Some Planetstrike Photos

Just a small post today, here's some photos of a Planetstrike battle we did last month.

Another Successful Planetstrike Defense

Last night I defended against Dark Angels and Daemons. For this game we did the second Planetstrike mission. Instead of a Helm's Deep type defense, I put my bastions spread out, with one in the middle, and one on each table edge, slightly off-set so that each bastion could see all the way to the other table edge. I then put my cheapest troops (not easy with Eldar) inside the bastions because I knew they were going to take Flamers and just burn my troops inside.

Inside the bastions I had two units of 5 Rangers, two units of 10 Guardians, and in the center a Vibro-Cannon unit. Each unit is about 100 pts, which isn't too cheap but was the best I could do.

The rest of my army was in reserve. I had a Seer council, 6 bikes, a Falcon full of Fire Dragons, a Fire Prism, and 10 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent. For the game, I basically flew around turbo-boosting as needed and frying things as needed. This more mobile defense worked out great. Since I only had to claim one objective, I could distract them and pull them far away from the objective I intended to claim, and then turbo-boost into position at the end of the game. I killed very few things, I don't think I killed a single Dark Angel model. I took out as many flamers as I could since they're fast, and I killed a Soul Grinder with a lucky Bright Lance shot, but that was about it. This game was won through resilience and speed.

So for a mobile army like Eldar, try a spread out defense. You force your slower foes to commit, and then you can rapidly redeploy as you see fit. Remember though, in Planetstrike you have to totally clear the objectives. None of this last minute contesting if you are defender.

Eldar Defense in Planetstrike, Part Two

In Part 1, I didn't really go in depth on the various choices to be made for defense. I simply talked about what I did and how I set up the board. Here I'm going to go over the various choices for Heavy Support and Troops, as those are what you'll be taking.

Support Platform: If you put a D-Cannon in a bastion, I guarantee you will get a 24" clearance around them. Every time I've taken them in regular games, my foes always give them a wide berth. Of course, they try to kill them as fast as possible, and they always do, but inside a Bastion they should be safer. If you take a Vibro-Cannon, you'll have to place them carefully. Don't take the other option. I don't even remember what it's called.

War Walker: In my opinion, not the best for defense. These guys are great for flank harassment and supporting fire, but if you take them for Planetstrike, they're probably best held in reserve to harry the flanks later.

Wraithlord: A great choice. Plop one of these guys in a Bastion and he's not going anywhere. It won't need to test for Wraithsight as long as the Bastion is intact, but once it plops make sure you've got a seer nearby. I give these guys Bright Lances and Wraithswords in case they get assaulted.

Dark Reapers: If you're playing against Marines, there is really no better choice. An Exarch with a Tempest Launcher and Crack Shot will do most of the killing for you all game. Place them in a protected, center bastion with a good line of sight.

Falcon: Great for bringing reinforcements onto the field, but it's not a very killy unit. A couple of them might be good for a hammer/anvil type defense.

Fire Prism: Same as the Falcon, but a little more killy and no transport option.

Wraithguard: A full unit of 10 makes for a great defense troops choice. They're tough and their guns can put fear into elite armies. Their short range and low rate of fire will cause horde armies to laugh at them, however.

Dire Avengers: A solid choice as usual. Hunkered down in a bastion they can provide great close-range defense with a well-timed Bladestorm. Keep a Farseer nearby so they can benefit from Doom.

Rangers/Pathfinders: These guys are better left out of a Bastion, finding cover on the board somewhere. Behind a defense line they should get a 2+ cover save. They aren't the most killy, but can take out a few things here and there. They'll mostly act as a speedbump.

Guardians: Ummm....put them in a Bastion? A full unit with psychic support could be a good close-range defense, and the support weapon can help bring some firepower to the table.

Jetbikes: I don't really see a point to these guys in Planetstrike. In the case of contesting, Attacker always wins so there's no turn 5 Turboboosting to claim objectives. They're not killy enough to be a good defender unit. I can see them being used as flank/rear armor distractions, but that's about it.

I'm going to play the Attacker on Tuesday, so I'll have a report on that later.

Planetstrike FAQ, Version 2 (Feedback Requested)

Here is my updated version of a FAQ for Planetstrike. I could use as much feedback as I can get.

Terrain:

Comms Relay: Counts as an artillery piece. Can be targeted separately unless it is part of an intact building, in which case a "Weapon Destroyed" result can take it out. Models don't have to be on the roof to use it.

Bastion Turret Weapons: Use a BS of 2 as normal, but if a occupying model is on the roof he may use his own BS instead (and may fire at a separate target).

Stratagems:

Crash and Burn: If a Hit is rolled, use the arrow to show what direction it scatters but it will only scatter half the number rolled on 3d6 (round up). This same rule applies to any stratagem that rolls 3d6 for scatter (I'm beginning to be not so sure about this one).

Laserburn: The affected area is treated as Dangerous terrain afterward. If one of the markers goes off the table edge, the strike will still hit, but measured from the point where it exited the table.

Teleport Barrage: Models on the roof are not affected.

Krak Attack: If used on a drop pod, it strikes the pod and not the unit inside.

Other: Chaos Daemons may use the Blasphemous Broadcast, Euclidean Mindphase and Hellish Cacophony stratagems.

Chaos Daemons: Follow the Planetstrike reserves chart instead of normal deployment (I'd like a Daemons player to chime in on this one).

Here's another question, should Automated Weapons still be allowed to shoot even if the building is shaken? They are machine spirits after all. Last game that's how we played it, I'll have to try some games both ways.

Eldar Defense in Planetstrike

I finally got around to playing my first Planetstrike game. It was a lot of fun. I really like the Attacker/Defender dynamic. Here's the defense I employed. Please ignore the bright, colorful blocks. My daughter loaned them to me for this game because I was one bastion short. I was very eager for it to be destroyed.


As you can see, I went with a Helm's Deep style defense. The idea is that if they attack the front, they're exposed to fire from all bastions. If they try and take the sides, they can only get the first two, and then they'll be slowed down. I filled the spaces between bastions with obstacles to mess up any deep strikers.

I deployed my Dark Reapers in the center bastion so they could get the best line of fire. I put a Wraithlord in each of the forward bastions, and a squad of Wraithguard in the right bastion, and some Dire Avengers in the left one. I had some Pathfinders out behind the Aegis Defense Line for extra firepower.

When playing Planetstrike, make sure you follow the order of events properly. I figured I knew them so I didn't and deployed too early. The order is there for a reason!

An imposing view for an attacker.

My opponent took to the flank. Fortunately, I was able to slow him down enough that he only had two objectives. At one point he had 3 but I was able to clear the attackers from it. If the game had ended on turn 5, it would have been a draw. However, the game ended on turn 7 and I won with three objectives to two.

I'm not sure who my star unit was. All my units did really well. The Wraithguard absorbed a huge amount of firepower and my opponent stayed away from them out of fear. While they have a short range, Wraithcannons are very nasty. I only had 3 of 10 survive the game, but that was all I needed. The reapers did well, and after spending 3 turns repositioning my Pathfinders, they actually managed to do some damage.


In all it was an enjoyable game. Next time I play defender, I am going to try a spread out defense and use my speed to take care of objectives as needed.

Planetstrike Terrain Complete!

The above picture is missing two defense guns that I'm almost done with. This project was very simple. I got it done quite quickly, and seeing the sheer square inches of surface to paint, it's surprising.

For the darker one, I primed it black and then drybrushed the green in three layers, each one lighter. This took a lot longer. For the other one, I used a Hunter Green spraypaint from Walmart, then used two layers of hastily applied drybrushed highlights. The gun emplacements were simply primed black, then drybrushed Boltgun Metal, with Chainmail highlights. For the lights, I used a Scab Red with Blood Red highlight. I plan on using 'ardcoat on some of them to make them shiny.



The aquila was pretty easy. It started off green because of the spraypaint, but I went over the whole area in black. I then used Codex Gray to pick it out, with a Skull White overcoat. Finally, I used Chainmail to highlight the rivets.

The defense line was kind of a pain. It's 72" long so I used the same technique as the lighter bastion. The highlight was very sloppy, but it's terrain so I don't hold myself to the higher expectations. The backside got a bit of detail picked out in Boltgun Metal. Finally, I painted all 36 Imperial Aquilas Dwarf Bronze.

Lastly, for the bullet holes, I painted them Boltgun Metal, and then ran a Badab Black wash into them.

On the table right now: I have some scratch built razorwire barricades that I will be posting soon. After that I'm going to start the Ravenwing.

A Proposed Planetstrike FAQ/Errata (rough draft, feedback needed)

Planetstrike is obviously not intended as a balanced, tournament game. It is intended to be a fun, agreeable narrative style game, with winner and loser not as important as having fun. As such, an official FAQ would not be expected from GW (well, when are they ever). That doesn't mean the book doesn't need it, so here are my proposed revisions. This isn't how I play it, but these are just suggestions. I would appreciate feedback on this post so I can tweak the list and maybe make it official for my group.

Terrain:

Comms Relay: Counts as an artillery piece. Can be targeted separately unless it is part of an intact building, in which case a "Weapon Destroyed" result can take it out. Models don't have to be on the roof to use it.

Bastion Turret Weapons: Use a BS of 2 as normal, but if a occupying model is on the roof he may use his own BS instead (and may fire at a separate target).

Stratagems:

Crash and Burn: If a Hit is rolled, use the arrow to show what direction it scatters but it will only scatter D6 inches (I feel that since you get 4 templates, they ought to be a bit more unpredictable).

Laserburn: The affected area is treated as Dangerous terrain afterwards (it's a friggin' lava scar).

Meteor Strike: Count it as a D weapon from Apocalypse (at 4 Stratagem points, it ought to be a bit more beefy).

Teleport Barrage: I don't like this stratagem. It is far too powerful. It should either cost more points or have a different effect. It makes it so a defender can't put any valuable units in a bunker. No terminators, independent characters, nothing as they don't just take a wound, they are removed from the game. It punishes small, elite armies like Eldar and Marines, while IG and Orks will laugh it off. It seems to me a cheap way to kill off very expensive models. I am not sure how to fix this one.

Imagine this- I have one bunker with 5 Dark Reapers plus Maugan Ra. If hit with the Teleport Barrage I would likely lose all but one or two reapers which would be several hundred points down. Another bunker has 20 Ork boyz. They would only lose about 3 guys, which is like 21 points or whatever. It's just so imbalanced I think it needs to be removed.

Edit: I thought of a way to fix it, simply state the models on the roof are not affected.

Other: Chaos Daemons may use the Blasphemous Broadcast, Euclidean Mindphase and Hellish Cacophony stratagems (since they don't get their own, I figured these fit in their theme, plus they all sound like titles to H.P. Lovecraft stories).

Chaos Daemons: Of course they can assault the turn they come in. For their deployment, don't use the rules in the codex, instead follow the Planetstrike reserves chart. I'd like a Daemons player to chime in on this one, especially on the normal deployment/reserves issue.

Like I said, I'd like some feedback on this, especially from Daemon players and those with a hefty amount of Planetstrike experience, as this is just a rough draft.

How to Paint the Blastscape

I will admit, when I opened the bag I was pretty disappointed with what I saw. I was impressed with the size of the pieces, but not the quality of the detail. However, unlike most of the ululating masses of internet complainers, I decided to paint mine and see what I could do with it, refraining from final judgment until I saw how it looked painted. I found it to be probably the most boring, easy thing I've ever painted (except the lava, that was a lot of fun). Once finished, I was rather pleased with the results.

I'll discuss specific pieces later, but here is the basic procedure for the rocks and earth. To begin, I trimmed off the surrounding flash and primed the pieces black. I then coated the earth parts with a dark brown (approximately a burnt umber), and the rocks with a dark gray. Next, I gave everything a nice thick wash of Badab Black. After that dried, I drybrushed a lighter brown and a lighter gray, finally drybrushing highlighted areas with an even lighter brown and a light gray.

My aim with this color scheme was to make something dark so it could go with any tabletop theme, without it being too dark. Thus, I began with the dark and built it up slowly.

For the crashed space ship parts, I painted all the metals Boltgun Metal, and did the Badab Black wash on them. I then picked out areas in Chainmail (for damage and highlights) and Dwarf Bronze (details). These were very easy to do.


For the meteors, the area is decreed dangerous terrain afterward, so I figured I'd give a reason for it. I made the meteors look glowing by painting them red, then highlighting with progressively darker colors, in a backwards approach. I then used slight glowing effects on the surrounding rocks to show their radiating heat.


Finally, the Laserburn. This was a lot of fun. I slowly built up to white on the lava, painting the cracks in the lava with a very light yellow. I may possibly put some 'ardcoat on the bubbles to further their shininess. Finally, I used a red to make the sides of the slope appear to be glowing.

Planetstrike Thoughts

Finally picked up my Planetstrike goodies. I got the book, the Imperial Strongpoint, and the Blastscape. I'll discuss each one of these.

The book/rules: This has been reviewed to death on every 40k blog in the world so I'll cover some things I haven't seen talked about too much. Basically, I'm excited to play a game. Once I get my terrain put together I'll put a couple of games in and see how that goes. Without playing a game, I think the defender has the harder job. It seems a bit too easy to crack a bunker these days with melta being everywhere. Of course not every army has that ability, so some will find attacker far more difficult. Don't forget that flame template weapons can hit the guys inside!

There was much ballyhoo over the strategic asset that gives 2D6 Firestorms being an "auto-win" button but I disagree. First off, only about 1/3 are going to land on target. Of those, only 1/6 are going to penetrate a Bastion's armor. Of those, only 1/3 stand a chance of destroying it. Off the top of my head that's about 18 Firestorms. Of course, a Firestorm is deadly against troops out in the open, and against that kind of deployment you will have an auto-win button. Of course if you deploy out in the open, you deserve exactly what you get.

I also really liked the fluff sections. They expand on the fluff in the Tyranid codex about the Orks vs. Tyranids, and how that war is going. That part always intrigued me and I am glad to see it going somewhere. There was also mention of the Hrud for all those who want to see them made a race, and mention of a race I'd never heard of before.

Finally, the one area I think they dropped the ball was in the race-specific stratagems. The ones they have are nice, but I think they could have come up with quite a few more. I even made some up myself they could have included (Eldar Holo-fields for an Eldar bastion). It seems they want people to do that, as I quote pg. 26, "...we want to encourage our players to be creative, not trammel them with restrictive rules."

The Strongpoint: This is a really big box. It's a pretty good deal and fairly easy to put together. There's plenty of customization options, though I wish they had more. Here's an awesome thing- they include support struts in case you want to stack multiple bastions together. I've put together the whole defense line and one Bastion so far. Just be careful of gaps in the joints, I'm going to have to go over it with Greenstuff.

The Blastscape: I was both impressed and disappointed. I was disappointed with the quality. They look like when someone blows up a picture too big with poor resolution; all pixelated and blurry. It looks like someone made a terrific small sculpt and had it blown up farther than it should have. However, most of that detail is going to be obscured by flock and basing, so I will refrain from final judgment until I have painted them.

On the positive side, the pieces are huge. I was expecting small 5" pieces but was very impressed by the size. The laserburn I thought was particularly nice. The meteor one is pretty inaccurate, as meteors that size would leave a far larger impact crater- but since when has 40k forsaken coolness for accuracy?

So was the blastscape worth it? Possibly. Let me get mine painted and ready before I say.

Ok, I won't say anymore about Planetstrike until I have played a few games. Now it's time to get my new terrain painted up.