A return to the 40k

On some grim world in the 40k universe.....

Over the last few weeks I have been busy building and painting a Blood Angels army after finding myself being drawn into the world of games workshop. Now I know a few years ago myself and my dad sold off a number of 40k armies as we had just stopped enjoying the games and the rules and the pricing at games workshop left a lot to desired. However I have always kept a eye out on what was happening at Gamesworkshop and the introduction of the 8th edition 40k rules peeked my interest. When my dad kindly suggested going half on the Dark imperium starter box set I thought why not. My dad has already done the space marines before so he said he would collect the Death Guard army and I opted to use the Blood Angels chapter as my space marine army. Over the weeks I have gradually added extras to my army and although it is a work in progress I have amassed enough points for a decent 1500pt army after some late nights of painting.

Blood Angels tactical squad and primaris Captain in Gravis armour

'Come on if ya think ya hard enough' Lord of Contagious and death guard marines defend a objective

At the weekend we played our third game and (probably first proper game)after a couple of games play testing and getting to understand how our armies work (and 

It's of viewing people's games on YouTube..a massive help) First impressions are very favourable, the rules have lost all there clunkiness, gone are angles and different speeds for vehicles, template weapons , deep striking randomisation and so on and so on from the last edition my dad and I played (6th) What is left is a stripped down set of rules which once again feel fun to play. Yes it is still brutal, none more so than when my Baal predator tank almost wiped out a entire squad of cultists in one round of shooting, before the cultists could do anything to respond but that is the nature of the game, you will be on the receiving end yourself in the following turn of some serious damage somewhere, and at the end of the day we are talking about weapons of the future here, plasma guns, meltas, power fists, so you could say it is expected. 

Primaris marines move through the ruins in support of the Baal predator

Chaos terminators deep strike behind my marine lines... This is one of favourite changes to the game, the fact you just place the models where you want them to arrive(as long as it's more than 9" from an enemy model, but it can charge if it rolls the right distance on 2d6). Long gone are the days of landing in a terrain area and losing your whole squad of assault terminators before they are even placed on the table.

Pox walkers wait in the cover of the ruined building readying themselves for the wall of marine fire about to come their way if they venture out the ruins

The best way to deal with deep striking terminators, send your Gravis armoured wearing Primaris captain complete with a master crafted power sword, after deflecting the wounding hits from the terminators with his halo invulnerable save the blood Angels primaries captain bests his traitors opponents

Flying plague drones lead hordes of plague bearers towards a blood Angels held objective

An inceptor squad deeps strikes into the game opening up with a serious number of shots that hammer the plague bearers whose demonic save and disgustingly resilient save desert them before jumping into the few straggling plague bearers and fighting close combat. Another new rule I like is the fact you can fall out of a melee when it's your turn although this is the only action you can do, unless your a flier where you can still shoot, which in the case of the incestors is very handy indeed

A Deamon Prince arrives from the skies to help the plague drones over come the marine tactical squad  and claim the objective marker

My blood Angels assault terminators and captain deep strike into the heart of enemy territory, alas they failed their charge role but with their excellent invulnerable saves they weathered the physic spells launched onto them

The pox walkers despite all their attacks (40in all) were still no match for the Sanguinary guard who passed armour saves for fun, this objective in the ruins was contested for two turns, only in the final turn 5 and with a hand from the Intercessor squad did I manage to claim the victory points for it

The last Intercessor bravely fights the plague bearers in the desperate attempt to keep them away from the objective

The tactical squad are valiant in the defence of the objective but fall to the twin claws of the Deamon prince after a final blast from the heavy flames brings down yet more plague bearers 

With two of the objectives secure the Baal predator turns its attention to the daemon prince but it's twin assault cannon and heavy bolted have little effect on it.

The Assault terminators and captain in terminator armour charge into combat with the Lord of Contagious and his death guard marines eventually over coming their hated foe claiming the points for the objective.

The end of turn 5 sees my blood Angels snatch victory from my dads Nurgle host as I manage to hold three of the four objectives until the end of the turn scoring three points to mydads one point. At the end of turn four we had been deadlocked , a little more luck in my dads psychic phase during the last turn could have seen the result been in his favour but it wasn't to be and the emperors troops reigned supreme 

The final picture of the game

The game was excellent and a very tight run affair, I really enjoyed the game and using the new rules. The future looks good for 40k 👍

Belated post of some ACW action

It's been a number of weeks since my last post for a number of reasons but I've finally getting round to uploading some photos of a ACW game  we had using the excellent Pickets charge rules set. These rules as I have stated before lend a great flavour of the period you are fighting , with enough tactical challenges to deal with without the rules been to 'clunky'. The game flowed well again and by the end my Union army was starting to waver after a hard fought contest. The battle mat we used was my dads latest purchase and the dark colour of the green looked really effective, especially for this period.

The union battle line ready to advance

The leading rebel unit advances in skirmish formation

A union battery opens fire with limited sucess (my artillery firing in every game of Pickets charge to date has been diabolical and inevitably I do more damage to myself than the enemy)

My dad used his Reb cavalry to great effect and when dismounted they shot my regiments defending the hill to pieces

Again the lead Reb regiment advances in skirmish order, I eventually released the best way to deal with them was not in a fire fight but to fix Baynot, that sharp got them out the way and been a nuisance!

The Reb attack in full swing as the Union desperately try to hold the high ground

The Rebs didn't have it all their own way as their left flank came under severe pressure from the advancing long in the tooth Union old lag regiments

The blue line of the Union is well advanced attacking the rebel line

The Reb cavalry remount after clearing the hill of Union troops

Desperate close quarter fighting develops across the corn fields

The rebel left flank starts to falter and with the arrival of the Union reserve cavalry they retreat under heavy fire from the advancing Union infantry giving up the defence of the high ground

After some heavy fire fighting my central Union brigade starts to retreat as the Rebs start to get a foothold on the game

The final position sees the Union just about holding on but the confederates had amassed the more victory points for objectives and were definitely in the ascendancy to push on for victory if the game could have continued.

During my absence from posting on my blog I have been still active in the hobby with just about all my spare time been invested into painting up a blood angels force for Warhammer 40k which I have found myself returning to. My dad and I have ran a coup,e of trial games with the new 8th edition rules for 40k and it has to be said they have been a lot of fun and it does seem as though games workshop might actually have finally done something good for the actual game play, however as for my wallet of late Gamesworkshop has not been so good! I will be posting some pictures of games we have ran next on my blog and some photos of the progress I have done with the painting of my force.