500 Point Battle Report

So I played a 500 point game with my friend Damos from  http://handsofiron.blogspot.com/  in order to try and test out one of my 500 point lists for the escalation league. We played on a 3' by 4' board with a few bits and pieces of terrain here and there. I was playing this list:

HQ:

Captain Taron: 155pts

-2xLightning Claws

-Jump Pack

Troop:

Assault Squad Reevax: 220pts

-10xMarines

-Power Fist

-Flamer

Fast Attack:

Bike Squad Shrax: 125pts

-4xBikes

-Meltagun

And Damos played his 500 point Iron Hands list:

HQ:
Master of the Forge: 135pts
-Thunder Hammer
-Storm Bolter
Elite:
Terminators: 230pts
-5xterminators
-Assault Cannon
Troop:
Scout Squad: 135pts
-5xScouts
-Tellion
-Missile Launcher

So we rolled to see who got first turn and I won the roll. We were just going to play a simple annihilation match with pitch battle deployment. I set up the bikers on my right flank, and then placed my assault squad on the left. He then set up his scout squad on a piece of terrain on my right, and then the terminators with the MotF in the middle. I new I would have to take out his scouts quickly and then try and team up on his terminators with both squads. He rolled for the steal and got.... a six. Cool, well this was going to make this game a little more interesting.



 

 

 Vs.

Turn 1
So Damos takes his first turn. He moves his terminators up a little and then shoots my bikers with his scout squad. Tellion hits once and then the 3 sniper scouts hit my bikers as well, while the missile scout misses horribly. Tellion wounds and puts it on the sergeant, while 2 of the snipers wound as well. I thought to my self; "3 saves, that's a piece of cake!" Well I made the sergeant's save, but failed the 2 other ones. So that means I already lost half the squad, thankfully I make my pinning and leadership check though. Now it's my turn. I turbo-boost the bikes right in front of the scout squad, then my Assault Squad moves up 12 inches, but unfortunately 1 assault marine falls to his death due to a dangerous terrain test. I end my turn.

Turn 2
On turn 2 Damos moves his terminators back to the position they were in at the start of the game and then shoots the assault squad, taking out 3 more due to more saving on my part. He then shoots the bikers with the sniper scouts, but because of my 3+ cover save they survive the fire. Then on my turn I move up with the assault marines again and try and hug as much cover as I can. I shoot the bikes at the scouts, but fail to wound them at all. In the assault phase I charge the scouts with the bikes, but the meltagun biker kills himself, so I'm stuck just with the sergeant in combat, who then whiffs and gets beaten up by tellion and his scouts. 

Turn 3
Damos moves his Terminators to the side a bit so he can see more than half of the squad, and then shoots at them with both the scouts and the terminators. After all the shooting I lose 2 more marines plus the sergeant with a power fist. I make my leadership and pinning checks and then on my turn I promptly move up and charge into the terminator squad with my assault squad. My captain goes first and kills 3 terminators! The 2 remaining assault marines don't do anything, and the terminator sergeant tries to get my captain but fails to do anything. The last terminator and the Master of the Forge kill one of the assault marines. I win combat by 2, but The squad makes their leadership test.

Turn 4
The scouts stay where they are, and we enter the combat phase. The captain is able to kill the terminator sergeant before he is killed by the last remaining power fist terminator and then the Master of the Forge kills the last marine.

 Iron Hands win

So not the best first game for the Night Lords. We later played another game with the same setup where I did much better, but in both games I had pretty bad luck when it came to armor saves.I guess that happens sometimes though. It also didn't help that I had to come to him in order to do anything, but I really can't complain because I usually play more aggressive style lists (mainly because I come from playing Tyranids for 2 years). Either way it was a fun night at the local game store, and I can't wait to try out the Night Lords again. Though I will say that I did order new dice after our game was finished lol.

Night Lords fluff and other stuff

So one of the biggest reasons for me starting a Pre-Heresy Night Lords army is the book Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. If you haven't already read the book then I highly encourage you to do so, as it is probably one of the best books I have read in my life. I had always wanted to do a Pre-Heresy army as well, after reading much of the Horus Heresy series, but could never decide on the army that I wanted to do. For awhile I had planned to do either Space Wolves or White Scars, but after reading Soul Hunter, I knew I had found the army that I wanted to make. I love the way that the Night Lords are portrayed as the anti-hero, at least in Soul Hunter and other recent fluff, and though they are brutal, cruel, and devious, they still have a goal in mind and aren't just fighting because they can.

I very good read and I would highly recommend it or any of Mr. Dembski-Bowden's literary works.

I also read Lord of the Night, and though it wasn't quite as good as Soul Hunter, I still enjoyed it and loved that Zso Sahaal always mentions Focus as being the greatest gift that the Night Haunter gave to the Night Lords. The Night Haunter gave them the wisdom that the ends justify the means, but that the means are not to be an ends by themselves, rather the motion by which the ends are met. Through the entire book you get to see Sahaal struggle with this idea, and though he eventually masters the art of Focus once again, he later sees what happens when you walk away from focusing on the ends and rather on the means when he is confronted by a group of Night Lords who have completely fallen to Chaos and fight just for the act of fighting instead of trying to reach a higher goal.

A decent book. and excellent canon for the Night Lords

So it is for these reasons that I have set upon my goal to make my Night Lords army. I have thought about some of the fluff for my Night Lords, mainly the company in which they are in and a couple of the characters in the army. As of right now my plan was to make the 4th company of the 3rd chapter of Night Lords, though I still get confused by how the legions were organized so it may not be entirely correct, but I always imagined the legions to be organized into many chapters or demi-chapters that included around anywhere from between 500 to 2,000 marines with supporting armour and such. Obviously the size of the chapter would probably depend on where the expedition force was going and how much force they would need to accomplish their goals, and thus the greater might of the legions were spread amongst the several hundreds of expeditionary forces, usually the biggest number of forces residing with their own primarch and their force. My idea was to make the 4th company in a chapter of about 1000 marines, who are heading their own expeditionary force into the galactic north east. The company will be roughly the same as a company of marines in the standards of the codex astartes, with a few differences. So that means that the company will most likely consist of a captain, a command squad, 6 tactical squads, 2 assault squads, and 2 devastator squads, though I will most likely include any tanks or attachments like techmarines in the company as well. Eventually I hope to collect enough to field the entire company, and to expand maybe into the chapter's first company and their bike company as well. But for right now I'm trying to write fluff for the company and chapter, and all the named characters that I will be including in the forces. And if anyone would like to talk to me about their opinions on the whole make up of the legions and the make up of a Pre-Heresy company, I would be more than glad to have some people to bounce ideas off on. Well, here's some fluff that I've started on for my Captain:

Taron, The Reaper of the Fraxus System:

A Terran from the beginning of the Great Crusade, he has taken in many of the tenets that the Night Haunter has taught his sons and used them to great effect. Before the coming of the Night Lords Primarch, Taron was a brutal and effective Captain from the beginnings of the Great Crusade, and the arrival of Conrad Curze has only sharped those qualities to a razor's edge. Though he is utterly cruel and focused in his work as a soldier of the Great Crusade, he is not without the companionship and brotherhood inherent in many of the Space Marine Chapters. He has founded close bonds with many of the Terrans that he has fought with over the many centuries of the Great Crusade, and though few of them are still left in the armies of the Night Haunter, his bonds have never been stronger with those that still remain. One such bond of significant note is that with the chapter's oldest living member, Chravex the 4th company's techmarine. When Taron is not engrossed in his duties as the Captain of the 4th, he seeks the wisdom and guidance of the old veteran. Another of Taron's closest brothers is Thearok, and though he was recently interned in one of the chapter's suits of dreadnaught armour after the battle of Drethmor V, Taron still seeks his longest companion's company when he is awakened. Though Taron seeks the companionship of his fellow Terrans, he is very suspicious of those marines that have been recruited from the Night Haunter's homeworld. Taron holds the utmost respect for his Primarch and gene-father, but has inhibitions about the Nostramean unsavory, yet effective, acts of cruelty on the battlefield. But there are a few that he has gotten to know and respects, so Taron does not object to their inclusion in the glorious times of the Great Crusade, but the feeling of suspicion that he feels does not easily go away. Taron received his title as the Reaper of Fraxus System while his company was still fighting alongside the Night Haunter. The title was given to him by the Primarch himself after Taron sought and killed the leaders of the 5 Noble houses of the Fraxus system's corrupt ruling class. After Taron assassinated each of the 5 leaders, he strung them up on the highest point on the capital planet Fraxus III for all to see, thus leading to the subsequent surrender of the entire Fraxus system. The title gives Taron great pride and serves to remind him the value of determination and focus, and the effectiveness that fear can hold in battle. 

So that's what I've got for fluff so far, but I will be trying to add more as I expand my army. But until then, I am The Night!

THe Tactical Squad and a Dread

So after half a night of building my forgeworld stuff, this is what I have to show for it:

.

Here's a picture of the full squad and their Rhino

 

Here's the assault combat squad...

 

And then the fire support combat squad.

 

This is the sergeant with a power sword

 

The flamer dude

 

The missile launcher

And finally, the dreadnaught, though I have yet to put his arms on yet as they don't fit on him properly.

So that's what I've got so far. Up next is the assault squad.

Some of the stuff I already have

Here's the stuff that I had collected for the Night Lords army before my forgeworld stuff arrived.

As I figured I would make a post Council of Nikea army, I got 2 chappies for the army.

Here's the model I plan on using for my captain.

and here's my company champion

 

These are the terminators I plan to use for the army as well, however, they still require a lot of work before they're done.

 

Here's the one Mk1 Rhino that I have at the moment.

So that's what I have for the army right now, minus the Forgeworld stuff of course. I hope to get a couple of bikes soon as well and the rest of the bits that I need to finish the termies, my captain, and my champion. I have found a pretty good Bits site though, so it shouldn't be to hard to get the stuff I need. And yes, I know I need to get a better camera and a better place to take picture, It's all on the list of things to do.

500 point Night Lords list

So my main goal for making this army is to create a fun, fluffy, and semi-competitive list that I can use in the upcoming escalation league at my local game store. I will be using the Blood Angels codex because I think that it displays a Pre-Heresy Night Lords army better than the regular Space Marine codex or the Chaos Space Marine codex, Plus this way I can get a company command squad with jump packs :). So here's the 2 500 point lists that I'm debating on right now:

HQ:

Captain Taron: 155pts

-2xLightning Claws

-Jump Pack

Troop:

Assault Squad Reevax: 220pts

-10xMarines

-Power Fist

-Flamer

Heavy Support:

Dreadnaught Veston: 125pts

-Twin-Linked Autocannon

-Blood Fist with built-in Heavy Flamer

And the other one is:

HQ:

Captain Taron: 155pts

-2xLightning Claws

-Jump Pack

Troop:

Assault Squad Reevax: 220pts

-10xMarines

-Power Fist

-Flamer

Fast Attack:

Bike Squad Shrax: 125pts

-4xBikes

-Meltagun

It all really depends on what the final rules will be in the escalation league, but both should be decent lists either way. I will also be trying to write up fluff for the army, thus why every squad has a name after the sergeant that leads them. Still trying to work out what names work out with Night Lords. I am the Night!

Starting up

So I'm starting a new project for this escalation league that my local game store is running, and thought I'd start a blog about the army. The plan is to make a Pre-Heresy Night Lords army using the new armour kits from forgeworld and as many of the old vehicles as I can get my hands on (go ebay!). I just got my first order from Forgeworld and should be posting up some pictures of all the stuff I got, and my lists I plan to use. Until next time, I am the Night!

all the forgeworld stuff

The weapons.

All the Dreadnaught bits.

One of the many armour packs I got.

So these are all the things I got from my Forgeworld order.
The total was:
4x Packs of Mark IV armour
1x Pack of Umbra Pattern Bolters
1x Pack of Special weapons
1x Pack of character conversion pieces
1x Night Lords Dreadnaught
1x Dreadnaught Autocannon Arm
1x Dreadnaught CCW

I've washed all the models and started building one of the squads. I'll post picts of them as I build them and of the other parts of the army I already have. I am the Night!