Pages

Monday, July 12, 2010

Ultra Marines Vs The Sons of Despair Highlights:

Jim commanding the Ultramarines, Jesse commanding The Sons of Despair (Nurgle CSM)
2000 points: Mission- Capture and Control Deployment- Dawn of War

Turn one: Due to Dawn of War, very little was deployed on either side. A single Rhino with a ten man squad of CSM ineffectually shoot a single Las Cannon from the top. There is considerable return fire that was largely mitigated by the cover they were parked behind.

Turn Two: Everything else rolls in. LOTS of mech. The Ultramarines call in two Vindicators, two Land Speeders, two Razor Backs a Predator, a Rhino a Land Raider Redeemer and some Tactical Squads. The Sons of Despair summon a Vindicator, a Predator (with the same load-out, no less!), ten Plague Marines in a Rhino, seven Plague Marines in a Rhino, and seven Chosen walk onto the board in the woods behind my objective, Dawn of War having taken away their opportunity to infiltrate and denying me my foothold near the center of the board! The first of my reserves also begin to materialize, two ten man squads of Lesser Demons Deep Strike much to my dismay as I was hoping they would have arrived later. Still to come from reserve: My Demon Prince, a Greater Demon, and two Obliterators.

Two Vindicators square off resulting in the Ultramarine's not being able to shoot, much to my relief!

Turn Three: One of the Land Speeders is shot down by my Predator. However, the other gets revenge by wreaking my Vindicator with a side armor shot that even my Demonic Possession can't ignore! My two Rhinos following behind in a delta pattern are immobilized and stunned by an colossal amount of fire. My advance on the right flank falters.

Turn Four: The Land Raider Redeemer really shines taking heavy fire and an assault from my Greater Demon without so much as a scratch in the paint. More specifically: Two Las Cannons from the Predator, one Las Cannon for the CSM squad still in their Rhino, a Missile Launcher and two Melta Guns (one was even within 6 inches!) from the Chosen and SIX Monstrous Creature attacks all resulting in nothing!! On the other flank the seven man squad of Plague Marines (with two Melta Guns) fail to do anything meaningful! Five Terminators all armed with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields assault the Greater Demon and, even though it attacks first and kills three of them, the two survivors strike back and pound the Demon into next week! I fail ALL of it's 4+ invulnerable saves and it disappears screaming back into the Warp! The surviving Terminators re-embark and lock the doors to the Land Raider just to be safe.

My Demon Prince also arrived this turn, Deep Striking perfectly behind the Ultramarine's lines in range to assault a Tactical Squad holding Jim's objective. I fail my Psychic test for Wind of Chaos and take fire from a Predator, two Razor Backs, the Tactical Squad, and a Land Speeder, losing two wounds.

Turn Five: My Obliterators finally walk onto the board and get into firing position. Massed fire wreaks my Predator. My Demon Prince soars to the top of the ruined building housing the Ultramarine objective and assaults the Tactical Squad holding it, Wind of Chaos is nullified by a well placed Psychic Hood. While my corpulent bag of demonic pus kills many of the Tactical Squad, they elect to lose the combat and withdraw, the Demon, clearly caught up in the bloodshed, fails to catch them and actually starts to sweat as every enemy gun in a three mile radius ominously swivels towards him.

Turn Six: The Land Raider Redeemer hits my lines again disgorging it's deadly cargo, minus three. I counter assault with my CSM squad holding the objective and finally I catch a break as, through a ton of attacks, the nigh-unstoppable Terminators fail two saves! The Obliterators fire on the Ultramarine Vindicator destroying the weapon! Things are starting to go my way! Well.....The Demon Prince catches a ton of fire, and when the smoke finally clears, even the legendary toughness of a avatar of the Plague God couldn't stand up to the massed Krak Missiles, Las Cannon, and Melta fire! A horrible, sizzling smear is all that is left of poor Tubby, cast back into the Warp before he knew what happened to him! The other Ultramarine Vindicator kills one Obliterator and the Stern Guard and Librarian (with Nullzone, Demon players: Watch out for this one! ;) wipe a squad of summoned Lesser Demons off the map! Out of simple defiance, the ten man Plague Marine squad disembarks and Rapid Fires the remaining Land Speeder, wreaking it. The Redeemer toasts some Chosen and CSM in the woods next to my objective, AP 3 and no cover saves!

Turn 7 (!): Yeah, it went the full seven turns! I lay the last of my fire from whats left of my army into the Land Raider, but to no avail. One of the Obliterators miss and the other fails to penetrate and the POINT BLANK Las Cannon in the CSM squad MISSES! Seriously, the barrel must have been touching the hull! *face palm*

The remaining Sons of Despair fallback, intent on regrouping and taking the high ground the Ultramarine held building has to offer.

Final thoughts: My kingdom for some Melta Bombs! For five points they would have been a great investment, I can't see me not taking them in the future, especially on the Chosen, all of which can carry them! Dawn of War has to be my new least favorite scenario, right off the bat I was at a disadvantage and didn't realize it as my Chosen weren't allowed to Infiltrate and had to walk onto the board, denying me my mid-board Demonic Staging Area (tm). A Rhino would have been great in this situation.

I was a little disappointed with my Vindicator, thinking it could take and shrug off a lot more fire than it did, but I wasn't expecting the mobility (and side armor shots) of the Land Speeders. Oh, well, it was the first time I fielded it, it was almost bound to explode.

All in all a good game and a fun time. Thank You Jim!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Dave (Tau) vs Kevin (Imperial Fists) June Match

Imperial Fist vs. Tau

Annihilation/Dawn of War


(Pre-Dawn) Mission Time: 0:00-

In the dark Captain Lysander as well as Brother Librarian Aries contemplates the battle ground, recent capture of shield generator allowed them to set up a large refractor field over a recently fortified building. This gave the imperial fists the advantage defense yet due to territorial gains they had to spread out their forces. This however did not change the demeanors of the Battle-Brothers. They were grinning over the enemy they were to fight; they had fought this Tau Commander previously, and won decisively on multiple occasions. They deployed a Tactical squad in the fortified building as well as another team farther up in the fortified ruins for better shots. The Tau commander had deployed a squad of Xeno Fire Warriors in a tall building opposite the fortified ruins. As well as some Kroot savages deployed up in a forest on the far side of the field, they would stay there the entire game guarding the flank from nothing.

(Pre-Dawn) Mission Time: 1:00-

In the Darkness before Dawn the entire Tau Force had moved into the Battle Area. A Large Quantity of Crisis suits and Fire Warriors moved into the area across from the fortified area. A Hammerhead Gunboat moved onto the far side as well as An enemy Devilfish. The commander moved on near the building with the fire warriors in the middle as well as the Xeno scouts in a transport. The Imperial fists brought in their Land Raider Crusader with Lysander and an attachment of Terminator brothers next to the fortified building. A rhino with the brother Librarian and a detachment of battle brothers took point. Brother Tiberius and his bike squad boosted ahead of the main force as a vanguard to the 7th Companies efforts. Venerated Brother Dreadnought Furies brought in his blessed heavy weapons and stationed himself behind the fortified ruins as well as Brother Hiro’s sniper team moved into the ruins. No shots were fired in the darkness of the pre-dawn fog. A razorback transport came in on the opposite side of the field behind a rock formation as well.

(Dawn) Mission Time: 2:00-

The sun rose behind the Tau gun line as the commander ordered all fire to be concentrated on the biker shock unit. Many shots were fired on top the hill in the middle of the battlefield pouring into Brother Sgt. Tiberius’ position until his squad finally fell to the Tau. It took the entire Tau Armies concentrated fire to take them down and they died honorably for their brothers. Their brothers took action by having the Rhino create a smoke screen for the vehicles to advance. As they moved fast forward, the brothers inside the fortified ruins took fire yet the sun blocked vision of the Tau making their shots imprecise.

(Early Morning) Mission Time: 3:00-

The Tau Commander took action by disembarking his pathfinders then ordering shots into the smokescreen, a lucky Rail gun shot found the fuel deposit in the rhino blowing it into the Immatterium . The Librarian and battle brothers inside were saved and took hold in the crater of their once rhino. In this dire time of need the lost brothers of the Damned Legion came from out of the fog of battle right into the Tau gun line. They poured purifying flame and holy bolter fire as well as cleansing plasma into a xeno crisis team purifying them from the battlefield. The held down Imperial fist line let out a yell o triumph. They Land Raider with Brother-Captain Lysander and his contingent of the 1st company steamed forward.

(Mid Morning) Mission Time: 4:00-

The arrival of the Lost Legion was short lived as in a moment of fear the Tau commander ordered concentrated fire upon the Legion; he had faced this foe before and nearly fell to them. One by one the lost brothers fell to concentrated Pulse and plasma fire till the very last Legionnaire disappeared iback into the mist of battle. In this moment the Tau Commander let loose his railguns into the L:and Raider getting a penetrated hit and blowing it up. Lysander and his men moved into a covered position before the hill that the Xeno commander had taken position behind. In a moment of panic the brother librarian opened a gateway into the nether realm to beam him and his battle brothers into the midst of the Tau host. On the other side they had taken up position in a rock field in the midst of the Tau The foe. This was a costly mistake.

(Late Morning) Mission Time: 5:00-

At this point the Tau commander quickly ordered his Fire kin to open fire on the Librarian and his battle brothers. The Space Marine contingent couldn’t take the fire of the Tau force and fell an honorable death. Sensing triumph the Tau Commander ordered the rest of his force to fire into Captain Lysander and his Terminators felling two lucky shots killing the battle brother veterans. Lysander, angry over his brothers deaths, charged the a nearby fire team slaughtering them and causing the few survivors to route. In one final attempt for victory Lysander took cover in the ruins near the Tau gunline with his remaining brothers to set up a charge.

(Pre- Noon) Mission Time: 6:00-

The Tau commander took notice of the legendary warrior nearby and jumped over to a safer position ordered his men to fire on the brother captain. Shots took down a terminator and wounded Lysander. Lysander jumped from the ruins yet they impeded his progress only allowing him to reach some Broadside suits instead of the enemy commander. He vengefully took down the suits single handedly. His brothers and himself then took up a position for a suicide charge into the Tau Force!

(High Noon) Mission Time: 7:00-

This, however was in vain as the Tau overwhelmed the 1st companies finest and felled the Brother Captain. The tau then took position to overwhelm the remaining battle brothers back in the fortified ruins. Brother Sergeant Andust looked out over the battlefield around him were the smoking hulks of Space Marine Vehicles as well as dead battle brothers. He went back to his command and let out the order for tactical retreat. Later as Brother Corbin would testify in debriefing the Brother Sergeant ordered that for the brother captains transmitter to be located and for him to be teleported back to the apothecaries behind the lines for they might be able to heal his injuries. He also stated that the brother Sergeant stated that revenge would be taken against this xeno scum. He stated, “TheX eno had won this battle, yet for the honor of the chapter and for the Emperor of Mankind he would not let this result hinder the Chapter and revenge would be his!

Final score Tau 12- Imperial Fists 5