1500 pts - Tzeentchian Marines versus Ork Armored Mob

[Warsmith Aznable]

Last night we rode forth in service of Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways. How appropriate this was.

 

The last game I played my opponent put a group of Grey Knights that had absolutely no anti-armor into HTH with one of my Defilers. I merrily clobbered them, along with everything else he had, and there was no joy on Titan that evening. In this game I charged my TDA Sorcerer and Terminator retinue at a Mega Dread. Guess what I didn't have with me, in an irony filled re-enactment of the previous session?

 

So, crap. I'm stuck in HTH with a unit I can't kill.

 

Then the Orks get antsy. I was going for an objective, so he had a mob of Boyz there that the Mega Dread was in support of, who have a Mek with a force field. Well, I've got a Rhino full of Rubric Marines sitting close by who are tasked with shooting them all down and claiming the objective, but the force field is concerning me. Like I said, his Orks got antsy and charged into the mess that was my Terminators and Sorcerer ineffectually hanging off this Mega Dread.

 

Just... a little... closer.

 

He puts the force field generating dude within 6" of my Sorcerer, so I share with him the Gift of Chaos. It would have been nice if I had a Spawn model, but the force field is gone, at least.

 

But it didn't save my Sorcerer and his Terminators, who are beaten to death by the Mega Dread, taking my primary HQ out early in the game. BUT WAIT! Now my Land Raider has a clear shot at his Mega Dread, so twin-linked lascannon shots come flying in and wreck his monstrous walker thing. Things look like they're going my way again! I've got the Rubric Marines hiding in their Rhino who can finally get out and gun down the Boyz.

 

But he thinks he's clever, and charges those Boyz at the Rhino, blocking the rear hatch and the near side hatch while they bang away at the Rhino, stunning and then immobilizing it. So now I can get my Rubrics out but they won't be in LOS to fire, and will get charged in the next turn. Rubrics do not excel in HTH, so I wanted to avoid it if at all possible.

 

What to do? I tank shock my Land Raider into his Boyz, scattering them away from the rear hatch and giving my Rubrics room to dismount effectively. So they get out and lay some rapid fire pain into his Boyz, who fail their Morale test and run right off the board edge! It's starting to look like I'm going to be able to walk onto the objective and begin holding it.

 

But here comes another mob of Boyz and a squadron of Kans, supported by a Deff Dread sweeping around the other side of the building the objective is behind, pulled from hunting my Daemon Prince who had been holding the center of the board. I don't have the chance to get away from the Rhino before I'm thinned out by rocket fire and assaulted.

 

Well crap. But between the immobilized Rhino and the wrecked Mega Dread, he can only bring one Kan into base-to-base with me, and I managed to get my Aspiring Sorceress with the meltabombs facing them. So, good for me, at least.

 

This has all been happening on the right side of the table. On the left side of the table I have a squad of regular CSM desperately fending off a horde of Grot Tanks, Deff Dreads and Mega Dread with nothing but a single meltagun. They've got the support of squad of Obliterators, but every time I score a hit with melta or plasma of any flavor, I roll a 1 on penetration. The HTH with the Kans and the Rubrics doesn't break this run of luck, and in the first round I roll a 1 on my to-hit.

 

Down now to my Aspiring Sorceress and just a handful of Rubrics, I'm in another round of HTH with the Kan and the Boyz. The Changer of Ways swings luck back into my favor, and I explode the Kan with a Meltabomb and take out enough Boyz that they break and get cut down. My Land Raider, targeted by the incoming Deff Dread, backed up and took a lascannon shot at its side armor. No joy, and now the thing is charging at it, but at least it's drawn them away from my Rubrics and the objective.

 

In his turn the Weaver of Fate takes another dump on me. He beats my Land Raider before I can get off another shot or move out of the way, but I'm still not worried, because he has backed his Kans away from my Rubrics, having figured out that Rubrics walk really slow and all he has to do is layer them around his objective. I can still assault in with Meltabombs and edge near his objective with a couple lucky rolls, but that's not how things have been going.

 

On the other side of the board he had surrounded my objective with Grot Tanks and spammed flame templates all over the ruins my CSM were hiding in after finally taking down my Obliterators and Daemon Prince (who had flown over to brawl with a Deff Dread). The CSM had dispersed to minimize template coverage, and were holding on better than I expected. After a thousand flame template saves and a round of HTH that took out their Icon (sacrificed to get them out of base-to-base), I figured they could still hide from HTH in the ruins and keep making their easy saves versus the flamers to deny the objective, and I could still reasonably get my Rubrics into range of their objective.

 

But it's now the end of Turn 5. I could conceivably pull it off in one round with a consolidation move since his Kans are in a squadron (if I manage to blow it up instead of wrecking it). Outside chance, if any. Roll to end the game... 1.

 

Well, I didn't get tabled and he never completely took the objective, only contested it. So there is that.