Playing around with the new
DA dex. I'll be honest here... I have no intention of really running my Mantis Warriors as
DA, but it's the only 6th edition
SM dex besides
GKs and one I can basically make a normal list out of with only a few minor changes for 105 points less... so why not? I handicapped my opponent (my son) so he has a bit more fun and to compensate for the creep in the new dex.
The legendary Mantis Warrior librarian Clothis stood immobile, overlooking the ruins of the blasted city to the east of a largely in-tact fuel refinery. One of his escorts, Brother Bennett looked on in amazement as he swore he could see the Librarian's furrowed brows behind the face plate of the ancient, artificer armor he wore. Was it familiarity, or some subtle, psychic emanation? There was no way to tell. One thing for certain... Clothis was irritated. Irritated that the Mantis Warriors claim to the refinery was being challenged by the Doom Eagles. Irritated that those in charge could not solve this problem diplomatically. Irritated that he himself had to be mobilized for the "scrum" that would determine whose rights would be enforced when he simply had more important things to do.
Mantis Warriors (Dark Angels) HQ: Clothis (Ezekiel) - perfect timing, forewarning
TP:
tac squad (10) - flamer, plasma cannon, power sword, rhino
TP:
tac squad (10) - flamer, plasma cannon, power sword, rhino
FA: 3x land speeder typhoons
HV:
devs (5) - 2
LC, 2
ML FT: Aegis Defense Wall
1000 pts
Doom Eagles (C:SM) HQ: Calgar
EL: terminators (5), assault cannon +
LR Redeemer
TP:
tac squad (10), flamer,
ML,
PF, rhino,
HK missile
TP:
tac squad (10), flamer,
ML,
PF, rhino,
HK missile
1100 pts
Scenario: Purge the Alien, long table edges.
We roll off and I get to choose. I pick the right (north) side of the table and deploy my wall in the center. I then deploy most of my elements in the ruined town for maximum cover. My son (Thing 2) deploys his
tac squads on the other edge of town and the terminator filled land raider across from my Aegis wall. He rolls to steal the initiative and succeeds.
DE Turn 1: Sorry no pics. It's night fight (too dark for photographs!). The Doom Eagles roll forward. The only shooting are some pot shots at my devistators in the tall ruin with the
TL assault cannons on the
LR, no damage.
Score:
DE 0/
MW 0
MW Turn 1: The Mantis Warriors move through the town aggressively in hopes of getting a quick rhino kill. Overwhelming fire from the Typhoons results in 3 pens and an exploding rhino. So far, so good (First Kill). The
dev squad in the tower takes some shots at the
LR but accomplish nothing. The two plasma cannon armed
tac combat squads abandon the wall in the face of the onrushing land raider. (They had nothing to hurt it & nothing else to shoot at. I figured by splitting them up it might keep the
LR busy for longer i.e. fewer kill points given).
Score:
DE 0/
MW 2
DE Turn 2: The Doom Eagles circle the wagons around the exposed marines while the land raider charges forward. The
tac squad asserts itself and immobilizes one of the land speeders with a krak missile. The land raider fires at the
devs, still no effect... so far my cover is holding true.
Score:
DE 0/
MW 2
MW Turn 2: The foot combat squads continue to fall away from the land raider. Firing from the
Dev's puts 2 hull points on the land raider. The force in the city continues to push forward and firing from the
tac squads, rhinos and typhoons wipes out the Doom Eagle tactical squad.
Score:
DE 0/
MW 3
DE Turn 3: The surviving
tac squad beats a hasty retreat towards the safety of the land raider. The raider itself finally takes it's pound of flesh out of the
dev squad, killing two. The terminators and Calgar also take this opportunity to disembark on the city side of the raider, pouring fire into the Devastators in the tower.
Score:
DE 0/
MW 3
"We've driven their remaining tactical element to the edge of the city Sir." said the tactical sergeant to Clothis. "However their heavy unit has driven past our center and is threatening our rearward elements." A flicker of energies played across the studs of the librarian's psychic hood, the only indication that Clothis had heard the message. "Continue as planned Sergeant." replied Clothis. "The tactical elements are the most vulnerable, that's where we'll keep pressing. Our brothers will have to hold as best they can." MW Turn 3: The Mantis Warriors continue to move aggressively through the city in order to take down the other rhino, unfortunately one of the typhoons wrecks itself in the process. (I later discover that under the new rules the second typhoon would not have wrecked, just immobilized... but it didn't really matter in the greater scheme of things.) Shooting at the rhino from the lone typhoon and the plasma cannon in the NW accomplishes nothing.
However, those units that line up to fight the terminator menace fare better and kill 3! Ezekiel's got a nasty
AP 2 psychic power and lots of bolter fire is always a good anti-terminator answer.
Score:
DE 0/
MW 3
DE Turn 4: The second
tac squad unloads to threaten Clothis and his escort, gunning down two. The Doom Eagles finally have a good shooting phase and take a bite out of everyone, including making the
tac combat squad in the city fall back off the board. Calgar exits the land raider and makes for the devastators.
The two surviving terminators charge the Libby's escort. My sergeant challenged the terminator sergeant in order to limit damage from the power sword. The other terminator is killed before he can retaliate. Not bad considering I forgot to snap fire.
Calgar separates from the other terminators and charges the
dev's through the ruins, killing the sergeant (who sacrificed himself in a challenge to save the other two). I forgot about snap fire here too.
Score:
DE 1/
MW 3
MW Turn 4 Shooting finally kills the second rhino though a
tac squad did unload in case a charge was necessary.
The terminator chaplain challenges Clothis (Ezekiel) and gets to eat a force sword for his troubles. This was lucky as the sword is only AP3... my poor son has terrible luck making terminator saving throws.
On a less thrilling note... Calgar eats the last
devs, earning another victory point.
Score:
DE 2/
MW 4
DE Turn 5 Calgar comes down out of the tower, the
LR turns around to pursue the other plasma cannon squad & the freshly disembarked
tac squad opens up on Clothis & his two remaining escorts. Escort #1 falls quickly but marine #2 makes 6 consecutive saving throws to keep the librarian from harm. Now THAT'S a body guard!! His amazing fortitude/dice rolling save me one, perhaps two kill points.
The force of the shell impacts drove Brother Bennett backwards. He stumbled until a firm hand pressed up against his back, holding him steady. A haze of smoke, cordite and ceramite dust obscured vision for a moment until a gentle breeze cleared the air. A squad of Doom Eagles stood a mere 10 yards away... dumbfounded. Bennett could almost see their slack-jawed expressions through their helmets. "Nicely done." The librarian's voice whispered. "Would you like a job?" 
Score:
DE 2/
MW 4
MW Turn 5 Trying to save kill points, the
MW fall back.
Score:
DE 2/
MW 4 (game continues)
DE Turn 6 The land raider pursues, catches and fries the second plasma cannon squad. (sorry, forgot pic) This was my fault... I should have pulled them back another turn and gotten them out of flamer range. I didn't however & it cost me a kill point.
Score:
DE 3/
MW 4
MW Turn 6 In one last gambit... everything left unloads near the Doom Eagle
tac squad. Will it work??
YES!
Game Ends!
Score:
DE 3/
MW 5
However... the Doom Eagle land raider is in my backfield, adding another victory point.
Final Score: DE 4/ MW 5 - Mantis Warrior victory!! Epilogue: "Better lucky than good, eh Sir?" said Bennett with a grin. Clothis paused before responding... "Luck, or was it the Will of the Emperor? In any case, I have other things that need doing. Come." Fun game, closer than I thought it would be. I like the army... just need more practice with it. I'm hard pressed to do anything vs.
AV-14. I'm debating dropping one of the missile launchers and changing the other to a 3rd las cannon and taking the remaining 10 points to give melta-bombs to the
tac sergeants or perhaps dozer blades to the rhinos. Neither of these would have helped out in this particular instance, but they would give me more options in the long run. The three Typhoons have an appreciable amount of fire power though they are fragile. The trick I think, will be limiting their exposure so they last as long as possible. The new vehicle squadron rules really help out with making them viable and it's nice to have a mobile firing platform as the rest of the list is pretty stationary. This was my first experience using the new psychic powers. Not all that interesting but it's the luck of the draw. I like that... puts a bit of a random element back into the game that I think should have always been there. I clearly need to remember to snap fire. In both assaults the units of mine that were charged had good anti-terminator weaponry... they just didn't use it.
Have more games lined up with the kids, which are fine for getting me comfortable with running the army. We'll see how it goes.
Imperial Knights: The Avengers Initiative
Da Dark Angelz
Arakasi vs Infinity