Army Undecided: Pictures from Big Jim's Warhammer 40k Narrative Event at Celisticon 2012

On Sunday I played in my second game that Big Jim of Galaxy in Flames put together. It was a narrative game with a back story, special even cards and unique rules and game structure. The easy way to describe it is an apocalypse game that is very well organized with some great bells and whistles and a friendly group of players to roll dice with. I had played in a previous event Big Jim had run at the Bay Area Open. The forces of Order had gotten crushed in that game, so I was looking to cleanse that stain off of the honor of the forces of the Imperium.

It was a fun game, I had to leave after the first four turns due to my Mom's birthday (what was my Mom thinking, being born on a con day?) so I missed the dramatic finish. The forces of Order (my team) had a thrilling come from behind victory. The forces of Order have exercised their demons from being crushed at The 2012 Bay Area Open event.

Jeremy's amazing Stompa. This color palate is both original and stunning. All of his stuff looks this good.

Including the stuff he paints right before the event...

My Forces of Order teammate's Blood Ravens.

Demetri putting out more of his Blood Ravens.

A bug in a box wanting to come out to play. The landspeeder base is a dig at Carl from The Independent Character's podcast, as this Necron player plays his Ultramarines on a regular basis.

Big Jim rolls out the battlefield.

Target number one for my team, Carl's beautiful Warhound titan, done up in nurgle green. Even as a work in process it looks great. I think seeing one in person was bad for my hobby funds.

Jeremy (@valleydweller) brought this indescribably cool piece of terrain.

The game being explained and event cards being handed out by Big Jim.

Deployment Begins!!

My Cadians embed with some Tau. It would prove to work better in the end than we had anticipated.

An unthinkable horror, a baneblade fell into renegade hands.

More of Jeremy's amazing Orks.

Demetri finishes up deploying his Blood Ravens on the right flank. My stuff was on the other end.

The Warhound was flanked by a healthy amount of Nurgle forces.

The demons begin to arrive.

The demons take a key objective from the Scouts.

Carl gets ready to take a shot with the Warhound.

The Warhound shots cause a lot of saves that need to be rolled. If it wasn't for ruins it would have resulted in a lot of scooped models.

Those ruins used to be full of Marines...

The Marines get a chance to return fire!! The Titan goes down....but then gets back up through the use of special event cards. A really fun moment. This is why I come to these games, so much more fun than a normal game.

The Tau brought some Necron allies (I'm not sure about those Tau, sounds shady) that get in the fight.

Some Scouts surge forward and claim one of the main objectives.

Necrons push hard in the middle, taking a few objectives.

Some Screamers come in to the Guard/Tau lines and start to cause problems.

The resurrected Warhound takes another shot, this time at my Shadowsword. A very unlucky roll pushes it far off target.

A guy was showing off a dice rolling tool. It was an interesting idea. Not my cup of tea, but kind of a unique play on an old idea.

Big Jim poses and Scott shows his displeasure at our current status.

Scouts are in trouble!

Tau deepstrike into enemy lines to cause trouble.

Justin's Dark Eldar had some insane free hand work. I had heard Carl describe them on his podcast but I wasn't prepared for how impressive they were.

I ended up emptying almost every gun in my army and I managed to barely take down the Titan. I rolled for the result of what would happen...and I got a.....6!! Boom!!

The titan explodes in an even bigger range than a normal super heavy. Six D6 inches of range and each model hit takes a S10 AP1 hit. Not as brutal as the old rules with a D hit, but still crazy.

The Forces of Order start to rain down fire from flyers this turn.

The wreckage after the Titan blows.

Bad news for the Guard and Tau.

I think I hear something above us...

The Screamers make short work of the Shadowsword. It lasted two turns and I'm actually happy I got two shots off and in dying didn't explode.

Demetri is rather encouraged at his flank's chances of taking some objectives back from the Ork hordes.

The Demon Prince that took out the Scouts now faces some Red Scorpions that aren't too happy about their dead brothers.

Ork flyers close in on the Blood Ravens.

The Manticores are silenced after three turns by the screamers.

The Valkyrie's try and blow the demons off the objective. Unsuccessfully.

The Valkyries look for new targets after doing a pass on the Demons.

One of the more younger gamers at the game was showing us his very cool Ultramarines armor for his Robolox character. It was pretty awesome to see someone this young into the 40k universe. His favorite chapter was Space Wolves so we got along well.