Indefragable Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 A Win is a Win. And this is my first one. I am now 1-4 in my local escalation league with my Blood Angels. I’ll take it. I guess that’s all that matters. It was just such a weird game on so many levels that it is hard to critique individual aspects since before the game even started the ramifications started adding up. How weird? Bolt Pistols killing vehicles and extremely epic psyker fails kind of weird. But you’ll have to read on for the bizarre details. FIRST: a shoutout to my opponent, Spencer. He, his brother and one of their friends came to the club for the first time. Seemed a bit younger to me but I mean that as a compliment. He was an absolute pleasure to play against. Tough but fair. He gave no quarter yet argued for the rules regardless of whether they benefitted him or not. In fact, he volunteered several items that ended up hurting him (including a game-changing one) simply because that is what the rules are and everyone should know that. I’ll play him again any day. Second: yea my army list for this match is strange. Another case of “half-built” syndrome. It was cobbled together based on a combination of what I had already built and units I had not used before and wanted to test. MY ARMY Faction: Blood Angels Formation: Baal Strike Force x 2 Detachment 1: HQ/Elite: -Captain Karlaen -Assault Terminator --TH/SS x 5 HQ/Elite: -Librarian --Term armour --ML2 --Gallian’s Staff --Combi-Melta -Assault Terminator --TH/SS x 5 Troops: -Tactical Marine x 5 --Lascannon -Tactical Marine x 5 --Lascannon Detachment 2: HQ/Troops: -Mephiston -Tactical Marine x5 --Heavy Flamer --Vet Sgt. --Power Sword -Razorback w/ TL Assault Cannon Troops: -Tactical Marine x 5 --Flamer --Dual-wield Grav Pistols -Razorback w/ TL Lascannon HQ/Elite: -Astorath -Death Company x 13 --3x Power Fist --1x Thunder Hammer --2x Power Sword OPPONENT’S ARMY: Faction: Iron Hands Formation: Tanks! (this is going to be a bit messy because I do not know exact configurations or names and I am going from memory) -Vindicator w/ Siege Shield (ok…why doesn’t the Siege Shield count as extra Front Armor? I mean, look at the thing! It’s a solid sheet thicker than the actual armor of the model itself!) -“off the shelf” Predators x 2 (Autocanon only) -Razorback w/ TL Lascannon x 3 -Land Speeder Squadron --3 speeders --lots of dakka (I think they all had TL Assault cannons and Heavy Bolters) -Storm talon -Master of the Forge x2, each in a squad of Tacticals including 1 w/ a Plasma Cannon -Techmarine (all by his lonesome) -Chapter Master with enough bling to make Mr. T jealous in a squad of 5 Tacticals including a Power Sword THE MISSION: Mysterious Objective x 6 THE BOARD: Deployments on either of the Long ends, all 6 objectives sort of in a diamond formation with 3x of them on top of towers (1/2 of the diamond shape), 2 more on top of rocky patches and 1 on his side out in the open. Both deployment zones were fairly open though had two pieces of sight blocking cover (“mountains”) that lead to a chokepoint with one of the towers smack dab in the middle. His was open save for some random sandbags. The only other thing that played a factor was a “pond” surrounded by rocks in the dead center. PSYCHEDELIC—er,, PSYKER stuff: I get Fear of the Darkness, Blood Boil and Blood Lance and of course, Quickening. TURN 1: Opponent: He goes first, his vehicles moving pretty much straight-on towards the middle of the map in a wall of armour. He claims the tower-objective on his side. Me: I run my razorbacks up the right side, barely fitting them side-by-side between the gap between the tower and the mountain on that side. They are in range to claim tower objetive. Flamer squads and Mephiston in the ‘backs. TL Lascannon takes a pot shot at his Razorback that is now within range. Nothing dramatic happens. Death Company-Death Star Jump Packs up to use them as cover. 2x Lascannon Tactical squads hoof it for the tower and get Run moves of 1 and 2 respectively when I could’ve used 5s or 6s. It starts. Both Termy squads held in Reserve. His mysterious objective is revealed to re-roll shots. Mine randomly blows up… TURN 2: Opponent: His line of tanks move up. Destroys my TL Cannon and gets the Razorback down to 1 HP with a torrent of fire. Mephiston’s Assault cannon one is somehow saved by cover. His Land Speeders Deep Strike behind my right-side mountain in a perfect flanking maneuver to my Death Company. I mean, it’s beautiful. A textbook “crossing the line” as the Age of Sail navies used to call it. (Only) 4x Death Company go down. The beauty of this for him is that I am now presented with a dilemma: how do I deal with those things? Ideally my Lascannon grunts would deal with them (that’s half the reason they are in the backfield) but they are stuck in the open running for cover. And they won’t be able to kill them all. If I use my Razorbacks, then they will not have moved forward and will take fire anyways. Death Company will be left in the rear of the map, out of the fight if they Charge… Me: Death Company Charge the Landspeeders. In the end, I went with what was guaranteed to work: with 12” Jump Pack move, I was 1” away so I knew I would get the charge with all the glorious bonuses that entails for Death Company. The icing on the cake was that they managed to kill 1x Landspeeder with their Bolt Pistols in the Shooting Phase. I have no idea how it worked but my opponent calculated it out so whatever, I’ll take it. Razorbacks move 12” towards the enemy. Mephiston’s Auto Cannon one gets stuck on the pond thing in the middle by failing the Flat Out roll and immobilizing itself. He brakes for heretics, I guess. The wounded Razorback is now within 8” or so of the enemy tower objective. Lazcannon grunts make it to the tower, but they are behind it. There’s nothing they can do. Captain Karlaen and squad DS into his backfield, not too far away from the rear armor of his line of vehicles. Unfortunately, the only dakka I have is Karlaen’s Storm Bolter. At this point I face palm for realizing I should have sent in the Libby squad w/ all his combi-melta/Blood Lance goodness. TURN 3: Opponent: Vindicator Pimps Mephiston’s Ride with a fresh coat of PIE PLATE. Other Razorback up the field goes poof. Both surviving sets of passenger disembark and hoof it into the best cover as close to the enemy as they can. One of his Master of the Forge/Tacticals w/ Plasma Cannon hoof it towards the 3rd tower objective off to the side and make it. His Storm Talon comes in and proceeds to light up Karlaen’s squad to no avail (2+/3++ baby!). His entire army proceeds to light up Karlaen and company. 1 Termy goes down. His Warlord and squad disembark and Charge the closest disembarked Tactical squad. I somehow get a Grav pistol Overwatch shot to Wound the Warlord but he is saved by a 6+ FNP. I have never seen so many dice rolled for a single interaction. He annihilates said Tacticals (Blood Angels losing in close combat?!?!? Heresy!!!!) Me: Lascannon grunts get into the tower. Take potshots at enemy Razorback. Manage to destroy a TL lascannon on said enemy Razorback. Libby Terminators fail to come in AGAIN (despite Karlaen’s re-rolls). Karlaen and company Charge his Vindicator and kill that thing HARD (9x TH hits w/ S9) it blows up and goes away, thus removing any cover… Mephiston’s Squad roasts, shoots, and plasma’s enemy Warlord’s squad to no effect. Mephiston than concentrates and summons his inner powers and….FAILS. Fails Sanguine Sword. Fails Blood Lance. Fails Quickening. Manages to pop 1 enemy Tactical with Blood Boil and that’s it. Yea, I had 9 WC (ML3 + roll of 6!) and all I get is Blood Boil….Mephy and company Charge…and get annihilated. Yes. You read that right. Mephiston and 4 Tacticals fall despite going first with a ridiculous number of AP3 attacks (Mephiston + Vet Sgt w/ Power Sword). His Warlord Challenged Mephiston so he soaked up most of Mephiston’s attacks, whereas his Chapter Master’s AP2 attacks spilled over to kill most of the squad. His Sgt w/ a Power Sword toasts another. My Vet Sgt scampers away to live another day. Death Company move up from the ass-end of the backfield. His Master of the Forge/Plasma Cannon reaches the outlying objective tower. It is revealed to be booby trapped and kills his Master of the Forge. LOLZ TURN 4: Opponent: He repositions almost his entire army around Karlaen and plays the odds. 2+/3++ can only live so long. It’s down to Karlaen and 1x Termy…Karlaen is down to 1 wound since I tanked him keep another body alive. He Charges me with his other Master of the Forge squad and the 2+/3++ eventually gives out again. Slay the Warlord he has. Me: He now has 2x TL Lascannon Razorbacks lined up end to end, 1 with rear armor exposed. His Warlord is a few inches away. I wish I had taken a picture at this point. Where I chose to Deep Strike was smack dab in the middle of the following going clockwise: enemy razorbacks, difficult terrain, some open space to board edge, my own wrecked razorback hull, more difficult terrain (that pond), enemy warlord squad, objective tower. I get a Hit on the Scatter dice. My opponent is laughing his ass off at how incredible it is. Some people come over from other tables to marvel at it. I am a pretty humble person overall, but yea, it was nasty. Frickin’ beautiful, man. Now for that Blood Lance that will nuke 2x Razorbacks… FAIL. 7x dice all thrown at Blood Lance, plus re-rolling the 1s and I still do not get it. Combi-Melta also somehow fails to do damage. 1x Lascannon Squad now up in the tower fires at his Warlord to no avail (some sort of Iron Hands super Invulnerable save relic thingy). Other Las grunts take a snap shot to no avail. Vet sgt tries to get to the seemingly forgotten objective on the side opposite his Plasma Cannon squad in that tower. Death Company just keep swimming… The game is now tied 4-4. He controls 3x Obj and got Slay the Warlord. I have 2x Obj. plus Linebreaker (from Karlaen’s DS) and First Blood. Due to the time (pushing 4 hrs at this point) we agree to stop it after Turn 5. TURN 5: Opponent: Libby Squad goes down to insane amounts of Dakka. Wouldn’t have mattered if they hadn’t since his Warlord moved into Charging distance between the edge of the difficult terrain pond and the base of the objective tower. His Plasma Cannon squad and 1x Predator kill 2 of my grunts holding a back obj, forcing them off the Obj and taking a Lascannon out. He is now up 4-3. He has most of his army left, including flyer, and his Warlord who It Will Not Die’d a wound back and a Razorback who’s weapon was repaired by that random Techmarine. 9th inning. 2 outs. Game 4 of the ALCS. Yankees winning against the Red Sox 4-3. Yanks leading 3-0 in the series... Me: Tactical squad that was pushed off Obj. barely make it back within range to claim it. Game now tied 4-4. Lascannon Tacticals take a potshot at Warlord. 1 enemy Tactical vaporizes. Just enemy Warlord and Sgt. Left. My Vet Sgt Runs for that far objective…but comes up 2” short of claiming it. Death Company Death Star/Dave Roberts that just kept swimming? Well, they now have to get through 2 sets of difficult terrain, taking dangerous rolls due to Jump Packs of both where they start and land. They make both. Incredibly, after all that swimming and essentially being written off by both of us, they are now 9” away from the enemy Warlord. Being in difficult terrain they get a -2 penalty to their Charge roll. Dave Roberts runs to steal 2nd base. Posada throws it at the 2nd baseman….it’s gonna be close…. I roll 11 for the Charge. 7x DC with 4 Attacks each on the Charge + 1A for 2x weapons. 35 Dice rolled, re-rolling To Hit and To Wound thanks to Astorath. Rest of the enemy Tacticals are butchered and The Iron Hands Warlord takes 2 Wounds but still has 2 left. DC w/ Power Sword , Power Fist and Thunder Hammer all go next. The Warlord… …shrugs them off. Between the 2+ armor save and the 3++ invuln he gets from this Gorgon Chain thingy he is still standing. Also, my opponent informs me that in this situation his Chapter Master’s Eternal Warrior does not work for some reason. Ok, I shrug. I don’t know Iron Hands so I’ll take your word for it. Astorath steps to the plate. 4 Attacks with Wounds of 6s = Instant Death. 3 Hits. Will he do enough damage? 1 Wound dice. I get to re-roll thanks to Astorath being so Grim. Everyone else in the club is packing up or already left. I roll the dice around in my hands, pondering the moment. Thinking about if where on the table I roll my dice and see if that would make a difference. Then almost without realizing it I open my hands and let it roll. It bounces over the others. Bounces again. Twirls. Spins again and then stops. 6. Instant Death on his Warlord. Fenway goes wild. Victory. Takeaways; 1) The Dice Giveth …and the Dice Taketh Away. This game epitomizes my experience with TableTop wh40k so far: the extremes of dice rolls deciding the game. In every game I have played crucial moments have been exhilarating or crushing for me based on individual dice rolls. This game that fact was taken to the utmost extreme, with Mephiston’s epic Psyker fails and Astorath& Co.’s amazing 11th hour exploit. Perfect example: My Terminator Librarian and squad perfectly thread the needle (Hit on the Scatter Dice) with a Deep Strike landing smack dab in the middle of wrecked vehicles to line up a perfect Blood Lance….only to miss 7 dice with re-rolled 1s trying to get that Blood Lance off. Though fitting since I am known as an “all or nothing” sort of guy, there has got to be a way to get more reliable results. Maybe it’s a Boston thing: embarrassing losses and legendary wins. One way or another, I have to add some reliability into the mix. 2) That’s why they call it “the Warp” Mephiston missed every single Psyker roll except 1x Blood Boil. Including Sanguine Sword and Quickening as I was Charging his Warlord. We were both in agreement that if he got even one of those powers it would have turned the tide of battle and basically won the game for me. My ML2 Terminator Librarian with Galian’s staff also missed an absolutely crucial Blood Lance that I threw 7 dice at with re-rolled 1s. What makes it especially painful was that I nailed the ballsiest Deep Strike you could imagine with this Librarian’s squad in order to get that power off. 3) Terminators (of the ThunderHammer/StormShield variety) They’re cool, but not that cool. I think the trick with them is more of a glorified bodyguard for somebody you want to keep alive (like Mephiston) than any real damage output. I mean, when they hit they hit HARD but it takes quite a bit of effort to get them where they can be most useful. Their best asset is their damage resistance with that 2+/3++. As counter-intuitive as it seems, I feel almost like the best way to use them is to just foot slog up the board. Why? Because they can’t do anything until they are in Charge distance and it’s gonna take 3-4 Turns to get there. For this precise reason the enemy probably will not shoot at them since they are useless until they are in melee and any shots fired at them will probably be wasted. The enemy could bring them down by focusing everything he’s got at them but every shot at the Termy’s is a shot that could have gone at something more killable…but that’s precisely why I am doing it and the enemy KNOWS that is why I am doing it so he’s NOT going to target them because—oh hey, they’re in melee! It’s so crazy it could work. The kind of thing a Sicilian would do when death is on the line… 4) Overkill. Death Company with Astorath killed the 3 Land Speeders with Attacks to spare. Karlaen and his Termy squad killed the Vindicator 10x over. The good news is that when I want something dead, it gets dead. Problem is not enough enemy things are getting dead. Gotta spread that hurt around. 5) Land Speeders. Huh. I forgot about this unit type. All my research had kind of written them off but based on what they did (and more importantly, COULD have done) to my dear, dear Death Company I am now quite intrigued. Double Multi-Melta w/ Descent of Angels, anyone? Question is whether that is better than a meltacide Drop Pod. 6) …speaking of Death Company… <insert Gollum sound byte> “Myyyyyyyy…..Preshhhhhhhhhh-usssssssss” 7) I won. “Anyone can take the helm when the sea is calm.” – Publilius Syrus I used a strange army list…one that no one would probably ever use if given other options. My deployment setup was probably not the best. I did not position myself well at all for most of the game. Nothing really worked the way it “should” have. And that is exactly why I feel that this was my best game yet. Not to knock on my opponent, but I feel I outplayed him. Not because of strategy but in spite of it. In contrast to me, from a tactical and strategic point of view, he did pretty much everything right. The fog of war was thicker than ever with so many things going wrong yet I somehow (miraculously) cut through that fog and kept my eyes on the prize until the very last die (re)roll of the entire game. I rolled with every punch that came my way (and man, were there some prize haymakers). I improvised (my only choice), adapted (not always that well), and overcame (somehow). Some will say that my victory was all luck. To that I would reply that we play a game built around dice. Fortune favors the prepared. And by preparing myself to never surrender I grabbed Fortune by the short and curlies and didn’t let go until he cried uncle. Was it pretty? Heck no. But it was a win. Hopefully any of you reading (all!) of this found it informative and at least entertaining. Until next time… -Indy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helias_Tancred Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indefragable Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 Smiley face. I'll take it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravenshard42 Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Gratz on the win bud, been a long time since i've had one so I have too live vicariously through my brothers, keep up the good work :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonaides Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 When meph was challenged by his warlord, why didnt you take that with the squad sergeant? Would have allowed meph to beat up on the squad that turn and maybe get another chance to pull off powers... but congrats on the win, this is why i always play out a game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainHelion Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 The Iron Hands relic was almost certainly the Gorgon's Chains. Basically, it works like the Shield Eternal, but it gets worse as you take more wounds. Full wounds, it boosts your FNP and gives a 3++ and EW. Take a wound and you lose the FNP boost, and go down to a 4++, take another wound, and you lose the EW. At least, that's what I remember. It's pretty great as relics go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indefragable Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 When meph was challenged by his warlord, why didnt you take that with the squad sergeant? Would have allowed meph to beat up on the squad that turn and maybe get another chance to pull off powers... but congrats on the win, this is why i always play out a game.So how would that work with the Sgt? If his warlord challenges Mephy, and Mephy declines, he is out for the rest of the assault phase, right?I didn't even think of this since Mephy is usually so powerful. I have used Mephy in 4/5 games so far and 2/3 (up until this last game) he has been BOSS (he once blew up a Tau vehicle with a single sword swing...and blew it up so hard it killed 2 of my Tacticals nearby). Especially with Transfixing Gaze I thought I had a pretty decent chance of at least messing up his warlord considering I had the Charge bonuses. I also had no idea just how powerful his Iron Hands Warlord was. So I guess in hindsight, if Mephiston's powers successfully manifested it would have been fine to fight the challenge but since they did not, I should have sacrificed the Vet Sgt instead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indefragable Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 The Iron Hands relic was almost certainly the Gorgon's Chains. Basically, it works like the Shield Eternal, but it gets worse as you take more wounds. Full wounds, it boosts your FNP and gives a 3++ and EW. Take a wound and you lose the FNP boost, and go down to a 4++, take another wound, and you lose the EW. At least, that's what I remember. It's pretty great as relics go. Yea that makes sense. I thought it was a little weird that his stats kept fluctuating (he re-gened a wound with It Will Not Die) but there were so many other disasters of my own making distracting me I didn't pay too much attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainHelion Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 The Iron Hands relic was almost certainly the Gorgon's Chains. Basically, it works like the Shield Eternal, but it gets worse as you take more wounds. Full wounds, it boosts your FNP and gives a 3++ and EW. Take a wound and you lose the FNP boost, and go down to a 4++, take another wound, and you lose the EW. At least, that's what I remember. It's pretty great as relics go. Yea that makes sense. I thought it was a little weird that his stats kept fluctuating (he re-gened a wound with It Will Not Die) but there were so many other disasters of my own making distracting me I didn't pay too much attention. Yeah, it's a tricksy one, that. I try to learn as much about the various faction relics as I can, for that reason. When meph was challenged by his warlord, why didnt you take that with the squad sergeant? Would have allowed meph to beat up on the squad that turn and maybe get another chance to pull off powers... but congrats on the win, this is why i always play out a game.So how would that work with the Sgt? If his warlord challenges Mephy, and Mephy declines, he is out for the rest of the assault phase, right?I didn't even think of this since Mephy is usually so powerful. The thing there is that Meph wouldn't be declining the challenge. That only comes into play when he's the only character. A challenge is issued to a unit as a whole, and the player who controls that unit chooses who accepts it. So, the sarge accepts the challenge, and Meph would be all "yeah, ok you got this" and proceed to murder the hell out of the squad. The Sergeant dies heroically, and you probably win the combat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indefragable Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 The Iron Hands relic was almost certainly the Gorgon's Chains. Basically, it works like the Shield Eternal, but it gets worse as you take more wounds. Full wounds, it boosts your FNP and gives a 3++ and EW. Take a wound and you lose the FNP boost, and go down to a 4++, take another wound, and you lose the EW. At least, that's what I remember. It's pretty great as relics go.Yea that makes sense. I thought it was a little weird that his stats kept fluctuating (he re-gened a wound with It Will Not Die) but there were so many other disasters of my own making distracting me I didn't pay too much attention. Yeah, it's a tricksy one, that. I try to learn as much about the various faction relics as I can, for that reason. When meph was challenged by his warlord, why didnt you take that with the squad sergeant? Would have allowed meph to beat up on the squad that turn and maybe get another chance to pull off powers... but congrats on the win, this is why i always play out a game.So how would that work with the Sgt? If his warlord challenges Mephy, and Mephy declines, he is out for the rest of the assault phase, right?I didn't even think of this since Mephy is usually so powerful. The thing there is that Meph wouldn't be declining the challenge. That only comes into play when he's the only character. A challenge is issued to a unit as a whole, and the player who controls that unit chooses who accepts it.So, the sarge accepts the challenge, and Meph would be all "yeah, ok you got this" and proceed to murder the hell out of the squad. The Sergeant dies heroically, and you probably win the combat. I see. Interesting. His Warlord's Wounds spilled over into the rest of my squad, killing quite a few of my Tacticals. Wouldn't a Sgt in the Challenge not really absorb these and still get my squad chopped up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonaides Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Maybe, but then you'd have still got an angry meph and the ih player wouldnt have had a squad any more either... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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