective, standing relentlessly on a variety of flag and markers until the humans stopped shooting the snot out of them and begged for mercy.
In short, we won handily on objectives but nearly got tabled. A victory is a victory though. We were fortunately the game ended turn 5.

In the afternoon, the Night Lords were betrayed by the Blood Axes of Waaagh Stompagit. They intimidated the surviving humans into fighting the Orks, launching a surprise counter attack and nearly killing Stompagit himself. Unfortunately the wily mek escaped, and the ork losses will be easily replaced. There are always more Boyz looking for a fight.
Dekana and Job really had me against the wall on this one. I managed to barely steal linebreaker with a run move on turn 5, turning a rout into a tie. If the game had gone past turn 5, I would have conceded. Just goes to show that 40k is full of weird and wacky twists and it isn't over till it's over.

[The Underdweller]

Komura San, Thanks for the Tyranid Codex! It is a nice Christmas present

All: Thanks for the games!

Today I had a fun time killing some Orks and Chaos with Tau Battlesuits.

I also learned that Maelstrom 40K games involve some cards, and that, rather than the random events or small bonuses or penalties I supposed they would be, they actually give you extra things you can do to get points, one for every objective you control, every round. Also that Fusion Blasters have an 18 inch range and that Ion Accelerators Get Hot when using the non-overcharged Blast. Apparently I have not played enough 40K recently. Or maybe I have, it was a lot of fun anyway!

I also learned some things during my 2 Judge Dredd games, but since I have only played it for a total of about 2 hours I feel that is more justified. My first game was the second shortest I have ever played, as my entire crew ran away after watching a guy get killed, and then I had a brief but intense battle against some monkeys with flamers, which reconfirmed my faith in Heavy Spit Guns and Psychic flame fingers. Lovejoy, thanks for letting me play with your toys!

[Dekana]

@komura-san, thanks very much for lending me your vostroyans again!

Thanks to Job, Auxryn, and The Underdweller for the 40k games! What a difference the two matches were.

In the morning, I brought the good old Punisher / Executioner tank duo along with an Eradicator (ignores cover tank) and mechanized melta vets. They allied up with the filthy Tau out of convenience and basically acted as meatshields for the xenos all game. One veteran squad heroically positioned itself at the front of the combat to prevent infiltrators from getting too close, and it somehow managed to survive the first round of ork / chaos shooting. The tanks were then charged when some of the boys survived the Punisher's shooting, but not before dealing some good damage to the chaos bikers and blowing up the ork walker. Most of the IG were dead by the end of the game while the Tau were basically untouched!

Looking back, I think I should have deployed the second chimera closer to the front line. The melta vets were there to destroy enemy armor (ie the gorkanaut) and instead went for targets they were totally unsuited to fight (like bikes with jink saves). That caused the leman russes to basically forgo their main weapons to instead fish for explosions with their meltaguns. Not a good use of my resources at all. Using veterans as a speedbump to slow down close-combat troops can be a decent strategy, but in general my shooting wasn't good enough to take advantage of the time gained.

In the afternoon game, a series of pretty disastrous rolls for Auxryn put my gun line IG force at the far side of the board, sitting on one of the only two objectives, with a successful seize the initiative. The game turned out as expected, with the combined IG / Chaos shooting destroying anything before it could get close enough to charge the gun line. Props to Auxryn for pulling a tie out of that game. I liked bringing the vanquishers for that kind of a list. The wyverns were as overpowered as always, but then again, footslogging orks are exact type of unit they're supposed to counter.

Looking forward to next month's games. Merry New Year everyone!

[job]

@ Komura: Many thanks for lending Dekana your IG and making our games possible.
@ the 40k gang: Thanks a lot for the games. Each were both education and fun.

The first game was mostly a one-Orc show for the Orc-Night Lords alliance, as that one Nob gloriously went on a rampage with his power claw and crushed 3 IG tanks before finally falling to a hail of fire. There was also some good coordination between the Orc jet bikes and CSM bikers to wipe out some of the IG. I suppose the rest of my force was pretty under-whelming as noted by Dekana, but then again there were the mission objectives and some lackluster rolls. Anyway, the game was tight, and that is what was most important.

In the 2nd game, I suppose first the mission, the deployment, then the Warlord roll all favored the Night Lords- IG alliance. Stealing initiative and then some pretty good rolling by Dekana and I really helped. Tip of the beanie hat to Dekana for prioritizing the Orc trucks. Especially losing the truck for the mounted mega-nobz was tough I think for Auxryn. Still, another tip of the beanie to Auxryn for finding a way to pull a draw out of a rather difficult situation.

Pics
Game 1

Planning the battle.


Gorkanaut and Night Lords


Riptide and IG armor


The bikes race up to capture an objective.


The IG tanks and Riptide fire salvos into the on-coming bikes.


Destroying the trapped IG.


The hero Nob begins his rampage amongst the IG tanks.


The Cultists attempt to assault the Imperial positions.

Game 2

The IG and Night Lords man the defenses.


The hand of Gork (or Mork?) compels the tankbustas from their wrecked ride.


The Helblade arrives from reserves and immediately contributes by destroying the nobz' ride.

[Lovejoy]

My first Zengo. First, I must say a big thank you to Komura san for a wonderful early xmas present! I received a Space Wolves battleforce. Wow. Now I can put 15 Blood Claws in a Land Raider! Komura san, I will also give you something useful for you from my collection!

After a change of plan, I arrived at midday, and was instantly offered a Ronin game by Prim, against Komura San. I was very happy to jump in. I have the rulebook and had been meaning to get round to this (my list of non played rulebooks and starter sets is shameful). The rules themselves are workmanlike, not half bad though, and do the job well. The standout is a really fun hidden dice mechanic for attack and defence in melee which is a little different and caused a bit of laughter.
The setting of course is great - This is the main draw. It felt like a Kurosawa movie, so I see Ronin in my future for 2015 most definitely. Winning also helped.

It was nice to see a newcomer, however briefly, as Mikballs popped in. Hopefully you'll be able to play next time.

Dredd for the second half of the day. I played 2 games, my new Judge force..pretty generic list.. got creamed by Prims Apes in the first (proving that the monkey menace can make a mess of you, something that I hadn't seen before), I managed a rapid victory in the second (as Underdweller has mentioned above), a very lucky turn of events - after seeing one of their heroes downed, her rabble of pomade wearing Juves fled. That'll learn 'em.

In a third game - which I only watched, Prim's Apes messed up Underdweller's Street Gang..initially..it looked like being a replay of the previous game where my Judges were burnt to a crisp by monkeys.. But, in time Underdweller's heavy spit gun, the high velocity rifle and the incincerating finger talent took their toll and the Gorillas were beaten. Due to dreadful post-game campaign rolls, the cheeky chimps seem to have been retired as a force, since 3 out of 4 of them are pushing up the daisies. As is only proper.
A fun day, and a good way to end 2014's gaming calendar.

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year, everyone!