Nebula Raiders and Birds of Prey

Long time no entry - again. I apologize, but as long as my internship is going on, I don't see this changing much. Patience until July, and Red Archer will be back at and for LO...

I put the weekends to good use, though.

I have assembled the valkyrie and vendetta models of my airborne guard army - a pain in the behind! The first one must have taken me about five hours in total (though I was watching tv all the while), the second one maybe two and a half hours, the third one maybe one and a half. How many rhinos could I assemble in that time?! I don't even want think that thought...
Anyway: it is an extremely impressive sight, those six gunships. Just awesome. The downside is that I have trouble fitting them on the gaming table while staying at a distance from the enemy. Using them like I use my typhoons with the Nebula Raiders space marines just doesn't work. These things take way too much space...

Company Command Squad w/ 3x Plasma Gun, Flamer, Astropath
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Melta Gun
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Melta Gun
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Melta Gun
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Flamer, Demolitions Doctrine
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Flamer, Demolitions Doctrine
2x Valkyries w/ Multiple Rocket Pods, Heavy Bolter Sponsons
2x Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
2x Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
1,500 points

So far, I have had five battles with the army - four victories, one draw. The army list seems to be faring quite well, despite my opponents tooling up to kill my fragile gunships, and despite playing a lot of capture and control which is my absolute hate mission. The initial victory was a proxied game before I had the models (seize ground pitched battle versus necrons), the other four I shall describe briefly:

vs. Orks - Maximum Attrition
Capture and control pitched battle. A very straightforward game. My opponent thought it wise to give me first turn. I deployed, let him deploy, and then used my scout move to close in with all his hidden units. He failed to steal the initiative and that was about it: in turn one he lost all three of his tankbusta squads (he had intended them to down my gunships), though one of them still had three models but falling back.
Thereafter I just picked off what targets presented themselves. A large squad of nob bikers gave me big trouble with their automatic cover save and feel no pain - my opponent rolled them all so well that it was very, very frustrating, shooting four vendettas along with their heavy bolter sponsons into them turn after turn, not really killing them.
By turn six I finally annihilated his army but had suffered heavy losses. Two veteran squads wiped out, one valkyrie and one vendetta wrecked, another vendetta exploded, and some destroyed guns. But nonetheless - victory for the Imperium! Some very good rolling on both sides.

vs. Chaos Space Marines - Mutual Infiltration
Annihilation spearhead. A very frustrating game. I took second turn and reserved everything for outflanking with the astropath. My opponent's deep-strikers all arrived turn two before I was even on the board, so he could do nothing but castle up behind his eight havoc missile launchers. I only made one of my reserves rolls turn two, the other two wings came in on turn three. I slowly moved forward, almost an inch at a time, blasting away at the havocs to take out those dangerous missile launchers.
My cautious approach payed off at first, keeping me alive despite return fire, but in the end it srewed me big time. The battle consisted of my gunships and the two havoc squads dishing it out, trading salvos, while the rest of the chaos marines spread out, hid away, took cover. All the good rolling from the game versus Orks now took its toll. When the bottom of turn five arrived for me and the score was still zero to zero, I shot everything at a rhino that had no cover. Eleven twin-linked lascannons (the twelfth had been destroyed), two multi-lasers, and several heavy bolters did nothing but stun and shake the rhino several times, plus immobilize it and blow off its twin-linked bolter. One exploded or wrecked result, or even only one more immobilized or weapon destroyed result, and it would have been dead - but it survived all that punishment, and the game ended.
What humiliation! Tie in kill points - zero to nothing!!

vs. Tyranids - Terror from the Abyss
Capture and control pitched battle - again. Tyranids make me go first. I concentrate on killing off the massed hive guard (three) and zoanthropes (six, two times three) to save my gunships, while retreating from the bugs, taking some 36" S9 blast weapons shot at my gunships, but either scattering off, not penetrating, or only shaking.
Turn four I get into position to take both objectives and make my move on turn five. The enemy has only a winged tyrant and some falling back termagaunts left, contesting one objective with the flyrant. Victory for the Imperium at minimal losses (one multilaser on a valkyrie and six veterans from one squad). Way to go!

vs. Necrons - Operation: Pyramid
Capture and control pitched battle - damnit, those dice must hate me! I make Necrons go first and reserve everything for outflanking with the astropath. Valkyries and one vendetta wing arrive turn two and wipe out the two squads of three heavy destroyers each, despite their turbo-boost save. Those had been intended to kill my gunships.
From then it was easy. Turn three my second vendetta wing arrived. One blew up the monolith, another the squad of standard destroyers, while the valkyries disembarked their flamer squads and killed the destroyer lord with combined firepower. He got up again to kill one of the flamer squads, but I reembarked the other one and brought my birds into position for the two diagonally opposed objectives and killed the destroyer lord again. Three warriors from the phalanx on my opponent's objective were in range to shoot at my vendettas who moved flat out, and yet those three shots wrecked one of them - ouch! The destroyer lord got up one more time and contested my objective. I contested my opponent's with the surviving vendetta, brought the valkyries into position to contest it the turn thereafter, if need be, and dropped the intact wing of vendettas on my objective, killing the destroyer lord a third time.
Game ended then, Imperium wins again! I love its firepower.


The fluff for this army is now all set, just didn't get around to type it yet. I will work on that and keep you posted. Thanks for reading and best regards to all you fellow players out there!