CSM Mechanized versus IG Armor

[Warsmith Aznable]

I was playing my Chaos Marines with two ten man Tactical units in Rhinos, a Chaos Lord on Juggernaut w/Daemon Axe, two 3 man squads of Terminators and a group of Summoned Daemons. Daemons and one squad of Terminators in reserve.

 

My opponent was playing an armor heavy Imperial Guard unit, and from what I can remember he had a Demolisher variant Leman Russ, a Chimaera full of IG troopers, another squad of IG troopers supported by a Leman Russ variant with some kind of huge anti-personnel cannon and finished off with a Leman Russ variant with a huge long-range battle cannon on it (some Forge World thing).

 

We set the table up by taking turns placing terrain until we decided that the table couldn't reasonably take anymore. It ended up with a big hill right in the middle that had a two story ruined tower on it, a rustic cottage next to some woods in one quarter, some ruins and statues in the clockwise next quarter, a small hill with some woods and a large ruined building at the foot of the big hill in the next, and an open ruin in the last.

 

The mission the dice gave us was to capture and hold an enemy objective while defending your own. I was defending the small hill and my opponent was defending the small cottage on the far side of the big hill.

 

I deployed my first rhino full of troops near the small hill we were defending. My second rhino was on the other side of the small hill and its troops were disembarked in an echelon formation to its right side. My Chaos Lord and his retinue of Terminators were closer to the big hill.

 

My opponent's Chimaera and Demolisher were opposite my force on the table, but only the one Rhino was initially exposed to their view, the other units being behind this big building and some woods. His anti-personnel tank and second group of IG troopers were mobbed up near the cottage, while his big gun tank was all the way in the opposite corner from my troops.

 

What followed was the gun fight equivalent of two old people making love.

 

He starts off with his Chimaera full of fun and his Demolisher rolling toward my precious little hill. The Demolisher decides not to shoot at my Rhino full of CSM and instead shoots at the empty one, blowing off its twin-linked bolters. His only other move is to begin his big gun's ponderous movement to try and get line of sight on my troops.

 

My opening move is to send my HQ squad (the Chaos Lord and Terminators), running up our side of the hill. But they're painfully slow so it's going to take a while, though they always managed to stay JUST out of the los of that big cannon. The Rhino full of troops on the far side of my little hill rolls up as far as it can toward the Demolisher and disembarks its 10 man squad, who take cover behind and to the left of it. I have two Marines with rocket launchers with a shot on the Demolisher, but both fail to penetrate the front armor.

 

His second move is to blast the Rhino that just closed on it into a smoldering wreck with his Demolisher. He disembarked his IG troopers but they don't have anything to shoot at, so they sit tight and he's done.

 

My second turn sees my HQ squad still pounding up that damn hill and my reserves failing to arrive, the latter becoming a theme for the rest of the battle. My surviving Rhino decides that since he can't shoot anything the glorious thing to do is to ram the Demolisher. Even with an impressive running go nothing happens to either vehicle, which is anticlimactic to say the least. I mean I had a good 9" drive at him; the dice just betrayed me. My second squad of CSM behind their wreck of a Rhino have moved up and and assault the Demolisher, doing absolute jack to it. My first squad of CSM moves toward the big ruined building with the idea to occupy it and shoot at the IG on the other side, one CSM with a Plasma Gun managing to down a Guardsman through a door.

 

His third turn has him still moving that big gun on the far side of the table and still failing to get los for a shot. He repositions his troops by the cottage he's defending to give his tank a shot at my HQ force for when they come around the hill. His Demolisher backs up and drops a pile of hurt on the CSM trying to assault it, and between the Demolisher and the Chimaera I'm left with just my Aspiring Champion in 2cnd Squad. Not to worry, because he never liked the rest of his squad anyway. He embarks his IG troopers back on the Chimaera for some reason this turn as well.

 

My third turn and my Aspiring Champion from 2cnd squad is chasing his Demolisher down and banging his power weapon off of it to absolutely no effect. The Rhino from 1st Squad decides that if ramming a Demolisher isn't practical then he's going to try his luck at ramming the Chimaera. Again this accomplishes nothing, but the TC definitely feels better about himself. My HQ unit, not really knowing what to expect, begins rounding the hill to try and get within assault range of the troops the Guard has protecting the cottage. One of the terminators has a Reaper auto-cannon and takes a pot shot at the Chimaera, which frustratingly does nothing. Both reserve rolls frustrate me, and I'm still fighting without eight of my models.

 

In the fourth turn his Demolisher backs up again, and this time manages to blow away my Aspiring Champion. While he's happy about this I point out that one mad man with a sword chased his big bad tank 12" in reverse, which at least makes ME feel a little better about it. His Chimaera backs up trying to get away from the lunatic in the Rhino who is trying to run him over, but his Demolisher has now been chased behind a building and doesn't have a shot on it and the Chimaera is ineffective. However he now has my HQ unit in a vicious crossfire, and my Chaos Lord ends up with two wounds.

 

In my fourth turn I'm hurting bad. He's taken out an entire squad of CSM and their Rhino, and his crazy Gatling-gun tank has chewed all kinds of holes into my HQ squad. I decide that the only chance I'll have to get my HQ into combat is to move it out of the crossfire and into contact with the enemy troops my CSM squads have failed to neutralize, so I begin to move them in that direction utilizing the big hill to regain cover from the crazy gatling-tank-thing. The enraged Rhino driver backs up and gets another running go at the Chimaera's rear end, this time managing to wreck it and forcing his Guardsmen to disembark. I move my 1st Squad of CSM out of the building and into the woods next to it, sort of unsure of what my plan for them ought to be. My reserves have once again failed to materialize from the Warp, and I'm frustrated with how things are turning out. But I've managed to wreck his Chimaera in my movement phase, and now My Chaos Lord is within assault distance, so in he goes. He gallops right up to their line, and, in an action that perfectly expressed my own feelings toward the current situation, chopped his own head off in front of them, probably out of spite (and rolling a 1 on his Bloodfeeder Axe special rule).

 

The fifth round is upon us, and the die is rolled to see if the game ends. Lord, Hallelujah it does. The summary of the battle stands this way: I've lost an entire squad, none of my reserves bothered to show up and my Chaos Lord has committed seppuku out of shame. The TC of his Leman Russ will likely be executed by a Commissar for moving such a great distance in reverse, his Chimaera has been destroyed by an out of control Rhino playing bumper cars "for keeps", and his Forge World special long range gun has done nothing but move slowly back and forth, never once laying eyes on the enemy. Neither of us got within a foot of our objectives, so the game is technically a draw.

 

The Guardsmen hailed their Leman Russ Demolisher as their MVP, while Chaos acknowledged Fyrd-Sergeant Farmatyr and his stubborn desire to destroy something with nothing but the mass of his Rhino and the volume of his hatred. Honorable mention went to Jarl-Captain Bolverk's awesome cavalry charge/self decapitation for being both an honorable offering to the Blood God and hilariously unfortunate at the same time.

 

A good time was had by everyone.

 

Especially my lazy reserves who were back on the battle barge drinking shandies and watching tennis reruns.

[Kinzel]

^_^ Awesome read. At least you guys had fun lol. I say reward that Aspiring Champ with a PF or meltabomb for next time ;p

[Warsmith Aznable]

Powerfist and meltabombs are indeed on the agenda for next time. I'm new at this and still figuring out what works, but Powerfist seems to be the universal suggestion for Aspiring Champions. My friend (the only person I've been playing so far) was fielding Tau until last Saturday, and the Power Sword had worked well against his Battlesuits so I wasn't regretting it. Now he's traded a bunch of Flames of War models for this tank heavy Guard force and sent his Tau to the bench.

 

During my assaults I rolled pretty badly against his Demolisher and couldn't get my full squad onto it in time. I needed to get them closer but I just had a gut feeling telling me the next round would see that Rhino exploding. And he just kept backing up and shooting, and there wasn't anything I could do but stay committed to chasing him as long as I still had a Marine alive.

 

I think my overall plan was to blame for this non-win. He had his forces divided into three distinct parts, and I believe what I should have done is concentrate all of my forces on each part in turn rather than split my own smaller force. I had thought that 1st Squad could take out the Chimaera full of Guardsmen, 2cnd Squad could jump on the Demolisher and take it down in assault with grenades, and that my Chaos Lord with his Terminators could successfully close with his Guard defending the cottage and take them in CC, counting on my reserves to show up and make up for any casualties and turn the tide of the game. Which didn't happen.

 

Next time he fields his '55th Armored Regiment' I'm going to concentrate my fire and attempt to destroy his armor in detail, NOT split my forces. And the 4th Wælheim Free Company (Mechanized) now has an additional Predator tank that is being outfitted with lascannons to help in the hunt, along with a Land Raider that's been in the box for too long and is finally coming out to be assembled as well. That should help out with his armor spamming Guard, I think.