Echoes of Eisenstein - upscaling madness with the XIV

[Sherrypie]

7 hours ago, ZeroWolf said:

Looks like great fun 

 

Solid stuff, especially when the multiplayer chaos strikes home :D

 

6 hours ago, Shovellovin said:

Very cool. Can you speak a bit about the SpecOps campaign rules? Are those all contained in Ashes of Faith or are some of them fan made?

 

SpecOps is the campaign framework from the core rules of Kill Team, ie. operatives gain experience to learn skills, die off or get crippled in amusing fashion, new ones are brought in, you've got a persistent but restrictive stash of equipment to share, there are permanent small bonuses from camp assets like med bays or comms towers and whatnots. Usually each team embarks on a longer multi-game objective, like a sabotage mission, where they need to score points from certain actions in five games to then unlock one more target to fulfill before gaining a reward for that mission arc. After such an arc is finished, you get another one and off your commandos go again. All of that is in the core rules. It's not exactly a deep narrative by itself, but as an unabashed roleplayer I don't feel like I need much more for our group to riff off from. Creating the environmental context and the story around the string of games as they unfold doesn't particularly need too much gametext cruft, while "we're on a long and dangerous sabotage raid in the guts of a hostile hive-city" already sparks the narrative.

 

Ashes of Faith introduces a system where players fight over territories that have extra terrain effects and provide three bonuses, either through control, persuasion or investigation that players get to bid over after every fight (and how well you score in each game decides how much influence you get to spread on the territories). Your influence is split towards control (win condition), persuasion (permanent bonus assets as long as you've got the highest in there) and investigation / sabotage (finding powerful one-time buffs or reducing others' influence). This struggle is by default six games plus a final showdown long, replacing all participants' regular missions for the duration.

 

There are of course fan made additions like Ossified's 30k stuff, but there's plenty to plumb in the GW materials as well :)

[Shovellovin]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Apparently, I need to revisit Kill Team as I didn’t remember the special ops portion of the rules. I love adding depth to the games I play so that sounds right up my alley. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks like a nice gaming board, and sounds like great fun!  

[Sherrypie]

Cheers @Shovellovin and @Firedrake Cordova, fun's the name of the game 'ere.

 

On the gaming front, my pal's recently minted Blood Angels stumbled into the wrong neighbourhood in today's ZoMo and got whacked hard by the inexorable XIV.

 

 

On the slow-going painting desk, a couple of brutish Kill Team M29 Thunder Legionaries have began their long march towards an actual paintjob.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

The Zone Mortalis game looks fun  

 

The Thunder Legionaries are interesting ... it took me a while to clock they're based off of Warcry models  

[Sherrypie]

Yeah, most of the Iron Golems gave their bodies for the Veteran Guardsmen team of wasteland tax collectors while the chunky ogre types became the basis for these barbaric proto-Imperials :)

[Sherrypie]

More gaming happened in Epic scale, as we're all waiting for the Legiones Imperialis to slowly dripfeed into our systems there's always good ol' Epic: Armageddon to smash. Or in this case, orks faces to bash with both hands as the capitol city of Miami V needed defending, twice in a row!

 

First battle saw the orks thoroughly scrunched against the hot'n'hateful steel of Mechanicum.

 

 

The second battle saw an almost unstoppable triple-mob charge pour through one flank of robots, but the day was still carried by remorseless robots marching to the ork home base through a burning channel ripped in the earth by a nova cannon shot from the backfield Ordinatus.

 

 

It was also finally a good excuse to take a family portrait of the Mechanicum painted thus far :D

 

[Naryn]

Beautiful work, those shots make me more interested in LI than all GW's marketing. Love how those buildings dominate the tiny figures.

[nilsh]

Great looking table and the Mechanicum force looks brilliant!

[Rusted Boltgun]

A fantastic looking game. Love the terrain and those square bases. Such a nostalgia hit for me (even though the number of games I actually played I could probably count on one hand!).

[Sherrypie]

11 hours ago, Naryn said:

Beautiful work, those shots make me more interested in LI than all GW's marketing. Love how those buildings dominate the tiny figures.

 

4 hours ago, nilsh said:

Great looking table and the Mechanicum force looks brilliant!

 

41 minutes ago, Rusted Boltgun said:

A fantastic looking game. Love the terrain and those square bases. Such a nostalgia hit for me (even though the number of games I actually played I could probably count on one hand!).

 

Thanks folks, never too late to jump aboard the smol scale train. It's the best time ever, in fact, if you desire some battles that look like battles instead of mere fisticuffs in your life ;)

[nilsh]

On 8/4/2023 at 2:42 PM, Sherrypie said:

 

 

 

Thanks folks, never too late to jump aboard the smol scale train. It's the best time ever, in fact, if you desire some battles that look like battles instead of mere fisticuffs in your life ;)

 

I played Epic Armageddon for quite a while and have a couple of armies tucked away, but moved away from my group and nobody in the new club is playing it unfortunately. But I'm jumping in on Legions Imperialis and hope I can get someone more interested in it.

[Sherrypie]

7 hours ago, nilsh said:

 

I played Epic Armageddon for quite a while and have a couple of armies tucked away, but moved away from my group and nobody in the new club is playing it unfortunately. But I'm jumping in on Legions Imperialis and hope I can get someone more interested in it.

 

Hopefully they'll bite the bait, especially if there are Titanicus players in the mix already. It's a small leap from the LI models to the wider selection of E:A after you've gotten some folks intrigued by the new shinies :)

[Sherrypie]

While waiting for LI to drop, some 2v2 Epic: Armageddon was had yesterday, as Death Guard legion and their Mech + Guard opponents drew a bloody stalemate. Some 12k points on the board.

 

[nilsh]

Beautiful looking game as always! 

[Sherrypie]

Thank you @nilsh :)

 

Had a bit of fun with a two-table megabattle of 30k, with traitors summoning the daemon lord Gra-Bul'Ah (Hung-Ov'Ah for you puntastic anglophones out there) who eventually got banished back into the Empyrean through sheer embarrassment. Fittingly, the player in control of the mighty daemon marshall after it arrived had been similarly hammered a few hours beforehand. Initially my plan was to throw my Death Guard dreadnought-only vanguard into the Blood Angels to die off in the opening moves of the game so I could then concentrate on taking pictures, but as it turned out, my commanding ancient brother was the only remaining traitor model on the ritual table at the end of it all :D

 

On the second table, Mechanicum forces struggled over the control of a possessed Warhound titan while astartes forces savaged the Chaos obelisks around the place.

 

On the ritual table, my dreads took the fight to the Blood Angels while skies rained fire. Ultimately, two chaplains of the Angels united to crack some heads and caused Gra-Bul'Ah to pop back into non-existence not by dying, but rather through combat resolution loss as too many World Eaters died in the same combat for the might daemon to keep up with :D

 

 

[Valkia the Bloody]

Epic.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

That looks like a really fun table

[Sherrypie]

Cheers @Valkia the Bloody and @Firedrake Cordova, fun was had :)

 

But that wasn't epic, this is Epic...

 

Tiny AdMech reinforcements inbound!

 

Anti-air! Expensive, short-ranged and useless!

 

 

More Thanatars! Big robos for days!

 

 

Ordinatus Minorii! Rescue conversions from DZC stuff thrown in the club's bin!

 

[Sherrypie]

2023 hobby tally: less than 50 bases

 

 

With all the rest of the year being pretty hectic with other things, I didn't get particularly many new things further but had plenty of fun gaming and photography with the older things already at hand. Also organised the biggest Kriegspielmageddon bohnanza yet, which is only snowballing bigger with our RPG offshoot.

 

Finished projects:

- 12 stands of XIV legion heavy support (Epic)
- 7 Possessed XIV librarius aspirants (30k)
- 5 Castellax (Epic)
- 5 Techpriests (Epic)
- 6 Revenant Legionaires (KT)
- 4 Tarantula AA batteries (Epic)
- 4 Thanatars (Epic)
- 3 Ordinatus Minorii (Epic)

 

Dabbled with but unfinished:

- 5 Destroyers (30k)
- 7 Talons of the Emperor (KT)

 

Non-modelling stuff:

- Learning to use and upgrading photography equipment further

 

Next year: learning to focus stack properly with my fancy new camera and painting a new Auxilia army for Legions Imperialis that can also double as a Guard army for Epic: Armageddon.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

That's a lot of tiny models painted to a high standard

[Sherrypie]

Cheers @Firedrake Cordova, I'd still like to try harder next time around :D

[Sherrypie]

Happy new year, everybody. I've been super busy with no time for proper hobbying (except for buying new stuff, I think my pile of unassembled Legions Solar Aux is mysteriously growing every week...), but I did once again organise more Titanicus goodness at the club. This year started with a bang, as our annual-ish AT mega-battle expanded into a two-day narrative event. I wrote custom missions so that we could first play three rounds of 1v1 games on Saturday where the winning side could dictate environmental conditions for the following round as well as earn some neat bonii for Sunday's all-in brawl.

 

-- War for the Angel's Grave 3.-4.2.2024 --

 

An ancient repository of knowledge, a forbidden and sealed esoteric weapon best forgotten or a relic of the broken dream now irrepairably lost? No-one knew precisely what the arcology known as the Angel's Grave held within its confines, but when Warmaster Horus decreed it to be taken, neither did his lackeys question the wisdom of such orders. Under the capricious auspices of the dark gods, god-machines marched into their dropships and hurtled through the blazing voids of the war-stricken galaxy with murder in their hearts...

 

The traitors slam down on the unsuspecting planet in the dark of night and spread out. From the barely habited outskirts, legios Krytos, Omina and Mortis plunge deep into the planet's infrastructure as the surprised loyalists scramble to face the threat. Legios Solaria, Astorum and Magna jump to hold the line and manage to stem the initial tide despite Krytos wreaking havoc on their communication towers. As the loyalist line refuses to crumble, their reserves in space enter the system and carve a bloody swathe through the traitors' fleet. As burning ships, scrap and satellites fall down on the planet in a rain of fire, the loyalist legios sally forth in a counter-attack to drive the traitors back. This seems to work, securing the defenders a decisive advantage in planetside artillery assets, until for the sudden and totally unforeseen betrayal by the Screaming Skulls! Who'd have thought those guys weren't on our side, absolutely shameful. With this stab in the back, both sides are forced to accept that this conflict will go on for a while and stock up on supplies from the available storages and techno-magi. With reserves from legio Favilla stepping onto the field to plug the hole left by Magna's treachery, the loyalists once more secure the continuing support of the Mechanicum and converge on the final showdown.

 

 

Four traitor commanders square against three loyalists with some 30 titans and 20 knights stalking the field. Ultramarines and Death Guard models are there to represent area control over various important objectives on the table as well as the critical supply depots no side can wage war without.

 

 

Astorum's supreme loyalist command leaves the supply depot lightly guarded, focusing their knightly allies on the right flank.

 

Traitors, acutely aware of their tenuous grasp on the planet, guard theirs keenly with the newly arrived Tiger Eyes' deployment.

 

 

As the fight begins, deafening roar of war-horns fills the centre as Favilla pushes forwards. Fallen knights are vaporised before their volcano cannons, swatted aside like gnats as more worthy foes approach from Krytos' lines.

 

 

On all flanks, forces advance into the fire.

 

 

In the middle, Excidium Ultimum and Deus Victrix hear the siren song of the Thunderdome. Two god-machines enter, who will leave?

 

 

Fighting intensifies on the flanks, as Mortis reaches one of the habitats in force and knights swarm towards Omina's positions.

 

 

Sensing an opportunity, one of Omina's Warhounds sneaks to threaten the loyalist supplies as Krytos' devastating volleys savage the Astorum Warmaster guarding them.

 

 

Despite losing its fist to Deus Victrix' fire, Excidium Ultimum saws the upstart God-Breaker in half and casts its broken form down in ruin, almost decapitating Ibn Faruq below with its mass. Glory is fleeting, however, as unabated firepower from most of the Tiger Eyes' battleline causes the injured Warmaster to crash down from its throne all the same.

 

 

On the left flank, Solaria's brazen charge cuts deep into the lighter Mortis engines as a column of Ultramarines follows in their wake to wipe out the Death Guard attempting to seize the habitat. Yet with their supplies under threat, it is all nearly futile.

 

 

Fighting to salvage the situation, Delictor Profectuum ploughs through Krytos' fire and the wrecked corpses of their comrades towards the supply depot with all systems burning. Perhaps they could have made it, if not for the relentless shelling of Quake munitions raining on them, causing the ground under their buckling legs to undulate like tortured jelly with each booming shot. Valiantly, if desperately, later reserve Cerastoi rush to try and relieve the Ultramarines at any price.

 

 

The traitors are similarly pressed, now, with Mortis crumbling before Solaria's advance. Favilla's heavy guns blow out one of Fureans' Warlords nearby and seal the deal as the remaining traitorous knights are slaughtered to the last.

 

 

Triumphantly, Krytos' sole remaining Warlord Braccus Rex sidesteps the futile knight charge and guns down the immobilised Delictor Profectuum, trumpeting its ownership of the loyalists' supply depot.

 

With fires burning all over the broken and mangled countryside, it is eventually clear to the loyalist side that their tactical situation is untenable. While the traitors are trapped and caught stranded in the bigger picture, unable to hold the planet and will soon all be hunted down, on this day they have by the barest of margins bought enough time for their techno-magi to complete their dark purpose at the Angel's Grave itself. For the Warmaster, they cry in the all-consuming ritual flames!

 

-------

 

A very slight Traitor victory after six rounds, 225 to 168 points (with one good turn able to swing 50+ points)! Loyalists killed more and took ground more aggressively, but with their supply lines left basically undefended by the supreme command's strategic blunder, they were unable to capitalise on this advantage, scoring no control points for the whole game after the first round. Not that the traitors had much more luck on that front, with loyalists having more men and machines on most strategic zones after the first third of the game, but that early lead let them coast pretty far. That element certainly brought a good dynamic to the match, with everyone involved until the end and multiple possible game-changing maneuvers hanging at singular dice rolls. If Delictor Profectuum hadn't been slowed down by Quake shell and immobilised ½" too far from the supplies, for example, it could have gone very much the other way. Still loving all of that.

 

Thanks for reading and happy wargaming!

[Firedrake Cordova]

I like the narrative style of the battle report  It looks like it was a lot of fun

 

1 hour ago, Sherrypie said:

I think my pile of unassembled Legions Solar Aux is mysteriously growing every week..

Did you check any of the boxes included a tiny recruiting sergeant? Maybe one or two sneaked in at the factory ...  

[Rusted Boltgun]

AT isn't my game but the table looked great and your telling of the story of the battle was brilliant. It sounds like is was great fun for all involved.