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Shep and I were able to get in two action packed this games weekend to kick off the Sprue Posse's Planetary Empires campaign. Shep spent some time over the last couple of weeks painting up the planetary empires tiles to match his home board and Vostroyans - it looks pretty sweet. We did our territories last week at paint night - for those of you who don't know, in Planetary Empires different territories give you different bonuses which explains some of the inequities in our lists - and my USRs.

I once again brought the my Crimson Fists bikers with a couple of minor tweaks just to fill in some points - which of course I completely forgot to use (auxillary grenade launcher, I am looking at you).

1750 Crimson Fists Harriers
Captain Vaqaero (Artificer Armor, Aux Grenade Launcher, Hellfire Rounds)

8 Bikes (MM Attack Bike, 2x Plasma, Power Fist)
8 Bikes (MM Attack Bike, 2x Plasma, Power Fist)
8 Bikes (MM Attack Bike, 2x Melta, Power Fist)
5 Scouts (Power Fist, Missile Launcher) -- STEALTH USR
5 Scouts (Power Fist, Heavy Bolter)

3 Typhoon Speeders -- SCOUTS USR
LS Storm (Heavy Flamer)
LS Storm (Heavy Flamer)

To be honest, I am not really sure what was in Shep's list - hopefully he will fill in gaps.

1900 Imperial Guard
Colonel Rufus "Roofie" Valyonev
Command Squad with stuff

PCS in Chimera
Big Blob (3 Lascannons, probably more stuff)
Vet Squad in Chimera (Meltas and a thing or two)
Psyker Battle Squad in Chimera (9?)
Vet Squad in Vendetta
Vendetta
Valkyrie
Medusa (bastion breachers)
Medusa (bastion breachers)
Executioner

Pregame and Turns 1 and 2



We rolled up a Pitched Battle Annihilation and Shep won the roll to go first. He deployed in a Castle formation in the corner. I chose to keep everything off table and not Combat Squad anything since it was a kill points game. One of my squads came on on the far left and turboboosted. The other moved on 12" and took some shots at the Vendetta but failed to do anything. The HB scouts moved on the far side and took up position behind a wrecked vehicle. One of the Storms also came on the same side of the table (both outflanked) at full speed to try and draw some fire off the Bikes.

Turns 3 and 4
Shep concetrated fire on the unit which had shot at him since they didn't have a cover save. He killed enough for a morale check and then the Psykers ensured that they failed. I rolled a 16 and just like that, basically a third of my army was gone. He also did some shooting at the storm and destroyed its weapon, it would spend the rest of the game far away and moving fast.



All of the Crimson Fists reserves bar the Typhoons came on turn 3. The missile launcher scouts stealthed their way into a copse of trees on the right side and would spend the rest of the game missing with their missile launcher. Having learned the error of my ways, both units of bikes turbo boosted onto the table. The Storm came on the right side as well and its heavy flamer got side armor on 2 chimeras and destroyed one of them in a spectacular explosion which killed 7 of the passengers. The survivors were pinned but passed their morale.



In return Shep wreaked vengeance upon the speeder, destroying it in equally spectacular fashion. He also hit the "command" squad and forced it to fall back, but it obviously stayed on the table though the Captain took 2 wounds as he failed both of the wounds I sloughed over onto him.

The Typhoons finally showed up on Turn 4 and destroyed the psykers Chimera and killed a couple of them, but they held.



Turn 5
And just like that it was turn 5. This also happened to be the turn that Shep decided to quit toying with me and he wiped out all the Typhoons and the squad with the Captain. A quick glance at the table showed me that there was no way I could catch up on kill points so I conceeded before being tabled.

After Action Review
Well, this fight was always going to be tough - Shep had 150 points on me with IG - never a position one wants. However, I also made a couple of absolutely critical errors. It was a very good learning experience. The most devastating error I made was in not combat squadding the bikes. It is almost a knee jerk reaction - KP = no Combat Squad. All that succeeded in allowing me to do was to pick up 9 models at a time instead of 5. It was horrible. The other screw up was to scout my Typhoons instead of a bike squad. I was thinking that it would be nice to get side armor shots at long range with the missile launchers, but ultimately, that only let me hit one unit at a time. Had I combat squadded a scouting bike unit I could have potentially earned 4 kill points on the turn they arrived (pop Chimera, charge unit inside). So, although it was a crushing defeat it was very good for learning my army.

Hall of Heroes
The Land Speeder Storm getting off 2 side armor shots with the heavy flamer and making Shep grumble.

Wall of Shame
My generalship.

Honored Foes
That Psyker Battle Squad is awful. I hate it with a burning passion. It isn't OP, just annoying and perfect in an IG army.

Quick reply with my list

CCS 4x melta chimera hull HF

9 psykers in chimera hull HF

vets 3x meltas 1x autocannon chimera hull HF

vets 3x meltas 1x autocannon chimera hull HF

PCS 4x melta
infantry squad lascannon commissar
infantry squad lascannon
infantry squad lascannon

vendetta with heavy bolters

vendetta with heavy bolters

medusa with bastion breachers

medusa with bastion breachers

leman russ executioner with plasma cannon sponsons

Yea, regular reserves would have been fine for the Typhoons and them coming in at 48" range would be a bit safer I guess, maybe letting off some more frag missiles in the cluster of IG would be good.

What's the point of the storms if they are not delivering stuff into CC, you may have tied up something, they are not killing stuff that well to be caught out in the open too often.

Shep:
Very nice list.
I think the the hvy bolters on the vendetta are a bit of a luxury buy, but I guess it doesn't have to cry if it ever faces off against an all infantry list.

Cool game. I feel the dumb rush on the right flank would have been a preferable.
Sadly, a full reserve list means coming in piecemeal, not great vs. a IG castle.

I think putting some light pressure early on was not a good choice as you might have noted. Preferable to maximized durability, present a threat to the front of the castle and have stuff coming from behind to support them.

In addition, you may not have gotten close enough to use them, but did the thought of including some flamers on the bikes cross your mind?

The Hvy Flamer on the storm did well enough.

With the addition of storms, and scouts.... with lower points for not great USR.... vs. a IG list that seems very streamlined, seems like a uphill climb worse than the usual uphill climb for biker lists.

Anyway good to see a biker fight, can't wait to see the end result of the Planetary Empires thingy.

My 7 Cents.

Funny you should mention flamers - during our post game talks Shep and I both arrived at the conclusion that a unit of bikes with flamers would be a nice addition to my army.

To be honest, I wouldn't mind playing the exact same game with just assigning the USRs a bit differently and combat squadding just to see how it plays out.

I have discovered against Shep's IG that starting on the table is horrible - he does way to much damage and the PBS sees off whatever unit is most threatening.

nice report!

I always enjoy reading about Shep's IG, and today is no different!

Somnicide have you tried the all out bike rush against his guard? Ravenwing plays slightly different but I know I've demolished armored companies just rushing in with the bike's.

Brutal game... good report

Warmaster wrote:Somnicide have you tried the all out bike rush against his guard? Ravenwing plays slightly different but I know I've demolished armored companies just rushing in with the bike's.

Som's got a batrep against me that might even still be on the front page where tables this identical list (I didn't have an extra 150 and he didn't have extra USRs). For bikes the difference was dawn of war cap and control versus going second on a pitched annihilation. For cap and control I had to dedicate a little bit of maneuvering to pressure his objective (I refuse to play for a tie in a friendly game) and my first opportunity to shoot at them they were at the 50 yard line with a 3+ cover save. With no nightfight in play, and with me going first, my long range firepower actually counts for something. Had he deployed on the table combat squadded, I would have been able to spook one combat squad, all i have to do is kill one bike in the attack bike combat squad and pass a psychic test and their scooped. I'd probably just kill another unit with traditional shooting. Coming on piecemeal didn't help him at all, but I think the writing was on the wall. When you play a bike army with only a single unit of fire support and you pull a spearhead or pitched annihilation against a hybrid gunline, its peace out. I mean one of his kill points came from a heavy flamer penetrating and exploding a chimera! That was an instant trade. Everything that he had that scored a kill point I killed and took the KP back, and I got a couple of my own too.

However, in that last batrep where I was tabled, it was just a different situation. He took second turn on a dawn of war, and it was objective based, those changed conditions really had an impact. I should have castled in that deployment too, but I decided to deny scout storm charges by deploying in the center third of the table. That made it too easy to give me the bum's rush (and Som IS a bum...) I've got a lot less respect for scout charges, I know I can trade them a vehicle to pick up the storm and the scouts... unless they show up later in the game.

Ultimately, against my IG list, i agree that he needs to all out rush me. When he does, krak grenades and power fists start to factor in, along with the plasma and multi-melta, he gets easier side shots by being so close, and he's got his flamers in position for when his typhoons pop chimeras.

I have a serious respect for bike armies. Spiky learning curve, but each time Som figures a new trick out its power level jumps (One trick we've both learned is to keep your bikes as close to 23"/11" as possible until you've committed to assault) once he started doing that, and attacking the flanks of my army at those ranges, the number of guns i could bring to bear on the bikes dropped, and I started having a real hard time taking out bikes.

I whipped him pretty hard, but the decisions he made had a huge effect. He tried to pick at my flank (I only had one on the castle) But my deployment went from long range at the table edge to short range in the table center and my flank was anchored by a stubborn blob this time, and they just didn't care about bikes. Had he combat squadded, and just ran a "32 belly option" right up the gut, I would have certainly been saturated with targets. But trying to 'dance' was fatal this time.

... and now he knows!

Yeah I've got to think that when you see that psyker battle squad across from you, you have to combat squad with the bikers, it reduces their effectiveness a ton. It will also leave the biker player with a lot of one's or two's running around the table. And as we all know one biker might not kill a squad of guard but man will he lock in combat for a very long time against them. The blob is hard to counter I think. It's either going to need to be fragged by the typhoons or just suicidie a squad of bikes in there knowing that eventually they will kill the bikes. Either that or add the afore-mentioned flamers .

Either that or just field ravenwing . The more mechanized lists I see the more tempted I am to break them out of the boxes and play with them. They couldn't hold their own vs. the horde armies but do just fine vs. mech and other marine armies.

I'm going to a tournament this weekend and I think it will be my last run with the daemon armies for a little while so I'm reading through all of the batreps to see what looks interesting. I'm still liking guard I just think too many people are playing them right now. I might have to re-visit my thousand sons since the space wolves are coming out, that might be some nice thematic fighting.