Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Battle Rep, Crimson Fists vs Chaos at 1850

Right, so played Joe L's Chaos Marines last night.  His list, from memory was:

Warp Smith with harness of doom, 5+ Inv
Land Raider
Squad of Marines with Melta and Flamer
Hell Brute w/Power Scourge
Hell Brute w/Plasma
3 Squads of Marines with Melta, Flamer in Rhinos w/Havoc Launchers
Obliterators
Vindicator
2 Heldrakes




I fielded my Crimson Fists:
Pedro Kantor
Honor Guard in Rhino
Tech Marine
Sternguard (10, 1 HF, 7 Combi Melta, 2 Combi Plasma, LC on SGT) in Drop Pod w/beacon
Scout Squad (10, cloaks, 4 Snipers, HB, Bolters on rest) in Land Speeder Storm w/HF
Scout Squad (10, Cloaks, 4 Snipers, ML, Bolters on rest) in Land Speeder Storm w/MM
Legion of the Damned (5, Melta, Plasma Cannon)
Hunter
Rifleman DN (2x TL AC)
Storm Talon (TL LC)
Thunderfire Cannon
Centurion Devastators (3, 2 Grav Cannon, 1 TL LC, Missiles all around, SGT w/scope)

Everything that could Combat Squad did.  Bolter Scouts flanked in the LSSs.

We played Hammer and Anvil (Long table) with Emperor's Will (2 Objectives).  He got first turn on a table with something like 14 pieces of terrain, so loads of ruins.  I upgraded 2 in my DZ and he vetoed one, so only the one om my left was 3+.  I deployed my Rifleman Honor Guard w/ Pedro in Rhino and the Thunderfire in that one along with the ML armed Combat Squad of Scouts.  Ruin on my right with the 4+ cover had the Centurions, Hunter and the HB armed Sniper Scouts...  Joe's Iron Warriors lined up with his Land Raider taking his far Left, flanked by 2 Rhinos and the DNs.  Oblits to his Center and the Vindicator flanked by a Rhino to his Right.

Night Fighting on turn one so there was a limited amount of damage done by the Iron Warriors...  Mostly they drove forward, popped smoke and bunched up as they rolled toward me the bulk on his Left towards my objective (guarded by the Centurions).  On my turn, the Sternguard dropped in near the center, scattering to my Left and the Vindicator.  It was a rough turn for Chaos.  The Heavy Flamer hit one of the DNs and the Vindicator that it was covering the Rear Arc of...  Rolled a 6 followed by another o destroy it for First Blood.  The Combi Meltas slagged the DN.  Pedro dropped his Orbital Bombardment into the mess on the Right...  Hit the Land Raider and a Rhino.  Stripped a hull point from a Rhino and the Raider passed it's cover save...  Then the Centurions opened up...  The Raider died after failing 4 cover saves.  To be fair, Night Vision made them hard saves, but 4 dice, nothing higher than a 2 doomed it.  So, did a lot of damage, but the Heldrakes haven't shown up.

Turn 2, his Drakes came in.  Flew over and flamed one Sternguard Combat Squad, wiping it out.  The second offed the bulk of a Sniper Scout squad.  His Warlord and squad hoofed it toward my Objective and took a bunch of wild shots into my Centurions   Oblits Plasma and Power Fists killed off the second Sternguard Squad combined with other fire from random Marines...  So, not a good day to be a Sternguard, but they did what they had to.  On my turn, the MM armed Speeder and the Legion arrived.  They wound up killing the second DN, an Oblit and put some damage into some of the trailing elements...  Keeping him from fully engaging my DZ...  The Centurions erased the bulk of the Warlord's squad and split fire into a Rhino with the Las Cannon.  The Hunter hit a Drake, but the 5++ saved it.  Moved Pedro and Co up to block and bait them a bit...  Mostly worked, should have gotten them out as the Rhino lacking the Assault Vehicle rule hurts a unit that WANTS to Assault.

Turn 3, his Drakes continued their rampage...  Finished my Scouts and...  Well, the Thunderfire saved and that was about it...  Rolled the Hunter back to keep it out of Melta range from his Marines, so it took a Glance being outside of 6"...  He destroyed Pedro's Rhino, and the lads hunkered down to wait...  The Oblits shot then charged Legionnaires...  And we bounced...Not a lot of damage to either side. On my turn, the Hunter MISSED, but put a marker onto a Drake.  The DN actually put a hull point onto the other...   Centurions erased another squad, and...  Well, things were winding down as we killed each other off...

Turn 4, one Drake left the second finished off a squad of Scouts that had a survivor or two around, the Centurions ignored it.  He chased the Hunter and immobilized it, but it lived being more than 6" again...  On my turn I killed his Warlord, the missile hit the Drake and the Hunter fired again to finish it off...  The last Rhino of his finally died and my Honor Guard charged in and killed off a squad of Chaos Marines.  I think my Legion finally died, but they kept his Oblits out of action for most of the game.   I made a major error and hopped out and claimed his objective.  So, on turn 5 his Drake came back and killed them all.  ALMOST cost me the game, I should have kept them in the Vehicle knowing I had the final turn.  But at this point (Turn 5) I had the ONLY troops left in the 5 Bolter Scouts in the second Vehicle...  Well, with First Blood, Warlord I wrapped it up...

Legion did well.  Died slowly, but I think the Multi Melta will be their weapon of choice.  No Cover saves and AP1?  Yes Please.  Centurions were probably way too good.  Sternguard?  Good, but I doubt they got back their points directly.  For the first time though, I was not overly concerned about the Heldrakes.  They killed a LOT, but a lot of that was my fault for deploying overly aggressively and stupidly in the case of the Scouts.  In the end, "It Will Not Die" and the 5++ saved them.  I splashed one, almost the second one and by the 5th turn I had all of my AAA ready to go and was left mostly with things not concerned with AP 3...    So, the lessons learned were that I need to play less aggressively with the Scouts...  Might be time to bring a Rhino or two with Tactical Marines...

2 comments:

  1. Is it possible for you to play less aggressively? =P

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  2. :-) You've not seen me play Eldar or IG... I fall more into the "patient hunter" role when I play them... Usually :-) It does surprise a LOT of players when they face someone perfectly willing to Assault when I can... And I run Ogres as a "Linebacker" unit...

    But, yes... Marines of all flavor I play tend to be more on the hyper-aggressive end of things... Might have to try out Tac Marines or maybe Bikes... See if they play differently for me...

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