Battle Report! - Warhammer 40k, Orks vs Adeptus Mechanicus

Last week I played one of the oddest and most enjoyable games of 40k I've ever played; so I thought I'd provide a quick write up for your amusement. 

I played against my dear friend Rich and his Orks in a 1000 point game. For various reasons we decided to forgo all notions of a mission and simply knock seven bells out of eachother. First guy to die, loses!

For those weary souls who carved their way through my last battle report against Necrons, this isn't the same Rich I played back then. This is an entirely different Rich; hereafter known as Other Rich.

Entirely unrelated photograph of my knight menacing a Custodes.

As is rapidly becoming battle report tradition, I didn't take any photos (a good thing too as we played in a poorly lit, yet welcoming, pub). However I've made some lovely maps so hopefully you won't get too blinded by walls of text.

So, without further ado, a breakdown of the armies:

The Omnissiah's Chosen (Ed, Adeptus Mechanicus: Graia)

Tech-priest Dominus (Anzion's Pseudogenetor, Magos Biologis)

Tech-priest Enginseer

10 Skitarii Vanguard (3x plasma caliver)

5 Skitarii Vanguard (2x arc rifle and Alpha with arc pistol)

6 Skitarii Rangers (2x arc rifle and Alpha with taser goad)

5 Skitarii Rangers (2x Transuranic Arquebus and Alpha with power sword)

5 Sicarian Ruststalkers (Transonic Blades)

Onager Dunecrawler (Neutron laser and 2x Heavy stubber)

Onager Dunecrawler (Eradication Beamer and Heavy stubber)

Sydonian Dragoon (phosphor serpenta)

Ironstrider Ballistarius (Twin Cognis Lascannon)

3 Kataphron Breachers (Arc claws and Heavy arc rifles)

Unwashed Xenos Rabble (Other Rich, Orks: Bad Moons)

Warboss (Killa Klaw, Kombi-shoota)

Big Mek (Souped-up Shokka)

Weirdboy (Warp Head, Da Jump, Warpath)

Mek (Kustom mega slugga)

10 Boyz (Slugga, choppa)

10 Grots

10 Grots

Morkanaut (Kustom Force Field)

3 Meganobz (Killsaws) (Transported in Morkanaut)

Mek Gun (Traktor Cannon)

7 Lootas

So a bit of a heavy list from the Orks, but one that I'm used to facing. The wierdboy would no doubt be throwing a nasty warboss my way backed up by the Morkanaut and some heavy firepower from the lootas and mek gun. Still I was quietly confident, after all, I've faced this sort of thing many times, what could go wrong?? Well, famous last words and all that....

Here's what deployment looked like:

Lots of gunz on the left for me to worry about.

We rolled off for first turn and I lost. I also failed to seize and the Orks kicked things off. The Morkanaut (containing the Meganobz) waddled forwards with both units of grots following behind. Other Rich declined to move anything else and moved onto the psychic phase. The weirdboy managed to cast Warpath on the Warboss before also hitting him with Da Jump. The Warboss was catapulted directly in front of my Ruststalkers and was looking very scary. I used the Infoslave Skull stratagem to fire at him with the nearby unit of Vanguard but could only manage one wound.

Next up came the Ork shooting phase. The lootas let rip at the Neutron Onager using the More Dakka and Showin' Off stratagems to cause plenty of wounds. Foolishly, I used a CP re-roll to save one of them, but still the Onager took six damage. Next up the Mek Gun took a crack at the same target but fortunately failed to wound.

However, the Souped-up Skokka had yet to fire. Other Rich was rolling hot and it let rip at strength ten with ten shots! Needless to say, after all was said and done, my poor Onager was a smoking ruin. Fortunately it didn't explode.

The Morkanaut also let rip with it's variety of horrible guns. The rokkits targeted the Ironstrider but failed to wound, the shootas targeted the vanguard and managed to kill one. However, the nasty Ork plasma weapon on its right arm targeted my second Onager and managed to get two wounds through. On the damage roll, Other Rich rolled a might eleven and my second Dunecrawler was utterly obliterated.

At this point I was pretty dumbstruck, the Ork shooting had proved devastating and had robbed me of two of my best units; however worse was yet to come.

In the assault phase, the steroided up Warboss charged into the Ruststalkers and Vanguard. I managed nothing on overwatch and he targeted the Ruststalkers with his attacks. It was basically a foregone conclusion (hitting on twos, re-rolling, wounding on twos, re-rolling) but we went through the motions anyway. I was unsurprised as I cleared the Ruststalkers off the table. Manfully the vanguard bonked the Warboss with their gun-butts but it didn't achieve anything.

Going into my turn one I had suffered horrendous losses. Three units down and a Warboss in my lines and I had barely rolled a dice! Still, I'm stupid enough not to know when to quit so I played on grimly.

I knew the warboss had to die, so the vanguard fell back from combat and I lined up a charge with the dragoon. Most of my remaining units trained their guns on the Warboss.

In the shooting phase, combined fire from my Skitarii and Magos Dominus killed the Warboss. The plasma vanguard managed four wounds on the Morkanaut but sadly the Kataphron Breachers could only manage one more. I fired the twin-lascannon from the Ironstrider at the Morkanaut and actually got a wound past the kustom-force field but promptly rolled a one for damage.

My Transuranic Arquebuses targeted the Big Mek but could only manage one wound.

I had no charges to declare (and my dragoon was now in a precarious position) so I passed on to Ork turn 2.

End of turn 1, things are looking........not great.

The Morkanaut moved up ready to try to charge the Dragoon (and undoubtedly ruin my Skitarii with its guns); the grots trundled forward and the Mek woke up and chased after the Morkanaut in an attempt to heal it. Fortunately his advance roll was miserable and he tripped forward 1". The weirdboy and the boyz moved forward too.

In the psychic phase the weirdboy attempted Warpath on the boyz but failed to cast. He then used da jump and hurled them forwards in front of my plasma vanguard. I really should have used Infoslave Skull again but I forgot.

Fortunately Ork shooting was a little more forgiving this time around. The lootas fired upon the Arquebus Rangers but could only kill two of them. The Shokk Attack Gun targeted the Ironstrider and caused three wounds. The Mek Gun fired at the Ironstrider as well, but failed to wound again!

Once again the Morkanaut spread its shots around and caused three wounds on the Dragoon. It also killed a few of the plasma vanguard and one of the rangers. Critically it failed to finish off the Ironstrider.

In the assault phase the Morkanaut ploughed into the Dragoon and crushed it mercilessly. It then consolidated forwards. The boyz attempted to charge the Vanguard but failed to make the distance.

Coming into my turn two I had taken more losses but was weathering the storm better. I knew the Morkanaut had to die this turn or it would be basically game over. With that thought I lined up all my guns to target it and the servitors and the Dominus to charge it just in case.

The Ironstrider was repaired by a friendly Enginseer and promptly chewed five wounds off the Morkanaut with its lascannons (it must have been blessed by the Omnissiah). The servitors and plasma vanguard managed to cause six more wounds between them (although one of the vanguard died to an overheat). The rangers, Dominus and the remaining vanguard all whiffed pathetically leaving it down to my Arquebusiers to finish the job. Fortunately I managed to get a six on the wound roll which caused a mortal wound felling the mighty Morkanaut. Even more fortunately it didn't explode (it was right in the middle of my units and this would have been devastating). It even had the decency to crush one of the Meganobz as it died.

However, that did leave me in the unenviable position of having two Killsaw Meganobz bearing down on me and no guns left to shoot them with. At this point I did the only reasonable thing and charged straight at them with my Skitarii Rangers, Kataphrons and my Magos Dominus. Unfortunately the Dominus didn't make the charge but the other two units made it in. Sadly however, the Mega-armour proved too thick and only one wound was caused. The Meganobz struck back and pulverised one of the Servitors.

With that, we moved onto Ork turn 3. Things were looking better, but the Xenos were still in a commanding position.

End of turn 2, the Ork firebase is still very much intact.

At the beginning of turn three the boyz, grots, Mek and Weirdboy all moved forwards seeking to get into assault range. The Meganobz stayed locked in combat. The Weirdboy was too far away to do anything particularly useful in the psychic phase; he may have attempted to use da jump on himself and failed to cast.

Ork shooting was, once again, more forgiving this turn. The lootas targeted the plasma vanguard with a massive 21 shots! After some good hit rolls this translated into 10 wounds but I got very lucky and managed to make eight 4+ saves so only two of them bit the dust. The Shokk Attack Gun took a crack at the Arquebus Rangers who were trying to snipe him off the board but only managed to kill one model.

Finally the Mek Gun fired at the Ironstrider causing five wounds and leaving it on one! Fortunately I had repaired it in the previous turn or it would have been destroyed.

The boyz took a crack at the vanguard with their sluggas but missed entirely. They did however make the charge and slaughtered the entire unit in the assault phase. They then consolidated forward to engage the second unit of vanguard.

The Meganobz attacked the servitors once again and were able to destroy one more of them. I would have lost both models but I managed to roll two 6+ 'refusal to yield' saves for my Forgeworld trait. This left one model clinging to life with a single wound remaining.

Things were looking a bit dismal coming into my turn 3. I had two Meganobz and a unit of boyz tearing through my dwindling infantry and very little left to fight back with.

Nonetheless, I moved up my Dominus and Enginseer to engage the Orks and the Ironstrider moved up as well, just so it could be repaired. I managed to put 2 wounds back on it with the Enginseer. The lone servitor fell back from combat and was repaired by the nearby Dominus up to full health. I also fell back from the Meganobz with the rangers hoping that shooting from my remaining few guns could do some damage.

In the shooting phase I fired the enginseer's laspistol at the meganobz but failed to wound. I then targeted them with the Dominus' Eradication Ray. Some brilliant rolling saw 3 shots which hit and wounded; each with a -4ap and d3 damage. This was enough to blast the Meganobz to bits and made me feel a lot better. I took a crack at the Mek Gun with the Ironstrider but only caused 1 wound.

In the assault phase I charged both of my characters into the unit of boyz. The Dominus must have changed his batteries because he managed to kill 5 boyz in combat (probably thanks to a combination of his relic and warlord trait). The enginseer accounted for one more, but the vanguard couldn't do any damage. In return the remaining boyz killed one of the vanguard.

In the morale phase the boyz lost another model leaving only three remaining in the unit.

At this point things were looking up thanks to some inspired fighting from my warlord. Never underestimate a tech-priest!

End of turn 3, I still haven't managed to silence da big gunz.

And so we moved into Ork turn 4. The grots, mek and weirdboy all moved forwards once again and the few remaining boyz stayed locked in combat. 

In the psychic phase the weirdboy cast smite on the rangers killing one of them.

The grots shot at the nearby Skitarii rangers and managed to kill one more of them with their grot blastas. How insulting!

The Mek Gun shot at the Ironstrider but fortunately (for me) failed to wound. However the Lootas let rip again and turned the Ironstrider into a pile of scrap metal. The Shokk Attack Gun fired at the lone servitor but only caused 2 damage leaving him on a single wound again!

In the assault phase the grots and Mek charged into the Skitarii rangers. The grots managed nothing with their measly strength of 2 but the Mek was able to bring one of the Skitarii down. The Ork boyz attacked the Vanguard and the Dominus but were unable to cause any wounds. In response, the Dominus dissected the rest of the Ork boyz and the Rangers were able to kill one of the grots.

At the top of my turn 4 I knew I had to try to deal with the lootas, mek gun and Shokk Attack Gun. If I didn't, there was no way my remaining handful of infantry would be able to survive the coming turn. I moved the Dominus into a position to shoot the Lootas and possibly charge the grots. I moved the enginseer up to try a charge on the Mek and my remaining vanguard moved up to get some shots on the lootas. At the end of my movement phase the Dominus repaired the long suffering servitor once again bringing him back to full health.

The Dominus and Vanguard fired upon the lootas managing to bring down four of them; hopefully this would reduce their impact on the game somewhat. The lone servitor targeted the Mek Gun with his Heavy Arc rifle managing to get a wound through which caused 5 damage! With that the Mek Gun was destroyed and I had gotten very lucky.

My remaining snipers took a pop at the Shokk Attack Gun and whittled him down to a single wound remaining. Sadly, they weren't able to kill him.

In the assault phase my characters attempted to charge to grots but only the Enginseer made it in. Between him and the Skitarii they were able to kill 4 grots and in response the Mek put a wound on the Enginseer. In the morale phase, 2 more grots fled the field.

End of turn 4, things are looking more even with severe losses on both sides.

Coming into Ork turn 5 things were looking very close. I had reduced the Ork firebase to only five models (albeit with some nasty guns remaining) and I still had a few Skitarii left to fight back with. It was all to play for!

To begin with, the depleted grots fell back from combat, whilst the unharmed unit of grots moved up to replace them. The weirdboy moved forward for an easy charge into the Skitarii Vanguard and let loose with a smite which killed one of them.

In the shooting phase, the remaining three lootas fired upon the Arquebus armed rangers but some poor rolling saw all the shots go wide. The Shokk Attack Gun also targeted the snipers but was only able to fell one of them. The Mek shot at the Enginseer with his kustom mega-slugga but fortunately missed.

The assault phase saw the weirdboy charge into the remaining Skitarii Vanguard and the grots charge into the Rangers. The weirdboy then squashed the last two Skitarii with his staff and the Mek put another wound onto the Enginseer. The grots failed to harm the rangers. In reply, the rangers managed to kill two of the grots and subsequently another one fled in the morale phase.



Mechanicus turn 5 saw the Dominus move over to get a charge on the weirdboy. Before doing so I fired his macrostubber at the small unit of grots and wiped them out. He then charged into the weirdboy and tore him apart with a combination of Anzion's Pseudogenetor and his axe.

The kataphron servitor targeted the lootas with its heavy arc rifle and was able to kill two more of them with some surprisingly accurate shooting. There was now only one loota left!

In the combat with the grots, the rangers managed to bring down another two of the diminutive creatures. The Enginseer and Mek swung at eachother but were unable to cause any damage.

It was now the end of turn 5 and we should have rolled for random game length. However, things were so nailbitingly close that we decided to play to the death. Had the game ended here, it would have been a draw with first blood to the Orks and slay the warlord to the Mechanicus.

End of turn 5, very few models left on either side. It really could go either way.

Coming into Ork turn 6 there was no movement. In shooting, the lone loota targeted the lone skitarii sniper on a faraway rooftop and riddled him with bullets. The Shokk Attack Gun fired at the servitor and managed to do two wounds AGAIN! Would this servitor never die!? The mek missed with his mega-slugga and the grots shot a skitarii to death with their grot blastas.

The mek fought first in the assault phase and failed to get past the enginseer's armour. The rangers slew two grots and the enginseer missed pathetically.

In my turn I shot the remaining loota with the wounded servitor and charged into the mek with the tech-priest dominus. The Dominus was successful where the enginseer had failed and he brought down the Ork Mek. The rangers were able to add another grot to their tally and the remaining two grots fled the field in the morale phase.

Now there was only one Ork left on the field (and on one wound no less!) so we could have called it there. However I wasn't about to deny Other Rich the satisfaction of firing the Souped Up Shokka one last time. He targeted the servitor but only rolled 4 strength 4 shots and failed to cause any harm. After that, the remaining two rangers did the honours and shot the Big Mek with their arc rifle.

So ended a spectacularly bloody and enjoyable game. I had only five models remaining on the field including a battered Enginseer and an amazingly lucky Kataphron Servitor (if a Servitor can be said to be 'lucky').

My thanks to Other Rich for a fantastic game, and one I thought I would certainly lose. Here's hoping our next game is just as good.

Skitarii Onager Dunecrawler - Fully painted

Well, I'm back from a couple of weeks away from work, away from the blog and away from pretty much everything else! I managed to fins plenty of painting time, so things have moved on well. First off, I finished an Onager Dunecrawler for my Adeptus Mechanicus army:

Crawl those dunes baby!

This is actually the Onager from my first Start Collecting: Skitarii set bought way back when. Some of you may know that this is the second Dunecrawler I have painted, the reason for this is that I excitedly started building and painting this model when I first bought it, only to realise quickly that I had made a mistake! I should have built it in sub-assembles for painting and it would have been far easier. After a few shoddy brushstrokes, it was shelved fro a later date.

Neutron Laserrrrrr!!

As a result, the half painted model has been part of my army for years. As the rest of the force has grown around it, it began to look more and more of an eyesore. But, with the Mechanicus points drops from chapter approved I was hard pressed to make an army that didn't include it. Thankfully, I managed to push through and get it finished.

Aren't transfers fun?

I also tried something a bit different with the base on this one. I attempted to build a kind of toxic waste outflow next to a bunker hatch. I used some clear pouring medium for a water effect and I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. I think I will attempt something similar on future projects. The base design was inspired by my friend Anna over at The Ashen Pair. We had some conversations about my sandy bases and she gave me a gentle shove to try something a bit more adventurous.

The base itself.

Waste outflow detail.

Anyway, another model added to the army and another fun project. More than anything I'm just really pleased to have this one done and to be able to use it on the tabletop.

Check in next week to see my next project which is also Mechanicus themed!

Monster March - Hierophant Bio-titan week 2

First off, sorry for the delayed post. This really should have gone up last week as part of Monster March but some things got in the way. Namely, finding the right space to take some half decent photos of this massive beast!

Now that's a big bug!

Eventually I managed to find a couple of huge pieces of paper to make a background and got a few shots of the finished article. That's right, she's officially finished! (No comments of 'you missed a spot' please.)

The Hierophant has actually been quite a relaxed project to work on. Partially because it is such a simple paint scheme (see my previous post) but also because it was part way finished when I kicked off this month; so it has felt easier than having to start from scratch.

She's so pretty!

Profile shot.

However, we're only about half way through March, so I feel like I should add another model to the Monster March challenge run by Path of an Outcast. Unfortunately I don't have another suitable monster (and let's be honest, what could follow the Hierophant?) so I'm following the theme of getting things finished off.

Without asking permission, I'm going to chuck in an Onager Dunecrawler that I started painting about two years ago but never finished. It's in a bit of a sorry state and will need some TLC to bring it up to scratch. Here's the current state of things.

Why oh why didn't I part assemble it??

So, it needs a lot of work. The painting is shambolic and it needs a base, feet, a gun and lots of hugs and kisses. I have done a bit of work on it to even get it to this stage. The legs have been cleaned up and I'm fairly happy with how they're progressing. That upper hull though........ugh.

Anyway, tune in next time to see if I've manage to make a beauty out of this beast!

The Grand Army of the Mechanicus!

I've been meaning to post up some photos of the current state of my Adeptus Mechanicus forces for a while and finally got the chance to snap a few over the weekend. Without further ado, I am proud to present, the Grand Army of the Mechanicus!

Still needs more Skitarii.

If you read this blog regularly, you will have seen this lot come together over the last couple of years. Currently the army stands at 3500 points and I have plenty more models still to build and paint.

The knights have been a great addition to the army.

The list is still very top heavy and feels like it needs a lot more infantry. To that end I plan to paint up some more Skitarii, some Electropriests and another squad of Infiltrators. Hopefully that will help balance things out a bit.

I think the colour scheme has translated well across all the models.

The most recent HQ choices in the army.

From a personal standpoint; having a large, nicely painted army is something I've wanted for a long time. Ever since seeing the armies displayed in White Dwarf every month when I was a teenager (Fred Reed's Howling Griffons anyone?) So, getting a collection like this together is enormously satisfying. I can't wait to add more to it this year.

I have plans to add another Onager or two.

Despite wanting to add many more Adeptus Mechanicus units; the Imperial Knights have been immensely satisfying modelling projects. In the queue to be built and painted I have a Cerastus Knight Atropos along with another Armiger Warglaive. The Atropos in particular I am very much looking forward to because I absolutely adore the model.

General's eye view.

I also have a few Mechanicum 30k robots on the back burner. Rumour has it that these will get rules for 40k in the future and it will be excellent to add these gorgeous models to the collection. In particular, I have a Thanatar Siege Automata which I would love to have painted.

That's a lot of green robots.

Anyway, that concludes this little self-indulgent ramble. Here's to the next 3500 points!

Battle Report! - Warhammer 40k, Necrons vs Adeptus Mechanicus

Just a quick write up of a 1000 point battle I had at my FLGS last night. This was against my good buddy Rich and his terrifying Necrons. We were using matched play rules and playing the Cleanse and Capture Maelstrom mission which has become a staple of our games nights.

Many of these models were used during the battle.

Apologies before you read any further; I didn't take any photos of our game, nor have I included any maps past deployment. I have inserted some bad memes informative images to break up the inevitable wall of text; but if you want to bail out now I won't take it personally.

Rich was playing Mephrit Dynasty which gave all his guns an additional -1ap under half range (scary!) and took the Battalion detachment below: 

Necron Overlord (Voltaic Staff, Merciless Tyrant)

Cryptek (Canoptek Cloak)

Cryptek (Canoptek Cloak)

C'tan shard of the Nightbringer (Antimatter Meteor, Transdimensional Thunderbolt)

10 Warriors

10 Warriors

10 Warriors

3 Destroyers including 1 Heavy Destroyer

They used to be so scary.

Against this merciless tide of steel I had my very own battalion of robots. I was playing Forgeworld Graia (because I like it) and my 1000 points looked like this:

Tech-priest Dominus (Anzion's Pseudogenetor, Magos Biologis)

Tech-priest Enginseer

10 Skitarii Vanguard (3x plasma caliver)

6 Skitarii Rangers (2x arc rifle and Alpha with taser goad)

5 Skitarii Rangers (2x Transuranic Arquebus and Alpha with power sword)

5 Sicarian Ruststalkers (Transonic Blades)

5 Infiltrators (Power Swords and Stubcarbines)

Onager Dunecrawler (Neutron laser and 2x Heavy stubber)

Onager Dunecrawler (Eradication Beamer and Heavy stubber)

Sydonian Dragoon (phosphor serpenta)

3 kataphron breachers (Arc claws and Heavy arc rifles)

6 Fulgurite Electropriests

So, an interesting matchup, although it was clear from the outset that I had far more bodies and wounds on the ground than my opponent. Would the toughness and resurrecting abilities of the Necrons be enough to even the odds?

We set up on a 6' x 4' board using Dawn of War deployment. Rich got the first placement, but I had loads more units than him anyway so he got +1 to the first turn roll off. Even so, I managed to win the roll and Rich failed to seize the initiative.

Deployed for battle.

The Necrons had castled up at the back of their deployment zone in a tight huddle. I had spread my units out more and had my faster moving ruststalkers, infiltrators and dragoon on one flank with my Skitarii Vanguard on the other. I had used my Servitors, Onagers and Dominus to make a little castle of my own in the middle.

Rich had left the destroyers in the open so after some shuffling of various units I opened fire with both Onagers and my servitors. When the dust had settled, the Destroyers had been reduced to a smoking crater. Most of my other stuff was out of range but I did manage to snipe a Cryptek (using my Arquebusiers) who came back to life using the Resurrection Protocols stratagem. I had an excellent card draw this turn which included Overwhelming Firepower, Supremacy and Defend Objective 5 all of which I was able to score. Unfortunately I was only able to get 1VP for Supremacy but it still left me on 5VP coming into my turn two.

A succinct summary of turn 1.

I don’t think Rich had expected to lose the destroyers on turn one and he seemed a bit shaken, but gamely played on regardless. The entire Necron army moved forward but most of their guns were out of range. A few gauss shots were fired which killed a couple of skitarii rangers but that was it. Rich had also had a terrible card draw and failed to score any objectives. From memory he discarded psychological warfare.

On turn two I moved my ruststalkers, dragoon and infiltrators onto the flank; obviously a brilliant tactical gambit (actually I think there was an objective out there that I needed.) I had also moved my plasma vanguard onto the opposite flank. It wasn’t really intentional, but it looked like some sort of genius strategic manoeuvre. At any rate, I shot a unit of warriors off the board with my Vanguard, Onagers and Servitors. I also sniped another Cryptek (who promptly came back to life) and that was my turn. Due to some more lucky card draws I was raking in the victory points, I ended turn two on 7VP.

Sadly for the Cryptek, he wouldn't get the chance.

Rich’s turn two and the c’tan came into play, unfortunately, his powers are basically like super-smites and the closest units were all skitarii. He managed to wipe out a unit of Skitarii rangers and the necron warriors added their fire to kill a few more skitarii from other units. My snipers were reduced to two models but passed their morale check (with a command reroll). Rich had another terrible draw this round but did at least manage to score a point of his own for Overwhelming Firepower.

In turn three I was looking to get a shot with the neutron laser into the c’tan; which would prove decisive if I could get it off. Unfortunately there was a unit of warriors in the way so they would have to be removed. I managed to kill three of them with the Eradication beamer. The servitors hadn't charged their batteries and whiffed big time only felling one. 

The vanguard opened fire along with the infiltrators and managed to bag five leaving just one lonely necron guarding the c’tan. Only one of my snipers could fire this turn (due to having to move the other to maintain coherency) so I lined up the shot (using the Protector Imperatives stratagem for +1 to hit) and promptly missed. With that, I fried the remaining warrior with the neutron laser and the c’tan was left unharmed. I also got a charge off with my ruststalkers into the last unit of warriors and killed a couple. Much to my surprise, they managed to kill a ruststalker in return! So with that, the turn ended.

Haha! What a dork! Oh wait.....

The Necrons were getting a bit thin on the ground, but basically the remaining characters and c'tan all lined up to charge into the ruststalkers. The c’tan fired off its power but pathetically missed on a 1. Then he charged in. The c'tan made it easily but the rest of Necron middle management failed. 

In a show of terrible rolling the dreaded Nightbringer managed only one kill despite hitting on 2+ and wounding on 2+. Basically he got 3 hits, 2 wounds and I made a single 6+ invulnerable save. In return, the ruststalkers managed to put two wounds on the c’tan. The remaining Necron warriors bonked their gun butts against the ruststalkers ineffectually.

In what would prove to be the final turn (my turn four) I tried to line up my guns to target the Necron characters but to little avail. The skitarii vanguard were able to shoot a cryptek though and my snipers accounted for the other one (even though I had already killed both of them once). 

I managed a bunch of charges though, the Sydonian Dragoon into the C’tan and the Electropriests and Infiltrators into the Necron warriors. The Infiltrators and priests managed to kill all but one of the Necrons and then it was time to fight the c’tan. 

The dragoon managed only two wounds despite using conqueror protocols and getting six hits. I did however get a lucky roll with the Ruststalker Princeps' chordclaw dealing two mortal wounds. With that, it was down to the remaining ruststalkers to see if they could chip off the last two wounds. From nine attacks I managed an impressive four wounds (no mortals though). He failed two saves and the mighty Star God was slain. To add insult to injury he didn't even have the decency to explode. With only two models left on the field at this point Rich conceded.

After Battle Thoughts:

So, a fun game which unfortunately led to an early concession. Rich is a great guy and we will undoubtedly have several more games in the future.

Several of my games have gone this way recently and I am at a bit of a loss to explain why. I know my local meta is very casual; but I don't consider myself a competitive player. The list above is pretty much what I would take to any game (although I change it every time so things don't get stale) and I don't think it's super competitive.

I'm also not egotistical enough to think that I'm just a better player than my opponents. It just seems that Adeptus Mechanicus are very powerful in my meta right now. This could definitely be due to playing 1000 point games; I am aware that at a 'low' points level some factions just play better and I think Ad Mech may be one of these.

Anyway, I'd always rather have a game that results in a close loss than an easy win. I don't want to have to shelve my Mechanicus because I love the models and have worked really hard on the army recently. Equally, I don't want to do my opponents the disservice of throwing the game or making bad tactical decisions.

Congratulations if you've made it to the end of this massive ramble, please, leave your thoughts below. What can I do to make the game closer and more enjoyable for my opponents?

Painting Skitarii - 1000 points complete

It doesn't seem so long ago that I was celebrating the completion of a 500 point force of Skitarii/Adeptus Mechanicus. This weekend I broke out some terrain to take a few celebratory photos of a completed 1000 point force!

The army in all their glory!



Now, 1000 points might seem like a small force by some people's standards but, for me, it's an excellent milestone. I haven't been collecting Mechanicus for that long (again, by my own standards) and to have a well rounded army painted to a good level is something that I'm very proud of.

Skitarii are so cool!

Originally, they were conceived as a Skitarii only force. Mostly because I prefer the Skitarii models over the Mechanicus ones and, at the time, they were split into two codexes. A slight problem came in the form of the Start Collecting Skitarii set as it includes a Magos Dominus who used to be part of the Mechanicus faction. This was complicated further when my darling wife kindly bought me a set of Kastelan Robots for Father's day, not realizing that they were technically a separate faction. This led to them becoming a bit of a combined arms force long before the advent of the current codex, where the two forces have been combined into one list (as they always should have been).

The Mechanicus contingent.

The army, as it stands is still mostly Skitarii. With the Kataphron Servitors and the Kastelans making up the Mechanicus contingent. The balance will change further still as the next unit to be added will be another unit of Kataphron Servitors that I am painting up for Squaduary.

Onager with magnetized Neutron Laser.

The force has benefitted hugely from various online painting challenges. The Onager pictured above was painted for Dreadtober whilst a squad of Skitarii Vanguard was completed for Squaduary 2017 with the Kastelan robots added shortly after for Monster March. The rest of the force has come together in dribs and drabs; but pushing myself to turn out a completed unit instead of three or four models has really helped.

Cool, low angle shot.

The final factor in making this army happen is the builder campaign that was organized by my buddy Lewis. He runs a blog over at Canis Aureus showcasing his own work. But I owe him huge thanks for all the work he put in which really pushed me along to hit those points quotas as the campaign escalated.


I'll leave you with a few more photos of the models, but I'm delighted with the army and can't wait to see how they will grow in the coming year.

Skitarii on patrol.

A Dragoon advances covered by a Ranger squad.

Ruststalkers appear out of the dunes.