Seahawk's Battle Reports Thread (7th ed.)

[Seahawk]

Huzzah, I finally had my first game on Thursday! While I know I said I was going to try out Honor Guard, I really went with my first love (and list): Tanks! I thought it'd be fun to go full armor and be Battleforged.

 

As a note of reference, all of my games will be 2000 points, as that is the standard our club plays at.

 

So, for the first list I made out of the new book, I took the following:

 

Armored Task Force

Techmarine - servo-harness

Vindicator - dozer blade

3 Predator Annihilators - lascannons

3 Whirlwinds

Chronus

 

Land Raider Spearhead

Land Raider - multimelta, storm bolter

Land Raider - multimelta, storm bolter

Land Raider Crusader - multimelta, storm bolter

 

Librarian Conclave

Tigurius - Divination (Prescience, Perfect Timing, Precognition, Misfortune)

Librarian - ML2, Telepathy (Psychic Scream, Mental Fortitude, Terrify)

Librarian - ML1,Auspex, Biomancy (Smite, Iron Arm)

 

 

I played against a Gladius (Red Scorpions) with roughly the following:

 

Demi-Company

Captain - power weapon, arty. armor, Shield Eternal

Tactical Squad (10) - combi grav, grav rifle, grav cannon

Tactical Squad (10) - combi plasma, plasma rifle, missile launcher

> Razorback - TL lascannon

Tactical Squad (10) - combi melta, meltagun, heavy bolter

> Razorback - TL lascannon

Assault Squad (10) - power weapon

Devastator Centurions (3) - grav cannons/amps

> Land Raider

 

1st Company Task Force

5 Sternguard - flamers

5 Sternguard - plasmas

5 Sternguard - meltas

 

 

We playing the Scouring. There was ample terrain (at least 7 12"x12"-ish Ruins and Forests, and a bunker. He took the first turn. Since he had an aggressive foot list he came at me. The Centurions disembarked from their land raider and set about trying to kill my tanks. The good new was that I had uncovered a Scatterfield with my Land Raider Spearhead, which is important because for the first turn, everything that could pointed at them, though all he managed to do was strip 3 HP off a land raider with grav and lascannons.

 

Meanwhile, in my first turn I deleted the Centurions, Land Raider, and Assault Squad, scoring first blood.

 

This was done via disembarking Tigurius and manifesting all the powers I wanted. I rolled a 2 for the psychic dice, and put Prescience on the predators, Misfortune on the assault squad, and Iron Arm on himself. So, the vindicator fired first, wiping out the centurions with a well placed hit. The predators fired next, scoring 9 hits and 5 penetrates (and some glances) on the land raider, detonating it. Finally, the Whirlwinds fired on the assault squad, wiping them out via Ignores Cover Rending bombardment.

 

This pattern continued on, but I decided to start putting prescience on the whirlwinds, and they got real nasty.

 

At the end of the 6th turn, I had destroyed all his models but his hiding Captain, and I had lost the Vindicator.

 

 

Conclusions

Wow, tanks! Sure, he wasn't prepared for fighting all the armor, but that was his first mistake. Always be prepared for lots of armor! As the tanks couldn't make use of Chapter Tactics, the Librarians were invaluable in increasing their effectiveness. Having 9 lascannon shots that reroll to hit and to penetrate is awesome, and having 3 plates of bombardment that could reroll the scatter, reroll the wound, ignore cover, and Rend were fantastic! Every turn they kill a squad of Space Marines.

 

Overall, a fun game of TANK BEATS EVERYTHING.

[Prot]

So by Termies... (I had to re-read that) you meant his Cent's right?

 

Well I'd say that sounds like a wicked beating. His list on paper seems so small.... I play 1850 all the time, and my lists 'feel' bigger than that. 

 

Well I guess if he was using Ultra Doctrines...how the heck did your LR live through 3 Grav Centurions? Or were they las Centurions? (Because that would be a huge difference). Anyway, yea, that sounds awesome for you.... congrats.

 

3 Whirlwinds is fun... I can see this codex costing me an arm and a leg! 

[Seahawk]

Woops! Once more posting while distracted!

 

I agree. I never quite know where his points go, but it always seems to be outnumbered and outgunned.

 

He was using Red Scorpions doctrines. Still, he tried to kill the land raider, but it was holding a scatterfield objective and I rolled just enough saves to keep it alive. ;)

 

Three whirlwinds is immensely fun, especially when combined witness psychics!

[Prot]

I may go back to the Suppression Force. It's just plain fun. Not the most potent thing in the universe and you find instantly when you have a good match up for the Whirlwinds because people go after the squadron pretty darn fast....

 

In the Gladius, for those situations, that's where my vanilla but mandatory Assault Squad comes in. Otherwise the squadron gets shot up pretty badly.... a weapon destroyed kind of sucks since I never have points for a bolter.

[Captain Idaho]

Nice report. I liked the tanks and it actually might inspire me to build an armoured list.

 

One question - why is this thread not replete with more reports Seahawk!

[Seahawk]

My group is being bums and not playing lately! Tonight is a play night though, so it should happen.

[librisrouge]

I'm guessing still bums? Shame, it was fun as heck to read.

[Seahawk]

I have a couple reports now! I'll write them up tonight.

[Seahawk]

Games 2 and 3!

 

This was my list:

 

Combined Arms Detachment
[50] Telion

[120] Dreadnought - assault cannon, autocannon
[120] Dreadnought - assault cannon, autocannon
[215] Vanguard Veterans Squad (10) - jump packs, 2 power weapons, 9 meltabombs

[195] Tactical Squad (10) - plasma gun, grav cannon, storm bolter
[195] Tactical Squad (10) - plasma gun, grav cannon, storm bolter
[60] Scout Squad (5) - Snipers

[220] Devastator Squad (10) - 4 lascannons
[220] Devastator Squad (10) - 4 lascannons
[300] 3 Thunderfire Cannons

Librarius Conclave
[165] Tigurius
[65] Librarian
[65] Librarian

 

 

The first game was against the following Space Wolves mashup:

 

Ulrik the Slayer

5 Grey Hunters - Meltagun

Rhino

5 Grey Hunters - Meltagun
Rhino

Predator Annihilator - lascannons

Predator Annihilator - lascannons

 

Knight Titan - melta (warlord)

Knight Titan - battle cannon

Knight Titan - battle cannon

 

Plasma Obliterator

 

Scenario: Purge the Alien

 

The nasty thing is that Ulrik was in the Obliterator, boosting the BS, giving it Preferred Enemy, and giving it Ignores Cover I think (it had Ignores Cover from something). We fought over a cityscape, with his Rhinos out of LoS, the Predators in cover, and the Knights in the streets. He also had a Knight in front of the Obliterator on my right flank to give it cover and get Preferred Enemy in return.

 

So, I had the first turn! I declared the Devastator Doctrine.I sneak up the Vanguard on my left, the Tactical squads up the middle to cover/gain ground, and readied the rest. Psychic powers got Ignores Cover and Prescience on the Thunderfires, and Forewarning on the Tacticals in the open. He declares shields forward. The Thunderfires land directly between the Knight and the Obliterator, scoring 11 hits and 12 hits, respectfully. 2 HP off the Knight and no void shields/1 hit on the Obliterator, forcing it to snap shots next turn. I thought "Okay, I can focus fire on something else now."

 

Four lascannons into the flank of the already wounded Knight resulted in two penetrations, one of which rolled a 6, then a 6! The Knight detonated, shattering the Obliterator and splattering Ulrik in the process! Deciding to be outdone, the other Devastators hit the flank of the Warlord Knight, causing just a single damage.

 

Score: UM 4 - SW 0

 

Once he picked his jaw up from the floor, the Knights stomped forward to engage in HTH, realized they were completely outgunned. In the shooting phase, everything fired at the Thunderfires, sans two Heavy Stubbers, which each fired at a Tactical Squad. 

 

One Thunderfire lost a single wound, due to T7 and a 3+ cover save.

 

The Knight on my left plowed into the Tactical squad (losing a HP to the grav cannon), while the one in the middle failed the charge. Combined with all his attacks, I lost two marines.

 

Score: UM 4 - SW 0

 

Time for the Tactical Doctrine! The Vanguard lit their jump packs and landed around the Knight on my left, intending to assault. The other Tactical squad moved up, ready to unleash their bolters on the Knight. Flexing my psychic might, the Thunderfires had Prescience and Ignores Cover, and a Devastator squad had Prescience, while the Tacticals had Forewarning again. For shooting I gave the Tacticals Storm of Fire, and they proceed to gun down the Warlord Knight! (grav cannon certainly helped). The Thunderfires didn't need it, because their next target was a Predator, proceeding to blow it the :cuss up. 

 

With a strange dearth of targets, the Devastators scored two damage on the other Predator, what with the plethora of cover and all.

 

In close combat, the Vanguard heroically assaulted the last Knight...and managed to clamp just a single meltabomb on, which didn't even glance. This time the Tactical marines got carved up and both units broke from the combat. Dang!

 

Score: UM 7 - SW 0

 

With so much punishment being thrown out, he decided to commit the Rhinos, and forward they sprang. The Knight moved toward the Devastators in the middle, because if they weren't shooting they weren't killing. Shooting killed a Devastator.

 

What was epic was the assault phase. In overwatch, one Devastator scored a hit, which penetrated, and rolled a 6 followed by a 5! It promptly scattered right onto the Devastators, wiping them all out (including attached Librarian)! We like to think a beam sheared off a knee, and it fell forward and squashed the squad. Well, he achieved what he was going for...

 

Score: UM 8 - SW 2

 

Yay, more targets! The Dreadnoughts moved to deal with the Rhinos. Psychics did their normal pzazz. The shooting phase saw the Rhinos die, along with one of their squads. So much explosion! The Vanguard tried to bomb the Predator, but again, one hit that just stunned it...

 

Score: UM 11 - SW 2

 

The now disembarked squad threw a grenade at the Dreadnought's rear, and along with a bolt pistol and meltagun, killed it! Despite having to make snap shots, the Predator shot and killed the other Dreadnought. D'awww...well, the Vanguard got their revenge.

 

Score: UM 12 - SW 4

 

The better part of my army was now looking at 5 Grey Hunters. They promptly exploded.

 

 

So, facing down 3 Knights and an immensely destructive building, I boardwiped by the top of the 4th. So far, so good, army design seems to be functional...

 

 

Game 2: More Space Wolves!

 

Formation:

Ulrik or other character

5 Terminators

Arjac Rockfist

 

15 Bloodclaws - Lukas the Trickster

15 Bloodclaws

5 Grey Hunters

 

Stormwolf

 

Land Raider Crusader

Land Raider Crusader

 

 

My changes involved dropping autocannons for DCCW, and meltabombs for power weapons.

 

Scenario: Crusade

 

We played Hammer and Anvil deployment, and my Devastators were set up looking down the main streets. This time, he went first!

 

He zerged me. The Land Raiders stayed in cover though.

 

Then I went. The Land Raider on the left was immobilized, and Arjac's on the far right exploded to an ace shot from a Devastator! Of course, this was after the Thunderfires scored a damage. It's really quite fun to hit a Land Raider dead on, because when I do, I get to say "Ooo, hit! Which means 12 hits!" Dreadnoughts failed their charge on the left land raider, by an inch each of course (needed a 5 and 6).

 

So he disembarked and decided it was mobbing time! Also, Arjac and friends needed a new ride. The Stormclaws mob the Vanguard and wipe them out for few return casualties. That's two games in a row they've been utterly unimpressive, other than as a distracting target.

 

He needed to put his kid to bed, so I took my movement phase. I lined up all my squads in pretty firing lines and used my Tactical doctrine. Combined with all the psychics, Lukas' squad was gunned down entirely, and the other one was half destroyed. Arjac's new Land Raider got its tracks crumped, leaving them stranded again. The dreadnoughts got into combat, but failed to hurt the Land Raider. Come on, guys...

 

So he advanced again, and the Bloodclaws assaulted a unit of Tactical marines. The fight was a draw. The dreadnoughts finally found their mark and tore the Land Raider to pieces.

 

My targets for shooting were the Terminators and their last Land Raider. Needless to say, the Terminators all died, but the Land Raider was surprisingly durable.

 

Luckily for him, it was already the 4th turn and the Stormwolf showed up automatically (he failed both his rolls previously). It killed a dreadnought. I killed off the Bloodclaw squad during the assault phase.

 

So it was bottom of the 4th and I shot some stuff, wiping him off the table.

 

 

 

Sooo...wow. I have NEVER had my Ultramarines feel and perform so darn good and fluffy. I'm personally liking full armies that have Chapter Tactics, because they really get to make full use of all the special rules I'm paying for. Every doctrine affects every model in some fashion, and I was getting rerolls on so much it felt like Eldar. Still, overall a rather successful list vs some hard targets, where my previous SM lists were blegh.

 

Only letdown was the Vanguard. Expensive, pretty, but apparently no more threatening than a baby kitten. Ah well. Perhaps more games will be played tomorrow; just don't know which type of list I want to use next.

[Prot]

As I saw your Vanguard load out... I was very curious how they would perform. I still see no use for them. I know Syn loves them, I just don't get it.

 

Your list is so different from what I would field, and it shows how much actually does work in the codex, simply because of doctrines....

 

Although I'm not sure if I read it right, but are you sharing Prescience between psykers and casting it on multi units?

 

Also, very interesting with the Dreads... very vanilla, yet they seem to be working for you. Interesting Plasma Obliterator set up your opponent had.... I haven't seen that one yet!

 

Glad to see you're having some success! Thanks for the batrep.

[Seahawk]

Yessum! I was casting multiple Prescienceseseses because the rules allow it. The other librarians cannot manifest until the end of the phase, at which point the restriction is lifted and they are allowed to manifest powers because this is how the English language works. Page 17 then tells us about the end of the phase timing, and further cements that it's all good, nothing wonky about the ruling in the slightest. At any rate, my RAW group is playing it that way, so I'm not hamstrung at all.

 

The Vanguard were an extreme letdown in all aspects but movement and bullet soak. They didn't dish the damage in any capacity, which is what I was paying for. I may as well just take Assault Marines at that point, but further testing is required.

 

I armed the dreadnoughts because of discussion here, where someone (I believe Idaho) suggested taking assault cannon/autocannon as a transport cracker. In that regard they did decently, but then I found myself in close combat, where the S6 was just wimpy. Thus, in the second game I swapped out for the DCCW and they performed much better with their bajillion attacks. I still plumped for the assault cannon because I figured between the 8 lascannons and 2 grav cannons, my AT was pretty well covered, considering the Thunderfires were also an amazing AT/AI force.

 

It's going to be a team game tonight, so I'm not quite sure what to field. Perhaps Honor Guard...haven't given that list idea a try yet.

[Prot]

Yessum! I was casting multiple Prescienceseseses because the rules allow it. The other librarians cannot manifest until the end of the phase, at which point the restriction is lifted and they are allowed to manifest powers because this is how the English language works. Page 17 then tells us about the end of the phase timing, and further cements that it's all good, nothing wonky about the ruling in the slightest. At any rate, my RAW group is playing it that way, so I'm not hamstrung at all.

 

 

 

First off, I'm not going to be insulting to the mass of people that disagree with your interpretation. And I certainly won't pretend to be an expert at the english language, even though I did quite well through college with it..... But you have to understand that:

 

1) I originally read it exactly as you are saying it reads, but the counter argument does have merit.

2) Since December of last year Dark Angels have had this in place, and most do not read it that way.

3) I picked up the White Dwarf which highlighted and playtested the new LibCon and noted that in their experiments, other Libbies did not cast powers unless they 'broke off' from the Conclave to do their own thing. (I should re-read this though as that was some time ago)

4) I don't play it this way, simply to be conservative, but if I go to a tournament with it, I'm convinced it's grey enough that I won't assume my interpretation is the final say on this. (However, as mentioned I respect the opposite interpretation.)

 

The only reason I asked was to make sure I wasn't missing something else. You can tell me that the way you read LibCon it gives you 25 Warp charges, that's fine with me. 

 

If you want a glimpse at the pains we went through with this with Dark Angels (for proper verbiage because I can tell you both arguments are quite compelling) I'd urge you to search for around December of last year in the DA forum. 

 

Great batrep though. You've saved me a lot of time on Vanguard.

[Seahawk]

Sorry it was that kind of response, I was being hasty.

 

1. It has merit, but ultimately falls completely flat in the face of the rules.

 

2. Never saw the DA version, and unless the language is exactly the same, it's conclusion doesnt mean anything. Just because most people believe a thing to be true, in spite of evidence to the contrary, doesn't make it any more true.

 

3. Mine always were in separate squads.

 

4. Fair enough. My group is fine as is, so I get to benefit at least! =D

 

I only generated 5+D6 power dice. Not quite sure where you're getting 25? I'll do a search at some point, see if anything sways me.

 

For now though, back to the game! (my team has 5 land raiders!)

[minigun762]

Only letdown was the Vanguard. Expensive, pretty, but apparently no more threatening than a baby kitten. Ah well. Perhaps more games will be played tomorrow; just don't know which type of list I want to use next.

Was it poor rolling? Any reason they failed so bad?

 

I wonder if a chaplain's rerolls would help.

[Seahawk]

It was some pretty bad rolling on my part, I admit. I mean, 1 out of 9 meltabombs hitting, failing half my saves, etc.