Last Thursday I moved to Albany, NY to attend grad school for the next five years. I can't say I'm too happy to be here yet, but now that classes are starting and I'll be cripplingly busy soon enough I'm sure I'll forget about the distance from here to my fiancee and gaming buds back in PA ... Anyway, killing definitely went down in the run up to my big move:

Anarchonquistadores & Khorney Chaos vs Tau & Tau [3000] - A friend of mine just finished painting most of the table in his Battle Basement and hosted a game between the four of us to break it in. By that I mean the Tau's fishy faces as well as the new table. Batrep (with pics!) is here on Dakka, definitely worth checking out. And no, I won't spoil it.

CHAOS ???

Violators vs Ork Fleet [1500] - Back to spaceship fighting, my Violators fleet (the one in the pics back when) took on a new and insane ork fleet. Big named battleship, 2 terror ships and an amazing number of brute ram ships (30). Judicious use of brace for impact and then carefully staying out of ramming lines kept the impact damage down, but I did end up losing a carnage and having the other crippled by the dozen brutes chasing it and just blazing away at it. In a decisive two turns the ork battleship was crippled and hulked, and likewise the terrors ended up crippled and about 20 brutes were dead by the time the greenskin fleet disengaged.

CHAOS WIN

Note on BFG, I have since painted a second Acheron to tentatively replace the Styx, as well as more Infidels to swell the escort ranks with the points saved. And I've also lost anybody to play against. Poop.

Anarchonquistadores vs Space Wolves [1500] - In what would be my final game in PA (for now!), the boys in black & brown took on some all infantry, fistageddon Space Pups. His list was something like Wolf Chappy, Wolf Librarian (5+ cover save power), 3x 15 blood claws (maximum fists, including fisty wolf guard leaders), 1x 15 blood claws w/ bolters (maximum fists, and the wolf guard fister too). The packs may have been bigger, but 15 seems pretty huge to me already.

His game plan was pretty attuned to 5th edition, or at least the way screening works - packs deploy in long lines across the board, stormcaller (5+ cover power) is cast on the front pack, and all the lines run across into your face. Front squad gets 5+ cover, ones behind get 4+ cover for being screened.

For our part, the spiky marines locked, loaded and prepared to shoot the hell out of those fist-spammin' dogs. Even with excellent run rolls - and those long chains were being pulled through difficult terrain for the most part too - I'd get solid rounds of blasting as they came in for the crumping.

This would be Kill Points, Pitched Battle. Delicious.

Wolves 1
Everything ran for me, with the Wolf Chappy in the front pack and the Wolf Libby somewhere around the second and third lines. The bolter squad started climbing into an elevated position in his deployment zone. Stormcaller went off on the front squad.

Chaos 1
Deathscreamer & 1k Sons shuffled around a bit, but otherwise it was right to killing. Really not too many died from the front pack considering, but the blastmaster scored two wounds and the Wolves failed the pin test @ -2. I was pretty surprised that the Wolf Chappy doesn't make his boys fearless ...

Wolves 2
Wolf Scouts appear behind the 1k Sons, downing one with a pistol, missing with their meltagun and then hoping into combat. The rest of the Wolves charged forward, but became a bit bunched up where the front squad had been pinned in place. Also, the bolter squad properly attained their perch and realized they had nothing remotely in range. Stormcaller I think failed to cast this turn ...

In combat the deathscreamer either rolled a 6 and fluffed 9 attaks down to 1 wound, or rolled a 1 and took a wound (both happened at some point). Anyway, the 1k Sons lost 2 robots and amazingly beat down 2 scouts by themselves (no need for lords or sorcerers).

Chaos 2
Unforunately the girls wanted to play already, so summoned in front of his pinned Chappy squad and prepared to be mauled. But first, shooting accounted for a bunch of the second line and knocked the chappy's squad down to the Chappy and a couple fists.

Which wasn't enough to save the chicks, who were mangled by the Chappy (3 dead), dragged down 1 fister, lost some more to the wolf guard fist and then popped a couple from the No Retreat! bunk. The last 4-5 girls made sad eyes as all those big viking marines licked their lips ... The deathscreamer either fluffed or hurt himself, but again the robots clubbed another scout to death leaving just 1 locking them up.

Wolves 3
Charging time?! A nice full strength pack lept to the front line (probably #3) and was stormcalled, and then pack #2 (old Wolf Sorcerer too) piled in with the remnants of #1 to beat up some chicks. Which they did.

Chaos 3
Annnd now the termies wanted to play, so they dropped to the rightmost end of the front, 5+ cover pack, with the intention of blitzing off a couple Pups and then punishing him for extending the line so far out - by charging the last man next turn he would only get 6" of counter-charge, only enough to bring 2 of 4 fists into play. Nobody else felt like moving, so unloaded into that front squad for a bit, opening a gap into the second squad which the blastmaster tapped and pinned! And the powerfist that was hanging out wiht the Chappy was knocked away, thothe big man having previously joined the now pinned squad.

Wolves 4
With the rear pack pinned (including Wolf Libby & Chappy), the front squad barreled into the terminators, though as predicted couldn't get all 4 fists swinging. For which they were punished, killing 0 terminators and losing a few more of their own, breaking and running for it. The terminators could only consolidate in response, making sure to move within 6" of the fleeing squad.

Chaos 4
The enemy had been reduced to the 15 bolter pups in the backfield, 2 running fister pups (so that broken squad was WAY shot up before, apparently), and about 10 pups with Chappy & Not-Libby. The obliterator and deathscreamer / sons moved to hammer the bolter hounds, though the oblit missed the plasma cannon shot and the S4 AP3 guns from the other squad went into the pinned unit. Eevil firepower ultimately knocked that one unit down to the characters + 2 powerfists, due to cover saves and more average rolling from me. Despite having seen the buffs that counter-attak + wolf pelt gives Wolf characters, my terminators charged in and were diced up, given the pups a heart consolidation towards my noise marines ...

Wolves 5
Which they clearly took advantage of, charging those 2 characters + 2 fists into the noise marines in difficult terrain. This actually resulted in the Faux-Libby not quite making it this round, which was unfortunate as the Chappy managed only 2 dead noisy boys with his 6 attaks, and in return the deaf marines hacked down the powerfisters before they could swing.

Chaos 5
The oblit and deathscreamer / sons advanced on the bolter marines, ripping them down to half strength or so. The fisty 10 CSM squad mobilized and jumped into the fight with the noise marines, and the elements of the chaos army that still felt like shooting riddled the rallied 2 marines from that broken pack with bullets and missiles.

The Wolf Chappy felt the wrath of S4 combat weapons, giving up the two wounds he had to give and finally going down. The Wolf Shaman beat upon the noise marines but with limited success.

Wolves 6
The bolters missed and the Shaman-dude fought, dropping a noise marine or so for a wound in return.

Chaos 6
The oblit + deathscreamer + sons smacked the bolter pack off the table, and the CSM fist bite down and crumped the old Wolf Wizard properly. Wolves, tabled.

CHAOS WIN

So a long, drawn out way to say: he ran, I shot, there was some fighting but evil triumphed in the end (because good is stupid and dumb). But I don't have class or work today so long and drawn out it is!

Painting: Ogres
Building: N/A

The full 1500 Violators fleet hit the board last night, teamed up with a 1500 plaguefleet (PLANETKILLER & friends) against an incredibly escort-heavy Imperial fleet led by an APOCALYPSE. Generic cruiser clash, with a whopping foud planets on the table for terrain :P

Violators & Plaguefleet vs Unknown Imperial Fleet [3000]

Chaos seized the initiative and began closing with the massive Imperial fleet, though due to the extreme ranges involved the majority of the Chaos fire was directed into the mines that the Imperials had deployed around the planets near the traitor fleet. Gaze of the Unclean, the nurgle planetkiller, however slammed its armageddon gun through two Imperial escorts, obliterating one and setting off the shield on the other. First blood!

The Imperial response was likewise minimal, as the fleet split to engage the two traitor fleets and the apocalypse steamed forward to take the planetkiller head on. Despite the small star blocking much of the Violators fleet from the Imperial guns Bass God took two direct hits from nova cannons! Judicious bracing resulted in only two hits being caused after shields, praise be to Slaanesh. Two squadrons of four cobras lined up the Gaze of the Unclean and launched torpedoes, as did the apocalypse and several other ships, filling that crowded area of space even more, though none made contact as of yet.

Now able to draw their guns into range the Chaos fleets prepared to turn the heat up. The Violators fleet consolidated to the port side of the cruisers jockeying around the star, but extreme range resulted in the weapon batteries of Cacophonic and Distortion putting just three hits onto the closest tyrant. The plaguefleet proved more ferocious, dropping all four shields on the apocalypse and accounting for four of its twelve hits. Both Chaos fleets dispatched fighters to take out the remaining mines and two of the torpedo salvos in coming on the planetkiller.

With the traitor vessels drawing close the Imperial fleet had to react. Against the Violators that arm of the fleet continued moving around the star, with the ships nearest the Chaos fleet firing broadsides into Cacophonic. The tainted ship braced for impact ... and needn't have, as shields absorbed the two hits that landed. Pleasure Throes, bringing up the tail of the Violators and visible around the other side of the star, took a couple shield hits but no cause for concern. The rest of the Imperials descended upon the plaguefleet, but all the fire, torpedoes and bombers resulted in a single hit on the planetkiller and several dropped shields.

Time to kill. The Violators swooped upon the squadron of tyrants, with Bass God going on lock on orders for supreme vengeance. Fire from throughout the fleet resulted in a hulked tyrant, three hits and a destroyed gun battery on another, and a massive bomber flight from Blistering Excess saw a third crippled. Bass God tagged a hit on the apocalypse as well, but the Nurgle warmaster protested loudly as he had moved his fleet in to deliver the killing blow to the battleship. Which they did with an impressive show of force, dropping all four shields and doing the seven hits (and three more!) needed to hulk the enormous flagship. As a parting shot plague bombers gutted two cobras and the nurgle acheron dropped a few shields.

Deeply demoralized but shouldering on, the Imperial fleet mobilized its masses of escorts against key Chaos targets, but it would prove for not. Eleven sword frigates fired upon the Blistering Excess but once again bracing resulted in just two hits getting past the shields. Likewise the Gaze of the Unclean absorbed the other firepower of the other half of the Imperial fleet, bracing and shields resulting in a solitary hit being caused. With that the heroes of the Imperium disengaged.

CHAOS WIN

That brutal third turn really did the lapdogs in, with Slaanesh ships up in his junks going crazy and the Nurgle fleet decapitating his force. There was still a lot of game to go - Chaos was still outnumbered 2:1 in pure ships on the table - but it was likely a foregone conclusion.

Closing Thought -> Wow, BFG is cool. Neat to see in action and a blast to play.

Painting: Ogre Irongut
Buidling: N/A

Finished up the 500 point jump to 1500 today, pretty proud of the fleet. BFG is simple and fun to paint, this is probably the quickest 'army' I've gotten together for any game, ever. Fluff-wise it's a fleet under the command of the Violators traitor marines, Slaanesh-flavored CSM who seal their baby-blue armor and end up oozing, uh, gunk out of the seals (see the novel Daemon World for the source). Tried to carry it over to the ships, but admittedly my last ship, the Acheron, turned out waaay bright as I kept cleaning up the ink and not letting it pool or get oozy looking :P






Styx "Blistering Excess" - Lord Devour w/ MoS + reroll, CSM crew
Acheron "Bass God" - Lord Pharron w/ MoS + reroll, CSM crew
Carnage "Cacophonic"
Carnage "Distortion"
Devastation "Pleasure Throes"
Slaughter "Masochist"
2x Iconoclast + 1x Infidel "Slaves to Torment"
-----
1500

I suppose that when I do a battleship it'll be 100% icy blue ...

Painting: Demosaurus
Building: N/A

At the very end of June I decided to paint up 1000 points of BFG, and so dumped out the chaos fleet that's been manhandled around for the 9 years since I bought the boxed game. 2 days later (I had to go buy some icy blue and some chestnut ink) I had a tiny fleet of eevil ships fresh for some Spaaaaace Combaaaaat! I'll work on getting a shot of them, but suffice to say they're painted up (and slightly converted) to represent a fleet under the command of the Violators Chaos Space Marines - Slaaneshi marines sealed into their baby blue armor, which seeps greenish goo from the joints as it's never removed. Hot.

VIOLATORS FLEET 1000
Warmaster Devour (+2) - Mark of Slaanesh
Blissful Excess [Styx] - CSM Crew
Pleasure Throes [Devastation]
Unrepentant [Carnage]
Masochist [Slaughter]
Slave [Iconoclast]

Not 100% on such a huge warmaster in 1000 points, but Ld 10 on the Styx is very nice to have. Alternate version has just a +1 warmaster but 2 Infidels, but I have yet to paint more escorts up.

Violators vs Unknown Chaos Fleet [1000]
First game was a basic Cruiser Clash vs my friend's likewise newb chaos lads.

4 Murders
2x 3 Idolators

Things swiftly turned to my advantage as his escorts were hunted down and his cruisers hulked. The Violators' ordnance superiority shown, but special commendation goes to the Slave for hounding the enemy ships and keeping those little gun batteries blazing. He took down a couple times his points in enemy escorts and kept the shields down on the big guys.

Violators Win

Violators vs Plaguefleet [1000]
2 weeks later and my buddy was back for another Cruiser Clash, this time with his chaos fleet stripped, puttied and putrified properly.

Warmaster (+1) - Mark of Nurgle
Acheron
Carnage - CSM Crew, Mark of Nurgle
Carnage - CSM Crew, Mark of Nurgle
Slaughter - Demonvessel, Mark of Nurgle

A far sight tougher now! 9 hits for each ship, high Ld, and the fact that he took carnages over murders were all bonuses over his first escort-happy fleet.

The Fleets Engage
Early game saw the Violators move together and to the right to cluster their guns against a single carnage on the Plaguefleet's flank, however with judicious brace for impact use the cruiser survived the onslaught. Due to their proximity to each other all of the Violators' cruisers were affected by the -1 Ld from the lurking demonvessel, which proved deadly as the Plaguefleet focused all fire into the Masochist. Failing its brace check the cruiser was obliterated, resulting in a warpdrive implosion! With the fleet packed together the Unrepentant and Pleasure Throes suffered 8 lance shots each, thankfully escaping with minimal damage. Seeking vengeance, the Excess and Throes both slammed full bomber waves into the nearest carnage, managing to hulk the tainted cruiser.

Playing It Cagey
With some distance between the two fleets the clash moved to long range weaponry and ordnance. Though the demonvessel continued to haunt the Slaanesh marine cruisers, Warmaster Devour's solid command kept the Excess vomiting forth bombers to cross the roiling expanse of space to the plague ships. Continuous lance fire and bombing runs succeeded in crippling the other Plaguefleet carnage, though the last 3 hits proved to tough at this range.

When Demons Attak
The demonvessel finally translated fully into real space, but despite the Violators anticipating the ship's solidification the Unrepentant and Excess put a measly 1 hit onto the beast. In retaliation the demonic slaughter moved right under the nose of the Excess and let loose with a full broadside, doing a massive 7 hits of damage and smashing the command deck off of the Violators flagship with a sweep of its titanic claw. The Unrepentant sought vengeance and locked on, but again with a well-timed brace the demonvessel survived uncrippled. All the same, with one cruiser hulked, another with 3 hits remaining and the demonvessel hurting amidst the Violators fleet (and the flagship across the table behind a planet), the Plaguefleet chose to disengage.

Violators Win

Though definitely a hollow one for me, that warpdrive implosion when my ships were most packed together was potentially brutal, and the less said about the ghostship mauling my flagsip the better! Oh, as a side note the Slave was stupidly placed on the opposite side of the board from the rest of the fleet, with the intention of some rear-hunting action. Stupid because it meant all the starboard weapons of the Plaguefleet had only one target with the rest of my fleet going to their port ... Poor slavey :'(

Painting: Dread #2
Building: BFG Chaos 1500