My opponent was playing a guard list similar to mine, it was:
Lord Commissar w/Carapace Armor, Power Sword
Marbo
Penal legion
Veteran Squad w/Harker, 2xMeltas, 1xHeavy Flamer, Demolitions, Chimera w/Heavy Stubber
Veteran Squad w/2xMeltas, 1xMissile Launcher, Demolitions, Chimera w/Heavy Stubber
Veteran Squad w/2xMelta, 1xFlamer, Lascannon, Carapace armor, Chimera w/Heavy Stubber
Veteran Squad w/2xMelta, 1xFlamer, 1xMissile Launcher, Carapace Armor, Chimera w/Heavy Stubber
2xVendettas
2xLeman Russ Battle Tanks w/Heavy bolter sponsons, hull lascannons, heavy stubbers
1xDemolisher w/hull lascannon, Plasma cannon sponsons
My list was the same one from this post.
Getting first turn was going to be very important in this game. I expected an air battle from the vendettas, and a simultaneous ground fight from the tanks. And that is exactly what happened.
I won the roll off and elected to go first. I deployed my Vendettas centrally, and my two demolishers were off to the right, giving cover to my chimera wall that was also on the right. Scenario rules allowed for one troop unit to outflank, and you could choose which board edge it game in on when it arrived from reserves, so I put a unit of melta veterans in reserve to help out al'rahem's platoon. Finally, the manticore was stuck beneath a building in my deployment zone, shown below.
He deployed across from me, fairly spread out across the board. He kept harker's squad in reserve, to outflank, along with another veteran squad as his designated special outflanking unit, per the scenario rules.
We rolled off on scout moving, which I won as well. I scouted my vendettas to the left, to draw line of sight on his vendettas for our air duel. He scouted back and away with his. We both moved far enough to gain a cover save. He failed to seize, and we were off.
I advanced my demolishers up the right flank, rolling extra movement since i as out of range for shooting anyway. The front demolisher popped smoke. My chimeras stayed tucked in, I tried to circle the wagons and provide AV12 armor on all sides to minimize the damage from is outflanking units come turn 2.
My vendettas lined up shots on his Vendettas, but failed to do any damage, mostly due to rolling 1s and 2s to penetrate. I was not doing well with the air battle. Luckily, the manticore picked up the slack and knocked one of his Vendettas out of the sky via an immobilize result.
This shot shows the table at the end of turn one. His return fire wrecked both of my Vendettas, giving him air superiority. I believe his Vendetta knocked off one of my Vendettas, and the other fell to a battle cannon shot.
My front demolisher was also shaken, but nothing else happened.
Turn two, al'rahem's platoon showed up, and I brought them all in to his deployment zone. Al'rahem's squad popped open a chimera, killing most of the squad inside to the explosion. They passed their pinning test, and their leadership test. Al charged in after that, won combat, but that squad STILL held their ground.
Harker's unit arrived from reserve, but came in on his deployment zone, right in the midst of my combined infantry squads. They took heavy casualties this round. His battle tanks and vendettas focus fired my demolishers, but only managed to stun and shake them. So far I had lost the air battle, and the ground offensive was slowing to a halt. Al's squad finally prevailed in the close combat, and consolidated towards the enemy vendetta.
During turn three, my melta veterans came on the board, and I chose to bring them on behind the vendetta. They weren't in melta range, but strength 8 on back armor 10 would still be enough. Al's squad advanced to within melta rage of the battle tank sitting in front of the vendetta. My demolishers advanced as well, but didn't cause any significant damage. Combined fire from Al'rahem, the newly arrived melta veterans, and the Manticore killed off the Vendetta and one of the three battle tanks, silencing a large portion of his right flank.
During his turn three Marbo showed up and tried to assassinated Al'rahem. His demo charge flew wide, and only killed one soldier, but it was still enough for a leadership, which I believe Al failed, but he would regroup from it next round.
His outflanking squad arrived in my deployment zone and ganked my manticore. Obviously, the manticore had turned out to be the MVP so far to warrant such a strong reaction. He also remembered at this time that he had a penal legion squad that wasn't deployed, so we decided to let him bring it on to his deployment zone next turn. He also stunned the chimera of my veterans in his DZ.
During turn four I mobilized my back field to deal with this new threat. Long range meltas and massed multilaser fire barely touched the enemy Chimera, but my 6 plasma shots penetrated and exploded the vehicle, taking three veterans down in the explosion. My veterans in his DZ advanced to a nearby ruin, realizing that their stunned chimera was more of a death trap than a protective barrier. Al and friends moved into the crater left by an enemy Leman russ.
My demolishers, now free to move and shoot since the vehicles that were suppressing them had been silenced, turned on one of the two remaining battle tanks and wrecked it. The ground war was slowly turning my way.
In his turn four, his last remaining leman russ tried to advance on my DZ, and took a shot at one of my chimeras. His veteran squad in my deployment zone took a missile shot at Straken's chimera and stunned it.
His penal legion arrived and finished off my infantry squad that had been taking a beating since turn two.
Marbo charged into the invading veterans, cutting down 4 of the, before getting clubbed in the back of the head by a shotgun.
Turn 5 I made the final push by my demolishers into his DZ, supported by the veteran squad. The penal legion took the brunt of their fire, due to scatter rolls drifting off the enemy chimera, but they did manage to destroy the chimera closest to the middle edge of the table, thus denying him any chance to take the center from me.
I sent two veteran squads to secure the center of the table, one of which ramped over a wrecked vendetta to deploy meltaguns at melta range against an advancing battle tank, which didn't survive the ensuing melta volley.
He made a last attempt to get rid of the demolishers, even though I still had two more units contesting his DZ, but his demo charge sailed right back onto is squad. It was so peripheral that we didn't even resolve the damage.
I had a solid hold on the middle of the table, giving me the primary objective, and his force was in tatters, while mine was still in good fighting condition, do I easily took the tertiary objective(kill points). However, for secondary, I was contesting his DZ, and even though he only sent ten men into my DZ, I wasn't able to clear him out.
He had one missile launcher left, with one wound remaining. My heavy flamer rolled a 1 to wound him, and he survived three meltaguns and two shotguns. Straken's squad was still stunned, so they were unable to provide any support.
It was a solid victory, a good start to the day. I took 14 out of 20 points, and gave up 0 points my opponent.
After losing the air battle I was afraid I would lose the game, but my demolishers proved to be resilient enough to hold the line until support arrived. This would be the game they performed best in.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Nice report; the lighting in the pictures is pretty cool as a result of your flash and the dim light from the room. Great job hanging in there after your air cavalry got picked apart.
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