D-Company's 2018 Big Game has come and gone. As usual, I had a blast! My first game was a 225 power level per player, 2 v 2 between the Marines Errant and the Imperial Guard vs. Night Lords and the Emperor's Children. This was the Vraburgh Urban Sprawl game. Placed on the board were 50+ civilians worth 1vp each. In addition, 2 of the civilians were hidden 10vp relics. When a civilian was captured, the model was turned over and if the bottom of the base was marked it was revealed to be the relic. Unlike other civilians these stayed on the board and had to be controlled all game. Finally we added 3vp for killing an enemy warlord.
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| The opening deployment. |
The hope was that these 10vp relics and 3vp per warlord would balance out one side getting first turn and claiming a large lead in civilians captured.
It turned out both relics ended up being deployed very close to each other and Chaos grabbed them both early in the game. We also were much more aggressive then the Imperials in our tactics. The 10vp relics did not balance out the early lead that Chaos acquired from going first and deep striking several units on to civilians. I believe the civilian count was 28 poor souls captured by the Night Lords and Emperor's children.
18 saved by the Imperial forces by the time the game ended. It was a rather one sided victory as Chaos held control over 3/4 of the game board and held 1 relic and several units close to the second. Chaos also scored 1 warlord kill when Be'lakor removed Marneus Calgar's head.
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| The guard face pressure from a squad of Raptors. |
In retrospect, after talking with Mark (the Marines Errant player) to counter the advantage of first turn, the civilians should have been counted at the end of each turn instead of each player turn. I think that little tweak would have allowed the players who went second a chance to remove the first turn player units before they captured civilians. Still though, I felt the game was pretty balanced, it just ended up from secret deployment that the two 10 point relics were deployed near each other and Chaos happened to secure both.
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| The guard roll down a street as an enemy Xiphon flies overhead. |
This was a beautiful game, 4 well painted armies and a board filled with Peter's wonderful terrain.
http://guardsman-a-day.blogspot.com
I can ask for nothing more then well painted armies on a beautiful board, with good people to enjoy the game. A wonderful start to my 2018 Big Game experience. I have found that after my many years playing 40K that I really enjoy custom games with more real world scenarios. Capture civilians, fight over a bridge....
The kind of things you would see in a movie. I don't mind a book based game, but custom is much more fun to me at this stage of my gaming life.
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| Night Lords press the attack. |
My first game on Saturday and second of the event was 100pl of Night Lords combined with 100pl of Chaos played by Jake against AJ and his 200pl of Marines. In a game on the "Coconut" board. The terrain was made of huts that looked like coconuts. And once Jake began praying to the Coconut gods for dice success it cemented the name.
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| Vigo the Carpathian meets some Terminators. |
AJ is a very strong player who I don't think I have beaten is several attempts. It was a very close game that Jake and I managed to pull out.
This was one of those games that had a huge death count on both sides. A highlight for me was my Xiphon killing AJ's warlord. Again great game with great players.
All praise to the Coconut gods!!
The final of the event was Ethmongul's return. Each army who played in a game this weekend deployed a force. The Imperial goal was to kill the Khorne lord while the Chaos forces protected him. This was an excellent new addition to our Big Game, it brought all the players together for a fun end of the event scenario. Each player brought a 35pl force. Imperials deployed several assassins who shot Ethmongul fairly quickly. But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
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| Be'lakor lead 3 Raptor squads in the final game. |
D-Company's Big Game is always the highlight of my gaming year and 2018 was no exception. I had a blast and hope my team mates and opponents did as well. Next post I'll show some of the units I painted up for the event as well as a wonderful piece of terrain I bought from Peter.
Ave Dominus Nox.
