First off, let me say that as this is the first bat rep for this blog for 40K, we need to go over a few things about our group. Typically Forgeworld models and rules are allowed as we are fairly casual group. However, we are a very rules heavy team dedicated to playing as correctly as we can for the ever-present idea of 'tournament prep' even though the last tournament anyone did was back in about 2007. Maybe we'll talk about that at a later date.
Most of our group, those that play 40K, have been doing so since almost the beginning of the game and have grown up with it. We would consider ourselves fairly competitive, but certainly do not try to play meta-breaking lists all of the time. We are really all about the full experience and the hobby of the game, but certainly love to crack some skulls on the battlefield.
We also like whiskey...and for today's bat rep we had a special treat in sampling the JW high end sampler pack for the opening first turn toast. If you have not had Blue Label yet...you should try to acquire some. We even randomly had a resident guardian of the sampler pack conveniently set up before hand so we thought we had a nice picture worthy shot.
So now we will dive into the more traditional bat rep format now that our general 40K intro is out of the way...
The forces:
Space Marines
HQ:
Marneus Calgar (warlord) (would start joined to 9 tac marines in land raider)
Chief librarian Tigurius (would start joined with one half of the devastators)
T:
Tactical squad x10 missile launcher, plasma gun, combi-plasma, in rhino
Tactical squad x9 flamer, power weapon, teleport homer (in land raider would start with Calgar)
Scout squad x6 with 4 sniper rifles 1 heavy bolter with hellfire shells 5 camo cloaks and Telion leading the group
HS:
Devastator squad x10 with four missile launchers (would start the game in 2 combat squads)
Land raider
Hunter with pintle mounted storm bolter
E:
Sternguard veterans x8 with 2 combi-plasmas 2 combi-meltas and power weapon in rhino
Terminators x5 with two chain fists, cyclone missile launcher
Eldar ( theme...lots of things I haven't played with yet... Basically the forgeworld items)
HQ:
Farseer on a jetbike with a singing spear, runes of warding and runes of witnessing
T:
Dire avengers x5 wave serpent with twin linked bright lances, shuriken cannon, spirit stones and holofields
Dire avengers x5 wave serpent with twin linked missile launchers shuriken cannon, spirit stones, and holofields
Dire avengers x5 ended up being transported in the firestorm grav tank
Rangers x6
Jetbikes x6 two shuriken cannons
Jet bikes x3 one shuriken cannon
FA:
Nightwing fighter
Hornet with two pulse lasers
Vyper squad x3 with scatter lasers and shuriken cannons
HS:
Firestorm grav tank
Phoenix bomber
Nightspinner
Terrain set up - basically a nova style with five terrain pieces in an even spread. Area terrain forests/ruins on one side and in the middle a piece of tall area terrain ruins. One side of the board had some hills and rocks.
Deployment: space marines rolls priority and choose to go first. The two objectives are also laid for the mission, one in the woods (space marine base) near the ruins and one in the rocks on the opposite board corner. Setup for the space marines basically splits into two forces, one guarding the base, and one that will attempt an offensive against the Eldar objective (led by Calgar and crew in the land raider). Devastators are split, one on each side, Sternguard guard the base with the scouts, Tigurius, and Telion. Another tactical squad in a rhino accompanies Calgars crew. Terminators will be deep striking from reserve. The hunter sticks around the home base. Tigurius rolls Hallucination, Perfect Timing, and Prescience. I can't remember what warlord trait Calgar rolled but it gives Calgar and I think the unit, or units nearby furious charge, one time use.
Eldar deploy most of the force on the side of the board near the enemy base and leave the eldar objective unmanned, thinking that Calgar and crew will be an impossible match to engage in assault with this particular force and will be better to engage at range and then make a last minute rush to contest the eldar base at the end. Theoretically the majority of my eldar force should be able to wipe out the SM forces left guarding their base. My two flyers are left in reserve only. ( I forgot that the hornet had the scout special rule and keeping that skimmer in reserve would have been a much better plan than placing it on the table as I would soon find out). My infiltrating rangers hole up in the center area terrain for a good sniping position. My Farseer rolls Prescience, Guide, and Mind War. I get the Ambush of blades warlord trait (all units within 12" of the farseer, one time use, can reroll either 1's in shooting phase, or in assault phase). I am unable to seize the initiative...
Ashwin rolls up the land raider and rhino on his right and with an ability from Calgar, both devastator are relentless this turn, so they move up and fire. I think that is one of the chapter tactics, but Ashwin will have to verify. The sternguard rhino moves up as well and pops it's smoke launchers. There is some stray shooting at the rangers in the middle of the board but they end up going to ground and only loose one or two models this turn (between this turn and the next, only two go down). Tigurius gives Perfect timing to the devastators in the ruins on Ashwin's left and they are able to one shot gun down the hornet (much to my dismay), and he draws first blood! The rest of the shooting is pretty blank for the first turn, but basically his team advances.
Eldar turn 1:
I shift one wave serpent right and unleash the serpent shield on the smoke-launchered rhino. This is nice in this edition, because the smoke just grants stealth (basically cover saves), which the serpent shields ignore. With enough shots from that (d6+1 S7) and the twin-linked bright lance, the rhino is wrecked and the sternguard are forced to pop out. They come out behind the smoldering hulk and are obscured from view from the rest of my force. The prescienced night spinner and firestorm move right as well and advance to take some more shots at the devastators and the sternguard killing a couple marines. The night spinner has barrage which is very nice, so basically I can just sit in the back over here and roll guided/prescienced shots all day rerolling the scatter dice. I misread the codex for some reason and thought that this tank had a shadow weaver weapon load out. Sort of, but I later found out it has a doom weaver...same 48" range, but S7/AP6/large blast, monofilament, instead of the 48" S6/AP6 monofilamant, regular blast I was playing with. That extra blast radius would have helped a ton. The extra strength, not so much, but yeah...I need to really read this codex since this has been my main army for the last 15 years...I need more time in my current life...
Anyway, vypers move up and eliminate the scouts in the woods with 14 shots or so, (I forgot to mention that one vyper ended up loosing a hull point and got crew shaken the turn before). Also, some shuriken canon fire from the jetbikes help to finish them off. I take some random shots at the devastators on my far left and end the turn. Jetbikes take assault moves to get back into cover between the woods on my right.
SM turn 2:
Terminators do not come in from reserve. Junk save in full effect for the eldar tanks now, so shooting is pretty rough this turn for Ashwin. Sternguard however, sneak around the side of the rhino and get two sneaky wounds after more shooting than I was expecting on the farseer. Almost slay the warlord, but not quite...the farseer would not be in that compromising a position for the rest of the game. Thought I was clear in that last position, but the angle was just right to get through the woods and the hull of the firestorm! His power right side ends up killing one more ranger and one jet bike. The Sternguard however are then left in a very compromising position. The right side continues to advance.
Eldar turn 2:
The Sternguard succumb to the full power of a wave serpent, firestorm, night spinner, one squad of jet bikes, some guided fire, lots of twin linked shooting, etc. they are wiped out. My Phoenix came in from reserve and proceeded to eliminate four of huge five man Devastator squad on my left forcing the remaining one to fall back. Rangers still having gone to ground last turn were only able to stand up. The vypers, when combined with the other smaller jet bike squad, now at full combat shooting prowess unleash and kill the remainder of the scouts, devastators, Telion, Tigurius, etc. the jet bikes assault move up towards the SM base. Now, Ashwin did roll some terrible armor saves this turn, and if a few went the other way, I would still probably have some small threats on this side to deal with, but due to a little luck, and a lot of firepower, things went down hill for this side of the SM board. I also forgot about the scatter laser target lock rule, where if I hit with any scatter laser shots on a target, any other weapons that tank would shoot would become twin linked. So I could have hit with even more vyper jet bike firepower. I think they may have been guided however, so this really wasn't an issue at this time.
SM turn 3:
Finally the Hunter gets a good shot at something. A nice S7 armorbane shot lands on target and penetrates dealing two hull points and a locked velocity result on the table. My Phoenix is forced to move full spead forward and cannot make evade moves. His right since of the board advances again and into range for next turn controlling of the eldar base objective. The land raider also advances and does some shooting, only to be denied by my fast skimmer's jink saving holofields. The terminator squad teleports in from reserve near the SM base in an attempt to eliminate some of my scoring units, but only manages to kill two jet bikes due to some good armor saving and a few missed shots.
Eldar turn 3:
My nightwing decides to show up and begins part of the assault on the terminator squad killing a couple with some blade storming rending action (new cool codex rule) and a few bright lance shots, all of which cold pierce their armor. One dies from the firestorms six twin linked shots I think, and the 21 shots from the vypers finish them off. The jet bikes advance into the area terrain and ruins and survive a few dangerous terrain tests, however one biker flies into the side of the building and meets his doom.
The eldar now equalize and are controlling a base as well. They attempt to take down the hunter in the process but I think only manage one hull point. However, Ashwin being up because of that first blood victory point means I need to make a move again towards the eldar base to contest. The Phoenix flies forward but can't really do anything to the hunter in the background and just stays on the board. The rangers manage to stand up, because they weren't shot at last turn , and are able to snipe the final Devastator running around on the left side of the board. To make my move, one wave serpent with some dire avengers and the night spinner head left. ( you might be able to see where the terminators were for this turn based on the position of my army)
SM turn 4: ( we rule this the final turn due to time before we start)
The hunter proves to be a worthy cheap tank again and is able to wreck the Phoenix with some more good shooting. Not before however, trying to ram into the woods and tank shock my jet bikes off of the SM base objective. My jet bikes pass their morale and we move on. No death or glory when you're controlling the base, my friends... The tactical squad unloads onto the eldar base of operations and puts the space marines into the lead. Then the combat prowess of Calgar and friends is unleashed on the wave serpent. The holofields and serpent shield are not so good in assault and that crew were able to hop out of the front of the land raider and decimate and explode the wave serpent with some power fists, krak grenades, etc. The guys inside are miraculously unscathed however but are placed in the wreckage and it will be difficult terrain to leave.
Eldar turn 4:
In this final turn, I was able to destroy the hunter with tons of more shooting and I think glanced it to death securing the SM base for myself. The nightwing had to use its vector dancer rule to stay on the board so was only able to use snap shots against the hunter but that ended up not really being a problem. With the direct path back to the eldar base blocked by the land raider and calgar's crew, my dire avengers were forced to go the long way around and would not make it back to contest the base. I then had to take drastic action and fly flat out with the night spinner to make it back into contesting range of the eldar base to secure the victory. I was able to do this without a problem due to my speed, but had to make a dangerous terrain test to fly over the rocks at full speed. I succeed and contest, and the game ends...
Ending:
We each receive one victory point for the secondary objective of line breaker by having a scoring unit in the enemies deployment zone ( the opposite half of the board 12" from the table edge). Ashwin got first blood, so two for him total, but I would control one base, bringing my total to four points, and his was contested so no points for Ashwin. So eldar four, sm two. The next day we re read the scoring, versus the now, denial units sections of sixth edition and we realized that my night spinner no longer contests like it did in fifth edition...well, it may contest in the 'feel good about it sense', but it does not deny the scoring units control so technically the space marines won 5-4.
This is important to know, especially for things like line breaker which also requires a scoring unit to be in the enemies deployment zone, not just any unit. Also in missions like the scouring and big guns never tire, fast attack or heavy support units in the later mission become scoring units, but not denial units.
Fifth edition...
Sixth edition...
So in short, my plan to overwhelm the space marine base due to ashwin's deployment strategy worked, but I did not take enough scoring units back to base to be able to deny his control like I had planned. I think the vypers did great and the flyers are fun. The firestorm is a little crazy but expensive so I think fair. Same for the Phoenix. My real problem with this force is that I really had no good answer to the land raider so I chose to ignore it. This worked out as that particular load out does not have a staggering amount of firepower and with my speed and eldar shennanigans, was able to dodge most of the heavy shooting. I wonder if I had started my whole force back in the corner of my base if that would have proved effective to try to eliminate the strike force first? I just think this would have been an uphill battle with my force for this game. Mental Note...more bright lances...or my beloved Avatar, or wraithknight...soon enough...those should be able to handle that land raider just fine...and maybe even Calgar :)
I think Ashwin's force might have been slightly more successful with another tactical squad ( or...crazy thought, could have probably not played with Calgar and had two tactical squads, one smaller and maybe in another rhino). I know Calgar was cool with the chapter tactics maneuvering, but with Tigurius giving amazing abilities to the units by the base, he just needed a little more support. It seems like the reviews for the new SM book are also tending to favor more troop units as well. Myself, used to playing against the Horus Heresy style lists of Ashwin with twenty marines in a squad, these smaller squads seemed to not have the staying power that he was used to. Also splitting up ones force is very tempting for the eldar player who can usually focus a ton of firepower in one turn on one end of the board, and then fly quickly and switch gears completely to the other as needed.
Fun stuff this 40K,
-ZS
