2 Quick Games: WS vs. Xenos

[Prot]

I played two games in the past 3 days with the White Scars, and this time the points would be accurate.

My first game was against the might Necrons. Again I made a huge mistake in getting too far away from my Warlord which was a Primaris Chaplain on a bike, and I just about lost him in the Necron's turn 1 !

So here's how it looks when you do something really stupid:

What actually happened here is I had first turn, and I completely engaged the Necrons on the right side of the board with my Warsuit, and Incursors. This sounded great, so I went all in with my traditional bike squad and the Chaplain was all of the sudden on his own!

My Bikes with hammer DID get that charge in on the heavy Necron tank (I always forget the name... the big cannon in it.) And his 6 man squad of Wraiths. I get one Wraith dead... then his turn happens...

I do next to nothing, but I have the Necrons very bound up in CC, however in his turn I totally forgot the Wraiths could Phase out of CC, right through me, and re-engage another unit. (I remembered they could phase, I completely forgot about the re-engage part.)

So his shooting is minimal, this set the tone for the game and on my far left flank I largely avoided him because he had 2 nasty HQ's and a blob of Lychguard!

In his assault phase, he takes his Destroyer lord with Relic CC weapon and wants to go first against my Invictor Warsuit. I actually tell my opponent not to do that because my Chaplain is my warlord, and has a 3 + Invuln.

He ignores my advice (those arrogant robots!) and doesn't even kill the Warsuit, then I interrupt with the chaplain and this happens:

- I kill one before it strikes. He fails to kill my Chaplain as a result, and actually we rolled out the scenario if he would have went first, and I would have died!

- This set the tone for the game. His heavy Destroyers got locked in by my Outriders, and his shooting was never able to compensate for my early rush so I had the table to myself for nearly the whole game.

- Of note, I Encircled a squad of 10 Assault Intercessors, which assaulted his 2 HQ's and 10 Lychguard.... while a squad of Hammer-sessors with character re-rolls just butchered them. That's when he called it... I got Anrakyr, his Cyrptek, and about 7 Lychguard before he could swing.

Crazy game, White Scars have a big win.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Next game vs GSC:

Getting my Indomitus box allowed me to throw in a few new units which included a squad of Blade Guard, and the Judicar... which wasn't bad.

So I put those new units in, took out traditional bikes, but in two squads of Outriders instead of 1, and we rolled off with the GSC opting to give me first turn. which I hate, because I always like going second against GSC.

- In this game I did something quite different for me: I pulled the Libby for the new Indomitus Lt. I just roll so many 1's to wound this felt like a reasonable trade off.

I used even more CP pre game to make my Apothecary a master or whatever it's called.... so he can roll twice. I get sick of my Dr.Nick Apothecary just doing squat all game. In this game he would resurrect one dead Outrider, and heal another for 2 health... that's it. I still don't know if he's worth it.

- The game was clearly in his favour for the first while as you can see I'm in a position I hate to be in with White Scars: completely huddled up defensively in my quarter (we played a new Incursion Mission from the Tournament booklet).

- He came in all over the place as usual, and I lost a fair chunk. Model wise it didn't look devastating, but he appears out of no where with those nasty Ridgrunners and other vehicles.

- My first turn I score a big fat zero, and he starts with 7 points (since primaries can't be scored in T1).

- It's time for me to get daring... I pull a huge move all over the board, and spread too thin probably, but I get lucky with my 10 man Assault Intercessors and take out a pile of Mortars, and GSC infantry with lasers. That happened deep in his zone. While on the other quarter in his zone, I come in with my 3 Plasma Ceptors and the Eradicators. They do okay, not great. My Eradicators never seem to really do a ton... I did a total of 3 damage on a vehicle, but the Plasmaceptors probably killed a vehicle themselves.

- It looks like I have the upper hand, and he comes in with all his infantry now and really I thought he had this won... I lost too many bikes, and infantry in my zone and here he was dropping in with close combat stuff... crazy. I lost more infantry, and a Warsuit.

- My turn is still good, but only deep in his zone and i'm running out of 'chaff' to protect characters as usual.....

- He's ready to concede though because he doesn't think he can pull it back..... I convince him to continue and two squads of bikers, one within 3" gets to do that satchel bomb trick on my squads, and he rolls terribly for the amount of bombs.... really I think his rolling cooked his chances.

- My turn is just me cobbling together enough shots to get rid of the GSC which are largely T3 at this point, and I get his Patriarch with my Plasmaceptors....we call the game with another WS win.... even though I think this game pretty much hung in the balance on his T3 and he just got very unlucky because if I would have lost half the models he targeted, I would have nothing left but assault Intercessors and characters.

Anyway, the new stuff is okay. I'm not sold on the Judicar, he did come in handy once pretty much saving a 2 man squad of Outriders by pointing at the GSC and saying 'you're going last'. That was about it though.

The Blade Guard do hit hard, no doubt with Re-rolls it's big. However I don't think they're worth it over just more bodies... obsec bodies.

The LT was cool and quite handy with all the 1's I roll, however it's hard to live with pulling out my Libby with those great WS psychic abilities!

[Lemondish]

Great insights!

 

So I noticed you had mentioned you spent a CP to upgrade the Apothecary. Have you tried Father of the Future with him? A 6+ FNP seems like a good tool for multi-wound infantry/biker units.

[WGXH]

Great stuff as usual, Prot.

 

I find the Bladeguard to work best as a unit to push enemies off of their objective rather than secure your own. Carefully guarding an Apothecary who, as you tried, heal one and bring back another each turn, combined with a good armour save means they are very effective at dealing with all but the most dedicated threats in melee- poor rolls not withstanding. The way I always choose to look at this guy is you mentioned he brought back an Outrider and healed for 2 wounds-  at 45 points per model at 4 wounds, that's at least 3 he returned- for an estimated 33 point return- roughly half his cost? This only gets better with more elite infantry being brought back.

 

Your gaming experiences show that speed being key to our success- spreading out and losing units to gain points isn't always the worst thing!

[Prot]

First off, thanks very much for reading the reports.. it makes it worthwhile even if only a few people find it helpful. I guess I'm just trying to spread some experience around based on the fact I'm fortunate enough to get some games in when I know many are not able to....

 

Great insights!

So I noticed you had mentioned you spent a CP to upgrade the Apothecary. Have you tried Father of the Future with him? A 6+ FNP seems like a good tool for multi-wound infantry/biker units.

 

 

Thanks. This is the first time I upgraded the Apothecary. The thing is since 9th dropped, my Chaplain has been my Warlord gaining the Warlord Trait Master Orater, and then the 3++ relic. Then I put a second relic the list, and usually end up with a second warlord trait to grab "Master of Snares". I just find it so useful even in 9th. 

 

So by the time I upgrade the Apothecary, and put 1-2 units in "Encirclement", I'm left with about 7 CP ! And no way of farming. I find this army extremely CP dependent.... during the game those bonus charges, and bonus saves for advancing bikes, etc. It's just so important and I largely feel like without those special Strats, the army can feel like 'regular' marines pretty much. (That turn 3 never comes fast enough!)

 

On the other hand the Apothecary FINALLY did something! Yet at the same time he is often just protecting HQ's and Blade Guard in this case because I find White Scars are so spread out.. it's really hard to keep him safe, and have him actually bringing models back on that 4+.

 

Something has to go though. I am breaking my own hard learned rule of 'not too many HQ's'. They add a lot of fun, character and depth to the army, but wow do they dilute the power of the White Scars to be a table wide threat, and in return they become so incredibly hard to protect.

 

The new Primaris LT was good. The LT is really a mini-beat stick in his own right. And he helps a lot in all those Auto Bolters trying to wound high Toughness targets...The Judicar has one role: making something horrific go last, but it worked so well. It's a very hard decision. 

 

All I know is I can't take the Khan nor the Chaplain on Bike out. They are vital.

 

Great stuff as usual, Prot.

 

I find the Bladeguard to work best as a unit to push enemies off of their objective rather than secure your own. Carefully guarding an Apothecary who, as you tried, heal one and bring back another each turn, combined with a good armour save means they are very effective at dealing with all but the most dedicated threats in melee- poor rolls not withstanding. The way I always choose to look at this guy is you mentioned he brought back an Outrider and healed for 2 wounds-  at 45 points per model at 4 wounds, that's at least 3 he returned- for an estimated 33 point return- roughly half his cost? This only gets better with more elite infantry being brought back.

 

Your gaming experiences show that speed being key to our success- spreading out and losing units to gain points isn't always the worst thing!

 

Thanks again. I completely agree about the Bladeguard. What a great bully unit. This was my first game using them. To be honest though, I doubt I would use them differently against GSC. I play against GSC a lot, and typically they are just dying for you to separate your forces, and dissect your own zone, piece by piece. I hated going first in this one, and would have loved to be more aggressive earlier rather than later, but you have no idea what you're facing on the table for location against GSC until they 'pop out'. 

 

A lot of the GSC units hit frighteningly hard, but if you can take the brunt of them, they will fade hard when you retaliate. Luckily even an Assault Intercessor is a very good match up vs all that T3. 

 

That said, when the GSC did pull off their charge rolls, with all that jankery.... Often their targets were dead. This is acceptable, but forces me to play with very careful spacing of units in my zone for turns 1-2. Like I said, I started with zero points after turn 1, but my turns 3-4 had me maximizing primary, and some secondaries. 

 

Ironic that the patient hunter in this match up usually does better. ;)

 

I'm sure I'll get my butt handed to me next time. I might be talking like I know what I'm doing, but I digress... his dice rolling in turn 3 was completely below average. 

 

But yes, if I keep the bladeguard, I will be far more aggressive with them. They are taking an Impulsor slot from me though with some characters, and a dead vehicle with casualty rolling is such a scary prospect with no re-rolls and being full of expensive stuff!

 

Thanks again for checking it out.

[WGXH]

 

Great stuff as usual, Prot.

 

I find the Bladeguard to work best as a unit to push enemies off of their objective rather than secure your own. Carefully guarding an Apothecary who, as you tried, heal one and bring back another each turn, combined with a good armour save means they are very effective at dealing with all but the most dedicated threats in melee- poor rolls not withstanding. The way I always choose to look at this guy is you mentioned he brought back an Outrider and healed for 2 wounds-  at 45 points per model at 4 wounds, that's at least 3 he returned- for an estimated 33 point return- roughly half his cost? This only gets better with more elite infantry being brought back.

 

Your gaming experiences show that speed being key to our success- spreading out and losing units to gain points isn't always the worst thing!

 

Thanks again. I completely agree about the Bladeguard. What a great bully unit. This was my first game using them. To be honest though, I doubt I would use them differently against GSC. I play against GSC a lot, and typically they are just dying for you to separate your forces, and dissect your own zone, piece by piece. I hated going first in this one, and would have loved to be more aggressive earlier rather than later, but you have no idea what you're facing on the table for location against GSC until they 'pop out'. 

 

A lot of the GSC units hit frighteningly hard, but if you can take the brunt of them, they will fade hard when you retaliate. Luckily even an Assault Intercessor is a very good match up vs all that T3. 

 

That said, when the GSC did pull off their charge rolls, with all that jankery.... Often their targets were dead. This is acceptable, but forces me to play with very careful spacing of units in my zone for turns 1-2. Like I said, I started with zero points after turn 1, but my turns 3-4 had me maximizing primary, and some secondaries. 

 

Ironic that the patient hunter in this match up usually does better.

 

I'm sure I'll get my butt handed to me next time. I might be talking like I know what I'm doing, but I digress... his dice rolling in turn 3 was completely below average. 

 

But yes, if I keep the bladeguard, I will be far more aggressive with them. They are taking an Impulsor slot from me though with some characters, and a dead vehicle with casualty rolling is such a scary prospect with no re-rolls and being full of expensive stuff!

 

Thanks again for checking it out.

 

I get what you are saying about taking losses- I find in my experience that my infantry just fold with a few survivors to run interference to allow the Impulsors to cap VP. Then if they make it to turn 3...