One Last Bash In The Turnip Patch

 This is likely to be my last game of anything for a while. (I'll still be painting) With the pubs gearing up to re-open in Wales I'm forced back to work and to further scupper my gaming plans, my FLGS, Firestorm Games, is moving venues. Until they've set everything up in their new building I'll just be painting more stuff ready for the big day.

Now on to the main event! Turnip28 now with added cavalry and cannon rules. Once more I took the blue clad Reekfield Free Company, supported by cannon and heavy cavalry. 

My House Mate commanded the Gleebland Wandering Garrison accompanied by looming, mobile Root Chapel. 5 Objectives and plenty of cover... this was gonna gruesome. 

The red-coats took the initiative and marched on the ruined farm in the center of the field. My house mate was hoping to repeat our last encounter that saw us both pouring endless streams of troops into the central ruins for almost no gain.

I was determined not to fall into the same trap twice and put the cannon to the task of showing the Gleebland fodder the error of their ways...

Or so I thought. The cannon roared of a decent hit, smashing through a wall and pulping a pair of Gleebland riflemen, but the return fire was unexpectedly accurate. The Cannon's crew were gunned down before the smoke had cleared and the first black eye of the game was awarded to me as I removed the cannon from the field in the first activation.

Pressing their advantage with the newly freed Eastern flank, the remaining Gleebland infantry moved up to cover the objectives and support the garrisoned ruins. Meanwhile the Gleebland light cavalry Whelps redeployed to the West Flank.

With the loss of the cannon the Reekfield Company had to act fast to gain any chance of victory. The ruins were a lost cause at this stage so I sent the heavy cavalry Bastards to claim the objectives along the West flank.

The Brute infantry held their ground and poured lead into the ruins to try and keep the Gleebland garrison's heads down.

It was crunch time on the West flank. I needed to make some big gains and the Whelps were hiding across the far side of a wood from my heavy cavalry. I took the risk and gave the order to charge. My luck held out and the Reekfield knights cleared the woods without injuries and plowed into the unsuspecting Whelps. A short and brutal melee and the surviving Whelps flee.

Across the field on the East flank, the Reekfield Brutes march to secure the objectives and hold the barricades.

Desperate to escape the fury of the Reekfield knights, the Gleebland light cav flees to the safety of it's fellows. Allas it is a short lived escape. The Whelp is run down, but before the knights can regroup, their mistake is realised. The ruin garrison unleash a volley on the knights, removing them from the world.

The Reekfield Brutes holding the barricades volley into the Gleebland fodder and drive them from the area, leaving the East flank dominated by the Reekfield Free Company. Whilst the Gleebland Wanderers still hold the ruins, their reluctance to abandon their defensive position has been their undoing. The garrisoned Fodder chose to fire on the exposed Brutes and drive them from the field, but in doing so failed to claim a third objective. The game ended 3-2 in favour of the Reekfield Free Company.

Once again the continuing rules update for Turnip28 are keeping me and my house mate interested. Though a few minor tweaks left us second guessing our tactics at times, we quickly adapted and still enjoy the direction that Max is taking the game. The Cavalry have had some tweaks since we played so I'm hoping to sneak a game in when work calms down just to keep my hand. Go check out what Max is doing on his Patreon and if you're curious, I cannnot recommending looking at #turnip28 on Instagram enough. So much good stuff there.

Random Vampire Appears!

 Hey all! I was going to post the final battle report for our household Rangers of the Shadow Deep campaign, but I lost all the pictures I took of the game. I was certain I put them on my PC but it seems they have vanished. 

A brief summary of the final encounter for those interested in such things without nice pictures. The band of brave Rangers and their loyal companions (minus the dog) scaled the tower to confront the evil that now ruled there. A top the tower they found yet more cultist minions and a soulless vampire queen.

Dean took the lead and with magic sword in hand, struck the immortal monster causing a grievous wound. Emboldened by their comrade, the party surrounded the wounded vampire and Cas dealt the final blow with burning light, scorching the vampire from the living world...

That's it. After the vampire was smacked down in 2 moves by a lucky hit from Dean in the opening turns, the mission wrapped up without incident. Oh sure, bad things happened with far off signal towers casting hexes and reducing what the team could do, but without the vampire there to actually threaten anyone it was easy to deal with the cultists. It was still enjoyable to wrap up the mission and the final episode felt like a hurriedly written conclusion compared to the previous dramas of animal cruelty and injured companions, but that's dice for you.

I did take some pictures of the vampire however, so here's the evil queen for those who came here for pictures.

I was going for a "Queen of the Damned" ancient Egyptian look rather than the traditionally pasty Gothic vampires. Thoughts welcome as ever.

Some Vintage Wheelz

 

A return to my Retro Ork Waaagh this week. Thanks to a very nice man that Tom was able to put me in touch with, I've been able to get my hands on some Oldhammer style wagons for my Goff army. Namely and a Spleenrippa and a Bowelburna. Theses are lovely casts and I very grateful to Sam for sending them to me.

I'm working on another bunch of Stormcast at the moment (some may have seen this on my Instagram) but once I'm done with them I've a few more Orks undercoated and ready to go. Really looking forward to getting more of these done.

Kill Team Time Killer

Decided to throw down some Kill Team this week. My house mate is eager to get his Dark Eldar painted and it's a good reason for me to get some more of my 40k teams finished amongst other things. The mission was a straight forward Assassination mission. The Dark Eldar were going to try and kill the Blood Angels Leader and I was going to tell them otherwise.

I set up my Space Marines in 2 forces. The majority would act as a bodyguard to my Leader whist the Veteran Specialist and some of the Scouts went on the other flank to hold off the Dark Eldar from flanking me.

The Dark Eldar went all out on the one flank. It looked like their plan would be to try and steam roll the Scouts and the Veteran and then use their superior speed to surround the rest of my team.

The Blood Angels began by moving up the street to set up lanes of fire. I Knew the Dark Eldar would have to get in close to get their target so I held my leader back and waited for the knife happy Wychs to reveal themselves.

Meanwhile, the Wychs get caught in an ally by the Scouts. A lucky grenade causes chaos and drops 2 of the Eldar before they can close in on the Scouts.

The Veteran pulls back from the blade storm of Eldar gladiator weaponry to keep the flank from being over run. The Scouts, refusing to dishonour their chapter, make a good account for themselves, holding the line despite the odds. It is valiant effort, but one of the Scouts is cut down.

The Dark Eldar Leader and her cronies take the barracade at the top of the street. The Space Marine Comms Specialist is blasted apart by the alien's deadly weaponry, leaving the Scout to hold the top of the street alone.

In the alley, the last Scout continues his duel as the Veteran watches the main street, waiting for his opportunity. The Space Marine Combat Specialist also finds himself assailed. Though he quickly dispatches is attacker, the distraction proves enough to allow the Dark Eldar to make their move for their target.

The Eldar Wych Leader leaps the barracade and charges the Marine Leader,

Shots are fired, but combat is never joined...

The Eldar Leader falls to the ground from a single round. Not from the Sergeant, but the Veteran hiding down the alley.

Thoroughly beaten and demoralized, the Dark Eldar flee the the battle. 

this was a great game to get back into Kill Team with. (Though perhaps not for the Eldar) Space Marines are a very forgiving team to use when relearning the rules. The Dark Eldar on the other hand are a different story, very much a glass cannon we settled on a unlucky rolls and missed opportunities causing the Eldar attack to stall before it really got going. I promised next time to use my Orks as that way my house mate won't have to deal with power armour. I can't swear to them being painted, but it'll be fun to use them.