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Hey - Just played my first game, and got pretty well massacred. It was annihilation, and pitched battle deployment. I was marines, and he was 1k Sons. Seeing as I don't know much about 1k sons, (don't have that codex) I'll try to remember as best I can what he had.

My force:
Captain
Epistolary
10 Sniper Scouts w Telion
2 Tac Squads in Rhinos (with flamer and ML)
1 Sternguard (10 man) squad
5 Terminators
Dreadnought

His:
1 Winged Demon Prince
1 Giant Chaos Walker with many legs that looked really intimidating. Defiler maybe?
2 Tzeentch Marine Squads (unsure of what they were... AP 3 weapons though...) with sorcerers, one squad in Rhino
1 Not Tzeentch marine Squad
1 Berserker Squad
5 Terminators
1 Obliterator

I'll try to walk through everything I did; I would really like feedback and suggestions for my next game!

He sets up everything in the middle of his field, fairly close to each other. Demon Prince is on left, Defiler is behind his troops. His terminators and Obliterator will deep strike.

I set up my tac squads in Rhinos in a far corner. I didn't combat squad them because it was a KP mission. My dreadnought is in the middle left, along with my sternguard squad. Attached to the Sternguard is my Epistolary and my Captain. I deploy my scouts on the left side in cover, hoping that they will be able to take down the DP on their turn. And off we go!

Turn 1, Chaos:
He lashes my scouts out of cover. Shoots them with one of his troops, and kills two. His Defiler misses with it's giant blast weapon, landing between my sternguard and dreadnought. He then charges my scouts with his DP, killing all but Telion and one lonely scout.

Turn 1, Marines:
My dreadnought moves up and melta's the Rhino, immobilizing it. My rhino's hold in place, and fire rockets at the defiler, destroying it. Sternguard teleport to about 19 inches from the berserker unit, and open up fire with vengeance rounds. Through really bad luck, only three berserkers die, but thankfully I didn't lose any Get's Hot rolls. In CC, my remaining two scouts are massacred, with a combined total of 10 scouts dead, and not a single wound.

Turn 2, Chaos:
Neither of his deepstriking units manage to come in. His DP flies over cover, and lands close enough to charge my dreadnought. His three squads open up on my sternguard, and I take five wounds, which prompts me to remember I forgot to cast my 2nd librarian power, for the 5+ inv save. I take 2 wounds on the captain, and lose three members of the squad. His DP tears through my dreadnought, destroying it completely.

Turn 2, Marines:
My terminators DS in, but end up landing in the middle of a squad of chaos marines, so they get put back til next turn. I remember to cast my 5+ inv save, and then my sternguard teleport behind the enemy, trying to land close enough to rapid fire one group of chaos marines without drawing two rounds of rapid fire back. The scatter dice screw me over, and land me 2 inches from one group, leaving me close enough to be rapid fired back by 3 groups of chaos marines. None the less, i take the opportunity to open up on the group in front of me, with much rapid firing vengeance rounds, and plasma rounds, and one flamer. The flamer disappoints, as it hits 8 bad guys, then rolls four ones and 2 twos to wound. The rest of the squad gets two Gets Hot rolls, and incredibly, both the saves fail. If your keeping track, my group of sternguard this round managed to kill two marines. Two. Meanwhile, my two rhinos attempt to frag and storm bolter the remaining berserkers, but three live.

Turn 3, Chaos:
Nothing deep strikes. Quite bad luck. His DP flies towards my rhinos, but is still a good 18 inches away. Every unit in his army turns and pumps rounds into my sternguard. After several squads fire, I end up with one living librarian, with one wound left.

Turn 3, Marines:
Terminators deep strike in, and scatter dice moves them into a line of fire from two squads. Librarian teleports away from the madness, hoping to get to the rhinos and link up with a tac squad. Terminators fire into the nearest squad, and incredibly only kill one model. Rhino 1 fires at the remaining three berserkers, hoping to gain a kill point. Incredibly, I roll 2 ones to hit, including with the ML, and then a 2 to wound, so nothing happens. Second Rhino tries to mop it up, and only gets one model.

So to clarify where everything is on the board, 3 squads of 1k sons, and one immobilized rhino, are stuck on his side of the board,, with my terminators nearby, along way away from my rhinos. On my side of the board, there is a DP, my librarian, and two rhinos, as well as two berserkers.

Turn 4, Chaos:
His terminators deep strike next to my terminators. His DP lashes my librarian, who fails his psychic hood attempt, next to the berserkers. DP flies to about 8 inches from my first Rhino. All of his units open fire on my terminators, and they manage to down one model. Berserkers charge and finally kill the poor librarian.

Turn 4, Marines:
Terminators open fire, and do nothing. One rhino finally kills the berserkers, giving me my first kill point. The other rhino attempts to injure the DP, but misses on the krak missile and the storm bolters are saved.

Turn 5, Chaos:
Oblit deepstrikes in front of the rhino. Marines open fire on my terminators, but this time nothing. His Oblit opens fire on the far rhino, and misses, rolling a 1. His Terminators charge my terminators, and his DP charges the first rhino. I lose two terminators, and kill one of his. The rhino explodes very easily, and I lose one member of the tac squad from the explosion.

Turn 5, Marines: Remaining rhino opens fire on oblit, and puts one wound on it. Tac squad opens fire on DP, and puts 2 wounds on it. Terminators are destroyed in CC before they even get to use their powerfists.

And then the dice dictated the game ended.

So, I believe the kill point total was Me 1, Him 512.

Suggestions for next game?

Update your list to make it more balanced. right now you have a lil bit of every unit in the codex not so good. but you played well. maybe you shouldnt deploy ur army so far off from eachother.

I think your army is relatively alright, but you could lose some elements. You need some anti-tank, badly. Lascannons and meltaguns. Maybe trade the Captain and Tellion for a Triple-Lascannon Pred. Or put some combi-meltas on the Sternguard. I'm not sure what you are using the Terminators for. Assault Terminators with TH and SS would give you some CC power so I would trade for those instead.

Personally, I think you should have focused fire on the DP. With lash and Wings, they must die. It looks like you forgot to use "combat tactics" to get out of CC with the scouts. I would have then used the sternguard to light it up.

Good luck in the future.

Just a few tweaks to the list/tactics, which is pretty good over all.

First, Sternguard can only rapid fire 12 inches after gate of infinity with the librarian. A 24" shot requires not moving. So Terminators work better with Gate of Infinity, they can always shoot 24"

The Sternguard need some other form of transportation
Rhino/Drop Pod

I would ditch the captain...snooze, boring guy and not too awesome, and use the points for a Rhino for the Sternguard, a drop pod for the Dreadnought, and Power fists/powerwepaons for the tac squads.

maybe give the scouts a ML

Use the librarian to cart around the terminators with Gate,

Use the dread in the pod to tie up/destroy something first turn, and then you've got three rhinos full backed up by Telion and his guys,

Hope that helps a little without messing your list up too much.

Also, playing a lot will make you much better

Good luck

andruin wrote:

Captain
Epistolary
10 Sniper Scouts w Telion
2 Tac Squads in Rhinos (with flamer and ML)
1 Sternguard (10 man) squad
5 Terminators
Dreadnought

tweaked version:

Librarian in terminator armor w/ stormshield (Null zone / Vortex of Doom)
Venerable Dreadnought (extra armor)
5 man terminator squad (cyclone launcher, 2x chainfist)
10 man sternguard (5x combi-melta, sarge w/ power fist) in rhino (w/ extra armor)
10 man tac squad (plasma gun, plasma cannon, power sword) in rhino
10 man tac squad (melta gun, multimelta, power fist) in rhino
Predator (2x Lascannon + autocannon)


basically, drop the captain for the predator, and drop the scouts for upgrades. the predator will add long range anti-transport, which is what your lacking right now in your list... the cyclone launcher for the terminators will help this as well. you need to pop his rhinos at range, so you have time to kill his forces at your lesiure while they march up to you. I'm not a fan of scouts. In every game i've seen them used in, they end up dying a horrible, horrible death, and never really make a great impact on the enemies forces.

Captains, while fun, never really seem worth their points. for a kitted close combat captain, with a relic blade, stormshield, and artificer armor, is 160 points... thats as much as 4 terminators. I'd totally rather have the 4 terminators.

against his tson's list -
1 Winged Demon Prince
1 Giant Chaos Walker with many legs that looked really intimidating. Defiler maybe?
2 Tzeentch Marine Squads (unsure of what they were... AP 3 weapons though...) with sorcerers, one squad in Rhino
1 Not Tzeentch marine Squad
1 Berserker Squad
5 Terminators
1 Obliterator


the plan would be for you to set up as far back as possible, deployed in rhinos. Lash has a 24" range, and needs to be cast on a unit, not on a rhino. as he was deep striking his obliterator, he has no serious anti-tank to pop you out of rhinos. Your first turn, try to pop his defilier with your predator... use your terminators cyclone launcher to pop open an enemy rhino, and hit them with a plasma cannon. if he moves close enough, fire your multimeltas (from dread and tac squad) at any closer rhinos. Once his prince moves within 24" of your sternguard rhino, rush the prince and soak it with hellfire rounds (wound on a 2+)... he will be forced to make 12+ saves, and will probably fail enough for him to die.

don't worry about the breserkers, if they get close enough (they should be on foot now, as you should have popped that rhino quicly) assault them with the dreadnought. even if his champion has a power fist, that combat will not end anytime soon, venerable dreadnoughts are damn hard to kill. His tzeentch squads will go down fast, just cast null zone with the librarian and either charge him with the terminators, or hit him with a plasma cannon shot.

If he presents a good target of terminators (landing in a nice deepstrike formation) hit him with either vortex of doom or a plasma cannon shot... (when using vortex of doom, make sure your librarian is standing at least 1.75" from any of your models, so if he fails the blast only hits him)

if after all this, he still gets in close, assault him out of the rhinos with your tactical squads. a tac squad on the charge is every bit as good in hand to hand as a normal chaos squad, so if you can gang up on his squads 2-1, you will win... or if you can hold them long enough for your terminators or dreadnought to get there, again, you will win. never disembark unless you can assault the thousand sons, because they will wreck you at long range. the only exception would be if you are presented with a great target, like his daemon prince with your sternguard.. and even then, try to position yourself such that most of his shots will either go through cover, or be blocked by the rhino.

his obliterator would die easily to a stray lascannon shot, or if that fails, a rapid fire plasma gun, or even rapid fire bolters.