1750 Crimson Fists Vs Imperial Fists

[waaanial00]

Crimson Fists vs Imperial Fists 1750

Last night I had an interesting game which I played quite poorly. It was Crimson Fists against Imperial Fists.

Hope you enjoy.

Imperial Fist list (not me)

HQ

Lysander

Librarian
Epistolary, Might, Quickening

Elite

5 Assault Terminators
Th/SS, Landraider Phobos (with Godhammers)

Dread
MM, Drop pod

Dread
TL Lascannon, Drop pod

Troops

Full tactical
ML, Flamer, Razorback

Full tactical
ML, Flamer, Razorback

5 Marine combat squad

Crimson Fist list (me)

HQ

Librarian
Avenger, Machine Curse

Elites

Dreadnought
Dual TL Autocannons

Dreadnought
TL Lascannon, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour

8 Sternguard
Rhino, Power Fist, 2 Combi Plasma

Troops

Full Tactical
Plasma Pistol, Multi Melta, Plasma Gun, Rhino

Full Tactical
Power Fist, Missile Launcher, Melta, Rhino

Full Tactical
Power Fist, Missile Launcher, Flamer, Rhino

Fast Attack

2 Landspeeders
Typhoon, Heavy Bolters

2 Landspeeders
Multi Melta

Heavy Support

Thunderfire Cannon

Terrain Setup

Terrain was fairly basic, to the norht there was a small crater complex flanked either side by two buildings (about 6" between crater and buildings) to the North East was a Bastion.

In the South West corner was a 2 storey building (ground, 1st, 2nd for clarification purposes) with a small crater complex to the east of that. There was some ruined walls to the east of that with a small wood in the South East edge.

So a nice multi level battlefield with plenty of LOS blocking and chance for some good flank attacks.

Mission and Deployment

Mission was Capture and Control and deployment was Pitched Battle. My objective was placed on top floor of the South West building, the Imperial Fists was placed just North of the crater complex (much to my confusion).

The Imperial Fists won the roll off and deployed first.

Imperial Fist deployment

The yellow fists decided to combat squad everything that could and went for an enveloping strategy. His combat squad with Razorback and Librarian deployed behind Building in North West with a 5 man and flamer squad deployed next to it.

In the centre in the crater he deployed a 5 man combat squad with Missile launcher, just to the East of them another combat squad with missile launcher deployed in the shadow of the other building. The 5 man combat squad was deployed to the West of the objective.

Lysander and buddies parked their Landraider to the East between the Bastion and the building with another Razorback combat squad supplying support.

Both dreads were in reserve.

Crimson Fist deployment

I started deployment by placing my Thunderfire right next to my objective and placing a missile Launcher combat squad next to it (from the Meltagun/Fist Tactical). I placed my Two Dreads behind my craters with decent LOS on the objective and two combat squads. The Typhoons went behind these.

I then deployed my remaining combat squad in Rhino between and behind the broken wall and crater complex, the Sternguard and Librarian in Rhino next to them (ready to gun towards their objective).

My Remaining Tactical Squads deployed between the small wood and broken wall to face off against the Terminators (and to try and suck the first dreadnought in). My MM Speeders deployed with them.

I failed to sieze the initiative so it was the Imperials go first.

Imperial Fist Turn 1

As expected the MM dread came down near to my MM speaders and tactical squad flank. It scattered north about 7" but was still within melta range of all three of these squads.

His raider and Razorback gunned forwards to support the newly arrived dread. His 5 man combat squad near his objective moved forwards, following the building line (but strangely were not in cover).

His librarian Razor and combat squad moved 6" around the side of the building.

Shooting started with my Flamer/ML Tactical being destroyed by combined fire of Dread and Lascannons from Landraider. I saved my armour saves from the exploding result. All other shooting was wildly inneffectual.

Crimson Fist turn 1

I moved my Dreads slightly forwards, my Meltagun Rhino and Sternguard gunned towards the enemy objective. Lead Rhino with meltagun popping smoke and the Sternguard one forming up behind it.

My MM landspeeders moved up slightly to get within melta range of the Dreadnought.

Shooting saw my lascannon dread sniping off a marine from the objective camping unit and my Thunderfire killing all but the missile launcher and 1 guy. My typhoons and Rifleman dread killed 2 of the other combat squad in a display of low wounds and decent enemy armour saves.

My Multimelta and Plasmagun popped out of the hatch and killed his MM dreadnought. The MM landspeeders melting the storm bolter from the Drop pod. Both my missile launchers missed their targets.

Both combat squads passed their leadership checks (he didnt fail a single one the whole game).

Imperial Fist turn 2

His second dread failed to arrive.

He moved his Landraider towards my Sternguard finally settling between the building and the broken wall. His Razorback on that side moved up. He disembarked his terminators and Lysander.

Over on the West side his Razorback and combat squad moved out of the cover of the building. His 3 remaining Tactical marines limped towards my building.

Shooting saw my Storm bolter being shot off my meltagun tac's Rhino by some fairly accurate Lascannon fire from the Raider. My Lascannon Dread exploded due to a very accurate krak missile from the squad which was hiding in the shadow of the building to the East of the objective. I was a little miffed by this, however I kept my cool.

Shooting from the Razorback on the East side took down 2 marines from my Rhinoless squad.

Lysander and buddies were too far out to charge my Rhinos so it went to my turn.

Crimson Fist turn 2

I moved my Rifleman and Typhoons forwards to get a shot at the Librarians Razorback. My MM landspeeders moved in to kill the Landraider, whilst my Multimelta squad in the Rhino moved 12" towards my Objective with the now under strength Tactical squad in toe.

My Sternguard and melta rhinos move fast towards his objective. My Sternguard Rhino pops smoke.

Shooting sees my thunderfire kill the annoying 2 tacticals on the objective. My missile launcher fails to hit the Terminators. Between my Rifleman and Typhoons I managed to shake (no move and shoot) and remove the Heavy Bolter from the Librarians Razorback.

My MM Speeders fail miserably by hitting twice then rolling 11 and then 13 for penetration values (there must have been a sudden gust of wind interrupting my hair dryers)

Imperial Fist turn 3

His dread arrives next to his Western building, pretty much where his combat squad was deployed.

His Terminators move towards my Sternguards Rhino, his Landraider moves up a little as well. His Razorback moves up towards my Landspeeders and deploy their tactical squad.

The combat squad next to the Librarians Razorback moves up level to the front of it. His 3 remaining combat squad marines move across to the West side of my building.

Shooting from the Landraider and his newly arrive Dreadnought sees my Meltagun Rhino get immobilised and lose its storm bolter (thats a Storm Bolter removed as the opening damage from each of his vehicle attacks so far, I jest that he must not like the paint job of my gunmetal).

Shooting from the Razorback and its combat squad sees 1 MM landspeeder lose its MM and the other unable to shoot.

Assault sees my Sternguards Rhino wrecked, I disembark my Sternguard within prime shooting of the Terminators.

Crimson Fist turn 3

I continue moving my under strength squad of tac marines towards my Objective. I move my speeders 24" towards the bastion (to ensure that the Razorback and its squad are going to stay put for a turn). My Rifleman dread stays put and my Typhoons move back a little and point towards the Terminators.

My Melta combat squad disembarks and advances towards the dreadnought.

Shooting starts off poorly with my multi melta being out of range of the Terminators and my Plasma gun missing.

It continues on a downward trend when my meltagun misses the dreadnought.

It picks up though as my Rifleman shakes and stuns the librarians Razorback again. My luck really builds though as my Sternguard rapid fire and my Librarian Avenges the Terminators and knock down 3 Termies and knock two wounds off Lysander.

My Typhoons manage to destroy the Power Fist arm and Stun the dreadnought.

My thunderfire cannon then finishes off the turn nicely by killing 3 tactical marines from the squad closest to the objective.

Imperial Fist turn 4

Lysander and his now much smaller pose move up towards my melta combat squad. His raider moves slightly towards my Sternguard. His Razorback of the east side with combat squad in toe moves 6" towards my MM Landspeeders.

His librarian decides to disembark and both his squad and other combat squad move up towards my building. The 3 tactical marines close to my building manage to get into the building but only on the ground floor.

His dread moves closer to my lines.

Shooting sees the raider shake one Typhoon and remove the typhoon launcher from the other one. His razorback and combat squad fail to do any damange to my MM landspeeders and his missile launcher fails to hit my Dreadnought.

His librarian squad manage to run to the edge of my building and the one inside the building manages to get up to the 1st floor.

Combat sees my combat squad getting Lysandered, though they hold their nerve and put 1 wound onto Lysander and drag another terminator down. They only lose 3 marines due to the remaining assault terminator failing to hit. I chose to get out of that combat using combat tactics and run 8".

Crimson Fist turn 4

My Sgt and melta guy who survived Lysander are within 6" of the Dread so run 8" more (now 10" away from the board edge).

I start off by moving my MM speeders 12" towards his remaining 2 tacical marines closest to his objective. I move all marines from my objective camping unit up to the top floor (there were 2 on the 1st floor, 3 on the 2nd).

My typhoons move closer to Lysander, my dread moves close to his Librarian. My Librarian splits off from the Sternguard and walks up to the landraider, the sternguard move across to shoot at Lysander. My walking Tacticals stop as they have LOS on the dreadnought and my Rhino with MM and plasma moves up slightly to be within shooting distance of both the Raider should it move next turn and the Dreadnought should it move.

Shooting starts with my Thunderfire killing both the tacticals closest to the objective, much to his shock (he actually failed all 4 saves). My Dreadnought didnt kill any of the librarians posse with shooting (though with a lucky move through cover I would be able to charge them).

My Sternguard managed to kill neither Lysander or his remaining Assault Terminator buddy, the Typhoon was similarly innefectual. However my Librarian stole the show by casting Machine Curse on the Land Raider and imobilise it.

My missile launcher missed the dreadnought as was expected.

My dread was not lucky enough ad was several inches short in its attempt to assault the Librarians squad.

Imperial Fist turn 5

Getting close to the end now, it is looking like a draw.

Lysander and his mates move towards my Sternguard with murderous intent. His east side combat squad mount up in his Razorback and they move 6" towards my speeders.

His tactical squad in the building manage to get to the 2nd floor, whilst his librarian and posse get up to the 1st. The other combat squad are stranded outside of the building due to previous poor run results and a poor move through cover (which actually saw them not even getting up to the building).

His busted razorback thinks about ramming my Dreadnought but thinks again and meerly moves up to it, blocking my movement around the building. His dreadnought closes to point blank range against my Typhoons.

Shooting sees 1 Typhoon speeder immobilised and therefore destroyed by the dread, a MM speeder was destroyed by the Razorback. My Imobilised and weapon destroyed Rhino was wrecked by a machine spirited Raider and the heavy bolter shells bounced harmlessly off my Librarians armour. Shooting from his 3 mand tactical fails to do any damage to my tactical on the room of my building.

Assault sees my Sternguard get assaulted, they take 5 casualties and fail to pimp slap back. They run about 10". Lysander and buddy moves towards my Librarian.

His dread assasults my Typhoon but fails to damage it.

Crimson Fist turn 5

My fist and melta combat marines are within 6" of an enemy so they decide enough is enough and run 12" off the board. However my Sternguard are far enough away so they regroup and move towards Lysander, ready for round 3.

I move my Techmarine up to the 3 man tactical, wanting to shoot and assault them to oblivion (more on this later). My Rifleman moves into the building and up a level to stand right infront of the Librarian and his boys. My typhoon moves 6" over the Dreadnought to get some nice rear armour shots. My MM speeder moves 18" onto the enemies objective.

Shooting sees Lysander being nuked by combined fire of my Multimelta/Plasmagun from the Rhino hatch, 4 marines from my Rhinoless tactical squad and my Sternguard survivors. Both the big man and his TH/SS partner in crime were taken down a notch.

My Typhoon only managed to wreck the lascannon of the Dreadnought and prevent it from shooting. My Techmarine managed to kill 2 of the 3 combat marines which were on the top of the building. My rifleman managed to kill a marine from the Librarians squad.

My librarian rolls 11 for his psychic test, failing to cast machine curse on the Dreadnought.

Time for assault, I charged in with my rifleman and was just about to pimp slap the remaining sgt from the combat squad however I thought I would check the rules for artillery pieces first. Upon reading the rulebook I felt immediately silly as the rules dont allow him to initiate assaults only defend against them (at this point he is 1" away from the offending model).

My rifleman does no damage and neither does the Librarians squad.

I roll for turn 6 (at this point I have won), we get a turn 6.

Imperial Fist turn 6

His sgt moves to contest my objective. His Razorback moves 6" towards his objective (now about 9" away). His dreadnought turns around and faces off against my Typhoon.

The other combat squad continues its bad luck and is only able to get 3" into the building and then runs 1".

Shooting sees my Speeder save the only 1 damage roll that the razorbacks heavy bolter inflicts on it. My final storm bolter on a Rhino is destroyed by the machine spirited landraider (thats all of my Rhinos having lost their storm bolter now). The heavy bolter still does not manage to kill my Librarian.

His librarian manages to cast Might, regardless of my psychic hood (rolling a 1 never helps). However this doesnt change anything as he fails to inflict any damage again however I manage to kill a marine, still he passes his LD check of 10 so we continue the pointless slog.

His dreadnought manages to kill my Typhoon in CC.

Crimson Fist turn 6

Basically the only things that need to be said about this turn are the following:

My MM landspeeder destroys the Razorback
My MM and Plasmagun from the Rhino kill the dreadnought
My Librarian fails to cast machine curse again (11 again!)
I fail to kill the sgt with, plasma pistol (rolled a 1 to wound), flamer, 4 rapid firing bolters, 2 krak missiles!!!!!
No damage in the Dread assault

Opponent rolls a 2 and the game ends in a draw.

My thoughts

I didnt deploy very sensibly, the Librarians flank attack deserved at least 1 tactical squad in a Rhino to counter it. I deployed far more than I should have on the East flank and I should probably have concentrated deployment in the centre and the West to deny his flank.

Generally I think my game went well from that point though, most of his moves were successfully countered and I think I played rather smartly if a little reckless. I think a big push in the centre and a counter push on the West flank would have seen me victorious as I dont believe he would have been able to stop me from overloading his objective and get enough units to be able to assault mine.

I was definitely gifted with him placing his objective relatively in the open and placing minimal units near to it. If he had played more defensively I would not have been able to take him, but then again it would probably have been a draw that way or a win to me if I had contested and he had not.

Still you live and learn. Hopefully this is enjoyable to read (I have recently found a formatting thread and am trying to use some of the formatting tools to make these a little easier to read.)

Wan

[greatcrusade08]

Those thunderfires make a huge difference dont they.. my best result was to target a disembarked CSM squad from a wrecked rhino.. i killed 7 in one go!

 

Now im playing two, im hoping horde armies will fall beneath me ;)