catalyst2 | Battle #39

Tonight was 2500 points against Chaos Marines. The opponent was three younger players, all with about 800-1000 points each. The deployment was Dawn of War with Seize Ground for 5 objectives.

I took 5 tactical squads (one in Rhino), assault squad with chaplain, Predator Annihilator, Whirlwind, 3 HB/AC Speeders, Ironclad with DP, fire support dread, scout sniper squad and command squad with Sicarius (in HB Razorback). The CSM army had 2 5-man terminator squads, 4 tactical squads (two in Rhinos), bezerker squad (in Rhino), death guard squad, Demon Prince with wings and a Defiler.

I gave them first turn hoping to be able to react to their deployment. They deployed two foot slogging tactical squads on the left and I deployed command squad in Razorback and tactical squad in Rhino.

Turn 1 and he deployed everything except for the terminators. He fired everything he had but the night fighting stopped all of it from having any effect. I noticed that there was considerable disarray in the ranks - two of the players wanted to hang back and sit on objectives whilst one player wanted to attack as fast as possible. I decided to exploit this and so deployed heavily into the centre where the aggressive player was located, even though it left me open to a possible flanking attack. My shooting was devastating, the night fighting having little effect as I rolled high almost every time. A Whirlwind round reduced his Death Guard objective sitters from 5 down to 2 with a direct hit. The Annihilator took two wounds off the Demon Prince. The Ironclad landed right next to the Defiler and took the battle cannon off it. An incoming squad of chaos marines were reduced from 10 to 4 by the combined shooting form a tactical squad and the sniper scouts (Tellion rolled double 1's to hit!)

Turn 2 and here's where the disarray came into play - everything stood still except for the demon prince, the rhino-mounted berzerkers and one rhino of chaos marines. His shooting was largely ineffective with the Defiler missing everything and quite a few LOS's being blocked or at least giving cover saves. On the left, he chose to keep his remaining two marines stationary, out in the open because they were too few to assault with. In my turn, I moved the assault marines around to flank the incoming Demon Prince and then moved two more tactical squads over to take two objectives out. My Razorback-mounted command squad hurtled forward. My round of firing was absolutely devastating - the Annihilator took the demon Prince down to one wound, a Whirlwind round reduced an objective sitting squad on the far left down to four (and pinned them), the sniper scouts took out those two marines (Tellion gain rolling double 1's to hit!), the deathwind launcher in the DP took another squad (with chaos lord) down from 10 to 5 and the Ironclad took the reaper autocannon off the Defiler. My Speeders tooled up on yet another marine squad and knocked it down form 10 to 5. Just before I assaulted, I took a few bolt pistol shots at the demon prince form the assault marines - and he died! The Ironclad assaulted the Defiler and destroyed one Dread CCW whilst also immobilising it. Unfortunately, the Defiler then killed the Ironclad with its other Dread CCW!.

Turn 3 and he rushed both Rhinos forward in addition to 1 terminator squad coming on next to them. The left looked a little dodgy now. His firing was ineffective with just 3 of my marines across the table dying. For reasons I don't understand, he choose not to shoot with the terminators! In my turn, I fired everything I had at those two Rhinos, with the marine one exploding but the berzerker one was still untouched. When those berzerkers came out next turn, I was going to pay the price! I used the sniper scouts (Tellion rolled double 1's to hit for a third consecutive turn!) and a tactical squad to take the terminators down to 2 whilst the speeders killed off the remnants of the marine squad from the second rhino, 4 of whom had died in the blast. All of a sudden, the left looked a little better. In the centre, everything bar the immobilised Defiler was dead whilst on the right, only one tactical squad with Chaos Lord was left. I swung everything around - assault squad and chaplain, command squad in Razorback with Sicarius and killed the entire squad and Lord but thank goodness for PF sergeants because that was what finally killed the Lord, even after all the shooting and all the other attacks.

Turn 4 and he finally got into assault. I thought I was really in trouble because the second terminator squad came on right next to his existing one, only for it to scatter into cover and then die on the mishap table. Lucky break for me! The two terminators killed four scouts, the scouts killed one terminator but were then caught when they broke and ran so they died. I think I cheered louder than my opponents when I took Tellion off the table. The berzerkers came hurtling out, attacked, broke and caught a tactical squad and then turned toward my Whirlwind and Predator. Unfortunately for them they were now out in the open and not locked in combat. I fired the speeders and two tactical squads at them and they died to a man. The whirlwind fired another direct hit and killed the last two marines on the centre objective. The command squad and assault squad both sprinted over the left/centre objective but fell well short. The empty Rhino came into its own here because I also sent it of to the same objective but finished only about six inches from it.

Turn 5 and it looked looked a draw with they only having two Death Guard on one objective with another four marines on another objective whilst I had a full tactical squads on each of my two objectives. The Defiler was marooned in the center with nothing in range. Even though I had a whole pile of firepower, all I did in my turn was drive the empty Rhino over the the centre objective (with the Death Guard on it) and contest it. The game finished here, with my opponents giving up.

Result: Win to me by 2 objectives to one with one contested and one not taken by either of us.

What I learned tonight:
1) Eyes on the prize - the mission determined everything I did because all I had to do was take 1 more objective than him.
2) Losing combat to his assault (scouts to the terminators and tactical squad to the berzerkers) can be really advantageous when my turn is next!

My W-L-D record:
40K: 27-8-0
Apocalypse: 2-0-1
Planetstrike: 0-1-0