Mixed Musings of the Weekend

Wow! MonuMENTAL weekend!
Loads of beer and kebab.
Loads of Gaming? Not quite, but it was our first sortie into an unknown place, and I think it worked out ok in the end.

My first game was a bit of a classic tussle as the Necromundan 10th took on elements of the Black Legion.
It was 1500 points per side, and here's a rough idea of what I chose:
HQ
Company command squad, including medic and vox caster with regimental standard. Ialso kitted them out with carapace armour for a little survivability.
Ministorum Preacher with las pistol, chainsword and rosarius.
Elites
Ratling Snipers squad.
Troops
Infantry platoon with las cannon heavy weapon squad, 3 commissars, heavy bolter, autocannon 2 melta guns and a plasma gun. (Platoon command and 2 squads, plus heavy weapon squad). The 2 infantry squads I also stuck in chimeras, just for that element of extra punch from armour.
Fast Attack
Armoured sentinel
Hellhound tank
Heavy Support
Leman Russ
All came in at 1500 points! For guard armies, you always get plenty of troops for your points!

My opponent, a buddy of Nick and Dom's called Kieran, fielded the following (apologies to Kieran if it's spelt wrong!)
HQ
Kharn the Betrayer
Greater Daemon (Bloodthirster Model, but not used as one)
Elites
2 Dreadnoughts
Troops
Chaos Space Marine Squad
Thousands Sons Squad
Heavy Support
Defiler
2 squads of 4 obliterators

From the battles supplement we picked a scenario that used control of objectives to determine the winner, and we had 5 to scrap over!

As an experienced chaos player from the days before yore, I knew that my trusty guard were in for a tough scrap, and that assaults were going to be brief, bloody and bad for my guys!
Deployment was easy for the guard. I positioned my objectives and set up a classic "firing line" with chimeras in the centre and on my left flank the leman russ. The right flank was occupied by both the hellhound and the sentinel. My plan was simple- shot the enemy to pieces before I got cut to shreds in assault, unless I could be assured of victory in an assault, I wouldn't be risking one.
Kieran set up his army with the dreadnoughts in the centre, Kharn and the chaos marines on his right flank and the thousand sons on the right flank. The defiler placed behind the dreadnoughts and the obliterators in reserve to deep strike (gulp).
I had a bad feeling in my guts about this, but I had trust in my troops, and knew that my heavy weapons teams would be busy...

The game flew by in a flurry of turns, and I don't recall too much of the detail (that could be a beer related memory failure...)
I do recall that my leman russ fired its battle cannon relentlessly, accounting for all but one of the chaos space marines and took out Kharn himself! Mind you, slaying the betrayer cost me the tank itself, which was a hard thing to bear for such a remarkable bit of tankmanship...
My snipers also caused some grief for the thousand sons and attracted considerable fire from the chaos units, allowing me to cause more mayhem with my guard squads.
The hellhound tank also served the emperor well, slaying a greater daemon and several thousand sons marines!
I think the units that did the least were probably my guard infantry squads, whose lasguns had little or no use against the armour facing them.
I hopefully used the guard orders rules to good effect too and it was good to see that the guard are now more balanced thanks to the new rules in the codex.
I was nearly undone by the obliterators, who used deep strike to appear directly behind my firing line and began cutting me to shreds in short order. Kudos to Kieran for good use of those guys!
The game finished with evidence of my costly error!
My army was way more intact than kieran's, but I only controlled 1 objective, as did Kieran. I actually left one objective to launch a suicidal counter- attack the obliterators! With one turn left!
So the game finished with 1 objective a piece, 2 contested and one left all alone (nice one Deano, what a dufus!!).
Great game though, which swung in every conceivable direction until the final, and I think fairest conclusion.
Both sides made tactical errors, and a few dodgy judgement calls at critical times by both of us nearly cost us the game!
I was really impressed with the way the guard performed overall though. They were a bit static, true, but the withering hail of lasgun and heavy weapon fire really did take its toll, particularly with effective fire from the vehicles.
I felt that Kieran may have tried to slug it out toe to toe with my guardsmen with firepower. His firepower was effective, but if his troops had advanced as well as fired it may have been a different outcome. Saying that, he only had two scoring units on the board with his marines so his best hopes lay in the attack of the obliterators to contest objectives and his dreadnoughts mowing down guardsmen.
Hopefully we both took a lot from the game in terms of tactical development. Nice one Kieran!

Saturday
Saturday consisted of me going BLEUGH a lot and being jaded and miserable. This was mainly due to the beer the night before, the poor diet (lack of food) and the crud night's sleep I had. I was also hearing all about the special characters from the Blood Angels Codex and the Space Wolf codex, and noticing that the Chaos Codex had nothing even remotely comparable ( more of that later).
The day started off with a good ole game of space hulk against Liam, Dom's li'l bro!
The game was the first scenario, with the simple (!) task of of reaching a room and flaming it. Oh wait, I forgot about the zoggin genestealers!
It wasn't too difficult though. With extensive use of overwatch on the corridors, I cut off possible lines of assault and cut swathes of stealers down with precise storm bolter fire. Sweet!
A win for the marines on the hulk!

Last business for the weekend was the Apocalypse game.
I will admit I got a right monk on when all the special characters started hampering the special abilities of my leaders and my troops capabilities of deep striking. It was really frustrating as I simply couldn't even get involved in the game, and it seemed as though whatever I tried to do in the game, there was a special character with a special rule that either slowed me down, prevented me from doing something or simply wiped the floor with me.
The chaos codex was failing me, BADLY, and the Games workshop staff seemed to be favoring the Blood Angels chapter a little too much for my liking.

I remember commenting halfway through the battle that there was no way I could win the game.
I was told it wasn't the right attitude, and to an extent that's true. However, the game seemed very VERY one sided towards the Blood Angels, and the only person at fault was the Games Workshop Blood Angels ass kissers.

Now, I'll take nothing away from a game where my troops cannot do anything except drop like flies. And I was determined that the only way I would ever make any progress from the game was to hit the special characters with everything I had. So I did, and with help from Liam's Salamanders we began to make progress. But it was too little too late, as the marines of the space wolves and blood angels simply swept my chaos troops aside with yet more special abilities and firepower that I simply could never hope to match.
That's right- MORE special characters, MORE special rules and ALL Blood Angels!

We nearly salvaged a draw in the end, thanks to late arrivals from deep strike troops (by luck) and daemons, but were undone by time more than anything. I still believe though that it was a game that was nigh on impossible to win from the outset, and it was all due to the inconsistency of GW to create forces that square off against one another to give truly exciting, gripping and fulfilling games.

Aftermusings
I'll take very little positives from the last game, but all credit to Dom, I really do mean it. He knew his characters were hard, he knew his codex was meaty, and he played his army to its strengths. Just like I would do, and have done in the past. His plan was coordinated well with Nick's and they took the fight to me. I pretty much gave up on the game early on and should really have just conceded to allow us to play better smaller games until clear up time, instead of enforcing a foul mood on proceedings. Apologies to all for that, I was a gimp and it was out of character. Next time I will concede to allow for small games to be played rather than spoil what should have been the climax to an awesome weekend. BE WARNED!!!

I also tried to make the best of a dire situation, and several of my squads in play managed to give a good account of themselves in the end.
The Space Wolves were also a major thorn in my side with special rules to prevent and hinder deep striking from their psykers, not to mention loads of land raiders!

THE ULTIMATE RANT OF A MAD B****RD
The game left me hating the chaos codex. It's crap. Abaddon no longer has any shooting abilities despite the Talon of Horus (traditionally speaking) being a lightning claw with a twin linked bolter on the back, and his sword being a daemon weapon. Now the whole shebang counts as a daemon weapon. Yes it confers strength and power weapon abilities on him, and gives him bonus attacks, but that's it that's what the sword did in the previous edition. His profile isn't that awesome any more and the only thing he kept from last edition was his 4+ inv save. Utter poop.
There are numerous other problems too. Daemons are now generic for the codex, so in order to have deity specific daemons, you must purchase the daemons codex and add them as allies. PANTS.
You want a small squad with just a heavy weapon? Not possible for troops choices any more. Now you have to have 10 models to achieve that, so gone are the days of small tactical fire support squads of 5.
Fast attack? Only 2 options (you can't count spawn as fast attack, they aren't fast- that's a clue GAMES WORKSHOP) and although I love my bikers ( I do, honest) and think raptors would be cool in my army, there is nothing else to add. What happened to furies?
Heavy support? Finally some good news! Vindicators have been added! And defilers have fleet of foot rule. Obliterators are cheap for the points too.
There the good news ends, especially if you like to play Iron Warriors. No Basilisks. Obliterator weapons have been cut right down.
You can no longer field armies that are power specific, like death guard, without fielding generic tat that doesn't fit. My Death Guard Terminators aren't plague marines any more. They are vanilla chaos terminators with a nurgle icon. PANTS. If you want plague daemons- can't have em without using codex chaos daemons. PANTS.
The old codex allowed for all of this. With fewer pages, better wargear and even advice on how to build deity specific armies.
The new codex has robbed me of £15, wasted all my (MANY) years of carefully selecting and modelling my own "perfect force" with great conversions agonised over and then even let me down in battle. I feel genuinely cheated on every level. Especially when I come up against opponents in a large battle with equal points values and find that the balance is anything but even. ROBBED, CHEATED and then INSULTED.

I am building a new force now, and that means going into GW Plymouth to make purchases. I hope the staff are ready, coz I am one disgruntled Chaos Player.
It was at least comforting to see I am not alone. Dark Angels Codex, when compared to codex space marines is apparently no different. ROBBED CHEATED and then INSULTED.

I am also permanently put off from playing apocalypse games. Too many points, unbalanced forces and not enough time. The special rules sections in the book are confusing and pointless, and unless you have divisions of troops and specialist war machines and tanks, it seems pointless playing.
I was told that the chaos armies really do well in tournaments. Perhaps that's something to do with no special characters...? It's the only way the playing field is truly level.
Positives:
I have looked at planet strike, and I liked that- mainly because time has been spent making sure forces are balanced, which makes for excellent gaming, and the battle report looked like a fun day of gaming.

So, rant over. Conclusions?
Chaos CODEX- shite
Blood Angels Codex-Special Characters are TOO GOOD (game spoiling)
Apocalypse Games- STOOPID
Guard- Great (finally)
Space Hulk- same as its always been- good fun to play for an hour, any longer and it just drags.
Planet strike?- Looks promising
Cities of Death- I'll have to wait and see on that score.

Apologies for seeming miffed folks, but at least this musing is honest, which I will always try to be.

IN THE END
Massive thanks to Nick, Dom, Liam, Kieran and Rory for coming over and joining in. I really hope you had a good time and next time will be better. I will be reluctant to partake in any apocalypse games though and need SERIOUS convincing...
EVEN MORE MASSIVE THANKS to the long suffering WAGS of the gaming fraternity, who allowed grown men to play soldiers for a weekend whilst they watched carefully over their respective broods.
EQUALLY MASSIVE THANKS to the committee who allowed us use of the venue, without all these things coming together, the weekend would never have been possible, and another thanks for Nick- Bl0ke it was great to get together again and just do our shit. Brought back fab memories of yesteryear and brought hope of good times (and beer) to come. Top job on getting the venue authorised.

Remember, Dom and Nick also have their own blog thingys running. Check em out for pics and their take on the weekend (hopefully it aint so negative as mine was on the apocalypse front)