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Konchi Khan leaned forward into the wind, his topknot whipping wildly behind him. "Forward, my brothers!" he shouted above the roar of the White Scars passage. Behind him the bikes and speeders of the Fifth Brotherhood carved a path through the ruins of Yarov's capital city.

This was the most dangerous moment of any war - the final assault on the enemy. They had been hurt, demoralised, and cut-off - but they also knew there would be no mercy or quarter given or received, and desperate men could do desperate things.

Ahead in the ruins Konchi's scanner had detected multiple signatures - men and machines, a mechanised infantry force. Using the ruins as cover, the White Horde accelerated to attack speed. Suddenly, an incredible blast of blue plasma fire blossomed to his left, searing comrades who had been his brothers for decades.

"Executioner!" came across the com from brother Haiyun, just before another blast vaporised the warrior.

"They must have had it powered down to prevent detection," said Konchi. "All White Scars - primary target is the Executioner. ATTACK!"


Planning

My force

This would be my second game with my White Scars, after I had beaten my friend Danny in my first game. As this was all of my painted models, my list was almost unchanged:



HQ
- Konchi Khan (captain) - bike, relic blade, hellfire shells

Troops
- 5 bikes + attack bike - 2 plasma guns, meltabombs, multi-melta on attack bike
- 5 bikes + attack bike - 2 plasma guns, meltabombs, multi-melta on attack bike
- 5 bikes + attack bike - 2 plasma guns, meltabombs, multi-melta on attack bike

Fast Attack
Landspeeder - Typhoon missile launcher + heavy bolter
Landspeeder - 2 x heavy flamers


My opponent

I was facing another Imperial Guard army, but one very different to last time. Jarval plays a mechanised list, so I could expect to face a lot of tanks!

HQ

Company Command Squad
- Autocannon
- Chimera

Troops

Infantry Platoon - Command Squad
- 2 x Flamer
- 2 x Meltagun
- Chimera

Infantry Platoon - Infantry Squad
- Flamer
- Autoncannon
- Chimera

Infantry Platoon - Infantry Squad
- Plasma gun
- Autocannon
- Chimera

Infantry Platoon - Heavy Weapons Squad
- 3 x Lascannon

Veteran Squad
- 3 x Plasma gun
- Chimera

Heavy Support

Leman Russ Executioner
- Lascannon
- Plasma Cannon Sponsons


So there is was - my 19 bikers and two light skimmers, versus 40+ men, 5 APCs and a battle tank. This was going to be tough... In particular, I had faced the executioner before, and knew exactly how deadly it could be against marines.

Looking at you list and then looking at his list I think "ouch". I enjoyed your last report. This one should be good!

Set-up and deployment

The mission

The mission was rolled as Big Guns Never Tire, with three objectives plus secondaries. In addition my opponent had one HS unit (the Executioner) which would net me a VP if I killed it - this just made it an even bigger target as far as I was concerned. Deployment turned out to be the classic Dawn of War set-up.

Jarval's warlord had the Target Priority trait, while Konchi was a Princeps of Deceit - highly appropriate for White Scars perhaps, but unfortunately I had lost the roll-off to go first, so would be setting up after my opponent anyway! To make matters worse, we would not be night fighting in the first turn either...

The Battlefield

Things were also looking pretty bad, but to top it all off the battlefield was not ideal for me either:



The multi-storey ruins could be used to deny me objectives, because they were based they would be dangerous terrain for my bikes, and there was a lot of open ground with clear sign-lines for the guard heavy weapons.

Objective-wise, I once again decided that I could not afford to spend a squad hanging back in my deployment zone, and placed two on the road in front of the central ruins on the guard side of the board - this also served to deny those ruins to Jarval for placement of any of his objectives.



As expected, he chose to put one high-up, in the centre-field ruins on the Guard left flank. At least he would have to move forward to take it!



Deployment

Jarval deployed first, with one chimera on his left:



Two more and the Executioner were on the centre-left:



The veterans and company command squad (with their respective transports) were on the right, with the heavy weapon teams in the centre ruin for an excellent view across the battlefield:




I was now faced with a difficult choice. The Executioner had been worrying me since I knew I was facing Jarval, and I had seen it do terrible things to elite armies in the past. In addition, unless I managed to seize the initiative, Jarval would have one turn where I would not be protected by my jink saves - what was I to do?

Firstly, I could reserve much of my army, but this carried the risk to being defeated in detail, and meant much of my already-small force would take even longer to reach the guard lines. Alternatively, I could try and deploy out of line-of sight - do-able, but leaving me clumped if something went wrong. In addition the Lumbering Behemoth rule on the executioner meant it could move around to peek around cover, reducing my 'safe' zones. Finally, I could deploy out it he open and just take the fire, hoping that I survived...

In the end, I decided to do a combinatiion of the first and second options. I deployed the bikes in what looked like a 'safe' zone behind the large ruin on the left, while keeping the speeders in reserve. These were extremely fragile, especially given Jarval's medium-strength chimera fire that would be great for killing them. Bringing them on from reserve would allow them to fire or get into position while benefiting from their jink save from the outset.

This all resulted in a battlefield like this:



I was still extremely unhappy with my deployment. Take a close look at my units:



If a blast weapon did manage to get in there it could terrible damage!

The game

Guard turn 1

As I expected I failed to seize the initiative, and the Guard took their first turn. Most units stayed stationary, but the Executioner moved to the left. Where was it going?

Well, my closely-packed bikes were far too good a target for Jarval to give up any chance hitting with the Executioner:



Very cleverly, he had spotted that the ruins between us did not completely block line of sight - there was in fact a window through which he could fire. This was going to HURT.



One sponson misfired and took off a hull point, but that still meant four S7 AP2 small blasts - right in the middle of my units. Even with a 4+ cover save from firing through the ruins, I thought was still in trouble - and I was right.



The lascannons in the ruins and nearest the chimeras also added their fire to the mix. Six dead bikes and a wounded attack bike later, and I was down almost a third of my army before I'd even had a turn. The only bright spot was passing both my break tests, otherwise I would have run off the battlefield.

White Scars turn 1

This was the situation:



I knew I had to get close, and do it fast. Unfortunately, I didn't have sufficient long-range fire to take down the Executioner, and would have to survive at least another turn - at least this time I could spread out and get jink saves.



The two closest and least damaged units turbo-boosted, while the remaining attack bike and plasma-gunner in the ruins took a hull-point off the nearest chimera.




Guard turn 2

Jarval knew that he had only one more turn of unopposed shooting before I was in my ideal range - he had to make this count.



Once again the executioner opened fire:



Supported by the chimeras and their squads who had also moved into ideal firing position, I lost yet more troops:



Once again though I managed to pass my break tests - White Scars are made of sterner stuff then that!

White Scars turn 2

I knew this would be my best chance to cause significant damage:



Firstly, both of my land speeders appeared and took up firing positions on the left flank. Two krak missiles later and the plasma-armed veterans were without a transport, with a flame-armed speeder in waiting for them next turn. One down!



The damaged squad in the ruins moved up to nearest chimera - two plasma shots and a multi-melta later, and the infantry inside were also transport-less. Two down!



On the guard's left flank my least-damaged squad scored another kill. Three down!



Finally the key shot. My attack bike, the only living member of his unit, was accompanied by Konchi Khan. He fired, hit and ... glanced! The Executioner was still alive, with one hull point remaining. Now all would depend on close combat.

Both of my other bike squads failed to charge the squads who ha been in the transports they had killed. The key roll though was that to get into combat with the Executioner - which succeeded!



A relic blade to the rear armour proved sufficient to take off the last hull point - my biggest threat was no more. Four down!



Guard turn 3

The guard had suffered a devastating turn, but the White Scars by this point were very thin on the ground:



Firstly the veterans on the guard right flank had not been pinned when the typhoon land speeder killed their chimera.



I had foolishly moved my Typhoon speeder too close to the enemy, when I should have stayed well back. Jarval took full advantage of this, and the fragile vehicle crashed and burned under a hail of white-hot plasma fire.



Over on the main front, the guard lost most of their vehicles, but my failure to engage them in close combat afterwards meant most of their firepower was still intact. Backed up by the lascannons in the ruins, I took further casualties, including killing the last of the bike squad that had attacked the Executioner. Once again though the Astartes were unflinching in the face of overwhelming firepower.



White Scars turn 3

Things were looking very bad for me at this point - I had only one flame-armed land speeder, two attack bikes (one wounded), a plasma gunner, and a wounded captain left on the field.



The land speeder took out the plasma veterans with ease, but could not seriously threaten the chimera and command squad still on that side of the field:



On the guard left-flank, I was almost out of men:



The lone remaining attack bike took on the last of the guard squad. Their shooting was amazing, with one frag grenade and one twin-linked bolter killing six guardsmen in the wreckage of their transport: In close combat they were decidedly less impressive, killing one of the two guardsmen, but taking a wound in return.



In contrast, my last bike squad and captain completely failed to cause a single casualty in the shooting phase. Close combat was another matter though:



The guardsmen took significant casualties, and the few left alive broke and were crushed beneath the bikes' wheels.



Guard turn 4

This was the situation facing Jarval:



As expected there was very little movement, with only the chimera on his right flank moving so that it could see the last land speeder. This was duly destroyed, along with my two remaining bikers and Konchi Khan. The attack bike did manage to kill the last stoic guard sergeant who who stopped them though.

White Scars turn 4

The fight was all but over.



I had one single wounded attack bike on the table, which moved towards the nearest chimera. The multi-melta turned the transport into nothing more than a pile of molten slag, but it was too little, too late.

Guard turn 5

The battlefield was effectively the guard's now:



Under a hail of fire, the last attack bike was gunned down, the lascannons in the ruins executing the coup-de-gras.




Result - VICTORY FOR THE GUARD!

Great report, interesting guard list, I thought you had this one from the start, but that executioner just killed to much in the opening turns.

And if you had realized that the ruin you were hiding behind wasn't actually LoS blocking you could of at least spread them out for that first round of shooting. Oh well.

Conclusion

This was a very different game to my first one. The key weakness of a White Scars army - the lack of numbers - really showed up here, and the mechanised Guard firepower (especially the Executioner) allowed my opponent to cause significant initial casualties to which I could not respond until it was too last.

That said, I think the key element here was Jarval's excellent tactical play, compounded a number of mistakes I made. In particular, spotting the windows in the ruins gave Jarval a prefect alpha strike on my tightly packed bikers with exactly the right weapon to cause damage. However, his deployment and fire selection was also spot-on, with no errors that I could exploit.

The mistakes I made were also significant. Packing my bikers together at the start was something I was worried about, but my fear of the executioner over-rode that, and so played right into Jarval's hands. Next time I will need to think carefully about how to handle a first turn against an opponent with superior long-range fire and insufficient cover.

The other serious mistake was with my land-speeders. While I feel that reserving them worked OK (it allowed me to get First Blood by denying it to Jarval), I should have kept the Typhoon as far away from the guard as possible - letting it into plasma gun rapid fire range was an unforgivable mistake, when it can fire with full effect at 36". It might also have been better to bring them on in support of my attacking flank - I disobeyed the key rule for a force like this of concentrating all of my firepower on only a part of the enemy's force.

Overall it was an excellent game, and Jarval was a great opponent. They say you learn far more from you failures then your successes, and that's certainly the case here - I will have to radically re-assess my approach to firepower heavy, long-ranged armies like this!

Please post your comments, any insight into dealing with a force like this, or using White Scars in general, is greatly appreciated


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There you go Necronboy! As you can see, 'ouch' is a pretty accurate description for how this played out

 iheartlargeblasttemplates wrote:
Great report, interesting guard list, I thought you had this one from the start, but that executioner just killed to much in the opening turns.

And if you had realized that the ruin you were hiding behind wasn't actually LoS blocking you could have at least spread them out for that first round of shooting. Oh well.

Absolutely, and full Kudos goes to my opponent for spotting what I had failed to. He turned what I thought was an acceptable deployment into a really, really bad one, and I rightly paid the price.

Feedback from my opponent!

Jarval wrote:Thanks for the write-up Hedge, excellent stuff. If nothing else, it's inspiring me to actually try and get some more of my army painted...

It was a very touch and go game at times, and that's with the strong alpha strike from the Executioner. I need to do some serious damage to a bike army like that to stand any chance of surviving. As Turn 2 so aptly demonstrates, once the White Scars get in close, they can just take tanks apart. Even the mighty armour of a Leman Russ isn't enough to stop their firepower and close-combat attacks.

Man (tank?) of the match has to go to the Executioner without a doubt - it's just about the best fire base the Guard can have. It's a bit of a push, points-wise, in 1,000 point games, but so far it's always done the job needed, and drawn a lot of attention from my opponent.

I'm starting to doubt the wisdom of putting heavy weapons in the Chimera-mounted Guard squads. Either I'm keeping them stationary to let the heavy weapon team fire at full BS, which seems like a waste of the manoeuvrability that the Chimera can offer, or I'm only getting snap shots which makes the heavy weapons a bit of a points sink. Likewise, I'm not sure that my Company Command Squad is kitted out particularly well, although there are always going to have to be compromises in a 1,000 point list.

All told, an excellent game that was very touch and go at a number of points. Hedge was an exemplary opponent, as always!

Honestly with plasma cannons on the field i would have never bunched in the way you did. You gave your opponent one easy target to focus everything on. If you had instead split and deployed on each side of the board, still out of the range of most of the other guns, you would have been able to spread out and take minimal casualties due to plasma cannon fire. Also don't underestimate the power of a pincer attack. If the attack is quickly squeezing in on your opponent. Then stab your speeders down the center to further the encirclement. drive him against his board edge and watch guard units run off in shooting or be smashed in CC.
overall nice batreps good to see another scars player tearing things up. look forward to seeing more of your units on table

 dmthomas7 wrote:
Honestly with plasma cannons on the field i would have never bunched in the way you did. You gave your opponent one easy target to focus everything on. If you had instead split and deployed on each side of the board, still out of the range of most of the other guns, you would have been able to spread out and take minimal casualties due to plasma cannon fire. Also don't underestimate the power of a pincer attack. If the attack is quickly squeezing in on your opponent. Then stab your speeders down the center to further the encirclement. drive him against his board edge and watch guard units run off in shooting or be smashed in CC.
overall nice batreps good to see another scars player tearing things up. look forward to seeing more of your units on table

It was completely my fault - the only reason I bunched up like that was because I thought I was out of line of sight. When my opponent spotted that there was a window and so could see me, I knew I had made a terrible mistake! Next time I will have to try something different against that kind of threat - I already have a couple of ideas to try out.

A pincer attack sounds good in theory, but it also exposes me to the full brunt of an enemy's fire. By going in on one side only I tried to concentrate all of my force against only a portion of the opponent's, while denying him some of his fire support. Of course, it didn't work so well in this case

It looked like there were two other spots you could have used to at least get a decent cover save and split up you army.
The center spot would have got you probably close enough to wreck the plasma beast. Plus as you said the Typhoon should have sat back, but hey sometimes you want a close-up of the havoc you cause.

But you still played it out and did well, I know many that would have just given up. I hate that since the dice gods can decide to favor you and you can end up pulling a victory out of your ass.

Thank you, although it didn't work out for me in this game I still learnt a lot, which is the main thing! If I had given up then I'd have lost that valuable experience.

Game was lost in the first turn, when you decided to bunch up your bikes. Just deploy in the ruins for a 4+ next time.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Game was lost in the first turn, when you decided to bunch up your bikes. Just deploy in the ruins for a 4+ next time.

I still got the 4+, but you're right, bunching like that is something that I won't be doing for a while. I think I'm still getting used to 6th edition, where dangerous terrain tests are actually a lot less dangerous then they used to be!

That was a nice report. I was pretty surprised at how much damage you pumped out on the Guard once you got your bikes in place. WOW! That would of caused me personally to scratch the beard and think "Hmm....that was a lot of damage"


Though to me, that Executioner did do rather well, I think the lascannon HWS were pretty damn effective. They seemed to just snipe all over the table where it was needed.

 KingCracker wrote:
That was a nice report. I was pretty surprised at how much damage you pumped out on the Guard once you got your bikes in place. WOW! That would of caused me personally to scratch the beard and think "Hmm....that was a lot of damage"


Though to me, that Executioner did do rather well, I think the lascannon HWS were pretty damn effective. They seemed to just snipe all over the table where it was needed.

Inded, I had one turn of awesome killyness, but it wasn't enough, as there were still plenty of other Guard units hanging around. I'll get him next time!

Learn and then lose again to learn some more is how I do things

Youll certainly NOT blob up like that in the future Im sure