Sunday 25 August 2013

Darksphere Kill Team League Day 3

Day  of the League went better. I lost once and won twice.
Again I failed against the pesky Chaos Bikers, here seen at the beginning of the fight:
Saving grace was that Brother Courage did manage to kill the biker leader in close combat earning him another Gold Medal.
I then won against Space Marine Stern Guards with a Rhino. The picture shows the last move of the fight, where my surviving team members bravely shoot up an empty, immobilised, all weapons destroyed Rhino:
It may seem OTT to spend time on killing a helpless Rhino, but it earned me a clean sweep, and thus a valuable League point.
Brother Courage again kills the enemy leader, this time with his stormbolter earning him a Silver Medal.
Final fight was against Tau:
My leader finally manages to get into close combat, although Brother Horizon robs him of a leader kill:
The only black mark in an otherwise good fight was that Brother Overkill manages to get himself killed in close combat with a Tau firewarrior. Needless to say this is not an impressive event for a Grey Knight. He thus earned himself the order of the Golden Rabbit...
...which he shall wear until such a time as he redeems himself with a suitable heroic act. He did manage to destroy the Tau skimmer by himself - BUT that really is what he is there to do, so no special credit on that one!
Brother Courage with his three Medals:
Brother Horizon with his Gold Medal:
My leader got +1 BS (the servo skull) and +1S on the Stormbolter (now S6 - and symbolised by the skull barrel):

All told my leader now has: Fleshbane; Fleet; Stealth; +1 LD (LD10); +1 WS (WS5); +1 BS (BS5); gets +2I (I6) from the Halberd - which is also an AP3 Force Weapon; and carries a S6 Stormbolter. He can therefore dish out some serious hurt both in shooting and in CC. However, with just 1 wound he is also rather fragile. My hope is that I will be able to earn him an extra wound or two and/or some extra Toughness.











Darksphere Kill Team League Day 2

Day 2 of the league did not go so well...
I lost twice and sat one round out (uneven number of players)
My brave leader got him self killed twice.
The first time a Chaos biker Hammer of Wrath-ed him to death. This is moments before the inglorious death
My leader is in the bottom right hand corner. The biker about to do the fell deed is just to the right of the round building. I then lost.
Then my leader tried to charge a Plague Marine, and got himself Wall of Death'ed to death.
Here my leader is just about to spring the fiendishly clever trap, which goes seriously ploin shaped, and I loose.
The only mildly impressive thing of the night was Brother Courage standing up to two chaos Terminators. He takes three AP2 wounds, and has only his 5++ save to get him through. Slim odds indeed...
But he bravely fights on through!
Then he dies and I loose.
My leader gets +1WS (as symbolised by the book on the halberd:
...and +1S on the stormbolter (as symbolised by the new gun with gold tipped bolts):
I still, somehow, manage to end up in Third Place, mainly due to a lot of people from day 1 not turning up.







Wednesday 14 August 2013

The Darksphere Kill Team League Table Day 1

The League Table for after day 1 was published a few days ago:
I am ranked 5th - which I am resonably happy with. I think I can do better, but I am ok with that as a start. This was only Day One out of Eight, so a lot can happen before the end!


Sunday 11 August 2013

Darksphere Kill Team Tournament post-Day 1

One of the fun things about Kill Team is that your Leader can roll for extra abilities and special rules after each game. On Day 1 of the League my leader, Inquisitor Contrebis got: +1 leadership; Fleet; and Stealth. He also had Fleshbane from the beginning.

I have tried adding things to the model to symbolise these bonuses and abilities (and will continue to do so throughout the time of the League - Contrebis should be quite a sight by the end...)
Brother Courage got a Golden Skull for defeating an enemy Leader in personal combat (Death Company Veteran marine).

Brother Overkill got a Silver Skull for shooting an enemy Leader (an Ork).
So, after Day 1 I have one draw, one defeat and one win. Not sure where I am overall in the League. The Day 1 scores are yet to be made official.



Darksphere Kill Team League Game 3 vs. Sternguard Veterans

In the final game I am up against Sternguard Veterans.
Deployment:
My opponent's main tactic is basically to stay well back and let me come to him so he can throw as many AP3 Vengeance Rounds at as possible. I did not pay enough attention to the power of the Vengeance Rounds in this game, which was stupid considering I player this list just the week before.
Anyway, I move Brother Courage forward and jump Brother Overkill onto the roof of the red shed-like building for a shot at the Razorback. For some reason I keep the other four Interceptors back.
Brother Overkill scores a glance and a pen on the Razorback, but it has Shrouded and the hits are saved. Brother Overkill is then shot of the roof.

Brother Courage moves further forward and the rest of the Interceptors finally make a move.
Brother Courage is killed by combiplasma and combimelta shots.
I try to get my remaining force within charge distance...
...I fail all my charges and am then gunned down by Vengeance rounds for a comprehensive defeat.


Darksphere Kill Team League Game 2 vs. Death Company

My second game was against a Blood Angels Death Company. This was an interesting game. Two Jump Infantry forces made for a very dynamic game. However, looking at my pictures I am struggling to make sense of what happens. Basically we are talking 11 models of which 10 can jump 12", all moving independently. I need to take more pictures...
Still, in basic terms both sides moved up opposite flanks and then met in the middle, with Brother Courage, being in Terminator armour went straight in.

His move forward, with a single Death Guardist going for the objective on the tower:
I moved Brother Overkill onto the ruin the Deathguard were hiding by to get a good shot at them, after which the survivors take up new positions:
I have not lost any models yet and am able to focus a lot of bolter shots on what is left of his force. His leader charges Brother Courage, who survives the onslaught and bashes his opponent down with his hammer, earning a commendation for defeating an enemy leader in personal combat.
This is the board at the end:
At this stage he fails his break test and the game ends. We tally up the scores and I end up with a comfortable win.






Saturday 10 August 2013

Darksphere Kill Team League Game 1 vs. Orks

My first game was against Orks. My band of six brave (if flawed) souls against 20 odd orks. We rolled up and I went first.
This is the field after my opening move.

Brother Overkill has 'Shunted' to the back of the table next to my opponent's leader. "Brother" Honest has Shunted onto the structure at the back. Brothers Punk and Horizon is laying down cover fire from the ruin in the bottom left of the picture. Brother Courage is moving forward against the horde of orks. Inquisitor Contrebis is hiding behind the circular structure. My first priority is the heavy weapons and the Ork leader (hence Overkill's shunt to the back of the Ork deployment zone):
He opens up with four S7 shots and successfully guns down the Ork leader.
My opponent is not amused:

 At least five orks open up on Brother Overkill. When the smoke clears he is still standing and the orks decide to get personal:
Brother Overkill disappears under a cloud of Orks.

However, Brother Overkill is the only casualty and I manage to reduce the Ork numbers somewhat:
I jump "Brother" Honest to the right hand side of my opponent's deployment zone, and put Brother Horizon on the building in the middle at the back. Inquisitor Contrebis jumps to the other side of the circular building. Brother Courage moves forward a bit. Inquisitor Contrebis guns down the remaining heavy weapons orks.

At this stage I seem to have stopped taking pictures. But from memory what happens is that all the Orks at the back go for "Brother" Honest (who is on the right at the back). Half of the orks in the middle group go after Brother Courage whilst the other half go after Inquisitor Contrebis. Shooting does very little (puts a wound on Brother Courage I think). However, in close combat Brother "Honest", Brother Courage and Inquisitor all fall - taking some orks with them.
At this stage we are are both below half strength. I have only two models left, but they are well placed so I am not too worried. All I have to do is a take break test (i.e. roll 8+) and I should be able to deal with the remaining orks:
Ah well...
My survivors retreat and we add up points (apparenrly running away does not mean losing - merely a strategic retreat which means the game ends).
Both sides have eight points for a draw.









Darksphere Kill Team League

The lovely people at Darksphere are running an eight week long Kill Team league. Kill Team involves forces of just 200 points and each model is operated as an independent unit. Rules can be found here (not this is a 3.23 MB file. After a few weeks of practise the league started this week. The small dynamic games are a lot of fun and makes for a nice change from the tendency towards ever larger things in 40k.

I used my usual Grey Knights, and decided to put together a fairly 'fluffy' force. The force itself is perfectly competitive, but I have added some character to the models. The leader can achieve upgrades after each game and three of your models are 'Specialists' in that they can have one of a selection of Special Rules from the main rulebook.
These are the members of my Kill Team before the first game.
The 'fluff' behind the team is that they are from a secret 'Black Ops' section of the Inquisition - dedicated to purging obstacles to the Inquisition's plans (as defined by shadowy masters high in the Inquisition). These obstacles may be both outside and inside the Imperium. Due to the morally ambiguous nature of the work the members of this Purge Troupe are not Grey Knights but psykers who have been identified as having a certain moral flexibility that allows them to carry out the Inquisitions internal and external dirty work. They are trained as Space Marines and get some Grey Knight training, but they are far from the noble Ideal of a Grey Knight. 
The team leader Inquisitor Ialonus Contrebis (Interceptor Justicar with halberd - has Fleshbane).

 Heavy weapons specialist Brother "Overkill" (Interceptor Grey Knight with Psycannon and Relentless).
Stormbolter Trooper Brother "Punk" (Interceptor Grey Knight)
Stormbolter Trooper Brother "Horizon" (Interceptor Grey Knight)
Stormbolter Trooper "Brother" "Honest" (Interceptor Grey Knight)
Warrior Monk Brother "Courage" (Grey Knight Paladin with Eternal Warrior).
My plan is to modify the models a bit each week to commemorate special achievements. I will focus especially on the extra bonuses that my team leader will acquire each week and give medals to any team member that manages to kill a opposing team's leader.

Depending on my time availability I will try to do small reports from each game.