Multiple Combats - Jørn's very belated January update

I've been hammering away on this (off and on) for close to three weeks now... About bloody time I stop procastenating and actually post it!

I have made (a little) progress both on project my Big Terrain Project and finally got started on the New Army Project too. More on these very soon, I promise!

I managed to get no less than six games in too, putting me well ahead of the curve to reach the goal of playing at least forty games of 40K this year. I won't be doing separate reports on any of these, but here's a quick rundown and a few pics:

The 16th - Trond's Eldar, 2000 points
It was week three, and I'd yet to play a game this year. Trond to the rescue - or so it seemed.

When he arrived, we rolled up Annihilation and Dawn of War. I won the initiative, and deployed a CSM squad around their Rhino close to the centre of the table. Trond elected to keep everything off the table, ready to move on turn one. In my first turn I moved the CSM squad back into their Rhino, and backed off down a road. The rest of my army moved onto the table to the right of the Rhino. Trond used the entire length of the table when he move on. In his shooting phase he rolled two tens and one eleven when checking the distance his War Walkers and two Bright Lance Wave Serpents. The Berzerkers' Land Raider promptly blew up, and the Rhino in front of my other Land Raider was Immobilized.

In my turn two, I immobilized my remaining Land Raider trying to go through the ruined Shrine of the Aquila. I got off a couple of shots with my Obliterators, and killed a Vyper or War Walker. Trond, already up one kill point, moved everything he had up to his right hand flank - out of line of Sight and Range of most of my remaining firepower.

I figure I could see how this would proceed: Trond would be keeping all his softer stuff where my Obliterators couldn't see it, and focus fire on my Rhinos. I'd be lucky to get even a couple of VPs, and his dice would really have to go cold for him not to net at least three. I let him shooot at me some more, and forfeited the game after his second turn to spare him the embarrassment... (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!!)

The 18th - André's Dark Eldar 1500 points
A couple of days later I popped over to André's place to beat on his Dark Eldar a bit. Once more, we rolled Annihilation and Dawn of War.

Since the last time I played André, he'd been building a couple of Venoms and accompanying Blasterborn squads (Isn't that the term?) of three or four models with three blasters each. He also had an Archon with an Incubi squad in a Raider, two/three Ravagers (all lances) and an assortment of Warrior squads also in Raiders.
This game he managed to focus his fire and time his assault a lot better than previous games, and I ended up with my army pretty much holed up in one table quarter with most of the Dark Eldar out of range. I managed to down the HQ Raider early with the single pair of Obliterators that turned up round two. With a Run roll of five (or was it six?) they still got assaulted and wiped out. The most notable serie of events was probably when the other two Obliterator squads as well as the small Terminator squad gunned down everyone except the Archon and a single Incubi - who proved to be more than up for the task of killing the remaining 2+/5+ models in close combat.
In the end I was stuck with five kill points to André's seven.

The 19th - Linus's Nurgle CSMs, 1500 points
The third game this week was against Linus and his Nurgle themed CSM army. Guess which Mission and Deployment we rolled up!?! That's right... Annihilation and Dawn of War.

I've always struggled a little with his Daemon Prince/Plague Marines/Landraider lists (Probably more than just "a little" too, I'm honest.), and this time was no exception. While his Rhinos are just as squishy as my own, the added Land Raider and two Vindicators ment I had to focus my fire elsewhere long enough for them to get to good positions. When the Berzerkers concistently killed a model and change below average, and my Obliterators failed to do anything at all in the last two rounds of the game, Linus won with four Kill points to my three.

The 24th - Trond's Eldar, 1500 points
The only thing to do to break a loosing streak? Play another game! Trond came back with a pretty much transport-free list. Not quite a standard Foot-Eldar army, but about as close as he'd ever been. Again the mission was Annihilation, but at least we got the Spearhead deployment for once.

I'm not going to go into details here, because... Well... They're a bit foggy to be honest. Suffice to say that even though both our tactics were relatively sound, the dice went absolutely bonkers. An Eldar Avatar not even hitting once on the turn he charged my Berzerkers, and then getting chopped apart. The entire Berzerker squad subsequently dying to a squad of Dire Avengers. A CSM Aspiring Champion going three rounds of Close Combat against a Harlequin Troupé Master and his cronie without anyone being able to finish anyone off. A squad of Fire Dragons running like the little girlies that they are from three Terminators (Granted, one was my Coryphaus.) only to catch two or three Plasma Cannon muffins in the very last turn.
All in all, it was enough to make Trond do a rant on his hatred for dice a couple of weeks ago.

The 30th - Trond's Eldar, 1500 points
For what would be the last game of the month, I drove down to Trond's place. We ended up playing a couple of games on the old and battered - but still very much playable - terrain he's got stashed away. Among those terrain pieces are the very first ones I made - some 17-18 years ago.

Of course, I didn't think to bring a camera.
...but surely the host should be able to provide.

Our first mission was Seize Ground with Dawn of War deployment. After Round three, my army was still largely unscathed and in position to hold at least two and contest another two of the five objectives. The Eldar force, on the other hand had lost most of its heavy hitters, largely tanks to my Obliterators hitting and wounding with practically every single shot and Trond being totallyunable to make any saves whatsoever. Only a masochist would have wanted to grind through the last couple of turns, so we ended it right there to be able to play another game in stead.

For our second game we rolled Capture & Control (aka Roll Dice and Tie) with another Dawn of War deployment.
I won the Initiative yet again, and deployed the Rhino with the Berzerkers about as close to Trond's objective as possible. Trond deployed his Avatar, Storm Guardians and Dire Avengers around his objective. First turn I moved the Rhino full throttle straight towards the Eldar position, making sure to deploy all my Smoke markers to ward off any incoming fire. I'd left my Obliterators and Terminators in Reserve so only had my CSM squads in their Rhinos to move in from my table edge.

Trond brought the rest of his army on and opened up on the Berzerkers' Rhino, finally getting a few shots past my smoke screen and assaulting them in the ruins of their transport. Enough of the Berzerkers survived, however. In particular the one with a Personal Icon. Enter the Obliterators, and pass the Promethium. Did you know Harlequins burn like paper dollies?!?

In the end Trond managed to see me off his objective, but had nothing left to go and contest mine. Finally! An utterliy devastating game with reasonable dice on both sides. A glorious end to a month with more games than any I can remember.