1500 points, Sons of Horus legion marines v Space Marines.
Sons of Horus (I'm recreating this one by memory)
HQ:
Garviel Loken
Fast:
Storm Eagle Gunship
Elite:
Contempter Terminator w 2xKheres Assault Cannons
Troops:
10x Veteran Squads w/
CCW & Sniper
Apothecary
10x Veteran Squads w/
CCW & Furious Charge
Apothecary
Heavy:
AC Predator with
HB sponsons (borrowed from me, meaning one of my Chapter vehicles went all starry eyed at seeing a Legion force show up and switched sides. Stupid traitors.)
5x Heavy Squad with autocannons
Brown and Green Space Marines with White Scars Chapter Tactics
HQ:
Chapter Master with dual Lightning Claws and Bike
5xCommand Squad with banner bearer, apothecary, 3x gravguns
Troops:
10x
Tac marines w/ Flamer,
ML + Flakk, Drop Pod
10x
Tac marines w/ Plasma Gun, Plasma Cannon, Drop Pod
10x
Tac marines w/ Melta, Multimelta, Drop Pod
9x Bike Marines w/2xMelta,
MM attack bike, Vet Sarge w/Pfist
Fast:
10x Assault Marines w/2x flamer and power sword
Mission - The Emperor's Will - Opponent put his objective in the tall ruins and had the 5xAutocannon squad babysit it, and after some thought, I put my objective in the opposite corner. The tall mountain would shield it from the storm eagle, and I had the potential mobility to leave it unattended until later in the game, while my opponent would have to slog to it.
Deployment - Dawn of War
This was my first time running the new space marine list, and I loved the fact that I could now have a Chapter Master on a bike and have it make
SM bikes troops. Loken's head tally for my chapter is currently two captains and one chapter master, and so I wanted some fast moving vengeance (too bad I forgot to use his Orbital Bombardment, and to roll for Warlord trait before the end of the game...) My theme for this list was maximum mobility - if a unit isn't able to move 12+ inches a turn, then it's deep striking in, and 20
tac marines podding in on turn one, each squad configured to be anti-horde, armor, or heavy infantry, makes for a pretty hard alpha strike. I figured I'd be seeing Legion Marines plus the Storm Eagle in this game, so worst case scenario, I wanted to at least have the mobility to try and hide in the Storm Eagle's shooting blind spots.
Opponent won first turn and deployed first, and put one vet squad in the trees, the predator behind the arches, and the
AC squad in the three story ruins with the objective.
There was definitely a feet on the ground disparity between these two lists, further compounded by the fact that the Storm Eagle, plus Loken and a vet squad, and the Contempter, all started in reserves. Meanwhile, I had 20 marines podding in turn one, and those five autocannons worried me, because the S7 meant they were wounding my bikes on 2s, and volume of fire vs 3+ armor saves was a good way to start running out of wheels. So when I deployed, I made sure they were target numero uno. The Chapter tactics gave all my non S&P units hit &run, allowed my bikes to autopass dangerous terrain tests, and gave them +1S to their hammer of wrath hits, so I had no hesitation in putting my bikes in or behind terrain on the first turn.
I combat squadded by bike troops, putting the sarge, both meltas, and the
MM attack bike behind the leftmost mountain, while the 5xbolter bikes went on the far left side of the board. Command went into the rocky pass terrain, while the captain actually went in with the assault marines behind the rocky forest on the left. Depending on how the predator and
AC squad fire went, I figured I'd have a pretty big hammer to crack both units, especially since the anvils weren't going to drop onto the board until after the shooting happened.
Except that I stole the initiative, rendering the whole point moot.
SM Turn 1: Movement
Pods came down, my melta squad aiming for the predator. I had a good, central position for the pod to come down in, but scatter pushed it 10" straight to the right, leaving me very worried about being able to get my melta guns in range. I had to put the melta and
MM marines out in the very front to get them 11+" to the predator's flank.
The Flamer/
ML tac squad came down right on target (bullseye, and I rolled snake eyes for scatter distance, just for good measure), piling out so I could hit all 5 marines with the flamer, and everyone else was going to rapid fire bolters.
The assault marines and chapter master moved straight forward, heading towards the ruins. The Command squad with the grav guns zoomed towards cover behind the arches the predator was using. The melta bike squad also edged in carefully towards the predator, deciding turbo boosting would be better than shooting. I decided putting bolter bikes on the opposite side of the board, where they could take my objective and provide reinforcements to that side of the board later in the game.
Shooting
The flamer
tac squad killed three of the heavy marines, the
CS grav guns putting 7 more wounds on the surviving two heavies, their cover saves not enough to save them.
Firing at the predator, the
MM snap shot missed, but the melta scored a hit, penned, rolled a 5 on damage, with +2 for AP1... Sic Semper proditores.
Assault
None.
SoH Turn 1: Movement
The Legion found itself with some sticky wickets, with another turn to go before reserves could start showing up. The veteran squad moved through the trees to get a better line of fire on the melta bikes.
Shooting With the vets being the only SoH unit on the board, they fired on the melta bikes, doing 1 plasma and one bolter wound (despite having the sniper trait, which meant their bolter shots wounded my bikes on a 4+), plasma defeated by the 4+ jink save for turbo boosting, bolter deflected by armor.
Assault
None.
Not a pretty view.
SM Turn 2 Movement
My last pod came in, and I dropped it right on my objective, having the marines swing out around the mountain so that next turn they could start dropping fire on the vets, and anything else that came in over there.
Moved the flamer/
ML tac squad into the ruins, so they'd have good cover, and the
ML a good line of fire when the Storm Eagle made it onto the table. Everyone else moved towards the remaining vet squad, trying to get close to the back of the board so the SE would fly over them if it flew on from the edge
Shooting
The melta bike squad and
CS were in range of the vets, killing 2 by melta, the
CS grav guns putting 5 wounds on them, 4 of them saved when the vets went to ground.
FNP from the Apothecary did not save him.
Assault
I weighed the options, but those vets had 3 attacks each base (
BP and
CCW), and with 7 vets plus Apothecary still alive, even with a power fist, they had the weight of attacks to really mess up my bikes. Plus, since they'd gone to ground, they'd only be snap shotting next turn anyways, so I decided not to assault.
SoH Turn 2 Movement
The Storm Eagled rendered all my clever 'HIDE!' movements for naught by deep striking onto the board, using the vox on the veteran squad sarge to avoid scattering. The contempter came on too, waving 'hello' to my melta bike squad with his arms made for nothing but
murder hugging.
Shooting
The Storm Eagle targeted the command squad, hitting them with 2 hellstrike missiles, one multi-melta, and the vengeance missile launcher, inflicting 7 wounds, but hot rolling left me down just the banner bearer and one grav gunner. The contemptor opened up on my melta bike squad, the hail of assault canon fire inflicting three wounds, taking out one melta biker and the attack bike.
SM Turn 3 Movement
I panicked a little, realizing that this turn Loken was going to jump out of the Storm Eagle and kill ANOTHER chapter master, so shuffled my guys around that corner of the board, splitting the chapter master off on his own and arranging the other units there to best weather the storm.
Shooting
Hail Mary shot from the
tac ML nails the Storm Eagle, only for me to roll a 1 on the penetration strength. The Command squad killed three more vets, while the surviving melta bike blew a hole clean through the contempter, the ensuing explosion hitting them and the vets, hurting no one.
Assault
Being in assault would shield the chapter master and command squad from the fury of the storm eagle and the squad inside, but both of them completely blew their rolls, failing to make it the 7ish inches into the trees.
Soh Turn 3 Movement
Storm Eagle went into hover mode, Loken and his buddies all jumping out, although Loken split of from his squad to throw down 1 on 1 with my chapter master. The Storm Eagle then cruised forward, drawing a bead on my assault marines.
Shooting
I hadn't been able to roll a bolter wound worth a damn all night, all that
TL fire from my bikes doing nothing, but I was rolling armor saves like a madman, my bike squads weathering all incoming fire, and only 2 assault marines going down to the combined hellstrike,
mm, and vengence launcher fire of the Storm Eagle.
Assault
The surviving veterans slammed into my my melta bike and sarge and no one managed to hurt anyone else at all. It's like they all showed up for the fight with nerf covers on their weapons, and the sarge was using his power fist to scratch his ass. Loken threw down with my chapter master and they each put a wound on each other.
Meanwhile, the just arrived vets with furious charge ran straight into my command squad, 39 attacks on the charge, 16 hits, 2 wounds total which kill both grav guns, leaving just the apothecary. The apothecary box cars his
ld check and bolts from combat, while the melta bikes Hit & Run out of theirs. Chapter Master tried to do the same, but Loken said, 'No, stay a while and listen.'
SM Turn 4 Movement
Got the
tac squad at the bottom of the board into plasma gun range, and the cannon stayed put so he could fire. Everyone else moved in tight for optimum shooting and charge ranges, the five bolter bikes who've spent the game cruising the bottom of the table curving up the right hand side of the board to throw to lend a cup of bolter rounds.
Shooting
Combined shooting reduced the newly arrived vet squad down to one vet and the apothecary, and the vets in the trees were shot down to three.
Assault
Assault marines killed the last vet with hammer of wrath, leaving just the apothecary to soak up all the incoming attacks and ask for more, which included one assault marine.
At initiative 6, Loken put two wounds on my
CM one of which causing instant death, but unlike the three previous occasions when this happened, I managed to save both with the Iron Halo ++, letting my chapter master turn around and use his lightning claws to carve the last two wounds off of Loken. Loken then failed his "I'm to bad ass to stay dead" roll. Leaving just four marines and the Storm Eagle on the table, and me with two squads securely situated on the objectives, and a lot of firepower still ready to go, we called the game.
Dead Piles:
I managed to make it the whole game without losing a single
tac marine, which has to be some kind of record for me, through the renowned tactic of giving my opponent a lot of scary stuff right in their face to shoot at.
I feel a little better about the Chapter Masters and 2 Captains the Loken and buddies have already chewed through.
My post game analysis was that already starting with a 28 to 55 model deficit, not starting with all the feet on the table possible and not concentrating forces so that despite casualties inflicted first turn, my attacking forces were going to get thumped by the remainder, it let me roll across the table and present the Legion with more targets that needed killing than they had guns to efficiently kill.
This is why it took me until now to do this battle report - I had to wait for the computer to clear up.
