[DCM]
Tilter at Windmills
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So these were the 6th, 7th, and 8th games I played of 6th, in early August. These are quick summaries with some rules observations, rather than detailed reports. I have some more detailed ones forthcoming.
Game 6 was my first League game.
League rules of note:
8/12/16 points for a L/D/W, +1pt per Secondary Objective you achieve (from the book).
Regular book missions, with the tweak that if you have an odd number of objective markers, the first one placed always must go in the center of the table.
Narrative terrain (as in, an even and attractive dispersal, either by a neutral third party or otherwise set up as agreeable to both players), rather than alternating placement. The numbers in the book taken as a guide, though, so the table on average should have about a dozen terrain pieces (with small wall sections or the like having 2-3 count as one piece).
Fortifications are permitted, will be placed after table sides are determined in order of table side choice. The player will remove one terrain piece from his chosen 2x2 sector of the table (in keeping with the terrain density rules from the book, and to give him more placement options), and the Fortification must be at least 3" from any other features.
Mysterious terrain NOT in effect.
Mysterious Objectives as normal.
Psychic powers: Psykers will select their normal powers from the codex (if applicable) and those are fixed on their army list; however they may decide before deployment at each game if they wish to swap them out for and generate powers from the rulebook.
Our league allows you to change your list once, any time before the 4th game. I often use this as an opportunity to give myself extra painting time, fielding one list for those first three games, then another for the rest.
Here's my initial league list:
Librarian with jump pack, Shield of Sang, Fear of the Dark.
Priest with lightning claw, meltabombs
Priest with jump pack, power sword
5 assault terminators, 4x TH & SS (incl. sgt).
9 Death Company, TH, Fist
10 assault marines, 2x melta, Fist
5 assault marines, meltagun
in Razor with las/plas, dozer, searchlight
5 assault marines, meltagun
in Razor with las/plas, dozer, searchlight
Stormraven with AC, MM, Extra Armor, Searchlight
Stormraven with AC, MM, Extra Armor, Searchlight
Game 7 was against an old buddy from the Dakka store days, Chris I, who has been out of the game for many years (since 3rd or 4th ed). The combination of his son getting old enough to play a bit, and the release of 6th, has tempted him into busting out the models again.
Chris had Eldar with IG allies. Roughly:
Farseer with Fortune, riding with
9 banshees in wave serpent, starcannon
9-10 scorpions in wave serpent, brightlance
12-15 Guardian Defenders with starcannon
12-15 Guardian Defenders with starcannon
Vyper
Wraithlord with brightlance
IG CCS with fist, lascannon
Platoon with mix of heavies and specials, 3-4 infantry squads + CCS.
Leman Russ
We played Dawn of War, The Scouring.
I was fortunate in objective values and was sitting on better ones early. Chris clawed back late, though, sending an IG squad all the way across the table down my left flank to sit in a crater on an objective at game end, and his disembarked Scorpions were able to contest my right objective, though I held my center objective and pressed my attack up the right flank.
The most noteworthy event of the game was what happened to my terminators. After killing the Scorpions' wave serpent, then the wraithlord, they started marching into Chris' backfield. I attempted a multiple-charge into an IG squad and a Guardian squad, and failed the primary. Thanks to this, I ate overwatch from both, AND got shot again on Chris' turn. Between that single turn of shooting and the overwatch from about 25 models, I lost the whole squad without getting either unit of Chris'. I would have been better off assaulting just one, and got greedy. Need to scale back expectations about assault in this edition.
At game end I thought Chris had the game tied, as I had First Blood, and he was 1pt up on objective values, but then I managed to make him fail a Morale test from SR shooting, and that IG squad which had marched all the way across the table did break. In retrospect, however, as we were playing the crater as being area terrain, he should have been able to gain 2+ cover from Going to Ground in it, as all area terrain now grants +2 to cover when you GtG in it, per page 91. If he had held, I would have just eked out the game on VP, as I forgot I had killed his Vyper, which was worth 1 VP in this mission.
Game 8:
Sisters with IG allies
Vanguard, Emperor’s Will
List, roughly (my memory is poor five games back):
Canonness on foot
Elite squad with MMs in HB Immo
Sizable squad of repentia
2-3x battle sister squads with MM + SB
Retributor squad with 4x HB
2x Exorcists
Primaris Psyker
2x Penal Legion squads
Leman Russ (not 100% on this)
All the sisters units had icons and upgrades so they were using faith on a 4+ with a re-roll.
The most interesting thing about this battle was the canoness Outflanking behind my lines with the Penal Legionnaires, to threaten my objective. The forced me to keep my terminators back to deal with them, but my DC were able to handily clear off my opponent’s objective, and my jump pack squad with two attached characters was able to kill off most of the stuff in the midfield (HB squad & their Immo), repentia, one squad of sisters), leaving my damaged razorback squads to hold my objective after their rides got popped and they ate a few casualties. Wound up holding one objective to zero, and getting all three bonus points (this time picking an immolator near midfield as my first target).
Game 8:
GK with SW allies
Hammer & Anvil, The Scourging
List, roughly:
Coteaz
5 Terminators w/psycannon, mix of weapons
10 Strikes w/2x psycannon, psybolts, 3x halberd, 1x hammer
in Rhino
3 warriors in psybolt razor
3 warriors in psybolt razor
Stormraven with psybolts, hurricane bolters
3x Psyfleman Dreads
Runepriest with Jaws, Lightning, Chooser
7 GH with plasma, fist
Aegis with Quad Gun
This was only a partial game, and a close one.
Jamie won the roll for turn and forced me to go first, so his SR would have the chance to shoot mine first. I nearly got boned when only one of my SRs (the one with the terminators) showed up turn 2, and ate some hits from the Aegis but thankfully lived. Then on Jamie’s turn he lit it up with his SR, the Aegis, and two psyfleman dreads (I had blown up the third with my SR), rolled well and so was shooting the crap out of it, but I elected to Evade and made a TON (like 4-5) of 5+ dodge saves. Which allowed it on my turn to hover, move 6”, and get my terminators into assault with his GH + Runepriest (which were manning the Aegis) on my turn 3.
Meanwhile, his Strike Squad had been mixing it up with my jumper squad + characters, near midfield. He had the edge in maneuver, driving up in his Rhino and disembarking so that his closest models to me were in Difficult, and all his guys were in shooting range. I ate a couple of casualties, then attempted to charge but failed due to the Difficult. He then charged me. I actually did quite well in the assault, thanks to having the Divination power which gave the whole squad a 4+ Invulnerable save. In the first round of HtH Jamie elected not to Hammerhand, so as to save his warp charge for his Force Weapons, and negate my Feel No Pain. But he then rolled badly to hit and wound on a 4+, and I was able to save the few wounds he inflicted on my 4++. Then the next round it was my turn to make a mistake, choosing to use Prescience for re-rolls to Hit instead of keeping the 4+ invulnerable save. Thanks to that, Hammerhand, and some better rolling on Jamie’s part, my squad got hacked down to only a few models in that second round, and it was anyone’s guess which (badly mauled on both sides) unit would walk away if we had had time to finish the game.
The third main area of action was my backfield, where Jamie had chosen to use his Outflank Warlord trait to have Coteaz and Terminator buddies walk into the neighborhood of my objective. This was a nasty threat, and I was having a hard time dealing with it using mostly my razorback squads and their rides.
The fourth item of interest was Jamie’s shooting down my second SR on turn 3, before it got to disembark the DC. We finally saw Crash & Burn in action, and I lost all but one of the Death Company in the crash. OUCH! This was a big influence on my decision to include a Locator Beacon in my FoB qualifier list. So that if I went up against a heavy anti-flyer army, I could choose to zip 36” on entry and immediately drop the contents in some safety.
NOTE: I have since re-read the text for the LB and realized that this doesn’t work; even though Skies of Blood happens during regular movement, rather than the beginning of the movement phase with Reserve entry, the LB still has to be on the table at start of turn to be used. Darn it! I accidentally cheated my first-round opponent at the FoB qualifier on this one. Thankfully it only hurt me in that situation. As it turned out I’d have been better off keeping my dread embarked in that game, as the SR was fine and the Dread would have easily gotten into assault on turn 3 instead of having to get lucky on a long roll on turn 4. (He didn’t waste any Loota or other fire on an AV13 dread with smoke). Still, in retrospect I still will likely consider the Skies of Blood immediate drop anyway in that situation, since Dangerous Terrain tests aren’t nearly as scary now as they used to be. It’s just a question of whether I’ll bother spending the 15 points on the LB for potential use in subsequent turns.
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