I went down to the North Store tonight to practice with my new Guard list for the 1750 tourney in 2 weeks. Spaguatyrene was there with his two sons. One of whom was testing a Vulkan list for the tourney. So his dad set up a game between us.
I shall call him... "Spangua-Teen".
The battle was pretty one-sided. The kid knew his rules well and played the game smoothly, but I didn't know until after we finished that this was his first game with a brand new army. Usually he plays Guard or Space Wolves.
I guess his dad thought he needed a whoopin'. I would have let him play someone else if I'd known.
But, while it wasn't the most exciting battle in the world, it does illustrate how to properly defend against deep-strikers.
The mission we ran is from the upcoming win/loss tourney. It was a Spearhead Deployment, with a 9" no-go zone in the center instead of 12". Primary objective was kill points. Secondary objective was how many troops you could get within 12" of a point in the middle of the table. Tertiary was Table Quarters or somesuch.
Here's my list again:
HQ
195 Company Command Squad w/4 x Plasma, Fleet Officer, Chimera
Troops
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera
125 Platoon Command Squad w/4 x Melta, Chimera
65 Infantry Squad w/Grenade Launcher, Autocannon
65 Infantry Squad w/Grenade Launcher, Autocannon
125 Platoon Command Squad w/4 x Melta, Chimera
65 Infantry Squad w/Grenade Launcher, Autocannon
65 Infantry Squad w/Grenade Launcher, Autocannon
Fast Attack
130 Vendetta Gunship
130 Vendetta Gunship
145 Hellhound w/Hull Multi-Melta
Heavy Support
165 Leman Russ Demolisher w/Hull Heavy Flamer
165 Leman Russ Battle Tank w/Hull Lascannon
Total: 1750
Spangua-teen was running 2 Tac squads in Drop Pods with a melta, multi-melta, and a combi-melta in each. He also had a Multi-Melta Dred in a pod, 2 Multi-Melta/Heavy Flamer Speeders, an attack bike with a Multi-Melta, 1 Squad of Scouts with Sniper Rifles, another with meltas, and a Land Raider Crusader full of Assault Terminators led by Vulkan.
I roll first turn and castle up.
I put 3 platoon squads 5" in front of my tanks to prevent short-range melta shots and 2nd turn assaults, making sure not to leave a drop pod sized hole behind them. I put the fourth squad behind my tank line; spread out to fill up the space and prevent any pods from landing there.
The Russ went on top of the rock to get a good view of the entire table. While the Demolisher went up front, flanked by my Chimeras. I put the Hellhound on the left and left a gap for it to scoot through, as I like to have it running around and not just sitting there. That also left a tempting spot for a pod to try and land in, at the risk of scattering off the table. :)
Spangua-Teen deployed his Sniper scouts in a nearby tower and put everything else in reserve.
Normally, I wouldn't care about Sniper Scouts, but I had nothing else to shoot at, so I torrented them down. Tactically, I should have popped smoke instead.
Spangua-Teen's first two pods come down right in front of my line. The left pod had the Dred, who stunned the Hellhound, and the right pod held a Tac Squad, who immobilized the Demolisher.
I then killed the Dred, the Tac Squad, and both Pods with my return fire. The next turn was uneventful. My Officer of the Fleet kept all of Spangua-Teen's remaining forces off-table except for one Speeder, who scattered onto my infantry and died. So with nothing better to do I pop smoke.
On Spangua-teen's 3rd turn he gets another Tac Squad in a pod, his outflanking Multi-Melta bike, his Land Raider full of Termies, and his other Speeder; which also scatters onto an infantry squad and dies. :)
The Tac squad does nothing to the Vendetta they shoot at, while my return fire kills most of them. The Multi-Melta bike misses it's shot and is killed by a Melta PCS squad. The Land Raider takes a Multi-Melta shot at the Demolisher but only shakes it. I shake it in return with my Vendettas.
Ignore the red guys in the middle and upper-left, they're dead. :)
It's the 4th turn now and I have no more drops to worry about, so I start moving the tanks up; making sure to keep my blocking infantry in front.
Spangua-Teen gets his last unit in. His Melta-Scouts outflank onto the wrong side of the board, too far away from anything to matter.
His Tac squad assaults a blocking squad and kills them all. In response I move up a Vet Chimera and wipe them out with Meltas.
The Land Raider moves up and spits out it's Termies, who multi-charge a blocking squad and the Hellhound; killing both. My return fire kills everyone but Vulkan, who takes a wound.
After seeing so many Termies go down in one round of shooting, Spangua-Teen concedes. I win it on Kill Points 10-3. On the Secondary, I have 3 scoring units within 12" of the table's center. He had none. I think we pulled even on table quarters.
And that was it.
Spangua-Teen was a pleasure to play, and a very good sport. But he does need more practice with this list. I hope he keeps at it and doesn't get discouraged.
Why/how was the attack bike outflanking?
ReplyDeleteBesides that good game.
Red salamanders!! That's like... Blue Blood angels or something!!
What was that phrase...'one marine to rule them all'...Red sallies today, tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteGot to second the MM Bike?
Efficient Fleet Officer...really poo-poo's reserves, especially with no manipulation of their own :(
Nice report as always
@TGM
ReplyDeleteHmmnnn... (Looks at Marine Dex) I guess Multi-Melta bikes don't get scout. I assume Spangua-Teen got it confused with Scout Bikes. It was his first game with the army, after all.
In any case, he should have deployed it, the Raider, the Speeders, and maybe even the Tac Squads so he could hit my right flank in force. Given the scenario, the Termies in the Raider probably would have had the range to assault me on turn 1.
@Venerable
The Fleet Officer can backfire, depending on the scenario. But against Deep-Strikers, he does very nicely.
Also, what exactly are you referring to with 'melta scouts'? Only the sergeant may have melta-anything, restricted to combi-melta and melta bombs...
ReplyDeleteWe discussed his tactics and yes he should have deployed the raider at the 9" Mark or to the right of your deployment picture above. He also knows now to drop on your far right flank making half of your army useless the first turn of shooting. I am not sure if it was whining or not, but he stated he missed or failed to penetrate on 75% of his melta shots and rolled lot's of 1's and 2's. That being said the Terminators shouldn't have died in 1 turn of shooting regardless. With a Vulkan drop list he should hit 75% and penetrate close to the same rate with destroying vehicles 50% of the time. He did make a mistake with the multi-melta bike. I would definitely not reserve all my stuff against an officer of the fleet.
ReplyDeleteHis Sgt had a combi-melta, melta bomb, and powerfist.
@Baugh
ReplyDeleteYes, that squad had a combi-melta and meltabombs. I called them "Melta Scouts" to differentiate them from his Scouts with Sniper Rifles.
@Spaguatyrine
His melta and save rolling was below average, but not extremely so. Remember, he was only able to get one short-range melta shot at AV14 or AV12. The rest were STR8 + 1D6. So yes, he did have trouble penetrating the armor he hit. That's what my infantry was standing there for. :)
As for the Termies dying, his squad took hits from a Battle Cannon, a Demolisher Cannon, a Lascannon, 4 Multi-Lasers, 3 Meltas, 5 Lasguns, and 4 double-tapping Plasma Guns.
Based on my experience, I'd expect no more than two of his Termies to still be standing after all that fire.
Thanks for spanking him for me. He learns better this way, and I cannot play him without getting too upset. He will rebound well. :)
ReplyDeleteStill 2 plus Vulkan. Still a Nasty combo. :)
@venerable,
ReplyDeleteThese Marines were based red because he likes the color. It doesn't mean they will change to be the newest marine codex that comes out.
My Space wolves are silver and gold. Why? Because I like the paint scheme. There is no doubt when you look at my models what Space Marine Chapter they are.
The only reason I am writing this is because I am kind of over the whining about Space Marine armies and how they should look.
:)
Yeah, he talked quite a bit about how he wanted to paint Red Salamanders. So lets not pull out the Multi-Chapter Marine whining just yet.
ReplyDeleteSave it for when Farmpunk finally breaks down and starts running his Sisters as Blood Angels. :)