Weekend Tourney Batrep 2

[trefenwyd]

Ok, on to the second battle:

 

The armies:

 

Mine (I'll list again for ease of reference if you're so inclined)

 

HQ:

Rune Priest, LL, MH, chooser

 

Troops:

8 GH, meltagun, MoTW, Standard, PW, Rhino

5 GH, flamer, MoTW, Standard PW, Razorback w/TLLC

5 GH, flamer, MoTW, Standard, PW, Razorback w/LC, TLPG

 

Elites:

10 Wolf Guard:

3 Combi-melta/powerfist, split off to join GH packs

2 Bolt pistol/ccw, split off to join LFs 1/2

1 TDA w/cyclone missile launcher to join LF 3

4 Combi-melta/bolt pistol in a drop pod

 

Heavy support:

6 LFs, 4 ML, 1 LC

6 LFs, 4 ML, 1 LC

6 LFs, 3 HB, 2 PC

 

His:

2 units of Khorne Beserkers in Rhinos w/havoc launchers, one unit led by Khârn

1 3-man unit of obliterators

2 Defilers armed with an array of weapons including the battle cannons

10 man terminator squad

 

 

The Game: One objective marker to be placed in each deployment zone - and this time, we're playing the long way on the table (but with 24" deployment zones). He puts his up against his board edge, making it effectively 48" away from me.

 

I roll for first turn and am immediately presented with a few issues on how to approach the game. I only have 3 scoring units, and his objective is so far away, that it's going to be hard to even get there - going flat out for 4 turns will do it, but that's not a good strategy. Also, I'm going to have 10 terminators showing up near my objective, so I'm going to need to leave a sizeable force to take care of them. In the end, I choose to leave my Rhino near my own objective, since it has my fuller GH squad, and I run each of the razors up different flanks with LFs supporting it all from cover.

 

He deployes his two defilers in his back corner, giving him max range with the battle cannon. One rhino/beserker squad squats on his objective while the other (with Khârn) deploys on my right flank. His obliterators deploy in cover near his center.

 

He fails to steal initiative and it's time for turn 1:

 

Turn 1:

Drop pod assault. My melta team is looking to make amends for only shaking the void raven game 1, so they plummet to the earth and exit 1" in front of a giant defiler. Apparently the sight was too stunning because of turning it into a rubble pile, the melta shots went awry and only ripped off his battle cannon and reaper autocannon. Minor victory, but the squad is now looking at one really pissed off giant spider-thingy. All three vehicles move 6", and it's time for shooting! My right-most razor manages to destroy the rhino carrying Khârn and his beserkers, and the plasma cannon squad causes one wound on the obliterators (silly over-heating weapons). My left-most razor destroys the battle cannon off of the 2nd defiler and all of a sudden I can breathe a little easier. I opt for a little Living Lightning against the rhino hiding on his objective, but the rhino survives unscathed. My other 2 LF squads either manage to miss the obliterators or cause a few wounds on the now-disembarked beserkers.

 

His turn 1: Much lamenting about how he can't win now because I took out his battle cannons. Here's to hoping he's right! Defiler #1 stares evily at the melta squad in front of him while defiler #2 advances 12" in an attempt to close to hand to hand and fires his reaper autocannon and immobilizes my leftmost razor (at least I think he moved 12" and fired - is that legal?). His beserker squad moves forward on my right flank. The obliterators open up on my plasma squad and manage one kill - the squad leader goes down in a blaze of glory. In close combat, defiler #1 rips apart 3 of my melta squad.

 

Turn 2: Still looking good for the wolves. Since my GHs spend all game riding along in a razor and never having any fun, they decide to get out and prepare to charge the beserkers in front of them on the right flank (here is where I need to explain that I was unaware that there was an IC (Khârn) in the squad; not going to go into whether that was my fault or my opponents, but it was what it was). I'm still waiting for the terms to show up, so my rhino stays put.

My immobilized razor gets his revenge in the shooting phase. "Oh yeah, I'll see your reaper autocannon and raise you a twin-linked lascannon" the gunner retorts as he blows a large hole through the center mass of the oncoming defiler. My plasma team does a much better time this go around, and after the combined plasma cannon and heavy bolter wounds are accounted for, there's not an obliterator left on the map. My missile squads target the beserkers and kill a few more, and the GHs fire their bolt pistols and charge into combat with Khârn and 4 marines. Needless to say, Khârn wipes most of the squad, I retaliate and manage to kill 3 marines before being wiped to a man. My lone melta-man withers under the assault of defiler #1 and joins his wolf brethen in the halls of the dead.

 

His turn 2: Time for reserve rolls, and his terms come in. Things looking bad for Chaos, he goes "no guts no glory" and plants the terms down right in the middle of of line . . . and then scatters on top of my rhino. Oops. At least he rolls a '6', so the squad get to try it again next turn. Khârn and his fellow marine head towards my now empty razor on the right flank while defiler #1 prepares to charge my drop pod. Beserker unit #2 continues to hunker down on his objective. In close combat, the defiles smashes my drop pod to bits while Khârn does the same to my razor, and then conveniently finds himself in a crater for the 4+ cover he's going to need come my turn (that got into a little argument, but I'll post that in the +OR+ forum).

 

Turn 3: No important movement to speak of as the wolves abandon all hope of contesting his objective and focus on forcing the draw and victory pt win. Everyone who can sets sights on Khârn and his marine minion, and after an entire round of shooting, both Chaos specimens are still alive! (Khârn now has two wounds, but is otherwise alive).

 

His turn 3: Khârn gives thanks to whatever chaos god was looking after him and rushes out of the crater to engage my leftmost Long Fang unit. The terminators again make their reserve roll and go "no guts no glory" again, this time scoring a direct hit. Nothing like 10 terms showing up 2" away from 3 of your units to make you go "plasma cannon, don't miss now"... The terminators open up with 2 heavy flamers and 6 twin-linked bolters on my plasma squad, killing more than half, but leaving my wolf guard termie, a heavy bolter, and a plasma cannon alive. Khârn charges into combat with my Long Fangs and promptly kills 5 of them. The wolf guard and squad leader allocate all attacks against Khârn and finally do in close combat what they couldn't do with their missiles - send the chaos denizen back to the gods that supported him. His last chaos marine kills my squad leader and it down to mano-a-mano with the wolf guard as he passes his ATSKNF saves.

 

My turn 4: things are starting to get a little hairy - I need to eliminate all 10 terms over the next two turns to preserve my draw. So, my rhino, rune priest, plasma squad (with 3 guys left), and leftmost LF squad (lascannon + 4 MLs) all open up on the terms. The plasma cannon scattered, but still managed to hit 2 models - all in all, 5 terminators die to the massed fire. My Rune Priest casts Murderous Hurricane, making it a little more difficult on them next turn. In close combat my wolf guard and his chaos marine are too amped up to focus properly and both miss horribly.

 

His turn 4: His terms move and then charge into my plasma squad (losing only 1 model of the 10 dangerous terrain tests he took). His 4 models wrecked havoc amongst my 3 man squad, and he then consolidated back onto my objective. Our lone WG/CSM battle again rages without a winner.

 

Turn 5: Now it gets serious. My rhino squad disembarks and prepares to charge the terms if necessary. In shooting, I unleash my melta, combi-melta, lascannon, 4 missiles and MH on the terms. Thankfully, they all perish. The side battle continues again without a winner. He concedes the battle at this point and I end up winning something like 14-7 based on victory points.

 

All in all, not a bad victory - about the best that could have been hoped for given the scenario rules and the deployment set up. Lesson learned: always know your opponent's rulebook, especially ICs (or at least ask some questions before the game starts, so you don't end up casting LL at Khârn and then listen to your opponenet explain that he is immune to psychic powers as he shrugs off the wounds). Also, 3 transport vehicles does not make for a "maneuverable" army" especially after one or more get immobilized/wrecked. It might be nice to add something that would have been able to at least contest his objective with some all out movement turns 4/5 (land speeder perhaps).

 

Stay tuned for Batrep 3 tomorrow - traitor wolves!

[Coverfire]

cool battle.

 

Khârn is immune to psychic powers, so that should make him an illegal target so he should have told you when you chose him.

- 1 for sportmanship but sounds like he was desperate

 

the other thing I noticed was when Khârn destroyed the razorback and went to a crater...

there is no consolidation move after attacking vehicles, so unless he annihilated the razorback

exploding it then he was wrong to do so.

 

other than that it sounds like some good choices in shooting priorities, followed but some good fortunes allowed you to force your opponent into some desperate tactical decisions regarding the use of his terminators.

[the jeske]

(at least I think he moved 12" and fired - is that legal?)

nope. he can fleet or shot.

[trefenwyd]

Actually, I fired at Khârn and his one CSM companion, so LL could have fried his little buddy, but since my intent was to kill Khârn with it, it would have been nice for my opponent to clue me in before I rolled rather than pulling the surprise "haha, no effect" (especially since I rolled a '1' and he put the wound on Khârn. That opponent just happened to be a VERY big stickler on the rules (claiming true LOS from a tree blocked firing view from one of my Long Fangs and since I'd already declared how I was splitting LF fire, that LF couldn't re-direct fire with the other group [i hadn't made any rolls yet, and we had always played the forests (that the LFs were in) as area terrain, using the 3 actual tree models on the felt as "representative" of the forest]). I just said 'ok' and then later, when he declard firing with plasmaguns with his obliterators, then realized that he only got one shot due to range (it was obviously much more than 12", he was just rusty on the rules), I encouraged him to re-declare with a different weapon and he then shot with plasma cannons (trying to encourage him to turn into more of a friendly game). oh well.

 

And yes, Khârn exploded the Razor, ending up in the resultant crater.

[the jeske]

I fired at Khârn and his one CSM companion

no cheating there from the chaos dude. the way the rule is worded , if at any moment the psychic power effects Khârn it does not work at all.

[trefenwyd]

I concur, no cheating occured, just saying that it wasn't very nice when playing with someone who doesn't know your dex very well. I'll remind folks that such and such squad has a wolf tooth talisman, granting them a 5+ psychic save, BEFORE he allocates his psychic attacks and rolls his tests (or let him re-declare). Games should be about list creation/army mechanics/tactics/random die rolling, not "AHA - I win because you do not have my dex memorized!" Just my opinion.

[nurglez]

aye, but different people will have different opinions on the matter. I know more about the rules then my friend's, and I also spend more time on forums, So I am also aware of more "tricks".

 

Like there was an issue with my friend, I destroyed his chimera and he placed his guys within range for me to charge as he assumed you couldn't charge a different target then you shot, When I brought this to his attention I then let him take it back so I couldn't charge them.

 

However, with other friends, If they keep making the same silly mistakes (like someone forgetting to charge his daemon prince) I sometimes refuse to let them take it back so they will learn not to do it again, A bit harsh but nothing helps remind you of your mistake then when it blows up in your face.