Necrons vs Sisters 10 Feb

Wednesday night was the 6th (and last) normal week of our San Diego League. As usual Shane (the League Coordinator) came up with a challenging setup: Warp Storm.
The game length was a mandatory 7 turns. Each turn the Warp visited the battle field with various situations. The mission was a standard "Take and Hold" (2 objectives). Setup was "Pitched Battle" using the 2 long edges. Terrain was various ruins and hills (counted as difficult terrain), however the center no-mans-land had to have 2 large features that completely block line of sight. I was pitted againt Felix and his excellent Necrons.
DEPLOYMENT:
I won the roll off and chose to go second. Felix placed his objective in a ruin in his zone on me left. He then set a 14 Cron Warrior Squad around the objective to hold it. Moving towards the center he placed two 15 Cron Warrior Squads with a Res-Orb Lord attaching himself to 1 of them. A Monolith provided portable cover for 10 Pariahs and a Deceiver. 3 Destroyers and a Tomb Spider rounded out his force.
I set my objective in a ruin on my right and used Combined Squad on the Boys. The 30 man Platoon setup with the objective along with the Platoon Command Squad. The 20 man Platoon and its Command setup in a ruin in the center of my zone. Immolators and Rhinos setup using the LoS blocking terrain as cover. Exorcists positioned themselves to hit the Monolith.
Felix then used redeployment to move the Destroyers into a firing position on one of the Exorcists but then muffed his next roll and decided to keep the Deceiver where SHE was (I kept referring to the Deceiver in the feminine and Felix kept insisting it was a man...to which I said I have seen Harlequins manlier than that...all in good fun).

TURN 1:
Warp Storm Bombardment. Roll a D6 for each unit on the table. On a "6" the unit suffers D6 S5, AP4 pinning hits. Vehicles are automatically Stunned.
I popped a single Cron while Felix Stunned 2 of my Exorcists (dice hate me).
Felix moved the Monolith forward withe Pariahs and Deceiver following. The Spider jumped up on a hill and promptly became a mommy (5 wounds now). The 2 Warrior squads in the open move over towards his objective. The Destroyers and the Monolith proceeded to shot one of the Stunned Exorcists, but only managed to Stun it some more.
I moved a parking lot of 2 Immolators and 2 Rhinos up against the left LoS feature and the other Immolator up to the right hand one. After lots of AutoCannon shots and the 1 Exorcist I managed to pop 6 Cron Warriors.

TURN 2:
Warp Storm: ALL dice may be rerolled. All Psykers suffer a Perils of the Warp.
Felix failed 4 Be Back rolls...but gets to reroll those dice and saves 3 more...all last turns shooting for 1 dead robot. The Monolith stays put as the Pariahs and Deceiver come out from behind. Looks like he plans to assault the vehicles with the Deceiver hoping to kill them and force the Girls out...only to be Assaulted that turn by the Pariahs. The Warriors continue to move towards his objective. He's going defensive in the Left corner. After much shooting with the Destroyers and Monolith (rerolling all misses and damage) I end up with a dead Exorcist.
I move 2 Immolators and 1 Rhino into deeper cover. The 2nd Rhino starts and end-around on the terrain to setup on the Spider. At the end of my shooting the 3 Destroyers are dead as are 4 more Warriors.

TURN 3:
Warp Storm: All non-vehicle units go to ground. Armor saves are reduced by 1 (ie Marines are now 4+). Felix makes no moves with the Monolith and his shots are ineffective. He does save 3 of the Warriors. I move my Immolators to box the Pariahs and move up a Rhino to add Storm Bolter shots too. The 3rd Immolator moves in to hit one of the Warrior Squads.
With multiple Twin-Link Flame and Storm Bolters the Pariahs are reduced to 2 men. The 2nd Rhino shoots the Spider, causing the babies a single wound. The Warrior Squad soaks up the flame from Immolator #3 and make every save. At this rate I know a Phase out wont be happening.

TURN 4:
Warp Storm: All Vehicles suffer Immobilized and Stunned results (Squadrons are not destroyed). All vehicle Armor values are reduced by 1.
Felix moves his Pariahs towards an Immolator while the Deceiver moves towards the other one. The Warriors line up to shoot the 3rd Immolator. Due to Monolith rules he gets to shoot and the Lith kills the Immolator next to the Pariahs. Uh Oh!!! The Girls jump out into the cover that was next to the vehicle. The Deceiver kills the second Immolator (pen-6) and the surviving Girls (and Cannoness) hang out in the wreckage. The Warriors provide 2 weapon destroyed and an Immobilize glance hits and kill the 3rd Immolator. His Pariahs fail the assault (snake eyes).
Time for Lady Love...Promethium style. All the girls do minor repositioning and get out of the vehicles (the 2 remaining Rhinos). The last 2 Pariahs die to fire and bolter. Between AutoCannon, Melta, and Heavy Flamers I put 4 wounds on the Deceiver. The other Auto Cannons and the 10 Girl Rhino Squad kills the Spider. 6 Warriors go down from Celestians at the 3rd Immolator. The 2 Exorcist take advantage of the Monoliths now Armour 13 hull and get a glance. Glance 6...immobilized...except AP1 moves it up to Destroyed. The Terrain Blocking Feature just doubled in size.

TURN 5:
Warp Storm: All vehicles repair damage (including previously damaged vehicles from shooting...destroyed vehicles stay destroyed). All multi-wound models are restored to full wounds. Non vehicle units gain Feel no Pain. Vehicles gain Venerable.
No movement from Felix and 4 of the 6 Warriors get back up. They shoot the Celestians and kill 1. The 2nd Warrior Squad (with the Lord) shoot at the Girls that just killed the Spider. 2 drop. The Deceiver Assaults the Cannoness Squad and kills a few. I move the Squad that killed the Pariahs and the 10 girls from the Rhino into position to shoot the Deceiver once she/he/it kills off the HQ. An Exorcist also moves to set up fire support. The girls that killed the Spider move up to the Crons that just shot at them. I need to keep these 2 Squads occupied in place for another turn (away from his objective...he can't get to mine, but I may be able to contest his). This round my shooting is ineffective. I Assault his Warriors with the Celestians to hold them at that spot.

TURN 6:
Warp Storm: No beneficial Leadership Rules apply (the Books are nullified as are the Icons on the Exorcists). All terrain becomes Difficult/Dangerous. Invul Saves are Reduced by 1.
No moves, but he shoots up a few more Girls. The other Crons shoot up the Celestians and kill another. The Deceiver kills the Cannoness and is now wide open to shooting.
I move an Exorcist into firing position, then open up. Melta, Exorcist, AutoCannon, and Heavy Flamer bring down the Deceiver...who's 6 inch (of course) explosion kills the 3 remaining Celestians and all but 2 of the Battle Girls. I keep dropping a few of his Crons but his WBB rolls are phenomenal. In the assault phase he kills the last Celestians.

Turn 7:
Warp Storm:
Add D6" to every move in the Movement Phase. Units that Run roll 2D6 and take the highest. ANY unit that moves or Runs suffer D3 wounds (saves apply). Vehicles suffer a glancing hit.
Felix moves his Crons to shoot up the remaining Girls with the Lords unit set to either shoot or Assault as required. He shoots them up and the last girl breaks and runs.
My last turn and I have 1 hope. I need to move the 2 remaining girls about 13" to contest his objective. On my move I get an extra 3 inches, I just need to roll a 4+ on the Run...EXCEPT:
I take 2 wounds from the move and the Vet fails her save. The remaining Girl fails her Morale check and falls back.

We end in a tie. All in all a fun game and the changing rules turn by turn made for quite a challenge just keeping up.
2-2-2. I doubt I'll be in the Finals, but I did buy a Flesh wash and a bark blue wash to experiment with on the Girls paint job.

A rough week from work = lousy play

Just a short post because this week has been rough (although in the current economy I should be happy both I and She Who Must Be Obeyed have great jobs with little chance of loosing them). Lost last week to Ben's beautiful Demon Army. Report and pics to follow. It was a cr@p day and I wasn't thinking well. As his Bloodletters tore through my Guard squads I counter charged with my Sisters...just feeding girls into the grinder. While we ended up almost mutually tabling each other he held more objectives through the game, so won on points.
A lesson I should not have had to relearn...Sisters shoot and use templates. Unless your going after basic Eldar, Tau, or I-Guard you wont win in close combat. 5s to hit and 6s to wound, followed by his 3+ saves just don't cut it. I should have used the extra turn and run while he was chomping on my Guard to set up kill zones while in cover to maximize the flames and rapid fire bolters, then take first swing when he charges me in cover (he has no grenades).
2-2-1 so far. Maybe my painting and Sportsmanship will get me into the finals.

Got more done on the garage-gameroom conversion. The walls are all painted and I've got a 10 foot section of base cabinets together, except for the countertop to tie them together.
Time to start moving junk into them and clear the floorspace.
4x6 or 4x8 game table?

I must get off my butt and do taxes this week. Last years "tax cut" wasn't really a cut...just a lowering of the with-holding amount. So the Feds take out less each paycheck, but your still on the hook for the whole bill come 15 April. I usually either break even or get back a few hundred. With the new with-holding schedule I'll probably end up paying 800 or 900 more.
Poop on a stick.

Must...build...game...room

Sorry for the lack of updates. She Who Must Be Obeyed (sometimes called "The Wife") decided a few weeks back that this years house renovation project will be the Garage. She is tired (rightly so I must admit) of 1/4th of our bedroom being devoted to models, bits, army storage, paints, etc. So, time for a Man Cave (or Geek Space in this case). Fortunately I am also a pretty good handyman.

It started in mid January with 3 truckloads (Ford F150) of junk (mostly other peoples...family members) going to the local landfill and another load of stuff going to Goodwill. Only to discover that my garage floor still has the old reference points used back in my race car days imprinted in the concrete...ah memories.

Next came the electrical rough in. The garage had 1 quad outlet on the far wall nailed to an exposed stud. This was connected to its own 15amp breaker. Plenty of power, just not enough capability. So I ran 4 brand new outlets; a quad outlet on the North, East, and West walls (south being the garage door). A dual outlet was placed in the overhead framing as a dedicated source for the garage door opener. No more extension cords draped through the garage rafters. The original outlets power cable now became the main feeder to gang all the others together.

Once rough-in was complete came drywall. With a bunch of stuff that we decided to keep I could only work 1 wall at a time; shifting shelves and boxes around as I worked. What fun.

The East wall. Drywall has been installed, mudded, primed, and

painted. A nice blue-grey. Lite enough to give good light reflection, but dark enough to tone down any glare. The unpainted kitchen cabinets were from a closeout sail at The Home Despot years ago. $25 each and a standard 8' Formica counter. Instant storage and workbench. The car door with the '553' number is a souvenir piece from my old Stock Car (a 77 Chevelle I used to race at the old Cajon Speedway and a few other Southern California tracks).

A closeup of the East wall. Just next to the car door you can see one of the new wall outlets. And all the construction junk on the bench. The space where the car door rests will eventually be occupied by a 15-16 cu-ft refrigerator (gotta keep the drinks handy) and they are low enough (about 5' 6" tall) to put a TV on top of.

After the East wall was done I decided to tackle the North wall. This one would be a problem because the ducting for the dryer runs the length of the wall. I ended up remounting the duct (it was originally strapped directly to the wall) with real mounts providing a standoff from the wall. This gave me a chance to replace any old/rusty duct work. I then built a 4' tall false wall wide enough to cover the duct work. A 9" shelf was then mounted on top. A series of storage base cabinets (34" tall) will run along this wall creating another 10' of workbench and storage. This exposed end will be closed off, leaving the end of the duct free for annual dis-assembly and cleaning (you would be amazed how big a fire hazard old dryer lint can be.

The North wall showing the electrical outlet (radio now plugged in). Its placed for easy access just above where the base cabinets will be. The wall above the shelf is where I hope to mount the race car door in a nice frame.

The north-east corner. The panel on the north wall is removable to allow access to the section of dryer duct that connects to the discharge tube. This had come undone previously (hidden by an old workbench that was cut up and junked) and had caused a vast amount of cobweb type lint to accumulate everywhere. Now I will always have access in case I need to get into this section for future repairs.

You can also see the West wall and it's wallboard that was mudded hours earlier.

A view of the West wall looking north. The outlet on this wall is about halfway. It's currently uncovered waiting for prime/paint before the cover plate is screwed on. This wall will have 2 tall cabinets (6 1/2 feet tall, 4 feet wide), a 4 foot desk with wall shelves (placed at the outlet), and the big red toolbox along it.

This shows the last untouched area of the garage. It is right above the house breaker panel (access from the outside). I plan to place another removable panel here to allow access to the wiring trunk in case I ever want/need to run new electrical lines. The curved metal piece is is part of the garage door track.

Finally the new overhead outlet for the garage door opener (plugged into the top receptacle). I'm thinking that changing out the oldschool lights for a pair of 4' fluorescent panels would be most excellent.

So that's where the new game room stands now. The West wall should be done this weekend (unless the SuperBowl goes WAY late!!!!) and cabinetry can start.

Now, do I build a 4x6 table or a 4x8?