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I was in VA for a few weeks of Army training, and brought some of my IG stuff that needed to get painted to work on after hours. Figured I'd visit local shops in the area to see local lists and maybe get a pickup game or two in, so, I headed over to a store in Williamsburg VA called Groovy Gecko Comics and Games. Kind of small, but they had managed to cram 3 tables in the main area and another 2 in a second back room. Some nice terrain (especially buildings/ruins). When I came in, there were a pair of large games going on.

The one table seemed to have a pretty interesting army on it. It was played by the store owner, who eventually won his game (pretty handily). One of the losing players (4 players playing 2v2) borrowed the owner’s list to play me. It looked something like:

Lysander
10 terminators with 2 assault cannons
4 tactical squads with lascannon, meltagun in razorbacks with TL assault cannons, stormbolter
6 man scout squad with BP/CCW, sgt had powerfist
2 predators with autocannon, heavy bolters, stormbolter

I had only taken some of my mech vet stuff, so I had a slightly ad-hoc 2000 point force. Not quite as optimized as I’d like, but good enough:

Command Squad with 3 meltaguns
Elite DH Inq with incinerator, 2 mystics, 2 flamer vets
Marbo
3 Vet Squads with 2 melta, heavy flamer in chimeras with hull h. flamers
2 Vet squads with 3 melta

3 Vendettas (separate)

3 Russes (separate) with lascannon, plasma sponsons

Mission rolled was annihilation

Table setup was approximately like this:

Most of the ruins were a bit smaller than represented, but the two middle buildings were pretty large (and tall). Think my Vassal 40K version might be a bit old, so can’t quite tweak it (this also explains why I’m subbing Devilfish for my Vendettas!)

I won the roll for first turn, and it was a tough call. Making him setup first would let me do a refused flank, as I figured he would spread out (as he ended up doing anyway). With the lascannon troops and the razorbacks, I guessed he’d still combat squad and set up his troops in cover, so I knew where they’d be. I decided to go first in hopes of keeping his meltaguns and assault cannons out of range if at all possible. Plus, I figured the terminator squad would setup in the middle of his lines, so if I bunched up in one corner I’d have a hard time avoiding them.

Setup (pre-scout move) looked something like this:


After scout move:

He failed to steal the initiative.

Turn one (me):

So, target priority is russes at the troops, vendettas at the razorbacks. I find people tend to jam up in cover, which lets the russes (with three blasts) rack up so many wounds that they eliminate the benefits of the cover save. Worked on my left, as I nuked the one squad, but the other two russes managed to miss with all three blasts AND their lascanons. Wow. Immobilized and weapon destroyed one razorback, destroyed another with vendettas, failed to hurt the predator on the left.

Turn one (him):

The two combat teams run forward from the blown and immobilized razorbacks while the others move forward. Terminators run forward. Two razorbacks move forward (only 6”, I think). Lascannons wreck my right vendetta and stun my right vet chimera. Pred fire shakes my Inq’s vendetta.

Turn two (me):


Marbo comes in. Tough call, as he’s a fairly easy kill point. I decide to stick him in the middle. Chimeras slowly start drifting right from the center. Other than that, mostly more shooting. Other razorback on right is immobilized (by the Russ, I believe). Marbo manages to completely miss the combat squad in the open right next to him. For his failure, I decide to accept the risk of killing him and use my Russes to blast the tactical squad next to him in the ruins. They’re knocked down to three models, then promptly flee the board.

Turn two (him):

His scouts come in, his choice of table edge. He goes for my vets on my right. Mostly just advancing after that. Something stuns my right chimera, the terminators wreck my chimera with their assault cannons. He screws up with his vets a bit, shooting pistols at me. I lose three, and take the closest, leaving him out of assault range. Of course, I had to lose the sgt to do this, so I lose my leadership check and rout off the board anyway! Marbo dies to a lucky shot from the immobilized razorback (he was on the 2nd floor of the building, and thus visible).

Turn three (me):

I’m still ignoring the termintors and shooting everything else. The vets dismount the stunned chimera and kill everyone but the scout sgt, although he does run. The vendettas hurt the predator, but fail to kill it. Left russ can’t quite kill that last marine (really bad scatters today for some reason).

Turn three (him):

Still moving forward. Terminators shoot again, immobilizing the middle russ. Left marine can’t get out of the building to assault. Right scout sgt charges, dies to massed bayonets before getting to swing. I consolidate some my meltas are near his predator but most of the squad is in cover. Chimera is apparently perma-stunned. He squeezes his razorback forward past the terminators, but dumps the marines out behind it for some reason (inexperience, I think).

Turn four (me):

Despite “Bring it down” from the commander, I fail to down the right pred with my vets. We’re out of charge range, too (weren’t in melta range, either, so it wasn’t a huge surprise). Meltas do get the left predator, and the subsequent blast kills 3 of my guys. Left vets in the chimera fire from the hatches at range and destroy the razorback, letting my russes finish off the combat squad.

Turn four (him):Right pred does pretty poorly and only kills three vets, who pass their morale test. Termies have no trouble tearing the immobile russ apart. Looks like I failed to make this picture…

Turn 5 (me): Vets do better against the right pred, immobilizing and weapon destroying it with meltas and shaking and weapon destroying it in assault with krak grenades. Vendetta kill a razorback from across the table, and everything else moves away from the termies. Manage to down one with shooting.


Turn 5 (him): I get a bit careless, and he manages to reach my chimera, blowing it up. I think the troops inside took 9 wounds, failing several and routing off the board. Ouch. Lascannons stun my chimera again. Must have gotten carried away with making images of my turns, because I didn’t save this turn, either! Of course, at this point I’m just praying for the game to end, which it doesn’t.

Turn 6 (me):

Options are limited, so I fire what I can at the terminators. I move my left russ towards him, hoping he’ll fall for the bait and assault it instead of moving after my chimera. My left vets back off and fry the predator.

Turn 6 (him):

He takes the bait and charges the russ, although after the fact when I mention it, he is unaware that he can multi-charge like that.

Turn 7 (me):

Run some more, do poorly shooting at his terms.

Turn 7 (him):

He can’t quite get to the wreckage, but he can see over and through it some, so he shoots at my command squad. They go to ground, and the commander manages to survive after taking a wound. He routs, but only 6”, so he’s still on the board at game’s end.

In the end, I lost 8 KPs and he lost 12. I could tell he was a fairly new player from the mistakes he made (and his army list I saw in the game prior, only 1000 points, mostly battleforce/dismounted stuff). While he’s been watching and reading the rules for a while, he’s only been playing for about 3 weeks. That, combined with using the owner’s army (mostly mechanized, something he’s not used to controlling) left me pretty impressed with his performance…and critical of mine. I made a few fairly serious errors that could have really hurt me against a better player. Oh well, guess that means I need to play more.

I found the enemy list fairly interesting. I certainly think it would be better served with assault terminators with TH/SS than the assault cannons, although the cannons did give it the threat of ranged AT punch (at least 1 rend is almost guaranteed). It’s a tough nut to crack, especially for just 2 KPs, and there are enough other potential threats out there that you’ve got to make tough decisions. I think it could use some tweaking, but overall it seems fairly effective and was a refreshing change from newb lists.