This is my last game of round one of the summer league that I participate in. No youtube summary this time, because I actually took notes of what happened.
I play versus orks.
Mission: Capture and Control.
Deployment: Dawn of War.
Objectives - the heavy bolter teams act as objectives. We both kind of violated the rules and placed them too close to the table edge, but in retrospect it would not have made a difference at all.
My list:Command squad – Creed, Communications Officer (Astropath), veteran with Regimental Standard
Marbo
Veterans – 3x plasma<o:p></o:p>
Veterans – 2x meltaguns, Heavy Flamer<o:p></o:p>
Platoon Command Squad – 2x Flamers<o:p></o:p>
2x Infantry squad – grenade launcher<o:p></o:p>
Infantry squad w/ flamer, Commissar<o:p></o:p>
2x Special Weapons Team – 2x Sniper rifles, demo charge<o:p></o:p>
Lascannons<o:p></o:p>
Auto Cannons<o:p></o:p>
Missile Launchers<o:p></o:p>
Mortars<o:p></o:p>
Collossus – Enclosed Crew Compartment, hull heavy flamer<o:p></o:p>
Leman Russ – sponsor Heavy Bolters<o:p></o:p>
His list (approximately)
2x Big Meks with various stuff and kustom force field (one has terminator armor).
5 Meganobz in trukk with reinforced ram.
3x Killa Kans with stuff
2x Deff Dreads
Burna boyz in Trukk
A Big Pile of ork Boyz(30+) with Nobs + Bosspole, some weapons.
3x Lobbas
2x Deffkoptas
Deployment
The dusty ground floor of the ruin was covered in spent shells even before the Colonel's veterans set up a command post and firing positions in the building. The jagged windows revealed the ash-covered valley and its rare spots of sickly green grass. Dark blasted buildings rested in the serene air like ancient tomb stones. The dim light of a red, lazy sun reflected on the molten stone and concrete, like an echo whispering the fate of the small village through the strata of time.
It was easy for comm officer Gheistos to notice the ugly wounds with color of rotting flesh gaping in the ground. No grass grew in those craters, and the soil itself seemed metallic and odd, giving out a faint glow. Whatever technological horrors raged here, Gheistos didn't know. The Guardsman's Primer did not describe weapons that burn the life out of the air, melt their victims with the concrete walls of their shelters and turn the earth itself into glass. He turned to the Colonel.
"...haven't detected the Orks' deployment of forces yet, but we have a pretty good idea of how their general advance will proceed. Deployment plan remains unchanged. Comm officer, do we have a word from sergeant Malek and his men?"
Gheistos met the dead black eyes of his commander. This cold, calculating man couldn't be moved even by a harrowing landscape like this. Business as usual.
"They are in position. Sir, I must let you know that commissar Augustus is with them."
"Yes. I assigned him to the platoon."
I deploy my armor, the veterans with melta/heavy flamer and a SWT in the ruins on the far left. I hoped that they would attract substantial attention, as well as his out flankers. The heavy weapons, the plasmavets and the command squad deploy in the far right ruin, with clear line of fire over the whole field. They were supposed to act as fire support to the 30 man combined squad with a commissar, who are deployed in reserves and outflanking due to Creed's "Tactical genius" rule. In the middle is the second special weapons team. If they attract attention - great, the enemy will be in the open and defenseless. If not, they can move to support any troops on the objective. I also leave the platoon command squad in reserve
My enemy places his foot soldiers and walkers exactly where I hoped he would. The big piece of cover is very tempting, but without "Move through cover" or Imperial Guard orders, the orks face a serious threat of being bogged down and fired upon by my artillery.
His medium artillery deploys on his objective, as well as a Deff Dread that counts as troops and apparently can score. The two trukks are right outside the ruin.
Turn 1"We still have a few minutes bef..."
A high pitched scream tore through the air and silenced the commander. Missing the target by just a few meters, the shell exploded and rained shrapnel and molten metal in the midst of the Colonel's staff. The blast tore the skin off two veterans, splitting their bodies like popcorn. Gheistos crawled to the edge of the window and took a careful look out of his cover. Something big and black was moving on the horizon.
The Colonel's hand shook Gheistos with the power of a sledgehammer.
"They are not stupid, they knew we were here!" his voice was the sound of gravel being crushed under a tank's threads, "Contact all team leaders, I want disciplined fire on priority targets."
The stunned officer started fumbling with the radio equipment. On the second level, three beams brighter than the sun strafed the scorched ground and found the fuel tank of their target. For a split second the truck was burning and moving at full speed and then the explosion shattered the air. Hypnotized, Gheistos watched as the wreckage came to life and six massive hulks rose from the steaming crater. A stiffened voice barked from the radio warning about danger close fire support, to no avail. The noise that filled the officer's ears were the inhuman screams of guardsmen whose napalm covered flesh slithered off their bones with a cracking sound.
The enemy steals the initiative! Orks & cans move in the ruins, predictably slowed down by the difficult terrain.
I discover that Trukks are fast vehicles as they speed 18" towards my line.
The meganobz stay put in their trukk, but the burna boyz unload and are able to kill one missile launcher base.
My poorly set up heavy weapons have no time to move and choose to fire at whatever they see instead. Veterans move into rapid fire range of the nobz and the russ pivots a little
Missile launchers and lascannons explode the nobz' trukk, the plasmavets kill one and wound another. My artillery kills some boyz, the russ hits the burnaboyz and sends them running for the hills under half strength. The lascannons shoot at them too, to ensure they won't be comming back.
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Turn 2
"Command, this is War pig. Target neutralized, switching to left flank, over."
Cowered in a filthy, blood drenched corner, Gheistos was fervently relaying his officer's orders. The man was covered in burned flesh and guts, but his face remained calm as the dead. Barely thirty meters away, plasmafire was disintegrating the air into basic particles as the veterans were trying to hold an implacable advance of steel.
The trukk tank shocks my vets in a way that I actually get to move some inches away from the nobz. The ork terminators fail horribly in their difficult terrain check. On the left, orks and meks continue their slow advance. In shooting, the meganobz and lobbas kill a few guardsmen, but nothing significant. Nothing makes it into assault
My russ continues to move a little away from the charging mob, but the guardsmen stay put. Shooting immobilizes the trukk, kills a nob and quite a few boyz. I continue to ignore the walkers.
Turn 3
A new series of messages poured through the master vox and Gheistos' face turned pale. "Sir... The Ambassador is down. Our left flank is about to collapse."
"And so is theirs. Break radio silence with Malek and congratulate him and his men on the excellent maneuver. The orks are in our hands now."
Gheistos risked looking through the window. Smoke and mud were filling the air, but through the veil he could see the ground right of the orks' firebase coming to life. Like little ants, three whole fire teams jumped from their concealed foxholes and began a hasty advance.
The deffkoptas arrive and fortunately my opponent chooses to attack the Colossus base. The boyz finally get in range. The nobz move to assault my guardsmen. In shooting, he chooses to declare Waaaagh!, but all his units roll a 3 to fleet, which is not enough for the boyz. The deffkoptas explode my Colossus, the nobz kill the plasmavets and the lobbas do nothing.
In my turn all my reserves arrive! The 30 man squad outflanks to get his objective and Marbo appears for support. The platoon command squad comes off the board edge on my objective. I move the special weapons team downstairs, move the meltavets to meet the deffkoptas. The SWT demo charges the boyz but they make a lot of 5+ cover saves and only 2 die. The vets almost kill the deffkoptas and the russ finishes the job with the heavy bolters. Shooting from my heavy weapons leaves only the Big mek alive. Marbo kills a grot from the lobbas, and various other stuff removes the heavy flamer from the deff dread. However, he is still operational and ready to charge my infantry.
Turn 4
A new thunderous volley sent Gheistos diving for cover, but this time it sounded somehow distant. In a second, the radio jumped with a horrified voice.
"..sualty report! They are killing us! Lost fifteen, maybe twenty men, we have to fall back now!" "Sir, Malachi reports two thirds K.I.A.s and a general retr.."
"For cowardice in the face of the enemy, you are sentenced to death!"
Uneasy silence followed the gunshot, freezing Gheistos' blood in his veins. Then a ruffled noice, somebody on the other end picked it up.
"Commissar Augustus reporting. Proceeding as planned."
The lobbas kill 22 guardsmen in a single turn of shooting. His boyz move to assault my SWT, his meks continue to rumble towards my objective. The warboss decides to hide, trying to get out of LOS of the heavy weapons. The dread charges, but my guys hold. The boyz kill the SWT and consolidate as far from the heavy flamer as possible.
In my turn the meltavets move and kill a single killa can. The russ fails to kill the boyz who are so close to him. SWT2 moves to demo charge the mek and his boyz and wipes them out. Heavy weapons kill the big mek in mega armor. In assault, the guardsmen fail their morale check and the commissar makes an example of one of them. They fail the check again and run away from the dread. Marbo assaults the grotz and destroys the artillery finally.
Turn 5
The deff dread gives chase to the guardsmen. They regroup and fight. His kill kans and other dread make a desperate dash for my objective, ignoring the russ.
In my turn the meltavets kill another killa kan. Creed moves to get in command range of the running guardsmen. Heavy weapons wreck the trukk, and the russ fails to kill the deff dread.
Turn 6
In his turn, his kanz continue to run. They ignore the russ yet again. The guardsmen lose morale and try to run away from the dread, but the commissar executes one of them. They still run.
In my turn Creed moves to get in command range of the guardsmen, Marbo prepares a desperate assault on the dread. Vets kill another kan and the russ stuns the deff dread. SWT camp on the objective. Creed regroups the guardsmen and verious shooting takes all the weapons away from the dreadnought. Marbo assaults and dies honorably.
Turn 7
There is not much for my enemy to do. I move the guardsmen within 3" of the objective and finish the dreadnought off.
Result:
The men were lined up against a crumbling wall, their hands tied behind their backs. They were the two survivors of the thirty guardsmen who performed a daring and highly costly maneuver. Gheistos was so happy that he could not imagine what they have went through.
And when the orks were routed, the commissar arrested the bloody bastards for shaming the Emperor and mankind with their cowardice. He would have shot them if not for the colonel.
Back in the distance, War pig was firing on steady intervals, hitting targets that were kilometers away. The orks' retreat wasn't going to be easy.
I hold both objectives and win both bonus points for killing his HQ and scoring the first killpoint Major Victory for the Imperial Guard! That gives me 8 points total, keeping me in the first place of the league, with a total of 27 points (my four best games - 5/6/8/8). The second place is held with 19 points in four games, which means that I win this month's round.
Thoughts:
I was worried around turn 2, but in general things went pretty smoothly. I intentionally set the big piece of terrain on one side, with the idea to park heavy and dangerous stuff behind it to serve as a honey pot that can't be ignored. Had he placed his objective near it, by outflankers would have had cool cover to slow any retaliation down. In any case, I my opponent lost because he deployed all those foot troops in difficult terrain. They should have been in the open, running fast towards my ruin with heavy weapons in support of the burnas and terminators. They had a constant 5+ save from the mek after all.
Honorifica Imperialis Winner:
The infantry squad with commissar. They were down to two guys and the commie but they accomplished their mission. Taking 22 casualties from mortar fire can be tought (which reminds me that there should be a rule that gives negative modifiers for this sort of stuff. I mean, 22 out of 30 guys die and it is just as big a deal as if 10 had died?). Now, there was general lack of courage, even with the commissar, but victory is victory.
Most Kickass Unit:
My heavy weapon teams. When the enemy ignores those guys, they put out a lot of hurt. When not, they die ingloriously. Seriously, if you face Imperial Guard with these, take them out first.
I did not have above average luck with them. Half of my orders failed predictably. But it didn't matter, as they provided excellent fire support.
Thoughts on the round:
Well, I am very surprised that I won the round. My army is basically everything I get put together with a few point sinks added to bring it to 1500. That said, it worked extremely well.
- The colossus proved to be exactly what I needed - something to unplug troops from objectives. It has died in 2 out of 3 games, and even then it definitely did a fair amount of damage. The best thing is that I know the enemy wants to take it out ASAP which lets me manipulate him.
- The Leman Russ is as trusty as ever. It gets the job done and is hard to kill. One thing I don't like is that the battle cannon sucks so much against vehicles.
- I had and still have my reserves towards Creed, but the guy is great. Sure, Al Rahem + a second command squad accomplish the task of controlling my fire support and bringing a lot of bodies where they are needed much better, but I don't have the models for a second platoon and a second command squad. Furthermore, he is cheaper (thought much less survivable) than both. He worked. That said, if I could I would definitely field a second CCS and Al Rahem.
- This was my first time not taking plasmaguns and a heavy weapon in infantry squads. I was very reserved, but it seems to work much better. The infantry can keep running, while the heavy weapons receive orders. The plasmaguns are nice on the vets, just in case heavy stuff pops up. One thing I would like is to get two meltagun SWTeams when I get Al Rahem. My current tactic relies on the heavy weapons killing any tanks, which in this game cost me 28 guys.
- SWTeams are great. The odd combination of sniper rifles and a demo charge works in my case, since I use them as counter assault. They use the snipers while the enemy is closing in, then throw the demo charge. It worked wonders in all my games.
- Heavy weapons are fragile, less cost efficient that hydras + vendettass, but still totally good. The fact that they are scoring is a big plus, as I usually place my objectives in the open and away from my troops, to lure the enemy out of cover.
- Marbo is lovely. The demo charge does a fair amount of damage, and his close combat capabilities are perfect for finishing off a squad or killing a critical command unit, like an IG command squad, eldar far seer, tyranid alpha warrior, any ork not in 3+/2+ armor or the odd marine claiming an objective. I love him and will be using him in the future.
Plans for the future:
In the next round I will try running dual russes, as I just finished a very successful conversion. I must add some more men in order to run Al Rahem.
