So, in a bit of a switch up from my daemons (and to scratch a bike itch, as shep says) I have been working on an escalation style campaign with frequent lurker Gitsmack.
We are just starting out and our plan is 400 points a month for 5 months with 1 150pt month to get us up to 1750pts (so, basically, if one of us feels like slacking for a month we can just knock out a quick 150).
In addition to painting them up, at the end of each month we are gonna play a game or 3 to get some extra bonus points to see who is the overall winner. I got a special dispensation for month 1 to play an illegal list - you will see why when you see my list - otherwise all lists must be legal. For this first round I was required to combat squad my bikes to fake 2 troops choices. 400 points goes fast in a bike list.
We played 2 games at the start just to kind of get a feel for the rules and my bikers lost horribly in back to back Annihilation missions due to me overestimating my bikes in combat and totally misguessing ranges. Okay, enough waffling, here are the lists:
Templars of the Blood of Dorn (Templars Sanguine)
Captain on Bike
Bike squad (8 bikes, multimelta attack bike attached)
Gitsmack's Waaagh
Warboss with power klaw and attack squig
5 nobs
20 choppa boyz with power klaw nob
Game 3
We rolled up a Seize Ground (4 objectives) and had to fudge placement just a little bit because we were just playing on a 4x4 table. Deployment looked like this
I tried spreading out a bit and Gitsmack ran forward and spread out. I had some shooting but it was negligible thanks to the 4+ cover save. The nobs were moving up through the building on the left with his warboss. Turn 3 the green bastard got a 6" run and declared a Waaagh just getting into charge range of the group on the left. Fortunately for me the nobs and warboss were out of range.
The bikes took a wound but survived the charge - they were fortunate that the klaw nob was out of range even with my pile in move. They hung tight and waited for support which charged in. I won combat and knocked the orks down to 9 but they made the first of 3 boss pole leadership checks! They pinned the bikes in place long enough for the warboss to charge in.
At this point the game had swung back and forth a couple of times. I thought I had it til his boss pole kept them in place, he thought he had me but the warboss got tangled in terrain. I knocked it down to 2 orks but the bosspole killed the last one and left the nob there and the boss got the charge in on my captain (which was it's own unit now as it hadn't been within 2" of the other squad during a movement phase and his own bikes were wiped out)!
The bikes finished up the orks (having lost one full combat squad) and then turbo boosted across the table to a safe objective. Against all odds, the captain hit three times and caused three wounds and he then failed all three saves! It was a mighty show of combat prowess by the captain. The unit of nobs, however, was unimpressed and killed him and then consolidated toward the closes objective. They were a half inch short. The game didn't end until 6, however, giving the nobs a chance to take the objective. Game 3 ends in a draw, 1 objective to 1 objective.
Game 4
Obviously the same lists were used. We rolled up Capture and Control and each placed our objectives as shown. I decided to try something a bit different this time and broke the captain off for a cunnin' plan. I gave Gitsmack first turn and he advanced as shown.
I shifted off to the left and fired a couple of shots into the orks making sure I was outside of 18". It didn't do much damage but it made them mad. The captain fired a couple of shots at the nob unit and took a wound off of one.
After this move it was time to put the plan into effect. The captain revved his engine and, using the wrecked chimera as a makeshift ramp he jumped the stacked sandbags. He landed hard (took a wound from the dangerous terrain) but he was on the far flank. The other units of bikes both moved as far forward towards the orks as possible and unleashed bolter hell before charging in to clean up the orks. Not even the boss pole could help hold the line and the las surviving couple of orks broke and were ridden down.
Meanwhile, the captain charged Gitsmack and his bodyguard of nobs from the extreme right flank forcing their countercharge move to bring them further from the boyz (just in case, I wanted to make sure that they would get no support).
The captain directed all of his attacks against the warboss hoping for a repeat performance, but gitsmack was having none of that and with a mighty sweep of his klaw knocked the captain off of his bike.
In the following turn I zipped one of my bike units over to claim the other objective and began to fire long range shots at the nobs. Without the support of the other unit Gitsmack realized that the bikers would not let him get close and would just whittle his unit down at range and conceded the game, giving me my first win with the bikers.
On the one hand, I ended the first month will all of my models painted on time but a record of 1-2-1. Gitsmack, on the other hand, had a better winning record but hadn't finished his painting.
Next month I am thinking of adding a librarian and another full squad but with a heavy bolter attack bike. Either that or a naked command squad and 5 bikes. Both end up being exactly 400 points and I will want both in my eventual army. Any suggestions? The other thing I was thinking was 5 bikes and 2 scout bike squads.
