Conquerors & Kings and Kill Team

For the month of December we played the long-awaited battle between wahj's Late Romans vs Martin's Sassanid Persians. They were a matched pair of armies, but have not met in the field for many years.

Adrian and I played the Romans, and we managed to roll what I thought was a good terrain set-up for our predominantly infantry army. Our main line was anchored on two patches of rough ground, with the centre on a hill, and a small reserve force in the rear. Cavalry covered the extreme left flank.

Martin was worried about the deployment, but nevetheless decided launching cavalry charges on the flanks was the best option. On the Roman right the charge in the rough ground was repelled, but the troops in the open ground were routed by the Persian heavy cavalry, and the reserve force was unable to plug the gap.

On the Roman left there was a large cavalry melee, but Persian cataphracti triumphed against Goth and Roman cavalry. The Roman lines was thus cut up and surrounded.

Roman counter-attack on the left

This was the second game in a row where heavy cavalry settled the issue quite quickly and decisively. I wonder if this is a feature or bug of the game, as the lists do allow armies with historically large cavalry proportions to replicate that in the game. Or perhaps it is a matter of us not having figured out how to counter cavalry-heavy armies.

The next game should hopefully fit two infantry-dominant armies, and we'll see if they give a closer game.

For our second game we played Kill Team, pitting FG's newly-painted Ork Commandos versus Adrian's newly-painted Veteran Guardsmen. The figures were beautiful sculpts and the players did a great job with them, but I found the play rather complex and slow. Perhaps this is a game that requires investment on the part of the player to appreciate its full potential.

Kill Team

 Adrian hosted a game of the latest edition of Kill Team, where I pitted my warzone Bauhaus and Shieldwolf Miniatures figures against his Traitor Guard figures commanded by FG.

The rules are pretty standard to me, but the range is really helped by the beautiful figures and terrain. The gang have ordered several starter armies, but I have managed to pass the Saving Throw. I did scratch-build a Mekboy workshop shed for Adrian's terrain set, inspired by Orktober and GW's Mekboy Workshop terrain.

One peeve I do have with the system is the rather restrictive army lists, but hopefully that means that the lists have been playtested for balance.

I am tempted by the aesthetics of a Genestealer Cult army, so if we continue to play Kill Team, I may need to make another Saving Throw in the future.

Legion Mk VI Tactical Squad

I have done pretty well this year (so far) in terms of not buying more new figures; I did buy and convert and paint a couple of sci-fi models, but since these were meant for the collection of my friends, it doesn't really count. But I had to make an exception for the new Warhammer The Horus Heresy Mk VI Space Marines figures.

My first Warhammer 40K figures were the plastic "beakie" space marines box set, which I split with wahj; we painted them for use with the Battlesuit board game; mine were painted in white, while his were painted in black. Good times.

Years later, when the multi-part plastic Mk VII space marines became available, I decided to start expanding my army, but not wanting to paint a whole new army in white again, I decided to go for an easier paint scheme of Dark Angels green. The old beakies went to Adrian, but I've always had a soft spot for them.

So when the new "true scale" Mk VI marines were released, I decided to get them, and once again I split the box, this time with FG. In my fluff they represent the Veteran Squad in my chapter, and have the same colour scheme as the rest of the chapter. I did however give them the classic 80s stripe down the middle of the helmet.

These models are not exactly easy to build. The pauldrons with the studs actually come in two pieces and have to be glued together - you can see the seam in the photo if you look closely. The arms and weapons come in three pieces: left arm, right arm, and both hands holding the bolter; it took a bit of fiddling to make everything line up. The models are "true scale", and therefore stand taller than the Mk VII models, especially the earlier Mk VII models. The box comes with 32mm round bases, but I based them on some thinner 25mm round bases I had from another purchase, which compensated a little. They are built pretty much as is, "out of the box", but I replaced the sergeant's plasma pistol arm with a "modern" one to make him look more in line with the rest of the force.

I am very pleased with how they turned out, and hope to filed them in a game of Grimdark Future or Xenos Rampant soon.

Mad Robot Miniatures Heavy Weapon Team

I've been looking for a mortar team for my Warzone Imperials force for a while, but I haven't been able to find something that will match the look without some expensive and laborious head swap.

Then while looking for arms (as in upper limbs) and weapons to go with the Wargames Factory Woodland Indians to convert them into post-apocalyptic gangers (more on that in another post), I found Mad Robot Miniatures, which had the arms I needed, and indeed a whole customisable sci-fi miniatures range. I decided to get a 3-man crew since I was paying all that postage anyway, and the result is what you see above.

They unfortunately do not have a mortar, so I had to find and buy a 40K Imperial Guard mortar from ebay (and since I was paying postage I bought some other bits too, including the sandbags you see on the base).

The uniforms are not an exact match to the Warzone trenchers, as you can see below, but maybe infantrymen had a different uniform from men from the support company. Maybe.

The final picture shows how well the mortar bomb from 40K fits into the hands of the Mad Robot crewman. Over all, I am quite happy with my buy.

Warhammer 40K 8th Ed game

Fg and I tried our hand at the 8th Edition of Warhammer 40K on Sunday. He drew up two lists of just below 50 Power points, which he told me was equivalent to around 1000 points in conversion. This still gave more than 70 figures on the side of the Imperial Guards, and around half that on the side of the Space Marines.

The Guard position from the Marines' point of view.

We played a Blitz scenario, which had the guards defending two defensive lines across the width of the table. This was a chance for me to lay out my sci-fi shanty town terrain, plus all the barricades, crates and oil drums we had between us. The result, as you can see, is a rather formidable position.

Ratling snipers take up position at a vantage point.

The Commissar standing at the front, inspiring the guardsmen.

The rules weren't difficult. Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill are now expressed as number needed to hit, which takes away one byte of brain function. Calculation of the "to wound" number is also made easier, and in a game where most figures on each side have the same Strength and Toughness, it became easier after a while. Calculating Saving Roll was also easy. Morale too was simple to adjudicate.

However, with more than a hundred figures on the table, and with most of the Guards figures able to shoot due to their well-prepared position, this meant more than a hundred die-rolls per turn. The game took less than three hours, but felt longer.

Assault Marines reach the defence position.

Over all the rules do seem easier that those of 7th edition, but 50 Power points does seem a bit much for beginners like us. I imagine a 750-points game to be what we should be aiming for.