Many moons ago I used to play a lot (and I mean A LOT) of tabletop wargames, Warhammer 40,000 being the main one. I have a love-hate relationship with Games Workershop because of how much the hobby costs. It seemed like every few years, a new edition of the game came out, thus my codex would become obsolete and I would need a new one. I don’t mind that per se as I understand a gaming company needs to make money. What pissed me off (and continues to piss me off) is that in publishing new codexes, Games Workshop makes my models obsolete…thus requiring me to spend more money on models. Which, again, wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the insane mark up on molded pieces of plastic. But we keep sending them money because this game is plastic crack and we want the next biggest and baddest model/unit for our armies.
Anyway, I rage quit almost 20 years ago because of the cost of the game. I sold everything I had. Then I got back into the game about 10 years ago and picked up a ton of stuff on Ebay and Cragislist. I saved a bunch of money doing that. I got sick of the game again and stopped playing about three years ago. Well…my close friends picked up the 9ed of the game and talked me into playing. I have vowed not to spend any more money on this hobby, other than picking up the new Thousand Sons Codex when it comes out…
…and maybe a miniature or two to round out my army…
God Damn it. It’s starting, isn’t it?
On Saturday, I played a friendly game of Space Wolves versus Thousand Sons with one of my closest friends. He is great to play games with because he never loses sight of the spirit of the game. We are here to have fun. That being said, he is very competitive. So playing against him is always a challenge. The game started well for me initially. But I got tabled by the last round. Ugh…
We were using a mission from the Crusade/Narrative play rules. Basically a scout patrol type mission where you had to reconnoitre each quadrant of the table for victory points. There were also objective markers that required you to sit on to get more victory points. At least half of your army was required to stay in reserve. My plan was simple. Use the Vindicator and my Rubric Marines to sweep around the central piece of terrain and immediately put pressure on the Space Wolves’ starting location. If I could get all 4 corners reconnoitered and keep him from doing the same, I would have at least 45 victory points by the end of the game. Sadly, despite my best efforts to take out his long fangs, they popped my Vindicator at the end of round 1. I spent the rest of the game trying to hold off the Space Wolf advance!
By round three, my 10-man unit of Rubric Marines armed with Warp Flamers made it on the board. I have them embarked on a rhino. They came in as two space wolf squads were coming in on my right flank. These were primaris marines. (I think primaris marines are dumb, btw. But GW has to make its money, right!). My friend was blown away by how effective the warp flamers were. I rolled 9d6 for the number of automatic hits. I got a 4+ to wound, but the AP value is a solid -2. I took out one of his units and pushed them off an objective. Then his mounted wolf lord and the other unit decided to charge. Using a strategem, I overwatched with the flamers and I almost took out his lord. *sigh* After the devastating assault, I lost every. single. attrition test. My right flank collapsed. *heavy sigh*
My left flank which I thought was lost because of the loss of the vindicator actually opened up. My buddy teleported in his terminators and I bombarded them with psychic abilities and took them out with the help of my helbrute that came in on round three. Also, a 5-man unit of rubric marines managed to weather all kinds of enemy fire up until round four, allowing me to take an objective for at least one round. Alas, by round 5 my lord, an Exalted Sorcerer, was taken out, as was the rest of my army. My spawn were squishy and didn’t do much. I think against a non-melee foe, they will be more effective. Considering we are using narrative play rules, I will probably use my requisition points to increase my army size so I have a bit more versatility when playing my next game.
I dominated the psychic phase this entire game. I had so much fun every time the psychic phase came around. I used my strategems to swap out psychic abilities, cast additional psychic abilities, and deny the witch like crazy. I also picked up an arcana for my warlord, Helm of the Third Eye, which allows me a 5+ chance to pick up a command point every time my opponent uses a command point. I can’t wait to play again now that I have a better idea of how the 9th Edition is supposed to play out.
Duncan…I am not.
Lord Matteus' Ancient Tomes and Wondrous Items 
Cool. Thought I would have the patience for all that painting after so many years. Nope.
Hahaha. I used to enjoy the painting. I was never any good at it but I was adequate. Now I just don’t have the time. The game is fun if you have the time…back in the day you can do a fairly sizeable game in about 4 hours. With the complexity of the rules the same size armies would take you most of the day…ugh…