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Went down to my FLGS last Sunday to play. My opponent, David, brought Sisters, I brought Raven Guard. 1500 points, which is not my usual point level... but hey, a game is a game right?

My List:
HQ:
Jump Chaplain
Elites:
Dreadnought - TL Lascannon, Missile
Dreadnought - TL Lascannon, Missile
Dreadnought - Plasma Cannon, DCCW
Troops:
10 Marines - Flamer, Lascannon, Rhino
10 Marines - Flamer, Plasma Cannon, Rhino
Fast Attack:
10 Assault Squad - Power Fist
Land Speeder Typhoon
Heavy Support:
Predator - AC/LC Sponsons
Predator - AC/LC Sponsons



David brought his Sisters which looked something like this:

Canoness - Eviscerator, some other wargear
Celestian Retinue - Power Sword, Imagifier, meltagun, Heavy Flamer
in an Immolater with Heavy Flamer

Sisters Squad - Combiflamer, meltagun, Heavy Flamer
in a Rhino

Sisters Squad - Combiflamer, meltagun, Heavy Flamer
in a Rhino

Sisters Squad - CCW, Meltagun
in a Rhino w/ extra storm bolter

Sisters Squad - CCW, Storm Bolter
Trekking it from Reserve

Immolater with Multi Melta

7 Seraphim - Powersword, Book, Hand Flamers

Exorcist



Game? Dawn of War, Capture and Control. I place my Objective in my left hand corner on a small piece of terrain, he placed his in the middle behind some boxes.

Tactical Thoughts:
Pop his transports early and rip into his sisters. Spearhead my own Rhinos to his objective while using my long-ranged dreads, assault squad, and a Combat squad to hold my own. Knock out the Exorcist early if possible.

Deployment:
He won the roll off, and chose to let me go first. I set up a Plasma Cannon combat squad on my objective, and a Lascannon Combat squad on a hill on the opposite side of the map to shoot side armor and be a nuisance. He deployed nothing. Great... I waste my first turn and he can react to my forces at will.

Raven Guard Turn 1:
Two dreads and the assault squad run up by my objective. Two Rhinos, the melee Dread, and two predators roll up in the middle to spearhead towards his objective. Speeder Turbos up the far right board edge to get some shots on stuff. No shooting. I pop smoke on the Predators and dreadnoughts, wary of his exorcist and multimelta Immolater getting a lucky shot.



Sisters Turn 1:
He rolls his Exorcist in on the far right corner from me, looking at my speeder and lascannon combat squad. A single Rhino powers up to his own objective, while the rest of hsi army except for one reserved squad of sisters rolls on directly across from my objective My small defense force suddenly finds itself facing most of his, loaded up in transports and one nasty looking squad of Seraphim. I think to myself, "I can take them. I got enough Lascannons to melt anything! Especially since he's got a (smoked) Rhino sideways in front of two behind it." He pops smoke on a few vehicles and sends the turn over to me.



Raven Guard Turn 2:
My middle spearhead rolls forward, my Land Speeder desperately tries to get Side Armor on the Exorcist, and my twin Las Dreadnoughts advance. However, shooting underwhelms me except for two lucky shots. I shook a Rhino in the back so it *gasp* couldn't shoot, but better, my Predator got a lucky autocannon shot off and immobilized the rhino in front of his whole formation. Now he'd have to drive around through the woods to get anywhere. Speeder whiffs on the Exorcist and I hold my breath. Poor little guy is gonna die.

Dread on the left isn't exactly modelled with a Lascannon... Bet that Rhino in front of him wishes this was WYSIWYG!


Sisters Turn 2:
The sisters advance stubbornly through the forest, passing every single dangerous terrain check, much to my chagrin. The sisters in his immobilized rhino get out and run into the river below, while his own spearhead lines up and pops a little bit more smoke. In the shooting phase, however, his multimelta shoots from long distance, hits, and explodes my left Dreadnought. Awesome. Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, his Exorcist whiffs on my speeder, but reserve sisters walking in glance it enough to immobilize it and knock off its missiles. Poor Speeder. :(

The enemy advance. Poor Dead dreadnought.


Raven Guard Turn 3:
Counter assault! Jump Marines charged forward to hit the Seraphim before they hit my lines to attack my objective holders, while the spearhead and remaining Lascannon Dreadnought plodded forward. In shooting, I destroyed the multi-melta Immolater before it could strike again, and immobilized his exoorcist in the corner where it would stay the rest of the game. Jump Marines met Seraphim in epic combat, losing a few but killing more. However, the Seraphim surprise me and Hit and Run past my Jumpers right at my Objective-holding combat squad. I consolidate and hope for the best as I'm now in range for all his Sisters.



Sisters Turn 3:
The turn opens well, with a Rhino attempting to Tank Shock my Assault Marines into a nice formation. I Death or Glory with a regular old Marine...., and the Krak Grenade Explodes it! With luck with me, I hoped I could survive the oncoming phase... as a squad of Sisters and the Canoness and retinue disembark. Several flame template and meltas later, a few marines lay dead. He charges into assault, and my marines react. Unfortunately, my Chaplain can't get into close combat, and thus I don't sweep his Celestians away with the extra attacks. As it is, I kill everyone except the Canoness, but she knocks me down to Sergeant, ordinary marine, and Chaplain. With a near assured 2++, I know they're likely done for. Her Seraphim charge my Combat squad and tie combat with one death each.

Before the fire:


Raven Guard Turn 4:
A poor turn of shooting. My predators fail to kill ANYTHING, while the Canoness murders my chaplain with her eviscerator. My dreadnought charges the Seraphim, and whiffs, but the combat squad drives the girly jumpers off, leaving only the sister superior with the power sword, who gets away to assault again. My Spearhead is one turn out from prime range.

The Spearhead.


Sisters Turn 4:
His Sisters who walked on from reserves finally glance my Speeder to death. Even worse, the sisters guarding his objective jump out to cover his weaknesses.... and proceed to wreck my Plas/DCCW Dreadnought before it can get started cleaning the objective off. That hurt, as I now lack anything left good on the board to kill large quantities of Sisters. My Rhinos charge his objective, but can't get into contesting range. I attempt to shoot and flame some sisters with one combat squad while the other jumps forward, but so far for naught.

His side of the board. Note the line of sisters that killed my Speeder and his Rhino parked literally on top of his objective.


Raven Guard 5:
I chip away at a few sisters, assault some by his objective... and sadly underperform in kills. I manage to punch out his Seraphim commander but I'm down to two models in that squad. My predators try to chip away a few sisters and cause a morale check, but they pass.

They come.... hold the line!


Sisters 5:
He loaded his sisters in his one remaining rhino, and them and they and their Canoness are charging. I have no way to kill that Canoness....and I need to stop those troops from getting to my objective, but can't. By his objective, he pops one of my rhinos and kills more marines. I'm dangerously low over their.... but I think I can keep the objective contested.

My contesting force.


Marines 6:
I manage to contest his objective with all my dwindling forces. My predators open fire with full Lascannons, and proceed to Shake his Rhino three times. I'm not going to stop the Sisters.

Sisters 6:

He charges my combat squad with his Canoness, and my one marine who could remain contesting the objective after she kills his squad dies to No Retreat wounds. Nice Armor Saves there.... His melta pops that Dreadnought too, totally eliminating that side of the board. He holds my objective, and there's no way I cna pry him off his.

The game winners right here.


Marines 7:
Desperate last attempts, before conceding. Some bad luck and bad mistakes threw the balance over to Dave, and this he and his sisters emerge victorious.


End Game thoughts:
An incredibly close game to the end... but it easily could have gone either way at several points, but dice had their way with many attacks. I personally should have used my Speeder more efficiently, using it to snipe rather than getting it so close to his board edge. My preds should have set up to shoot all their weapons earlier rather than rolling 6" a turn and shooting the autocannon until they hit the middle of the board. Shots wasted. All in all, a good game, and a great learning experience. Also, I'll be sure to remember my Drop Pods next time. Damn Rhinos too slow for my tastes. Not Raven Guard-ish enough!

Until next time...

Jet out.

Nice game but ouch, do those sister rhinos have hidden forcefields pr something ah ha ha

gg

I'm telling you, it seemed ok in the beginning what with the minor damage I was inflicting, but that last particular Rhino seemed to be blessed by the Emperor himself. 4 Autocannon shots and 4 Lascannon shots, along with a Dreadnought and a Plasma Cannon SHOULD have been able to pop it in the turn before it landed on my objective.

And let me tell you. 2++ save is utterly ridiculous.

The nun is brutal, she can be even worse when she has a Jump Pack and clocks in with that loadout at a cool 145 (n addition to being immune to the first ID). I have found the best way to take her down is to charge her with a full squad and just try to overwhelm her 2++ save. It is interesting in that the way to break her is not power weapons, but in pure torrent of fire, especially at toughness 3.

I am surprised he is only running one Exorcist, I usually run them in pairs because they can be really erratic. Sometimes you roll 6 shot, 5 hits and obliterate a unit, sometimes you roll one missile and miss with it!

^^ Agreed about the Canoness. I usually run 2 with jump packs and hide them in a small seraphim unit. Opponents mock my 'feeble' deathstar unit until it splits up and wrecks their lines.

I'm a little surprised he wasn't putting eviscerators on his regular SoB squads; they turn them from combat tarpits to excessively dangerous combat tarpits that can happily take out walkers and MC's.

Good write up

It's because the Raven Guard disdain the use of heavy support like Predators that your Predators did so poorly!

Nice batrep, though. Sorry that sons of Corax couldn't pull it out this time.

@Calypso: Unfortunately for me my Assault squad meant to tear her down spent their attacks on her retinue and promptly got smushed by good rolls from a power sword in the squad and her eviscerator. Also, he did one of two things which I don't remember anymore: 1)Raised their initiative to 5 to hit before me or 2) gave them an invulnerable save. Nasty nasty. Those girlies hide some mean tricks beneath their skirts.

@J. Black: Thanks. And let's say I'm thankful he didn't do that either. My Assault Marines wouldn't have appreciated it. As it is, they barely got through a Seraphim squad and a Celestian Retiunue with their invulnerable saves.

@Puma: Ha! Thanks. I knew the fluff gods would be angry when I took that list! Corax would be so disappointed in me... next time I'll bring the Drop Pods!

Hey man.

I'm not sure if you know me, but I sure know David. He is a great guy to play against and I have lost to him as well.

As for the 2++, heh, that was one thing that was never a huge issue for me. Everything would go well, but that one fist would always get through .

In general, I think what shifted the game towards David was your initiative... once you take it you lose it essentially vs. an army like his.

Anyway, I am unfamiliar with your LGS, but I look forward to more bat reps.

Try fighting Deathwing Terminators with a 2+ save and an assualt squad of Lighting claws that go first and get 5 attacks per terminator..

That was a good report. The dice gods can be fickle that is just how it is.

@Sanctjud: *sings "It's a small world."* Really, that's kind of cool. I just discovered my local place (Bandit Paintball and Hobbies) through the GW Store Locator. They're pretty new (as am I) and there aren't that many players... but I've met a few people through their forums. David said he recently moved from Boston, so that was kinda cool. I Have NO idea who you are though.
Yeah, and let's just say my Sergeant maybe hit with one total attack all game with all my terrible luck. No instakills for me! Terrible, terrible rolls. Makes me wish I brought the Captain with his Relic Blade.

@Cutthroatcure: O.o *hugs plasma cannons*

@rzsanguine: Thanks! My dice have this amazing ability to roll either extremely high or low at different times. So I'll either hit with a squad's worth of boltguns, or I'll whiff 70% of my close combat attacks. >.< Rarely do I follow mathhammer it seems...

If those rhinos were taking cover saves, then you weren't actually that unlucky with your shooting against them. Also, you didnt' really throw all that many attacks against the 2++. I mean, I'm sure that it was annoying not to take those things down, but, at least the way it was presented, it wasn't luck to blame.

Perhaps you could give your LC dreds DCCW as a proper backup to their anti-tank ability or hand out some meltabombs or something. As for the cannoness, your marines got caught SERIOUSLY flat-footed. If you would have been able to charge in with those assault marines, the 2++ save could have been much less of a problem.

In all, you relied on long range anti tank to stop his transports, which is less than ideal. Meanwhile, he stopped your transports through having more of his own, playing more aggressively with them, and having better guns. Basically you got outmaneuvered by a superior number of units that you couldn't stop with shooting autocannons into cover.

Perhaps you could consider exchanging your long range, less effective guns for some shorter ranged, more effective guns? In the very least, it would encourage you to stay aggressive against an opponent who is aggressive (like sisters), rather than letting yourself fall back into a relatively stationary role when they come at you.

I'll agree wholeheartedly. I'll admit, Sisters scared me a bit with their multitude of short ranged firepower and I over compensated. Methinks I could use a few more meltaguns.... perhaps from Drop Podding Tac Squads and some more templates from range to clear out infantry. Definitely do something to get that Plasma Cannon Dread shooting rather than trudging forward waiting to get shot.

@Jet: Drop pods don't work well against SoB, it guarantees that they will be facing your army in bits and pieces and it will also put you in their favoured 6-8" range. True, you may pop a transport or 2 but anything you send in there will get murdered.

TBH Marines are one of the worst armies to play against SoB with; their small, high-cost units just can't stand up to either DG'd sisters or 2++ flying psychos.

Landspeeder tornado's ( i think they're the ones with the missile launchers) are a good unit to take as they can get easy shots at side armour and remain well outside of most unit's range Although if your opponent has multiple Exorcists, they will quickly become the prime target :(

I would never recommend fielding a unit as expensive as a LS Typhoon with such slight armor. An Exorcist is definitely going to rip it apart Turn 1.

Marines of all varieties are the easiest match I have found with my Sisters, Guard is the hardest with Dark Eldar in there somewhere as well.