Unleash the Dogs of War!

This past weekend was the Running Gagg at SUNY Geneseo and as I posted in last week's blog, I was co-running a large, bring and battle 40k event. The turnout was pretty good for having less than a month to plan and advertise the event. We had a total of 12 players attend the event so we decided to break the teams down into 3 players per side or 6 players to a table. The teams were based upon the armies present so we created the teams based upon fluff to help create a themed game for all players involved. Read more to find out about the event.



The format of the game was basically apocalypse "lite", meaning that players could bring any forgeworld models and run any escalation or stronghold units. The only limitation we set was that all D-Weapons were to be treated as large blast, strength 10, AP1. This way they were still formidable but toned down just enough that no one had to worry about losing large chunks of their armies in one shot.

The format of the game was as follows:

• Each player could bring up to 2500 points with allies, and all fortifications allowed.
• Each team would treat all teammates as battle brothers.
• Deployment was Dawn of War and there were 5 objectives stretched along the center line. Each Objective would be worth 1 point, except for the center objective, which would be worth 3 points. 
• Slay the warlord would be counted for each player so there would be 3 points worth of warlord per team. Line breaker would be scored per normal rules and we decided to not count first blood.
• We would also be awarding 1 victory point for every 3 hull points removed from a Lord of War unit.

The only other rule we implemented for deployment was that all Lords of War units would start the first turn off of the board. Any player who brought a Lord of War unit would mark a spot on the board during deployment, designating where their Lord of War would come in. At the start of turn 2 the Lord of War unit would automatically come on.

Once teams were created we assigned the teams to their tables and gave them 15 or so minutes to discuss their game plans. Below are some pictures of the games being played on each table.

 Table 1:
Chaos versus the Forces of the Imperium
Word Bearers/Iron Warriors/Typhus with Zombies vs 2 Imperial Guard armies/Death Korps with Grey Knight allies.
For Lords of War, chaos brought a titan and the imperials brought a gorgon and a bane blade variant.

Table 1 prior to deployment

View from Imperial lines

View from the Chaos front line

Imperials gun for a Nurgle Daemon Prince and BeLakor

The titan comes on in round 2

Thats right, 4 heldrakes and 15 Obliterators with the Mark of Nurgle fly in/deep strike in on turn 2

The Death Korp hold the center lines from atop a skyshield.

 

Zombies are about to get cut down by the Grey Knights

Iron Warriors rush towards the center objective.

Table 2:
Necrons versus Space Marines/Orks
3 Necron armies vs Blood Angels/White Scars/Orks
For Lords of War the Necrons brought a Pylon and a Ctan. The Blood Angels brought a titan and the Orks brought a stompa.

Necron deployment

White Scars lead the charge

The pylon and Ctan deepstrike in on turn 2

In the end, on table 1, the game would end up as a tie as the forces of chaos and the imperials each scored 9 points.

Highlight of the game on table 1: During the last turn, the chaos titan and the imperial's bane blade were both down to a hand full of hull points left. The imperials manage to blow up the titan and the explosion caused by the titan managed to do enough damage to destroy the bane blade.

Over on table 2, the necrons pretty much wiped out the space marines and orks.

Highlight of the game on table 2: The ork player brought ol' Zogwart, who managed to turn a whopping 4 necron lords into squigs through out the game.

In the end, each table nominated one player to be named the MVP for his actions during the game. Table 1 nominated Evan and his Death Korps/Grey Knights as the top player of the day. Table 2 nominated Neil and his orks for the antics created by Zogwart. Both players were awarded $40 gift certificates. One of my chaos team mates one a $30 award for the best army, and I won best painted with my Word Bearers. Over 30 door prizes were handed out throughout the day as well. All in all, it was a great time and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Whew, this was a busy month trying to pull this off. Next week I will be back to posting articles on models that I have been working on as well as terrain projects that I will be starting shortly. I hope you enjoyed this post.