Big Game 2014

The overall battle field.

Well the D-Company big game was last weekend. That's our giant Apocalypse game were we rent out a hotel conference room and roll many dice. I took my Eldar of course. About 6500pts.

I was deployed in the city along with another Eldar player. We had forces of Chaos across from us in the Space Port and more Chaos to my right. With Chaos forces on two sides there was plenty of action!

The battle field was broken up into three basic areas. Those included the jungle, city, and the beach. Imperials vs. Orks took place on the beach. Chaos vs. Imperial plus Eldar in the city. And Chaos Nurgle armies fought against Tyranids and Marines in the jungle. (yes Tyranids is odd, but these things happen in a big game. We want everyone to play the army they want to bring which makes some interesting parings.)

Dark Reapers survey from atop a building.

Imperials/Eldar deployed first, Chaos would get the first turn. One joy of fighting in the city was the very tall buildings one could deploy in and have very nice fire positions. My Dark Reapers fired missles down on the Chaos forces from atop a building all game long. The Exarch even managed a  hit on a Chaos flyer. When we set up a Big Game the terrain must be above the quality we would normally use in a one off 2000pt. game. This game was no exception.

Early Eldar deployment.

Karandras, the Phoenix Lord of the Striking Scorpions, and a squad of his aspect infiltrated close to the Chaos line. Most of the Eldar starting force deployed in cover or out of line of sight of the Chaos forces that were stationed on the Space Port. The Farseers had directed well as very few Antaries died in the early barrage from the enemy.

A daring deep strike!

One of my early moves was a deep strike of the Autarch and a squad of Warp Spiders who landed right in the middle of the Chaos deployment zone in the Space Port. They destroyed a Basilisk in their first shooting volley.

Normally I don't make such rash moves. Eldar are a dying race of course. But it's the Big Game! and time to throw caution to the wind!! After hitting a target the squad was fired on by many Chaos units. Killing all but one Spider and the Autarch.

A moment of glory for the Autarch.

Here you see a view of the Chaos forces in the Space Port. Behind them landed the White Scars and Death Wing. Most players faced two enemy forces. Which was a excellent way to insure that there would be lots of great fighting during the game.

You see the Autach off in the distance, right in the heart of the enemy. He took down many Chaos guardsmen before he died. Glorious! One of the best parts of huge games is individual model glory.

All that time Karandras and his squad inched closer to their goal. The mighty lord Zhufor the Impaler and his body guard of Terminators. The two forces met somewhere around turn 3. A challenge was issued by Zhufor and of course Karandras was eager to meet him. The mighty Phoenix Lord won the challenge easy removing Zhufor's head before he ever even got to strike. The Scorpions and their master then destroyed the rest of the body guard and proceeded to roll of the Chaos flank dispatching two more squads of Chaos in their time during the game.

Two mighty warriors meet!

Meanwhile, on the other Eldar flank... The Revenant Titan had landed firing it's Pulsars into the Night Lords army that was farther down to the right in the city deployment. The Night Lords fought directly with Blood Angels. The Revenant took out several traitor guard tanks who had been hounding the Blood Angels. It would then use it's jump jets to enguage the Iron Warrior Titan which had unloaded it's firepower on the Eldar. But Chaos had it's own daring big game moves, several squads deep struck behind and unloaded into the Revenant. Holo-fields saved several Melta shots but a few made it through the shifting images. In two different turns a total of four squads attempted to destroy the Eldar Titan. They were only successful in bringing the Eldar war machine down to five structure points in the game.

Chaos tries to slow the Eldar Titan.

The war started to pick up between the Eldar and the Night Lords. As both forces brought reserves in and launched flyers against each other. A Wraithlord and the Avatar closed in while Fire Dragons dumped out of their Falcon tank to destroy yet another Chaos tank with their Fusion Guns.

The battle rages between Chaos and the Eldar.

Meanwhile the combined Eldar forces along with some Deathwing help destroyed the Iron Warrior Titan! 12 Void shields and 12 structure points fell in two turns of shooting. The fight against the Chaos in the Space port was going well. The Warlord Asurmen used his finest hour as he avoided death to Titan guns and he plus a Squad of Dire Avengers laid waste to any enemy who dared come into fire range.

At this point, the Eldar look strong.

Wraithguard take out the Hydra.

At this point things looked good. Antaries was pressing an attack against the Night Lords and Word Bearers who had now joined the fight. All while Karandras and his Scorpions continued to slaughter anything within charge range against the Space Port Chaos forces.

Even the Wraithguard  and their Spiritseer get in on the action. Their strength 10 cannons hit and destroy the three headed Hydra with some lucky 6's. As this was a new model made by the Word Bearer player and had done plenty of damage, I was happy to see it fall.

By now, it was late in the game. Approaching 1am in the morning. Much was the fog of war (ie. several Guiness had been consumed by this Antaries general.) We would have one final turn to claim objectives. Ryssyl the grand Farseer of Antaries finally deployed from her Falcon, along with a Warlock body guard to claim a late objective. While the Eldar themselves did very well. (my casualty count was around 26 models and no vehicles. Possibly an Apocalypse record??) The Chaos team, helped greatly by the Ork crushing victory over the guard, won the overall game.  

This objective belongs to Antaries!

It doesn't matter to me who wins the Big Game. It's about fielding giant forces, using models you wouldn't use in a regular game, like the Revenant and Phoenix Lords. And seeing my friends who come from all over to play and drink and laugh and yell. It's about painted armies and beautiful terrain. It's really all about fun.