Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Fantastic Battles - by Irregular Wars

 So I came across the game via a Facebook Post.  I then went to the website for Fantastic Battles and watched some videos and comments by others.  The rules looked intriguing enough I was able to get the printed rulebook for 20 dollars from amazon.

After reading the rules and running through some basic table top actions on how it plays.  I determined this is the game I always wanted for Fantasy Battles.  I have a full Dark Elf and Dogs of War army for Warmaster but not a big fan of Warmaster, as it gets fiddly and pretty unbalanced for certain armies.

The Fantastic Battles rulebooks comes with over 15 armies (Fantasy and some historicals), broken down by races (humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, beastman, undead, skeletal, deamons etc).  So if you have a Warmaster army you should be able to use one of the FB lists to make an army.  You can also create your own units based on the system (more later).  Currently I am creating FB lists for Dark Elves and Dogs of War.  These lists should match as close to possible as the Warmaster list.  The idea is to simply play FB using your Warmaster armies with no noticeable change over (their will be some like points etc).

For the first game I had my friend Shawn over and we played Wood Elves vs. Dark Elves (using the FB army list of Wyld Elves and Night Elves).  We did this to make it easier to learn the rules and find out how it plays.

We did 1000pts per side (Wyld elves had 1063) and played on a 4x4 table using 40mm square bases.  We did the standard 40cm distance during setup with expanded deployment zones, since the standard table size is about 4x3.

Unit design is different and straight forward.  A company is a standard 40mmx40mm base. A unit compromises more than one company.  The limit is 4 companies as a unit or 6/8 depends on the unit type.

Each company has stats of resolve, move, melee, shooting (then abilities).  Resolve is like damage, morale etc rolled into one, move is how far you move, melee is how many D6 dice to roll in combat and shooting is broken down by short/long range and indicates the number of D6 dice for each range.

When you have a unit the resolve stacks (so a company with resolve of 4 in unit of 3 has 12 resolve)

Since this was a learning game it took about 2-2.5 hours to complete.  At the end of the day the Wyld Elves won breaking the Night Elves on turn 5 I believe.

The game played well the turn structure is different we start with shooting, then actions, then melee.

Shooting phase players take turns shooting(no command rolls or anything).  All damage is resolved at the end. (which means if your shooting wipes out another shooting unit, that unit can still fire if it has not).

Once shooting is done we move to the action phase.  This phase is where your move, charge, conform, disengage, evade etc. your units.  Characters give order to units in range have them perform one action.  To determine who goes first is similiar to Bolt Action.  You get one counter for each character in your army and one for impetutious. All this goes in bag and you draw from their to see who performs their action (ie what side performs and any character they choose).  This makes for a fun filled turn where your opponent may move several times before you get a chance (good or bad depends).

When a unit charges into another unit, the charged unit can respond this allows them to possibly get a bonus in combat.  Once all actions are done we move to melee.

All melee is simultaneously and results are applied at the end of melee.  Characters can join in the fight to bolster a unit/company.  If they join in combat they have a chance of being killed.  Units lose Resolve in combat once their resolve is 0, they are considered scattered.  Scattered units can cause further resolve loss to other companies/units.

Some thoughts after the first game.

Units (with mulitple companies) have staying power since their resolve stacks.  With no base removal based on Resolve loss makes it a more simple mechanism (you dont have to worry about base removal and what happens to unit touching the bases etc).

wizards cannot move and cast spells I noticed (or missed something)

characters have only one action it seems

suggested table size is to small width wise for 1000pts should be 4x5, especially with the amount of terrain they are allowed to place.

once units got stuck into combat, their is no pushback/fall back/withdraw mechanism to move battle lines.

Flank/rear attacks seem to be hard or discouraged from occuring.

love to see some sort of pushback, withdraw rule.  Disengage is their but it forces your unit to turn 180 and move away leaving the unit rear exposed to a charge.


Overall a very enjoyable and fast simple game, with enough mechanisms (relics, objectives, mishaps, etc) to make for a fun long term game.  With standard lists, it will work great as a tournament game.











Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Death Watch vs. Tyranids

Death Watch(v1.4) vs Tyranids:
3000 points

Death Watch
Inquisitorial warband w/chimeras, Watch Master
Inquisitorial warband w/chimeras, hydra
Strike Team – landspeeder tornado
Watch Company – 5 Assault bikes
Watch Company – 5 Vanguard assault veterans
Watch Company – 4 Terminators
Watch Company – 5 Veterans, 3 Corvus Black Star (Self-Planetfall)
Watch Company – 5 Veterans, 3 Corvus Black Star (Self-Planetfall)
Thunderbolt Fighter
Thunderhawk GunShip

Tyranids:
Swarm – 6 termagaunts, 2 T. Warriors
Swarm – Hive Tyrant, 6 hormogaunts, Haruspex
Swarm – 6 termagaunts,  2 T. Warriors, Zoanthrope
Swarm(M) – 12 Termagaunts, 2 T. Warriors, Dominatrix, Zoanthrope
Swarm(M) – 12 Hormogaunts, 2 T. Warriors, Hive Tyrant, Carnifex
Heirodule Bio - Titan
Biovore Swarm – 5 Biovores
Exocrine Swarm – 6 Exocrine
Lictor Swarm – 4 lictors
Lictor Swarm – 4 lictors

 Results 1-0 Tyranids (called at end of third turn)

This battle was against the Tyranids, I haven’t fought against them in a long time.  Lots of Tyranids rules and fearless units,  so instead of getting bogged down in details about the tyrranid rules I focused on understanding how to play Death Watch.  I have played several games with them over the last year so I wanted to work on list building and strategies for the different marine units. 

Besides Black Shields all Watch Company marines get an extra attack in either FF or CC.
CC is for Assault Bikes, Vanguard Assault Veterans and Terminators, FF is for Veterans.  So building a list around these abilities would assist in who to fight and where.  Units sizes are anywhere from 4 – 6.  I find 5 unit Watch Company ideal, as four does not quite lack the punch.  Also creating a BTS unit is challenging as four Vanguard Veterans is 350 points adding one more makes it 425 basically the BTS in your list.  So the question comes do you want to make your BTS the main fighting unit also.  All Watch Companys in the army are critical and expensive.

I have several solutions for BTS.  6 Black Shields in rhinos with 1 dreadnaught, comes out at 425 for a fearless unit, so if they want to get BTS they need to engage it tills its wiped out.  The other option for BTS is a Watch Company of 6 Veterans in 3 Corvus Black Star for 450 points.  With the self-planetfall rule you can activate them on the third turn to clean up enemy units or claim objectives, thus your BTS will denied for the whole game and force your opponent to go after 4 other objectives.  This unit packs 12 FF attacks along with the CBS attacks.

Okay enough on BTS,


I had two units for Self- PlanetFall (turn 2) and the Terminators offboard for teleportation.
From Left to Right: Land Speeders,Inquisitorial warband (w. master), Vanguard Assault Veterans ,Inquisitorial Warband, Assault Bike.

The Tyranids had both Lictors teleport on turn 1.  Left to Right (my view) there was a small swarm, exocrine, medium swarm with Dominatrix, medium swarm, small swarm, small swarm and the hierodule in the second line.

The Death Watch won the roll and went first.  The lictors presented an obvious threat and I went after them with the Assault Veterans.  The closest Lictor broke, I sent in the Thunderbolts to attack the other lictors and placed some blast markers on them. 
Otherwise the rest of turn 1 had units moving into position for 2nd turn.  The Tryanids doubled the swarms in the center and kept the Heirodule back.

Turn two was eventful, I sent in my terminators to take out the hierodule.  They caused damage and broke the Heirodule, in turn the Terminators were destroyed by a bunch of lonely swarms.
The rest of my units advanced to take up position.  My right flank was weak but I needed more long range threats.  Later in the turn I self-planetfalled a veteran unit in Corvus Black Stars behind the heirodule.  They firefighted the hierodule and destroyed him, however this left the unit exposed to other threats and they broke and fled.  The other Veteran unit self-planetfalled near the right objective and engaged in a firefight with a swarm unit.  Breaking them.  My assault veterans (BTS) got destroyed in by long range tyranid fire.

With many Tyranid swarms still around and getting objectives at the end of turn three would be very hard.  Plus with limited units and being out activated, the third turn was denying the tyranids objectives and trying to survive till fourth turn.

We called the game after turn 3 due to time.  Tyranids won 1-0 with BTS.

This was a tough game with large swarms, fearless units against hit hard Marines but fragile and lacking support due to cost and the units sizes.  I think Veterans are the way to go, Terminators cost the same as Vanguard Assault Veterans and are more powerful.  I think the cost of the Assault veterans basically makes it the BTS (see notes above for BTS thoughts), if taking the Assault Veterans you will want at least 5 units, 4 is too few.  Two Blackstar units with self planetfall is plenty.  You want to have units on the battle field clearing out enemy and controlling objectives.  For CBS formations, 5 veterans and 3 CBS should do the trick and the points are reasonable (400) and the unit hits hard and has long range fire support also.  The trick with the list is to take 5 marines, no more or less (except for terminators).  This size gives optimal attacks, shots.












Tuesday, May 12, 2020

No Update in a quite a while...lockdown update

Well its been a while that's for sure.  Lockdown allowed me to catch up on painting of miniatures for games I hardly get to play plus start some new armies for existing systems I play.
So the last 10 weeks or so consisted of Warmaster, Conan (boardgames), Dropfleet Commander.  Plus I was able to setup a table at home and get familiar with DropFleet and was able to get the family to play Conan (at least one game).

First part of lockdown was getting the Conan miniatures painted.  I completed many of them over time but had the Characters and another tray to do.  My plan is to complete both box sets, the main game box and the kings pledge box.  I would start with rank and file dudes as they allow me to finish quickly in production line style.  The characters would take longer due to uniqueness.




After that I took a break from 25mm and went to 10mm.  I decided to paint up some pikeman and cannons for a Dogs of War army for Warmaster.  The figures were from warmonger-miniatures part of their landkenschents line.  With Warmaster its about 3-4 paint colours on a unit with a nice base to make the whole unit pop.  I used contrast red and blue for the pike and they came out nice.  I have a lot more miniatures from warmonger but wanted to take a break.





Next up was finishing off the UCM for Dropfleet Commander.  I painted the Scourge about 4 year ago and had the UCM sitting around, primed Grey.  I took them out and went with yellow for the ships to make them stand out and picked out areas in metal and red colours. Simple yet striking, makes the fleet seem as one.




Monday, December 9, 2019

Epic Armageddon Sisters of Battle vs Imperial Fists


Sisters of Battle  vs. Imperial Fist. 3000 pmts

Sisters of Battle 2.1(SOB)
8 mission rhinos
5 exorcist, 1 hunter
5 exorcist, 1 hunter
6 retribution, Chapel
6 retribution, chapel
6 retribution, repressors
6 Penitent Engines
6 Penitent Engines
5 Penitent Engines
2 Lightning strikes
2 Lightning strikes

Imperial Fist (IF)
5 Land Speeders
5 Land Speeders
6 Tactical, rhinos, 1 vindicator
4 Scouts, rhinos
4 devastor, LR Achilles
4 whirlwinds
3 hyperion
6 tactical, bunkers, thud guns,
4 centurions, devastor,
4 centurions, assault
4 centurions, assault

See photos of battle setup.

Turn 1 won by Imperial Fist (IF)

IF won the first turn but elected for the SOB to take the first turn.

With AA on the back line and units outside the bubble, I sent in both units of lightning strikes o take out land speeders on each flank,  Blast markers and a few dead land speeders.

IF indirected his thud guns into my right flank Penitents hiding in the woods after they marched to cover and broke them.

SOB center of Mission sisters advanced behind a hill
Left Flank Penitents advanced into the woods, ready to pounce on any enemy close by.
IF Scouts moved forward over the hill on the SOB left flank jumping out of their rhinos and laying a blast marker on the penitents in the woods.  
My Chapel on the left flank doubled and laid a barrage on the scouts causing no wounds.
Then exorcist moved up on the left flank and took out the scout rhinos.
Exorcist on the right flank moved and fired at the tactical marines opposite them.  Took out a rhino.
IF centurion devastators moved from overwatch in the center and took out a exorcist on my right flank.
Retributions on the right in repressors doubled and laid BM on the tactical squad opposite, also ready for a FF assault next turn.  IF countered moving in land speeders who took out some retributions.  Messy melee next turn.

IF moved some centurion assault units forward and played a blast marker on the retributions on the left flank.
Lightning strikes on the way out got shot and lost one stand from a unit.  The other went off the opponents board edge to avoid AA fire.

The first turn was jockeying for position and trying to react to opponent moves instead of being too aggressive.

Turn 2.
The IF won and went first.
His tactical squad on my right flank assaulted the retributions in CC and FF with land speeder support.  The retributors broke then were destroyed in the roll off.

 I sent in the single lightning strike and took out some more land speeders on my left flank but couldn’t break them
The other went after the rhinos in the tactical squad on my right and played a BM on them.

My chapel on the right doubled through some woods and appeared on the other side shooting up some centurion deviators killed only only two they 
In return fired back at my retributors/chapel and broke them.  The chapel retreated into the woods.

In the center my exorcist doubled up and took out the hyperions
The left side chapel advanced and took out some centurion assault squads who advanced out of the woods.
The IF thud guns in the bunker indirected at my Chapel/Retributor and caused a two blast markers.
The IF Devestator advanced from their baseline and took out the Exorcist on my right flank, breaking them

At this point my right flank was mostly broken and not in good shape, but he did not have enough to really cause me to much trouble.
This whole turn and game for that matter, lots of 1’s were rolled for initiatives and rally checks.  This effected the IF player more since he had no Supreme Commander.

On the left my penitent engines moved out and flamed some scouts, breaking them.
On the left flank I had complete control.  Exorcist, Chapel, penitent engines, Mission Sisters pretty much in tact, while the only thing left was some small infantry units and land speeders.

Turn three will be the knock out blow for the Imperial Fists.

Turn 3:
Saw the IF win again and went first.  They were down activations and scrambling.  IF attempted to activate the deviator squad and they rolled 1.
I flew in my lightning strikes and took out land speeders on my right.
Advanced the Exorcist on the left and took out the whirlwinds(suppressed enough)

The Penitents on the left flank assaulted Centurions and and with retribution support they won combat and broke them.
The Retribution/chapel moved and and broke another centurion unit.

On my right he doubled his centurion devastors near an objective on my half.  I doubled my penitents in the center and flamed some breaking them.

At this point it was victory condition check.  I only managed to get Take and Hold (2 objectives on opponents side), the IF got nothing.
We called it due to time.  1-0 Sisters over Imperial Fists.

This list I liked due to the aggressiveness and the safety of war engines.  I have been playing with two exorcist units for a while and I like it.
I tried two Chapels because I played a game with only one and I like the units purpose.  Load them with retributors and you have yourself 
A nice clear the enemy AP unit.  Though you have to double to get into range, you should only have to do that once then pretty much anything should be in range.
I took two to put one on each flank with the same load out.  The penitents did what they always do, attract attention, get shot up, break, rally and beat up enemy in CC.
As for my plan of 36 of them.  Might hold off on that army though 15-20 in an army is ideal.

Overall the Chapels are costed right and fit into the army just fine.

Next Victim please













Thursday, December 5, 2019

2019 Year End and some progress

So the year is almost done.  I was planning on what to work on after the Fall In tournament.  I was able to finish a tray of the Conan Miniatures.  So now I only have 5 more trays to go, though some contain less miniatures than the one in the picture.  I also got some Space Marines for Epic and planning on putting together a Death Watch list.  Since I am the Army Champion for them I need a army to use and the Death Watch have some cool possibilities.  So playtesting and building out the army is in the works.  You can see from the pictures I dug into my shelf and got my Man O' War stuff out.  It is a great fun game by GW and I plan on updating the models, basing them and painting the rest of the models for a huge Chaos fleet. 






Fall In 2019 Tournament Pictures

I wasn't able to take as many pictures as Dave was.  So here is the link for the Fall In 2019 Epic Tournament pictures by Dave.

http://www.taccmd.tacticalwargames.net/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=34138