by Maugan Ra » Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:57 pm
More games played, including the aforementioned Apocalypse game. Overall record now stands at:
Wins: 9
Draws: 3
Losses: 2
Battle 11
First, the Apocolypse game. There were, I believe, ten players involved and they'd all brought 2k or more points of Imperial races. So we split into teams of five, and promptly came to the conclusion that we were fighting a battle from the Horus Heresy (with Grey Knights as well, somehow... eh, don't ask me). The game ended as a victory for my side, which felt nice - we were fighting over five objectives spread fairly evenly over a 16' by 4' board, and initially the odds looked distinctly in favour of our opponents. They visibly outnumbered us, and in addition had three superheavy vehicles to our solitary one (my Stormlord).
Then the reinforcements arrived. An entire Space Wolves company slammed down out of the skies in their drop-pods and formed a cordon of sorts, trapping the enemy in one quarter of the battlefield and keeping them pinned there. Not that the enemy couldn't have escaped, bear in mind - that was certainly possible, and indeed several units managed it - but they were penned it, and often ended up getting in each other's way. Literally, they were unable to fit their men in the available space to escape the trap, even placing them with bases touching. There was something in the region of eighty Astartes, over a hundred guardsmen and about a dozen different vehicles caught in the area, and whilst it lead to an unholy brawl with the Space Wolves, it did prevent them getting out and claiming any other objectives before the game ended.
Oh, and I lost the Stormlord on turn two, to an incredibly jammy shot from a Conversion Beamer that scored three Chain Reaction results in a row.
Battle Twelve
Next game was against another staffmember, Sam and his Astral Claws. He was using a list that I believe comes from an Imperial Armour book, and we played 2,000pts (which was basically my entire army sans Stormlord). His list revolves around a tactic he calls "Pouring lava on a kitten", which involves a large unit led by a special character, all packing some varient of power weapon and storm shields. It shredded its way straight through squad A1, before I surrounded it with thirty guardsmen and an Executioner, with support fire from two autocannon teams and the heavy bolters. It still took two turns to kill them all, and the last member died about three inches short of Creed himself, which is the closest anyone has ever come to taking his head.
The game was "Vanguard", the Space Marine mission from the Battle Missions book, which involves the Marines seizing ground inside the enemy deployment zone. I won this one, holding all three of the objectives, even despite the lava-kitten unit. The turning point was, I think, turn two, when I managed to immobilise both the Land Raider Redeemer and the Ironclad dreadnaught before they reached my lines (both with glancing hits as well), which reinforces the benefit of just chucking unholy amounts of firepower at your target until it is neutralised. I watched four seperate battlecannon rounds score direct hits on that Land Raider and do absolutely nothing, before a lascannon managed to take out its tracks. Both units survived the battle, but were unable to actually provide the game-winning edge to my opponent.
I feel that I must here mention the heroics of my Platoon Commander of Platoon Beta. He lost his entire command squad in the first turn to an assault cannon volley, but held his ground. He then proceeded to sprint across 20" of battlefield, directly between the Land Raider Redeemer and my army, which was naturally doing its best to kill the great tin can. Not only did he survive the crossfire, he survived a Predator's twin-linked lascannon that attempted to put him down, and proceeded to charge into combat with three traitorous Tactical marines, one of which had a power fist.
None of them landed a single blow upon the Lieutenant, who then proceeded to kill them all over the course of two turns with his own power fist. He then ran another 18" and assaulted the Predator that failed to kill him earlier, stunning it in the last turn. For this, he was named Lieutenant Fury, and Sam did him tribute by freehand painting his name on his base and showing me how to do a much better skin tone than I have previously been able to achieve, which was used to make him look suitably dashing and heroic.
Battle Thirteen
This was another mission from the Battle Missions book, this time "Pillage". It was a 1,200pts game against a force of Nurgle-themed Chaos Marines. I won this mission 10-3, and afterwards advised my opponent (young kid, about 11, but surprisingly good at painting his army - they looked properly disgusting, and he is much better at Green stuff than I am) that he should have kept his attack together in a solid wave. He kept his Daemon Prince back, holding an objective, and sent a single Plague Marine unit towards my battleline while a second one struck out for a seperate objective. As it was, the first unit proved irritatingly resilient (power armour, T5 and Feel No Pain, and the scenario rules meant my Executioner didn't show up until turn 3), and almost made it to my lines.
Still, I was able to take him out piecemeal, especially once my Executioner arrived, and thus ended up crushing him.
Battle Fourteen
This game was fought against a 1,750pts strong force of Blood Angels under the command of a guy called Matt, who is apparently some variety of teacher. It was a Capture and Control mission (the one where we both have an objective in our deployment zones), and his force was a very offensively themed one. It was based around a total of three assault squads, which were split into combat squads, supported by a pair of Librarians, a pair of Sanguinary priests, and three Baal Predators with ludicrously oversized flame weapons.
The game ended in a draw, with Platoon Command Squad A holding my objective and a scouts squad holding his. I managed to destroy the predators by strafing them one at a time with my excessive number of heavy weapons and ordnance, but they still cost me several infantry squads. The Assault Marines were equally nasty, and after the fate of the Predators my opponent kept himself either in combat with me or very close to my men, so as to stop me using ordnance.
This game was the first time I have had to be truly callous with the lives of my soldiers. I had my Executioner fire on the squad of assault marines that were lurking next to an ongoing combat, despite the Missile team that were desperately fighting for their lives barely a few metres away. Sure enough, two of the plasma cannon templates scattered, and I ended up murdering my own soldiers in a hail of burning plasma. However, with their deaths the remaining Blood Angels were no longer locked in combat, and thus I targetted both Leman Russ tanks at them and slaughtered them all in a blaze of high explosive (the other squad died to the attentions of the Executioner alongside my brave soldiers).
Maugan, your slow descent into madness is starting to look more like a BASE jump...
- Rahvin
The 210th Cadian - Tanks, heavy weapons, and an ongoing hatred of Land Raiders.
W: 41
D: 6
L: 14