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The disastrous events which befell that most stalwart and loyal of Spcae Marine chapters on their home world of Rynn's World is the subject of many popular (and mostly inaccurate) accounts in both holovid and written versions and thus will not be touched upon in this, more academic, history save to say that following that tragedy the tactics of the Crimson Fists were forced by necessity to be a bit more fluid. Fortunately for the Imperium that most holy tome, the Codex Astartes, offers strategies and tactics to cover the wide range of wars and situations that the Astartes find themselves facing. So it was that Captain Cruz-Martin, late of the 6th Reserve Company now simply a Crimson Fist as a company designation means little to a Chapter so near the brink of annihilation took his most skilled riders and answered the call of duty as his liege and lord, Chapter Master Pedro Cantor, carried on the sacred duty of rebuilding his chapter.

-excerpted from the introductory slate of "Like Blood on the Wind, volumes 1-53" by Lord Philomon von Haoupt, archivist-in-residence, Schola Progeniums Primaris, Secundus and Tertius, Loki sector



I knew going into this tourney that following this action the Crimson Fists would be boarding their Battle Barge "Voice of War" - for a well earned resupply and regroup trip back to Rynn's World. In other words, they were gonna get a rest while I work on my next army. With that in mind I decided before hand just to have fun and play as well as I could and just enjoy the ride.

For those who don't know, the Grand Prix was a 2000 point 24 slot 5 game tourney held in Hollywood. The missions were all book missions but mission and deployment type matchups were released ahead of time. The sieze ground missions all had 5 objectives.

The list I brought was pretty much an evolution of the bike list I have been playing for the last year or so. Most of the games I have been playing it at are 1500 rtts so I had an extra 500 points. I opted for thunderhammer termies in land raider with a librarian giving my faithful dreadnought a respite and a refit as befits his war honors (look for a venerable dread in my next Crimson Fists list).



Crimson Fists - 2000 points

HQ
Captain Cruz-Martin (Bike, Relic Blade, Artificer armor, Hellfire rounds, Meltabombs)
Librarian Ando (Null zone, Gate)

Troops
Scout Squad Shadow (5 Scouts, Missile Launcher, Cloaks)
Bike Squad Lightning (4 Bikes, Multimelta Attack Bike, 2 Plasma Guns, Power Fist)
Bike Squad Stalker (4 Bikes, Multimelta Attack Bike, 2 Plasma Guns, Power Fist)
Bike Squad Heartseeker (4 Bikes, Multimelta Attack Bike, 2 Meltaguns, Power Fist)
Bike Squad Vengeance (4 Bikes, Multimelta Attack Bike, 2 Meltaguns, Power Fist)

Elite
Assault Squad Wrath (5 Assault Terminators, LRC, MM, Extra Armor)

Fast
Loki's Dart (Land Speeder Typhoon)
Tidings of War (Land Speeder Typhoon)
Woebringer (Land Speeder Typhoon)

HQ - 295 - 14.75%
Troops - 960 - 48.00%
Elite - 475 - 23.75%
Fast - 270 - 13.50%
Heavy - 0 - 0.00%

Total - 2000 - 100.00%

That is right, damn near 50% spent in troops and not a single heavy (okay, there is a Land Raider Crusader, but is an elite dedicated transport...)

One of the things I like about the Sprue Posse tourneys is that there are no wacky or amateur games designer missions. Straight out of the book so you know that they have been play-tested against each other and that there are checks and balances when the missions and deployment options are all used. Kill points punishes MSU (especially the weak troops) but 5 objective seize rewards it so it comes out as a wash. Full disclosure, I am a member of Sprue Posse so obviously my preferences are reflected in the tourneys our group runs - we are all very competitive people but also like to do narrative completely wacky games (all slaanesh daemons vs. all foot IG for instance). There is a place for wacky, fun, fluffy missions, it is just not in a tourney environment.

The tables all looked decent, there was 25% terrain on all of them, though it would been nice to have a bit more large LOS blocking on some of the tables. As an aside, we are going to be adding terrain throughout the year to take care of that.



Uhhh I believe that is about all I wanted to preamble on about.

...and as a result the "Voice of War" was the first to respond to the desperate transmission from the world Merchant's Folly. Auspex reading were dire, the once populous capital city Skyreach was lifeless as were many lesser settlements. The normally white cloud cover visible from orbit was a cancerous yellow, like the nic-stains on an addict's fingers. A vox transmission was received from the southern hemisphere where many of the planet's final defenders were staging an heroic last stand.

It was with commendable haste that Captain Cruz-Martin loaded his swiftest relief force into the Thunderhawk "Watchful". He was surprised to see Librarian Ando and Brother-Sergeant Valez already there rigging the mighty Land Raider Crusader "Impending Violence" for a quick drop. Valez had been recalled from service to the Death Watch following the tragedy on Rynn's World and the silver paint on his left arm gleamed brightly like a beacon of hope for the lost world of Merchant's Folly.

Despite the haste with which the Crimson Fists made planetfall it was far too late to save any of the loyal citizens of Merchant's Folly. The poisoned air had finished off any which might have survived the onslaught of that most despicable of foes, traitors who have turned from the light of the Emperor to follow the lord of rot and decay.

Captain Cruz-Martin held aloft his ancient relic blade and the psycho-reactive crystals transformed his rage into rippling flame which danced along its monomolecular edge.

"It is to our shame that we arrived too late to defend this world. Only one thing remains, my brothers. We must avenge the fallen!"

The throaty roar of engines came in reply as the Crimson fists opened the throttles of their bikes and threw themselves headlong into the entrenched forces of the Plague Marines."

- "Like Blood on the Wind, volume 17" by Lord Philomon von Haoupt, archivist-in-residence, Schola Progeniums Primaris, Secundus and Tertius, Loki sector

Game 1 I was paired up with Dave_Fay and his nurgle themed CSM list. HIs list was:

Demon Prince: Mark of Nurgle, Warptime, Wings
Chaos Lord: Bike, Mark of Nurgle, Plague Bringer, Combi-Melta
Chaos Dreadnought: CCW X 2, Heavy Flamer, Storm Bolter
6 Plague Marines w/ Champion: Pfist, Combi-Plasma, Plasmagun X 2 Rhino w/Combi-Melta
6 Plague Marines w/ Champion: Pfist, Combi-Flamer, Flamer X 2 Rhino w/Combi-Melta
6 Plague Marines w/ Champion: Pfist, Combi-Melta, Meltagun X 2 Rhino w/Combi -Melta
7 Plague Marines: Plasmagun X 2 Rhino w/Combi-Melta
Predator: Twin-Linked Lascannon, Lascannon Sponsons
Defiler: CCW X 2, Heavy Flamer, Battle Cannon
Defiler: CCW X 2, Heavy Flamer, Battle Cannon

The mission was kill points and we were off.

I won the roll to go first and chose to go first.

The game
Dave's list was fairly light on long range shooting and my intent was to pop his rhinos, take the easy kill points and then play keep away as best I could and deployed as such. This was my first mistake, as it forced him to castle up with those hard to get kill points.



My bikes began to sweep wide and around and missiles fired at the rhinos but they apparently had feel no pain as well. Dave was on fire with those cover saves.



In return I lost 2 speeders and was suddenly down drastically. Also, one of my bikes failed 5 out of 7 3+ saves leaving the attack bike with a single wound. Fortunately, there was decent cover and the attack bike was able to turbo boost across the table and out of LOS. He was joined by one of the other attack bikes a few minutes later and they just hung out with the scouts and told old war stories and kept their heads down.

Meanwhile the captain led his squad around the flank supported by the Land Raider with thunderhammer termies and librarian.




The thunderhammer termies got a charge off on the predator and the dreadnought. The predator was destroyed but the dreadnought just laughed maniacally. Or maybe that was Dave. In any event, Crimson Fist terminators do not die easily. They weathered a few rounds of combat with the dreadnought and daemon prince. The lord charged in and again, the storm shields held. They killed the lord but succumbed to the dreadnought and lord.

Meanwhile, a desperate maneuver on my part managed to destroy a rhino finally (it only took 3 short ranged melta shots - and then just barely!) In return the squad was charged by 2 squads of Death Guard. The power fists of the Death Guard knocked the Crimson Fists from their bikes but the captain held on for another round or two. I believe I was actually up by one kill point on turn 5. Alas, the game continued another turn and my hopes were well and truly dashed.



It was a loss, but a good game against a great player with a surprising list that has me rethinking my boxed up World Eaters. Dave's list is a prime example of just exactly how much more important it is to know your army really well than it is to play a net power build.

The gruesome monstrosity was truly born more of the warp than its native dimension. It moved in to finish the unconscious form of the noble Captain Cruz-Martin but halted, head cocked as if listening to an unheard call. The deamon prince smiled - if such a hideous grimace could be called a smile.

With the sound of a rotten corpse bursting from the gasses of decaying organs a rend in reality appeared. The daemon prince's offering of this world had been accepted. It knew that the gate would soon close and so it shepherded its army into the other dimension. The unholy vitality of the traitors allowing those thought dead to rise again and shamble into the abyss...

-excerpted from "Like Blood on the Wind, volume 17" by Lord Philomon von Haoupt, archivist-in-residence, Schola Progeniums Primaris, Secundus and Tertius, Loki sector

@gavo - thanks, fluff is what makes me love this game. The defilers did okay, they shot at bikes, killed a few - popped a speeder, charged and helped finish off the termies. Not as much as you would have expected, but I am used to large blast templates and try to hug the board edge as much as possible which makes about half of the shots that drift go safely off the board. Turbo boosting a lot also mitigates the damage.

@reecius - yeah it was great to meet you too. Practice with a list is vital I think to really be a top player (as both you and Dave clearly are). Theory is great but there is no substitute for the fluidity of the game - knowing when to press an advantage and when to pull back and knowing exactly what you can count on your models to do on both the best and the worst day. I would like to play more but I have two wonderful little distractions (and a wife) ;-)

Thanks for posting the list Dave, I will update the post. Game 2 and hopefully 3 will both be up later today.

I am pretty sure that they are 4(5) unless it was faq'd

Finishing up game 2 right now.

The Captain of the 6th Company of the Crimson Fists, Raul Cruz-Martin kneels before an altar of purest white marble bearing a golden icon of an open mailed fist. Set in the center of the golden fist and cast of platinum and finer metals is the twin-headed eagle of the Imperium as if frozen while taking flight from a nest.

His prayer is broken with as the temple judders.

CRUZ-MARTIN: What in the name of Dorn? Why have we dropped from transit?

He stands regally, swooshing his white cloak behind him.

NARRATOR: Unbeknownst to the good Captain, a mighty ork Waagh led by no less a villain than the Arch Arsonist of Charadon was causing such distress to those aetheric seas that the Strike Cruiser "Loki's Might" was knocked from warp.

Some time later:

Captain Cruz-Martin stands on the bridge of "Loki's Might", addressing the ship's officers.

CRUZ-MARTIN: This is a holy celebration! We must get to Rynn's World with all haste!

OFFICER'S CHORUS: Aye lord, we all know but the waves of the aether are not to be calmed.

Some time later:

NARRATOR: Loki's Might stabilized in orbit above the once proud ruins of the Crimson Fists chapter keep though the atmospheric interference caused by the catastrophic sabotage perpetrated by the bestial green skins prevented contact with survivors, if indeed there were any.

CRUZ-MARTIN: Prepare your wargear and mount your iron steeds my brothers! We will ride out to face the beast on the field and death rides with us!

MARINE CHORUS: (Cheers and shouts)

from Belicci Finorio's Epic Holodrama "Red Fists and Green Blood; or the Treachery of the Beast"

Ah well, the good thing about losing game 1 is you get to coast in the loser's bracket where the lists are typically less brutal and generals less skilled.

When I get to the table what is awaiting me but greenskins! Awesome, my ancestral enemies and the terrain on the table is the dark angels fortress of redemption! My opponent, Earth, has been playing orks since the dark ages and they were his only army. He was just as excited as I to replay the cover of the Rogue Trader book.



His army looked great (he ended up getting best painted) and he had a big ol' grin plastered on his face so I was expecting a fun game now that the stress of a perfect tourney was lifted. And like I said, loser's bracket is soft, right?



Waagh Urthsmasha (from memory and I made up the name of the Waagh)
Warboss on bike with klaw and bad hygiene (and other stuff I am sure)
Big Mek with KFF
20 boyz with pk nob and 2x rokkits
20 boyz with pk nob and 2x rokkits
15 Burnaboyz
10 nob bikers with dok and some mix and match klaws and big choppas
2x7 Lootas
3 deff rolla battle wagons

Ah it is good to be in the soft loser's bracket...

The mission was a pitched battle cap and control and we quickly set the narrative that this battle took place during the battle for Rynn's World near another missile silo that was not destroyed (the fortress).

The Game
I won the roll but let Earth go first.

I deployed most of my stuff out of LOS behind the tower except for the land raider with termies which was directly across from his nob bikers and with a mighty waaagh! Earth started his turn. Oh yeah, like all true orky players, Earth yells WAAAAGH! A lot.



The bikes moved forward a bit but didn't want to be in charge range of the termies. Ultimately, he misjudged this and I noticed his warboss was out of position for the charge I wanted. Everything else moved forward except the lootas (one of them moved into the ruins) and the other had no LOS.

Oh yeah, it bears mention here that we discussed the terrain before we even rolled for sides and decided to treat the fortress as a single level ruin with a huge impassible tower.

The landraider moved full speed toward the biker nobs and unloaded the termies. The librarian elected to stay on board and manage the battlefield from the armored behemoth though he did send aid in the form of null zone.



Two of the land speeders moved flat out to the flank of the termies to take advantage of the warboss being out of place. When it came time for him to pile in he had to just yell encouragement.



I had 4 bike squads shoot up the closer lootas and they killed all but 1 vital speedbump preventing the bikes from riding in to support the termies.

One of the terminators was struck down before he could attack and the other 4, despite charging, only did 2 wounds which killed 2 nobs. Their charge was stalled and the bikes held. Uh oh. At least they did well on the storm shield saves (which was to be a theme for me throughout the tourney).

One of the boyzwagons moved over to unload and pile on the two speeders. They managed to destroy both of them with their fists.

The burnawagon deffrolled the land raider, wrecking it and earning a WAAAGH! from Earth. The burnas themselves then piled out and charged a bike squad, wiping them out through power weapon wounds.



The other boyz wagon moved on to drop off the boyz who swamped the scouts that were holding my objective. I think that they played scrumball with the scouts' heads for the rest of the game in the woods as I whittled them down with the last speeder shooting them down to 9.



The terminators recovered well, killing 4 more nobs for no loss and then escorted the breaking warboss off the field before he had a chance to make a single attack.

The lootas showed their gratitude by opening up with 3 shots a piece and breaking the terminators. The 2 survivors spent the rest of the game falling back.

Meanwhile, Captain Cruz-Martin split off from his escort and cut down the remaining loota with contemptuous ease. The rest of the bikes put a torrent of fire into the boyz and various battle wagons with decent but not game changing effect.

One of the battle wagons tank shocked a bike unit and I didn't realize that even if you stop the battle wagon you take 2d6 str 10 hits so that was a very painful, 3 bike lesson learned.



At this point it was getting close to time - Earth and I talked way too much during this game - it really felt more like a fun pickup with a friend than a tourney game so time started getting tight. We got through turn 5 and might have had time for a full turn 6 but it wasn't a guarantee so we called it a draw as we each had the others objective pretty easily. We talked through the following turn to see if it would have made a difference and it was possible that with really fluky dice that either of us could have one (basically his boyz fail a leadership check followed by a boss pole check after I have a good round of shooting with my speeder would give me the win or for him if I missed with all 3 meltas from 2 different units within 6" of the rear armor of his battle wagon and then he got far enough to tank shock me and killed that last unit to a man (which I would obviously not be death or glorying) it would have been a win for him. Any other result was a draw and I know I felt okay with it, and am pretty sure he did too.

Like I said, we talked A LOT during this game, we probably could have shaved a half hour off it.

So, a great draw, a super fun game against a nice thematic enemy army on a beautiful table with a fun narrative. The result was a draw, but it sure felt like a win.

Captain Cruz-Martin stands over the broken from of the Ork Warboss. The beast's fangs are broken and it coughs blood up from dreadful internal wounds. The powerful klaw which had so brutally snapped Brother Nandez from his bike and clipped him twain twitches on the ground several meters away.

The front wheel of the kustomized chopper spins as the bike lays silent on its side.

WARBOSS URTHSMASHA: Ya can't (cough cough) win. We iz da krumpinest waagh you ever seen (cough cough).

CRUZ-MARTIN: You are alien filth and will be eradicated from the Emperor's holy domain. This I swear by my honor and my life. [he looks directly into the holopic catcher] The Crimson Fists will not rest until every loyal citizen of the Imperium can rest safe, free from the tyranny of the alien.

A young boy (15 years old) crawls out from the wreckage of a nearby house. He is leading a much younger girl by the hand. Both are grubby but unbroken.

BOY: How can I help, noble Captain? I want my sissy to sleep well tonight,

CRUZ-MARTIN: The Imperial Guard and your local PDF will always have a place for brave men and women, son. See your local commissariat recruiter.

end credits roll.

from Belicci Finorio's Epic Holodrama "Red Fists and Green Blood; or the Treachery of the Beast"

Yeah it was awesome! I am definitely looking forward to playing you again. Thanks for the update on the list, I will fix it.

The patrol was making good time. The enemy had failed to show itself and Captain Cruz-Martin was on the verge of ordering his troops back to base when a burst of pain and light exploded behind his eyes. Moments later the voice of Librarian Ando filled his head.

'They come! Scions of madness, the Emperor weeps! It is not mere traitors who despoil this world but daemons as well!'

Captain Cruz-Martin didn't hesitate though he felt blood trickling from his nose from the force of Ando's warning. His heart felt no fear at this ancient enemy, he was well versed in the tactics laid out in the Codex Astartes for facing denizens of the warp.

"Attack formation Viridian seven!" he broadcast across the voxnet. The bikes peeled off into defensive formation and even the Brother-Sergeant Valez led his terminators down the assault ramp of the Impending Violence to look for the breech in reality that would herald the gibbering madness of the warp-spawn as they burst into real space.

After a hard fought draw I was looking forward to game 3. Two great games against fun opponents - would my luck hold for number 3?

Indeed it would! I am not going to lie, when I saw I was facing daemons I let out a bit of a sigh of relief. Sure, it was a pretty nasty fatecrusher build generaled by Italiaplaya - and if you are following dakka at all you know he has had a pretty mean streak with daemons, but I know daemons pretty well. I played the hell out of them (see my sig for my tactica and a bunch of battle reports). Most importantly I know how to beat them and knew my list had the tools to do it.

We were playing a 5 objective spearhead mission which helped me even more but I know that daemons can be absolutely brutal if they get hot on dice no matter what you try and do against them, so I was taking no chances.

Unfortunately since it was game 3 and I was mostly brain dead I forgot to take many pictures. Sorry.

Italiaplaya's Daemonic Incursion (from memory again because I keep doing these at work)

Fateweaver
Bloodthirster (unholy might)
2x6 fully upgraded bloodcrusher units
6 fiends (unholy might)
15(?)seekers of slaanesh
3x7(6?) plaguebearers
daemon prince (mark of tzeentch, bolt, gaze)

My deployment I put everything but the librarian on the table and spread out as much as possible to deny deep strike locations. The termies were in easy range to load back up in the land raider but created a big footprint.



For my movement I pushed out pretty aggressively basically giving him his choice of 3 corners to drop into safely. He got a 5 for his preferred wave and dropped in fateweaver who drifted 7" back. He put a unit of bloodcrushers in front of him and they ran for a good spread but were still in range of fateweaver. The fiends and a unit of plaguebearers also were within range. Oh yeah and the bloodthirster. All of his drops were safe and pretty much on target and fateweaver hit the landraider but failed to pen it with a bolt of tzeentch then it was my turn again.

Continuing to follow the codex prescribed manner of dealing with daemons everything fell back into firing positions, the termies loaded back up in the land raider. I still maintained a pretty decent spacing in my backfield just to prevent any shenanigans. The land raider backed up and the librarian popped his null zone. Only the bloodcrushers were in range of nullzone so I concentrated most of my shooting there, killing one or two and leaving all the rest with only a single wound and the rest of my army safely out of range of everything.

All I can assume is that my librarian's null zone was so powerful that it actually reinforced reality as Italiaplaya went on to fail every one of his reserve rolls which all but sealed the game.

Everything advanced as far as they could, nothing was in assault range though. I think fateweaver might have killed a bike and failed to hurt the land raider again.

At this point I advanced everything into short range and the termies piled out. The librarian got off null zone again and the cleansing began. First priority, of course, was fateweaver. To his credit he never failed his leadership check but the full firepower of a land raider crusader in short range and rerolling successful saves proved to be more than he could handle. The plasma bikes accounted for the wounded bloodcrushers and I may have put a wound on the bloodthirster as well. The thunderhammer termies charged the bloodthirster and lost one of their number (he only hit twice) and banished the beast. Shooting also accounted for some of the fiends.




This is what it looked like after turn 2 (the model on the hill wasn't actually on the hill - he was about to be deployed on turn 3).

Unfortunately, his dice never really got much better and I had ripped the heart out of his army. Fateweaver, the bloodthirsters, and a unit of bloodcrushers were all dead. Full marks to Italiaplaya - he didn't give up here, his fiends charged a bike unit and only got a couple of rends and my guys held. The thunderhammer termies then moved in and finished them off and then moved on to a unit of plaguebearers by the end of the game.

Following turn 2 it was really just the clinical dismantling of his army, even when I failed null zone one time it was too little too late.

Against null zone and a fast army a daemon player really needs to get hot on the dice and instead italiaplaya's dice decided to call it a day early. It was way too much for him to overcome. I think I lost something like 6 or 8 bikes from a couple of units and a terminator by the end of the game.



I love daemons and it hurt me to treat them so badly on the field. Stupid null zone is the reason I stopped playing them.

So, 1-1-1 on day 1 vs, a really brutal field. I felt good with how my army performed and didn't make too many boneheaded mistakes after game 1 showed me I really needed to bring my A game. Hopefully day 2 would be just as awesome and fun.

Brothers Mendel and Vairoso were laid out next to their bikes. Vairoso's body was already blackened and in the later stages of decay. Most tragically, his gene-seed had been hopelessly tainted by the virulent diseases which overwhelmed his enhanced immune system. Captain Cruz-Martin looked over at where Brother-Sergeant Valez was removing the gene-seed of Dasz. The terminator had been cleaved in two. The other terminators were collecting their brother's war gear with solemn reverence.

The cost was high, especially in these dark days when a single loss could take more than a century to replace but Cruz-Martin knew that they had been fortunate. Without the librarian's warning the ambush could have been far costlier.

The captain gave thanks to his primarch, Rogal Dorn, for adopting the wisdom of the codex Astartes and blessed the divine inspiration which led Roboute Guilliman to pen such a tome. The wisdom of the primarchs lived on and through the Crimson Fists so did their dreams.

@nickthewise - thanks, they are really fun to play. I am working on game 4 now, hope to get it up before I leave for the day.

Captain Cruz-Martin stood on a ridge overlooking a valley. The valley looked peaceful enough for the moment, but certainly that peace would soon be yet another casualty in the endless wars plaguing the galaxy.

He had spent so much time in the saddle of his bike lately that standing on his legs felt awkward - almost unnatural and he was getting impatient to return to it. And he didn't like waiting.

As if cued by that thought there was a bright flash and the sound of air being displaced. Cruz-Martin turned to this newcomer who towered a full meter above the Captain.

"Lord Belial, we are honored that you will be joining us personally."

"We have been traveling too long. I feel that the exercise will be good for my men."

"When I became aware that we would be fighting alongside you on Shadow Watch I had hoped that we could learn from you. It is no exaggeration to say that Dark Angels are the masters of war when it comes to combined action of terminators and the faster elements. My men are eager to share what they have learned as well. We may even surprise you." He added with a grin.

"I doubt it." Belial said, and with a word, vanished as abruptly as he had arrived.

Ah, nothing like a tourney starting bright and early at noon on a Sunday. As I said, I was feeling pretty good about how things had gone so far. I was 1-1-1 and all three games had been a blast. The table assignments are given and who am I facing? None other than Manimal. Now, I am not sure how it happens, but I think we have played each other in the last 3 tourneys we were both at and had actually carpooled together. I think I had the advantage on him coming into this game 2-1 so he was looking to settle the score.

With the shiny new FAQ in hand Manimal had decided to take the Dark Angels out of stasis and give them a shot. His list looked something like this:



Belial (thunderhammer/stormshield)
Sammael (speeder of doom)

4x5 terminators (thunderhammer/stormshield, 1 cyclone)
1 of the termie squads also had a banner and apothecary
2x3 bikes with 2 meltas
2 mm attack bikes
3 dakka predators

The mission was a straight up pitched battle kill points. I deployed my scouts in the cover of a ruin in my deployment zone with the librarian and thunderhammer termies in the landraider right next to them. I kept everything else in reserves. Manimal deployed everything but the bikes.

The Game
As the targets that manimal had were pretty limited he moved the speeder forward and fired the assault cannon at the land raider as well as many of the missiles as the terminators advanced. The scouts went to ground and lost only one guy. They are good at keeping their heads down. The landraider, however, took a single result which immobilized it. My shooting phase didn't do anything to Sammael and the scouts started to peek their heads up over the massive blocks around them...



...before ducking straight back down again. My inexperience with that unit was really showing all tourney. I lost another scout to the shooting. His bikes showed up and just came on behind the terminators (showing his inexperience with bikes, they didn't even turboboost to their locations).

My reserves were not great. I got two units of bikes both of which turboboosted to no LOS locations. My terminators bided their time in the safety of the land raider.



and



One of manimal's attack bikes moved out to take a shot at the land raider to no effect other than to get into range of my terminators. He continued to shoot my scouts killing all but one who failed his leadership test and fell back.

All three speeders showed up and quickly went to work picking up a kill point for one of the attack bikes and killing off 2 of one of the bike units and staying out of LOS of the dakka preds. Also more bikes arrived.




It was now time to act, I was up on kill points and it looked like I trade one for one pretty easily for the rest of the game. My terminators piled out and set up a multicharge on a unit of his terminators and the attack bike. The scout rallied and, for the second time in the tourney found himself in a mighty land raider (he also ended up in one in the daemons game when the second unit of bloodcrushers came looking for them).

Predictably, I smashed the attack bike and killed a terminator but in return I didn't lose any. Thus began a really hot stretch of armor and invulnerable saves - I think Maninal counted 27 before I failed my first one (the majority of them were normal armor saves from the three dakka predators and a fist full of missiles).

My own bikes sped forward to destroy a predator and "trade" kill points as Belials squad smashed them. Their sacrifice did keep the terminators back out of mine for another turn though.

The speeders ended up taking out both of the other bike units and eventually a predator as well while only one of them ended up immobilized. If you take typhoons, remember, 48" range is your very good friend as is terrain.

A unit of the deathwing termies charged my terminators and I lost only 1 and in return killed another couple as my captain rode in in support. Belial and his squad charged in as well a turn later and I held to them and matched my Captain up against Belial but the Captain was smashed to the ground along with one of the remaining terminators. I failed my leadership check and as terminators can never sweeping advance I fell back and would spend the rest of the game falling back.



At this point the Dark Angels had murder in their eyes but they were unable to get through the land raider's armor. My bikes meanwhile destroyed his supporting predators and one of the termie units. I didn't bother with Sammael - give me armor 11 over 14 any day. At the end it was a clear win for the Crimson Fists.

Captain Cruz-Martin watched as three more of the Deathwing termintors froze as their internal sensors registered the "damage" from the depowered thunder hammers.

Cruz-Martin was pleased with how the battle had gone thus far. The Dark Angels had obviously underestimated his forces skills - Brother-Sergeant Valez was recently returned from the Deathwatch and led his terminators with as much skill as the Deathwing - possibly even a bit more. His bikes had dealt with the smaller more agile units of the Dark Angels.

He was smashed from the saddle into the soft dewy ground of the valley with more force than he expected. He noticed that Belial was furious at the shame his Dark Angels were being dealt. Valez was knocked back as well - the Dark Angels were powering up their thunderhammers. Both veterans had been fortunate that the thunderhammers were only cycling up and so were at less than half power.

The situation was quickly getting out of hand. He had heard evil rumors of the Dark Angels pride causing them to leave battlefields in the middle of a war because of something said by one of a Warmaster's staff but to see the ugliness of their offended pride still took him aback.

He broke into the shared voxnet. "This is only an exercise! Remember, we are brothers in arms! This is only an exercise!"

The only response from the Dark Angels was a renewed assault on the "Impending Violence". He knew the ancient land raider would be proof against all save a lucky blow but that his bikes and speeders would not fare so well.

He spoke a word into the private Crimson Fists voxnet that would never have been spoken by so headstrong a chapter as the Dark Angels and did so without bitterness. A true student of the codex Astartes knows there is only shame in an avoidable death.

"Fall back."


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Was that fast enough for ya lambadomy? PM me, maybe we can set up a game after work over at Dragon's Den sometime.

Thanks for the kind words. There probably wont be an update today because I want to go home early. I might work on it over the weekend, but honestly, most of my batreps get written at work, so look for it on monday ;-)

The Planetary Defense Forces of Sheperd's Rest were on edge. The citizens had begun their rioting against the unjust tithes being demanded by the bureaucrats of a world that most of them even doubted existing in the name of an Emperor who had, by all accounts, died 10,000 years ago. Anyone with a brain could see the injustice.

Still, the PDF had taken an oath and under the orders of the governor had turned their weapons toward the masses. The problem, to Lieutenant Markov's mind was that most of the people in his command had friends and family out there in the mob. Even worse, Markov himself felt the same. His world had been churning weapons and vehicles of war for the last thousand years at a prodigious rate. Surely if they simply stopped supplying the Imperium with those arms they would have to parlay.

It was what his Colonel had suggested would happen 6 months ago and it had undoubtedly saved both Markov's conscience and the lives of many innocents, though the governor himself as well as most of his cabinet members were killed due to a tragic miscommunication. There was some concern that it would complicate the talks when they happened, but Markov was just a soldier and such concerns were beyond him. He simply followed orders such as he was doing now, when he had mustered his forces near the landing fields where a certain Captain Cruz-Martin would be negotiating on behalf of the Imperium.

Game 5! Woohoo, I was ecstatic that no matter the outcome, my bikes wouldn't have a losing record which made the event a success in my eyes. Even better, I found that I would be matched up against Shep and his mech IG. We have met a few times in recent tourneys and I have had the better of him in the last 3. In fact, if I could beat him here, I would have a better record than he at the tourney.

I would be going for the throat and the win - as it was, I was already playing with house money if you will.

However, Shep had made one pretty big change to his list that I basically overlooked and would come back to haunt me...

Shep's list:

Company Command squad officer of the fleet 4x meltaguns, chimera with heavy flamer

Psyker battle squad (6 total psykers), chimera with heavy flamer
Psyker battle squad (6 total psykers), chimera with heavy flamer

veterans 3x meltaguns 1x autocannon, chimera with heavy flamer
veterans 3x meltaguns 1x autocannon, chimera with heavy flamer
veterans 3x meltaguns 1x autocannon, chimera with heavy flamer
veterans 3x plasmaguns 1x lascannon, chimera with heavy flamer

vendetta with heavy bolters
vendetta with heavy bolters
vendetta with heavy bolters

2x hydras 1x heavy flamer
2x hydras 1x heavy flamer
2x hydras 1x heavy flamer

When facing this kind of list you really have to prioritize your targets. I knew from experience that the Vendettas had to die first and foremost. They are just too deadly and too long range for my bikes to ignore. After that, I would concentrate on the troops and take away his ability to win by depriving him of troops. Then I would mop up the game and pack up early and await the adoration of the masses for my tactical genius.

The last mission of the tourney was a 5 objective dawn of war. I chose to walk everything on turn 1 except for my scouts - they are far too fragile and I had hoped they would hide out til turn 4 and come on when the shooting was greatly diminished and they could waltz over and claim an objective.

I turboboosted 3 of my bike units and took a shot at the vendetta with a bike squad and a speeder but failed my night fighting roll miserably.



In return that unit got blasted off the table and another squad fell back thanks to some psyker chicanery. That unit fell back 12" and with my newly faq granted 3" move actually ended up gaining ground in the following turn.

I discovered pretty early that my land raider would just flat out be impervious to anything Shep could throw at it. The terminators with the librarian disembarked and tried a multicharge on one of the PBS squads chimera. They destroyed it and immobilized another chimera. I think that is the chimera that actually ended up with a stack of 5 tokens on it at one point (immobilized, 2 weapons destroyed, shaken and finally wrecked but not exploded). The terminators went on a multi unit rampage for a turn or two until they got hit with an AP1 soulstorm and 5 million other lesser things (it may have only been 4 million, but I think Shep threw his arm out rolling dice shooting at them.)

My scouts showed up and for the third time over the weekend they ended up in the land raider. The rest of my bikes were just crushed with overwhelming firepower. I managed to hood pretty much everything except for that first turn when they were out of range and the critical terminators.

Still, I had a chance to draw if the game had ended on turn 5. My scouts in the land raider had one objective, he was claiming 1 and there was 1 still contested. Sadly for me, the game did not end. Shep was able to contest my objective and wipe out the last bike that was contesting his thus dashing my hopes for cheering adoration.



It was a super tight game, and a whole lot of fun unfortunately, I was too engaged to take many pics. That is usually a judge for me how tight the game is.

Overall, my two losses were to Dave_Fay(1st place) and Shep(second place) so apparently the road to victory went straight over my chest. I am very happy with how I played and how my army performed. Despite having a round 1 loss I still managed to claw my way back up to play 2nd place for the last game. I was also fortunate enough to play against the Best Painted winner.

A great weekend against extremely tough lists commanded by competent generals. I really could not ask for a more satisfying tourney (other than to have won the damn thing, obviously).

The surviving Crimson Fists gathered at the primary rally point. The initial plan of cutting off the head of the snake by assassinating the traitor general was stymied. They should have expected such, after all, Sheperd's Rest was a munitorum world whose wares were highly valued by Warmasters throughout the entire segmentum.

Captain Cruz-Martin contacted the Strike Cruiser in orbit above.

"Contact Warmaster Hague and tell him to prepare for heavy resistance with witch support."

The war for Sheperd's Rest was just beginning in earnest.



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@Aldarionn - it took place at Meltdown comics in Hollywood. They have an awesome back room area where they do art openings and stuff. I was skeptical when I heard about the location, but it really blew me away.

thanks. Are you sure? I thought that with the DA codex they had to be solo or some wackiness. It certainly would have been better for him had they been a part of the squad like mine.

Sorry, you are right, I didn't mention it. The major changes were the addition of 2 psyker battle squads and the extra unit of hydras and units of veterans with 3 meltas and a heavy weapon in each squad rather than anemic troops with a BS3 heavy weapon and no specials.

PBSes have been out of favor with him for a while - I was playing daemons and was fearless and then there was also some large ork nobs units and fearless just frustrated him no end. Now that there are fewer fearless armies out there (space wolves) he has brought them back into the list.

In short, he was able to cause 2 wounds pretty easily despite my toughness and armor (or turboboosting) without relying on the vendettas as he previously did and then having 2 PBSes with a longer range than the hood was really a pain.

Yeah the terrain was a bit rough on me for that game but really, I still had a chance to win the game and just couldn't quite. I think if there had been adequate terrain OR only one PBS I could have pulled out a win. The combination of the two were a bit brutal.

I took some calculated risks that pay off 50% of the time, just not in this game ;-)