Planetsrike Apocalypse, LA Battle Bunker Battle Report

The latest SoCal Apocalypse game saw an AMAZING Apocalypse game based around Planetstrike.  It was absolute carnage and so much fun!  A group of regulars showed up, and were joined by some new players.  Much fun was had.

I brought the Crimson Templar Air Force, but no Super Heavy Tanks and only one "D" Weapon, on my Thunderhawk. 

The Defenders set up the terrain.  Attackers got nothing!  The 4 Bastions were objectives and they got the Leviathan for free.  It was an objective as well.  It was treated like a Warlord Titan (8 structure points and 6 shields) and they got it for free (we knew it wouldn't last).

Turn 1 - The Attackers Drop Pod with 2 squads of Sternguard from Alec and 2 squads from David Ashworth.  Plus 2 Caestus Assault Rams full of Termies and 2 Dreadnaughts with Lucius Pattern Drop Pods.

 Hey!  What happened?  Well, after the last structure point was gone, I rolled a 6 for the catastrophic damage and so a 3D6" "D" explosion!  Bye bye EVERYTHING.

Two more Bastions get destroyed! 

Eldar Super Heavies get plastered!

The endgame develops.  A close game that comes down to one objective!

This was really a lot of fun.  It is also the LAST game I ever use a GW flying stand.  I came home and the next day put the Dragonforge flying base adapters on all my Vendettas.   Now, every flyer has Dragonforge bases.  

6 Vendettas

3 Vultures

3 Lightnings

3 Thunderbolts

2 Arvus Lighters

1 Marauder Destroyer

As well as my Caestus Assault Rams.  Those required a bit of shaving of the adapters, but worked great.  I can't reccomend them strongly enough!

Next up, Cityfight Apocalypse!

Planetstrike Apocalypse! July 16th at the L.A. Bunker

James Bell

At the suggestion of James Bell, the awesome manager of the Los Angeles Games Workshop Battle Bunker, the next Apocalypse game will be Planetstrike!

It will be fun to do something different and mix Apocalypse and Planetstrike.  More rules are to follow, but keep the date open!

Planetstrike Apocalypse, Saturday, July 16th at 11:00am at the L.A. Battle Bunker.

PLANETSTRIKE SUMMARY

Basically, Planetstrike is set up into two sides, Attacker coming in from orbit and a Defender plane side that is dug in but spread out all over the planet.

Defender - The Defender has larger Troops (8) and Heavy Support (6) sections and gets to set up the entire battlefield. Buildings, defenses, etc. cost the Defender no additional points, but standard terrain density is supposed to be followed. The Defender may keep units in Reserve (to avoid the Firestorm), but they enter from a random table edge (including the Attacker's Drop Zone edge as it is their planet) and must roll on the reserve chart for availability.

Objectives - The Defender also decides which buildings (preferably an odd number) are the Objectives. ANY UNIT CAN CLAIM OR DENY AN OBJECTIVE! The game is supposed to end on a random turn length (5 to 7 turns). Defender counts Objectives only if at least ONE MODEL is present AND NO Attackers are within BASE CONTACT with the Objective. Attackers claim Objectives if they have at least ONE MODEL in base contact with the Objective REGARDLESS of Defenders being present or not.

Stratagems - Both sides pick Stratagems (Points equal to number of Objectives). Some Stratagems are Attacker/Defender/Race specific and can only be used ONCE. Each Stratagem has a different Point cost as some are nastier than others. It will take too long to describe all of them, but here is the generic (non-race specific) titles:
       
Attacker - The Attacker has larger Elites (6) and Fast Attack (6) sections within their Organization Chart. The Attacker may choose to Deep Strike ANY of the following units: Infantry, Jump infantry, Jetbikes, Monstrous Creatures and anything with a normal Deep Strike capability. Note that ANYTHING Deep Striking with the Deep Striking Special Rule may assault the turn they enter play. The Attacker also gets to choose which table edge is their "Drop Zone" so units can enter by that edge. ALL attacking units use the reserves Special Rule (3+ on Turn 1, 2+ on Turn 2, Automatic on Turn 3).

Firestorm - Before the Attacker starts, they get d6 + (# of Objectives) of Barrages. (Str 9, AP 3, Ordnance 1, Barrage). These do not cause Morale Tests. If nothing is hit, you may place a crater.

Bastions Bastions - Have an AV of 14 all around and typically have three sides with firepoints and one side with an access. Each Bastion can contain a single infantry unit OF ANY SIZE plus any Independent Character Infantry that has joined them. Anyone can enter freely into an unoccupied Bastion, but Bastions CANNOT BE ASSAULTED until they are ruined. Bastions have Automated Weapons and each one may fire at a separate unit. The Automated Weapons have a BS of 2 and ALWAYS shoot at the CLOSEST enemy unit.

Interceptor Guns - The Quad-Guns, Icarus Lascannons and Missile Silos may choose to shoot at Deep Striking Units once the units are placed instead of shooting in the next turn.

Defense Lines - Defensive Lines provide a 4+ Cover Save and units Going to Ground within them gain +2 to their Cover Save. Units along the Defensive Lines are treated as being in base contact if they are within 2" of each other.

Landing Pads - They can be shielded (4+ INV save) or unfurled and have a AV of 13.

Indomitable Fortresses - Count as a Bastion with three sections. Each section is treated as a separate Bastion for attacks, # of units inside, etc. They also have Missile Silos (Str 8, AP 3, Heavy 1, Ordnance, Barrage, Interceptor).

SoCal Apocalypse No Limit Apocalypse Game - 76,000 points

Well, the L.A. Battle Bunker was host to what turned out to be a 13 player, 76,000 point Apocalypse Game on Saturday.  And everyone said they had a blast even though the Evil Munchkin team got slaughtered and almost tabled!  The final score was 6 objectives to 0.

This was our first NO LIMIT Apocalypse game.  Meaning there were no house rules.  So what was the result?  

Well, the first house rule we ever came up with was no Flank March unless a formation gave it to you, and then it only applied to that formation.  Well, it was clearly obvious why we have that rule.  The team that took Flank March rolled over their opponent.  Everyone agreed, this was the single biggest factor in the game.

Other than that, there were no broken formations or excessive cheese.  Flyers were on both sides and not a huge factor, and there were an even amount of Titans (that got whacked early).  I supplied Titans to both sides as well as Super Heavies.

Seems the couple gamers complaining about too many rules didn't bother to show up.  The gamers that did show up basically brought the same forces they always do.  There wasn't a single problem and everyone had a blast, which is the most important thing.

Next month, Planetstrike Apocalypse!

Four 4'x8' tables made up the battlefield

One of the tables fills up with Artillery and Necrons!

Tony the Titan!  It's gggrrreeaaaat!

The Eldar advance

 

The Imperial Artillery took a big toll.

The Evil Munchkins

The Jackson 6

No Limits Apocalypse this Saturday at the LA Battle Bunker

There was a lot of whining over the past few months about actually having house rules to try and make the Apocalypse games fairer at the L.A. Battle Bunker.  Of course, most of this came from one former Apocalypse40K forum member who liked the rules he unilaterally made up (like Valkyries can't be flyers), but when we discussed on the forum new rules for game balance, he threw fits on how I was "limiting" his enjoyment.

Well, I play in 3 different Apocalypse groups and we discuss all the rules at length before we put them in effect, and when we do, usually all 3 groups use the same rule.  There is nothing arbitrary about how we implement house rules.  If you have never run a game for lots of gamers at a game store, you don't realize how you need to have rules so EVERYONE can enjoy the game.  But gamers love to whine anyway, so...

That being said, and basically to prove a point, we are holding a NO LIMITS Apocalypse game this Saturday, June 18th at the Los Angeles Games Workshop Battle Bunker.  That means no house rules, just the basic Apocalypse Rulebook (And Reload/IA).   Bring as many points as you want.  We will balance the sides.

I will give a rundown on Sunday on how the game went.

And the Big Game II is coming this January.  Stay tuned for news.

Alec

SoCal Apocalypse Battle Report

Yesterday was the first big SoCal Apocalypse game after The Big Game and it was a great success.  We had 100,000 points in this "small" game.  We also had 5 brand new players.  

We set four 8' tables up length-wise, but staggered, so you could always get to any model on the table.  These were all non-super heavy tables.  Then there were two super-heavy tables that were placed width-wise at one end.

Father-son team of Joe (on the right) and Cameron.  Joe is the painter, Cameron the gamer!

A Chaos Tower, which was built by Matt Plonski.  It was quite impressive and well engineered.  It fell on turn one though, so didn't see action.  It probably was more fearsome looking than deadly.  It scared the crap out of Andrew and I so we threw everything at it!

Two awesome Nurgle Vindicators!

Lessons learned:

1)  8' wide tables work well when staggered.  The depth makes for good mobility.

2)  Sign-up in advance is really important, because you can balance teams before the day of the event. 

3)  Big 40K is often a more fun version of Apocalypse.  You don't need super-heavies and Flyers to have a lot of fun.

Alec