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So after my first round victory I gained a little confidence going into this round. However this was offset by the fact that not only was I once again playing vs BA, but I was also playing a list that had already won a round previously. He told me he was a brand spanking new player and that did something at least to ease my mind and I made a mental note to help him out a bit more than I would if I was facing a vet. His list was (from memory):

Mephiston
Dante

Sanguinary Priest (actually he had purchased a Chaplain, but there was a big communications/language error and we played it all game as a Priest).

5x Death Company
1x Thunder Hammer
1x Power Fist

DC Dread w/ Searchlight
Drop-pod

5x Scouts
Camo cloaks
4x Sniper rifles
1x Missile Launcher

10x Assault Squad
1x Power Fist

Landraider

Dev Squad
2x Plasma cannons
2x Lascannons

Vindicator

And Mine:

Overlord
Warscythe
CC Barge

Overlord
Warscythe
CC Barge

2x Royal Courts including:
2x Solar pulse Teks
2x Despair teks with Veils

5x Deathmarks
Night Scythe

5x Deathmarks
Night Scythe

5x Warriors
Night Scythe

5x Warriors
Night Scythe

5x Immortals
Night Scythe

Doom Scythe
Doom Scythe

We get Capture and Control with pitched battle (spot the paint pot objectives!). I explain to him how my list excels at alpha striking, but that in a C and C mission I also have the mobility advantage to contest his objective very easily in a last turn grab. He thinks for a while and gives me first turn. My deployment:




I mark his Priest and Dante. Dante chooses one of my HQ’s to be de-buffed.

He then deploys:





Dante and Assault squad are Deepstriking with the DC and priest in the Landraider.

My Turn 1
Seeing his deployment on my turn 1 I shift the majority of my forces away from his Vindi (the yellow proxy Razorback), Landraider and devastators with flat out saves while risking 1 Doom Scythe. It pushes 12 forward to perhaps get a hit on the Landraider if my roll is high.



The result: I roll a massive 16”, hit his dev squad into the bargain and down a lascannon as well as the sergeant. They then proceed to fail morale on a 9 and fall back. Sadly not off the table edge and they will therefore auto-rally on his turn. Barely scratched the paint on the Landraider though. This would be a recurring theme throughout the game.



His Turn 1
Down comes the Drop pod and DC dread



He makes a few big mistakes here. Basically he forgot to move his Vindicator, rallied his Dev squad and then proceeded to move his landraider right in front of them. He therefore had to run them higher up into the ruins so no shooting for them this turn. I was deliberately asking questions about what he was doing to see if he would change his mind as he thought about it but to no avail.



For some reason he also tried to target my CC Barge with his Landraider even though it was miles away, was Night-fight and he had a Doom Scythe right next to him. He did hit and pen, but I made my cover saves.


Fortunately (for him) the dread with meltagun did much better. Fortunately (for me) I wasn't pinned nor took a wound from the explosion.

My Turn 2
I now decide to push hard and get the alpha in:


His Scouts got mauled badly


DC Dread went down to a Doom Scythe line and the Drop-pod got dealt with in assault. You can also see my other CC Barge pushing to make itself a threat to the Vindicator next turn. The fact that he forgot to move it last turn meant I didn't want to risk the 24" range from my Tesla on really tough side armour shots.


An overview at the end of the turn. Notice the lack of Devastators? Tesla managed to deal with the unit decisively. The Doom Scythe line also managed to put a wound on Mephiston who is hiding next to the Landraider, though the vehicle itself was unharmed.

His Turn 2

Reserves fail to come in.


Landraider moves 6, pops smoke and unloads the DC with Priest. I was really surprised and again asked if he was sure he wanted to do it. I even mentioned they could do nothing this turn since they weren't in assault range and were carrying bolt pistols. He did it anyway.


Mephiston came out to play. In the assault phase I believe he made it into combat but missed.

His Vindicator also took a shot on my CC Barge but I made my cover save!

My Turn 3


Deathmarks with attached HoDespair teks prepare to make a mess of of the DC.


Elsewhere other Deathmarks put their firepower into the depleted Scout squad so I can put my Tesla Destructors into his Vindicators side armour.


A quick overview.


My CC Barge goes flat out over his Landraider since I have excess tesla on his Vindicator. I hit, I pen, I explode!!! In my excitement I forgot he popped smoke. He makes the save. Doh! In the shooting phase the Doom Scythe line then goes through it again and I shake it. Grrr.


Deathmarks deal with the Scouts while you can see the damage dice on the Razorback...I mean Vindicator. Tesla didn't let me down.


The DC also went down quite nicely. They also now provide bait to Mephiston. If he takes it he gets drawn away from my objective.


Notice Mephistons wound counter is now down to 3. He didn't lose a wound to the Eldritch Lance though. Once again Tesla performs!

His Turn 3

Very little movement on his part. His reserves come in this turn but he uses his DoA re-roll to keep them off. He's planning on a late game snatch.


A Doom scythe is hit by lascannon fire and he gets a result. Fortunately I hadn't gone flat out.


Mephiston takes the Deathmark bait and easily wipes them. However in the process of jumping out of the crater he loses another wound to DT.

My Turn 4

I do the usual moving around and move onto shooting.


Tesla destructor fire proves ineffective this turn with Mephiston absorbing about 12 wounds (rolled lots of 6's). The other Doom Scythe Death ray took off another wound though.


CC Barge moves flat-out over his landraider and I finally yield a permanent result. Immobilized. I capitalize on this and get my Overlord on foot out of terrain and head towards it. The Immobilized Doom Scythe fires its Death Ray, hits the Landraider again, and once again bounces off ineffectually.

His Turn 4

His guys finally come in.

Right next to my objective too.


His pistols take a toll. I can't remember why his marines have moved after deepstriking. I think perhaps he ran and shot. Oops - didn't catch that.


His Landraider also took out my 2nd CC Barge. Again I pass pinning.

In the assault phase Mephiston makes a beeline to a Scythe near my objective. He fails his S10 power but...


...he gets a hit

He also glances...

he stuns...

and I save. I'm particularly glad as I think I'm going to need the excess tesla next turn.

My Turn 5

I move a Troop bearing Scythe flat out to grab his objective (see the paint pot?)


And I get ready to unleash some serious pain on Dantes Assault squad. That's 3 Tesla Destructors and a unit of Deathmarks. Will the marines survive?


Elsewhere I prepare to take Mephistons final wound with a Night Scythe (which immobilizes itself as it enters terrain) and a Doom Scythe...You know, just in case.

As I prepare to shoot my opponent wants to call it. I show him how he can still, however unlikely, take the game from under me. If any member of Dantes squad survives and hits my objective he can control it on a Turn 5 end. If his Landraider also survives my assault (which it has to be said it has done well at so far) he can also put a lascannon into my contesting Scythe. If he gets a wrecked result (4+ is wrecked due to flat-out) my Troops head back into reserve and his objective is clear thus giving him the game. He decides to see how the turn goes.

Mephiston does go down, though that was unimportant and rather expected. The important stuff goes on here:


After all I threw into them his PF sergeant somehow survives with Dante also still around on 2 wounds. He made an absolute ton of 3+ saves for that sergeant. Am I going to wish I hadn't told him how to take the game away from me...


Phew! Fortunately (for me) not. After all I threw at that damn AV14 vehicle it finally succumbed to a bunch of Warscythes. Actually I rolled really well with 5 pens and 2 glances out of 8 attacks. Finally...

My opponent was a nice guy and we had a good chat afterwords about some of his biggest mistakes. As long as he learns from them that's all that really matters. He still seems keen and he seems to want me as a kind of tutor and I will be happy to oblige.

So next round for me is sometime this week. Either GK or Eldar. I know neither player or their lists so it's going to be a bit of a surprise, though I am much more familiar with the GK codex. The batrep will be up when the game is done.


Thanks for reading.

Yeash, that BA list was.... bad. Grats on the win tho!

I didn't think you could make cover saves from CC barge attacks?

Also you only get to re-roll failed DoA rolls, you can't use it as a stalling tactic.

Overall nice report, it's difficult enough trying to explain the rules sometimes with the additional difficulty of overcoming a language barreri, congrats.

Thanks. With the rules issues I guess I forgot about the cover saves thing in the heat of the game. No big deal, it happens. With the DoA special rule that comes from us both being unfamiliar with the BA codex. I actually told him he had a re-roll as that's what I thought the rule allowed.

My next game should be on Wednesday and my opponent is Grey Knights. I should be receiving a copy of his list tonight...time to get nervous, lol.

Sometimes, the best way to learn is to get beaten badly. Though he didn't get beat badly, I think he's learned a thing or 2 from this game.

Great battle report Lukus.

Why did he not take his last turn.... If that sergeant mauls those two in cc then he could tie the game... didn't he have last turn?

Ah yes i could have been clearer as to why we called it there. In the case of a draw it goes to VP's. On that count I was the clear winner so we just ended it to save time.