A brief battle report on a game that happened not so long ago. I was using my standard Death Guard force, my opponent had a mixture of general chaos marine renegades as follows:
HQ: Terminator Lord with Mark of Khorne and a bloodfeeder (155 points)
Elites: 4 terminators, Icon of Khorne, 1 champion, along with a dedicated land raider transport (380 points)
Troops: 10 Chaos space marines, Icon of Chaos Glory, 2 Melta Guns, 1 Champion with Power Fist, in a Rhino (255 points)
Troops: 10 Chaos space marines, Icon of Chaos Glory, 2 Melta Guns, 1 Champion with Power Fist, in a Rhino (255 points)
Troops: 9 Plague Marines, 2 Melta Guns, 1 Champion with Power Fist, in a Rhino (302 points)
Heavy Support: 2 Obliterators (two separate units, each of 1 obliterator) (150 points)
Seeing this list, I was terrified of the land raider and its terminator contents. I then got more worried as the mission was annihilate. My opponent had 11 killpoints, though, so the rhino's were immediately looking like prime targets. On the other hand, my list also had 11 killpoints. It also has rhinos.
My approach was to reserve everything! My younger opponent set up his units in his deployment zone (table quarters), including the obliterators. The playing table had some scattered terrain features including several imperial sector ruins and a small number of craters. On turn 1, my opponent goes first and simply moves his units toward my table quarter.
On turn 2, I get my daemon prince, 2 vindicators and 1 of my troops selections. The vindicators trundle on from the board edge and are in range of the land raider. The first shot misses, but the second barrage inflicts (a lucky) penetrating hit on the land raider that wrecks it. Very very very lucky for me. I lurk my rhino behind the vindicators for the moment so that my opponent cannot gain line of sight to it. As for my daemon prince, I take a chance and deep-strike him near to my opponent's obliterators. He scatters a little, but is otherwise intact. My hope is that the prince will distract my opponent long enough for my plague marines to finish some more units. However, Nurgle's Rot fails to hurt the obliterators.
On my opponents turn, the khorne terminators get out of the land raider and turn to shoot at the daemon prince. No wounds. The obliterators rapid fire plasma at him. That hurts and causes two wounds. Two units of rhino-mounted melta's come at the prince as well, this time finishing him off.
On my turn 3, I get the dreadnought and the remaining two lots of troops - only my predator is now held in reserve. I walk the dreadnought on the table a little bit away from my own tanks. Using his plasma cannon, he fries all 4 of the Khorne Terminators (not the lord)! The two vindicators move closer and target the opposing rhinos. Two hits and two dead rhinos. I race forward all of my plague marines and pop the smoke launchers.
On my opponent's turn, the chaos terminator lord doesn't have a good target, so he runs behind the wrecked land raider. The squads of marines move away from their broken rhinos. One squad is in range of one of my rhino's. A melta scores a hit that immobilizes it. One of the obliterators scores a las cannon hit that also immobilizes a vindicator.
Not to worry. On my turn 4, the predator arrives. It takes aim at one of the obliterators and removes one wound. The immobile vindicator smashes up one of the rhino squads well and the dreadnought (still sane) causes the rest of that squad to flee off. The mobile vindicator targets the last rhino (with the plague marines aboard) and causes a big explosion! The plague marines exit stage left, denying me line of sight. I unpack my immobilized rhino and shoot with all available rhino havoc launchers. A healthy few wounds result on the other squad that has exited its rhino.
In the next turn, the obliterators finish off the immobile vindicator and shake the other one. Since its deamonically possessed, nothing further happens. Several shots come in to my disembarked plague marine squad, but to no avail. The terminator lord head over to this squad as well but causes no wounds.
On turn 5, I use the predator to kill the chaos lord of Khorne. The remaining vindicator finishes the bulk of the other normal marine squad off. That pretty much leaves me with the plague marine squad and two obliterators to finish off. The rhino havoc launchers go for the obliterators and kill one of them off.
On my opponent's turn 5, little of consequence occurs beyond his routing troops continuing to flee and the game ends. I've more than won on kill points. But largely thanks to a remarkably lucky turn 1 shot on the land raider. In hindsight, I think it was a mistake to target the land raider. I should have ignored it and just went for racking up easy rhino killpoints. My melta gun armed plague marines could probably have thought about the land raider later. The oblierators dug in to cover were problematic to remove with a good armour, cover and invulnerable saving throw. I was also lucky to not have a crazy dreadnought shooting plasma in to a rhino's derriere. My opponent also got distracted by my daemon prince. I think that was the critical turning point as it effectively gave me an extra turn to get in range and position my army. All in all a good game and much fun was had.
HQ: Terminator Lord with Mark of Khorne and a bloodfeeder (155 points)
Elites: 4 terminators, Icon of Khorne, 1 champion, along with a dedicated land raider transport (380 points)
Troops: 10 Chaos space marines, Icon of Chaos Glory, 2 Melta Guns, 1 Champion with Power Fist, in a Rhino (255 points)
Troops: 10 Chaos space marines, Icon of Chaos Glory, 2 Melta Guns, 1 Champion with Power Fist, in a Rhino (255 points)
Troops: 9 Plague Marines, 2 Melta Guns, 1 Champion with Power Fist, in a Rhino (302 points)
Heavy Support: 2 Obliterators (two separate units, each of 1 obliterator) (150 points)
Seeing this list, I was terrified of the land raider and its terminator contents. I then got more worried as the mission was annihilate. My opponent had 11 killpoints, though, so the rhino's were immediately looking like prime targets. On the other hand, my list also had 11 killpoints. It also has rhinos.
My approach was to reserve everything! My younger opponent set up his units in his deployment zone (table quarters), including the obliterators. The playing table had some scattered terrain features including several imperial sector ruins and a small number of craters. On turn 1, my opponent goes first and simply moves his units toward my table quarter.
On turn 2, I get my daemon prince, 2 vindicators and 1 of my troops selections. The vindicators trundle on from the board edge and are in range of the land raider. The first shot misses, but the second barrage inflicts (a lucky) penetrating hit on the land raider that wrecks it. Very very very lucky for me. I lurk my rhino behind the vindicators for the moment so that my opponent cannot gain line of sight to it. As for my daemon prince, I take a chance and deep-strike him near to my opponent's obliterators. He scatters a little, but is otherwise intact. My hope is that the prince will distract my opponent long enough for my plague marines to finish some more units. However, Nurgle's Rot fails to hurt the obliterators.
On my opponents turn, the khorne terminators get out of the land raider and turn to shoot at the daemon prince. No wounds. The obliterators rapid fire plasma at him. That hurts and causes two wounds. Two units of rhino-mounted melta's come at the prince as well, this time finishing him off.
On my turn 3, I get the dreadnought and the remaining two lots of troops - only my predator is now held in reserve. I walk the dreadnought on the table a little bit away from my own tanks. Using his plasma cannon, he fries all 4 of the Khorne Terminators (not the lord)! The two vindicators move closer and target the opposing rhinos. Two hits and two dead rhinos. I race forward all of my plague marines and pop the smoke launchers.
On my opponent's turn, the chaos terminator lord doesn't have a good target, so he runs behind the wrecked land raider. The squads of marines move away from their broken rhinos. One squad is in range of one of my rhino's. A melta scores a hit that immobilizes it. One of the obliterators scores a las cannon hit that also immobilizes a vindicator.
Not to worry. On my turn 4, the predator arrives. It takes aim at one of the obliterators and removes one wound. The immobile vindicator smashes up one of the rhino squads well and the dreadnought (still sane) causes the rest of that squad to flee off. The mobile vindicator targets the last rhino (with the plague marines aboard) and causes a big explosion! The plague marines exit stage left, denying me line of sight. I unpack my immobilized rhino and shoot with all available rhino havoc launchers. A healthy few wounds result on the other squad that has exited its rhino.
In the next turn, the obliterators finish off the immobile vindicator and shake the other one. Since its deamonically possessed, nothing further happens. Several shots come in to my disembarked plague marine squad, but to no avail. The terminator lord head over to this squad as well but causes no wounds.
On turn 5, I use the predator to kill the chaos lord of Khorne. The remaining vindicator finishes the bulk of the other normal marine squad off. That pretty much leaves me with the plague marine squad and two obliterators to finish off. The rhino havoc launchers go for the obliterators and kill one of them off.
On my opponent's turn 5, little of consequence occurs beyond his routing troops continuing to flee and the game ends. I've more than won on kill points. But largely thanks to a remarkably lucky turn 1 shot on the land raider. In hindsight, I think it was a mistake to target the land raider. I should have ignored it and just went for racking up easy rhino killpoints. My melta gun armed plague marines could probably have thought about the land raider later. The oblierators dug in to cover were problematic to remove with a good armour, cover and invulnerable saving throw. I was also lucky to not have a crazy dreadnought shooting plasma in to a rhino's derriere. My opponent also got distracted by my daemon prince. I think that was the critical turning point as it effectively gave me an extra turn to get in range and position my army. All in all a good game and much fun was had.
Sounds like a good game, i think getting the land raider was well worth it.
ReplyDeleteThat bit of good luck and deep striking your Prince probarbly won you the game.
Agreed - but you exploited your luck in a methodical way. I often find that at this level all you need is one break, one tactical advantage and you can take the field. Your opponent really handed you the initiative by deploying, not reserving and simply trusting that the LAndraider would work.
ReplyDeleteDemolisher Cannons are brillant against Landraiders. S10 and 2D6 penetration (pick the highest) gives you a 100% chance of at least a glancing hit and 66% chance of a penetration - you then rolled high for the damage, but his attack was over!
Just think how much harder it would have been if his deepstriking terminators Lord or Obilterators had taken down your vindicators...
In the shortranged combat that is Chaos Smurf v Chaos Smurf - Melta and Demolisher rule!