Right, this report is from a local campaign where a planet is being fought over
DoW stylee. In the first week, we all used the planetstrike rules to simulate new aggressors trying to force their way onto the ground, whilst the incumbants tried to fight them off and reduce the size of the threat they would face in the future.
This week was a little odd; you could bring any size of force you wanted (up to a maximum of 2000pts) and play against whoever you liked with campaign points being awarded based on the relative size of the armies.
I brought 1500pts of
SoB and unfortunately got paired up with someone who had brought 2000pts of Dark Angels. Bah. Mission is Annihilate, deployment is Table Quarters.
SoB
2xFlying Canoness with all the trimmings
2xSoB squads in Rhinos with flamer/H.Flamer
7xSeraphim w/ hand flamers
5xDominions in Immolator w/ 4xflamers
2xExorcist
DA
Belial on his shiny bike
2x5man terminator squads w/assault cannon
2x5man bike squads with melta gun and
pf
2xlandspeeders w/assaultcannon & multimelta
3xattackbikes with 2xmultimelta, 1xHeavybolter
2xVindicator
Dreadnought in drop pod w/multimelta
I win the roll and elect to go first. I castle up in the corner with the seraphim and
HQ's behind a wall of rhinos and the exorcists at the back of the board. My opponent places his vindicators as far forward as possible, Belial hides behind a wall, the speeders go on his flanks, and the rest hides in reserve.
The
DA then steal the initiative :(
DA Turn 1
Belial stays put while the Vindicators charge forward, both speeders turboboost onto my flanks and hide in cover. He
DS's one squad of termies close to my lines to get some shots at one of my rhinos. A vindicator blast rips off the Immolator turret but the terminators assault cannon fails to cause any damage.
SoB Turn 1
The damaged Immolator and one rhino head left to deal with the terminators, the other rhino speeds forward towards the vindicators giving the seraphim some cover from their cannons. One Canoness stays with the exorcists to scare his outflanking troops. Both Exorists roll horribly and only manage to stun one of the speeders. The disembarked dominions and sisters wipe out the terminators.
SoB 1 DA 0
DA Turn 2
Only one squad of bikes with an attached multimelta turn up but they do get to come in one the side of the board the exorcists are hiding in. Belial manoeuvers to get a shot at the dominions, the vindicators line up the rhinos and his unharmed speeder heads for the seraphim. The first vindicator shell is just in range of the disembarked sisters rhino, but scatters directly on top of the firing line i had set up to kill the terminators; after the smoke clears, there is only the veteran left standing. The speeder's multimelta explodes the other rhino killing 3 of it's occupants, and the rest are then wiped out by a direct hit from the second vindicator. The newly arrived bikes blow the gun off an exorcist, then explode it in combat losing one of their number to the blast. Belials plasma blast scatters onto the immolator but fails to do any damage.
SoB Turn 2
The seraphim jump off to deal with the speeder whilst the Canoness jumps next to one vindicator. The other Canoness prepares to charge the bike squad. The dominions get back into their transport and head behind some runis, the lone veteran sets up a charge on the stunned speeder. Shooting from the exorcist again achieves sod all, all 5 missiles failing to hit. The Canoness kills one marine with her pistol then massacres the rest in combat, their retaliatory
PF whiffing all it's attacks. The Seraphim immobilize the speeder and the other Canoness blows the cannon off one vindicator (despite getting 4 penetrating hits). The lone veteran carves the speeder apart but is killed in the resulting explosion :(
SoB 3 DA 4
DA turn 3
He gets all his reserves except for the terminators, again rolling well enough for them to enter the board near my Canoness and Exorcist. The dreadnought thunks down in range of my empty rhino. Belial assaults the Canoness. His vindicator fires at the Immolator but scatters wildly off target, the dreadnought vapourises the rhino and the bikes down the final exorcist. Belial fails to wound the Canoness in combat in return she carves some bits off his bike but he passes his fearless save. The downed speeder tries to shoot the seraphim, but their shiny invulnerable armour deflects his melta fire.
SoB Turn 3
The seraphim leave the beleaguered speeder and fly to aid the canoness, The dominions head on a suicide run for the remaining vindicator, in all the excitement i completely forget i have another Canoness XD Belial kills 2 seraphim taking no wounds in return. Things not looking good for the Sororitas.
SoB 3 DA 6
DA Turn 4
He finally gets his terminators and uses his bikes to warp them in on target behind the neglected Canoness. His Vindicator blows up the immolator, killing one of the dominions in the resulting explosion. The speeder kills 2 more with assault cannon fire but they pass their morale check. Belial swats another seraphim out of the air before the Canoness decides to play 'hide the eviscerator' with his face. The other Canoness survives the combined fire of a terminator squad, 5 bikes and 2 attack bikes but is killed in the assault before she can retaliate.
SoB Turn 4
All i have left is 5 seraphim, 3 dominions and a Canoness. Time to get creative
The seraphim head off to finish the downed speeder, the Canoness jumps behind the weaponless vindicator and the dominions charge the functional vindicator. The speeder explodes killing another seraphim, the Canoness wrecks her vindi with melta fire whilst the other explodes taking another 2 dominions with it.
SoB 7 DA 8
DA Turn 5
He needs to mop up what's left, but most of his army is now on the wrong side of the board. The dread lumbers towards the remaining dominion, the bikes move towards the centre, and his attack bikes turbo boost towards the seraphim. The Terminators shuffle after the bikes. The only other action this turn is a bolt shell pinging off the dominions power armour.
SoB Turn 5
My Dominion runs away from the dreadnought, the seraphim assault the nearby attack bike killing it. The Canoness takes a breather behind the shell of the vindicator.
SoB 8 DA 8
............There will be a turn 6 :(
DA turn 6
The bikes and the dread move into range of the last dominion (who i forgot to run into cover). the last attack bike and terminators menace the seraphim. The last dominion is killed by the dread but the rest of his shooting is ineffective thanks to the spirit of the martyr.
SoB Turn 6
The Canoness joins with the seraphim and kills the bike in assault, consolidating away from the terminators.
SoB 9 DA 9
...............Turn 7 is go.
DA Turn 7
The bikes and dread are hopelessly far from the action and stay put. The terminators can just see one of the seraphim's toes and manage to gun down the entire squad with their storm bolters and put a wound on the Canoness.
SoB Turn 7
Thanks to his lucky shooting i have but one way to save the game: The Canoness charges towards the terminators, killing one with her pistol and a further 2 in combat before being crushed by the retaliating
PF's. I am tabled.
Final score: SoB 9 DA 11
Well, not a good day for the Sisters. There are some days when nothing seems to go right and this was one of them. I failed most of my acts of faith despite most of them being unmodified Ld10 tests, every time one of my vehicles was hit they exploded often taking a few models with them (conversely, the only time his explode was when i was in combat with them, also killing some of my stuff). I forgot to do anything with one of my Canonesses on one turn leading to her being massacred by half his reserves. Sigh, it was an almighty cock-up through and through.
Amazing then, that i almost managed to pull a draw out of the bag right at the end; if i'd remembered to run the last dominion into cover, or put the seraphim totally out of sight, the game would have finished even. As it was, the Canoness charging the terminators, killing three, then failing two 2++ saves was a fittingly cinematic end to what was a pretty exciting game. Yes i was down by 500pts and had the initiative stolen off me, but the 'back to the wall' mentality that forced me into made for a wonderfully tense atmosphere.
I've now learnt a lot about how
DA play (the entire army is fearless?!) and would love to get a re-match later in the campaign, hopefully getting the chance to smash Belials' face in again
1500pts
