<![CDATA[Latest posts for the thread "Escalation Guard - 650 pts"]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/14.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net Escalation Guard - 650 pts wysiwyg escalation 'league' (only 2 other commanders so far), and I've got my second level engagements vs. Orks and Space Marines tomorrow. I've been so, so lazy, I haven't laid a lick of paint on anything since the 500 pt battle, where I had finally laid down fully painted infantry for the first time ever - 2 vets, a ccs, and marbo. I filled it out with a LRBT/LC. I lost to the SM and fought the Ork to a draw, but both were close so I wasn't disappointed. Here's the link to that list discussion with mini-battle report: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/443024.page

For this one, I'm pretty much forced to draw from my motor pool, which is mostly painted, as I'm not finishing these 10 guys by morning, methinks. I've got a LRBT/LC, LRD/LC/PC, Basilisk, Hellhound, plasma sent, and 2 boats. We're allowing one proxy, so I don't have to take the sponsons on the demolisher, or could play a vehicle or some infantry as something else, etc. That's my least desirable option, however (see my sig). The hellhound can play as any variant or as a HF turret Chimera. No plasma/power weapons for the infantry, only one meltagun (sitting on sprues/need to convert - too lazy), though again, proxy allowed. Marbo didn't impress me - blew himself up one time, killed 3 orks the next - so he's on the bench I think.


Here's the list I'm leaning towards:

Company Command Squad (Lascannon, Meltagun)

Veteran Squad x2, (3x Grenade Launcher, Missile Launcher)

Leman Russ Battle Tank (Lascannon)

Hellhound

Armoured Sentinel (Plasma Cannon)

Maybe against the ork switch the ML's for HB's or AC's


Against the Ork I'm tempted to run:

Company Command Squad (Lascannon, Meltagun)

Veteran Squad x2, (3x Grenade Launcher, Missile Launcher)

Basilisk

Hellhound

Chimera (Multilaser, Heavy Bolter)

Chimera (Multilaser, Heavy Flamer)

Maybe against the ork switch the ML's for HB's or AC's


There are other possible permutations as well, like the russ + 3 boats or the russ + 2 boats and the sent (although I'm kinda sick of the boats). More if you start considering a proxy. I have all of the heavy weapons, so those could be changed in the squads. I'm allowed to tailor my list for each opponent. Last time against the orks I switched the ML's for HB's and a GL for a flamer. The HB's worked well, but I think I'd rather them have a GL than a flamer. For some reason at this level I think I should keep the ML's anyways.

Whaddaya think?

]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4267944.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4267944.page GMT Re:Escalation Guard - 650 pts http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4269338.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4269338.page GMT Escalation Guard - 650 pts http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4269823.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4269823.page GMT Re:Escalation Guard - 650 pts only if you cant squeeze the points in do you take it off]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4269838.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4269838.page GMT Re:Escalation Guard - 650 pts
@murdog I personally would drop the lone sentinel and try to get your vets some transports. I don't think the Basilisk will do much good in your second list. You are porbably better off trying to get a leman russ in there but I like the hellhound choice. A very underrated vehicle imo. Atleast many lists do not bring them.

1x CCS
2x Vets in Chimeras
1x Hellhound
1x Russ

would look pretty good. Not sure if you have the point room though.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4269860.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4269860.page GMT Escalation Guard - 650 pts HQ: CCS: lascannon, melta, MoO- 110

Elite:
Marbo- 65

Troops:
2x Vets, 3x grenade lanchers, missile launcher Chimera- 310

Heavy:
Leman Russ, LC -165

-650 points

Keep your CCS back and in cover if possible let your Master of Ordnance bomb the crap out of everything! Then move forward with your chimeras and Russ, park your chimeras on objectives and let that ML rip.

Marbo is a great unit. Yeah, you can drop him in and just let his bomb loose, but he's like an Eversor for IG if you give him half a chance, drop him behind cover and let him charge the enemy through the cover and jump right back in. He's a beast if used right!]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4269969.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4269969.page GMT Escalation Guard - 650 pts
LordofSIns, that list is definitely tempting. I do have a model I could use for the MoO, my only concern is that the points are too low to have the troop concentrations he needs to hit. BiD vs. vehicles would be decent at least, however. I'll think about it - game is not 'till later tonight.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Silentway, I just read your private message to me, the one where you call me an idiot and tell me to L2P - here, you can go on ignore if that's how you want to conduct yourself on here.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4270322.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4270322.page GMT Escalation Guard - 650 pts
murdog wrote:K tx guys. Silent the only way to rock that list would be to run virtually naked vets, I'm not sure I'm prepared to do that.

LordofSIns, that list is definitely tempting. I do have a model I could use for the MoO, my only concern is that the points are too low to have the troop concentrations he needs to hit. BiD vs. vehicles would be decent at least, however. I'll think about it - game is not 'till later tonight.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Silentway, I just read your private message to me, the one where you call me an idiot and tell me to L2P - here, you can go on ignore if that's how you want to conduct yourself on here.


LOL that was sent long before I posted here.

But trading 3 grenade launchers for a hellhound might be worth it, otherwise you lose the hellhound and make up points elsewhere. At 650 points most people will struggle with your Armor.

Could look at this.

1x CCS, 4x GL- 70
2x Vets, 6x GL, 2x Chimeras w/ HF - 280
1x Hellhound - 130
1x Leman Russ LC - 165

Only thing you lose is the ML but may not need it.
]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4270963.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4270963.page GMT Escalation Guard - 650 pts ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4272747.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4272747.page GMT Escalation Guard - 650 pts GL's painted, so each squad had 2x GL + Flamer.

Against the Space Marine the list worked well. He brought a captain, 5 tacs and a HB razorback, 5 scouts with SR's/HB, a MM dread with a drop pod, and dual whirlwinds. The mission was spearhead seize ground, and he went first, deploying his tacs in cover on his objective, his scouts on some central terrain, his razor/captain behind that and ready to attack, and the two whirlwinds packed in behind a large LoS-blocking building. My objective was in a large piece of area terrain, basically in a corner, I deployed my two vet squads so that they were in cover and scoring, with 'tails' extending out each side to provide bubblewrap for my vehicles. The CCS was in there as well, with a few guys trailing back for bubblewrap as well. The LRBT I put on the right edge of the table, planning to get into sight of the WW's. The HH went on on the back edge (the left of my formation). A los-blocking building anchored my left, and I planned to go around behind it and attack his scoring troops. I put the sent in back middle, sort of a reserve.

I was hoping to limit the dreads options for dropping by using bubblewrap, terrain, and the board edge. I was a little sloppy about it though, putting the HH too far forward, and so in the end he dropped in front of my men and was about an 11" away from the hellhound, letting loose a double pen shot first turn - but missed! I immobilized it in my turn (can't remember with what), cruising past it with the hellhound along the back edge, to start heading towards his troops. Popped smoke as I was still in range, but he missed turn 2 as well! The whirlwinds hit virtually every turn - 2 incendiary rounds per turn on the infantry, plus a couple of rounds of fire from the scouts razorback, and dread meant that by the last turn all my troops were dead. They actually lasted longer than I thought they would - the whirlwinds were hitting but not getting huge amounts of wounds. That plus fairly decent spacing on my part meant only a couple-few per turn went down. I drove my russ up the board edge, and was shooting at the whirlwinds with it turn 1 (they had a 3+ cover first turn, but by second it was clear shots.) In the first three rounds it only managed to immobilize one (the only result that I didn't want), on round 4 it blew one up. Rounds 5 and 6 I was ignoring the remaining one to concentrate on his tacs. The sent destroyed his rhino, which drove up to drop the captain off, who was apparantly going to charge my formation single-handedly. He ended up turning around to cut my hellhound off once he realized where it was going. The sent + hellhound wiped out the scouts in one round. My command squad's melta gun failed to hit the immobilized dread 2 or 3 times. In the end, he had one tac marine left on his objective, and before my shooting, where I had the russ and sent in range, I passed a terrain test to drive the hellhound up onto the rocks to contest for the draw. I was basically happy, as I didn't expect 20 squishies to last long once I saw the dual whirlwinds. I probably should have tried to spread the squads apart more, with the plan of moving to score at the end. Also my spacing, while decent, could have been better. I thought all the vehicles did well.

Against the ork it was a different story. He brought a big mek (powerklaw, no KFF), and attached him to a 20-boy mob. He had 2 other mobz (one was 15 boyz, not sure if the other was 20), and 2 squads of 2 koptas with TL rokkits. The mission was pitched capture and control, with three objectives. We played the same board to save time, and two of the objectives basically went in the same spot as the first game. The third I placed in the open in the middle. I ended up deploying in almost the same place as the first battle, of course limited by pitched. He deployed the big mek mob across from me, another mob behind the LoS-blocking building on his side and in position to capture the middle objective within two turns of movement. The third mob went way over in his right corner, to capture the objective there. His koptas went in the middle, using their scout move to race across the board and position themselves to come around and hit me in my left flank, where the hellhound was.

I won the roll-off and went first, which was a mistake I think. In three rounds of fire I failed to destroy the big mek's mob. I stupidly advanced the infantry into scoring position, failing to properly stagger the lines, both of which contributed to a turn 3 multicharge by the remnants of the big mek's mob (maybe 8 or 9 orks). Although they lasted a couple rounds, in the end the orks ground one squad down (who had rolled snake-eyes to stick around) while the other ran off the board. The hellhound, battle cannon, and plasma cannon struggled with the mob's excellent spacing and cover saves (there was some tank traps providing cover for his advance - this guy makes awesome run and terrain rolls every game.) I ignored the koptas, which I think is the right thing to do, given past experience. I find they are hard to take down and don't really do much without a power klaw anyways. True enough, they didn't. One round, he managed to hit the hellhound with fire from all 4 koptas, only to roll snake-eyes for the pens - twice! On the fourth round they finally destroyed it though, and with my troops gone and CCS about to go down to the big mek (I had it join the assault in the hopes of winning it - ya right!), with two whole mobs scoring on two objectives and a few orks on the other one, and the koptas having only taken one wound I conceded. It was late anyways.

My main mistake there was advancing the infantry. When am I going to learn? I guess I was pretty sure I was going to destroy the mob. The last round of fire I failed two furf-n-surf orders, although that would have only given me 8 more lasgun shots anyways. My other mistake I think was choosing to go first - I probably would have been better off going second, to leave him guessing as to my deployment. Mainly I think I should have used a different list. I think the boats would have helped give the infantry more mobility to stay away from the mob, plus more anti-horde firepower. The sent and russ were basically point sinks. And one thing I was struggling to compute about the hellhound was the fact that until the waagh is called, I realized that to fire the inferno cannon at a mob means its in danger of being charged by that mob next round. (12" + plus template, meanwhile the orks have a potential 18" charge with waagh.) I ameliorated this by using it to attack the mob from the side, so that if they did decide to charge it at least they were no longer advancing toward the objective.

All in all, a fun night of 40K. Painted armies on a nice board rocks, win or lose! Next level is 800 points - feel free to post suggestions in here, but I'll probably make a new thread once I have a list or two. Probably won't play for awhile now - long weekend coming up and then a vacation in Italy - sweet! Thanks for the input...]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4277979.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4277979.page GMT Escalation Guard - 650 pts
murdog wrote: The whirlwinds hit virtually every turn - 2 incendiary rounds per turn on the infantry, plus a couple of rounds of fire from the scouts razorback, and dread meant that by the last turn all my troops were dead. They actually lasted longer than I thought they would - the whirlwinds were hitting but not getting huge amounts of wounds.


Which is exactly why people use Chimeras. Rolling pillboxes. Vets without transport is kind of a waste.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4279030.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/448915/4279030.page GMT