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Welcome to part 33 of the Blood Conquers All series. To view other reports in this series, click here.

As the Rules of Engagement league continued, it was time to play against our league's youngest player, outfitted with a variant on his ass-kicking chaos list.

THE CHALLENGER: FZORGLE!
1250 pts.

Demon prince
- wings, lash of submission
Demon prince
- wings, lash of submission

CSM
- 2x plasma guns, Mark of Khorne
- Rhino with havoc launcher
CSM
- 2x plasma guns
- Rhino with havoc launcher

Obliterators (2)
Obliterators (2)
Defiler

THE DEFENDER: Must resist... explosive... hedonism...
1250 pts.

CCS
- Master of Ordnance, lascannon, sniper rifle, regimental standard

Stormtroopers (5)
- 2x plasma gun, plasma pistol
Stormtroopers (5)
- 2x plasma gun, plasma pistol

PCS
- Lascannon
21-dude power blob
- 2x meltaguns
21-dude power blob
- 2x meltaguns

PCS
- Lascannon
21-dude power blob
- 2x meltaguns
HWS
- 3x autocannons
HWS
- 3x autocannons
HWS
- 3x autocannons

This time, my opponent's mission was "take and hold", which was basically table quarters, with a secondary of have at least one infantry (or two vehicle) units in my deployment zone. For my mission, I got to choose whichever one I wanted. Knowing that there would be demon princes in some incarnation, I seriously considered "assassination" so as to get him to hide one of them. I also considered taking my opponent's mission, as that would be brutally straightforward. After much hemming and hawing, I took the conservative route, and picked what I knew. In the end, I chose "stand your ground", which meant that I had to have more units in my deployment zone than my opponent, with a second of holding onto one of my objectives (the blue ones).

My opponent rolled to go first and took it.

At deployment, the field looked like this:



My opponent used our goofy, L-shaped deployment zones to get a solid start on his table quarters mission, controlling 2 and contesting 1. Instead of huddling on the other side of the board, I decided to meet him straight on. Fzorgle be damned! After all, I nearly have more CSs and HWSs than he has units (not to mention blobs), which means that once I kill a couple, it's going to be very difficult for my opponent to prevent my primary. Plus, I want my opponent running across open ground if possible, especially with those demon princes.

I rolled to seize the initiative and failed.


TURN 1

Report concerning the action on: 21 Basilos
Daxos Line

In the preceding days, after careful planning, I was finally ready to undertake our long-awaited goal: the storming of the summit of Mt. Cos. Our enemy was well-prepared, and had fortified the mountaintop to the best of his nefarious abilities. There could be no other choice about it, I had no option but to send all of my groups in a mass charge all at once. The enemy had to be weak somewhere, and once the heights were seized, the enemy would face opposition from all sides, and must surely abandon their positions.

The morning of the 21st drew clear and cold. I was forced to send out orderlies three different times in order to refresh my morning bath with sufficiently heated water. Only at great peril would I even dare to speak of the deplorable state of my silk bath towels, now nearly warn to tatters by constant use and the occasional enemy harassment of my personal supply train.

The assault took place shortly after a very early lunch and things quickly got bloody. From their commanding position on the heights, the enemy poured down fire, in certain cases, most literal, upon my largely exposed enlisted men. Both sides rushed in reserves, and progress was slow, and less than certain. It was by the late afternoon that I was approached by a runner with news that the Theleos (Rhamael) group had engaged in an outflanking maneuver up a treacherous ravine into a weak point in our enemy's defenses. Just then they had attacked the enemy from behind and opened a small gap in the fortifications. I immediately drew up my personal group, it being the only one not yet committed, and bravely stormed the now-vacant ramparts.

Having punched through, I sent Marshal Theleos down the mountain to begin to expand the shoulders of our breakthrough while I stormed the summit of the mountain with my group.

We were scarcely there when we were met with resistance on the heights.

The game begins with my opponent moving everything slightly forward, except for the princes, who bold forward on their wings.



Shooting started with a lash. A terrible, terrible lash...



So, I thought I'd positioned that blob far enough away to avoid this on turn 1, but I was wrong by about 2". My opponent rolled an 8 for movement, and everybody decided to have a little huddle as they discussed the pros and cons of explosive hedonism.

Shooting then saw a pair of obliterators open up with plasma cannons right into that little pack of guys. One way-off missed, and ohe hit, packing it in on 7 dudes. I immediately go to ground, and a 3+ save is actually kind this game (I should take this moment to point out that El Cheezus had lent me his dice before the game began. They will be used for the entire game). My opponent then opens up with a havoc launcher from one of his rhinos and the shot hits, but without being able to target the absolute center of the blob, he only gets 5 hits, and once again, 3+ cover save works, reducing it to one casualty.

My opponent then, thankfully (but probably smartly, given that the squad that was lashed was now pinned) decided to shift his focus to other units. The other havoc launcher tossed a mini-pie at an HWS, killing one, while the defiler shot its battlecannon at the center HWS. The shot scattered, but still nailed one, while the autocannon offed a second. I thought I'd placed the squad within 12" of the standard, but I was just shy, letting the HWS break and run.

The only other shooting was against my PCS on the far right, but range kept the number of shots to 2, and crappy rolling kept the damage to nothing.

After this point, the field looked like this:



Well, my first taste of lash wasn't that bad, but I can see things going downhill, and in a hurry. I've got a couple of options.

The first is to focus my firepower on the demon princes (especially the one that's all up in my grill), and try and shut down his lashing. The problem with this is that all his firepower will still be on the table, allowing him to soften me up with battle and plasma cannon before I eat khorne flakes. Plus, I might not even be able to down the princes quickly enough.

The second solution was to focus on the long-range firepower. If I could silence the battlecannon and the plasma cannons, then he could lash me anywhere he wanted, and I wouldn't be taking extraneous damage. Worst case, he snags a power blob in close combat, but he can chew on one of those for a turn or two and I'll be fine... assuming I can do something to slow the khorne berzerkers. After all, it won't matter much that he doesn't have battlecannons if he's got his entire army in close combat.

The third option is to focus on his rhinos and delay their advancement into my lines. My whole army can probably handle a couple of demon princes, and if I've got enough left over after that, I'll be able to handle what hits my lines circa turn 5. Of course, if he continues to lash me into little balls and then blast me, there might not be enough left to resist, even at the end of the game.

In the end, I chose the second option. I put my faith in my blobs, that they could handle anything given enough numbers, so keeping their numbers up was going to be my biggest imperative. Plus, I've got these stormies coming in at some point, and they'll probably do a lot more to demon princes and obliterators than to defilers or rhinos.

I raced up into a ruin just off of the rocky top of the mountain. I quickly surveyed the area. I felt a lump of forbearance in my heart as I looked down onto a great demon rushing towards the summit. Had we come across the enemy's headquarters, or merely an elite guard? I could not tell.

My focus was only diverted by a huge mechanized monstrosity, as amazing as it was appalling. It clattered on large mechanical feet and spewed fire out of its smoke stacks. I immediately ordered my staff to open fire. My attendant artilleryman quickly snapped off co-ordinates. The basilista team took to my orders at once, and with a great shot blasted the hulking creature in half at its weak point, causing a great plume of fire and explosiveness to shoot up into the air!

I took a moment to smartly address orders to the rest of my men, who were seemed to be congregating on the summit for some reason. I then waited for the glorious sound of artillery fire, but moments passed with none to be heard nor seen.

I gave a curious glance at my attendant. He returned a blank stare, only to look at his map. Sheepishly, he turned the map around in his hands, right side up.

The bottom of one started with enacting my plan. Everything shifted slightly right and forwards.

For orders, I naturally want to "get back in the fight!" my power blob, but I simply don't have enough firepower to take down all of my targets at once. For now, they'll have to eat fzorgle pie, and like it. The first order goes on an autocannon team, but they fail. The second goes on my CCS. Bid sees me put the defiler square between my sights and a misssed lascannon become a hit lascannon while my MoO shoots and scatters 9" off. Swarthily, I pick up the die and try again. The scatter die rolled a miss, and the 3D6 pulled up a 17. That sucker went straight backwards off the board and a good deal towards the board behind my opponent. The lascannon's hit, though, penned, scoring me a rare vehicle destroyed result.

The prime target down, it was now down to secondary targets. On the right, my blob meltaguns were in range, and one of them aced an obliterator, while the PCSs combined and aced the second in the same squad. This just left the autocannons. I now felt so reasonably assured that my plan had succeeded, I targeted them at my second-tier priority: the demon princes. 5 autocannons put out a hell of a show, but demon princes have their 3+ armor, and what my cover was doing before, so my opponent's armor did now. The end result was only a single wound dinged off of a now exceedingly pissed off demon prince.

After this point, the field looked like this:




TURN 2

My opponent replies with a copy of his movement from the last turn. Rhinos move 6" forward while the princes move 12. The only deviation is the obliterators who move and then run backwards out of melta range and into cover.

My focus then turned towards the great demon approaching my men and I. It was hideous, yet somehow attractive. Terrifying, yet somehow beautiful.

Then it spoke in a voice that was both grating and orgasmic. "All ye have been had, suckas!" It bellowed with a voice like all colors of the rainbow. "You chumps ain't no thang! I, lord of Slaanesh, have hella bling! Come ye hither and I will totally pimp you OUT!"

"Don't listen! Move back!" I shouted through my micro bead. The sergeants and commissar, already sufficiently bedecked with bling obeyed. My efforts were in waste on those whose flavor is restricted by regulation. My deluded troops abandoned their positions and gathered around the demon in the vain hope of swag.



In what has to be a textbook use of lash of submission, my opponent drags forward my left side power blob, while simultaneously pushing the commissar and sergeants WAY back.

Meanwhile, the left side sees another lash successfully pull in the left side HWS, while the havoc launchers throw down more hurt on my center blob. I'm going to need both my orders AND for that blob to be able to rush in to bail out the other blob, so I decide not to go to ground. Against bunched up troops, the hurts is real.

Then, of course, comes the charge:



Damage is inflicted, but despite 12" of movement, I can't get all my power weapons within 2" of someone in base contact. I at least left a hole in the side for my other power blob to charge in from.

After this point, the field looked like this:



In my turn, I roll up for reserves and, unfortunately, neither arrives.

I take a moment to take stock of the situation. With one demon prince stuck in close combat, and the other far away, I no longer really need to deal with the lash anymore, especially since there is now only the havoc launchers and obliterators that can take advantage of bunching me up. Also, as mentioned, one of the demon princes is now, for the moment at least, tarpitted, while the other is far away. This leaves the rhinos. Things are going well, but they could still be hampered by an inopportune berzerker charge. My fear of this is waning, however, as my opponent has used his first two turns driving slowly with them so as to shoot havoc launchers. Hopefully this trend will continue.

Shooting starts with the nearby autocannon team failing BiD, but the officer passes and throws down some shooting on the khorne rhino. This time, the scatter die are more favorable, and the reroll gets me a 3" scatter. Unfortunately, this isn't quite enough to land on the rhino. The lascannon hit and glanced. The glance immobilized the khorne rhino.

Figuring this was good enough, I then shot my other heavy weapons at the demon prince. A lascannon and 5 autocannons put down a reasonable enough 2 wounds.

Close combat sees the demon prince go to town, with my couple of power weapons vainly searching for that 1 in 18 chance of landing a wound on the prince. Unfortunately, realising that their promises of fat loots, was, indeed a ruse, the squad tries to break and run, forcing the commissar to gun down one of my sergeants.

After this point, the field looked like this:




TURN 3

My opponent begins his turn by moving up on his wings. He moves in his other rhino to be next to his other rhino.

With no particularly choice targets to shoot havoc launchers at and fearing stormtroopers arriving next turn, his rhinos pop smoke.

Meanwhile, his obliterators move forward and double-blast twin-linked flamers. I believe my response was something to the effect of "ow, ow! ow!" I could have taken the models at the front, but he looked a ways away from a charge, and he needed to roll difficult terrain. Plus, the guys at the front were meltagunners. I had no doubts about beating the obliterators sooner or later in close combat, but I needed those meltaguns when things got dicey later.

In assault, his left-side prince makes BDSM toys out of my autocannon HWS while his obliterators only roll a 2 for difficult terrain, putting them well out of reach of my power blob. In the middle his demon prince flubs its rolls, but I still can't manage a 6 with any of my hits against him.

After this point, the field looked like this:



In response, I get both of my stormtroopers in. On the left, I deepstrike aggressively and once again deepstrike off the board, but aerial assault picks up a hit, and I've got plasma death on target to his left side demon.



Because my opponent smoked his rhinos, I've got low confidence in my ability to crack open his rhinos and plasma the goo inside. As such, I settle for the obliterators. They scatter, but not onto anything, so I keep the first roll.



Meanwhile, my right also continues forward, while everything else stays put.

Now that I've gotten my opponent's demon princes and firepower pretty well squared away, I can finally turn my attention to the unfortunately smoked rhinos. I throw down FoMT on my autocannoners. They pass and shoot at the non-MoK rhino. 3 hits yield a pen and a glance. Both are stopped by cover, and only the glance is let through after the reroll. The end result is a second immobilized rhino. Daxos then FoMTs himself and passes. The lascannon hits the MoK rhino while the MoO misses. He scatters towards the other rhino, though, and I greedily anticipate two vehicle kills from one unit. Despite having LOS, the shot manages to scatter 13", OVER the other rhino, missing it altogether. The lascannon shot goes through cover for a pen, which scores a weapon destroyed result, losing the rhino its havoc launcher.

Then on the left, my stormies unload 5 BS4 plasma shots into the demon prince and he drops. The same thing happens against the obliterators, but they had cover and more wounds, the end result of which was a 1-wound obliterator. I then shot both lascannons and both nearby meltaguns at it, but couldn't get a hit out of the 4 of them. Thankfully I had a backup plan. Forced to use power fists, the last wound of the obliterator was taken down by Raust's power blob without injury, allowing them to consolidate onto the palisade.



In close combat, the demon prince munches more, dining his way past the halfway mark on my guardsmen. Even more attacks and I finally pick up a 6 with a regular chump's attack, but he passes armor against it.

After this point, the field looked like this:




TURN 4

With nothing to move, my opponent skips on to the shooting phase.

The havoc rhino shot at my stormies on the left, but missed both times, while the other rhino attempted to repair itself.

Then he demon prince downs another fistful of guardsmen. By now, I'm getting pretty sick of this endless charade of trying to get 6's. I'm going to stand a better shot with just shooting him next turn. For the first time ever, I choose to break a power blob, assigning one of the wounds to the commissar prematurely. The rest of the guys don't do anything and the squad easily fails morale. It being a demon prince of slaanesh, they do not avoid a sweeping advance.

After this point, the field looked like this:



My opponent now has just two units stuck on the other side of the board that aren't going to be able to do anything this late in the game. This frees up all of my resources for my opponent's remaining legitimate threat - this obnoxious demon prince.

Everything converges on it except for my left side stormies (I have a 24" shot or two I can take) and the heavy weapons.

Assuming that all of the plasma and melta I have in the area can take down a single, wounded demon prince (my center blob prepares to charge it if it doesn't), I throw down BiD on both the autocannoners and the CCS itself. Both pass. The autocannons put down 4 hits on the non-MoK rhino for 2 glances. Nothing more than vehicle shakens result. Meanwhile, the CCSs lascannon manages a glance, which once again blows off a weapon, leaving a husked box on the field while the MoO scatters surprisingly far away again. This tragedy is only ended with my PCS lascannons, one of which hits and glances. An immobilized result FINALLY destroys the vehicle.

Then it was down to clearing off the demon prince. The blob squad in front put down 2 hits with its meltaguns for only one wound, which was stopped by an invul save. To balance this out, the demon prince failed an armor save against the commissar's bolt pistol. Then Raust and his boys open up from the right. Both meltaguns are in range and one hits, bringing the demon prince down to one wound. This wound is removed by double-tapping plasma (only one of the guns was in range, but that didn't stop the sarge from killing himself with an overheat).

The main menace finally ended, my stormies on the left run over behind the building on the objective.

After this point, the field looked like this:




TURN 5

With one immobilized rhino, and a bunch of MoK marines that don't want to cross no man's land, my opponent unloads some plasma and boltguns from his stockade, killing a couple of guardsmen.

After this point the field looked like this:



At this point, my opponent conceded.


FINAL RESULTS

My opponent had solid control over one table quarter, while he contested a second with my stormies, while I controlled 2, meaning my opponent did not achieve his primary. Likewise, he had no units in my deployment zone, for no secondary. Meanwhile, I had more units in my deployment zone than my opponent and I also held one of my objectives for an Imperial Guard victory.

- So this was my first experience with the dual lash, and yeah, it's pretty obnoxious. It definitely is more difficult to plan things out when your troops get two movement phases, and one of them you can't control. The death of half of my original blobsmen was directly attributable to a combination of lash and long-range blast weapons.

I think the key weakness to this, however, is its price. When you throw down 4 obliterators, 2 lash princes, and a defiler, you're looking at no small chunk of points. So much was spent, in fact, that my opponent had to nearly minimize his troops choices in order to be able to afford it. Once the fzorgle death machine was eventually dismantled, there really wasn't that much left over to deal with. It didn't hurt that my opponent decided to shoot with his rhinos either, causing roughly a quarter of his list to do nothing for almost the entire game.

In the end, I just had too much stuff. I can see how this strategy would be deadlier against certain other armies, though.

- I have now shot 96 autocannon shots against AV10/11 without a single vehicle destroyed result. Seriously.

- On the plus side, the meltaguns I put in my squads were definitely worth it. Taking a wound off the demon prince at the end, and helping clear away the obliterators at the beginning was definitely worth it, even with mediocre luck.

MVP: Without a doubt, this goes to the left side blob. My army has lots of nasty weapons, but my opponent had a lot of nasty units. By tarpitting one of them, they bought valuable time for my shooting to finish off everything else. By the time the center demon prince got out of close combat, it was already over.

Hero of the Game: This one's going to go to the left-side stormtrooper squad. They deepstruck PERILOUSLY close to a wounded and enraged demon prince. Unsupported, they handled the threat and neutralized, then held a flank. Cool like only a storm trooper...

The enemy princes of darkness thrown down upon the mountainside, I quickly reorganized my forces in defense of the summit. Enemy reinforcements did not seem fast in coming, but I was likewise completely wanting of reserves. The breakthrough was made and the bridgehead established, but could my forces actually exploit our marvelous new advantage?

I sent orders down with the few runners I had and, with an excellent view of over half of the fighting below me, I set about calling down artillery fire to the support of my men. Things seemed to hang by a thread. If only my men could hold out and press on. As darkness began to fall over the battlefield, I took a moment of silent prayer amidst the ruckus. Whatever the outcome, it was likely hours, if not days, of hard fighting ahead of us all.

In grateful service,

Sir Daxos P. Clinton III - KAP, EKS, ICM - Foleran Armies in his Majesty's Royal Dictate.
Blood Conquers All

HUZZAH!

Now, if only I could beat MY local chaos play like this. Oh well, just $60.00 to round out the blob platoons. Good report, and nice win!

great win!

Grats on the win. I love seeing Double lash go down! That being said, The chaos player played a horrible terribad game. It's one of the few battle reports where you see a army you know is net decked, and the player just craps it all up. Nothing against him. But while he may beat scrubs with double lash, a player with skill will make the game painful to watch. It was filled with me saying "what?" "why?" "NOOOO"

Nice victory, liked the LotR shout out.

To be honest, I was surprised to see things go according to plan for once! When you described your plan to kill that 2nd daemon prince that you'd previously tarpitted I was honestly thinking, 'Ok, this is the point where a series of horrible rolls screws everything up.' Nice to see things going your way for once. I guess you did just need new dice!

Still, those autocannon HWSs are just not pulling through...they should be doing so much better than this.

As a long time Black Legion player (and occasional Lash abuser) I can't figure out why he was keeping his Rhinos back... he should have wanted to get in CC as soon as possible, being able to dictate his charge with vehicles/lash use. You said he's the youngest player in the group, hopefully he learns from this one. His list is almost pure offense and he was hanging back...

So are you first place in the league now?

Thanks!

Happygrunt wrote:Now, if only I could beat MY local chaos play like this.

Actually, you wish they went down like this

ChrisWWII wrote:Nice victory, liked the LotR shout out.

Wait, I did?

ChrisWWII wrote:To be honest, I was surprised to see things go according to plan for once! When you described your plan to kill that 2nd daemon prince that you'd previously tarpitted I was honestly thinking, 'Ok, this is the point where a series of horrible rolls screws everything up.' Nice to see things going your way for once. I guess you did just need new dice!

Yeah, really. El Cheezus concocted a cunning plan - perhaps I could take my two sets of unlucky dice and mix them together. Perhaps this would create so much bad luck that it would turn around and become good.

That or I need to just keep borrowing his...

sexiest_hero wrote:It was filled with me saying "what?" "why?" "NOOOO"

BladeWalker wrote: he should have wanted to get in CC as soon as possible, being able to dictate his charge with vehicles/lash use.

So, I'm not a chaos player here, but this was his only mistake, right? It seemed like he was using the lash part properly, right?

I mean, to be fair, the MoK rhino was immobilized turn 2. Would he have been extra aggressive with his regular CSM, I'm not certain he would have been forced to get into assault (as in, I could have pulled back further if I'd wanted, at least for a turn or 2, while shooting him with plasma guns).

I think one of the key things to remember here as well is the missions. It would have been hard for him to win a table quarters game if he'd thrown everything into just my quarter. The question, then is if he could have gotten a wipe, which I somehow doubt.

sexiest_hero wrote:So are you first place in the league now?

I'm riding pretty high, what with having won the past five games, but I didn't win all of them in a points-favorable way (some were won with only holding a secondary), which means I don't actually have as many points as it probably appears. Needless to say, I'm still doing well, though.

Currently, I'm tied with the father of my opponent this game, the DE player from a couple of games ago, with El Cheezus in a close third.

How does one hold a table quarter in that mission? The .pdf doesn't give specifics.

I like Reg Human Imperial Tacking on the perils of the chaos. Who needs tanks when you have an old helmet and 100 used bolt pistils.

Nice report

Gandalf: "Until at last, I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside."

Might have been unintentional, but it's there!

Yeah, the plan of mixing your dice, in hopes that your luck becomes so bad it's good seems like a sensible plan. Watch as suddenly you're clearing whole armies from the table now that your dice cooperate with you.

Well done on the win! If you just borrow his dive every time you play I think you have the league in the bag. =)

Your opponent had a defiler, it is missing from his army list above sir.

Anyway, beautifully done win! I always find your tactics/battlefield cunning top notch, considering many of the possible moves your opponent can make. May I ask how long it takes you to "plan" each turn? I mean obviously minus the time it takes to move over 80+ models...

It was interesting that he didn't rush his rhinos on one of your flanks. The DP did a good job of absorbing lots of fire, while his Oblits/Def did their Lash-Cow-Herd-Shooting. If he had rushed those rhinos up your side, it may of been a different game.

Thanks!

DarknessEternal wrote:How does one hold a table quarter in that mission? The .pdf doesn't give specifics.

Yeah, we noticed that as well. Before the game, I extended to my opponent the benefit of the doubt assuming that it was the old 4th ed way of capturing them. I got clarification some time during the game (at which it was pointed out that "capture" was using the 5th ed sense of the word), but it didn't really matter by that point.

ChrisWWII wrote:Gandalf: "Until at last, I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside."

Might have been unintentional, but it's there!

Curse you Peter Jackson!!!1!

Actually, I'm making my 6th attempt of reading through the Fellowship of the Rings at the moment. I've actually made it all the way through the Council of Elrond this time, so I have high hopes of at least making it through the fellowship.

ChrisWWII wrote:Yeah, the plan of mixing your dice, in hopes that your luck becomes so bad it's good seems like a sensible plan.

Don't feed the paranoid delusions

MadMaverick76 wrote:Your opponent had a defiler, it is missing from his army list above sir.

Oh, good catch. Fixing...

MadMaverick76 wrote:It was interesting that he didn't rush his rhinos on one of your flanks. The DP did a good job of absorbing lots of fire, while his Oblits/Def did their Lash-Cow-Herd-Shooting. If he had rushed those rhinos up your side, it may of been a different game.

Most certainly. While my stormtroopers could have easily denied him his primary, a rhino rush MIGHT have stopped me from getting mine. More probably, it would have at least gotten him his secondary.

MadMaverick76 wrote:Anyway, beautifully done win! I always find your tactics/battlefield cunning top notch, considering many of the possible moves your opponent can make. May I ask how long it takes you to "plan" each turn? I mean obviously minus the time it takes to move over 80+ models...

So, I consider myself a good strategist, but only a mediocre tactician. By this, I mean I think I can get a really good grasp of what's going on on the fly, but I have a really hard time thinking more than like one or two moves in advance. If you go back over my battle reprots, you can see how this strategic success yet tactical failure caught me in the pants a couple of times (like in this game, or in this game for a couple of examples).

As such, I start the game by formulating a plan, determining which units are going to be necessary to complete my objectives, what everybody else can do to support those units, and what is going to be the biggest threat from my opponent. Just doing that has a tendency to give me backup plan options later that I tend to find only once things start going wrong.

After that, though, it's actually not nearly as well-thought-through as my battle reports imply. I'm not a very cerebral commander, thinking through the different moves and how my opponent will react and how I'll react to the reaction. As mentioned, I'm not a tactical thinker (which is why I stink at chess). Instead, I have a vision in my mind of what I want to happen, and the actual movements are far more intuitive with regard to the end goal I'm trying to achieve. Honestly, it is often only AFTER I play the game, edit the pictures, and write the report that my tactical, brain-side finally catches up with what I was doing.

In the end, I think I more discover what I did, and then use that knowledge to impress certain things upon my intuition for next time than the other way around. But, then, back in my schooling days, I also had this problem - no matter how much I crammed, my mind would go blank when taking tests, so the only way I could succeed was to learn something so deeply that I could work the problems out by intuition...

AngryStormtrooper wrote:Well done on the win! If you just borrow his dive every time you play I think you have the league in the bag. =)

Yeah, but who says he can borrow my dice when he plays against me? I can giveth and I can taketh away, bwaahahahahaahhaa. Or something.

So, I consider myself a good strategist, but only a mediocre tactician. By this, I mean I think I can get a really good grasp of what's going on on the fly, but I have a really hard time thinking more than like one or two moves in advance.

I have to say that this is probably exactly the way I am when I game. It doesn't seem to hinder my ability to win at all, but starting games with a complete lack of a plan has made some of them much closer than they should have been, lol!

Anyhoo glad to see you got another notch in your victory belt. I wish I had the opportunity to get a game in against such a nice looking army. Some of the locals around here have been "found wanting" in that regard.

Ailaros wrote:

DarknessEternal wrote:How does one hold a table quarter in that mission? The .pdf doesn't give specifics.

Yeah, we noticed that as well. Before the game, I extended to my opponent the benefit of the doubt assuming that it was the old 4th ed way of capturing them. I got clarification some time during the game (at which it was pointed out that "capture" was using the 5th ed sense of the word), but it didn't really matter by that point.

So at least one scoring unit and no enemies of any kind in it?

Nice report Ailaros... love the fluff and the very descriptive text with photos. Thanks for taking the time.

Thanks for another great bat rep. And congrats on the win!

Seems like you should borrow dice more often; way better than you piss poor rolls in the past.

Thanks!

DarknessEternal wrote:So at least one scoring unit and no enemies of any kind in it?

Yeah. It's sort of like seize ground, except with a bias towards holding the center of the table.

Gitsplitta wrote:Thanks for taking the time.

No probs

Glad they're enjoyed.

I've always played that mission where you need scoring units, and the opponent can contest with any unit. However, since it's not explicitly stated, there's no reason that you can't play it differently if both players agree.

I'll ask Matt if he and Bryan intended it to be played one way or the other.

" My opponent rolled an 8 for movement, and everybody decided to have a little huddle as they discussed the pros and cons of explosive hedonism."

This confused me a little bit? How did your opponent roll an 8 for movement? Only cavalry could have done that, daemon princes with wings count as jump troops, which means if they start or end a turn in difficult terrain, they just take a dangerous terrain check.

" while the other rhino attempted to repair itself."

Unfortunately chaos rhino's can't repair themselves, chaos doesn't take good care of it's stuff.

A lash list against an army like your's does better pulling stuff into hth with itself. Think about if he had pulled your squad close enough to assault with both the daemon prince and the squad of khorne marines, he could still have left your power weapons out to dry, and probably wiped the squad by the end of the 2nd round of combat. Also something you don't see a lot of is using lash twice on the same unit this gives you first turn charges on targets of your choice, with as much stuff as you want to use.

The tactic to use against this is interleaving your unit's so there isn't a gap to move the ones you want to protect through, like putting a hws or two in front of your blob with less than an inch gap between model's. Makes for an interesting dance.

Warmaster wrote:

" while the other rhino attempted to repair itself."

Unfortunately chaos rhino's can't repair themselves, chaos doesn't take good care of it's stuff.

chaos rhinos can repair themselves ,so wth?

Warmaster wrote:" My opponent rolled an 8 for movement, and everybody decided to have a little huddle as they discussed the pros and cons of explosive hedonism."

This confused me a little bit? How did your opponent roll an 8 for movement? Only cavalry could have done that, daemon princes with wings count as jump troops, which means if they start or end a turn in difficult terrain, they just take a dangerous terrain check.

" while the other rhino attempted to repair itself."

Unfortunately chaos rhino's can't repair themselves, chaos doesn't take good care of it's stuff.

A lash list against an army like your's does better pulling stuff into hth with itself. Think about if he had pulled your squad close enough to assault with both the daemon prince and the squad of khorne marines, he could still have left your power weapons out to dry, and probably wiped the squad by the end of the 2nd round of combat. Also something you don't see a lot of is using lash twice on the same unit this gives you first turn charges on targets of your choice, with as much stuff as you want to use.

The tactic to use against this is interleaving your unit's so there isn't a gap to move the ones you want to protect through, like putting a hws or two in front of your blob with less than an inch gap between model's. Makes for an interesting dance.

He rolled that for the Lash of Submission movement.

Right, that 8" was how far he moved MY stuff.

Warmaster wrote:A lash list against an army like your's does better pulling stuff into hth with itself. Think about if he had pulled your squad close enough to assault with both the daemon prince and the squad of khorne marines, he could still have left your power weapons out to dry, and probably wiped the squad by the end of the 2nd round of combat.

actually, 2 of the 3 lashes he did was to pull me closer to charge.

As for being double-teamed by mark marines and a demon prince would have stunk. It would NOT have left my forces high and dry, though. After he charged in, I would have sent my power weapons and as many dudes as possible to attack the marines instead of the demon prince. Yeah, they would have definitely been broken earlier, but the CSM squad wouldn't have come away without damage, and they would have been in charge range of two other blobs (who had nothing better to do than attack some obliterators otherwise).

Warmaster wrote:Also something you don't see a lot of is using lash twice on the same unit this gives you first turn charges on targets of your choice, with as much stuff as you want to use.

Oh, that's sneaky. I hadn't thought of that, actually. It wouldn't have worked in this game, though, because his two princes were too far apart from each other at deployment. One of those benefits to going second, I suppose.

Warmaster wrote:The tactic to use against this is interleaving your unit's so there isn't a gap to move the ones you want to protect through, like putting a hws or two in front of your blob with less than an inch gap between model's. Makes for an interesting dance.

Well, yeah, I actually did just that.

They weren't so close together that my opponent literally couldn't move them through the HWS, but they were close enough to create some serious bottlenecks. Next time I'll have to keep them in closer, I suppose.

Ahh the movement thing makes more sense now .


From a theoretical standpoint. To talk about dual charging khorne marines and the prince at the same target. The lash player should be able to arrange it so that your power weapons can't get into hth the first round. And theoretically he might even be able to make it so they can't come in on the second round (just like the single daemon prince did). He will probably lose a couple to just guardsmen throwing dice, but not many. The bigger threat is the other two power blobs waiting to charge in, like you said. If he rolls well enough with lash he can dump one of them out of range and suck up the last one. Lash is a very dice dependent ability, if you make that psychic check and get good roll's you can roll over stuff, but eventually lady luck will grace you with failed psychic check's, or rolling 2 inch's for the lash, not even taking into account running into all the psychic defense out there these days.

Nicely played game though, it seems like you are waffling a bit on the storm troopers, between melta and plamsa, which are you liking more?

Warmaster wrote: it seems like you are waffling a bit on the storm troopers, between melta and plamsa, which are you liking more?

Plasma stormies are better stormies. Yes, you lose 1S and Ap1, but you get twice as many shots. Breaking the math down, they're roughly as good against AV12, and they're better against most other things, especially MCs and TEq. Plus, you don't need to deepstrike so dang close.

There are two reasons for the waffle, though. Firstly, a matched pair of plasma stormies costs 20 points more than their melta compatriots (40 if you want to talk about pistols). The loss of plasma down to melta is sometimes worth it, say, if those 20 points turn 3 missile launchers into 3 lascannons elsewhere in the list.

The second is that my lists don't contain as much melta or anti-AV14 stuff in general as they used to. This is mostly in response to people not bringing any AV14 at my local meta, but I don't want to be caught with my pants down...

You've got a lot of complaints about failing special orders tests, have you experimented with vox-casters?

The HWSs can't take them.

It's one of the strange things in the guard codes (like HWSs getting frag grenades and SWSs not), but the three units that you want to give orders to either can't take voxes or will practically never be in range to use them.

The only way to boost this is to bring a lord commissar, but I'm not going to spend that many points just to boost a couple of 75 point autocannon squads. He will probably be making a comeback at 1850, but will be filling his traditional role of leading ogryn around.

Ailaros wrote:
He will probably be making a comeback at 1850, but will be filling his traditional role of leading ogryn around.

Excited for that!

Out of curiosity Ailaros, do you join you Lord Commissar to your Ogryns, or do you just have him walking around near the ogryns?