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Today my buddy and fellow Dakka guy madmen were able to get a game in at The Compleat Strategist in Boston. It's been a while since I did a report from there, but I brought my camera and notebook along to get a battle report down. This was going to be madmen's first game of 6th and my fourth, but we were able to keep our noses out of the rulebooks for the most part. First up, the rosters:
1500 points
Iron Warriors:
- Chaos Lord Bale (Chaos Lord with Terminator armor, combi-melta, daemon weapon)
- Chaos Terminators with power fist, chainfist, power maul, power axe x2, combi-melta x3
- Chaos Marines with plasma x2, champion with fist, icon of Chaos Glory, Rhino with dozer blade and havoc launcher
- Chaos Marines with melta x2, champion with fist, icon of Chaos Glory, Rhino with dozer blade
- Khorne Berserkers with plasma pistol x2, champion with fist, Rhino with dozer blade
- Chaos Vindicator with Possession
- Chaos Vindicator with Possession

Deathwing:
- Belial (Thunderhammer, Stormshield)
- Terminator squad with apothecary, CML, TH/SSx2, Fist x2, Lightning Claws
- Terminator squad with Assault Cannon, TH/SS, Fist and Stormbolters
- Terminator squad with CML, TH/SS, Fist and Stormbolters
- Land Raider Crusader with multimelta
- Land Speeder Typhoon with multimelta
- Dreadnought with plasma cannon, heavy flamer
- Vindicator

We rolled up our mission and deployment and got Crusade (D3+2 objectives) and Hammer and Anvil deployment. Two games running of H&A for me! We rolled up five objectives, and I put three down in a straight line down the middle. He put his in his deployment zone where he could hold them down. I won the rolloff and was able to deploy first. I set up an armored column between two buildings while his forces were a bit more scattered. Bale and his Terminator bodyguard were in space for the deep strike, while Belial and his Terminators (the ones with the apothecary) were sitting pretty in the Crusader.

Deployment looked like this:

He rolled to seize the imitative and failed. I rolled for nightfight and it turns out our first turn would be in the dark!

++ Dawn will break on this world. Our guns will thunder and their walls will crumble. Meanwhile, I shall be above you all, waiting, thirsting, and prepared to strike. ++
TURN 1
I played an excellent turn, where my Vindicators moved up, exploded his Land Raider, and stranded him in his own deployment zone. Then I remembered I wasn't playing Blood Angels and realized I had moved everything up 12" and fired. Demolisher cannons get me excited. so we resolved the turn with none of my shooting doing anything, and my one Rhino that shot its spotlight was illuminated. We also found out my random objective around my motorpool was a Skyfire Nexus. No good here. End of the turn looked like this:


His Land Raider moved up as fast as it could, and the Vindicator tepidly advanced behind it, popping smoke. The Land Speeder turbo-boosted alongside the Raider, while the Dreadnought peeked out of cover for plasma cannon shooting. It shot its plasma cannon at the Berserker Rhino, and the shot bounced off the armor. A cyclone missile from one of the Terminator squads was able to hit and then stun the Rhino, keeping it from moving or shooting. End of the turn looked like this:


TURN 2
Turn 2 had my Chaos Lord and his Terminators drop behind the Vindicator, then mishap into a delayed result. My vehicles got in a traffic jam around the stunned Berserker Rhino, and opened up on the Terminators. The melta squad shot out the top hatch and knocked a hullpoint off Belial's Land Raider, only for one of my Vindicators to finish the job with an explosion result. My other Vindicator shot at his Vindicator, doing nothing, while my plasma guns bounced off the Stormshields of the lead Terminators. Then, against all odds, my Havoc launcher hit and killed one. Silly vehicle upgrade justified. End of the turn looked like this:

++ Strike brothers! Crush the lapdogs of the false Emperor! ++

His dreadnought tried to shoot up my Vindicator, only for the plasma cannon to bounce off. His Vindicator got a good shot off, knocking a hullpoint off both one of my Vindicators and the Berserker Rhino. A cyclone missile again shakes my melta squad's Rhino, while the Land Speeder shoots at my Vindicator again, bouncing a few shots off. Belial's squad shoots and glances my melta Rhino; this would have been 3 hullpoints, but I think I forgot that stun/shaken results still take off a hullpoint, so I only chalked it up to two. My mistake! Belial's squad then prepped to charge out of their crater and into the Rhino and Vindicator, only to roll up a fat pair of ones. Belial tripped over himself, and the end of the turn looked like this:


TURN 3
My Lord and his Terminator buddies drop in, but scatter away from the dreadnought they want to melta. They run 1" on arrival. One of my Vindicators blasts Belial and his squad, doubling him out and knocking out a few of his troops too. Plasma out of the top hatch of one Chaos Marine squad finishes them off. End of the turn looked like this:

++ At last I have arrived! Where is the blood I was promised? ++

His Vindicator and my second Vindicator end their slapping match as he blows mine up with a well placed shot. The shell explodes it, killing one of my Terminators unfortunate enough to be in the blast. The Dreadnought moves over a little and blows away one Terminator, wounding my lord as well. The Deathwing in the barbed wire bunker take out one more Terminator. The Deathwing squad in the other building send a Cyclone missile downrange into my other Vindicator, knocking off another hullpoint. The Landspeeder finishes it off with a lucky glance to the front armor. End of the turn looked like this:


TURN 4
My Lord and his dwindling Terminator bodyguard move up on the Dreadnought. He takes a melta shot and is able to immobilize it, severely limiting its field of fire. The Chaos Marines on my Skyfire objective man the parapets and shoot up the speeder, glancing it to death. Meanwhile my plasma squad moves up in their Rhino and shakes the Vindicator with some side armor action, End of the turn looked like this:


Since I overestimated the damage my Terminators would do, I've found myself very, very close to a Dreadnought with a heavy flamer. It wounds the lord with a burst of flame, but LOSir saves him a wound as the Terminator who missed his combi-melta shot goes down.
++ Such is the price of failure. ++
The plasma cannon shot scatters off onto the Rhino, failing to penetrate. The Terminators in the barbed wire barricade are able to wreck the Rhino, forcing the Berserkers out. End of the turn looked like this:


TURN 5
The Berserkers and Lord with his lone remaining Terminator move forward on the Deathwing position. The objective they hold is a force field that buffs their cover save by 1. However, a bolt pistol shot goes through, taking out the Assault Cannon gunner. My (undead) Rhino chases the Deathwing Vindicator, and the plasma Rhino rushes forward, popping smoke.:

++ They cower behind their walls; tear them down and rip them limb from limb! ++
End of the turn looked like this


The Vindicator moves up, and lines up a shot:

It lobs a shell downrange and plasters four of my Berserkers! The Terminators on the objective open fire, killing two as a LOSir roll saves the Skull Champion. Then, to my surprise; the Deathwing rush forth from their position and charge the Berserkers!

Snap fire is ineffective, and the assault sees the Berserkers wiped to a man. One Terminator remains, who consolidates 6" back onto his objective. End of the turn looked like this:


We roll to see if the game goes on, and it does!

TURN 6
The (undead) Rhino chasing the Vindicator knocks off a second hullpoint with a rear armor bolter glance. The plasma squad moves up and dumps out near the objective. The Lord aces the Terminator on the objective, letting the Marines run on and clear it.
++ Storm the objective, and leave none standing! ++


The last squad of Terminators abandon their objective in an effort to clear the Chaos Marines off the one nearby. The Vindicator sends a shell at the Chaos Lord, but his invulnerable save protects him while his last Terminator goes down.
++ Pathetic mortals, it will take more than that to stop a true son of Perturbo! ++
The Terminators drop three Chaos Marines with shooting, and they pass their morale test. They charge in and one drops to snapfire. The fight sees just a few survive:

With the assault going to the Deathwing, winning 3-4. The Chaos Marines pass their morale test, and the end of the turn lookes like this:


We roll to see if the game continues and it doesn't. With Linebreaker, First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and one objective, the Iron Warriors win!
++ Flee, cowards! Take your precious secrets with you; they will not save you from the wrath of Chaos! ++

That was a pretty decisive victory for the Iron Warriors if I do say so myself! My Vindicators were insanely effective, and I was able to blow up the Land Raider not once, but twice thanks to overeager rules snafu! I really wish my Lord and his Terminators got to do more, as they immobilized a Dreadnought and killed one Deathwing Terminator. I never got to use my Warlord Trait (Furious Charge in the enemy deployment zone) but I guess it says a lot about my commander when he's behind my other troops, urging them forward and casually gunning down his enemies here and there. I'm really looking forward to the new codex; it would have been great if I could have had a cheap squad of cultists or something hold the objective in my deployment zone while the melta squad zipped off in their Rhino, either chasing the Vindicator down or joining the main fight in his deployment zone. If my opponent made one mistake this game, it was being far too aggressive with his Land Raider. It ended up right in a snake pit of two Vindicators and a Rhino with two meltaguns. Belial and his expensive squad of Terminators never got to see combat really, as they were just pasted by Demolishers and plasma fire. It was a fun game for both of us though, and it was great to see two fully painted armies on the table together!

GREAT JOB!

Iron Within.....Iron Without

Thanks!

Sweet report.

Looked like a great game!

Really nice batrep. Cool minis. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting rep, havent played H&A yet.
How does it play as a deployment setup and game in your opinion?

It narrows the battlefield down a bit. I played a game using that deployment with my IG and I was pleased to get more backfield to put Basilisks, mortars, and Leman Russes in. As my list was mostly infantry on foot, I didn't end up moving very much and was able to hold a large amount of ground. With my Iron Warriors it reduced maneuverability and kept my force together, which works for a small mechanized force. I dig it, but I think it would suck to play as something like a foot-based Ork list against IG or Tau or a similar shooting army in this configuration. They could reasonably deploy 3 feet back from your front line, or 4 if they're all the way at the back table edge. Fortunately the battles I've fought have been a bit more balanced.