On the Workbench [June] - Shadow Wars: Armageddon

So what has been going on this month?  Not as much hobby as I'd hoped, but I did get some games in for the first time in...over a year?  Too long. The new 40K is here!

The new set of Objectives Ready for Primer

I was able to play two Shadow Wars games and one game with the new Warhammer 40K rules.  These games used time I would have otherwise put into my projects so progress (and posts for that matter) is understandably thin this month on that front.

Shadow Wars was as much fun as I expected and I very much enjoyed using my new terrain.  The rules, ironically for a small skirmish game, seem more numerous and complicated than 40K now!  What a switch.  The Death Korps saw action first as they stumbled onto a small force of Necrons.  This being the first game of Shadow Wars and my first game of any sort in quite a while, I played poorly so I won't look at this game as a fair test of the Astra Militarum in Shadow Wars.

I was out positioned and out shot from the beginning and so this game never really developed. I bottled after losing four fighters down or out. I was interested to see that even after losing, I got one promethium and to standard 100 pts for improving the team. My existing list was a mix of shooting and hand-to-hand capabilities. After seeing the Orks beat up (see below) I'm having second thoughts on how the Death Korps should equip themselves.  I believe I need more ranged weapons and strategy, but we'll see.

Next up were the Orks which got tabled after a brutal head-to-head clash with a group of Harlequins. My Ork list was more shooty, but Harlequins move fast and you don't get much shooting time, or so was my experience!  When I did shoot (and I did shoot a lot where it was possible), it made no difference due to poor Orky ballistics, cover (and its effect on to-hit rolls) and the Harlequins naturally good saving throws.  Not a single wound was scored after many, many dice rolls.

They fared a little better in hand-to-hand.  They still never scored a wound on the Harlequins, but they at least stayed on combat for several turns.  I felt there were chances where the dice could have rolled different and change the course of the game. Doubling up on harlequins fighters wasn't enough.  Probably needed four fighters on one Harlequin to brig them down. They have SOOOO many dice to throw during combat...even when I felt I got good rolls, the Harlequin fighters would be two or three points better.  They had trouble wounding the Orks which help the team fight it out, but the Orks simply couldn't hit the tricksy Eldar players either. In the end, the team passed a couple bottle rolls and in the end went down to an Ork. This was a test game, not part of a campaign, so I wasn't concerned about losing fighters.

The new edition 40K game was also very fun.  My opponent and I threw together power level lists using a 50 power level max. As a sample game, we didn't use detachments and just picked what seemed to be a reasonable mix of fun units.  This part of the new rules was very cool as I got a list together in ten minutes from my existing Deathwatch collection and we got right to gaming.  We only got two (maybe it was three) game turns in before we had to call it on account of time, but it wasn't because of the 40K rules.  We simply didn't leave enough time for a game following our previous Shadow Wars game.  We of course went slow having not played the new rules before and being rusty in general - though in this case, not having played 7th in quite a while was probably a benefit as the new game is just very different.

I was pleased to see my Deathwatch dreadnought deal death and absorb far more punishment than would have been possible in earlier editions.  Looking back, I forgot to degrade his performance in later turns as he suffered more wounds. Teleporting in terminators is coo again.  Much more fun to place models in a position of choice and to relatively act normally. A unit of death watch terminators was very effective against Eldar foot sloggers...the game was tied when we closed.  I'm not sure I would have managed a win had it gone on to a normal conclusion.

So...what's on the work bench?  Well, I put some base color on the Orks, and hit up the Death Korps long coats with the air brush...

I should have some more progress to show on the Shadow War teams soon.  I am really looking forward to returning to the Death Korps, I even spent time last night reviewing the paint recipe again. Orks are a fun change too.  I'd like to get these two teams painted before getting too wrapped up with continuing 40K projects inspired by the new rules...oh and all the terrain! :) Much to do...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!