DA at 1850

This week I played a game of 1850 against an all Khorne all the time army that featured zero 'zerkers. Everything that could was sporting the icon of Khorne, even the havocks.

His list focused almost exclusively on close combat as one might imagine. While I didn't get a copy of his list it featured a winged daemon price, and a winged lord w/ twin lighting claws in the hq slot. For troops he ran 3 10 man csm squads with matched special weapons(two w/ melta and one with plasma) and power fists. One squad had a rhino, one ran in a supped up landraider, and the last one hoofed it across the board. He also had eight bloodletters standing in as summoned demons. The remainder of his list was the demoniacally possessed landraider mentioned above and two havock squads, one 10 strong with four flamers and the other only 5 strong with 4 hvy bolters.

The mission was Annihilation, with table corners for deployment. I won first player and deployed my gun line spread out to take advantage of the cover and LOS terrain on the board. He then deployed everything on his lines to rush forward at the first opportunity. There was no initiative to be seized this day.

I had an amazing first round of shooting where I immobilize both transports and took wounds of f of the Daemon Prince while killing a few of the heavy bolters. His turn was spent moving forward and getting some back with the land raider taking out a terminator.

Turn two and three both saw me shooting and him running towards my lines. Both of the HQ were isolated and gunned down in turn. Turn three also saw the first bit of close combat when the unwounded Terminator squad charged in against the flamer havock squad with captain Belial in tow. I made short work of the havocks but then get tied up and worn down over the course of the next four player turns. The SB and sword combo isn't doing much for me yet again. However to their credit it would take ~16marines w/ two fist and the Daemons to take out the squad of terminators. In the end only four troops would walk away from the fight.

Turn four saw the last unit of CSM reach my flank and lay into the devastators. One of the las/melta squads would run off the board due to falling back after loosing three guys to the land raider. Eh, I guess that is the price for playing too close to the table edge.

Turn five through seven, not much happened, all the squads that were in combat stayed there with no one being able to get a decided advantage over the other. He had the better troops but by this time I had him out numbered three to one. I managed to clean up 3csm that were headed for the board edge but the remaining two squads and the land raider would not die for me. All the while his army was slowly wearing away the forces I had left. However in the end there just wasn't enough time to do the job, I ended up winning by 2kp.


Lessons Learned:
1.While the dreadnoughts were added on to bring my army up to point, the steady and reliable fire power they put out probably made the difference for me.
2.Terminators can take a ridiculous amount of punishment and still be effective in a fight.
3.Kill points are good for Marines, gotta love the combat squads I would have lost hands down with out them.
4.A marine gun line is not a push over once the OP4 reaches your lines, unlike Eldar and Guard.

HQ: Belial, Master of the Deathwing and the Obvious (1#, 130 Pts)
Storm Bolter; Sword of Silence

Elite: Venerable Dreadnought (1#, 175 Pts)
Upgrade to Venerable; Twin Linked Lascannon; Missile Launcher
Elite: Venerable Dreadnought (1#, 175 Pts)
Upgrade to Venerable; Twin Linked Lascannon; Missile Launcher

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad (5#, 250 Pts)
Power Fist (x3); Storm Bolter (x4); Chain Fist (x1); Power Sword (x1);Assault Cannon
Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad (5#, 245 Pts)
Power Fist (x4); Storm Bolter (x4); Power Sword (x1);Assault Cannon
Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 210 Pts)
Meltagun; Lascannon; Power Weapon
Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 210 Pts)
Meltagun; Lascannon; Power Weapon
Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 210 Pts)
Plasmagun; Plasma Cannon; Plasma Pistol/ Bolter

Heavy Support: Devastator Squad (10#, 245 Pts)
Missile Launcher (x4); Chainsword

Total Roster Cost: 1850