Tuesday, October 28, 2008

HGR Journal Entry No. 072

The Day of the NIDS (NIDS playing two Games in Succession)
Date: October 25, 2008
Venue: Robinson’s Galleria – lower ground floor
Regulars Present: Kuneho, Joel and Henri with special appearance of Kyuzo( too tired to play after a seminar session with his Gurlz :D )

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Game 1
Kuneho(Hive Tyrants) vs. Ebon(Order of the Clenched Fist)
2000pts Seize Ground (3 Counters), Spearhead Deployment
Results : Ebon Wins! Order of the Clenched Fist claiming two Objectives to one of the Hive Fleet.

The battle line was simple for the Nids a formation of Close combat armed Large Bugs interspaced with 3 large groups of troops lesser bugs.

The NIDS Felt the Wraith of the Emperors weapons as Ebon maximized the use of his 3 Landspeeders to decimate the Nids in the early turns. Supported with long range and mid-range fire power made the difference, in one shooting phase the marines was able to kill 20 of the 28 of the first unit of lesser bugs, while the other unit of lesser bugs lost about 10 of its original 28.

2 of the 3 troop choices was almost wiped out in the first 2 turns (the lack of shooters on the Nids side was evident). Nids Tried to advance to claim/contest the 2 objective points but was almost wiped out trying to do so. Close combat was just as close as large creatures fighting it out with marine combat squads trying to hold the line. 2 turns of hard fought hand to hand combat followed. Large monsters trying to fight it out with Space marines only to be shot to death by midrange fire power after winning the close combat againts the marines.
The Nids losing 70% of their original number before the end of the 4th and early 5th round.
Last turn was still critical a draw could have been sallied by the Nids-All they needed to to do was to kill off the lone space marine holding the objective : unfortunately it was not to be.

Game ends early in 5 turns.

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Game 2
Kunerho(NIDS) vs. Henri(Iron Wolves)
2000pts Seize Ground (3 Counters), Dawn of war Deployment

Results : Draw! Space wolves Taking one objective while Nids took the other leaving the last objective contested by both sides.

Wolves again deploying via Drop pods gave up 2 turns to the Nids, enough time for them to claim all 3 objectives . The first unit to be deployed for the wolves was the priest and his blood Claws - deployed in a Rhino - This unit was wiped out after two rounds.
The third round saw the bulk of the Iron wolves deploying near or on the 2 objective points.
The next few rounds followed with Heavy close combat and short range fire-fights ensured a hard contested battle between the Nids trying to hold the objectives and Iron Wolves trying to cleanse the area from infestations.
Sudden end at turn 5 saw both Nids and Iron Wolves claimed an objective each and contested one.


Games Ends around 7:30 PM

Other Events after the games: Salubri, Kyuzo and I, unwind at our favorite coffee shop - Where the view always relaxes our tired eyes after a long days work or gaming.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Battle Report SW vs SW (Iron Wolves)

SW Composition Iron Wolves

1st GHP on the “ SKULDELEV” w/Deathwind
2nd GHP on the “ GOKSTAD”
3rd GHP on the “ KNARR”
HQ
Wolf Guard Battle Leader Arne (Eagle)/ WGBG on the “DRAKE”
4th GHP on Razorback
Wolf Priest
Heidrun with 11th Blood Claw on Rhino
Dreadnoughts:
(HQ) Vendread –Brother Sigurdr (The Guardian of Victory)
Elites :
Dreadnought – Brother Steinar (Stone)
1st Iron Wolf Scout Pack


The Iron Wolves was asked again join in the training exercises with the veteran contingent of the Space Wolf Priest Regus. The Iron Wolves chose Wolf Priest Heidrun to lead the contingent. Wolf Priest Heidrun chose to deploy via Drop pods with a mobile force in support.
He joined the Blood Claws in a Rhino and a unit of Grey Hunters on a razorback, While the rest of the Grey Hunters was deployed on Drop pods with Wolf Guard Battle Leader Arne with hisbodyguards, deploying as reserves on foot was Dreadnought (Ven Dread) Leader Siguired, Brother Steinar with a pack of Wolf Scouts.

Wolf Priest Regus chose to deploy his forces in his traditional set up moving up all his units to take and hold the objectives unmolested. He took 3 of the 5 objectives with Infantry and support from Land speeders and Rhinos.
The Wolf Scouts, and VenDread Siguired was the first on the scene. Scouts failing to take out the Predator while Vendread leader Siguired eliminated the enemy scouts from the exercise. Wolf Priest Regus was quick to react and moved his forces to face the scouts -(which the lack the experience got the better of them ) the Scouts withdraw, effectively putting them out of the game early.

Wolf Guard Battle Leader Arne with his bodyguard deployed to contest one of the 5 objectives while the 2 other packs of Grey Hunters tried to take out the contingent of the opposing Grey hunters and Blood claws inside the Land Raider lead by the Regus. Hoping to destroy the Land Raider the Grey hunters pack with Meltagun tried to hit it with no effect, the other GHP opened fire on the Predator, destroying it the process, while WGBL Arne attacked the Grey hunters entrenched inside a fox hole, unfortunately with limited effect the Grim inside the Razorback and Dreadnought Brother Steinar only managed to damage land Raider’s Assault cannon. The Drop pod "SKULDELEV" armed with Deathwind mis-fired and hitting an empty space instead. While the other two Drop pods used their storm bolters against the well entrenched Grey Hunters with little success.

Wolf Priest Regus with his Blood Claws furiously assaulted the 1st GHP (Grey) and almost cutting them to last 4-men while the 2nd GHP(Black) was reduced 6-men. While the opponents land speeders concentrated their fire power in destroying the two drop pods "SKULDELEV" and "GOKSTAD".

It was looking grim from the stand point where Wolf Priest Heidrun was, (using the rhinos com devices to monitor whats happening around him) “ We are being badly mauled by Wolf priest Regus” (he was deployed in the east sector far from the main battle lines to take the 5th objective), - “ Brother
Gunnvor” Im sending you the 3rd GHP(red) to support your drive to the center line - Destroy the opposing Grey hunters Pack!!!”. . . .
After receiving the order . . . (a short pause) . . . eager for Glory Brother Gunnvor ordered a suicidal assault against the opposing GHP: " advance my brothers show them what we can do !!!", but was cut down in process. Although he managed to eliminate the GHP trying to hold the objective – it was a ill-advised assault. While Dreadnought Brother Steinar and the brother Grim inside the Razorback again failed to Eliminate their Primary target the Land Raider. While brother Leader Siguired(Ven Dread) also tried to move towards the center while firing his Assault Cannon. The arrival of the 3rd GHP somewhat stabilized the situation, The 1st GHP was destroyed while the 2nd was down to the last marine. The Iron Wolves was in dire Straits losing 2 GHP and a WGBL with his Retinue in the exchange.
Wolf Priest Regus was quick to maximize his gains assaulting and almost destroying the 2nd GH Pack, While attacking with all the fire power available to reduced 3rd GH Pack to a handful of marines before Assaulting and finishing them off with his Blood claws . While the Land speeders concentrated on destroying the "KNARR". A miraculous stand by the remaining GHP from the 1st GH Pack saved the line from total collapse.

Wolf Preist Heidrun exclaimed “Things are not going as planned” - “ Brother Steinar assault the LRC” , . . . “ Brother Grim move your (4th GH) Pack Razorback againts the enemy in the center Center" . . . concentrate all your fire power against Wolf Priest Regus and his Blood Claws!! “ –
After seeing the LRC immobilized , uncharacteristically Wolf Priest Regus ordered a withdrawal leaving the 4th GH Pack to claim the objective(failing the moral test)!!

After the Smoke have cleared , Iron Wolves took 2 objectives against 1 for the Space Wolves led by Wolf Priest Regus and 2 others contested or was unoccupied by either side. A Tactical Victory but losing almost 3 quarters of the force : 1 HQ with retinue, 3 GHP Squads and their transport and the wolf scouts against 1 squad of scouts, 1 predator, a pack of GHP and a Lord.

Watching and Studying the war exercise video:
Rune Priest
Folkvarthr (Guardian of the people) “ Well our tactics needs to be refined and our equipment needs to be double checked – Specially grenades and special weapons“ Our tactics so far have serve us well in the past - but this battle shows us the flaw in our implementation/It is high time to readjust our composition "
Wolf Guard Battle Leader
Gunnvor (War-vigilant): “ Hmmm we have proven to them that we can hold our own, but we just need to be more precise in our deployment and more accurate assumptions on the enemies plans !!, Good thing this was just a war exercise. Wolf Guard Battle Leader Valdemar (Mighty/famous) “I agree Brother Gunnvor, we need to check into weapons that we bring in future battles”. It was a near-miss thing . I'll see to it that its done"

Saturday, October 11, 2008

HGR Journal Entry No. 071

The guys gathered at Midnight's place to continue more 5th ed "playtesting"...

Venue: Somewhere in the Quezon City Area
Regulars Present: Midnight, Salubri, Kyuzo, Joel & Henri

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Game 1
Midnight's Space Wolves vs Henri's Iron Wolves (SW)
2000 pts. Seize Ground in Spear Head deployment
Henri wins!

Major upset as Midnight stays on top of the game from the early turns but loses due to mojo! One squad ran away from the objective leaving Henri to claim 2 objectives to Midnight's 1.

Game 2
Salubri's Sword of Light vs Joel's Space Marines
2000 pts. Seize Ground in Dawn of War deployment
Joel wins!

2nd Game where Salubri's Falcon goes down on a 5&6 damage roll! Wraithlord is gunned down by Vanguard Veterans(is this the one with bolters?) wounding on a 2+ and causing too many wounds to count(lol) ! The game ends early (again!? lol) with Joel in position to take 2 counters while Salubri's Eldar was loitering on the table (kamote!) .

Game 3
(the game that shouldn't have happened coz Kyuzo was forced to play lol)
Kyuzo's Black Legion vs Salubri's Sword of Light
2000 pts. Annihilation in Spearhead deployment
Salubri wins!

Kyuzo was not at his best as he was "forced to play". The game began with Kyuzo's Land Raider immediately going up in flames! His princi(new word. plural for prince. ;) ) looked scary but went down too early before the Farseer even had a chance to block their psychic mumbo jumbo. One prince fell to a hail of shurkens and the other to Fire Dragons and Wraithlord combo. Shining spears have a field day taking out 3( possibly more ) kill points. Scorpions assaulted a tac squad and failed miserably, dropping their weapons and running away like scared little girls ( damned Eldar! ). The dust settles after 7 gruelling turns ( for Kyuzo who was "forced to play" ) with Salubri taking 12 kill points vs Kyuzo's 6.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Warhammer 40,000 Ork Barricades, made in China

hi guys!

nakakabahala lang...

it started with the codexes... PRINTED IN CHINA (meaning it was made in China)

now, i was about to buy the new release Warhammer 40,000 Ork Barricades only to find out... (guess what) it is made in China.

if it is starting now... what GW product will be next?

my point is that, we are paying for our expensive hobby that is supposed to be MADE IN UK, yet, are we receiving inferior quality products for our expensive hobby?

this not about the milk scare thing on china, that's in the limelight now.

and i perfectly understand the business formula.

manufacturing cost + labor cost + storage cost + marketing cost = market pricing

all i want to convey is that i'm not saying anything about the pricing scheme of GW, alam na natin na expensive talaga sya. i dont care about that (i have 10 massive GW 40K armies).

my thing is that, am paying well for this so called quality products (na akala ko made STILL IN UK) and only to find out na GAWA NA SYA SA CHINA.

when i checked the resin-based of the barricades, "balbon" ang pagkakagawa meaning the product was made or done in disregard to product quality.

if you compare the barricades now dun sa dating barricades na release nila na gawa sa UK, maganda at maayos ang pagkakagawa meaning quality product sya.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

HGR Journal Entry No. 070 - Even Storms Fail To Discourage These Weekday Warriors

Date: October 1, 2008
Venue: Somewhere in the Quezon City Area
Regulars Present: Midnight, Salubri aka Darth Chuck, Kyuzo, Lord Ravage, Deadeye
Highlights:

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Game1 - Salubri(Craftworld Megil en Mea) vs. Midnight(Space Wolves)
2000pts Capture and Control Mission, Dawn of War Deployment
Draw!

It wasn't the Craftworld's day with a slew of bad rolls at some critical points in the game that put them on the defensive while the Space Wolves' armored column made a steady advance towards the Craftworld's home objective.

Shining Spears made the game interesting by moving into close combat at the Space Wolves' home objective with the Dire Avengers and Storm Guardians not far behind in the hopes of claiming enemy objective once its clear.

Game ends in a tactical draw with no troops of either side close enough to claim any objective but the Space Wolves have a slight edge in Victory Points.

... unfortunately for Krieg's pack, the Bloodclaws riding the crusader lost all sense of direction when Regus was rendered unconcious by that Wraithlord's crushing blow. Instead of heading for the Eldar objective, they wasted time going after a bunch of fire dragons.

... Krieg also mistook the SW scouts as a claiming/scoring unit. Di pala troops lang pwede!

... newbie mistake for me, always keep your mind on the objective... as an old man would say, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory :P



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Game2 - Lord Ravage(Peter North's Crimson Scars...:P) vs. Deadeye(Ultramarines)
2000pts Capture and Control Mission, Dawn of War Deployment
Draw! 7Turns

With Lord Ravage's arrival with an army whose name is a work in progress that makes Deadeye blush... moving on...

This was a very close affair, with Deadeye making an early control of the center while Lord Ravage outflanking units try to sweep coming from one flank, reminiscent of some epic battle only seen in the movies. Extended turns proved critical in Lord Ravages efforts to successfully eliminate Ultramarines from claiming their home objective or sent them running. Game ends in a tactical draw.

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Some Worthy Quotable Quotes from the Regulars (actually Deadeye took most of the credit this session):
Deadeye: "I can't see your unit but I can see your eye..." *pointing his laser pointer checking to see if he can shoot*
Lord Ravage: "Don't shoot my eye!"

Deadeye: "Oh no sir! They're poking us from behind!"

Session ends 7:00pm