Chaplain Admetus' Battle Report Thread - Game 32 added

[Chaplain Admetus]

So, I got lucky yesterday and got in early enough and with enough people around to chain 3 1500 point games. Here's the first one, two more to follow:

Game 12

Mission: The Emperor's Will

Deployment: Vanguard Strike

After a bit of list tinkering, I ran with my favourite units plus a couple of test ones to see how they do

Tycho

7 Sternguard, melta, fist, 3 combi-meltas, plasma gun, pod

Furioso, Heavy Flamer, Blood Talons, Pod

Sanguinary Priest with Jump Pack

2x 10 Man Assault Squad (1 fist, 1 hammer)

10 man Tactical Squad, fist, melta, ML, Rhino

5 Devastators with 4 ML

I'm up against an Eldar wraith army for this one:

Eldrad

Avatar

Wraithseer with D cannon (the forge world HQ wraithlord that doesn't take up an HQ slot... its actually quite cool in terms of model and rules, and pretty well balanced)

5 Pathfinders

10 Wraithguard with warlock

2 Wraithlords with funky stuff (scatter lasers, many shots)

3 strong war-walker squadron (again, lots of shots)

I won the roll and elected to take the first turn. Tycho became a scoring unit, and the Wraithseer got a bonus VP for anything he squashed in a challenge.

Deployment. Tac combat squad on my objective in the trees, his is with the pathfinders in the forest at the far right, protected by a wraithlord. Devastators are in the ruins with the other half of the combat squad in the rhino, and the 2 assault squads are ready to make a push down the middle. Furioso, Sternguard with Tycho are in pods. The other wraithlord is on the left, followed by wraithseer, then the war walkers, eldrad and wraithguard in front of them. The devastators and hammer squad are angry. and its night time on turn 1.

Turn 1 - AS: The dread pod turns up hoping to flame the pathfinders, but it scatters quite far back. The rhino boosts as far as it can off round to the right, and both assault squads advance diagonally. The furioso is in a position where it can flame 3 pathfinders, and duly does, popping #4 with its meltagun. The storm bolter on the pod manages a hit which wounds, but the space elf ducks behind a tree. My missile launchers manage to glance a hull point off one of the war walkers.

Turn 1 - Eldar: The wraithlord comes out hoping to eat a dreadnought. The left flank full of Big Stuff advances, Eldrad spamming powers as it does. Wraithseer has a psychic power which gives the wraithguard feel no pain (as if they weren't hard enough to shift...). The scatter lasers (I think its scatter lasers? S6 guns) from the war walkers rake the side of the furioso - managing to score 6 glancing hits, and I only manage to save one of them with night-fighting. First blood to the Eldar. The wraithlords open fire and cut down 4 of the non-fearless assault squad, but they hold.

End of turn 1. As is traditional for this stage of the battle, George is already deader than disco...

Turn 2 - AS: The pod turns up right next to the first one, and Tycho and his sternguard bail out. Wraithlord will -hopefully- be dead by the end of the turn, giving me complete command of the Eldar objective. The priest assault squad move up to join them, whilst the depleted one heads back to try and help out at my objective. The rhino moves round to get a clear shot at the last pathfinder. Shooting, and the first thing I do is run the assault squad, to get the priest within FnP range of the sternguard. Plasma gun hits the wraithlord once, wounds, but it makes its invuln. Tycho fires his melta but misses :D , the regular melta hits and does a wound, and two combi melta's hit but fail to wound. Fortunately, special issue from the other guys is there to pick up the slack, getting all hits and wounds, and the wraithlord fails 3 saves and goes down. Missiles launched from the devastators and tactical marines bring down the injured war walker and take out a second, and the rhino + combat squad can't beat the pathfinder.

Turn 2 - Eldar: Xenos are angry. The wraithguard come barrelling forwards, and the wraithseer goes after my sternguard. I lose 3 of the devastators to ranged firepower, and the sternguard take a fair pounding from the wraithseer but Feel no Pain saves the worst of it.

End of turn 2.

Turn 3 - AS: The rhino advances and the combat squad leaps out next to the pathfinder, and Tycho moves out of the Sternguard and joins them. The rest of the sternguard move out to try and beat the wraithseer. My assault squad takes cover behind the forest as my reserve force, and the fearless one moves back to my deployment zone to try and intercept the wraithguard. The tactical marines can't get the pathfinder, but Tycho steps up to show them how its done, obliterating him with the cover-ignoring ammo.

Turn 3 - Eldar: Again, everything advances towards me. He deliberates over shooting or assaulting my assault squad with the wraithguard, but chooses to run them instead. The surviving wraithlord pounds on the tactical squad on my objective some more (they die at some point, but I can't remember when, and the trees block them in all my images), and the war walker and wraithseer put the hurt on the sternguard. Avatar runs forward some more.

End of turn 3.

Turn 4 - AS: Current thought process: If I can hold the wraithguard back from my objective, I'll win. If I can't, then I'll need to drop the wraithseer to counteract First Blood and tie. If I can't do either, or lose Tycho whilst taking down the wraithseer, I lose. With that in mind, I ready the assault squad to jump into the fray. There's no way I can beat the wraithguard, but because I'm fearless I can bog them down for long enough, I hope. The tactical marines consolidate the far objective, and the Sternguard move out and take a wound off the wraithseer. 1 down, 3 to go. The last missile launcher in the Devastators pops up, and a perfect shot downs the final war walker. Or at least, I think so...I've got a memory of killing all the war walkers, but there's still one left in the photo. Could be wrong. I charge the wraithguard, and Eldrad and the hammer sergeant end up in a challenge. Sadly, the sergeant bites it - was hoping I might keep him alive due to FnP and get a cheeky hammer kill, but that fails. I lose, but I'm fearless and stick around.

Turn 4 - Eldar: The wraithlord comes out, avatar charges down, wraithseer advances, the usual. Long range fire takes out my ML devastator, and the avatar meltas an assault marine in the face. His assault fails (he needed a 9, but after melta-ing a dude he now needs 10), and I get beaten down in combat - I just have the priest and 3 guys left.

End of turn 4. Wraithguard are still being held up

Turn 5 - AS: The devastator sergeant decides he wants in on the action, and goes to join in the fight. The sternguard rattle some more shots into the wraithseer, and take it down to his last wound. In combat, I lose drastically, but I have one assault marine left, and that's all I need.

Turn 5 - Eldar: They can't do much that impacts upon the game... I think the sternguard finally die, there might be one or two hiding behind the drop pod. The wraithguard finally finish off the last assault marine, but its too little, too late, as we roll for a 6th turn and the game ends.

Final Result: Angels Sanguine victory, 7 Victory Points to 2 (or 4 victory points to 2 if that Avatar's close enough to contest...I'd won either way so we never measured it). A tight game, but an enjoyable one - I think the Eldar suffered from an undefended objective, and I was able to sacrifice my assault marines to buy myself enough time to win the game. If it had gone on, I'd have tried to use my meltagun and Tycho up at the back to take the last wound off the seer, and use assault squad #2 to try and slow down the wraithguard, or contest the objective. One thing's for certain after this game though... the Furioso is definitely getting sacked. I should have held him back and tried to chew wraithguard with him, but got greedy. I can't use them well enough, so I'm better off not using them at all, I reckon.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Game 13

Mission: The Scouring

Deployment: Dawn of War

Brief change to the list - I dropped the furioso, and gained the points for a Baal and one extra Sternguard.

Playing against Daemons with several flying monstrous creatures - this should be interesting.

Bloodthirster

Lord of Change

Flying Daemon Prince with Tzeentchy shooty stuff

2 units of 3 flamers

2 units of 6 horrors

5 Screamers (might have been 6)

3 Bloodcrushers

I lost the roll and was forced to deploy first. Tycho and the 'thirster both got a bonus VP for everything they kill in a challenge.

Deployment. Combat squad in the ruins is angry, and they're on the 4 point objective. The Baal is outflanking, the 1 point objective is in the other ruin. Unsurprisingly, the Daemons choose not to try and sieze.

Turn 1 - AS: I advance everything towards objectives, Tycho and the Sternguard trying to deny one. I spread out because of flamery things.

Turn 1 - Daemons: He gets his favoured half, (BT, DP, 1 of flamers, screamers, and crushers), but everything scatters quite badly. The Bloodthirster mishaps and I shove him in the far corner. There's not really a lot he can shoot since it all landed out of range.

End of T1. Daemon Prince is just out of shot to the right. Screamers are behind the flamers, crushers are near the forest, and Bloodthirster is way out of it.

Turn 2 - AS: Baal turns up, but on the wrong side where it can't hit anything. I send the assault squad after the crushers. Shooting doesn't do a huge amount, I put some wounds on the bloodcrushers, and try and get the Daemon Prince - stupid thing counts as swooping though, so I can barely hit it, and it passes its grounding test. Sigh. At least one of my 3 hits wounds it. I make myself feel better in combat by binning the bloodcrushers.

Turn 2 - Daemons: Lord of Change and a unit of horrors turn up. Bloodthirster gets to swoop back into the fray. The flamers move down and make an absolute mess of the sternguard, with the Daemon prince wading in into combat. I challenge to slow him down. The lord of change's breath attack and the screamers being...well, screamers murders the assault squad.

Turn 3 - AS: I advance the Baal, and the devastators put every weapon they have into the screamers - its enough to kill them, thanks to the damage inflicted earlier by the assault squad. The Baal can't hit anything from where it is, so speeds forward. Should have done that last turn. Tycho and the last few sternguard break from combat.

Turn 3 - Daemons: The remaining units turn up. The flamers massacre the devastators and the combat squad, and the daemon prince flies over to where he'll be useful. The other flamers kill all of the sternguard, leaving Tycho on his own. Fortunately, the lord of change can't quite crack the Baal, only getting a glancing hit.

Turn 4 - AS: I put my remaining bullets from the Baal and tactical marines into gunning down a horrors unit. That's pretty much all I can do with what little I have left.

Turn 4 - Daemons: The daemon prince goes chasing after the assault squad trying to hold an objective and remain unnoticed. The flamers and bloodthirster gang up on and destroy Tycho, whilst the lord of change rips open the Baal.

End of turn 4 - I have pretty much nothing left at this point. Turn 5 consists of the assault squad getting clobbered by a pair of greater Daemons, and I've lost no matter what - I have about 4 models left, so concede as if it ends now I lose on objectives, if it goes to 6 I'm getting tabled.

Daemons are...well...nasty. Flying things I just can't put down because I can't hit the damn things, and even when I do they're too tough to wound. Flamers are my new most hated unit, as they turn up and destroy a unit and there's absolutely nothing I can do against it. Screamers will just turn up then turbo boost over something and do a silly amount of damage in the process, and both units consisting of multi-wound models is just annoying. Who's idea was it to give flamers a 12" move and an AP3 template, anyway? Stupid things. If anyone knows of a decent way to beat this sort of list then let me know, because I've got no clue how to fight it. I spread the objectives out, priorities scoring units where I could, and still didn't have a prayer.

[CitadelArmyGuy]

When you put the Bloodthirster in the back corner after he mishapped, you should have faced him away off the table. Swooping is only allowed a 90 degree pivot before swoop. So he would have to waste a turn Gliding to turn around to face the battle. You also would have been able to shoot at him the turn he glides too.

 

Also, I would not have reserved the Baal, but hindsight makes things easy to call. It was just a tough game mate... real tough matchup. Condolences.

 

Its strange to see he only had 2 units of 3 Flamers. Obviously I may not be putting you whole game into mind, with ranges and such and how things panned out, but I'd have figured you could shoot them with priority and make those things dead.

 

One thing that seemed odd was you seemed to 'go for the objectives' too early. You were sitting on all 5 objectives on Turn 2. That made you really predictable, and you had the mobility that you didn't need to do that. If you wait to go for the objectives, then your opponent has decide whether to come to you or go for the objectives himself. He has no decisions to make when both are the same location.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Yeah, I know it was a tough matchup, but its all good practice. The Bloodthirster facing was not something I'd considered though - that's the sort of tip I needed! I didn't think of that - would have kept him out of battle for a good bit longer. After I got first blood my plan was to just deny him objectives by killing his scoring stuff and try to win/tie like that, and I got close (got the screamers and half the horrors).

Game 14

Mission: Crusade

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

Final tinker to the list: Tycho out, Epistolary Librarian with Jump Pack in. Just feels so much better in my list.

Facing off against Vanilla Marines:

Vulkan

Librarian in TDA with Storm Shield

7 TH/SS terminators

10 man tactical squad in a rhino (melta, multi-melta, combi-melta, power lance)

10 man tactical squad in a pod (melta, multi-melta, combi-melta, power fist)

3x Multi-Melta attack bikes

Techmarine with Thunderfire cannon (this fails completely throughout the entire game)

Storm Talon, twin-linked assault cannon, missile thingie.

We'd tinkered with his 1750 list in prep for Throne of Skulls (so basically the same thing I'm doing), and figured the easiest way was to drop a Vindicator and 3 terminators (10 assault terms is overkill) to get the above.

My librarian rolled up prescience and perfect timing, whilst the SM librarian swapped Null Zone and Gate for the primaris powers in pyromancy and telepathy. 4 objectives were placed, and I won the roll and elected to take first turn.

Deployment. The SM rhino is behind those trees in the middle, Vulkan is solo behind the rhino (an error IMO, should probably have been in the drop pod), the 3 attack bikes are further back, and there's a techie in those ruins, just out of shot. Talon, pod squad, and terms/libby in reserve. The other big deployment mistake on his part was placing the final objective in the tank traps, as not only are 3 now clustered at one end of the table, I've pinched that end of the table, and he's now going to have to wade through 20 assault marines with Feel No Pain to get at them. The combat squad in the rhino got red thirst. Devs are in the forest, and the other half of the tacticals are sitting with a missile launcher on the far left objective.

Turn 1 - AS: The pod comes down between the forest and the rhino, and the sternguard bail out. The assault squads and rhino advance. I toy with the idea of trying to melta Vulkan, but decide that the attack bikes are the better target. Unfortunately my bullets disagree - I wound once with a melta, the plasma doesn't hit with one and fails to wound with another, and he makes all his saves from the poisoned ammo (figured it was better to wound on 2s with saves than 5s with no saves). The devastators open fire with the missiles and manage to explode the rhino for first blood, and as an added bonus kill 3 marines inside, and pin them in the wreckage.

Turn 1 - Marines: The pod appears near me. The guys inside choose to combat squad, all the meltas on one side, and 5 normal marines on the other. The silly amounts of melta slag my rhino and kill a guy inside, but they're fearless so no pinning for them. Vulkan heavy flamers my sternguard, but doesn't kill anyone. Melta from the attack bikes, and bolters from them and the tactical squad fare a lot better, however, and reduce me to the sergeant, regular melta, and one combi-melta.

End of turn 1. 1 rhino down each, but I've got the aggressive edge.

Turn 2 - AS: Baal turns up on the far side of the table, and looks to bring its firepower to bear on the attack bikes. Librarian gets prescience, and oth my assault squads advance, the one without the librarian towards the combat squad, the one with characters towards the no longer pinned tactical squad. The Baal manages to do some wounds to the attack bikes, and my missiles follow suit. By a quirk of wound allocation, there's 2 attack bikes left after the dust settles, both on 1 wound, as the originally wounded one was furthest away from the firepower. I fire my meltagun and combi melta at Vulkan, and in a twist of irony, bring him down - he only makes one invulnerable and that's not enough. In combat, I charge both sets of tactical squads - the sergeant from the combat squad is left as the sole survivor and holds (my combat squad waded in as well), and I wipe out the larger squad, and consolidate into the trees.

Turn 2 - Marines: The librarian and hammernators use the locator beacon to come in dead centre. Storm Talon flies on from the table edge and pumps the assault squad full of lead, taking a few casualties. The attack bikes manage to glance the Baal and charge it, but only succeed in inflicting a second glancing hit. The tactical squad on the other side charges the sternguard, and wipes me down to the sergeant, but he holds. My assault squad manages to kill the lone sergeant in the only other combat.

End of turn 2. The marines haven't held up well to the lightning strike of assault marines, and only have 3 or 4 scoring models left

Turn 3 - AS: Librarian gets prescience. The Baal extricates itself from the attack bikes and seeks to have a go at the talon. My two tactical marines decide to let the red thirst grip them and charge in to help out the sternguard. Then I have to decide what to do with the terminators... the safe way is to splinter off in two separate directions, and then come back later. He can't chase both squads and try and contest all the objectives with just one unit - I can run now and hit the objectives later on once he's committed elsewhere. So, naturally, I do the Blood Angels thing and charge both squads into them. Blood for the Blood God Sanguinus! My missiles and the Baal hose the Storm Talon, but I can only land one hit on the blasted thing and it doesn't do anything. In combat, the foot marines finish off the tactical squad (I can no longer lose without being tabled...I have first blood and warlord, the best he can do now is Warlord and linebreaker, whilst denying me linebreaker and all the objectives). Despite scoring 12 wounding hits on the terminators from hammer of wrath, he passes all his saves... Regular attacks, however, are a different story, and I cleave through several. The librarians end up in a challenge, and we have a guy with an AP3 sword hitting a 2+ save, and a guy with an AP4 staff hitting someone in power armour. This is going to be a long day at the office... I win combat but the terminators hold.

Turn 3 - Marines: Talon blasts forwards. The m-m attack bikes go after the Baal, and kill it this time. The thunderfire shoots at the sternguard sergeant who's close by, but can't get him. Storm talon shoots the tactical squad, but I make my saves. In combat, the challenge is again a bust, but I get rid of all the terminators bar the sergeant. At this point I have 6 from the hammer squad, and 3 from the fist squad still alive.

End of turn 3

Turn 4 - AS:

Time to deal with those bikes. Missiles head in that direction, and finish the job. My sternguard sergeant and the last two tactical marines chase the techmarine, wounding the thunderfire cannon with the meltagun. In combat, they kill him (but the tactical squad dies in the process), and the sergeant climbs to the top of the ruins in a gratuitous act of "because I can". I finish the terminator sergeant, and the challenge continues.

Turn 4 - Marines: Talon comes towards me. Swivels its guns backwards, and kills 3 of the combat squad, and the remaining 2 guys fall back. The drop pod shoots my sergeant, scores two hits and two wounds, but fortunately this is one of those games where he's decided he just doesn't want to die. I sneak a wound through the librarian's terminator armour, but he passes his deny the witch save when I try and force weapon him.

End of T4. Talon's the only thing left, pretty much.

Turn 5 - AS: The sergeant climbs off the roof and hides. Devastators try to kill the storm talon, but can't hit it. My tactical marines rally and reclaim the objective. Combat - nothing

Turn 5 - Marines: The storm talon strafes those last two marines. My thunder hammer sergeant finally manages to get the glorious intervention he's been trying for several turns and jumps in, hammering the librarian to the floor (and no doubt with a look of contempt at my librarian in the process).

Turn 6: I still can't hit the storm talon, apparently. So instead, I settle for taking an objective with the librarian's squad, whilst the power fist goes and breaks the drop pod out of sheer spite. The talon can't kill many assault marines, and the game comes to a close.

Game over - Angels Sanguine victory, 6 Victory Points to 0

Thoughts: I like this list. I've tried variants, and little tweaks, but this is what I keep coming back to. I might shave things here and there to try and get some shiny toys into the assault squads, -maybe- go the whole hog and swap that tactical squad for another assault squad, but this is almost certainly what I'm going to take to Throne of Skulls in some form or another. Its fun to play, and quite balanced. On the game: I don't like fliers...just can't hit the damn things. I got a bit lucky in that my opponent was unprepared for a shock rush of assault marines, and that failed pinning test leaving the tactical squad stranded was killer.

Three big mistakes from him though... 1: objectives. They need to be more spread out... bunching them up only played into my hands. 2: Combat squadding the tacticals when they came out of the pod. 5 tactical marines are not going to stand up to being hit by 10 assault marines - keeping them together would have stood a chance, especially if Vulkan had been in there. And 3: Swapping the powers on his librarian. His listed powers were Gate and Null Zone. He got psychic shriek off precisely once and it didn't roll high enough, whereas if he'd kept gate he could have got those terminators out of combat and somewhere where they could have done some real damage. We went over this afterwards so hopefully we've both learned things from it, and might get a re-match soon to see how things pan out.

That's all for now - I might get another game or two over the weekend, and I have a game against likely mono-Tzeentch daemons lined up for next Thursday, so bring on the Space Chicken!

[Rottimus]

Thanks for the battlereports. Really great to see other people's takes on various armies and tactics. keep it up!

 

also, Is that Irn Bru I spy on the table!? ARGH how I miss this nectar of the gods (used to live in Scotland)

[Knaru]

I sneak a wound through the librarian's terminator armour, but he passes his deny the witch save when I try and force weapon him.

 

As an FYI, according to BGB pg 37, Deny the Witch cannot be taken against Force weapons.

[Chaplain Admetus]

@ Knaru - huh. Totally missed that - that's handy to know. I'm beginning to wonder whether it might be worth kitting the librarian out with a force axe after that slap-fight, as it was effectively who fails their save first.

 

@ Rottimus - yep, nectar of the gods aplenty! <_< . I'm so used to it being on the tabletop by now I don't even notice. Might take a couple of bottles down to Throne of Skulls with me just to make it feel like home :rolleyes:

[Midnightmare]

Great thread Admetus :lol: nice to see how people are getting along in the 6th. How are you findin Tycho? I have been considering using him with some combi melta Sternies in a pod for some 'anti' anti air on the first turn, to help my Raven(s!) when they arrive. I usually run with Mephy and have a hard time dropping him he is a tough warlord point, but Tycho seems fairly durable and good in challenges with his DMH.

[Chaplain Admetus]

@ Midnight Runner: Thanks :lol:. You can expect to see more games with a very similar list as the ToS gets ever closer, its mostly just refining now and tweaking the finer points. Tycho has been very hit and miss. On one hand, he's solid, Dead Man's Hand is decent, and he's a relatively survivable warlord. However, he just doesn't fit my list very well, the Epistolary librarian gels better with everything else and costs the same points. I'm considering scrapping the Epistolary upgrade though, and using the spare points to add special weapons to the assault squads (meltas and flamers).

[Remtek]

Who's idea was it to give flamers a 12" move and an AP3 template, anyway? Stupid things.

 

They actually auto wound/glance everything on a 4+ no cover or armor save ;) And screamers.. ap2 that strike on initiative 4, the horror!

 

Great batrep's as always. You really keep them short but detailed and well written.

[Arryn]

Gday mate just want to say thanks for making the effort to post your batreps for us all to enjoy! Appreciated! ;)

[Morticon]

when we getting our vassal game in? :o

[Chaplain Admetus]

when we getting our vassal game in? ;)

 

I was beginning to wonder if my reply to your PM had made it...guess that answers that question! As regards a vassal game, as soon as I can get the blasted thing to work properly... I have it downloaded, but can't make it behave itself ;). I'll let you know as soon as I do get it up and running fully though.

 

In other news, got a quick game recap from yesterday - didn't manage to get pictures of this one, but it was against a balanced Necron list. 10 warriors in ghost ark, 15 warriors on foot, big unit of immortals (that did nothing all game), 5 tomb blades, 3 heavy destroyers, monolith, overlord with warscythe on the Necron chariot, royal court consisting of 5 crypteks with varying bits of wargear. Only bits of relevant terrain are ruins in the near left and far right, with rocks in the near right and centre; other pieces didn't come into it. Crusade; 4 objectives.

 

Highlights included wiping the 15 man warrior squad (or 13 men, killed two in an explosion on turn 1 and they didn't come back) completely in turn 2 by turning every gun I had on them; the monolith backing 1" away from my two powerfists that assaulted it so I wouldn't get to hit it for free in my next assault phase then promptly rolling a 1 for the portal of exile's range; meltagun slagging said monolith the following turn because he was hacked off after two editions of not getting the extra dice and now he can; and the tomb blades nearly winning him the game after kicking me off two of the 3 objectives I held over turns 5 and 6 leaving us with 1 each, but I had more secondary objectives. Lowlights: librarian getting good powers (the -1 strength and toughness from biomancy) and not being able to use them; the sternguard being locked in combat with the overlord for about 4 turns because the powerfist and warscythe couldn't hit; and the monolith being generally fail at everything after it wiped out 6 assault marines with one shot on the turn it arrived. Ended up squeezing it out 6 VPs to 4, but it was a nice and close game. The librarian's Epistolary upgrade is definitely on the chopping block, I've got some assault marines with meltaguns coming in to replace them (thank you eBay :o ) and probably some flamers as well. I think I need more high strength, low AP shots for dealing with Monstrous Creatures and terminators though... maybe a plasma cannon or two?

[Chaplain Admetus]

Two games today. The first one (and just an in-brief, since no photos) was against an Eldar Corsair list (the forge world one) - 2 of those horrible tanks with AP2 flamers that get placed 6" from the gun, 3 falcons with 5 guys in each, prince, 3 flying or fast war walkers, and 3 of the things with two bright lances. Thought I was going to get owned badly, but turns out it has one big, glaring weak spot - we rolled The Relic as the mission. I compounded the frustration by stealing the initiative, sternguard-ing one of the evil template tanks on turn 1, getting the second on turn two with a deep striking meltagun from an assault squad, and generally made a nuisance of myself. Dust settled on turn 6 with nobody with the relic (no scoring models on either side), both with slay the warlord, but I had first blood and linebreaker. Highlight of the game was the 50 point rhino... got immobilised on the first turn, and proceed to make a nuisance of itself for the rest of the game, rolling two hits followed by boxcars to drop a war walker, and then getting the last hull point off of the final one later on, before killing his final scoring model. World's luckiest storm bolter.

Anyway, the game that's getting the full battle report treatment:

Game 15

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire

Deployment: Dawn of War

I'm using what is now almost certain to be my Throne of Skulls list. Jump librarian, Priest with Jump Pack and power sword, 10 man assault squad with hammer and twin meltagun, 10 man assault squad with fist and twin flamer, 10 man tac squad with fist, melta, ML, rhino; 8 sternguard in a pod with fist, melta, plasma, 3 combi melta; Baal pred with t-l assault cannon and sponson heavy bolters, and 5 devs with 4 ML. Thats a few points short of 1500, so there's meltabombs chucked onto the characters until I can find something better to do.

My opponent's rolled up with a mono-Nurgle list - 2 squads of 11 plague marines both with plasma guns, power fists, and some other stuff on the champions. Chaos lord with power armour, mark of nurgle, fist, and some extras. 3 oblits in one unit, two oblits in another. Allied to this, a big unit of 20 plaguebearers, led by a herald of nurgle with the S2 attack that affects everything within 6". I've got an infinitesimal number advantage, so this is going to turn into a game of speed vs durability, helped by the fact that the entire other army is scoring. Chaos wins the roll and elects to deploy first.

Deployment. Excuse the few non-power armour minis - I just grabbed some of my Bretonnians to make for objectives. Warlord traits: he gets feel no pain within 3" of an objective (handy...). I have Night Attacker, which I use since I'm going second. From left to right on his side: 2 oblits, 11 plagues with the lord, 11 plagues without the lord, 3 oblits. For my side: 5 tacticals with ML on an objective (red thirst), 5 devastators on an objective, flamer assault squad with characters, and out of shot behind the trees is the rhino with the last 5 tactical marines. Librarian got the 2 shooty powers from Biomancy (smite, and I forget the name of other one, the AP2 S6 Assault 2 one). Baal, Sternguard, and Melta squad are in reserve, as are the daemons. I roll to seize the initiative, and get a 6.

Turn 1 - AS: The sternguard pod in near the left of my opponents lines. I reckon that the 2 strong obliterator squad is the easiest first blood point (can't be often that happens). The assault squad advances down the middle, using their run to get as far as possible whilst keeping the devastators within the feel no pain bubble. My other shooting doesn't amount to much, largely due to the darkness, but the 4 melta shots and the plasma from the sternguard are enough to drop both the obliterators, for 2 victory points (first blood and heavy support).

Turn 1 - Chaos: The big daemon unit turns up and lands slap bang in the middle of the table. The plague squad and oblits on the right slowly advance down, whilst the other squad seeks retribution. They shoot down half the sternguard, and prepare to assault, but the sternguard wisely fail their leadership and fall back out of assault range. The plasma gunner blows himself up in the process. The obliterators plasma cannon my assault squad, but thanks to night time, feel no pain, and a vicious scatter dice, I only lose two marines.

End of turn 1

Turn 2 - AS: Both my reserves turn up. The Baal comes in from the left flank, and the assault squad drops in near the obliterators and plague marines. The sternguard rally and move back to shoot some more plague marines, as the assault squad advances in support. The tacticals come out of their rhino to stake a claim on the far right objective. I put a lot of bullets (assault cannon and sternguard firing vengeance rounds since there's a priest nearby) into the plagues, but don't kill a huge amount, one or two. Both my meltas score hits on the obliterators, and a promptly roll snake eyes to wound. Uh-oh. In what's almost certainly a misjudged panic, I plough all my krak missiles into them to try and do the job the melta failed to do, and all this does is waste my shooting phase. In retrospect, I should have thinned out the plaguebearers with frag missiles or tried to pick off some more marines. In combat, I charge the assault squad into the plague marines, and a challenge ensues between the lord and my librarian (I take the gamble). I'm faster, but if he gets to swing back I'm down one warlord. Fortunately, I manage to sneak a wound past his invulnerable save, and force weapon him back to the warp for a warlord point. I win combat, but they're fearless and hold.

Turn 2 - Chaos: The daemons go to join the fight, with the herald's poison doing nothing. Plagues and oblits come after my fail of an assault squad, obliterators using t-l plasma guns, and cut my squad down to just the sergeant. In what is apparently a recurring theme, the plague marine with the plasma cannon on this side of the table ALSO blows himself up. The daemons charge into combat, and the obliterators charge the sergeant, who stood firm despite watching his squad evaporate around him. The power fists trade in the daemon vs assault squad combat in a challenge; I cut down more plague marines than he kills assault marines, but again, fearless. Hero of the hour is the hammer-wielding sergeant, who goes down but takes TWO of the obliterators with him. Any time is hammer time!

Bottom of turn 2. The last obliterator is hidden by the tree.

Turn 3 - AS: The Baal comes further in, to get some shots off at the plague marines. The sternguard hope to slink unnoticed into the background to claim a cheeky linebreaker point if necessary. I start playing sensibly and chuck missiles at the plague marines to start thinning them out. Meltagun in the tactical squad misses the obliterator... In combat, the slow grind continues, chipping away at the plague marines and ignoring the daemons. Problem is, this grind is only going to go one way.

Turn 3 - Chaos: The marines on the right continue to harass my right flank (if 5 marines and a rhino can be considered a 'flank'). One gets shot, but fortunately the obliterator fails its charge thanks to terrain. In the combat at the back, I lose by 3 and am reduced to my one-wound librarian. In an act of idiocy, he passes his morale test (rolls exactly 7) and stays in combat.

End of turn 3. Stubborn librarian has consigned himself to an early grave, and denied me a turn of shooting plaguebearers.

Turn 4 - AS: Since the plaguebearers are immune to shooting (thanks librarian...) I move the Baal down and continue piling shots into the plague marines from it and the krak missiles. Just bringing them down slowly. The tactical marines manage to finish off the obliterator, and there are only a few plague marines left to deal with. The librarian tries to buy himself another turn by challenging the herald, but the filthy (literally...it is nurgle after all...) ducks out and lets his minions club my warlord into the ground.

Turn 4 - Chaos: The daemons come down and go have a go at the Baal, whilst the remaining marines take on my combat squad. Thanks to my ranged firepower, its now a roughly equal contest in numerical terms. Their pistols don't do a huge amount as they're also planning a charge, but also fail due to terrain. Plaguebearers predictably spank the Baal due to sheer number of attacks.

End of turn 4.

Turn 5 -AS: Some light manoeuvring on the right, and all my firepower goes into the plague marines, and thanks to the krak missiles, I knock them all down. That's effectively game, as even if he can knock me off both other objectives, I'll be too far ahead thanks to first blood and an additional heavy support kill. We play it out anyway though...

Turn 5 - Daemons: They can only advance towards my devastators and hope. We roll for and get turn 6.

End of T5 - images for the image god

Turn 6 - AS: Frag missile time - I just start landing templates to thin out the horde. I cut down quite a few of them - if I'd been sensible, I'd have been taking them on earlier - 5+/5+ is a much easier proposition than 3+/5+. But I can't get them all, not enough missiles, so its time for the devastators to face the music...

Turn 6 - Chaos: The daemons charge. In a last act of defiance, the sergeant bellows out a challenge to the herald, but is cut down along with two devastators. The game comes to a close.

Final Score: Angels Sanguine have two objectives, all 3 secondaries, and 2 heavy support kills for a grand total of 11 VPs, Chaos have 2 secondaries and a heavy support kill, for a total of 3 VPs.

Fairly conclusive, despite some of my early efforts. I should not have tunnel-visioned on the oblits after the meltaguns both failed to wound - I tilted. Those krak missiles should certainly have gone somewhere else. Biomancy was a bit of a waste here as I never got a chance to use it; divination would have been better. I was hoping for literally any powers other than the ones I rolled so I could try and match the Nurgle on their own terms, but got the S6 Assault 2 AP2, and Haemorrhage, which promptly got swapped as its crap against an all T5 army. I'm enjoying the list - its got a good balance, not really spammy in any sense, and its good fun to play, all I could really want out of a list. All that's left is to finalise the powers on the librarian (currently running with Shield and Lance, but I've yet to use the BA powers in 6th to any great degree), maybe one or two tweaks (losing the plasma-sternguard and swapping the tactical squad's rhino for a razor is currently being toyed with), and we're ready to bring death to the enemies of the imperium!

[CitadelArmyGuy]

A lotta plasma deaths! Just like how you commented about how my Mephiston kept wounding himself. I sortof hate myself for this--- but I dug into it and found this thread over on Dakkadakka:

 

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/That%27s...nalysis_of_Dice

 

What do you think? A hoax or legitimate? Can you afford to take the chance? For me, I'm ditching my chessex dice as soon as my new dice arrive in the mail. Call me silly, but I don't care.

[John Rainbow]

I saw this study too. I don't think it's too much to worry about though. In the tests they roll each die independently of any others in their own separate containers. If you consider that this rarely happens in a game, I think the results might be different. Each die interacts strongly with other dice (you often shake your hand before rolling) and the surface of the board is often less than flat - gaming boards are generally textured or uneven

 

These (major) differences to the test are not accounted for in the results. I am inclined to believe that these extra factors would actually help to even out the probabilities back towards the 'ideal' or 'perfect' die result. As such, I wouldn't (and I didn't personally) buy any different dice, especially if you have a load of chessex ones already.

[Chaplain Admetus]

I've seen the dice study before. Its worth noting that the previous game vs the eldar list, he was mostly using a black GW dice brick, but some other dice that were lying around when he needed one or two extra shots. There was a translucent blue one that rolled 3 consecutive 1's, followed by a 3 then another 1.

 

For reference, I'm using a Chessex dice brick (you can see them in most of my batreps), green and silver with white pips. I got them because they stand out - its a lot easier to sort dice out after the game when you can say "mine are the 36 funky coloured dice, the rest are yours". I'll be swapping them out for 25 of the larger black/red gold ones within the next few weeks thanks to a brother on these very forums (mega shout-out to Evicerator and his group dice buy :D ) thanks to them being themed to match my army colours. I never need to roll more than 25 dice at a time now (assault squad with 2 specials and a special c-c weapon on the sergeant generates 25 regular attacks if it gets the charge at full strength). I've never found that my dice have a tendency towards rolling 1s - in fact, I'd probably say that the most common number I hit on a dice is 5 (as anyone who's ever played against my tomb kings will vehemently attest...)

 

Its also possible that the dice issue is something to do with the fact that all his GW/Chessex dice came from the same batch (likely in the case of GW, definitely for Chessex), and this incident might not be repeated over the course of several batches. Its also especially vulnerable to confirmation bias - you see a study that suggests dice are more likely to roll 1s, and then suddenly every 1 you roll tends to leap out at you unless its a 1 that you wanted, in which case its considered "expected"...

[Captain Idaho]

I haven't posted in your thread yet but I am enjoying reading the reports everytime. I see you are leaning towards the last list used against the Chaos filth to be the ToS list you will take? It's what prompted me to reply actually!

 

List seems good to me.

 

And yes, I too was happy to see all those exploded plasma guns on the Chaos Marine side. It's what they deserve for using fraudulent products. :yes:

[Chaplain Admetus]

Thanks Captain :lol:. Good to hear people are enjoying the reports. Yeah, barring some tweaks this'll be the list I use - its mostly down to the last little bit of point juggling here and there - basically wargear on sergeants, and whether or not I want that plasma gun sternguard; dropping him frees up 30 points I could spend elsewhere; might stick meltabombs on the librarian and not the priest, and buy 2 devastators just to pad the squad out as ablative wounds. But then, the plasma gun is really handy... tricky choice. Maybe a plasma cannon in the tactical squad instead of the ML, I just don't know! Are you going to ToS next month or missing this one out?

 

I'm considering the self-destructing plasma guns as a trade-off for my dud melta charges...all's fair in love, war, and the incompetence of the manufactorum :ermm:

 

+EDIT+ So, naturally, having said that, I'm contemplating a change :P. Baal and Rhino out (has the advantage of removing all my armour - the drop pod doesn't really count - and blanking anti-tank weapons). In go a quad-plasma cannon devastator squad in favour of the Baal (150 points instead of 145, but I have spare since I'm shoving meltabombs on sergeants to take up the last few points), and they form a firebase with the tacticals and the other devastators, and use the points gained from dropping the rhino to get a priest to babysit the lot. Opinions?

[Arryn]

Thanks Captain :tu:. Good to hear people are enjoying the reports. Yeah, barring some tweaks this'll be the list I use - its mostly down to the last little bit of point juggling here and there - basically wargear on sergeants, and whether or not I want that plasma gun sternguard; dropping him frees up 30 points I could spend elsewhere; might stick meltabombs on the librarian and not the priest, and buy 2 devastators just to pad the squad out as ablative wounds. But then, the plasma gun is really handy... tricky choice. Maybe a plasma cannon in the tactical squad instead of the ML, I just don't know! Are you going to ToS next month or missing this one out?

 

I'm considering the self-destructing plasma guns as a trade-off for my dud melta charges...all's fair in love, war, and the incompetence of the manufactorum ;)

 

+EDIT+ So, naturally, having said that, I'm contemplating a change :P. Baal and Rhino out (has the advantage of removing all my armour - the drop pod doesn't really count - and blanking anti-tank weapons). In go a quad-plasma cannon devastator squad in favour of the Baal (150 points instead of 145, but I have spare since I'm shoving meltabombs on sergeants to take up the last few points), and they form a firebase with the tacticals and the other devastators, and use the points gained from dropping the rhino to get a priest to babysit the lot. Opinions?

 

Thats certainly an interesting change (re: plas devs) while there's no doubt they'll be highly destructive they wont have the mobility that the Baal does... cant wait to see how they go in one of your quality batreps!!

[Chaplain Admetus]

Thanks for the props, Arryn! Hopefully the rest will live up to expectations

Game 16

Mission: The Emperor's Will

Deployment: Dawn of War

For this one I'm up against a Grey Knights army led by Castellan Crowe - my first time facing a purifier heavy list. If some of the models are familiar to any viewers, then here's why - they were featured on the GW blog a while back as some of the best painted ones from the school league - http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/wnt/blog...pid=3000044-gws

I can attest that the models are even nice in person than they look in the photos, and it extends across the rest of the army, a really great looking force as a whole.

The Grey Knight list from memory:

Crowe

2x 5 Purifiers in las/plas razorbacks, a pair of psycannons in each

Inquisitor with funky gear - Daemon blades? The thing that lets them roll for special abilities at the start of the game. He got furious charge, eternal warrior, feel no pain (I think), and possibly something else.

Large Strike Squad with a Daemon Hammer and 3 Halberds, some psycannons and an incinerator

Land Raider Redeemer (Strike Squad with inquisitor in here)

Rifleman Dreadnought

Purgation squad

My list is the same as before, only dropping the melta bomb from the librarian to swap the Baal for 5 plasma cannon devastators, and the tactical rhino for a second priest.

Deployment - I won the roll and elected to go first. Librarian has prescience and 4+ invulnerable power (spoiler alert: I needed this). From left to right: ML devs, flamer assault squad, plasma cannon devs (with 2 plasma pistols standing in until I can get the other 2 plasma cannons), tac squad with priest bunkered down on my own objective. Crowe is standing solo, the purgation squad are in the building under the objective, and the rest is self-explanatory. I've been cunning with the deployment - yes, the ML devs don't have a line of sight to his tanks, but by putting them there I've encouraged the razors to deploy on the right. Melta assaults are in reserve.

Turn 1 - AS: Part two of my ploy unfurls as the drop pod slams into the heart of his army, landing in front of the land raider, and between the buildings. Now his tanks can't come through together, and will have to squeeze through one at a time, exposing themselves to heavy weapons in the process. The librarian makes the assault squad invulnerable, and they advance. The devastators leg it out left to get into position across the diagonal length of the table, with good fire lanes now. In the shooting phase, my plasma cannons pick on Crowe in the absence of a better target. Most scatter horrendously, but one hits and takes a wound off. The snap-firing ML devs all miss, and the sternguard shoot the land raider with all 4 meltas. 2 hits nets me a glance and a penetrate, and I stun it. Had hoped for better...

Turn 1 - GK: First things first, the land raider shrugs off its stunned status thanks to the psychic power. It advances, and spits out the strike squad. Bye, Sternguard... The razors and dread advance a little, but not very much. His bullets bring down some assault marines and one plasma cannon armed devastator. The razors fire at the pod, but can only take off the storm bolter. The flamestorm cannon spits a gout of flame and kills all but 3 of the sternguard, who hold. The strike squad charges in, and Crowe attempts to charge the assault squad, but gets cut down by overwatch fire (5 hits from the flamers). Unsurprisingly, the Sternguard get mulched by the halberds.

End of turn 1. The land raider is still there... this displeases me...

Turn 2 - BA: The assault squad don't turn up, even with their re-roll. Oh well. The librarian casts the invulnerable save across the assault squad, and they advance to have a go at the strike squad. Nothing else moves. I put my plasma cannons into the strike squad and kill a decent number, as well as with the assault squad's flamers. My missiles immobilise the right hand razorback. I attempt to charge the strike squad, but roll snake eyes, leaving my assault squad stranded in the middle of the table.

Turn 2 - GK: The inquistor leads the remaining strike squad members round behind the drop pod, making room for the Land Raider to come through, though it needs a dangerous terrain test which it duly passes. The squad from the immobilised razor comes out and runs, taking up residence in the terrain. The land raider flamestorms the assault marines, but thankfully the invulnerable save and feel no pain negate some of the damage... the purgation squad fires as well, and the end result leaves me with the librarian, priest, sergeant, and a flamer. If it wasn't for the power, that squad would have been easily wiped by the raider. The remainder of his ranged firepower knocks over a tactical marine, and removes my plasma cannon devastators, leaving the sergeant.

End of turn 2

Turn 3 - AS: The assault squad deems this battle worthy of its attention, and shows up in front of the raider. Melta, round two. The librarian casts prescience on the assault squad, and they fly up to near his objective, hoping to crush either the purgation squad or the strike squad. In the absence of any friends, the devastator sergeant goes on the offensive and runs forwards. I open my shooting phase with my pair of meltaguns into the land raider, well within 6" range....snake eyes to hit. I really need to have a word with the manufactorum about these melta charges. My remaining bullets don't accomplish anything of note, so I take the only option left open to me before that Land Raider does a number on my army with the flamestorm cannons - I charge the librarian's unit into it. My priest's meltabomb misses, but gets it on the re-roll, penetrates, and takes off one flamestorm cannon. The powerfist misses with all 3, but gets one hit on the re-roll, and glances, taking off its last hull point. Phew. Thank the Emperor for prescience.... ;)

Turn 3 - GK: The strike squad move to charge my assault squad. The razor moves up (still full) as does the dread, and the purifiers move through the building. Shooting sees half of my melta assault squad gunned down, but the sergeant and a melta are still there. The strike squad charges, and my priest accepts a challenge from the inquisitor, and wins by 1 wound to 0. My librarian and hammer help flatten some guys - I take one wound on the librarian in return (the flamer got shot). I passed a LOT of feel no pain saves this turn, from both priests.

End of turn 3. I've had to change my plans on the fly, but things are beginning to look a little better for me.

Turn 4 - AS: I start by moving the assault squad up to behind the land raider, for the assault on his objective. I have to make a dangerous terrain test for one guy landing on the wrecked raider, but he passes. My devastator sergeant moves full tilt towards the razorback (method to my madness here). The tactical squad and devastator squad pile all their fire into the purifiers in the terrain and kill all five. I shoot one member of the purgation squad with a melta (he remembered to aim this one), and charge in - winning combat, but I hold. I fluff most of my attacks in the other combat (its at this point that I remember I forgot to recast prescience :P but manage to kill the last few strike squad members at the cost of my sergeant. The challenge does nothing.

Turn 4 - GK: The razorback is locked down by the devastator sergeant. It can't get round him without going way out left and into my devastators' fire lanes with no cover, and if it tank shocks him it'll have to move more than 6" to do so, meaning the squad can't get out afterwards. Beardy, I know, but I'm trying to get my tactical head on for Throne of Skulls. As a result, the squad disembarks and takes up residence where the old purifier squad lived. The dreadnought goes to join the fight. The immobilised razor misses with its las, and the plas overheats, taking off another hull point. The purifiers shoot my tactical squad, as do their razor, but I make all my saves (the priest is working overtime, as are the ruins). In combat, the priest finally kills the inquisitor, and the assault squad and purgation squad merely flail uselessly at each other. The dreadnought's wounds are dodged by armour/FnP (no DCCW), and the hammer disembowels it. (Can you disembowel a dreadnought? I think so).

End of turn 4. Just need to kill those purifiers, and I'm home and dry

Turn 5 - AS: I forget powers again, but I don't think I need them. The librarian and priest stay put in support of the assault squad. My tactical squad advances and lays down a torrent of fire, killing all but one purifier. The assault squad finish off the last marine and consolidate onto the enemy objective.

Turn 5 - GK: The last purifier goes for my sergeant in an act of defiance, but flubs his attacks in combat. At this point its pretty much over - we do play out the remaining two turns and I'm able to table him in those by assaulting the razorbacks.

End of turn 5, and effectively the game

Overall a good game; some shocking dice rolls from both sides at some points though. The early turns were a bit hairy due to complete and utter melta-fail, but I'm looking on this as a positive, as it forced me to adapt my tactics and find a way to deal with games where the melta-nuke isn't enough to get things done. Plasma devastators didn't get enough of a showing here, I'm going to give them at least one or two more games before I decide whether they get the nod over the Baal. If I'm being ultra-critical, my deployment could have been better - putting the ML devastators way out left did allow the Grey Knights to deny them a turn's shooting, but equally it caused them to castle up. I was able to turn that into a net positive by blocking vehicle lanes and creating an enormous chokepoint to take advantage of, but I still think I could have deployed my devastator squads better. I'm also going to make a point of firing the meltaguns at things FIRST. I very nearly fired the assault marines with librarian at the purgation squad, but decided to do the meltas first... if I'd done it the other way round, there's a very good chance I'd have lost this one. I wouldn't have been able to stop the Land Raider, my assault squad would have been complete toast, and I'd have had nothing to stop it from burning my tactical squad off the objective.

[Captain Idaho]

Thanks Captain :rolleyes:. Good to hear people are enjoying the reports. Yeah, barring some tweaks this'll be the list I use - its mostly down to the last little bit of point juggling here and there - basically wargear on sergeants, and whether or not I want that plasma gun sternguard; dropping him frees up 30 points I could spend elsewhere; might stick meltabombs on the librarian and not the priest, and buy 2 devastators just to pad the squad out as ablative wounds. But then, the plasma gun is really handy... tricky choice. Maybe a plasma cannon in the tactical squad instead of the ML, I just don't know! Are you going to ToS next month or missing this one out?

 

Yeah I always find myself juggling the wargear at the end though it rarely makes a difference.

 

I won't be attending ToS this year but next year is a different story! I'll be a good Ultramarine though and assimilate the tactical information you relay to us via your battle reports so I can bring the Emperor's Wrath to the enemies of mankind!

[CitadelArmyGuy]

... I've been cunning with the deployment - yes, the ML devs don't have a line of sight to his tanks, but by putting them there I've encouraged the razors to deploy on the right...

Awesome diversion there mate-- I love a predictable action-reaction. Good tactician-ship.

 

...I've had to change my plans on the fly, but things are beginning to look a little better for me...

Any good plan must be flexible. Sounds like you adapted and overcame, good on ya. If a plan has a single point of failure then it usually isn't a good plan.

 

...its at this point that I remember I forgot to recast prescience :devil: .......... I forget powers again, but I don't think I need them...

Don't forget to cast at the Tourny!!!!!

[Chaplain Admetus]

Thanks Captain :). Good to hear people are enjoying the reports. Yeah, barring some tweaks this'll be the list I use - its mostly down to the last little bit of point juggling here and there - basically wargear on sergeants, and whether or not I want that plasma gun sternguard; dropping him frees up 30 points I could spend elsewhere; might stick meltabombs on the librarian and not the priest, and buy 2 devastators just to pad the squad out as ablative wounds. But then, the plasma gun is really handy... tricky choice. Maybe a plasma cannon in the tactical squad instead of the ML, I just don't know! Are you going to ToS next month or missing this one out?

 

Yeah I always find myself juggling the wargear at the end though it rarely makes a difference.

 

I won't be attending ToS this year but next year is a different story! I'll be a good Ultramarine though and assimilate the tactical information you relay to us via your battle reports so I can bring the Emperor's Wrath to the enemies of mankind!

 

And also like a good Ultramarine you'll be leaving the proper battle to the Blood Angels whilst you're off messing around at the other end of the galaxy :)

 

@CAG - No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Though I can't help but notice that since I got the melta-armed assault marines I've managed precisely 1 hit that's gone on to wound or penetrate with them... I think I need to have words with the manufactorum. And yes, I won't forget to cast at the tourney - I think what happened here was I got overexcited. I wasn't expecting to have got off so lightly so I just launched straight into moving my units without thinking.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Not posted in this for so long it took me a while to find the thread. Clearly not playing enough games :P

I've come to the realisation that I won't have time to playtest the plasma cannon squad fully, and I think the rhino and Baal add more than the Devs and priest. So I'm reverting back - there'll just be a few tweaks now.

Game 17

Mission: The Relic

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

I'm up against Chaos this game - 3x 10 Chaos Space Marines, Termie lord with daemon weapon, 8 Posessed, Land Raider, Predator with Autocannon and heavy bolter sponsons + havoc launcher, rhino. One Chaos squad has 2 meltas, the other two have twin plasma. All with icons. Oh, and there's a winged Daemon Prince in there. Yaaaaaaaay..... [/sarcasm]. I won the roll off and elected to take the first turn, with just the flamer assault squad succumbing to the red thirst. Librarian got prescience and some other power he didn't use, DP took assail. Possessed got the scout trait and he elected to outflank them, and had the lord riding solo in the landy since he didn't want to stick the possessed in there.

Deployment. Note the shiny new dice of win being busted out for their inaugural battle :D. Reserves are my melta assault squad, pod, his DP, and possessed.

Turn 1 - AS: Pod turns up right in front of the land raider, and the Sternguard bail out. Melta time! Assault squad leaps forward and snags the relic, whilst the rhino shoves forwards. In my over-exuberance I realise I've just blocked by devastators' fire lane, so turbo forwards out the way. The devs open fire and rip off 2 hull points and the autocannon (thanks to the librarian casting prescience). The sternguard fire all 3 combis and the regular melta into the land raider - only score one hit, but it penetrates and explodes it for first blood. The Baal moves up and takes some pot shots at something, but is relatively ineffective.

Turn 1 - Chaos: Predator advances, as do the Chaos marines squad on the rhino. The chaos rhino moves back round behind those ruins that the other CSM squads in. Lord goes after the Sternguard, who get shot to bits. I lose a few assault marines to the predator, the CSM take a hull point off my rhino, and shooting followed by the lord munching removes the Sternguard.

Turn 2 - AS: The assault squad turns up, landing dangerously in the small patch of space between the CSM, lord, and predator. I play the BA way, and send the assault squad after his CSM squad near the rhino, which reverses and spits out a tactical squad. The Baal moves up and shoots at the lord, who's now down to one wound. Assault squad has a choice - pred or lord, each on effectively one 'wound' and chooses the lord, who gets turned to a pile of slag (not a good day for the Chaos lord... after this he went on to die to his own Daemon weapon vs Space Wolves, and then took a Tervigon to the face). The devastators are sadly unwilling to repeat their previous performance, and can't even glance the pred. Shooting and combat is more than enough to obliterate the CSM squad on the right flank, and I consolidate back towards the centre.

Turn 2 - Chaos: The DP swoops in from his table edge, and the possessed outflank behind my devastators. Predator advances and shoots some assault marines. The CSM squad in the ruins shoots my melta squad, killing several, and the rhino moves back into the fray.

Turn 3 - AS: My target priority goes completely south this turn. I move the Baal round, and the melta squad closes in on the predator. I melta the pred, and put almost everything else into the Daemon prince. Baal, rhino, drop pod, assault squad, tactical squad. I get the grand total of 3 hits, none wound, and I don't even ground the bugger. My devastators are unwilling to throw good shots after bad and frag the possessed, killing one. This might sting a little...

Turn 3 - Chaos: DP drops down and charges into the assault squad. Rhino spits out its squad, and the two CSM squads make short work of the remnants of my melta squad. Possessed charge the devastators. The DP issues a challenge, and I decline, my librarian getting sent to the back. The DP chews up several guys, but my priest rolls boxcars to wound with his power weapon and lops a wound off. My fist inflicts one more but its saved by the invuln. I lose, but am fearless and hold. The possessed try and kill the devastators but fail miserably.

End of turn 3. Somehow it hadn't occurred to me that killing the regular marines would be a sensible course of action...

Turn 4 - AS: The tactical squad moves up to join the combat, tagging the relic from the assault marines in the process. I send the rhino off on an intercept course, and the Baal moves to cut down some traitors, gunning down some of the chaos. My tactical squad joins the fight, and is enough to tip the difference - lots of S5 attacks coming the DPs way, with re-rolls to hit from prescience. This lops off two wounds, before the powerfist finishes the job - my assault squad now consists of librarian, priest, hammer and flamer. The possessed still can't kill my devastators, but they're stopping me from shooting.

Turn 4 - Chaos: he doesn't take my bait. The squads both advance and put down some fire into my tactical squad with the relic, killing three. The devs and possessed continue their slap-fight.

Turn 4 - Just got to leg it now. All I have to do is not drop the relic and I'm home and dry.

Turn 5 - AS: I move my tactical squad back and right (for linebreaker as well as getting far away), and throw the assault marines in as a speedbump. I flame a few and kill some more with shooting from the Baal, but fail my charge.

Turn 5 - Chaos: I can't remember the order, but there's a general advance in the direction of my tac squad. Shooting blows away 4, and I lose my two remaining assault marines. Fortunately, the tactical squad decides not to bottle it. The possessed FINALLY, after five rounds of combat, finish my devastators. We roll for turn 6, and the game continues.

End of turn 5. I may only have 3 scoring models out of my starting 30, but they've got the relic and are getting the hell out of dodge.

Turn 6 - AS: The librarian and priest take the smaller of the two squads to task, whilst the Baal shoots some more of the large squad. The tactical squad charges the rhino but only stuns it, I'm happy to use it as a shield though.

Turn 6 - Chaos: He moves round and lines up some pot shots on my final models... thanks to the hill, neither rhino blocks line of sight. Fortunately, all the bullets are only enough to put down one of my marines, and the Sergeant is still manfully clinging onto the relic as the game comes to a close.

I believe the technical definition is "pyrrhic victory"... yes, its a BA victory, but with only 2 tactical marines, a rhino, Baal, priest, librarian and drop pod on the table, I don't have much to claim it! This was quite brutal on both sides, with the Chaos only having a rhino, 5 possessed, and about 6 CSM left as well. I shouldn't have tunnel-visioned on the Daemon prince with that shooting phase - it was going to be in combat where I wanted it anyway, I should have spent my time making my shouts count. The possessed were an abject failure, but they did tie up my shooting with the devvies. The Sternguard I'm seriously considering trimming down - they turn up, slag a tank, then die horribly. If I cut the squad down to 5 (sergeant, melta, and 5 combis) I save almost a hundred points I could use elsewhere, though it does reduce their effectiveness against infantry...

Relic's a mission I'm very confident in. All 3 of my troops choices are capable of grabbing the relic on turn 1, and I'm sure I can protect it for the remainder of the game. I'm beginning to notice an unfortunate tendency to just fling my troops into the meat grinder haphazardly though - if I'd retreated on turn 2 I'd have had an easier time for sure, but that's not the Blood Angels way!