CXI presence felt at Battleforge

I got to play two excellent games last night at the Forge. The first of the evening was my official match for the Heresy-era campaign. I played my Chaos against Chris Long's Alpha Legion. The last time I faced Chris he was beating me senseless with his mech Eldar at a BFG tournament, so I have to admit that I was a little intimidated. It was a Night Fighting (Cleanse) mission, so we set up in opposite quadrants. Throughout the battle, spotting distance rolls played havoc with both my and Chris' ranged combat. During the setup phase the enemy army looked a little thin until he revealed that most of his army was infiltrating...the sneaky git! Due to the immense pressure from all the units popping up around me, I uncharacteristically took first turn. Once again the Noise Marines proved their worth as they piled into a rhino and drove up next to Chris' Veteran squad and killed eight(!) of them with a Doom Siren from the Fire Point - effectively eliminating his most expensive squad. Chris also placed two units of cultists behind cover at his two quarter edges so that they could do a one-turn dash to claim the adjacent quarters. This put pressure on me to move out and attack. Several very tough rounds of close combat ensued in the center where I lost my poor Daemon Prince to a tech marine (that backpack powerfist thing is awesome!) and a cool Alpha Legion character. My Raptors jumped out and killed a tank and were then gunned down like tribbles. The Defiler managed to run across the board without dying and tied up the enemy Devastator squads in combat for the rest of the game (pack your Power Fists, kids, or pay the price). The poor Vindicator killed a Predator and was then killed in its own right. The Khorne Berzerkers (led by Lucius) cut a furious swathe up the left flank, eventually killing 3 enemy units (including one of the sneaky cultists units) and claiming that quadrant without loosing any of its own number. The Plague Marines did what they do best, absorbing an enormous amount of fire before finally succumbing in a puss ridden explosion.

End result: 2 table quarters for Chaos, 1 quarter for Alpha Legion, 1 contested quarter. Victory!

Chris was a real sport and was patient with my rules questions, even when I was being obstinate. Being hopped up on vicadin and caffeine put me in an odd mood and he rolled with it. So give him a friendly CXI greeting next time you see him.

The second battle of the evening was a 'for fun' mega battle. Mike and I teamed up (Orks & Chaos) against Frank and Abe (Dark Angels and Alpha Legion) with 1500 points per player. Needless to say, we didn't get through all 6 turns - but we had a blast. Those infiltrating Alpha Guys popped up all around our forces and then had the audacity to take first turn. Ork trukks blew up all around us from Abe's Las/Plas squads. Then began the long footslogging tromp to the center where a massive brawl ensued between a pile of marines and a zillion Orks. It was a hell of a time. I spent most of the game trading ineffective long range fire with Abe on my side of the board. In a bitter surprise, I lost nearly all my plague marines to bolter fire from a tiny 5-man marine squad. Sometimes the dice gods play mean. MVP would have to go to Frank's whirlwind which chipped the Warboss' unit down through the whole game, scoring 8 unsaved wounds in the last turn! Mike's Trukk Boyz finally pulled free of their wreckage and managed to knock a few beakie hedz around.

Though we ended early, victory went to the Space Marines. We'll get them next time!

All in all it was a great time. BFG was packed to the gills and at one point there were 7 simultaneous battles happening, with even more people waiting their turn - building models and generally kibitzing.

Huzzah!