The battle
Space Marines turn 1
The game started with the Ironclad arriving via drop pod assault. Unfortunately for Leifr he rolled a double-six for his scatter distance. Even with its disembarkation move the Ironclad was only just in heavy flamer range, and killed a single bike.
The terminators did a little better - Lysander's
Bolter Drill meant that every single storm bolter shot hit. The assault cannon turned out to be out of range, but the cyclone missile launcher also added its fire to the mix, and three of my bikers in the right-most squad were killed.
Leifr's bad luck with the drop pod was more than cancelled out by his scouts. The close combat unit headed for my scouts, and his snipers failed to accomplish anything. However, the bolter scouts more than made up for it - despite being at long range, (giving him a heavy bolter and four bolter shots), he managed to get a penetrating hit and two glancing hits on my heavy-flamer land speeder - that's a lot of 6's! night let me save the pen, but the glances killed it very handily. First Blood to the Space Marines!
White Scars turn 1
This was this situation:
The loss of my land speeder was a blow - I had thought it pretty safe, given the lack of firepower on my opponent's part. It was the single best thing I had in my army for taking out scouts in cover - perhaps I should have followed my usual procedure and reserved it...
I now had two very pressing issues - the Relic and the Terminators bearing down on it, and the Ironclad directly in front of me. Luckily there was a single answer to both problems - my bikes (with attached Captain) had sufficient speed to reach the Relic in one movement phase. Because it can only be picked up at the
end of the movement phase, this was very useful.
The same squad then fired at the ironclad - the combination of a close-range multimelta and plasma gun shots caused a critical explosion,
The Terminators were still a problem - once again my speed provided a useful answer. By turbo-boosting, my damaged bike unit, baked up by my sniper scouts, could block the Terminators' access to my squad holding the Relic.
Combined with my last unit of bikers doing the same thing on the right, and I was pretty sure the relic was safe next turn. Unfortunately I didn't cause any casualties with my fire, despite two firect frag hits from my Typhoon on the tightly-packed Terminators.
Space Marines turn 2
The terminators were in charge range, but not of the key squad with the relic:
Instead they chose to swing to the left and go for my larger, undamaged unit. Shooting caused a couple of casualties (
Bolter Drill once again ensuring every single shot hit) - but now my Combat tactics came into play. By choosing to fail my morale test, I could fall back out of charge range, knowing
ATSKNF would allow me to act next turn:
Unfortunately for me Leifr's run of sixes continued - his sniper scouts managed to get a precision rending hit on my objective-carrier, and I failed my jink save! This was extremely unortunate - it meant I would have to stay in threat range for at least one more turn.
Finally his close-combat scouts charged my snipers.
Their sergeant died to my overwatch, and the close combat was otherwise inconclusive.
White Scars turn 2
Losing the Relic was extremely annoying for me, but all was not lost, and my fundamental strategy was still the same.
While my typhoon land speeder took out three of the bolter-armed scouts, the bike squad on my left flank auto-rallied thanks to
ATSKNF, and moved up to threaten and block the Terminators. This time their fire started to whittle them down - only six and Lysander to go!
My second unit of bikes then re-took the Relic. However, it's at this point that I took my eye off the ball. The bike squad between the drop-pod and my Relic should have remained where they were to once again block off the Terminators' access to the objective-holders. however I was so focussed on getting the maximum possible firepower on the Terminators that I moved them away - unfortunately also negating their use as a blocking unit.
Space Marines turn 3
This was the situation:
My opponent has spotted the opening, and immediately moved his Terminators up and into combat.
Bikes aren't a close combat unit, and my Captain's relic blade was also useless against 2+ armour. My squad was wiped out to a man - Lysander was now right by the Relic, and Leifr also had
Slay the Warlord.
Other than that the bolter scouts managed to take a hull point off my typhoon land speeder, while the scout vs scout close combat continued without resolution.
White Scars turn 3
Thanks to my momentary inattention, things were looking very bad:
I didn't have a lot of choice - all I could hope for was to kill enough Terminators to get them off the objective. Unfortunately I din't have enough firepower to do it - and certainly not enough to take down Lysander. My shooing took down two, but they stood fast.
Meanwhile my typhoon failed to kill a single scout, although it did force them to go to ground. The scout on scout combat finally had some kills - one apiece.
Space Marines turn 4
This was the situation:
As expected Leifr used Lysander to grab the objective - barring some amazing luck, it was all but over for me. his terminators then took careof the typhoon speeder witht heir assault cannon and cyclone missile launcher, taking off its last hull point and causing it to crash on the hillside.
The only other action of the turn was in the scout combat - Leifr's attacks finally hit, and I failed all three saves I needed to make, resulting in my unit being wiped out.
White Scars turn 4
Once again there was little I could do other than shoot. Another two marines died - as did tow my my own bikes, thanks to a rash of ones followed by failed armour saves on my plasma gun rolls!
Space Marine turn 5
Leifr now had the relic held by an effectively unkillable model, and I only had four bikes with which to try and stop him:
This time the terminators moved back towards their lines, backed up by the close combat scouts. I had two bikes sinning there, and both units declared a charge on them. the scouts went first - because they had further to charge (over 9" through difficult terrain) I opted to hold my overwatch fire, figuring they would not make it and I might have a chance of stopping the more dangerous Terminators. Unfortunately Leifr rolled three fives - the scouts made it in unscathed, and were then followed by the terminators. Unsurprisingly, they managed to wipe my bikes out with no problem, although not before I killed the scouts.
White Scars turn 5
With only two bikes there wasn't a lot for me to do:
I moved them up and fired at the terminators through the drop pod. One died - and for a wonder they failed their break check! Lysander dropped the relic and fell back towards his table edge.
We rolled and there would be another turn.
Space Marine turn 6
This was the field:
As expected Lysander rallied and moved back towards the Relic, but didn't have enough movement to reach it, thanks to the ruins. Their fire killed one more bike, leaving me with a lone attack bike.
White Scars turn 6
My attack bike moved up but missed - we rolled and the game was over.
The final scores were:
White Scars
- None
Total = 0
Space Marines
- First Blood
- Linebreaker
- Slay the Warlord
Total = 3
White Scars 0 - Space Marines 3 - VICTORY FOR THE SPACE MARINES!
Aftermath
I will freely admit it - losing was my own fault. I had a specific strategy for getting the Relic - using my speed to pick it up quickly with one squad, and block the very dangerous terminators from reaching that unit with my other bike squads. Unfortunately a moment's inattention allowed the Terminators to get past - from there on there was no way that I could re-take it from them.
It's a great demonstration of how easy it is to lose sight of the key goal of the game - the mission. I'm pretty sure if I had stuck to my plan, I would have been able to keep the objective, get linebreaker,
and keep Konchi Khan alive.
At the same time I think that luck was definitely on Leifr's side. A couple of things stand out - firstly getting first blood with so many sixes from so few shots to take down my land speeder, and secondly the precision, rending, unsaved shot that killed my objective holder. The only consolation prize was that he did in fact not take the Relic!
You learn from your mistakes, and I made a big one here - hopefully I've I've taken it on board, and will remember the mission in future!
blog!
1,500 Points II 
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