1000pt Khorne CSM Army versus IG Tank Horde

[Warsmith Aznable]

OK, last week I posted an experiment in my personal battle reporting. I think I have the method down and this one went faster and is more complete than the last one. This game was technically a "tactical draw", but it was entirely because my opponent had to leave and there was no way he could either kill my Terminators or run his Guard to the empty objective. I was doing something wrong, and one more round and he'd have been able to simply walk onto his second objective and I couldn't have stopped him, and it would have been at least 1-2 his favor no matter what. It was still a learning experience and it was still fun, I just have to figure out where I'm going wrong...

 

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The warband of Jarl-Captain Bolverk and the 55th Cerberan Armored Guard clashed in deadly combat again today. The battle this day was to deny the enemy valuable assets while waiting for reinforcements from the Fleet, who were engaged with the Imperial Navy further out in the system. The two combatants arrayed against one another in spearhead formation, fighting for three strategic points amidst the bombed out ruins of an outlaying settlement. The 4th Wælheim Free Company brought the 4th & 8th Assault Squads (8 Berzerkers, Champion w/PF&MB), The Jarl’s Comitatus (6 Terminators, 4PF, 1RAC, 1 PW), the 1oth Armor Squad’s Defiler, and the Jarl himself accompanied 4th Assault Squad “Bone Eaters” carrying his Bloodfeeder Axe. The Imperials brought 4 Leman Russ tanks variants, a Company HQ squad, a Platoon HQ and 3 squads of Veteran Infantry. The Chaos Marines won the initiative and rushed to seize the first objective as they set up to receive the enemy, and the Guard came rumbling straight in to meet them.

 

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j91/montismo/CC002.jpg

The first round of combat saw the 55th attempt to seize the initiative from the 4th and fail. The Jarl ordered his Comitatus to lay their Reaper behind the boulders on the hill and surround the first objective to protect it. The 10th’s Defiler swung out to position itself to bring its battle cannon to bear, and the 4th and 8th squads rushed toward a second objective in their Rhinos. The 55th Armored split off into two thrusts, each supported by two tanks in squadron formation with the infantry out in front. A few shots were exchanged by both sides, with the 4th drawing first blood, albeit not much. Most of the firing this round was ineffective, though the Defiler was stunned by some heavy blows from the Guard tanks, which may well have been decisive.

 

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In the second round of combat the Teeth Grinders (4th Squad) and the Shield Biters (8th Squad) pushed forward in the Rhinos and debarked to screen the objective and manoeuvre into a position from which to assault. The Defiler crew were helpless from the hard hit they took the previous round and were taken out by the meltaguns of the advancing infantry. An assault on Rhino 108 was attempted by the Guard, which failed miserably. Some other shots were traded, the most significant result being the Teeth Grinders losing seven Berzerkers from a Demolisher strike.

 

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In the third round of combat things got interesting. Rhino 108 cleared a path through the Guard making a mad drive toward the enemy tanks. The Shield Biters followed in its wake, completely bypassing the confused Guardsmen who had been pushed out of the way. The 8th rounded on the 55th’s Platoon HQ and ground them to pieces with bolt pistol and chain-axe. Rhino 104 manoeuvred a bit and downed a Guardsman with its twin-linked bolters, right before the Teeth Grinders, or rather the Teeth Grinder’s Champion and Jarl Bolverk, charged into them and unleashed the bloodlust of Khorne upon them with a startling number of attacks due to the Jarl’s Daemon Weapon. The Shield Biters were still hacking the Platoon HQ to paste when the 55th dropped a barrage of revenge down, annihilating them. The Comitatus and the Guard traded shots, and one of the Jarl’s Thegns was among the casualties.

 

 

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Reaper’s-eye view of the 55th Cerberus Armored moving in on the middle objective.

 

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Jarl-Captain Bolverk and Huscarl-Leftenant Gapthrossnir of the 4th Assault Squad (Teeth Grinders), journeyed to Wælheim this round courtesy of an enormous ordnance round. They died doing what they loved: chasing the enemy across the battlefield. Rhino 104 moved into the woods at the objective in attempt to both deny it to the enemy and gain cover from the big guns on the tanks. It was not enough, unfortunately, and 104 was finally blown up.

 

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j91/montismo/CCcomitatus002.jpg

After four rounds of intense fighting the battle was unexpectedly ended. The 55th received word from the Naval Command that their fleet had been ordered to withdraw, so the battle would not be a decisive one this day. The Comitatus had held true to their oaths to the Jarl and were standing fast on their objective. The infantry of the 55th were dug in on the middle objective, and nobody was anywhere near the third objective except the remains of Huscarl-Leftenant Farmatyr and his crew scattered around the burnt out hulk of 104. It was decided that it was a tactical draw.

 

“The Thegn paused to watch as the Imperial lifter departed the battlefield as the Fleet’s transports came in low and fast. On the horizon the smoke glowed eerily with flashes as the orbital bombardment of the hive commenced. Whose bombs were falling on the city? It didn’t matter anymore, the entire system was doomed. Naval troopers from the transports were loading the fallen Astartes into stasis pods and thralls were scouring the wreck of the Defiler as fast as they could, overseen by an anxious tech-priest. The bombardment would be here in minutes, but they’d be gone. And then they would do it all over again in some other luckless system. Yes. The blood would flow again.”

[Rain]

Ok a couple things. First of all, defilers cannot be shaken or stunned and neither can any vehicle with demonic possession. Also your list is kind of odd. The 'zerks in rhinos are fine, but footslogging termies and a lord with bloodfeeder? That's just throwing points away, I would recommend instead taking another 'zerk squad and a winged daemon prince. Also, not sure what the defiler has but it would probably be best with 2x extra CC weapons and used as a shock attack kind of thing (remember it can fleet), I mean if you're playing an assault army, play an an assault army.

 

Also, never ever disembark infantry from a rhino when you have ordnance around without having an enemy within 8 inches for them to assault, that's just asking for trouble. Also, whenever you can, try to assault more than one guard squad with each 'zerk squad, you can do that. Oh and use your defiler to charge and destroy his tanks, don't sit there lobbing S8 plates at 6 point guardsmen with it.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Ok a couple things. First of all, defilers cannot be shaken or stunned and neither can any vehicle with demonic possession.

 

That's what I thought, but I couldn't find it in the codex when we were playing.

 

Also your list is kind of odd. The 'zerks in rhinos are fine, but footslogging termies and a lord with bloodfeeder? That's just throwing points away

 

The list was odd, I know. I'm not very good at building lists, and I was struggling with 1,000 points and what models I had on hand. I originally intended to deep strike the terminators behind the armor, but got sidetracked after mission selection and ended up camping them on the objective. It was the first objective game I played so I sort of didn't know how to handle it. The lord with bloodfeeder was the most effective unit in my list this game. I'm also just fond of him, and like the risk involved with playing him.

 

I would recommend instead taking another 'zerk squad and a winged daemon prince. Also, not sure what the defiler has but it would probably be best with 2x extra CC weapons and used as a shock attack kind of thing (remember it can fleet), I mean if you're playing an assault army, play an an assault army.

 

I didn't have any more berzerkers, and though I could have put some regular CSM in but had only the two Rhinos. I'm definitely going to put the second CC arm on the Defiler and play him more aggressively next time. The Daemon Prince I'm working on, as I'm completely sold on the idea of a DP with wings. I just need the money and time to model one I will be happy with. I'm also thinking of running another Defiler or maybe even three for a mad robot attack theme.

 

Also, never ever disembark infantry from a rhino when you have ordnance around without having an enemy within 8 inches for them to assault, that's just asking for trouble. Also, whenever you can, try to assault more than one guard squad with each 'zerk squad, you can do that. Oh and use your defiler to charge and destroy his tanks, don't sit there lobbing S8 plates at 6 point guardsmen with it.

 

The advice is much appreciated, and I will keep it in mind.

[caboosebe]

Did you use a special program to draw this? 'cause it's very nicelly done!

[Lamenter 40K]

Did you use a special program to draw this? 'cause it's very nicelly done!

 

Yeah, I'd like to know too. I really like your BatRep. I've looked at Battle Chronicler but I'm not super happy with the program, doesn't feel intuitive to me and I can't figure out how to add custom unit pictures to it.

 

Thanks man!

[Warsmith Aznable]

I answered the PM before I saw this post had been bumped, so I will reiterate my answer here.

 

I'm doing this the "hard" way: 1st I draw the basic map and terrain with a Micron marker and scan it into Photoshop and color it in. Second I add unit markers from a folder of them I've made, or create some for my opponent as I go. Each unit is its own layer, which makes it easy to move them around, reorient them and delete them as they get destroyed. I save the initial master file as a PSD, then rearrange each unit for the turn, saving each turn as a .jpg. Last I post them on the internet with long-winded reports full of game mechanics errors and bad tactical decisions for peer critique, hoping I will learn something...

 

If you wanted the name of a program that does all this stuff for you, I don't have one to give you. I've seen them for Windows OS, but I don't want to put Windows on my MacBook, and I'm already familiar with Photoshop, so I just do it like this. It's not actually hard, just time consuming. Which doesn't really bother me, because sometimes I just feel like doing this stuff.