Welcome to part 31 of the Blood Conquers All series. To view other battle reports in this series, click
here.
This game saw us reach the mid-point of the rules of engagement escalation league. This time, I was up against our resident dark eldar player.
THE CHALLENGER: Space drow need SLAVES!
1000 pts.
Haemonculus
Wracks (6)
Warriors
- Venom with extra splinter cannon
Warriors
- Venom with extra splinter cannon
Warriors
- Venom with extra splinter cannon
Warriors
- Venom with extra splinter cannon
Ravager with 3x dark lances
Ravager with 3x dark lances
Ravager with 3x disintegrators
THE DEFENDER: I have autocannons this time! Autocannons...
1000 pts.
CCS, Master of Ordnance, missile launcher
Zonhaim Assassin (Marbo)
Stormtroopers (5) with 2x melta
PCS with missile launcher
20-dude power blob
20-dude power blob
autocannon
HWS
PCS with missile launcher
20-dude power blob
autocannon
HWS
Deployment was dawn of war. I won the roll to go first and took it. My mission was the same one my opponent had last game - to destroy 75% of my opponent's infantry models. Secondary was having a unit in my opponent's deployment zone. My opponent's mission was to assassinate my
HQ unit with a secondary of holding one of my objectives.
At deployment, the field looked like this:
Given dawn of war, I was definitely going to start with my autocannons on the field. Not only would it be somewhat difficult for my opponent to target them due to night fight, but I didn't want them stuck in a bad position due to poor run rolls, and I was going to need every good round of shooting I could get out of them this game.
I then took a calculated risk with my
CCS. This was the ultimate target of my opponent, so it would have made the most sense to hide them out of
LOS. With a master of ordnance and a BS4 missile launcher, however, my
CCS is also an excellent vehicle destroyer. As such, I was banking on my opponent making poor enough night-fight rolls the turn he got on, so that I could use him in a fatal barrage on turn 2 when night-fighting wouldn't be in effect. Hopefully 6 autocannons, 3 missile launchers and a master of ordnance (plus Marbo and/or the stormies) would be able to put down enough damage to kill his ravagers. If this was successful, then the threat to my
CCS would be greatly diminished, which meant that I'd get at least a couple more turns of laying down the hurt with my
CCS.
Once the ravagers were out of the way, my opponent would have a very difficult time picking up his primary, and I'd still have a lot of guns on the field which were able to pick apart his transports, allowing me to charge the remnants with my power blobs.
In return, my opponent goes all-off and declines to seize the initiative.
TURN 1
Raust Melios Carissander - Commissar, 124th Foleran Infantry Regiment
Despite a meek and tepid opening to the assault, Marshal Clinton had finally shown some vague degree of leadership over the past few weeks as our forces swept up the mountainside. Hill after bloody hill, ridge after bloody ridge, my personal charisma and manly prowess have lead the charge and have overwhelmed my traitorous foe. Foleran forces everywhere were following my example and taking their objectives wherever the enemy was foolish enough to resist.
After taking a long and stony ridge, I was poised to lead the assault on Hill 430, a rocky outcropping on Mt. Cos. Capturing this would give us direct access to the low summit. Soon, I would blow my enemies off the heights like a hurricane ripping the kite out of a crying child's hands.
Much to my impatient rage, Marshal Clinton chose to sneak-attack Hill 430. For most of the way up the hill, we crawled on our bellies like cowards. The particular form of the hill made it difficult for our enemy to see us immediately beneath them, and we were able to achieve an element of surprise nearly all the way up to the fortifications at the top, despite sunshine falling directly on us.
We infiltrated forward, waiting for the marshal to give his order to attack.
The game begins with me bringing on most of my forces and running them forward. The PCSs try to acquire the best firing lanes they can.
As my opponent has nothing on the board, my turn quickly ends.
After this point, the field looked like this:
In return, my opponent puts all of his stuff on the table. Furthest from my forces, behind the wall, he kept a venom full of guys and his grotesques as a model-sink against my primary, while everything else lined up against the side with the heavy weapons and my
HQ.
As planned, shooting saw him vainly searching for targets, even with the reroll. A couple of vehicles were in, and put down some light damage, but things were pretty okay.
After this point, the field looked like this:
TURN 2
Just as I was magnificently striding up to the top of the hill, the enemy finally began to discover us. Of course, it would be too late.
Once gunfire erupted, I stood up and prepared to charge in and wring their filthy necks. The microbead started screeching with officers telling me to get down. These cowards would have me continue to crawl! This was unacceptable!
I ordered my men to get up. They seemed hesitant, stuck between the orders of the officers and the righteous fury exploding from my mouth. I fired my bolt pistol in the air and the men began to get up.
Turn 2 saw my stormies arriving from reserve. I put them over by the venoms on the right, but they scatter over towards the ravager to their left. Fine enough.
My gamble had so far paid off. Night fighting gave my opponent few targets leaving him out in the open against my gunline. Now I'd need to make those gunships dead. This accomplished, the return fire would be sufficiently lackluster, which would allow me to keep the
CCS firing against the venoms next turn. With 2/3ds of his army shut down, I just might be able to get in there enough with my power blobs to get my primary.
I was so excited about implementing this strategy that I forgot the movement phase
Orders saw the 3x autocannon team pass bring it down and shoot at the left side ravager. I threw down 2 penetrations and 2 glances. Flickerfields canceled both of the glances, but both of the pens went through. Despite being open topped, the best that two pen results could manage was an immobilized and stunned result. I then BiDed the
CCS against the center ravager. The master of ordnance scattered way off, and the reroll saw him scatter towards the left-side ravager but unfortunately not enough (while still too much), which meant the shot landed between them. The
CCSs missile launcher threw down a penetrating hit which wrecked the vehicle. So far, my decision to keep the
CCS in
LOS of stuff was paying off.
I then shot the stormies' meltaguns at the right side ravager. Two melta shots put down one hit for an easy pen. I got ready to put down some AP1 hurt on an open-topped vehicle, but flickerfields stop the shot. Wanting it do be dead, or in the very least stunned, I then shot a missile launcher and 2 autocannons at it. Dismal shooting gave me only 1 glance, which was stopped by the flickerfield.
Shooting ended with my rolling poorly for run rolls and scooting my power blobs forward.
After this point, the field looked like this:
So I was able to put down some amount of hurt, but good flickerfield rolling had unfortunately blunted the damage. Now I had a disintegrator ravager and 2, 2x splinter cannon venoms with
LOS against my
CCS. How my opponent's shooting went down would determine if I could keep my
CCS in the fight for his much needed
BiD, missile launcher, and master of ordnance, or if he'd have to retreat, making it more difficult to take down my opponent's vehicles in time.
Having taken a light beating a turn before, my opponent decided to retreat his left-side venom over into his pool on the left, while hiding his other venoms behind the building, taking aim at my stormies.
This left just the disintegrator ravager which he moved forward slightly and unloaded into my
CCS. He put down a predictable 5 wounds, which meant that everybody needed to take a cover save. Unfortunately, one of the two guys that fell was my master of ordnance. Not only did I want him for vehicle busting, but his failure meant that the
CCS was no longer in coherency.
Meanwhile, the rest of the stuff that could shoot shot at the stormies. 4+ armor helped a great deal, but the sheer volume of fire unfortunately wiped them out, denying me melta the next turn.
After this point, the field looked like this:
TURN 3
So in the very least, I'm now stuck getting my
CCS back into coherency. In general, though, my plan is starting to fail. This turn I've got to kill off the raider AND get troops pretty close to his stuff while also getting down a venom or two (which will be exceedingly difficult given that they're predominantly out of
LOS). Hopefully I can finish off the serious long-range threats, which will still allow me to use the
CCS and HWSs in later turns to break things up.
Everything moves forward, except for the missile launcher team from the top floor who takes a crummy difficult terrain roll and only moves one level down. Given the the Zonhaim Assassin rolled his second 1 in a row, it was now up to just my heavy weapons...
I throw down some
BiD, but the orders fail. I would have used the run order on the
CCS itself, but I didn't think it was all that necessary at the time. Regardless, one autocannon team puts 2 pens and a glance against the remaining mobile ravager but he flickerfields away all three hits! Thankfully the tragedy is avoided when I roll a missile launcher into it which causes a vehicle explodes result. The other autocannon team and the other missile launcher shoot at the lone remaining ravager for a single glance, which is yet again stopped by a flickerfield save.
I run with everything but VERY unfortunately throw down a snake eye with the run roll of my
CCS, leaving the missile launcher dude stranded in
LOS on the second floor of the ruins.
I reloaded my bolt pistol so that I could start the summary executions for real when I heard Marshal Clinton finally blow on his whistle. I shouted for the men to follow me as we charged forward to the summit of the hill.
After this point, the field looked like this:
In response, my opponent moves all of his venoms up on to high places. Now that I'm charging at him AND my
CCS is still visible against his forces, it's time to do some damage.
Shooting starts with a pair of splinter cannons unloading into my
CCS causing a horrific 7 wounds. All I need to do is fail one with my missile launcher guy and I'll be safely out of
LOS with Daxos. The carnage kills the last chump in the
CCS and brings Daxos down to just one wound after some really crappy cover saves, but, tragically, the missile launcher dude passed ALL THREE of his cover saves.
My opponent then unloaded with a 3x dark lance barrage from his immobilized yet still highly potent remaining ravager. Thanfully, only one wound went down, and it went on the missile launcher who finally failed a cover save. This gone, my
CCS was just a 1-wound Daxos hiding so deep in cover that it was virtually impossible to get
LOS against him unless my opponent flew behind the ruin and shot him from the rear.
With his primary target no longer available, he unloaded into the rest of my stuff, blowing away a
PCS with splinter cannon fire and bouncing some shots off of cover against my HWSs.
Having taken heavy casualties, a wounded Daxos takes his morale check and passes.
After this point, the field looked like this:
TURN 4
I continued to lead my men by example as we charged up the hill. Only the cowardly heavy weapons teams remained behind to shoot their weapons. Inspired by my personal awesomeness, the rest of the company charged in behind me. I'd envy them for being able to envy someone so great as me, but someone as great as me has nothing to envy.
Well that was it. Turn 3 saw my autocannons and missile launchers pathetically fail to finish off my opponent's firepower, but without a
CCS to shoot at, there wasn't much for him to do with it. Likewise, my autocannons had spent so much time shooting at ravagers and were missing the
CCS, which meant that being able to take out the dark eldar transports to scoop out the insides was becoming a more and more remote possibility.
Basically, by this point in the game, both our primaries were botched. There was no way that my opponent could target my
CCS without getting really close and surviving a ton of damage (making it easier for me to kill my 20 models for a primary), while there was little way to kill his vehicles to get the power blobs in to kill 20 models without sacrificing my
CCS to get
LOS for orders.
This meant that it was now a competition of who could get their secondary. My opponent needed to get one of my objectives, which were currently surrounded in a thick mass of guardsmen. Meanwhile, I only needed to get basically a single model of my entire horde into my opponents expansive Dawn of War deployment zone in order to claim my secondary.
To make good on this, I charged with my right two blobs forwards, leaving some people behind in order to guard my closest objective while Raust's power blob on the left went forward in a frantic attempt to possibly frag grenade the immobilized ravager and to at least provide a distraction to my opponent's concentrated forces on the left.
My zonhaim assassin also came in as my forces crashed through the hedge row towards my opponent's forces.
Shooting started with my 3x autocannon team throwing down 2 penetrations against the lone ravager. BOTH are stopped by flickerfield saves. Meanwhile, my 2x autocannon squad and missile launcher attack one of the venoms causing a pen and a glance, and both of THOSE are ALSO stopped by flickerfield saves. Did I mention that these are a 5++ save?
Marbo rounds out the shooting by throwing his demo charge against the last ravager. The shot scattered, but only 1", leaving me with a solid hit. I roll to penetrate the vehicle's armor and roll a 1...
After this point, the field looked like this:
My shooting has utterly failed against the flickerfield, but my opponent by now realises that this game is going to be tough for him to pull a win out of. He spends his movement phase adjusting his forces to maximize damage to my blobs. In the process, he finally rolls a 1 on an immobilize check, stopping one of his venoms.
Shooting starts with a horrific round of splinter cannon fire against the zonhaim assassin. He goes to ground to get 2+ cover saves and manages to survive with one wound left.
(pictured: Marbo hiding behind a wall like a little girl)
The rest of the shooting goes into the blobs and does some decent damage. Most specifically, that still-not-even-stunned ravager unloads all three dark lances into my 2x autocannon team and a few failed cover saves later, wipes them away...
After this point, the field looked like this:
TURN 5
In my turn, I consolidate on my plan to win by secondary. My blobs form around the flag while also charging. If my opponent doesn't come out, eventually his venoms will start getting charged by frag grenades.
Shooting sees me throw down 3 autocannons and a missile launcher against his open-topped AV10 vehicle, but only manage a pair of glances. One of them causes a shaken result, while the other is stopped by a flickerfield save...
With seamless effort, I made it to the top of the hill, where there lay an enemy gunboat still firing its cannons. With rage in my eyes I turned towards the men as I ran and told them to prime grenades.
We'd see who was going to be the king of this mountain.
In close combat, Raust's power blob charges his ravager and throws down a pile of auto-hit frag grenade attacks which scores a single glance, which is shockingly NOT stopped by a flickerfield check. The glance, though, immobilized the vehicle a second time, knocking off one of the dark lances...
After this point, the field looked like this:
In return, my opponent decides that just maybe, after all, if the game runs long, he'll be able to get in a shot against my one-wound commander, causing him to gun his venoms towards my backfield. At least, there are no guardsmen back there anymore, so options are open for getting a secondary as well.
Shooting sees his STILL-not-yet-destroyed-or-stunned ravager pump a couple of dark lances into the lone
HWS, which failed to wound. The rest of his army opens up and does some uncomfortable number of casualties.
Assault sees the grenades begin their second assault on the ravager and once again get a glance, but this only rips one of the weapons off. After this point, the field looked like this:
My opponent rolls to continue, and flips a 1.
FINAL RESULTS
Neither of us had our primary, while only I had my secondary for an imperial guard victory.
- Once again, this was a rather poor mission match-up. My opponent couldn't commit his forces without running the serious risk that I'd be able to kill 20 dark eldar while my opponent's list guaranteed that he would be able to be mobile enough to stop me from getting in range of his troops if he didn't want them to be attacked. Add to this a piece of terrain that blocked
LOS from most angles and flickerfield saves that pretended like they were 2++, and our primaries were all but completely out of reach. In fact, I just needed to kill 20 infantry models to achieve my primary, and how many did I kill? Not a single one.
This left it up to our secondaries to determine who would win. In this case, with lots of bodies and lots of durability, I had the ability to both defend my objectives AND get stuff in my opponent's deployment zone, while my opponent was stuck with relying on a handful of guys and vehicles against my horde, while bringing them closer to take objectives could very well have ended up with me racking up points on my primary.
- This is game four-in-a-row that my autocannons have deeply disappointed me. There is no better army to fight against than dark eldar, as far as autocannons are concerned, but despite this, 6 autocannons weren't able to rack up A SINGLE KILL... AGAIN! This was not due to lack of targets...
- Perhaps it's just because I'm getting woeful normal deployment zones and tragic mis-matches of mission types, but ever since the rules of engagement league started, my power blobs have done virtually nothing. Either I'm playing them wrong some how, or my opponents are adapting to their presence. That, or it's just the mission combination.
MVP: The
CCS. Not only did it successfully (if narrowly) prevent my opponent from gaining it's primary, but it was also responsible for taking down one of the ravagers. That's right. It's responsible for 50% of the casualties I inflicted on my opponent this game...
Hero of the Game: I guess this one will have to go to Raust for bravely distracting my opponent and being the only unit that was successfully able to make it into close combat.
After a pair of grenade volleys, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Pulling out my power weapon, I jumped onto the prow of the ship, hacking and slashing until all on board were dead. I shoved the corpses off the gang-plank and made sure to spit on them as they rolled out.
The vehicle thus neutralized and the heights thus secured, I took a look around me. The men who had followed my example up the hill were now in total command of the hill's summit. The enemy was retreating before us. They may live to fight another day, but their cowardice will stain them forever!
On a related note, a search party has been dispatched to find Marshal Clinton.
I eagerly await my next assignment. In faith,
-Raust Melios Carissander, Imperial Commissar
Mordian Iron Guard - Major Overhaul in Progress 
707th Lubyan Aquila Banner Motor Rifle Regiment (6000 pts)
Grey Knights -2500
D'haran First File - 2500
D'haran Great Company - 1500
Speed Freaks: Orks 2000 points
Soul-Forged Angels: Blood Angels WIP
5K Points of Grey Knights and Red Hunters 
Sister's of Battle 4000 Points 
Chaos Space Marines 5000 Points