Warhammer 30K at 12,000 Points

Large games of 30K are a blast, but they require some planning and preparation to go smoothly. I’m going to use an example of a game I played earlier this month that was 12,000 points a side with 3 players per team. We divided up into Loyalists and Traitors (per the norm) and planned out 6 hours to play our game. So if you want to gather up all of your friends for an epic battle, here are some tips that can help.

1. If you have more than one person a side, it’s a good idea to delegate someone as the team captain. This person will help determine the mission, table setup, scenario rules in use.

In our game this helped because the team captains helped streamline the setup of the game, which can take a lot of time. Setup time reduces the amount of fun to be had so why not speed things up? We decided to do away with mysterious objectives so there wasn’t so much book keeping involved, we also choose our mission instead of rolling because we wanted to already be familiar with the objective. Our table size was 6’ x 8’ with pre-arranged terrain. We did roll random on deployment, which didn’t take away from the game and added an element of uncertainty.

2. Have prepared army lists before you arrive.

Come on. This is a no brainer here.

3. Allow for some out of sequence actions in order to keep people involved and the game moving at a good pace.

We tried to keep things moving as much as possible. If one side of the board was done moving, but the other side was still pushing models around we would allow some shooting phase actions to occur like running or shooting at units far away and unaffected by those other side of the board units. The psychic phase bogged us down a bit since we had a Thousand Sons player on our side. I couldn’t find a good way around that, but at least our efforts to speed things up elsewhere made a difference.

4. Set a reasonable time limit or a turn limit.

We originally planned for a random game length battle, but ended up calling it on turn 4 since we were approaching our 6 hour time limit. I felt we still got a good game in, but it would have been nice to at least have one more turn in. Some feedback I got after the game is to maybe scale things down a little on our next big game, 10K instead of 12K should allow us to complete a game in 6 hours.

 5. Play a practice game or two leading up to the big game.

This was helpful for me in getting familiar with the rules again. There are times where I can go months without playing a 30K game so a refresher can help me work out rules in my list that I forget about or misinterpret. I think a 1500 point or 2000 point game is ideal. They are quick enough to do even with the occasional rule lookup.

Fulgrim managed a charge on turn 1 from his Spartan and proceeded to wreck face

Early game set up

The loyalists hit our flank with a large portion of their army via deep strike and outflank

Just in case you are wondering who won, the Loyalists did. We had 5 primarchs being taken out of 6 total legions. The Emperor’s Children, Iron Warriors, and Thousand Sons on one side while the Space Wolves, Ultramarines, and Iron Hands were the Loyalists. The traitors were doing well for most of the game by leading in victory points, but suffered a few hardships like losing Magnus plus retinue to a deep strike mishap. I can also of course blame those few horrible rolls that came up at the most inopportune times!

Warhammer 30K Team Game and the Magnus Death Star

In my latest 30K game I teamed up with my brother who plays an Ultramarines drop assault army. We faced off against an Iron Warriors and Thousand Sons duo. The game size was 5000 points a side with each player running an Age of Darkness Legion Astartes detachment and each side had one super heavy. I had a knight errant and my opponents had a legion typhon.

Bottom of turn 2. Ultramarines and Emperor's Children flank attack

The game fluctuated back and forth between who was holding on to the most objectives and it looked like the Emperor’s Children/Ultramarines duo would come out ahead. We had pushed really hard on the right flank which had the most valuable objectives. I think the turning point for my team was when Magnus entered the fight with his 10 man Terminator bodyguard. With the right psychic powers they are able to turn into the toughest nut to crack in the history of 30K. Each terminator can achieve a re-rollable 2++ save. If Magnus gets a chance to shoot he can fire as a D weapon most of the time. This allowed him to smoke my Spartan and knight errant back to back. It didn’t take long for my army to fall apart after this and my Ultramarine ally wasn’t faring much better either.

Eidolon makes a last stand with the remainder of his assault squad

My marines hopelessly defend the objective marker against Magnus's onslaught

In the end my team lost the battle due to my team not being able to handle psychic powers very well. What is one to do? I think I need to bite the bullet and find a way to write in the Sisters of Silence into my army. I have wanted to go fluffy with my list, but I have been stomped by the Magnus Deathstar one too many times now. I think psychic power heavy lists in 30K don’t have many counters other than the sisters so I feel compelled to try an allied unit in my next game and see how it goes.

The Merits of Kings of War

 

 

After reality has set in that Warhammer as I knew it was no more I considered my options. One was to stick with 8^th edition and find like minded people who were ok playing with a “dead” set of rules or I could branch out and try other systems like Mantic’s Kings of War Game. One thing that was appealing about Kings of War is that it was developed by some ex-GW designers that worked on my favorite edition of Warhammer (6^th ed). Another appealing factor is that eventually all of the old Warhammer armies will have a playable list within Kings of War. Having made up my mind I decided to try it out.

 

Turn 2 demo game

 

 

It was easy finding some people at my LFGS to teach my how to play KoW. My first game was more of a demo-style match where I brought my Chaos Dwarves… er, I mean Abyssal Dwarves. It was low points so I can grasp some of the basics. One thing that I had to get used to is that I no longer needed to remove individual models. In KoW your whole unit suffers wounds that stack and you roll a “nerve” test whenever wounds are taken. Sometimes this may cause your unit to route because the more wounds you suffer the harder it is to keep your nerve and stay in the fight. My demo was a win (of course!) as I was able to route the elves off the battlefield mainly due to my most powerful Obsidian Golems (used K’daii models).

 

Turm 4 demo game. Finishing off the elves

 

 

My luck didn’t quite hold up in my second follow up game where I played a larger 900 point game. My opponent was the same, but this time I brought more toys to the battlefield like a Great Mortar (used a Hellcannon) and Slave Orcs (Hobgoblins). I made an early error when positioning my army and paid dearly for it as my slave orcs were overextended and couldn’t quite hold my flank. The elves had superior magic and shooting. I lost my entire army by the end of the match and inflicted little damage in return.

 

After having played two games of KoW I ended up liking it as an alternative to Age of Sigmar. The game is more simplified than 8^th ed which allows for faster games, but still retains some of the tactical elements that I liked from the Warhammer style of game play like unit facing, point costs, terrain inhibitors, and regiments. On top of that the rules are also free! I would suggest giving Kings of War a try if you are seeking an alternative to Age of Sigmar.

If you would like to see some more battle reports for Kings of War check out Jason Zmuda's YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCESR150chkbfxXSaWfcl_KQ

 

 

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar first battle and initial reaction

Age of Sigmar has been a contentious topic as of late since this has been one of the most drastic rules reboots since Warhammer 40K 3rd edition. I thought that I would withhold my judgment until I at least had a chance to play a game to see what it was like. I can remember not liking 3rd edition 40K when I first saw the rules, but in time I grew to like it and couldn't quite justify sticking with 2nd edition 40K. The only thing to do now is play a game.

I had a friend over and we had to establish some ground rules since AoS is a really loose set of rules. We based our forces off of a leaked set of tourney rules used by a Games Workshop store. We were allowed to take up to 5 Battlescrolls, max of 2 characters, no duplicate named characters, and only one monster per army. Each unit could have no more than 15 wounds. Seemed fair enough!

I decided to field a purely Tzeentchian daemon army while my friend brought his Skaven Plague Monk army.

My army consisted of:

Lord of Change
Tzeentch Herald on Disk
Pink Horrors (10)
Flamers (7)
Screamers (5)

 

My opponents army consisted of:

Lord Skrolk
Plague Furnace
Plague Monks (15)
Plague Monks (15)
Plague Monks (15)








We set up per the normal instruction and deployed along the short table edges. The Skaven finished setting up first so they got the first turn. It was a sudden death mission because the Skaven outnumbered me by over 1/3. I wanted to utilize the mobility of my army and made the sudden death choice of having my Herald on disk survive 6 turns. Knowing this after set-up didn't give the Skaven many options so they all moved forth knowing that the target was within my deployment zone.

My 1st turn was more eventful. Most daemons have the ability to allow chaos wizards to summon that unit being fielded. I decided to summon another Lord of Change since I had a spare in my collection. My roll was successful and much to the chagrin of my opponent I got a free greater daemon. To add insult to injury I was also able to summon a unit of 3 flamers. I moved the rest of my army into position to delay the Skaven horde and kept my Herald back on the arcane graveyard that helped with spellcasting.

On the next turn we had to roll off. I was hoping to get the high roll thus getting back to back turns, which would be quite devastating for my opponent. I ended up losing the roll and waiting for the Skaven to position for my impending charge.

The Tzeentch daemons set forth on turn two and I was going for a strong right hook with most of my army while my horrors bought me time on the other side of the battlefield. I had no successful summoning on turn two, but the flames caused 6 wounds to a nearby plaque monk unit before the screamers charged in to cause another 6 wounds. The Skaven didn't cause any casualties to my screamers so my battleshock roll was an auto success. The plague monks weren't so fortunate. They auto failed due to the high amount of wounds taken and lost the remainder of their unit.

Turn 3 saw the Skaven counter attack. Again, they won the roll off and got to start the round. The next nearest unit of plague monks charged my screamers and managed to cause a fair amount of wounds. I had two screamers left to counter attack causing three wounds. After battleshock I had one screamer left and the Skaven lost 3 more plague monks. On my 3rd turn I disengaged my last screamer to do a fly by attack and positioned to wither the plague monks with another round of shooting attacks.

It was by the end of turn 3 that my opponent wanted to concede the game. With having taken so many losses and not able to keep up with my summoning he didn't want to continue the uphill battle. I was in agreement. My army was cheesy mainly because of the summoning. It was too easy to pull off.

Unfortunately without points this system lends itself to some easy abuse. It may work out well right out of the box, but for established players of Warhammer more fine tuning will definitely need to take place. I don't feel completely negative about the game however. It does have some merit. I like how it's fast paced and the rules are free.

Here's a quick summary of the pros and cons:

PRO

Free rules
Fast paced
Easy to comprehend

CON

No structure for army building
Over simplified all phases of the game
Too much randomness

After the game I had a conversation with my friend and we both felt that Age of Sigmar would have been a good addition to the GW lineup of games, but it is not a suitable replacement for the Warhammer Fantasy we have played all these years. I won't be playing any more AoS for now. I hope to see more structure added to the game and then I will reconsider. If no changes are made I foresee a lot of veteran players dropping off in favor of other systems.

Horus Heresy Battle Report: 600 points

The Emperor's Children getting pwn'd

The Horus Heresy campaign moves onward! At 600 points my army is really starting to come together and have a unified look. Although I plan on using some Mechanicum allies down the road, right now I am running a pure Emperor’s Children army based around the loyalist elements. In my first 600 point game I faced off against some Salamanders that confused my army with the traitors so we battled and it was bloody…

My army consisted of Saul Tarvitz, 10 Legion Marines with power sword wielding sergent, and 10 assault marines with one basic marine wielding plasma in addition to a sergeant armed with a power fist.

I fought against a Salamanders army consisting of a bare bones Preator (using Pride of the Legion), 10 Legion Marines without upgrades, and 5 Firedrake Terminators.

Our mission was Hold the Relic and our deployment was long table edges. The terrain density was moderate.

Turn 1 was spent mainly in positioning. I realized that I deployed poorly since I was too spread out trying to cover objectives across the battlefield, while Matt (the Salamanders general) decided to group up his units together so they hit in unison.

Turn 2 I tried to pick off some of the Salamanders marines on the periphery with my assault marines. I got one kill (insert sarcasm)! In exposing my unit to return fire on the following turn I lost a whopping 7 marines due to Fury of the Legion bolter fire. I would say that from this point on it was an uphill battle for my poor army.

Turn 3 I finally got my other unit with Saul Tarvitz into firing range of the Firedrakes and I tried desperately to get a lucky kill. My assault marines that survived took to cover in order to mount a counter attack.

The Salamanders had already claimed the objective and were moving the terminators in to finish me off.

 By turn 4 the Salamander Fire Drakes Assaulted my Legion Marine Unit and hastily beat them down without suffering a single wound in the assault. Saul's Charnable Broadsword was not very effective against the terminators.

Without a realistic way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat I conceded victory to the Salamanders.




I try to use a loss like this as a useful lesson for the next game. I believe it would have been better to hold back my assault marines until later in the game instead of exposing them early to massed bolter fire. I definitely spread myself too thin and will keep that in mind when we play our Horus Heresy battle at 1000 points. I also keep thinking that my lack of Rhinos or Drop Pods is detrimental and may be including them in the near future.

Keeping The Motivation Alive

Got a big hobby project and feeling the motivation waning? I have found over the years of building armies and playing miniature games that it’s easy to lose motivation when working on a big army project. This is more so for me because I am into multiple game systems (Flames of War, Warmachine, Epic, Malifaux, 40K, and Fantasy) and sometimes I even have more than 1 faction for each game system. I usually make good progress in the beginning, but about a month into the project I start to lose that steam. I have found success before on occasion and I want to share what has worked with me and some people within my gaming group. These two steps have been helpful for me:

 

1.       Break any large project into manageable chunks and set a realistic deadline to achieve a fully painted unit or points goal.
2.       Celebrate your recent achieved goals by playing a game with the minis you just put so much time into.

 

Additionally it really helps to have other people that are willing to take on a similar project with you. It could be for an escalation league where every month you all meet up and play increasingly larger games with your new army. Starting campaigns where each battle result carries over into future games is also a great motivator. I can’t overstate the importance of having a goal in mind.

 

In my kill team game against the Salamanders this lone marine lay in ambush on turn 1

 

 

What I am currently working on is not only a costly project, but time consuming. I am building a Heresy Era Emperor’s Children army at least to 2000 points. This involves purchasing a lot of Forge World minis which I have a budget for, but I have to be smart about what I purchase. I have to be interested in painting what I’m buying so my army might not be the most competitive, but it will definitely look great on the battlefield and be fun for me to play. My gaming group just celebrating the first leg of our escalation league and played 200 point kill team games with our heresy armies. It was a great way to get some games in with our new (and costly) minis and everyone is excited to continue on to our next goal of 600 points.

 

In turn 2 against the Salamanders I had secured an objective moved in for the kill on the right flank

In my 2nd kill team game I fought against a force of Dark Angel veterans in a Rhino. My marines are taking cover against incoming plasma.

I had to play defensively since the Dark Angels had mobility over me. I was hoping my lone haywire grenade toting marine would get to take out that Rhino.

 

After a night of gaming my Emperor's Children were defeated in both of the games I played, but I still had fun showing off my work. I look forward to fielding them in greater numbers when we moved on to standard battles.

 

Flames of War Battle Report Germans vs Soviets (Late War)

Hello Comrades,

I dusted off my Soviets this weekend and played some FOW at my FLGS Panzer Depot in Kirkland. The game size was 2000 points which takes about 3 hours to play at a relaxed pace. My friend Walter was running a late war German Armored list while I fielded a reliable late war Strelkovy army out of the Red Bear book.

This was my set up. The mission required me to place my entire army since I was the attacker and the Germans got to defend with reserves. There were only two objective on the table and they were well defended by his Jagtigers.

On turn one I rushed forward at a normal pace. I thought about moving on the double, but I would incur double shots from the Jagtigers and that would spell the end to my armor in no time.

One objective lay in the open field and that was my best bet for victory since the other object (the Tiger wreck) was too well guarded.

I took a limited air support and it was reliably arriving to deal with the Jagtiger in the open.

The Germans had made a desperate attempt to halt my advance within the first 3 turns. I lost nearly all of my tanks and my Katyushas weren't doing as much damage as I thought they would.

The Germans were inflicting heavy damage to my infantry with their artillery and armor, however I knocked out their only anti air defense mid game which was the first major blow I was able to deal this game.

The turn after the Germans lost their AA I was able to knock out one of the 400 point Jagtigers with my air support. My infantry was still struggling to break through, but the right side of the German defense wasn't going to hold under much pressure.

After two brutal assaults under the iron fist of my commissar I was able to destroy the German infantry hiding in their foxholes and claim the objective. The German reinforcement Stugs arrived too late to alter the course of this battle and the Soviets were able to claim victory.

Getting back into Warhammer Fantasy (brief battle report)

It’s been awhile since I have played a game of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, but with the new End Times supplements being released I have a rekindled interest. What I did was get together with one of my gaming buddies and we played a 750 pt game. I ran a Chaos Daemons army themed around Tzeentch and my opponent ran a Lizardman army heavy in skinks.

 

We are trying out a new protocol that I have never fully employed in my games of 40K or Fantasy, but is a big factor in what this hobby is all about- running a fully painted army! I had a friend recently return from a trip out to France and he stopped in a GW store just to see what it’s like and he said everyone had a painted army, even the younger kids. I would like it if we did more of that in my gaming community because nothing looks more lame then running unpainted armies on the battlefield. Enough of that rant.

 

The game started off with a bang, the winds of chaos were strong in Tzeentch’s favor. My units avoided getting sucked back into the warp while the Pteradons and Chameleon Skinks weren’t so lucky. I blasted the skinks with Tzeentch’s fire from the Changeling and the Pteradons suffered the ill effects from the winds of magic.

 

 

 

The battle was in my favor for the first 2 turns, but by the 4^th I was struggling once the Lizzies closed in for close combat. The Changling got lucky and bested the skink general in close combat, but every subsequent turn the skinks and kroxigors would wear me down. Even my Flamers and Screamers couldn’t break them.

 

On the 5^th turn the skinks and kroxigor units finished off my remaining Flamer unit. Lizards won the day.

 

Even though I lost I have been inspired to work on more WHFB and get some more games in. (and yes, I do know that I don't have the right bases... Working on it)