1000 pts - Campaign Rd 2 - 1st Mission

[lippy]

Hi Guys,

So I played in my local campaign's second round last night. There are 3 missions with differing objectives.

Last night was essentially Capture the Hill, with the army with the most Wounds at the top of the hill at the end of round 6 wins (if anyone misunderstands that, if you had 30 x 1wound models still standing then you have 30 wounds on top).

I got Slaughtered by Space Wolves with a splash of SM allies. He had (forgive me for not knowing proper unit names):

1 x Stdrd Tactical Squad;
1 x Bloodclaws in DropPod;
3 x Fast Attack ..... Wolves (damn I've forgotten their name!)
2 x Landspeeders with Typhoon Missiles;
1 x Devastator sqd w/2 x Flak ML;
1 x Command sqd with nothing special other than a telepathy psyker.

My list was:

CCS
Carapace; 2 x Plasma; Vox;
Boltgun;
MoO;
Chimera - Dozerblade

Platoon
PCS - Vox; Missile L.;
Inf.1 - Autocannon;
Inf.2 + 3 - 2 x AC; Vox
30 x Conscripts - Commissar

Vets
Grenadiers; 2 x Plasma;
Valkyrie - MRP

Scions
2xMelta

LR Exterminator - Dozer Blade


So I wasn't wiped out, but at turn 3&4 it was clear how it would go...
I made some tactical errors - My Warlord trait was 3x Outflanking units, which I gave to CCS; Exterminator & Conscripts (which now I'm not sure I was actually able to do!?). They sporadically arrived and almost all of them rolled onto the wrong flank... This meant that rather than rushing my conscripts onto the hill I sent the platoon up there instead, wasting my ACs...
My CCS' orders had no use as they were too far away from everyone by the time they came on;
And the LR came on at turn 4 and his movement was blocked by the conscripts who'd been sucked into combat with the attack wolves.
Plus the mandatory rubbish rolls... Over 3 turns, My MoO rolled 2 1s when trying to pen the LandSpeeders, and my meltas did the same at point blank with the marines.

Bearing in mind that this was a random opponent, so All Comers list -
Was this list really as bad as it felt last night, or was my Generalling just bad? I really struggled with getting past his armour saves, and knew I would but I hoped that the number of bodies I had would mean capturing the hill would be mine.

[cdrwattz]

Hey Lippy,

By the sounds of it you know where you went wrong.
I guess a suggestion for the future would be to ask yourself. Ok the CCS (for example), what is it's use. Is is support or aggressive? Then go through all your units. That way when you get to rolling your warlord traits you can see wether it is really going to enhance your army or not.

Back at the start of 6th I play a friend of mine. He's an excellent player with heaps of disposable income so he's always got the best toys. I went up against his Dark Eldar and he happened to roll that trait. So he placed his warlord and massive beast pack in reserve. It showed it fairly late (round 3) and by that stage I'd wasted most of his transports and the rest of his army. I was then able to bring everything else to bare on this warlords squad. He couldn't stand up to pretty much my whole army firing at his one unit.

Basically if you aren't relying on a warlord trait you'll be pretty safe.

If I were you I'd go over the list again. The MoO in my opinion is a waste of points. He's in a chimera as my guess is that he'd be moving around which means he can't use his ability. (Unless i'm mistakes but I pretty sure he can't being a heavy S9 ap3 large blast). Valkyries don't impress me that much either. Love to see you running those conscripts!

Good luck for the next round.

-Cdr.Wattz-

[tallarncommander]

Yes, outflanking is a viable tactic when you roll that trait, but it can be risky. Since I'm a Tallarn guard army I often used Captain Al'Rahem and his out-flanking platoon back in 5th and 6th editions. I quickly found that if I made his platoon too big then the rest of my army would crumble. I eventually found the sweet spot at about 35 troopers, a chimera, some plasma guns, and some meltaguns.

I'm a bit put off on reserves units as a whole as of late. I'm in a league now and I've been running a vendetta and 2 stormtrooper squads alongside my regular troops and tanks. I intentionally didn't take the fleet officer who improves my reserves rolls because I wanted a chance at my vendetta coming on the board after enemy flyers. However, that was probably a bad call. After 4 games, my vendettas and stormies are often showing up too late to do any good (they dribble in over turns 2 through 4). I think I'll put reserves units on hiatus for awhile. Then when I go back to using reserves units, I'll consider adding an officer of the fleet (or two) and I'll probably take that augur array that prevents our stormtroopers from scattering. Mine have been scattering all over the place (2 squads have killed a total of 1 crisis suit and 5 scout marines in 4 games!) before getting blown away.

Tallarn Commander
IG, "We are many. They are few."

[lippy]

Hi Guys,

thanks for your input!

cdrwattz - when I built the list my plan was for the CCS to boss the hell out of everyone and rally them up the hill. when I got the outflank rule I completely changed my mind and ended up ruining my strategy because of it.
I illegally reserved the conscripts, but that was to my detriment with them turn 3, on the wrong flank and being sucked into a combat which was always going to be lost.
Outflanking the exterminator wasn't too bad, but again not showing up til turn 4 and ending up being blocked by the combat. Therewere targets in his range though so it wasn't a complete disaster.
The Valk was to help serve the purpose of dropping the vets on the hill late on (which worked beautifully apart from arriving on turn 3 not 4) and then any support it provided was a bonus. Also the first time I've used a Valkyrie, but 1000pt limit made me think it would be a good chance.
The MoO, you're right, and would've been a waste, but the CCS drove on in a corner (major scenery blocking 3/4s of the board edge), where they couldn't order the platoon successfully and they had line of sight and range of the enemy so the MoO was perhaps my VIP (strange I know!).

Tallarn - I'm now thinking the same, other than scions and Vendetta. Scions always seem to do really well for me. In this, they landed smack where they needed and soaked up two turns of fire (but they missed with their meltas at pointblank which sucked). and the gravchuting vets hardly scattered and did a job so I was quite pleased.
I think I try to reserve things that I deem valuable/important in my list. or perhaps bank on them showing up right place right time and killing everything. however whilst playing this game you learn how to deal with disappointment, especially with guardsmen trying to wound on 5s and then waiting for them to roll a 2+ or 3+ depending.

More aggressive tactics required I've decided!