A brief battle report...

[Cordova]

I was able to finally play a game against a friend of mine and decided I'd try to keep some sort of a log of the events. I took some photos to spice it up, but not many.

 

We played Maelstrom - Tactical Escalation.

 

I had:

(I'll put the full list up at some point or other)

Demi Company

- Cap with Shield Eternal and Relic Blade

- Razorback tacticals (2 melta, 1 flamer)

- 4 lascannon Devs

 

Ravenhawk Assault Group

- Stormraven

- 5 Sternguard

- Dreadnought

 

Shadowstrike KT

- 5 Vanguard (3 swords, 2 axes) x2

- 5 scouts with LSS (x2)

 

He had (from memory)

Farseer with Guardian blob

Farseer with Dire Avengers

2 x Falcons

2 x Wave Serpents - Dire Avengers and Wrathguard

2 x Jetbike Squads

2 x Warp Spider squads

Stiking Scorpions

 

So, not overly competitive but enough to be a pain.

 

We deployed up, me spread out and he blocked up a corner - holding the 2 objectives I needed for my Tactical Objectives.

 

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/CordovaBiconis/IMAG1321.jpg?t=1492335272

 

I made my deployment quite aggressive - forcing him to break out of the corner in a spread - trying to limit all the shurikens arriving in one place...

 

We started and I seized.

 

I rolled for the RAG and they came on, dropping straight in behind his lines. I also dropped both Vanguard in to really keep him held back. The objectives in the centre of the table were what he needed so I wanted to slow him in the corner - giving me a chance to get to them as I didn't think I'd oust him from the 2 I needed in his deployment zone.  Meanwhile, the Demi Company moved up to claim the objective he needed and brought their tanks to block another.

 

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/CordovaBiconis/IMAG1323.jpg

 

In my shooting phase, the RAG targeted the DA and Farseer (in the building to the bottom left). The Sternguard took out about 4 of them. The Dreadnought shot at the Falcon next to it - it exploded into tiny pieces of space elf. The Raven shot at the farmost Wave Serpent, putting 2 hull points on it. I then shot at the Warp Spiders who jumped away.

 

In my Assault phase I tried to charge the Spiders with the VV. They failed. Good good. The other VV charged the wounded WS and blew it up - I knew this would doom them, but it meant that one big threat was reduced to footslogging.

 

His turn

He moved the jetbikes in the bottom to shoot. He shuffled a few things but decided to hang about in the back to eliminate my troops - keeping him pinned back (so far so to plan).

The Wraithguard and the Spiders melted the VV who had destroyed the WS. The jetbikes glanced the Dread to death and put 2 hull points on the Raven.  The Scorpions moved up to threaten the objective he needed. The second WS zoomed away.

The DA tried to remove the Sternguard but only killed one.

 

My turn 2

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/CordovaBiconis/IMAG1328.jpg

(Sorry for blur)

 

I moved up the Scouts to support my now-weakened flank.  The Captain and his Assault Squad bounced up too.  The Demi troops shuffled forwards to bring their Razorbacks to bear. The Raven flew off this turn.

In my shooting, the Sternguard brought down another DA with pistols. The LSS tried to hit the Spiders but they jumped away. The Lascannon devs blew up the DA Wave serpent.

In my Assault phase it all went wrong. I charged the Spiders with the VV. I lost 3 to overwatch fire. I tried to charge the Wraith guard (I needed a 6). I failed. And failed the reroll. I then whiffed every roll for the remaining VV and they then got punched to death by the Spiders. My right flank was now very vulnerable. The biggest positive was the Sternguard charging the DA and Farseer blob - they got in and punched 2 Space Elves down.

 

His turn 2

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/CordovaBiconis/IMAG1329.jpg

 

He shuffled around to bring down the ASM and captain. His second Spiders didn't come in from reserve. The other Jetbikes moved to contest an objective. The Scorpions and DA moved to claim the objective he needed.

 

In his shooting, the Scorpions and DA tried to shoot the guys in their objective. His Guardians killed a LSS. Everything else shot the ASM. They died fast to the Spiders and bikes. This left the joyous D weaponry to shoot the Captain. He took it like a champ and saved everything they threw at him. Legend.

 

In Assault, the Scorpions charged the Tacs on their objective. The Sternguard and the DA kept fighting. One Elf died.

 

My turn 3

One of the Scout squads joined their belaboured Captain. The other shuffled up.

One Razorback zoomed up to claim the objective by the Captain (he had moved the Jetbikes too far to claim it). I knew I had to claim a lot this turn to get my objectives or risk losing quickly. I shot another Razorback up to claim the objective by the Sternguard/DA fistfight.

 

In shooting, I killed some more DA on my back objective and the Jetbikes that were closing. My LSS tried to shoot the Spiders but they ran away. The forward most Razorback and their squad was then able to get a bead on them and they lost a man.

 

In Assault, the Scorpions killed the Tacs on the objective in the back field. The Sternguard kept dueling with the DA. I killed 2, he killed one. The Scouts and the Cap charged the Wraithguard. The Captain killed one and the Scouts dragged one down too.

 

His turn 3

He moved the DA to hold his objective and dropped the reserved squad of Spiders nearby to defend against the Tacticals that were coming back in.

 

His jetbikes moved to shoot the razorback and tactical squad in the middle. They killed 4 men.

 

Assault phase - DA and SG kept fighting.

Captain killed 2 more Wraithguard. They did nothing in return.

 

My turn 4

The one central man jumped back into his Razorback and shuffled closer to the objective. The objective by the SG/DA fight was claimed by a Razorback. A tac squad jumped out by the Scorpions, Spiders and DA in my back field.

They then flamered everything and shot at the DA. They melted a few of each squad. (I love flamers). The razorbacks nearby then wiped the remaining DA. The Devs drew a bead on the Jetbikes and wiped out a few.

The Raven flew over and wiped the second biker squad.

 

My captain and scouts killed the last Wraithguard - the second scout squad also charged in to add weight of attacks.

 

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/CordovaBiconis/IMAG1330.jpg

(The captain and his proteges)

 

The Sternguard punched another DA to death.

 

His turn 4

The Spiders in the back blew up a Razorback. The Spiders at the back moved to intercept the Captain - knowing I needed the objective that his Farseer was on. They shot and killed one of the Scout squads he was with. The remaining bikes zoomed to aim for Linebreaker.

The backfield Spiders moved towards the Devs.

 

In the Sternguard combat, I finally won. He fluffed all his rolls and they killed the last DA and the Farseer.

 

Turn 5

My central razorback tried to bring down the jetbikes but couldn't. I moved up to Assault the Guardian/Farseer blob.

 

The Devs and razorback in the back killed the Spiders.

 

- The game ended here - he called it before the Assault as I was up on objectives 8-6 and he couldn't physically capture what he needed.

 

(N.B. There are some things missing, e.g. psychic powers etc as they just added to the shooting etc - but the gist of the battle is here).

 

It was good fun, even if some fluffed rolls were a right pain.

 

Plus, I really hate Warp Spiders.