Day 2 has arrived! It looked like I was playing Julian the night before (would rather play him later in the day ;)) but ended up getting Rohnan whom I hadn't played before, but know. He's had a good tourney record past year and a half and was given a special reward for this (don't know if it's been announced so not saying what it is...)! So first congrats to him. Second, time to beat him :P.
I had gone over what I knew of the lists the night before with some brief thoughts (I knew there was a double Stormraven BA, Scarabfarm, Julian's Necrons, Fatecrusher & Rohnan's Marines) and the first two missions were the best possible for me against all of these lists - no Kill Points at all. Game 4 was table quarters primary with objectives secondary and Dawn of War deployment. Rohnan's list looked the following whilst mine can be found here:
Space Marines
Libby w/Null Zone, Gate
3x5x TH/SS Terminators
2x10x Marines (flamer, meltagun, 2x missiles, 1x Rhino)
3x Godhammers (2x MM)
So some heavy targets there to break - lucky I have lots of meltaguns. Remember though, it takes six meltaguns at melta range to break open a Land Raider. That's a large part of my army so I really want Rohnan to come to me and bounce off my moving tanks with his Terminators. Otherwise I'll advance up steadily, using terrain in midfield and smoke chains to ensure I can protect myself from counter-attacks (i.e. the classic V). This also has the advantage of penning his Land Raiders in (which are a nice chunk of points) and pinning Rohnan on the back of the table unless he can break through me. So, to the game.
Depoyment
I won roll-off (again) and give it to Rohnan (again). He takes the top of screen and deploys all his Tacticals in combat squads around a central ruin piece - this gives him good reaching fire for two missiles and the ability to move all the little squads back and forth across two quarters all game long. I deploy my scouts in the back left on an objective and it's time for first turn. I don't seize.
Also, I got shoved on sun affected tables again. So please excuse those photos...
Space Marines Turn 1
All three Land Raiders roll on, don't pop smoke. Tacticals group up behind ruins where they are quite hard to see but Missiles have great LoS of the entire board essentially. Two Land Raiders (inc. Libby) on the right, one on the left.
Blood Angels Turn 1
I respond by splitting my deployment as well. Remember, I want those TH/SS to bounce off tanks and for me to turn around and smack them with everything I have (lots of little shooting, templates and meltaguns and follow-up assault if necessary). My Attack Bikes could make or break this game and Rohnan knows this so I decide to be a bity risky and throw the unit on the left forward into the ruins. This puts them well within strike range of the Terminators from the Land Raider there and could potentially allow me to trade the ABs for TH/SS - I'll do that thanks.
Everything else deploys very defensively - waiting lascannon + Missile fire next turn. Mephiston is hanging out on the right where the majority of the TH/SS are though since I'm trying to bait some TH/SS out to play early on the left, he perhaps should have gone there and then leapt around the back to much all those Tacticals. Time will tell!
Space Marines Turn 2
Land Raiders on the right shuffle back, trying to stay away from fully extended melta. The Land Raider on the left goes straight forward however and drops off the TH/SS who line up those beady little Attack Bikes. Tacticals ensure they are all hidden and then lascannon & missile fire goes off. One Attack Bike on the right dies but everything else fails to damage or is covered away.
The TH/SS assault through cover and smash the bikes (obviously) and consolidate within the ruins.
Blood Angels Turn 2
Those TH/SS are in the open! Perfect. I jump my ASM out (Priest stays in) and move everything around so I'm getting two templates and lots of ASM shooting through the windows at the TH/SS. I kept the gap between the RBacks just big enough for a 25mm base to fit through but not the 40mm bases of the Terminators.
The right flank swings around the terrain and again has one pop smoke to chain up the cover - I'm not going to over extend myself. Preds + Dread wiggle around for best fire support positions (through windows @ TH/SS mostly) and shooting begins. Shooting drops three of the TH/SS and does nothing else. They voluntarily fail their morale (forgot about Combat Tactics...DUH!) and move out of range from the ASM and far enough away from the Flamerback to not keep running. Big mistake on my part.
Space Marines Turn 3
The TH/SS on the left turn around and come right back towards the guys who shot them to pieces. That 25mm gap...well I had a base sticking out so one of the TH/SS could contact one of the guys,woops! On the right Rohnan decides he doesn't want to be blocked in by my tanks so moves forward and jumps all the TH/SS out to charge the RBack wall. He tries to shoot it open first with las, melta and missiles but fails so the TH/SS charge in.
On the left they are able to wreck the RBack and kill two ASM - who stay in combat *sadface*. On the right...nothing. They all miss thanks to needing 6's and are sitting nice and pretty clumped around my vehicles.
Rohnan could really have waited a turn longer here - we discussed this later. I still would have needed to fully extend my guys to reach his Land Raiders if I wanted the meltapistols to be in melta range. If I fail, which is likely (remember, six meltas on average drop a Land Raider), my guys are strung out and ready to be smacked around by TH/SS so I still had another turn of moving forward and smoke chaining where he could have tried to shoot down a vehicle. However, he was afraid I was going to bottle him up but the only way that would really happen was if I dropped both LR, unlikely.
Blood Angels Turn 3
Time to counter-attack. The TH/SS are out of their Land Raiders which means I am fighting them on my terms and it only took one unit dying to do it (Attack Bikes). On the right the Flamerbacks all move around for as many template fun times as possible with the ASM jumping out and eveloping the TH/SS - no combat tactics for you! They also set themselves up to shoot at the Land Raiders if things go very well. Mephy jumps in between the squads to assault whatever he needs to - I put him in a poor position though because if he doesn't assault, he's in the open. Flamerback which is shaken tank shocks through Termies on left who manage to stun it with a DoG.
On the left the ASM not in combat jump in with the Priest to the undamaged RBack and move into the ruins to hide and put melta pressure on the Land Raider there. The lone Bike left swings round from the right to the centre of the board to shoot at the Land Raider there with the Dread & Preds setting up firing positions as best as possible.
Shooting opens up and one squad of Termies on the right is dropped completely, the other is taken to two strong. The MM is knocked off one Land Raider and the remaining Termies fail their Ld but don't run far enough away from Mephy who assaults them, kills 0 and takes four wounds back. Ouch! On the left versus the TH/SS, the ASM manage to drop one but lose one of their own. Combat goes on.
Charging mephy wasn't really needed but because he was in a poor position, he was about to take lascannons to the face and it was unlikely the TH/SS would live enough to smack him around. They did so woops. In hindsight having Mephy on the left side would have theoretically allowed me to deal with those TH/SS and then have Mephy go nuts in Rohnan's backfield.
Space Marine Turn 4
Two Land Raiders on the right bail out from melta range. One tactical squad joins the Libby in side his Land Raider whilst the other combat squad jumps in the Rhino and moves left towards the rear objective there. The final Land Raider reverses a little bit and aims its guns through the windows at my RBack.
Shooting sees the lone Attack Bike die as well as the RBack on the left. Extra fire goes into the disembarked Marines but they keep on trucking. In combat the TH/SS lose one of their own but bash Mephiston to the ground and the TH/SS on the left drops another ASM but combat continues at its stately pace.
Blood Angels Turn 4
Poor Mephiston! The Razorback without a weapon tank shocks the lone TH/SS on the right to limit LoS to the objective there. The TH/SS passes but doesn't DoG this time. The ASM there then move out to engage the enemy - one squad legs it on foot with the Priest since their ride is immoblised, another moves up to engage the Terminator but is far enough back they won't have to wrap around and take terrain checks (his base his hanging over the edge of area terrain) and the final squad jumps into their RBack which moves into the ruins from which they can threaten multiple places next turn. The disembarked ASM on the left extend their melta out of cover to shoot at the Land Raider there.
Said Land Raider gets shaken but the rest of firepower does nothing so the ASM assault the TH/SS on the left who lives and kills one of my guys who stay thanks to Red Thirst. TH/SS on the left wins combat finally and consolidates towards Scouts.
Space Marines Turn 5
Shaken Land Raider runs away whilst the Rhino moves onto top left objective. Rear right Land Raider shuffles a bit back to get pure LoS on the squad there whilst the central Land Raider drops the Tacticals + Libby to go help out the TH/SS stuck on the right. The entire army opens up on the ASM in the bottom right and drop all but the Sarge and Priest from the squad.
TH/SS in the top left assaults the Scouts and makes them flee whilst the Libby + Tacticals manage to drop one ASM who fail to do any damage in return so combat goes on.
This was an important turn for Rohnan as I bounced off him after he bounced off me. He still had three Land Raiders (260, 250 and 130 VP respectively) for table quarters but only one was anywhere near midfield which meant I had a chance to grab a quarter from him. Rohnan was too afraid of melta in this case since there were only two full squads left at this point - enough to drop a Land Raider potentially but not anything approaching reliability.
Blood Angels Turn 5
The lone Sarge in the top right jumps into his ride which parks itself on the objective. The Scouts run off the table and the Dread + Pred nearby line up that single TH/SS - die you bad person die! The ASM in the top left extend themselves out of cover again to melta the Rhino and manage to immobilise it. The big decision though...what to do with the final ASM squad. They jump out to go help the ASM in combat with the Tacticals, Libby and TH/SS with the Priest from the diminished ASM squad joining them. I really should have moved them back with their transport here as it would have gained me another objective which unless they finished off the combat in the centre, Rohnan wouldn't be able to get to. Even if they did, I could then move elsewhere or shoot and assault them. Win/win for me either way.
The right most Predator moved 18" to block the LR's movement through clear terrain into the bottom right table quarter forcing it to either stay out or go over terrain.
Shooting sees the lone TH/SS dead and combat wounds the Libby and drops a Tactical but the Sarge in the diminished squad dies. Combat goes on!
Space Marines Turn 6
No pictures to finish anything off but everything stays pretty much the same anyway. Land Raiders fiddle to blast as much into RBack on objective as possible but fail to destroy it or MOVE WITHIN 3" OF THE OBJECTIVE. Woops.
Space Marines in top left get out of stricken Rhino and pistol whip + charge the ASM there but it's a drawn combat with both sides losing one. The big combat in the middle on the right continues as no one can gain an advantage but the TH/SS and Libby finally die for some extra VP.
Blood Angels Turn 6
Combats continue with nothing much happening and my vehicles making sure his Land Raiders re as blocked as possible. RBack on objective swivels to keep Land Raider as far away as possible and give the Sarge lots of options to jump out if it dies and still hide.
All is for nought however and game ends - we both own two Quarters and I own one objective so win on secondary. Good thing Rohnan didn't move that Land Raider though or I'd have lost by about 30 Victory Points! (assuming that lone melta pistol didn't drop the Land Raider lol).
Conclusion
A very tight a game and a lot of choices which could have drastically influenced the game one way or another. I really think starting Meph on the other side would have helped a lot as it would have potentially allowed him to get into the grill of the rear Tacticals and take away a lot of VP. At the same time, I feel if the Land Raiders had played more centrally it would have been a lot harder for to draw/win on primary though it might have given me more melta access depending when the Land Raiders moved there. As it was, nothing of Rohnan's was in my side at the end of the game.
His huge mistake of not moving his Land Raider on Turn 6 to contest the objective obviously changed the face of the game but at the same time, if I had moved my other ASM backwards rather than into the combat, this point would be moot :P. Regardless, it shows how close the game was - every decision was impacting what was going on though I still think Rohnan should have waited an extra turn before launching his TH/SS at my Razorbacks.
Anyway, excellent game. Glad it wasn't Kill Points since I only got three!
