Regular Dakkanaut
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So this week I did not get a chance to play against a top marine list as I had wanted. Due to time and logistics my opponent was a great guy and a real gentleman who likes to play for fun not for competition. I on the other hand was trying to refine a tournament list. So I showed him my list in advance and asked him to create an army to beat it specifically.
This is what he came up with.
HQ
Iron Father w Servo Harness, Iron Halo, Bionics, T honors.
4 Servitors, 1 Plas Canon, 2 H Bolters.
Troops
Tac Squad 10, Rocket, Flamer,
Vet Sarge, T honors, T Armor, P Fist, Storm Bolter, Bionics, Auspex
Tac Squad 10, Rocket, Flamer,
Vet Sarge, T honors, T Armor, P Fist, Bionics, Combi Plasma, Auspex
Tac Squad 10, H Bolter, Plasma Gun,
Vet Sarge, T honors, T Armor, P Fist, Bionics, Storm Bolter, Auspex
Scouts 8.
Fast Attack
2 Land speeder tornados
Heavy
Dev Squad 10, 3 H Bolters, Plasma Cannon.
Vet Sarge, P fist, Bionics, Auspex
Dev Squad 10, 4 rockets
Vet Sarge, P fist, Bionics, Auspex
I asked him about his list after the game and his reasoning was that he could use a huge volume of regular bolters and storm bolters on my non EC stealers and then use the Super Sarges to actually win HtH combat. The scouts where to act as a speed bump that would cause me to lag a squad (Unfortunately the scenario did not allow infiltrate.). As I did not review his list before the game I did not make any suggestions for him to change it.
My list
Hive Tyrant
Enhanced Senses
Catalyst
Toxin Sacs
Venom Cannon
Barbed Strangler
Total 167
Hive Tyrant
Enhanced Senses
Toxin Sacs
Venom Cannon
Barbed Strangler
Total 157
Carnifex
Enhanced Senses
Venom Cannon
Barbed Strangler
Total 148
Carnifex
Enhanced Senses
Venom Cannon
Barbed Strangler
Total 148
Carnifex
Enhanced Senses
Venom Cannon
Barbed Strangler
Total 148
8 Gene Stealers w Scuttle 152
8 Gene Stealers w Scuttle 152
8 Gene Stealers w Scuttle 152
8 Gene Stealers w Scuttle 152
8 Gene Stealers w Scuttle 152
9 Gene Stealers w Scuttle 171
Grand Total 1699
I am currently play testing this list seeing if I really need to armor up the stealers and the MC’s or if increased numbers count for more.
Scenario is hidden deployment loot counters with no other no special rules.
Terrain was set by a neutral party and consisted of a series of low hills and 2 bunkers in each dep zone. 2 low hills and one large strange terrain piece on my left flank in the no mans zone made up of a lot of orange spheres.
We declare all low hills to be 5+ cover and the bunkers to be 4+. We declare the large piece in the no mans zone to be 5+.
For some reason there were only 2 loot counters. My opponent places out in the open on my right and I place one in the middle of the large piece of area terrain on my left.
Both sides draw a map of the board and indicate where they will deploy.
I elect to put my 3 Heavy fexs in the middle of my deployment zone with 4+ cover.
I put all 6 squads of gene stealers on my left side and my 2 Rants behind cover on the left corner.
My opponent places his marines in a row across the board with dev squads anchoring each corner. His right Devs (my left, and across from my stealers) are the missile launchers his left Devs luckily are the HB’s.
He is unable to infiltrate his scout marines and places them on his right (my left) screening his right side devs
He places both land speeders behind cover on his right flank, basically behind his devs.
I scuttle all my stealers forward most getting in behind the large piece of area terrain that contains one of the loot counters.
I get lucky and win first turn.
Turn 1 Me.
I manage to move the majority of my force onto the Orange terrain piece giving just about all of them 5+ cover. Move through cover and fleet rolls are both good putting my stealers within 12 inches of his scouts and one of his tac squads.
I move my rants up on my left and leave my fex’s standing in cover.
Shooting manages to pin his missile launcher dev squad and kill 6 or 8 marines in various squads.
Turn 1 Him.
Enemy movement is minimal as he takes his land speeders out of cover to blast my stealers and advances a tac squad to try to get some flamer action.
Enemy shooting is largely futile, his speeders take out 7 stealers and his combined flamers, bolters from 3 full squads and heavy bolters manage to kill 10 more. He also manages to land a single wound on a fex. (I lose at total of 17 stealers). All partial squads make leadership and do not break.
Turn 2 Me.
Stealers rush forward.
Fexs stand still, rants walk up into the large terrain piece to claim 1 loot counter.
Shooting manages to bring the missile dev squad down to 2 men and they lose moral. They run back 5 inches and, being marines, auto rally. Further shooting kills 3 or 4 more marines in different squads.
A walk rant manages to stun one of the land speeders.
A rant performs catalyst on one stealer squad assaulting the marine scout squad.
Fleet + Assault brings squads of stealers into contact with the enemies scouts, a tac squad and his land speeders.
The assault round of course favors the stealers. The scouts lose 5 men but kill 3 stealers, (catalyst pays for itself right here). The scouts stay to fight.
The Tac squad loses all but one marine and the terminator vet sarg. At -4 to moral they still manage to pass and stick.
The second land speeder gets stunned in HtH, meaning neither can fire next turn.
Turn 2 Him
The Land speeders move 24” along his table edge towards my right.
The tac squads not engaged start to move away from the stealers so as not to get swept.
The 2 missile launchers stand their ground to blast the tightly packed squad of stealers that had assaulted the land speeders last turn.
Shooting accomplishes little. His missile launchers use frag and hit 8 stealers however insanely bad wound rolls mean only 1 dies.
Heavy bolter devs have no stealers in line of sight and thus fire futilely against my fexs causing no wounds. Plasma Canons fail to wound as well. The tac squads not in HtH have moved and have no targets in range.
HtH sees my stealers wipe out his scouts and his tac squad. Both get good sweeping advances and stand a good chance of getting into two more of his tac squads.
Turn 3 Me.
Well this is basically over except for the shouting.
Stealers move on to his remaining 2 missile marines.
More stealers move into his tac squads.
Rants advance onto the left loot counter.
Fexs move out of cover towards the right loot counter.
Rants shoot the speeders and take out an assault cannon on each and stun one as well.
Fex’s concentrate fire on the HB dev squad and knock it down to 2 men who flee 4 inches then rally.
Assault brings death to the 2 remaining missile devs. One Tac squad takes 33 gene stealer attacks and is reduced to the Termie Sarg (Termi sarges are tough but only really serve to give my stealers a place to hide during his turn). The Sarg bravely fights on.
Turn 3 Him.
My opponent gamely fought on, but had nothing really to shoot at me. My stealers overran his Tech Marine commander and my shooting finished off his speeders. Over then next two turns I wiped him out completely and moved my fexs forward to claim the second loot counter.
At Games end I had lost 24 stealers and had 1 wound on a fex.
Final Thoughts
This unfortunately was not a great test for my army. The cover on the left of the board gave my stealers a direct highway into his ranks so his large volume of bolter fire was not terribly effective.
Super Sarges with Bionics and Termie armor only served to survive the initial assault and provide HtH cover for my stealers on his turn.
I managed to pin the most important anti horde squad early in the game.
Plates do indeed seem fairly ineffective against Marines, but the one round of pinning and the ability to fire from hard cover into just about any point in his ranks made up for it.
The walk rants where able to ensure the land speeders only got 1 round of fire the entire game and eventually killed both of them (This is something a Dakka Dakka Wing Rant could not have done with his limited range).
Next week I hope to play Chen, who has a real top tier marine list.
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