Escalation!

Finally got to try out Escalation at Hobby Night last week. And it was awesome! Of course, I am slightly biased about Escalation - I do play IG, and have a decent collection of super-heavies. So the chance to play them in a regular game of 40k is real good stuff.

My opponent was Rizal. He brought his Warhound Titan, supporting an IG force of a Company Command Squad w Astropath, 2 veteran squads, Marbo 2 Leman Russ, a Hydra and 3 Vendettas. I brought a more conventional force of a Lord Commissar, 2 Platoons with 35 men each, a regular commissar, 2 Vendetta, 2 Leman Russ and a Baneblade. You could say my force was a bit outclassed.

In the first turn alone, a single shot from the Titan took out 7 of my Baneblade's 9 hull points. The next turn, my big tank blew up, and it was really fun to see how the new explosion mechanics work. The blast threw the Baneblade to the right, flipping over the mighty machine onto one of Rizal's Leman Russ, obliterating both.

In the meantime, my venerable infantry advanced implaceably towards the enemy, under whithering fire. The last remnants of first platoon actually reached Rizal's other Leman Russ, parked right at the edge, and charged it with krak grenades, quickly destroying it. But they eventually got wiped out themselves. Second platoon was hunkered down near 2 objectives but was also eventually reduced to around squad strength.

The funny part was, Rizal's Titan actually felt the sweat. Somehow. Following age-old anti-Titan tactics, Leman Russ battle cannon were tasked to take out void shields while heavier guns like the Baneblade battle cannon and lascannons took out hull points. My Vendetta reserve rolls weren't great but when they did arrive, they made a difference. The Titan was reduced to 3 hull points by the time the game was over. And all the while I was paraphrasing lines from the first Star Wars movie - "sir, we have analyzed the rebels' attack patterns and identified a weakness in our defenses ... should we make ready your escape pod?"

In the second game I wanted to try what it would feel like to use a conventional 40k force and take on an Escalation force. I whipped out my Eldar Alaitoc Windriders for this. And it was quite one-sided actually. The Eldar won decisively, leaving only the mon-keigh Commander and 2 very badly damaged Vendetta (1 hull point left on each) alive. The Warhound Titan was destroyed in turn 2 under concentrated bright lance and fire prism (lance) fire. In the resulting apocalyptic blast, the dying Titan took out one of my jetbike squads which was deep in mon-keigh territory having just destroyed his Hydra.

Eldar tactics vs Titan paraphrased Imperial ones. Multi-shot weapons like Serpent Shields were used to rapidly take down void shields, while lance weapons followed up to destroy the beast itself. I must say I was lucky too - a D shot only clipped one of my Fire Prisms, and the resulting penetrating hit only destroyed its shuriken catapults. Another memorable moment in that battle was my relatively tiny and nimble lone Crimson Hunter flying amidst 3 bulky mon-keigh Vendetta. And after the Titan was destroyed, the exarch executed an impossible manouver putting him on the six of the Vendetta carrying the mon-keigh HQ, blasting it to pieces.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to my next Escalation game. I'm going to try out my Shadowsword next time. See how that works out.

In the meantime, I've started painting my Heldrake - wish me luck! Keep them dice rolling!

Favored Rubric Terminators - Finally!

After years and years of absolutely inspired expert procrastinating, my favored squad of Rubric Terminators finally got done last night. This was truly a long drawn out old project, with more stops than starts.

And just how old? Well, the squad was started when Thousand Sons Rubric Terminators had 2 wounds each, and the aspiring champion was actually an aspiring sorcerer, and when you buy them in squads of 9 (Tzeentch favored number), the aspiring sorcerer came free with the squad. This was back in the good ol' broken days of CSM Codex 3.5 when aspiring sorcerers were charging with powerfists with 5 attacks and 2 re-rolls!

The project is so old that the models are actually plastic Space Marine termies - simply because the Chaos ones weren't created yet! The crowns are metal Rubric Thousand Sons, which I cut and shaved off the entire front part of the power armor helmet. Then I cut the rear half of the Space Marine termie helmet and glued the two together. Tabards are metal Thousand Sons bits, and so are half of the combi-bolters (the ones with the bird heads), made by glueing two Thousand Sons bolters together.

The power swords, gauntlets and shoulder armor are from various bits - Chaos warriors, Space Marines, CSM, etc. Yes, this was wayyyyyyyy before power swords counted as only AP3! The Champion's chainfist is stock Space Marine termie chainfist. His shoulder armor are from a hapless Grey Knight, and the helmet is an old metal fantasy Chaos sorcerer's. The Icon of Tzeetch and spiky bits are from the CSM vehicle accessories frame.

There was a lot of shaving away of Imperial icons, eagles and purity seals. And a lot of glueing on of skulls and slightly more Chaotic symbols, as well as some battle damage. The combi-bolters that were not made of Thousand Sons bolters were a mix of CSM metal termie combi-bolters, DIY combi-bolters (2 CSM bolters glued together) and even an actual combi-bolter from a Rhino. I will be adding 4 melta-barrels to these guys when I get around to it - hopefully within the decade!

Anyways, now that the squad is done I'll probably be using more of the list that includes the full favored squad - which takes away the Rhinos from their power armored brethren! Next up - the Heldrake!

Keep rolling them dice!