Welcome to game 13 of the blood conquers series. To view other battle reports in this series, click
here.
Sorry for no apocalypse report as indicated last time, but I was feeling sick over the end of last week and the early part of the weekend. The
apoc game counted as the divider between the two halves of our team tournament. This side is the same as the last one, except its with fixed teams. My team mate was someone who has had experience with tyranid and was trying out his first non-horde army for the first time.
THE CHALLENGERS: rokkin the chaos!
CHAOS SPACE MARINES
500 pts.
Lord of KHORNE!!!!!
- with demon weapon
CSM with mark of KHORNE!!!!
CSM with mark of Tzeentch
SPACE MARINES
500 pts.
Chaplain
2
tac squads with lascannons, fists
THE DEFENDERS: CHAAAAAAAAA-
SPACE MARINES (Spiky Wolves)
500 pts.
Grimnar
6 terminators predominantly with power/frost weapons and assorted weapons/shields
IMPERIAL GUARD (me)
500 pts.
CCS with melta
PCS with melta
PCS with flamers
2 power blobs
The mission this time was seize ground. The only difference was that one player got "scouts" and "infiltrate" for all their units and the other got a universal 5++ invul save. As my partner only brought terminators, I took the 5++ while my partner took scouts. The regular marine player took the 5++ and the chaos player took scouts. We rolled spearhead, and I roll for first turn and take it so that I can horde 2 of the 3 objectives on our side of the board.
At deployment, the field looked like this:
So, the basic strategy for this is going to be to defend out two objectives. His stuff scouted forward, but had to stay outside of 12", which means we should be able to get the charge on them instead of them on us. With all the close combat power we're bringing to the table, it shouldn't be too much of an issue to at least bog everything down while my PCSs sit pretty on the objectives.
TURN 1
Report concerning the action on: Ocheian 9
Daxos Line
Warfare having gone well over the past week, and with many advances past our original consolidation having proved successful, our forces were finally able to free themselves of the ruined fortifications in which we had been fighting and punch through towards the city itself. Our enemies had instigated a full-scale retreat to set up new defensive positions within the city itself.
Carried on by our momentum, we were given immediate orders to begin to clear the areas surrounding the city. With what little I had of my line, now stretched many miles behind me, I successfully seized and occupied a farm field near a key road leading into the city's flank. This secured, I planted my colors and waited for the rest of my men to arrive.
I spent the time in study, including a saucy field manual entitled "how to win a battle" by B. Dragos Flonkstatian IV. It was during this time that I met up with some most intimidating of astartes who agreed to hold my position with me.
It was not long until we saw trouble creeping up on us. It seemed our foes had discovered our position and set out to retake it before reinforcements had arrived. We would just have to see about that!
The game begins with us off against some dudes who had infiltrated and then scout moved very nearby.
(that's right, Raust is shouting orders at the terminators)
Without the threat of outflanking
MoK marines, I start by moving my blob squad up away from the table edge more towards the action. My opponent moves forward slightly. I warn him not to get within 12" so that we can charge in the next turn, my partner insists that it's fine because his whole squad gets countercharge. Leery, I let him continue.
Shooting consists of a very rare bout of
FRFSRF (I actually SHOT my bayonet-holders!). Something like 30 shots puts down a few wounds on the khornites, but only one fails their armor test. Meanwhile, there are an awful lot of stormbolter shots that the khornites make every armor save against. With our firepower proving ineffectual, the turn ends.
After this point the field looked like this:
In our opponents turn, they brought in their left flank to hide it behind the wall. Meanwhile, everything else charged in.
With great and stalwart resolve, my astartes ally stood firm against the sudden onslaught of the enemy. Like a rock braced against so many ocean waves, they crashed upon him, leaving him unmoved by their power. Despite blood curdling screams by the denizens of the realms of chaos and corruption, the mighty warrior lifted his weapon to crash it down most thunderously against his foes. A grand sight if ever one was seen!
The whole affair begins with a handful of bolt pistol shots which downs one of the marines. The khorne lord then rolls an 8 for his number of bonus attacks, but HUGELY flubs it, only putting down a pair of wounds on grimnar, who in return horribly flubs his frost axe rolls against the khorne lord, still leaving the wretched creature alive. As for the rest, a couple dozen regular attacks are made against the terminators, who horrifically fail 2 armor saves, followed by a power fist putting down a wound which my partner fails to make an invul save against. At least this pile of dead terminators wipes out most of the khorne squad in return.
After this point, the field looked like this:
TURN 2
In my turn, I finish setting up my forces. PCSs plop onto objectives while my left side forces advances cautiously, not wanting to get caught by a charge from the tzeench marines on the other side of the wall. I leap my power blob forward to help grimnar, but I roll poorly for difficult terrain, leaving me out of assault by seriously a quarter of an inch.
In assault, the khorne lord rolls a 10 for it's extra attacks and winds up throwing 3 wounds on grimnar (he had 3 left at this point). Grimnar then fails all three of his 4++ saves... Grimnar is able to throw 3 wounds back, and the khorne lord fails one and drops to the ground. While the rest of the marines characteristically fail to hurt the terminators (who actually made a couple of 5++'s against the powerfists), the terminators horrifically botch their rolls, failing to kill a single marine.
After this point, the field looked like this:
In my opponents' turn, they begin by whipping their tzeench dudes around the wall.
Unfortunately, they horribly fail to hit anything with their bolt pistols, which means I can't remove enough casualties, and they're left 5" away. Meanwhile, On the right some more marines charge in.
Assault begins with his marine squad being able to make it into assault with my
CCS by seriously the width of the tape measure. Meanwhile, the guys on the left charge in:
With great surprise and aplomb, our enemy charged at me, personally. The nerve! Thus whisked into combat, I retrieved my copy of "how to win a battle" and carefully perused the pages until I came to this section.
"A true and honorable gentleman never engages in combat with his own person. It is beneath the dignity of the well-bred man to draw sabre against his opponent, lest he perspire, utter a rude comment, or in other ways despoil the freshenss and purity of his character or his uniform. In such circumstances as it may have been beset upon the upright and outstanding officer, a cool and collected effort should remain to turn and walk slowly away from his foe, never offering so much as a glimmer of fear to the foe, as such would be against his very nature."
Taking these words to heart, I turned and slowly began to pace away from my enemy who was so rude as to offend my personal space.
The space 5 marines throw down 2 regular wounds on my
CCS. I fail both armor saves. He then throws down 2 power fist hits. I fail both armor saves. My officer runs, and evades the sweeping advance.
Meanwhile, my partner's lone terminator loses another to a fist and once again neither of them do a thing as his opponent passes all of his free 5++ saves.
On the left, the chaplain and tzeench marines charge in with preferred enemy. 24 rerollable attacks yield a predictable 10 wounds. I then fail every single one of my 5+ and 5++ saves... In return, I throw down a whole mess of power weapon attacks, and the chaplain and tzeench marines pass every one of their 5++ saves. Only one regular dude is able to get through an armor save.
After this point, the field looked like this:
TURN 3
So neither of us can pass an armor or an invul save, and difficult terrain put me a hair away from assault and my opponent a hair into assault. The situation is still salvageable, as I still have a basically untouched power blob. The problem is where to send it. On the one hand, my partner is getting close to being wiped. On the other hand, I'd really like to save my other power blob. As the other blob still has the potential to be useful while the single terminator does not, I go for rescuing my own.
In shooting, my PCSs go to ground with "incoming!"
In assault, my partner's last terminator yet again fails to do anything at all to his targets and is taken down by several powerfist wounds against which invul saves were not passed.
On the left, 30 regular attacks charge into his Tzeench marines. He fails a single armor save. 12 power weapon attacks charge into his tzeench marines. He fails a single invul save. 9 power weapon attacks and 8 regular attacks go on his chaplain. He fails a single invul save and passes all the armor. They put down 20 attacks, wounding with 10 of them. I fail every single save...
After this point, the field looked like this:
In my opponents' turn, they consolidate everything but the one combat squad they've got chilling out on their objective into the scrum in our table quarter.
In shooting, a combat squad opens up on my
PCS with 5 bolt pistol shots for 5 hits for 4 wounds for 4 failed 3+ cover saves...
... the lone remaining officer fails his morale check...
In close combat, he charges in with more stuff, breaking away a part of my power blob:
On the left side of the nonsense, he throws down his attacks. Of about 15 attacks, he only puts down 5 wounds. This time, I make a single invul save, but the left side blob is still wiped out. In return, 9 power weapon attacks get him to fail a single invul save while the rest of the attacks patter off his armor.
On the right side, his 5 marines throw down 8 regular attacks and 2 power fists that put down an astonishing 6 wounds. I fail every single 5+/5++ save...
After this point, the field looked like this:
In our turn, my officer successfully uses "get back in the fight!" on himself (I now realise that I can't do this, I know).
In assault, he throws down a huge pile of attacks, and I actually manage a couple of 5+'s. Of course, my opponents can manage more, and only 1 more marine again falls.
After this point, the field looked like this:
In their turn, they scoot back their one reserved combat squad to sit squarely on the objective, while the other one consolidates on the other.
In shooting, 5 bolt pistol shots magically turn into 5 wounds on my SO. Now that it's far too late, I actually pass most of them, leaving my officer on the field.
In close combat, they shut down my remaining power blob with 6 wounds on 5 models with only 1 passed 5+ (on the model that had two wounds assigned to it...)
After this point, the field looked like this:
TURN 5
I do all I can do: run my guys away to prevent being tabled.
After this point, the field looked like this:
In response, they move their horde forward while the
tac squad holding the middle objective gets closer to my senior officer.
In shooting, he tags my
CCS, who can't make a single 5++.
After this point, the field looked like this:
I roll for turn 6 to continue. This time a low roll actually HELPS me, and the game ends.
FINAL RESULTS
They held 2 objectives, we held zero for a chaos and space marine victory.
- We had a couple of things that were less than ideal, like my partner letting himself get charged turn 1, and me getting unfortunately charged in turn 2. That said, an easy victory, or, in the very least a very easy draw was turned into a loss because luck is a cruel bitch.
MVP: This goes to my left-side
PCS, as the game would have ended in a massacre without them (and still would have if the game had continued all the way to turn 7).
Hero of the game: This one has to go to grimnar who faced down a khorne lord that put down 25 WS6 I6 power weapon attacks in a single game turn.
Having left the field of battle, I continued on until I came across elements of my line on the other side of the field. From there I developed a new defensive position.
It took until nightfall for me to properly collect my line. Any further action was delayed until the morning hours.
In grateful service,
Sir Daxos P. Clinton III - KAP, EKS, ICM - Foleran Armies in his Majesty's Royal Dictate.
Blood Conquers All
