I had an opportunity to play a couple of games recently with a new opponent, so I thought I'd post a couple of battle reports.
Our first game was 1500. I'm still messing around with my 5th edition 1850 list (works well against all but flyer-heavy opponents), but took the opportunity to try a new concept of deepstriking my
HQ and a scoring squad or two for objectives and linebreaker points. He had
DE, which I played quite a bit off and on in the past, but I hadn't faced in 6th yet.
My modified 1500 list
Inq in terminator armor with psycannon, 3 servo-skulls
5x 5-man strike squad with psycannon,
MC Force sword
Razorback with
TL assault cannon, pysbolt ammo, searchlight
3x dreadnaught with 2
TL autocannons
His list (from memory, so probably a little off):
Archon with lots of stuff (huskblade, soul trap. shadow field at least)
Haemonculus
4 incubi
raider with shadowfield, dark lance
5 trueborn, 2 with carbines, 3 splinter cannnons (I think)
venom with shadowfield, 2 splinter cannons
2x 5 wyches, haywire grenades
venom with 2 splinter cannons
2x 10 warriors, 1 splinter cannon
raider with splinter racks, disintegrators
2x ravagers, 3 dark lances, nightshields
1x razorwing fighter
Mission was Emperor's Will, Dawn of War setup, warlord traits were inconsequential, not nightfight turn 1.
Board looked like this (don't mind my stuff cluttering the table!):
He won the roll-off, and chose to go first. I'll use Vassal from now on...easier to show things!
I figured he had mobility, so I'd keep both objectives on one side to mix things up a bit more. I decided to keep two dreads on my far flank, as I thought it may give them more opportunities for clear shots. I was feeling pretty confident...I didn't see much anti-tank firepower, and I know
DE troops are squishy, so I felt I had an edge in firepower at all ranges, more scoring units, tougher units, etc. I held the
Inq and two squads in reserve to deepstrike as part of my test. I left an empty razorback out in the open as bait...I figured he'd get to shoot something, so I hoped the lone vehicle would die away from everything else and not clog up my movement or disembark troops.
Turn 1A-
DE
Yup, it died. Other than that, though, nothing of much significance. I was a bit surprised at how quickly the two venoms moved up...a little faster than last edition! Still, first blood to him.
Turn 1B-
GK
Hmm...the +4 on those venoms proved a little tougher than expected. I did destroy a ravager and immobilize his
HQ raider, but I had really planned on killing both venoms. I have a feeling my dread made get assaulted.
Turn 2A-
DE
Fighter comes in, and the trueborn venom floats up on top of the rock (the Vassal storage tank was closest in size for the map). In general, my vehicles are proving tough for him to crack open (which I expected, from my
DE experience and his lack of huge numbers of lance weapons). He's killing anything exposed even quicker than I expected, though, which isn't good. My dread shoots a wych in overwatch, then takes loses a hull point or two in melee. His wyches fail to rally and continue to run.
Turn 2B-
GK
Another decent turn...smoke two venoms, start whittling away at his two troop raiders, and insta-kill his haemonculus with a dread. My deep strikers didn't arrive, but that's fine...things seem to be going fairly well, so I want to clear stuff out a bit more before they drop. My dread is wrecked in assault, though, so something else is going to die next turn, probably.
Turn 3A-
DE
The razorwing knocks off a razorback's gun, and the wyches wreck another razorback (and lose 2 to overwatch fire), but not too bad. I'm a bit worried about killing his
HQ squad off before they can assault my troops, especially with the rock blocking
LOS.
Turn 3B-
GK
Both reserves arrive, which is fine, as I think their combined firepower, along with a few extra potshots, may be enough to start contesting his objectives. He's got units scattered all about where I want, though, so there aren't many safe, in-range drop zone, so I go for broke in the ruins by his objective. My
HQ squad deviates onto his raiders, and he places them far off. I place the other squad there, too, knowing they'll be in trouble, and immediately regret it...I should have stuck them out in his deployment zone on my far right to secure the "linebreaker" point. We'll see...maybe it won't matter. Shooting isn't great...I end up killing his other ravager, the two remaining trueborn (forgot to kill on the image!) and the two wyches in my area, but nothing else of consequence.
Turn 4A-
DE
Messed up my turn 4 diagrams, so we'll go with the
raw source photo:
Really uneventful, which is good for me. The razorwing flies off, and his
HQ and wyches hug terrain and hope for an opportunity next turn to assault my razorbacks and troops inside. His two raider squads butcher my 5
GKs, though =(
Turn 4B-
GK
I figure I'll need to kill his
HQ now to have a chance at a tie, so everything shoots at the
HQ. 2 dreads and 2
TL assault cannons later, all but the archon are dead.
Turn 5A-
DE
Night falls...great. I think the
HQ raider blows up my razorback, and the razorwing fighter kills 4 guys that hop out. One missile scatters back and wounds the archon, but the shadowfield holds. He assaults and slaughters the last guy, while the wyches assault and damage my other razorback (and lose one to shooting). Well, that means I have a hail mary shot at a draw next turn...
Turn 5B-
GK
My razorback backs up and shoots the archon...shadowfield holds. His searchlight illuminates him, though, so both dreads can fire as well...to no avail. My crippled razorback moves up to block the archon's movement to prevent an assault.
Turn 6A-
DE
Archon moves up, razorwing kills a few dudes.
Turn 6B-
GK
I tank shock the archon, but he makes his check. Move troops move away, and may have shot, but they had lost their psycannon, so it was of no real use. I don't think the dreads had
LOS.
Game Ends, with me losing 3 points to 4. This was a frustrating loss, because as mentioned at the beginning, I thought I had the edge, so I find myself very critical of my tactics. I normally just roll-up and unload my troops from vehicles, which may have helped stop his wyches early on, or helped kill his
HQ and
HQ raider while using razorbacks to shield my troops from longrange splinter fire. A simple change in drop locations could have wrapped up a tie pretty easily, but I was focused on the big win by grabbing his objective, and when the first drop failed, I didn't have a contingency planned for the close, long-game win.
Great opponent and good game for a good learning loss. We'll see if it affects our next game at 2000 points.
