Jodrell Plays Games

Last weekend, Rob and I fought another 2,000 point Legions Imperialis game, but now that he’s repainted his army as Ultramarines, we can now situate our battles in the Shadow Crusade, the classic “red vs blue” conflict of the Horus Heresy.

Rather than decide on the mission and secondary objectives on the day, we rolled for them in advance. This allowed us to tailor our lists accordingly, which made for a more thematic game.

The mission we played was Conquest:

Fortuitously, Rob rolled Breakthrough for his secondary objective, while I rolled Defiant. This meant that we were set up for a classic attacker-vs-defender battle: if he was able to penetrate my deployment zone, he’d win, but if I could maintain control of it, I’d win.

Accordingly, I created a very defensive list, consisting of two Legion Garrison Forces, filled with Deredeo dreadnoughts, tarantulas and rapiers, a Legion Armoured Company, a Legion Demi-Company and a Warlord titan. Rob’s army was highly mobile, with lots of Scimitar jetbikes, Sicaran tanks, and Predators.

In the end, Rob was unable to penetrate the wall of iron I’d built around my deployment zone, and when my Leviathan dreadnoughts demolished the building his Reaver was hiding behind, and my Warlord destroyed it in a single salvo, he conceded the game at the end of the third turn. Victory was mine!

More pictures below the fold…

This game was a rematch of the last one - same opponent, same venue, but we downscaled to 2,000 points, which I actually think I like a bit more than the 3,000-point standard game size.

We played the “Confrontation” mission, and both rolled the “Breakthrough” secondary objective, meaning that we both had to try to reach each other’s table edge before the end of the game.

I managed to score a win, thanks mainly to a mistake on my opponent’s part, as he hadn’t appreciated that the assault troops and Sicaran tanks that were on his side of the board were heading for his table edge, and not trying to outflank his garrisoned positions.

The smaller game size made for a less cumbersome and more enjoyable game. We have another game planned for next month, and I’m going to suggest that we roll for mission and secondary objective beforehand, as I think being able to tailor your list for the mission will add some depth to the game.

More photos below the fold!

A couple of weeks ago I pitted 3,000 points of my Word Bearers against a combined force of Sons of Horus and Iron Warriors. The venue was the superb Mug and Meeple in Gravesend.

I won’t say that I played with a great deal of tactical acumen, but I held up pretty well despite the occasional blunder and it was still a load of fun.

Plenty more pictures below the fold!

Last night I schlepped up to the big smoke to play my first game of Legions Imperialis with my good friend Rob (for whom it was also his first game). We each had 1,500 points of Legiones Astartes (me Word Bearders, him Sons of Horus) and played the “Retrieval” mission.

In this mission there are three objectives placed on the centre line of the table. The twist is that if you control an objective at the end of the round you can move it up to 5 inches.

As you might imagine, this setup meant that we ended up getting into close combat pretty quickly and the game was fast and bloody. We’re both veterans of 2nd Edition Epic: Space Marine and NetEpic so the game felt pretty familiar, with the difference from the old systems suiting the Heresy-era setting very well.

We both had loads of fun and will be playing another game soon!

More pictures below the fold.

The other week Mark and I got in a game of Gaslands, having been inspired after picking up Gaslands Refuelled and a bunch of accessories at Salute.

Despite barely managing half a lap of the circuit, we had loads of fun, with lots of wipeouts and general mayhem, and I'm sure we'll be playing more of it in the future.

More pictures below the fold.