10.000 points Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Space Wolves, Necrons, Orcs
10.000 points daemons & tyranids
Using the new apocalypse book and the new imperial armor apocalypse book we played a 10k vs 10k
apoc game, mission was the meatgrinder. Both teams had to bid how many squads the would deploy, minimum a quarter, maximum half of total squads in that army. Team bidding the lowest has 1st turn. Our team (daemons & tyranids) bid half our force 25 of our 50 total squads/
IC's. Oponents also bid half 36 of their 72 so we got 1st turn.
The battlefield could be divided in 5 areas, inside the cathedral, left and right of the cathedral, and in front and behind of the cathedral.
"left" was dominated by ruined buildings and cratered terrain, "right" was relatively open with 1 bunker, statues and some tanktraps.
Units of interest: Scabathreax the Bloated, Baneblade Invictus, Ursarkar Creed in his command bastion, Typhus and his terminator champions, Doom of Malantai,3 Trygons, 3 Tervigons, 1 Flying Hive Tyrant, 1 Great Unclean One, 1 Demon Prince of Khorne, 1 Demon Prince of Nurgle, 1 Bloodthirster, Skarbarand, Karanak, Skulltaker, Ghazzkul Thraka, Terminator Librarian with 10 Terminators, Wolf Lord with Wolfguys, 2 Soulgrinders, Necron Destroyer lord with wraiths. I think Ive named most of the expensive units and all the warlords, but in total there were over 20 monstrous creatures on the table. And something like 20 vehicles and 100's of infantry.
More of the battle tomorrow!
Left of the Cathedral
Left of the Cathedral
Left of the Cathedral
Left and Behind the Cathedral
Left of the Cathedral
Behind and in the Cathedral
Behind the Cathedral
Right of the Cathedral
Right of the Cathedral
Right of the Cathedral
Right of the Cathedral
Each team had placed 3 strategic objectives, 1 in their own deployment zone, 1 in that of the oponent and 1 free to place (both teams ended up putting it in their own zone. These could be captured and would deliver points at the end of each of the 3 sessions we would play. 1 point after the first session, 2 after 2nd and 3 at the end of the game.
6000 points of Daemons and 4000 points of Tyranids had deployed. Our tactic was simple. 90% of our army was close combat orientated. We knew that we had to "close the gap" as fast as possible. Each team could chose 3 stratagems at the start of the game, we ended up choosing 2 specifically, 1 creating a wall of blinding light between 2 points for 1 turn obstructing any shooting and allowing us to advance without getting completely obliterated, the 2nd allowing us to deepstrike all units without scatter for 1 turn. The 3rd was an orbital strike.
We ended up deploying most of our fast units and our flying circus on the right side of the battle, which was relatively open ground and had a bunker which we could use as cover. On the left side we deployed some defensive units, mainly shooting, Typhus and his terminators were deployed in the corner on the left in a ditch. We deployed our warmaster (the overal leading character in an
apoc army) Forgeworlds Scabaethreax the Bloated behind the cathedral to guard an objective there, in hindsight this was a waste, he could have been much more worth on the front line as he was practically un-killable with his 3++ and his 4+
fnp toughness 7 and being a gargantuan creature...
Our opponent deployed in response to our deployment. The baneblade, terminators with librarian, a whole bunch of orcs led by Ghazkull Thraka deployed meeting our right flank.
On the left flank they deployed Ursarker Creeds Command Bastion with his command squad. This was a high command formation allowing them to do a lot of things, master of ordnance got 1d3+1 large blasts per turn, ursarker could issue order across the complete battlefield, once per game they could have a unit make an all out push, moving 3x its normal movement and allowing it to assault. And the most important part was that it allowed them to take 2 additional stratagems at the start of each new sessions, which turned out very handy for them. Their warmaster was the Baneblade, it had received the command upgrade of 200 points and in case of them losing ursarker would provide them with 1 additional stratagem at the start of each session. Ursarker was supported by several leman russ, basilisk and a large group of 20 necron warriors with a lord.
The opposing team tried to steal the initiative but failed. So the game started with 50% of all units deployed and the rest in reserves. The 3 meter by 1.5 meter table wasn't full yet!
We started our turn by deploying our blind barrage and obstructing line of sight to our horde of beasts, cavalry,
fmc's, etc that were deployed on the right side. Scatter wasnt in our favour and small portion of our force was exposed to line of sight. This turned out a bigger issue than anticipated.
We dropped an orbital strike on the left side of the cathedral on top of the necrons and bastion, however it scattered in such a way that losses werent too high.
We did some shooting, killed some orcs, necrons, nothing major.
Then the oposing team had their turn. All their fire was focussed on the few units they could see through the blind barrage, a large group of tyranid ravagers got anihilated and the baneblades main gun scattered into our ranks which decimated large groups of demons and tyranids. We had lost alot, but our assault was still strong enough. In the first turn we got hit by 1 apocalyptic blast and 8 large blasts.
End of Session 1 (yes, we spent 3+ hours deploying and playing 1 turn)
VP's
3 for necroimperialwaaaagh
Vp's
2 for tyrademons (we spent 1 point on a strategic asset, the orbital strike).
Next turn tyrademons shooting was again not all that effective soulgrinders killed some necrons, tyranids killed some orcs, we used our final strategic asset and deepstriked without scatter, all remaining demons came into play right in front of our oponents. Then we charged. Bloodhounds of Khorne with Karanak charged Ghazkull Thraka and his boyz, upon which our oponent unleashed an defensive barrage (stratagem) and basicaly slapped us in the face with something like 4 large blasts that landed right in the middle of our wall of murder coming at them.
Alot died in melee, Ghazkull got eaten by the dogs of Khorne, some wounds got put on the baneblade. Death was everywhere. Bloodthirster was in melee with the terminators and librarian and fluffed most of his attacks and survived beating of the terminators.
Turn 2 of the necroimperialwaaagh was devastating. Deepstriking stormtroopers, assault marines, droppod dreadnoughts landed on top of 2 of our 3 objectives. Alot of shooting took place and alot died. The necroimperialwaaaagh was winning this on objectives. Tyrademons were winning the fight, but not the war in this way!
End of the 2nd session, yes it took us again 4 hours to finish 2 player turn.
VP's Necroimperialwaaagh 3+2+2+2+2+2=
13 Tyrademons 2+2 =
4
Turn 3 Tyrademons,
the situation had suddenly changed, we had expected to get more turns and win by simply eating all of our oponents. However the game was slow and we only had this turn remaining to either win or draw the game...
We were behind with 9 points, objectives in session 3 were worth 3 points a piece so it could be possible to come back. Our plan was as follows: 1. destroy the baneblade, it would give us 1 point for superheavy and 1
vp for being their warmaster unit and it was sitting on top of 1 of the objectives. Then we had to secure the 2 objectives in our deployment zone that were stolen from us in turn 2. That would bring the end game score to 13+3+3 = 19 vs 4+3+3+3+3+2 = 18. The bloodthirster and a tervigon were fighting with the Librarian and Terminators on the right side corner objective. If either in our turn or their we would win that combat we could consolidate onto the objective and the game would be 16 vs 21 a win for the Tyrademons.
We managed to kill the baneblade and it went apocalyptic and killed of a Karanak and his hounds, a large group of Bloodcrushers and an assortment of lesser demons and tyranids. +2
VP! Leaving us near the objective, good enough to score.
Scabeathreax and Skarbarand killed of the assault marines with chaplain and the storm troopers that had taken over one of our objectives in turn 2.
Typhus and a Tervigon destroyed the 2 dreadnoughts that had taken our 2nd objective in turn 2.
The command with the terminators went terrible. Invulnerable save after invulnerable save was made by the terminators, AP2 monstrous creature attacks in the dozen and only 1 or 2 terminators died...
Our chances were slim. The only way to win was if in the last Necroimperialwaaagh turn we would lose no objectives, win the the closecombat with the terminators and consolidate onto the objective they were holding....
Turn 3 Necroimperialwaaaaaghh,
We were still hopefull until.... from beneath the crater of where the baneblade had died a tunnel opened, Cadian Commandos climbed out of the tunnel and hoisted the imperial flag! Also on the objective where we had just killed the dreadnoughts a tunnel openend and commandos climbed out and secured a 2nd victory point.
Their team had played "Tunnel Rats" allowing imperial guard units in strategic reserves to deepstrike without scatter. We had left too much space open on the objectives and they tunneled right in.
We had lost, the score now Necroimperialwaaagh 13+3+3+3+3=
25 vs Tyrademons 4+2+3+3=
12
Was a very fun, hard to write a battlereport for something that took a whole day, but hopefully fun for other to read! Will make another one soon!
Will add more pictures to the text tonight.
Man of the match Necoimperialwaaagh would be the Librarian and his terminators, they held against an awfull amount of shooting and AP2 monstrous creature violence while keeping an objective safe.
Man of the match nothing springs to mind, overall we did okay, but we didn't have any units perform game changingly. Possibly the Doom of Malantai managed to kill a bunch of Space Wolves but too far away from any objective to have any effect on the outcome of the game.
Most underperforming unit for the Necroimperialwaaagh would be Ghazkull, pointwise he simply didnt pay off, he got killed on high initiative by hounds of khore, failing 4 2+ saves without making any strikes back.
Most underperforming unit of the Tyrademons would be Scabeathreax the Bloated, at a whopping 777 points he should have been in the front of the fight instead of defending a rear objective. My tactical error. He killed off some stuff that took the objective, but that could have easily been done by something a third his price.
Wtf moments:
Deepstruck 20 plaguebearers with a herald on the board edge, next turn 10 burnaboys entered play in deployment zone and flamed my tightly packed group of plaguebears for 72 hits ignoring cover.
Imperial Guardsmen winning the game with tunnels under objectives.
Blocking line of sight in turn one of our complete right flank.
Terminators only failing 3 5++ invulnerable saves out of 20 or so.
Wolf Lord with powerfist instakilling a squad of 3 heralds of nurgle on palanquins with a total of 12 wounds, toughness 5, 5++,
fnp...
3000+
3000+
2500+
2500+
1000+
1500+
1000+ 
2k pts Tyranids (Hive Fleet Hornet) 
