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2014/10/22 10:30:31
Subject: [1750] Imperial Fist Successors vs Ultramarines - pre Tournament warm-up
Ok, so this was a warm up game for the Grand Tournament being held here in Hong Kong in two weeks and my opponent - Neophyte2012 - very graciously agreed to a test of our respective lists. Space Marine on Space Marines again, and not ideal, but the lists were quite different builds and it should at least give us both some insights as far as our strengths & weaknesses go.
Our hosts for the day were the good people at Fun Atelier in Wanchai.
MATCHUP
Iapedus’ Space Marines: The Titans Bastards Chapter (Imperial Fists C.T.) 1750pts
Spoiler:
Imperial Fists CAD
Warlord - Libby, Lv2, Power Armour, Combi-flamer
Libby, Lv2, Terminator Armour, SS, Primarchs Wrath
Scout Squad – 5 man, Bolters, HB Scout Squad – 5 man, Bolters, HB Scout Squad – 5 man, Sniper Rifles
DEV squad – 2x LC, 2x ML Sternguard – 8 man, 4 x combiplasma, DP (joined by Libby in Term. Armour)
Dreadnought – TLAC x 2
Landspeeder – MM x 2
Aegis Defence Line - Icarus LC
Legion of the Damed Allies Detachment
Legion of the Damned – 5 man, MM, MG, combimelta
Legion of the Damned – 5 man, MM, MG, combimelta
Legion of the Damned – 5 man, PC, PG, combiplasma
Legion of the Damned – 5 man, PC, PG, combiplasma
Two LotD squads proxied by various awful painted minis in desperate need of stripping and repainting.
My Opponent: Neophyte2012’s Ultramarines:List is done from memory as I lost my opponents list – if I find it I will write it up properly, but it went something like this;
Spoiler:
Ultramarines CAD
Tiggy - Warlord
Scouts – Sniper Rifles, Camo cloaks
TAC squad, 10 man, HB, Flamer, Combi-flamer, Rhino
TAC squad, 5 man, PC DEV squad, 5 man, 2x LC, 2x ML Sternguard, 7 man, mixed combi-weapons, DP, locator beacon
Ironclad Dreadnought
Centurion Devastator Squad, TL grav cannons & amps (joined by Tiggy & Ironclad in the Raven, escorted by the Talon)
Storm Talon, TLLC, TLAC Storm Raven, TlLC, TLMM, SSM
Total 1750 pts
Total Models 41/Infantry 36/Characters 1 /Vehicles 5/Psykers 1
One cent is proxied by a terminator as he is still on the painting board
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/10/22 10:33:07
If in doubt, frag it out...
Fight spam with spam, cheese with cheese, and fluff with a razor sharp sense of the appropriate
Mission: Eternal War: Emperors Will
Deployment: Vangaurd Strike
Initiative: My opponent goes first but I will try to seize
Special Rules: Reserves, Mysterious Objectives
Terrain: The battlefield is the shattered remains of a once proud Imperial City. We went for an even covering of terrain scattered in a rough urban grid, with a large piece of LOS blocker in the middle. Combined with the urban terrain boards it actually looked pretty good. Only two objectives in each other’s basecamps - my deployment zone in yellow, his in red.
Warlord Traits: I roll Divide to Conquer, which probably won’t have much effect due to Tiggys reroll, while my opponent gets Storm of Fire.
Psychic: My warlord (power armour) rolls Shrouding and Terrify, while my Libby in the drop pod (Term. Armour) rolls Invisibility and Terrify. Both get Psychic Shriek Primaris.
He rolls on Divination and gets Perfect Timing, Foreboding and Scrier’s Gaze, with Prescience Primaris. Some nasty buffs for the Cents….
PRE GAME ANALYSIS
Spoiler:
Reasons why Titan’s Bastards will win:
1: Legion of the Damned. These are my trump card. Provided they come in one turn 2 or 3, I can use them to counter his initial strikes and fire fight were I need them. Target for these guys will be the Centstar, Sternguard or any transports packed with troops.
2: Firepower. I have picked quite a shooty list, hoping to max the Imperial Fists CT. Plenty of bolters and a DEV squad, who happen to be manning the Icarus to give me Tank Hunting anti-flyer. These guys will hold the objective.
3: 'Tiggy-Cent-Raven-Talon-Ironclad-star'. While this is a massively powerful bunch of units to bring on to the table in one turn, there is a small risk that they won’t come in until four, by which time I could have easily mopped up. Hopefully my warlord trait will be useful in delaying their arrival.
Reasons why the Smurf’s will win:
1: Tiggy. ‘nuff said.
2: 'Tiggy-Cent-Raven-Talon-Ironclad-star'. If this unit arrives turn two, all hell will break loose and it will be hard to contain. If it lands near my Emperors Will objective, it will be game over.
3: Flyers. While I have bought some anti-air in my Icarus LC, I’m not convinced this will be enough to handle these two units.
DEPLOYMENT
Spoiler:
My opponent has relatively little to deploy as most of his forces are in reserve. The DEV squad deploys into the ruin on my left flank, while the TACPC squad and rhino with TAC embarked start around his Emperors Will objective. Scouts infiltrate into large LOS terrain in centre of battlefield.
Titans Bastards castle up – ADL is deployed around the objective to try and stop his DP landing close enough to contest it, with the DEV squad and warlord deployed inside to defend it. Dread nearby behind some more ADL segments to give fire support.
Scouts infiltrate into ruins on left and right flanks, as well as ruins behind objective to stop any outflanking. LotD, Libby, Sternies DP and Land speeder start in reserve.
I try to seize the initiative…..and fail!
TURN 1 – Ultramarines
Spoiler:
My objective is about 6” from the table edge (barrel behind ruin in below photo) so my opponent decides not to risk scattering off and instead lands the DP front and centre. Sternies pile out towards the DEVs. Rhino moves flat out to get around the big central ruin, nothing else moves. No psychic as Tiggy is still off the board.
Sterguard unleash hellfire rounds at my DEVs, scoring about 12 out of 16 hits and wounding on 10 of them! Not trusting my power armour to save them, I go to ground for the 2+ cover and they all survive. Phew!
His DEVs take aim at the Dread (I should have deployed him better really) but between some awful rolls to hit and the cover save from the ADL he only suffers a glance
His scouts do nothing, and no assault takes place, so he rolls on the mysterious objective for the one he holds….. getting scatter field. Nice for the guys holding this objective in the ruins next door!
Not the best opening turn for my opponent, however the main bulk of his hitting power is held in reserve.
TURN 1 – Titan’s Bastards
Spoiler:
With all the secondary objectives still in play, I really want to try and get first blood and set up line breaker with my drop pod, as well as get in in contention for his Emperors Will objective. DP comes down near his primary EW objective, but scatters off towards the ruin taking it out of scoring range. My Sternguard deploy towards the objective, while my Libby splits off and goes after the DEV squad in the ruins. My units castled around my objective sit tight, eyeing the enemy sternguard nervously.
Psychic phase, and my warlord casts Psychic Shriek on the sternguard. It goes off, hits and kills three outright. Brilliant.
The Libby in the drop pod casts Terrifiy on the DEV squad hiding in the ruins, but is denied Psychic Shriek by my opponents rolls. It matters not though, as they fail the moral check and run a whole 11” clear off the board, giving me first blood! Know no fear my arse - Wohoo!
Shooting phase, and the sternguard open up on the TACPC squad holding his objective, killing three including the PC.
My Dread and scouts don’t manage to do anything, and with no assault my turn is over. I roll on the mysterious objective for the one I hold….. and get Bobby Trap! What!?! How am I supposed to hold that? Further investigation of the rules shows it is not actually that bad, but an ammo dump would have been better. Still, a pretty good first turn for me all round….
…or so I though.
Neither my opponent nor I have really played a vanguard deployment before, so we just assumed our table edges were both sides of the board in our diagonal deployment zones. This turns out to not be the case, so we decide to put the DEVs that my opponent lost earlier back in play and have them run to the correct edge. This loses me first blood, and now has my sternguard caught in a rather nasty crossfire next turn, but it is really the only fair thing to do and it’s partly my fault for not knowing how the deployment set up worked too.
VP – Titan’s Bastards 0:0 Ultramarines
TURN 2 – Ultramarines
Spoiler:
So, the roll that could make or break the game – bearing in mind the -1 roll modifier, he rolls for his reserve blob of points……. And rolls a 6. Damn. Here comes the pain.
Storm raven arrives with storm talon as escort, which he positons to block LOS from my Icarus LC. Locator beacon on the drop pod means the Cents & Tiggy, plus Ironclad deploy without scatter.
Rhino turns around and comes back toward my sternguard, deploying the TAC squad to deal with them. My opponent also plays the Tactical doctrine, giving them maximum firepower.
It doesn’t all go my opponents way though, as I intercept his Storm Talon with the Icarus LC. It hits, pens and gets an immobilized result. However, he survives the crash n’ burn roll, losing one HP and suffering Crew Stunned instead.
Tiggy gets Prescience and Perfect timing off on the cents, but perils and suffers a wound in the process. The cents split fire, one going after my DEV squad behind the ADL, while the other two go after the Libby from the Drop pod. Four of the Cents shots hit, reduced my DEV Squad to just the serg.
The other two Cents score 10 hits on my Libby, giving him no chance. I roll the 3++ save for the SS…. and make 9 of them! The Libby Lives! My opponent is mortified, and rightly so.
Unfortunately, he follows this up with the cross fire from the three TAC squads, the rhino and the DEV squad, decimating the Sternguard and causing them to break.
Storm Raven fails to hit my dread, but his sternguard kill the last remaining DEV sergeant, giving him first blood.
TURN 2 – Titan’s Bastards
Spoiler:
OK, to turn this around I need some insane luck on my reserve rolls. Happily, the gaming gods are listening and EVERYTHING comes in! Legion of the Damned arrive, and I send both meltapods and a plasmapod after Tiggy & the Cents. Despite landing in between terrain, I get three direct hits for scatter after rerolls, putting them all in optimal range. The other plasma pod goes after the TAC squad in the rhino, along with the Land Speeder.
Psychic, and the Libby from the drop pod castes Terrify on the DEV squad but is denied. He then gives Psychic Shriek a go without it… and rolls a mighty 15! To late for first blood, but the DEVS are wiped out. Er, again.
The Legionnaires open up on the Cents, and just about manage to kill them all but not managing to put anymore wounds on Tiggy.
Combined fire from the Libby’s Primarchs Wrath, the Plasma pod LotD and the remaining sternguard dispatch a TAC combat squad. The PG legionnaire gets hot though and buys the farm.
VP – Titan’s Bastards 0:1 Ultramarines
Turn 3 – Ultramarines
Spoiler:
Tiggy joins the Sternguard for some meat shield and legs it away from the LotD. The Ironclad also rumbles on toward the objective. Storm Raven goes after the Land Speeder, while the storm talon moves forward uncontrolled but doesn’t quite make the table edge.
Psychic, and Tiggy gets Prescience off again on the sternguard, but perils again reducing him to one wound. They shoot on the LotD, killing two.
Storm raven shioots at the land speeder, but he jinks and only suffers one pen hit, losing a multimelta.
Storm talon uses its TL Assault cannons to hit my Dread in the rear armour, causing another pen hit and he too loses a weapon.
His TAC squad manages to kill a single sternguard, but the ironclad and scouts don’t manage anything, bringing his turn to an end.
TURN 3 – Titan’s Bastards
Spoiler:
Everything shuffles about a bit with the land speeder cutting under the storm raven and going for the Ironclad, while the LotD close in for the kill. Psychic does nothing this turn. LotD fire everything at Tiggy & Co, wiping them out to give me Slay the Warlord!
Land speeder hits the ironclad with a snap shot, and rolls a 6 on the vehicle damage chart, causing explosion and felling him in one go.
Combined fire from the Lotd, Libby & sternguard fail to finish off the TAC and their rhino.
And with that, the turn comes to an end.
With real life calling, and having run well into the third hour of the game, we decide to call it a day.
Turn 4 – Ultramarines
Spoiler:
Game ended last turn due to over running
TURN 4 – Titan’s Bastards
Spoiler:
Game ended last turn due to over running
RESULT
Spoiler:
VP POINTS
Titan’s Bastards: 5 pts Slay the Warlord 1pt
Linebreaker 1pt
Eternal War Objectives 3pts (EW ojective)
Ultramarines: 5 pts First Blood 1pt
Linebreaker 1pt
Eternal War Objectives 3pts (EW ojective)
A DRAW!
BREAKDOWN
Decisive moment – the 9 saves made by the Libby’s SS. Although the LotD dealt with the danger of the Cents, this proved a psychological turning point for me, as I was beginning to wilt under the weight of his Grav cannons and TAC doctrines. Without him making these saves, his EW objective would have been fairly uncontested and his focus might have turned back towards my lonely warlord guarding my EW objective.
Key units
Titan’s Bastards: Libby in Term. Armour with the SS- made the dazzling saves that changed my game, but also dealt some serious damage with Psychic Shriek, killing the same unit twice.
Ultramarines: Cents. Only on the board for one turn, but dealt some serious damage. If my LotD Hadn’t come in when they did, they would have been unstoppable.
STATS
Titan’s Bastards: Models remaining 36/53
Kill to Death Ratio 1.76
Efficiency 63%
Ultramarines: Models remaining 11/41
Kill to Death Ratio 0.56
Efficiency 37%
POST GAME
Spoiler:
Well it was a shame we ran out of time and had to call it on turn three, but I think we both underestimated how long it would take to play 1750 points each, and we were not helped by some other factors (store opening late). Other than that though, it was a close game and if it had gone on to another turn I’m not sure how it would have ended. His flyers would probably have gone off the table, and with them his biggest remaining threat, but then they would have been back turn five and probably taken out two units each.
Once again my opponent was great fun to play against and took the loss of his Cents & Ironclad very well – not sure I would have! Very sporting indeed, hopefully we can both do well in next week’s Grand Tournament.
Not sure I will be able to write that one up, 6 batreps wills require a lot of effort, but I will photo it anyway and see how I feel after the event and whether I have the time.
In all I was pretty happy with my tactics – I think I got my deployment spot on and placed the DSLotD in the right areas for maximum effect. Good luck on the dice helps too, and I think I have found the right CT for the way I want to play – form now on its Imperial Fists all the way! Although I might test salamanders with 'Stan the man' at some point too
Until the next battle!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/10/27 01:11:12
If in doubt, frag it out...
Fight spam with spam, cheese with cheese, and fluff with a razor sharp sense of the appropriate
Great bat rep! I really enjoyed your other series as well. What were the lists for this? Perhaps for the 6 game tournament you could just take a few pictures and give an overview
Check out my Karloth Valois themed 40k/Necromunda thread
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/406750.page
2014/10/27 00:38:03
Subject: [1750] Imperial Fist Successors vs Ultramarines - pre Tournament warm-up
Doombiscuit wrote: Great bat rep! I really enjoyed your other series as well. What were the lists for this? Perhaps for the 6 game tournament you could just take a few pictures and give an overview
Thanks Doombiscuit - the lists are in the top portion of the post under the spoiler tabs. I will definitely be taking plenty of photos at this weekends Grand Tournament, and If I cant face doing the Batrep for each individual game then I will definitely do an overview
If in doubt, frag it out...
Fight spam with spam, cheese with cheese, and fluff with a razor sharp sense of the appropriate
Thanks for making the batrep. Really appreciate your hard works. Your batreps are all the way good.
Honestly grateful for your generousity in stating that the game is a draw. As the Ultramarine player in this friendly game, I literally believe the IF successor with LotD ally win that game. By the end of T3, the IF sternguard and Termi-Libby sit near the UM natural Obj. While the remanant of the two LotD squad are bearing down at the two UM tactical marines. So that obj should be quite guaranteed claimed by IF.
On the other side of the table, the only chance may lay on the UM two flyers which are only scratched a little. They may have some slim chances in turning the tide if the game continues as they can switch to hover mode and shoot the PA Libby to insta death and claim the IF natural, and truly get that "line breaker", as LotD is quite far away. However such chance is slim indeed, as all shots from the flyer have to force the Libby fail a cover save, which will be 2+ as go to groung behind ADL, then they have to survive the MM land speeder nearby, and finally the assualt from the two scout squad. The scout squad don't necessarily have to destroy the flyer by kark genardes, they just have to make into combat and secure that obj.
No matter what, I still enjoy playing against lapedus, always friendly. Looking forward to meet him in GT, and maybe later facing his Tau aaa army.
BTW, LotD is very strong, they are slow and proposeful, and ignore cover. So properly armed can kill anything not a T7 or T8 MC (GUO or Wraithknight and wraith lord), or unit with invunerable save. They proved their value in this game and the games before. I think they deserve to be ranked higher in all forum.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Ok, some thought on the mistake I made in the game. I think these experiences should be shared.
General comment: my management of larger army need to be improved, and skills in target priority may still need improvement.
Details:
1. The most obvious one is that I should charge Tiggy into one of the LotD squads, their close combat attacks is not ap3, so Tiggy may tie them up for a turn, while let the sternguard move out of LOS of the other two LotD, which let the sternguard another turn of special ammo shooting towards the PA Libby, if the game last for 5 turns. Tiggy will be dead anyway, but it's better to sacrifice one to save more.
2. Ironclad was moving towards the wrong direction, which was actually moving into the MM of the Landspeeder, maybe I was too confident in the Stormraven taking down a LS in one salvo, but it fails and handed over the actual last hope for UM (charging the ironclad into the ADL).
In that sense, perhaps I should keep the ironclad itself on Stormraven on T2, while only parachute the Tiggy-Cent mini Death Star on to the ground that turn. On T3, swap to hover mode and let the dreadnought charge out of the assualt aircraft, which would be quite a garanteed charge.
Anyway, it was a good game. Some problems are exposed. I would post more thoughts on this game when ideas come to me while reviewing. Comments and critize from anyone is welcomed.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/10/27 15:05:41
2014/10/28 02:07:35
Subject: Re:[1750] Imperial Fist Successors vs Ultramarines - pre Tournament warm-up
Hey Neo - Thanks for your thoughts, always a pleasure to write up these reports and play against your Ultramarines
I think it is fair to call it a draw, especially since we decided to call the game halfway through Turn 3 and after you had moved. If you have known the game was going to end you would have probably move your guys differently and had a different target priority.
If it had gone to turn 4 I would have probably taken your Primary EW objective and killed off the TAC squad and Rhino to leave it uncontested, but turn five I think your flyers would have had a good change of clearing my scoring units off the objectives and probably taking the game 2:3 as you would have picked up line breaker and slay the warlord.
Looking back at your strategy, I think the biggest mistake was the initial placement of the drop pod. Maybe it should have gone as close to my Primary as it could have, that way you could have dropped your cents+tiggy+ironclad right into the heart of my weakly held primary objective and I would have struggled to get you off it. I would have probably overcommitted all my LotD to deal with it, leaving your primary much less contested.
Another option might have been to deploy your cents from the start and have then guard your primary, while throwing everything else at capturing mine. A bit risky though, and would have made your beta strike less effective. I think for next week maybe a bit more flexibility in transport options will serve you well - especially with the two extra DPs! What are you dropping for the DPs?
Anyway, great game, and I am definitely up for a rematch after the GT with my new Tau
If in doubt, frag it out...
Fight spam with spam, cheese with cheese, and fluff with a razor sharp sense of the appropriate
Hi, Lapedus, thanks for the your comments, which should be taken into account.
I am taking the very similar army to the GT, just the transport got some different (3 droppod and 1 rhino), thus no scouts in. I may going to be more aggressive in GT, and want a strong 2nd turn assualt capability. So I think you can make a very clear guess what is in those transports
See you this weekend hope we could both have fun in games.
2014/10/30 01:12:11
Subject: Re:[1750] Imperial Fist Successors vs Ultramarines - pre Tournament warm-up
Ha ha, ok I look forward to seeing the changes in action
I can guess the Sternies & Ironclad in the first two pods, but as for the third....hmmmm.... are you gonna play super aggressive with the DEVs?
Good call to drop the scouts with sniper rifles, I don't know about you but I found them next to useless in that game. I would drop them myself but I don't have any spare armed with just bolters
See you Saturday!
If in doubt, frag it out...
Fight spam with spam, cheese with cheese, and fluff with a razor sharp sense of the appropriate
So I think you can make a very clear guess what is in those transports 