Incursion on a Saturday Afternoon

Hi bloggers,

So Saturday Max came over and we had another game of Incursion. We played the third mission and I decided to take an APE Blazer for the first time to try them out (a flame-thrower). Now unlike Space Hulk he's not limited in his fuel, this bad boy came to fight. With enough Action Points (AP) and Command Points (CP) you fill the board around you with flames and help to halt the advance of zombies.

So for those of you unfamiliar with Incursion it works quite similarly to Space Hulk. Each action a model takes costs a certain number of points; moving forward is 1 AP, throwing a grenade is 2 AP and so on.

Each model has an AP value determining how many actions they can take normally, now this can be altered by the cards you draw each turn or added to by CP. CP is a pool of points, determined by how large the mission is, which you can allocate to your models to take them far beyond what they can normally do. At the beginning of a turn you can secretly bid your CP to allow you to take your turn first but obviously this leaves you without them during that turn win or lose. CP can additionally be used to "kill" cards that are played either as events or on characters (both yours and your opponents).

Everything started off fine with the flamer effectively shutting down Max's ability to bring on zombies as they would be melted down into Tyler Durden's favourite source material as soon as they stepped into the flames. But since my APEs are so slow compared to Ilsa and the Blitzhund they were able to get moving away from the flamer. Since you can control the shape of the flame within line of sight you can ensure you are able to block off a room's entrances.

The Blazer slowly advancing forward managed to take down the Blitzhund (who had been shot previously by the APE by himself) and wound Ilsa. Unfortunately for me Max had a hidden tunnel card and set one up right behind me and ran zombies at all my APE suits managing to take a wound off the APE supporting the Blazer. I then beat them back in my next turn expending my CP to ensure I would be safe during his turn only to have a Booby Trap card played against the same APE and with Max only rolling sixes whenever he tried to wound me he pulled down my APE suit.

After Ilsa grabbing the Pinger (the Mission's objective is to get it off the board) more zombies raced towards the isolated APE from the Trap Door and without the fire support from the now extinct APE they managed to pull him down under the weight of their attacks. So down to just the Blazer I had to knock out the Trap Door and focus on pulling down the much more nimble and deadly Ilsa.

After doing so with a possible victory in my grasp Max played a brilliant series of cards meaning I just couldn't bring Ilsa down before she could win the game for Max. As a Cave In occurred blocking the Blazer's line of sight Ilsa also had Blaze of Glory played on her meaning if I or the flames I had lit were to kill her she would instantly activate and have a full turn of AP to spend on her before she died meaning she could sprint off the board no matter what happened.

After bidding everything I had to take first turn I killed her Blaze of Glory with a SNAFU but Max drew and was able to play it again thanks to Ilsa's ability to draw an extra card every turn. This was the final nail in my coffin as Ilsa was able to stroll off the table to victory.

 Max's final hand of cards.

With Ilsa stacked with 3 wound counters a Blaze of Glory ensured her victory unless I could strip it before her death. Alas it was not to be.

Again this was another great game and just cemented with Max and I how good this game is. I will have to get a start on assembling my models once the expansion SNAFU gets here with all of its other goodies!

Happy Easter Weekend and ANZAC Day

Heya bloggers,

So I don't know about you but I've had a pretty busy Easter Weekend. I hope yours has been a good one. With the ANZAC Day march this morning I wasn't able to get any hobby done today but for the past few days I have gotten a bit done. I will hopefully have my camera back in the next few days but until then I have been using my iPhone camera so I'm sorry about the poor quality of some of them.

On Friday I played Cliff in a game of Incursion. We played the second mission with Cliff playing the Allies APE suits and I took the Germans with Isla Von X once again playing a starring role and providing herself to be invaluable. My first blitzhound was taken out early moments after Isla blew apart two APE suits! it looked to be going my way but holding my second Blitzhound back too long and playing Isla too timidly as well as Cliff's great gaming meant it was a really close game but a victory to him in the end, just closing the last airlock and winning the mission.

Previous to this game Cliff had just finished played Little Max and after these two games decided he's getting Incursion for himself. So tonight the three of us ordered the new SNAFU Pre-order deal. I can't wait to get my hands on all the new minis as well as an expasion book double the size of the current rulebook. We're getting it from the Australian distributor at the same price as we would from the American store, so hopefully we'll save a bit on the shipping.

Speak to you soon!

1750 Logan Grimnar vs Iron Hand Straken Battle Report - part 2

Ok, so when we last left off Tim had just finished his first turn and had only been able to slow my Land Raider down a bit. The two drop pods containing Wolf Guard Terminators with Frost Axes and Storm Shields thundered through the atmosphere and slammed into the battlefield landing around the main building containing Tim's army but both drop pods suffered from a major scatter. The first almost pinned the Land Raider between the edge of the table and terrain and the second one almost ended up off the table! The Space Wolves were out of range to flame anyone and I obviously couldn't charge, but I forgot that I could move them as normal gaining some valuable cover!!














Turn two came and Tim opened fire upon my Terminator units using his orders to good effect he decimated them! No where had I rolled so many 1's before in a cluster resulting in a drop pod exploding and having one Terminator from that unit survive the hail of fire directed at him. The other unit weren't so lucky and were wiped from the table with it's drop pod remaining in play. (at least for now...)


















The one remaining Space Wolf was facing some pretty heavy odds. He conducted himself well but was swiftly dealt with by the guard platoon command and commisar in close combat. After slaying every man around the Commissar he was felled in combat by the Commissar.














The rest of the turn Tim just focussed his fire upon the Land Raider (with an assist from Jason) again failing to do it any harm....














Logan and the Devastators finally decided it was time to jump into the fray and Logan gave the devastators relentless as they focussed the fire from four multimeltas upon the nearest tank failing to do it any harm..... Meanwhile the attached Wolf Guard had fired his Plasma Pistol at a nearby guard unit using the Long Fang Leader's ability allowing them to be charged by the Long Fangs.














After Logan single handedly wiped out the squad he and the Long fangs followed up near the building hoping to avoid the worst of the tank fire. Meanwhile in the background the Wolf Scouts had snuck on behind the khaki building and fired at the side armour of a Leman Russ with a meltagun from mere inches away failing to penetrate the heavy armour of such an austere machine. They paid for such folly with their lives as the Storm Troopers occupying a nearby building (the tall central ruin) slayed all bar two Wolves.


















After a fierce bombardment by heavy shells and plasma blasts (5 infact!) Logan's survivors headed into the ruin to take the guard on face to face. Hearing of the tales of Straken Logan charges the other Command unit hoping to shut down their orders and improve his chances against Straken. Meanwhile the Land Raider makes a run at the Leman Russ Executioner hoping to crack its hull with a ramming action. The two tanks grind to a halt against each others hulls with no damaged sustained by either tanks or crew.














The Firestorm cannons bathed the Lascannon crews in cleansing flame and two teams were immediately burnt to cinders putting the fear of the God-Emperor into Tim over the power of the unstoppable Land Raider and causing him to focus fire upon it only removing one Firestorm cannon. Again Logan quickly felled any resistance and was out of combat faster than he had joined it. Meanwhile the Veterans had disembarked from the Valkyrie conveniently lining up in such a manner as to entice a nice template.....














In the distance the last of the Wolf Scouts are cut down by heavy shelling after finishing off the rest of the guard infantry in the region. Yet still those Storm Troopers were bunkered down in that central ruin avoid my guns to deny me a Kill Point.


















The final drop pod finally arrived with a shudder and the Heavy Flamer immediately went to work on the veterans covering all bar one with his promethium blast! The Firestorm cannon added in it's weight and only three veterans stood as the ashes settled.














The guardsmen figured it better to flee than to face the wrath of the Great Wolf and fired upon his companions felling his last two retainers. The full weight of the Tanks of the Imperium were brought to bear upon the newly arrived Space Wolves and their drop pod again wiping them out even with cover saves and the flanking protection of a Tank!














Logan having become bored of his companions strode out to meet the enemy receiving a shot to the face from a Lascannon for his troubles only saved by his grit and eternal warrior skill. The Land Raider was finally showing signs of fatigue as all three primary weapon systems were damaged leaving only a previously forgotten about storm bolter to hold off the enemy with.














After wiping out the guardsmen Logan pulled back to the relative safety of the ruins and as it was the end of turn 5 I rolled to see if the game continued and my luck with the dice continued rolling a "1" and the game ended. Since Tim had already won I wanted Logan to reclaim some of his glory and see just how long the Land Raider would last against such odds.














Logan was felled somewhere in turn 6 from a shot to the back from a sentinel and the Land Raider was finnaly destroyed on the 9th turn of shooting at it!















So a defeat, not a terrible one but a defeat none the less. It was an awesome game to play just before heading off to my first tournament (although for a different games system) and Tim and I had a great deal of fun. Definitely a guy I would play again and we were only prevented from a rematch there and then by his needing to go to work shortly there after. If anything this game taught me the strength of a Land Raider and the power of what I had previously perceived as the "weakest" option thinking the Redeemer was some sort of sickly younger brother rather than the anvil it is simultaneously striking out flaming death to those near it.

Seriously gotta get me one of those.....

p.s. how hot are those new Blood Angels! I was hoping not to fall in love with another new army but it's not looking good.

1750 Logan Grimnar vs Iron Hand Straken Battle Report - part 1

Hi happy bloggers,

Well the last few weeks have been pretty hectic with my first tournament, job interviews, forgeworld and hobby. But first to my re-entry into 40k.

After talking to my friend Todd about his Space Wolf army he insisted that I play a game with them then and there to check them out and see how they play. Luckily Tim was after a game for his Imperial Guard army lead by none other than Old Iron Hand Straken himself.














Firstly let me apologise for the quality of the images. The bunker doesn't have the best lighting conditions and I had left my camera on the wrong settings, but trust me these are the best from a bad bunch!

So the army I used was based around Logan Grimnar's Great Company. Everything is pretty clear from this photo I think with the only exception being to the scouts who had two meltaguns instead of plasma pistols. This army was also accompanied by three drop pods and a Land Raider Redeemer.














Tim's Army was a fairly balanced build around Old Iron Hand with a few tanks, veterans and storm troopers for good measure.














We rolled up an Annihilation mission which could prove tricky for the pups since there were just so many guardsmen to take down! Deployment saw Tim deploying his forces first and taking first turn. As per the battle plan Todd told me to run with I only deployed the Land Raider denying Tim free shots at my army. Man had we both underestimated the strength of the Land Raider Redeemer!














Tim threw everything he had at that sucker and it kept shrugging everything off! Even with all of his orders going off he still couldn't put down the Land Raider. What a beast!

As I'm late for a hobby appointment and my computer is being a jerk I'll post the next instalment tomorrow.

Also check out my poll for "Fleet in a Week" and let me know what you think about how I should paint my BFG Fleet!