Monday, October 30, 2006

HGR Journal Entry No. 012...

First Game
Combatants : Balian's Steel Falcons vs. Kyuzo's Emperors Children
Scenario : Take and Hold Gamma
Highlights :

6'x6' gaming table in da house! Plus, debut of Kyuzo's Emperors Children at 2000pts! Although around 30% of the army are proxied, it was graciously allowed by the Regulars in order to get a feel on how the config works. And with Balian's Steel Falcons across the table, its the proverbial baptism of lascannon fire right there! +P

Deployment was a little non-eventful, except for the fact that all of the Emperor's Children's troops are infiltrating. Balian himself highly recommended this given the config's obvious tactics. Wanted to check its full potential by letting Balian's scouts infiltrate first as a worst case scenario, giving my infiltrators less places to hide.

Started out with the predictable turbo-boost of the Lt on bike in the hopes of the summoned daemonettes to come out closer to the Steel Falcon firing line, only to be shot down the next turn by virtue of multiple lascannon fire. Even the 2+ invul save could not weather the Steel Falcon firepower. Daemonettes proved deadly predicted still able to take down a Calidus assassin as well as a venerable dreadnaught, but sadly ran out of turns to get to the deadlier troops still left on the Steel Falcons' deployment zone. Sonic weaponry rocks, as combined power of blastmasters and sonic blasters were capable of taking out marines with the occassional pinning check! And defilers are cool too, which was best described by Salubri. One or two defilers on the table is cheesy, while THREE defilers is not. ;)

Result : Minor Victory to the Steel Falcons!

Despite the loss, already learned a lot on what adjustments are still needed to be made to the config as well as some post game analysis to the basic tactics. Until the next time these rockers show up again. ;)

Second Game
Combatants : Sigismund's Black Templars vs. Salubri's Ultramarines
Scenario : Recon Gamma (which actually was played at Omega) +P
Highlights :

This would involve a long march for both sides due to a longer table length. Seemed ironic that an all-infantry Ultramarine army was able to cover more ground while the more forward-oriented Black Templar army stayed back. Some silent protests going along the line, "This is Recon! Cross the %&*# table already!" hung heavy in the air as the Black Templar line did not budge. Ultramarine assault squads and bikers successfully reached the black templar enemy lines, which later on proved vital in sealing the win.

Result : Minor Victory for the Ultramarines!


Salubri's Veteran Squad Sergeant


Kyuzo's Slaaneshi Marine


WIPs from Kyuzo Check out the Kroot Marine! :P


Heroes of the Imperium... and extra. ;)


Hmm... that guy looks familiar! :D

Monday, October 09, 2006

HGR Journal Entry No. 011 - Tanks, Drugs, and Mental Trauma

With Balian back in action the Regulars went to Galleria for some weekend gaming. Two games were held;


combatants: kyuzo's dark eldar vs. balian's 13th company
scenario: secure and control alpha
highlights:

balian's 13th company would have a distinct advantage in securing loot counters with his troops as the first wave to take out my transports and bikers to counter attack and retake points at the last turn. plus his pesky long fangs shooting me down from the back.

after deployment, my tactics were pretty much straight forward: 1) concentrate fire support on the left flank as well as commit my archon and one wych squad for close combat there since most of balian's forces are deployed to claim most of the loot counters there. 2) use my raider squads for some drive-by shooting and even close combat. with balian's 13th company, you have to throw all the bodies you can afford. 3) the wolf priest needs to be neautralized otherwise he'll be sitting back with a unit of troops to teleport anywhere on the table. 4) zoom in a bunch of wyches to take out the long fangs on my right flank and work my way to the left in the hopes of providing support to that side as well.

i had first turn. i felt lucky and popped the crucible before balian's long fangs would surely target my archon carrying it. and it worked with the wolf priest rolling an 11 on his leadership check! byebye wolfpriest.

first four turns i would say was in my favor since i was able to tie up his long fangs with combined efforts from my wych squad and one raider squad. the battle on the left flank was an expensive one where both sides suffered heavy casualties, which pretty much left me controlling two counters to balians none. fifth turn was critical where i missed the opportunity of delivering my wyches to that one long fang squad that got away, as well as the untimely demise of my archon who overdosed on combat drugs (triple sixes!!! karma.) while trying to stop the wolf lord on bike.

balian was able to salvage a draw by wiping out my ravager with one meltagun-toting spacewolf (or was it the plasmagun-toting wolf lord i cant remember) as well as sneaking in a unit-scoring long fang squad (mental error on my part not being able to block that squad with my consolidating wyches).
result : draw.
-- by Kyuzo

Combatants: Salubri's Ultramarines VS Sigismund's Armored Company
Mission: Take and Hold
Game Level: Omega

Omega level rules worked to Salubri's advantage as Sigismund deploy's nothing on the first turn. This gave Salubri the chance to get everyone in position to intercept enemy tanks. Wisely avoiding the heavy concentration of guns on Salubri's right flank, Sigismund deploy's his tanks to face Salubri's weaker left flank as they come.

Thanks to the sacrificial veteran unit, barrage artillery was reduced to one basilisk allowing Salubri's fast units to go relatively unharrassed. One assault squad was hit dead center by a demolisher shell right after deepstriking and going off target. Inneffective shooting by the Ultramarines left the assault and bike squads with the heavy burden of taking out enemy tanks. Meltabombs help the Ultramarines in reducing Armored Company tanks to half.

Sigismund makes his last minute dash to the objective and manage to take out Salubri's Vindicator postitioned near it. Last minute heroics weren't enough to secure decisive victories for either side though as the battle ended in a draw.

result: Draw

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Kyuzo came with a camera last saturday and we were able to take some pics of the game and then some... :D

Balian VS Kyuzo, Secure and Control


Salubri VS Sigismund Match, Take and Hold


Donnel and Adrian also came by;



It was off to Quattro after the games where Balian recounted his adventures in the hospital despite being Darth Vader for several days. Now we all know where to go if we get confined. :D

It's a good thing the day ended with no one accidentally swollowing tilapia fish bone. :P

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Glad Cup 2006, The Galleria Cell...

Gladiator season approaches. Minimum of 6 players to comprise one cell. Champion per cell advances to the next round to go up against the other champions of other cells. I believe HGR can form one cell if we establish ourselves in Galle for the other players to join in. Your thoughts please.