Hailed vs Hated: Turns 4 & 5

++++ UPDATE ++++

If you've missed the story so far go read up Part One and Part Two from earlier in the month.

THE TEAMS

Chaos:
Lord Amnitolo (white) – Chaos Lord / Terminator Armor / Mark of Nurgle
Squad Decadi (yellow) – CSM x7 / Rhino
Squad Egregi (orange) – CSM x7
Squad Furrore (blue) – Raptors x5 / Meltagun

Blood Angels:
Reclusiarch Dannen (white)
Squad Taal (blue) – Scout x5 / Heavy Bolter
Squad Duun (green) – Scout x5 / Missile Launch
Squad Kamor (black) – Tactical x8 / Flamer / Melta Bombs / Combi-Melta
Rhino / Searchlight


THE OBJECTIVES

The Blood Angels are protecting a Communication Array that is keeping them in contact with a nearby Strike Cruiser. Chaos are taunting the marines with the corpse of a dead Blood Angel and the secrets it might hold.

++++ TURN 4 ++++

The Blood Angel Rhino sped to the far side of the marine corpse, turning to face the Chaos Marine Squad that had inflicted the cowardly long-range wound on Reclusiarch Dannen. All around the battlefield was a whirl of close combat, the grinding of metal on metal, the shouts and bellows of the warriors in ascendance and the wails of the dying. The stormbolter attached to its hull ripped out a couple of shots, striking the Chaos marines where they stood. No effect. An explosion next to the squad sent them cowering back into cover. Scout Squad Duun had found their mark with the missile launcher again, but once again the vehicle was merely stunned.

Veteran Sergeant Kamor was concerned. The resilience of these Chaos scum was remarkable. They were outnumbered two to one and showed no signs of stress or weariness – they were like machines. This fight should be over by now, but it wasn't going well and soon his own losses would begin to tell. He saw an opening and thrust his combat knife, bypassing his opponent's stalwart defence, through his armour and biting into his internal organs. The Chaos warrior let out a muffled grunt as he fell to the floor. Just as he was thinking the odds were turning in his favour, Kamor saw brother Danial fall. This stalemate was frustrating in the extreme, and getting very costly.

Dannen could feel every bone in his body creak, every muscle cry out in pain and torture, but he knew there would be time enough later for rest. His life was hanging in the balance and one slip of concentration could end it all. He had fought aliens twice his height, with strength unseen, but this Chaos Lord was truly a monster. Despite all his confidence and his experience, this battle was slipping away from Dannen. The overwhelming initial charge into the enemy forces had stalled and the tide was slowly turning in favour of the damned.

Bright blue light flashed around him, as Dannen's Rosarius kicked in, saving him from certain death. The Chaos Lord seemed frustrated by this and let out a gurgling howl. Seizing his chance, Dannen swept down with his weapon, catching the distracted leader in the neck – sickly green brown bile spewing out in a fountain.

The skulking Chaos marines hurried into the stunned Rhino firing up the smoke launchers as the hatches slammed shut. Scout Sergeant Duun knew what was coming next. "In the Emperor's name, take out that transport!" he yelled.

Two more brothers in Squad Kamor fell to Chaos weapons, taking another of the tainted marines with them. "Enough of this", Kamor muttered to himself. "Brothers! Feel the light of Sanguinius around you, let us slay these servants of evil!".

Dannen was buoyant, he had found his second wind and a newly-born vigour. He could anticipate every move the Lord made, and counter it. A sudden pain shot though him – the disease-ridden wound he'd received earlier was having an effect, the poison reaching his vital organs and shutting them down one by one. In a split second he was was no longer in full control of his motions, fighting against his own body to defend himself from his attacker. He could barely see the world around him as the unmistakable bite of a weapon piercing his skin burned his chest. The Chaos Lord's scythe was embedded within him and more poison was pumping into his body. The world was going black all around him as his body shut down. The monster before him was triumphant, spouting obscenities and insults in the direction of the fallen Reclusiarch, the Chaotic weapon still protruding from his broken body. One final heroic endeavour, he mustered every last ounce of strength he had and lashed out at the mocking foe before him. His power weapon caught the Chaos leader across his torso showering the area around in bile and sludge. The Chaos Lord was stunned, and staggered briefly before letting out a piercing howl of anguish. The corpse slumped to the earth with a deafening thud. Dannen closed his eyes and his world went black.

++++ TURN 5 ++++

The Blood Angel Rhino moved up to shoot at the rear of its Chaos counterpart, knowing there was little time or chance to make an impact. Two shots pinged off the the corroded hull. A missile came in from Scout Squad Dannen, exploding in the mud next to the vehicle with no effect – the smoke had done its job.
"You boys, you boys! We are going have serious words – I promise you!" screamed Sergeant Duun with a frustrated grin.
"Squad Taal, fall back to the Comms Array!", yelled Sergeant Taal, "They're going to make one last push."

Kamor had just seen the Reclusiarch fall to the blade of the Chaos leader, and the heroic final strike inflicted in the face of defeat.
"For the Emperor! For Sanguinius! For Dannen!" he cried as he charged into the two remaining aggressors before him. Squad Kamor cheered in unison and piled into the melee, dragging down one of the Chaos marines, and causing the other one to finally flee in terror.

As expected, the unkillable Chaos transport sped towards Squad Taal and the Blood Angels communication array. Reaching its target it spat out the six marines who opened up with rapid Bolter shots on the heroic Scouts guarding the objective. Smoke filled the air and Sergeant Duun looked on with concern. His own unit had failed to take down the Rhino with numerous attempts, at the potential cost of losing Squad Taal and the comms array. He let out a slow sigh of relief and grinned when he saw Sergeant Taal and two of his squad still standing.

Barking orders to his unit they set about supporting his beleaguered brothers. They had seized the day, but at great cost. He hoped it was worth it.

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So there you have it. A victory for the beloved Angels but at a very high cost.

There is lots more to discuss and debate, from army lists to battle plans and decision making. Plenty of what-ifs and coulda, woulda and shoulda later in the week with Hailed vs Hated.

Don't forget to visit A Gentleman's Ones for the Chaos perspective and no doubt lots of twisted propaganda, fantastic photos and a great narrative.

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Hailed vs Hated: Turns 2 & 3

Apologies to everyone, BSmoove especially, for this delayed post which was supposed to go up last night. I came in from work with quite bad migraine and couldn't face another computer screen. So, better late than never, back to the action...

++++ Turn 2 ++++

Reclusiarch Dannen could see them now in all their corrupted glory. The enemy were sweeping around in the direction of Scout Squads Duun and Taal. Not an overwhelming force, he'd faced worse odds, but there was an unshakable shadow at the back of his mind.

"Take us towards the building ahead, full speed, right into their back yard. Let's see how they react to that!"
The Rhino screamed across the battlefield, supercharged engines squealing as they were pushed to their limits. The vehicle slammed into an abrupt stop, smoke launchers exploded and the transport was lost in a thick white fog.

The clearly unsettled Chaos marines reacted to this interloper with a swift change of direction, all focus now on the shrouded Rhino. Shots could be heard through the thick armour of their carrier but nothing worthy of concern.

A loud explosion rocked the battlefield as a missile from Scout Squad Duun hit the encroaching Chaos Rhino square in the face. A cheer went up from the intiates but soon subsided when the smoke cleared to reveal the vehicle was merely shaken, parading a fresh scorch mark on its hull like a brand new tattoo. The occupants bailed to find cover anywhere they could, away from their potential tomb.
A daemonic screech causes the occupants of the blood red Rhino to exchange glances as melta particles fizz overhead.
"That's enough observation I think gentlemen", grinned Dannen to the marines around him, "Time for some action".

++++ Turn 3 ++++

Dannen lept out of the Rhino like a man possessed, Squad Kamor exiting the opposite side in a more precise manner. The transport roared off on a collision course with the Chaos leader, and for the first time the marines witnessed their adversaries up close. As the vehicle reached its target the warrior lurched to the side, avoiding the collision with remarkable ease given his heavy armour and bloated stature.

Squad Kamor opened up with everything as they advanced towards the heretics. The target unit enveloped in flames and bolter shells. Sergeant Kamor grinned, thankful that his misfiring melta hadn't been needed, but his face dropped when he saw over half of the enemy unit step out of the black smoke.

Another explosion blew mud and debris into the air, Scout Squad Duun has missed their target, merely decorating the Chaotic Rhino in fresh sludge. Heavy Bolter fire from Scout Squad Taal peppered the Rhino hull, but had no effect save for a high-pitched, metallic ditty.

Dannen had picked out his target before he ever left the vehicle and launched himself at the Raptors. He released a shot from his pistol at the melta gunner, for the disrespect shown towards the Blood Angels Rhino just moments earlier. A ear splitting ping echoed as the richochet flewoff his shoulder guard. The Reclusiarch ploughed into the unit, dropping two with a sweep of his Crozius. With cries of terror the Raptors bounded away, but a swift jab brought another one down to earth, ensuring only two got away.

"Your chaos cowards are no match for the Emperor's finest!" he belowed at the filth encrusted Chaos Lord, who was still venting hot air in his monotone manner like a broken speaker system. The cold dark shadow ran down Dannen's spine as he stared at the Chaotic monstrosity spouting hate-filled gibberish before him.
"So you're the cause of my unease – let's see what you're about, give it your best shot!"

Sergeant Kamor braced himself and the remaining Chaos marines charged.
"Incoming! Take them down lads!" but the warning came too late and Squad Kamor were hit with force, Brother Amael dropping in a fountain of blood. The Sergeant felt the swell of the Red Thirst clawing at his insides as his swung his Chainsword at his opponent, opening his chest and releasing him from his corrupted life.

Dannen gritted his teeth as he watched the Chaos Lord lumber towards him like an irate Rhinoceros, waiting for the impact and preparing the counter strike. White light flashed across his vision and he stumbled backwards, a sharp pain ripping through his abdomen. More bolter shells exploded off his armour and he turned to see where the shots had originated. A cowardly group of Chaos scum to his right.
"Arghh!" he cried out in frustration, but he knew that the wound had lost him his edge and would return to haunt him.
The Chaos monster crashed into the Reclusiarch knocking him off his feet, pain shot through his gut and he winced. An agonising burn in his shoulder joined the stinging symphony rushing around his body as a diseased power weapon cut through his flesh.
"No more!" he barked and lashed out with his crozius tearing a chunk of diseased meat from his foe.
Leaping to his feet while his opponent was still reeling, he drew up all his strength and readied himself. This was going to be an epic battle.

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The battle continues on Friday, and don't forget to visit A Gentleman's Ones for the Chaos perspective, and a wonderful narrative

Sunday update

A quick update on what else is on the go here besides Captain Tycho and transatlantic e-battles.

The chap pictured above is my Dark Templar Chaplain of old. A veteran of many battles, friendly and tournament – a true hero, he's been leading the line for 8+ years. The Dark Templar that were are gone now, repainted or repatriated, with only a few choice characters left for posterity.

He's been a recent stand-in for the new Blood Angels, both facing Orks in deepest darkest Tunbridge Wells and the chaotic Arrugginiti in Chicago (via email). With this in mind I decided he should officially join the Blood Angels rank on secondment.

Gone are the Templar references, and given the loyalty and heroism shown in the past I thought it only fair to give him a fresh paint job. Today I gave him a quick blast with black spray and set about redoing his garments in a warm grey instead of the Bleached Bone look.

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A new addition to the scenery collection is well on its way to be complete. After the success of the Quantum Gothic Communication Dish, I purchased a QG Power Generator.

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Red paint has touched new models, but it's been slow going. Not happy with the way the yellow has gone down so need to look at that again. Have two more guys waiting in the wings to make this up to a five-man squad.

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More updates on the Hailed vs Hated e-battle later this week!

Rebuilding Tycho: part 3

It's been a while since this guy got a look in, I've been kind of busy with a transatlantic game of 40k – you may have heard! More on Hailed vs Hated next week – today is about Tycho.

Since part 2, I have clipped off the purity seals that were on his forearms and added greenstuff to shape them more like his metal incarnation. I will add blood drops here at a later point. I filled in the shoulder area of his combi-melta arm and am building up the greenstuff here slowly.

The one thing that truly defines Tycho is his mask, and I was eager to have a crack at this as it would feel like I would be making real progress. Needless to say it was not a smooth ride, this one was my third attempt. I'm not sure whether my greenstuff skills, or indeed my eyesight, are up to something so small and detailed. It looks more like Chris O' Donnell's mask in Batman & Robin than metal Tycho I think, and the eye is not in the right place, but it does the job for now until I can't live with it.

It's getting close to completion now, just a few more bits to add and I can get on with painting him (very exciting!).

Hailed vs Hated: GAME ON!!

++++

"Reclusiarch Dannen!"
Scout Sergeant Duun's voice broke the radio silence.
"Reclusiarch, multiple contacts South East, heading in this direction."
"Are they…"
"Definitely Chaos, sir. It's the Arrugginiti – we've found them!".
"Ha! Did we find them, Sergeant, or did they find us?"

Dannen had met this enemy before, too often for his liking. They were malignant as all servants of Chaos were, but there was a cunning about them, tricky adversaries – things were rarely as they seemed. The possibility of 'finding' this foe was so remote that this chance meeting was not down to the luck or skill of the Blood Angels. No, this had the air of a trap about it and he must deal with it accordingly.

++++

So after much baiting from across the pond, the Blood Angels 5th Company finally lock horns with the Arrugginiti – we found a way for me to play against BSmoove, like a long distance chess game on email. We have bigger, more ambitious things in the pipeline but this is our opening round – a 500pt Spearhead/Capture & Control mission played on a 4x4 board.

Because of the accuracy issues in doing something like this, we're using a map I drew of a board BSmoove set up at his home. It's 'kind of' to scale, but we're more interested in the experience than the actual outcome at this stage – it's all about the fluff!

What you're going to find over the next few days is a mix of perspectives. Visit this blog to hear the action from the Blood Angel viewpoint then hop over to A Gentleman's Ones to see things from the Chaos side of the conflict.

On with the action!

++++

"They stole our most holy relics and tarnished them, now they're trying to steal our honour. For every one of us they take down we shall take ten in return!"

++++

THE TEAMS

Arrugginiti:
Lord Amnitolo (white) – Chaos Lord / Terminator Armor / Mark of Nurgle
Squad Decadi (yellow) – CSMx7 / Rhino
Squad Egregi (orange) – CSMx7
Squad Furrore (blue) – Raptorsx5 / Meltagun

Blood Angels:
Reclusiarch Dannen (white)
Squad Taal (blue) – Scoutx5 / Hvy Bolter
Squad Duun (green) – Scoutx5 / Missile Launch
Squad Kamor (black) – Tacticalx8 / Flamer / MeltaBombs / Combi-Melta
Rhino / Searchlight

THE OBJECTIVES

The Blood Angels are protecting a Communication Array that is keeping them in contact with a nearby Strike Cruiser. Chaos are taunting the marines with the corpse of a dead Blood Angel and the secrets it might hold.


DEPLOYMENT
(See maps at the end of the blog)

Chaos chose starting quarter and deployed. Blood Angels deployed in the opposite quarter, Squad Duun infiltrating. Squad Taal makes a scout move. Chaos offers the Blood Angels first turn.


TURN 1: Blood Angels

The Rhino containing Reclusiarch Dannen and Squad Kamor flies out from behind cover towards the middle of the board, on an East South East heading, to get a better handle on things. Squad Duun aims the Missile Launcher at the static Chaos Rhino skulking behind cover – missed – the shot impacting on the building… the Chaos troops know we're here now. Squad Taal opens up on the adjacent Chaos marines with a Heavy Bolter wounding two, one fails his armour save.
First blood to the Angels!


TURN 1: Arrugginiti

The wounded squad dive into their Rhino for cover and advance to where the shooting came from. The second marine squad heads North towards the Blood Angel Rhino. The Chaos Lord, diseases and all, ambles West towards the Scouts, the Raptor squad jumps over to accompany him, then run to get alongside. No Shooting.

++++

"Well done my brave Blood Angels! We have poked a stick in the eye of the Arrugginiti and they do not like it. Keep up the pressure, stay on your toes, remember your training and victory will be ours – in the name of Dante and the Emperor."

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THE BATTLEBOARD

This is how BSmoove set up the board for us to game on (in the States). From this photo I quickly drew up the map below as our transatlantic guide.

MAPS

Deployment

Blood Angel Turn 1

Arrugginiti Turn 1

 

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To be continued...

Don't forget to visit A Gentleman's Ones to see the Chaos perspective!!

Inside a Blood Angels Rhino

It seems that every man and his dog are ready to take a pop at the Blood Angel 5th Company – not only do I have the Arrugginiti taking pot shots from across the pond, I now have to contend with Orks around the corner, heheh!

After my last battle against the Orks, my sparring partner Bull and I decided to do some objective markers for our next game (yes, we are indeed expanding our mission range beyond the standard "kick lumps out of each other and see who's still standing" scenario!).

Whilst I went for a neutral piece of terrain as my first objective, Bull clearly decided there was an opportunity to poke a stick at the new boys in red with this piece titled "Getting inside a Blood Angels Rhino – Ork style".

I might have to think a bit more outside the box for my next objective!

Friday Update

It's been a very busy couple of weeks with work and studying (yes, I've gone back to school – or rather studying at home). Aside from a spot of red paint on the new Assault troops, the only spare time I've had was spent on this fella!

As I mentioned in the last post, this piece was very well received and went together like a charm. I spent quite some time playing with the rusty paint effect. Starting out with the quick guide on the Quantum Gothic website (where I bought the scenery), taking bits from BSmoove's guide at Gentlemans Ones, and just kept adding inks and sponging on reds and oranges.

The base is painted using the same colour scheme used on the base of the Blood Angels, and I'm hoping to add a few more pieces like this – eventually a whole gaming table maybe.

Saturday update

Rhino was completed on time though only just. Pretty happy with it now, and I added a magnet underneath the stormbolter to stop it falling out.

I also added magnets to my latest bit of terrain – a Communication dish from Quantum Gothic – which I have to say arrived very quickly, well packed and with no flash and minimum mould lines. All the bits are very cleanly cast too, which is a refreshing change from the last few bits I ordered from Forgeworld.

Expect to see this bad boy (and maybe another from the QG collection) in a battle report soon!