Deployment
Mission: Relic
Night fighting: no
Starting: Dakkamite
Seize: Fail
Sorry, I forgot to take a deployment photo behind so have just sketched one up (its probably easier to follow in reality). Relic is the star in the middle, grey areas are enter-able buildings and yellow area terrain/hills.
Note the marine drop pod and ork deffkoptas are in reserve. Plus just in front of the slugga unit should be the 5-man stormboy unit.
edit - damn, actually the slugga and shoota units should switched around, apologies
TURN 1
Dakkamite
General movement of squigs and boys towards relic seeking an early claim on it. Stormboys hug up closer to the building in front of them. One grot bomb is launched and heads to the 3 predators on the high ground. Hits and only causes a crew shaken on the one predator. The lootas open up on the closest predator and get a respectable 7 hits. Out of that they get
!!! Crazy... and first blood.
RahXephon
Rather fustrating. I had made sure to hide my speeders, dread and rhino behind the central building so they couldn't get easy kills on them. Last time I was caught out by the lootas being in a predators side arc so I ensured it was all front armour. Yet somehow the dice were rolling and he still got one through! Was expecting some damage but not a whole kill. At least the grot bomb had limited effect, I made sure to space everything so only one unit could be hit by a bomb. Well its time to deliver some payback.
The squigs were all out of
LOS from the central building from the predators and so it was all down to the dread, speeder and rhino to get a squiggoth down. I resolved to keep the rhino stationary so the
HB in there could shoot out normally and between that, the dreads assault cannon and the 4
HBs on the speeders, the tankbusta squiggoth was killed.
One mistake I felt he made on deployment was the placement of the lootas. With that being the only area terrain in his deployment zone, he probably wanted them in there to get some cover. With the central building this blocked a huge amount of his fire arc and gave me some cover to work with. But that's just the advantage of deploying second. However I did not want a repeat of last turns shooting so hit them with the drop pod unit. Scatters a large 9" but with the 6" disembark they are still very close. In fact the scatter has allowed me to be in a perfect line with the whole unit! Between the 3 flamers (one psychic) 24 hits are made and the squads easily wiped out.
As an added bonus since I always divide into combat squads (works for me
) the other unit from the pod finished off the tankbusatas. A long shot from my shaken predator kills the empty grot bomb. It was unfortunate for nothing to be in range of the still loaded one, but of course that was under some protections for the meantime. At least that annoyance is gone. Overall a good turn.
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TURN 2
Dakkamite
Roll for reserves and income the deffkoptas with their side of the table being the left (from the deployment pic). This puts them in amongst the speeders and rhinos. They manage to navigate between the outer speeder and rhino to come in behind it and hit the dread in the rear. This seemed a sound move as the dread could tie them up in
CC dealing instant death which is not what they want. Successful glance kill. Final grot bomb aims for the only undamaged predator but it scatters terribly (even on the reroll) and it goes off the map. The stormboys move a terrific amount, 17"
IIRC and charge the rhino, easily killing it. Boy those guys are fast.
Squiggoth and other boys move towards the relic, but make sure to stay out of 6"+template range of the drop pod unit.
RahXephon
As far as losses go for that turn they were very light. Just a rhino and a dreadnought. The loss of the rhino posed a problem though. That was going to be my main mode of claiming the relic. The deep-field librarian was purely a disruption to halt/hinder his claim of it. However
IMO it would have served him better to target the rhino with the deffkoptas and assault the marines with the stormboys. At the moment they're out of a transport, but still out of
CC so still viable. The klaw on the boss and stormboys had a good chance of dealing to the dread in
CC, but I guess it depends on what you want to risk.
The biggest threat to me were the deffkopta unit. The
TAC squad, 1 landspeeder and the 2 predators shoot them and kill one and wound another. Not so fabulous. The left most speeder manoeuvres behind the stormboys and shoots, killing just 2, but the nob is down. Note the left most predator immobilised itself when pivoting so only the sponson and turret could shoot. The other had to move off the hill to get in view.
In the centre table, my flamers have been foiled. With so few shots from just one
TAC squad it was pointless to shoot the squiggoth. Instead all shots go into the slugga boys. Enough are taken out to force them to flee! His unit that was going to claim the relic next turn are gone, so one more turns grace for me.
End of turn 2 overview
Fleeing sluggas that were right by the relic are in bottom centre. Solid performance from the DPteam
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TURN 3
Dakkamite
With the loss of the leader, and only 2 boys left the stormboys have very few options. Pretty much any unit they assualt would kill them in overwatch or
CC before they get to strike, so they jump back towards the relic. They can't claim it, but if they can stop the librarians rampage for a turn they'll do something.
The speeders are a large threat. The volume of shots the pump out can hurt the deffkoptas, but more importantly their mobility could thwart any attempt from the shootas to claim the relic. And so the warboss splits from the unit and they go for one each. Both speeders crumble before the onslaught.
The burna squiggoth moves up towards the librarian unit. A conflagration of flames are unleashed getting 25 hits. Somehow only one marines falls in the heat. No charges are made on the unit due to the threat of the force weapon.
RahXephon
With the destruction of the speeders, I'm in a very precarious situation. The warboss will probably clear up the rhino
TAC squad easily and then the relic will fall to the librarians team. My distribution across the table means that each unit is pretty much on it's own and this does not bode well with the focus of his strength near the relic and the freelance warboss who's tough enough to make it on his own. I need to break some links in his chain.
My flamer combat squad from the rhino move towards the warboss to for an assault. If they can hold him up for a turn, it should be enough time to get things in position for a claim on the relic. Shooting 4 pistols and a flamer they put one wound on him. Unexpected. The immobilised predator decides to chip in and first makes an on the dot 36" shot with its sponson heavy bolter. 2 hits, 2 Wounds... 2 FAILS. Woah, okay so the autocannons not needed, neither are the assualtees and the warlord is down!
(a distance so great, the target can't even be resolved!)
The other predator with the
HB combat squad from the rhino shoots the deffkoptas and kills 1, causing the last damaged 2 to flee.
Well the squiggoth may have hesitations about charging the librarian, but this uncertainty isn't shared! As expected the pistols do zilch but a flamer kills one passenger. Overwatch drops another marine but the squad gets in there. The librarian gets 3 hits and luckily manages that one crucial 6 on the wounds. And so the
MC falls.
(you may note the stegadon was the tankbustas ride, he was put in just for the picture rather than an upturned battlewagon)
The
HB combat squad from the
DP shoots at the fleeing sluggas to ensure they've got no chance of regrouping and they go off the table.
That turn went better than expected. The units in the centre I though would break my army in half were somehow cleared out by a few very lucky shots. Now that luck would have to be reciprocated for the orks to stand a chance.
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TURN 4
Dakkamite
After a fantastic last turn from the marines, things are looking very bleak. Whats left are a lightly damaged unit of shoota boys, 2 stormboys, 4 burnaboys, an empty grot bomb and 2 fleeing deffkoptas. They fail to regroup. As it stands with First Blood, and the marines WARLORD the
VPs are tied. So the 4 burna boys should be able to kill the librarian for one
VP and if the shootas dash for the relic and hold it for a turn, victory can still be claimed. Whilst numbers are not in his favour, position is. My marines are at least 2 turns out from the relic at best (with the exception of the librarian combat squad). A game finish on turn 5 is essential.
Sure enough the burnas clear out all of the librarian so +1VP. Shoota boys make it too the relic but they're still stretched a bit thin. The stormboys spread out in between the rhino
TAC squad and the shootas, so if they shoot through, cover saves will be gained.
RahXephon
I can see how things are looking, and am beginning to consider I may have left the relic dash a turn too late. I've got the
HB DP team 2 moves out from it, and another 2 moves with a decent run in between (
HB rhino team). And of course the shootas have to be taken off it first. I resolve going for a claim wont be likely on turn 5 so will have to go for turn 6. Damn. Moving the
HB DP team in will be a death trap. 16 shootas will likely wipe out 5 marines. Instead I'll try to shoot him off it this turn, and hope for Turn 6.
My immobilised predator can draw no
LOS so its probably out of the game from now on. The other can just reach the burnas with its autocannon, but even with moving cant see the shootas. The long shot is made and one burna boy goes. My
HB rhino
TAC team reshuffle into a T shape as seen in the pic. This keeps them in coherency and allows the front 3 to rapid fire whilst the
HB fires normally. The
DP HB team all rapid fire and the furtherest away team can only single shot. However this proves to be enough and with the aid of the drop pods stormbolter, the shoota boys are just blown off the relic.
(Final field overview)
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At this point, on the field I had 3 intact combat squads, the drop pod, immobilised predator and 2HP predator. Orks wise, were a couple of fleeing deffkoptas, fleeing shoota boys, 2 stormboys and 3 burnaboys. With no troops left for the orks, no claim could be made on the relic, and it was decided that if turn 6 proceeded, marines would claim it. So here we just rolled off for turn 6. A 3 was rolled
.
Results
Marines: 2
Warlord
Linebreaker
Orks: 2
First Blood
Warlord
Unclaimed: Relic
DRAW!!!
Postgame thoughts:
Overall I was a lot happier with my performance in this round after last games wakeup call. The only thing that was regrettable was not moving things in position to get the relic earlier. In hindsight the
HB team from the rhino could have moved up 1 turn earlier and had little impact on that turn's outcome. Then on T5 made the claim. There was a mix of good and bad luck on both sides, but overall there were a few moments that swung my way at critical junctions. For this reason I would have to say the MVP was the immobilised predator. Killing the warboss prevented him from clearing out my rhino
TAC squad which was a large possibility and would have made clearing the shoota boys off the relic in T4 impossible. In a very close second is the librarian combat squad. They were very consistent throughout the game and did their role of relic claim disruption admirably.
I would say the MVP for the orks were the lootas. This can only be said at the final outcome of the game as they got wiped T1. But that blistering 1st turn volley and 4 6's got first blood and secured a tie. This was a much closer game than the first and at the start of turn 3, it really could have could have gone either way.
The only changes I would have made were moving that
HB team as stated earlier and also the landspeeders. I probably should have moved them over to the central board once the lootas were gone, but instead left them in range of the deffkoptas. I was happy with how they performed despite that and like the reliability of not having them deep strike with flamers. One thing I do feel though is that 2
HBs are not very effective at an anti infantry role. In the future I'll try 1
HB, 1
HF as I feel that's far more adapt at its role of anti-infantry providing competent ranged, and strong closer range firepower.
. 
. The slugga boys also make to charge that same speeder. In short it gets wrecked 
