Batrep: Hammerfest!
It has GONE DOWN!
The first HAMMERFEST is HISTORY!
Hammertime: 18th December
1000 points each
Blood Angels/Relictors – Shane
Mephiston (Warlord)
2 squads of Assault Marines (w/o jump packs), with Sanguinary Priests
2 Land Speeders
Dreadnought
Chaos Space Marines – Frank
Typhus (Warlord)
3 Chaos Terminators
7 Plague Marines with Melta and Flamer
7 Chaos Space Marines with Melta
5 Chaos Spawn
5 Havocs with Autocannons
Dark Angels – Jack
Belial (Warlord)
3 squads of Terminators
6? Deathwing Bikes
Necrons – David B
Oberon (Warlord)
Lord on chariot
Immortals
Warriors
Destroyers
Space Wolves – David W
Nigel (Warlord)
2 squads of Grey Hunters
Long Fangs
Dreadnought
- 4×6 table
- Hammerfest scenario with The Relic rules and random turn-end rules
- Random turn order, rolled each turn
- Random terrain density, placed by everyone in turn
- We skipped Steal the Initiative to make things simpler!
The table before placing terrain:
DEPLOYMENT
Deployment was done randomly, everyone was given a number and each corner and the conveniently positioned long edge (the side away from the wall) was rolled, so everyone but Shane got a corner.
Chaos Marines were next to the big red ruin, with the Spawn and Typhus (plus his 3 Chaos Terminator bodyguard) in Reserves
Space Wolves started in the adjacent corner
Blood Angels were technically closest to the Gift Pile in the center, with a symmetrical line-up of transports and speeders.
The Dark Angel bikes started very close, just on the other side of the small ruins from the Blood Angels
Dark Angel Terminators started in Reserve
Necrons started well-hidden from everyone but the Space Wolves
TURN ONE! Let’s get it on!
Space Wolves
Space Wolves rolled to go first, and popped the Chaos Rhino with the 7 Chaos Space Marines inside. They immediately deployed and started to go into the ruins for cover.
Ignoring the pretty lights, the Long Fangs then fired off a few shots at the Necrons at the other end of the battlefield.
Dark Angels
The bikes moved up between the water town and the factory, getting within easy range of the Necrons. (Pictures coming up later in the turn)
Chaos Space Marines
The Havocs (grey models) forgot to deploy, but appeared now and moved into the ruins for a bit of cover. The Chaos Marines rolled miserably for their movement so they couldn’t all get into cover, and the Plague Marine Rhino moved up (forgetting to move Flat Out during shooting).
A couple of the Chaos Marines were just in range to fire, and killed the Plasma Gun of the lead Grey Hunters!
The Havocs took aim at the Blood Angel Land Speeders but weren’t able to do anything to it.
Blood Angels
The Land Speeders Turbo Boosted across the battlefield and took up position to repel attacks
Then the Rhinos pivoted and advanced on the Chaos army!
Necrons
The Destroyers moved forward to fire on the Land Speeders, taking a hull point off one of them
There’s the bikers! The Lord on his war chariot moved up, fired and assaulted – this won’t end well for one side! These are all the Dark Angels that are on the table!
Oberon, the Warriors and Immortals all advanced on foot while the Scarab Beetles and Canoptek Spider went around the back of the factory
The Chariot assaults!
The Chariot is destroyed!! The Lord stands on his own in the middle of the smoking crater, surrounded by angry bikers!
Points:
Space Wolves: 1 (First Blood on Chaos Space Marines)
Dark Angels: 1 (First Blood on Necrons)
RANDOMNESS FROM THE WARP!
The random roll at the end of the turn brought out the BOUNCING SQUIG BOMBS! Every 2×2′ square had a Squig bomb appear in the middle, and it scattered and exploded 3 times before disappearing. One of the Blood Angel speeders was hit to take off a hull point, and one of the Chaos Havocs was hit but unhurt.
TURN 2
Once again, we rolled randomly to determine who would go first.
Dark Angels
TWO SQUADS OF TERMINATORS arrive by Deep Strike, teleporting in!
The Lord kills the remaining bikers, but is now staring directly at angry Dark Angel Terminators!
He doesn’t care! He moves forward in the consolidation and prepares for the Terminator assault!
And of course they move in! He’s got a real fight on his hands – will the Terminators be able to take down this one, single Lord?
Chaos Space Marines
The Chaos Spawn arrive from Reserves! They have no armor save, so they take up station behind the dead Rhino for cover from the Space Wolves. They could have moved 12″ instead of 6″, so they should have come in on around the corner of the board to prepare an attack on the Blood Angels.
The Havocs fire at the lead Blood Angle Rhino, around the Plague Rhino, but again don’t hurt it
Typhus and his Terminator guard arrive from Deep Strike, in the middle of a safe area! They can’t charge but the Terminators fire on Mephiston, taking off a wound!
Space Wolves
The Grey Hunter squad (middle left) fire on the Blood Angel speeder and the Long Fangs (foreground) blast at the Necron Scarab Beetles in the distance, taking a couple of wounds.
The Dreadnought fires at the Chaos Marines, but no wounds!
Necrons
The Warriors and Immortals continue moving around the factory building
The Scarab Beetles move up and see a tasty Land Speeder! They move up and immediately do 10 points of armor damage, wrecking it instantly!
The Canoptek Spider fires a blast at the Dark Angel Terminators, but no wounds! It assaults the Terminators and DIES!
Blood Angels
The Blood Angel see Typhus, forget all about the rest of the Chaos army, move up and unload…
…and fire absolutely everything they can at Typhus and his bodyguards! But no damage.
Points:
Necrons: 2 (First Blood on Dark Angels, First Blood on Blood Angels)
Space Wolves: 1 (First Blood on Chaos Space Marines)
Dark Angels: 1 (First Blood on Necrons)
RANDOMNESS FROM THE WARP!
The random roll at the end of the turn saw just a single Dark Eldar Raider emerge right next to the Blood Angels, but deciding they couldn’t hurt the Rhinos or the Dreadnought, blasted the Chaos Terminators with 20 twin-linked poisoned fire! Two of Typhus’ bodyguards went down!
TURN 3
Space Wolves
The Long Fangs fire at the Blood Angel Speeder, missing again!
Nigel, Wolves psyker, tries an attack on Typhus but it has no effect
The other Grey Hunter squad assaults the Land Speeder and destroy it!
The Dreadnought fires at the Chaos Marines in the ruins, but no damage is taken
Blood Angels
The Assault Marines fan out and again unload everything at Typhus and his remaining bodyguard…
Then assault, killing him for a Slay the Warlord point!
Necrons
The Scarab Beetles look for a nearby vehicle since the Land Speeders are destroyed, and advance on the Blood Angel Dreadnought!
The assault between the Lord, Oberon and the Dark Angel Terminators continues unabated!
The Warriors and Immortals finally get around the building corner and are ready to blast any Dark Angel survivors
Dark Angels
The command squad of the Dark Angels finally teleport in, with Belial at the center! With no ranged weapons, they prepare to climb the hill on the following turn.
Chaos Marines
The Plague Marines move their Rhino past the Blood Angel Rhino blocking them in, and the Marines disembark into the trees. The Plague Marines fire into one of the Blood Angel squads, reducing them to just 3 men. (ignore the crater, picture is out of sequence)
The Chaos Spawn move across the open terrain between the ruins and the water, hoping to close in on the Grey Hunters – but they don’t roll high enough on their charge distance roll and are stuck in the open! (ignore the Scarab Beetles for now!)
Points:
Necrons: 2 (First Blood on Dark Angels, First Blood on Blood Angels)
Space Wolves: 1 (First Blood on Chaos Space Marines)
Dark Angels: 1 (First Blood on Necrons)
Blood Angels: 1 (Slay the Warlord (Chaos))
RANDOMNESS FROM THE WARP!
This time, the Nuclear Blast was rolled – 2d6 scatter from the center of each 2×2′ square, and a massive 2D6 Strength with D6 AP! The blasts kill the Blood Angel Dreadnought, 1 of the Plague Marines, one of the Spawn is taken down to a single wound and many of the Space Wolves heavy weapons are casualties.
TURN 4
Dark Angels
The second squad of Terminators assault in, hoping to do a little more damage to Oberon and the Necron Lord
Meanwhile, Belial and his squad clamber up the hill to claim a gift! (and a point for the gift, plus 3 points for controlling the objective)
Necrons
The Lord and Oberon continue their close combat with the Dark Angel Terminators – both sides have been kept very busy! The Terminators have very slowly been dwindling in number, though…
The Scarab Beetles, denied their meal of the Blood Angel dreadnought by the nuclear blasts, advance on the Space Wolves dreadnought for their next feast! They chew off several points of armor, reducing it to just 4 points on the front and sides, and a mere 2 in the rear!
Chaos Space Marines
The Plague Marines and tactical Chaos Marines fire on the 3-man Blood Angel squad…then both Chaos squads charge in, killing them all!
The Spawn finally get into close combat, but find out the Grey Hunters are pretty tough when assaulted! 2 Spawn are killed and just one Space Wolf is taken out. Luckily the Spawn are fearless, so no need to roll for leadership.
Blood Angels
The Blood Angel Rhino is moved forward to block the path of the Grey Hunters not in close combat.
The remaining squad of Blood Angel Assault Marines turn to face the Plague Marines, fire on them and charge in! All the Plague Marines are taken out!
Space Wolves
With their path to the hill blocked, the Grey Hunters have to move through the storage silos to get closer to the Gift Pile! The other Grey Hunters kill one more Chaos Spawn but are still locked in combat.
Points:
Necrons: 2 (First Blood on Dark Angels, First Blood on Blood Angels)
Space Wolves: 1 (First Blood on Chaos Space Marines)
Dark Angels: 1 (First Blood on Necrons)
Blood Angels: 1 (Slay the Warlord (Chaos))
RANDOMNESS FROM THE WARP!
Wild Warp warpiness ensues! Every unit on the table has a die rolled for it, and on a result of 1 it is warped to a diagonal 2×2′ square! Amazingly, only 2 units are moved:
The Space Wolves dreadnought, behind the Blood Angels
And the Chaos Space Marines, right next to the Oberon/Dark Angel combat!
TURN 5
This could be the final turn of the game, so it was ‘game on’ to get any warlord kills and climb up to the Gift Pile!
Blood Angels
The Blood Angels, with no other nearby targets, fire into the rear of the Space Wolves dreadnought which had just appeared near them. With super-low armor values, it explodes easily!
Mephiston decides to get in on the fun and wades into the Necron v Terminator battle!
And the Rhino clowns the Space Wolves further by blocking the Grey Hunters again! The other Rhino has been immobilized all this time and hasn’t been able to free itself.
Chaos Space Marines
The Chaos Marines blast the Grey Hunters with their pistols, undecided whether to assault or not.
The Havocs fire away at the same Grey Hunter squad, resulting in about half the squad whittled away by ranged fire.
Another of the Chaos Spawn is killed in combat with the command Grey Hunter squad. They consolidate to advance on the hilltop.
Necrons
Denied the last 2 dreadnoght kills, and with no other vehicles in range, the Scarab Beetles advance on the Chaos Rhino for their next meal.
In the Mephiston/Oberon/Terminator fight, the Dark Angel Terminator takes another wound off the Necron Lord, but otherwise the combat continues!
The last remaining Destroyer swoops down close to the hill in an attempt to do some damage to the Terminators camping there, but no joy.
Dark Angels
The Terminators, being the only other squad on the Dark Angel side, stay on the hill and prepare for any assaults.
Space Wolves
The Grey Hunters near the silos fire on the Necron Destroyer, killing it!
The command squad of Grey Hunters advance on the hill, finally! Nigel uses his psyker powers, and the Terminators make their first Deny the Witch roll, and make their save on the other power!
The Long Fangs fire on the Terminators on top of the hill, as they did last turn, but are still unable to kill any of them.
ROLL TO END GAME: THE GAME CONTINUES!
Points:
Dark Angels: 5 (First Blood on Necrons, Gift Token, Control Objective)
Necrons: 2 (First Blood on Dark Angels, First Blood on Blood Angels)
Blood Angels: 2 (Slay the Warlord (Chaos), First Blood on Space Wolves)
Space Wolves: 1 (First Blood on Chaos Space Marines)
RANDOMNESS FROM THE WARP!
More Warp craziness – all dead units have a chance to come back as Reserves in the next turn, on a roll of 5+! For the forces of Chaos, Typhus *and* his Terminator bodyguards come back, as well as the Plague Marines. The Blood Angel dreadnought and the Dark Angels bikers also come back.
TURN 6
Blood Angels
The Rhino decides to clown the command Grey Hunter unit, denying them an easy route to the hill!
The dreadnought returns and fires on Nigel’s squad
(not pictured) The remaining Assault Marines climb the hill, attempting to get to the Gift Pile! They can’t quite get to the top however – maybe next turn!
(not pictured) Mephiston kills Oberon in close combat! Warlord kill for the Blood Angels, bumping them into second place!
Chaos Space Marines
Typhus and his bodyguards Deep Strike next to the pond, while the Plague Marines come in next to the river. Both units fire everything they can at Nigel’s Grey Hunter squad.
The Chaos Marines unload bolters into the other Grey Hunter Squad, killing a good many Space Wolves!
Dark Angels
The bikers arrive from Reserve, firing on the Assault Marines that have climbed up the hill, then Belial charges the Blood Angels on the hillside, killing four and forcing the survivors to run.
The Terminators are definitely holding their ground, and they can’t wait to open their Gift Token!
Necrons
The Warriors and Immortals continue to fire on the Terminators on the hilltop, but still can’t hurt them! The close combat is still continuing, as close as ever.
Space Wolves
The remaining members of the Grey Hunters squad back away from the Chaos Marines
Nigel throws all of his psyker power at Typhus, with Jaws of the Wild Wolf Typhus is killed for the second time in this battle!
ROLL TO END GAME: THE GAME CONTINUES! Turn 7 will be the final turn of the game!
Points:
Dark Angels: 5 (First Blood on Necrons, Gift Token, Control Objective)
Blood Angels: 3 (Slay the Warlord (Chaos), First Blood on Space Wolves, Slay the Warlord (Necron))
Necrons: 2 (First Blood on Dark Angels, First Blood on Blood Angels)
Space Wolves: 1 (First Blood on Chaos Space Marines)
RANDOMNESS FROM THE WARP!
Orbital bombardment! A few Necron Warriors are killed, but no other significant casualties are reported.
TURN 7
Dark Angels
The bikers move up and fire on Nigel’s Grey Hunter squad…
…Then despite the protestations of the Chaos Terminators, assault in and kill Nigel, stealing the kill out from under the nose of Chaos!
Chaos Space Marines
The Chaos Terminators advance and assault! They should have gone for the Grey Hunters with their lowered Toughness, but they went after the Dark Angel Bikers because they were so annoyed with them!
(not pictured) The Havocs and the Plague Marines combined fire to finish off the 3-man Grey Hunter squad on the other side of the battle.
Space Wolves
(not pictured) No change in the close combat, and the Long Fangs were again unable to hurt the Terminators occupying the hill.
Blood Angels
(not pictured)The Necron Mindshackle Scarabs force Mephiston to attack himself, and he dies! The Necrons take another victory point in the final turn!
Necrons
The Necron Lord climbs the hill in an attempt to contest the objective…
…but is beaten back! The Dark Angels still control it and keep the 3 victory points.
With nothing else close by to munch on, the Scarab Beetles attack the Blood Angel dreadnought, but no points are at play and the game ends!
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Final Point Totals:
Dark Angels: 6 (First Blood on Necrons, Gift Token (1), Control Objective (1), Slay the Warlord (Wolves))
Necrons: 3 (First Blood on Dark Angels, First Blood on Blood Angels, , Slay the Warlord (Blood Angels))
Blood Angels: 3 (Slay the Warlord (Chaos), First Blood on Space Wolves, Slay the Warlord (Necron))
Space Wolves: 1 (First Blood on Chaos Space Marines)
Chaos Space Marines: 0 🙁
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The Ravages of Holiday War
My thoughts on the battle…
Well, obviously Typhus wants revenge on the Dark Eldar, Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Dark Angels. So far he has no quarrel with the Necrons, apart from the fact they’re already pretty much dead already, so that’s just offensive to him!
But really, I wanted to see Typhus in close combat with someone, so I was really hoping to get him into assault. Also, I wanted the Spawn to do a bit better, I just need to use them a little smarter. Every new unit brings in new rules and stuff to remember.
Tactically, I made a few errors:
– First, I should have remembered I had the Havocs (heavy weapons squad) – then I could have use the Infiltrate rule I rolled for Warlord trait. They could have sat on a building and fired away.
– Second, I should have moved the Spawn 12″ from the edge instead of 6″, then moved them through the ruins, THEN moved and assaulted, they wouldn’t have been stuck in the open for a turn.
– Third, when the Blood Angels decided to completely ignore my marines to go after Typhus’s squad, I should have attacked them with the Spawn from the rear and let the Dark Angel Terminators deal with Nigel.
I can’t comment too much on the other army tactics, apart from I don’t really know what the Blood Angel Land Speeders were trying to accomplish with turbo boosting across the battlefield. They had their Jink save but they were between 2 opposing forces that were trying to kill them. I’d put it down to just being ecstatic at being able to move 30″ 🙂 Also, maybe the Wolves should have moved a bit quicker/farther, but I can’t really say where – and I suppose the Necrons and DA stayed pretty much in their respective corners too. Maybe I’m just too used to being able to zip around the battlefield super-fast? 🙂 Anyway, I’m glad the Necrons and Dark Angels tarpitted each other, although it did let Belial stroll right up to the Christmas Tree!
The next time we do this, I think the central objective should be worth 0 or 1 points to discourage camping, and getting the Gift/Loot token back to your deployment zone should be worth 2 points at least (in addition to 1 point for having possession of one). Plopping super-strong units on it was always going to be the top priority, and the rest of us didn’t team up enough to take out the DA terminators at the tree.
Quick thoughts:
Firstly, massive massive thanks to Frank, for hosting, for the set up, for the sheer effort and the write up swiftly following!
Secondly, thoroughly enjoyed the game and won despite getting completely chewed by Necrons!
Tactics wise: All Terminators probably seems scary, but its not a lot of models for an awful lot of points and to be honest, wasn’t as fun to play as having loads of troops would have been. On the other hand, deep-striking with the Ravenwing teleport homers was a dream!
I was pleased with my strategy of getting up the hill first and plonking my biggest, hardest unit up there, it would have taken some serious shooting/melee to knock them off there. Whilst I understand what you are saying about camping Frank, I kind of feel it has plusses and minuses, getting up there on turn 3 or 4 really does paint a big target on your head for all the other players, I think the problem was that only Dave B really tried to take me on properly, the rest of you got distracted with each other!!
Man of the match: Typhus………….. nah, Thundernators, for sheer survivability. Took 3 turns of long fangs firing (appalling rolls!), 3 or 4 turns of Necrons firing, a charge from Obberon* (spelling)… for the loss of 2 guys.
I’m just glad it was Necrons/DA at the other end of the battlefield! 😉 I didn’t fancy going at either one of you just yet!
My comment on changing up the rules for next time was just to make it more of a mobile battle, we can just see what everyone thinks. I think one of the brilliant things about this game was that the lists were so varied! And yes, if we hadn’t squabbled so much amongst ourselves we could have helped the Necron Warriors a bit more to peck away at Belial’s squad.
I’d love to see this be a twice-a-year thing, would be super sweet!
PS – you’re going to love the new GW stuff coming down the pipeline!
Great Days Gaming!
I echo Jack in saying thank you to Frank for the loan of his front room and all the hard work getting Hammerfest up and running!
If I’d have known my troops were going to be so ineffectual against the termies i’d have probably taken them the other way around the building instead.
I forget that Marines carry a lot of grenades! I’ll be keeping the chariot away from close combat in future. I think he would have been just as potent with the sweep attacks and maybe could have hassled the centre a bit more.
The overlord did massive damage to Jacks DA – Oberon took a little while to catch up but they were more than a match for the Terminators.
As it panned out I really needed help from the other players to get to stop Jack and it all came down to a leadership test – Failed by a single point!
Thanks to everyone and I look forward to a rematch!
🙂
What an awesome game, totally agree with what you said about moving my speeders, should have tried to get them out of LOS after the move and not rely on the jink but I certainly did enjoy turbo boosting.
Another big fail was getting Meph into assault with the Necron Lord, I did kill him in the end but it was the worst thing I could have done. 4 mind shackled attacks against myself several times was not fun.
Not sure what more to say, thanks to everyone, really enjoyed the game and massive thanks to Frank for setting it up!
You’re welcome guys, the game was plenty of fun to set up and I’m sure we can plan on a summer Hammerfest in 2013. I’ve got a couple of ideas already, just have to come up with some extra unique summer-inspired rules 😉
Shane – I think you and I could have benefited from playing a few extra games with our new units, I’m still getting used to the relatively simple rolls for Marines. I will have to get a few extra shooty units to use against Jack’s Terminators and pretty much all the Necrons, too!