From the Front Line

Apoc game was great fun on Friday. Hard work, given only four of us (one staff) had much of an idea of the rules in a game involving 12 people.

We were each allowed about 1,500 points, which gave me the Line Breaker and Suppression Force formations (each with three tanks) plus a Land Raider and Lt. Smithers flying CAP. I was on one flank, with Imperial Guard tanks next. Opposite was a Necron force including three Monoliths. Details of the rest of the battlefield are sketchy!

We managed to immobilised one monolith on the first turn, and I then spent the next six turns killing necron warriors only to have them jump back to their feet. I think I must have killed (numerically) the entire squad four times over.

Top moments:

1. Lt. Smithers in his Thunderbolt arriving on turn 2 and unloading all weapons (including four bombs) onto the Necrons, causing 25 wounding hits and 20 kills. Gotta love restricted deployment space! The fact that the five surviving troops (floaty things) blew him and his Thunderbolt to smithereens immediately after, and most of the kills passed their "we'll be back" roll was by and by. Damn Shiny Model Syndrome!

2. Our team's Baneblade parking itself on one of the objectives (a building) after I had been given strict instructions not to fire the Vindicators in that direction in case I destroyed the building by mistake.

3. The enemy Baneblade losing it's primary weapon every turn to our shooting, only for it to remain stationary and repair it in the following turn. I'm not sure it got a shot off in the entire game.

4. My two Leman Russ tanks (donated to the enemy as one very little chap didn't have any models but wanted to join in) blowing a Deathwing Terminator squad (not mine, thankfully) to hell and gone on the first turn. Suffice to say, the little chap enjoyed the game - especially as the tanks survived.

5. The Thunderbolt being allowed to return (one of our side had to go home, leaving us with a couple hundred points down). Lt. Jones proceeded to do exactly as well as Smithers, only was able to then survive the last two turns.

6. On the last turn, we tried to take out all the remaining necron warriors so that they wouldn't get a WBB roll. Alas, we killed all but one. The squad took fire from the Thunderbolt, three whirlwinds, a Baneblade, two Land Raiders and a Vindicator, so the little fella was lucky!

7. My Land Speeder, after making an all-or-nothing dash to take an objective, weathering fire from two monoliths(!) before being shot down by the last few necron warriors that had just gotten to their feet...

I think the game ended with one objective in enemy hands (the one the Speeder almost took), with two contested.

Shooter of the match was not to Lt. Smithers, however. The Baneblade killed 35 'nids on the first turn with it's salvo.

The game took about 3 hours, and started around 17:00 and I think most people enjoyed themselves.