Batreps for 40k 'Ard Boyz at 3play (3rd Round Up)

[droofus]

My list

Mephiston (“Chief Librarian Zakkarius)
Librarian in terminator armour, storm shield, shield of sanguinius, unleash rage
Sang priest in terminator armour with power weapon
Sang priest in power armour
5 Thunder Hammer Terminators
Land Raider Crusader (multi-melta, extra armor)
10 Assault marines (power fist, 2 meltas, no jump packs)
Rhino (searchlights)
10 Assault marines (power fist, 2 meltas, no jump packs)
Rhino (searchlights)
10 Assault marines (power fist, 2 meltas)
10 Tactical Marines (missile launcher, meltagun)
Razorback (twin linked lascannon)
6 Assault Marines (power fist, meltagun)
Razorback (twin-linked lascannon)
5 Devastators (4 missile launchers, sergeant has bolter)
5 Devastators (4 missile launchers, sergeant has bolter)

His list was as follows:
Coteaz (“Lord Ezekiel Von Balzer”)
Librarian with hammerhand, shrounding
Tech Marine (rad grenades)
Venerable Dreadnought (multi-melta and nemesis doomfist)
Vindicare Assassin
11 Henchmen (3 crusaders, 3 acolytes with meltas, 6 death cult assassins)
10 Henchmen (3 crusaders, 3 acolytes with meltas, 5 death cult assassins)
12 Henchmen (3 crusaders, 3 acolytes with flamers, 6 arco-flagellants)
Chimera with dual heavy flamers
11 Henchmen (3 crusaders, 3 acolytes with meltas, 5 arco-flagellants)
Chimera with multi-laser and heavy bolter
6 Henchmen (3 acolytes with laspistols and close combat weapons, 3 acolytes with plasmaguns)
Razorback (twin linked heavy bolter, psybolt ammunition)
6 Henchmen (3 acolytes with laspistols and close combat weapons, 3 acolytes with plasmaguns)
Razorback (twin linked heavy bolter, psybolt ammunition)
Stormraven (multi-melta, twin-linked lascannons)
Stormraven (multi-melta, twin-linked lascannons)
Dreadnought (twin-linked heavy flamer, nemesis doomfist with heavy flamer, psyflame ammunition)
Dreadnought (2x twin-linked autocannons, psybolt ammunition)
Dreadnought (2x twin-linked autocannons, psybolt ammunition)


…An unusual and terrifying list. Of particular concern for me were the psy-riflemen and the vindicare, as I knew they had the power to de-mech me quite quickly. My long range fire was superior, but only if I could get his squishy henchman out of their transports and bunched up. The table was not so conducive to that, being a really sweet city fight table.

Chief Librarian Zakkarius cast his mind out over the destroyed city-scape, searching for the lingering psychic signature of their missing battle brother. The astartes had gone missing from second squad after exhibiting some strange behavior. Finding no trace of the man, he opened his eyes again. Around him the brothers of the 2nd company were attempting to look busy, refueling rhinos and going through the rites of ammunition blessing. All were watching him warily, and no matter how they tried to hide it, he could feel it. Having served in the Librarium of the Flesh Tearers for over a hundred years, their suspicion was nothing new to him.

“My lord, if we have found nothing new here, we should move deeper into the city” Sergeant Torres said, the gruff sound of the devastator sergeant’s voice fading almost entirely into the equally guttural roar of the ill-maintained rhino engines.

Zakkarius was about to reply when a ragged-looking human burst through the cityscape about three hundred yards across the squad. Noting in a flash that he was unarmed, Zakkarius barked an order to stand down the bolters. The brothers grumbled at this, but they obeyed.

Gasping, the man collapsed at the feet of the nearest astartes and began to beg for forgiveness. Zakkarius moved over to where the man was grasping the leg pauldrons of the disgusted astartes who was looking askance at the chief librarian while simultaneously trying to shake the human off.

“Hold him.” He said to his battle brothers. Two tactical marines jumped to obey. Looking down at the man the man he spoke, “This will not be pleasant for you, but it is necessary to determine if you are telling the truth. “ Then he closed his eyes.

He began the interrogation by turning off the man’s speech center to cease his incessant babbling. He then proceeded to delve into the memories. What he found did not please him.

An hour later, the withered and broken husk of the man ensconced safely within one of the company’s razorbacks, Zakkarius was well on his way to intercept a strike force of the renegades known as the Black Knights. They would die. This so-called “Lord” Von Balzer would die. But most of all, the traitor astartes, the “missing battle brother, would die. No one would know of this stain on the honor of the Flesh Tearers.


We exchanged traitors, I lost an assault marine from one of the rhino-borne units, while brad gave up a henchman with close combat weapon and laspistol from one of his razorback units.

Deployment:
I won the roll for first turn and took it (it being kill points after all) and set up a firebase on a building central to my deployment zone. Both devastator units went here, as did the missile launcher combat squad from the tactical squad. The other half of the tactical squad welcomed the traitor into their razorback and formed up in the midst of my armoured assault on my right flank. My assault squad went into reserve to deep strike. The full-strength assault squad gets red thirst, as does the six-man razorback unit.

Brad basically refused a flank. His storm ravens (containing death cultist-heavy warbands, led by the tech marine and the librarian respectively) went way over to the right side of the board, along with his razorback squads (one of whom had been joined by the traitor), a psy rifleman dread and the vindicare. Coteaz joined a chimera-bound squad and deployed with the other arco-flagellant squad behind some ruins in the middle. The final psy-rifleman deployed behind a central ruin as well. The vindicare infiltrated into the ruins in front of his storm ravens.



He he decides to forgo seizing the initiative.

Turn 1

Flesh Tearers:
It’s night fight, so I’m relying on some good rolls for my rhino –mounted searchlights. They race forward and manage to light up a storm raven (by shooting my mighty storm bolters at it!). He casts shrouding, but the 6+ cover doesn’t save him from my razorback lascannons and the storm raven is immobilized and weapon destroyed (lascannons).

Everything else either fails to see or is out of range.




Black Knights:
The active storm raven flies forward and disgorges its dreadnought (the psyflame one) as the razorbacks and the psy-rifleman moves up in support. Coteaz’s chimera immobilizes itself trying to plow through the ruins it started the game in. Everything gets out of the immobilized stormaven and starts slogging it through the ruins.

The Stormraven lights up the land raider but fails to hurt it with its assault cannon via power of the machine spirit. However, this makes the land raider easy prey for the vindicare, who wrecks it with ease (I swear, nobody rolls under a 4 when resolving damage from a vindicare). Disastrously, the terminators are pinned. The storm ravens main weaponry fires its multi-melta and mindstrike missile at Mephiston, taking two wounds from him via perils of the warp.

The two rhinos in front of the land raider are wrecked as well from a torrent of fire from the psy-riflemen and the razorbacks. The assault squads both disembark without incident.



Kill Points:
Black Knights: 3 (2 rhinos and a land raider)
Flesh Tearers: 0


Turn 2
Flesh Tearers:
The jump assault squad arrives from reserve and lands behind the central psy-riflemen. Their meltaguns explode the ancient warrior.

Mephiston casts wings and hides behind the intact building.

My foot-bound assault squads move out to claim some cover. The red-thirst squads moves to the right to take up positions behind the low walls surrounding the intact building. The 9-man squad moves up through the central ruins to get a shot on the dreadnought that just disembarked from the storm raven. Sadly, their shots only manage to stun it.

Lascannons from the razorbacks explode the mobile storm raven. Disastrously for brad, the tech marine, a death cultist, two meltagunners and two crusaders are among the dead as the squad pulls itself, unpinned from the ruins.

The missiles from my castle manage to explode the second psy-riflemen.



Black Knights:
In brad’s turn The razorbacks move forward, putting the building between them and the positions of my devastators. They target my razorbacks and manage to shake or stun both of them. The squad from the immobilized storm raven moves and runs up as well. Firing through them, the vindicare lines up an awesome shot with a turbo-penetrator round and kills my librarian (I rolled a 1 for my storm shield save).

The squad from the exploded storm raven zips out of the ruins, making a bee-line towards my assault squad. They assault the flesh tearers and lose four of their number to the cutting chainswords. The remaining two death cultists (being death cultists and all) manage to kill three of their foes. The cultists pass their leadership test and stay locked in combat.

Coteaz stays put and shoots at the assault squad that just killed the central psy-rifleman but kill none. The other chimera full of arco-flagellants moves out and pops smoke, taking position near the central building.

The dreadnought casts fortitude and shakes off the stunned result and moves up to engage the assault squad. Despite feel no pain, psyflames toast five of the marines before it charges in and deals with 3 more. The sergeant bravely rips the nemesis doomfist arm off the dread.




Kill Points:
Black Knights: 4 (two psy-riflemen, storm raven, tech marine)
Flesh Tearers: 4 (2 rhinos, a land raider

Turn 3:
Flesh Tearers:
The assault terminators, finally unpinned, begin slogging their way across the burning wrecks of Flesh Tearer vehicles to get at the dreadnought and hopefully save the assault squad sergeant. They lose a terminator crossing the dangerous terrain. They do make the assault however, and tear the dreadnought apart. Sadly, the assault sergeant is killed before they can strike.

Finally convinced that Brad has brought his traitor far enough forward, my devastators all target the razorback and explode it. The occupants all survive and are unpinned.

The assault squad on the far left jumps over the building and moves towards the center of the board. They fire their meltaguns at the chimera and manage to immobilize it.

In combat on the right, the death cultists kill three more assault marines and only lose one of their own (whifftastic rolls on my part). The assault squad (which is the one that had red thirst) holds firm and passes their fearless saves.

Mephiston continues to hide.



Black Knights:
Having lured my terminators out, he pounces with three henchman squads. The traitor’s squad and their brethren from the other razorback advance and fire on the terminators. They are joined by the henchman squad from the immobilized chimera. The terminators are whittled down to a sole survivor, who is thankfully out of assault range from the chimera squad. The vindicare tries to bring him down but fails.

Coteaz’s squad disembarks from their chimera and fires on the jump assault squad, downing a single member.

On the right, the squad of henchmen led by the librarian rolls up and over the walls and joins the ongoing combat between the remnants of the assault squad and the single death cultist. The assault squad is butchered before they can strike and the henchman and librarian spread out into the surrounding area.



Kill points:
Black Knights: 7 (librarian, 2 assault squads, terminator sanguinary priest, 2 rhinos, land raider)
Flesh Tearers: 6 (tech marine, 2 psy-rifleman dreads, psy-flame dread, storm raven, razorback)

Turn 4:
Flesh Tearers:
Razorbacks move to reposition. One fires at the sole surviving death cultist from the first squad but manages to roll a one to wound.

Missiles rain down on the inquisitorial chimera by the central building until it is wrecked. The assault squad moves to engage the squad that just disembarked from said chimera. They kill one with shooting and assault, managing to kill a few more. In reply the mass of arco-flagellants kill a pair of assault marines. The marines win by one but the henchman stay in place.

The other devastator squad targets the henchman squad farther to the east. The librarian casts shrouding and succeeds with double 1s. Meaning that he suffers perils of the warp and takes a wound. Mephiston’s hood then negates the power. The missiles rain down and kills 4 of the henchmen, but they easily pass their leadership.

Seeing my chance for the traitor, I decide to go for it. Mephiston casts wings (and defeats the attempted psychic hood). He flies up, lands on dangerous terrain, passes his test, and fleets to with assault range of the traitor. The sole survivor of the terminator squad moves to join him. Mephiston evaporates the squad while the thunder hammer terminator finds the traitor and pulps him. Mephiston gets a six and consolidates behind a wall. The terminator isn’t so lucky and only manages to hop close to terrain.



Black Knights:
With his traitor dead and trailing in victory points, Brad’s forces leap into action. The razorback tries to cross the burning line of Flesh Tearer rhinos (assumedly to pick up the lone death cultist) but immobilizes itself.

Fire from the vindicare and plasma rifles bring Mephiston down to 1 wound. Sensing an opportunity to kill him, the librarian splits off from the henchman squad he has joined and moves up to attack Mephiston. Battle is joined! Because of psyk-out grenades, Mephiston is now striking last, meaning the librarian only needs to roll one successful to-wound to kill him off. Unfortunately for Brad, the librarian fails to hit. After a quick study of the rules to confirm that Grey Knights do NOT have “preferred enemy psykers”, Mephiston survives. However, he manages to whiff in reply.

In the north, Coteaz brings down the fury on the jump assault squad, leading his henchman across the open ground to smash them. Both henchman squads consolidate around the ruins.

In the southeast, the razorback with the red-thirst squad is exploded by the dreadnought with the multi-melta. The henchmen opt not to assault, since they lack grenades. The sole surviving death cultist hides some more.



Kill points:
Black Knights 9 (librarian, sanguinary priest, 2 rhinos, razorback, land raider, 3 assault squads)
Flesh Tearers: 13 (henchman squad, traitor, chimera, razorback, 3 dreadnoughts, storm raven, tech marine)

Turn 5:
Flesh Tearers:
The tac squad leaves the traitor alone in the razorback and sends him scooting off 12” to join the firebase. Then they move up and execute the solo death cultist.

Missiles rain down on Coteaz’s squad this turn, but cover and allocating wounds to the inquisitor save them from all but a few wounds.

The terminator lumbers out of terrain and heads for the plasma squad. He steams in, survives the attacks and clubs two of the henchmen to death with his hammer. The remainders decide to stick around.

The red thirst squad, recognize that a charge into even a few death cultists is likely suicide, decide to fire their pistols instead. Predictably, the warrior acolytes and the crusader leap in front of the bullets and the squad passes it’s leadership test.

Mephiston neatly lops the Librarian’s head off and, deciding that he likes his location, stays put.



Black Knights:
Shooting from various things bounce off Mephiston (or can’t see him).

The remaining death cultists in the south notice that the tac squad is not in cover and leaps over to defeat and break them off the board. The dreadnought kills the rage squad through a combination of shooting and close combat.

Coteaz leaves his former squad (who spreads out to avoid missile fire) and joins the depleted squad to assault the assault terminator. The thunder hammer terminator survives the swings from the plasma squad, notices a dangly kill point and smashes him in the face with the hammer. He the dies horribly to arco-flagellants. Brad had initially tagged coteaz onto this squad because he thought he might be able to star assault mephiston and the assault terminator. This proved not to be the case.



Kill points:
Black Knights 12 (librarian, assault terminators, sanguinary priest, 4 assault squads, 2 rhinos, razorback, land raider, tactical combat squad)
Flesh Tearers: 16 (coteaz, tech marine, librarian, 2 henchman squads, 3 dreadnoughts, razorback, rhino, storm raven, traitor)

We roll to see if the game continues and it… does!


Turn 6:
Flesh Tearers:
Mephiston runs over and slaughters the last of the death cultists. He then consolidates into the burning wreck of the land raider, never to be seen again (note: I really screwed up here. I took a dangerous terrain test on a consolidate move, which you are NOT supposed to do. Of course, I rolled a 1 and he died, such is the price of not remembering rules).

Missiles do their best and manage to cause leadership tests to two henchman squads, but both are passed.

Black Knights:
The surviving Black Knight don’t have much to do except shooting the dreadnought’s multi-melta at some devastators. The marine is saved by cover.

Final Kill Point Tally:
Black Knights: 13 (Librarian, Mephiston, Assault Terminators, Sanguinary Priest, Land Raider, 4 Assault Squads, 2 Rhinos, Razorback, tactical combat squad)
Flesh Tearers: 17 (traitor, coteaz, librarian, tech marine, storm raven, 3 henchman squads, razorback, chimera, 3 dreadnoughts)

Zakkarius hauled himself bodily from the burning wreck that had been the Land Raider “Flame of Cretacia” and smiled. The Black Knights were withdrawing under fire from the relieving thunderhawk transports bearing the buzzsaw and blooddrop of the Flesh Tearers. He smiled at the piles of dead Black Knights thralls that surrounded him. But greatest of all was the satisfaction of having been nearby when the death blow to the traitor had been dealt. True, the many lives of the many battle brothers lost in this fight were a sting, but they were a small price to be paid to end the traitor’s existence. Zakkarius would gladly have thrown his own life into the fire to keep him from surviving. He would now send orders back to Cretacia that would erase the man’s name from the chapter records.

What’s more, Chapter Master Seth would be pleased that they had not only prevented another blot on the chapter’s record, but they had a valuable gift to give the Inquistion, in the form of the repentant thrall. Still, Zakkarius couldn’t help but feel they had made a powerful enemy in the form of the Black Knights.

Post Mortem:

What a game!

From the moment I got the traitor, I held an advantage. However, up until that point it was a real see-saw battle in which I felt I was getting the worst of things. We both had whacky, stupid luck at points during the game, so I don’t feel like die rolls were much of a factor. I feel like my playing conservative with the traitor is probably what won me this game. I understand the temptation to get the traitor into the opponents deployment zone, but I think it's just too easy to kill a two wound model with a 5+ invul these days.

I'm still pretty bummed that I forgot that dangerous terrain rolls don't happen during consolidation, but I figure Mephiston wouldn't have lasted through the next turn either way.

All in all a good game and a close one. I managed to get two bonus points points for a total of 15 for this round.

My apologies to Brad if I got anything wrong. But I think it's pretty accurate.

[khornedog]

Looks like a good, solid game. Nice batrep Droofus. First class. I look forward to more.

[Monster Rain]

Great report, and what an intense game!

[ross]

I wish i had the exact memory you have to make battle reports of my own

[droofus]

Thanks guys!

Ross, replaying in front of your eyes with Vassal makes a big difference. Often times I'll have a gap in which I can't figure out what something did, but the positioning of the models in VASSAL will spur a memory.

[snickerdoodle]

Pretty close to what happened, except that I remember beating you. Then again I am delusional

It was another solid well played game. The 2 tactrical errors I made were pushing the traitor up, I think it would have been difficult for you if I held him back. The other was my positioning of the second psyfleman way out on my right flank, where your assault squad could just jump in a smash him w/o any consequences.

[droofus]

Second Round: vs. Derrick

His List:

Captain on bike with relic blade and combi-melta
Librarian with nullzone
Command Squad (4 plasmas, apothecary with bolt pistol and chainsword)
-Razorback with twin linked lascannons
Dreadnought – Twin Linked Lascannon, Storm Bolter
Bike Squad
Biker sergeant with combi-melta, 7 bikers with 2 meltas, attack bike with multi-melta
Tactical Squad with power fist, meltagun
Tactical squad with flamer, missile launcher
-Rhino
2 Landspeeder Typhoons (heavy bolters, typhoon missile launchers)
2 Landspeeder Tornadoes (multi-meltas, heavy flamers)
2 Landspeeder Tornadoes (multi-meltas, heavy flamers)
Land Raider
Vindicator
Vindicator
Predator Annhilator (twin linked lascannons, sponson lascannons)

It’s a good solid list. Proof that you needn’t have a close-combat deathstar to be competitive. There is a TON of firepower here, easily as much as I’m packing and probably quite a lot more. If there’s a weakness here, it’s the lack of scoring troops. I’ve just happy I managed to draw him in this mission rather than the kill points or victory points.

Rumors of the chaos fleet arrived mere days after the traitor incident. An armada had been detected by long range augurs as moving through the warp towards the embattled planet. A planet-wide panic was now underway. Those civilians protected from the first wave of chaos attacks by the arrival of imperial forces, now found themselves abandoned as all their saviors left the world. Well, almost all. A vengeful attack by the departed Black Knights and their partisan warriors had knocked out Flesh Tearer thunderhawks. Zakkarius had been forced to turn to other Imperial forces for help.

Most of the planetary transports had been wrecked in the first chaos attack or used by influential citizens to flee, so that left the only other loyalist force who had not yet departed: the Ultramarines. Thus far, Zakkarius’s attempts at parlay had been rejected as the blue-armored sons of Guilliman made ready to leave. The sneering tone of the responses made clear that the bloodthirsty reputation of the Flesh Tearer’s had preceded them.

Striding back into the command tent, he grabbed a passing serf. “Get me a link to Seth.”
Moments later, the scarred and fearsome visage of the Flesh Tearer Chapter Master that was seth filled his view-screen. Zakkarius knelt as he gave his report. If anything, Seth’s brutal features became even more frightening.

“You cannot allow them to bar your way from this planet, Brother. Bringing this black knight serf to the Inquisition is your only concern. Do you understand how much we have to gain?”

“My lord, I hear you. However, the Ultramarines have given no indication that they will allow us the use of their thunderhawks, and the “Spear of Cretacia” cannot land in this warzone.” Zakkarius tried to keep his voice as even as possible, but he felt the whisperings of the red thirst attempting to overtake him.

“Then you will take their Thunderhawks by force. Wait until just before nightfall…”

Zakkarius listened and obeyed.

Objectives, as per mission, were scattered around the table. One in the center and one in each of the four quarters.

Deployment: Derrick won the roll to go first and took it. He chose a side of the board dominated by a hill and shielded by a building on one flank. He arrayed his vehicles roughly around the deployment limit, with his tactical squads along the southern edge and the bikes along the western edge. He places his second tornado squadron in reserve.

I was left with the opposite quarter, which wasn’t very bad at all (good job on the terrain setup, Tony. The boards were equitable all tourney.). I had a nice big building to deploy my devastators and my tactical squad combat squad. I put the rest of my vehicles either shielded by the central building or around my land raider for nice fat 5+ save. I also endeavored to keep my land raider 30” away from the vindicators. I put my razorbacks on the flanks, hoping to maybe avoid attention and get some side shots on the vindies depending on which way he goes. The sang priest rides with the tac squad combat squad. My flying assault squad goes into reserve, as is their wont. Both devastators and the 6 man assault squad fall to the red thirst.



I attempt to seize and... succeed!

Turn 1:
Flesh Tearers:
I’m falling over myself I’m so happy . I have a chance to shut down some of that nasty first turn firepower that he’s sporting. I’m particularly worried about what those vindicators can do to my land raider, so I mark them for special treatment.

All my vehicles move 12” forward and position for either cover or shots.

My shooting phase is abysmal. Both devastator units concentrate on the vindicators and do NOTHING. I had forgotten how resilient AV13 is to missiles when I’m rolling the missiles. Other than that, I manage to blow a multi-melta off the land speeder squadron in the southern part of his deployment zone.

Realizing that I’ve left myself extremely vulnerable AND that I forgot to pop smoke on my rhinos, I brace for his turn.



Ultramarines:
After jetting his bikes over behind the northwest building and maneuvering his shooting elements a bit, he opens fire. The assault squad razorback is blown sky high, but the troops manage to make it out safely (and they’re fearless from red thirst so no worries about pinning!). The tac squad razorback is immobilized and weapon destroyed, leaving it as a safe-ish bunker for my scoring unit. The one assault squad rhino is blown up by a lascannon (or maybe it was a missile launcher) and, as I feared, the land raider is wrecked by the awesome power of a demolisher cannons. Fortunately, I am able to roll quite well to keep the majority of my infantry alive once they’ve disembarked and suffer remarkably little damage (only a couple marines from the central assault squad).

Still, I’m almost completely unhorsed and have dealt very little damage to him at the bottom of 1.




Turn 2:
Flesh Tearers:

The Assault Marines arrive. My initial placement of them is 6inches behind the predator annihilator. Guess how far they scatter. Guess which way? Guess what I roll on the mishap table? Answers: 6. Towards the predator. 1. Oh well.

The sole remaining mobile red vehicle moves forward and drops off an assault squad. They fire up their meltaguns and return the favor for the destruction of the Flesh Tearer land raider. Only a couple tac marines die in the explosion and the squad is unpinned. Mephiston moves up in support but doesn’t get enough fleet movement to make the assault on the squad (which Derrick cannily deploys as far back in the crater as possible).

The 6 man assault squad moves and runs towards the southeast objective.

I finally am able to suppress both vindicators (a little late, but not absurdly so given their tough 13 front armor) by shaking both and taking the gun off of one. The devastators, the missile combat squad and the assault squad all contribute to this Hurray! The terminators, with no shooting weapons of their own, move and run towards the blue guys.




Ultramarines:
His second squad of tornadoes fail to arrive.

The Ultramarine Librarian casts nullzone, easily beating out my psychic hood. The vindicators, unable to fire for the turn, get the heck out of dodge. Then the bikes, dreadnought and honor guard combine to kill 3 of the assault terminators and wound the Flesh Tearer Librarian. The bikes decide not to assault, however.

In the center Mephiston takes three wounds from the predator’s lascannons while the heavy flamers from the tornados down a pair of assault marines with some help from the tactical squad. Typhoons put a couple more missiles into the immobilized razorback, but fail miserably.



Turn 3:
Flesh Tearers:
In the east one assault squad goes for the predator but misses their shot at it. They do end up in cover however.

The other assault squad in the east manages to explode one of the landspeeders. They assault but aren’t able to hurt it.

Mephiston leaps over the building to shoot and assault the tac squad. He kills 5 all told, and they manage to put a wound back on him with the power fist. The marines flee but are caught by Mephiston and lose one more to a fearless save.

In the west all firepower is focused on the bike squad. 3 bikers are dropped. Then the assault squad and the terminators charge in. They end up winning combat by 3 and the marines break and flee. They fall back only 4 inches, not enough to go off the table, but my assault and terminator units are so close that they cannot rally next turn anyway.




Ultramarines:
Tornadoes again fail to arrive.

In the west he casts nullzone again and fires the vindicators, the dreadnought, the razorback and the plasma gun honor guard at the terminator. I get lucky with the terminator saves and one manages to survive (and also pass morale). The dreadnought then assaults him. He fails to hit while the terminator immobilizes and stuns the dread.
The typhoons aims their missiles and heavy bolters at the assault squad and bring them down to two meltas and the sergeant.

The east sees the surviving tornado fly over the assault squad and flame them. None of them fall. The tac squad also contributes a missile to the cause but it scatters off. The predator tags a couple assault marines in the ruins below it.

In assault, Mephiston wipes out the tac squad and consolidates up the hill.



Turn 4:
Flesh Tearers:
I try and make a play to kill his last troop squad this turn. One squad of devastators fires on their rhino but only manage to immobilize it. Mephiston runs up and plasmas it in the rear-armor but fails to hurt it. With nothing left to do, he assault it and blows it sky-high. One tactical marine dies in the explosion but they pass their pinning test. A little to the south, the assault marines immobilize the last tornado with shooting and then explode it in the assault.

In his table quarter, the assault squad moves up and destroys the predator on the hill.

My remaining missile launchers launch some shots into the razorback, only glancing it.

In the west, the tactical squad and priest (remember them?) leave the safety of their razorback and hoof it towards the neutral quarter objective. Meanwhile, the assault squad moves up and shoots/assaults the honor guard. They manage to blow one away in shooting, but combat becomes a slap fight in which no one dies.

The terminator tears off the dreadnought close combat arm and survives the return attack.



Ultramarines:

The tornadoes arrive and land right near Mephiston. Their multi-meltas easily claim his last wound. The weaponless vindicator zooms up to contest the home objective.

Farther south, the tac squad moves out and shoots down two of the Flesh Tearer assault squad on the objective.

In the west, the typhoon squadron moves over to get better shots on the squad now occupying the building. Their shots prove ineffective thanks to cover. The vindicator fires at the same squad but a bad scatter means that none of the Flesh Tearers are hurt.

The dread and the terminator finally kill each other in a grand show of badassery. In the other combat, the assault squad sergeant finally remembers to flip his power fist to the “on” position and kill an Ultramarine. The honor guard pass leadership.




Turn 5:
Flesh Tearers:
Starting in the west, the tac squad combat squad moves up and consolidates their hold on the objective. Meanwhile, the devastators try to prevent last turn contestations by destroying the typhoon squadron. Sadly, once that’s done, there are only enough missiles to once again shake the librarian’s razorback.

The slap fight takes a Flesh-Tearer unfriendly turn for the worst and the sergeant and a meltagunner go down. The remaining marine makes his leadership and stays in combat.

On the hill in the east, the assault squad move up and blow up the vindicator that took the place of the predator and loudly call for ‘MOAR ULTRAMARINE VEHUKLZ!’

The assault squad in the south east, seeing no way to hold their objective against the more numerous tactical squad, resolves to charge and kill them. Between shooting and assault they kill three for the loss of one of their own. The Ultras make leadership and stay in combat, however.



Ultramarines:
The Mephiston-killing tornadoes now turn their attention to the assault squad on the ultramarine home objective, combining to kill all but one of them. The remaining marine passes his leadership.

The librarian’s razorback moves over to get in position for a last-turn contest move.

In combat the honor guard finish off the last Flesh Tearer assault marine and consolidate to get shots on the lone assault marine on the hill next turn. In the east, the sergeant of the Flesh Tearer assault squad is slain, as is one more Ultramarine. Going into the final round, this leaves a grand total of two Flesh Tearers against five Ultramarines.




Turn 6
Ultramarines:
Night fight! This means that my missile launchers are all but useless. My rhino, from its vantage point on the objective, vainly tries to see the landspeeders. My lone assault marine on the hill hunkers down behind some cover and waits for another round of fire. The tac squad in the northwest building move slightly to get their meltagun in good range of the librarian’s razorback. They manage to see the razorback, but misses it. Gah!

In combat in the east, another Flesh Tearer dies, leaving only one against the tac squad. He passes his fearless save and continues to hold the line.




Ultramarines:
At the end of my 6, I hold three objectives to his none. However, he can easily contest the northwest objective both the other objectives I hold are the 1-pointers. He has a chance, if his tactical marines win combat in the south, consolidate well and his landspeeders kill my rhino, to either tie or win outright. He has no choice but to go for it.

Firstly, his razorback races to contest the northwest objective, taking that one out of the equation. Then the landspeeders rocket across the building. Critically, one immobilizes itself in the process of landing in it, destroying it.

His vindicator then lights up my lone assault marine on the northeast objective. The vindicator shell hits home and wounds, but the assault marine makes his cover save (having gone to ground). The plasma rifle then fires and misses. I now hold the two home objectives. He’ll have to pull off a miracle in the south just to tie.

It’s now up to his landspeeder. Sadly for Derrick, it misses. This means that no matter what, I will at least contest this objective, meaning I win. For the hell of it, we play out the tac-marine combat against the last assault marine. Somehow, the plucky little red guy manages to survive.



Final Result 2-0. Flesh Tearer’s minor win!


Sergeant Brovius guided the thunderhawk in under the cover of night. He flew low and at a high speed. His was the first Ultramarine evacuation convoy of the evening, so he expected no fire from the chaos-worshipping traitors who had conquered this world, but it never hurt to be sure.
The servitor to the right chirped. Good, the camp had been sighted. Odd that he hadn’t been hailed yet.

“This is Thunderhawk A12 on evac mission. Respond, base!”

Only the crackle of static. He repeated the same message with the same results. He was now flying directly over the camp. Had they been overrun by the traitors? The thought was so monstrous that it could not be true. He flicked his helmet to heat-vision and was relieved to see the familiar forms of Imperial-Pattern astartes armor moving through the camp. Several figures were waving up at him.

“Thunderhawk A12 to Wrath of Ultramar. The base is intact but they seem to be having some comms issues. I am commencing landing sequence.”

The acknowledgement from the battle barge was faint and garbled, but he heard the assent. Easing up on the throttle, he brought the thunderhawk in for a landing.

From his vantage point in an abandoned Ultrmarine tent, Zakkarius smiled. As the gunship settled to the ground his smile grew wider. He saw that his strike teams were in position around the landing zone.

“Take them.”

5 standard minutes later, the Flesh Tearers were rocketing up through the atmosphere in their newly acquired thunderhawk.

Postmortem:

Another great game! I really thought my goose was cooked after that failure of my first round, but I was able to hang around and get to the objectives. I think my army build, mainly my 6 scoring units, really shines in missions such as this. Once I began concentrating on Derrick’s scoring units, things started to turn my way once more.

A lot of good luck and bad luck for both of us in this game, and it came down to the final rolls. That’s pretty much the definition of a good game.

[Monster Rain]

Well, I don't want to be "that guy" but it would appear that your opponent's list was sporting one too many heavy support choices!

I mean, you won and all, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Love the fluff, by the way. I think it adds so much to the the battle report.

[doctorclockwork]

Wait what???

[Monster Rain]

Do what, now?

[droofus]

Round Three: vs. Mark (Grey Knights)

His list:
Kaldor Draigo
Librarian (warding stave, shrouding, summoning, might of titan)
Callidus Assassin
Vindicare Assassin
10-Man Paladin Squad (included at least: 2 halberds, brotherhood banner, apothecary, daemon hammer, psycannon, psilencer)
1-Man Paladin Squad (halberd)
1-Man Paladin Squad (halberd)
5-Man Strike Squad (2 halberds)
Stormraven (lascannons, multi-melta, teleport homer)
Land Raider Crusader (multi-melta, thing that allows it to be summoned)
Psy-Rifleman Dreadnought
Dreadnought (multi-melta)

…death star central! I’ve faced Mark’s draigo-wing before, and let me be the first to tell you that it’s a TOTALLY different kettle of fish at 2500 points. At 2500, it is a true monster unit, with attendant fire support and mechanized elements.


The ice world of Koraphes XIX was a fitting place for a meeting with the shadowy agents of the inquisition. It was unforgivingly cold, sparsely populated (only a small listening post located in the habitable equatorial belt) and most of all remote. It had taken the Flesh Tearers 5 weeks to reach this remote system. Arriving they had been given a terse set of coordinates by their inquisitorial contact.

Zakkarius walked alone behind the line of Flesh Tearer vehicles tearing up the snow. He preferred his own company these days and the distance from his brothers’ minds left him free to scan the surrounding area for threats. He was regretting this distance now. While his brothers were warm inside their vehicles, Zakkarius beginning to feel the chill seep through the joints in his power armor. The suit was insulated, so Zakkarius briefly wondered how cold it really was outside. He looked up and the abandoned fortification, the designated meeting place, appeared out of the driving snow. It looked suspiciously pre-human in origin. Zakkarius wondered at the significance of meeting the inquisition in such a spot.

He felt them before anyone in the strike force saw them. Blazing beacons of psychic energy burning in this wasteland. It could only mean…

“GREY KNIGHTS!” he shouted into his commbead even as the first storm bolter shells began to ping against the front armor of the vehicles, “Full battle formation alpha. Target the area around the alien structure!”

He didn’t know if their inquisitorial contact had been compromised, or if he had ever existed. He didn’t know if they had been targeted for finding out what the traitor knew or for their actions against the Ultramarines. All he knew was that these Grey Knights were here to kill them all. He smiled grimly as he gripped his force sword and began disrupting the sorceries of the warriors of Titan. He would not make it easy for them.


As per mission, we each select an HQ to be our “general”. Figuring that Mephiwinks has a expected survival time of .23 seconds once he gets into combat, I nominate my Librarian. He nominates Draigo. Both HQs will be worth double VPs. Mission objective was simply to get as many VPs as possible.

Deployment:
Mark wins the roll to go first and takes it. Since it's dawn of war, he only gets two troops and an HQ. He decides to deploy his large paladin squad in the center of the board, along with Draigo. The Callidus and the solo-paladins go into reserves. Everything else will be coming on first turn.

I choose not to deploy anything. My assault squad will be deesptriking and everything else will be arriving first turn. The tactical squad falls to the red thirst.



I roll to seize and fail.

Turn 1:
Grey Knights:
The stormraven, (containing the Vindicare, who is joined by the Librarian, and the dreadnought with multi-melta) zips up on a diagonal course. It drops off the assassin near the ruins via the Grey Skies rule. The assassin then runs up to get a better position. The psy-rifleman dread The land raider comes on centrally. Draigo’s squad moves up around the storm raven.



Flesh Tearers:
Everything rolls on. My rhinos move flat out and make a nice wall in front of the horde of terminators (I know there’s only 11 of them, but they look like a horde). The land raider moves up behind them. It rolls to see the storm raven and sees it. The assault cannons fire, but do not manage any rends.

The tactical squad walks on fully formed to support my armored attack, as does mephiston. Their razorback, and the razorback containing the assault squad come on from the far corner. They also prove unable to hurt the stormraven.

Devastators walk on centrally, taking positions in the woods after some decent run rolls.



Turn 2:
Grey Knights:
The Callidus and a Solo-Paladin arrive this turn. The Solo paladin uses the teleport homer to land just behind the stormraven. The Callidus bursts out of the westernmost devastator squad, killing three and causing the squad to run screaming off the board. The Callidus unleashes her neural shredder at the other squad and kills three (we decided to resolve majority leadership of 8, rather than apply the leadership of the sergeant to the whole squad – anyone else have any opinions about this?). The remaining two missile launcher marines pass their leadership.

After unloading the Librarian, the storm raven zips up onto the hill to the east of my armoured attack and drops off the dreadnought. I successfully cast shield of sanguinius, meaning that it takes the vindicare, the dreadnought and the storm raven have to combine to the wreck my land raider. The terminators pile out, unpinned and are promptly assaulted by the dreadnought. The dread carves up the sanguinary priest (who had to pile in sadly) but is exploded in return by the sheer number of thunder hammer attacks.

The psy-rifleman manages to stun the lefthand rhino, while the shooting and assault of the Paladins manages to do a grand total of zilch to either of them. This is mainly thanks to the daemon hammer being way back and out of assault and some very jammy psychic hood rolls stopping two hammerhands and a might of titan. My rolling with the psychic hood would continue to be awesome throughout the game, shutting down probably 80% of poor Mark’s psychic powers.

Still, the loss of my land raider and most of my devastators was a stinging blow.



Flesh Tearers
Assault marines arrive this turn. They combat squad on the way in, with the two meltas landing behind the psy-rifle dread and blowing it sky-high. The other combat squad lands and puts a wound on the vindicare with their pistols.

My one mobile rhino tank shocks its way out of Draigo’s horde (Mark passes the leadership test) to the comparably safer zone near the land raider crusader. The other one stays put. No reason to give up more victory points than I need to.

The tactical squad is the first thing to fire at the storm raven, and blows it sky-high. This leaves my razorbacks to shoot at the solo-paladin behind the bastion (who goes to ground and lives) and the remaining missile launchers to shoot at the Callidus. However, she passes the necessary cover/invuls and lives. Mephiston jumps over to say hello to her, but gets a short fleet roll and is unable to make it.

My assault terminators make a glorious but ill-advised and short-lived charge into the paladins. All are cut down before they can even strike. The Librarian nearly lives, being called on to make 5 3+ invuls by Draigo and only failing one. With Draigo’s strength 10 vs psykers this is enough to gut him. The regular terminators go down to the rest of the power weapon wielding madmen.

Mark spreads them out with his consolidation moves, in an effort to give himself options next turn.



Turn 3:
Grey Knights:
The second solo-paladin comes in and lands right near the rhino that stayed stationary last turn. Blocking off a portion of its access hatches. The large paladin unit, led by draigo and a librarian move up around it. They open fire and the psycannon manages to explode it. 3 of the Flesh Tearers die in the explosion. This is actually okay, as I probably wouldn’t have been able to place them anyway. Mark was definitely hoping for a wreck, as that would have eliminated them all. In the end, it makes little difference. The paladins rush in and wipe the squad out before they have a chance to strike (draigo+halberds did for the squad). I am again able to crush most of his psychic powers, for all the good it’s doing me.

The Callidus ignores the encroaching Mephiston and heads for the devastators instead. She easily dispatches them in close combat.

The vindicare, realizing that his days of vile cowardice are near over, rushes the second assault combat squad, shoots the sergeant in the head and then promptly charges in. The marines shrug off the cowardly sniper’s feeble blows and stomp him flat.

The land raider manages to explode the assault squad rhino that stopped nearby. 8 of the marines survive the explosion unpinned.



Flesh Tearers:
The assault squad coolly rises from the ruins of their rhino (alliteration, FTW!) and explodes the offending land raider. Three of the grey knights die in the explosion, including the Justicar. The two halberd marines (who are the ones who live) fall back in terror.

The lascannon razorbacks yet again find themselves unable to kill the solo paladin, this time due to rolling two 1s to wound.

The tac squad rushes behind the land raider and tries to fire on the callidus, but finds themselves out of range. Knowing that a charge against the Callidus would leave him dead next turn from Paladin-inflicted injuries, Mephiston jumps to the other side of the forest and shoots his plasma pistol (which is saved by the Callidus).



Turn 4:
Grey Knights:
The fleeing strike squad rallies and moves towards the flesh tearers. They assault in and kill a pair of Flesh Tearers. The power fist dispatches both of them in reply. The flesh tearers consolidate towards the ruins of the land raider.

Callidus charges in against Mephiston, but is unable to roll the necessary 6 to wound. Mephiston strikes back and deals her one wound (his sword power is stopped by the GK psychic hood, as is his force weapon test).

The solo paladin in the south heads towards the tactical squad and assaults them. He kills one and the squad makes its fearless save after whaling on him unsuccessfully (really missing my power fist here).

The large paladin squad spreads out centrally and shoots the empty razorback. The psycannon once again does magic and blows the vehicle up.



Flesh Tearers:
Mephiston lops the head off of the Callidus after the hermaphroditic warrior cannot roll a 6 to wound. Mephiston consolidates out of the woods.

Combined fire from the assault squads meltas and the lascannon razorback finally bring down the solo-paladin. Most difficult 60 victory points ever.

Combat between the solo paladin in the south and my tactical squad continues with another one of my guys dying.



Turn 5:
Grey Knights:
He splits Draigo off from the pally-monster unit and sends him south. He joins up with the remaining solo paladin to all but eradicate the assault squad. One guy remains after fearless saves.

The rest of the paladins head after my foot assault squad and smash them mercilessly.



Flesh Tearers:
Assault squads get the hell out of dodge, jumping and running away from the death start unit. The razorback fires and kills a paladin. That is the first paladin to die from the big unit all game.

After some consideration, I decide that I have nothing to lose by sending Mephiston in. I’m way behind in victory points and my only chance to catch up is to kill Draigo. However, instead of being hasty about it, I charge the Paladin and dispatch him. Draigo easily kills the last tactical marine. The warriors will meet in combat if there is a turn 6.



And…

There is!

Turn 6
Grey Knights:
The paladins follow after the assault squads and shoot down a couple from the melta-squad. But you don’t really care about that, do you? You want to know what happened with Draigo and Mephiston.

Draigo is blocked in his attempt to cast Hammerhand by Mephiston’s psychic hood. Mephiston strikes and puts two wounds on him. Being an eternal warrior, Draigo laughs at this. In reply Draigo deals two to Mephiston. He tries to activate his force weapon but is blocked by Mephiston’s psychic hood. Drama!



Flesh Tearers:
The assault squads ru-uuuh-uun… they run so far away…. Meanwhile, the razorback zaps another paladin. Two down, nine to go!

Mephiston is able to cast unleash rage and put another wound on Draigo. Draigo strikes back and whiffs, doing only one wound to him. AGAIN, the psychic hood shuts down the force weapon attempt. Drama continues!

But will the game?



Yes it does!

Turn 7:
Grey Knights:
The paladins blast the remaining assault marines from the melta squad.

In the south, Mephiston is able to successfully cast both sanguine sword and unleash rage. He deals four wounds to Draigo and Draigo fails a save! The Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights dies at the feet of the Lord of Death. Can you believe it?

At this point I point out to Mark that given his squad size there is no point in me shooting in my turn and we call it.



I end up with around 1800ish victory points while mark claims somewhere in the neighborhood of 2200ish. This means that it is a Minor Victory to the Grey Knights!


Zakkarius’s crimson wings sprang into existence and swept him to the side as the Grey Knight commander aimed a vicious blow at his head. The Flesh Tearer was already bleeding in three places and the next blow the Grey Knight landed was likely to finish him. Even as they sparred physically, their minds were locked in a death struggle as each attempted to wound the other through the power of the warp.

The Grey Knight, his own armor blood-streaked and smoking in the cold air, pulled his sword back for another strike and aimed another strike. This time he took care to banish the blood wings first. But Zakkarius had no intention of dodging away from this strike. Ducking under the lightning strike of the silver-armored warrior, the Flesh Tearer drove his force blade two-handed through the chestplate of the Grey Knight. Such was the force of the strike that the snow, ice and half-frozen power armored bodies that surrounded them were all blown back several feet as the psy-force from both warriors reached a crescendo.

The Grandmaster fell back heavily, his own force weapon falling nervelessly from his gauntlet. His helmet had been caved in by an earlier strike and Zakkarius could see one eye. It regarded him disdainfully now as the warrior took his final breaths.

“Will not matter… my brothers… killing your men… you are marked for termination”

“So be it.” The Flesh Tearer Librarian said and walked away, leaving the Grey Knight to die in the cold. He could still hear the sound of gunfire. Perhaps some amongst his force had survived, though he doubted it. The trap had been well prepared. If the Grey Knights had not yet moved against their transport he could escape this deathtrap. Seth would need to know about this betrayal.


Postmortem:

Well, I obviously got a little lucky there at the end. Without Draigo’s death, you can add another 550 points to mark’s end of the spread, meaning that it turns from a minor victory into a major one. Even notwithstanding my awesome hood rolls shutting down his psychic hood attempts, Mephiston probably should have died to two rounds of Draigo attacks hitting on 4s and wounding on 2s. Still, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he didn’t, and sometimes the dice reward you for playing out of desperation (as I clearly was).

Going up against a death star in victory points is a new trick for me. If I had to do it over, I probably would have just avoided the big foot squad as much as possible, probably coming on from another angle and trying to snag a minor victory by killing his weaker stuff. Would it have worked? Maybe not, but nothing I had had the least chance of going into the monster paladin unit and coming out on top. Assault terminators have a good chance against nobz, but Paladins with their power weapons are killing twice what the ill-equipped orks will. They also cost twice as much, but in a victory points mission that is a very good thing for their player.

Overall, I finished 6th an had an awesome time. Three great games against top notch opponents! Good luck to Ross, Brad and Poofy as they travel down to the semis next month!

[Monster Rain]

Why did you reserve the tactical squads?

It just seems like you would have had more options if you had them on the table early to counterassault the assassins and whatnot.

[droofus]

Aug 18, 2011 20:14:29 GMT -5 Monster Rain said:

Why did you reserve the tactical squads?

It just seems like you would have had more options if you had them on the table early to counterassault the assassins and whatnot.

You mean the assault squad?

I respect the damage that Grey Knight supporting units can do. But at the same time, I think they're vulnerable to marine attention (especially melta-related attention) at close range. They ended up netting me the vindicare and the autocannon dualie dread.

Realistically, the damage the callidus did first turn (1 whole squad of devastators and 3 out of the other) couldn't have been prevented. It was simply good luck on Mark's part and bad on mine. But you're right that I probably could have gunned her down if I had placed my tactical squad to support the devs. That would have saved my missile launchers and prevented me from risking Mephiston against that scary instakill sword. In the future, against foes who have "show up on your doorstep powers", I'll probably use the tacs to protect the devs.

Of course, placed centrally they also ended up being the bait that drew Draigo down to his epic showdown with Mephiston. Sot it wasn't all bad.

[Monster Rain]

Yeah, I meant assault squad. Forgive my typing fail.

I see what you were thinking now, and it makes sense. A little bubble wrap doesn't hurt, as my TFC gunner will tell you!

[ross]

It's pretty tough to bubble wrap to prevent the callidus since he's just one model and you don't want models in front of your rockets giving vehicles cover saves.