Battle Report: Tallarn vs. The Death Korps of Krieg

by SandWyrm

I went down to Blue Moon Games last night for the first round of the escalation league. Where afterwards I picked a fight with the Death Korps over BMG's lovely city table. (more...)

The League Battles

The first 2 games of the escalation league went off without a hitch. I ended up taking a variation of the Vet + Stormtrooper list I posted last week.

185 - 10 Stormtroopers w/2 x Melta
115 - Vet Squad w/3 x Grenade Launcher, Forward Sentries

The Stormies were there to deep strike with meltas for anti-tank/anti-MEQ work, while the Vet Squad would advance and pour fire into the enemy. I ended up facing a new player who was borrowing an IG blob+command from someone else. Unforturnately for him he brought 4 lascannons and a melta gun to the party with no Commissar to keep the blob stubborn. We played 2 games, one as the attacker and one as the defender. With a single objective placed by the defender in his deployment zone.

I tabled him both times, with the Stormies dropping in to decapitate his platoon command, while the Vets poured fire into him as they advanced. I'll never laugh at Grenade Launchers again, I was dropping 7 guardsmen per turn, on average, at 24" with the Vet Squad (while moving). And of course the AP3 lasguns of the Stormies just blew through him. In the second game I even charged the Stormies into the blob so we could at least have some close-combat fun. He managed to beat them off, but his lone surviving Sergeant took 3 krak grenades to the face afterwards from the Vets.

I think my opponent definitely learned some things though. I told him what a better list would have looked like and gave him tips on spacing his guys out and the importance of closing into 12" range with his lasguns vs. staying still to shoot his lascannons. We'll see what he brings along next week. I may bring my own blob list to loan him if I think he needs it.

My list wasn't the worst though. That award goes to Kreigle, who plays Demons and DKoK IG. He brought a Demon list with a unit of Plague Bearers and a Soul Grinder! The poor Necron player he faced never had a chance. Poor guy.

The Real Battle

Now that I was warmed up, I wanted to have a larger battle with someone. So I challenged Kreigle, who decided to play his Death Korps of Kreig drop-troop army from one of the Imperial Armor books. This was very much a 4th edition list, and I'm sure Farmpunk will shed a tear when he reads this. We set up the city table and rolled Annihilation with a Spearhead deployment. He was 120 pts. short of 1500 because he hadn't brought his Sentinels along. So I dropped the Sentinels from my tourney list to even things up.

The 13th Tallarn Armored Company

HQ

205 CCS w/4 x Melta, Astropath, Fleet Officer, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)

Elites
65 Marbo

Troops
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
170 Veteran Squad w/3 x Plasma, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)

Fast Attack
145 Hellhound w/Hull Multi-Melta

Heavy Support
165 Leman Russ Battle Tank w/Hull Lascannon
165 Leman Russ Demolisher w/Hull Heavy Flamer

Total: 1380

The Death Korps of Krieg First Airbourne Company

I don't have a copy of Kreigle's list, but he was running an HQ platoon with a Command Squad and 2 Special Weapons Squads, 2 Vet squads, and 2 platoons with a Command, 2 Infantry Squads, and 2 Special Weapons Squads in each. He was running 1 melta and 2 plasma guns in each SWS, plus a demo charge. And his command squads were running one melta each. The Infantry Squads were running flamers and a Demo Charge I think. His Drop-Sentinels, if he'd had them, would have been equipped with multi-meltas.

In all, he had 15 deep-striking units with a large number of demo charges.

The Setup

I rolled first turn, but decided to let him go first. He chose a table quarter, but put everything he had in reserve (of course). I took the opposite corner and castled up for the drop. With 2 Chimeras (1 melta, 1 plasma), the Hellhound, and Marbo in reserve.

A note here about tactics vs. Deep Strikers:

When facing a drop army, it's best not to spread out. You want to keep your forces tightly packed so that your enemy can only hit your front armor. This also allows you to concentrate your fire on the deep-strikers as they land. Hopefully killing them before they can assault.

I did something else here though. Which is a trick I learned from Stelek over at YTTH. I deliberately left tasty gaps in my Castle, just behind my tanks to tempt my opponent into making risky deep strikes so he can hit my rear armor. If he scatters in those areas, which is very likely, he'll either land in difficult terrain and kill models, or he'll land on my models and suffer a mishap. With a 2/3rds chance of either being destroyed or letting me place his models anywhere I like.

Turn 1

Kreigle's army is all in reserve, so he does nothing. So do I.

Turn 2

Kriegle starts rolling for his reserves and finds out what a PITA my Fleet Officer is. Only his Command Platoon comes on. Which consists of the Command Squad and 2 Special Weapons Squads.

The first Special Weapons Squad tries to land right in front of my Russes and scatters wide, landing just behind some sandbags.

The second SWS also scatters wide. While Kreigle's Command Squad scatters off the table to the left of the Chimeras and is lost.

On my turn, I bring on a Chimelta Squad and the Hellhound, who make short work of the squad to my left with their flame weapons. While the Russ and Demolisher kill 2 models from the SWS on my right with their cannons.

Turn 3

Kriegle is able to bring on just one of his Platoons. He loses his Platoon Command Squad to a mishap (yay tempting gaps!) and a SWS goes back to reserve. The other SWS comes down in the building in front of me, killing 3 models, while the 2 Infantry squads come down close to my tanks.

The infantry squad behind the Hellhound then lobs a Demo Charge at it. But the wily Hellhound commander swings the inferno cannon around like Babe Ruth and bunts the charge right back onto Kreigle's squad, killing all but one of them.

The squad next to the far Chimera hits with a melta gun, but only stuns the tank. The squad inside the ruins shoots up a Chimera, but only gets a stun and an immobilized result for it's trouble.

On my right, the squad behind the sandbags runs for the cover of the nearby building.

On my turn both Marbo and the last Chimera come on. I put Marbo in the center ruins to threaten the squad that shot up my Chimera, while the Plasma Vet Chimera lines up it's heavy flamer on the far squad that stunned his buddy. He kills all but one of them, who does the smart thing and runs.

The lone flamer guardsman in front of my near Chimeras dies to melta fire.

My Command Chimera next to the Russ moves up to flame the SWS in the ruins and immobilizes itself on a wooden fence(!), but it still manages to wipe out the squad with Meltas, and a lone Las-Pistol shot, leaving Marbo with nothing to do!

On my right the Demolisher moves up to the building the sandbag squad is hiding in and kills them all with it's Heavy Flamer. So far there's only one of Kriegle's models still alive.

Turn 4

Kriegle's luck finally turns a bit and all but two of his remaining units show up. He drops them all over my line. But as it turned out, that was all the luck he had left.

The squad in the bottom-left corner lose one man on the drop and then flub their Demo Charge toss onto the left-most near Chimera, killing 3 more guys and triggering a morale check, which they fail, running 11 inches. The Chimera is only shaken by the half-strength blast to it's rear armor.

The Platoon Command Squad between the near Chimeras and the Hellhound try and kill the Hellhound with Melta and Plasma fire, but fail to hit and penetrate it's AV12 side armor.

The big blob in front of the Hellhound only have flamers, so they can't do anything. Kreigle's lone melta gunner rallied (Iron Will) and took a shot at the Chimera, but missed.

The squad in the center building fired at Marbo, causing him one wound with their flamer. But they didn't even wound him with their lasguns. Ouch!

The Top-Left Chimera was popped with Melta and Plasma fire from a Vet Squad, but blew up with a 6" radius. Killing 7 of his guys, but only 2 of mine.

Kreigle Curses His Rotten Luck

On my turn, I unloaded my Vets from the bottom-left Chimera and took aim at his squad. They failed their FRFSRF order, but blew the squad away anyhow.

On my right, the Demolisher moved up to the center building and killed all but one model from the squad there. Marbo finished the last guy off in close combat and then consolidated to the far-right corner.

My Hellhound tank-shocked the unit in front of it, which failed it's leadership check and fell back, letting the Hellhound and the nearby Chimera finish off the 2 squads on the far left.

My Command Chimera in the bottom-center then finished off the squad running behind it.

Turn 5

Of the two squads he had left in reserve, Kreigle was able to bring one on. He dropped it right behind the Demolisher and wrecked the tank with melta + demo charge. His center squad had to continue falling back though, as it was still within 6" of both Marbo and the Hellhound.

On my turn I killed the new squad with a direct Battlecannon hit from the Russ and ran both Marbo and the Hellhound forward to keep the pressure on the squad that was falling back.

Turn 6

Kriegle's last squad comes on and kills my dismounted Vets in the crater with a flamer. When my turn comes, I bring the Hellhound back and kill that squad with it's Inferno Cannon.

 

(Run! It's a Crazy Indian!!!)

His squad that was falling back still can't rally with Marbo on their heels and runs off the table.

Game Over

In the end, I tabled Kriegle with something like 18 KP to 3. It was a fun, light-hearted, and very good-looking battle. And I must say that Kriegle took his whipping like a man. Though I can't say it was the best challenge in the world. Kriegle was running a pretty uncompetitive 4th edition list, with not nearly enough Anti-Tank weapons in it. While I was running my tourney list. Not to mention some TERRIBLE rolling on Kriegle's part, while all of my rolling for the night was very much above-average.

Or, as Kriegle put it: "I had a bad build of my army vs. the worst possible opponent in the worst possible mission with the worst possible deployment, on the worst possible terrain with the worst possible luck."

The best thing I can say about the battle is that I would have been terrified of Kriegle's list just one year ago when Farmpunk was running a similar force and I was running foot IG. So if nothing else it proves the primacy of Mechanized forces in 5th Edition.

We'll have to play again when Kriegle has his 9 Multi-Melta Drop-Sentinels in play. Or when he finishes the Valk-Based IG5-compliant version of his force.

First though, I must have a crack at his Daemons. They look fun. :)