Build Me a Pyramid!

AJ and Joe read the rules.

Games are hard to come by these days. I had long promised to visit AJ in rural Minnesota. I finally kept that promise and Joe joined us for their first tastes of 9th edition madness.

Nurgle's blessings still dominate the land, so it looks like no D-Company big game this year. (I miss all you guys). So this was kinda our 3 person version of a big game weekend. We played 2 games at AJ's house. A smaller affair on Friday, (it took me about 7 hours to drive from Milwaukee). If I remember correctly, the first game was 50 power for Joe and I each vs. 100 power of AJ's Necrons. I don't remember a ton of details but I know the Necrons crushed the Death Guard and Night Lords. It wasn't pretty.

Still, drinks were drunk and laughs were had, Both guys expressed how they liked the improvements that 9th edition has brought to the game. Along with a new edition, AJ was also using his Necrons for the first time since they received a codex update. I think it's safe to say, Necrons are pretty tough now. AJ has always been a very strong player and the overall buffs and changes to the Necrons only helped as he crushed us on game one. Both guys really liked the terrain rules and blast weapon rules. Plus we used secondary objectives! Which made me very happy as they add to the flavor of a game just as I had expected.

Raptors sneak in behind the Necron Lord.

Havocs cover a pox walker advance.

The two forces are about to clash!

Game 2 on Saturday was much more ambitious. 400 power level Necrons vs. 200 power level Death Guard and 200 power level Night Lords. This (sadly) was expected to be the largest game any of us would play in any time soon. We called it a mini Big Game. And a nice way to close out 2020, which for most of us was not a banner year of gaming. Chaos took the first turn and started out strong taking the fight to the Necrons.

The Necron force in game 2.

The flow of the game (and the victory points) went back and forth with each side having good early turns of shooting. I must say the Necrons are now very tough. It seemed to me, most of their weapons have some sort of -ap. Even the basic troops! The C'tan are properly buffed with a rule that they can only lose 3 wounds per phase. Making them much harder to remove from the table. And GW seems to have hit on a good system for reanimation protocols.

Well, hello there.

Barin the undying, dies to scarabs.

Excuse my lack of details in this post. This took place in early December and the fog of war, plus time passed has removed many of the details of the games from my brain. That said, we all had a blast rolling dice and talking nerd. The second game went 4 turns I believe. We had to call it at about 3:30 AM. With no clear winner.

Win or lose doesn't matter these days. It's about having fun with friends. I had a great weekend of gaming. Bonus, I mentioned I had been waiting months for a callidus assassin model for my knight. AJ had one! Score. The only bummer was getting a speeding ticket heading to Minnesota for going 11 over on the highway. Come On Man! I really hope 2021 brings more chances to game as 9th edition is shaping up to be much better then 8th IMHO. Plus, it's been too long since I played a game of Heresy.

Until next time, happy new year and Ave Dominus Nox.