Three thousand points of Alpha legion VS Solar Auxilia

A very efficient Hobby week this. 

First i finished up my Alpharius, and i was pretty happy with him. 

And then, last Thursday i got in a game against a new buddy  at SLG gaming in oldtown. 

We played three thousand points VS three thousand points of Solar Auxilia. The Guy i played is a super chill player with a -bee-oot-ifull army. He even won best painted at the Hagvarian betrayal event. 

I'm not going to do a detailed Battle report as it takes a lot of time. But i'll do a rough walk through. 

first off, as i can rarely cut loose and play at three 'K points, i decided to try something that i have longed to play for a long time. Namely the coils of the hydra Rite of war. With a rewards of treason unit and Alpharius to boot. The most alpha legion thing i could come up with. 

Now the basic details of the coils of the hydra is as follows 

Advantages: 

* You get to re roll seize the initiative, and add +1 to who goes first when you start for deployment. 

* the opponent gets -1 to reserve roles

* you can take one unit of ANY other legion exclusive units. 

restrictions. 

* you MUST have three compulsory troop choices. 

* all infantry must be A) deepstriking B) infiltrating C) in a vehicle. If they can do neither of these, then they are not allowed. 

*no allies 

Now the Advantages REALLY outweigh the restrictions. Particularly if you cater to your army having access to infiltrate as a mutable tactics. 

Now you will find better tactica and with a far greater width than i can provide here. But basically, with transports for all your infantry, you can now chose if you want Infiltrate for them anyway, as that allows for superior positioning, and outflanking them. Which works pretty well with Multimelta on rhinos. 

Furthermore, The advantages are FURTHER compounded by Alpharius himself. 

Did i hear needlessly complicated rules? 

As the Sire of the alpha legion he will let you 

* seize on a 4+ 

* add 1 D3 on outflanking moves

* give EVERY legiones astartes marine Preferred enemy 

* if you and the enemy has the same unit in reserves, and they succeed with a reserve roll. Roll a D6 on a 4+ you can bring in your unit instead. 

Now, just on the up and up, Preferred enemy for Alpharius and ALL your infantry and artillery platforms is invaluable, i suffer from no illusions in regards to the fact that i would have lost without it. rerolling 1's for Wound and hit is just great. No frills, just super utilitarian. 

Furthermore, this more or less neutralizes drawbacks for Plasma guns, as you get to re-roll all get hot rolls. And if you have BS5 you can just lean back and watch out for double 1's. You will learn to Hate 2's with BS4. But that is just nitpicking. 

So, the match itself. 

i chose to play a simple Coils of the hydra 

I had three tactical squads, with MM rhinos

Tactical support squad with Volkite calivers

A contemptor mortis with twin kheres

Two quad mortars 

two laser rapiers

Predator squadron with three tanks with autocannons

A whirlwind scorpius 

Iron havocs with autocannons 

predator with Conversion beamer 

and alpharius with command squad in a landraider phobos 

Saboteur

Master of signals 

My opponent had a GREAT list, where i do not know what most of it was named. 

But it had Two dracosans, a malcador, a Lord of war tank (Baneblade chassis) Three veletaris storm sections, retinue volkite chargers in Arvus lighters. And two Lightning primes with kraken penetrators and phosphex clusters. 

His reserves, apprehensive about the -1 to reserves 

his right flank

his left flank 

He had a very utilitarian deployment with his tanks tying up the lines, and his command squad in a bombed out building by the Lord of War. 

As he was defending a spaceport this made perfect sense. 

As we were starting i warned him that i was going to have a lot of questions along the line of "what is the front AV" what is the side AV and so forth. Mostly, IT DOES WHAT! 

i placed all my troops and the volkite calivers in reserves. 

So for my turn one i drove the Predator squadron forward, and lord alpharius rushed for the LoW, i shaved one or two HP of the Lord of war. meanwhile i let lose with my quadmortars, and laser rapiers. the Preferred enemy started to earn it's due immediately. 

The order given the Alpha legion overcharge their vehicles and advance into adverse fire  

The prize within reach, all opposing them is the zeal of the enemy. 

For his first turn he manages to stun my scorpius, neutralize the Pred squadron, and take a HP of the Land raider.


For turn two everything except for one tactical squad arrives. from reserves, one flank is tied down with a ten man group of tacticals. letting rip with their bolters to clear the side

On the other side, the manned one my Calivers, saboteur and Tactical squad swarm in.

Lord alpharius Charges towards the enemy.

I then shoot my quad mortars at the troops bubblewrapping the Lord of war.

My opponent says "too bad you don't have a nuncio vox in that squad". But wait, Alpharius does have one.Meaning that after rolling to wound he removes seventeen men. letting me have a clear charge at the lord of war.

Alpharius rushed towards the defence line that had been erected to defend their position. The solar auxilia that opposed them were the finest men that the imperium could train. Staunch, stalwart, and merciless in the execution in their duties, to stand their ground and level their lasrifles at a being such as he was no mean feat. But they were but men, and he was the hydra at the throat of this world, without breaking his stride he transmitted the information in his rangefinder to his entrenched mortar team. "break the rosary, close to the heart". The order given his men followed their duty, reluctance and doubt was the stuff of lesser legions to be a child of the XX'th was to master all forms of combat. And doubt had no place among them he mused as the heroic men in front of him paid him obeisance in death, as they had refused in life. 

As the fragmentary grenades rained down in front of him he sprinted ahead of his command squad, the shrapnel incapable of penetrating the thick plates of his artificer wrought armor. He ducked in low and let the malice of the makers of his weapon drink deeply from the behemoth in front of him. To call it a tank was to reduce it's purity, it was a beast, meant for but one thing. To bring ruin. He drove his spear deep, The armored plating made a mockery by the disintegrating strength of his weapon. He spun and rent a deep gash, before the crew within could react to his presence. The ponderous main armament was of little consequence at this range, after the fourth strike the crew within reacted. Coming to the top hatch two crewmen gripped the multilaser and raked at him. Alpharious feinted a dodge, but in truth he knew he only had to allow his chosen cataphractii plated banner men strike. A moment later he heard the tell-tale whine of a power plant collapsing.

Assessing the situation he glimpsed the commander of the Auxilia standing his ground, leveling his archaic handgun at Alpharious. Not lacking in courage, never acknowledging that their humanity was a condemnation of their fate. 

The lumbering behemoth of a tank exploded with the power of an armory exploding. And that is when he noticed it, only his gen-hanced primarch senses allowed him to hear the approach of Jet's as they came in for a bombing run, the fliers might have arrived in shadow of death brought high, but they dropped bombs to rid themselves of the menace that had arrived hidden among them. The Explosions around them did little to worry him, the shrapnel bounced harmlessly of him. And that when he heard the sharp crack of air suddenly consumed. The world exploded around him as green flames spread out in a sea of life's end. Not even the cataphractii plate of his bannermen could withstand the sudden conflagration. And their forcefields shorted one after the other. 

But Alpharius Armor was forged to withstand all treachery, as the rockcrete bubbled around them he rushed towards the ruins between him and the commander of the enemy. his cloak adapting to his surroundings allowing him to melt into the surroundings, rushing through the ruins his helmets auspex switched and allowed him to see through the building as if it was day. Pushing his superhuman physique to it's very limits he levelled his spear in front of him and threw himself through the wall, and into the commanders bodyguards. The first one died from the force of impact. 

The lord commander put out it his arm and levelled the sword towards alpharius in a gesture as old as time and as unambiguous in intent. Alpharius crouched low and went in with a swing towards the mans gene spliced face, The commander smiling contemptously as some sort of protective field sparked to life, Alpharious spun to the left and went for a descending strike. The man brought his blade into a deflective stance. 

Alpharius saw it as though it was taking place in a reduction chamber, the golden splendor of the blade the dying sun filling the steel-grey eyes of the lord commander with hope fading into urgent surprise as the spear shattered his last faith in his blade and made a mockery of what the man knew of warfare and trust in himself. 

And that was it, Alpharius wiped the LoW then charged the Command squad in the following turn. His lightnings arrived and dropped bombs and ended my predator squadron, the other one took out my contemptor, and his arvus arrived with perfect precision. 

In my turn two i tried to bring down the arvuses before they could release 12 angry volkite elites, i failed miserably. 

playing the starship troopers theme no less 

he actually magnetized the hatches so that he could release Auxilia. 

 The Last tactical squadron arrived, also on the right flank. And managed to shoot a multimelta and take another hullpoint.

for my opponents third turn his aircraft dominated the skies, taking potshots and making slag out of all vehicles that remained. His dracosan released their flamer sections and more or less lit that entire part of the board on fire. 

And the dracosan and malcador shot large blast battle cannons at me .removing elite legionairres in droves. 

on turn four i ran into the house with my volkite, the last tactical squadron disembarked. and let lose with twenty bolter shots, removing the remaining troops covering his malcador.

Then it happened. My last rhino shot it\s multi melta within melta range. Did a penetrating result of six. Took two hullpoints, and blew it up!

The ensuing explosion scattered on his other tank, and D strength made it explode as well O_O

The game was more or less over at this juncture. 

After tallying up the massacre, the points score was 3-2 to me 

Neither of us dominated any zones. i had a warlord kill, LoW kill and i had the most remaining units. But he got points for killing more than i did damn AL drawback. 

really great game and it felt good getting a solid game in. 

I\ve also started my new legion project

but more on that later. 

The Hagvarian betrayal- intro and ruminations

So the time had come to head off to my first tournament, it was a Friendly team- tournament hosted by the Great hosts of the Verangian heresy.

Now i've never been to a heresy tournament, nor a mini's tournament at all, but the fact that it was narrative driven and the fact there was a clear focus on good spirit and a welcoming Engaging from both the TO and the participants itself made me feel like it would be a cool crew to sacrifice a weekend going to. Now for sacrifice i mean the fact that i was heading into unchartered waters here, i'm as eager to roll the bones as anyone else, but heading away from my family and mates and actually leaving the basement crypt i dwell in to be social means that i like to know who i play against. So this is a bit of a plunge.

and over all one i was glad that i did.

Now the rules of the tourney was loosely as follows

- One LoW allowed, but no ranged D strength weaponry
- One allied detachment that i believe was allowed to be 250 of your 2500 pts allowance
- two members to each team, 2500 for each person
- No primarchs chosen or leviathan force org.

I played with a mate from SLG warhammer in oldtown, Jimmy who ran his hammer of olympia armor ( a lot of Artillery and a lot of footsloggers)

While i ran my Alpha legion armored breakthrough

2500 points, no games won :D

Basically

Troops:
Predator with HB sponsoons and one on top
Predator with HB sponsoons and one on top
Predator with HB sponsoons

HQ:
praetor with digital lasers, paragon blade, power dagger and cataphractii armour and volkite charger
four bodyguards in cataphractii plate, bannerman, one combi-melta and two chainfists one Power fist.

Heavy support:
Predator executioner with PotMS and lascannon sponsoons
Sicaran with lascannons
scorpius

Elites:
Tenman vet with two HB, all meltabombs, nuncio vox, sergeant with Powersword and artificer armor. With a rhino that had a MM. Marksmen veteran tactic

Tenman vet with two meltaguns, all  nuncio vox, sergeant with powerfist, power dagger and artificer armor. With a rhino that had a MM. Marksmen veteran tactic

Two quad mortars with shatter shell

Two rapier lasers

Lord of War:
Suborbital strike wing consisting of
One avenger striker fighter with lascannons, and autocannons, with Tankhunter and a 4++ against missiles.


The idea was simple. i was the armored spear against the bulwark of my allied friend. All my fast tanks would go and cap points, advance ruthlessly, and take ground while shooting a lot of shots against infantry, while my veterans outflanked and gave my artillery good lines of sight. The praetor went straight up the middle with my tankhunters. While also tying up any potential deathstars.



Now, in short, here are some quick lessons.

• Play the mission, read the mission pack. READ IT. 

in our first ,mission we had to deploy in small triangles in the corners, but the TO was keen on pointing out that our "table edge" was the long edges. Which meant jack-all to me. But in reality it meant that ALL reserves, ongoing, could walk into your opponents backfield. Which if i had remembered it would have saved a lot of suffering. 

• Tanks are great. Dying aint-

Yeah, so fast predators, looked GREAT on paper. The problem is that Av 13 front and 11 back is not hard to kill. As a matter of fact i died to sniper bolt fire more than once. And losing scoring troops HURT in an objectives game. More so when you only have three. But again, i had my two veterans.....who also died. Still supporting my armour with infantry worked a lot better than it would have without it. 

• One flyer with AV 12 front, two HP and av10 back is basically giving away points.

Yeah. That's pretty much it. The avenger looked great since it could hunt tanks and ALSO mow down power armor with the AP3 gatling gun. But it died instantaneously in ALL Games. giving away betweem two to four points. (don't ever forget price of failure) 

beyond that, did i have fun?

Fuck yeah

I've travelled a lot, i've hung around roleplayers, PROSEC people, bartenders, competitive sportsmen, photographers and a lot of weird subcultures with a lot of peculiar rules. And most are welcome, but usually you get a sort of informal. but not really. Pissing contest. "oh, you've only done X for how many years? and you do your Y how? well at least you're trying kiddo" None of that here.

Everybody was real sporting, from the guys losing horrendously to the guys winning tremendously. I had a really good time and everyone was super accomodating. 

So i'll move on with my games.

Alpha legion HQ conundrum and progress

So I've actually managed to do some more progress this year, will the everyday miracles ne'er end?

one of the first things i really wanted to get over and done with was doing some touch-up and finish the basing for my 2K points. Now this is the kind of thing that i usually put off forever, and it never get's done, but i recently had a couple of hours for myself, so i decided to touch up the the base rims with a black layer, and do some quick snow bases. below is the last veterans for my PoTL 2k list. I also got around to giving everyone a combat blade and pistol holster. So as to have WYSIWYG on them too. 

And with that in mind I've found a good way of really streamlining my snow basing, and i chose to put together a quick walkthrough.

Materials that you'll need 

So first up, try to get some cheap acryllic texture paint. I ised the "studio acryllics" brand from the closng sale of a crafts store, but you can use whatever. The concrete parts from Army painter and the GW mordheim work well so as to give the base some character when you spread the valhallan blizzard on it. But first things first. 

 Take the intended bases. Base them with a black color (whatever brand) to make sure that the texture paint sticks. Then liberally add the texture paint. You'll see why below

 This is when it dries up. As you can clearly see, it's pretty porous and as such you can see through it in places.

 After that you can just drybrush it what a grey colour. Do a light drybrush with the intended purpose of just showing some contrast. If you want to have a black sands base you can simply stop here.

Personally i did a light white drybrush. Then added some turf and or concrete with PVC. and when it dries, cover it with valhallan blizzard. And done. The end result is below

I have also gotten around to actually finish the Cataphractii i wanted for my army. They are intended to cruise around with my new Praetor in the land raider phobos i have since earlier. 

I decided to go with a pretty muted color scheme in contrast to the candy blue of the base layer from my airbrush. The black helmets gives a connection to the same scheme that i have on the veterans from the same detachment, which is my simple way of making sure that there is a coherent style for my army. And for the isolated 108'th Navigationary expedition. From there on out the scheme pretty much defined itself. I used mainly leadbelcher for rivets and details and silver highlight and some details. Since i was so happy with the basecoat i wanted to to use the details in dampened colors so as to draw attention to it, rather than detract from it. This was also why i went with the chain on the one pauldron and the double X on the other. I think the end result was pretty good actually.

and here is the entire squad in it's entirety. Three chainfists, one powerfist and one sword. As well as one combi-melta and a banner.

Since these are going to be a command squad i thought it best to have a mixed unit approach. So that i can chose what four models to use, and also have two "variants" of a sergeant or character, All in all i'm really satisfied with the way the squad worked out.

Mandatory pointy IC

Beyond that i also managed to finish up the contemptor mortis i had on the to do list. This will cover for my AA needs and also do support duty on light AV vechicles.

This is actually the first contemptor i ever assembled, and as such it was a rather static pose, so i tried to use the details and positioning of the head to get a hunting look to is, as if it was searching for targets. The shield is in place since it has a number of purity seals on it's left hand side, and i felt these were out of touch with the astethic of the army. lookign back i'm pretty happy wit the shield with the omega sign on it, it gives the models some character. That is actually the same reason as to why i had the cyclone missile launcher on top. Since the contemptor only get's a "havoc" launcher in Horus heresy, i doubt that it will do much but it did add to the look of the mini itself. 

And with that i now have a decent well rounded PoTL army that i can use in a couple of different configurations. The only issue remaining is sorting out my HQ's, which i'll cover next time.