IG lay the smackdown!

Disturbed from their slumber by the howling of landing craft, the rumble of tanks and the barking of orders, A solitary Necron Warrior was sent forth to assess the situation. Humans, in the guise of Imperial Guard. The Necron Lord activated his minions to teach these young upstarts the error of their ways. The Necrons broke ground and a single Monolith emerged from the stasis tomb, as they observed the terrain they immediately came under heavy fire, momentarily bringing a Destroyer to the ground, fortunately the microscopic repair drones restored it and it rose back, along with five other destroyers they opened fire on the heavy weapon platforms that had dealt the first blow, disintegrating them and removing them as a threat. Again the Guardsmen opened fire, this time there target was the Monolith, unleashing rounds from two tank mounted Battle cannon and lascannon, although these weapons found their mark, they failed to inflict any damage upon the great machine. In response the destroyers once more turned their gauss cannons upon the human fools, sending half a squad back to their precious emperor, as this was happening the Monolith moved ponderously forward into a position where it could discharge its particle whip. The battle cannon sounded again, this time two destroyers were bought down and their self repair system were unable to function, they evaporated into the ether, and their components would be used again. On the other side of the battle field a Chimera opened fire on a squad of warriors destroying four of their numbers, these humans would pay for their insolence. The remaining four Destroyers opened fire on a squad of Guardsmen again, reducing them to molecules in a heartbeat, The Monolith expelled the full fury of the particle whip on the chimera, rending it and four of its crew to nothing more than a pile of smouldering slag and melted flesh. The Monolith took a hit from the battle cannons, this time the antigrav drives were disabled and the huge machine sank to the ground. The second take moved in on the destroyers, opening its weapons and rending a third to a hunk of useless metal. Meanwhile the warrior squad that had taken casualties from the Chimera were moving into position to take out her remaining crew. One of the tank commanders had unwittingly bought his vehicle within range of the Monoliths particle whip, the weapon destroyed the Leman Russ tank with little effort, and the remaining destroyers cut down the brave but foolish guardsmen. The remaining tank withdrew to what was deemed to be a safe distance and the remaining guardsmen made a futile attempt to bring down the remaining destroyers, to no avail. The last tank turned its attention to the second squad of warriors heading toward the Imperials line, the cannon failed to inflict significant damage, taking down only two warriors. The first squad had gained a firm firing position on the remnants of the Chimeras crew; they dissolved instantly as streams of gauss fire tore through them. The single Leman Russ was just within range of the particle whip, due to the extreme range the shot managed to only shake the crew, making it impossible for the crew to acquire a significant target lock. A shot that seemed to come from nowhere the cut down first squad of warriors, despite taking heavy fire, the second squad took no losses; it was the same for the destroyers. The destroyers advanced on the guardsmen and they were followed by the warriors and the Necron lord. A hail of gauss fire tore the guardsmen asunder and the Monoliths particle whip dissolved the squad that destroyed the first warrior squad. The Leman Russ fired another shot at the Monolith, again failing to inflict any damage. Once again fire fell from the sky, melting the bodies of the Necron Warriors, it was at this point that the Necron Lord realised that the battle was lost and withdrew the Necron forces from the battle field, taking the fallen with him and returning to the stasis tomb to await another chance to eradicate the human infection from the universe.

Quite simply “wow”!

Who would have thought that after three years and a fair few lads and lasses through the doors that we have such a strong and loyal group of members. today, the 11th of July 2010, the Apple j-ax Warhammer 40,000 gaming group had its first tournament, and what roaring success it has been! Firstly a huge thank you to everyone involved, both the gamers and the people behind the scenes, a particularly large thank you to Sue for all her hard work in organising the event.

If I'm honest I initially thought that most of the guys who were with us at the beginning would have moved on to pastures new by now, but many of the lads are still with us and come along almost every Saturday. Without the regular players today would probably not have happened. I for one an very proud of what we have achieved, we may be a small, independent, and we may not get it right first time, but we work well. the lads that attend the gaming days are brilliant, they’re well behaved and polite and they clearly enjoy the game, and of course that’s the most important thing. Ours is a hobby that is open to all, young, old, novice and veterans, and the hobby attracts so many different types of people. we welcome all through our doors, from part time players to full time painters. the great thing about the hobby is that we, as gamers and painters, are happy to share our skills and tactics. of course there’s rivalry and debates over which army is the more powerful, everyone knows it’s Necrons, but the debates are limited to talking smack, and that’s not really taken seriously.

I sat for a moment, and I really do mean a moment I must have walked as far today as I did last Sunday. I was looking around at  the gaming action and the guys playing their games and I thought, “we have something really good here!” I’d imagine that the great and the good in Nottingham would frown upon what we do, we bend, break and at times completely ignore the rules, well lets be honest they do get in the way sometimes.

Well today saw the culmination of many years of botched games and disagreements over whether or not a Carnifex gets an armour save against a bolt pistol. something in the region of forty games were played today, excluding a few hiccups today went really well.

Congratulations  to our two first place winners, James in the 500 point group and Will in the 1000 point group. whilst all the guys played well and every single one of them deserves a mention here, there are too many of them, Will gets a mention, not only because he won his group and overall winner of the first ever Apple j-ax tournament, but because his first game was a well deserved win. Will was up against a strong Necron army and, perhaps, a little out gunned, for the first three turns Wills opponent had the game firmly in his favour, but on turn four the whole game switched, Primarily down to the fact that a Trygon Prime and a Mawloc couldn’t do anything to take out a Monolith. fortunately Will had the points in his favour, bringing him the victory. Pictures of the event will soon be found on the Apple J-ax facebook group, feel free to take a look.

So once again a huge thank you to everyone, from the guys franticly running from table to table checking rules and solving disputes to the mums selling refreshments in the corner of the room, you are all fantastic.

I, for one, am looking forward to our next big event, I hope that many of the lads involved today will still be with us for it too.

Here’s to the future!

I do not like the bitter taste of defeat!

Another mid month Sunday has come and gone, a small turn out this month but I think it’s better to have a small amount of players than a large turnout than have people sitting around waiting and getting bored.

My game was rather a struggle today, Necrons v Tau 1500 points.

The force comprised of 40 warriors, 6 destroyers, a monolith, a Necron lord and the Nightbringer. I started out thinking that it was going to be a walkover. I was mistaken! It went pear shaped from the get go when I failed my seize the initiative roll. The Tau took position and opened up on the Monolith with rail gun fire, successfully disabling one of the gauss flux arc emitters. I soon lost a destroyer, to the Hammerheads rail gun, damaged beyond repair. At this point the Tau appeared to be retreating, strange that they should initiate a skirmish then withdraw after releasing a few ineffective shots. The Necrons then noticed movement in the copse on the outskirts of the deserted town, Kroot! A subservient race now allied with the Tau Empire. The Monolith unleashed the particle whip in an effort to force these forest dwellers out of hiding. Certain that, at least, some of their numbers were eradicated by this shot. To ensure that the Kroot were bought down, the warriors to the starboard side of the monolith flooded the woodland with gauss fire. This time the panicked howls of the remaining Kroot indicated that they had, indeed, lost some of their comrades. However, these Kroot appear to have strong hearts. They tree line fell silent as the destroyers moved in. Again gauss fire bathed the trees, and again there was no indication of how many of the Kroot were bought down.

The Tau retaliated for the loss of some, if not all of the jungle fighters. Once again opening up with rail guns on the Monolith, this time to no avail, the shots were absorbed by the hull of the machine. Then from above several small disk like machines fell upon a squad of warriors, temporarily disabling one of their numbers. The Necron Lord realised how the Tau intended to fight this battle, hit and run tactics. In response the warriors introduced the drones to the effects of gauss and incinerated them. The remaining destroyers once again fired into the woods, still unsure of the status of the threat the Necron Lord bought his staff of light to bear and decimated the Kroot. Confident that this particular enemy would no longer be an issue he turned his attention to the battle ahead. The monolith released another particle whip, this time on the hammerhead. The rail gun mounted on its hull posed a major threat to the entire force. Although the shot struck home it had no effect. The destroyers turned their weapons on the hammerhead, these shots were also wasted, possibly the Tau have some form of ablative armour which is resistant to gauss fire. Meanwhile the warriors began to advance. The Tau rail guns sounded again, a shot found its mark and the monolith sank to the ground immobilised, another shot tore through the hull of the Monolith. The light from the interior flickered twice and then went dark, effectively removing the monolith from the fight. Just as the Monolith fell silent more of the Tau force appeared behind it. They opened fire on the Nightbringer, with no effect. The warriors sprang to their gods defence and removed the offenders from existence. The Necron Lord raised his war scythe above his head then he and forty Necron warriors vanished, above a squad of pathfinders a haze appeared, for a moment it seemed that the lord and the squad of warriors were about to descend upon the Tau, but fate plays a fickle hand. The exit vortex could not maintain stability, snapping shut and sealing the lord and the warriors nowhere, lost in the void. Leaving just ten warriors in the fight and the Nightbringer the Tau rained down upon the warriors with flamers reducing the squad to just six warriors, realising this fight was lost the Nightbringer vanished into the void, taking the remaining warriors with him and removing all trace of the Necron presence. It would seem the Tau are a threat, the rail guns are powerful enough to tear a Monolith apart, a Necron fleet will be despatched to the Tau home world and they shall offered a choice, join us, or die!

The next Adult gaming Sunday will be on the 18^th of July, I think I’ll give the Chapter Aurelius a chance to show the Tau the meaning of the word defeat.