I had a very fun experience over at the Adventurers Guild in Harrisburg
PA this weekend. They had a two day, 5 game 2250 pt
40k tournament with super heavies allowed. I was surprised that the turnout was so light as only 7 player attended and only one of them brought any superheavies ( a shadowsword ) but we all still had a great time and I had some very interesting game experiences.
I took pictures mainly for my own reference in writing the reports but I will try to include the ones that did not come out too poorly. By the end of the two days I was a bit tired so I did not get any good ones of the final game.
I was playing a very spur of the moment list as I had driven to the tourney planning to play my fully painted Vulcan marines with a single squad that I was going to borrow from a friend so my entire army would be painted, but when I arrived I found that due to the point size it was going to be ok to play your army not entirely painted, and I had brought my Battlefoam 1520 along with my full
IG army in it, so decided to give them a try.
I am still waiting on a large number of bits and pieces to build my standard list and the one rule for the tourney was that the models had to be
wysiwyg so my 20 meltagun list with two plasma sponson executioners was out.
Playing just what I had in my case, here is the list I ran.
1x
CCS with 4x meltaguns, Chimera,
HB,
ML,
HS 145pts
1x
CCS with 4x meltaguns, Chimera,
HB,
ML,
HS 145pts
1x Inquistor w/ 2x Mystics 32pts
1x Veteran Squad with 3x Plasmagun, Chimera,
HB,
ML,
HS 170pts
1x
PCS with 3x flamer, 1x heavy flamer , Chimera,
HB,
ML,
HS 130pts
2x Infantry Squad with Flamer, Krak Gren,
MB, Cimera
HB,
ML,
HS 270pts
1x
PCS with 3x flamer, 1x heavy flamer , Chimera,
HB,
ML,
HS 130pts
2x Infantry Squad with
GL, Krak Gren,
MB, Cimera
HB,
ML,
HS 130pts
(These squads rode in the vendettas)
1x Valkyrie with rocket pods 130pts
1x Vendetta 130pts
1x Vendetta 130pts
1x
LRBT 150pts
1x
LRBT 150pts
1x Vanquisher Squadron, 2x Vanquishers, 2x hull
LC, 1x Pask 390pts
So I had 7 scoring units, 7 chimeras, 4
AV 14 vehicles but only 8 meltaguns and No plasma Sponsons on anything. I expected to have fun but get pummeled by some hard lists. I was surprised that no truly hard lists showed up.
Game 1 Mech Chaos.
My first opponent was typical of the weekend, a great guy who was tons of fun to play against and took his bad luck in stride.
He ran the following list ( basically only one opponent had a copy of his list for me to keep so this is from memory )
1x Chaos Lord with daemon weapon
1x Daemon Prince with Wings and other nasty stuff
10x Khorne Berserkers, with maxed out aspiring champion in Land Raider
10x
CSM with Maxed out aspiring champion in Land Raider
10x
CSM with mark of Nurgle and maxed our aspiring champion in Rhino
10x Raptors with fisty champ
8x Terminators with 2x Reaper, and a mix of claws and chainfists
2x Obliterators
1x Obliterators
I took pictures of each of our deployments below. The mission was two objectives, table quarter deployment. My objective was the big tower and his was the bunker.
My opponent had obviously never faced 5th ed mech vet guard as he won the die roll and chose to go second. I even asked him if he was sure, but he seemed to have a plan in mind. I’m sure it was not what happened.
IG Turn 1
I took my scout move and brought the two vendettas across the board straight at his land raiders. As I only had basic infantry squads in them I was not expecting much other than to keep them busy for a turn and possibly lure him in to bringing his marines out of the raiders where my battle cannons could get a shot at them.
On my movement phase I moved the Chimera Phalanx out in two attacks One
CCs and the plasma vet squad moved out towards the Raptors, while the rest of the phalanx moved towards the cluster of woods in the board center. The infantry squads in the vendettas both disembarked and prepared to charge the Land Raider closest to my lines. The vendettas pulled back 6” to get a little distance from the chaos lines.
My shooting phase was short but possibly the best single shooting phase of the entire tournament. The vendettas destroyed the rhino and then killed three of the
CSM that spilled out of the wreckage. Pask blew up the Land Raider closest to the Deamon Prince and the Leman Russ Battle Cannons blew up nearly all of the
CSM that came out of the Land Raider. Then, even worse my two infantry squads charged the stationary Land Raider, one meltabomb Blew it up killing 9 guardsmen, all but the sergeant who planted the fateful charge. (that sergeant ran away, but I have since named him and will model him with a piece of chaos land raider spiky bits hanging from his backpack.)
I felt bad for my opponent as he had been pretty much taken out of the game before ever having a chance to move his forces. He just was totally unprepared for the scout moves of the Vendettas, and the bad luck he suffered with his land raiders.
Chaos Turn 1
His turn had very little movement. He chose to keep the Raptors close to his objective and tried to even the score with his Obliterators but his luck did not change and he only managed to shake one of my vendettas and a couple of chimeras with all of his shooting. Seeing my wall of chimeras running right at him he was not sure how to react and stayed put other than to finish off the survivors of the infantry assault on his land raider with the berzerkers. He chose to consolidate towards my chimera wall after slaughtering the guardsmen, which was another mistake.
IG Turn 2
With the chaos lord and his Berzerkers within potential charge range of my Chimera wall they became my target priority for the turn. The Chimeras coming at him through board center had to split up to get around the woods with one
PCS and one Mech Inf squad going around, and the remaining
PCS, Mech Inf and
CCS going straight between the two woods and right at them. All moved a stately 6” so that the
ML/
HS combo could fire to full effect. On my side of the board my lower flanking force moved full 12 and popped smoke to close on the raptors holding the objective.
Shooting was effective although with no vehicles left Pask spent the rest of the game rather impotently sniping marines and Obliterators. This turn his squadron killed one Obliterator. The two Russes combined fire with the vendettas to kill all but one of the Nurgle Marines and all but one of the Raptors while the Flamer
PCs and Melta
CCS along with 15 Multilaser shots and 15
HS shots killed all of the Berzerkers leaving only a Wounded Chaos Lord and 4 chaos marines surviving from the transport riders.
CHAOS Turn 2
My opponent continued to play on in good spirits and he was deservedly won the best sportsmanship award for the weekend. A really fun guy to play despite things just going from bad to worse for him as his Terminators failed to arrive.
He did get one bright spot this turn as the last surviving Raptor jumped straight at the Vendetta that had assisted in the annihilation of his fellows and promptly blew it right out of the sky. I had to cheer right along with him at that as it was a pretty heroic moment ( see pic below )
His chaos failed to tear open the
CCS chimera although he did rip off two weapons and stun it. The Obliterators tried to drop the other vendetta but managed only to shake it due to the free extra armor. Finally his deamon prince continued to stay put as he knew it could not get into charge range without spending an entire turn staring down my guns.
IG Turn 3
This turn basically ended the game. I moved slowly forward with my Chimera Phalanx closing on the few remaining marines and the obliterators as well as the cowering deamon prince. With so much overkill firepower I had no trouble clearing the board of everything but a single Obliterator in cover and closing to within 12 inches of his objective.
Chaos Turn 3
His Terminators failed again to come in so he took a potshot at a chimera with his obliterator, immobilizing it, and that was the end of his turn. Despite this he continued to be in great spirits, I was wishing I could buy him a beer or something at that point.
IG Turn 4.
This turn was just moving to prepare for the terminators arrival. The objective claiming force reached the bunker while the rest of the force just watched and waited after finishing off the final obliterator.
Chaos Turn 4
His terminators arrived, he knew the game was well and totally lost so he just did the dramatic thing and dropped them right in front of the tanks. As I did not have my usual Plasmolisher squadron this worked out fairly well as the best thing I had to respond with was Pasks squadron who did manage to kill two terminators with lascannon and Vanquisher cannon fire. His reapers did immobilize a Chimera but that was all he could do.
IG turn 5
It did take a while but my combined army did finish off his terminator squad mercifully ending the game for my opponent. He acknowledged that choosing to go second was a critical mistake for him, but his list would have been very heavily out gunned no matter what he did. I just did not think he had a very good matchup.
Result
IG Victory, 2-0
GAME 2
IG VS WITCHUNTERS
This proved to be my most challenging game of the weekend, and the most fun overall. My opponent had a truly beautiful sisters army that my poor little iPhone camera just could not do justice too. His army won best appearance by default since it was the only one that was 100% painted, but he would have won by head and shoulders even if everyone else had finished our armies to our best standards. This army was a pleasure to play against.
His army list was as follows ( this should be very close )
1x cannoness with book and eviscerator with celestian bodyguard in a rhino
1x sisters squad with
VSS, eviscerator, 2x meltaguns, Rhino
1x sisters squad with
VSS, eviscerator, 2x meltaguns, Rhino
1x sisters squad with
VSS, eviscerator, 2x meltaguns, Rhino
1x sisters squad with
VSS, evixerator, 2x flamers, Rhino
1x sisters squad with
VSS, evixerator, 2x flamers, Rhino
1x sisters squad with
VSS, evixerator, 2x flamers, Rhino
10x Seraphim with 2 flamer sisters and
VSS with evicerator
1x Exorcist
1x Exorcist
1x Exorcist
The mission was Dawn of War, Annihilation, the worst possible combination for mech vet guard so I was very concerned going in to the game. My opponent won the die roll to go first ( I did not win once all weekend for go first ) and chose to hold his entire off the board and have me go first. Thus forcing me to come onto an empty board and loose the first turn of shooting entirely.
IG Turn 1
I moved on with one melta
ccs accompanying the plasma vets followed by the rest of the army as it moved onto the board. My valk/dettas moved flat out with two moving in from my left and one from my right. My
LRBTs both came in on my far left while Pask led his squadron in on my far right. My chimera wall held my center.
Sisters Turn 1
His entire force moved forward, the wall of rhinos impressive as it came over the small hill in his deployment zone and used storm bolters and spotlights to rangefind for his excorcists. His exorcists concentrated fire on my Valkyrie that I had run straight up the middle to draw fire, and he fired the two missle tanks that had range at it. Again that free extra armor and 4+ cover save proved highly effective as the Valk came through with only a pair of shaken results despite taking 5 S8 hits.
IG Turn 2
Now I was facing a massive wall of rhinos and three scary looking missile tanks. Not letting myself get rattled I did what mech vet does best. Charge right into the teeth of the enemy! All three Valks moved forward with the Valk going all out again and landing right behind the Exorcists trying to draw fire away from the Vendettas.
My Phalanx moved forward as one, but I had a serious problem with terrain forcing me into a small chokepoint between a forested hill on the left and a cluster of woods at board center. I led with one of the flamer
PCS’s and the
CCS followed by the Other two command squads. The Plasma vet and the two infantry squads went along the lower edge of the forest try and reach his flak. I chose to move fast with everthing except the lead two squads hoping to make up for the lost time caused by the Dawn of War deployment.
Shooting was pretty good for me with Pask taking out one of the Excorsists and a Vendetta stunning a second. My Melta Vet squad managed to pop the far right Rhino and my Russes hit the melta squad from long range but only managed to kill one or two sisters. My other Vendetta blew up another of the Melta Sisters Rhinos leaving him with only one Melta Squad still mounted.
Sisters Turn 2
Having already lost two rhinos and leaving two of his three melta squads dismounted my opponent made a very bold choice. He charged forward 12” with all of his transports and disembarked en masse. His Seraphim and the one naked infantry squad poured forward
To attack my
PCS and
CCS chimera while all his Rhinos Popped smoke.
On the right flank his charge paid good dividends as he got in close melta range with his cannoness and his remaining melta squad and blew it out of the air. His one functional exorcist this turn did not take the bait of the Valkyrie hovering so close to the flanks and instead fired on my melta
ccs chimera doing everything but destroying it, leaving it with one heavy bolter, immobilized, and stunned. The Metla Squad that had lost its ride missed with both melta shots forcing it and the seraphim to multi charge the two Chimeras. Amazingly the
CCS Chim survived but the
PCS Chim was destroyed by explosion, killing one flamer trooper and two sisters.
IG Turn 3
I now had a huge number of pissed off power armored virgins with big chainsaws coming after me, it was a little intimidating to be sure. I moved my Valkyrie to take advantage of the cluster of sisters and the Vendetta to get a solid side shot one of the Exorcists dropping the infantry squad propr to movement. The Two separate Groups of Chimeras were stuck behind the immobilized
CCS chimera forcing me into a slower reaction than I wanted. I took the remaining
PCS Chimera into the woods on the hill to position them for flamer death, and slowly moved the rest further around the woods trying to get some good shots at the now exposed sisters.
The results were devastating. My two flamer
PCS combined for nearly 50 hits on the tight cluster of two sisters squads and the seraphim. Combied with the Valkyrie and the Two Battlecannons I cleared out the area around my Imobilized
CCS chim almost completely. The Vendetta popped one more Exorcist leaving just one remaining which Pask promptly finished off. My wounded
PCS then assaulted the one remaining sister in their area killing her in the assault. My Air Cav Squad then assaulted the rear of one of the rhinos wreking it easily with melta bomb and krak grenade hits. ( damn if those krak grenades came in handy throughout the tournament )
Along the lower end of the woods my Plasma Vet squad supported by the three chimeras and lots of rapid firing lasguns devastated the Cannoness’ Retinue leaving only two alive.
Sisters Turn 3
Not willing to give up the fight and still packing over 40 power armored girls the sisters attacked along two avenues. One flamer squad ran down towards pask and his squadron eviscerator humming menacingly. The melta Squad attacked and another flamer squad’s survivors attacked the chimeras advancing below the woods while the cannoness and the various surviving rhinos attacked the forces at the mouth of the chokepoint.
My opponent had a solid turn here with bolter fire from rhinos slauthtering the flamer
PCS while the canoness exploded the melta
CCS Chimera killing all but two of its members. While the other squads exploded one of the infantry squad chimeras killing all but 4 of its passengers then slaughtering them in assault.
IG turn 4
I was quickly running out of Chimeras as but my opponent was also running low on sisters. I knew I needed to get rid of the large sisters squad bearing down on pask as that would be two easy kill points if they reached him. The combination of two battlecannon rounds, all of pasks shooting and the long range plasma fire from the vets finished them off. The Valk attacked the isolated melta squad still stuck in the crater from early turn due to bad diff terrain rolls without much result while the vendetta satisfied itself with killing another rhino.
My last melta
ccs and the survivors of the firs along with the remaing flamer
PCS finished off the Cannoness while the rampaging infantry squad targeted and killed yet another rhino leaving that side of the board nothing but corpses and wrecks.
Sisters Turn 4.
With small remnants of three squads my enemy managed to kill another chimera, and its infantry squad contents while using his remaining two rhinos to shield the surviving girls while the one isolated squad hunkered down in cover of the rocky hill and the crater wreckage from their rhino and prepared to sell their lives dearly.
IG Turn 5
As only three of my chimeras were left alive, only two of them mobile I did had to work hard to kill the surviving members of the sisters assault, and just could not get enough firepower past the power armor of the isolated melta squad to finish them off. Leaving my opponent with two Rhinos and 6 sisters with melta guns but far away from anything they could hit.
Sisters Turn 5, without anything he could really hurt using his rhinos stormbolters and out of range of the meltas my opponent had little to do this turn but try and position himself to keep his rhinos alive. The game ended here with a solid but very costly
IG victory
FINAL RESULT
IG 13
kp, Sisters 8
This was by far the closed game I had all weekend, and could have been even closer if my opponent had not chosen to get out of his transports so early. Still it was a wonderful game against an awesome opponent and gave me a good idea of how strong Mech Sisters will be against Mech Guard.
I will get to the remaining 3 games as I can, I will also post the pictures for the first two battles as soon as I get home this evening.
Game 3
IG Mech Vet VS
IG Infantry +Ogryn+ShadowSword
This is the game I had been looking forward to because I had never faced the horrors of a Superheavy in a non Apocalypse game before. I had also been hearing for weeks about this guys Ogryn and how terrified everyone at the store was of them.
Here is the list he ran
HQ
1x
CCS with Medic,
AC, Vox, 2x bodyguards, Standard
1x Primaris Psyker (with Ogryn)
Elites
10 x Ogryn
Troops
1x
PCS with Autocannon
3x Infantry Squad with Autocannon,
GL
1x 20 man conscript squad
1x Lascannon
HWT
1x Vet squad with 3x melta and demolitions
Fast Attack
1x Hellhound
1x Hellhound
1x Valkyrie with Rocket Pods and Hvy Bolter Sponsons
Heavy Support
1x Leman Russ with
HB Sponsons
1x Shadow Sword super heavy tank.
Deployment was Pitched Battle and the scenario was 5 objectives. He won the go first roll and chose to go first.
(Pics coming later tonight)
The objectives were placed with on in the ruins on the left in his deployment zone, one on the wooded hill on the left of my deployments zone, one in the center of the board, one in the ruins on the right of my deployment zone and one in the cemetery on the far right of his deployment zone. This left the objectives well spread out and put him in position to easily control three objectives on turn one.
His deployment used the terrain to good effect. He placed his Shadowsword in the center of the board with a big tower building in the middle providing it with long range cover from most of the board. His Ogryn were along the Right flank ( all directions from my perspective) The infantry squads and
PCS were placed out in the open across his deployment zone with the
CCS in the building on the left and the lascannon squad in the bunker to the right of the Shadowsword. The two hell hounds and conscript squad were placed out in an open field on the far left with nothing between them and the wooded hill that anchored my left flank.
I deployed in reaction with one Russ and one basic infantry Chim along the edge of the hill on my left. The rest of the infantry chims prepared to advance along the open area to the left of the tower at board center. My two Melta
CCS chims took position behind the tower itself for cover. On the right I placed Pask in position to fire on the Shadowsword and his Russ while my second Russ anchored my own far right.
My Valk took the Center while my Vendettas each prepared to advance along opposite edges to get some flank shots on the enemy armor.
Before turn 1 we each took our scout moves, he moved straight towards the objective in the woods on the hill at my left while I performed a double envelopment with my Valk running straight at his center, and my two Vendettas coming up the sides.
I failed to seize the initiative and prepared to eat some firepower on turn one.
Other
IG turn 1 –
His movement was minimal this turn as he moved the hellhounds and conscripts forward, apparently intent on clearing the hill on my left and holding the objective there. His Valkyrie moved behind that same hill and deposited a Melta/Demo Vet squad right beside the objective as well as overlooking the Russ and Chimera below at the base of the hill. He also ran his Ogryn up to protect the objective there from any claim on my part.
His shooting started off well as his melta vet squad blew up the lone chimera on my far left and the Valkyrie then killed all but 5 of the surviving Infantry squad. Unfortunately for my opponent, that squad had a flamer. The rest of his shooting was less impressive with the baneblades lascannons, the lascannon squad and all his autocannons combining to simply shake my vaklyrie. My strategy here had been to use it to draw fire, and I was stunned at how much power he poured into that flyer. Even if he had killed it, it had already done its job. He then fired the ShadowSwords big gun at Pasks squadron but only managed to destroy a lascannon from Pasks squadron mate.
IG MechVets Turn 1
Having come through the first round of shooting with much less damage than I had expected I knew I had to take advantage of my opportunity quickly. I moved all of my surviving Chimeras forward at full speed, danced the shaken Valkyrie around my opponents deployment zone as a distraction while the two Vendettas moved up for a firing pass. The Valk on the left dropped off its infantry squad before movement as I intended to take a charge against the hell hounds using their Krak grenades and Meltabomb. It was a long shot, but it had worked out so well for me in game one I felt it might be worth it.
My Shooting started off poorly as both Vendettas failed to score any major damage on either the ShadowSword or the Leman Russ. My own Russes combined to kill one ogryn ( a mistake as those shots could have cleared out a lot of infantry in the open.) Pask did his job by managing to shake the gun crew on the ShadowSwords main gun. My one bright spot was the infantry squad that moved up the hill to toast the Melta/Demo Vet squad killing 7.
In my Assault phase the flamer squad continued their counter assault on the Veterans by charging the rest. In the end only the squads Sgt survived the desperate melee and moved deeper in the woods to claim the objective there. The real stars however were the Infantry squad that had deployed from the Vendetta who multi charged both Hellhounds and Destroyed both of them via explosions!!! I rolled a 6 for the Hellhound next to his conscripts, killing 12 and running them off the field of battle. My own squad lost 6 but held their ground and prepared to advance on the enemy command squad across the scorched earth surrounding them. [ Go-Go basic Guardsmen!!! ]
Other
IG Turn 2
I have to admit here that my opponent suffered from some of the worst luck I had ever seen in the first two turns of this game but he was not about to give up. He had little movement as most of his mobile elements had been destroyed in turn 1 but he did zip out with the Valkyrie in an attempt to get a rear shot on my Vendetta and bring it down.
His shooting phase was very frustrating for him as his entire army managed to do nothing more than blow the multilaser off a single chimera. This left my entire army able to return fire on my turn, and this pretty much sealed the game.
Mech Vet
IG Turn 2
My movement was simple as my Chimera Phalanx continued to move up, the melta chims sprinting forward while the rest escorted it with multilaser and heavy stubba fire. The two Vendettas each picked a target, the one on my left swinging around to engage his Valkyrie while the one on my right continued to focus on the enemy Russ. My heroic Infantry squad ran forward so they could be in range of the enemy
CCS on the following turn.
My shooting was only marginally effective against his armor with my vendettas each blowing a weapon of their target, the multilaser from the valk and the battlecannon from the Russ. Pask managed to blow off a lascannon and do a structure point to the shadowsword. My chimeras, Russes and Valkyries combined to nearly eliminate his entire infantry platoon however leaving him with only the autocannon and two troops from one squad and two lascannons from the
HW squad.
[img]
http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2009/6/3/36042_md-Massed%20unpainted%20Ogryn%20along%20the%20right%20flank.JPG[/img]
Other
IG turn 3
Having watched nearly his entire infantry contingent vanish in a single turn I think he was a little shell shocked and he failed to advance with his Ogryn at all. In one very dramatic and fun moment he decided to ram my Vendetta exploding his and wrecking mine in the most dramatic fashion possible. Nothing else moved so he went on to shooting.
Now desperate to stop the rapidly approaching Melta Vets he directed everything he had on the Chimera’s ( too little too late however ) he managed to immobilize one and blow off another multilaser with his remaining heavy weapons as the ShadowSword continued to underwealm us both. His Primaris Psyker tried for a second turn to shoot down the Vendetta, but once again did nothing but scratch the paint. With nothing to assault he handed the turn over to me.
Mech Vet
IG turn 3
With their ride stopped my lead melta
CCS squad jumped out and advanced towards the shadow sword as the other
CCS followed still within the safety of their Chimera. The massed Melta Fire combined with Pasks squadron managed to Imobilize it, destroy all but the heavy bolters and leave only a single structure point. Meanwhile the Chimeras and other infantry squads finished off all but two members of his command squad and all of the rest of his infantry with the exception of a lone
PCS hiding in the shadow of the Russ. The Russ was then destroyed by the Vendetta on that flank and the
PCS was reduced to just an Autocannon and a commander by the Valkyrie.
Other Guard Turn 4
With only a few models left my opponent struck out with everything he had left. His lone autocannon managed to wreck the second melta
CCS forcing them out into the fireing zones of the massed heavy bolter fire of the Shadow sword. Between the two squads only three of the original 8 meltagunners survived with both the Colonel and the Captain ( company commanders ) taking wounds as well. In another bright spot his Primaris Psyker managed to immobilize the Vendetta bringing it down but out of charge range for the Ogryn since he once again did not move them forward.
Mech Vet
IG Turn 4
This turn was mostly just mop up as I killed everything left on the board save the Ogryn who ended the turn with 8 big guys still standing.
Ogryn Turn 5
With nothing else to do my opponent attacked with his Ogryn, moving out of the cemetery and charging the downed vendetta detonating it easily.
Mech Vet
IG Turn 5
Having moved my entire army at the center to claim the three objectives in that area I was out of range with most of the army to engage the Ogryn. My plasma Vets in chimera rushed over toward the one objective the Ogryn could contest while my tanks slowly withdrew and poured fire on them killing another 4 Ogryn and the Psyker.
Ogryn Turn 6
With nothing in charge range the Ogryn could only run toward the objective in the ruins on my far right. As nothing was in range and out of a chimera they had nothing to fire on.
Mech Vet
IG Turn 6
I moved my Plasma Vets into the ruins and onto the objective the Ogryn were moving to contest ( it of course was academic at that point as I controlled 4 of the 5 and the Ogryn could not score, but we wanted to play it out. ) I killed two of the last 4 Ogryn and we rolled for game end, of course it continued to turn 7
Ogryn Turn 7
The ogryn charged the Plasma Vets chimera, but failed to destroy it.
Mech Vet
IG Turn 7
In a fitting end, my Plasma Vets and Vendetta combined to finish off the last two Ogryn and end the game.
Final Result MechVet
IG 5, Ogryn
IG 0
Game 5
IG vs Black Templars
This game was a surprise to me and helped to humble me a bit as I had grown a little overconfident through the previous days games. My opponent was a Black Templar player running an almost fully mechanized list.
His list was basically:
HQ: Marshall with Power Weapon
HQ: Emperors Champion
Elite: Terminator Assault Squad, Land Raider
Elite: Terminator Assault Squad, Land Raider
Elite: Techmarine with 3 servitors in Lascannon Razorback
Troops:
Tac Squad in Rhino, Melta gun, Fist
Troops:
Tac Squad in Rhino, Melta gun, Fist
Troops:
Tac Squad, Lascannon
Troops:
Tac Squad, Lascannon
Heavy Support: Vindicator
The Mission was Two Objectives, Pitched Battle Deployment
As always I lost the roll for first turn, and my opponent chose to go first. He deployed defensively with his rhino, razorback and vindicator behind a large hill in the center of his deployment zone on which he had placed his objective. He placed his two 5 man las/
plas squads atop the hill, vulnerable but in good position to fire. His two land raiders were set up on the right side of the hill further protecting his razorbacks and Vindicator.
I had placed my objective on the far left of my zone in a forest base. But did not need to worry about claiming it for a while due to my mobility. I set up my Chimera Wall across the center with my Melta Vets hidden behind a large tower that was set in the center of the board. ( pics will follow later tonight when I get home , as usual ) My Tanks were all set up on the far right side of my deployment with my Valk and Dettas in their usual position of Vendetta center and one Valk along each opposite board edge.
BT Turn 1
As usual my opponent keyed off of the skimmer and completely ignored the Chimeras. He moved forward full with both Land Raiders moving slowly toward the chokepoint at board center between the big tower and a wood grove. His Vindicator advanced slowly toward my tanks while the razorback and rhino moved out beside them. On his left the lone Rhino carrying the Emperors champion and a full
Tac Squad rushed toward my objective.
His shooting phase was focused entirely on my skimmers and he succeeded in blowing up the Valkyrie and shaking both Vendettas. I will note here that my luck during the first three turns of this game was pretty close to the luck the
IG player faced in my previous game. Out of 9 cover saves for the fast moving skimmers I failed 8, and that was just the beginning.
IG Mech Vet Turn 1
With both Vendettas unable to shoot I decided to continue to use them as bait. I pulled back with the one on the left trying to draw the Emperors Champion and company toward it instead of the objective. The one on the right did a full sprint to the board corner and turned to menace the side armor of all his rhino chassis.
My Chimera Phalanx advanced at half speed and fired massed Multilaser, Heavy Stubba shots at the exposed marines on the hill. My Two Russ Battle cannons joined in and despite rolling 5 of 10 1’s for wounds on my battle cannon shots I finally reduced the
tac marines to a single lascannon marine who stubbornly held his ground. Pask’s squadron managed to miss with all four shots and I let my opponent from the previous game know that karma was getting me back for the game against him in a noticeable way.
BT Turn 2
With the battle starting off reasonably well in his eyes my opponent felt confident in continuing his charge. Moving 6” forward with both land raiders, the Vindicator and the Razorback as well as the Marshalls Rhino. He also moved only 6” with the
EC’s rhino taking the bait and going for a melta shot against my left flank Vendetta.
His shooting was marginally effective as he stunned one chimera, blew up the chimera containing the plasma vets, shook the right flank Vendetta and stunned one of my Russ Tanks.
IG Mech Vet Turn 2
This turn was nearly a critical error for me. Seeing his two land raiders closing on my chimera phalanx I miss judged the distance between his lead land raider and my Melta Vets thinking I would get short range shots with them. With this in mind I moved the plasma squad up in between the wreckage of its own chimera and the
PCS chimera to the left. I also held all the chimeras in position to use the heavy bolters against the
EC’s Rhino and the surviving Lascannon Marine. Still unable to fire My Vendetta repositioned in the very corner edge of the board on his far right side still threatening all the Rhino cassis.
My shooting was even worse this turn. Pask managed to score a cant shoot result on the Vindicator, I was out of short range with BOTH melta squads and barely managed to shake the lead land raider with 8 S8 shots. My Vendetta hit with all three
TL lascannon shots, and rolled trip 1’s for penetration The combination of 15 multilaser, 15 heavy bolter and 15 heavy stubba shots then managed to kill one marine, barely.
I could not complain given how well I had been doing so far in the tournament but I was expecting to get rolled at this point.
BT Turn 3
Things continue to look good for my opponent here. He disembarked to assault with the terminator squad closest to my chimera phalanx ( now with my plasma vets in easy charge range due to my critical misjudgment the previous turn )and moved both Land Raiders full speed along his side of the forest trying to get around it to charge my objective and flank my advancing Chimeras. .
He moved his Marshals Rhino into melta gun range of my Vendetta on the right, while the
EC moved in for another melta shot of the Vendetta on the left. His vindicator moved through a brace of trees to get in range of pasks squadron and my other tanks while the Razorback set up for a side shot on my Russ Tanks.
His shooting phase was solid again, as he wrecked the Vendetta on the right with a meltagun shot, stunned another Russ with lascannon fire, blew the weapons off one of the
ccs chimeras and Pasks squadron mate.
His assault phase went as planned killing all but three of the plasma squad ( the plasma gunners , shaking the
PCS chim and wrecking the melta
CCS chim all with the same terminator squad. My Plasma gunners fell back and the
CCS set up in perfect position to get them back in the fight on my turn.
IG Turn 3
Here is where the game turned.
My plasma gunners only fell back 4 more inches leaving them within 12” of the terminators, normally a bad thing but not with Get Back in the Fight! My second
CCS moved forward giving it a perfect rear shot on the second Land Raider. My infantry squad piled out of the wreckage of the recently destroyed vendetta and positioned themselves to multi charge the rear of the Marshalls rhino and the Razorback and my sole surviving Vendetta moved back to try one more time against the ECs Rhino after the infantry squad within jumped out and made for my objective, which they managed to reach with a run. .
In my shooting phase I started with
FOMT on the
CCS and
GBITF on the Plasma Vets then fired with the flamers in the
PCS. The flamers combined to kill 2 terminators and then the 6 plasma gun shots and 4 meltagun shots finished off the other 3. My Vendetta immobilized the
EC’s Rhino while the other Melta
CCS imobilzed the Land Raider that held the second terminator squad. Meanwhile Pask and the Tanks managed to stun and weapon destroy the Vindicator.
My Assault phase was yet another heroic adventure with my basic infantry squads. Multi Charging with Krak Grenades and one Meltabomb, they blew up the Marshalls Rhinos and shook the Razorback. I knew the Marshall would tear them apart on his turn, but hey they had already more than done their job.
BT Turn 4
My opponent chose to go as aggressive as possible here, sensing that he had one chance to keep the momentum. His
EC squad jumped out of the immobilized rhino and moved toward the objective, ending up right next to one of my basic infantry squad chimeras. The second terminator squad assaulted out of the immobilized Land Raider looking for some revenge against the
PCS and
CCS squads that had helped kill their brethren. The marshal of course set up a charge on the hapless guardsmen who had destroyed his ride while the shaken razorback moved up so the Techmarine and retinue could get out and try to repair the Vindicator.
His shooting was unspectacular with most of the army stunned or shaken or immobilized without much fire power. The Crusaders proved unimpressive and did not damage to anything but the
EC’s squad did blow up the chimera next to them killing 3 of the 10 guardsmen inside.
His assault phase blew up one
PCS chimera and wreked the
CCS chimera but left both squads in perfect range to respond. The marshal of course slaughtered the guard squad but was left standing in the open staring down the barrels of two battle cannons.
IG Mech Vet Turn 4
I moved my two
CCS melta Squads, one foot bound
PCS, and the surviving plasma gunners all into range to finish off the terminators. Moved the second infantry chimera and surviving
PCS chimera over to deal with the Emperors Champion. The tanks set up for shots on the marshalls squad and the non immobilized Land raider respectively.
This turn my shooting was perfect, I slaughtered the terminators easily, blew up the functional Crusader, annihilated the Emperors Champion and his squad and killed all but the Marshal in his squad. He still had some forces left, but the tide had clearly turned.
BT Turn 5
With the Marshall and the Techmarine’s retinue the only infantry left alive My opponent could no longer claim objectives and I already had mine solidly held with three scoring units so the game was already won at this point but My opponent wanted to play on. He did manage to repair the Vindicators gun, and blow off a Vanquisher’s lascannon, but that was all he could do.
IG Turn 5
At this point it was just moping up. I ran my foot bound
PCS onto my opponents Objective and killed everything on the board except for an immobilized and weapon destroyed Razorback. We rolled and the game ended.
Final Result
IG 2,
BT 0
Game 5
IG vs ‘Nilla Marines ( especially appropriate since his entire army was either unpainted or painted a very light grey )
My final opponent had been getting hammerd all weekend and felt that taking pictures was just rubbing salt in the wounds so I don’t have any photos of the last game. The report will be quick as well since the game was very one sided as you will guess from his list.
Space Marines
HQ: Captain with Command squad, 4x Storm Shields, 4x Lightning Claws, 2x Meltagun, 2x Combi Flamers
Elites: 10x Sternguard in Drop pod with 10x combi flamers
Elites: 1x Dread with
MM/
HF
Troops: 10x Scouts with 9 sniper rifles, Telion, 1
HB
Troops: 10 man
tac squad in rhino with
MM/Flamer
Troops: 10 man
tac squad in Rhino with
ML, Meltagun
Fast Attack : 3 Speeders with Assault Cannon, Multi Melta
Fast Attack: Scout Biker Squadron
Heavy Support: Vindicator
Heavy Support: Thunderfire Cannon
Heavy Support: Whirlwind
It should be noted that my opponent is a very nice guy, he even won best player in the store league, so his attitude was really based on his having a very hard weekend. He had played the
IG player from my third game previously and quit after 3 turns when he had done nothing but kill a few conscripts while his army was swept from the table.
The mission was 5 objectives with Dawn of War deployment. He set up the objectives so that three of them were concentrated in the mid board on the left side making it very easy for me to concentrate my forces toward them. The other two were both on the far just out of our respective deployment zones and in ruins.
So as usual I lost the roll to go first and my opponent set up his scout squad in a large forested hill that dominated the center of his deployment zone and his command squad hidden behind a tower in the right midfield.
I brought in one
CCS and the Plasma Vets in their chim hidden behind a small hill at board center. The rest was stuck off board due to my least favorite deployment option.
SM Turn 1
On his first turn he brought everything in with his whirlwind, Vindicator,
MM tac squad in rhino and the combat squad missle launcher half of the second
tac squad all moving in. The missle
tac squad moved into a bunker placed on the far left corner of the board and the rest moved in to the left of the big wooded hill. On the right he moved in the second half of the missle squad in their rhino, the melta half of the
MM squad and the thunderfire cannon. As it was dawn of war and my only units were hidden behind the small hill in the center of the board he had no shooting.
IG Turn 1
With three tasty objectives clustered together on the left side of the board I ran right at him there. All five chims ran forward to meet the two at the hill, and popped smoke. My valks did their usual with one vendetta on each side and the vaklyrie straight up the middle. The tanks all came in on the left side as well making for a horrible miss match soon.
SM Turn 2
With very little long range firepower my opponent had no choice but to run right at my Chimera Phalanx. Everything moved forward and his command squad tried but just failed to get in short melta range of the Valkyrie at board center. His shooting was almost non existent due with so little that had any range and he managed to shake one chimera and the valkyrie but nothing more. He did get his Sternguard in from reserves but equipped so exclusively for anti hoard they really had no effect. He brought them in right behind my lines and actually scattered off the board. I made up a rule on the spot that let them not be destroyed as I just could not let any more bad things happen to him this game. Since all they had were the bolters they did nothing anyway, and at least he got to place them.
IG Turn 2
I felt bad for my opponent already as I could see that his list was simply an auto loose to Mech Vet unless the dice gods intervened on his behalf in a HUGE way. Moving forward with my entire army against half of his on the left flank I basically wiped out everything but his bunker bound
tac squad in one round of shooting. The Sternguard were vaporized by the russes and the drop pod died to the chimeras. On the right I destroyed his Rhino and put my Valkyrie right in between his
tac squad and command squad mainly to give him something to feel good about killing.
SM turn 3
He killed my Valkyrie and the Inquisitor, and blew the multi laser off one chim. Everyone loves to kill Valkyries so that made him feel a little better.
IG Turn 3
This turn I wiped out everything else left alive on the left side of the board, positioned troops to claim the three objectives there and turned to face the rest of his army. On the right I moved my vendetta to drop its infantry on the objective there.
SM Turn 4
With only his command squad, the thunderfire cannon and a melta gun combat squad left alive he had little to do. He did manage to pop the chimera of the plasma veterans who had annihilated the scouts the previous turn with his thunderfire then wiped them out with this command squad, but that put his command squad right in the middle of my advancing chimera phalanx with the expected results.
IG Turn 4
I killed his command squad and the thunderfire cannon. His last combat squad remained in cover on the far right corner of the board out of range of most of my firepower.
SM Turn 5
He was out of range and the game was over, we only continued as the tourney counted victory points as a tie breaker.
IG Turn 5
The last of his marines died and the game ended mercifully for my opponent.
Result
IG 4
SM 0
I talked with my opponent after the game and he knew his list was not a good one for this kind of tournament, but he is also one of those players who likes to have one of everything in his list, not much you can do to make those kind of random battle forces effective against a real competitive build.
FINAL OBSERVATIONS
So after 5 games and two days I came away with a few surprising revalations
1. Fist and most of all I came away with a new respect for the basic guard squad when deployed in an airmobile fashion. They just kept kicking ass and doing everything I asked of them and more. I would never have imagined how much of a difference the 15 pts to give them Krak Grenades and a Melta Bomb would make.
2. Mechanize
PCS flamer squads are second only to Ork Burna boys as an anti infantry weapon. Especially with a
HF Turret . I don’t care what your save is 15(Small squads of
MEQ) to 40+(any T3 infantry) wounds a turn will fry your ass!
3. The 1 Valkyrie + 2 Vendetta combination works like a charm in multiple ways. It provides nice supplemental firepower, a fantastic delivery option for any kind of trooper and an amazing distraction to keep your Chimeras safe.
4. The Chimera Phalanx is one awesome beast even in larger games. Keeping them close makes getting multiple side shots extremely difficult for your opponents and lets you deliver a hammer blow to whatever is at the top of your target priority list while throwing down a steady fusillade of
ML/
HS fire on anything in range.
5. Heavy Stubbas rock. The defensive weapon ability makes these things a no brainer, they are immediately going back into my 1850 list!
6. Pask+Vanquisiher is worth it but only in big games and only in a squadron. Alone he just does not bring enough to the party to justify the 220 pts. And don’t bother with him unless you are bringing the lascannon. In 5 games his big gun only hit an average of 2 times a game at the best.
The biggest thing I learned is that people will have to adjust to face Mech Vet effectively and that WILL shift the metagame! I cant wait to see what comes next!
22-3(Local) GT Circuit 2-0-1
54-8-4 (local) 5-1 Ard Boyz
3800 pts
3750 pts
700 pts
700 pts
:-)
to the bank from me anyway.
Red Templars
Radical Inquisitor