Wednesday 31 October, 2007, Epic Armageddon

Hi there,

This is my first post so you’ll have to bear with me. As I said in my profile I intend to use this blog to make a note of what we get up to in what I will tentatively call my gaming club. I would love anyone to comment on anything they read. I especially invite constructive criticism and other advice/ideas on our games, army choices, writing style and anything else relevant that you like. I look forward to hearing from you, enjoy.

We start with Games Workshop’s Epic Armageddon. Johnny and I played a 3500 point game with his Orks squaring off against my Space Marines. The Ork army consisted of a Blitz Brigade of Gun Wagons and a Gun Fortress, the familiar (and terrifying) Stomper Mob, two Mechanised Warbands, a large Buggy-based Cult Of Speed and his new secret weapon: a Landa full of Storm Boys. He also had a squadron of Fighta-Bombas and a liberal scattering of Flak in his ground units. The Space Marines mustered two Land Raider companies, 2 mechanised Tactical Detachments, 2 Tactical Detachments in Thunderhawk Gunships and a squadron of Land Speeder Tornadoes. Navy air support took the form of a pair of Marauder Bombers and 2 pairs of Thunderbolt fighters. I had a couple of Hunter anti-aircraft tanks but my ground-based flak was more limited than the Orks.

The battle went quite badly for the Astartes. I feel my tenure as Chapter Master coming rapidly to a close after losing 5 out of my 8 Land Raiders, both bombers, a Thunderhawk and roughly half my marines. Two entire Tactical Detachments were annihilated by Ork close assaults with no more retaliation than the loss of a couple of bases of Grots. The Imperium did a little better in the air with 5 out of the 6 Ork planes being shot down. Eventually, however, Ork Flak took its toll and downed the intrepid Marauders. The Landa proved its worth with a nice tactical Blitzkrieg deployment in the final turn – Gork and Mork bless transport aircraft.

In terms of objectives the game ended in a draw with both sides claiming 3 of the possible 5. The Orks did very well though and I congratulate them on what would have been a clear victory on points alone.

Lessons from this week seem to be that the Ork motto of “everything counts in large amounts” does work. All that Flak scattered over the field made it hell to deploy aircraft where I wanted. The comparative range and accuracy of the Space Marine Hunters was frightening but too little against such a flock of Orky planes. I also learned not to underestimate the power of barrage weapons against tanks. With their combined fire power and Macro ability the Super Zapguns of the Super Stomper devastated the Land Raiders sent against them. A truly terrifying weapons load out for the Death Weeble. By the same token, a little bit of ordnance isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. As a pair the Marauder Bombers tore through the Cult of Speed. Once reduced to half strength the significantly less powerful barrage of bombs proved hopeless. I will posthumously award the Captain the Medallion Crimson though simply for nearly surviving all that Flak.

Well that’s it for now. Next week we join Heini-Ken the startlingly fat Halfling and Sophia Liechtenstein the French-Bristol (don’t ask) elf mercenary in the “Old World” for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. See you then.

Commander Portman