Got a game in! Amazing!

I just started a new job in November, and it involves me working from 2 locations which are about three and a half hours' drive or an hour's flight apart. So it's half the week in KL, and half the week in Johor.

Needless to say, my hobby has taken a beating. I'm still in mid-swing assembling the next Denerair infantry squad. I've read the Bolt Action rules, but all my GIs are still on sprue. And I still have a bunch of Ravenwing, Deathwing, Dark Angels 3rd Company, Brandenberg IG, Catachan AirCav IG and Chaos to paint.

So fight fire with fire I say. Last week's trip I hooked up with long-time wargamers Quake and Chris Koh for a mid-week game. Quake was famous back in the old Balau days as the die-hard chaotic Eldar (his Eldar was actually painted and modeled with lots of Chaos icons) who fielded plenty of Wave Serpents, Guardians and scatter lasers back when scatter lasers, Guardians and Wave Serpents weren't as insanely good as they are now, in the good ol' days of 3rd ed. I also remember a tournament in Singapore when he brought an insanely fluffy Black Templar army which got heroically massacred by Dark Eldar - but in style.

Chris is a die-hard IG player, though I believe his insanely immense collection includes armies from all 40k factions, his veteran IG armies has invaded many a tournament and Apoc game. I remember an old tournament game against his IG with my Thousand Sons - pretty tough game that my Tzeetch warriors just managed to come on top.

So we adjourned to Chris' man-cave with my Eldar army packed in my car. The mission was Contact Lost, which is an awesome one as you have to think ahead in order to be able to generate as many Mission Objectives as possible. Chris' army was a daunting Salamanders army with 11 Drop Pods, lots of Tactical squads, a Command squad, a couple of Devastator squads and a Dreadnought.

I won't go into details save to say that the Salamanders dominated the battlefield with drop pods occupying all objectives from the get-go - so I had to play catch-up from the very first turn. I must say I am happy with how the Eldar did, aggressively fighting the mon-keigh from the backfoot. In the end, the Salamanders held on to victory, edging the Eldar out by 1 VP (Slay the Warlord).

It was a bloody battle with both sides losing more than half their original strength. There were plenty of amazing deeds of bravery and soldiery. My Striking Scorpions outflanked from the left-flank, and from turn 3 onwards were in the thick of battle, slaying 2 Tactical and 1 Devastator squads, before finally getting gunned-down by concentrated Adaptes firepower. My Warp Spider Exarch became the attention of firepower towards the end of the game when he became the only available character to be shot at (he drew the kill a character objective card) - it took two-thirds of the marine army to bring him down - that was some pretty amazing saving rolls.

Then there was the time his Command squad dropped into my backfield - 5 dudes with Storm Shields, including an Apocathery and his Captain with Artificier armor. I figured 10 Guardians, 9 Fire Dragons and the Autarch with fusion gun can wipe out the mon-keigh in a single round. But alas the Captain and Apothecary survived. And the rest, as the say, is history ...

That was simply an awesome game, and I do look forward to more wargames adventures in the south.

Keep rolling them dice ...