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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sin City Dispatch #11: Ork on Ork action!

Hey everyone, welcome to the latest issue of the Dispatch!

In this issue, we will finally have that Battle Report that I hinted at in Dispatch #10. Was it worth the wait? You'll have to read on to find out, so sit down and strap in because we are about to hit the ground running!

Battle Report: Hot and Heavy Ork on Ork Action
(Wrong in so many ways, but it had to be said!)

For this game, I decided to try something a little different. With my 'stealer cult still in the works, I decided to break out my growing Ork Waaagh to see how it would handle Matt's army. Another interesting twist was actually putting the right amount of terrain on the table! The 40k Rulebook recommends covering one quarter of the table which is exactly what we did.

Rolling for deployment, we managed to tie on the first two rolls before Matt finally won. It's always a good sign when you have that much trouble just figuring out who is going to be first. We deployed our troops and infiltrators, then I pulled out the Big Book o' Sneaky Gits to try to steal the initiative! And it would have worked if I didn't roll a one! Grrr... Ah well, on with the show!

Moving all of my forces forward, I tried to get as much into cover as possible. Not much else happened except that my shoota boyz with their trukk were able to get Matt's kommandos to turn tail and run!

On the other side of the board, my kommandos had moved out of the woods that they deployed in to open fire on the deth koptas.

The end result was lots of dakka and I was able to inflict a whole one wound. This left them kind of hanging in the wind but hopefully they would survive to the next turn so that they could shot at those pesky kopters again.

Matt went next, trudging his force forward. With the terrain in the middle of the table, there was little that Matt could do as far as firing. The two exceptions to this were his big mob of boyz who managed to take out one of my slugga boyz with their big shootas and of course the deth koptas. Moving around to one side of my kommandos, the koptas opened fire with their twin-linked big shootas. You would think that this would be the end of my kommandos but no!

When he moved, Matt actually positioned his koptas so that I was able to get a cover save from the rock spire. This was the only thing that kept my boyz from getting torn apart by those koptas, which I very much appreciated.

Going into the second turn, I moved the main core of the Waaagh further into cover while the big shootas took their pot shots to inflict another casualty or two. The big action happened on the right side of the board as the kommandos moved forward to shoot at the koptas again.

This time they managed to blast two of the koptas out of the air in the shooting phase and then charged forward to pull the last one down out of the air. I finally managed to get rid of those pesky koptas! Sweet!

For as successful as the kommandos were, the shoota boyz were the exact opposite. Moving forward and hopping out of their trukk, they openned fire on the last four boyz and failed to wound any of them. So much for shootas...

For Matt's turn, he continued the slow plod forward, moving his massive boyz mob closer to my troops, firing his big shootas as he plodded along.

Just under thirty boyz with a warboss in there to boot. Not looking forward to that one getting into assault range of my troops but hopefully I would be able to take down some more of those troops before they are able to close.

Rallying his kommandos, Matt moved them toward the shoota boyz and managed to gun down three of them in the process.

Frenzied by the sound of the dakka, the kommandos charged forward and managed to pull down two of my boyz while only losing one of their own in the process. Passing my morale test, the boyz held their ground as we moved into turn three.

Moving forward through the woods on the right, my kommandos opened fire on Matt's big mob 'o boyz, inflicting a few casualties before they charged forward into close combat.

Was this a suicide move? You betcha, but I had to do something to weaken that big mob. I managed to kill seven of his boyz while the kommandos were all cut down in return.

The closest of the two slugga mobz charged forward next, at which point thing ground to a halt as we checked the rulebook. Yep, that's right, I screwed this one up. D'oh! Instead of resolving each combat individually I should have moved the boyz up as well before Matt piled in against the kommandos. Oopsy! Still, Matt said that he was okay with fighting this one as a seperate combat and away we went!

Outnumbered two to one, my boyz smashed into Matt's and managed to pull down seven of his boyz before being slaughtered in return. This made that massive mob a much more managable size but I still had the nobz and meganobz to deal with, though my other boyz mob had taken down one of the four nobz with their big shoota.

On the left side of the board, the trukk moved away from the shoota boyz to attack the meganobz. A useless gesture but I had to try something, right? The boyz proved to be slightly more effective as they wiped out the kommandos and then chased after their trukk.

Going into the bottom of turn three, Matt moved his boyz and nobz toward the center of my force, taking out some of my boyz with their massed volley of slugga shots.

Moving into his assault phase, we moved to the left side of the board to deal with the ongoing fight between his kommandos and my shoota boyz. The fighting was fierce, but my shootas managed to drag down the kommandos once and for all. Now free to move, they consolidated by moving back toward their trukk up on the hill. Next Matt charged his boyz and nobz forward to attack what was left of the core of my army. Piling my troops in, the battle quick paired off to nobz vs. nobz and boyz vs. boyz. The cover worked in my favor as my nobz and Warboss Dakkagrub tore apart his Nobz, taking no casualties in return! The boyz did not fair quite so well as they were wiped out while they only managed to take out three of Matt's boyz.

While all of this was going on, the meganobz plodded forward to attack the trukk. Facing three Orks with power klaws, the trukk never stood a chance and was quickly reduced to a smoking wreck.

Heading into turn four, my nobz and Dakkagrub opened fire on Matt's boyz and managed to take one of them down as they charged headlong into close combat.

The fighting was vicious, but in the end Warboss Dakkagrub was left standing triumphant over the body of his counterpart.

This left Matt with nothing left on the board... except for those three meganobz. My shootas climbed onto the wreckage of their trukk to fire down on them but the armor was simply too strong to be able to do anything.

Moving into the bottom of the fourth turn, Matt moved the meganobz forward to engage the shoota boyz and quickly ripped them apart consolidating back toward the last two models that I had left on the board.

Charging forward, Dakkagrub and the nob slammed into the meganobz.

Trading blow and vicious blow, I managed to pull down two of the armored behemoths before the final blows were struck and Dakkagrub fell the ground, defeated.

The battle was over and Waaagh Black Primer had won... but only just. As the last meganob plodded off of the battlefield, the painboyz came and took away the broken body of Dakkagrub. He had been defeated today but he would be back for his revenge!

The Parting Shot...

And that's about it for this issue of the Dispatch. Shorter than I had originally planned but some new/old projects have cropped up that have been taking up my gaming time at the moment. What is it, you ask? Check back in the next issue to find out! Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Sin City Dispatch #10: Bring on the Sneaky Gitz!

Hey everyone, and welcome to issue #10 of the Dispatch!

In this issue, we are coming to check out the new releases that will be hitting the shelves for 40k in Incoming!!! Next, we will again go to the Workbench to take a look at my brand new Brood Lord. He might look like C'thulu to you, but it works for me! Then we will head out to BattleZone Comics for another Battle Report as I square off against Matt again, but this time I have a trick up my sleeve... Last but not least, we will wrap things up with a new segment called Feedback (creative, ain't it?). This is where we will take a look at comments from readers just like you! So without further ado, sit down and strap in because we are about to hit the ground running!

Incoming!!!
Upcoming releases for Warhammer 40,000

This will be a big month for the Ork as we hit Janu-Waaagh-ry moving flat out in a Go Fasta Red Trukk! First up is the long awaited Battlewagon.

Weighing in at a whooping 113 pieces, this kit lets you customize your battlewagon in almost any way imaginable. 'ard top, open top, big shootas, kannon, the list goes on and on. There have been some complaints that this model is not big enough but when you consider all of the bitz that come in the kit, it would be hard to pass up on this model. Even if you just use parts of it for conversions, this model is well worth the money.

Next up is the new Ork Nob plastic kit.

With almost as many pieces in it as the Battlewagon, this new Nob kit gives you a massive range of options so that you can kit these brutes out virtually any way that you want. Combine a ton of options with great looking minis and this one is another must buy for an Ork player.

Up next is another new and improved kit, the Ork Stormboyz.

It used to be that you had to buy seperate metal jet packs to mount on your plastic boyz to make a unit of Stormboyz, but not anymore! With their own boxed set hitting the shelves, these are another great set of minis. With lots of options and even more character, this is another set that I can see Ork players picking up because it is another really nice set. Tons of options, tons of bitz, and some nice looking minis to boot.

Isn't it fitting that one of the last releases in Janu-Waaagh-ry is the new Gretchin mob?

Packed with a runtherd and ten gretchin, this is a great value and means that people will finally be able to field massive units of gretchin bullet shields without spending a ton of cash. When you add in the modeling possibilities (riggers, ammo runts, and orderlies...), this is another must buy for any serious Ork player. After all, even if you don't field them as a unit, just think how much better your Warboss will feel knowing that his grot is there for good swift kick when things aren't going his way.

From the Workbench
Build Your Own Brood Lord

As I mentioned in the last issue of the Dispatch, I decided to make my own Brood Lord instead of buying the one that is currently in production. Why would I do this? No real reason to be honest. The model that is in production is not a bad looking mini but since I had some Warriors on hand I figured I might as well try my hand at converting one of them into my Brood Lord. After all, practice makes perfect, right?

As I mentioned before, I decided to use one of the old metal Tyranid warrior heads for my Brood Lord but I still needed to add some tentacles since he has feeder tendrils. To make this stronger, I actually drilled a hole in the jaw of the head so that the putty could go straight through and wrap around the front to give it a stronger hold. Once this was done, it was easy enough to roll out some tentacles and add them to the front to complete the look. With this done, it was just a case of adding some rending claws and scything talons to the mini and voila! Instant Brood Lord!

As I said, it does look a little C'thulhu-esque and it is definitely not the same as the stock Brood Lord but I like it and that is what really matters, right? Well, that and the fact that it was basically free. What's not to like about that, right?

In the next Workbench, I'll be working on something. Haven't decided exactly what but I am thinking that it will be more for the Cult as I would like to finish that before I get off onto to much of a tangent. Either way, we'll find out soon!

Feedback...
It's Only Bad When You Don't Want It

In the past, I have just responded to comments on the blog right on the blog. This is all well and good, but I want to try something new to for a change so I am going to start responding to any comments right in the Dispatch. I always love to get any kind of Feedback and maybe this will encourage more people to leave it.

To get this rolling, I have this comment from Teneb.

"Just wanted to drop a quick comment - I'm a new AT-43 gamer and stumbled upon your blog. It's entertaining to read, and I find myself checking back often. Thanks for contributing to the community!

-Teneb"

Thank you very much for your kind words, Teneb. I have fun typing it up and it's great to know that there are people out there who are enjoying it too.

As for AT-43, I hope that you are also enjoying the game as much as I did. It is a very fast paced game compared to some of the others out there and I really like how it incorporates the command aspect into the game as well. Wanna cripple your opponent? Have those snipers start pegging his officers and heros, then we'll see just how effective his army really is!

That wraps up the Feedback for this issue, but if you have something you want to say feel free to drop me a line. Good, bad, or even just random comments are always welcome, so go ahead and start typing!

The Parting Shot...

Well, that about wraps it up for this issue of the Dispatch. What's that? The Battle Report? No, I didn't forget, I just decided to save that for the next issue. I did tell you that I had a trick up my sleeve, remember? : ) Be sure to come back to here about the game as it was a cliff hanger but until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Breaking update...

Hey everyone,

No Dispatch this week unfortunately as I am still in the midst of my sixteen day work week (ten down, six to go...). Fear not though! I have already started working on the next issue, there is just no way that I am going to be able to finish it up until I finally get a day off next weekend.

I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!