I wasnt sure if I was going to get a game in today, but I brought my cases down just in case, I was there really to pick up my x2 Techmarines that had been mail ordered (and some more meltaguns) - and maybe the Chaos Demon books (ok and a unit of Plague Bearers ..)
After a few minutes one of the newer guys in the store turned up, I've played against him in a horrible doubles game, and gave him a lot of pointers - mainly on using tanks / fire arcs etc.. but also on assault moves and what not. So he's come down with his 1000 points today again, and thought I'd play him. I have to say 1000 points I had NO idea what to do, and tbh I think I had a pretty naff list in the end.
MY LIST
Libby - Lance / Shield
x3 RAS w/ MG + x2 AssCan Razors x1 LasPlas Razor
x2 Baal Predators
x1 Dakka Predator
I made this list in about 15 seconds, and didnt even like it when I made it. I knew I was facing terms so wanted a lot of AC's in there - I think I should have forgone the auto pred and had 4 troops with another las plas in there.
HIS LIST
x1 Logan
x5 Terms w/ combi flamer/melta/PF/WC/SS
Drop Pod
x5 Terms w/ same set up
Drop Pod
x5 terms w/ Cyclone Misile
x1 AutoLas Predator
First thing, that I knew but completely forgot, his logan drop pod is illegal, you can only fit x5 terms in it, which, as you will find out, would have changed the entire game. He is pretty new so he just loaded up a ton of WG to "deal with a bit of everything" and actually it turns out to be quite annoying.
THE SETUP
We played on a 4x4 table since it was only 1K, and basically set up with a piece of ruin's in each "quarter" - he got x1 huge ruin and x1 tiny ruin, I got x2 middle sized ruins. They were all set up dead center of a 2x2 tile.
MISSION: x2 Objectives
DEPLOY: Pitched Battle
x2 Objectives - His is placed in his larger ruin on my right hand side, about 2" from the front wall. I place mine in my left hand ruin, near the rear (my table edge) but right up against a wall.
I win to go first, and offered him first turn. Reasoning is that w/ my fast army I can roll in and contest his objective hopefully without return fire, also with him being in drop pods for 2/3 of his army, I'd doubt I'd get anything to get first turn shooting at, especially with so many AC's on my side. I felt I'd let him deploy, hope for a decent positioning w/ the drop pod then mow him down.
My objective placement was reasoned that I could leave tanks in cover behind and still hold it, or push out for shots on the center of the board and still "brush" the edge of the terrain and hold it. His was in such a position I could easily 18" move to the edge of the terrain and contest.
He deploys his cyclone squad "On his objective" hiding away, and his autolas sort of half in cover and half not (after I reminded him of how to get cover saves).
I was going to reserve, but didnt feel confident of getting enough stuff in a turn to take out squads of terms, I decided very early this would be a complete tester game for various things though. I setup terribly, I put the daaka and lasplas on the right flank, but quite far forward, and the AC razors by my objective in cover. The baals scouted and x1 popped smoke w/ the other giving it a cover save from the auto las. Really I should have hugged my board edge with the razors and put the preds right in the front so that he could not land and pop anything except AV11 or 13.
THE GAME:
TURN 1:
He drops in with his logan bomb beside my dakka pred and fires a combi melta tank huntered up and destroys it (grr) he tries to flame my baals but gets no where.His autolas wiffs as I make the cover save, and his cyclone, who moved through cover to get a shot, misses both.
In my T1 I basically fan out with my baals coming to the center of my edge, the las plas right on my board edge, and then the x2 razors moving up a bit as well. I fire everything into his squad and wipe out x5 terms and Logan down to 1 wound. If he had 4 terms in that pod like he should have, Logan would now be dead - as his last term to die was a PF/SS guard. I also managed to shake his las plas with a single hunter killer that I took.
TURN 2:
He forgot to roll for reserves, but I let him drop it anyway as I wanted to practice vs drop pods. He puts it sort of in the center of my deployment and gets out. He actually brings quite a lot of fire to bear here, between Logan assaulting, and then a few combi shots I am pretty sure he takes down the las plas razor and kills 3 in the explosion (1,1,2 for armor!) I think he manages to stun the baals w/ 1 melta and a cyclone into side armor. This was really bad placement by me.
Now with logan and x5 terms back in my deployment I really need to get rid of these guys. I get my libby out to try and blood lance his droppod and terms, and MG/pistol his terms, the MG and Sarge of the now depleted squad are going to shoot at Logan. I manage to lance the pod and kill it, and drop a single wolf guy, the squad w/ its MG manages to drop 1 more I believe. I assault w/ both squads, the MGx2 guys into Logan and x5+libby into the terms. Logan obviously wins (I was hoping for either major wiffage or at least him taking the PF, nope), and the libby and wolfguard tie w/ 1 kill a piece.
TURN 3:
Logan goes near 1 of my baals and he tries to fire at my outside baal with the autolas and cyclone, doing nothing. Logan assaults the other baal and blows it to kingdom come (x2 tanks and x1 squad killed by him now - all with 1 wound) in combat he wins by 1 over my libby and I boxcar, they go off the board the next turn.
So my libby goes off the board (grr) but I bring some assault cannons to bear on the x3 wolf guard and Logan that remains, I finally manage to kill off Logan and kill 2 of the wolf guard, only his SS PF guard remains in my board edge, he still has a full squad of guard near his and his lasauto pred.
TURN 4:
He fires his auto las at my razor and does nothing, and his cyclone takes off the baals assault cannon. He forgets to move his guard w/ the SS I begrudgingly let him move, and he goes into cover near my objective.
I move my empty AC razor around the corner to try and clean off that SS guard, but do nothing. This guy has made a save every turn against rending. The other AC hangs out on my objective as I dont want to risk leaving these guys out in the open if he gets a explosion etc.. The baal moves out of LOS of the lasplas, and tries to pot shot at the cyclone guys, manages to drop 2 guys thanks to 6 hits 5 wounds!
TURN 5:
He moves his cyclone back into cover on his objective thinking he's claiming mine. He charges my empty razor with the SS guard, not sure why, maybe he was hoping for a cosolidation move of 6" or something, but he wiffed and missed all attacks.
In my T5 I 18" my Baal up to contest his objective, and remembered right before I went to shoot my AC that it was actually the one that still had smoke, so popped that for good measure. The AC raz fires at the SS and fails to hurt it again, but I moved a bit further back so hopefully enticing him to a charge.
Game does not end due to the staff member slings shotting my dice half way across the store onto the table, rolled a 6 the bugger.
TURN 6:
Mixed bag this turn. He moves his Pred and Cyclone to try and take out my Baal after he realises it is actually contesting (no I moved it there for fun!) What he didnt realise is that for a very good reason I drove it "corner in" which saw me get AV13 from a shot from the doorway (where he still is holding his objective), he couldnt get AV 10 without coming miles away from his objective. He fires and manages to weapon destroys both the bolters. He charges and wiffs due to only being able to glance it and needing double 6's for that. His PF/SS Guard charges and destroys my AC raz finally, and consolidats about 6" from my objective.
Right, squeeky bum time now. I really cant do all that much, I move the baal fractionally so that AV13 is now the fronting vs his guard in the door, and one side is flush with the objective (which is about 2" from the wall" - my tank has its center point level with the objective, meaning he cant hold his objective unless he just risks shooting AV13 w/ x2 s8 shots and doesnt assault - ne needs to destroy it in CC and then consolidate about 3" to get to his objective. This is if it goes T7. My razor that is still alive just pumps his SS guard with 4 shots, and finally it drops.
He rolls for game end and it goes to T7.
TURN 7:
So ... he falls for my ploy and moves out further to destoy the baal. He puts his cyclone behind the tank and the others on its side. He HAS to destroy it in combat, but he doesnt realise that. I pray for those S8 to kill it, but it just imob's (auto hits now ...) he manages to glance it twice, destroys weapon and imob - bam its done. He consolidates 1" lol, but due to the wreck he cant get near enough. I win 1-0
CONCLUSION:
I made a ton of mistakes in this game, a couple were not clocking what he did till 2 late and then "just letting him have it", but it made a harder game for me. These were:
Drop Pod Size: Logan should have died in T1 - he took out a Baal, a Razor and a Squad alone. If they had all been there there is no way that squad of guard stayed in my lines as long as they did.
Reserve: I let him bring in his drop pod after I realised he hand't rolled for it, 50/50 he gets it if I made him go back and roll, but he had already delpoyed. If that didnt delpoy, Logan would have faced the brunt of my entire army rather than just half etc...
But by far I felt I made more mistakes.
Firstly my positiong vs Drop Pods is always shocking, but I think I've figured it out. I always offer a lot of rear armor to them dropping behind me. I need to castle up in a corner w/ zero rear armor exposed where a flamer template at best can do maybe 1 or 2 glancings, but more than likely nothing. I cant let drop pods get in between or behind me or block me off from another part of my army.
I shouldnt have charged the 2 man squad. They were dead but I gave Logan an easy option next turn, charge a tank or charge in and help the WG, he chose to do the tank rightfuly, but I should have forced him to decide - charge the 2 man squad and the baal lives and runs away, or charge the baal and he faces another round of MG shooting.
Also I shouldnt have got the libby out, but I was desperate to see what he was like with Lance hitting multiple stuff, but he made so many 5++ over 2 rounds tbh on average I'd probably have won that combat if we did it again.
Over all I think having to face terms in drop pods is something I need to keep adapting to and I've turned a corner now. In fairness I gave him so much leeway it was harder than it should have been.
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