catalyst2 | The Apocalypse happened today (Reply)

Some of the pictures are a bit crappy - sorry about that!
The battlefield (8'x6'):

Initial deployment with Mitch and Dane's Eldar to the left and Dave's and my Ultramarines to the right. Because none of us except Dave had played an Apocalyspe game before, we used no tactical/support/battlefield/front line assets and no Apocalypse units, just 5000 points on each side with diagonal setup, twelve inches from the centre line and three objectives - the camp on my right wing, the stone obelisk in the centre and the crashed Thunderhawk cabin section on the left wing. Any unit could hold/contest an objective - we were going to do the cumulative count but forgot until the third turn so we agreed that it would be at the end of Turn 5. The game would only be 5 turns, no matter how long it took to complete all the turns. Mitch and Dane got to deploy and go first.
Initial deployment:

Right wing gunline (which was my main responsibility) was lots of firepower just to hold up this wing while the hammer blow would fall over on the left:

Left wing mobile attack, Land Raider Crusader (containing terminator chaplain and 7 assault terminators, 4 lightning claw and 3 Thunder hammer) and Calgar with Honour guard were my responsibility:

I had my favourite Drop pod Dreadnought still to come with one 5-man Terminator squad to deep strike later. Dave had about half of his army still to come, all of whom would be landing over on that same wing with 10 terminators, three combat squads of marines, two ten-man scout squads and 2 5-man assault marine squads.

Managed to get the assault terminators out on the first turn:

End of turn 1 - assault terminators munched their way through a squad of Dark Reapers, Drop Pod Deadnought hit some Dire Avengers whilst the two whirlwinds and Thunderfire severely depleted a Howling Banshee and a Dire Avenger squad:

Start of Turn 2:

Right wing Turn 2 - Thunderfire went *boom* as soon as they realised it was 60" range, not 48.:

End Turn 2 - Predator took out 2 of the 4 Farseers in the centre whilst the lascannon Dreanought took out a third, only one Dire Avenger survives and both the Howling Bashees and the Dark Reapers are trying to keep out of range of the twin Whirlwinds. The Drop Pod got destroyed for the first time ever because Dane and Mitch realised how damaging the Deathwind Missile Launcher can be after it took 8 of a 10-man Dire Avenger squad in front of it. Honour Guard all died *sob* but Calgar survived intact. No reserves came in at all:

Right wing Turn 3: Vindicator rammed by weaponless Falcon and Fire Dragons arrive:

Left wing Turn 3 - lots of reserves arrive and, after a violent struggle, Striking scorpion squad is dead, a Phoenix Lord is dead and the Dreadnought destroys a Viper with its single multi-melta shot:

End turn 3 right wing is looking a bit dodgy with two war Walkers and an Avatar on the way with a whole squad of fire dragons already there:

Right wing Turn 4 Uh-oh! One whirlwind blew up, the techmarine charged the Fire dragons and died, the Predator can't shoot or move and Vindicator is mobilised. If the incoming traffic clears out the remaining vehicles, we could lose this objective. We hold the centre one and the Eldar hold the downed Thunderhawk one. We could yet lose:

Left wing Turn 4: Very quietly in the centre, the Land Raider has withstood a barrage of shooting, none of which have so much as scratched it, whilst Calgar has plodded his way through a squad of Fire Dragons, the last Farseer and also finished off the last War Walker in the centre. On the far left, Dave's shooting and assaults are stunningly effective and he clears almost everything on that wing:

End Turn 4:

Left Wing turn 5: Everybody had given up this objective as taken by the Eldar but everyone (except me!) forgets that the Predator can now move and it moves 12 inches in to contest the objective so neither side hold this objective. One miraculous move to draw the game!

Right wing Turn 5 - it looks like the Eldar have held the Thunderhawk objective because they have the Fire Prism sitting on top of it. I try to run both the terminators and the Dradnought but both roll 2's for the difficult terrain so they are short. Dave's troops were very effective in combat but have got held up too far back to get to the objective so it looks like a draw:

End of Turn 5: But wait, I moved the Land Raider 12 inches so I can still fire one weapon. Do we go with the single shot multi-melta with better AP or do we try the assault cannons with more shots but needing 6's to do damage? I go with the assault cannon, roll 4 sixes and then penetrate with another four rending 6's. Now I roll for the four results - immobilised, stunned, stunned, vehicle destroyed. Yes, with the very last shot of the entire game, they have been shot off the objective so we win by one objective to nil, that objective held by the solitary figue of Calgar. A second miraculous move to win the game! WOOHOO!