2k Surprise!

Yesterday and today I focused on getting another 11 troopers ready for battle… which is happening tonight! For tonight’s battle I plan on using pretty much the same list as last time, only making a few alterations. First, I plan to switch the Master of Ordnance to an Astropath and drop the camo cloaks on my Command Squad to upgrade one sentinel to a Spearhead sentinel. I will be using this sentinel in a counter-assault role in addition to its normal tankhunting functions. This may result in me being vulnerable for one more kill point, but if I have to go against outflanking genestealers or over anxious bikes I think I will be glad for it. Another possible switch would be dropping the advisor completely, as well as the company command mortar squad to pay for a chimera for my PCS. This would add more maneuverability to my list and greatly help in capturing objectives as few troops can stand 5 templates. I may still opt to do this depending on if I am partnered with Caleb’s Tau once again.

Tactics will likely remain the same- bunch up my infantry squads in cover (possibly into two different squads, one of 20 and one of 10 depending on mission, as I can issue two BID per turn with my command squad) and keep my command squad nearby to give out orders. I may place one squad inside a bunker, as the orders system only proscribes vehicles, not buildings. The Russ will stay in anti-infantry, the mortars will rain from the sky, and the sentinels will either outflank or stand and fight depending on who the opponent is and whether I go first or second. Melta vet squad will try to take out the most dangerous tank before dying, and I will remember to pop smoke on it this time! I guess the most dangerous thing that I can think of to this army is a deep striking dreadnought with a heavy flamer- in the last game it would have taken out pretty much all of my infantry in one round, and I will try to prepare for that this time, just in case. I got pretty lucky last time that nobody really focused on my army- we’ll see if my opponents have learned to prioritize the correct targets this time.

More after the battle commences!

*battle commences*


Well, apparently I’m doing 2k points this time! Woohoo!
The new list, with use of Daemonhunters:

Grey Knight Hero w/psycannon bolts (155)
-5 terminators (230)

Company Command Squad
-Regimental Standard
-Vox Caster
-Lascannon
-Master of the Fleet
-Astropath
-Camo Cloaks
Total: 170

Infantry Platoon (total: 670)
Platoon Command Squad
-4 flamers
Chimera (Hvy flamer turret, hvy bolter hull)
Total: 105

Infantry Squad
-autocannon
-grenade launcher
-Commissar
-Vox
Infantry Squad
-autocannon
-grenade launcher
Infantry Squad
-autocannon
Total: 230

Mortar HWS
Mortar HWS

Vet Squad
-3 melta guns
-Chimera w/ turret multilaser and hull hvy bolter
-Demolitions doctrine
Total: 18 5

Vet Squad
-3 melta guns
-Chimera w/ turret multilaser and hull hvy bolter
Total: 155

Fast Attack (210)

Spearhead Sentinel
-Lascannon
Spearhead Sentinel
-Lascannon

Heavy Support
Leman Russ w/ 3 HB (aka the Poorly Planned Purchase)
Leman Russ w/ 3 HB
Leman Russ w/ 3 HB

Sorry, I don’t have lists for the opponents. To the best of my ability, the opponents had:
Flying Hive Tyrant
2 Carnifexes (one with lots of twin linked short range weapons, the other with long range fire power)
1 squad of warriors with various ranged weapons
1 midsized squad of hormogaunts
1 large squad of termagaunts
2 squads of outflanking genestealers (11 each)

Chapter Master on bike
Lots of marines on bikes, with attack bikes armed with multimeltas squeezed in
1 rhino with a tac squad armed with a lascannon and a flamer


Mission: Objectives (5) Deployment: Corners. From the outset, things looked very grim. The very assault heavy forces were all primed to charge and had first turn, and my infantry castle wasn’t even standing on an objective thanks to my poorly planned placement and enemy choice of deployment zone. I did at least have the piece of mind to place my tanks in a wall around my squishy infantry and have my command squad do a conga line to prevent genestealers from outflanking into the middle of my army. See pics of the battle over at my picasa album here.

1st round: Emperor protects! The orbital bombardment, lascannon, venom cannon and barbed strangle all failed to hurt any of my troops, even when targeted on my mortar team thanks to a very welcome 1 to wound roll. Russell kept his termagaunts back on their home objective, forgetting that lurking nids can’t hold objectives.
My return fire was deadly, at least to the Tyranids. Moving my melta vets up in their chimeras I unleashed hell on the winged hive tyrant. Fire from my leftmost LRBT and sentinel took the sniperfex (long ranged Carnifex) down to one wound. The other two LRBTs were a bit less useful, killing a few bikes and putting some wounds on the tyrant and the other fex. Unfortunately I had placed my autocannons in a poor position, so the only real target that they had was the sniperfex, only managing to make one wound. Mortars failed to do anything unfortunately.

The rest of the turns get a little fuzzy, as I was convinced that I would lose and had so many moves to make that I didn’t bother updating the batrep. Plus my computer freezing up added to the chaos. In general, the assault continued on my forces. A squad of stealers outflanked on turn 2, destroying an LRBT and annihilating the spearhead sentinel that I sent to occupy them. Stupid rending… The bikes crashed into my lines but were slowed down by the barbed wire and my outer tank wall. I managed to eliminate the flyrant with melta shots on the second turn, but my castle was crumbling thanks to the genestealers. Fortunately the Grey Knight Terminators deep struck in on the second turn, but almost immediately 3 of them fell to enemy fire. They still managed to carry out their mission, the grand master downing a carnifex and the marine chapter master with two blows of his mighty force weapon. I also managed to roast all of the hormagaunts with my mobile flamer PCS, but it seemed like too little too late.

It was around this time (about 3rd turn or so) that I remembered what the mission was objectives. I began gunning my mobile veteran melta squad out to one of the objectives, not even stopping to shoot. Another chimera that had lost its passengers gunned out to contest other objectives and be a general nuisance. My flamery death chimera combined with charging Grey Knights actually made a marauding biker squad flee off the map, greatly relieving the pressure on my lines, which were already dealing with a disastrous bike and genestealer infestation.

The rest of the game was a scramble to get troops on objectives. The tac squad ran to an objective close to their immobilized rhino, but my two remaining terminators drove them off of it with practiced ease. The second squad of genestealers came in, killed my mortar squads, and proceeded to run for an objective while being shot in the back by my block of guardsmen. My remaining sentinel earned his points by holding up the genestealers and the warriors in close combat on top of an objective for a marathon 4 turns, using his front armor 12 as an extreme advantage. In the end, I had my melta vets on an objective while the opponents failed to claim any. If we had gone to a 7th turn I don’t think that I would have survived, as the termagaunts were back in synapse range and able to take/contest an objective. But the Emperor once again looked down upon his humble Guardsman with favor and granted us victory.

After Action Report: I won this battle mostly due to the bad playing of my opponents. If they had simply chosen to sit on their objectives rather than charging in at me, I definitely would have lost. I wasn’t very mobile, and if I tried to move my infantry castle to seize I would be cut down in short order. It was only by presenting a juicy target and the general mindset of a) assaulting armies and b) 40k in general that I was able to pull the victory off. I probably would have made the same mistakes, and indeed completely screwed up all aspects of the deployment phase as it was (poor terrain choices, put the infantry in the center instead of on the outside to protect the tanks [though this I might disagree on… what do you think?], and exceedingly poor placement of objectives).

Orders were once again very important- BID and FRFSRF were both used to great effect over the course of the game, and Move! Move! Move! was used at least once to get my PCS onto an objective. Mortars were very much less successful this time, but for the cheap cost and the memories of last game I am definitely keeping them. The flamery death PCS and the armored sentinels worked out very well as counter charge units- one roasts everything to death easily, and the other just locks units up in close combat forever (unless the enemy gets insanely lucky and rolls 3 6s in a row… stupid rending…). As long as the enemy doesn’t have strength greater than 5, the armored sentinel just sits there and tarpits. The LRBTs were less useful due to poor dice rolling, but the chimeras proved themselves over and over again. Having a few mobile troops to go out and claim objectives in a fast, armored shell while the enemy was busy munching on my (accidentally) sacrificial guard was key to victory.

Next time I would probably forgo the terminators in favor of something else that was cheaper. Having the force weapon really helped me win- the carnifex and the chapter master proved that- but I feel that I could have spent 300 or so points in a better fashion, as a few 1s rolled and a few power weapon attacks took down far too many of them. Maybe an outflanking flamer/melta platoon led by Al’Rahem, or even a psyche battle squad and a callidus (or is it culexus?) assassin for AP 2 wound on 2+ flamer from out of nowhere. Or even normal grey knights as troops or a teleport attack (I just like the look of them, and they fit with the fluff that I’m working on for my Guard). Or even just kitting my troops up better for assault by throwing some power swords/fists in there, and maybe switching camo cloaks for carapace armor on my command squad.

And question just in general for those who read this humble blog: should I have used my guardsmen to shield the tanks, or was my plan ok at least in that respect? And can you spot any other mistakes that I made, given the extremely fuzzy nature of this report?