Starsmash Tournament Game 1 Battle Report [DE]

I was taking to Starsmash the following list:


Baron
Haemonculus with Shattershard

2 x 3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters & Haywire Grenades in a Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons

9 Wracks in a Raider with Disintegrator Cannon
8 Wyches with Haywire Grenades in a Raider with Disintegrator Cannon
5 Wyches with Haywire Grenades in a Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
3 Wracks in a Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons

3 Beastmasters, 4 Krymerae & 4 Razorwing flocks

2 x Ravager with 3 Dark Lances each
Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances & 4 Monoscythe Missiles



For Game 1 I was facing the following Daemons list:

Fateweaver,
Bloodthirster,
3 units of 3 Flamers,
3 units of 5 plaguebearers.
10 pink horrors
1 big unit of 9 screamers,
10 flesh hounds,
5 slannesh daemonic cavalry.

A very fast list, with 3 big units in the screamers, hounds and cavalry.

I had first turn and moved into the middle of the board.  I circled the beastmasters with the vehicles so they could be flamed much if he decided to go for them.

[Note: My opponent was using tyranid gargoyles as screamers,
and the hounds are hiding in the ruins, the slannesh cav are
behind the ruin on the far right hand flank]

When he dropped in my beasts were unlikely to move away far enough to avoid being charged, so they charged the hounds which were outside fateweaver's aura (to reroll saves), helped out by shooting by the rest of my army, they wiped out the hounds.  I gained first blood by wiping out the hounds after poor flaming from the daemons when they dropped.

However both our armies had glass cannon assault units, so after i wiped out the hounds I got charged by the slannesh cavalry and got wiped out myself, giving way the warlord secondary vp.

The screamers with their speed managed to charge a vehicle and wreaked it, but now outside of fateweavers aura and not having a 4+ save fron boosting my army turned on them and reduced them to a couple of models that wyches killed in combat.

A trend over the tournament was that once my units got out of their transport and killed something to get a pain token they died the next turn, and this was no exception with some flamers making a mess of them the wyches.

An interesting tactic came up when the Bloodthirster mishaped and I got to place him anywhere on the board.  I decided to place him 11" diagonally away from corner of the board facing the corner.  This meant that he couldn't run off the board without rolling a double six, giving him the hard choice in his next turn; either fly off the board and waste a turn or glide to stay on the board and face the majority of my army's firepower as I was retreating towards that corner. In the end he tried to run off the board, but didn't make it, so in his next turn he decided to fly off the board, which meant that the bloodthirster did not have any effect on the game until very late (he came back on turn 4 swooping so couldn't charge anything until turn 5).

With the beastmasters, large wyches & large wracks gone or gutted, it was now a rearguard action, with my remaining forces retreating while my remaining vehicles poured firepower into the daemons.

Although the game was a bloodthirsty one, I wouldn't make up the disadvantage of having the large kill point total my army has, and the game ended in a loss for the Dark Eldar.

The daemons had some small 5 man units of plaguebearers as additional troops, however you have to focus so much effort to kill the fast threats of flying monstrous creatures, screamers, flamers & cavalry that by the time they arrived there is little to kill the small but very resilient plaguebearers.

Being a kill point mission also helped the daemons as the plaguebearers could hide in ruins and go to ground if necessary, plus they didn't have to spread out to threaten multiple objectives.  However this takes nothing away from my opponents good play.

This was second game against Fateweaver, and it cemented in my mind that Tzeentch daemons are definitely a top tier list (note: my opponent only had a unit each of screamers and flamers). Just like you should always ask yourself "How will my army deal with MEQ ?" you should now also ask yourself how will I deal with Fateweaver Tzeentch Daemons - Answers on a postcard...

Given the time since the tournament, the rest of the Starsmash games will be a more summarised version, with another post detailing where I think the meta has moved.

Work continues on my Voidraven which is being painted bit by bit this week.  Pics will follow later this week, with the first raiding parties to have the Voidraven deployed are due to make contact with enemy this weekend (the MAD II tournament).

Rathstar

Foot Necrons, Anrak'yr the Traveller & Quick Battle Report

Hi,

I've got a 1750 point tournament in under 20 days, and I'm still dithering of which army to take and even which list from said armies to take.  The choice is between Dark Eldar and Necrons.

I have been trying out my necrons recently, and I've been getting a few games down by local GW (last battle report here).  Vehicle wise I have one command barge and 2 monoliths painted.  As I believe a list has to built around monoliths to make them worthwhile that leaves me with only one vehicle.  I have 2 Annihilation barges ready to be built, but whether I'll be able to built and paint them in time with the bits of painting I'd have to do on the rest of the army is a bit of a gamble.

If I have one vehicle my options are:
1) Use just one command barge (with the risk that it always get shot down early and doesn't achieve much)
2) Use no vehicles at all (with the risk that the wraiths and scarabs take more instant killing shots earlier)
3) Use my one vehicle as an annihilation barge (which could draw some firepower while not having to get so close to the enemy to be effective like the command barge)

The command barge always shows that it has the potential to do well in games, however it doesn't tend to do that well at the moment, as it is normlly targeted by most of the enemy's anti tank.

For my game last week at my local GW I decided to try out a list swapping the usual Overlord on a command barge for Anrak'yr the Traveller.  Now I wouldn't have any vehicles but I do have wraiths and scarabs which are succeptable to being instant killed by those heavy weapons that I have given no other good targets.

I ended up fighting a poorly constructed space wolves army.  My opponent decided to swap his landraider for a wolf lord as soon as he knew I was playing necrons :) His list was as follows:

Wolf Lord, tooled up for combat with twin lightning claws, eternal warrior, necklace, belt of russ, 2 wolves.

Rune Priest with Living Lightning & Murderous Hurricane

4 Wolf Guard, all with Frost Blades
[one joined a grey hunter squad who were to sit on the space wolf objective, while 3 others joined the wolf lord and rune priest to form a mini hammer that was very small and had no transport, why they didn't nab a grey hunter rhino i'll never know]

1 Wolf Guard in terminator armour with a cyclone missile launcher who joined the long fangs.

Lone Wolf with terminator armour, storm bolter and storm shield [WTF ! - no that's not a typo with the equipment]

3 x Grey Hunter squads each 10 strong, with meltagun, plasmagun, plasma pistol & powerweapon.  All three squads had a rhino.

1 Long Fang Squad with 3 Lascannons & 2 Plasma cannons

Predator with Autocannon & Heavy Bolter sponsons

Vindicator

A quick recap of my list following the adjustments:

Anrak'yr the Traveller - 165
Destroyer Lord with 2+ Save, Midshackle scarabs - 160

10 Immortals - 170
Harbringer of Despair with Veil of Darkness - 60
[joined by Anrak'yr the Traveller]

10 Immortals - 170
Harbringer of Destruction with Solar Pulse

3 x 5 Warriors each with a Harbringer of Dstruction - 100 each
6 Wraiths with 4 Whip Coils - 250
2 x 9 Scarabs - 135 each
3 Spyders - 150

We played the 1 objective each mission, and they were placed in diagonally opposed qradrants.  The space wolves deployed agressively accross from my objective with the long fangs (plus cyclone wolf guard) in a ruin, the vidicator and predator behind the ruin, and the mini hammer of the wolf lord, 2 wolves, rune priest & 3 wolf guard next to the ruin.  One grey hunter squad sat on the space wolves objective (on the other flank) joined by a wolf guard, while the 2 remaining grey hunter squads sat in the rhinos in the middle of the deployment zone aong with the lone wolf.

I decided to deploy agressively opposite the long fangs.  The wraths and destroyer lord formed a line on the edge of my deployment zone with the spyders and both scarabs units behind.  The traveller and the immortals with harbringer of despair was on my flank.  2 small warrior squads trailed away from my objective in the corner to give the harbringer on the other end of the unit a decent line of fire.

On the flank with the space wolf objective I placed the other immortals with the intent to just walking up the flank shooting the unit on the space wolf objective, to hopefully be reinforced later with the other immortal unit once the other flank was secured.

The last warrior unit went in a ruin in the middle of deployment zone to target the rhinos.

I got lucky and seized the initiative.  The traveller's immortal unit was able to move up and just be in range of the long fangs, and bad rolling, meant that the cyclone wolf guard and a couple of lascannons died, 2 further lance shots meant that a further lascannon and one of the wolf guard with the wolf lord died (even though both had cover saves).  The wraiths moved up to just behind the centre line of the board with the scarabs and spyders right behind.  The harbringer with the warriors in the middle of the deployment zone blew up a rhino, killing 5 marines in the explosion (so statistically improbable), and the immortals on the flank with the space wolf objective killed a couple of grey hunters sitting on the objective.

My dice were running hot, and my opponents dice were so cold they were frozen.  I popped the solar pulse at the start of the opponents turn and awaited his response.

The vindicator moved 6", spotted the wraiths and fired it's cannon as well as lighting the wraiths up for the rest of the army.  The vidicator hit 3 wraiths and 2 scarab bases behind.  The destroyer lord took one wound for the team, and the wraiths saved the other 2 hits.  The scarabs failed one of their 3+ cover saves and 2 base exploded.

The predator shot the wraiths, one shot got through the destroyer lord's 2+ save leaving him on one wound and another normal wraith was wounded.

The wolf lord's mini hammer moved forward a bit - note: combat units that's aren't just counter attack are almost useless without mobility.

The grey hunter squad in the middle that still had their rhino moved forward the 12" got out their rhino and fired into a scarab unit.  Unfortunately I had advanced to go round a ruin in the middle of the board instead of going through it, so I had no cover save from the rapid firing plasma gun, plasma pistol, meltagun, and loads of bolter shots, and the scarabs were reduced from 10 bases to 5.

The immortals on the space wolf objective flank did not take any damage from grey hunters sitting on the ruin, and the remains of the grey hunter squad who had been blown out of their rhino hid by some terrain near the centre of the board.

With little damge taken I moved onto my 2nd turn with the intention to gut the enemy resistance on the long fang flank.  The wraiths moved to charge the wolf lord and rune priest's unit (while ensuring they weren't in the way of the trveller's immortal unit).  A larger scarab unit went to charge the vindicator, and the small unit went to charge the rhino of the grey hunter squad that had shot it last turn.

The traveller with his squad moved up and was just in range to fire on the wolf lord and rune priest, and with the wraiths not giving the unit a cover save both fernsian wolves died, a further wolf guard died and even the rune priest took a wound.

To add insult to injury and prove how hot my dice were running,  a single lance shot blew up the vindicator that the scarabs were about to charge.  The scarabs tried to charge the predator but were to fire away leaving them in the open in front of two plasma cannons.

The immortals on the space wolf objective flank killed a few of the small grey hunter squad (who had there rhino blown up and were hidding in terrain in the centre).

The wraiths charged the wolf lord's unit.  The wolf lord passed his mind shackle scarab test.  Careful positioning of the whip coil wraiths meant that the necrons all stuck first.  The last wolf guard died, the rune priest lost his last wound, and the wolf lord lost 2 wounds.  The wolf lord tried to finish the destroyer lord, but failed to roll a 6 to wound.  the lord broke and the wraiths consolidated so he was within 6", so next turn he ran off the board.

The scarabs against the rhino only reduced it's armour by 2.

The space wolf response was weak again, with the large grey hunter squad in the middle, shooting, then charging and killing the small scarab unit.  The long fangs killed 6 scarab bases in front of them (but that only meant that the spyders behind could bring them back to their starting number the following turn by adding 2 more back).

My turn 3 and it was time to end this as a contest.  The spyders tried to charge the large grey hunter unit in the centre of the board who had just despatched the small scarab unit, but were slowed down to much trying to go through a ruin, so it was left to the wraiths.  A plucky grey hunter tried to kill the destroyer lord but failed, allowing the destroyer to kill 3 grey hunters.  The couple of grey hunters not next to whip coils did another wound to the wraiths (they had not lost one model but had 2 models on 1 wound each).  Next the wraiths killed 4 more grey hunters.  Combined with a couple of wounds the middle warrior squad had inflicted on them this left one grey hunter which broke and ran.

The remaining scarab unit wreaked the predator.  Also this turn the overlord teleported to the flank with the space wolf objective, a kind scatter left them more than 12" away from the lone wolf that side.  One immortal unit finished off the small grey hunter squad hidding in the centre, and the other continued to kill 2 or 3 of the squad sitting on the space wolf objective.

The game was effectvely over now and the space wolves were tabled next turn.  A large scarab unit killed the last 2 long fangs, spyders and destroyer lord killed one rhino, while immortals with harbringer of destruction killed the other, wraiths killed the last grey hunters on the objective.  The harbringer of despair's staff failed to wound the lone wolf, and just when the trveller thought he'd get to use furious charge the immortal unit he was with gunned down the lone wolf.

So a comprehensive win, but mostly due to a weak space wolf list, my hot dice, and my opponent's cold dice, so more importantly what did I think of the changes I had made:

Anrak'yr the Traveller:
With Anrak'yr you're paying 65 points extra over a basic Overlord with a Warscythe. For that you get furious charge & counter attack, the ability to give furios charge & counter attack to one unit of immortals for the game, a tacyon arrow and (the biggie) the ability to take over an enemy vehicle within 18" for one shooting phase on a 3+

In this game I did not benefit from any of his extra abilities.  As he was with a large squad of immortals, each turn I'd rather fire the immortals into infantry rather than use his tacyon arrow on a vehicle and waste the immortals shooting.

His unit was never in combat, so his furious charge & counter attack, or the furious charge & counter attack he had given his unit, was never used.  I could see how it could come in useful.  On the charge he would have 4 str 8 attacks and each immortal would have 2 str 5 attacks, good enough to take on non combat specialists.  Also it would allow me to risk deepstriking better because I wouldn't need to worry so much about scattering within charge range of some units.  However how much better is this combared to just having a basic overlord with a warscythe, particulrly when the unit should be doing it's best to avoid combat.

I was really looking forward to taking over an enemy vehicle, however the enemy vindicator was dead turn 2, the predator turn 3, so before he was in range to use it the enemy was down to rhinos.  Now other armies will have more vehicles, but now that the FAQ has stopped him using his power from a command barge I'm not sure he's worth it.  Being within 18" while on foot takes a 2-3 turns and can be very risky getting that close (particularly if it's as assult or open topped vehicle which would put you in charge range).  Also vehicles coming forward tend to be light transports, apart from landraiders (but if they are coming forward coming with 18" puts you well within charge range of ny unit the landraider is carrying).  Ideally the traveller wants to target a decenty amed tank in the enemy's backfield allowing it to shoot some decent guns into the rear of vehicles that have gone forward.

Overall the FAQ stopping the traveller from using his special power from on a command has really hit him hard, and I think I'll stick with a basic overlord for now, but I'll try out the traveller in a few more games before I write him off.  The 65 points saving will be put towards having my first vehcile.

Having No Vehicles:
Normally this tactic works well because all the anti tank guns the enemy has bought will be inefficient firing at infantry all game.  However in my army there are some units, manly the wraiths and scarabs, who are very succeptable to being instant killed by anti tank guns.  This game in particular showed how fragile the scarabs are when the right sort of weapon fires at them (ie. str 6+ templates/blasts or just str 6+ outside cover).

My army feels like it is a fragile deck of cards, and if the right point is hit hard the whole deck will come crashing down.  Ie. Hit the scarabs and wraiths and my army will have very little, almost non existant, anti tank killing ability or close combat power.  The infantry tends to gets less attention from the enemy who are dealing with the wraiths and scarabs, but this would change if the wraiths and scarabs were killed early.

The vehciles are good because they are an alternative target for the enemy's anti tank firepower, and they give me more anti light tank killing.  I will ask my mate to give me  game against his mech marines to see of the traveller can shine when there are more vehicles, but if that does not go well I will go back to using some vehicles, first adding the either the command barge or an annihilation barge back in, while I build the two further barges I have on sprues.

For my next games I will switch the traveller for a basic overlord and lose one scarab base for a command barge, or 2 scarab bases to try out a annihiliation barge.  Once I build two further barges I will try fielding the list further down.

Let me know what you think of the Anrak'yr the Traveller, foot necrons, my new list or what you think is a good balance between mech and infantry for a necron army.

Rathstar


Necron List I'm Building Towards:

Overlord with Warscythe - 100
Command Barge - 80

Destroyer Lord with 2+ save - 140

Royal Court - 185
Harbringer of Despair with Veil of Darkness (joins 8 Immortals)
Harbringer of Destruction with Solar Pulse (joins 7 Immortals)
2 x Harbingers of Destructions (joins 2 warrior squads, other warrior squad left in reserve)

8 Immortals (Tesla Carbines) - 136
7 Immortals (Tesla Carbines) - 119
3 x 5 Warriors - 65 each

6 Wraiths (4 Whip Coils & 1 Particle Caster) - 255
2 x 7 Scarabs - 105 each

3 Spyders - 150
2 x  Annihilation Barges - 90 each

Totals: 1750 pts, 62 models,

Further Necron Experience

As I was working from home yesterday I was able to make it down my local GW, and managed to get a game in with my Necrons.

It was a 1500 point game, so I did't get to try out the veil of darkness which is only in my 1750 point list.

Here's the list I was playing:

Overlord with Warscythe in Command Barge - 180
Destroyer Lord with 2+ save & mindshackle scarabs - 160
Royal Courts consisting of 3 Harbringers of Destruction (one with solar pulse) - 125
2 x 8 Immortals (Tesla Carbines) - 136 each
3 x 5 Warriors - 65 each
2 x 8 Scarabs - 120 each
5 Wraiths - 175
3 x 1 Tomb Spyders 50 each

I was facing:

Chaplain in Terminator Armour
5 Thunder Hammer / Storm Shield Terminators
in Landraider with Cronus special character
2 x Dreadnoughts with Assault Cannons & Powerfist with storm bolter
10 Tactical Marines (Missile launcher & Meltagun)
10 Scouts including Telion with Missile Launcher
7 Tactical marines
Thunderfire Cannon

All the special characters made the list small, and I was mainly worried about the terminators (who had a 21" threat range with the landraider which couldn't be stunned with the special character) and the thunderfire cannon which could do nasty things to the scarabs

We rolled up dawn of war and the bore draw mission (one objective each).  The marines won the roll of and decided to go first, he deployed the scouts in a tall ruin which had his objective in,  The techmarine with the thunderfire cannon had upgraded the ruin to 3+ cover save, and telion gave the scouts stealth giving them a 2+ cover save.  The larger squad was deployed towards the other half of the board near my objective which I had placed right in the corner of the board as far as possible away from my opponents objective.

I deployed nothing, my crypeks went with the two squads of immortals and one of the warrior squads.  The remaining warrior squads went into normal reserve with the rest of the army coming on turn one.  My plan was to have the wraiths accompanied with the destroyer lord kill the scouts on the objectives.  The lord would advance and try and sweep the landraider.  The scarabs and spyders would deploy centrally and sacrifice one unit to kill the landraider and/or dreadnought if they went towards my objective.

The marines advanced the landraider flanked by both dreadnaughts in the middle.  The small tactical squad advanced behind the landraider, and the thunderfire cannon advanced next to the ruin the scouts were in.  My opponent smoked the landraider and dreadnoughts (which I thought was a mistake as my long ranged fire was limited and it was night fighting).

I replied by advancing and running everything up the board.  One immortal unit and a warrior unit went on the far right where my opjective was hoping to wittle down the tactical squad.  The other immortal unit went opposite the ruin with the scouts in it.  The wraiths and destroyer lord advanced on the ruin trying to stay out of line of sight as much as possible.  The overlord turbo boosted forward, hoping to be able to sweep the landraider next turn if it moved agressively forward.  With no shooting as everyone ran it was back to the marines.

At the start of the marine's 2nd turn, i popped the solar pulse to make it night fighting for them again.  The landraider only pivoted on the spot to fire all weapons and the dreadnoughts advanced a bit.  However poor night fighting rolling meant I got off without any casualties helped by the destroyer lord taking a sniper fire hit for the wraiths.

Next turn I had to change my plans as the landraider had not gone for my objective.  Rather than risk an iffy charge on the scouts (they were up the ruins) I decided to advance put stay more the 21" away from the landraider.  As my overlord could not reach the landraider he decided to boost 24" and sweep the thunderfire cannon, unfotunately only 1 of his 3 attacks hit and that rolled a 1 to wound against the tech marine.  The crytek suporting the wraiths/overlord side immobolised a dreadnought, while the squads on the right took 3 of the large marine squad.

The marines responded by the terminators leaving the landraider to charge the command barge.  I was very lucky and it was not destroyed but was stunned and shaken.  The thunderfire did a few wounds to the scarabs but I made all my 3+ cover save (as they were approaching by ruins).  The full tactical squad killed 2 immortals and one got back up, while a dreadnought who was immobolised kill a syper who had lost a wound generating scarabs the turn before.

Next turn the wraiths and destoyer lord charged the scouts (the destryer due to bad positioning and a poor differcult terrin roll didn't get to fight), and slaughtered the squad down to telion and 3 scouts.  They broke and ran near the command barge.  Thinking the command barge nearby would stop them rallying the wraiths consolidated away from the terminators (who were in combat with the command barge).  The overlord, knowing his ride was about to die jumped out of the barge and sprinted to charge the landraider (it could be used to contest objectives, or claim if the small tactical squad got inside).  The overlord managed to immobolise it.  Over the other side of the board I keep whittling away at the full tactical squad, killing another 2.  In the combat phase the terminators finished off the command barge.

The marine response was the terminators went over and killed the overlord, but not before he hit the landraider three more times, but unfortunately doing nothing.  The scouts rallied and fired a few shots into the wraiths.  The thunderfire cannon fired the str 6 shots and got 10 hits, I was lucky ad out of the 8 wounds I only failed 2 of the 3+ cover saves which killed 4 bases (bad luck would have seen the whole unit killed).  Another immportal was also killed.

For the final turn, my turn 4 as the shop had to close.  The wraiths killed the remaining scouts.  We stopped the game there, because  a unit of 9 scarabs would have charged the mobile dreadnought going for my objective, and everything else would have focused on the dozen marines stranded in mid field.

A quick win, helped by my opponents list having imho too many special characters and only having the landraider to offer him and mobility.  Losing the chronus special character on the landraider could allow him to have 2 rhinos for the tactical squads.

Here's a quick run down of what I think of the units I'm using:

Overlord: Frankly overlord's are essential for unlocking royal courts.  In this game bad dice meant he was a bit ineffective, but he normally does ok when he can sweep a vehicle or two.  In my list however because he's on the only vehicle it tends to be the one target of anti tank weaponry.  At 1750 pts I'm thinking that building some annihilation barges to be a distraction would help him perform even better.  An alternative would be to lose the command barge for more warriors and make the overlord a pharon, my only concern is that I do have units, mainly the wraiths and scarabs, which are succeptible to anti tank weapons because they get instant killed.

Royal Court:  Essential for their anti tank, but they can do other nice tricks which I haven't tried out yet, such the as veil of darkness.

Destroyer Lord:  He works so well with the wraiths.  He gives them a bit more punch in combat, they give him fearless, he can take missile launcher hits with his 2+ save and T6 to stop instant killing.  However careful positioning must be used to ensure that he doesn't slow down the unit (as he doesn't ignore terrain).  One thing I am considering is losing the mindshackle scarabs to give the wraiths 2 whip coils.  It all my games it hasn't done much, while the coils would allow me to strike first against some troublesome characters and/or high initiative units.

Immortals:  These always do well, whittling away at infantry, and tesla is allows them to keep up their full rate of fire up to 24" away while being on the move.  In objective games the crypeks will join the warriors rather than them allowing them to focus on anti infantry shooting, but in some missions I like keeping one or two warrior units in reserve to grab objectives later.

Warriors:  In this game none of the warriors fired a shot, they did win the game for me by camping on the objectve.  Maybe I should combine 2 of the warrior units into a 3rd squad of 8 immortals. What do you think ?

Scarabs:  These are a nice deterant to vehiles and weaker units which can be killed by the weight of attacks the scarabs can put out.

Tomb Spyders:  Again they do great creating scarabs early game, and the being a nice monstrous creature counter assault unit that can lend a few str 6 ignoring armour hits to a combat.

I need to get some 1750 point games in, so I can try out the veil of darkness to see if I like it, plus I need to assemble a couple of annihilation barges.  At 1750 points I'm dithering between losing the command barge to have no vehicles and having the overlord be a pharon with an orb who would join 16 warriors wih a veil of darkness crypek.  Alternatively adding 2 annihilation barges could be an easy upgrade to 1750 points.

Have you had any experience with or against a large warrior/immortal unit with a pharon lord jumping around with veil of darkness ?  Was it effective, was it hard to play with/against ?  Or do you think only having 3 vehicles (command barge and 2 annihilation barges) enough ?  Vehiles tend to do better when you have more of them to overstretch the enemy's anti tank guns.

That's all for now.

Rathstar

Necron Crypteks: Trying more out

Hi,

Until I build two annihiliation barges I have 180 points to try out other stuff in my 1750 point list.

For my last battle I converted two models to be Harbringers of Despair.  I use the Pretorians models as the base, then added the lychguard loin cloths, filed down the shoulder pads where the jump infantry equipment would attack, and finally used deathmark heads.

Going back to my last battle, I took the list I showed in my last post minus the annihilation barges, and added:

  1) Whip Coils for the Wraiths, and 2 extra scarabs instead of one annihilation barge

  2) 2 Harbringers of Despair, one with a Veil of Darkness instead of the other barge

The idea behind adding the Harbringers of Despair was to add some low AP weaponry to the army, and to more mobility to one of the large immortal units with the veil allowing them to better support the wraith & scarabs and threaten distant objectives.

I won't go into much detail of the game, as we only got 2 turns in each, but it was looking like it was heading towards a tabling of my mech guard opponent.  He had lost a lemn russ, a leman russ with the str 6 ignore cover turret (nightmare against my scarabs), 3 chimeras, and one gun from a hydra.  I had lost 3 wraiths, the command barge, and one scarab squad had been mauled down to 2 bases (after being on 12 bases at one point).  I had next turn, and 2 hyrdas would have died to scarabs and my dismounted overlord, a manticore would have died to the wraiths and destroyer lord, and the last chimera would probably died to lances or immortals would have wreaked through weight of fire.

But how did I think the extra stuff I added to the army instead of the annihilation barges performed and whether they would stay:

Whip Coils: This upgrade didn't have the opponents to test them, but I think they will be useful against opponents which have multiple high str attacks (eg. dreadnaughts and grey knights).  Allowing the wraiths and particularly the destroyer lord attack first against such opponents could be crucial.  I will playtest more with these upgrades, as they are expensive (at 60 pts for the squad) and do nothing against powerfirst and thunderhammers.

Extra Scarabs:  After 2 turns the scarabs normally go from 16 to 22 models, so they normally rech combat, however I say how certain weapons could wipe them out very quickly, and sometimes there is not the cover or intervening models to give them a 3+ cover save.  If possible I will look at my list to see of I can fit in any more, eg. losing an immortal from each squad to fit in 2 more scarabs.

Harbringer of Despair:  I was not too impressed with these.  If the immortals do their job they should not be in flamer range of the enemy, particularly as they have assault weapons to move away from the enemy.  I think I will drop the basic Harbringer of Despair for 2 more scarabs immediately.

Veil of Darkness:  Although not used in the 2 game turns, I could see myself using the veil in turns 3 or 4 to threaten the guard objective held by 30 guardsmen, allowing me to target them with both immortal units, as well as the depleted wraiths.  I will give the Veil a few more test runs.  The ability to move a large unit accross the board to where the action is or to capture an objective should come in handy.

A last thought I had from the game, was that again the warriors did nothing.  The Harbringers of Destruction killed a chimera and took one weapon off a hydra.  I could lose one unit, but for the moment I think I keep them as losing the basic Harbringer of Destruction will leave me with 39 scoring models.  Normally that would be a good number, but as all of mine are on foot, slow, and without a transport to hide in, I may need all I've got if the enemy decided to target them.

That's all for now.  I should have another game with my necrons later this week, plus I be posting up Starsmash Part II which is all about deployment.

Rathstar

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Battle for Planet OG II - Belated Game 3 Battle Report

Well this battle report is well overdue, as I returned yesterday from Battle for Planet OG IV.

Overviews of battles one and two can be found in the comments section of this post. The scenario was:

" The battle for the cells has had consequences beyond any ones perception. The battle that ensued after the initial raid is suddenly interrupted by eruption and devastation. Huge tremors result in magma filled geysers erupting from craters around the battlefield, shooting many feet into the air and inflicting terrible damage to all it contacts. Time to win the conflict fast before Mother Terra takes you both out "

Primary Mission: Kill them all

Table Quarters Deployment

Place an objective in the middle of the board.

At the beginning of every players turn, roll 8d6 and scatter a large blast    template from the center of the board (this always scatters). If it hits the edge of the board bounce it back again using the remaining movement.

 - Any unit hit by this template will suffer 2D6 S8 AP 1 hits

 - Any vehicle hit will suffer an auto S10 AP 1 hit

Cover saves may be taken by infantry if applicable (as they try to dive for safety), however any model caught directly may not (and must always have the most amount of wounds allocated to it)

As time is not on your side, prioritising your targets is key, this is a kill points mission with the following changes.

 - HQ units are worth 3 KP each.

 - Elites / Heavy Support are worth 2 KP each

 - Everything else is worth 1 KP each

Secondary Mission:

The eruptions have thrown up a (previously) deeply rooted Cell of enormous stature and power.

The winner of the mission is the one who has the most troops choices within a 6 inches of the center of the objective.

The Game 

My opponent had taken 2 max sized platoons with 7 heavy weapons accross the 10 infantry squads.  A Command HQ had a medic to give them feel no pain, and a master of the ordance.  The basic infantry was rounded out by a heavy weapon squad of 2 lascannon teams and 1 missile launcher team.  Within the infantry was a 2 commassairs ready to make up to 50 guys stubbon, and an hq slot psyker was also included.   The odd meltagun and many grenade launchers were scattered through the infantry as well.

Finally Orgyns and Rough riders were included to give his horde a nice counter attack responce, while a squad of ratling snipers was included to round out the force.

After complaining in many recent games that my anti tank kept failing me, this opponent had completely nerfed my anti tank by taking not a single vehcile.  They couldn't even instant kill orgyns because they were toughness 5.  However they would be useful for instant killing the heavy weapon teams and ignoring the feel no pain on the command squad.

This mission was a modified kill point mission, ie. hq was worth 3 kill points, heavy and elite slots were worth 2 kill points, everything else was 1 kill point.  My kill point total increased from it's normal total of 18 to 26.  While the guard had the option to combine his squads vastly reducing his kill point total.  The basic guard modified kill points was 23, however of the 10 guard squads they were split into a mob of 50 guys with 2 heavy weapons, a mob of 30 guys with 3 heavy weapons & a mob of 20 guys with 2 heavy weapons.  This reduced his kill points by 7.

The deloyment was Spearhead, and as a bit of random fun, each turn a larget template would scatter 8D6 from the centre of the board, anything infantry touched by the template would suffer 2D6 Str 8 Ap2 hits.  Vehicles (even glanced by the template would suffer an automatic str10 ap1 hit.  To make up for this the secondary objective was to have the most troop choices within 6" of the middle of the board.

Every game you should come up with a game plan (but have the flexibility to change it on the fly).  Mine for this game was simple.  I couldn't win a straight up shooting match, having to kill 20 or 30 guys to get rid of 2 or 3 heavy weapons when they are in cover simply wouldn't happen.  This game would be won or lost in the assault phase.  My assault elements would move as fast as possible towards combat, while everything else advances to the middle of the board (to be safe from the scattering template, average scatter = 28").

I won the roll off and decided to go first, which had the added bonus that I could put the Guard in the top right hand quarter that had the least terrain.  There was a small ruined walls terrain piece in the middle of the board.  In the guard quarter there was a forest about 10" from the centre of the board, and a 3 story ruin in the top right had corner of the board.  There was a multi story ruin in each other corner of the board, a few forests scatter round the small middle ruin.

With the scattering template I decided to set up in a loose quarter circle 12" from the middle of the board.  My opponent put a blob of 20 guys with 2 heavy weapons and the psyker in the ruin in the top right hand corner of the board, along with the command hq on the first floor, and the heavy weapon team split between the 2nd and 3rd floors.  The orgryns were hiding in the ruin behind the 20 infantry.  A blob of 30 guys (with 3 heavy weapons and a commassair to make them stubbon) were deployed stretching from just behind the forest in his quarter all the way back to the right hand table edge.

The two platoon commands were left in reserve (my opponent probably worried about easy kill points).  Joining them in reserve was a blob of 50 guys (with 2 heavy weapons and a commassair to make them stubbon), and the rough riders.

Remember all the blob squads had multiple sergaents with power weapons and the psyker had  power weapons making them a daunting prospect in assault.  Lastly 5 scouts deployed in the ruin in the bottom right hand corner.

Luckily I did not have initiative stolen from me, and was able to start turn 1.  I was lucky with the scattering template an it scattered towards the guard lines.  It hit the blob of 20 guys and killed 5 of them, and killed one of the command squad.  After that the template did not hit anything else, it didn't scatter towards the guard quarter and I moved my army into the middle of the board knowing the average scatter would take it 28" away (so I won't mention it again).

All four raiders with assault troops moved nearly the maxiumum 24" forwards, all stopping just before the forest, the rest moved 12" into the middle of the board to avoid the scattering template and get in range of the guard.  I started by shooting the razorwing missiles at the heavy weapon squad (hoping to instant kill them).  As they were split between levels I could only get 2 models with a hit.  A combination of bad scattering and good cover saves meant that I only killed one base.  Splinter cannons did little to the command squad with their feel no pain, and most of the ravager lances were stopped by cover saves.

I think this was bad target priority by me.  Although it would have been nice to try and instant kill the heavy weapon teams the fact that they were on different levels meant that I had to get a hit or only move and inch to hit any of them.  A much better target would have been the unit of 20 infantry that had already lost 5 models.  They were quite packed and all on the ground floor.  The razorwing would probably have reduced them down to the size that just one of my close combat squads could have killed them.  Ideally I had to kill the guard squads quickly because their multiple power weapons would take a toll on my fragile squads.

Splinter cannons should also have gone into the 20 man squad to help reduce them to much more manageable levels.  Given that I was likely to be out of range with the ravager darklance to fire at the heavy weapon teams they should have gone into the command squad (to ignore feel no pain).

With no reserves, the guard stayed still in their turn.  They blew up the raider with the wyches and the haemonoculus.  Luckily no-one died due to having feel no pain, and they passed their pinning test.  The wrack raider was also blown up, and again no-one was hurt due to higher toughness and feel no pain.
This would leave me with 2 squads to assault the 30 man unit, and 2 mounted squads to assault the 20 mn squad further away, however the wracks failed their pinning test.  Because the wrack raider went full speed the trueborn venom's wouldn't have been in range even if they had grisly trophies, and I didn't roll the exact 9 (1 in 9 chance) that would have meant a squad leader would have made a difference.  I'm coming the conclusion that I'll just have to suck it up when I fail pinning tests, and rather than spend money to help I should just buy more models and guns.

With only 2 raiders downed I think I got off lightly.

Turn 2 I pushed both wyches into the 30 man squad, and the incubi went on their own into the 20 man squad (they were down to 15 men plus the psyker and I calculated the incubi should do about 9 kills). All the remaining vehicles (including the small unit of wracks and the 2 trueborn units) else stayed in the centre of the board (they at least moved slightly to ensure they would require 4+ to hit in combat).

The wyches fleeted to get right next to the 30 man guard blob.  I didn't want to fire at them in case it meant that a bad difficult terrain role from the wyches with the haemonoculus meant they did not make combat.  The incubi moved so that they would only reach the two guard models out of terrain (meaning they didn't need to risk a difficult terrain test).

Shooting saw me pick the right targets, with all the lances making sure the command squad (apart from the commander who was hidden out of line of sight) were dead.  The heavy weapon team was also finished off.

In combat the commassair and all three sergaents in the 30 man blob could move against the the wyches with feel no pain.  It was a bit tense, but they wyches eventually broke the blob after 4 turns of combat.  The incubi did not fair too well as there was still 3 power weapons in the squad of 20 (2 sergaents and the psyker).  I really should have allocated some razorwing love (ie. large template missiles) on turn 1 :)

While these combat were going on the guard 50 man blob unit came on from reserve, and one of the platoon hqs.  The platoon hq hid in the ruin in the top left hand corner, and the 50 man blob spread out along the middle 20 inches of his side of the table, spread evenly because the wracks had 2 liquifier guns.
I think this was a mistake by my opponent, he should have moved more agressively forwards.  What he did do was first fire grenade launchers at a vehicle, and then the following turn fire at another vehicle with the addition of 2 heavy weapons bringing down a raider.

Just before the wyches finished off the 30 man blob the rough riders came on from reserve amd charged a ravager that I had carelesly left on his half of the board.  A good fleet roll and they charged and wreaked it.  With nothing much else to fire on (the 50 man blob squd through cover or the orgyrns hidding in the top right hand corner ruin) all my lances and splinter cannons turned on them and killed them in a turn.

When the 30 man blob squad was finished the pain token was given to the wyches without feel no pain.  The squad that started with the haemonoculus moved towards the incubi combat and helped them finish off the last of the squad, however there was only 1 incubi and  few wyches left, who were seem off by orgyrn shooting nd combat the following turn.  The imperial commaneder risked coming out of cover to kill the incubi and then consolidated back behind line of sight blocking terrain.

The other wych squad got on my last remaining raider and moved towards the ratling snipers in the ruin in the bottom right hand quadrant.  In the last turn they hopped off and charged the ratlings, easily killing them all.

In the centre the orgryns (after killing the wyches) moved accross and assaulted the wracks.  The wracks lost combat but held for the game to end.  However with the small wrack unit on a borrowed venom sitting on the middle objective the orgryns would have needed another couple of turns to force me off the middle objective (particularly s in the mission rules it stated that only troops could contest objectives.

In the end I hadn't killed many kill points; 2 blob squads (50 men), the ratlings, the heavy weapon team, the primis psyker, and had lost a lot; haemy, incubi, wych squad , 3 raiders, venom & ravager, however I had managed to keep the secondary objective for a 10-5 loss.

With 2 big wins in my first 2 games I was able to win the tournament on the victory point tie break :)  Winning the secondary objective in my 3rd game was essential to winning the tournament.

Rathstar

ASMOH Tournament Game 4 & Final Thoughts (Text Size Fixed)

So after my cheeky win in game 3 I moved up the tables to face Steve from Triple Helix Wargames in Westbury. Steve had nice Nurgle Daemons army, which unfortunately (which Steve freely admitted to me as soon as we set our armies up) was a bit light on long ranged firepower. His list was roughly (it's been a couple of months and my memory isn't that good):

Greater Daemon of Nurgle

Nurgle Daemon Prince with Warptime

1 Dreadnaught

Some Obliterators

3 units of Plague marines (with icons) in Rhinos

Some Summoned Daemons

Looking at his list I completely agreed so tactics would be to kill the small amount of long ranged firewpower as quickly as possible, and cripple his mobility by killing the rhinos to make the nurgle marines walk turning the battle into a long ranged shooting match that I would easily win.

My list was again:

Haemonculus Nalix Soulseer with Liquifier Gun - 60

6 Incubi - 132

in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81

in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons & Grisly Trophies - 70

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81

in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons & Grisly Trophies - 70

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120

in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105

in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105

in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Agoniser - 120

in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

3 Wracks - 30

in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

3 Wracks - 30

in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Total: 1749 Pts

We were playing the normal 12" in deployment and we were fighting over 6 objectives that was spread evenly around the board (quite spread out).

I won the roll off for first turn and duly took it. I deployed centrally not wanting to get out delpoyed too bad it my opponent decided to start mainly in one corner. Plan was to kill the daemon prince with splinter cannons (I was under the misunderstanding that warp time allowed him to reroll armour and cover saves, so I wanted to kill him before he had a chance to cast it), then the dreadnaught. Next on the list would be one or two rhinos to cripple his moblity and stop his nurgle marines attacking me all at once (which would allow to pick on each squad in turn) and then finally the obliterators. Although the obliterators would probably kill a vehicle a turn I think a turn I thought it was important to kill one or two rhinos to criplle his mobility first. The obliterators would become top target once two rhinos were dead. Until the deamons were summoned I planned to keep my distance, even though they

My opponent deployed all three rhinos on the left flank (with the daemon prince standing behind one to just about give him a cover save). The dreadnaught went on the far right hand flank (as a distraction I think and to stop him firing on his own troops).

My opponent didn't sieze the inititive, and I moved forwards cautionly not wanting my opponent to be in range with much. I wanted to keep the game as a long ranged firefight for at least the first two or three turns, where I had a huge advantage. A ravager took out the dreadnaught, and even though my first venom was slightly out of range of the deamon prince, the other three helped by a few raider dark lance shoots killed him. This left the remaining two ravagers to kill one rhino and stunn and immobolise another to finish off a good start.

It was a risk leaving the obliterators unharmed, but I wanted to stop the plague marines advancing on me in one wave of three rhinos.

My opponent decided to advance with one squad of plague marines, another stayed on the objective in the ruin he had castled round, and the last one stayed in their rhino as it had good cover from the immoblised rhino in front of it. Not much other movement, so it was onto the obliterators which took out the large wrack units raider and damaged a ravager (I think stunned and weapon blown off).

I decied to be a bit more aggressive as the first turn had gone so well, and the enemy had split up his army, which should allow me to pick it apart bit by bit. I moved forward to just before the middle of the table. I knew I would be in assault range of any daemons that may be summoned in the next turn, but hoped they would crash into my army, do a bit of damage and then be wiped out by my counter charge.

Seeing the obliterators as the main target I fired a lot of dark lances into them, but they made an ungodly amount of cover saves. Firepower into the approaching plague marines faired better with the squad reduced to 2 models. Maybe it would have been better to concentrate on the close nurgle marines until they were completely dead (because then any summoned daemons would have to risk scattering if they wanted to deep strike close to me). Now there was still an icon close to my army.

In my opponents second turn a unit of daemons duly arrived, and used the icon from the unit of two nurgle marines to land without scattering. I can't remember what the obliterators took out, but it was probably a ravager. The nurgle marine hiding in the last mobile rhino decided to move accross to the centre of my opponents deployment zone towards an objective and popped the smoke on their rhino. The nurgle marines on on foot which were staying on an objective with the obliterators stayed still. The nurgle marines reduced to two models and the newly summoned daemons moved fowards and charged the wracks that had been shot out of their raider the previous turn.

The oblits probably killed a vehicle in the shooting phase, and then it was on to the assault phase. With the toughness 4 and Feel No Pain of the wracks the daemons couldn't do much, and my return attacks having poison killed a decent number. I think I won combat slightly, but the main thing was that all units stayed in combat.

My next turn dark lances finished off the oblits (although I didn't have enough firepower left to kill the last mobile rhino). Splinter cannon and blaster firepower took a toll on the marines left in the ruin to try to claim an objective. A wych squad and the incubi squad moved to assault the daemons and the last nurgle marine that advanced upon my lines. The other two wych squads (who had the last two mobile raiders) moved to get a clear line of sight of the objective the nurgle marines in a rhino was heading towards.

In assault the incubi ensured most of them were against the nurgle marine, while all the wyches went on the daemons. The combat was quick and one sided with the wyches and incubi gaining the two pain tokens (which was the perfect result i wanted with the pain token randomisation). Both the wyches and incubi consolidated forward towards tbe nurgle marines on foot guarding an objective.

Although the daemon prince still had to come down I was in a pretty good position, particularly with the 2 small wrack units still sitting in untouched venoms (perfect to help kill the daemon prince when he turned up and capturing objectives with a 24" move in the last turn.

A quick summary of the remaining turns are:

• The marines guarding the objective in the ruin was wittled down further with splinter cannons and blasters before being charged by incubi. Although needing 5s to wound was a pain they eventually went down allowing wyches to claim the objective.
• The large wrack unit captured an objective in my deployment zone.
• The nurgle marines in the rhino were shot out of their rhino after they reached the objective they were heading for. I was able to kill a few, then I rashly charged some wyches, hoping to get lucky and finish off this last squad for a tabling. However toughness 5 was a bit of an ask, so I threw a second unit in. Things were not helped by the greater daemon showing up joining the fight. Eventually both wych units were seen off with one nurgle marine left to claim the objective. The game ended before any of my remaining firepower had a chance to kill the last two remaining nurgle models.
• Growing frustrated waiting for the greater daemon to be targetable the small wrack units zoomed off to claim 2 objectives. Making the final tally 4-1 to the Dark Eldar.

Thoughts on my Performance

I thought I played quite well, however there were some mistakes made. I thought I should have been much more aggressive in the first game. Staying back to fire one dark lance on a raider full of wyches meant they were out of range to support the incubi when there raider was blown up. Also I over extended myself when 2 of my units assaulted 2 space wolf units. Dark Eldar are quite fragile, so it doesn't take much to have slightly bad luck and have a whole unit run down, therefore it's best to overwhelm one unit to take it out completely rather than trying to take on two units at once.

Overall that was a theme of winning games. I did well when I outmaneovred the enemy and completely anniliated part of their force while the rest out not respond to well, eg. being out of range, my units having cover from that part of the enemy's force and/or having to move to get line of sight (which normally reduced firepower coming my way).

All of my units performed well, but there were some real stars:

Incubi: They were real stars, but only when they made it into combat. Being slightly behind the front units helped against weaker opponents who underestimated how far away they could assault; 12+3+D6+6=20-25 inches. I would really like some redundancy by having 2 small units, but unfortunately I already have my elite slots filled. The only other good MEQ combat killing power open to be are the Talos (but my heavy support are filled) or razorwings in a beastmaster unit.

Trueborn: With multiple blasters and a fast vehicle these guys were great killing tanks and heavy infantry. Although the Dark Eldar list looks like it has anti vehicle firepower covered with all the dark lances in reality a heavy mech force will overload the dark lances, especially if they are mainly on fragile vehicles like in my list. Blaster trueborn give that extra bit of anti tank firepower that really helps the list.

Feel No Pain Wyches: It was nice to have some wyches left when their raider was blown up. Although it may seem wasteful, but many times I put my wyches joined by my haemonoculus in the first wave, knowing they would survive the crash when the enemy shot their raider, plus they were a distraction that in many cases allowed the incubi to get a second turn charge. However you have to be careful with the basic wyches because they don't kill that much with their poor strength stat.

The Rest

Some units were not flashy like the units above, but were reliable at what they did, and were as essential as the above units. These were the ravagers and the wracks. The ravagers did exactly what they are asked and they do it well. The normally die during the game, but you won't get anti tank firepower that is this maneaovable or effective for 315 pts. The wracks were great at holding objectives, and the large squad was great at being aggressive with the wyches, bringing resiliance and template love to the enemy.

My troop choices all performed well, and having six troop choices made life very easy in objective games. However in some games they seemed like they were a bit overkill. The were all combat based (apart from the small wrack units) so did not contribute to the game until the enemy had been de-meched. For the tournament after ASMOH I lost one one of the wych squads and one of the small units of racks to go down to 1500 pts. The army seemed to have a better balance of scoring units to firepower and close combat.

My next tournament is 1750 pts, so the differcult aim will be keep the balance while increasing the pts back to 1750. My current idea is to add reavers and a small beastmaster unit (while saving pts from my existing units).

Well that's the end of the ASMOH battle reports, I hope you liked them, and they've proved interesting, or at least thought provoking. Please leave a comment if you've got a question on the battle reports, what I thought of any of the performance of any of my units or anything else.

Well back to assembling more Dark Eldar if I want to try out Reavers or Beastmasters :-)

Rathstar

ASMOH Tournament Game 3

So after the first two games (reports here) I was on one win and one loss, and I had a very healthy victory point total (as my opponents only 7 models left at the end of the game between them). At 1-1 this is the game to make a break a tournament day, loss and you need a win to regain mid table, win and you still have a chance of finishing high.

Also for games 3 and 4 the big guns came out and we were allowed to add our 500 points of reinforcements bringing out armies up to 1750 pts. I added a 3^rd wych squad in a raider, 3 wracks in a venom and a 3^rd ravager, making my full list:

Haemonculus Nalix Soulseer with Liquifier Gun - 60

6 Incubi - 132

in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81

in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons & Grisly Trophies - 70

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81

in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons & Grisly Trophies - 70

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120

in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105

in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105

in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Agoniser - 120

in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

3 Wracks - 30

in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

3 Wracks - 30

in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105

Total: 1749 Pts

I was facing a Dark Angel Deathwing army with vehicle support that made it very shooty, it contained:

Beial with Thunderhammer & Storm Shield

5 Thunderhammer & Stormshield Terminators, one upgraded to an Apothary (giving FnP) and one given a Cyclone Missile Launcher

5 Thunderhammer & Stormshield Terminators, one given a Cyclone Missile Launcher

3 Seperate Landspeeders with Typhoon Missile Launchers & Multi-meltas

3 Vindicators

3 Dreadnaughts with Plasma Cannons & Missile Launchers, 2 of them upgraded to Venerable Dreadnaughts

This list was the ying to my yang, tough as nails, with anti-tank spread nicely throughout the army. What was so well built was the volume of shots. At very ling range it put out 13 missile launcher shots, and after one turn the rest of the firepower (3 str 10 ordance templates, 3 plasma cannon templates & 3 multi-meltas) should be in range.

Not having reread the dark angels codex after the FAQ update I thought yeah they got proper storm shields, but the rest is just ok, how wrong was I. My opponent had sensibly gone through the dark angel codex and picked everything that was better than the other marine codexs, and then added 3 vindicators:

• Although only allowed one typhoon per landspeeder squadron the dark angel landspeeder is 75 points were the same marine codex one is 100 pts
• Although losing WS & BS 5 their venerable upgrade cost is 20 pts rather than 60 pts
• The big weakness of thunderhammer terminators is that they can't shoot, so lets add the new cyclone missile launchers at 10 pts cheaper to offset their terminators being 15 pts more expensive.
• Add in Belial, a cheap HQ at only 130 pts, and 30 pts more to give him and his squad FnP.

It was an impressive army, but I had to come up with some idea on how to win this game. Firstly there was the small number (10) of scoring models. Yeah they were in terminator armour, but if I threw enough shots at the non FnP unit they would eventually drop. This was made better by the fact that I had 6 troop choices, if I could kill one terminator unit and control 2 objectives I would win.

I just didn't think my army could win a straight shoot out with this army, so I had to use my troop advantage to try to win the mission.

Below is a diagram of the battlefield:

The scenery in the centre and just in the top right hand quadrant was a large three story ruin, however it had lots of windows so it would block LOS, but would definitely give a cover save to anything behind it. The green areas were forests, and the inverted L shape is an L-shaped wall section (only big enough to give infantry cover, and not big enough to give skimmers or other vehicles a cover save). The square scenery peice in the bottom right hand corner was a rough terrain on top of a small hill. The hill blocked line of sight completely and was difficult terrain on top.

We started by placing objectives. My opponent started by placing one in the top right hand quadrant, wanting to keep the objectives far apart (to make use of my mobility advantage) I placed one in the bottom right hand corner. My opponent wanting to keep the objectives close together (as he only had 2 slow moving troops) placed another one in the middle of the board. Now, wanting to keep the objectives far apart, I had the choice of top left or bottom right.

I should have looked at the terrain and thought about where my opponent would like to deploy, ie. in the quadrant with the large ruin, giving him cover and 2 objectives close together. If I placed the last objectove bottom right it would give that quadrant another easy to get to (or contest) objective. If I placed it in the far top left it would spread the objectives up more. The quadrant with the large ruin would still be appealing to my opponent but not quite as good as if the last objective went bottom right.

Unfortunately this analysis is with the benefit of hindsight, and at the time I put the objective in the bottom right hand quadrant. The objectives are marked on the map by small red circles.

My opponent duly won the roll to pick sides and choose the side with the large ruin and first turn L He deployed quite defensively, about 12" back from the edge of the large ruin. Vindicator's in the middle behind the ruin, dreads spread out either side with the terminators sprinkled around them, and landspeeders at the back.

I had two choices with deployment, either

1. use the one piece of terrain I had to hide some of my vehicles, and deploying my whole army that far back to reduce some of the firepower I would receive in the first turn

or

2. Deploy everything as far forwards as possible. The first turn response from my opponent would be devastating, but I would be in a better position.

I decided to take option 1, as turn 1 enemy firepower would be concentrated at my anti-tank, and if all my ravagers went down early I wouldn't have a chance against all his vehiciles, plus my ravagers were useful firing at FnP terminators.

I deployed all three ravagers behind the ruin, either side of the ruin I placed the small wrack unit's venoms sideways to give cover to the raiders behind. Behind the venom on the right of the ruin was the incubi, large wrack unit, and wyches (with haemonoculus) raiders. Behind the left side venom was the remaining 2 wych raiders. The 2 trueborn venoms were behind the ravagers just within 6" of where the wracks could deploy if their venom was destroyed.

The game would have been so much easier of I had placed the last objective in the top left. I could easily claim it, and then push to contest the middle objective, or just kill one of the terminator squads and then blast any vehicle trying to make it all the way to contest either of my objectives.

I rolled to seize (not that my deployment was set-up to take advantage of it) but didn't roll a 6.

The vindicators advanced to the large ruin in the centre. The rest of the army split in two

• One section comprising 2 landspeeders, 2 dreads (one venerable) and the FnP terminators with Belial went south (and marginally west)
• The 2^nd section comprising, a landspeeder, a venerable dread and the other terminators went west

Some missile launchers were still in range of my forces, and both small wrack venoms were destroyed, they both passed their pinning checks (one helped by the grisly trophies on the trueborn's venoms), and deployed behind the ruin (ready to pop up turn 4 or 5 to claim the objective. The incubi raider was also destroyed. 3 vehicles down and this was only a fraction of his firepower.

No point being cautious, if I did my troops would be stranded far in my quadrant when their vehicle was killed, as he would be in range with all his firepower apart from the multi-meltas next turn. The wyches (with haemonoculus) and the wracks on the left hand side of the ruin in my deployment zone zoomed forward 24" near the L shaped walls. The raiders on the right hand side of the ruin moved northeast, and the ravagers drifted out from cover, but stayed a bit back (hopefully out of range of the enemy that had just gone south from the enemy starting position. One trueborn venom went >12" to catch up with the wrack and wych venom going across my long board edge, and the other followed the other 2 wyches heading towards the top middle of the board.

My firepower did little, I stunned one vindicator, shook another.

My opponent didn't move the section of his army that had moved south much (as it was pretty much in between the objective in the middle of his quadrant and the objective in the bottom right hand quadrant. The smaller section continued moving westwards towards the top middle of the map (ie. north of the large ruin).

The raider with the wyches (accompanied with the haemonoculus) was blown up, thanks to FnP there wasn't too many casualties. They disembarked near the L-shaped wall sections. A ravager was also blown up. A few other vehicles were stunned or skaken due to bad rolls on the penetration table.

I was losing vehicles and mobility fast, so I had to try and kill one of his troop choices fast. The terminator unit without feel no pain was just north of the large ruin in the centre of the board, flanked by a landspeeder, vindicator and dreadnaught.

2 Wych raiders moved towards the terminators without feel no pain, one unit got out to assault. As always when you're about to assault I looked to see if the opponent could stop me assaulting by removing the nearest models as casualties from any firepower I sent their way. If the nearest one or two models were removed it would ensure making the assault was risky, however the cyclone missile launcher was the closest, so I was confident my opponent wouldn't take that models off as a casualty so I decided to fire as much as possible at the terminators. Both raiders, the venom, even a ravager opened up on the terminators, yet unfortunately they all made their armour and invunverable saves. Later the wyches assaulted and again all saved were made and the wyches lost a few but stayed in combat. I was hoping to drop one or two that turn, but that's the way the cookie crumbles (if the opponent gets a save sometimes they never fail).

On the other flank I advanced with everything (apart from the wyches and the haemonoculus in the ruins). The ravagers didn't advance as far as everything else to make best use of the range on their guns. Firepower did little again, shaking a few vehicles at best.

My opponent had a poor shooting phase in the next turn with all three vindicators scattering and killing nothing at all, so in an uneventful enemy turn I think I lost another vehicle and the wyches in combat with the terminators were seen off after the terminators again made all their saves.

With the terminators (without feel no pain) freed up for me to fire and assault I duly obliged them. I desperately wanted to kill one of his two two troops choices, so that whatever the other unit did I would be able to hold the objective in my quarter with the small wrack units and at least draw the game. Trueborn blasters, ravager dark lances, venom splinter cannons and even wyches splinter pistols opened up on the terminators, when the dust cleared 4 or the 5 terminators defiantly stared back at the wyches. The wyches gulped at the prospect of assaulting these almost invunverable opponents, but however scary they were their succubus needed her souls so into assault they went. The wyches didn't kill anymore but luckily stayed in combat after losing a few models.

On the other section of the board, my army moved further rightwards towards the other half of the opponent's army. The trueborn disembarked and shot down a landspeeder. A few more dark lances and a couple of the vehicles were shaken/stunned (but again no permanent damage).

I made a mistake with the trueborn. I had kept them close to their venom transport so they might get a cover save from some of the enemy shooting. However my opponent took advantage of this and his first shot was with a plasma cannon a dreadnaught. The dreadnaught was able to place the centre of the template on the venom while still touching all three of the trueborn (without them receiving a cover save). The shot duly didn't scatter and a failed flickerfield save later I had lost both the venom and all three trueborn L

The raider containing the large wrack squad somehow survived the firepower that was sent it's way, but I lost another vehicle or two on the left hand flank. In combat I still didn't kill and terminators, and my wyches suffered 7 wounds, however using my opponents dice they saved all wounds.

Moving into the end of the game I had lost a lot of vehciles (I was running out fast) and along with it my anti tank firepower was dwindling fast. The objective in the middle of the table was had an enemy landspeeder nearby who was moving towards my home objective, however I had a wittled down wych squad in the ruin the south, and a large wrack squad in their raider nearby. Also it was only a matter of time before the terminators at the middle top of the map killed the wyches they were in combat with and advanced upon the middle objective. I had two small wrack units hiding behind the ruin in my quadrant ready to jump and claim the objective in my quadrant. The scary half of my opponent's army (Beial, FnP Hamminators, 2 Dreads, vindicator were very close to the objective in my opponet's quadrant and not to far away (20") from the objective in the bottom right hand quadrant.

For my 4th turn, it was time to really time to think about claiming and contesting objectives. I knew the raider with the large unit of wracks was unlikely to survive another turn, so wanted to make the best use of it. I went flat out into the bottom right hand quadrant. I couldn't reach the objective there, but the wracks could make it there on turn 5 even if the raider was destroyed. The heamonoculus with the wittled don wych squad in the small wall sectioin just south of the middle objectived stayed in the cover but moved as far north as possible (fo a cheeky turn 5 jump out and run to the middle objective). My last ravager was concerned that my poor shooting would continue so moved to protect my home quadrant objective from a turn 5 flat out contesting move from a centrally located landspeeder (all I'd killed so far was the two other landspeeders).

My ravager need not have worried, as it immobolised the central landspeeder. The rest of my firepower was again ineffective (apart from shaking/stunning a couple of vehicles). However using my opponent's dice my wyches against saved all 6 wounds that were inflicted upon them my the terminators. Also in the combat phase my incubi (who had had a very quiet game) charged the immobolised landspeeder to get them forward movement and put them near the central objective to be part of my last ditch effort to kill the terminators in the top middle of the map when they finally killed the wyches they were in combat with.

In my oppoents 5th turn, he didn't move much (probably wanting to inflict as much damage as possible). He killed the raider with the large wych squad (even with it's 4+ cover save for going flat out, there was only so much it could take), luckily for me the wracks were not pinned. The immobolised landspeeder took revenger on the ravager which blew it up and kill killed it to have the last laugh. The last of my vehicles went down as well, along with some remaining trueborn, even the wyches in the wall section cover in just south of the middle of the table took got reduced down to the haemonoculus and 2 wyches, howver they managed to pass their morale test.

With prayers to the dice gods to make this the last turn I commenced by 5th turn. The wracks moved and ran to claim the objective in the bottom right hand quadrant My opponent could have moved a vindicator 12" to stop me claiming it the turn before but didn't so it could shoot. Both small wrack units climbed the ruin in my quadrant to claim the objective in my quadrant. Even the haemonoclus & 2 wyches just south of the objective in the middle of the board moved and ran forwards to claim the middle objective.

The incubi tried to kill the immobolised landspeeder again, but failed. The wyches in combat with the terminators took a load of wounds again, but this time not even my opponents dice could save them, and they lost a few and the remaining wyches broke from combat.

The dice was rolled for random game length, and my prayers were answered and the game eneded with me winning 3-1 on objectives. I was lucky that the game eneded so early, helped by my opponent concentrating on kiling me, when he should have slowly moved towards the objectives while still killing me. All his army can move at least 6" and still fire at full effect, so why he wasn't moving more is beyond me, but I'm not complaining as it's what allowed me to win the game.

I scored 187 victory points (2 and an half landspeeders) while my opponent got over 1300 vps. Although my opponent had only two troop choices he had many units to contest with, and not concentrating on them and/or advancing cost him the game.

With that win I was on 2 wins and a loss, and would face Steve (of Triple Helix Wargames) using his Nurgle marines. Next battle report will be up a quicker than this one. However it's now back to putting together my Nightwing, and assembling Hellions to be Beastmasters (after a month of not doing much I'm a bit behind with getting my new list ready for M.A.D. in October).

Rathstar