2000pts 6th Ed Sisters/IG vs Salamanders - Crusade Mission
My army:
St Celestine + 9 Seraphim, Canoness+ Command Squad in Immolator, 2 Dominon squads in Immolators, 2 squads of Battle Sisters (1 with 20 and 1 with 10 and Rhino), Exorcist
Bastion with Quad gun
Imperial Guard Allies - Lord Commissar, Veteran Squad with Camo cloaks, Valkriye
Salamanders
Vulkan, Tactical Squad (x3 I think) with Razor Backs, Scout Squad, 2 Predators, Land Raider, Jump pack Assault Squad, Dreadnought in Drop pod, Terminator Squad, 2 Land speeders
Command Traits:
Vulkan: Master of Defence,
Canoness: Intimidating Presence
Sorry no pics - forgot my camera
We had chosen a good range of models to see how some of the new rules worked - snipers, flyers etc and I wanted to use my Valkryie painted in Sororitas colours
and with no prior knowledge of opponents forces.
We rolled plenty of terrain - mixture of hills, woods and ruins and I had my bastion in the centre of my deployment zone near one objective. I deployed first with most of my forces near my bastion in a loose formation. I kept the Valkryie,
St Celestine and her Seraphim in reserve. Ken deployed spread across the width of the battlefield with scouts opposite my veterans and Lord Commissar (both units in ruins and claiming objectives). Both battle sister squads occupied the Bastion - smaller squad on top on the battlements with Quad gun.
Turn One - Ken for once failed to seize the Initiative and I moved one Dominion squad up to take a shot at a predator whilst the other two immolators popped smoke and hung back - the Exorcist slammed a couple of missiles into the other predator and the guard shot a Marine sniper - first blood and at least the game would not now be a whitewash.
The Drop pod slammed down right next to my command Immolator and blasted it into oblivion but no casualties or pinning were suffered by the doughty Canoness or her squad. The Salamanders shot down several of the Dominions but found the combination of heavy front armour (exorcist), cover (guard and Battle Sisters) mostly deflected their ire.
My turn 2 saw the Serpahim and
St Celstine arrive and dropped into the enemy deployment area behind the transports carrying Vulkan - and setting us up for proper fight between the two
ICs. The Serpahim cut down a battle squad with accurate fire as they arrived and the second Dominon Squad damaged a Predator with their melta guns. Most other fire was ineffective save for another scout succumbing to Guard las fire. The Canoness moved to the side of the Dreadnought and missed with her combi melta.
The Salamanders continued to close, confident now and were reinforced by 6 terminators and full assault squad dropping from the skies. The terminators used the beacon in the drop pod to lands next to the cannoness but the Assault squad suffered a mishap which meant I could stick them off in the far corner. The Emperor began to show his presence for the next few turns as the salamanders guns were reduced to near ineffectiveness. The terminators and the dreadnought turned their full wrath on the Canoness and her small command squad and were dumbfounded to find that only 2 Celestan fell when the smoke cleared. Vulkan and 2 battle squads advanced on the Serpahim but only managed to fell a couple as they moved up. The Land Raiders weapons bounced off the Exorcist and one Predator failed to damage the Bastion, the other failing to hurt the Dominions whilst the Lands Speeders finished off both Immolators.
My Turn 3 saw The Serpahim and the newly arrived Valkryie blasted Vulkans accompaning squad, killing all but one and then charged Vulkan, loosing a few more to overwatch and
St Celestine challenged Vulkan. The Sisters in the Bastion turned the Quad gun on the rear of the dreadnought and shredded it after the Canoness's grenade had bounced off. Vulkan survived the hits by Celstine - her sword was only AP3 and cut her down (*) whilst the Serpahim chopped down his last marine. The last two Dominons of Squad one exchanged fire with a battle squad but neither side could seem to hurt the other. The 2nd Squad destroyed the damaged Predator. A speculative shot by
HK missile on the rhino bounced off the Land Raider.
(*) we missed first time that Vulkans blade is S6 and master crafted but only AP3
The Salamanders razorbacks dropped off a battle squads who turned on the flyer and blasted it out of the sky with a single melta shot.... the guard in the ruins began to succumb loosing several of their number. The terminators hosed down the Canoness and her squad again and failed to kill anything so charged in to finish the job! One Speeder moved up to the flank of the Exorcist and knocked off two hull points, the other fired at the 2nd Domninon squad and only killed a single sister as Shields of Faith kicked in once again. The Terminators killed the command Squad but the Canoness's Rosarius worked beautifully and they remained locked in combat. Vulkan cut down several Seraphim but suffered a wound in return from the leaders power sword, despite his 2+ save and also remained locked in combat. The Assault Squad jumped into the ruins to finish off the two remaining Dominions from Squad 1 and suffered three deaths for dangerous terrain including the Sarge and one with a plasma pistol before cutting the two sisters down. The Land Raider and remaining predator hammered the Bastion and caused damage to it and killed several sisters.
St Celestine arose again and burned and chopped up a battle squad, the Exorcist reversed to guard its flank and knocked a hull point off the Land Raider. Vulkan lost another wound to the leader of the Serphaim as she passed her Angelic visage to stay alive. The Sisters in the Bastion stunned the Land Speeder whilst the Dominions shot down the other speeder.
Scouts and last battle squad shot more Guard and the Commissar. The Speeder missed the Exorcist and the Assault squad continued to advance. The Terminators lost one of their number to the Canoness and failed to hurt her and then failed their morale check and broke from combat
. The Land Raiders lascannons caused the bastion to collapse and the Sister were forced to evacuate, loosing some of their number in the process.
Turn 5 - the game was approaching its end and I was loosing but had killed plenty of stuff so was happy. The smaller battle sister squad shot down the heavy flamer Terminator and
St Celestine charged Vulkan again, surviving his wall of death, but neither could get past the 2+ armour save of the other.
Mopping up time for the Salamanders, the terminators lined up and shot the Canoness with everything they had and she finally succumbed. The Assault Squad charged the smaller battle sister squad and cut them down - only losing one of their number to overwatch. The Exorcist was destroyed by the Speeder, and the Guard finished off and we called off
Good game and went reasonably quickly (3 hours) given we were working through the new rules on many occasions - in particular movement, transports, buildings, assaults and flyers. I lost count of how many Shield of Faith rills I made and I am sure my refrain of the Emperor Protects when it worked may have a got a little annoying!!
Likes - we found most of the new rules all worked well and often what we had hoped from when talking about rules changes after games. Wound allocation was interesting and we had some chats during the game and with others about the tactical nature of model placement in the unit - no bad thing in our view.
Snapfire,
If heavy weapon trooper does not move fires as normal
Challenges - proper
40k that is
Dislikes
The fact that high
WS against Low
WS STILL only hits on 3+ - very annoying
Special Characters with 2+ save and only
AP 3 weapons was a bit annoying
Otherwise no problems and I am looking to next game.
