A Midsummer's Apocalypse Dream

Defense in Depth

This past Sunday the lads got together at our store, Fantasy Books & Games in Fairview Heights, IL, and held one of our semi-annual Apocalypse games.  Organized by Brandon, the store manager, we have every resource at the store's disposal available to use.  Previous games have seen every flavor of formation, wonky deathstar units, super heavy vehicles, and gargantuan monstrous creatures.  We enjoy our frequent leagues and open play weeks, but these Apoc games, and the craziness that they inspire, are a real treat for us.

The occasion for this battle was for the recreation of the Battle for Helsreach Hive during the third battle of Armageddon.  There were three tables.  The largest, which was three tables put together that represented the outskirts of the hive.  A wooded table (Ork Deployment area), a "no man's land" of trenchworks, and a city board.  The trench board and city board were the Space Marine deployment areas.  Additionally, there was a board representing a space hulk and another board that was a defense laser.  Loyalists controlled the laser, which was able to fire on either the Hulk, or the main board.  Orks controlled the Hulk, which was able to fire upon the defense laser board or the main board.

Main Board, Marine Side

Main Board, Ork Side

Defense Laser Board ("laser" command is on the far end of the board)

Space Hulk Board.  Bombardment Cannon control is the 4 rooms in the middle

Like every one of our games, we had plenty of shenanigans on the tabletop.  We had three stompas, one skullhamma tank, 11 Ork planes, 2 mega dreads, and plenty of boys, trukks, wagons, etc.  The space marine players mainly brought regular units, but they brought a lot of them.  Seriously, a lot.  This was a "bring everything you own" type of game, and we were quite surprised to realize that the marine players had just over twice as many points on the main board as the Ork players did.  I don't consider the game a "win" for the marine players, even though they had control of more objectives.  Rather, I give the game to the Orks, who accomplished so much with half as many points of models.  It was truly an awe inspiring performance.

Ork-Eye View

Two Ironclads & Bray'arth Ashmantle drop in to say "hello"

Want to learn the rules for the new Ork Planes?  Play with a dozen of them.

Bray'arth fell to this Mega-Dread, but he took out a Super Heavy Rocket Launcher
& survived the resulting explosion prior to it.

It was a great time with many memorable moments that were discussed over beers afterwards.  And that, my friends, is why you play the game.

Which takes me to the after game party.  The group of guys that I play with try to celebrate each other's birthdays when we can.  We try to pool together and buy the guy something that he may not have bought on his own, typically something from forgeworld.  This time around, it was my birthday that was celebrated.  And I am truly humbled and blessed to report that this was the gift I was given:

As if that's not more than enough, they got me Salamander chapter doors as well

I don't have the means to express my thanks.  I play with a fantastic group of guys, and I hope I can show them the gratitude that they deserve.  So to Brandon, and the rest of you, thank you so much.