Monday, November 23, 2009

A game for the ages!



Last nights game was a real knock down drag out event, it was an epic “Slobber Knocker” of a great time! I was trying out both the Seeker bikes and the Reaver siege troops. So we played 2000 points to facilitate both units as they weigh in at over 300pts each.

My list was as follows

HQ 165
Titus the Butcher
165

Elite 115
3 Terminators, 3 Combi-Melta, 1 power fist
115

Troops 961
2x 10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 melta guns, Icon of Chaos Glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
Rhino, extra armor
270

5 Chaos Marines (objective sitters)
Plasma gun
90

8 Reaver Siege Marines
Heavy Flamer, Icon of Chaos Glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
Karpathian Rhino
Extra armor,
321

Fast Attack 308
5 Seekers
Aspiring Champion, Pfist, 2 Melta guns, Icon of Chaos Glory
1 Infernal Seeker Bike
308

Heavy Support 450
2x Defiler
150

2 Obliterators
150


My buddy Greg is in from outta town for Thanksgiving, so I will get a chance to redeem myself! He brought his brand new Steel Legion guard army.

HQ
CCS: 4 meltaguns, carapace armour, Chimera w/ multi-laser and heavy flamer

Troops
Infantry Platoon
PCS: vox, 2 grenade launchers, autocannon

2x Infantry Squad: vox, grenade launcher, autocannon

3x Veteran Squad: 3 meltaguns, Chimera w/ multi-laser, heavy flamer

Veteran Squad: 3 plasma guns, carapace armour, Chimera w/ multi-laser, heavy flamer

Fast Attack
Scout Sentinel Squadron:
2 Scout Sentinels w/ autocannons

2 Vendettas

Heavy Support
LR Squadron:
2 Leman Russ w/heavy bolter sponsons

LR Squadron:
2 Demolisher w/ heavy flamer

Ordnance Battery:
2 Griffons

The mission was Capture and Control with Spearhead deployment.

He won the roll off and decided to go first. He deployed everything on board. I held the Terminators and Seekers in reserve.

For once I actually stole the initiative! Seemed like the Dark Gods were smiling on me.

In the first turn my Oblits downed a Vendetta and the Defilers killed 1 Chimera and stunned another. Titus and all the Rhinos rushed forward with two blowing smoke obscuring the third and Titus. He responded by Nuking the Obils with the second Vendetta and LR’s as I failed my 4+ cover saves. Then he destroyed the BC on one of the defilers. By the end of turn one all of the rhinos were stunned, thank goodness I took the extra armor so the advance could continue.

The second turn saw no reserves. The BC-less Defiler stun the second Vendetta, while the other defiler smacked down a second Chimera that exploded and killed three vets. Lucky for me there was a large rocky outcrop that I’d be able to hide two of my Rhinos behind. Unfortunately the third Rhino and Titus could not reach the outcrop and was destroyed in a hale of IG fire the squad that was inside was whittled down to 7 models losing it’s icon from the rest of the guard shooting. (I couldn’t seem to make a 4+ FnP or Cover save for the entire turn) I lost the Defiler with the BC to Leman Russ fire. His advance on my objective was getting close.

Turn 3 both the Seekers and Terminators show up, the Seekers race forward and butcher the Griffon battery and the Terminators got the perfect scatter 2 inches behind the Demolisher Sqdn. They nuked one and destroy the cannon on the other! I rushed the Reavers forward disembarked then fried 8 Guardsmen with the Heavy Flamer, the rest of the guard sqd are mopped up by pistol fire! The squad of 7 CSM’s destroys one of the dismounted vet squads with bolter fire. The mounted squad does a drive-by and destroys the Sentinels. The defiler shakes the Vendetta, so it cannot fire for another turn!

He kills the defiler in his turn with the LR sqdn. He destroys the mounted squads rhino, but the squad weathers the flashlight and autocannon fire unscathed. The command squad lights up the Seeker bikes killing three. The two Chimera mounted squads disembark and rain hell on my 5 man squad of CSM’s they manage to kill two, I lose two more CSM’s from the 7 man squad luckily I pass both leadership tests. Amazingly other than the Heavy Flamer toting Demolisher nothing else shot at the Terminators.

Turn 4 my errors are grievous in this one. I move the Melta toting 10 man CSM squad forward to rapid fire their bolters as I thought they were to far away to move shoot pistols and assault, I was wrong and would pay in the bottom of the 4th. While they did kill 8 guardsmen who passed their LD test, they left themselves with their arse hangin’ in the wind. The Reavers move up and assault and wipe out the PCS. The Seekers decide to kill the Command squad. The now 5 man melta CSM squad assaults the last of the Chimera-less Vets win combat and run ‘em down. My objective holders kill 3 Vets from one of the two squads that are set to assault them. I assault the Demolisher with the Terminators and immobilize it.

He moves nothing in his turn other than spinning the LR sqdn around to bring the pain to my arse swinging melta sqd. After 18 heavy bolter and two BC shots the CSM squad is vaporized! He assaults my 3 man squad on my objective and killed all three. He now holds both objectives.

Turn 5 I assault the last infantry platoon squad off his objective with my Seeker Bikes, but my Reavers and withered Melta CSMs are both about an inch short of being able to claim his objective. The game ends on a die roll at the end of his turn. Victory to Greg and the Steel Legion!

So all in all a fantastically tough game lost by a mere inch! It was nice to be able to throw down with Greg as I only get to see him 2 or 3 times a year since he moved to Oregon.

After looking at what happened in this game I may drop the Defilers for some more long range AT, which I feel I am severely lacking. I'm just not sure what to use, because I don't wanna spam Oblits. With the tank heavy options that the guard have now I need a little more reach out an touch them in my list. I could just be over reacting.


Unfortunately I have no pics as the idiots at the camera repair shop seem to have misplaced my camera that they supposedly fixed. Expect to hear more on that later.

4 comments:

  1. Defilers can be very good. Perhaps play a few more games against guard before swapping them out? I'd be more tempted to think twice about the seekers myself. Reach is always an issue for chaos against guard: we just have to be clever about how we go about attacking them :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Havocs perhaps? Anyway, when are you going to drop this codex on the rest of us, I would love to playtest it. I would also get some good use out of my Black Legionnares.

    ReplyDelete
  3. First off, your buddy was really able to squeeze a lot of heavy tanks into his army, and still maintain 4 mounted vet squads...impressive.

    I would play a few more games first, but I would recommend Havocs. With Autocannons and Lascannons, they can effectively eliminate both AV12 and AV14.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the comments guys. This was really one of the best-darned games I’ve had in ages.

    JJ, I agree that Defilers can be fantastic, but I really felt like I was on the back foot after the Oblits went down. I’ll definitely give them another go, but out of spite not in our rematch Thanksgiving night! I’ve really been enjoying using Soul Reapers Chaos Bikers at our reduced PV of 28pts. Maybe I’ll just ditch the Seekers as a unit and make the Assault bike and add on to regular bikers. Because the Seekers are a lot of points for what they do, just like normal CSM bikers outta the codex.

    OST, a squad of Havocs and a Predator with LC sponsons may just be the ticket here. I’ll put together a playtest Word doc and post it up the end of the week or early next week. All I ask is for you to give me you honest feedback after using it. I’ll also credit you and anyone else who helps in the forward of the finished product.

    MG, Yeah his list really brings it hard! It definitely had me reeling when I saw the list, I had to really think about my deployment. Which is a good thing, but damn 4 tanks with AV14, and 6 pie plates had me worried. Havocs are definitely an solid option going forward.

    -Jim

    ReplyDelete