Grudge Vs Hate - A 2nd edition Warhammer 40k battle report

For me, this hobby mostly consists in modelling toy soldiers and sharing it via blogging and forums and all and meeting nice people online is definitely one of the good parts. The best part of it all though is getting to meet those people for real. Yeah, like in the other real life, the one without a keyboard and all and with handshakes and drinks instead !

Well thanksto the Oldhammer groups on facebook (both french and English speaking) I was finally able to get to play with Goulven a proud defender of the 2nd edition of warhammer 40k (along his gaming partner Pestilus). For once I didn't have to go to Canada or England to get a game !

Being renowned for his Squat army and being the poor "chaotic-to-the-core" soul that I am, the choice of armies was very simple we just needed to agree on a given number of points.

I managed to come up with a 2000 points list using everything I had painted so far (and for which I had painted the terminators.

Facing the squats

The table was set in advance and looked suitably oldschool with the grass everywhere with great details and scenic elements like the windmill and the watch tower.

Like always Battle started before the first bullet was even shot...

Like taking a classy pose while whistling was going to impress the black heart of renegades like mine...

Facing the chaos renegades

Squats had prepared a whole welcome party to celebrate my renegades' first game ever ! Fireworks and booze seemed to be on the menu...

For good measures I had to show I had not come to make sandwiches but for some proper evil doing and slaughter...

Presenting my babies while singing a jolly tune

And thus started the first turn. I have to admit I hadn't played this edition since 1998 (kept playing it a while after the release of 3rd ed as I didn't like the simplifications back then). Getting into it was slightly odd though as some habits started to come back but unfortunately not all of them. 2nd edition is very peculiar and requires a totally different attitude than the later editions...

Oh and I should probably have read my army list and army books a little better...

I took the first turn and started to move everyone forward and start shooting on what I could.  A couple of squats got removed and it seems they took this with far less cool than you'd expect. 

One of those rare occasions when you're happy your opponent rolls a double 6

Saddened or maybe just frustrated by the loss of their 2 comrades, they decided to flee (making squats flee is a pleasure I don't tire of).

My terminators tried to shoot but their rather poor positionning didn't allow them to do much...

Then my Sorceror tried to open the psychic phase...

... only to see my opponent grin all he could (I could actually see froth at the sides of his mouth...).

Depending on where you were born and how you were raised the first word that will come to you in such an occasion will change but for me it ws a loud and clear "PUTAIN ! " Followed by a loud and slighly less clear "ARGGGL" when I rolled a 1 to see my psyker was dead before doing anything in the game, my first turn had proven deadlier for me than for my opponent. A great start.

A sense of menace started to arise on the other side of the table when the giant dreadnought moved forward, it was slow but looked as determined as a machine can look and the only funny prospect was seeing the trike shot earlier losing control and aimog for the forest...

The bikes accompanied by the living ancestor and followed by a predator seemed to target the chaos androids (played as Noisemarines for the occasion).

Which the evil robots didn't seem to care much about...

Meanwhile, the triles with multimeltas had decided to feast upon termintaors...

The thudd gun got  the occsion to remind everyone of how inaccurate and fun it was....

The toll was becoming heavy on the chaotic side though... I was gently being  reminded how violent this edition could be...

But hope or whatever drives 10000 years old evil hearts was still there along with a clean line of sight between the gigantic squat dreadnought and the smaller but nastier Chaotic one and its plasma cannon (max power) ...

After getting shot and grilled with flamers the turn before, the androids returned fire with a dozen of sustainable fire dice... only to shoot 2 bikes down...

The bikes laughed at that poor attempt and drove by the androids (leaving them for the predator). The living ancestor bravely chosing to avoid using any psychic power in the vicinity of the androids though(remember they were using noisemarines rules)

Willing to prove ol' timers can still do the job, the living ancestor got through the tunnel he had created the turn before. When he arrived the remaining terminators could barely contain their joy to hot an old thing like him...

In the meantime, somewhere else, a predator tried to fire...

Who said squats can shoot ?

And the living ancestor decided to cast a force dome on the bikes while the terminators were crippled by the curse of the machine god... They wouldn't have their childish fun now...

As soon as the living ancestor released the bikes from the protection of the force dome the dreadnought and the marines decided to do a good ol'fashioned clothesline on the trike and bike passing nearby 

One of the vehicles miserably ending in the chaos squats (killing some in the process) and the other one ending in its own colleagues to my greatest joy !

Meanwhile, the predator was still super focused on killing some of the androids...

With the squats deep into my rear, there wasn't much to do... even the dreadnought who had proven tobe a very useful asset had been damaged and had a ticking clock (in the form of a roll each turn to see if he would explode) above him...

Then the predator tried to shoot with his plasma cannon and I decided to pull out my strategic card which made it explode like a ripe plasma fruit. That's 2nd ed for you, just one card...

In a weird combo of bravery and stupidity, the thudd gun fired on the remaiing chaotics who were surrounded by squats from everywhere. Killin most of them...

At the end of the game only one chaotic man was standing, the chaos lord himself, with 2 wounds left but still under the curse of the machine god. He was doomed to be executed by the power axe of the earth guard. Honour (or whatever the chaotic equivalent is) was safe; I had not been totally wiped off the table though.

I'm still standing !

The last turn saw the explosion of the dreadnought and with it the only hope I had to keep my objective so the perspective of saving anything turned into ash...

What can I say about this game ?

1) It was tremendously fun and exciting and though I clearly wasn't prepared for it, it really reminded me of the good old days of my teenhood.

2) I had forgotten how drastically different this edition was in many aspects (I'm still plagued by reflexes I got in the later editions).

3) The use of strategic cards, missions and psychic phase make this edition utterly unbalanced but extremely dynamic like in the action movies of the same period.

4) I realised during the third turn I had actually bought a Bloodthirster (300 points in a 2000 list) but has forgotten to take the model with me. Even if I had taken the model I wouldn't have been able to summon it as I had not taken the means to do so in my army... My bad, my opponent felt sorry and gave me a model to use and decided to ignore the rules but on the third turn it was way to late to summon such a beast... Worst thing is actually that I didn't get to take a cool pic of the whole painted army including him.

5) Goulven and his Girlfriend were excellent hosts who not only provided fun but ale and nice cakes so a round of applause to them (even got a nic epresent in the form of a marine scout)!

I'm really looking forward to play some more 2nd edition really. I do prefer games with scenarios and a good dose of Roleplay like I can do with Rogue trader but from time to time a good battle for fun where you throw armies oine against the other with loads of silly events like in 80's or early 90's movies is just too good to ignore.

That's all for now, I'm super happy to have had my renegades out and starting now, i'll have to focus on my painting schedule to finish a few things that have been in the way for too long and that can't wait anymore now.