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I try to host an apocalypse game every year, usually coinciding with my birthday. I'm like a little kid, I want all my friends to come over and play toy soliders!

Our gaming club had been running a campaign for the last few months, and we used the campaign rankings to pick sides. Tommy (tbrassf2) and I were the points leaders, and Tommy suggested that this year, we do a fortress defense game. I then began a 6-week project to build a fortress (only for him to say he meant a couple of bastions and an aegis line...) I've got a thread detailing the fortress construction over here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/556090.page

As the game got closer, people got called off on random duties, work and families, but some new friends joined in, and on the day of the game, our teams looked as follows:

Team Hive Fleet Controlling the Ultramarines (!?)
Tommy (tbrassf2) - 3k Tyranids.
Dave (colpicklejar) - 3k Ultramarines
Shawn (SparkeyG) - 3k Ultramarines
Grace - 2k Dark Eldar
Big Fortress - 3k

Team Chaos-Tau-Necrons
Alex (Redbeard) - 3k Tau
Phil - 3k Tau
Chris - 3k Chaos Daemons
Art - 3k Necrons
Kathleen - 2k Chaos Daemons

Apoc Formations and Interesting units:
Shawn fielded Marneus Calgar and a full Space Marine Company
Tommy ran the Living Fortress, with the Swarmlord leading it
Kathleen ran Zarakynel and An'ggrath (she likes just running the big models around)
Chris had no apoc formations, but ran 10 MCs, most of whom flew
Grace ran a Kabalite Web Strike
Phil ran a Rapid Insertion Force
Art ran a Nightshround bomber
I ran a Riptide Wing, Skysweep Missile Defense, a Tigershark AX-1-0, and the new R'Varna suit

The Fortress was using our custom rules:


We played "The Final Assault" mission from the new apoc book. This put three objectives in each deployment zone, with the attackers starting 12" outside of the defenders deployment zone. We said the fortress was the defenders zone, leaving a little space on either side to start attackers.

Notably, the defenders objectives are worth double points, and they're protected by a big wall...

The narrative for the battle revolves around a possible attack against the planet. The planet is defended by a series of force shields, and the generators are protected by fortresses. In order to attack the planet, the attackers must destroy these force shields, allowing their fleet to commence bombarding the planet. As such, until the force shield is down, no orbital strategic assets can target the fort. The defenders also have a fleet, but it's on the far side of the planet. They're prevented from employing orbital strategic assets until turn 4, when their fleet arrives. At the end of turn four, the fleets engage in space, and the battle on the ground concludes.

We have three breaks scheduled, after turn 1, when the pizza arrives, after turn 3, when the cake is served, and after turn 4, at the end of the game.

Deployment!



Attacker Turn One



Defender Turn One





Attacker Turn Two



Defender Turn Two


Attacker Turn Three



Defender Turn Three


Attacker Turn Four



Defender Turn Four


Results



Yeah, so we drank a lot of beer, and ate some pizza and cake and played with toy soldiers and that's how you should celebrate a birthday

For the record, the spore pod destroyed the scarabs after 2 full rounds of Hand-to-Tentacle combat.

Awesome game. Looked like a lot of fun.

Looks like fun game. Very cool.

That was epic! Thanks for sharing and taking the time to post!

It was, indeed, a lot of fun.

I am so jealous of that fortress.

Very sad that An'ggrath couldn't pull out the win, he is silly overpriced but I can only imagine is insane fun to field. I was pleased at Zarakynel's performance as I am making a 'counts as' for he/she/it in my own daemon army.

This batrep is really a lot of what Apoc is about, just fielding huge swathes of models and having a banger of a time with a bunch of friends, and it was a lot of fun to read too.

How did you like the rules for the Fortress? Would you change anything now that you've had a test run with it?

Love to see big apoc battle reps. That fortress is absolutely beautiful, and it is amazing that you built it so quickly. Well done sir!

Cheers for sharing, fun to read and looks fun to play! That you had cake and pizza as well is just awesome.

 Thor665 wrote:

How did you like the rules for the Fortress? Would you change anything now that you've had a test run with it?

It was expensive, and going in, both sides were somewhat apprehensive. The attackers weren't sure the walls would go down without D weapons, which we had but one of. The defenders were thinking it'd go down too fast, and that its cost was pretty high for what was limited offensive output.

Early on in the first turn, when my second hammerhead shot destroyed a defense tower, it seemed like it might have been a bust. But that turned out to be a fluke, as during the assault phase, the combined daemon assault laid 46 S10 attacks out and only the soul grinder managed to drop a gatehouse.

One of the things about apocalypse is that stuff dies, even stuff you think is pretty tough, or really want to use. The main gun of the fortress was a very powerful weapon that had the potential to wreck lots of stuff in the attacker's side of the table. As such, and in spite of not actually opening a fortress section for invasion, it was the target of the tigershark on turn 1. Unfortunately, that meant that the defenders never got to see it fire, and that was somewhat disappointing for them.

However, in spite of some sections dying, and it not being an offensive juggernaut, the fortress largely did its job. It funneled all the attackers to one place, and bottlenecked them there. It kept the defending units alive and on the objectives. It kept a number of attacking unit at bay, knowing that they would be largely ineffective and subjected to defending firepower. And, at the end of the game, these advantages proved decisive, with the defenders winning.

That's the important thing to remember about 40k, even apocalypse - it's a game about objectives.

I don't think the fortress would work well in a generic scenario. It's offense doesn't match its cost, and you can remove the scarier parts piecemeal if you want (compared to a similarly costed titan, for example). But with the mission we picked, that forces the attacker to engage, rather than avoid, the defenses, I think it was well priced and that the benefits provided were worth the price paid for them. Being able to camp objectives largely unmolested and rack up victory points is not something to easily discount.

This game was a blast to play in (I had the daemons).

That fortress was tough! Not only did the players have fun but the game moved very smooth. There were zero rules arguments, and very few rules questions. The teams rolled for each others models which I think made the game go smoother. Each player was paired up with someone on the opposing team to do rolls in their section if the table. I recommend this model for all future apoc games.

Chris

Very cool bat rep and a a bunch of great looking models on that table. Well done!

Holy mother of god.

Dat fortress.

Do want!

I really like this concept for an apocalypse game! I was considering doing something similar to this concept, but my idea died because I felt the involvement of two tables (One has the shield gen for the base) would divide up the players too much and cause a lengthy game with few turns.

I saw that you mentioned that you assigned points to the fortress. How many points did you assign to it? I need a way to balance the sides, I don't want the attackers to be horribly disadvantaged.

I used the existing fortification rules as a starting point, including the Imperial Fortress from forgeworld. Then extended that out by the number of sections. It ended up at roughly 3000 points.

That's simply amazing, thanks for posting

Thanks for sharing....loved the batte report and the pics of all the carnage.

Thanks!

Everything about this was epic, well played to all of you. And im jealous ;p

Bookmark'd! I'll read the whole thing and look at the pictures when I get more internet on the 1st.

That looks like a ton of fun, thanks!

What a wonderful & fun game Red. Great birthday indeed!

Amazing! Thanks so much for sharing.

Nice Battle report

Apoc games seem so much more balanced when the D weapons are limited. And gargantuan creatures really show off their durability, too!

Our group would have to come to a gentleman's agreement on limiting D weapons, otherwise my arsenal alone would drop the entire front of the fortress in a turn.

If that happens, consider either external to the fortress, within the fortress, or on another table either using the old defense laser rules or several of the new macro cannons. Gives the fortress more OOMPH. One reaver with laser blasters will bring the whole thing down, otherwise.