ElectricPaladin
10-31-2012, 01:28 PM
Codicer Seth Kausikam leaned heavily on his force axe, burying the tip in the carmine sand, and gazed out over the baked red surface of the desert planet. The Imperial civilization on this world had failed long ago, and now all that was left was its relics and its ruins. Brother-Codicer Kausikam's weariness was not of the body, but of the spirit.
"I just don't understand," Seth mused. "The Dark Angels are Astartes. They should be our brothers. Why are we fighting them?"
"The orders come directly from Omnis Arcanum." The mechanized voice was the machine spirit of Ancient Ouroboros, the land raider that would shortly carry Seth and his terminator escort into battle. "We fight because we are commanded to."
Seth chuckled at the machine's literal-mindedness. He was a Blood Raven, and understood that the machine spirit was nothing more than silicon and plastic, a network of unimaginably and irreducibly complex logic gates. Sometimes, Seth felt that he could feel some spark of humanity inside the machine spirit; today was not one of those times.
"But why are those our orders? Ork fights Eldar three systems over. They are ancient enemies, and will not band together against us. Nearby, a detachment of the Emperor's Imperial Guard fights for its life against the Tau Empire. Why do Astartes battle Astartes while xenon forces offer themselves up for slaughter, or lay siege to the Emperor's people? Why are we here?"
The land raider's cogitators clicked and whirred. "Do you contemplate disobeying orders?"
Seth shook his head. "Of course not, but I do wonder."
Further rumination was cut off by the sounds of alarms. The Dark Angels had made their move with dawn only touching the horizon. The time for thought was over - the time for battle had begun. Seth swung himself up into the belly of the land raider, followed by his squad. With a coughing roar, the ancient promethium engines roared to life, and battle was joined.
• • •
Did you like that? Thought you might.
Anyway, this is the first post of what will hopefully be a thread of battle reports, questions and comments, and tactical discussions. The exact format I want to present my battle reports in will probably vary a bit as I settle on one that I'll really like and want to write over and over.
Here goes nothing:
Introduction
This was a game of firsts for me: my first time using hammernators, my first time using a land raider, my first time using the venerable hammernator/land raider combo, and my first ever game at 1850 points. It was also, interestingly enough, my first game against an (almost) entirely foot army. I'd fought against foot armies before, but only in situations (small games) or against codices (Tyranids) where mechanization wasn't an option, and it was an interesting experience. More on that in a little bit.
Enough with the intro: on with the battle report!
The Lists
My forces were composed of:
• Terminator Librarian and TH/SS Terminators in a Land Raider Crusader
• 10 Sternguard Vets (3 Combi-Meltas, Power Fist Sergeant) in a Drop Pod w/Deathwind Launcher
• 2 full Tac Squads (Plasma/Plasma, Power Weapon/Meltabomb Sergeant) in Rhinos w/Dozer Blades
• 10 Assault Marines (Plasma/Plasma, Power Weapon/Meltabombs Sergeant)
• 2 Land Speeder Typhoons
My opponent's list was
• Pedro Kantor and 6 Sternguard
• 1 Full Tac Squad (Flamer/Las)
• 2 Full Tac Squads (Flamer/Missile)
• Full Las Predator
• 2 Thunderfire Cannons
With an allied detachment of Dark Angels
•*Librarian
• 1 Fill Tac Squad (Flamer/Las)
Setup
We rolled Big Guns Never Tire and Dawn of War deployment. We rolled almost perfectly balanced terrain, and the board ended up looking a little sparse, apart from a few hills, ruins, and forests at the periphery. Only three objectives, two placed in my opponent's deployment zone and one in mine, made for a very focused game.
Warlord traits were interesting, and in many ways they made the game. My opponent rolled Night Attacker, while I got Master of Outflankingness (can't remember what it's actually called). In many ways, these traits would come to dominate the rest of the game.
My opponent deployed in one corner of the table, with his thunderfire cannons in the back lines, screened by two of the large squads. The other three large squads camped out in the ruin that held one of the objectives. The sternguard and kantor hung out near the second, taking partial cover behind a hill.
I, leery of those lascannons and thunderfire cannons, chose to reserve heavily. My assault marines reserved for deep strike, my land raider and its cargo outflanked, my land speeders reserved to drive in off the board edge, and my sternguard started in their drop pod. At the start of the game, only my rhinos were on the field, lurking behind the dubious cover of a hill.
The Game
I want to start my battle reports with loose blow-by-blow. I won't be recording every action of every turn, but I will give a summery of the Opening, the Midgame, and the Endgame.
Let's see how that works
Opening
This was one of those games where the opening started and ended really quickly. In some games, I've found that the opening maneuvering and sniping can last for two turns or more. In this game, the opening lasted one turn, and then we were into the frey.
But then, we were playing space marines, so who are we kidding? It was always going to be that kind of game.
My opponent's first move was probably his biggest mistake. He decided to make it night fighting. With all his long range firepower - a total of five lascannons, one of them twin-linked, and two thunderfire cannons - he could have decimated me in the first turn. In fact, with my highly limited deployment, he might have been able to table me.
The next bad thing to happen to my opponent was the total failure of all those lascannons and missile launchers to actually hurt my rhinos. Some of them were throw-away shots - he had moved some squads to claim the objective in the best cover, so the missile launchers and one of the lascannons were making snap shots - but the predator's lascannons were shooting like they meant it. However, between my enormous hidden-behind-a-hill-and-Stealth-and-Shrouded cover saves and his incredibly lousy luck, none of my rhinos even got scratched.
On my first turn, my sternguard dropped aggressively in order to threaten my opponent's predator and sternguard. I broke them into combat squads, one with all the combi-meltas and one with the sergeant and everyone else. Of course, they deviated just far enough that they couldn't get into melta range. It ended up not mattering, because their combi-meltas all whiffed. Oh, well. The other half of my squad tore into his sternguard with vengeance rounds, killing a couple of them.
At the end of the opening, my opponent was increasingly turtled up, with my sternguard keeping his sternguard engaged and my rhinos sweeping in on his right flank.
Midgame
The midgame of this battle really dragged out.
My opponent had it good at first. He whittled my sternguard down to a single surviving veteran - not even the sergeant! - and managed to destroy one of my rhinos with a missile launcher (earning himself the First Blood VP).
However, he couldn't hang onto it once my reserves started to arrive. My land speeders one-shotted his predator. My land raider outflanked (remember that Warlord Trait?)… and that was when I discovered the power of the crusader. You know what? An assault cannon and a pair of hurricane blotters are incredibly freaking killy. My land raider slaughtered its way through an entire squad, and later disgorged my assault terminators, who slaughtered another squad. Land raiders are also incredibly resilient. My land raider soaked up every lascannon and missile my opponent could aim at it. Kantor's orbital bombardment scared me - I was still kicking myself for failing to kill him with sternguard on turn one - but it scattered into the ruin and killed three of my opponent's own tacos.
This was where I made my first big mistake. My land raider was really killy, but it wasn't quite able to clear a path to my opponent's librarian and his tacs. I, a little overeager, had my hammernators charge out and slaughter the last three members of that squad. I should have either aimed them at one of the full squads still holding the objective, so they could fight their way towards it and contest, or else have them stay in the land raider until a tastier target presented itself. Instead, my terminators were left hanging after they murdered their targets and took a lot of fire. I only lost two vets, but, as you'll see later, I would regret it.
The midgame is also where my assault marines completely failed to impress. They misshapped, got delayed, arrived, shot up some stuff, got locked in combat with my opponent's tacs, and then got wiped out. As I wrote before, I'm still not convinced that they're worthless, but I know they didn't deliver in this game.
By the end of the midgame, I had struck a decisive blow against my opponent and taken remarkably few casualties. My one remaining sternguard was still hanging in there, continuing to rapid fire into my opponent's tac squads, my tac squads had lost only a couple of guys - one of them even still had a rhino! - and to my enormous surprise, I still had a land speeder! My opponent was stuck in a corner, surrounded, and in a lot of trouble.
Endgame
The endgame was just some maneuvering and mopping-up. I'd won the game in the midgame and we both knew it.
My opponent did score some wins. He managed to kill off my last land speeder - no surprise there - and he did a very good job of wiping out those assault marines.
I, however, managed to claim one objective with my tac squad - an objective laid so far away that my opponent had almost completely forgotten about it and had nothing in position to challenge it - while the other maneuvered to serve as a backup for my one remaining hammernator, who remained locked in combat within those crucial three inches of the objective that my opponent was trying to hold on to.
This is where I really kicked myself for losing those two terminators earlier. I'd have liked some insurance there.
I also kicked myself for losing my librarian to Perils of the Warp while activating the largely useless Warp Speed power. Sure, it's neat to have more attacks, but I didn't need them. I didn't really want to win that combat, just stay locked in it. Perils are unlikely, but honestly, the extra attacks weren't worth even the tiny risk.
In the end, however, it didn't matter. I had one objective, a metric ton of denial and scoring units (practically my entire army) in my opponent's deployment zone. When the game ended after turn 6, this was the score...
Final Score
• Me: One Objective + Linebreaker + Kill the Warlord = 5
• Opponent: First Blood = 1
Final Thoughts
In my list, the Deathwind was totally not worth it. Didn't do a damned thing. I don't know what I'm going to do with those points, but it's going to be something else. I don't think that the stormbolter will be any better, but at least I won't spend twenty points on it.
I'm still stuck on the assault marines. I'm not quite prepared to get rid of them - I at least one to paint them, because I love how they look - but I'm not sold on them. They seem, on paper, like they should be good. In play, though, they didn't quite deliver.
As I wrote initially, there was something really interesting about the foot list. My opponent's army was like water. It was all over the place, distributed, and flexible. I couldn't It's a strategy I might want to play around with for my Blood Angels, when I dust them off: a mob of assault marines, highly mobile, hard to pin down, and ready to kill.
"I just don't understand," Seth mused. "The Dark Angels are Astartes. They should be our brothers. Why are we fighting them?"
"The orders come directly from Omnis Arcanum." The mechanized voice was the machine spirit of Ancient Ouroboros, the land raider that would shortly carry Seth and his terminator escort into battle. "We fight because we are commanded to."
Seth chuckled at the machine's literal-mindedness. He was a Blood Raven, and understood that the machine spirit was nothing more than silicon and plastic, a network of unimaginably and irreducibly complex logic gates. Sometimes, Seth felt that he could feel some spark of humanity inside the machine spirit; today was not one of those times.
"But why are those our orders? Ork fights Eldar three systems over. They are ancient enemies, and will not band together against us. Nearby, a detachment of the Emperor's Imperial Guard fights for its life against the Tau Empire. Why do Astartes battle Astartes while xenon forces offer themselves up for slaughter, or lay siege to the Emperor's people? Why are we here?"
The land raider's cogitators clicked and whirred. "Do you contemplate disobeying orders?"
Seth shook his head. "Of course not, but I do wonder."
Further rumination was cut off by the sounds of alarms. The Dark Angels had made their move with dawn only touching the horizon. The time for thought was over - the time for battle had begun. Seth swung himself up into the belly of the land raider, followed by his squad. With a coughing roar, the ancient promethium engines roared to life, and battle was joined.
• • •
Did you like that? Thought you might.
Anyway, this is the first post of what will hopefully be a thread of battle reports, questions and comments, and tactical discussions. The exact format I want to present my battle reports in will probably vary a bit as I settle on one that I'll really like and want to write over and over.
Here goes nothing:
Introduction
This was a game of firsts for me: my first time using hammernators, my first time using a land raider, my first time using the venerable hammernator/land raider combo, and my first ever game at 1850 points. It was also, interestingly enough, my first game against an (almost) entirely foot army. I'd fought against foot armies before, but only in situations (small games) or against codices (Tyranids) where mechanization wasn't an option, and it was an interesting experience. More on that in a little bit.
Enough with the intro: on with the battle report!
The Lists
My forces were composed of:
• Terminator Librarian and TH/SS Terminators in a Land Raider Crusader
• 10 Sternguard Vets (3 Combi-Meltas, Power Fist Sergeant) in a Drop Pod w/Deathwind Launcher
• 2 full Tac Squads (Plasma/Plasma, Power Weapon/Meltabomb Sergeant) in Rhinos w/Dozer Blades
• 10 Assault Marines (Plasma/Plasma, Power Weapon/Meltabombs Sergeant)
• 2 Land Speeder Typhoons
My opponent's list was
• Pedro Kantor and 6 Sternguard
• 1 Full Tac Squad (Flamer/Las)
• 2 Full Tac Squads (Flamer/Missile)
• Full Las Predator
• 2 Thunderfire Cannons
With an allied detachment of Dark Angels
•*Librarian
• 1 Fill Tac Squad (Flamer/Las)
Setup
We rolled Big Guns Never Tire and Dawn of War deployment. We rolled almost perfectly balanced terrain, and the board ended up looking a little sparse, apart from a few hills, ruins, and forests at the periphery. Only three objectives, two placed in my opponent's deployment zone and one in mine, made for a very focused game.
Warlord traits were interesting, and in many ways they made the game. My opponent rolled Night Attacker, while I got Master of Outflankingness (can't remember what it's actually called). In many ways, these traits would come to dominate the rest of the game.
My opponent deployed in one corner of the table, with his thunderfire cannons in the back lines, screened by two of the large squads. The other three large squads camped out in the ruin that held one of the objectives. The sternguard and kantor hung out near the second, taking partial cover behind a hill.
I, leery of those lascannons and thunderfire cannons, chose to reserve heavily. My assault marines reserved for deep strike, my land raider and its cargo outflanked, my land speeders reserved to drive in off the board edge, and my sternguard started in their drop pod. At the start of the game, only my rhinos were on the field, lurking behind the dubious cover of a hill.
The Game
I want to start my battle reports with loose blow-by-blow. I won't be recording every action of every turn, but I will give a summery of the Opening, the Midgame, and the Endgame.
Let's see how that works
Opening
This was one of those games where the opening started and ended really quickly. In some games, I've found that the opening maneuvering and sniping can last for two turns or more. In this game, the opening lasted one turn, and then we were into the frey.
But then, we were playing space marines, so who are we kidding? It was always going to be that kind of game.
My opponent's first move was probably his biggest mistake. He decided to make it night fighting. With all his long range firepower - a total of five lascannons, one of them twin-linked, and two thunderfire cannons - he could have decimated me in the first turn. In fact, with my highly limited deployment, he might have been able to table me.
The next bad thing to happen to my opponent was the total failure of all those lascannons and missile launchers to actually hurt my rhinos. Some of them were throw-away shots - he had moved some squads to claim the objective in the best cover, so the missile launchers and one of the lascannons were making snap shots - but the predator's lascannons were shooting like they meant it. However, between my enormous hidden-behind-a-hill-and-Stealth-and-Shrouded cover saves and his incredibly lousy luck, none of my rhinos even got scratched.
On my first turn, my sternguard dropped aggressively in order to threaten my opponent's predator and sternguard. I broke them into combat squads, one with all the combi-meltas and one with the sergeant and everyone else. Of course, they deviated just far enough that they couldn't get into melta range. It ended up not mattering, because their combi-meltas all whiffed. Oh, well. The other half of my squad tore into his sternguard with vengeance rounds, killing a couple of them.
At the end of the opening, my opponent was increasingly turtled up, with my sternguard keeping his sternguard engaged and my rhinos sweeping in on his right flank.
Midgame
The midgame of this battle really dragged out.
My opponent had it good at first. He whittled my sternguard down to a single surviving veteran - not even the sergeant! - and managed to destroy one of my rhinos with a missile launcher (earning himself the First Blood VP).
However, he couldn't hang onto it once my reserves started to arrive. My land speeders one-shotted his predator. My land raider outflanked (remember that Warlord Trait?)… and that was when I discovered the power of the crusader. You know what? An assault cannon and a pair of hurricane blotters are incredibly freaking killy. My land raider slaughtered its way through an entire squad, and later disgorged my assault terminators, who slaughtered another squad. Land raiders are also incredibly resilient. My land raider soaked up every lascannon and missile my opponent could aim at it. Kantor's orbital bombardment scared me - I was still kicking myself for failing to kill him with sternguard on turn one - but it scattered into the ruin and killed three of my opponent's own tacos.
This was where I made my first big mistake. My land raider was really killy, but it wasn't quite able to clear a path to my opponent's librarian and his tacs. I, a little overeager, had my hammernators charge out and slaughter the last three members of that squad. I should have either aimed them at one of the full squads still holding the objective, so they could fight their way towards it and contest, or else have them stay in the land raider until a tastier target presented itself. Instead, my terminators were left hanging after they murdered their targets and took a lot of fire. I only lost two vets, but, as you'll see later, I would regret it.
The midgame is also where my assault marines completely failed to impress. They misshapped, got delayed, arrived, shot up some stuff, got locked in combat with my opponent's tacs, and then got wiped out. As I wrote before, I'm still not convinced that they're worthless, but I know they didn't deliver in this game.
By the end of the midgame, I had struck a decisive blow against my opponent and taken remarkably few casualties. My one remaining sternguard was still hanging in there, continuing to rapid fire into my opponent's tac squads, my tac squads had lost only a couple of guys - one of them even still had a rhino! - and to my enormous surprise, I still had a land speeder! My opponent was stuck in a corner, surrounded, and in a lot of trouble.
Endgame
The endgame was just some maneuvering and mopping-up. I'd won the game in the midgame and we both knew it.
My opponent did score some wins. He managed to kill off my last land speeder - no surprise there - and he did a very good job of wiping out those assault marines.
I, however, managed to claim one objective with my tac squad - an objective laid so far away that my opponent had almost completely forgotten about it and had nothing in position to challenge it - while the other maneuvered to serve as a backup for my one remaining hammernator, who remained locked in combat within those crucial three inches of the objective that my opponent was trying to hold on to.
This is where I really kicked myself for losing those two terminators earlier. I'd have liked some insurance there.
I also kicked myself for losing my librarian to Perils of the Warp while activating the largely useless Warp Speed power. Sure, it's neat to have more attacks, but I didn't need them. I didn't really want to win that combat, just stay locked in it. Perils are unlikely, but honestly, the extra attacks weren't worth even the tiny risk.
In the end, however, it didn't matter. I had one objective, a metric ton of denial and scoring units (practically my entire army) in my opponent's deployment zone. When the game ended after turn 6, this was the score...
Final Score
• Me: One Objective + Linebreaker + Kill the Warlord = 5
• Opponent: First Blood = 1
Final Thoughts
In my list, the Deathwind was totally not worth it. Didn't do a damned thing. I don't know what I'm going to do with those points, but it's going to be something else. I don't think that the stormbolter will be any better, but at least I won't spend twenty points on it.
I'm still stuck on the assault marines. I'm not quite prepared to get rid of them - I at least one to paint them, because I love how they look - but I'm not sold on them. They seem, on paper, like they should be good. In play, though, they didn't quite deliver.
As I wrote initially, there was something really interesting about the foot list. My opponent's army was like water. It was all over the place, distributed, and flexible. I couldn't It's a strategy I might want to play around with for my Blood Angels, when I dust them off: a mob of assault marines, highly mobile, hard to pin down, and ready to kill.