Storm Dragons 3rd Company Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Edit: I used Battle Chronicler to make some images of the battle. It's my first go with the program so some of the images are quite... crude and not to scale. I had to delete the movement arrows since apparently using them is a bit of an art. Each image is at the end of the turn (both his and mine). I put the images on my blog version. I forgot to take pictures until the end of the battle and then I didn't have any room to get far enough away to get the whole table in anyway. (I may see if I can use some software to diagram the battle and edit it in later on my blog where this is cross-posted.) This was part of some escalation league games, and I ended up playing a Blood Angels army with my loyalist marine army. Clearly he was some sort of rogue Blood Angels successor. I was surprised he told me he didn't expect to win since he had only Death Company and could not claim objectives. I told him that 50 percent of the games I've played have rolled up as Purge the Alien. We rolled the Emperor's Will. My warlord was master of defense while he got #6 on the command chart - I forget what it did but it seemed pretty good for a Blood Angel army. The terrain ended up being pretty dense with several ruins. In my DZ, I had a clear area on my left flanked by ruins about 6" to either side of it, while on my right I had two ruined buildings with multiple floors. In his DZ, on my left, he had two ruined buildings and a hillock, and on my right, he had the corner of a ruined building and a hill. In the center on my right was another ruin. My army was as follows: * Librarian in TDA w/ Storm Shield. Epistolary. Rolled Endurance, Smite, & Psychic Shriek. 190 points * Tactical Squad I (10 man) with plasmagun and multi-melta. 180 points * Tactical Squad IV (10 man) with plasmagun and missile launcher. 180 points * Dreadnought w/ multi-melta, storm bolter, DCCW. 120 points * Land Speeder Typhoon w/ heavy bolter. 90 points * Thunderfire Cannon. 100 points * Tactical Terminator Squad III (5 man) w/ chain fist and assault cannon. 235 points His army was as best I can describe it: * Chaplain * Chaplain Azreal * Large group (10+) of Death Company with jet packs * Large group (10+) of Death Company with jet packs * Death Company Dreadnought He placed his objective in the ruined building corner on my right. That way I could not even see it. I placed my in the open area on my left. I figured he was a fast army and a deep striking one and would have trouble getting to the objective. I wanted him to be out in the open surrounded by my shooting when he did. I forgot he said he could not claim objectives here and with my deployment. He got to choose whether he wanted first turn and decided to take it. He kept his named character and one of his Death Company in reserve. He deployed the other Death Company with attached chaplain on my left across from my objective and kind of behind a ruined building that I could see through. He deployed his dread further back and even further to my left. Looking at his deployment, it looked to me like he was going to be moving these deployed units towards my objective. Meanwhile he had nothing around his objective though he had a large group of Death Company in reserve. I assumed that depending on my deployment, he either planned to drop them on my objective as well, overloading that side or use them as cover for his objective if I got close. I squadded both tactical squads -- placing the plasmagunner and the sergeant in one half and the heavy weapon in the other. I first placed the thunderfire in the read center of my DZ so it had good fields of fire on his likely areas of advance, his deployed death company, and my objective. I deployed my terminators and dreadnought in the ruins to my extreme left (placing them about 6 inches to the left of my objective) and placing the half-squad with the multi-melta in the ruins about 6" to the right of my objective. I figured if he came for it, he'd eat fire from the tactical marines and have to deal with my best assault units, the terminators and the dread. On reflection, this was a mistake because it put my assault units on the edge of the board and not somewhere more central, but I had forgotten he had not ability to claim the objective. I placed the missile launcher half-squad in the ruins on the left side of my right DZ where they could get to his objective in 2 turns of running (probably), fire missiles at his deployed Death Company or my objective, and generally spread fire around the center of the board or move to cover my objective. I deployed my Land Speeder Typhoon in support of the missile launching half squad and the nearby thunderfire. On my right I deployed the two half-squads of sgt./plasamagunning marines to be able to advance on his objective. I hoped that if I advanced them forward, he would feel compelled to deploy his reserve Death Company reactively rather than proactively on my line. We forgot (derp!) to roll to steal the initiative. It was not nightfight. TURN 1: The Death Company and the dread moved and then ran hard for the center while my opponent explained he had screwed up by deploying to the side. He had no shots. I advanced my right flank non-heavy weapon squads forward and brought my own dreadnought and terminators moving towards the center by going in front of my objective. I also moved my land speeder 12" to my right to get a better view of the death company. I shot some missiles,the assault cannon, the heavy bolter, and the thunderfire at the death company and, by the time it was done, had killed about 3. TURN 2: He gets his reserve and then hits on its deep strike, putting it in my extreme right rear corner, behind the land speeder. He shoots at the speeder to no effect. (I remember there is a point for first blood and wonder if I should have fire at his dreadnought last turn.) He advances his original death company to about the dead middle of the board and takes some shots at one of the plasmagunning half squads, killing one guy. His dread advances and runs towards the center. I moved my land speeder 12" to the left and pivot it to face the new death company. I debate whether or not to have my two plasmagunning squads retreat towards his DZ and his objective or to move for firing positions. I opt for the latter. The terminators and the dreadnought move towards the center of the field and the original Death Company. In my shooting phase, I plan to shoot at the enemy dreadnought with mine and the assault cannon. I take the shot with my dread, hit, penetrate, and explode it (first blood). I then had to decide if I should shoot my terminators at the original death company or run towards them. I decide that I need to be in a position to assault them as soon as they assault one of my tactical units (probably the one they shot at since that is where they have been heading). So I run the terminators. The multi-melta half squad shoots at the original Death Company and, at most kills one. Everyone else shoots at the new arrivals. Between the 3 missiles, the thunderfire, 2 plasmaguns, and whatever bolters were in range I killed like 4 or so of these new guys. TURN 3: The Blood Angels surprise me when the original Death Company veers towards my terminators while the new one moves to be able to assault the now four man half squad. He consolidates back around the ruined building in my DZ far right to try to get some cover against the plasmagunner he did not yet kill. Enemy shooting kills no one. He successfully makes both assaults though I overwatched one of the original death company (and if I had gotten another, he would have failed his charge). I also got my counter-charge since the librarian was (just barely) still in my DZ. His assault on the four man half squad kills them all. His assault on the terminators kills four but he looses three Death Company. The librarian and the chaplain also square off with the librarian taking a wound. I make my leadership. On my turn, I calculate how far I can go and still stay in double rapid fire range of his new Death Company. I move the remaining plasmagunner as far towards the enemy objective as I can and still have a double shot on the new Death Company. I then move my Land Speeder into my right rear corner, lined up on the new death company, figuring that he might go after the half plasmagun squad and thus move away from the speeder or he will go for the speeder and move away from the half squad. I also move my dread up to charge range of the terminator/Death Company melee. Shooting this turn takes a nice chuck out of the new death company, killing all of them but the special character chaplain Warlord. The librarian casts endurance on himself. In the melee, the dread charges. The Death Company tries to grenade the dread, but fails. The dread and the remaining terminator kill three death company while the chaplain and my librarian do nothing to each other. I forget that Endurance means the librarian now had IWND from Endurance and forget to roll to try to get my wound back at the end of my turn. TURN 4: His lone chaplain moves towards my speeder and then shoots at it, glancing once. He then assaults it and destroys it. In the other melee, the Death Company kills the remaining terminator having given up on the dread. In return the dying terminator and the dread do for the last of the Death Company. The chaplain's attacks bounce off the librarian's TDA armor, but the librarian gets one through on the chaplain and the force weapon eliminates that guy. Dread and librarian consolidate towards the center of the board. On my turn, I calculate that if the plasmagunning half squad moves backwards as far as it can instad of worrying about rapid firing, then I will be out of the chaplain's assault range unless he rolls boxcars or maybe an 11. It's also time to get moving towards the enemy objective. So they move back towards it 6" and then run another 3". The dread moves through the center of the board to cut off the chaplain if he goes after the retreating half squad while the librarian drops down towards my back edge and the thunderfire in case the chaplain moves that way. Everyone who didn't move and had range (missile half squad and thunderfire) shoots at the chaplain but no wounds. TURN 5: The chaplain moves towards the retreating tactical squad, but, thanks to my run move, can't get to them even with a boxcar charge roll. He also has a pistol and cannot shoot either. On my turn, the multi-melta half squad moves to my left to claim my objective. The dread moves across the center into the right, straight towards the chaplain. The librarian hooks around a ruined building and starts moving towards the chaplain - if this game goes to a sixth turn, I should be able to get a smite on the guy. The retreating half squad with the plasmagunner falls back its maximum move and then runs toward the enemy objective. However, it rolls horribly on the run and cannot get within 3" this round. I begin shooting with the dreadnought's multi-melta at the chaplain. I hit, I wound, and he fails his save. Instant death and game over. REFLECTIONS: I can't help but think a major contributor to my win was my opponent's selection of forces and the fact that he never expected to win. Aside from that, my biggest error was deploying my terminators and dreadnought to my extreme left and not in the center. I spent most of the game running them right to try to get to the action. That said, for a change my dread was my most valuable unit, killing both the enemy dread and the final chaplain. I also finally got to use the force part of my force weapon which was kind of cool. The terminators failed to pull their weight really since they shot up very little. However, they did distract the original death company away from more fragile units and then took the onslaught from that charge (barely) so that is something. The thunderfire under-performed its normal brilliance, but it still killed a few guys,especially on turn 3, so I cannot complain. Going in, I was wishing I could have fielded a lascannon instead of the multi-melta, but I just didn't have the points (by 5), however that turned out to not matter. I still wish I had one though b/c one day someone will bring some armor and I'd like to deal with it at range. I also think my maneuvering was fairly good once I realized the deployment error I made. The choice to fall back with the half-tactical when I did was the right choice - it got the chaplain out in the open, moved him towards my dreadnought, and made sure he was not engaged in melee so I could shoot at him. As always, if anyone sees any glaring mistakes I made either with rules, army composition, or with tactics, please drop me a comment. Thanks for reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ming Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Great job! Interesting he had a list with no scoring units, and would need to eliminate your scoring units and get FB/WL/LB to win... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Dragons 3rd Company Posted December 3, 2012 Author Share Posted December 3, 2012 Great job! Interesting he had a list with no scoring units, and would need to eliminate your scoring units and get FB/WL/LB to win... Yeah, I thought so too. His list can only win through army destruction and, given how expensive the DC is and the resulting few number of units he had, that was going to be really tough. Even if he totally concentrated on my scoring units, the DC would have been so beaten up, it would have been difficult not to be tabled. I think maybe he just wanted to see what his DC could do. The above is one reason I squadded everything. The DC is quite capable of wiping out a ten man tactical squad, but by spreading them out and keeping them in support range, I assured that if he charged one, he would kill it, leaving him able to be fired at on my turn. His Dc was too good in that regard - he was going to kill the five man squads every time, and what he needed to do was kill most of them and mop up on my turn. If he could have done that, he would have not endured as much shooting. I also think he should not have split his forces. He could have used one DC blob to screen the other DC blob and kept them in supporting range of each other. He should have moved completely laterally with the original squad and then deep struck right next to his original squad. By moving towards me, he gave me a better angle to intercept with my dread and my termies. Had he moved to my right at his top speed for two turns before turning towards me, he could have focused aLL thouse DC on the four half squads of my tacticals. That would have killed them, probably before the termies and the dread could have run all the way across the board to get there. He also could have kept his dread either on my left to try to bait the termies or my dread from not going right OR parked it behind cover near his objective since it could contest me, if I got there. I think turning towards my terminators and assaulting them (lured perhaps by the fact they were my single most expensive unit?) instead of continuing on to the left was a huge mistake for him. He hurt them badly to be sure and, without the dread, the DC would have done them in (in fact with the dread, the DC still did them in), but they were my most expendable unit and the best suited to survive his charge. He could have left them in the dust, essentially nerfing my 265 (or whatever) points there, which would have made them as good as dead really (or making me wish I'd brought a third tactical squad and another bare bones land speeder). This also made sure that his forces could never act in mutual support of each other. But coming back to the original point, yes, his force list required him to fight a battle of annihilation against a numerically superior foe with 3+ armor saves against his weaponry. When they managed to assault, his guys put a hurting on, but it was not enough to make up for the shooting he had to absorb. Thanks for reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CitadelArmyGuy Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 * Librarian in TDA w/ Storm Shield. Epistolary. Rolled Endurance, Smite, & Psychic Shriek. 190 points... As always, if anyone sees any glaring mistakes I made either with rules, army composition, or with tactics, please drop me a comment. Thanks for reading. An standard Librarian gets two powers. An Epistolary also only gets two powers, but can cast them both. So you should have only rolled twice to gain rulebook powers unfortunately. As for tactics, you're absolutley right--- Units with only 24" weapons almost always need to deploy centrally and units with long range weapons can post-up on your flanks. So you should generally keep your Terminators and Dreadnought closer to your core. Units with fast movement can choose nearly wherever they'd like, which is why they're paying points for mobility of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Dragons 3rd Company Posted December 4, 2012 Author Share Posted December 4, 2012 * Librarian in TDA w/ Storm Shield. Epistolary. Rolled Endurance, Smite, & Psychic Shriek. 190 points... As always, if anyone sees any glaring mistakes I made either with rules, army composition, or with tactics, please drop me a comment. Thanks for reading. An standard Librarian gets two powers. An Epistolary also only gets two powers, but can cast them both. So you should have only rolled twice to gain rulebook powers unfortunately. As for tactics, you're absolutley right--- Units with only 24" weapons almost always need to deploy centrally and units with long range weapons can post-up on your flanks. So you should generally keep your Terminators and Dreadnought closer to your core. Units with fast movement can choose nearly wherever they'd like, which is why they're paying points for mobility of course. Ah, okay. Thanks. We couldn't tell from a quick read and were under a time constraint for the store to close so I let him pick and he said to take 3 powers. I think I only ever used endurance and only once so fortunately, so my error didn't matter. I don't really have that many long range weapons in my army - the thunderfire, the typhoon, and the missile launcher in Tactical IV. I put the thunderfire centrally to give it two specific lines of sight to both objectives; I don't think that was a mistake. But I could have exchanged the two heavy half squads to put the ML on the left flank and the multi-melta in the center. The typhoon is mobile enough, it will be able to get where it needs to be and the key seems to be to not expose it to unnecessary fire of any kind. On a side note, has anyone got experience with software called Battle Chronicler. I'm trying to use it to map out this fight and it's fighting me. If you have, shoot me a PM. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ming Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 A nice set of spells for this game would have been null zone and vengeance...or gate and vengeance. Gate would have been great for rapidly moving your terminators and librarian, and as an epistolary then passing vengeance would toast up the DC w/ no armor saves (AP3). Null zone would only really help with the 4++ chaplains. Shriek would be awesome, but unpredictable, and likely saved. Overall great job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Dragons 3rd Company Posted December 4, 2012 Author Share Posted December 4, 2012 A nice set of spells for this game would have been null zone and vengeance...or gate and vengeance. Gate would have been great for rapidly moving your terminators and librarian, and as an epistolary then passing vengeance would toast up the DC w/ no armor saves (AP3). Null zone would only really help with the 4++ chaplains. Shriek would be awesome, but unpredictable, and likely saved. Overall great job! Thanks! I'm still playing with the various spell lists actually. So far I like Biomancy and Telepathy. I haven't tried the Codex powers yet though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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