Saturday, May 30, 2009

Tourney result and Attendance

Well, there was some bad and some great today. The bad is that I did not do well in the tourney. I used the army I posted, mostly because I am stubborn and liked the idea of it. The great was that there was so many people at the tourney (16) that Dan had to squeeze in another table and there was still 4 people with byes each round. Why is that great you might ask? Because, with the recent economy and the trends of gaming here in Buffalo, I worry for my local gaming store and the fate of local 40k.

I was glad to see so many people and I got to play 2 new players that I never met before. Both were surprisingly named Dan. Not only that, both played Chaos. One played Deamons and one played marines. Both beat me. Then I was randomly selected for a bye the last round. I took pictures and notes of my 2 games and will update that tomorrow.

The questions for the readers is....

How are your local gaming stores doing? how about attendance for gaming nights and tourneys?

And as a challenge to the others on this blog, come on post! I've done 4 of the last 5 posts. Let's get this thing going!!!!!!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

I need gaming partners!!!

So I had a practice game set up for today with one of my best friends. Now I understand things happen, but man do I have the worst luck trying to get in a game. The last 5 or 6 times I have scheduled a gaming day, it's been canceled by the other person. This time it was a surprise test for summer classes announced today for tomorrow. I've also experienced (from other people): back injury, school/paper, called in to work, dad says I need to help on the roof, and of course the AWESOME no call, no show!!! I live in Buffalo, and my closest gaming store is a 30-45 minute drive and they have open gaming on Mondays and Tuesdays, both of which don't work with my/my wife's(only one car) schedule. I have my own gaming board and most of my friends have schedules opposite of mine.

So the question is who lives around Buffalo,NY and wants to play? Anyone else have such problems? I think I need to do that thing in White Dwarf and try to get a local comic store selling GW.

I miss Adventures unleashed SOOOO much. Oh, the golden days. Maybe we need a craigslist for gaming partners.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Blood Angel Tourney army

Well I have a tourney at the local gaming store this Saturday, 2,000 points. I have decided to take my Blood Angels for a last spin before I focus on my allied guard for my Inquisition (another post). I've decided on a quick elite assault force. here's the list

Chaplain Malachi -100
Corbulo - 100
8 Death company (4 bought) - 120
5 Lightning Claw Terminators - 200
5 "tactical" veterans, 3 combi melta's, 2 melta guns, Drop Pod - 200
6th Squad, 5th Company, Power Fist, 3 Plasma Pistols - 320
7th Squad, 5th Company, Power Fist, 3 Plasma Pistols- 320
Vindicator, Dozer Blade, Storm Bolter- 135
Land Raider -250
Land Raider Crusader, Storm Bolter - 255

Total 2,000 points, 44 models, 2-4 Scoring Units, 11-13 Kill Points

The Death Company and Chaplain are in the Land Raider. The Terminators and Corbulo are in the Crusader. The plan is that I deploy the 2 land raiders with the vindicator in between (getting rid of side armour shots). The assault squads will deploy behind cover or come in reserve/deep strike depending on terrain and scenario. The veterans will deep strike with the drop pod and destroy the nastiest vehicle/monster alive when they come in. In objective games, I press as much as possible and everything except the assault squads are expendable. Most practice games I am in close combat second turn. I feel that there is not enough guys, but it has won 80% of it's games, only losing on last minute mistakes I made.

Any comments?

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Crimson Fist Assault Termie WIP 1

Alright,
In my last post I mentioned painting up 30 terminators for the upcoming Planet Strike release... Well, I am almost done with a test model, I should have actually waited til I tidied it up a bit more but hey, I'm impatient sometimes. I will go back soon and touch up the highlights a bit, add either some static grass or other bitz, and perhaps add some washes to the skulls... anyhow, here are the WIP picts..
Left view:

Center view:

Right view: (oh yea whats missing here... a CF logo... coming next time! ha!)


And now for one of my HQ's (which I haven't named yet) Any thoughts folks on a Crimson Fists Terminator Captain name???? ha
Any how, this one still needs even more work but here is my WIP
Left view:

Center view:

Right view:


Comments and suggestions are completely suggested!
-Eric

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The "Chip" - An Introduction

Well, I think I might be the last one to post here. But I have thought a long time about a first Blog. I was at this year's Adepticon and I was in a seminar (which one I don't recall, I had a "Headache"), and it came out that I have the Games Workshop "Chip" in my head. This referenced that I use GW paint, brushes, Spray Primer, I have the hand Flamer. I guess I need to eloborate on my "implant" and how I started gaming.

I made models as a kid and launched rockets with friends in middle school. In high school I started reading comic books (since I didn't get picked on enough for my thick glasses and A.V. nerd status). At the comic store I saw them playing Magic the Gathering, this was right around the time of Arabian Nights. I had a card store open open close to my house and I played there for a while till we outgrew that. Then we went to Adventures Unleashed.

As juniors in high school this place was pretty cool. Lots of room to play in, to rival what jester's has now. Sometimes there was a resturaunt next door to the store. Here we saw Games Workshop for the first time. It was me, Doug, Tom, and Dave Miller (R.I.P.). I started with Fantasy chaos and then moved to 40k with Dark Angels and then Imperial Guard(who played againgst nick's unfinished Angels when they first started). I had my gaming store and I was set. When Nick moved to GW things did not look good. I ended up working there myself 1998-1999. I got let go, but kept going to the store, some would say that was because of the chip, but I think it was loyalty

Working for Brenden was so much fun. I never had an older brother, but I kind of did with him for a while. He really believed in GW and was so enthusiastic about it, and it rubbed off on me. While I was there I got to play 3rd edition like 3 months before it came out. I went to the staff tournemant in Baltimore with Nick and learned Battlefleet Gothic from Robin Dews and Andy Chambers. GW added Gorka Morka and Mordiheim and people still played Necromunda. I bought a Mega Paint Set so I had a GW product for everything I needed.

I kept having people try to get me to play other games but the fiction for 40K is so good. I love the religious overtones of the Imperium and have loved seeing that get further explored in the Horus Heresy books. Every day I look through a codex or paint or play a game.

I got married in 2007 and it has severly changed my gaming habits. My wife and I live in the City of Buffalo and work full time professional jobs. We share one car and the closest gaming store is over 30 minutes away. Going out there is pretty much an all day afair. Because of that I usually go out to a tournament so I can get 3 games in on one day. Plus with a tournament, I use the same army 3 times and I get to try out stuff a few times and see how it works. I am so horrible with money that my wife has me on an allowence so I almost never get to buy models, so tourneys are my way to "gamble" on new models. I usually place, but I have never won, in like 20 times. It is frustrating some times, but I usually win more games than I lose.

I have a company and a half of Blood Angels, 5,000 points of Inquisition, a Pre Heresy World Eaters Army, a small Imperial Guard Contigent and about 6,000 points of Saim Hainn Eldar. I Also have a huge Orcs and Goblins Army I need to sell with alot of old models and fun Night Goblin Conversions I did back in the day. Plus Gorka Morka, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Blood Bowl, and a little Warhammer Quest. I love the GW fiction and am so used to the GW systems that I don't really want to play anything else.


....... Or at least that's what the chip makes me say.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Building a Better City From the Ground Up - Part 1

In my personal brief introduction I talked about aesthetics. The spectacle of the game is one of the most important things to me. As such, city fighting has fantastic opportunities for stunning visuals. One of the principle visual hang ups I have with most city boards is that they don't take into account city blocks and roads. Instead, the board is a haphazard collection of buildings randomly spaced about creating a maze of totally irregular fire lanes. These boards are very suitable for game play but they just don't convey the same feel I get from walking the streets of Chicago.

When I am out and about I think about terrain a lot. I look at the architecture around me and I pick out details that can be translated into the game board. After much analysis I decided that my randomly sized city buildings, however nice, were no longer suitable as they were. I needed to create city blocks. The solution I came up with was movement trays for my buildings. Though I'm actually a lot further along in the process of making these city blocks, I have only really spent the last couple of days detailing out the city block movement trays themselves so I took some step by step photos.
The above picture shows a piece of 1/8" masonite or hardboard cut to 24"x12". My city blocks currently are in 24"x12" and 12"x12" sections to start. To frame in the movement try I have applied strips of 1" wide foam core. You will also notice the 1"x1" gap in this photo. That space was left so that I can later create 1"x1" bases for sign posts, street lamps, statues, and the like.
The next picture is a close up of the sidewalk tiling. I cut 1"x1" squares out of card stock and glued them down. Sidewalks are rarely perfect so every so often I cut the 1" square into 2-3 pieces and glued them down to create cracks in the sidewalk.
This corner is heavily damaged. I actually am running low on foam core so I used some scraps that were not perfect. In beat up older neighborhoods like mine, cement this busted up happens occasionally. In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium where there is only war, I'm sure its the norm. You might notice I threw in some sprue offcuts under the sand.
Another broken section of sidewalk - again with sprue offcuts. Notice how I didn't let the sand extend onto the bare masonite in the center as that would prevent the buildings from sitting flat.
Its the little details that bring a piece of scenery to life. This random piece of plastic I beam that was laying on the table was promptly glued down onto the sidewalk when I saw it sitting there. After it sat for a moment I went back, added a bit more watered down white glue and sprinkled some sand around it.
In one of my terrain boxes I have an old Soy Yogurt cut labeled "dome things". This random plastic "dome" was glued down to represent some sort of waste water access. Again, just a sparse sprinkle of sand was added around it.
Here is a photo of the movement try with it filled with buildings. The fit was a little snug so the two large Chicago style "3 flats" a leaning out. I need to trim the ruined building at the end like 1/16" to take that pressure off. You will notice a couple of rings. Those are man holes. I have another Soy Yogurt cup labeled "ring things" and these metal rings were glued down and then card stock circles were glued into the center of each as covers. Here's the same block shot from the left. The large ruin was a building made before I standardized the bases for the movement trays so I literally glued the hardboard base onto a properly sized pink foam base and added sidewalk tiling to make it seem like the it was actually deliberate.
I don't want to get into the manufacture of the specific buildings in this first part of the article but I wanted to show how each of the building sections is on a semi-standardized base that is then dropped onto the movement tray, allowing for different looking city blocks to be set up each time.In my Chicago neighborhood there are vacant lots interspersed between buildings on most blocks. Some of them are makeshift parks or community gardens and others are just overgrown detritus collectors. Sometimes they are fenced in, sometimes there are walls, and other times they are wide open. This represents what was likely once one of the nicer vacant lots on the block - probably a community garden or tiny park.When placed together you can see how the movement tray creates a more genuine looking city block.
Part 2 will focus on the buildings themselves. I will be using pictures taken on my phone from around the neighborhood and talking about how to keep your buildings varied as well as how to get the most out of your Cities of Death building sets.
Thanks for reading. xNickBaranx

Monday, May 18, 2009

In the grim darkness of the future there is only war...

...but happily, we're not quite into that grim darkness yet. Scott's wife Clare gave birth to a new baby girl Estelle onto Saturday morning. Everyone is healthy and they're back at home now. Congratulations to them!

Now back to your regularly scheduled dystopian future.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Thoughts and Lessons from this Monday's game...

Yesterday, I posted my army list for the first game I played with the new Imperial Guard codex. Nick and I ended up playing a straight forward Annihilation mission, with the Spearhead (table quarters) deployment. Given the number of proxies and unpainted models on the table, we didn't take many pictures. And I was too busy trying to remember all the changes in the new codex to take notes on the game. It went the full seven turns, and was a great, and close, game. At the end of turn 5, we were in a draw. At the end of turn 6, Nick was up by 1 kill point. After turn 7, thanks to Sergeant Domitus and Veteran Squad 5, I was up by two kill points. My apologies for the lack of a thorough battle report, but I did want to talk about some things I learned and changes I plan to make to my army.

  • I am very happy with the veteran squads, and the fact that they're troops is even better. Mounted up in Chimeras and coming on from reserve, they were in perfect position to capture objectives, if it had been an objective based mission. As it was, they were instrumental in killing several squads, and accounted for 4 of my 12 total kill points on their own, mostly due to their flamers, shotguns, and the ability to mount back up in the Chimera and go after a new target.
  • I'm going to have to adapt how I use my command squads. In the past, my senior officer sat back with a lascannon and master vox, while my junior officer took his special weapon toting troopers and went after vehicles or went on suicide missions while his platoon sat back and shot. Given the new order system, I need to make my Company Commander more mobile, and my Platoon Commanders need to stick closer to their platoons. I'm happy with the weapons I gave to my platoon command squad-- now it's just a matter of adjusting how I use them. The company commander, however, will be changed. I'm planning on dropping the lascannon, and giving the Company Command Squad a Chimera. Not only will that make them more mobile and (hopefully) keep them alive a bit longer, it will give a couple more inches to the range of the orders. Which would have been helpfull last night.
  • On a similar note, I need to remember to use the orders. On turn 3, I forgot to issue orders. I don't think it would have made a big difference, but who knows. Later on, Nick's Ork Kommandos outflanked and slaughtered my command squad before I could issue any further orders.  Hence the need for a Chimera mentioned above.
  • Once or twice I missed the 24" range of the plasma guns I used under the old codex, but for the most part, I'm quite happy with switch to melta guns. Especially since they don't kill you when you miss. I still might kit out my platoon command squad with the 3 plasma guns and a medic combo. Have to think about that one...
  • The Leman Russ "Lumbering Behemoth" rule isn't a game breaker, but it was nice. On a couple occasions, a heavy bolter firing after the battle cannon pushed a squad into a leadership test, or finished them off.
  • Now that Hellhounds are fast, they're that much more effective and I might have to find the points to run two of them. However, now you have to be careful not to leave them out there unsupported if they get too far ahead. And for those who are switching to the Banewolf, all I can say is this: Purify the heretic and the xenos not with poison but with flame. Now you all know why I've finished in the middle of the pack at every tournament I've gone to.
  • This isn't so much a new codex specific thought, but more a reminder: Don't count on orders, special characters, or anything else except the basic units you bring to the table and what they're capable of without extra help. The orders may make an infantry squad more effective, but they're not going to drastically change the squad, or the game. Don't expect them to. The same goes for the regimental advisors. The Astropath is great, especially for making sure your reserves arrive early, but don't count on getting the board edge you want. Likewise, the Officer of the Fleet is nice, and I'll be using him again, but don't count on him holding up your opponents reserves for long. Plan your moves as if all your orders will fail, and your opponents reserves will all show up on turn 2, and you won't be caught off guard when things don't go according to plan.
As I play more games with the new codex, I'll post more of my thoughts. In the meantime, I'll be scouring the internet for other Guard players' take on the new codex, and looking for all the meltaguns I suddenly need in this army.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Still more introductions

Hey all,
Well my name is Eric and I am one of the fellow Monday Night Gamers (aka Nerd Night). I guess I will start with a little about my 40k history... My first army was Chaos Undivided that I started right when 3rd edition came out. Was living in a fairly small town outside Seattle at the time and only played with one other person regularly (orks)... he ended up meeting a girl and we played less and less til finally he fell off the map, WITH MY ARMY I MIGHT ADD... (I later found out he ended up selling it on ebay, bastard!) Anyhow, I eventually ended up here is Chicago and decided to try my hand at 40k again, this was during 4th edition and I decided to try a shooty army and went with Tau. I used to play with folks out at HobbyTown in OakPark, as at the time I didn't know anyone here who played, and it was alright... things temporarily weren't working out so well here so headed back to Seattle for a year break and the army went in storage... Moving back to Chicago the second time, I ended up meeting most of the people I play with regularly now. I gotta say its been great having a constant (albeit slightly changing) gaming night/group. I am now currently working on 3 armies... Crimson Fists, Orks, and an UltraMarine Epic army... and that's about enough of that!
Now, here is what is going to be taking up most of my time til July, yea you know what I'm talking about... PlanetStrike! I love it when GW puts out additional supplements that can help one come up with more interesting ways to play the game... The first one I really got into was Cities of Death and that was great, the stratagems were/are a fun way to just help make a battle seem more realistic and also funner to plan and to play. Our friend Nick has been real excited about this upcoming release too and has been building scenery to boot for it (Im hoping he will psot more photos soon!) Anyhow, a while ago I bought a couple Space Marine lots on Ebay and managed to get about 30 old Terminators (of which I've only painted less than half), but since reading that the attacker is going to be allowed ~6 Elite slots, I've decided to go crazy and try and finish them all and another DreadNought. It will be so fun running 30 terminators at once... ha defenders beware!
Here is the start of em!

Here is the start of a recent conversion Im in the midst of working on too...

I am trying my hand at using green stuff more and more. This right arm was a regular storm bolter arm that got cut off and the axe was from a dwarf miniature from adepticon this year. I used green stuff to make the hand and sculpt part of the arm... it looks somewhat good, still along ways to go with it though. Also used green stuff to add the addtional tubing along the axe and arm... once Im happy with the shape will get down to actually painting this one!
Here is the other arm, this one was cut at the elbow joint and then filled with green stuff. Need to file and reshape this one a bit I think.

alright I've rambled on too much perhaps.. So (for the near future anyways) I will probably just be posting battle reports and my Termie progress. Hope you enjoy and as always would love comments etc.
-E

First Game with new Imperial Guard Codex

In a few hours, I’ll be playing my first game with the new Imperial Guard codex. I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about how I’m changing my army for the new codex. Because I’m such a fan of fluff/background, I’ll post more about the background and history of the Varrian 10th and how that influences my army selection at another time. For the purposes of this article, here’s a fairly typical list of mine from the old codex.

 HQ:

Command Squad

Junior Officer with Honorifica Imperialis, Iron Discipline

Heavy weapons team with lascannon

Plasma Gun

Master Vox

Sharpshooters

 

ELITES:

2 x Veteran Squad: Sgt with plasma pistol, 2 melta guns, flamer, 2 Vets with shotguns

 

TROOPS:

2x Platoon

Command Squad-- Junior Officer, lascannon, Sharpshooters

1st Squad-- Plasma gun, vox caster, Sharpshooters

2nd Squad—Heavy bolter, plasma gun, vox caster, Sharpshooters

 

2x Armoured Fist Squad—vox caster, flamer, Sharpshooters, Chimera APC with multi-laser, heavy bolter, smoke

 

FAST ATTACK

2 x Hellhound with hull heavy bolter, smoke

 

HEAVY SUPPORT

2x Demolishers with Hull lascannon

or

2x Leman Russ with Hull heavy bolter and heavy bolter sponsons

 

This formed the basis of almost every list I ran under the old codex. For more points, a Basilisk, mortar support squads or lascannon support squads could be added. To save points, I could drop the Veterans or the Hellhounds. As you can see, I’m a big fan of redundancy. If something goes down, I want to know I have the exact same thing available to fill its role.

 

Since the new Guard codex hit, I’ve been dreaming up new lists and messing with points totals. For my 1500 point game with Nick tonight, here’s the list I’m going with:

 

HQ:

Colonel Varl Paulus (counts as Lord Castellan Creed)

Vox caster, Veteran Weapons Team with lascannon, Two bodyguards, Astropath, Officer of the Fleet

 

TROOPS:

17th Platoon Command Squad

Platoon Commander (Lt. Tonius) with power weapon, vox caster, 3 melta guns

Squad 17/1—vox caster, melta gun

Squad 17/2—vox caster, melta gun

Squad 17/3—vox caster, melta gun

Squad 17/4—Heavy Weapon Squad with Missile launchers

Squad 17/5—Heavy Weapon Squad with Lascannons

 

Veteran Squad 9—vox caster, 2 melta guns, flamer, shotguns, Chimera APC with multi-laser, heavy bolter, smoke

Veteran Squad 5—vox caster, 2 melta guns, flamer, shotguns, Chimera APC with multi-laser, heavy bolter, smoke

 

FAST ATTACK

Hellhound with hull heavy bolter, smoke

 

HEAVY SUPPORT

2x Leman Russ with Hull heavy bolter and heavy bolter sponsons

 By necessity, this list is based on models I already have. All I'll be proxying is a few melta guns and the Astropath and Officer of the Fleet. We’ll see how it works. I’m excited. I have plenty of melta and lascannons to bring down vehicles or Marines. If Nick brings his Orks, The Hellhound and Leman Russes should bring down the horde, while orders should help my infantry platoon stick around and make their lasguns more effective. Given the consolidation of heavy weapons into Heavy Weapons Squads, my infantry squads are more mobile than ever, and should be able to set up an excellent firebase, screening the heavy weapons squads and Company Commander, before moving out to grab objectives the last two or three turns.

Down the road, as money and time allow me to pick up and paint new units, we’ll see more changes, while keeping the basic character of the 10th intact. Reading the new codex, I see the capability to form a highly effective “Hammer and Anvil” army. Infantry platoons, anchored with Creed and Heavy Weapons Squads, form the anvil, while the armour and more mobile units in Chimeras or Valkyries form the hammer. 

I plan to build a new command squad, and run a Company Commander (Major Caius) along side Paulus/Creed.  Major Caius and the Veterans will be mounted in Valkyries. Veterans have always played in a big role in the Varrian 10th, and though I miss their ability to infiltrate, I'm very happy they're now troops and I will keep using them. Adding a couple squads of Storm Troopers is also a definite possibility, in which case they could ride in the Valkyrie and the Veterans keep their Chimeras. Aside from the obvious tactical advantages, the story possibilities that come with Major Caius leading his Veterans or Storm Troopers in an airborne assault are just too good to pass up.

If you made it all the way through my lengthy ramblings, thanks. Hope you found it useful.

 

 

Introduction and Update

Hello all, This is Scott. You may know me from my blog, Citizen Nick Hobby center (not to be confused with xNICKBARANx, who also posts here).

For those of you who don't know me, I started blogging back in 2006 when I started my Thousand Sons Project. In 2007, I switched to my Blog at Citizen Nick Hobby center. Here is a sample of my Thousand Sons:




My progress on my Thousand Sons has been slow, but in now way purposeful (yes, I went there). Over the last three years I've been distracted by a lot of projects, including my 'vanilla' Chaos Space marines and my Daemons.

This year I decided to narrow my focus as much as possible and work on only one project at a time. Since I have so many partly completed projects, this has been working out quite well for me. I also decided to concentrate only on my daemons for this whole year.

In fact, I just finished this unit of Bloodletters this weekend (not all of them are pictured):




I'm definitely more of a painter than a player. I've been trying to slowly improve. Since I started playing my daemons, I've gone from mostly losses to mostly draws, so I guess that's an improvement.

Next on the painting queue are my Tzeentch flamers. Below is the test model I did nearly a year ago. I have ten of these in a partially painted stage, but I decided to paint only five at a time. I feel that I get a lot more done if I take it in smaller chunks.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The GW Hobby is One of Aesthetics

I am a hobby snob. It was alluded to in Chad's introduction that much to my chagrin, he only paints to a gaming standard. Its true. My allure to the GW Hobby really stems from the visual aspect. I can get my ass handed to me in a game and its a bit of a bummer, but what's most important to me is, "Did the battle look good?" I beat myself up over unpainted models. I can't stand when the scenery doesn't look like it represents anything. I cringe at every book or pile of dice in the center of the playing area. I want that battlefield to come to life. I want the game to tell a story even without pre-planning.

That isn't to say I don't like the other aspects of the hobby - I like them all. I write background, plot campaigns, tinker with rules, etc. I see myself as fully immersed. My weakest point is actually in my game play.

Over the coming months I'm sure I'll write articles on every part of the whole that is the GW Hobby - except tactics. In the meantime here's a smattering of my armies and scenery. You can check out more of my work at http://redemptorsofgolinar.blogspot.com

Monday, May 4, 2009

Securing Irodu

It's my pleasure to present the first real post on 2nd City Warzone. This is a story based on a game on Nick, Eric, and I played on Monday, 4/27. It was my last game played with the old Imperial Guard Codex. Nick set up the board and found a scenario to take advantage of the setup. It ended up being a pretty classic match up: My Varrian 10th and Eric's Crimson Fists against Nick's Orks. For more detailed info on the game, and pictures, you can go to Nick's blog, Redemptors of Golinar .

I hope you enjoy the story. Comments and critiques are appreciated!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Major Erich Caius of the Varrian 10th took a moment to make the sign of the Aquilla as he passed the ruined chapel. The Crimson Fists had pushed the Orks out of the town with impressive speed, and now the 10th had arrived to hold the city of Irodu and support further advances as the forces of the Imperium cleansed this planet of the Orks infesting it. The 10th had disembarked from their troopships earlier that morning, and while a base was established in the center of town, Caius was leading two platoons to secure the north gate. A contingent of the Crimson Fists accompanied the guardsmen, their plans and objectives a mystery to the Major.
Caius passed underneath a pedestrian bridge, and the north gate came into view. A massive wall rose above the city, running east to west and pierced by a tunnel through which ran the road Caius currently stood on. At each end of the wall stood what had once been a large watch building, but was now little more than rubble with a few walls still standing. Already, guardsmen of the 10th were taking up positions in those buildings as their comrades moved up behind them. To Caius’ right moved the Crimson Fists, following a road parallel to the one he stood on and ensuring that the buildings they passed were truly clear of the greenskin filth. Two Demolishers passed under the bridge and moved up on Caius’ left, as squads of Guardsmen advanced along side them. Caius prepared to move up, when the master vox carried by Trooper Corus crackled into life.
“Squad 17/1 to command, Orks are massing at the city limits. Do you copy? Repeat, Orks massing and advancing at the city limits. Do you copy?”
Corus had barely turned when Caius took the vox horn and responded. “Copy, 17/1. We are reforming behind you. Hold the line.”
“Copy, Command.” Before the vox signal cut off, Caius heard the distinctive sound of bayonets being fixed, and a curt order to “Kill them all…”
“Caius to battlegroup, we have enemy contact. Squads 17/1 and 42/1, hold your current positions. The rest of you, find cover and firing lines on the gate entrance. We hold them at the bridge. The Emperor protects.”
A new voice came in over the vox as the Crimson Fists joined in. “We will hold the right flank, Major. In the name of the Emperor, kill anything coming through that gate.” Major Caius responded, and his words were echoed up and down the Varrian 10th line. “The Emperor protects…”

The Imperial forces had barely gained cover when a hideous screech signaled an Ork artillery assault. Despite the noise, and the dirt and rubble thrown up by the explosions, there were few casualties. As the dust settled, the firing started. Sergeant Severus of 17/1 cursed his men into action, and las fire lashed out of the ruins at the oncoming Orks. The strangely small xenos fell, and their advance faltered, until the largest of the oncoming group smashed one of his charges into the ground and the rest decided they would rather face the Guardsmen than their leader. More intimidating than the oncoming xenos, though, was the massive shape looming to their right, advancing into the gate tunnel.
Caius bit off a curse as the first of the Ork vehicles came into sight. Two smaller and faster vehicles turned off before entering the gate, content to allow the massive wagon behind them to force the gate entrance. Glancing at the lascannon one of his adjutants was manning, Caius spoke. “Cato, do me a favor and kill that thing!” Not bothering to respond, Trooper Cato sighted, fired, and a white bolt from his lascannon slammed into the Ork construct. It exploded, and a cheer rose up from the Varrian 10th. Cheers faded, however, as through the smoke could be seen a few dead bodies and many more live Orks climbing from the wreckage. Orders rang out along the line, and the 10th opened fire. Heavy bolters mowed down more Orks, and each Demolisher put a shell into the gate opening. The Crimson Fists added their fire to that of the Varrian 10th. Another Ork vehicle exploded, and a few more of the xenos fell.
Despite the weight of fire, the Orks came on. They poured through the gate, to be met with torrents of las and heavy bolter fire. The last visible Ork fell just short of the Imperial lines, his body joining many others piled in the gate. As the firing ceased, cries could be heard. Triumphant shouts from the right flank, where Sergeant Severus and Squad 17/1 had turned back the grots and their leader, gave way to cries of dismay as a crude Ork Trukk smashed it’s way through a ruin on the right flank, and two large squads of Orks appeared out of nowhere behind the Imperials. Turning, Caius caught sight of the two groups. At the center of each was a strange Ork, brandishing a staff and cackling madly.
Once more, the Crimson Fists broke into the Varrian 10th vox network. “Major, take down the enemy on our right rear. Our battle brothers will deal with the other group shortly.”
“Caius to battlegroup. Squads 17/1 and 42/1, move to the right flank and bring down the bastards in that truck. All other units fall back to the pedestrian bridge and give the xenos hell!”
“Xenos flying machines, coming over the gate!” Lieutenant Tonius of 17th Platoon broke in. “Opening fire…” A krak missile lashed out from the 17th’s command squad, and one of the machines turned into a fiery ball. “One Down. Three machines remain. Displacing to pedestrian bridge.”
As the Varrian 10th fell back, Caius watched as Squad 17/1 raced to join 42/1 and reinforce the right flank. With a shriek, the Ork flying machines raced over the ruined buildings, throwing something at 42/1 as they went. A second later, further explosions rocked the battlefield, and 42/1 reported casualties over the box. “Three men down, sir. We are holding here. Orks incoming.”
Firing erupted at the rear of the Imperial lines, and as the guardsmen mounted the bridge and searched for targets, additional Crimson Fist marines arrived, moving into the battle. Several Orks fell to their fire, and as the guardsmen looked on the Fists charged into the Orks and wiped them out. The Ork leader was the last to fall, his staff crackling with strange energy as he flailed at the marines before a marine bearing a power sword took his head.
The left flank was now secure, but fire and screams echoed from the right flank as the Orks forced their way into the city and exchanged fire with the Crimson Fists and Guardsmen. Caius winced as reports of more casualties from 42/1 came in, but slowly the Orks fell to the combined fire power of the marines and Guardsmen. Crimson Fist Devastators brought down the remainder of the flying machines, and multiple squads of the Varrian 10th joined the Crimson Fist veterans as they closed in on the last remaining Orks, who had found cover in the same ruined chapel Caius had paused in before the battle.
As the guardsmen prepared to open fire, flame suddenly splashed one end of the pedestrian bridge. Having overwhelmed a squad of Crimson Fists, camouflaged Orks sprang from a rubble choked alley. The first volley of pistol shots and flamers killed several guardsmen, Trooper Corus dropping his vox caster as he fell to the ground, his chest blown open. The Orks charged, and more guardsmen fell to their crude weapons. Caius swept his chainsword up to meet them, and with a strike that took all of his strength cut one of the beasts down. Before he could give voice to his triumph, an Ork axe crashed into his side and threw him to the ground. His last sight before loosing consciousness was of las fire and heavy bolter tracer fire crossing overhead and slamming into the attacking Orks.

Hours later, Erich Caius awoke on a cot in a makeshift medical center which had been set up in an abandoned Adeptus Mechanicus building. Waving off the medics who attempted to force him back down, he sat up and returned the salute of the approaching Lieutenant Tonius. “Good to see you up and around sir. We thought that last bunch of Orks had gotten you.”
“I’ve survived worse than that. You remember Andelon… at least here our allies stayed for the fight.”
“I do indeed sir. I’ve got the scars to prove it.”
“Enough of the past. What’s our status here?”
“We're dug in just outside the city wall and in the gate tunnel. We were able to turn that Ork vehicle Cato brought down into some effective barricades. They won’t be getting back in easily. Prepared positions within the city, so we have somewhere to fall back to. Mortars and basilisks are pre-sited. If they come back, sir, we’ll hurt them again.”
“And the Crimson Fists?”
“No idea, Major. As soon as the last of the Orks were dead, they formed up and moved out. Headed to the northwest, but didn’t tell us their objective or their plan.”
“Nothing new there, then. Thank you Tonius. And my compliments and thanks to the men. They did well today. Get me Colonel Paulus on the vox, and detail someone to be my vox operator. I’ll need to replace Corus.”
“Aye sir. I’ll have Trooper Bertrand here momentarily.”

As Tonius saluted and walked away, Caius touched his bandaged wounds and silently mourned Corus. A small Ork force had almost forced their way back into the city, and Emperor knew there were many more out there. This planet would get much bloodier, and more of the Varrian 10th would die, before it was returned to the rightful control of the Imperium.

Introduction...

Given that Scott took the initiative to get this blog up and running, I thought I should take the next step and actually post something to it. First, though, introductions are in order so you have some idea of who's typing at you. I have been a part of the Monday night gaming group (affectionately referred to as Nerd Night) for almost three years now. I have been playing Warhammer 40k off and on since 1998, but didn't play regularly until moving to Chicago and joining the Nerd Night group.

After dabbling with Marines both Loyalist and Chaos over the years, I now play Imperial Guard, and have fallen in love with the Hammer of the Emperor. I have founded the 10th Varrian Regiment, fielding it as a fairly straight forward guard army based on combined arms tactics. I am incredibly excited about the new Imperial Guard codex, and am feverishly modifying my army to fit the new codex. Not to mention dropping too much money on new models.

Aside from the ongoing expansion of the Varrian 10th, I have a new project: the White Scars 5th Company. I hope to track my progress on the White Scars on this blog, as well as the process of adapting and expanding the Varrian 10th.

What can you expect from me on this blog? My love of 40k stems from playing the game, and the incredible background Games Workshop has created. Much to the chagrin of my friend Nick, once my models are up to a table top standard, I'm done with them. So, I will leave the painting and modelling advice and articles to others. From me, you can mostly expect my thoughts on army building, battle reports, and fiction. I'll be posting the first of said fiction shortly.

I'm hoping this blog will become a place to record the campaigns, stories, battles, and tips that come out of our Monday night group. If that appeals to others and you decide to come back, even better. Thanks for reading,

Chad

Friday, May 1, 2009

Welcome to 2nd City Warzone

Hello and welcome to 2nd City Warzone.

This blog is born out a group of gamers that meet every Monday to play Warhammer 40,000. Some of us were already bloggers and some other members just wanted to post once in a while without the pressure of fully maintaining a blog.

Therefore, we decided to join forces and create one group blog. We're not really sure at this point what this blog will look like. It will certainly contain lots of pictures of miniatures and scenery. We'll probably have a lot of game reports and maybe some fiction.

Stay tuned.


-Scott (CitizenNick)