Painting Update - SW:A, ADLG

Here's what I've been working on since the last update. 

This group of Harlequins was my original choice for a kill team when the local gaming group started a Shadow War campaign in anticipation of Warhammer 40,000's 8th Edition, as I only needed a single box of miniatures. The team is headed by a Troupe Leader, backed up by a pair of Virutosos and three Players (or Mimes, the less experienced versions). I also picked up a Death Jester, who helped cover a couple of the Harlequins weaknesses - a lack of long range and large blast templates.

Of course, after a couple weeks, the group realized that the Harlequins seemed far too powerful, and so they were put on the sidelines in favor of an Ork mob.

I've also been working on a Free Company force for L'Art de la Guerre. This is the general's command - heavy knights supported by a couple units of light infantry with crossbows. The light infantry can move as quickly as the knights, so they're useful for covering and attacking flanks in combat.

The second command is comprised of heavy infantry - foot knights and halberdiers. The javelin-armed light infantry provide cover from shooting for the unarmored halberdiers, and can act as flank support in combat.

The third command is the smallest and comprises the ranged elements in the force. These English Longbowmen are Elite and reduce the protection of units they're shooting. They're not great in combat, however, so this is a command that will need to keep away from the enemy or place them in terrain that will offer some bonuses.

Endgame - Shadow War: Armageddon AAR

For the final week, the various gangs fighting in Armageddon came together for one final battle. 

This seven player game saw Orks, Chaos, Grey Knights, Skitarii, Inquisition, Tau, and a Vindicare Assassin, with alliances and betrayals constantly shifting as player's fortunes rose and fell with the dice. The last remaining kill team on the table (apart from the Vindicare) would be the campaign's overall winner

The early part of the game saw most of the combat focus on John's Chaos, easily the scariest of the factions on the table thanks to its equipment and skill. Meanwhile, the Skitarii and Inquisition warbands skirmished with the Tau. The Chaos kill team was the first to bottle due to casualties.

As the game progressed, the focus shifted to the Orks, who had managed to escape attention up until that point. Once the guns were turned on the greenskins, however, their numbers quickly began to dwindle.

The Tau bottled next, and the remaining Grey Knights were killed off and removed from the table. Once their Nob fell, the Orks also retreated, leaving only the Skitarii with a single model, and the Inquisition with two. The Vindicare ended up taking a shot at the lone Mechanicum soldier, taking him out with a Hellfire round and ending the game with the Inquisition winning the campaign.

It was a fun game and campaign, and it has energized the group for the arrival of 8th Edition (which I will not be taking part of, but I wish them the best).

Ride the Tide - Shadow War: Armageddon AAR

Last Wednesday, the SWAg group gathered for the last night before the big "end game."

Mike and I showed up first, and we rolled the Ambush scenario, with the Orks surprising a group of Grey Knights in the ruins of a hive.

The sheer weight of fire from the Orks (and some poor rolling on Mike's part) saw all of the Grey Knights fall over the course of the battle, apart from the Terminator Mike had hired. It was only towards the end of the battle that Mike realized the Orks had no guns or close-combat weapons that could hurt the Terminator. The walking tank lumbered out of the ruins, psycannon blasting away at Orks in cover and daemonhammer turning the charging boys into piles of steaming, crimson jelly. It was only a failed bottle test that likely managed to save the Orks from losing the game.

I then played against John and his Chaos warband in a Kill Team Fight.

This was a long, drawn out affair with plenty of casualties as both sides engaged with tons of lead and flashing blades. The game ended when the Orks failed a bottle check while the Chaos warband had only a single Cultist still up.

Feeling Green - Shadow War: Armageddon AAR

With the Harlequins shelved, it was up to Gutchoppa and his mob of boyz to take the fight to the ruins of Armageddon. 

My first game was against John and his Chaos kill team. The mission was Hit and Run, with the Orks attacking. My kill team needed to destroy a Promethium tank that John had placed atop the landing pad. 

The Orks managed to destroy the tank in the first turn thanks to a full-auto blast from a Spanner with a big shoota. The Orks then scrambled to get off the table as more Chaos Marines moved onto the table. Half the kill team was taken out in close combat with the servants of the Dark Gods, but as the greenskins managed to avoid bottling, they technically "won" the mission. And that's the best kind of winning.

I then faced Zach and his Inquisition warband. We rolled up Ambush, with the Orks defending. The Orks failed to counter-ambush, and had to crowd into the middle of the table.

The game went back and forth, with the Inquisition taking the first bottle check. But the Inquisitor kept his retinue in line, engaging the Ork Nob in close combat. Eventually the Orks' nerve failed, and the greenskins broke, leaving the Inquisition victorious.

Next was Chris and his Skitarii. The game was Kill Team Fight.

Both sides engaged with long-range fire. The Orks got lucky and managed to take out the Skitarii sniper in the first turn. The Nob led most of the Kill team around the right side of the table, but the Mechanicum soldiers bottled before the Orks could get stuck in.

The last game was against Bill and his Chaos. We got Kill Team Fight for the scenario.

The game went quickly, with Chaos Bottling after three of their members (two Marines and a Cultist) went down to the Orks' wall of lead.

Bowing Out - Shadow War: Armageddon AAR

The group gathered on Wednesday for more games on the war-torn world of Armageddon. 

The first game was against Mike and his Grey Knights in the Raid scenario. The Grey Knights would be defending against Harlequins, who would need to destroy the entrance to a bunker before reinforcements could arrive. 

The Harlequins rushed the two Grey Knights that had deployed, with both falling in close combat to the xenos. The bunker entrance fell soon after. The Grey Knight reinforcements didn't arrive until late in the game, but were unable to stop the Harlequins from retreating off the table and winning the game. 

The second game was against Pat and his Imperial Guard, who had managed to Ambush the Harlequins.

Unfortunately, the guard had split up, leaving a convenient group of three troopers vulnerable to the Harlequin's speed. The xenos ran out of cover, their prismatic blur keeping the worse of the enemy's fire at bay. A single round of close combat was enough to down all three of the guardsmen, forcing a bottle check and ending the game.

Finally, I faced off against John and his Chaos. This was a straight Kill Team Fight, as John wanted to see just how nasty a full force of Harlequins could be.

The answer? Very, very nasty. Despite the Chaos Marines essentially hunkering down at the opposite end of the table, that didn't prevent at least two of the Harlequins from getting into close combat. The final tally end the end of the game saw three Harlequins and seven Chaos Space Marines taken out of the game, with Chaos bottling.

So, I've decided to drop the Harlequins. They're simply too powerful for the league, and even increasing their invulnerable save to 5+ doesn't change the fact that they're difficult to hit at range, and are absolute monsters in both shooting and close combat. I picked up a couple boxes of Ork boyz to make a new, hopefully fairer, kill team.

Rumble in the Hive - Shadow War: Armageddon AAR

Some of the local 40k players have started up a Shadow War: Armageddon league at Stomping Grounds as they wait for the new edition to drop. As I'm always interested in campaign-based skirmish games, I decided to pick up a box of Harlequins and join in. The initial game night went well, with the Harlequins winning both games and adding more bodies to their kill team (as an elite force, they can only have six permanent members, whereas most factions have ten, and others can go up to fifteen or twenty).

This last Saturday I had a chance for a couple more games. The first was against Andy's Tau, in the Kill Team fight. The objective was to force the other kill team to either bottle (fail a leadership test after losing 25% of their numbers) or voluntarily retreat.

With the Tau setting up a firing line in the cover of the building at the lower left in the above picture, the Harlequins spent most of the game running between cover to encircle the building. After the Tau's sniper was downed by a neuro disrupter, Andy decided to retreat, rather than let the Harlequins get into close combat.

The second game, against Shawn's Dark Eldar, was the Scavenge scenario, where both sides had to collect d6 loot tokens (we rolled five) as a monster lurked around the outskirts of the board.

The Dark Eldar fared better against the Harlequins, as the Wyches gained a 4+ invulnerable save in close combat. However, the high Weapon Skill and Attacks that the Harlequins possess meant they won combat again and again. Eventually, the Dark Eldar bottled, dispersing back into the ruins.

From the four games I've played, it seems that Harlequins might be somewhat overpowered, at least in the early game of the campaign. Since this league should last awhile, I'm curious as to whether increased body- and skill-count in the other kill teams will offset the inherent advantages that the Harlequins start with. In the meantime, we'll likely be increasing the Harlequins invulnerable save to 5+, as they're difficult to hit in the first place.