February Hobby Wrapup

February is fading from sight in the rearview mirror, so before it's completely out of sight I thought I'd say a few words giving myself a hobby report card.

• Empire Swordsmen - A+. Nailed it.  I finished painting all six swordsmen and even got a blog post in about it that you can read here.
• Bloodletters - F.  I pulled these guys out of storage and then they sat on my desk scowling at me the whole month. I hear Khorne is intolerant of failure, so I expect some kind of retribution.
• Riptide - B-. I got some more paint on this guy and started in on his line highlighting. Not done, but not forgotten.

Riptide of Joy and Suffering

I started his line highlighting up around where the head attaches so I could get that bit glued in.  The arms and shield are being held together with bluetac for the picture.  I want to get them and the torso finished before gluing them on permanently.

For March, I think I'll leave the bloodletters on the desk.  There's really not that much left to do on them.  Of course I'll continue work on the riptide, but instead of thinking I'll get it done I think I'll set a more modest goal, like getting the torso and arms finished.

I've also got a band of Warhammer Fantasy Orcs sitting on my desk that just need to be based.  I'm thinking I'll just sprinkle some static grass onto them and call it done.

Waaaauuuuugh!!!

Riptide of Joy and Suffering

I remain, as always, a slow painter. Do you also paint slowly? I feel like a couple hours of painting only gets me through one little section on a large model or that I just get one color laid down on a squad of miniatures.  C'est la vie, I suppose.  I should give up on any dreams I had of being a professional painter.  It would take much too long for anyone to want to hire me.

I wouldn't want to hire me.

Clank Clank I'm a tank.

The base colors on my Tau are Bastion Grey from Privateer Press and Mecharius Solar Orange from Games Workshop. Both paints need two coats to get proper coverage, but for different reasons.  The grey is very thin and lets a lot of the primer show through so two coats are necessary to get a smooth finish.  The orange is extremely thick, and remains so no matter how much water I add.  My brush seems to end up pushing globs of paint around and it takes two coats to smooth it all out.

It's time consuming.

I might get one more evening of painting in on the Riptide before I set it aside to tackle some of this month's other projects. I pulled out a reference model from my empire army so I will go ahead and tackle the six empire swordsmen on this month's todo list.

Master Engineer and Riptide Progress

I've been cranking away on this month's goals and I've got my riptide mostly assembled.  It took a fair number of evenings to get the whole thing assembled and cleaned up.  He's a jumble of subassemblies at the moment so that when I go to paint him I'll be able to get my brush into all his little nooks.  I might even magnetize the torso to the legs to make storage and transportation easier.

Riptide Parts!

Once the riptide was mostly finished I was itching for a change of pace so I broke out the Empire Engineer and painted him to a playable state.  I don't imagine I'll ever need two empire engineers in my collection, but if I had to do it again I would definitely paint the base separately from the rest of the model.  There are a lot of fiddly bits on there that are difficult to reach with a brush once the model is standing on top.

Scoping out the competition!

My January goals are going to be coming in tight.  I didn't think the riptide would take as much time to complete as it did so I'm not sure there will be time to get paint on him.  Finishing the Engineer was nice, though. I can't let just one thing eat up the whole month. Progress needs to happen on all fronts, not just the biggest, shiniest parts.

I've also started brainstorming and outlining a little Pathfinder/DnD adventure.  I dug out some minis from the old DnD tactical combat game for inspiration.  I'm thinking the little kobold/dragonling things on the left are training beasties to help them fulfill some sort of plan.  I haven't decided completely on their motivations. Maybe they're retrieving an artifact or trying to drive some townsfolk off their land.  Maybe they're just lurking or being bandits.

2015 Hobby Wrapup and 2016 January Goals

2015 is done! Hooray! But before we put last year completely in the rear view mirror let's spend a bit of time in reflection.

Everything I painted in 2015

I managed to play only a handful of 40K games. They were all fun, but difficult to arrange and took much too long for the points values (many hours for 1500 points to a side).  All but one were also four player games which is probably why they took a bit longer.

Fantasy suffered a bit of a blow with the introduction of Age of Sigmar.  A buddy and I had been collaborating on an empire army themed around witch hunters, and even had a plan to run something like a campaign with them. With no more GW support for proper Warhammer Fantasy we're not likely to do that anymore.  We've played the Age of Sigmar rules but we're not terribly impressed with them. We're just not sure how best to organize a battle so the fight isn't lopsided. We did play around with counting wounds and whatnot but it's just not the same as having points values and force org charts.  We'll see.  I think the rules themselves play fine, but I'm not sure I want to spend a bunch of money for scenario rules or that it has legs enough to keep me interested.

In Warmachine territory I only played a single game even though most of my painting time was put into Privateer Press models. So that's a bit lopsided.  I'm sure I can arrange some more battles this year.

Hobby Scorecard! A lot of this year's hobby was spent finishing models that had been started a long time ago. This is another trend I expect to continue in 2016.  I'm resolved to make a dent in the pile of half finished miniatures I have lying around.

Here are the models I completed in 2015. Twenty-nine total, which comes out to about one model every two weeks.

     12 Empire Swordsmen

     Dark Angels Azrael

     Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight
     Rask, Hordes Warlock

     6 Tau Stealthsuits

     2 Tau Drones
     3 Tau Battlesuits
     Bull Snapper, Hordes Warbeast

     Journeyman Warcaster
     Harlan Versh

Looking into 2016, I'd like to do more one on one combats across all the rule sets that I have armies for, even Infinity. I'm also looking to expand my Tau collection and finish up a few of the half-started armies that are lying around. Setting a goal for the month seemed to work well leading up to the new year, so I think I'll keep that around and try to make it a thing.

Here's a picture of the January goal:

In the front there is a half-finished Cairn Wraith and an assembled and primed Empire Master Engineer. Then of course there's a Tau Riptide taking up most of the picture. I'm building my Tau force very deliberately, only adding a new model to the army once all the other models are assembled and painted.  The only exception I'm making is for drones.  Drones will be saved up to be assembled and painted once I have a sufficient number of them.

Painted: Battlesuits and Weapons

Last night I finished up the weapons for my Tau Battlesuit squad.

I magnetized all the weapon options that come in the kit so it took a little while to do all the fiddly line highlighting on each weapon.  Still, I think the overall effect is pretty good.

The magnets I used are a little bit small, and even though I doubled up the connection still feels a little wobbly.  I'm worried about the weapons coming off during gameplay and losing them. I'm not sure what I'd do differently if I were to do it all over again since the magnets were the largest I could possibly use on the small weapons.

One day left and one project to go to get my project list done for the new year. Harlan Versh here I come!

End of Year Painting

With four weeks left in the year it's time to wrap up some hobby projects.  I've been hoarding miniatures for almost two decades now, so my hobby backlog runs longer than people graduating high school have been alive. Still, it's nice to close out the year on a high note so here's a shot of everything I'm trying to wrap up before January first.

We've got pSorcha and a Khador Devastator. These guys are completely done except for some paint, grass and gravel on their bases.  Should be a slam dunk and they'll get my small Khador force completely done.

Then there's a Cygnar Journeyman Warcaster that's been half painted for a few years now.  Time to get him done.

Harlan Versh is there on the left.  I had a very productive painting session where I got some key pieces of him done but haven't gone back to him since.

On the bottom there's a Bull Snapper to go with my Rask model. And lying in a pile on the table are the magnetized weapons for my Tau Battlesuits.

So with four weeks to go in the year I have set for myself what should be a pretty modest goal.  Time to buckle down and get it done.

Been Painting

Despite the lack of activity on the blog, I have in fact been paying some attention to my hobby work. It's been sporadic, but I've manage to get paint on a dozen miniatures in the last few months.  I like the results and wanted to share them here.

First up is Azrael for Warhammer 40K.  Occasionally a buddy and I team up and combine our Dark Angel forces.  We both usually run Belial as our Warlord when not teamed up, but taking two Belials in one force feels a little silly.  Now I have an alternate warlord that provides some serious buffing to whatever unit he joins.

A new Khador miniature to go along with the rest of the band.  He's actually been done since last year and has even seen combat since he got paint.  I see in the picture there's a tiny spot of blue on his base in the back. I'll have to fix that up.

I've owned the Rask model for a while, but was inspired to get him painted up when some friends of mine started started playing the Hordes RPG.  I've got a half painted Bull Snapper to go along with him and I have yet to use either of them in any sort of game.

Getting Rhyas finished brings me that much closer to being able to field the Legion of Everblight army that I've always wanted to have. Rhyas has a theme force that lets you run blighted ogrun, typhon and a whole bunch of other cool models with lots of synergies.

Tau stealthsuits!  There's one missing from the picture.  These guys were an experiment in a particular color scheme and painting technique.  I like the results and they deserve a separate post detailing how I did them up, if for no other reason than so I can keep track of what paints I used on them.  There's also a trio of battlesuits that are half finished that will be joining the fight for the greater good.

Warhammer Fantasy army work. I really like the color scheme on these guys.  The witch hunter model was Finecast, which I'll never do again. Thank goodness Games Workshop seems to be phasing that out. This is part of a larger army that a friend and I are putting together.  My half of the force has a steam tank, master engineer and 18 more swordsmen on top of what you see here.  The release of Age of Sigmar as opposed to a proper new Warhammer Fantasy edition has muted our enthusiasm for the project. We do plan to try the new rules at some point but it's not a high priority with all the 40K work that we have on our plates.

Blue Table Painting Scenario

Just recently, Blue Table Painting put up a series of four videos on their YouTube channel chronicling an Ork vs. Blood Angel battle. They're currently in the process of putting together a sort of Warhammer retreat up in the mountains of Utah and the video shows off some of the miniatures and terrain they're going to be using for that.

They were trying out a scenario they are working on for the tournament. I think it has promise but needed massaging. I really do enjoy watching their videos even if they do play a bit fast and loose with the rules. Their studio is a constant source of inspiration to me.

There were four main things that came up in the process of playing the scenario.

1. There were two objectives in each deployment zone, so each side got two of the objectives right off. This is fine, but they might as well not have played with these objectives. It basically made it a five objective game instead of a nine objective game.
2. They had problems when some objectives were right next to a wall. Do you count as contesting the objective if you're within three inches but on the other side of the wall?
3. They ended the game and called it a draw, even though one side had been wiped off the table.
4. Minimal troops choices for one side led to a house rule that any foot infantry could grab an objective. This ended working out fine for them in this specific instance, but isn't very generic.

Below, I present my set of rules for this scenario. I've also genericized it a bit to make the games slightly more random (d6+3 objectives). I can definitely see them wanting to just peg the objective count to nine when they are running the scenario at the event.

Setup.

• Place d6+3 objective markers, each mounted on a 30mm or 50mm base.
• Each player rolls a d6. Highest die roll decides who places the first objective.
• Each objective marker must be further than 20 inches from a short table edge.
• Each objective marker must be further than 8 inches from another objective.
• Objectives may not be placed in impassable terrain.
  

Deployment

• Determine who goes first as described in the WH40K rulebook.
• Instead of choosing a long table edge, the winner of the roll chooses a short table edge.
• Each player's deployment zone extends 15" from their short table edge.
  

Scoring

• You control an objective if you have a troops choice model in base to base contact with one of the objectives.
• Models who are fleeing, pinned or who are part of units that are engaged in close combat cannot control objectives.
• Starting on the second turn, at the end of your opponents turn, remove any objectives that you control from the board. You score one victory point for each of these objectives.
  A unit may only control one objective at a time. If models in a unit are touching more than one objective, the controlling player must declare which objective they are controlling after the model comes into base contact with the objective.

Ending the Game.

• Game ends per the rules in the WH40K rulebook. The winner is the player with the most victory points.
• Player automatically loses when the last of his models are destroyed.

I think this solves some of the problems they were having, and makes the scenario playable for all comers. Let's go over some of the decisions I made.

1. Putting the objectives further than 20 inches from the short table edges means each objective is important, not just the five that end up in the center. It keeps objectives from being nabbed by troops on the first turn except perhaps scouts and first turn deep strikers. Simply waiting until the second turn to start getting victory points gives slower armies (or demons) a chance. Keeping them 8 inches away from each other at least gives lip service to forcing players to move once they've taken one objective, although in practice eight inches isn't all that far. I originally wanted to do twelve inches, but the possibility of nine objectives in a 48x32 could have led to some objectives being impossible to place.
2. The objective markers in the videos were quite large. Specifying base to base contact solves the wall problem. If you want to get your opponent off an objective, you've got to get in there.
3. Remember kids, if you table your opponent, you automatically win. This is an important rule, even aside from the sense it seems to make. In objective games, especially ones with random turn length, it is very tempting for a player to send a unit on a suicide run to nab or steal an objective. The tabling rule leaves the option open to do this but makes it carry a certain amonut of risk. Just throwing away fast units in order to claim all the objectives early in the game could leave you vulnerable to being tabled by your opponent. If you're going to attempt such a strategy you have to think it through and time it right.
4. Army composition is part of the game. The Blood Angels player in this game decided to go with an elite and HQ heavy force. This is a perfectly valid option for building an army. It's a gross killing machine full of power and artificer armored death dealing maniacs. It's great in kill points, but for objective games it's at an appropriate disadvantage. Sure, we'd all like to run armies with two scout squads and maxed out terminators with thunderhammers led by Marneus and Pedro Kantor. And you can. But it's going to be an uphill battle to claim objectives. That's why the rulebook only allows troops to claim objectives. Ideally, it leads to more balanced army composition.

Tomorrow is game night, and if Snowmageddon stays away I might have a chance to test this scenario out. Looking forward to it, and special thanks to Blue Table Painting for inspiring this article.

Kill Teams and Battle Missions

A buddy and I played a few scenarios from the Battle Missions book recently. I know that battle missions is pretty much old news at this point, but I wanted to give my impression after actually having played.

We both brought our chaos armies for the evening. Starting off with Kill Teams we plunked our minis down and went at it. I brought a handful of chaos marines with a rhino and an icon, and threw in another handful of summoned lesser demons. On the opposing side was a squad of plague marines with a plasma gun and melta gun.

I was pretty brutally mauled in this game. I managed to keep my guys shooting, and got some two vs. one assaults but in the end the survivability of the plague marines was my downfall. Because Kill Teams is lost by having half your army destroyed, I was banking on having a healthy number of models. Turns out eleven is still not a healthy number. I would have been better off bringing a few special weapons so I could capitalize on the instances where I had a clear shot on one of his guys. In a scenario that revolves around whittling your opponent away, I just wasn't survivable or killy enough.

Fun game though. It played a bit like War Machine without the casters. Very few units moving around and everyone counts.

Next game we played 500 points and since we were both Chaos, we diced off to see who would be the attacker and then rolled a d3 to pick a chaos mission from the book. I came up as defender on the Pillage Mission.

Our army lists started off similarly. We both had flying daemon princes with the mark of Khorne. Demon princes fulfill a lot of roles in a low point game and the khorne prince is one of the cheapest. Following his prince, my opponent had a squad of plague marines and a unit of berserkers in a rhino. My prince brought along two small squads of chaos marines, one on foot and one with a plasma gun in a rhino. Also a defiler.

The game started slow with his berserkers moving up and his plague marines camping the objective closest to his deployment zone in order to rack up some early VPs. His prince moved towards the center where he'd be able to support his flanks. For my part I moved my rhino up a bit and a hail of bolter fire and a couple of well placed plasma shots took out a good chunk of the plague marine squad. The other space marine squad assaulted the berserker's rhino, planting krak grenades and stunning it.

Continuing on the plague marines stood steady on their objective, ensuring more points. The opposing khorne prince bopped over to tear the tracks off my rhino, while his berserkers piled out and attacked my demon prince, putting two wounds on him but losing most of their number in return. On my turn the defiler showed up and tried to fleet close enough to the berserker rhino that it would be able to use it to get some extra movement on the charge but fell just short. The chaos marines piled out of their soon to be destroyed rhino and put some rounds into the demon prince causing a couple of wounds.

The rest of the battle was simply a series of moves and counter moves. The defiler moved onto my objective with the chaos marines surrounding it for protection. His demon prince killed the chaos marines with the plasma gun. My demon prince killed his plague marines. The culmination of the battle was his demon prince bellowing to khorne and assaulting mine. They pummeled each other across two rounds of combat until they simultaneously sent each other back to the warp.

With his entire army gone the final result was a victory for me.

Campaign Battle Report: Road to Glory Final Battle

It was end times. One final battle remained to determine the ruler of the wasteland. The Ork horde had finally slowed chaos' seemingly relentless advance. Now chaos was regrouping and the Orks were poised to take advantage of their momentary confusion.

Chaos Army List

• Abaddon (275)
• Tzeentch Demon Prince with wings, warptime and wind of chaos (205)
• Marines in Rhino
• Thousand Sons
• Defiler (150)
• Land Raider

Ork Army List

• Wazdakka (180)
• Warboss with mega-armor, cybork, bosspole, attack squiq (130)
• 20 Boyz led by nob with power-klaw and bosspole (160)
• Trukk with red paint (50)
• Battle Wagon with deff rolla, armor plates, red paint, big shoota and grott riggers (135)
• 5 Mega Nobz (200)
• 5 Nob Bikerz with 3 power-klaws, a painboy, waagh banner, 2 stikk bombs and all Cybork (371)
• 7 Lootas (105)
• 5 Deffkoptas (175)

Setup
The final battle of the Road to Glory campaign is Annihilation. Winning the last battle meant that the Orks were able to choose Pitched Battle as the deployment type. Chaos won the dice-off and chose to deploy first and take the first turn.

Turn 1
Chaos started out with a bang and a kerunch. The only movement came from the defiler edging closer to the center of the board. Masssed lascannon fire destroyed the trukk and the defiler's battlecannon landed square on the lootas in cover, killing a couple. On the ork turn, everything moved forward as fast as it could, except the lootaz who stayed in their trees, taking pot shots at the rhino. Wazdakka shot his fancy gun and managed to immoblize the defiler.

Turn 2
The chaos land raider moved back just enough to to stay out of deff-rolla range. The demon prince started to move towards the rhino in anticipation of providing counter-charge support. Chaos shooting results were slim, but a couple of bikes and a deffkopta bit the dust. The orks continued their rush forward, and the lootaz managed to put a wound on the demon prince in the shooting phase.

Turn 3
Now the battle was truly on. The land raider rolled forward and Abaddon and the Thousand Sons got out. The demon prince joined them, and together they shot up, assaulted and killed all the meganobz and their warboss. On their turn, the orks responded in kind. The lootaz and bikes shot at Abaddon, the boyz got out of the wagon and assaulted the thousand sons just as the battlewagon rammed the land raider, destroying it and catching five ork boyz in the ensuing explosion. By the end of the assault round, all the Thousand Sons were dead, and Abaddon had fallen to Wazdakka and the bike nobz in assault.

Turn 4
Looking to put the balance back in their favor, the chaos marines piled out of their rhino and assaulted the boyz, killing all but one and the nob. Struck by a bout of insane heroism, the orks stood refused to flee. The Defiler dropped it's battlecannon shell on top of the deffkoptaz, killing two. The demon prince hopped over to the battlewagon and put some hits on it, but didn't manage to do anything more than keep it from shooting the next turn. Still this was enough, because as the battlewagon turned to come about it managed to immobilize itself on the remains of the land raider, making it easy for the demon prince to finish it off in the close combat phase. Wazdakka and the bikerz came to the assistance of the boyz, leaving just two chaos marines fleeing towards the table edge.

Turn 5
With only a few assets left, chaos was looking to pick up whatever victory points it could. The rhino moved away from it's perch, and shot up the remaining nob and ork, scoring one victory point there. The demon prince launched itself at the deffkoptas, killing the last two in close combat. Finally it was down to the ork turn. With a two point deficit they needed to kill at least two of the three remaining chaos units without giving anything up in the close combat phase. Wazdakka zipped over to the defiler and used his great shooty gun to reduce the demon engine to scrap. Then it was up to the lootas to put their meager five shots into the demon prince. When the rattling dakka was finally over the smoke cleared, revealing the demon prince had failed its armor saves and been banished back to the warp.

With a roll of a die the campaign was over. Final score was 6 kill points for the orks and 6 kill points for chaos.

Final Thoughts
What a blast. Really I don't think it could have come out better than it did. In all the campaign was a good time and I recommend everyone crack open their big rulebooks and give it a shot.

Campaign Battle Report: Road to Glory Battle 4

With Mission 5 of the Road to Glory campaign coming up soon it's high time I got the battle report for mission 4 done. By the book battle 4 is called "Beginning of the End," but in this case it might more appropriate to call it "Turning of the Tide." In this engagement, each side is trying to gain the upper hand in preparation for the final showdown.

The Chaos army list was in this post.

Ork Army List

• Ghazghkull Thrakka (225)
• Warboss with warbike, cybork, power-klaw and bosspole (140)
• 20 Boyz led by a nob with power-klaw and bosspole (160)
• Trukk (35)
• Battle Wagon with deff-rolla (110)
• 5 Mega Nobz (200)
• 5 Nob Bikerz with 2 power-klaws (275)
• 7 Lootas (105)

Setup
The Mission was Capture and Control with Spearhead Deployment. The sneaky orks placed landmines around the battlefield. Chaos won the die roll for choosing first turn and decided to take the initiative this battle.


Turn 1
Chaos' first turn sees a little bit of jockeying for position, but not much overall advancement. Everything that could shoot unloaded on the orks and managed to destroy the trukk and kill a nob biker. The orks mostly moved in their phase, rushing forwards to come to grips with the marauding chaos marines. The lootaz bounced their shots off the defiler and the footslogging meganobz jumped into a crater in front of them.

Turn 2
Chaos brought the fight to the enemy this turn. The defiler and chaos marines shot at and assaulted the nob bikerz, killing a couple, losing a few in return, and ending the assault with a tie. The big disappointment was Abaddon jumping out of his land raider and assaulting the battlewagon. Zero attacks from the big guy and the battlewagon was set for deff-rolla action in the ork turn. The meganobz piled out of their crater and joined the bikerz in close combat. The boyz jumped out of the trukk and gave the evil eye to Abaddon. The battlewagon surged forward, slamming its deff-rolla into the land raider, tearing off a couple of weapons and immobilizing it. At the end of the shooting and assault phase all the chaos marines were dead, the defiler was destroyed, and Abaddon had taken a couple of wounds and given nothing in return, being too busy wrestling with his sword's bound demon.

Turn 3
The chaos bikers siezed the opportunity to meltagun the battlewagon, wrecking it for good. The rhino moved in an attempt to block the chaos bikers from being assaulted by the meganobz. Abaddon finally gets his sword under control and kills a fistful of boyz, but they still have numbers enough to be fearless. In the ork turn the lootaz shoot the chaos bikers, leaving naught but spinning tires and broken ceramite. This left the meganobz to assault the rhino, tearing off its bolter and leaving it immobilized. Abaddon killed another fistful of orks but they stood strong and the embedded nob managed to take off one more of abaddon's wounds.

Turn 4
Seeing the end in sight, the Thousand Sons left the land raider and began their movement towards the objective in the chaos deployment zone. The rhino managed to repair itself. If the Thousand Sons could make it to their objective and Abaddon and the rhino could keep the bikes and meganobz busy chaos might be able to pull out a win. In the assault phase, Abaddon finally managed to kill enough boyz to rout them. In their turn, the orks press their advantage. The bikerz finished off the immobilized land raider and the meganobz destroyed the rhino once and for all.


Turn 5
Abaddon muscled his way through the intertwined wreckage of the land raider and battlewagon, emerging on the other side to rush into an assault on the nob bikerz. The Thousand Sons moved and ran, trying to put distance between themselves and the orks hot on their trail. The assault phase went to the orks, with all of Abaddon's attacks either missing or bouncing off their cybork bodies and a host of power klaws removing the last wound from the chosen of the chaos gods. In the ork turn there was little left to do except kill the remaining Thousand Sons in a combined biker and meganob assault.

With all the forces of chaos destroyed, the Orks are declared the winner.

Final Thoughts
See. Abaddon isn' t so tough after all. A big squad of boyz is a huge tarpit for a lone model to get through. Chaos' mistake was not having a support unit to take some of the pressure off their general. The orks capitalized on this by throwing away a cheap unit as a tarpit and applying the rest of their force against a smaller portion of the chaos army, slowly chewing through them in bite-sized morsels.

Here's the campaign map at the end of battle 4.

Campaign Battle Report: Road to Glory Battle 3

The third battle in the Roady to Glory campaign is supposed to represent the attacker's attempt to break through the defender's front lines. In probably the shortest battle report I have ever written, here are the results.

The chaos army list can be found in this post.

Ork Army List

• Warboss with mega-armor, cybork and power klaw (135)
• Warboss with warbike, cybork and power klaw (135)
• 20 Boyz led by nob with power klaw and bosspole (160)
• Trukk (35)
• Battle Wagon with deff-rolla (110)
• 5 Mega Nobz (200)
• 5 Nob Bikerz (225)

Setup
The game was Capture and Control with Pitched Battle deployment. As the winner of the last game, chaos was able to decide that the orks got the first turn.


Turn 1
The orks gave it everything they had. Abandoning their defence lines, they raced forward to get to grips with the chaos interlopers as quickly as possible. Chaos rose to the challenge on their turn. Everyone got out of the land raider, which focused all it's armament on the trukk, destroying it. After the Thousand sons poured fire into the bikerz, Abaddon and the defiler charged into them. One quick but vicious assault round later, some bikerz and the warboss were dead, and the defiler had exploded. Fearing the continued attentions of Abaddon, the bikerz fled.

Turn 2
The battlewagon raced forward to get its boyz into combat, but with a loud ker-chunk, immobilized itself on a piece of terrain. The boyz piled out anyways and sort of jogged towards the melee in the middle. Seeing Abaddon standing out in the open all alone, the meganobz shot at and assaulted him. Luck was not on their side and Abaddon handily won that combat as well, killing the warboss and sending the one surviving nob fleeing for his life. In the chaos turn, the rhino moved towards an objective, but it turned out to be unnecessary. The Thousand Sons and Abaddon shot down a few boyz, then Abaddon charged in, killed half of the remainder and sent the rest fleeing.

With all the orks units fleeing from the table with no chance of rallying, we called the game. Chaos Wins.

Final Thoughts
Abaddon cleaned up. This strikeds a chord with a post on From the Warp about the unbalancing power of some special characters in games. Abaddon certainly unbalanced this game, but as we'll see in Battle 4, there are things that an opponent can do, even in lower point games, to deal with overpowered characters.

Road To Glory: Army Lists for Battles 3 and 4

Tonight we get down and dirty with Missions 3 of the Road to Glory campaign. If we have time we're going to attempt to do mission 4 as well.

Here are the army lists I'll be using.

• Abaddon (275)
• 5 Chaos Marines in a rhino champion with power fist (150)
• 5 Thousand Sons & Sorceror with doombolt (185)
• Defiler (150)
  
• Land Raider possessed (240)

Both missions are objective based, and I'm going a little bit light on scoring units. Compared to last week I'm a bit more mobile and everything has an armored shell around it. This could be good or bad since I'm sure the ork mechaniks have been hard at work fitting deffrollas to everything. Abaddon and the thousand sons are tasked with bringing the pain and securing a remote objective. The chaos marines will secure their own objective and act as a delaying force/bait. The Defiler is in charge of objective denial and artillery.

If we have time we're going to go on and play the fourth mission. Here's the list I'll be using for that.

• Same as above (1000)
  
• 3 Bikes champion with power fist and two meltas (159)
• 5 more chaos marines and plasma gun (90)

Same objectives as the first list. The addition of the bikes will give me some fast anti vehicle, allow me to contest late in the game or finish off a unit in assault.

Campaign Battle Report: Road to Glory Battle 2

The second battle in the Road to Glory campaign is the battle to determine who is the attacker and who is the defender. It's also the first battle that has an effect on the next battle. Chaos and Orks were both taking this seriously and bringing their game face.

For those of you just joining us, here's the initial post on the campaign (including the chaos army list used), the battle report for mission 1 and the ork writeup.

I've also updated the campaign map to the right. Warning that it contains spoilers regarding the battle report below.

Ork Army List

• Warboss mega armor and boss pole (105)
• 4 Mega-Nobz with a deff rolla battle wagon (270)
• 12 Boyz in a trukk with a nob carrying a power-klaw and boss-pole (147)
• 5 Nob Bikerz (225)
  

Setup

Mission two was Capture and Control with Dawn of War deployment. We used the same board setup as the first mission. This time we had an objective in my deployment zone on the left flank and one on the right in the ork deployment zone. The bold orks deployed in the center and sneaky chaos refused to deploy anything.

Turn 1

The meganobz in battlewagon took off for the objective on the left flank and the trukk hung out in the center waiting for the chaos forces to arrive. The nob bikerz entered the board and moved up behind the trukk. In the chaos turn, everything came in on the right flank, with the defiler more towards the center and the prince and rhino on the right. The rhino popped smoke and the defiler bounced some rounds off the trukk. The thousand sons stayed off board, biding their time.

Turn 2

The ork battlewagon made it to the left flank objective and everyone inside settled in for a nice long lurk. The trukk popped over to the right flank, the boyz piled out, declaredwaaugh and ran. Not quite far enough to get to the demon prince. They did get to the rhino but nothing managed to damage it. The bikerz turbo boosted, lurking menacingly while watching the action. In the chaos turn the demon prince and marines in rhino ignored the boyz and rolled up on the bikerz, shooting and assaulting them, but not killing them all. The defiler walked up a hill and poured hot promethium and autocannon rounds into the boyz squad, killing everyone except the nob. The thousand sons stayed off board, biding their time.

Turn 3

In the ork turn the trukk retreated, setting up for late game objective contention. The last biker held out against the demon prince, keeping him locked in combat for the chaos turn. The meganobz turned on the battlewagon television, continuing to lurk in the trees by their objective. The lone nob is forgotten and unloved. In the chaos turn the prince and marines finally brought down the last biker. The marines consolidated towards the trukk and the prince started to move to the left flank.. The defiler also turned its attention towards the left flank, and knowing that it had a ways to go, started running. The thousand sons stayed off board, biding their time.

Turn 4

The trukk continued to lurk, looking for a position far enough away from the demon prince. The television turned out to be boring so the meganobz disembarked hoping to find something interesting to do near their objective. The lone nob remained forgotten and unloved. The chaos marines downed the trukk with concentrated plasma fire, sending it careening into a nearby forest where it exploded. The rest of the chaos forces moved as fast as possible towards the left flank where the thousand sons finally made their triumphant appearance.

Turn 5

The battlewagon tank shocks the thousand sons, crushing two under its deffrolla. The lone nob got remembered and manages to assault the chaos marines, pulling them away from their objective. The chaos marines fail to kill him in the ork turn, but do finish him off in the chaos turn, although they are unable to consolidate far enough to grab their objective. The thousand sons advanced and the demon prince moved up to contest the meganob held objective.

At the end of turn five no one has an uncontested objective. We roll for the end of game and it's over. Tie! Which is boring. So...

Turn 6

The battlewagon hit the demon prince with its deffrolla who met it head on with a death or glory attack. The battlewagon exploded but the prince took some wounds in the process. The meganobz danced and hooted when they finished him off with their shootas. In the chaos turn the marines finally got to their objective, the thousand sons ran to contest the meganob objective with the rhino in hot pursuit. The defiler assaulted the meganobz and smashed the warboss to paste before being pulled down by massed powerklaws.

With the right flank objective firmly under chaos control and the left flank objective in hot contention we ended the game with chaos winning, one objective to zero. Chaos has been declared the attacker for the Road to Glory campaign. They'll also get to choose who goes first in the next battle.

Final Thoughts

Deffrollas are probably nastier against vehicle armies. But against armored troops d6 S10 AP- hits isn't so bad. Sure it's S10 but if you've got 3+ armor you're not going to get too hurt. As for the current "controversy," I don't think it's unfair for the orks to have deffrollas as anti-vehicle. The ork codex doesn't have melta and most of its long range shooting is low powered. As an ork it's hard to get the S9 or S10 attacks that you need to nuke a land raider.

I'm enjoying making the map. The overall layout is similar to the campaign map in the main rulebook, but I've started from scratch using Inkscape. I've been drawing inspiration from the Battle Missions book for ways to better the map's look and feel.

Stay tuned! The next stage in the campaign should be played out tomorrow evening.

Battle Report: Road to Glory Battle 1 - Orks

My orky opponent for the Road to Glory Campaign was kind enough to do a writeup of the first battle as seen from his side of the table. I think it's important to analyze the battles you lose even more than the battles you win. It's also interesting for me to see what my opponent's plan was and what they think the major turning points in the battle were.

So without further ado, here's the message of the day from the orks.

Pre-Battle Thoughts

My plan was to have superior mobility and use that to mass my forces on the enemy’s flank. In a 500 point game, if you can kill even one unit without many losses to yourself, that can stack things against your opponent in a way that’s very hard to fight back from. I ended up deploying first and was able to put my entire army on, despite Dawn of War deployment restrictions. I placed everything in the center, as close to the opposing table edge as possible. My vehicles were close enough for the opponent to be able to walk on and shoot at them, but Mega-Nobz and a 12-man Boyz unit would not make it across the board if they were forced to walk from further away, so I just hoped that the Battle-Wagon at least would resist the first turn salvo. After that, rush toward whatever’s toughest, kill it early and hope that my opponent has a harder time whittling away my forces without their ace unit.

Then the battle happened.

Post-Battle Thoughts

Drat. Both vehicles were stunned on the first turn; no moving or shooting, so my slow-and-purposeful Mega-Nobz and small Boyz mob would have to walk from the half-way point. Fortunately, it was turn two so the waaagh helped me get some of them across. I prioritized the Daemon Prince because of its deadliness and mobility. I did manage to kill it, though my Boyz were also killed. With just Mega-Nobz left, chaos had no problem out-pacing me. The Mega-Nobz did survive a lot of shooting, but this wasn’t a kill-point game. I think if I was to summarize my mistakes, it would be that I was trying to play a 500 pt Objectives match as though it were 1500 pts. With so few units, running away or at least keeping 50% of my forces back should’ve ranked higher on my battle strategy list. Instead I attacked like an Ork ought to, and the Chaos Space Marines were all-too-ready.

Battle Report: Road to Glory Battle 1

My buddy and I started off the Road to Glory campaign this week. You can see the campaign map and chaos army list in the initial post.

The first battle was a hard fought mission with lots of jockeying for position.

First the ork army list:

• Warboss in mega-armor (100)
• 4 Mega-Nobz with Battle Wagon (250)
  
• 12 Boyz in a trukk with a nob carrying a power-klaw and boss-pole (147)

Setup

We set up a nice looking board with some snowy terrain and forests. The mission was seize ground and we ended up with three objectives. One was placed one near the center and the other two ended up on the left flank. The orks deployed everything in their transports in the center of the table and chaos declined to deploy anything.

Turn 1

The orks advanced full speed into the chaos deployment zone but with the enemy nowhere in sight had nothing else to do. The chaos defiler came in on the right and the rest of the army piled in on the left. The chaos marines on foot opened fire at the trukk, stunning it, and the defiler leveled it's autocannon at the battlewagon, leaving it stunned as well. The picture shows the disposition of forces and objectives at the end of turn two. Not shown is the defiler just out of frame on the right.

Turn 2

The warboss and meganobz abandoned the stunned battlewagon and began a long footslog across the board to the left flank. Similarly, the boyz abandoned their trukk, shout out a mighty waaugh and rush the demon prince and rhino. Having made a full move the previous turn, the rhino was safe, but the demon prince ended up taking some wounds and killing of a couple boyz. In the chaos turn both marine squads joined the demon prince against the hapless ork boyz. Between them they managed to beat the greenskins and catch them in a sweeping advance but not before the nob took the last wound off the demon prince. The picture shows the left flank at the end of turn two.

Turn 3

The warboss and meganobz continued towards the action on the left flank and the trukk moved to try to box in the rhino and keep the left flank objective contested. One of the space marine squads piled into the rhino which high tailed it through a forest. The second squad shifted into cover near the objective and shot up the trukk, destroying it. Over on the right flank the defiler began to chase after the meganobz, shooting at them but missing.

Turn 4

The meganobz continued their slow and purposeful advance. The defiler charged the forgotten and unloved battlewagon, handily destroying it. The rhino and marine squads secured the left flank objective in the ork deployment zone. The other space marine squad poured fire into the meganobz but only managed one wound.

Turn 5

Huffing and puffing from exertion, the meganobz finally reached the left objective and sat down for a rest. Fearing that the game would end in a tie, the chaos marines near them charged, drawing the orks away from the objective. By the end of the assault only one marine was left, but this was enough to force the meganobz to pile in even further away from their objective.

A final die roll decided the game was over on turn five and chaos won, one objective to zero.

Final Thoughts

Meganobz are tough nuts to crack in a low point game. Despite lots of shooting I didn't kill a single one. Instead, I had to use luring and containment to keep them ineffective for most of the game. As for the plan I laid out in the first post, some things worked and some didn't. The rhino with marines grabbed an objective in the back like I had planned, but the demon prince didn't really get to choose his own target. This was my fault for getting him an inch or so too close to the trukk. The defiler didn't end up being a major player, either. His task was to camp an objective and provide fire support but there were very few objectives and not many targets suitable for a battle cannon. If the game had ended up going longer the defiler would have come back into play on turn six or seven by contesting the meganob objective.

The other thing is Dawn of War deployment seems to do a role reversal, putting whoever goes first on the defensive. When you have the second turn there's little incentive to start with anything on the board. Denying your opponent an entire round of shooting, taking away any chance of a turn one assault, and being able to choose your initial deployment after seeing how your opponent is situated are very valuable advantages that I have a hard time giving up.

Stay tuned for the results of mission 2 and an updated campaign map.

Campaign: Road to Glory

Tonight marks the beginning of the Road to Glory campaign with Orks taking on Chaos. The two armies have been staring at each other across no man's land for some time now and soon one side will be making a push to bring this confrontation to an end. I've started a campaign map to chronicle events. We plan on playing the first two battles tonight so those are already on the map (I realized today that I mislabeled the second battle). Depending on the outcome I'll add in ork and chaos symbols, and maybe switch the arrow colors depending on who ends up the attacker.

We're playing the campaign escalation style starting at 500 points and increasing by 250 each game. Here's the chaos army list for the first battle:

• Demon Prince wings, khorne (140)
  
• 5 Chaos Space Marines plasma gun (90)
• 5 Chaos Space Marines flamer, rhino w/extra bolter (120)
• Defiler (150)

Everything in the list has a job. The khorne prince's aim is to move fast and take out any troops or fast units, preventing the orks from grabbing objectives or contesting late in the game. The chaos marines in the rhino will move and take a mid-field objective while the other marine squad will hold an objective in my deployment zone (preferably in cover) and provide fire support. The Defiler will move up and guard an objective mid-field while shelling large groups of orks.

The list for the second game is 250 points bigger but identical in purpose. The chaos marines have been combined into one squad and given some heavy hitting plasma weapons. Deployment zone objective duties go to the slow and purposeful thousand sons whose armor piercing fire will provide valuable support. The second game is capture and control so the khorne prince will follow the marines in the rhino to the ork objective and wipe up any opposition.

• Demon Prince wings, khorne (140)
• 10 Chaos Space Marines 2 plasma guns, champ w/power fist & combi-weapon, icon of chaos glory, rhino (275)
• 5 Thousand Sons & Sorceror w/doombolt (185)
• Defiler (150)
  

Battle Report: Chaos Marines vs. Orks

I recently got a game in against a buddy of mine. He'd just picked up some new models for his ork army, including a battlewagon (sadly no deffrolla). I brought my chaos marines since I have enough of them painted now that I was able to field an all painted army, something I haven't been able to do in years.

We both brought along 1750 points of our respective armies. Terrain placed, we rolled up a Capture and Control mission with Dawn of War deployment. Orks deployed and moved first.

Here are the army lists. Chaos is accurate and the Ork list is from memory.

Chaos Marines

• Tzeentch Demon Prince wings, warptime, wind of chaos
• Tzeentch Demon Prince wings, warptime, wind of chaos
• 9 Chaos Marines khorne icon, 2 plasma guns, champion with power fist and combi plasma
• 8 Thousand Sons and Sorceror icon, wind of chaos, meltabombs
• 4 Bikers khorne icon, 2 plasma guns, champion with power fist
• 7 lesser demons
• 6 lesser demons
• Defiler
• Land Raider possessed, havok launcher

Orks

• Gazhgull Thrakka
• Warboss on bike
• 7 Nobs on bikes
• Squad of meganobz in battlewagon
  
• Large squad of boyz
• Large squad of boyz
• 3 Deffkoptas
• 3 Deffkoptas
• 5 Lootaz in Trukk
  

The cunning chaos plan going in would be to come in on the flank opposite from the battlewagon, delaying when Gazhgull and his meganobz would be able to get stuck in and start killing things. The land raider would carry the thousand sons in an attempt to push through to the ork objective and the defiler would advance, shelling the large squads of boyz. Bikes, chaos marines and lesser demons were in charge of securing an objective leaving the demon princes to troubleshoot.

Turn 1: Orks took first turn and chaos refused to deploy anything during setup. Orks advanced and chaos spun onto the left flank, leaving the bikes and lesser demons in reserve. The defiler took out a big chunk of the boyz sitting in center field.

Turn 2: Orks continued their advance, wheeling to come to bear on the left flank. The lootaz jumped out of their wagon and holed up in the crater in the center. A few koptas trained their mega-blastaz on the chaos marines taking out most of the squad despite their going to ground. Chaos took some baby steps forward with the demon princes taking on the bikerz and warboss, killing many but staying locked in combat, the thousand sons piled out of the land raider and wiped out the deffkoptas. Lastly the defiler picked up a few more boyz.

Turn 3: The battlewagon raced over, dumped gazhgull and his meganobz, waaghed and ate the thousand sons for a tasty mid-game snack. The demon princes finished off the biker nobz and consolidated to the warboss, remaining locked in combat on their turn. The boyz in the center charged the last of thechaos marines and sent them to their reward. In the chaos turn the demon princes finished off the warboss and consolidated towards the squad of boyz in the back and away from Gazhgull. The land raider immobilized the battle wagon and the demon princes finish off the warboss. The bikes move on and meltagun the trukk but all the lesser demons stayed home. Good thing too since at the start of the turn there were no iconn the table for the lesser demons to use.

Turn 4: Slow and purposeful slowed Gazhgull down so he and his meganobz take some pot shots at a wounded demon prince to no effect. The lootaz poured fire into the defiler but the demon within ingored their glancing hits. However, the big 'un in the boyz squad walked over and tore the tracks off the land raider with his power klaw. The Demon princes took wing, racing towards the ork boyz edging up to the rear objective. The defiler shelled the same mob of boyz, causing them to run towards their table edge, but ending their movement standing on top of the objective, lucky them. The lesser demons finally came in and used the bike squad's icon to land within striking distance of the forward objective. The bikes raced ahead of the demons and destroyed the koptas lurking around the forward objective. Finally, the land raider ignored the power klaw stuck in its drive train and wrecks the battlewagon sitting in front of it.

Turn 5: With no other targets, Gazhgull decided to show the lootaz how its done and kicked the teeth out of the defiler. The rear boyz squad continued to flee, but did not get to the table edge or off the back objective. As a final play the lesser demons consolidated onto the forward objective and the bikes turbo-boosted over to the back objective, contesting it, which proved unnecessary as the demon princes made it to the boyz squad, pounded most of them into green paste and sweeping advanced the remnants.

Conclusion.

Chaos wins with one objective controlled at the end of turn 5. The cunning chaos plan to punch through the ork lines didn't work perfectly. The land raider and defiler got stalled by the orks moving up the center. Still, the setup allowed me to adapt and still accomplish most of what the original plan intended. The bulk of my force stalled his army near my table edge and away from his objectives. I managed to roll up the left ork flank before the midpoint of the game and instead of the thousand sons in the land raider pushing to the rear objective the demon princes took up the slack and made it there on the last turn. Some lucky reserves rolls meant my bikes were able to put the lesser demons right where I needed them in order to secure the game winning objective. Biggest mistake of the game goes to the thousand sons who I thought were going to be screened from Gazhgull by the land raider, but I misjudged the battlewagon's threat range by a couple inches and the sneaky gits got to me. MVP goes to the tandem demon princes for taking out the nob bikers, pulling ork boyz off the rear objective and soaking tons of orky firepower.

We're planning on starting the Road To Glory campaign from the main rulebook next week, so keep an eye out for that!

Pacification of Attika III

For this mission, we return to the Attika system. The mission was designed to be played by two players or teams, with a third player acting as game master. White Dwarf often has epic battles where one person acts as a guide for the game, controlling random events and sculpting the battle narrative. This mission is like that, and is a fun way to involve an odd number of people in a game night's activities.

The rules for the cultists are drawn from the Imperial Guard Codex, but the cultists could be represented by a number of different armies. Tau, Imperial Guard, Eldar and Dark Eldar are all good choices. Just choose appropriate models to represent each unit type.

The mission isn't designed to be "fair" for the cultist player. His job is to control the hapless NPCs. In all likelihood his forces will be wiped out before the end of the game.

As a final note, you can play this scenario without a GM. The rules for the cultist behavior are pretty straightforward. Just use the optional triggers for the warp fluctuations.

After the pacification of Attika III, it was discovered that a cult in the remote regions of the planet had escaped being granted the divine light of the Emperor. It was only by analyzing records and rumors of the conquered civilization that the logicians and cogitators were able to eventually piece together the cult's whereabouts. They were completely invisible to all electronic methods of detection. How this was possible was a question the Inquisition was eager to answer. At the same time, followers of chaos were being drawn to the same region, searching for an artifact that was calling out to them through the warp.

Force Organization: Each team creates a 1000pt army according to standard force organization chart.

The game master puts together a 500 points of cult force units chosen from the following list: Conscripts, Infantry Squad, Psyker battle squad, Penal Legion Squad and Ogryn Squad. No unit options may be chosen. This includes close combat weapons, heavy weapons, special weapons, vehicles and transports. Additionally the cult player gains a Primaris Psyker, at no points cost, who will act as the army's HQ. Do not purchase any wargear for this character. The Primaris Psyker loses Independent Character, and gains Eternal Warrior.

If more than three people are playing, the points limit should be increased, but the cult force should be about 500 points less than whatever each team is using.

Setup: Terrain should be placed in a manner agreeable to all players. The cult player has final say on any disagreements about terrain.

The cult force deploys first. The cult player picks a short table edge. Each cult unit must be deployed within 24" of this table edge, and at least 12” from the long table edges. No Cultist units may be placed in reserve.

The opposing teams then dice off. The winner chooses a long table edge, deploys first and gets the first turn. Each player's deployment zone extends 12" from their table edge. No units may be set up closer than 24" from any cultist unit.

After deployment the second player may attempt to seize the initiative. The cultist player goes last in turn order.

Special Rules:

The Primaris Psyker represents the cult leader and is a valuable resource. The artifact he holds is precious to everyone and cannot be lost. No unit may target the cultist Primaris Psyker with shooting attacks. Additionally, he considered to be constantly under the effects of the warp time psychic power (reroll failed to-hit and to-wound rolls in close combat). He has a 4+ invulnerable armor save and a Warp Lightning attack (Range: 18", S4, AP3, Heavy3). He is immobile and may not be moved by any player for any reason.

Cult forces are crazed and fanatical, ready to lay down their lives to protect the artifact and its master. For the purposes of this scenario all units in the cult force are fearless as long as the cultist Primaris Psyker is alive.

Cult forces are not well trained. They must always shoot at the closest enemy unit they can legally target even if they have no chance of affecting their target.

Warp Fluctuations - At the beginning of each cult-player's turn, if there is at least one cult model on the table, the cult player can choose to use one of the following abilities. Each ability may only be used once in a game, and only one ability may be used per turn.

• Warp Conflagration – Each non-cult unit within 12" of the artifact bearer takes D6 S5 AP- hits. These hits are applied even if the unit is in close combat. Units that suffer a casualty from this attack must immediately take a pinning test. If the bearer is part of the unit, the unit he is with is hit, but wounds may not be applied to the bearer. Optional Trigger: Activate Warp Conflagration on any cultist turn where there is an enemy within 8" of the artifact bearer.
  
• Gifts of Chaos – Pick a cult-force unit (except the Primaris Psyker). Remove all models from the unit and replace them with up to 5 chaos spawn models (do not place more chaos spawn models than there are remaining members of the unit). If the unit was in hand to hand combat place the spawn so that they remain in contact with the unit(s) they were fighting. For the rest of the game the spawn move and fight as a single unit. Optional Trigger: Active Gifts of Chaos the first time a cultist unit charges or is charged.
  
• Warp Pulse – Every non-cult unit is pushed back so that they are a minimum of 6" away from the cult leader. If the unit was in close combat they are no longer in close combat. Move the units in a straight line away from the cult leader, taking dangerous terrain tests as normal. Any unit moved in this manner immediately takes a pinning test. Optional Trigger: Activate Warp Pulse on any cultist turn the Primaris Psyker is locked in close combat.
  

Winning:

The cult leader starts out as the artifact bearer. Any model that kills the artifact bearer in close combat gains control of the artifact and becomes the artifact bearer. While that model is the artifact bearer it cannot be targeted by shooting attacks. The player with control of the artifact at the end of the game wins. The game length is random. At the end of turn 5 the player controlling the artifact bearer rolls a die. The game continues on a roll of a 3+. Roll again at th eend of turn 6, continuing on a 4+. The game automatically ends after turn 7.

When the artifact is taken from the cult leader, it is possible that it will be taken by a squad. If it is taken by a squad or an independent character that is part of a squad, designate a single model in that squad as the artifact bearer. This model is the one that must be killed to take the artifact. The unit the model is part of may still be the target of shooting attacks, but wounds from shooting attacks may not be allocated to the artifact bearer.