Thursday 14 July 2011

Battle Report 1

This battle is a continuation of this story.

BA Pre-game thoughts:


Well, my army choice was pretty limited for 400 points, but I managed to field a full tactical squad, a five man assault squad and also managed to sneak in a Sanguinary Priest (SP), which would give any squad within 6" feel no pain (see BA Combat Patrol army list for full details). With only 16 total models, getting that 4+ roll to keep each one alive is going to be huge. The SP will join the assault marines. The game plan - get into assault as soon as possible!

IG Pre-game thoughts:



Due to the postal strike in Canada, the stuff I had ordered off of ebay for Month 2 is STILL in the US (at time of battle), and I likely won't see it for a few more weeks. As such, my army was just barely able to make the 400 pt limit, and even then only with some mostly useless add ons (extra armour, HK missiles) that made up almost 10% of my points. In any case, I was really worried about fighting Space Marines with no AP 3 weapons (outside of my 3 meltas), until I realized I had almost double the models, including 2 armoured vehicles! Combined with orders, surely that would be able to at least chip away at the Marines. My plan was to use the combined firepower of all my squads to bring down the Assault squad, or at least make it a managable size, using the CCS's meltas to hopefully finish them. That would leave my army (hopefully fully) intact to take out the Tactical squad. I comtemplated outflanking the Sentinal to try to assault the Tac Squad and tie it up, but I figured it would probably die in the first Assault (later I would realized St 4 Marines wouldn't get penetrating hits...so it may have lived a turn and really helped out!) Now just not to forget to use the Hunter Killer Missiles...



Deployment


BA Turn 1

Not much excitement here, just moved the assault squad and tactical squad full speed ahead. Both got decent run rolls as well, to get as close as possible to the enemy.


IG Turn 1


Predictably the Space Marines had come straight at me, though alarmingly so. I would only get one turn of shooting before the Assault Squad would be able to assault my blog squad. I moved the Chimera into position and unloaded the CCS beside the Assault squad, ready to melta them to death. My orders went well, with all Squads passing their First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire! without any issues, even getting a double one roll. I eagerly counted the blog squad's guns, amounting to 34 lasgun shots! The grenade launchers both connected for two hits each, while the lasgun and autocanon's combined for less than average but still decent hits. However unfortunately, poor roles and some incredibly lucky Feel No Pain rolls meant only one marine died. My PCC failed to do any damage, leaving the CCS to the task. Luck seemed to evade me still as only one melta wounded; the combined armour and FNP meant only two Assault Marines parished. As consolation the Sentinal took out one Tactical Marine, but I knew I was in big trouble now.



End of turn 1


BA Turn 2

Well, I'd managed to squeak out of turn 1 without taking too many losses, and both squads were poised to assault this turn! I assaulted his large troop squad with the assault squad and his command squad with the tactical squad. In both cases I chose not to shoot at the squads just incase I killed over 25% with my shooting and caused his squads to flee out of my assault range. With the assault marines I killed 4 guardsmen to 0 kills in return, causing that squad to flee off the board. The tactical marines did some good damage as well, killing every model except his commander... yet somehow he passed his leadership test and stuck around!

IG Turn 2


Yup big trouble. With the game already all but over, I was going to try to take out the Assault Marines at least. I repositioned the Chimera to use the Heavy Flamer, issued FRFSRF to the PCC and unloaded all I had. Again the armour and FNP saved the Assault Marines from the Chimera, however I got a bit lucky with the PCC and killed the Priest and Sergeant...if only I could have gotten so lucky on turn 1!



End of turn 2


BA Turn 3

Some somewhat lucky shooting meant that I would no longer be getting any FNP rolls, but it was too late for the guardsmen with his army in tatters and me having only lost 5 marines. The remainder of the assault squad assaulted and ran down the platoon command squad while the tactical marines opened up on the side armor of the chimera, taking it out. With only the sentinel left (albeit in cover in the corner) it was pretty much game over.

IG Turn 3

With only my Sentinal left, we ended the game. The Sentinal pilot had seen enough, and was ready to make his report about the scout platoons unfortunate demise.




End of turn 3


BA Post-game thoughts

I'd say that the SP was the man of the match. He was about average in close combat, but I made 5/6 FNP rolls before the priest succumbed to auto-cannon fire, which means that he saved 5 assault marines (which happens to be the entire squad) all by himself. Couldn't ask for much more from an 85 point model! In the end the marines higher toughness and armor was too much for the guardsmen to handle, with them needing a ridiculous amount of shots just to take one marine down... I have a feeling there will be much more AP3 weapons on their side for the next battle.



IG Post-game thoughts


I had figured the game would come down to me killing enough stuff on my first shooting turn, though I didnt' think it would be so drastic a defeat if I had failed. Obviously going first would have helped, though as my opponent pointed out after the game, it takes quite a bit to take down a FNP Marine with low Str/AP weapons (something like 36 lasgun shots?). Still, taking out even one or two more Assault Marines would have possibly allowed my blob squad to have survied combat a bit better...maybe? I think I really should have contemplated scouting the Sentinal and using it to tie up the Tac Squad, even had it failed it would have been a high reward had it worked out as my CCS may have survied to shoot another turn. It also would have helped to remember the HK missiles, the two of them could have accounted for another Assault Marine on Turn 1..maybe? Lot's of maybe's, in the end I was clearly outmatched. Time to get a Leman Russ!

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