3++ is the new black. | Kirb your enthusiasm!

This was a very unfortunate mission. There’s a lot of controversy with Hammer & Anvil currently in how it actually works as a balanced mission format. I think it can work as a deployment type BUT you need to be careful in how the mission parameters are set out. For example, this mission used random number of objectives and Big Guns Never Tire. Um. No. This allows armies which have silly ranges such as Imperial Guard and Tau to sit back and shoot willy nilly at you because they can sit on objectives with their firepower units and actually score with them.

Anyway, so I drew up Vince who was using IG. Great. I knew Vince had an advantage. Vince knew he had an advantage. Everyone knew Vince had an advantage on planet bowling ball. Time to set about removing it ^^. Vince’s list can be seen below and he won-roll off for side – not much is different between the two sides and we roll up four objectives – so no biggie who gets first placement. Vince places his in the back corners of his deployment zone and I put mine just over 48” away – this allows me to place my scoring Dreadnoughts on the objectives and be in range of his. Only one of these objectives has cover however but it allows me to punish the side armor of the Imperial Guard vehicles.

Vince’s list:

CCS w/4x Plasma Guns, Chimera

Marbo

10x Veterans w/AC, 3x Plasma Guns, Chimera

10x Veterans w/AC, 3x meltaguns, Chimera

PCS w/4x flamers, Chimera

Infantry Platoon w/AC, Chimera

Infantry Platoon

2x1x Vendetta

Manticore

Demolisher

2x LRBT

Deployment

Vince won roll-off for deployment and going first but luckily we had Night Fight rolled up so it’s less likely for me to get shot off the board. He deploys his Russes and Manticore in the very back on his objectives with the Demolisher supported by Chimeras rolling up the middle. The Vendettas with Infantry Platoon/PCS are in reserve obviously.

I deploy with my Dreadnoughts and Chimeras around my two objectives – trying to put as many scoring units as possible onto my objectives from the get go. Two Dreads + Coteaz go on the left objective where there is cover whilst the Rhinos and Razorbacks spread out in midfield to avoid being taken out all at once by the Manticore.

Imperial Guard Turn 1

The Demolisher moves up into range of the central Rhino/Razorbacks with a Chimera moving up for support and the rest positioning themselves for shooting lanes. Vince forgets all about searchlights throughout his shooting phase which is lucky for me but is shooting is pretty off regardless with improved cover saves stopping a lot of damage (we rolled to see what would have happened otherwise and it would have likely been a destroyed Rhino/Razorback and a few more Hull Points lost across the army). The end result is just a few hull point strippings across the board and no serious damage done.

Grey Knights Turn 1

I have two real priorites here – stop the Manticore from shooting and stop the Demolisher. The other Russes I can’t really do anything about without access to their AV13 sides and I just need to try and minimise the damage they can do with spreading out – I’d rather stop the S10 ordanance blasts for multiple reasons (AP2 on demolisher, multiple blasts from Manticore which ignore cover, etc.). My left flank all shuffles to see the side arc of the Demolisher – it’s still AV13 but S7 plasma can now damage the Demolisher and S8/10 has that little bit better chance of damaging it. The rhinos and Razorbacks all move up with a few angling for side shots on the Chimeras but the key here is pushing across the field as fast as possible – all Grey Knights stay inside.

The Dread + Chimera on the right flank line themselves up against the Manticore but I pre-measured wrong previously so the Psyker blast is out of range of the Manticore.

I spotlight the Manticore and Demolisher and begin shooting. My right flank firepower knocks a hull point off the Manticore and immoblises it (nuts…) and also drops a hull point + stuns one of the Chimeras there. The left Psyker squad is able to destroy the Demolisher all by itself with two glances from Plasma and a pen from the Psyker blast – this leaves my Dreads free to start working on Chimeras. The midfield Chimera which was supporting the Demolisher explodes and takes with it over half the squad inside. The undamaged Chimera on the right flank takes side shots from the other Dread and is also stunned and down to one hull point.

Imperial Guard Turn 2

The Imperial Guard midfield is already gone and the weak sides of the Chimeras are still under pressure. Fortunately the arrival of some much needed extra firepower comes in with the two Vendettas. One Vendetta goes up each flank flying over the Imperial Guard objectives straight towards the Grey Knight objectives. This is going to my biggest issue as the Vendettas can bypass my Grey Knight Marines and sit on my objectives – if Vince is able to remove the Psyker squads he can control those back objectives since Heavy Support vehicles may score but they don’t contest (i.e. infantry units win out here). I perhaps should have therefore placed my objectives more towards midfield to force the Vendettas to hover if they wish to drop their payload without flying off the board (i.e. not give them a nice straight strafing run before they drop off the Guardsmen).

Marbo also comes in and he drops in near my right objective. This is all the movement Vince really does – the Russes move backwards a bit now that Night Fight is gone and they are in range so the shooting begins. A Dread on the left is exploded by the Manticore with a hull point dropped from the other. The lone Dread is dropped to a single hull point and the Chimera on the right is destroyed with the Chimera exploding and killing most of the squad inside with only some Plasma guys and a Psyker left. The other Chimera with Coteaz is also wrecked and several Psykers die from follow-up firepower but the squad sticks around.

Grey Knights Turn 2

See? Scary firepower IG has but luckily I’m well into midfield with the bulk of my army so I can start pushing his army into a corner. Unfortuantely though I’m already in a pickle with the Vendettas as I just stated – if my Strikes continue moving forward, I’m not going to have much on my backfield objectives. I trust in my ability to clear the IG lines quickly and send units back towards my objectives and/or deal with the Vendettas before that time comes. Placing objectives is important!

The very diminished squad of Psykers on the right moves up to drop Marbo and move back towards the objective there whilst remaining in area terrain for improved cover saves if they hit the dirt. The core of Grey Knights continues moving up through the middle with one Psyback on the left flank. One of the large squads + a small squad hop out in the middle to level three Psycannons and a bunch of stormbolters at the side of the left-most Chimera.

Shooting begins with most of my units shooting diagonally across the board to drop vehicles in their side arcs. The Manticore is destroyed and the full health Chimera on the left flank is Wrecked and the one Hull Point Chimera on the right flank is also Wrecked. The Veterans on the left are pinned but the CCS on the right is fine. Marbo is destroyed by the weakened Psyker squad. Both Vendettas lose a Hull point with the right flank Vendetta jinking.

Imperial Guard Turn 3

Vince essentially has Vendettas and Russes left with some associated Guardsmen and special weapons but the core army is evaporating unfortunately. The Vendettas continue their straight line run across the battlefield and bypass my army entirely - essentially it's looking like we are swapping objectives due to my poor placement. The CCS moves around the Chimera to shoot at the exposed Grey Knights of the large squad and the Russes again reverse a little bit. 

Shooting sees the final Dread on the right die and a handful of Grey Knights from the large squad with some associated damage to the Henchmen squad on the left who's looking a bit thin now as well. Disembarked large Strike squad's Rhino is immobilised.

Grey Knight Turn 3

I'm really feeling the pinch in terms of those Vendettas flying over my main battle lines atm.

Regardless, I have to continue pushing the Imperial Guard off their objectives at the least and although Vince is feeling like the game is all wrapped up – I know what those Vendettas are going to do and if I can’t drop them or the game doesn't last a serious amount of length so I can try to shoot the Guardsmen off the objectives, he could snatch a draw out of this. So, the small squad on the left and big squad in the middle converge on the pinned Veterans – aiming to use them to get much closer to the Russes. The other Rhino moves towards the right IG objective whilst moving into the Vendettas back arc to snap fire a bunch of Psycannons at it. The other small Strike squad moves laterally to do the same.

Shooting sees no damage done to the flyers. The Veterans on the left are removed however after a successful charge from both Strike squads who spread out in a big circle in front of the Russes. The Chimera wreck was used to limit incoming Overwatch firepower into the initial squad to ensure as little possible damage was done.

Imperial Guard Turn 4

Flyers uh move forward. Vince had the debate here whether or not he should go into hover mode now or next turn. I pointed out it's Turn 4 and for once, we weren't running out of time so Turn 5 was the earliest it could finish. I.e. don't hover/get out now as I have more time to kill you. He kept zooming but obviously had limited attack vectors.

This left the CCS + Russes to try and do as much damage as possible. The CCS dropped a couple of the Strikes from the smaller squad on the right flank and the Russes reduced the large squad five members (including the Justicar though) and the small squad to one member. Firepower from the Chimera drops the henchmen squad on the right as well.

Grey Knight Turn 4

At this point I feel I should have sent the other large Rhino based Strike Squad back towards one of my objectives the previous turn leaving the smaller squad to handle the IG remaining there.

The large Strike squad moves up to the Russes to assault both in combat and try for some lucky shooting one to death since the MC Hammer can only do so much. The other large squad in their Rhino moves up to the remaining Chimera + Platoon with the final Strike squad running towards the objective. The Psyback and lone Strike Marine on the left move back towards my home objective.

The immobilised Rhino repairs itself, the small Strike squad kills the CCS so I get the bonus point for commander kill and the Dreadnought is able to drop the final Chimera which disgorges the Platoon in front of my Strike squad. They kill all but the Heavy Weapon Team. The other large Strike squad manages to Rend a Russ to death and smashes the other in combat ensuring no more AP3 pie plate death.

Turns 5-7

No more pictures sorry. Game winds down as Vince is able to clear the right objective even with the Strikes + re-mobilised Rhino moving back and half clears the left objective by killing the Dread and the henchmen squad. However, before he kills the henchmen squad they force the Platoon to flee in combat which continues fleeing the next turn and then is tank shocked to flee further and engaged by the lone Strike Marine. This along with the lone HWT being killed ends up with a 2-1 objective advantage to me as the game ends  Turn 7.

Conclusion

Game ends 19-6 my way with myself holding two objectives and Vince holding one. He killed my most expensive HQ for his extra point and the loss of my extra point whilst I did everything else for the bonuses.

So an interesting game with some major mistakes on both sides. Vince didn’t utilise his searchlights Turn 1 which would have done just a bit more damage to my army and stopped so much of it from getting into midfield so early backed up by a lack of recovery movement/positioning. I didn’t place my objectives right nor counter their placement with proper recovery movement to make it more difficult for Vince to even think of claiming them. Otherwise we saw a classic case of whatever Imperial Guard shoots at, soon dies but if you get up close to Imperial Guard, they die faster. Getting into midfield was key and by not having my objectives up there, my plan was potentially fragmented.

On Vince’s side, after the forgetfulness of the Searchlights there was no movement to maximise what he had in spades – shooting. Although I think too much of his shooting was wrapped up in the blasts of the Russes + Manticore (without enough direct shooting when the Vendettas were off the board), sitting in Chimeras which were sitting still and letting them get destroyed and the Guardsmen bailing out too close to my army allowed me to essentially go from unit to unit at will in terms of destructive power. Some more mobility and reactive approach after my army started moving through midfield would have provided more longevity and pushed delays at me to allow the firepower to drop a few more models/vehicles before I actually got to his main lines.

All in all an enjoyable game and one which was more challenging for me than it looks which I can put squarely on my shoulders ^^. Vince still needs to practice unfortunately – movement is key kiddo!