Planetstrike: I struck a planet and I liked it!

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Koumei
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Planetstrike: I struck a planet and I liked it!

Post by Koumei »

Okay, for those out of the loop, GW has lately been making supplements for 40K that use the idea of "If we make a new Spess Mehrin, only Spess Mehrin players will buy it (less if it's a special chapter like Wolf Space Wolf Marines), other armies fare even worse due to not having ~60% of the market. If we make a random supplement then everyone has to buy it!"

Cities of Death was a bit of a flop - all they sold was a book with some missions and stratagems, a few pieces of terrain (ruins) and... that's it. Also it was geared towards small cityfight skirmishes, competing against Apocalypse (no chance there - Apocalypse is here to stay, and I approve of a game where I can win simply by having the most Superheavies).

Planetstrike, on the other hand, could be a winner. Release day was today, and saw:
-The rulebook
-Bastions (buildings/objectives, has heavy bolters and can have a quad-linked autocannon or a long-range las-cannon or even a battle cannon), more ruins (but impressive) and landing pads with shielding. Note that they're ideal size for a valkyrie and the recently disembarked troops, and only a month or two ago, valkyries came out.
-Groups of defensive walls (with automated weaponry)

-Coming out later, we might be able to expect laser grid networks, minefields, impenetrable fortresses and missile silos.

The rules are designed with larger games in mind - the Defenders get 1-3 HQ, 2-8 Troops, 0-3 Elite, 0-3 Fast Attack and 0-6 Heavy Support (note the recent IG codex that said "three Leman Russ tanks with 1 Heavy Support choice. Hint hint.") whereas the Attackers get 1-3 HQ, 2-6 Troops, 0-6 Elite, 0-6 Fast Attack and 0-3 Heavy Support (again, IG could take 18 valkyries or vendettas in their army. And 6 chimerae filled with storm troopers armed with AP3 guns).

It has six battles that are designed to be played in linked campaigns, and a whole heap of very cool stratagems - Dark Eldar can say "each round, all enemies gain a cumulative -1 to Ld, enjoy your -5 Ld on turn 5.", Imperial armies can say "everyone in this bastion, make an Armour Save. If you PASS, you die as you are fused into your armour. I'm looking at you, Chaos Terminators". All attackers come on via reserves (with improved Reserves rolls - 3+ on turn 1, 2+ thereafter), and anyone who Deep Strikes can assault on the turn they arrive. Also, before the first turn (but after the defenders deploy), there is the flamestrike phase: a number of large blast templates bombard the battlefield from low orbit.

So all in all, it's an exciting addition. We played a sort-of-panetstrike a week or two ago, and our team was victorious, and this time it was proper planetstrike, and as the attackers, we had a draw - if it weren't for the puny T-3 of Sisters (see: a Heroine can suffer Instant Death from a friggin Autocannon or Multilaser) we would have won, as I had a Canoness just touching an enemy bastion - seriously, her inferno pistol was leaning against the wall before she was killed by an auto-cannon. Still, even after they blew the landing pad (the other objective) up, it still counted and we had some people there, so it was a draw.

It's just a shame I could only bring 1,000 points - that was only an Immolator, a Rhino, a Repressor, 2 Canonesses, 2x10 Sisters, a Retributor squad (who never ended up firing) and 6 Celestians. In retrospect I should have dropped the Retributors for either Dominions or Repentias (to charge in and carve up the bastion). But it was fun. And making enemies hate Faith is always good ("Okay, I think I'll make my save invulnerable this turn.... okay this turn I'm going first in HtH... I think I'll have +2 S this turn...") So is flying a Jump Pack Canoness up onto a landing pad, right behind a Defiler, shooting them in the arse with an Inferno Pistol and making them explode.
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Post by Cynic »

Maybe I'm just that tired but I originally read the title as "Planetstrike: I struck a planet and it struck me back!"

Whiplash if I've ever seen any!
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Rejakor
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Post by Rejakor »

Damn, this sounds pretty exciting for IG.

And I thought cities of death was good!

I'm tempted to start collecting again heh heh heh heh heh no.
Koumei
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Post by Koumei »

Seeing as we're using tiny individual forces (seriously, with 3-4 people per team, we're looking at 500 points per person - I had 1,500 for the first one, being the main contributor for our team, then 1,000 for the next one because they got an extra Chaos player), meaning the fact that I spent a lot of money and painted and assembled a lot of things means... nothing, I'm actually tempted to start fielding un-painted minis only in Planetstrike, just bringing out the carefully painted and customised ones for Apocalypse.

And quite possibly using a Nid list: 1 Hive Tyrant, 1 Carnifex, 1 brood of 8 Gaunts, 1 swarm of 4 ripper bases, and if I can get a 600 point list, 1 Red Terror. For a grand total of 3 monstrous creatures in 600 points. Yes, the rest are seriously there to get in the way to absorb enemy fire, and to satisfy the "minimum 2 Troops choices" rule.

And my custom mobile church fortress is nearly complete. I just need to paint it.
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Post by Rejakor »

I don't mind painting miniatures...when I only have to do a few of the same type. IG? Empire? I quickly get bored and high on paint fumes. And yet I like /playing/ so very much.

Mobile church fortress sounds really cool and if you have a digital camera... post some photos? Is it a vehicle-looking thing, or did you convert a church terrain-building into a fortress?
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

If you are getting high off of your paint... switch to acrylic paint, that shit is completely non-toxic, and is a good standard when it comes to painting plastic or metal.
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Post by Rejakor »

Switch 'paint' with 'boredom' and then it works again.
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Post by Crissa »

Sounds like a more interesting format than the last couple I watched.

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Post by Koumei »

Maybe I *should* use the "makes you high" paint, to make it more interesting. I like spending money, I like having finished products and I like winning. I don't like assembling metal (plastic, especially with all the options and customisation, is fun), painting, or playing.

Anyway, I have no camera other than a low-res phone, but I'll see if I can borrow one when it's complete. The whole thing is made from foam board, small plastic sheets (cut from blister packs) and cardboard, aside from bitz here and there (Baneblade extra parts and demolisher, a battle sister to serve as a statue, gravestones from Skeletons, a Baneblade Cannon, Land Raider Las-Cannons etc).

So it's basically a super-heavy frame with a giant double-door on the front (from a terrain pack), with extra-large sponsons (to hold more troops) with twin-lascannons built on top, an Immolator top at the front with twin heavy flamers, engines at the back (straws make great pipes), a bunch of twin heavy bolters here and there, and a church. With a statue on top and a giant cannon sticking out right below a stained glass window.

Crissa: yes, it is definitely more interesting than Cities of Death, and... I can't think of any other special mission type campaigns they released, barring Apocalypse.
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Post by Crissa »

The prior ones weren't books, but would be described in White Dwarf and then the rules would come from the local sales rep.

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Koumei
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Post by Koumei »

So I started a Planetstrike campaign against my Sister. This started on the day I won a "Everyone bring 1 tank, fight to the death" tournament with a Land Raider Crusader (had I a regular LR or a Terminus I would have used that. Oh well). So I was already pleased - I defeated a Predator, a Land Raider, a Spess Elf Hover Thing, 2x Leman Russ (1 Executioner, 1 Exterminator), a Banewolf or Devil Dog (the Melta one) and a Talos.

So we started - I defended, seeing as Dark Eldar like to raid. Things had a fairly interesting start (although the firestorm didn't do much), with her forces attacking from every angle. I had a lot of Reavers and over 30 Wyches to deal with here... possibly as many as 50.

So they approached from every angle. I had a church, a bastion and a comms tower to defend, and I was determined to do it...

I succeeded. Even tore the Talos apart with two Heroines (given any failed save (it ignores armour) would instant-death them, I was going through Faith like pain-meds). But by the end of the final turn, she held zero objectives: I had annihilated my enemy. But at significant cost.

Today, we had the second battle. She had the bastion, and I had two churches, a churchtank and a comms tower to defend. First, the brand new church I'd assembled was destroyed by a special mission rule. Then, the Sisters (now exposed in the ruins) were destroyed by the firestorm. Several other Sisters were also harmed. And then the battle started.

Again, Dark Eldar swept in from every direction. I took decent casuaties at first, and the Talos introduced Canoness Papavera to Instant Death, but then Canoness Somnifera came in to murder it.

And the Battle Cannon fired, taking out an entire squad of Dark Eldar. Things then quickly turned in my favour. Tank shock, many flamer templates, the Archon rolling a 1 when running across laser lines (thus being killed instantly), all these things worked together, combined with her lack of high-pen weapons, and in the end... Dark Eldar were slaughtered to the last.

Next time, I'm going to attack so that she can guard the A-14/14/14 buildings and I can try dropping meteors on them. Besides, I enjoy the family games, so don't mind taking a loss.
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Post by Heath Robinson »

The Imperial special stuff includes "I got a rock"?!
Last edited by Heath Robinson on Wed Aug 05, 2009 4:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by cthulhu »

Sounds like they are trying to make the game marginally more tactical.
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Post by Lago PARANOIA »

What do you mean, cthulhu?
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Post by Koumei »

Heath: nope. Planetstrike always begins with "firestorm". This involves the Attacker dropping meteors (or whatever. 1d6+X (X = no. of objectives) S9 AP3 Large Blast, no correction on the 2d6" scatter) on the Defender.

Except for mission 2, where it's S10 AP3. And there's an Attacker stratagem of "drop 2d6+X instead!" And the final mission allows both players to, at the start of their turns, launch 1d3 of these. Explosions everywhere.

That being said, there is a very expensive Attacker stratagem that launches a huge meteor that is extra-damaging.
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