Shadow War: Armageddon

This will likely be the extent of my foray into 40,000, so I am inclined to go all out on terrain. Likewise with basing as I probably will only be playing with the minis in this setting.

Back in my Necromunda days we found having stuff with 3 levels to be interesting for trying to get line of sight over the scatter terrain, it's also an interesting place to put objective markers.

Some pics from today's layout, including some pics of my WIP Goliath. It's looking pretty good so far. A little smaller than I expected, but it is so freakin' cute. I didn't put the dozer blade on it and I changed a couple of things around about it- I wanted the Mining Laser on the articulated arm instead of the turret-mounted, twin-linked autocannon this build is supposed to have because it's intended to be a work truck. I'll probably build the dozer blade later and maybe stick it on every now and then for fun. It's a cool piece.

www.flickr.com/photos/54116966@N03/shares/57J4j5

As for the game, same teams as last week- my son took his Scouts (which now have names like "The Deadly Shooter" and "Grenade Master") and we continued the narrative from last week- they survived the battle with the Genestealers and now the mission was to get from the Manufactorum to the Goliath. I said he only had to get two there...he said "no, three". So whatever, that worked for me!

I set up the GSC first, all in hiding using the Laying in Wait ability scattered about the complex. He posted both snipers up on top of the Manufactorum and had good sight lines on most of the board. He understood without prompting this time that they really needed to just clip in and stay on Overwatch up there. He went first and he decided to move all of his guys toward the ladder to the right of the Manufactorum- I thought he would split up and take some dudes up there and the others trying to move through the ground cover. But nope, he charged right on to the ladder. I moved some Neophytes around, trying to get into position to crossfire the crap out of them. Grenade Launcher dude had a shot on his whole team waiting to get up the ladder but he freakin' whiffed it, bounced off harmlessly. Snipers managed to put down a guy despite it being a fleeting target. Mining Laser dude was thankfully missed, but then his shot did nothing. Fuckin' BS 3. I swear.

Once up on the catwalk, he smartly moved using the cover so my ground guys didn't have a good shot- that forced me to move with them, and those snipers just kept them pinned. I blew the hiding status and opened fire and finally pinned a Novitiate. But then he recovered early thanks to the Sarge's encouragement. The entire time River wanted to throw grenades, so I had to continually remind him that his shotgun was a much better and more reliable way to hit one guy. He finally had a chance to toss one and he pinned one and downed two of my dudes on the ground. I had the GSC leader over by the truck, and I stupidly thought I would make it to web down some of the guys on the catwalk, but he got sniped and KO'd.

He charged the first GSC with the Sarge (with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword) after I told him repeatedly that the GSC Acolyte would probably just melt in H2H. Well, he didn't. I rolled a six on him versus a high of four. He parried and forced the re-roll, which was also a six. Sarge got KO'd.

Snipers turned their attention to the guys on the catwalk. Dropped one, and he fell off the rigging. We laughed.

All my guys were down, one was KO'd and it was running over so I just let him declare the win.

Shadow War really needs to be played with scenarios. I played with another new player and we decided to go for a kill-em-all slugfest. One hour and a half of playing chicken, digging in cover and taking pot-shots at each other we decided to call it a draw. It reminded me of Xcom again and of why they introduced timed missions in Xcom2. It definitely needs to be objective-based to avoid a WWI trench warfare.
(I still enjoyed it btw, but I think he didn't)

I agree...scenarios are good.

However, you can play straight up deathmatches...but you gotta have turn limits.

In fact, any scenario of any minis game should always have turn limits.

Turn limits can help force the action and at least ensure a game doesn't overstay its welcome.

Scenarios are just more fun too.

We played an escort scenario the other day. Defenders play the role of caravan guards to get the macguffin off an edge of the board, while the other player are highway men stealing it away.

It was done in a set amount of rounds, or until bottle was triggered. We used an old 2nd/3rd era rhino for the transport vehicle.

Since it was an ad hoc game, the premise wasn't well tested, but even that was a lot better than just duke it out. Good scenarios make a game. They really need to develop some more for shadow war. That is content worth purchasing. The rules should be free.

Pictured here is the climactic scene from today's Tyranid vs. Grey Knights game.

www.flickr.com/gp/54116966@N03/3R659o

The Grey Knights (Justicar with falchions, trooper with halberd, gunner with Psycannon) had to rescue a Battle brother pinned down and helpless in the Manufactorum- but there were three Tyranids in the way. An Alpha with bone sword and lashwhip, a trooper with deathspitter, and a gunbeast with venom cannon.

We introduced a few new rules including sustained fire- a tough lesson when I laid all three of River's men down with one five shot blast from the Venom Cannon. The two shooty Tyranids just laid down fire while the Alpha (with Adrenal Sacs) made his 10" charges.

The Alpha and Justicar got into an EPIC melee that went like four rounds with two ties, one wound on the Alpha, and finally the Justicar going down, his parry finally failing to keep him going.

But elsewhere, River was just blasting away using the GK's Astral Aim psyker power (ignore cover) AND red dot sights. Fortunately, that 6+ invulnerable save from the target seeing the laser and dodging kept the Deathspitter alive. But that Psycannon, which may be the best weapon in the game (sustained fire 2, S7, D3 wounds, -3 save) just pummeled the gun Beast.

So what happened was that after KOing the Justicar and the Gunbeast went down (which is why River made his own counter since you can't actually lay that figure down), both of his guys started running down the catwalk. The Alpha ran after them. So they were running 8", the Alpha 10". He had like two turns before it caught them. So we had that situation where it was right on them and they were running around the downed Gunbeast. Hilarious. So I told him if one guy made it to the end of the catwalk, we would say that he could attempt to make a heroic jump (just an initiative roll) to the Manufactorum (it was just like 6" from the last platform), he would win.

So the Halbred dude stalled the Alpha and paid the ultimate price. Psycannon dude made it to the end and took the big jump...and passed the check.

A few notes from this game-

- Tyranids are FEARSOME. Possibly OP. But they make for really fun play. I played with a friend earlier this week and he just rolled me with A Tyranid team, but I really liked the challenge of fighting them.

- Grey Knights are pretty damn good too. I think they are, with the right wargear, and equal match for the Tyranids. Their +3 power armor save and high statline make them pretty formidable, and they have a GREAT weapon selection including their default Storm Bolters.

- Do not underestimate the value of add ons like the red dot sight. With a BS of 4 and a sight...and sustained fire...you could be hitting 3-6 times on _twos_.

- Parrying is huge...as it was in Necromunda.

- Scenarios- YES. Kill 'me all is fun but if you add just some kind of simple objective the game really comes to life.

Did the die roll happen on the catwalk? If so, that's awesome

The boy and I had a game tonight, too.
It was pretty unorthodox. He had his marines from Vedros, of which I told him to pick 4 (he tried to sneak in the dreadnought and a terminator). I used stats of chaos space marines for that. I had 5 cultists and a Khorgorath, because why not and he didn't take the cultists seriously enough (i made up the stats for the beast on the fly).
The funniest thing is that he didn't even ask me the rules, but remembered Vedros pretty well.
So it was like him saying: "I'm going to shoot the rocket launcher at the big ugly monster, and I can do it because I didn't move" - "right" and then "do I still hit on a 3?" - "no, 4 because he is in cover". After a short explanation on what "cover" means, and his acute observation on how "it makes sense that people would duck in cover if they don't want to get shot at", it was - "Good, how do I wound him now... if I roll a 4, right?"

In the end, he liked it all-right.

I'm painting Cadians this week. I _LOVE_ these guys. Like the Skaven I did a few months ago, they are older miniatures and are really pretty easy to paint and make look at least halfway decent. And they have a lot of character. I have the basic shock troop pack and also the command, the command set gives you five extra figures and some really fun variations. I've got one dude that looks just worn the hell down, he's carrying his helmet and his rifle slung over his shoulder. Thousand yard stare. I have a one-eyed sniper with an eyepatch. Grenade launcher dude has a big ceegar because he made me think of Commando. Because the Cadian faction ability allows for the Sergeant to forgo shooting to direct fire and impart rerolls on 1, I made one of them without a weapon- he's pointing with one hand and has a damn riding crop in the other. Hee hee. Will probably run these this week either with a friend or my son. List looks like six riflemen with red dots, the weaponless sarge and a guy with a plasma gun. I have the Kommissar for a special operative, but now I kind of want an Ogryn.

Necrons are built and primed...I got two boxes of Immortals/Deathmarks, built three each of the gauss blaster/Tesla carbine models and two Deathmarks (the specialists). Have a couple of odds and ends Warriors coming in the mail, but they are really not cost-effective versus the Immortals. Necrons don't have many options (as in, almost none) so I think they may be better for one off games than campaigns. Really stoked to do a game where it's a big bunch of cheap Necrons versus the Cadians in a holdout scenario. I'm thinking about cooking one up where the Necrons keep spawning Warriors and it's just a thing where the Cadians have to survive for however many turns...maybe with some loot crates and some random event tables.

Tau army has been rebuilt after the white disaster...just need to ochre 'em up.

Man, you cruise through this process. It takes me days and days to get a few guys painted.

I do not fuck around.

Cadians are my best paint job by far. I did the heads separately and it was worth the effort. It is also really cool that there're like double heads in those two kits (same as Barnes has) than I needed, so I botched a few and no big deal. And, after painting 50+ skaven doing an 8 model unit is relaxing anyway.
I am going to focus on the Scions soon, because Scions are basically armed-to-teeth, carapace clothed and hardened (or should I sat, more hardened) Cadians.

The idea of running an unarmed sarge is dope. With each game, I've been stripping equipment off mine, too. The dude is really useful surrounded by grunts, in full cover and barking orders, those re-rolls to hit + his leadership is what makes him shine. The lasguns are also earning a lot of respect. Yeah, they're weak, but since you group your dudes close to sarge, you usually get two-three shots at the same target. At the very least, it ends up pinned, usually worse. And you have to be very-very unlucky to run out of ammo.
But my favorite dude is the sniper. Toxic rounds&laser sight. He works alone and makes one or two shots per game, but so far each of those ended in a straight kill or injury.

www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/03/s...ddon-one-man-armies/

One man armies.

Colorcrayons wrote: www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/03/s...ddon-one-man-armies/

One man armies.

One model.

Amazing how low GW has placed the barrier for entry into their games now.

Incredible.