Looking for advice after first game

[vigitant]

Part of the use as a debuff is to get in your opponent's head and demoralize them.

 

Yup, My local Tau player only ever puts 1 markerlight on anything of mine anymore.

[Ceranidian]

The game versus Tau was a quick and brutal win. I brought the same list as last time, he had

1x Commander, 1x Fireblade, 3x5 Fire Warriors, 5 Pathfinders, 12 Drones, 2x3 Stealth Suits, 3 Crisis Suits, a Pirahna and a Hammerhead tank.

 

I got first turn and the Corvus did solid work. I think it took out two infantry units and the Fireblade with bombs and dakka plus some support from the Razorback turn one. It was all downhill from there, he essentially couldn't hurt the Corvus due to the halo launcher and turn two it went into hovermode and just obliterated the rest of the infantry with Watch Master rerolls. Frag cannons were absolutely brutal and tore up battlesuits left and right. He conceded by turn three after I basically tabled him.

 

Things that happened

+ Remembered to use Auspex Scan

+ Remembered Lord of Hidden Knowledge CP farm

- Didn't remember the LoHK reroll

- Didn't remember to use doctrine strategems before my big unit started shooting. Don't be too excited to start rolling dice!

- Didn't remember I could move units after disembarking (derp)

 

So as you can see some pretty major misplays. He was playing Tau for the first time though, and essentially just had an army he bought off eBay so not very optimized. Still, a xeno purged is a xeno purged.

 

A question: My general strategy for the Corvus is to fly it up turn one and hope it survives, then hover it and take advantage of the WM rerolls + not moving with the heavy weapons. Is this generally correct or should it be used to keep zooming around and take shots at softer targets?

 

EDIT: Bonus question! Facing Blood Angels tomorrow at 1,5k. More of a friendly game since it means me bringing pretty much everything I have to get up to 1500pts. But the way the points are shaping up I have to decide between either halo launcher + Blackstar missiles or Stormstrike missiles and no halo. I'm thinking maybe the added anti-tank of the Stormstrikes is more important than the -1 to hit (since most of his army is probably grounded). Am I missing something? Anything else to keep in mind vs BA?

[zero88]

Nice game! Looks like you're learning quickly. The Halo isn't going to be worth it vs BA, as his fly units probably aren't going to be doing much shooting at your Corvus. Granted the auspex array isn't useful against those same jump units but at least that can be used against his hard targets. Blackstar missiles suck for the most part in comparison to the storms, so I would still use those. The flat D3 is really useful. BA can pull off long charges (they have a 3D6 pick 2 highest strategem) so don't be surprised if your frag cannon teams get charged outside their autohit range

[Ceranidian]

Turns out it was not actually BA but instead Raven Guard with some Armigers (my opponent didn't try to trick me or anything, I just assumed he was bringing the same list as last time I saw him play so I didn't ask). Got beat pretty soundly, but his list was probably a little stronger and I made some unnecessary tactical mistakes. There was the one spectacular one where I somehow forgot to use the Clavis stratagem and the Osseus Key against one of his Armigers with my WM after talking about it like a minute before. Didn't really affect much though since my Captain still destroyed it with his hammer on my turn. The mission was also sort of unfavorable; it was "Recon" from Chapter Approved which meant my force came in small, easy-to-handle waves while his three Armigers started on the table due to a lucky dice roll. Many lessons learned though!

[Ceranidian]

So this week I had one game Monday and one Tuesday. Battle reports below:

 

MONDAY

First up was 1250pts vs Sisters of Battle. Heck of a game, very fun and tense. He had a brigade with 100% infantry, lots of heavy bolters and melta.

 

I get first turn and advance the vehicles up as usual, doing my best to stay out of range/LOS of some of the heavy hitters. Luckily the stalker squad pulled their weight and managed to kill a lot of Seraphim; flakk missile is awesome. Assault cannons took out a few models here or there but I was still looking down the field at a significant horde of angry warrior nuns. His first turn was mainly spent trying to blow up my vehicles and rolling horribly for his melta; my Razorback eventually died but it took way more effort than it should have. Turn two my marines jump out the Corvus and due to the way the objectives worked out the remnants of the Razorback squad have to walk straight into the killzone. It was properly cinematic; a handful of marines charging through the ruined streets with bolter fire raining down on them from the nearby buildings. I dealt quite a lot of damage, but there were a lot of bodies to get through. It all came down to my marines surviving his return fire to be able to really break through on the next turn. After an awful lot of heavy bolter shots the smoke cleared and a few marines were still standing. I imagine this is where the Sisters start sweating. 

 

Having closed the distance the frag cannons obliterated the stragglers while the Watch Master blasted his characters left and right. The lone sergeant of the Razorback squad, now nicknamed "Sly Marbo" for his uncanny ability to charge recklessly and survive against the odds, went running across the battlefield to secure an objective. The heavily damaged Corvus decided to go into hover mode and charge the remaining heavy bolter squad, the pilot ramming his aircraft into the building they were hiding in while shouting prayers to the Emperor. The Watchmaster was completely surrounded by a squad of sisters, shrugging of their blows before eviscerating them while the Dreadnought beat his warlord into the ground. I imagine sort of a "Loki and the Hulk"-scenario. In the end I came away with a 15-5 victory.

 

To be fair the dice gods were really with me in this one (or, more accurately, they were really not with my opponent) and I drew extremely well for the maelstrom objectives, so in a way the victory feels a little hollow but a win is a win. Extremely fun and cinematic game though, went the full 5 turns and there were some crucial turning points were a few lucky rolls one way or the other could have decided it. 10/10 would play again. 

 

TUESDAY

Here I was up against a beautiful army consisting of Death Korps and a Knight Castellan, 1500pts in total. I was severely outnumbered, and frankly outgunned, but that wouldn't stop me from trying to do some damage. Plan was to crush one flank and hope to have enough left to clean up the rest. 

 

He seized the initiative and his knight did loads and loads of damage as expected, putting something ridiculous like 28 damage onto the Razorback with his big volcano cannon on turn one. Boom. The Corvus went flying in on what was almost certainly a suicide mission (Flight of the Valkyries was probably playing somewhere in the background) with the plan to unload a kill team next his Mortars, warlord and – more importantly – knight. The bikers proved a point that horses are quite frankly obsolete in the 41st millennium as they charged the Death Riders and chopped most of them down before sadly being blown up by plasma Scions dropping in behind them. The Corvus died as expected, but that put my Osseus Key-carrying badass of a Watch Master right next to the titan. Just as planned (?). 

 

Next was quite frankly some of the most ridiculous combat I've seen in my short 40k-career. The Watchmaster tanked the knight trying to tap dance all over him before dealing something like 9 wounds back. The kill team did the best they could – bless their hearts – but couldn't seem to scratch the titanic armoured toes. They promptly fell back on the next turn and fried some guardsmen instead. The Watch Master however stayed in combat and through a combination of the Osseus Key, the Clavis stratagem and some good rolling dealt a total of 10 wounds to the Knight, killing it outright. What.

 

Despite stratagems and rerolls the Knight did not blow up, and now there was a sliver of hope. The flank was collapsing, and just maybe my two remaining marines could go on a guard-slaying tour with the Watch Master. Then the remaining three Death Riders charged the Watch Master, their drugged up horses doing what the Knight couldn't and stomping him into the ground before just barely consolidating into the two remaining frag cannons. Game over. 

 

On a funny side note another highlight was his burrowing Hades drill charging what remained of my Razorback squad, only for the combi-melta to do 6 damage in overwatch which combined with the surviving bolter marine killed it. The enraged engineers then proceeded to beat the marines into the dirt for blowing up their favorite toy. 

 

CONCLUSIONS

My Watchmaster is the biggest badass this side of the Cicatrix Maledictum. I need to name him something suitably epic. 

Missile launchers/heavy bolters are mostly good for their stratagems. Those strategems really are quite good, however.

I have a Contemptor dread with lascannons coming in the mail in a few weeks, together with 10 SB vets. Can't wait to try them, I really need some more reliable anti-tank and dakka that is not frag cannons. 

[Delta.Skies]

So this week I had one game Monday and one Tuesday. Battle reports below:

 

MONDAY

First up was 1250pts vs Sisters of Battle. Heck of a game, very fun and tense. He had a brigade with 100% infantry, lots of heavy bolters and melta.

 

I get first turn and advance the vehicles up as usual, doing my best to stay out of range/LOS of some of the heavy hitters. Luckily the stalker squad pulled their weight and managed to kill a lot of Seraphim; flakk missile is awesome. Assault cannons took out a few models here or there but I was still looking down the field at a significant horde of angry warrior nuns. His first turn was mainly spent trying to blow up my vehicles and rolling horribly for his melta; my Razorback eventually died but it took way more effort than it should have. Turn two my marines jump out the Corvus and due to the way the objectives worked out the remnants of the Razorback squad have to walk straight into the killzone. It was properly cinematic; a handful of marines charging through the ruined streets with bolter fire raining down on them from the nearby buildings. I dealt quite a lot of damage, but there were a lot of bodies to get through. It all came down to my marines surviving his return fire to be able to really break through on the next turn. After an awful lot of heavy bolter shots the smoke cleared and a few marines were still standing. I imagine this is where the Sisters start sweating. 

 

Having closed the distance the frag cannons obliterated the stragglers while the Watch Master blasted his characters left and right. The lone sergeant of the Razorback squad, now nicknamed "Sly Marbo" for his uncanny ability to charge recklessly and survive against the odds, went running across the battlefield to secure an objective. The heavily damaged Corvus decided to go into hover mode and charge the remaining heavy bolter squad, the pilot ramming his aircraft into the building they were hiding in while shouting prayers to the Emperor. The Watchmaster was completely surrounded by a squad of sisters, shrugging of their blows before eviscerating them while the Dreadnought beat his warlord into the ground. I imagine sort of a "Loki and the Hulk"-scenario. In the end I came away with a 15-5 victory.

 

To be fair the dice gods were really with me in this one (or, more accurately, they were really not with my opponent) and I drew extremely well for the maelstrom objectives, so in a way the victory feels a little hollow but a win is a win. Extremely fun and cinematic game though, went the full 5 turns and there were some crucial turning points were a few lucky rolls one way or the other could have decided it. 10/10 would play again. 

 

TUESDAY

Here I was up against a beautiful army consisting of Death Korps and a Knight Castellan, 1500pts in total. I was severely outnumbered, and frankly outgunned, but that wouldn't stop me from trying to do some damage. Plan was to crush one flank and hope to have enough left to clean up the rest. 

 

He seized the initiative and his knight did loads and loads of damage as expected, putting something ridiculous like 28 damage onto the Razorback with his big volcano cannon on turn one. Boom. The Corvus went flying in on what was almost certainly a suicide mission (Flight of the Valkyries was probably playing somewhere in the background) with the plan to unload a kill team next his Mortars, warlord and – more importantly – knight. The bikers proved a point that horses are quite frankly obsolete in the 41st millennium as they charged the Death Riders and chopped most of them down before sadly being blown up by plasma Scions dropping in behind them. The Corvus died as expected, but that put my Osseus Key-carrying badass of a Watch Master right next to the titan. Just as planned (?). 

 

Next was quite frankly some of the most ridiculous combat I've seen in my short 40k-career. The Watchmaster tanked the knight trying to tap dance all over him before dealing something like 9 wounds back. The kill team did the best they could – bless their hearts – but couldn't seem to scratch the titanic armoured toes. They promptly fell back on the next turn and fried some guardsmen instead. The Watch Master however stayed in combat and through a combination of the Osseus Key, the Clavis stratagem and some good rolling dealt a total of 10 wounds to the Knight, killing it outright. What.

 

Despite stratagems and rerolls the Knight did not blow up, and now there was a sliver of hope. The flank was collapsing, and just maybe my two remaining marines could go on a guard-slaying tour with the Watch Master. Then the remaining three Death Riders charged the Watch Master, their drugged up horses doing what the Knight couldn't and stomping him into the ground before just barely consolidating into the two remaining frag cannons. Game over. 

 

On a funny side note another highlight was his burrowing Hades drill charging what remained of my Razorback squad, only for the combi-melta to do 6 damage in overwatch which combined with the surviving bolter marine killed it. The enraged engineers then proceeded to beat the marines into the dirt for blowing up their favorite toy. 

 

CONCLUSIONS

My Watchmaster is the biggest badass this side of the Cicatrix Maledictum. I need to name him something suitably epic. 

Missile launchers/heavy bolters are mostly good for their stratagems. Those strategems really are quite good, however.

I have a Contemptor dread with lascannons coming in the mail in a few weeks, together with 10 SB vets. Can't wait to try them, I really need some more reliable anti-tank and dakka that is not frag cannons. 

 

Well this was exciting to read. :)

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

exalt .

[vigitant]

Badass, man.  I love taking the Osseus key vs shooty knights.  3d3 mortal for 2 cp, and a -1 to hit aura?  yes please.

[Ceranidian]

Hi Internet, long time no talk. How've you been?

 

Been traveling with work for the last two weeks or so but finally got another game in, this time 1000pts vs Space Marines. Same guy who crushed me my first game and caused me to start this topic in the first place so I was hungry for revenge.

 

Some new additions to the collection made for a pretty strong list:

Watch Master

Jump Captain

8 Vets with SB, 4x SS + 1 VV

5 Vets, 2x Stalker, 2x HB, 1x ML

5 Vets with bolters, 1x SS, 1xPS, 1x Xeno

TAC Razorback

Contemptor Morris with 2x TLC

 

He brought lots of Primaris and a Redemptor, all Raven Guard.

 

I got first turn and through a combination of good play and good rolls did some serious damage. The Contemptor crippled his Redemptor and I actually got to use Orbital Bombardment to great effect, hitting almost his entire army since he had huddled up in a building. Take that, 2+ save!

 

He didn't do much back apart from plinking some wounds off the RB, and then the SB Vets dropped in with the Captain and just started kicking ass and taking names. By the end of turn three I had tabled him.

 

This feels like a fitting end to the saga of my early 40k career. Sure, I rolled well and my opponent's army might have been a little sub-optimal but I put myself in a position to capitalize on the good rolls and mitigate the bad ones. I shot what I could kill, remembered the rules (apart from the LoHK reroll, damnit) and pulled off some pretty nice moves including one where my SB Vets consolidated to surround a lone survivor and lock him in combat to avoid return fire (he ended up dying to morale anyways, but the idea was solid).

 

Thus concludes the journey from stomped to stomper and I feel this thread has run its course. Thank you for all the great advice for this inexperienced Watch Master. Purge the xenos, for the Emperor!

[Lemondish]

Hi Internet, long time no talk. How've you been?

 

Been traveling with work for the last two weeks or so but finally got another game in, this time 1000pts vs Space Marines. Same guy who crushed me my first game and caused me to start this topic in the first place so I was hungry for revenge.

 

Some new additions to the collection made for a pretty strong list:

Watch Master

Jump Captain

8 Vets with SB, 4x SS + 1 VV

5 Vets, 2x Stalker, 2x HB, 1x ML

5 Vets with bolters, 1x SS, 1xPS, 1x Xeno

TAC Razorback

Contemptor Morris with 2x TLC

 

He brought lots of Primaris and a Redemptor, all Raven Guard.

 

I got first turn and through a combination of good play and good rolls did some serious damage. The Contemptor crippled his Redemptor and I actually got to use Orbital Bombardment to great effect, hitting almost his entire army since he had huddled up in a building. Take that, 2+ save!

 

He didn't do much back apart from plinking some wounds off the RB, and then the SB Vets dropped in with the Captain and just started kicking ass and taking names. By the end of turn three I had tabled him.

 

This feels like a fitting end to the saga of my early 40k career. Sure, I rolled well and my opponent's army might have been a little sub-optimal but I put myself in a position to capitalize on the good rolls and mitigate the bad ones. I shot what I could kill, remembered the rules (apart from the LoHK reroll, damnit) and pulled off some pretty nice moves including one where my SB Vets consolidated to surround a lone survivor and lock him in combat to avoid return fire (he ended up dying to morale anyways, but the idea was solid).

 

Thus concludes the journey from stomped to stomper and I feel this thread has run its course. Thank you for all the great advice for this inexperienced Watch Master. Purge the xenos, for the Emperor!

Good show!

[Azaiel]

Just read thru this whole thread, thanks for sharing your battlereports Ceranidian and everyone else sharing their thoughts.

[Delta.Skies]

Just read thru this whole thread, thanks for sharing your battlereports Ceranidian and everyone else sharing their thoughts.

I'm with you this was thoroughly enjoyable to read and learn. Wish it didnt end. And kinda wanna see it keep going with everybody with everyone coming together as a collective unit