Legiones Astartes (Ultramarines) Homebrew rules rationale

Ultramarines Tactical Squad by Ilqar on Deviantart

Hey all,

 

Now normally I dislike home brew rules – I generally find them to be the wish listing of someone who finds out that his army isn’t as powerful as the fluff makes it out to be. However, given the plethora of information coming out about the Horus Heresy and the new Legiones Astartes special rule which replaces And They Shall Know No Fear for Space Marines, I decided to give home brew a go with the Ultramarines (which I realize makes me open to wish listing). Here’s my take:

As mentioned earlier, the major differences between Heresy-era Marines and 40k Marines is the lack of ‘And They Shall Know No Fear’ (ATSKNF), which is a fairly touchstone feature of their ‘modern’ counterparts. Instead, they get a version called ‘Legiones Astartes’ which is designed to be complemented by the particular legion that an army represents. So for instance, when taking a World Eaters army, you would have the Legiones Astartes (World Eaters) special rule. At its core, Legiones Astartes manipulates the manner in which Marines interact with the Leadership aspect of the game, allowing them to attempt to regroup at full Ld regardless of casualties.  The major difference between this and ATSKNF is that they can be caught in a sweeping advance, as well as not being immune to Fear. 

The overriding philosophy behind writing the rules for the Ultramarines is that it couldn’t replace Legiones Astartes nor interfere with its regular function, which simply giving them ATSKNF would do. In addition, any rule that was written had to remain true to the fluff and reflect a few core things about the Ultramarines, both advantageous and disadvantageous, and given the ‘jack-of-all-trades’ reputation of the XIII, it was no easy task:

• Their famed discipline: “He has the most disciplined military force in the entire Imperium, and given the quality of the other legions, that is quite a claim” (Know No Fear, p. 37)

• Relative hubris as the largest legion: “We’re to lend a little gloss to the clumsy reputation of the Word Bearers by operating in concert. And we’re to demonstrate the authority of Horus by jumping twenty full Chapters to his whim” (Know No Fear, p.41)

• Guilliman’s ability to leave a conquered planet in better shape than when he invaded it: “He liberated countless worlds from the domination of aliens and foul Chaos renegades, but where some of his brother Primarchs left a trail of death and destruction in their wake, Rouboute brought peace and fresh prosperity…. Guilliman’s genius for planning campaigns ensured that the planet’s population and industry suffered the minimum amount of collateral damage” (Index Astartes III, p.25)

To take other legions’ examples, the Iron Hands’ rules reflect primarily their propensity for ranged combat and bionics, reducing incoming fire’s effectiveness and ensuring that it is difficult for them to do anything except advance and shoot. The Salamanders, rather obviously, reflect their strength of will in facing overwhelming odds, predilection for heat-based weaponry, and the high gravity of their world. None of these rules are overwhelmingly ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ but are rather designed to reflect primarily the fluff and particular dispositions of the Legion in question.

With that, here is my take on Legiones Astartes (Ultramarines):

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Legiones Astartes (Ultramarines):

All models and units with this special rule are subject to the following provisions:

-Legiones Astartes: Units with this special rule may always attempt to regroup at their normal Leadership value, regardless of casualties.

-Know No Fear: A unit which contains at least one model with the Legiones Astartes (Ultramarines) special rule can move, shoot (or run) and declare charges normally in the turn in which it regroups (in addition to the 3” Regroup move). If a unit containing one or more models with this special rule is caught by a Sweeping Advance, they are not destroyed, but remain locked in combat instead.

-Progenitors: Units containing at least one model with the Legiones Astartes (Ultramarines) special rule cannot benefit from the warlord trait of an allied character or an allied Independent Character's leadership score.

-Responsibility of Transhumanity: Any unit with the Legiones Astartes (Ultramarines) special rule can never be equipped with Phosphex bombs, Rad Grenades, or Rad Missiles. In addition, they may not take an Allied detachment in which any of these items are present. Note that this does mean that Ultramarines armies may not include Legion Destroyer Squads or Moritat Consuls.

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As mentioned previously, the aim of these rules are to reflect the above fluff aspects of the Ultramarines, without overwriting the established rules given in the Horus Heresy books or being overwhelmingly advantageous or disadvantageous. Going with the philosophy of “don’t rock the boat” meant that I wanted whatever rules I gave the Ultramarines to already have an established precedent in the game. Thus, Know No Fear is closely related to ATSKNF, but does not allow Ultramarines to automatically regroup (none of the Legions do), and does not make them immune to Fear (which is reflected in the Death Guard’s ‘Remorseless’ rule, and does not reflect the Ultramarines at this time period exceptionally well, given all the oddities of the galaxy that they haven’t encountered yet). In addition, it does not interfere with or invalidate the established Legiones Astartes rule. The Progenitors rule is a disadvantage based off of the Sons of Horus’ rule Bitter Pride. Given the sheer size and scale of the XIII and the pride they take in being one of the most capable and accomplished Legions would mean that submitting to other Legion’s authority might prove difficult for an Ultramarines unit. That is not to say they wouldn’t do it, but rather the resulting confusion in rank hierarchy and structure between the Legions would mean that the Ultramarines would likely default to their own leadership in times of crisis. Finally, given the Ultramarines’ close adherence to the philosophy of the Great Crusade and building rather than destroying, I decided that Destroyer-classed weapons such as Rad grenades/missiles and Phosphex bombs had no place in the Legion, as well as the units that would carry them.

At any rate, that’s my rationale for writing the Legiones Astartes (Ultramarines) rule. Let me know what you think!

Battle Report [40K-002]

Battle Report [40K-002(ZS)]: 1,500 points; Space Marines - Horus Heresy List (AO) versus Eldar (ZS); Mission: The Relic; Vanguard strike (angled) deployment.

So I wasn't going to report this one because we could only get two turns in, but some interesting things happened and I thought it would be interesting to recap a few and open some up for discussion...insert skyshield.

The forces:

Ultramarines (Great Crusade Army List; Rite of War: Pride of the Legion)

HQ:

Praetor (Warlord) - MC Paragon Blade, Digital Weapons, Iron Ialo

Librarian (Level 2) - Force Rod, Artificer Armor, Refractor Field

T:

Veteran Tactical squad x10 (Infiltrate) - 2 Missile Launchers, Plasma Gun, Rhino

Veteran Tactical squad x9 (Sniper) - Melta Gun, Power Fist, Rhino

Veteran Tactical squad x9 (Sniper) - Plasma Gun, Combi-Plasma, Rhino

HS:

Predator - Predator Cannon (Autocannon but Heavy 4), 2x Lascannon sponsons

Predator - Predator Cannon, 2x Heavy Bolter sponsons

Vindicator

Eldar ( theme...Illic and pathfinder defensive core with a fast attack force)

HQ:

Illic Nightspear ( warlord with trait called mark of the incomparable hunter that grants him splitfire)

Farseer with a singing spear, runes of warding and runes of witnessing

T:

Guardians x10 with bright lance platform and warlock in wave serpent with twin linked bright lances, shuriken cannon, spirit stones and holofields

Pathfinders x6 (get shrouded and precision shot because of Illic)

Pathfinders x6 

Jetbikes x6 two shuriken cannons and warlock with singing spear

Jet bikes x3 one shuriken cannon

FA: 

Vyper squad x2 with scatter lasers and shuriken cannons and spirit stones

Vyper with bright lance and shuriken cannon

HS:

Fireprism grav tank with holofields spirit stones and shuriken cannon

Terrain set up - the bombarded crossroads leading to an operational sky shield landing pad

Deployment: space marines roll priority and choose to go first.  The relic is placed in the center of the board.  The librarian rolls hallucination and something else, but I think elects to take the primaris power for the psychic shriek.  The predators deploy in the middle of the crossroads facing the relic and basically secure the fire lane towards the objective.  A rhino with marines and the praetor is next to them.  Another rhino starts on the opposite side of the basilica administratum to come at the relic from the other side with the librarian, and his vindicator starts on top of the skyshield landing pad... I contested this placement but Ashwin pointed out that there looks like a lift in the center of the landing pad.  I never really noticed this, but I'll allow it for good fluff backup, I mean the vindicator could be scheduled for an airlift or something.  Thunderhawk transporter perhaps?  So, new house rule, you can deploy tracked vehicles on the landing pad, and you can drive off if unfurled, dangerous terrain test of course, but you can not go up, even though the rules for the pad state level changes as treated as difficult terrain...  He leaves a tac squad to infiltrate. They eventually infiltrate into the ruins of the basilica.  The extra rhino was accidentally left in reserve...

Eldar deploy close to the line near the center to try to grab the objective early with the jet bikes but still are basically hiding behind cover.   The ruins provide nice line of sight blocking so most of my tanks deploy behind these as well.  One squad of pathfinders infiltrates and holes up in the shrine of the Aquila, and the other with Illic are in the ruins far away hoping for long range support.  The farseer joins the guardians and warlock in the wave serpent.  I am not able to seize the initiative.

Space marine turn one:

The vindicator moves up about 6" and activates the skyshield to furl up the cover...again, the rules just state that any model in base contact with the landing pad can change its state at the beginning of its move...I am forced to allow this :)  this also puts his demolished cannon in range of the relic.  Not good especially now that the tank has a cover save because of the landing pad walls.  Also, that strength 10 ap2 large blast will not be good for my troops if they happen upon the relic.  His librarian disembarks from the left rhino and joins with the troops in the ruins to bolster the offensive.  The rhino then moves up and around the ruins towards the middle of the board.  The tac squad in the ruins takes some shots at my pathfinders in the opposite ruins not doing any damage due to their very high cover save.  His rhino with the praetor moves around the opposite side of the ruins and b-lines down towards the crossroads.  The predators actually shift around towards my warlord on the far right side and unload on Illic and the pathfinders in the far ruins.  This was a little unexpected to me and it turned it that this was a terrible place to deploy this unit.  For some reason either I wasn't thinking about the range of the predators weapons, or maybe thought that the would be going towards the middle, but Ashwin made the obvious choice to shoot at the closest and easiest thing to hit and does a ton of damage and kills over half of the squad on this first turn.  Even with their cover saves, this was just a really bad choice to place this group.  I really should have also placed my warlord in the center ruins where he had more of a circular foreign vantage point and could do more damage.  This position did not allow any good lanes of fire and really I'm not sure what I was thinking with that placement.   Both of his rhinos also used their smoke launchers on this turn.

Eldar turn one.

My wave serpent shifts left along with two of the vypers.  The wave serpent uses its shields to shoot at the rhino on the left and even with the smoke launchers, manages to blast through and explode the rhino.  The guys inside take a wound or two and the schrapnel I think kills one of the guys in the ruins.  The vypers are a little too far out of range and don't do much.  The fire prism shifts right and takes a long shot at a predator but whiffs.  The other vyper however strikes true with his bright lance and explodes one of the predators ( this was the actual first blood kill that granted me one vp).  Here my rolls begin to pick up and ashwins saves start to take a turn for the worse...  The pathfinders with Illic, with no where else to go, take some random shots at the predators as nothing else is in line of sight and whiff.  The pathfinders in the ruins however return fire on the tac squad opposite the relic and with their precision shots, manage to strike home and take out two marines with missile launchers.  My big squad of jet bikes moves into countering positions behind the other jet bikes who make a run for the relic.  They can't get there with their normal movement and are forced to move flat out to reach it.  This is fine as it grants them a 4+ cover save next turn, which I would need due to the amount of firepower surely coming their way.  Now, here i make the optional 2d6 assault move with my jet bikes as usual, but while carrying the relic, I am limited to 6" movement in any phase.  I move down back towards my deployment zone slightly.  Turns out this is not allowed which I read after the game as after moving flat out, bikes are not allowed any voluntary actions in the turn after that.  I knew they couldn't shoot or actually assault, but I hadn't read the eldar jet bike rules closely enough prior to this very crucial maneuver.  

Space marine turn two.

This turn basically consisted of the other predator wiping out Illic and the last pathfinder, granting him the slay the warlord victory point and then moving up to try to kill the jet bikes holding the relic.  The combination of good base armor and also the extra jink save this turn somehow granted the lone jet bike holding the relic to emerge unscathed after a torrent of fire.  His other two comrades were destroyed, but after passing a morale check, he was the last man standing in the middle.  With ashwins firing over, and the jet bikes out of assault range, this basically sealed the game as we had to call it after this turn.  The relic was worth three victory points so that basically ended the game.  

Ending:

In theory, the jet bike rush is good, but the small squad that I had up there probably would have dropped it in a more normal average armor saving versus damage applied.  They should have went down in most circumstances, but the rest of the jet bikes were ready to pick up their slack in the next turn.  The illegal assault move didn't really change much except Ashwin might have been able to try to tank shock them back in his turn of he moved flat out with his rhino.  Still risky, but the shooting would have been pretty much the same as the six inch difference didn't really matter.  There might have been a few extra Bolter shots from the squad in the ruins but it was close.

Interesting game and I would have liked to see it finish.  The extra troops he had coming down the middle would have been tough to deal with and if the jet bikes went down in the middle, it would have been pretty bloody pretty quick for all parties as we descended towards the middle.

Next time I should have deployed Illic in the middle where the action was and even though it was closer to the enemy, it was a safer position than I had really thought through.  I might change this list a bit in the future, but I think it would be an interesting 1500 to work with.   Dice rolls played a pretty big part in this game and I don't want to rely in those in the future...

-ZS

Battle Report [40K-001]

Battle Report [40K-001(ZS)]: 2,000 points; Space Marines (AO) versus Eldar (ZS); Mission: The Emperor's Will; Dawn of War deployment.

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...

SM turn 1:

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