Creeping Infestation

Good evening one and all. First off I am pleased to report that I am physically recovered from various bouts of the lurgy.

As I've blogged repeatedly I've been slowly preparing to finally definitely cut the cord on GW and other than holding onto Mordheim, Necromunda and Blood Bowl finally turn my back on their games systems and continue my hobby life in blissful ignorance of whatever they wave at the masses in the future.

So a strange thing happened at the club tonight......I played a 500 point game of 6th Edition 40K.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when Rich picked up a discounted semi-whim copy via a contact who assured him it was definitely worth a go. From there a few of the guys blew dust off figures and codexes and suddenly a 500pt campaign was being touted.

Last week I looked on with interest before playing a game of Zombies!!! noting a few interesting mechanic changes and an apparent shift towards firepower over assault. This week there was no "escape route" and I borrowed Shaun's Marines to take on Nick's Imperial Guard.

Having watched Nick floor Shaun with "1st rank, 2nd rank" fire across an open plain I first placed as much scenery as possible to limit lines of fire [like the scenery deployment rules] and then took advantage of  deploying second to deploy everything far left.

Early doors I did incredibly well at losing my Devastator squad to incredibly poor dice rolls whilst wondering why I bothered to hide them in a wood [no cover save if you have your normal armour save]. The few frag missiles that I did kick out weren't overly effective as all blast markers automatically scatter [though I quite like the BS modifier thing]. It did leave me feeling apprehensive for Ork players :/

Thankfully Nick's Master of Ordnance was even more inaccurate though the appearance of Sly Marbo spelt plenty of marine death. He was at least good enough to take himself out in the blast though

After that mobile short-range rapid-firing bolters proved their effectiveness and carried the day for me. Another nice touch is bonus victory points for claiming first blood, killing the enemy commander and moving into the enemy deployment zone. Cool sort of side-plot thing.

Haven't played any of the other scenarios, fairly obviously, but I've heard nothing but good things. Sceptical as I was keen to be on one 500pt game everything flows well. "Cinematic" is a phrase I've heard thrown about amongst the blurb / froth and that's the feel I got.

Scarily I found myself discussing the upcoming starter set with mini-rulebook, no way I'm coughing £45, and how the chaos figures would fit in well with the Oni and GI figures I already have. Could really go for a Nurgle / zombie cultist theme...........slippery slope?

I did grasp at the straw of being unhappy at paying £25 for a codex only to be referred to and offered one of many knock off PDFs.

Just when I thought I was out...........I find myself pulling myself back in!!