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catalyst2 ([personal profile] catalyst2) wrote2009-07-28 09:25 pm
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Battle #27


Tonight was 2500 points against Sam's Space Marines. I haven't played this size before so it took a bit of adjusting for me when taking units. I was also trying out my brand new Land Speeder Storm and Ironclad Dreadnought for the very first time. Combined with those two new units, I had also taken Sicarius, a command squad, two tactical squads, one assault squad and two scout squads. I had a Predator, Vindicator, Whirlwind and three HB/AC Land Speeders in a squadron. We rolled 5 objectives in a Seize Ground mission with Dawn of War deployment.

Turn 1 - I went first and deployed out two full tactical squads and Sicarius with his command squad. He deployed two combat squads and his Captain with command squad in a Rhino. I did my full deployment and then took out both of those combat squads and blew up his Rhino with my drop pod Ironclad. I forgot to fire my Deathwind ML at the command squad so they came out intact. So far so good. Unfortunately, both my Dreadnought and Drop pod died as he deployed his Predator (which took out the Dread) and his Techmarine on a bike (which took out the drop pod). That right wing already looked ominous for me. There were other minor casualties around the board for both of us.

Turn 2 - I flung my assault squad at his command squad and despite "killing" all but one of them, his FNP rolls brought back every one of them. They proceeded to kill 7 of the ten assault marines, who broke and ran. They caught them in his assault turn and killed them. His techmarine also came turboboosting over. His Predator stunned my Vindicator so that right wing was looking weaker and weaker by the moment.

Turn 3 - My Land Speeders took out another combat squad, and my sniper squad pinned a tactical squad. My Whirlwind took out a few marines but the rest of my shooting was ineffective. His techmarine got to my Vindicator and blew it up, leaving just my Predator over that side and Whirlwind in the centre. I swung two combat squads and Sicarius et all around to face the incoming command squad, leaving them exposed to mass bolter fire from his final tactical squad who poured out of a rhino and unleashed a torrent of fire on ..... one of the combat squads, NOT Sicarius et al. Not sure why he picked them as a target but there you go. The combat squad had fourteen bolter shots, a ML, a plasma pistol and a meltagun fired at them - causing not one single casualty after his misses and my armour saves. His assault squad also came hurtling over to try to get to those three squads but fell just one inch short of assault range.

Turn 4 - and suddenly my exposed centre became his exposed centre. The Whirlwind killed seven of his tactical squad, my predator killed his techmarine, a combination of sniper scouts and Land Speeders killed all his assault marines and my Land Speeder Storm turboboosted over to the left side behind cover, ready to take an objective which was held by the last three survivors of a combat squad. He had failed both of his reserve rolls on every turn until now. His scouts came on and, very confidently, he expected that his terminators would come on - and he rolled a 1! Whew, If they had arrived now, I am not sure I could have dealt with them. His scouts came on on the left wing next to my sniper scouts, my Land Speeder Storm (which was obviously posed to grab an objective next turn) and my Land Speeder squadron (which was shooting everything in range to death) - and he chose to assault the sniper scouts! Because he had taken bolter scouts, he couldn't even shoot them up before assaulting. The assault caused just one casualty but I rolled a double six for them to break and run. They rolled 11 inches to run and he rolled 3 to consolidate which he used to move away, now 14 inches from the snipers. Both his decision to assault the scouts rather the other two much higher value targets and then to allow the scouts to rally was going to cost him dearly. The command squad over the other side ate another combat squad but finally lost a casualty despite FNP.

Turn 5 - in the midst of all of this, I had lost site of two facts, both to my benefit. Firstly, there was a previously unnoticed objective right next to my tactical squad in the center. I moved to grab that one. Secondly, I had forgotten that his command squad was not a troop choice - I know, I know, said like that it seems painfully obvious - so, despite the enormous damage that squad was doing, it could only contest that objective, not claim it. My Land Speeder Storm zipped over to the objective, dropped off the shotgun scouts and they killed off the small combat squad there, claiming that objective. One combat squad moved over to stand in front of his command squad and a last blast of bolter fire killed two more before that squad were also eaten alive. His scouts over on the left were killed off through a combination of massed snipers (it really did come back to haunt him!) and the Land Speeders. This was just as well as the sergeant had a teleport homer which meant he could have dropped his terminators right into the middle of my line. At this point, I had 3 objectives, he had one and another was unclaimed. His dreadnought unleashed on the shout gun scouts, hoping to kill off enough with the TL autocannon and storm bolter that they would run. He let loose, scored 4 wounds which should have killed 4 with no armour save but I went to ground for the 6+ cover save and promptly rolled three 6's so only one casualty on no morale check. SWEEEEEEEEET! When his terminators came on, he had to be very careful with so many units strung across the board, there were few open spaces and no teleport beacon to guide him in. When he rolled for scatter, it was eleven inches right away from my lines - still safe for him but but of reach of anything significant of mine. We rolled for another turn and got a 1, ending the game. I suspect the result would have been very different with one more turn!

Final result, win to me by three objectives to 1.

What I learned today:
1) Play to the mission - I made a number of mistakes but never lost sight of the fact that I needed to finish the game with at least one more objective than he did. As his techmarine and command squad were eating up my right wing, I had killed all his troop choices over that side so he couldn't hold any objectives no matter what he killed. He didn't seem to notice until too late and frequently picked targets that were about priorities other than the mission
2)I really do like tactical squads - the humble tactical marine really is versatile!

My W-L-D record is now 20-7-0

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