South side Irish parade!

Since I have not even played a game of 40k since last year's tournament... Rich suggested that I might want to play first!!  He was kind enough to bring me over to his gaming table, since mine in buried under DVD's, boxes, figures, foam and bubble wrap.

This was actually a 2 vs 1 battle, as A.J. brought his Smurfs to join with my army against Rich's Chaos.

With a lot of points out on the table, deployment space was at a premium.  Rich left a few things off the board in reserve.  Later in the game, I would consider the value of an Astropath to mess with that roll. :-)

A.J. did some scouting, and in general, we tried to high tail it into those buildings.  There were important "mystery objectives" inside each one.

You can see the the Sisters mostly ended up on the left flank with the Smurfs, while the valiant Highland Guard anchored the right.  The Smurfs were less than generous in their assessment of the Guard's ability to hold that flank...

The Highland Guard had no such fears, as they marched into the Aegis defense line and the Quad gun... bagpipes a playing!!!

Both of my army contingents were very new to me.  I had never issued orders with my guard before, until this situation.  As the squad of coal black Chaos marines approached, Gertrude the Commissar Lord ordered a "First rank FIRE".

So it was that my very first order meant that I would be rolling 102 dice to shoot at those very endangered marines!  Ha!

Then the marines went away, flashlighted into oblivion.

Rich rolled for his reserves, and they all showed up.  Bikers on the right, Helldrake on the left, and Abbadon, Land raider and terminators in the middle.

Many of his Chaos units had marks of Nurgle, which defnitely made them tougher to kill!

Sensing an interesting opportunity, I rushed the Rough Riders towards that squad of bikes.  Time for some Power lance action!

Shaemus McFeely could not get the Girls through the building very quickly.  Every terrain roll was a 1 or 2...

The Smurf tanks did lots of shooting, including an attempt to clear out as many Noise Marines as possible in advance of Saint Morrighan's Seraphim assault.  Cutting it close!!!

Magi seemed to lose interest in monitoring the progress of her Chaos Undivided units.

Kamir's Riders hit the bikes!  Only a few die to shooting.  Ironically, the Hammer of Wrath does as much, if not more, damage than the power lances!

The Helldrake did lots of damage, as you would expect.  Cut down lots of marines and nuns.

When you need real fighters though... you turn to the Highland Guard!!  No fear, no retreat. No mercy.  Time to turn that spawn into haggis.

While the early game stuff went well for Smurf, Sister and Guard early on, the middle of the game got a bit more adventurous.  We did not manage to kill off the Chaos units entirely, which tied us up into grinding combats, or left us out into the open, where Chaos shooting and the drake could do lots of damage.

However, a countercharge by the conscripts managed to wipe out all of the Chaos unit with the exception of the spawn.  He killed one brave and bonnie sergeant after another, avoiding combat with the whole mob of Highland guard...

The final remnants of the Chaos force advance inexorably towards the Imperial lines.  They must take those buildings!

Once again, Commander Chenkov orders the enraged conscripts into continued counter assaults against the spawn.

A few featured combats.  Saint Morrigan and Sicarius, the warlords of our respective armies, fight desperate combats against stronger foes...

Shaemus sees the Helldrake fly by, and attempts to skeet shoot it with his shotgun!  "Ach, that crazy pheasant would have been a fine feast", he lamented as it flew away...

While they may have been late to the party, the Sororitas on the left did finish off the last of the bikers, and even blow up the Predator!

Saint Morrigan prepares to sacrifice herself to keep Abbadon from the all important map which would give the forces of Chaos the coordinates to the location of the Angel of Dominance!!

Such an ancient and powerful vehicle must not fall into enemy hands!!!

Just as Abbadon slew the Blessed Saint, the Highland Guard were whipped into a tremendous frenzy... they fired every weapon they had until they would fire no more.

Finally, in a hail of lasgun fire, Abbadon was destroyed, and the Saint was avenged.  It is said that she will return once again, as she has done many times before.

The mighty forces of the Highland Guard.  Victorious!!!!

Needless to say, this went quite differently than the test games with the Dark Eldar last year.  In those games, the Dark Eldar were wiped off the table in a turn or two by shooting.

While I could not squeeze in as many miniatures as I had originally wanted with this force, it was still almost double what I had last year.  That mob of 55 guardsmen did exactly what I thought it could, especially behind the ADL.

There are going to be a few modifications, though.  The second Exorcist will now be a Hydra, and the points saved will get more flamers, an Astropath, and a power weapon here and there.

Many thanks to Rich and A.J.  It was great!!