Tournament: Battleforge Games 1-08-08

Today I played in the first tournament of the 2008 season at Battleforge. They might not be able to update their webpage worth a crap (ha!) but they definitely run a decent tournament, with thought-provoking missions and great prize support. The only downside is that there's usually a shit ton of power armies, and the 'eavy version of their competitions, which will be run in odd months, promised to be more of the same. I decided to start the year off with a painted army, and I've been tinkering around with a new guard/allied WH inquisitor and eversor build, so I took the green machine out for a spin, deep into hostile territory...

Game 1 - Tau

My first game of the day was against Daniel and his Tau. The primary objective was field of battle (essentially alpha recon), with secondary points awarded for holding table quarters and killing an enemy HQ. He had a battlesuit leader, two squads of elite battlesuits, a big squad of kroot, two fire warrior squads in devilfish, a pathfinder squad in a devilfish, a piranha, a hammerhead, an ion head, and two broadsides. In addition to all the smart and seeker missiles fucking me up from behind hills, he was finding all sorts of janky lines of sight across the board with his railguns. I failed every obscured roll I tried, and eventually my armor was whittled down to a lone demolisher. I managed to tank shock the kroot squad and send them running for a few turns, theoretically giving my eversor assassin cover as he launched a one-man assault into some crowded ruins in his deployment zone. I say theoretically because goddamned tau pathfinders managed to force five armor saves on the eversor, somehow only wounding him once, while his own poorly-rolled return attacks managed to kill just one measly pathfinder. The galactic badass died the next turn after only dropping a couple more. Daniel earned a shitload of battle points and I earned none. The end. And yes, I'm pissy about this game!

Game 2 - Eldar

Chris is like my personal "boss monster" right now, and there will be much rejoicing when I finally defeat him (and I will!). Besides his posting on BOLS, he's started his own blog at crusadedude40k.blogspot.com. I'm pretty sure he was using the same mechanized eldar list as last time, and I knew it would be an uphill battle so I just tried to use the opportunity to learn more about what worked and what didn't against his grav-powered rolling pin. The main objective was take and hold, with additional points for destroying the enemy's most expensive unit, and more for having your own uberpricey bastard destroyed as well. I was only able to shake a single falcon before his attack wing was knocking at my left flank, shooting my infantry core up with scatter lasers and shuriken and dumping fire dragons and harlequins, all the units doing what they do best in horrible concert. For my part, I managed to basilisk one squad of fire dragons into oblivion, kill about half of one of the avenger squads, and destroy another avenger squad's wave serpent. On the last turn I finally managed to bring down his star engined falcon (his suicide unit) with a miracle missile from my very last surviving infantry squad. Other than that it was completely one sided and he wiped out everything I had. More ouchy!

Game 3 - Black Templars

My last game was against a newcomer who brought his mostly painted Black Templar army. The completed pieces, like the champion for example, were quite nice. The list itself seemed like a characteristic templar mix: an emperor's champion, a sword brethren squad led by a chaplain, a venerable dreadnought, four neophyte/crusader squads including one that was twenty strong, a lascannon razorback, a land raider crusader, and a lascannon predator. It was an interesting game, but we were both moving a little slowly and only got three full turns done before time was called. I learned a lot about that big ass LRC - specifically about the machine spirit, and how it can fire a weapon even if the vehicle moves over 6". I was able to glance it a few times with my big guns but overall my shooting was horrible and his advancing army took few casualties before slamming into my lines. I don't know how competitive BTs are overall, but I was definitely impressed by their special rules in our game, especially the one that allows them to move closer to you when they take any shooting casualties. For a space marine army, there was a ton of bodies on the field and the cheap neophytes absorb casualties for what seems like fucking ever! The sword brethren on the other hand never really had a chance to get into the game; I only ever saw them shoot their bolt pistols a few times. For fun I talked him through getting the most victory points he could in the last turn we played. Another sweep for the sheisse Tiefwalders! Get fucked imperial guard!

Action Report: Imperial Guard vs. Death Guard 12-6-07

I played a 2000 point cleanse mission against Bigred from BOLS last Thursday using my imperial guard army. He was trying out for the first time his updated 2k death guard list, featuring a nurgle bike lord, three squads of 10 plaguemarines, five squads of 6 lesser demons, and three vindicators. In other words, a tar pit and a half. I knew going in that the bike lord and all the demons he would be able to summon were going to be my main threat. And I was right. I was able to destroy the vindicators fairly easily in the first two turns, but just as I feared, the bike lord pulled up in right front of my gun line in the second turn and started pooping out demons, who in turn began assaulting my squads immediately, tying up their guns and clogging up valuable LOS lanes for everyone behind them. And in case you're wondering, yes, red's mix of nurglings and plaguebearer bases does indeed extend his potential summoning turn charge. I was eventually able to kill a bunch of them with tank shooting, but the wave of plaguemarines following them wiped out just about everything I had. In the end, we both held an adjacent quarter and each other's home quarter (I managed to land grab with some deep-striking vets and a sentinel), but he swamped me with victory points from all the inflicted casualties. A loss for the Tiefwalders, but nevertheless it was a fun game with a very agreeable opponent.

The game pretty well summed up the main issues I have with my guard army. It's great for putting out tons of fire, and has a few fun little tricks, but if a few infantry units get pulled into assault, it's pretty much over. Consolidation and massacre moves allow enemies to get deeper and deeper into my lines, until they're eventually close enough to melta my tanks. Any squads that try to move away from the frays lose their shooting and they can't ever move far enough away to escape assault themselves in subsequent turns. It's a good army in the first couple of turns but gets shitty late-game, especially against any assault-themed force with a decent amount of intervening terrain. Next game I'm going to try using an eversor (and the requisite cheap inquisitor) for counterassault. Maybe down the line I'll be able to make those piggy rough riders and be able to go back to a pure guard force again.

Tiefwalder 14th Regiment: The Red Rifles

Thanks to Bigred from BOLS for taking these great pictures of my imperial guard army. There's a powerfist captain, a commissar, and a few spare special and heavy weapon troopers not pictured but this is essentially the whole shebang. Here's some tournament fluff I've written for them in the past.

I started this army in 1997 with a Leman Russ bought in a dark and dusty game store, whose name I forget, in Gulfport, Mississippi. Up to that point, I had bought two squad boxes of the metal cadians and 20 or so of the pre-2nd edition plastic guard models, but hadn't really committed to the idea of collecting guard until I started working on the russ. Putting that first tank together was pure joy, except for the stupid track pieces of course. First it had a couple of heavy bolter sponsons and a hull-mounted lascannon. Over the years, I came back many times to update its loadout and appearance through the two codices. Now it rolls out with hull and sponson heavy bolters, a pintle heavy stubber, extra armor, and a dozer blade. I used only a little of the ridiculous amount of leftover track pieces you get in the kits to make the extra armor on all my tanks. The hull heavy bolter, by the way, is a spare sponson from the demolisher tank. If I remember right, you have to kind of trim down the little knob on the top that normally fits into the sponson tops. I don't know who wrote "suck it" on the barrel - I just woke up one morning and it was there. What a mystery.

I can definitely see the merits of having multiple standard russes, but it didn't strike me as varied enough to be interesting, so I bought a demolisher for my second main battle tank. I go back and forth on including the plasma sponsons. Over the past few days I've been considering giving it three heavy bolters and a stubber as well. If I'm not always going to be in range for the heavy ordnance, I might as well be blazing away with the dakka on the move. I don't have the book in front of me, but I think the points exchange would be even-steven at worst. At best it might give me a few more points with which to play around.

This is one of my two chimeras. Your standard armored transport, only mine have plastic catachan lasguns swapped in for the hideous and way outdated hull-mounted ones that come with the model. Also my versions of the tank are pronounced "shai-merrahs." Right now the models have hunterkiller missile launchers, but soon they too will have pintle heavy stubbers. Again, love that dakka.

The Hellhound was the last tank I bought for this army. It too is rocking a stubber and a dozer blade. I know a few folks that consider them wastes of points, but I love my dozer blades. They have saved me from what would have been silly and game-blowing immobilizations on numerous clutch occasions. Recently, though, they seem to be crapping out; I've rolled the dreaded double-one twice in as many games and it wasn't exactly convenient timing in either instance. Other than the standard russ, this is probably my favorite tank.

My sentinels are also later additions to my guard force. I installed magnets in mine at the head/waist joint as well as on their right sides for the gun mount. They've gone out equipped with lascannons, autocannons, and most recently, multilasers. I've had about equal success with each. One of my doctrines is drop troops, and recently I've been holding at least one of the sentinels in reserve to help with last second objective grabs. It works pretty well in conjunction with the veterans.

I gave all my vets backpacks just to make them all consistent and able to be picked out from the other cannon fodder. The centerpieces of the veteran units are the sergeants. The great thing about collecting several factions is that you can use all the leftover bitz from one army to make trophies for veteran troopers in another. One of the sergeants is a veteran of battles with splinter fleet Vivax, while the other has campaign experience battling the black legion marauders led by the demon prince Toggog. Given the propensity of Guard infantry to die before the game is even half over, it's most likely that their experience consisted of hiding really well and picking up stuff off of dead enemies after the tanks and artillery blew everything away. Appropriate then that they should lead noble suicide squads deep into enemy territory and wait patiently in ambush for vehicles or elite infantry to pass by before jumping out and blasting away with their anti-armor firepower. Half the time they scatter into their targets or other neightbors. When this happens, I just sigh and envision their being hidden so well that they got themselves run'd over.

My command HQ has always been led by the bald catachan captain with the cigar and cool carapace armor. I prefer using the junior variety of officer, straight up with just a bolter, and to me the only good guard powerfist is a hidden one, so I will attach a commissar to the unit from time to time and give them all hardened fighters to send them on counter-assault duty. I wrote about the standard bearer in my very first post. I'm still experimenting a bit with the construction of this unit - the various pros and cons of including a heavy weapon (or just giving them a mortar). Firing off a round with the mortar gives you a little edge for correctly ranging subsequent indirect basilisk fire.

Here's one of my two platoon command squads. The junior officer head is from the most recent tank accessory sprue. The one pictured is probably my favorite of the two. I typically give all the command and infantry squads missile launchers. Against certain MEQ variants these can really bring the pain, but they still all miss half the time!

I got a 20-man catachan squad box and a few metals after painting up the metal cadians. The old pre-2nd edition plastic cadians models were horrible models (IMHO) and I chunked the deuce on them pretty quickly. The older metals cats were great. Some of the plastic body parts, on the other hand, were poorly sculpted and didn't always fit as well together as with the cadian plastics that came later. I have noticed that the details and proportions on the newer plastic catachans, such as those that come with the heavy weapon teams and sentinels, are actually quite decent. I worked on my other armies for the next couple of years with the guard essentially languishing on a shelf. When I came back to them, I realized that not having a consistent collection was really bothering me, so I re-upped on catachans with an army box and a few extra sentinels and heavy weapons teams. Then came the basilisk and the hellhound.

The tanks were painted by first applying a dark angels green spray for the primer coat, then successive drybrushings of a mix of dark angels green, goblin green, skull white, and chaos black, with increasing proportions of goblin green and white relative to the other two. I don't know if that explains it very well; I got the whole technique from a Nigel tank-painting article in an old White Dwarf (probably 1997 - it's got a blood angels dreadnought on the cover). The guns are all chaos black. Any eagles on black portions are picked out with white, then washed with purple wash, then highlighted back up to white with mixes of the two. Eagles on green portions are shining yellow, washed with watered down blood red (or just red wash), then highlighted back up to yellow. The metal parts are boltgun metal, washed with black wash, then drybrushed back up to boltgun. The infantry fatigues are goblin green, washed with green ink, then highlighted with goblin green and a touch of skull white. Fleshtones are bronzed flesh, brown or flesh wash, highlighted back up with a mix of bronzed flesh and elf flesh. Darker skin tones are a mix of brown ink and a bare touch of bleached bone (just enough to give the watery ink texture making a dark brown), washed with black ink, then highlighted back up with the original ink mix. The rifles are blood red, washed with watered down black ink, and gone over again with blood red. I'm not that great at highlighting black, so I just kept the plain black look consistent across the entire army (e.g. heavy weapons, boots, belts, canteens) and it's not too glaring an omission. I also can't paint eyes worth a shit so I don't even worry about it - I just try to get enough ink in there to make them all look like they're squinting really hard. Hopefully the Clint Eastwood look makes em all seem a little meaner.

So what's next? I want to apply some decals, possibly some homemade custom jobbies, and experiment a little with microsol in preparation for all the saim hann bikes in my future. Probably when the next codex comes out I'll finally make those boar rough riders.

Warhammer 30,000: Week 3

Dire Portents this week, as the Warmaster gathers to him his most trusted brother Primarchs and their legions. During an attack on forces loyal to a traitorous planetary governor, the Death Guard and World Eaters discover a strange ziggurat near a former listening post in the (apparently) frozen wastelands of Istvaan Extremis. As they begin to search the area they come under attack by a human army led by a potent mutant psyker, a.k.a. the Warsinger, a.k.a me! We decided to represent the Warsinger with a model from Aventine's collection - his zealot leader - using the mutant psyker rules in the Witchhunters codex. In exchange for her cost plus the three available psychic powers, the Death Guard took an additional land speeder. It was a rather poor trade in the end for the soon-to-be traitor legions... muahahahaha!

Deployment

For our random special mission we drew "Rescue." The legion players, Bigred (Death Guard) and Adam (World Eaters) decided to use the corner deployment, choosing the one with the most mystery tokens nearby. Apparently there's some dispute over whether your opponent has to also use corner deployment if you do, but it wasn't worth bothering about so I just used a corner too. The Death Guard and World Eaters color schemes looked really great together as they deployed their tac squads along the inside borders of their corner. I basically mirrored them with my infantry squads. It would be a dead sprint to find the right token!

Turn 1 & Turn 2

I rolled to go first. Given the corner deployment zones there had to be a lot of movement before anything really heated up. However, at the end of the second turn, I turned over the very first token and it was the objective! The Warsinger's quarry (a mysterious box) was very nearly in her possession. Of my reserves I only had my hellhound and one sentinel come in. The rest of the Istvaan guard infantry moved forward and hunkered down to wait for the approaching legions.

Turn 3

Turn 3 saw the arrival of the command HQ elements, including heavy weapons and mortar teams, as well as the last two sentinels and one of the veteran squads. My heavy tanks were still waiting in reserve! The squad with the objective passed it off to the command squad behind them. The HQ chimera drove out to supplement the forward lines, and most of the infantry squads got shots off at nearby enemies, dropping a few marines here and there (no thanks to a succesful prayer from Garro as Bigred used his special faith point to give the big Death Guard infantry squad invulnerable 3+ saves). The hellhound helped to inflict heavy casualties on the large World Eaters tac squad, but shortly thereafter a Death Guard landspeeder arrived and killed the flame tank with a precision multimelta shot. The legions' precious Land Raider arrived chock full of Berzerkers, including Khârn, and moved up towards the main event about to go down in the center of the table.

Turn 4

The command squad holding the objective ran back towards my table edge, and the Command HQ's chimera drove forward in front of them, moving into position to cover their retreat from the main body of the marine forces. The heavy armor arrived and reduced the Death Guard squad to less than a "decade." A World Eaters combat squad botched an easy target priority test to kill the objective-carrier and had to shoot at the closer infantry squad, wiping them out. They are indeed the Shaq legion! One of the Death Guard landspeeders pulled up right in front of the guard frontlines and wiped out 6 or 7 traitors with their heavy flamer. Then their dreadnought penetrated the chimera's hull but could not wreck it. The command HQ, including the Warsinger, jumped out but passed their pinning test like champs. The Death Guard and World Eaters infantry charged into combat with the traitorous guardsmen - the World Eaters wiped out their opponents completely and followed up into a sentinel, but the Death Guard were bogged down in the last three members of an infantry squad. They were in perfect position for my Warsinger to bring the pain.

Turn 5

Time left for the legions to stop and retake the objective from the Warsinger's forces were running out. Heavy bolters on one side of my lines shook one landspeeder, and lascannon teams destroyed both weapons on the other. Two of my sentinels came around from cover, one shooting the nearby crippled landspeeder and missing, and the second took a chance shot at the heavily obscured back corner of the World Eaters land raider. Three sixes later: KABOOM! The legions were stunned in the face of such a tragedy, and could only watch as a mighty machine spirit went up in smoke. As the Death Guard began to realize the hopelessness of their situation, the Warsinger pounced and used her mutant powers to turn them against one another. Four Death Guard fell by their own hands, and the legions decided to withdraw. Garro himself was grievously wounded, and the Warsinger and her minions were victorious... for now.

Rescue was a double edged sword for me - the other two special missions could have been total disasters (especially night fight with those Berzerkers and Land Raider). But I also got really lucky when the objective token happened to be the closest one to my deployment. After that it was just a matter of running away from marine shooting, and I got lucky again with some of those World Eater misses (thanks guys). This was probably the most fun week yet of the campaign, but next week promises to be even crazier, with the bombing of Istvaan III. I even feel as if I had some hand in provoking that legendary tragedy!

Warhammer 30,000: Week 1

Today was opening day in the Horus Heresy campaign being played out at Battleforge Games, using the ruleset developed by the folks at Bell of Lost Souls. I was promised by Bigred that if I brought my Guard I'd definitely get a game, and that's just what happened. I used the old citywide Tiefwalder army, with the dozer blade switched over to the standard Russ instead of the demolisher. Chris and Amos teamed up their small pre-heresy legions to try and bring to heel what would eventually be one of the most loyal and valuable system of planets in the Segmentum Obscuris.

*Wayne's World flashback sound*

Way back when, the Walder system was defended by the Gruene Wehrmauer, the extremely well-armed militia of Kronprinz Chamblais, ruler of Hauptwald. And they didn't have Leman Russes or Leman Russ Demolishers, but rather Hauptpanzers and Megapanzers. Who is this Russ guy anyway? And more importantly, who the hell are these highly armored pituitary psychos that are laying siege to Eiswald, the furthest populated planet from the system's sun? Apparently, they're some of the so-called Emperor's finest: Space Marines from the Salamanders and Thousand Sons legions. Shit, they look mean! And brr! We should have brought sleeves!

The forces on both sides declared battlefield objectives and set out to secure and control them, ready to open up on anything that moved. As the Wehrmauer moved into position, they were suddenly attacked by a wave of Space Marines along a wide front. Ordnance, rocket, and heavy bolter fire ripped through the defenders, who came about and returned the favor as best they could. The Wehrmauer poured it on thick and managed for the most part to keep the invaders at bay.

One giant warrior, leading a large squad from one of their transport vehicles, actually charged the flamethrower tank and set about it with a giant powered hammer, but was thankfully unable to damage it. His squad was roasted alive for their trouble, though the last heroic survivor managed to stagger off a short distance before Hauptwalder ordnance and anti-infantry fire finished him off.

The Emperor's soldiers were able to mow through the Wehrmauer foot troops with ease, but they were rather ill equipped to handle Hauptwald's fine heavy armor. The Lema... er, Hauptpanzer, went down in the end to a squad of Thousand Sons terminators pulling the ole lightning claw rear admiral, but by then the guns of the Hauptwald pride had reduced the arrogant invaders to a few loose stragglers. Unfortunately, those won't be the last bunch of maniacs this hippy hair, gold-wearing nutbag sends to Walder. The resource-rich system is too valuable an asset to let languish out of his reach. They'll be back.

Word around the solar system is that the Emperor's legions ran into similar trouble on a planet called Mordia. You might want to put some training wheels on those Rhinos before you send 'em our way, big guy!

Action Report: Imperial Guard vs. Chaos 9-03-07

Toggog's newly reorganized band of marauders conducted a surprise raid today, fighting the Tiefwalder Red Rifles for control of a power substation in the forested wilds of Tiefwald itself. The newest arrivals served their master well and their abilities complemented the force nicely. Toggog himself was downed early by heavy ordnance and ambushing veterans, but Sorcerer Aziz survived nearly the entire battle, seducing several units out of cover and wiping out two infantry squads by himself, normally by overrunning them after they broke and ran from close combat. The havocs killed some infantry but were unable to damage any vehicles; they were destroyed in the end. Two berzerkers survived an initial devastating earthshaker hit to help the obliterators teleport right next to the leman russ. Immediately they opened up with their multimeltas and destroyed it. The berzerkers were finally wiped out after that but the obliterators would survive to destroy a hellhound and contest their sector. On the other side of the battle, the Thousand Sons burst forward early and, for a short time, kept cover behind their rhino, opening up on one squad dragged into range by the dread Sorcerer Aziz. However, the emperor smiled on Tiefwald, and the biggest guns of the Big Green aimed straight and true, quickly reducing the Thousand Sons to ashes. Behind their smoldering remains, a huge Terminator squad hurried over to contest the adjacent sector. At the very climax of the battle, they fell under a mass of fire from infantry and armor and not enough survived fight off the nearby Imperial forces. The buildings and landscape were scorched and pockmarked by ordnance and small arms but the substation and the sector was back under control, at least for the time being. Imperial Guard wins, solid victory!

Overall I liked how the rumored Chaos played out, even if they didn't win their first game. I got first turn and was able to put a couple of early wounds on the demon prince, facilitating his early demise. He was on his way to surely wreak major havoc when I scored hits with both my deep-striking veteran squads, right next to him, mucho BS4 melta and plasma, adios. The big prince is cheaper now, true, but his old demon armor and feel no pain will be sorely missed under heavy fire like that. Gone before their time, the thousand sons were basically knocked out in one turn by the demolisher and basilisk's combined pieplates - I had some great luck with scattering this game. The Terminators were thick and it took my Guard-quantity guns to make a dent in them. They might have been better off deep-striking, maybe not, I can't really decide. It's a big risk to keep their expensive unit in limbo, but their early turns were mostly spent moving up - although to be fair, I did manage to pin them first turn on a freak leadership roll with the ratlings after only killing one! Cheesy. I'm seriously considering dropping their icon of tzeentch for a cheaper chaos glory version. I think the points will be better spent elsewhere, like getting two more havocs or a icon of khorne on the bikes (who honestly deserve it for their berzerker paint scheme and iconography). I really liked how the deep-striking obliterators turned out, coming in relatively late in the game and into a place where I couldn't put much fire into them. That accurate teleport is gold for them. And last but not least: lash! Well, what can I say? It worked just like it was supposed to, rolling 8's for the movement almost every time, really screwing up one end of my gun line by yanking fools out of cover and into shooting and assault range of the thousand sons and terminators. C2 kept him separate from the other assault units, and he definitely dealt his fair share of damage, but I think he might have been more effective working with them in concert. Still, it was the first game with the new configuration and next game I expect the list to be that much more deadly.

Tanksgiving

I mentioned that I managed to get some good use out of my chimeras during the tournament this weekend. They usually worked well as a screen for my infantry and other tanks, limiting their exposure to enemy heavy weapons and enabling the big guns to get closer to enemies. It’s true that these walls cost 93 points each, but they also include 6 anti-infantry shots good for killing another 1-2 MEQs. In games against smallish forces (seemingly more rare nowadays), I can deploy my platoon command squads inside the transports and use them to spread my line out further and grab objectives early on in the game.

Today whilst flipping through the rules, I remembered that vehicles can be tank-shocked just like troops, so long as your front armor is greater than that of your target. Chimeras have a front armor of 12, so they would be able to push Rhinos and other light vehicles around. Right this second, I can’t think of a specific instance where this might be useful, but it’s something to keep in mind for the future. Something else to remember: a Leman Russ, with its 14 front armor, can drive over a wrecked Chimera or Hellhound. Another time where that dozer blade will come in handy!

Tournament: Austin Citywide 7-28-07, 7-29-07

Twelve players, four from each major store involved in the tournament (Dragon's Lair, Thor's Hammer, and Battleforge Games), gathered this weekend at two of those stores to decide who really was "the Ace" (snicker). There were plenty of familiar faces: Becker, Kingsley, Sherman, and Dave (Cameron wtf?!), as well as some new ones. I finally had the pleasure of meeting Larry, a.k.a. Bigred of The Bell of Lost Souls blog, and I can report that he is indeed both a gentleman and a scholar.

Game 1 - Eldar - Annihilation

I was pleased to find myself facing Bigred for the first match, but that was only because I didn't realize what his Eldar army had in store for me. It was a very pretty collection of aspect warriors, anchored by an Avatar of Khaine. My deployment was pretty weak and good luck fled screaming as a wave of ouch engulfed the fightin' 14th. I inflicted heavy casualties on Striking Scorpions and Dire Avengers, but the combined forces of the Warp Spiders, Fire Dragons, and Falcon tanks tore all I had to shit, piece by piece. The only comfort I got was when my surviving veteran squad deep struck in (the first one had scattered off the board) and killed the Avatar with my last shot of the game. The big lugs may be immune to melta fire but plasma still does the trick! Here's Bigred's own brief rundown of the tourney, with some great pictures of his army as well as one of mine. Eldar won, victorious slaughter.

Game 2 - Chaos - Secure and Control

Joseph had a relatively mixed force of straight marines, khorne bikers, obliterators, a defiler, and havocs. He was irritated to have been stuck on the same table two turns in a row, and it got worse when I rolled to choose table edges and he was forced to take the same side, too. And a bad side it was. Lots of space for him to cross between his cover and mine. Still, the bikes and both marine transports made it to me, wiping out my left infantry wing pretty well, but the guard guns eventually proved too much and I destroyed everything he had. One of the vets scattered into a marine squad, but the other arrived to shoot up the same unit. Imperial Guard won, victorious slaughter.

Game 3 - Dark Eldar Wyches - Cleanse

Blast! I forgot to take a picture of this one, mostly because I was waiting for all of Dave's gated raiders and ravagers to arrive, and then once they did we were both a little busy. After downing a raider squad and busting his Sybarite's shadow field early on, insta-killing him with a multilaser, the rest of the game came down to a repeating sequence: Wyches would charge an infantry or weapons squad, slaughter it, and what happened next depended on my leadership roll. If the Wyches could follow up into another squad, things went his way. If not, I could usually shoot them up pretty well. Spreading my forces and making quick tracks into his adjacent quarters with chimeras and the hellhound diluted his nasty little gladiators nicely. The veterans did great in this game, killing the other HQ and a ravager. It was very close for the entire game, but he "solidified" a win by knocking out my Leman Russ on the last turn. Dark Eldar won, solid victory.

Game 4 - Ultramarines - Patrol

The second day of games went down at Thor's Hammer, where Frank and I drew the cityfight board for the first match. I haven't played too many games on this boxy type of terrain, and so I wasn't great at anticipating many of his firing lanes, with disastrous results. The Leman Russ was immobilized just rolling onto the table. Frank has a ridiculously powerful army though, something like a hundred marines with tons of lascannons and heavy bolters that picked enough of my units apart to build a large margin of victory. Ultramarines won, crushing victory.

Game 5 - Eldar - Recon

Amy had a mixed force of Eldar assault troops and heavy weapons, including banshees, harlequins, pathfinders, reapers, war walkers, a fire prism, and Mr. Big Gun himself, Maugan Ra. Honestly it was a pretty cool themed force but she had ridiculously bad luck. It was wide open terrain and I drew first turn, knocking out the Reapers and the howling banshees in their respective wave serpents, pinning them both. I also disabled the fire prism and one of the walkers. It was a tough place to come back from. I set up a nice screen for the hellhound, who accomplished his all-time favorite objective: burn Eldar pathfinders! Both squads of veterans performed well, and in the end I wiped out everyone but Maugan Ra. Imperial Guard won, victorious slaughter.

Game 6 - Necrons - Take and Hold

For the final match, I was paired against J.D. (or was it J.T.?) on the desert board. Other than a big squad of immortals, his army was fairly similar to Mack's. In other words, one of the main forces that influenced my composition. It started off quite well in my favor - I destroyed the Monolith with a sentinel lascannon and one of his two destroyer squads failed their WBB rolls after I lay them all down with the ratlings and other heavy weapons. His destroyer lord was a real thorn in my side, swinging wide around my left flank, sweeping through my heavy weapons teams and into my infantry squads trying to rush the center. When he teleported his immortals and foot lord into the middle of the table, my basilisk and demolisher blew them away completely with two direct ordnance hits. I had earned a win but I misjudged my lead (or maybe just got greedy) and rushed the two tanks into the middle to get their points back. Gauss fire and a tomb spyder's claws destroyed the demolisher and immobilized the basilisk. The extremely bloody game ended in a draw.

Bigred got something like five slaughters and one draw, taking the top slot. I believe I came in fifth out of the twelve players, not too bad for the Guard I think. Battleforge came away with the winning store trophy, Bigred won best general, Joseph won best sport, and I won best army. Woo hoo! Two years in a row! I got a nice trophy with a bronzey Tau battle suit.

I lucked out and drew six great games. Even the losses were still enjoyable and instructive. I learned the most about effective unit groupings and objective management. Using Chimeras to screen my battle tanks worked like a charm. The standard Russ would be better off with the dozer blade than the Demolisher, at least outfitted with plasma cannons. Hellhounds still eat Pathfinders alive.

Putting the wide into citywide

The Dragon's Lair vs. Thor's Hammer 40k tournament this weekend expanded to include gamers from Battleforge Games as well. Wunderbar! First, my list, and then another post with the results. Thanks to Frank for the picture above.

I used the latest incarnation of the Tiefwalder 14th. The major changes included removing light infantry, being more particular about who gets sharpshooters, adding a second veterans squad, and bringing back the much beloved ratlings. I also added dozer blades to the Hellhound and Demolisher.

DOCTRINES
Drop Troops
Iron Discipline
Ratlings
Sharpshooters
Veterans

HQ

Command HQ - 1 grenade launcher, 1 missile launcher team
Junior Officer - bolter, carapace armor, iron discipline
1 Veteran - standard bearer

Anti-Tank Squad - 3 lascannons, sharpshooters

Fire Support Squad - 3 heavy bolters, sharpshooters

Sentinel - lascannon, searchlight

ELITES

4 Veterans - 2 meltaguns, 1 plasma gun
Vet Sgt - bolter

4 Veterans - 2 meltaguns, 1 plasma gun
Vet Sgt - bolter

6 Ratlings

TROOPS

Platoon A
Command Squad - 1 meltagun, 1 grenade launcher, 1 missile launcher team
Junior Officer - bolter, iron discipline
Chimera - extra armor, smoke launchers
Squad 1 - 1 plasma gun, 1 missile launcher team
Squad 2 - 1 plasma gun, 1 missile launcher team

Platoon B
Command Squad - 1 meltagun, 1 grenade launcher, 1 missile launcher team
Junior Officer - bolter, iron discipline
Chimera - extra armor, smoke launchers
Squad 1 - 1 plasma gun, 1 missile launcher team
Squad 2 - 1 plasma gun, 1 missile launcher team

FAST ATTACK

Sentinel - lascannon

Sentinel - lascannon

Hellhound - pintle heavy stubber, extra armor, smoke launchers, rough terrain modification

HEAVY SUPPORT

Leman Russ - hull heavy bolter, sponson heavy bolters, pintle heavy stubber, extra armor

Leman Russ Demolisher - hull lascannon, sponson plasma cannons, extra armor, rough terrain modification

Basilisk - indirect fire, extra armor

Hoggers

I'll be taking the first step this week in a project to create what will hopefully be a centerpiece for my guard army: 8 rough riders on giant boars. I figure since the Tiefwalders are more of a forest/jungle theme, the big swine would be more appropriate than horses. I've gathered a selection of bits for conversions: their hunting lances will be wooden staves with combat knives and grenade packs tied on one end, and the vet sergeant will have some choice trophies - ork, genestealer, chaos marine helmet - to help him stand out. The biggest challenge will be actually mounting the men on the boars. I don't actually have any in front of me yet, but from pictures it looks like the ork rider legs seem a little too big for a catachan body, arms, and head. I may have to resort to whittling in the end.

For all the work it will take me, the value of the unit is honestly debatable. They'll be highly fragile one trick ponies (or piggies, as it were), but they only cost 94 points and they're good for a far-reaching counterassault, killing 4-5 MEQs on the charge before they get swung back on. They're basically one more finger in the leaking dam, hopefully granting a bit more time for the big guns to do their work. Overall though they're more about bringing in a unique unit and giving me some fun modelling opportunities.

To work them into my current list, I'll have to consolidate two of the sentinels into a single unit and drop one of the chimeras; no big whoop. There's no way I'm giving up that hellhound. He's just too sweet a killer and many seem to fear him more than the demolisher.

Unwitting Foes

Sergeant Ackerman and his squad crept through the silent forest, the snow dampening the sound of their progress to a muted rolling crunch. To his left, Lilienthal and Stryker carried a rocket launcher, broken down into manageable sections. The rest of his squad, including Yager and his plasma rifle, extended off to his right in a tight, even line. Tiefwalders fought shoulder to shoulder, ready to fill any gaps left by falling brethren. Suddenly, he called for a stop. The men quickly took cover behind rotten trees and snowdrifts, readied their weapons, and waited. As the snow continued to fall, their forms melded with the terrain and became indistinct. The trap was set.

Ackerman squinted to see through the fog hanging at the edge of the forest. Dawn was breaking, and he was just beginning to make out a line of figures extending as far as his eyes could see, widely spaced, approaching their woods at a slow pace. Normally the sight of Ultramarines on patrol would fill him with pride and awe; in this case, however, he had good reason to fear this awesome spectacle of arms. Ackerman just happened to be connected enough to know that the governing council of this particular planet was using his outfit for political cat-and-mouse, trying to entice a space marine chapter into breaching a contract the governors no longer wished to honor. They were pawns in the game, but there was nothing unusual about that. It was the same job it always was.

Slowly, he brought his arm over and tapped Yager’s shoulder. One traced circle and a quick tap signaled that he had acquired a target for the plasma gunner. He turned his head and beckoned the soldier to follow his gaze. One marine in particular stood out from the formation, his immense shoulder pads covered in bright gold, wearing on his back a personal jump pack capable of launching him great distances into the air in the blink of an eye. It would only be a few more moments before their position was overrun by other similarly equipped skirmishers emerging from the marines’ line. The larger mass of supermen was slowing its approach and spreading out, surrounding the woods. They had a very small chance of successfully holding out against the angels of death today, but perhaps bringing down one of their seasoned commanders would shift the momentum to their side, if only for a little while.

Ackerman raised his hand, flicking two fingers forward, and Yager tightened his grip, disengaged the trigger lock, and took careful aim at the marine officer.

Two white hot bursts issued from his weapon and exploded into the power-armored captain a short distance away. He flew backwards several meters, coal black smoke issuing from the giant holes in his chestplate. Almost immediately his battle brothers reacted; tactical marines leveled their bolters and began firing as assault troopers leapt over them and sprinted towards their position.

A short time later, a fatally wounded Sergeant Ackerman watched as the downed marine captain passed by his ruined body. The grim figure stopped briefly to administer the emperor’s mercy before engaging his jump pack and taking off through the sparse winter canopy.

Action Report: 54th Tiefwalder vs. Ultramarines 7-06-07

I played a game down at Battleforge last night against F., who I've played a couple of times before. We rolled the take and hold game type and I picked my side. The last match I played on this table I was on the other side against Thousand Sons, and it felt like too many lines of sight were blocked for me, not to mention it created a ton of ways for assault troops to approach unseen.

F. was rolling with some 82 marines, consisting of command squads, tac squads, assault squads, devastator squads, and scout squads. I switched out sharpshooters for a powerfisted, hardened fighter commissar in my command HQ squad. I would say the results of that decision were pretty even - many ones went by that I would have liked to re-roll, but the commissar finished off a lone assault squad survivor that was cutting into me, as well as inflicting the last wound on his flying lightning claw captain who was about to do the same.

I separated my main battle tanks and he was able to keep them running or shaken for most of the game. The regular leman russ in particular had some shite shooting. The hellhound got in one round of shooting before assault marines busted him up. The basilisk also went out fairly early. For some reason I decided to get cute and deep strike my sentinels, when I should have just started them on the board from the beginning. Only one of them got off a decent shot, finishing off the last member of one of his two devastator squads. The veterans, on the other hand, performed like fucking champs and burned four or five assault marines with plasma and melta fire. God love that BS4! Everyone else did about average, wiping out two whole assault squads, one each of his dev and tac squads, and a big squad of assault scouts. It was a victory for him, no doubt, but we didn't calculate the margin (it was fairly large, I'd say).

Waldering

Me and c2 got in a game today, 2000 pts, loot, chaos vs. imperial guard, using the two armies I posted recently. We didn't calculate the margin of victory but it was a sure thing that I had won. The collapsible infantry line worked well, with my anchors of armor surviving to do pretty good damage to the chaos units. There were several close calls, however, and c2's terminators were poised to smash my army's core to pieces, but my command HQ junior officer survived just long enough to leave them stranded out of assault in my turn for heavy and special weapons to wipe them out. I might have inflicted a few assault kills myself if I had a hidden-pf commissar embedded in my line. I'm considering switching him in for sharpshooters. Bah, I'm so fickle about that damn doctrine! Both the basilisk and leman russ had to beat a hasty retreat in the face of the demon prince but he himself fell back to chase a hellhound threatening to take an objective. As regards the elements I had changed up in my guard list recently, the sentinel autocannons weren't particularly effective but I did like them in the fire support squad. The veterans performed brilliantly, with some good plasma rolls. I came close to discarding one of their shooting hits - almost forgot the BS4! They wiped out the 5 remaining possessed to a man, who was then finished off by indirect fire from the basilisk. Unfortunately they were soon charged by two berzerkers and they got mopped up pretty handily. A power weapon in this case wouldn't have made a difference but I'm thinking about giving the vet sergeant one with a bolt pistol instead of his bolter - only 5 points after all, and a bolt pistol might get one fewer shot but 4 buried power weapon attacks might help them earn even more points back. I might even work in hardened fighters for them somehow as well. All in all, a good, fun game.

I did look over a summary of chaos codex "rumors," and I'm not as enthusiastic as I was before about my army making the transition to the new edition. To make an effective conversion, it will probably involve more buying and painting, and that pisses me off.

14th Tiefwalder: Imperial Guard 2000 pts

Doctrines:
Sharpshooters
Veterans
Iron Discipline
Drop Troops
Ratlings

HQ:

Command HQ – 1 veteran with company standard, 1 grenade launcher, 1 missile launcher team
Junior Officer – bolter, iron discipline
Anti-tank squad – sharpshooters, 3 lascannon teams
Fire support squad – sharpshooters, 3 heavy bolter teams
Sentinel - lascannon

ELITES:

4 Hardened Veterans – 2 plasma guns, 1 meltagun
Veteran Sergeant – bolter

4 Hardened Veterans – 2 plasma guns, 1 meltagun
Veteran Sergeant – bolter

6 Ratlings

TROOPS:

Infantry Platoon 1
Command Squad - 1 meltagun, 1 grenade launcher, 1 missile launcher team
Junior Officer - bolter, iron discipline
Chimera - hull heavy bolter, turret multilaser, extra armor, smoke launchers
Infantry Squad 1 - 1 plasma gun, 1 missile launcher team
Infantry Squad 2 - 1 plasma gun, 1 missile launcher team

Infantry Platoon 2
Command Squad - 1 meltagun, 1 grenade launcher, 1 missile launcher team
Junior Officer - bolter, iron discipline
Chimera - hull heavy bolter, turret multilaser, extra armor, smoke launchers
Infantry Squad 1 - sharpshooters, light infantry, 1 plasma gun, 1 missile launcher team
Infantry Squad 2 - sharpshooters, light infantry, 1 plasma gun, 1 missile launcher team

FAST ATTACK:

Sentinel – lascannon

Sentinel – lascannon

Hellhound – extra armor, pintle heavy stubber

HEAVY SUPPORT:

Leman Russ – extra armor, 3 heavy bolters, pintle heavy stubber

Leman Russ Demolisher – extra armor, 2 plasma cannons, lascannon

Basilisk – extra armor, indirect fire

The picture isn't accurate just yet but this is my most recent guard list. I think it's pretty solid, and I would really only change it to incorporate units that interest me, like those new plastic ogryns, or my piggy rough riders.

Some weekend work

I made a few conversions today after tweaking my 14th Tiefwalder Combined Arms regiment list. The main list change was replacing both the 3 sentinels' lascannons and the fire support team's heavy bolters with autocannons. I switched out the storm bolters on the Chimeras for hunter killer missiles, added a heavy stubber gunner to the hellhound, and switched out the meltagun in the command HQ for a grenade launcher.

I adapted a few backpacks for my veteran squad and created a vet sergeant with the legs and torso from a vehicle sprue, catachan arms, and genestealer upgrade sprue (extended carapace shoulder pads and scything talon knife). He also has a genestealer skull on his belt and a toothed bolter (from a Space Wolves accessory sprue). I envision him as the sole survivor of a different Tiefwalder regiment wiped out by an encounter with my own splinter fleet. The 14th itself has not yet faced tyranids and hopefully "Patch" will give me some good juju going into such a battle.

I've also been working on the hive tyrant's paint job. He's in the final highlighting stages now. I finished the lictor and after going over lightly with 90:10 white:yellow highlights, I went back and applied the same look to the prototype genestealer and gaunt. It improved their appearance quite a bit so I continued on with the tyrant. Now I'm considering using some ultra-thin ink pens to add scores of tiny black spots in the yellow just around the solid black armored areas. I need to go pick up the pens this week.

New Hotness

Cool pics of upcoming kits on this spanish website, La Posada del Friki Pisador, mostly chaos:
Color pics of chaos spawn, the codex front, lord in terminator armor, jumppack lord, khorne lord, and CSMs
Marine sprues, terminator sprues, champion sprues
Photos from the last WD
Color pic of the chaos terminator lord/champion

and most exciting, in my opinion, new guard stuff:
Ogryn and commissars

I take it that's a bonehead, seeing as how his hand appears to be gesturing others forward. This is definitely a good sign that the new plastic Ogs will be less cartooney. Hopefully they won't paint them with those horrible 5 o'clock shadows anymore. The chaos dex cover looks badass overall, but the central figure's pose does seem a bit awkward. Part of him looks like he's wearing terminator armor, part of him is kind of puny (his head and the plasma pistol arm). Is that a titan in the background? I definitely like the firey reds and yellows.

Chaos spawns, I never really used them much myself; perhaps the new list will make them more common. The terminator lord helmet makes him look really anonymous. I guess I just prefer unique helmets or faces. The jump pack lord appears to match raptors fairly well. The possessed sprues are intruiging but based on what I know so far, my old flying possessed will be able to segue into khornate raptors, hopefully for a more reasonable price. I just don't know about that khorne lord. The pose has the effect of making him look like he's bringing down that axe reaaaaalllyy slowwwwllyy. As for the regular marines, eh ok. They're more poseable and detailed than the old metals I guess.

Looks like most of the chaos stuff, including the new codex, hits September 19.

14th Tiefwalder Combined... Now With Vets!

I'm messing about with a new guard list, switching out the special weapons squad for a deep-striking (or infiltrating) veteran squad. Despite my better judgement I brought sharpshooters back in, ditching the mortars from last game. What can I say, I roll a lot of ones and I'm tired of picking them out as losers. The close order drill is also sticking around, and anyways the price is right! I still don't particularly like the non-infiltrating command squads in the chimeras, but I'm backed up on modelling projects (nids, witch hunter retinue) and it will be some time before I even think about more guard minis. I think with BS4 and 3 anti-tank/MEQ weapons the vets will be more reliable than the old demo pack squad. They'll be trying to drop in and take out the backsides of big vehicles or walkers, or maybe harass small units of heavy infantry. I could throw in a hidden powerfist and honorifica on the vet sergeant (and use the old Ahhnold catachan captain model) but I'd have to lose one of the sentinels, and after recently painting up that third one I don't want to put it right back on the shelf just yet - I love that little pack of wolves! I already had a searchlight or two painted up so I filled in one last point giving one to a sentinel. In case of dawn I'll gladly sacrifice him so that everyone else can fire through the darkness.

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Commendation: Elias Jakob

Private First Class Elias Jakob of the Tiefwald 14th Combined Arms Regiment received the Nikolaus Star for bravery, marksmanship, and perseverance in battle against the foes of mankind on Tiefwald, M41.61607. As his platoon attempted to secure defensive positions in the Wertherwald, his squad came under heavy fire and every other trooper in his unit was killed. Even after his nearby command element was wiped out in vicious hand-to-hand fighting by horrifying warp spawn, Private Jakob held his position and continued to engage the enemy with his plasma rifle, wounding a powerful demonic entity and destroying a traitor champion. He even survived a potentially dangerous weapon malfunction. For his inspiring display of skill and heroism, Private Jakob has been recommended to his commanding officer for HP (hinterhaltspflicht).

Battle Report: Chaos vs. Imperial Guard 6-16-07

Bully vs c2 - 2000 points - Secure and Control

For this game I switched out sharpshooters for a mortar squad. My other doctrines were light infantry, iron discipline, close order drill, and special weapons squads. C2 fielded her now classic khorne/black legion force: flying khorne demon prince, flying khorne possessed, big terminator squad, berzerkers, bloodletters, khorne bikes, obliterators, and havocs. We played a random standard mission, which turned out to be secure and control with 4 objectives.

Turn 1

Chaos: The bikes roar forward and gain an invulnerable save. The Terminators shoot up one of the infantry squads across the field and kill five of them. They hold their ground, encouraged by the nearby command squad. The Havocs destroy the chimera facing them down on the other side of the battle and the command squad inside tumbles out, entangled in the wreckage.

Imperial Guard: The basilisk fires indirectly across the battle and blows up the berzerkers' rhino, pinning the passengers. The hellhound and special weapons squad moves up to put their all into killing the approaching bikes. Somehow they survive numerous blasts of gunfire and different templates; at least the demo pack didn't fall back on the squad! The last chimera and the right side guard wing opens up on the terminators, killing 4. The tanks on the other side try to shoot up the havocs but only one or two are downed. Already by this point I'd already rolled plenty of ones that could have used a reroll.

Turn 2

Chaos: The demon prince decides to join the fight, heading towards the main infantry formation. The bikes charge the special weapons squad, wipe them out, and consolidate further into cover. The bloodletters arrive next to the berzerkers and they erupt from the forest, charging into the nearest infantry squad. Losing but one of their own number, they kill all of their opponents and consolidate into another 10-man squad. The terminators open fire on the members of a further infantry squad, killing everyone but the plasma gunner, who stands his ground!

Imperial Guard: The Leman Russ demolisher moves up to reach the havocs with his main gun; unfortunately his shot goes stray and misses the chaos heavy weapons completely. The command squad from the broken chimera climbs onto the wreckage to get cover and shoot at the havocs next turn. The sentinels, hellhound, and Leman Russ open up on the bikes, killing only two of them. Mass infantry shooting kills another terminator. The basilisk drops an ordnance round on the berzerkers and kills 6 of them. Lascannon teams and chimera shoot up the approaching demon prince but can't do any damage. However, the lone plasma gunner passes his last-man-standing test and fires his weapon, inflicting a single wound on the prince! The bloodletters wipe out another infantry squad in assault (my guys killed another one though - thanks, COD!). The demons position themselves to move into another squad in their own turn.

Turn 3

Chaos: The terminators move behind the hill and shoot up the infantry squad they can see, killing three more with reaper fire. The havocs and obliterators shoot up the front of the demolisher, destroying the main weapon and shaking the crew. The demon prince flies over a forest and lands behind the hellhound, exploding it with a swing of his enormous axe of khorne. The bikes and possessed again hold tight in forested cover near objectives. The bloodletters charge into the command HQ and lascannon squad, killing them all and consolidating into the second command squad just behind them. The last 2 berzerkers roll blood rage and charge out into the open.

Imperial Guard: The command squad rethinks their position and dismounts from the wrecked chimera. The demolisher rethinks its foolhardy charge and pulls its shaken ass back behind the forest. The last surviving infantry squads shoot the berzerkers, killing only one, with the plasma gunner barely surviving an overheat. Everyone else brings their weapons to bear on the demon prince and he is brought down in a hail of mass lascannon and heavy bolter fire from the sentinels, chimera, leman russ, and fire support squad.

Turn 4:

Chaos: The bikes retreat back behind their forest, passing their dangerous terrain tests (damn!), and the possessed further consolidate onto the nearby loot counter. The terminators kill off the infantry squad they've been firing at to a man, but the man in question fails leadership (the command squads were all dead too!) and falls back screaming with terror. The havocs and obliterators fire on the sentinel in the open, shaking it. The bloodletters finish off their last infantry squad but their consolidation roll isn't enough to take them into the heavy bolter teams nearby!

Imperial Guard: The stubborn plasma gunner passes another last-man-standing and shoots down the berzerker aspiring champion. The Leman Russ kills two havocs with ordnance. The mortars, chimera, fire support team and one sentinel wipe out the bloodletters. Couldn't have done it without those two close combat kills I got earlier thanks to COD!

Turn 5:

Chaos: The terminators climb aboard the rhino wreckage and into the forest. The havocs explode one sentinel on their side of the field, leaving only a crater behind. The obliterators destroy the main weapon on the leman russ.

Imperial Guard: The Chimera kills one more khorne biker, leaving only the aspiring champion. Shooting from the heavy bolter teams (just barely too far away!) and nearby sentinel can't bring down the terminator champion visible in the woods. The second sentinel on the far side climbs into the crater made by his dead colleague.

Turn 6:

Chaos: The biker champion zooms away back into his deployment zone to deny the kill. The havocs somehow pick out the basilisk's obscured side in the distance and wreck it. The other two terminators climb into the forest and open up on the close sentinel, destroying it as well.

Imperial Guard: The tanks move to grab the nearby loot counter, demolisher and sentinel manage to drop one of the obliterators.

The game ends with c2 controlling one more objective than me, and together with the victory points she earns a solid victory!