D&D Encounters Season 13 – Storm over Neverwinter – Session 4 & 5

Session 4

The heroes were surprised to find a street urchin in their midst, who proceeded to lead them after a group of suspected Ashmadai heading to raid a merchants home.

Upon arrival the heroes find several cult thugs led by a devil facing off with a lightning staff weilding mage. The fight is close with the thugs making good use of their mob tactics but the powerful bolts the mage assists with evens things up. After the fight they recognise him as the one that Lady Nidris had the intense conversation with back in the Moonstone Mask. He explained that he had come to Neverwinter from Cormyr seeking help for his wife whose mind had been shattered by a curse. She was now in the Helms Hold but the caretaker wouldnt let him in to help. Though his wifes condition was beyond him he had been studying and developing mind magic and asked the heroes to put in a good word for him so that he could put his skills to use helping the unfortunate victims of the kidnappings. The heroes agreed to do so after regrouping and resting.

Session 5

A sudden drop in numbers due to IRL events meant we only ran one session this week.

Our players attended the Swordmasters wake and were presented with his weapon as per his wishes. While there they also spoke to a distraught Lady Nidris who told them her son had been taken to the Hold after going nutso upon their return to her compound, she asked them to deliver a letter to him as the stewards at the Hold wouldnt let her in.

When the bedraggled messenger arrived with his missive, Lady Nidris offered her carriage to speed the heroes journey to Helms Hold. Realising a frontal assault would avail them naught they invstigated the rear of the building, but rather than try passing through the back door our halfling barbarian chose to use his rope to swing and crash through through the large stained glass window into the main hall – although this was meant to be done in next session I decided to go with it and proceeded to use the Chartilifax encounter (keeping Vargas’s big reveal for the finale). Even tweaking the encounter down for the reduced party size it proved to be a brutal encounter with all of them getting bloodied or worse (the druid was ripped to shreds by the dragons claw attack).

One highlight though was the players idea for the hunter to fire an arrow with her rope attached into the dragons shoulder, allowing the crazy halfling barbarian to vault onto the beast and ride the dragon around the hall. This proved most amusing, until Chartilifax fled out into the storm, but even then the halfling refused to release his grip until the mad dragon dove towards the ground. The halfling managed to leap off to safety as the lunatic beast disappeared into the storm.

D&D Encounters Season 13 – Storm over Neverwinter – Session 3

This week saw our early group postponed due to players have work commitments, unfortunately when it came to the rearranged time real life once again intervened and so they have effectively missed the session. The late group went ahead as normal with a new player joining us for his first visit.

Late group.

As Lady Nidris’s coach drove away a group of Mintarn soldiers led by the dwarven Swordcaptain the heroes had briefly met at the Moonstone Mask aproached them. The dwarf thanked them for helping Lady Nidris and asked the heroes to join him for a quiet drink and a chat in the nearby Beached Leviathan, leaving his men on guard outside.

Taking his usual table he told the heroes that the investigation of the kidnappings was too dangerous an undertaking for them and to leave it to the Mintarn forces in the employ of Lord Neverember. He was mid-sentance when a bolt of ice struck him, freezing him solid, as a pair of devils appeared in the taproom. A few of the patrons seemed to be under the demons sway and two of them barred the doors preventing the soldiers coming to the heroes aid. The remaining patrons began to panic and most hid under their tables.

The unusual rocking motion of the floor caused the newly arrived mage some discomfort but he overturned a table as cover and chose to use his spells from safety as the vamp/sentinel and hexblade charged forward into the cramped confines to battle the demons. The hunter assisted with his bow, and managed to convince one of the cowering patrons to unbar the nearest door. Unfortunately as he tried to do so one of the dominated ruffians threw his cudgel at him, striking him in the eye and killing him (I rolled a crit!). The hunter didnt have much chance to mourn as the ice devil froze him in place with another icy bolt.

The hexblade assaulted the ice devil but his blows just didnt seem to find their mark (an encounter power followed by action pointed encounter power both missed) and as a pair of the ruffians closed to back up their devilish leader the hexblade smiled calmly, already planning his next move. Black tendrils of mist spread out from the dragonborn to engulf the ruffians temporarily taking control of them and causing them to turn on the devil, scoring two mighty blows against the unprepared monster.

Meanwhile the fiery devil had chosen to head topside, swiftly chased by the vamp/sentinel and his faithful wolf. As they reached the upper deck the devil and another ruffian backed them up before the sterncastle and pounded on them mercilessly. If the sentinal had been a living man he would have fallen under the blows, but luckily his undeath merely slowed him momentarily.

Below decks the hexblade and mage concentrated on the ice devil, their efforts were rewarded as they dropped it to the ground and the ruffians seemed to come out of whatever had been controlling them. The hunter hearing the combat above chose to climb out of the nearest window and scaled the side of the ship before finally shooting the remaining devil with a well placed shaft.

After making sure the ruffians were truly back to themselves the heroes opened the doors and the Mintarn soldiers rushed in. Shocked at seeing their commander dead they were calmed by the heroes recount of what had happened and took his body back to the Mask.

Leaving the Leviathan the heroes spied another group of mercenary soldiers accosting a pathetic looking figure clutching a satchel. Intervening they asked what cause the soldiers had to stop the man. He had been running the streets like a mad man and now wouldnt let them look through his satchel. The heroes convinced him to let them check it which he agreed to and after confirming he was just a simple document courier. However he had the mark of one of the kidnap victims so the soldiers took him away to be sent to Helms Hold “with the rest of the nutters”, leaving the heroes once more in the streets.

Photo’s from the late group

This session offered some interesting tactical challenges for the players with the confined space and numerous innocent bystanders. I also ruled that any that had no seagoing background (which turned out all of them) would need to make a DC 10 endurance check every 2nd round or suffer queasiness, resulting in -1 on attack rolls for a round (the mage being the only one to fail, twice). The insight checks to identify which patrons were dominated worked well, though with the players optimised pc’s they passed them easily. All in all another good session, though it felt like it was designed more to drain party resources more than fill in any plot clues.

D&D Encounters Season 13 – Storm over Neverwinter – Session 2

Due to work commitments we combined both groups into one this week, resulting in a larger table than normal. Having read some notes on the DM forum of the wizards community I made a few changes to the encounter as per their suggestion.

Entering Lady Nidris’s home the scene of destruction continued with symbols of Asmodeus daubed on the walls and the hallways contents trashed. The heroes came across the fallen form of another of her guards, a firesoul genasi, with a huge burn mark on his chest. The heroes tended to his wounds, managing to revive him enough to get information from him.

A group of Ashmadai had attacked, weilding flaming chains and lightning magic but under the command of a dark cloaked figure with a devil-face, and they were looking for Zann, Lady Nidris’s son. Further investigation revealed her aging butler and the serving girls had locked themselves in the kitchen and the child was taken from his play area in the nearby sitting room.

The heroes exmined the scene, discovering a familiar scent of rotting fish and sea-water as well as a large amount of ruddy mud that the attackers had traipsed throughout the house. They were able to ascertain two distinct types of footwear, the majority being the common hard boots associated with dock workers and a single set of smaller fine quality footwear (of the type associated with the upper classes).

Lady Nidris was distraught and begged the heroes to rescue her son. The heroes began by following the muddy tracks into the stormy night streets, one of them recalled seeing this type of mud in large amounts in and around the Blacklake Docks area and with the rapidly washing away tracks leading in that direction they sped off.

Arriving at the Docks the trail had been washed away and as they began to wonder where to look next they heard a cry from below the docks “Ow, the little bugger bit me!” and could see a faint torch light disappearing into an opening. Using the weather as cover they managed to get close enough to see a trio of Ashmadai goons standing before a rough cave entrance concealed behind a curtain of rain water run off from the docks above. The heroes were able to take the goons out before they could raise any alarm but then the Goliath and Halflings brands began to feel hot and the heroes felt a cold emotionless voice in their heads “We have intruders”, accompanied by a mental image of a black cloaked figure leaning over a bound child on a walkway, as it straightens a mark can be seen on the childs chest “Kill them all” commands the figure as it swirls its cape around and disappears into nothing.

Irann the elven hunter steped into the curtain of water raising her cloaked arms and called out “I’m Batman!” in an effort to intimidate and scare those within (unfortunately even with a +2 bonus for the idea her intimidate check was abysmal and failed) who responded by lancing her with hellfire. The rest of the heroes began to forge ahead through the small cave into what looked like a collapsed section of old sewer, complete with  channel filled with almost solid waste that stank to hell.

Unfortunately the heroes seemed to bottle-neck in the entrance and the Ashmadai warlocks were able to concentrate their concussive infernos to blast most of the party back out into the lashing rain. Slowly the heroes gained the upper hand, the halfling barbarian even managing to leap the sewage to challenge the last warlock toe-to-toe, while the vampire attempted to dash across only to find that such close proximity to its foul odour caused even him to stop and wretch. In a desperate attempt to flee the warlock hurled hellfire at Irann who had remained near the entrance and then in a flash of demonic flames caused them to swap places. The warlock was unlucky though as the heroes still near enough were able to back him into a corner and swiftly take him down.

Rushing to aid the child they found the symbol of Asmodeus burnt onto his chest and once they calmed him down he asked where the devil-faced man had gone. Other members of the party made a quick search of the cultists hidey hole and discovered a stash of gems and coins as well as a trio of magical items (a wand of inevitability, an elixir of invisibility, and an arcanite gem – my own creation – which when bonded to your armour would improve the enchantment to that of +2 delvers armour). Taking the child back up to street level the storm seemed to be abating and Lady Nidris’s elegant coach approached. Following an emotional reunion she thanked the heroes and gifted them 250gp each and informed them that along with a number of her influential friends they would be pressuring Lord Neverember to post a reward of 10,000gp for the defeat and capture of the one responsible for these kidnappings.

Photo’s from this session

This was another interesting session with the hazards of the terrain combining with the powers of the Ashmadai to caus the heroes a few hiccups rather than a straight out fight. The changes from the forum ideas made the outer guards into minions as well as changing the Concussive Inferno to a Range 10 burst 1 power, which made sense both tactically and storywise as you would make the lowest among you stand guard in the rain. Obviously having a 7 man party meant I increased the encounter a little too, with 3 minions, 1 zealot, and 3 warlocks (and giving the warlocks an action point too). The heroes did take a pummelling, particularly from the combined use of concussive inferno but I felt it went really well and the players looked to be enjoying it (aside from how long a single round took to complete with the number of players).

The arcanite gems was something that I have begun using in my home games which I have taken from a number of old rpg style console games. Rather than keep finding more and more suits of armour/weapons etc they find an enchanted gemstone that once bonded to their existing equipment either bestows or increases any existing enchantment of the item found. For example the players rolled for +2 delvers armour so it would increase any of their existing armours to have the properties of this but in addition to any existing powers. It works in campaigns better as once a hero has found his first +1 sword of surrounding he’s unlikely to throw it away just because he finds another sword with the power to inflict fire damage, so why not give the opportunity to combine them (also I’m not a huge fan of the residuum effect).

Warhammer 40K Club – Battle Royale

I played in a  500pt multiplayer game event yesterday, three players drawn randomly for each of the three tables available.

Knowing I could be facing anything from Necrons to Orks and everything between, I chose to have a very basic Chaos Marine expeditionary force

• a Sorcerer (Biomancy Smite power, no extra gear)
• a 10 man squad of Marines (7 x Boltgun, 1 x Heavy Bolter, 1 x Flamer, 1 Asp Champ no extra gear – Veterans of the long war)
• a 7 man Marine squad with no extra gear (veterans of long war still)
• a 5 man Havoc squad (2 x Heavy Bolter, 2 x Missile Launchers (F&K), Asp Champ, Mark of Nurgle, Veterans of long war).

My thinking was the commanders would not commit major forces to such a minor task as scouting the world below.

I was drawn on a table with a force of Angels of Redemption (Chaplain leading an Assault Squad with jump packs, tactical squad mounted in Rhino, and scouts with sniper rifles), and then the Grey Knights arrived – IN A LANDRAIDER!!!! Inquistitor Corteaz with his retinue (including 2 death cult assassins and a crusader) mounted inside the Flamer/multimelta/Twin-linked Assault Cannon armoured beast of a transport. Supported by a psyker unit.

I was going to be truly boned! I said my marines were actually equipped with paint bombs which they intended to plaster the Angels with so as to make the Inquisition believe they were also Black Legion – turns out I didn’t need to as once battle was joined we were both targeted.

Between us the only models on the board that could even scratch the Landraider were the missile launchers (on lucky 6′s) or the Chaplain with his melta bombs.

Needless to say the Inquisition made mincemeat of us, though to be fair when my sorcerer actually charged and challenged Corteaz (after my heavy bolters reduced his retinue to a single man) it was down to a psychic power granted reroll of his save to prevent my force weapon devouring his soul – right before he smashed my skull in with his thunder hammer.

While the event organiser hadn’t specified any restriction on what you could or couldn’t take for the event most of the other players were surprised that someone had actually brought a Landraider.

It must be the RPG player in me that just enjoys making a more fluff orientated force for my games rather than a hyper-competitive “win at all costs” tournament-style force.

As time was still available some of us chose to play a second game and I was sandwiched between Imperial Salamanders and Dark Eldar. Unfortunately the result was very similar as I quickly found myself getting pounded from both sides and couldn’t compete with the high initiative of the DE Archon and his retinue of witches ripped through my squad before I knew what hit me.

Dont get me wrong I had an absolute blast and thoroughly enjoyed my day, I was just a little surprised at how competitive the world of 40k tabletop gaming had become in my several years absence from regular play.

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D&D Encounters Season 13 – Storm over Neverwinter – Session 1

Having spent the day relaxing around Neverwinter as the storm arrived and the weather got steadily worse, the heroes made their way to the Moonstone Mask for their appointment with Lady Nidris who had left instruction for them to be given a bottle of feywine on arrival while she finished some other business.

Early group

The party – Diva Cleric of Amaunator, Goliath Warden, Elven Hunter, Halfling Barbarian, Human Monk.

The heroes took a table nearby Lady Nidris, the cleric sitting closest as her business meeting became quite heated, resulting in her associate slamming his hands on the table as he stood “This wont do, Nidris. I won’t stand for it!” before striding out of the Mask into the stormy night. A dwarven commander of Mintarn troops deep into his cups sat beside the fire while a halfing bard regaled him with renditions of drinking songs on his lute.

A group of rough looking men in cloaks entered and spread around the room, their very appearance twanging the “spidey-senses” of the heroes and the cleric instinctively took a protective step towards Lady Nidris. As the men threw off their cloaks with a cry of “For Asmodeus!” as they attacked, surrounding the heroes table. The halfling bard began playing exciting adventure music as the heroes drew weapons in response.

The cleric, having been bloodied by the initial attack, shouted to Nidris to escape out the back door. As she did so and the door began to close they heard her scream as another figure grabbed her around the throat and another one entered the main door garotte in hand.

The fight was quite vicious with the thugs ganging up on the heroes at the table with the goliath even being dropped into unconsciousness at one point. The halfling barbarian attempted to vault the table to get at one of the thugs but his trailing foot caught the  edge and he face planted (the halfling bard played a suitable tune of comedic failure).

The monk managed to get free of the melee and sprinted for another door in an effort to intercept the fleeing kidnapper, eventually able to do so just as Lady Nidris had managed to break free of his grasp. The monk launched a flying kick at the Ashmadai sending him flailing over the edge of the mote and onto the rocks below, before returning indoors with Lady Nidris and his companions.

The remaining Ashmadai were begining to fall, though not before two of them had branded the goliath and barbarian with their flaming clubs, leaving the mark of their devilish god on their opponents flesh. Despite the remaining garotter summoning a cloud of horrid smelling brimstone smoke, the Ashmadai were soon defeated.

Photo’s from the early group

Late Group

The party – Dragonborn Hexblade, vampire/sentinal hybrid, elven hunter

The heroes decided to spread out in the Inn and overheard several of the rumours circulating the taproom. The hunter paid the bard a few coins to entertain them with song while they waited to talk with Lady Nidris. The elf then decided to wait by the bar but in an attempt of bravado tried to jump it – only to fail terribly, landing heavily and scattering glassware to the dismay of the owner and bartender.

When the Ashmadai revealed themselves, knocking the drucken dwarf to the floor, heroes sprang to action. One thug scored a crippling strike on the hexblade who responded not with violence but with his Eyes of Charming, turning the brute into a temporary ally under his domination. The vamp/sentinal’s wolf took several blows from the thugs including being branded before it fell (the bard broke into a chorus of “Bright Eyes” from Watership down).

The vamp/sentinal suggested Nidris leave by the corner door as a garotter entered the back door. When the hexblade and vamp engaged him he threw up a cloud of brimstone to cover his pursuit, catching Lady Nidris and trying to drag her back to the rope bridge.

The hexblade and vamp tackled the remaining thug (the second still being dominated by the hexblade) who was quite surprised when his comrade clocked him with his club. Once only the dominated one remained the hexblade made him take a seat before he finally broke the charm, but by then it was too late and the vamp and hexblade despatched him.

Meanwhile the hunter had ran out of the front doors to intercept the garotter, who seeing his way blocked released Nidris as he charged the hunter with his sword drawn. His strike missed terribly, and to add insult to injury the hunter used a reaction power to uppercut the cultist and send him over the edge of the mote. The Ashmadai had one chance to grab the picket fence (but I rolled a 1!) but failed, falling to his death on the rocks below as the hunter cried out “THIS! IS! NEVERWINTER!” (a geat piece of roleplay from our youngest player), then escorted Lady Nidris back into the taproom.

Photo’s from the late group

Both groups readily agreed to escort the visibly shaken lady Nidris back to her compound, arriving to find her guards slain and the doors burst open and daubed with a bloody symbol of Asmodeus.

I think this session went really well for both groups, though the shock of just how hard the enemies were hitting back definately rocked a few of the players. My addition of the annoying halfling bard’s “mood music” was amusing, I only wish in hindsight that I’d took the time to actually put the pieces I described onto my phone for actual playback during the encounter.

The tradional “heroes meet adventure in the tavern” opening was a little dissapointing but as we used our session 0 to give this a reason it didnt work out to badly. The Thugs Tactics trait proved highly annoying to the heroes who initially found themselves surounded at their table  in the early group but it encouraged some great roleplay and interesting tactical choices.

With the late group being low on players I reduced the enemies to 3 Thugs and 1 Garotter, though for the early group I added a 2nd Garroter to the suggested forces knowing that the players had highly optimised characters and I think this worked well. I know on some of the DM forums there has been concern over the enemies having low defenses, but I found this quite a balanced encounter, particularly when the Garotters had grabbed opponents to use as human shields (I ruled that any attacks that rolled a 1 would strike the shielding body). The only other addition I made (to both groups) was that if a Thug hit with his Invoke Asmodeus attack it would brand the symbol of Asmodeus onto the victim, when this happened to the vampire/sentinals wolf I ruled that if the wolf fell and was later resummoned it would need a basic save – if failed the creature is permantly marked with the brand and all future summonings would still be branded (but the player managed to save, much to his relief).

We had already discussed the setup for the season and so the players knew they weren’t getting an extended rest until after session 4 (the action taking place over looks to be a single evening and its following day) so the players were aware of resource management but I dont think this dampened the action in any way, it will certainly prove interesting by session 3 but thankfully the milestone rule should help with that.

All in all 2 great sessions and looking forward to the next one.

D&D Encounters Season 13 – Storm over Neverwinter – Session 0

 

“The frontier city of Neverwinter has persevered in the face of calamity. Yet even as the city rebuilds, an insidious threat rises from within its walls. Neverwinter’s citizens are succumbing to an inexplicable madness, while from the shadows, an evil cult of Asmodeus spins sinister plans. Unless a group of heroes rises to stop these perils, Neverwinter might face an even greater danger on the horizon.”

This season sees our players return to Neverwinter in the Forgotten Realms in an adventure designed to follow on from the season 6 of Encounters (Lost Crown of Neverwinter) and sort of tie-in to the new MMO Neverwinter game. Having played in either of these is not essential but does help in knowing a bit more of the rich and deep background of the setting.

Same as last season, this one can be ran as either 4e or Next, and my players and I agreed to stick with 4e once again. There had been a little confusion on the forums as the cover states 4th-7th level play but once you begin to read the information it becomes clear that players begin at 3rd level unless they are bringing back pc’s that completed the earlier season 6, none of mine are (mainly as we didnt start running encounters here until season 8). As usual we have two groups running in back to back 2 hour slots at our FLGS (Tabletop Tyrants), and as normal my players had all created their characters long before this weeks session 0 so I created another small encounter to supply the adventure hook.

Having read the opening of session 1 I was aware that the story begins with the heroes “relaxing” in the Moonstone Mask, a quality establishment and not the usual place such relatively unknown adventurers would choose to spend their hard earned gold. So I had them returning from a succesful “delivery” job for a local merchant when they came across a scene of devastation (not  a totally uncommon occurance in Neverwinter, but this was brutal). Several members of the Dead Rats gang layon the street, most were dead but one was barely alive.

All the corpses bore the mark of the Ashmadai burned into their flesh but no Ashmadai were among the fallen combatants. As they tried to aid the last of the Dead Rats he screamed as they approached him “No, not the devil-faced man, aaargh!” screaming in agony as the symbol of Asmodeus burned its way from inside his head to appear on his forehead, the pain finally killing him.

Before the heroes could investigate further another group of Dead Rats appeared coming down the street towards them, their leader spotting the heroes standing over their fallen comrades. “‘Ere, they’ve done Fat Eric an’ is boys in! Get ‘em lads!” he cried as attacked. Two large rats accompanying them began to change shape as they surged forward, becoming bipedal rat-men and grabbing wicked morningstars off of their fallen kin.  (For those that want to know, it was 4 human goons and a 2 wererat muggers).

As the fight got under way the heroes could hear the sound of horses approaching, but had no indication of whether they were friend or foe. The fight was viscious but brief for both of our groups, though the Dead Rats opening attacks on the late group managed to bloody the dragonborn hexblade in the first round (dealing 28 points of damage) and and the vampire/sentinal hybrid in the same group had a spectacular damage roll of 2 (on 2d10!).

As the last Dead Rat fell the source of the hoofbeats became apparent as a luxurious black coach halted nearby and the side window lowered. A striking woman peered out and called the heroes over, introducing herself as the Lady Nidris of Calimsham. Having recently returned to the city and with the recent spate of kidnappings people were worrying about, she found herself in need of people with strong arms and quick wits. If the heroes were such she invited them to meet with her at the Moonstone Mask later that evening after 10th bell to discuss such an arangement further.

As the coach moved off the heroes gathered what gear could be salvaged off the Dead Rats (mainly their shoddy weapons) before selling them at a local weapons dealer. Spending the rest of the day relaxing before heading to the Moonstone Mask for their meeting with Lady Nidris.

Photo’s from the early group

Photo from the late group

2 old gits and a new rulebook

This past Thursday afternoon saw me return to the battlefields of the 41st millennium with my Black Legion Chaos Space Marines. My foe of old, Gary (Imperial) Walker, faced me with his Dark Angels Space Marine force and only one of us would be victorious.

We had already agreed on 2000 points and to play the Purge the Alien mission from the main Warhammer 40K rulebook.

My army assembles in anticipation.

We rolled off for first to deploy which Gary won and set about deploying his army, 3 squads of Ravenwing bikes with Land Speeder support, 2 tactical squads, a Vindicator, a Devastator squad, an Inquisitor Chaplain, and their leader a Librarian brother. He also had a drop-pod containing another tactical squad and a squad of Deathwing terminators in reserve.

These were to be faced by my forces of a 15 man marine squad, a 10 man assault squad mounted in a Rhino, a hellbrute, a squad of Nurgle bikers, a Landraider, a chaos sorcerer, a squad of Havocs, a predator and a Chaos Lord of Khorne with a squad of chaos terminators.

After determining psychic powers and warlord traits Gary was to go first, so I attempted to seize the initiative – and failed. And so with a cry of “For the Emperor!” the Dark Angels surged forward and the battle began.

Turn 1

The drop-pod landed right in front of my lines, disgorging its melta & multi-melta armed squad way too close to my Landraider for comfort, but failed to damage the vehicle. The Vindicator was more accurate, taking out a pair of Havocs, my sorcerer, and the ‘raiders Havoc Launcher in one shot. In response my bikers surged forward into the first tactical unit even as my Rhino flung wide its doors and my assault marines disembarked ready to rumble. My shooting proved reasonably ineffective as the ravenwing bikes and speeders jinked their way to safety. The Chaos Lord and his entourage tore into the drop pod unit in brutal close assault.

Turn 2.

My marine units came under attack from more of the ravenwing, the assault unit breaking and running after being reduced to 3 men. The Havocs look on nervously as the Deathwing teleport in using the other ravenwing’s homer as a target. Dark Angel shooting proves a little more accurate this time, as chaos marines begin to fall and both the landraider and predator lose the use of a sponson weapon each and their crews become shaken.The Hellbrute attempts to charge the ravenwing but fails to reach. The Chaos Lords unit turn their attention to the newly arrived Deathwing but the false emperors grace is with them and they pass all their saves.

Turn 3 onwards.

The Inquisitor Chaplain joins the melee with the chaos bikers as a land speeder moves into a more advantageous position.

Having chased down the remainder of a chaos squad, a trio of Ravenwing now face the coming onslaught of the Hellbrute. It tears into them with its power scourge and leaves nothing but twisted bike parts and gore in its wake. The Landraider finally finds its mark taking its misery out on the devastator squad with its lascannons, until the zigzagging speeders finally get in position and destroy it with multi-melta blasts.

The remaining member of 15 man squad “Tiggs” finally succumbs under the repeated assaults of the ravenwing. Their repeated hit and run attacks having whittled them down to nothing on the exposed left flank.

As the last of the Nurgle-blessed bikers attempts to flee, the Inquisitor Chaplain has one more question for him. He obviously doesn’t like the answer as he then proceeds to smash the defenceless biker with his crozious. The immobilized predator takes careful aim with its turret mounted twin-linked lascannon and remaining sponson lascannon, and manages to finish the landraiders job of taking out the devastators and the librarian before the vindicator returns the favour and reduces the tank to a pile of scrap.

The Chaos Lord and his men battle fiercely with the Deathwing, eventually it comes down to the Lord and 2 remaining loyalist terminators, but as I roll for another turn at the end of our fifth round the fickle dice gods deny me once more and the sole survivor of my Chaos army, its defeated leader, leaves the field of battle having suffered only a single wound himself but the bitter taste of defeat mingle in his mouth with the blood of imperial scum as he licked the blades of his lightning claws clean.

Final result was 11-6 to Gary’s Dark Angels, it was a hard battle and one that started out going my way until the dice gods abandoned me and the Dark Angels seemed to make each and every saving throw that was asked of them.

Still, it was great fun and it gave Gary and myself our first taste of the new 6th edition rules in readiness for the big multi-player battles later this month that he has organised.

A big thank you has to be given to John, Dustin and Jack who were on hand to clarify the rules and changes neither of us were sure of.

In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have bothered with the landraider or rhino, and the Lord and his unit should have focused on something other than the Deathwing (something without 2+ saves preferably). I can’t say how useful the psychic powers are as yet as my sorcerer had barely seen the light of day before being obliterated.

Well, lessons learned and I’m looking forward to putting some of them in to practice against more opponents soon. The good thing about the forces of Chaos, there’s always more of them waiting to fight another day!