VOGEN campaign - round two

During the week Eric & Mike had fought their battle, it was apparently very close with Mike just squeaking a win out. Ian tried a couple of times to have someone fight him as the Arbites but the timing hasn't worked out. Apparently he d6'd it and the Arbites kicked him out of the precinct in short order.

I convinced Ian to play a small 500 point game as the NPC nids attacking myself - and offered my space hulk genestealers for him to use - as an excuse to use the Space Sharks Kundera model I just posted about. Even with Preferred EnemyFurious Charge, Kundera was whooped in short order by the broodlord led 'stealers. However giving all my heavy bolters hellfire rounds meant that everything wounded on 2+ except for the typhoon missile launcher.
The turning point in the game was probably his outflanking genestealers attacking my land speeder, he literally rolled a cube of dice, had 15 or more hits and rolled a single 5, to glance (adrenal glands for furious charge) and failed to do anything more than stopping it from shooting next turn. The landspeeder and razorback did the business in the end. I have some pics from this game on my phone - this was the only decent one.
So here's how the map sat before we did another round of pins.
22 - Tristan, 11 - Tyler, 10 - NPC, 8 - Josh, 6 - Graeme, 2 - Mike, 0 - Eric, 0 - Ian
So, onto new pins. First up Eric attacked the Arbites (playing orks, Eric is rolling a d6 and going in a random direction). Ian decided to get on the board with the Trading House. I took the Theatre House which will open access to the North Road Gate next turn (re-roll reserves - yes please!) also figuring I have enough territory I can force others to attack me. Josh wasn't around but we figured he'd take the west Pleasure District (this could change). Mike attacked the NPC nids in the Basilica, and the NPC attacked right back through the Railhead Depot!
24 - Tristan, 11 - Tyler, 10 - Josh, 10 - NPC, 6 - Graeme, 2 - Mike, 0 - Eric, 0 - Ian
Eric couldn't play today (I think Mike was interested in playing him as the Arbites) so I gave Mike his battle vs the NPC nids. This would be huge - possibly knocking Mike back to zero.

It was a kinda epic really fun 2000 point game. I'm not an experienced 'nid player by any means but who wants the NPC to win? Mike took a ton of guardsmen, some grey knights, 3 leman russes and 3 sentinels. I had mostly bigger bugs, my space hulk genestealers, some tunnel swarms and one swarm of gants with spinefists. It's too much to give a play by play but some of the better parts include;
1. The LR Executioner, shooting at a broodlord, missing and blowing up the damaged (but still active) LR the broodlord was assaulting, thereby killing the broodlord!
2. The carnifex losing it's last wound to lasguns
3. Swarms with spinefists killing a grey knight
4. Guardsman Bob who refused to run from the Hive Tyrant, regardless of grey knight terminators dropping like flies next to him
5. 58 guardsmen, 3 terminators, 1 grey knight killed by Tyranids
6. 20 gants, 10 genestealers, 9 warriors, 6 ripper swarms, 2 ravenors, zoanthrope, carnifex, hive tyrant and a Leman Russ killed by Daemonhunters (lol)

In the end though Mike still had plenty on the table and was going to have another turn of shooting before my last reserves came on and I was happy to concede the game - I might suggest making the jump to Witch Hunters - Sisters would count the Basilica Imperialis as 4 VPs. This leaves us with the below, and maybe some movement from Graeme & Tyler or Josh if he decides he's not happy with securing the Pleasure District - maybe wants some revenge!
24 - Tristan, 11 - Tyler, 10 - Josh, 8 - NPC, 6 - Graeme, 4 - Mike, 0 - Eric, 0 - Ian
Had some fun with a couple games - won the right one and lost the right one.

VOGEN: map based, cities of death campaign at 2HD

Last week we began VOGEN, a map based campaign at Two Headed Dragon. It's based on the old GW Vogen campaign but using the Cities of Death rules. The first week was a lot of moving pins around and sorting out opponents for matches. Ian decided to force his way into the Arbites Precinct on the third turn, as Eric used the Water Purification Plants ability to attack Mike directly. That left Josh, the NPC 'nids and myself, with the NPC across the map from me, so I built up some territory and took the Palace of Peace. Josh gambled I'd wanna attack the 'nids instead of him, but naturally I decided to force the issue and attack Josh. During the week a couple more guys joined in, so Tyler and Graeme were added. You can see the territories claimed and attacks launched in the map below.

Before any games were played, the standings are;
18 - Tristan, 12 - Josh, 11 - Tyler, 10 - NPC, 6 - Graeme, 2 - Mike, 0 - Eric, 0 - Ian
Josh and I were the only one's to get our game in so far - and that was today! I'm gonna have to push these guys to get some more games in - maybe I'll see if Tyler wants to attack me since I can't move any pins until we're all together again.

Anyways, because I attacked Josh in the palace grounds, we actually just played a standard game of 40K on a board we setup with mostly hedges and we lined up the palace along one side as a barrier. It was 1,850 points, pitched battle/capture and control. My Dealer's Accommodation would let me take a Callidus assassin - but I'd written up a list and forgotten so I didn't bother. Josh's Spaceport Complex allowed him to deep strike with any unit he put in reserve, and his Gibbet Hill allowed him a preliminary bombardment (technically not in these set of rules, so we counted it as a space marine chapter master orbital bombardment).

I brought Calgar w Sternguard in DP, 2 X riflemen dreads, 3 X tactical squads in rhinos, 3 X heavy bolter/typhoon landspeeder, and a dakka pred. I deployed first and reserved only 1 tactical squad in rhino.
Josh had a captain w command squad, epistolary, termie squad, MM dread, ironclad dread, 3 x tactical squads w pfists, 6 scout sniper w heavy bolter, 5 man devastator w ml and a whirlwind. He put everyone in reserve to deep strike except the libby w terminators, the devs & WW.

Josh then stole the initiative;
Turn 1; Josh gated his libby and terminators near my objective, ran up his ironclad and shot with his scouts/devs/WW. Killing 3 marines and stunned a dread. I dropped my pod in near his objective, and swarmed his terminators. The scouts were quickly toasted by 2 heavy flamers and some hellfire rounds while more hellfire + calgar destroyed his devs. Pretty much everything else shot at the termies and I killed 3 of them - not as good as I hoped but then Josh failed the morale test and fell back.
Turn 2; Josh failed every single reserve roll he had to make, so another short turn. His termies had to keep fleeing. His tactical squad charged one of my rifleman dreads while his ironclad charged a combat squad of marines on my objective. His shooting killed a couple sternguard. The ironclad killed two marines and two more died from no retreat wounds. In my turn my sternguard and calgar destroyed his whirlwind, a dread managed to kill another termie and I charged some marines into the huge combat between his tac squad and my dread. Everything else blasted ineffectively at the ironclad as it was standing over my objective.
Turn 3; Josh turned around and made every reserve roll - most of his scatter rolls were beneficial, except for one and he rolled a 5 on the mishap table meaning delayed. His command squad and MM dread shot at my predator - stunning it, a tactical squad shot at a rhino, wrecking it. His ironclad destroyed a landspeeder in close combat and the other huge combat he killed 3 marines, but I passed my break test. His remaining termie and the libby attacked a rhino with a combat squad inside, stunning it. I made my reserve roll for my tac squad and they raced onto the board to rapid fire his recently arrived tactical squad to bits. My combat squad in the rhino stunned last turn jumped out and gunned down the last termie and he chose to retreat with his libby. Calgar used his orbital bombardment but failed miserably. One landspeeder and a riflemen dread shot up his captain and command squad, while the other ran from the ironclad.
Turn 4; Josh deep strikes his delayed tactical squad and mishaps again - I place them in the far corner where I doubt they will have much impact on the game. His libby tries to smite my combat squad but only kills one. His command squad & MM dread explode my predator, while he was about to charge my tactical squad with his ironclad, except my sergeant had melta bombs so he decided against it. In my turn, one land speeder wastes his libby, the other keeps hammering at his command squad. I throw 2 surviving marines into a rhino and park it on my objective. A combat squad of marines with a melta gun and melta bombs tries to deal with his ironclad - but only manages to shake it. My reserve tac squad charges into the melee quagmire in the middle but doesn't manage to break it up much.

** I've either compacted the events or we mistook the # of turns, but we thought it was turn 5 and Henry rolled a 1 for the game to end. I had my objective under control and Calgar the only model near his objective **

This wins me the other Palace Grounds, and four more victory points. No other games have been played yet, so that leaves us with
22 - Tristan, 11 - Tyler, 10 - NPC, 8 - Josh, 6 - Graeme, 2 - Mike, 0 - Eric, 0 - Ian
Hopefully Tyler or someone controlling the NPC can get another game in with me, while Ian resolves his fight with the Arbites and Eric & Mike sort out their game.