An Epic Rematch

Epic Armageddon two weeks in a row. It’s like buses.

Fraser and I had a rematch, 3000 points again with no titans (apparently the Super Stompa doesn’t count as a titan).  I decided to use pretty much the same force as last week, but this time I dropped a few things in order to add some anti war machine ability in the shape of two Shadowswords. 

My final selection this time was:

Supreme Commander with Hydra

Mechanised Infantry Company with Hydra

Infantry Company

Tanks Company with Hydra

Manticore Detachment

Sentinel Squadron

Thunderbolt Fighters

Shadowsword

Shadowsword

Platoon of Rough Riders

Frasers only changed from last week was the addition of a detachment of Stormboyz and an extra Mob of infantry, while losing a Blitz Brigade.  His force ended up looking like:

Stompa Mob with Super Stompa

Blitz Brigade with Gunwagon

Blitz Brigade

Kult of Speed

Big Gunz Mob

Boyz Mob

Boyz Mob

Fighta Bomber squadron.

Stormboyz Mob

For deployment I deployed heavily on the left, with only a single Mechanised Company guarding my right flank. Fraser had a lot of units that could garrison and deployed as many as he could as far forward as he could.

I won initiative and decided that I needed to protect my left flank, which had a large amount of Ork infantry sitting on the centre line just waiting to attack.  The Manticores opened fire and managed to inflict some decent casualties and inflict a large amount of blast markers on the formation. This was probably the move that saved the game for the Imperial Guard, as it stalled the ork assault before it had even begun.    Fraser jumped my artillery with his aircraft, and we spent the rest of first turn advancing as far as we could up the board.  This time I was a lot more aggressive and my Tank Company started to inflict some serious damage on my opponent, while the Shadowswords reduced the Super Stompa to one damage point.

Turn two saw more of the same.  My tanks pushed up the centre, broke the central Ork mob ad pushed through to the objective.  On my left I brought my infantry company and HQ company to bear on the the Ork flank and drove them back from the centre of the table.  My right flank fared badly, with the mechanised infantry taking a beating from the Blitz Brigade and Speed Freaks, being driven back almost to my table edge.

Turn three saw the right flank collapse, with the remains of the infantry being broken again and retreating, leaving a solitary Sentinel to guard my baseline objective.  In the centre the tank company advanced, capturing the central Ork objective and starting to make a mess of the Big Gunz hidden in some nearby ruins.  On my left the remaining Orks were wiped out, leaving the way open for the guard to advance and capture another objective.  While this was happening both Shadowswords sat on overwatch waiting to the Stompa Mob to come out from behind the hill they were hiding behind, but the decided not to and spent the turn hiding.

We stopped at the end of turn three as we ran out of time, and it was looking a bit ropy for the Orks. In a reversal of last week’s game while the guard had failed to achieve victory in turn three, turn four was looking like a sure thing.

Another great game of Epic against a great opponent, plus I actually remembered how to play the game properly this week.  The main problem with playing any game so infrequently is that while you may remember the core of the rules you quite often forget how to play the game properly.  Last week I forgot completely but got back into the swing of for this week.  Hopefully I will manage to get another game in soon before I completely forget again.

Also once again there were a few people coming up to the table and showing an interest, stating that “I’ve got loads of epic lying about at home”.  Hopefully worth some encouragement they can be persuaded to dust them off and give the rules a try, as they really are excellent.  If not then maybe they will sell me their stuff instead!

Next week sees my Malifaux warband get their first outing. I am preparing myself for an evening of scratching my head and trying to remember what things actually do.

Outshot by Orks

A rare opportunity to play Epic came up recently and I jumped at the chance.  The group that Fraser usually plays with abroad have started playing it and he had a pile of orks lying in a cupboard from 25 years ago so he dusted them off for a game.  He decided to use me as a trial and I happily agreed.

We opted for 3000 points, using the standard Net Epic Armageddon tournament rules. The only limitation we agreed were no titans.  I took my fairly standard Imperial Guard force:

HG Company with Hydra

Mechanised Infantry Company with Hydra

Tank Company with Hydra

Chimera Platoon with Hydra

2 Sentinal Squadrons

1 Squadron of Thunderbolt Fighters

1 Squadron of vultures.

I had never used the Vultures before and wanted to give them a try, and as they were to be no titans I figured I wouldn’t need any of my heavier troops.

Fraser took:

Large Blitz Brigade with Gunwagon and some extra buggies

Large Blitz Brigade with Gunwagon and some extra buggies

Large Blitz Brigade with some extra buggies

Cult of Speed (all warbikes)

Big Gunz Brigade

Fighta Bomma Skwadron

Big warband containing the Warlord

Big Stompa Mob with some dreads and a Supa Stompa (that’s technically a Titan Fraser!!!)

I had a fairly balanced approach to my army, while Frazer had basically opted for a mechanised force, with only one formation actually containing any infantry.  I wish I had brought those Shadowswords now.

Deployment resulted in the Orks fairly evenly, while my Guard were mainly deployed on my left, with the lonely and slightly nervous Tank Company holding the right flank.

Fraser won initiative and basically threw his entire army down the throat of my shocked imperial Guard, who barely got of their baseline the whole game.   The Guard had some early successes, with the Tank Company seeing of one of the Blitz Brigades, but casualties were starting to tell and the second Blitz Brigade, with supporting fire from the Big Gunz brigade finally saw off my tanks.

On the left I managed to cripple one of the blitz brigades, but my infantry were no match for the might of the Stompa Mob, who waddled over the hill and blew the HQ Company into little bits, with very little I could do in return.  I had no real answer to the Super Stompa, with even a full 8 rocket salvo from my Vultures having no effect on the Stompa Mob.  At the end of turn 3 we had a look at victory conditions, and I was actually in the lead 1-0, but my force was pretty much gutted and another turn would have seen the Orks secure victory, and as it was getting late we decided to call it there.

Epic is always great fun, and there is always and big stream of people coming to the table asking about it, and then saying that they have some Epic stuff at home and fancied a game. I am optimistic of upping my game count from 2 a year to something a bit higher in the near future.  I have some epic for other forces floating about and would really like to get a force of Tyranids as I think they would be really good in this scale, but I have neither the conversion skill or the money to acquire an epic tyranid force so it will need to remains on teh wishlist for now.

As far as this game went I badly underestimated the amount of armour that Fraser would bring, as every game I have played against orks they have been quite infantry heavy.  There was a big lack of decent anti-tank in my force, and no way of killing his baby titan, so in the end it all went a bit wrong.

Rematch next week so I am hoping for a better result!

Lazy Summer Afternoons

 A nice afternoons work.  Progress made on Frost Grave  ruins, epic buildings all assembled and based,  epic ruins all assembled and about to be based. Rubbish weather equals plenty of hobby time, all assisted by the munchkins.   

Trying to get all the messy jobs out of the way at once. 

It's like Christmas

This lot turned up today.  Early impressions are good. Figures look nice, the plastic sprues have loads of stuff on them, and the rule book looks lovely.  Might do a proper review at some point when I have read the book.  

Nicely timed as I just finished myMalifaux models this morning.  Given the amount of really late kick starter stuff I'm waiting on its nice to have something delivered on time.

Here Come the Yanks, Campaign Turn 2.

Turn 2 of our campaign has concluded, with 2 actions. 

Dave's USA 2nd Platoon decided to take a turn out to regroup and tend to their wounded, while the 3rd Platoon under the command of Alex had another pop at Ophove.  Meanwhile Ian had led the USA 1st PLatoon on a flanking move under the tunnel at teh railway, before being intercepted by my German 1st Platoon.   The reports from these two games are below:

From the campaign GM ate the start of turn 2:

Ok having now checked with Ian, David, Alex and John, it looks like Campaign Turn 2 will see a pause at Arques while David's 2nd American Platoon tends to its wounded and John busily strengthens his defences for a Delaying action scenario to be fought in Turn 3.
Meantime Alex and his 3rd platoon is planning to return to probe the German defences around Ophove and take on Ken's German platoon once more.

Elsewhere the German CO and 1st Platoon commander (Kevin) has received word from his scouts of American infantry appearing North of the canal as Ian's American platoon infiltrates its way through the tunnel under the canal just south of Las Fontinettes. So a probe scenario will be fought here. If the Germans are successful they may well want to mine or booby trap the tunnel to prevent its future use by the Americans. However, if the Americans win they will have established a potentially useful toehold North of the canal for future exploitation. All to play for then.


Report from German 1st Platoon:

The Americans tried to probe their way through the German flank last night, encountering the German 1st Platoon in the process.

The Americans made some early gains, almost succeeding in their mission in the face of a disorganised and inaccurate German resistance. Casualties were looking to be light on both sides until one US squad got a bit gung ho and decided to assault a German squad that was entrenched in a farmhouse, commanded by the Platoon Senior Officer. The US were repulsed with very heavy casualties and decided to then withdraw and find another way North.

Final Results:

US Dead: 5
US Miss next game: 3
1 NCO Killed
CO Opinion: -1
Men's Opinion: -5


German dead: 1
German Miss Next Game: 1
CO Opinion: +1
Men's Opinion: +2

Lindeman continues his run of keeping his men alive, but mainly due to very bad luck from Ian who accidentally wandered his squad of troops into assault against an entrenched German squad.

Report from German 3rd Platoon:

Feldwebel Willi Beier begs to report
Third platoon continues to hold its position in the village of Ophove, once more the Yankees came on in some form of frontal assault, our platoon had been reinforced with a tripod mounted MG42 dug in to a good fire position on our right flank, a squad of the enemy advanced across open ground to their front from a hedgerow and disappeared from view, but a second squad were spotted behind the same hedgerow and were effectively engaged by our fire and they didn’t move from that position for the duration of the battle.
On the main street leading through Ophove one squad took up position between the houses, a second squad deployed in a house across the street from them, the Americans advanced bunched up one squad following behind the other. They were engaged with effective fire from both squads MG42s and rifles, the Americans appeared to dither and although they returned fire they remained static in the open and were decimated by our superior firepower.
Having taken substantial casualties they withdrew, our third (reserve) squad had only just arrived in the village and were not engaged in this action.
Result:
USA: casualties inflicted but numbers unknown (awaiting Ecks report)
German forces: 1 man killed, 1 man wounded (will miss next game)
C.O.s opinion +2 (total 3)
Men's opinion +2 (total 4)

Report from USA 3rd PLatoon of the same action:

Combat report from Ophove....We had 1 squad of reinforcements for this action, who were involved in the main assault.When the action started 2 squads started moving forward to the village, with the intent of one squad storming and holding a house on the outskirts, while the other veered of across the road towards a small copse before moving to a flanking position to attack the huns.
The 2nd squad did'nt have the legs to reach cover during their first bound and got caught in the open by an MG42 and 1/2 in. squads, their reaction was to go to ground and stay there. The first squad in the mean time charged towards their intended target, and for some unknown reason swerved at the last moment and ran around the building and ended up between the Germans and 2nd squad. They managed to get one volley off before the enemy returned fire. They were so shocked by the heavy return fire the Germans got in another volley before they could react.
The Plt officer and 3rd squad were in light cover behind a hedge with the intent of providing covering fire on another MG42 covering the left of the village for the squad assaulting the house/s. When the assault was aborted they decided to continue with the covering fire, instead of moving and providing cover for the 2 assault squads, this decision led to them withdrawing with severe losses. Due to bad communications a light squad held in
reserve were not used.


Result:
USA...Dead-4, Wounded-3 (will miss next action)
German...Light casualties, amount unknown.

C.O.'s opinion....-1(-2)
Men's opinion......-2(-4)

Campaign Map and Platoons Status at the end of Turn 2: