Game 4
Refreshed after a good nights sleep I headed into my next game against a Chaos Marine army. His list was Kharn, a Demon Prince, 2 squads of plague marines in Rhinos, a squad of Khorne berzerkers in a Rhino, summoned lesser demons, a squad of 8 terminators, a squad of chosen, a greater demon and 3 Obliterators. On a side note his army looked amazing. It was nominated for best army, and was well worth that nomination.
The mission was dawn of war (!) 5 objectives primary and kill points secondary. However, the board had lots of line of sight blocking terrain – 4 large buildings– for ease of reference I’ll refer them as building 1, 2, 3 and 4 – imagine them in a line more or less in the centre of the board, although angling slightly from bottom left to top right. He placed an objective in building 1, I placed one in a wood on one side of the table, he placed one behind building 2, I placed one in the open between building 3 and 4, and he placed one behind building 3.
Pre game thoughts. I have never had problems with Chaos Marines. However, the thing that really worried me here was the (possibly) outflanking Chosen and the ability of the lesser demons, the terminators and the greater demon, to deep strike. If his reserve rolls worked out, he could present me with multiple targets right on top of my gunline and simply overwhelm me.
I got turn one and took it, choosing the quarter with the woods so I could get my Kroot in there for a 2+ save. I was quite sure he will deploy a unit of Marines in building one leaving us to fight over the other 3. I’m worried that 2 of them are behind buildings where he can just hide, but if I took the other corner all the buildings would block my fire lanes horribly. So I deploy the kroot spread out around the woods to discourage deep striking, with enough of them in the woods to give them a cover save. The other squad I use to line my half of the closest board edge, to stop the chosen outflanking too close to my gunline. Everything else will walk on turn one.
He deploys as expected – a unit of Plague Marines in building 1 holding the objective, with their Rhino hiding behind building one. His Terminators, the demons and the Chosen are in reserve, with the terminators deep striking and the Chosen outflanking.
My turn one everything bounces on into the corner beside the Kroot in the woods. There is nothing really to shoot at. His turn one a Rhino of Plague Marines and a Rhino of Berserkers come on from his board edge, opposite the corner in which I deployed. They move forward 12” close to building 4 and pop smoke. The marines jump out. His Oblits walk on.
My turn 2 I flat out the Piranhas right in front of the rhinos blocking their movement. In retrospect this was probably a mistake as the Marines were out of the Rhino, and chances were I would be able to kill both Rhinos this turn. If that happened I would have exposed my Piranhas for nothing.
In the shooting phase I use my pathfinders to stip cover from the Berzerker’s Rhino and blow it up with the Broadsides. I also destroy the marines Rhino with the Hammerheads. I decide to ignore the marines and kill the Berserker’s. I kill all the Berserkers bar one, who then hides in building 4 (this is important…!).
His turn 2 all his reserves come on…and the chosen outflank on my side of the board. Bugger….! The terminators the lesser demons and the greater demon deep strike of icons, all within charge range of my gunline next turn, and nobody mishaps. Bugger. He shoots at my Piranahs and kills them both, but that’s all he does.
The next 2 turns were typical of many of my games with this army. Desperately trying to kill stuff before it charges. Blocking the stuff that I can’t kill, and getting out of charge range with everything else. By the beginning of turn 5 I had killed everything that was coming at me bar 3 terminators. I had lost a squad of kroot, my pathfinders and my broadsides. The highlight was a Kroot squad being charged by the Greater Demon in turn 3, and over 2 rounds of combat killing it! Yes really. Little feathered heroes.
This is part of the reason why I enjoy playing this army – it’s always intense, you are always on the verge of disaster, the key is to kill enough of the incoming scary things to allow you to then break out and claim the objectives. One opponent compared my army to a recoiling spring – it compresses back, gathering energy and suddenly unleashes itself. I like that analogy.
So anyway at the beginning of my turn 5 I have 3 kroot left after killing the greater demon who are within a few inches of the objective in the woods. I have a Dfish of Fire Warriors within striking distance of the objective behind building 2. I have a Hammerhead that can tank shock the Marines off the objective behind building 3, and the remaing Berserker had jumped out of Building 4 and was on the objective in the open between building 3 and 4. I also have the 3 remaining terminators (who have just killed my broadsides) bearing down on the objective in the woods. So to win the primary I have to get the FWs onto the objective behind building 2, tank shock onto the objective behind building 3 to contest it, kill the Berserker on the objective between buildings 3 and 4, get my Kroot onto the objective in the woods, and kill the remaining terminators……
That would mean I held 2 objectives and he would have one. I would also have won on kill points (probably).
Well in the movement phase I managed to get the Kroot onto the objective in the wood, the Fire Warriors onto the objective behind building 2 (although I had to get them out their Fish and run them to do it – not good you never want FWs outside their Fish if you can avoid it!), and successfully tank shocked onto the objective behind building 3, contesting it. In the shooting phase I managed to kill the terminators, but it took all my remaining fire power to do it – with one exception. The rail gun on one of my Hammerheads. That rail gun shot needed to kill the one remaining berserker. Not that much to ask you say – one BS4 S10 AP1 shot against one T4 model with a 3+ armour save, and no cover….! But of course Hammerhead railguns always miss…..!
So I closed my eyes and threw the dice… a 4! Yippee now all I needed to do to win the game was not throw a 1…. Well of course the inevitable happened, and I threw a 1 and the rail gun slug somehow bounced of the berserker. Bugger!
But…..I could still draw. After a quick tally of kill points we were level on 7 each. So as long as he didn’t kill the exposed fire warriors on the objective behind building 2, as long as the Hammerhead that was contesting the objective behind building 3 didn’t get destroyed or wrecked, and as long as the little feathered heroes on the objective in the woods kept their nerve (and the game ended on turn 5) we would draw 2 objective each (with one contested) and 8 kill points each.
Well, believe it or not all of these things happened, except one…! The Fire Warriors ducked, the Hammerhead shrugged off 2 penetrating melta shots and the game did end on turn five. However, killing the Greater Demon was too much for the Kroot – they ahd done their bit. They took a casualty from the Obliterator’s plasma cannons, failed their leadership test and ran off the objective. So he had the primary, 2 objectives to my one, and because the game ended the Kroot counted as a kill point and he won kill points 8 – 7.
But what a great game!
Game 5
Guard again. Primary was getting as many troop choices in the centre of the board as possible. Secondary was capture and control.
His list included 6 troops, 4 of which were in Chimeras, a Manticore, a Russ and a vendetta.
Pre game. On the face of this I’m going to struggle. He simply advances his Chimeras into the centre of the board and I have to kill them all to win. Hmmm…. Maybe if I split deploy I can get some side shots.
Well this is gonna be brief – not that it was a bad game. It wasn’t, but it wouldn’t be very interesting to recount. I shot stuff with a reasonable degree of success, he shot stuff with surprisingly little success, but ultimately I could not kill enough stuff and he killed all my troops.
Another loss.
Game 6
Against Eldar. Primary was annihilation, secondary seize ground with 3 objectives. His list was Eldrad and Uriel with a seer council in a wave serpent, Banshees in a Serpent, Fire Dragons in Serpent and 3 Falcons with 5 Dire Avengers.
I got first turn and deployed knowing he would reserve everything relying on Uriel’s 1+ to reserve rolls, but also knowing he simply did not have the fire power to successfully alpha strike me. And in fact that’s exactly what happened.
So my first turn, his first turn and my second turn were pretty quick! His turn 2 was a complete failure of dice rolls. All he got on were 2 Falcons with DA inside. They shot at me and did nothing, and I killed both of them!
His turn 3 the Banshees, the Fire Dragons and the other Falcon came on. He brought the FDs and the Falcon on on the other end of the board. He did this to take an objective, and to counter my Piranhas that I brought on there behind some terrain.
He brought the Banshees on in the middle and moved them flat out straight at my gun line. I killed the Banshees, and ignored the Falcon and the FDs.
Turn 4 Eldrad’s Serpent came on and moved flat out at my gun line. He killed my piranhas and dropped off the Dire Avengers in the remaining Falcon on an objective. In an inspired turn of shooting I killed Eldrad’s Serpent and all its contents.
At this point I had 2 objectives and was way ahead on kill points. However, the Falcon was in range to tank shock my Kroot off one of the objectives and there was just nothing I could do about it, as all my fire power was used to kill Eldrad and the Seer Council.
So turn 5 the inevitable happened and he tank shocked the Kroot off the objective. And the game ended.
So I got primary but drew the secondary. To be fair my dice were really hot this game, and his sucked. Not getting Eldrad in until turn 4 really screwed him.
So that’s it. I’ll post up general thoughts later.
EYIG.
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