Working on pics. I took a lot, so I am gonna type up the battle report and then decide which pics should be shown.
So taking advantage of spring break, Fodabett and I decided to have another throw-down. Doing the math, I found I had a startling 10,500ish points of painted models. Some were very poorly painted, having been done in a rush before a tournament, and some had untextured bases [one in fact still showed lots of white primer, but he had three colors!]. Fodabett showed me up with a much more unified-looking army of fully painted models.
We decided to do victory points a bit differently this time, giving each player a number of
VPs equal to the number of objectives they hold at the end of each player's turn starting on turn 2. I thought we each would get points each time, but only the player whose turn it is gets points. In hindsight, I think it would be better to award them for both players on both turns, that way rather than throwing suicide troops [single model, etc] at an objective to grab the point on your turn, you may want to really send out a decent sized force to plan on holding it through both turns.
My list:
Reaver Battle titan
Subjugator
Baneblade
Stormsword
Zarakynel
1 vindicator
2 defilers
8 rhinos
18 noisemarines
36 havocs
40 chaos space marines
18 chaos terminators
2 chaos lords
2 sorcerers
2 daemon princes
18 lesser daemons
keeper of secrets
6 obliterators
3 dreadnoughts
10 chosen
Assets:
Recon
Flank March
Chaos Altar
Surgical Raids
His list, much more generalized:
9 Leman Russ Executioners (WHAAAT?)
2 Leman Russ Punishers (apparently crewed by orks, see report)
6 Medusas
1 Manticore
1 Damocles Rhino
30 devastators
40 tactical marines
6 dreadnoughts in Lucius-pattern drop pods with Forgemaster (ancients formation)
Creed with command squad
Vulkan
3 valkyries with 30 stormtroopers [stormtrooper formation]
4
IG platoons of command + 20 infantry, all in chimeras
total....13 chimeras? I think
33 heavy weapon teams
10 Legion of the damned with meltagun and multimelta (THAT is important)
Assets:
Flank March
Secret Data
Disruptor Beacon
General Staff (note to self, take this sometime!)
Deployment:
We both made the mistake of not looking at each other's armies. I think we're both so used to fighting each other that we've "seen it all". I predicted lots of thunderhammer terminators and the stormtrooper valkyrie formation. I was also expecting a lot of his points to be tied up in formations and sneaky tricks, not the SWARM of leman russ tanks he put in front of me. He likewise knew the reaver was coming, but was expecting the chaos conclave [I didn't have enough characters and units to field it], and was unaware of how much I had kept in reserves.
Instead, I bid only 5 minutes, undercutting his 15 and winning the first turn. I set up rather closely in the center with havocs in firing positions. I suddenly was almost out of time though, and hastily had to throw down the two superheavy tanks and the subjugator ended up in the back next to the reaver instead of out front where I wanted him.
He set up a picket line of leman russes, backed up by chimeras. On his right flank were more chimeras and nearly all his heavy weapon teams. Space marines set up in the back field, the left flank, the right flank, and the center, all vital places where I would be going or would need to go. In reserves I had two squads of chosen in rhinos, two squads of noisemarines in rhinos, two squads of chaos marines in rhinos, a squad of havocs in a rhino, a chaos lord, both daemon princes, Zarakynel, the keeper of secrets, lesser daemons, and two obliterators. My reserves were vital in countering his big strike at the reaver, and in diverting his resources in the backfield.
His reserves were the stormtrooper formation, the ancients strikeforce, and the legion of the damned.
Surgical Raids: I managed to immobilize and stun a chimera and stun his manticore and damocles. Other than saving me for a turn from the manticore, I was rather unimpressed. The asset that leaves me with half my rhinos stunned or immobilized turn 1 and half-kills all my obliterators and hurts my daemon princes sure didn't seem to do much for me!
First turn:
I advanced cautiously with the army, wanting to pop a few shots off with meltas or whatever. I kept my large terminator squad in front and didn't space them out. I knew they'd be dead, but it would save my havocs and chaos marines nearby. The terminators would never really make it to anything important given how he'd deployed [a line of tanks I would be shooting to death, behind that guardsmen nowhere near an objective, and some marines with more plasma behind them, also nowhere near an objective], but the marines could hop into rhinos and get where they needed to go. The havocs and reaver opened up. After the reaver's first salvo, we realized how deadly it could be to squadroned vehicles, and I let him divide up the remaining leman russes so they would last longer against it. It still managed to wreck about four of the executioners, a couple chimeras, and drop a couple marines and guard in the process. Baneblade accounted for a tank and guardsmen, while after a couple of lashes moved some marines around in the center, the stormsword dropped a dead-on hit that cleared the building of the marine menace. When the smoke cleared his front line was a bit of a mess, but was still deadly.
His turn opened with the dreadnought ancients force, blocking off the reaver's escape and surrounding him with dreadnoughts. His tanks stayed put, as did most of the rest of his force. He called down an orbital bombardment that took out most of my lascannon havocs, then subsequently pinned them. A trick shot by some heavy weapons killed a dreadnought, and then mediocre shooting at the hands of more heavy weapon teams immobilized the rhinos and vindicator I'd deployed on the left, while his executioners eradicated my terminators and a large part of one of my chaos marine squads. The ancients opened up on the reaver and destroyed a laser blaster and stripped three structure points. They then charged it. Two went through cover and had to go at it at initiative one. The others did poorly, taking two structure points. It stomped, destroying two dreadnoughts and immobilizing two more, then was totally immobilized by the final attacks. At one structure point and missing a weapon, the reaver lived for turn two.
Turn 2:
I called in Zarakynel, a daemon prince, some noisemarines, both squads of chosen, a squad of chaos marines and the other squad of terminators. Most were repositioned due to his disruptor beacon, but those that were still were in a position to assist the reaver. We weren't sure how to treat some of the dreadnoughts in close combat with the reaver. The rules say that units in combat with a gargantuan creature that aren't themselves gargantuan MUST consolidate to end up more than 1" away from the creature. The problem was, the dreadnoughts were immobilized and couldn't consolidate. Do they stay in combat and tie up a gargantuan creature by unhappy coincidence? Do you ignore them and treat them as not engaged, the way you do to normal tanks? [they aren't engaged and can be shot, but they'll get to attack again if the tank doesn't move away] Or do you just destroy them due to the "MUST move away" etc etc? I pretty much put my foot down that they would NOT be tying up the reaver entirely. If they weren't destroyed they would be free to hit the reaver again. It took everything I could manage to destroy the dreadnoughts, and I ended up leaving one alive but immobilized and with no weapon, and stunned the sixth one. Safe for the moment, the reaver opened up again on some of the leman russes. The missle launcher went for marines in the backfield but they passed the majority of their cover saves [I thought it should ignore them, but we called it area terrain] and went largely unscathed. A daemon prince in the backfield charged and wiped out a squad of marines, while a chaos marine squad, backed up by the baneblade, cleared the right flank of guardsmen and took an objective. The keeper and a dreadnought charged tanks in the center. The keeper wrecked a tank but the dreadnought just ripped off a turret.
Objective count: Chaos 2, Imperium 0
He called in the stormtroopers, which landed by my newly arrived units. They immobilized a rhino, killed all but one of the chosen, all but one of the terminators, and took a potshot at the reaver. I sweated when he got a 6 to glance, and he then took out the other laser blaster. The obliterators took some fire as did Zarakynel and the backfield daemon prince. Zarakynel came out unscathed, but the daemon prince bought it, removing the contesting unit from the objective. Heavy weapon fire killed dreadnought number two.
Objective count: Chaos 2, Imperium 2
Turn 3:
I brought in the rest of my units. A prince and some obliterators came in the backfield and havocs and a chaos lord got repositioned. Lesser daemons summoned off the final terminator. Terminator and noisemarines, along with the lesser daemons, cleaned out the stormtrooper threat. The reaver fired off another salvo of missles to try to take care of a leman russ and some heavy weapon teams, but I forgot it was S7 and not S8 like a regular bombardment, so it just cleared out the heavy weapons. The stormsword fired ineffectively, and the baneblade did the same, bouncing off the front armor of leman russes. I finished off the dreadnoughts and drop pods, as well as the medusa and the marines around the rear objective. The daemon prince that appeared in the back went after Creed's command squad.
Objective count: Chaos 5, Imperium 2
He brought in the Legion of the Damned, and that was his last reserve. All my forces were in the back protecting the reaver and trying to fight for that objective. If he managed to send the reaver apocalyptic, not only would he eradicate pretty much my entire army, but his Legion of the Damned would mostly survive to take the objective. Then a little bit of firepower could kill my obliterators holding one objective and a little more would kill my chaos marine squad on the other. This could bring it to a tie, or at least make it so that I would have nothing to grab objectives on my own turn, giving him two turns to grab them. He made attempts at my other forces, but when the legion made their fatal shot that did bring down the reaver, it just crumbled into wreckage without an explosion.
Objective count: Chaos 5, Imperium 2
Turn four:
We pretty much called it here. I didn't wipe out the legion, but still took three objectives again. Here's shots of each objective at the end of the game.
This next one is hard to see, right behind the soulgrinder. One single Legion of the Damned remains, contesting it and keeping it from me!
Analysis: The reaver took the sting out of the executioners, which I think saved me from a good portion of their fire. They aren't very good at taking out vehicles, though, so even if the reaver was replaced by other units, they would be flank marching in place of my rhino-borne troops, and my front line would get close to his tanks and cause some damage. Regular leman russes or demolishers would have been more effective, perhaps even with lascannons on the hull to help bring down the reaver. Putting a large amount of resources into taking the reaver down, or weakening it before the dreads went at it, would have been better. It was a bit disappointing that the reaver still had full shields when it finally went down, but he used the right tools for the job. I think multi-melta dreadnoughts would have done better than assault cannon dreads, and of course mounting them with chainfists [ironclads] would have been more effective.
Making a list of everything I have painted, though, was helpful. I know I need to get the "halfass" models up to par, which should be easy but I find "fixing" models that need touchup almost takes longer than doing it thoroughly the first time, so that might not be as easy as it seems. I've also got a lot of organizing to do. My models are based off the old codex's organization. When this one came out I re-made it for my standard 1.5k-2.5k armies, but that leaves lots of extra marines with no squad designations I need to sort out. Some dedicated havocs would be nice too, and to make a painted conclave I have a lot of work to do!
Thanks for reading!
Both armies look amazing!
= 1500
= 1150 
23,000pts 
3500pts 
4000pts 
1850pts 
