Hey guys, long time no see xD
So I've been out of
40k for some time and honestly haven't even touched 6th. I'm sure it's a solid ruleset, but the focus on flyers and continued escalation in terms of the size of games sort of turned me away. I felt like I had been priced out of my favorite hobby, to be honest. But then I was digging through my old rules and found my 2nd edition stuff. After looking at some old battle reports, I thought it would be cool to play a game again. So now I have talked a few friends into some 2nd edition games. Then come to find out I'm not the only one on the net, or even on Dakka, that is returning to the heady days of 2nd edition. Hopefully this inspires everyone else to take a whirl with the great-yet-goofy 2nd edition rules!
We are using a combination of the core rules, original codices, and the 1.51 Battle Bible to clarify and fill in any gaps.
We are not using Strategy cards (for now)
We are not allowing the Virus Grenade, Vortex Grenade, and generally are frowning upon unnecessary grenade spam
Our primary objective is to have some fun and tell a few stories while laughing our way through the old rules. So Here is our first report (complete with story so poorly written you'd think it was out of an old
WD)
Captain Lazarro of the Blood Angels 5th battle company is in search of the Garnet Chalice, rumored to be the very cup Sanguinius drank from on the eve of his death. Some say it was destroyed, but others say one of his loyal retainers whisked it away and set up a shrine to honor his solemn faithfulness to the Emperor, going to his death knowingly against Horus. Rumors have begun to swirl that on the planet Degrus III a shrine may hold the Garnet Chalice. Captain Lazarro was dispatched immediately to investigate.
Upon arrival he found the locals stirred up by Father Petros', a fiery orator who had visions from the Emperor himself showing that the supposed "shrine" was nothing more than a temple of the Archenemy, holding blasphemous icons and corrupting those who beheld them. The preacher lead a mob of angry peasants, as well as his own personal retinue of Adeptus Sororitas, to destroy the temple. Captain Lazarro would attempt to stop him.
So this would be a standard game of 1000 points. Father Petros' forces drew the mission Dawn Raid, and would be trying to get an unbroken squad of >50% strength or an undamaged vehicle into the Blood Angels' deployment zone. Captain Lazarro's forces drew the mission card Assassins and would be trying to kill Father Petros.
The Battlefield
Father Petros' forces, lovingly painted and one of the best looking armies i have ever had the pleasure of battling
Captain Lazarro's forces, a hodge podge of moderately well-painted figures and some random bits of mine
Note: All figures are
WYSIWYG, except the Mk6 Marine with a chainsword is a Techmarine with no upgrades.
Petros' Deployment
Lazarro's Deployment
The Space Marines advance cautiously
After taking only a few casualties (and peasants at that), the Sisters advance with mob in tow
The Marines dig in at midfield and the Terminators unload from the rhino (Termis could ride in those!)
Sustained fire dice bring the pain to the poor, unwashed masses
The advance of the faithful
The multimelta Sister rolls an incredible 24 for armor penetration, but sadly just gets the sponson
The Immolator turns one Terminator into BBQ, and lights three others on fire
The Seraphim remember the holy works of Saint Johnimus Wooimus and put three marines down with guns blazing
The Marines largely do nothing on their third turn, except Captain Lazarro leads the Terminators against the Immolator. One Terminator slaps the turret and makes the Sister manning the turret dizzy. Lazarro shows him how a real Marine takes care of business, and after a Popeye-esque windup punches the Immolator so hard it spins in place and purees the Sisters inside
On the Sisters turn the multimelta operator remembers to adjust for wind and the curvature of the kitchen table and plants another absurdly high armor penatration roll of a 27 right in the hull. The predator blows up, flips in the air, and crashes on the rhino and damages the storm bolter.
Yes boys and girls, this is where land speeders come from.
The Seraphim continue to bully the Marines with their Matrix-honed gun-play and punish the other half of the tactical squad on the rocky outcrop. Three of their number die and the remaining two lie down and cry softly into their micro-beads.
Father Petros leads the faithful against the Terminators, losing just one of their number for the one Terminator they slay (not a bad exchange rate in this economy). They consolidate onto Captain Lazarro while some of the more childish peasants roll around in the grass near some pillars.
Brother Shootsalot steps back to light up the scantily clad sisters approaching on the left flank while the remaining Marines dig in and wonder if maybe they should have stayed in 5th edition, when Sisters weren't T4 and flamers didn't bother them with persistent damage.
Captain Lazarro manages to put one wound on Father Petros, glad that his trusty Big Damn Fist is working, since the rest of his army isn't.
After killing a few of the BDSM color guard, they respond by charging him conga line style. The left flank is getting pretty steamy, and not just because there is a tank full of burning promethium smoldering nearby.
The peasants put their faith to good use and pummel the tacticals in the woods, managing to drop another one, probably thanks to Cowabunga Carl who clambered to a high vantage point and kept insisting he was "the pillar of the local parish" and wished someone would give him "a column in the local paper".
Soft weeping.
"Go play 2nd edition," they said. "It will be fun," they said.
After a vicious slapfight wherein Petros and Lazarro could not hurt each other (but a number of peasants had their necks snapped and chests caved in), Lazarro's Displacer Field randomly shunts him out of combat.
The final look at the battlefield before tallying up Victory Points
So the Sisters won 9 to the Marines 7, though obviously one more turn would have turned it into a complete massacre in favor of the Sisters.
Captain Lazarro sat glumly in the Rhino as it returned to the LZ. The crazed plebians had overrun their lines and were making their way to the shrine - and that Father Petros still lead them with all of his dynamism. The battle for the temple would be bloody, and he just hoped he had enough grit to see it through to the end - no matter the outcome.
Some after battle thoughts:
The catch phrase last night was "Let me check that..." because we had to check just about every single rule that came up. Not because they are poorly written (though they are pretty poorly laid out), but because it was essentially the first game either of us had played of 2nd edition in 15 years at least.
Overall the game is actually still very solid. At the end of the day it is
40k, just with a few more shiny gubbins.
Flame weapons are incredibly powerful. Things catching on fire is brutal, and I was terrified of them.
Sisters are tough, and Seraphim in particular are terrifying.
Marines don't take much to put down. Even a -1 modifier seriously undermines their chances of survival.
Terminators are total beefcakes, 3+ save on
2D6! Even though I failed the first Terminator save I threw
lol.
Close Combat is a lot more fun. Like, way more fun. Oddly enough, because all of the weapons actually do what they are supposed to do (i.e. if you have a plasma pistol you can still shoot them with it in close combat) and things are not abstracted away, it's actually much easier to grok what is going on and how to resolve things.
Vehicle damage tables are hilarious. The spinning, Sister squishy immolator. The flipping, rhino humping predator. Man, that stuff is hilarious. I remember now why we used to bring vehicles. It's basically like Nascar, they're just there for the wrecks.
Anti-tank weaponry is absurdly powerful. The multi-melta doing
D6+2D12+8 for armor rolls was awesome. I will never forget the child-like glee in my friend's eyes when I told him that's how much it rolled. It was like a kid on Christmas. After so many years of his army being ignored and disregarded by
GW, it felt like he finally had something powerful, and boy did it work my Predator over.
The smaller scale of the game really made things matter more. Each decision felt more important.
Losing isn't that big a deal either, because so many hilarious and awesome things happened that I had more fun than the majority of games in recent memory when I won.
Overall 2nd is a great ruleset still. Looking forward to tonight's game when Lazarro and Petros face off for the chalice.
)
being recalculated~4.5k
750 
875 My p&m blog where there are space marines 
Kabal of the Slit Throat ~2000pts
Elect of the Plaguefather 4500pts
