Post by antipope on Oct 9, 2010 6:02:25 GMT -5
I faced Stefanos and his Blood Angels again in order to play another game from the Battle Missions book. We rolled for Surprise Attack. This mission is particularly nasty since I have to cram all my units in the middle of the board and wait for my opponent to just come on the first turn (which he gets automatically) and blow them apart. And Stefanos learned from our previous encounters that the best way to deal with me is to include as many melta weapons as possible.
His army list was like this pretty much: Corbulo, Librarian (with lance and cover save), sanguinary priest, 10 man assault squad with 3 inferno pistols, 8 man assault squad in Land Raider with 2 inferno pistols, 2 x 5 man assault squad in twin lasbacks, demolisher, predator. So a lot of anti tank potential there.
I tried to place my tanks as best as possible but since they had to be 6'' away from each other they could barely fit on the table. And since he could come from every table edge he wanted there was no way I could place them in vantage points. I tried to cram the artillery in the middle of the table and the more expendable vehicles towards the outer rim.
Then his first turn started and moved all of his army from the table edges:
The big assault squad with the sanguinary priest landed next to my veteran squads chimera ready to blow it to smithereens. They managed to score 3 penetrating hits but the highest they could roll on the damage chart was wrecked. Veterans escaped relatively unharmed from the back door:
His other assault squad jumped off the Land Raider hell bent on destroying my HQ chimera and then assaulting the command squad inside (since it was worth 3 kill points). After the melta/las/lance fussilade he only managed to roll wrecked again. Command Squad managed to leave their vehicle unscathed but botched their pinning test. I knew officers were cowards!
On the right side of the board things were looking so rosy for me either. Predator and demolished opened fire upon the Vendetta which managed to stay alive albeit immobilised and not being able to shot next turn.
On the south side, the Platoon Command chimera somehow managed to survive but the Bane Wolf was blown up by melta power.
I felt quite lucky since this could have been much worse for me. Two wrecked chimeras, a dead bane wolf and an immobilised vendetta somehow ain't that bad. Plus the fact that he didn't manage to assault any of my squads.
When my turn came I knew I had to do some real damage. Platoon command tried to fry some space marines alive but only managed to kill one. Then they launched a suicidal assault but managed to stay in battle since they were stubborn due to the missions special rule although they lost 2 of their comrades.
Veteran squad moved back to the charred remains of what used to be their chimera. They opened up on the assault squad, aided by the awesome firepower of the Medusas. Not being able to withstand all that carnage, the Blood Angels went to ground leaving only two of them cowering in fear.
The Hydras destroyed one of the razorbacks and I managed to destroy the predators main gun with a lucky multilaser shot on the side armour.
On his next turn his Land Raider assault squad charged into my veterans and made short work of them. Unfortunately only a couple were left and they passed their Ld check since they were stubborn which was all the worst for me since I couldn't shot them next turn. He detached his characters and went after my vehicles but to no avail. To be honest he did some abysmal dice rolls in the rest of the game. He rammed on of my tanks with the on the back side armour doing a S8 hit but then rolled a "1" for the penetration. He shot three tanks scoring three penetrating hits and managed to roll three "2" for all his damage table results. Shot with two inferno pistols from close range to my chimera and roll both "1". It was so bad from a point on it wasn't even funny.
In the following turns my command squad shot at the combined unit that corbulo and librarian formed, killing both of them with the meltas due to instant death. Then they scraped an charge from the 8 man assault squad (by an inch). When finally the assault squad finally reached them it was much depleted (3-4 guys left) so they endured three round of close combat. In the end they managed to beat their attackers with only the company commander left. He then run away to safety so he never got the 3 kill points from him. Amazingly heroic (or lucky some would say) stuff!
His Land Raider was constantly ramming and shooting at my soft heavy support tanks but only managed to kill the Manticore in the end.
With the combined firepower of my chimeras and infantry squads I killed his small assault squads and finished off the remaining two guys from his jump pack squad.
Final result I had 15 kill points and Stefanos had 11. I couldn't believe that I manage to fluke a win since this mission was very much against me. To his credit though he had some very unlucky dice rolls. We still had a fun evening gaming and that's what counts.
His army list was like this pretty much: Corbulo, Librarian (with lance and cover save), sanguinary priest, 10 man assault squad with 3 inferno pistols, 8 man assault squad in Land Raider with 2 inferno pistols, 2 x 5 man assault squad in twin lasbacks, demolisher, predator. So a lot of anti tank potential there.
I tried to place my tanks as best as possible but since they had to be 6'' away from each other they could barely fit on the table. And since he could come from every table edge he wanted there was no way I could place them in vantage points. I tried to cram the artillery in the middle of the table and the more expendable vehicles towards the outer rim.
Then his first turn started and moved all of his army from the table edges:
The big assault squad with the sanguinary priest landed next to my veteran squads chimera ready to blow it to smithereens. They managed to score 3 penetrating hits but the highest they could roll on the damage chart was wrecked. Veterans escaped relatively unharmed from the back door:
His other assault squad jumped off the Land Raider hell bent on destroying my HQ chimera and then assaulting the command squad inside (since it was worth 3 kill points). After the melta/las/lance fussilade he only managed to roll wrecked again. Command Squad managed to leave their vehicle unscathed but botched their pinning test. I knew officers were cowards!
On the right side of the board things were looking so rosy for me either. Predator and demolished opened fire upon the Vendetta which managed to stay alive albeit immobilised and not being able to shot next turn.
On the south side, the Platoon Command chimera somehow managed to survive but the Bane Wolf was blown up by melta power.
I felt quite lucky since this could have been much worse for me. Two wrecked chimeras, a dead bane wolf and an immobilised vendetta somehow ain't that bad. Plus the fact that he didn't manage to assault any of my squads.
When my turn came I knew I had to do some real damage. Platoon command tried to fry some space marines alive but only managed to kill one. Then they launched a suicidal assault but managed to stay in battle since they were stubborn due to the missions special rule although they lost 2 of their comrades.
Veteran squad moved back to the charred remains of what used to be their chimera. They opened up on the assault squad, aided by the awesome firepower of the Medusas. Not being able to withstand all that carnage, the Blood Angels went to ground leaving only two of them cowering in fear.
The Hydras destroyed one of the razorbacks and I managed to destroy the predators main gun with a lucky multilaser shot on the side armour.
On his next turn his Land Raider assault squad charged into my veterans and made short work of them. Unfortunately only a couple were left and they passed their Ld check since they were stubborn which was all the worst for me since I couldn't shot them next turn. He detached his characters and went after my vehicles but to no avail. To be honest he did some abysmal dice rolls in the rest of the game. He rammed on of my tanks with the on the back side armour doing a S8 hit but then rolled a "1" for the penetration. He shot three tanks scoring three penetrating hits and managed to roll three "2" for all his damage table results. Shot with two inferno pistols from close range to my chimera and roll both "1". It was so bad from a point on it wasn't even funny.
In the following turns my command squad shot at the combined unit that corbulo and librarian formed, killing both of them with the meltas due to instant death. Then they scraped an charge from the 8 man assault squad (by an inch). When finally the assault squad finally reached them it was much depleted (3-4 guys left) so they endured three round of close combat. In the end they managed to beat their attackers with only the company commander left. He then run away to safety so he never got the 3 kill points from him. Amazingly heroic (or lucky some would say) stuff!
His Land Raider was constantly ramming and shooting at my soft heavy support tanks but only managed to kill the Manticore in the end.
With the combined firepower of my chimeras and infantry squads I killed his small assault squads and finished off the remaining two guys from his jump pack squad.
Final result I had 15 kill points and Stefanos had 11. I couldn't believe that I manage to fluke a win since this mission was very much against me. To his credit though he had some very unlucky dice rolls. We still had a fun evening gaming and that's what counts.
