The Lion's last ride in 10th

   With the new edition being released soon (as of this battle, certainly not this publishing!), we had to get a game in with the Primarch I had embarassed many moons ago and try to gain redemption to end the current 10th.  I still brought that army list, but the Lion had come with a new strategy and we were playing a different mission and setup.  That last game saw everything working in my favour, but I was a little less confident.  It is Lion El'Jonson, after all!

  Now, admittedy, I must admit that it's been so long that we played this game, so the details will certainly be lost.  But my focus won't really be about the game in this case.  I'll still include a gazillion pictures and announce the winner at the end, of course.  But I really want to talk about the experience a bit.  First- it was my son that demanded this rematch, and he's been so busy that getting a game in seemed like an old story from days long past!  That kind of excitement can be a little contagious.

  But this was more about a new routine being built.  First, there is a new game store that's actually closer to both my work and my house than the other store in town (and that one is awesome!) and it's got a small 40k group there.  The group is filled with newbies and the gaming area is totally stocked by these people.  The store focuses on Pop figures (I'm still so surprised that it's such a strong industry!) and card games (MtG keeps game stores alive- duh!), but they've started carrying some GW products and Army Painter paints.  

  The store owner, Mike, is awesome and is constantly seeking feedback and improving the store (from the outside to the inside- every week something is better!).  He's a blue-collar, like me, but wanted to do something fun and suddenly this popped up!  The gamers there are pretty friendly (there's a couple guys there that just want to be left alone, but that's to be expected) and were constantly inviting us back to play again and again, and even asking for rules advise on things they didn't quite get.  My son and I are, after all, veterans at this and breezed through the game like we always do.  It's nice to be 'the guy' for a bit...

  Beyond the new environment and peers, we also decided to play with the official 10th edition terrain rules based on mission and deployments.  My buddy at Only War gave me some terrain and I bought another set (such a good set!!!) with the templates.  We opened the tournament pack PDF and found the official layout and laid out the terrain.  It was interesting to us because we always do the 'open deployment' where we place objectives and then fill the table.  For the first time (probably ever), we set up a battlefield that all those tournie-bros use.  We were as 'official' as we could be... for the last game of 10th edition!

  We will make a point of going to the game store on Sunday mornings and becoming part of the crowd (well, I will and I hope my son finds the time but he uses the other game store more often right now).  Better, this new routine may include going to a local family bar that has 'Game Night' on Saturdays.  I alaready have everything and provide the tablemats, terrain, armies, dice, rules, and just my own enthusiasm.  This new environment, new crowd, and new edition all give me the opportunity "un-retire" from the gaming world again.  That being said, I have some other distractions and that's some more posts for later.  

  Okay, now that all the ranting is done, let's go to some pics of the battle!  I don't remember what the actual mission was (we had to use a Post-It notepad to track- I missed my whiteboard from my game room!), and I don't remember what the deployment looked like.  Sorry (this old brain ain't so sharp these days).  But here's some pics!

Word Bearers vs. Dark Angels

  By this point in the game (Round 2 or 3), the Word Bearers had built up a bunch of points and pushed the 1st Legion boyz into their own quarter.  But then the Lion showed up and mayhem beset the heretic forces.

  By the time the smoke had cleared, The Lion had killed two Daemon Princes and finished off another unit before the combined firepower of the Land Raider and the Annihilator finsihed him off.  The Dark Angels had been reduced to little more than some Terminators and scraps trying desperately to break an armoured core of hateful survivors.  The score is now lost to time, but the Lion's vengeance delivered to so many heretics was a glory to see.  Lion El'Jonson may have fallen by the end, but the toll he took was well beyond 'even'- over 700 pts so his less than 300...  Ouch!

  We had such fun and it was a joy for my son to actually get to be a part of one of our games in a store.  While I have the experience running thiousands of demo game and being part of almost a dozen tournaments (hell, even 3 times at Adepticon!!!), but he's only played me at home.  And he saw how much of a blast it can be!!!  I wonder if he remembers the score of that game...

  Keep an eye out- I'm 'bombing' my blogsite with a lot of posts right now.  You'll understand as I go throug them, but just know that 40k isn't going to be a priority for a minute...  11th edition should be interesting, even if I'm unhappy to restart the cycle.  But I have other projects too, so don't fret.  11th edition 40k is coming...

As always, Happy Gaming!