Building a Better Bridge Table Part 6: Nearly Done

 I did some more spray painting today, but I do not know if it helped much. I did setup the two pieces together and tried to blend the two sides together more, since they looked a bit different. I also set up the roads and bridge to get an idea of how it will look. I would love to fill in the river at some point but I have never played with resin so I need to practice on something else first. 

This board provides about 36 square feet of gaming surface, equivalent to a 9 ft x 4 ft table. 

Here are two potential deployment maps. The blue represents the "river", which is more of a canyon currently. The red is No Man's Land. The two player map allows large deployment zones to enable big games (larger than a 1 ft x 8 ft deployment zone on our 4 ft x 8 ft table). The three player map below has deployment zones about equivalent to a standard 1 ft x 6 ft deployment zone on a standard 4 ft x 6 ft table. These are just some examples from me playing around with it.

Here is the board with the two-player deployment zones drawn on, for an idea of how it would look. 

Previous work:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Building a Better Bridge Table Part 5: Color!

 Added some additional texture and some colors, finally. I wanted a mix of multiple browns and greys to try to get a natural rocky desert look. It is a little more splotchy than I would like so I will have to do some more blending. But its a start.

Previous work:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Building a Better Bridge Table Part 4

 Latest update: I have added more texture, pasted up the edges/sides, and put down a full coat of brush paint as a primer. Next step will be start adding the browns and greys

Previous work:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Death Guard

 Background:

TBD

Scenario: Onslaught

Game Length: 6 turns

Primary Objective

Onslaught Objective: Control the objective you place in the opponent's deployment zone: 5 VP 

Onslaught Attack: Each unit destroyed in the first turn: 1 VP

Secondary Objectives
Slay the Warlord: 1 VP

Attrition: 1 VP for whoever destroyed the most units

Belligerents:

Death Guard: Phil
Primary Detachment: Death Guard  The Reaping

• Praetor Wolfgang: Catphractii terminator armor, volike charger, thunder hammer
• Deathshroud retinue: 5 terminators with hand alchem-flamers, power scythes and rad grenades
• Tactical Support Squad Folterer: 8 marines with flamers, sergeant with artificer armor. 
• Transport: Rhino with pintle-mounted heavy alchem-flamer.
• [Line] Tactical Squad A: 12 marines with chainswords, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor and Apothecary Gerhard
• [Line] Tactical Squad B Toddestraffe: 12 marines with chainswords, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor and Apothecary 
• Tactical Support Squad Blitz Schock: 7 marines with volkite calivers
• Heavy Support Squad Feuer Sturm: 7 marines with missile launchers
• Predator Mittel Panzer 021 with Predator Autocannon and lascannon sponsons 
• Contemptor Dreadnought Jürgen:  Gravis melta cannon, melta gun, Gravis power fist
• Deredeo pattern dreadnought with Arachnus heavy lascannon battery, twin-linked heavy bolter, Aiolos missile launcher, and helical targeting array

2062 points

Loyalists: Pete

Primary Detachment: Blood Angels  Day of Sorrows

• Garo Arteo, Bloody Executioner of the Crimson Gate: Praetor w/ artificer armor, iron halo, digital lasers, jump pack, blade of perdition, bolt pistol, Paragon of Unity
• Contemptor Dreadnought: gravis lascannon, gravis powerfist, metlagun
• [Line] The Triarii Guard: 17 tactical marines with chain swords, sergeant with artificer armor, power fist, and plasma pistol. Vexilla and augury scanner. 
• Transport: Spartan Assault Tank with flare shield
• [Line] The Sanguine Berzerkers:14 assault marines w/ jump packs, bolt pistols, 2 power axes, sergeant with power fist, plasma pistol, artificer armor
• [Line] The Golden Shields of Baal: 10 breacher marines, void-hardened armor, 8 bolters, 2 melta guns, breacher shields, sergeant with thunder hammer and artificer armor
• Kratos Battle Tank: Melta blastgun with coaxial autocannon, lascannon sponnons, hull-mounted heavy bolters. flare shield, reinforced hull
• Heavy Support Squad: 7 marines with lascannons and augury scanner

2060 points

Army Selection and Pre-Game Plans:

Phil: Since they are both his armies, Pete wrote both lists in an attempt to make them balanced and then let me choose which one I wanted to play. I was very excited to try out the Death Guard for the first time. For once, I would be the one dishing out their deadly shooting instead of being on the receiving end of it! 

Looking at the force selected, I had a lot of Troops but only two Line units so I knew how I used those two tactical squads would be essential to winning a game where the majority of potential victory points come from objective control. I decided to put the two apothecaries with the tactical squads to give them the best chance of surviving until the end of the game. I also knew my heavy weaponry on the two dreads and the Predator would be stretched trying to deal with two heavy tanks and a dreadnought. On the plus side, I would have more units than my opponent, which would give me some advantages with this scenario's staged deployment, letting me deploy the last few units. I also knew I had a lot of anti-infantry firepower with the feared volkite calivers, missile launchers, and the flehsbane flamers, which will force the Blood Angels infantry to keep their heads down. Although the strength of this Death Guard force was in its shooting, I also had the satisfaction of going into battle with the toughest infantry unit on the table in the Deathshroud. Their WS5, W3, and Battle-hardened (meaning it would take S10+ to trigger Instant Death) meant they were going to be very, very tough for the Blood Angels to remove. 

Pete: 

Deployment:

The Death Guard won the roll to select their turn order, and elected to go first and deploy the first unit, using the scenario's staged deployment rule. 

The battle was fought across the former front lines on the city borders of Zdojan

Phil:  I wanted to go first so that I had the best chance of destroying an enemy unit on the first turn, which could be a tie-breaking VP in a scenario where there were only a few ways to earn them. 

I placed the Deredeo where it would have good line of sight to where I expected Pete to place his bigger tanks, on the more open left flank. The center of my line was made up of my heavy infantry, the missile launchers, volkite calivers and the Deathshroud. This would allow me to control the center of the table. On the right, I put some firepower in the Predator and Contemptor. On my far left, I placed the two tactical squads. My plan was to concentrate my only two scoring units together and place my objective on that flank. They would have the Deredeo for covering fire and the tactical support squad with flamers in the Rhino to clear them a path. 

However, once I saw that Pete placed his objective on my far right flank, where I had nothing but the Predator to defend it, I quickly realized I would have to adjust my plan. I decided to send the Rhino to support my right flank and attempt to prevent the Blood Angels from easily taking their objective. 

I also knew that target priority was key in Horus Heresy because only certain units have the potential to damage certain enemy units. In many previous games I had been in the hopeless position of not having any weapons that can reliably threaten an enemy heavy unit after the first turn or two. I was concerned to be facing three very tough units (two tanks with AV 14/15 and 5HP and a Contemptor). But I also knew how deadly a large squad of lascannons could be, so I decided to focus my deployment on destroying the Heavy Support squad in the first turn. This would eliminate a major threat before it could attack and earn me a crucial VP. I knew it was a risk to ignore the armor on turn 1 and use my best weapon, the Deredeo, on infantry, but I knew I had a better chance of wiping out that squad in one volley than the tanks or dreadnoughts. So I deployed a concentration of force opposite from the Heavy Support Squad.

With the deployment complete, my plans were set and ready to be put into action.

The Deredeo supports the two Tactical Squads

The Deredeo sports a frightening arsenal of weapons

Wolfgang and his Deathshroud anchor the center of the Traitor line, supported by heavy weapons

Pete: Well this would be a fun challenge – facing off against the intractable Death Guard in an Onslaught Mission 6 turns long. Could I get to my objective in the DG deployment zone and clear away all Phil’s tough shooting units on my way in? Plus, I needed to accomplish something the Blood Angels weren’t known for – defending an objective in my own deployment zone. With an army like this, I’d prefer to mass my forces and strike in unison and power on turn 2, maybe turn 3, to crush the weakest part of the opposing army and be too fast with too many units to have shooting reactions nullify the charge. Instead, in this game I would need to divide my forces and fight almost two separate battles. 

I decided to have the mighty Spartan with my large tactical squad be a tough and nasty barrier to the DG advance, supported by the deadly lascannon heavy support squad and the Contemptor Dreadnought for scrapping with elite units like the Deathshroud or Phil’s opposing Dread. To my left, to go for my objective, that gave me the Blood Angel Praetor with his fierce Assault squad retinue, the brand-new Kratos heavy tank, and the tough-as-nails Breacher squad. Both the Assault squad and Breachers are scoring units, which would be key to gaining the 5 VPs for securing the objective on turn 6. Thankfully there was a lot of terrain to block line of sight on my path to the objective so I should have a bulk of my units alive when I charge in late in the game to secure win. 

Time to get rolling. Death to the traitors. Glory for the one true Emperor!

The Heavy Support Squad takes up position at a supply dump.

The Tactical Squad, The Triarii Guard, are mounted in a Spartan

The mighty Contemptor holds the center of the Loyalist line

Garo Arteo leads the Sanguine Berzerkers.

A massive Kratos anchors the Loyalist left flank.

On the far left, the Golden Shields of Baal prepare to advance on the Blood Angels' objective.

Final Deployment 

Xhorik 87th: Drop Mech Suits

The Xhorik drop regiments make use of heavy mechanized suits for certain critical missions. The most commonly used is the OGRE Class. Similar to drop sentinels, they are piloted by an individual and deployed by grav chute, but they are smaller, more heavily armored and generally equipped for combat at close quarters.

The left shoulder has the icon of the Xhorik mechanized heavy drop infantry painted white on a field of orange, the regimental color.

The XVI marking on the right shoulders indicates the 16th Squad of drop mech suits in the regiment. 

16th Squad of OGRE Class Mech Suits, Xhorik 87th Drop Regiment

Four suits armed with ripper guns. One has the cockpit open and the pilot's helmet is visible.

The remaining suits have melee weapons and boarding shields.

The sergeant (boss) has a thunder hammer

This unit gives the drop troopers their first decent melee unit. This should especially help in games of Zone Mortalis where their fliers and artillery are useless.