catalyst2 | Battle #14 (Reply)

Tonight was 2000 points against Sam's Space Marines. It was Capture and Control mission with Pitched Battle deployment. Things went well early for me - my Drop Pod Dreadnought took out his Predator, my Land Speeders took out his Whirlwind, my Vindicator got off its first ever successful shot in battle and killed four of his six bikers and finally my Whirlwind killed eight of his ten assault marines, all on the first turn. All of his shooting missed or I saved, partially thanks to some good use of cover and blocked lines of sight for him.

Second turn was not so good - remember those two bikers, one of whom is his Captain and the two assault marines that I missed? On my right wing, they carved up my assault marines, no problem, and then headed for two combat squads sitting on my objective. In the center, his Razorback-mounted Vanguard disembarked and began their rampage.

Turn three was better for me - my Whirlwind continued to wreak havoc on the tactical squad holding his objective whilst most of my shooting worked well. I also both immobilized and then disarmed his lascannon-armed Razorback. Unfortunately, his Vanguard killed off one tactical squad and then headed for the centre of my line.

Turn four was even - my Predator and Whirlwind continued to pick off targets and the Vindicator blew away another combat squad of his. Unfortunately, the two bikers/two assault marines were turning out to be near-immortal and wiped out another combat squad, whilst reducing two more to three marines.

Turn five was bad for me - his Terminators Deep Striked (Struck?) and Scouts infiltrated on my right, facing just 2 three-man combat squads. Fortunately, I managed to break his scouts and then run them down so they disappeared instantly. The expected hail of gunfire from the Terminators only took out one Marine. Excellent shooting from almost everything of mine wiped the board clear of everything of his still surviving, except for the Terminators, two bikers and two assault marines all of whom were now on my objective whilst his own objective was well held by a tactical squad.

I would have lost at this point but I rolled and we went to a sixth turn.

Turn 6 was just sweet for me - my Predator finally killed his Lord, my multi-melta attack bike killed off the other bike, the one 3-man/one 2-man combat squads killed off the two assault marines left and the Land speeders killed his Terminators in an amazing bit of dice work - with 8 assault cannon shots and 6 heavy bolter shots, every shot wounded, with two rending shots. He failed every single roll and disappeared. Because I had taken so many combat squads, I had another two that I had moved but not shot so I ran them at my objective - both rolled 6 so I re-took my objective. No 7th turn so we finished there.

Final result was drawn on objectives (1-1) but I won on kill points 9-4.

What I learned this week:
1) The Vindicator can be very very effective when used correctly
2) That Drop Pod Dreadnought is just devastating - not only did it take out his Predator instantly (but also couldn't be shot out because it hid behind the wreck) and then harassed his Vanguard when they disembarked and finally finished off one tactical squad with its CCW when all the shooting was exhausted for that turn.
3) I like the 3 Land Speeders - the sheer volume of fire they put out is amazing, taking out so many Terminators over two turns was just cool
4) I have no idea what to do with the Librarian - he survived this time but never got a shot off in anger only getting caught up in close combat - so I really need to look into that more.

I really had fun tonight and coming down to that last turn and then to that very last roll was just fun at its best. Thanks, Sam for a fun and memorable game!

My W-L-D record is now 9-5-0.