Weekend at Burnie's 4 - Day 1 - Creations of Bile vs T'au and AdMech

Has it really been a year since the last Weekend at Burnie's?

It was back. I, Stylus, was there. And naturally, I brought Chaos.

The Warhammer 40k event to rival all others has rolled around again, and back at Bristol Independent Gaming (in its new premises too).

With some swift painting I managed to give my Creations of Bile army a refresh in time for the action. My first draft was all-infantry force (dictated by what I could fit inside a small box), but I decided that so many Possessed charging across the field would be a bit full-throttle. 

Given that WaB is traditionally a friendly affair, I scrapped the list and opted for taking a little bit of everything: I still had some very decent melee options, but also some daemon engines so, if my opponent was packing anti-armour, they would at least have something to shoot at.

The plan for this crew was all about the Wanton Slaughter phase - if I could get among the enemy with enough numbers by the time my melee attacks started exploding, I'd be able to have some fun.

I had long range firepower in the form of the Obliterators and Daemon Engines, but they were mainly to suppress the opposing guns, or draw fire themselves. The Daemon Prince was loaded up for damage and survivability, as was the Master of Executions.

The Exalted Champion was probably a bit wasted in an army with so little Core units (but the paint was fresh on him, so along he went). My real ace would be the Master of Possession, with his ability to restore or revive models (I was expecting to take some punishment - the secret is out about Possessed now)

Both the Chosen and Possessed could be dangerous if even half their number made it through. The smart move would have been to give the Black Rune of Damnation to the Possessed, but I'd just painted up the Chosen, so they got the relic in the hopes it would keep them alive long enough to offset New Model Syndrome.

And finally some backline objective squatters - Legionnaires with Mark of Tzeentch and a missile launcher for harassment.

• Mirgluf - Daemon Prince with Wings (HQ) (Warlord)
  Hellforged sword, Malefic talons, Mark of Slaanesh
  Trait: Prime Test Subject
  Relic: Living Carapace
  Psychic: Prescience, Delightful Agonies, Smite
• Servilius - Master of Possession (HQ)
  Bolt pistol, Force stave, Frag & Krak grenades, 
  Psychic powers: Pact of Flesh, Warp Marked, Smite
• Krempe - Exalted Champion (HQ)
  Combi-melta, Exalted power axe, Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades 
• 5 x Legionnaires (Troop)
  Power Maul, Boltguns, Bolt Pistols, Heavy chainaxe, Missile launcher
  Chaos Icon: Mark of Tzeentch
• Hortensius - Master of Executions (Elite)
  Axe of Dismemberment, Bolt Pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades
  Gifts of Chaos: Gorget of Eternal Hate
  Aspiring Lord: Twisted Regeneration
• 5 x Chosen (Elite)
  Accursed weapon, Power fist, Bolt pistol, Boltgun, Frag & Krak grenades
  Trophies of the Long War: Black Rune of Damnation
  Chaos Icon: Mark of Slaanesh
• 7 x Possessed (Elite)
  Hideous mutations, Chaos Icon
• 5 x Warp Talons (Fast)
  Warp claws
• Venomcrawler (Fast)
  2 x Excruciator cannons, Soulflayer tendrils and claws 
• 2 x Obliterators (Heavy)
  Fleshmetal Guns, Crushing fists
• Forgefiend (Heavy)
  3 x Ectoplasma cannons

Points: 1499 | Level: 92 | Battle-forged + Arks of Omen - Aspiring Lord – Gifts of Chaos Trophies of the Long War: 3 CPs

Game 1 - T'au Empire

My first battle was a long-awaited one. Chris is a veteran of Weekend at Burnies, but I've never faced him before. 

He was fielding T'au, which is usually a bogey army of mine - this one had a mix of everything: Fire Warriors, Stealth Suits, Ghostkeel, XV88s ... and what really drew my eye was the pair of Hammerhead tanks with rail cannons. Those long range monstrosities could delete the best my army had to offer before I could get stuck into them.

The mission was a simple objective-grab, with the added bonus for killing warlords. As we set up, I decided to feed the Hammerheads one unit per turn, while the rest of my army cross the table and chopped up the T'au.

Sure enough, in the first turn, my Forgefield was obliterated; and in the second, my Venomcrawler. However, this meant that the Hammerheads had run out of quality targets and, thanks to the huge ziggurat in the centre of the table, the rest of my army was out of sight.

Chris also obliged me by deploying the Stealth Suits and Ghostkeel upfield, so I was able to get stuck in on Turn 1. 

A Devilfish then landed in my back lines, disgorging a squad of Fire Warriors and, although they were also cut to pieces, they held on for longer than expected (it was one brave Shas'ui), so although my Master of Executions chopped up the vehicle, and the Warp Talons ripped apart the Fire Warriors, they were out of position by mid-game.

Having lost all my Chosen and most of my Legionnaires shielding the Daemon Prince, I decided it was time to go for some warlord-on-warlord action. I flew into the back line to take on the T'au Ethereal and - this may come as a shock - discovered they are not really built for melee. Having killed the enemy warlord many times over, I had to take my punishment in the subsequent turn, as the Hammerheads blasted him from this plane of existance.

Meanwhile, the Obliterators had deepstruck in and blasted away one of the XV88s, while the Possessed (who had been taking casualties, and getting revived by the Master of Possession), charged down the other, then continued into the two squads of Fire Warriors until the whole gunline was swept clear.

The battle ended with just the two Hammerheads (with nothing of value to gun down) against a hefty chunk of my infantry and secondary characters - more than enough to spread out and scoop up the objectives.

Creations of Bile 53 : 28 T'au Empire

Game 2 - Adeptus Mechanicus

My next game was against Alan, a regular opponent of Kasfunatu (so I was anticipating a good game) and his Adeptus Mechanicus. The added bonus was a simple of adding an extra objective (which would make holding more than your opponent more difficult).

His was an interesting list - many threats, but no one thing to focus on (which is hard for a melee army that thrives on breaking the back of an opposing line). There were Corpuscarii-Electro-Priests, Sicarian Infiltrators, Serberys-Raiders, Sydonian Dragoons, Kataphron Breachers, Ironstrider Ballistarius, an Onager Dunecrawler, a Dunerider, a couple of Tech-Priests and some squads of Rangers.

Quite a mix of everything - shooting and melee - and the 9th Edition AdMech had all sorts of tricks and stratagems to play, if you know how to work them properly (and Alan did).

I took the first turn, and managed a long range charge with my Warp Talons into his large unit of Kataphron Breachers, although some AdMech chicanery allowed the servitors to go first and wipe out my unit! 

My Venomcrawler was first to fall to AdMech firepower, and my Possessed got jumped by the Electro-Priests. Luckily, the Daemon Intervened and just about managed to clear the priests away. The momentum carried them onto the Serberys-Raiders, who they also butchered, and into the squad of Rangers into the backline.

Meanwhile the Master of Executions was avenging the Venomcrawler by taking out both of the Ironstriders.

Trouble hit my backline as the Infiltrators emerged and started hacking away at the Legionnaires squad on my home objective. With some very good fortune, the Champion survived, and backed away from the fight, allowing the newly-arrived Obliterators to gun down the Infiltrators.

Speaking of good fortune (some might call it extreme jammy luck), the Daemon Prince (fortified by his Delightful Agonies ability to ignore wounds) had led the Chosen and Master of Executions to tear up the Rangers and Dunerider, then weathered the overwatch of the Dunecrawler, and the counterattack of the Tech-Priest, and the firing squad of Rangers, to sweep away the AdMech's right flank. By the time he was done, he was one a single wound, and had been for some time.

The Forgefiend (who had lasted a bit longer this time, albeit ins a fruitless artillery duel with the Breachers) was finally taken down, but the revived Possessed (who had broken left when the Daemon Prince went right) were quick to follow and took down the Sydonian Dragoons, before pulling back to secure the central objective.

At this point, both sides had taken a bit of a hammering and points were fairly even. The remaining Breachers charged the remaining Possessed on the central objective - but their good rolls failed them at a critical juncture and not one hit made it through. The Possessed responded by cutting them all down and the last push of the AdMech was done.

In the final round, the Daemon Prince led the remains of his forces into the last enclave of AdMech, slaughtering their last squad of Rangers and the Manipulus warlord. A single Tech-Priest survived, whose omnissian axe finally managed to take out the Daemon Prince's last wound (finally!)

Fantastic game - swung in both directions and some very dramatic dice rolls.

Creations of Bile 45 : 35 Adeptus Mechanicus

Two more games to go!