Week 2 of our team league with shared force org. After last week, when we really needed more bodies, I volunteered to bring some this time. I have a ton of models and my troops are at least sort of cheap. My partner's choices are pretty limited, and pretty expensive, too.
We faced off against the team that gave me the most concern- Chaos/Necrons. Between Oblits and teleporting, "We'll Be Back", monoliths and GINORMOUS template weapons, I was NERVOUS to face this army. We got Spearhead with pitched battle, and 3 objectives.
They had something like this:
3 Oblits
Raptor Squad
Nurgle Bike Squad (with Icon)
Demon Prince
Lash on someone (but I don't know who)
2 Monoliths
Res Orb (?)
Warriors
We had something like this:
2 Small troops (1 Las, 1 ML)
1 Big troop (1 power weapon)
6 Termies, 2 CML with Tank Hunter
Vindicator
Grey Knight Land Raider
5 Grey Knight termies inside, Psycannons, Null Rod, Psychic Hood
1 Captain/Brother
1 Vindicaire Assasin
They roll first and keep. When we set up, I'm babysitting an objective, while creating fire lanes across our area as best able in the event that I get shot off the terrain.
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| A good idea of my guys' setup. Objective on the white piece. |
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My partner is bunkered up in the Land Raider for now. Pinata time will come later.
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| general idea of their setup. Bikes hiding behind Monolith for now. |
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| The lonely assassin, waiting to shoot. |
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Turn 1 boils down to : they move, we stay still as much as we can. They shoot at us (me, specifically) and move some of my guys off objectives and/or terrain. My partner's psychic hood defuses some psychic ability (thank you, Emperor's Psychic Badasses!). I was a little more bunched up than I probably should have been on the objective and Monolith template spam ate my squad up pretty quick.
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| My CMLs are on the other side of the boxcars and my CC squad is moving due to RZ. |
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After we get shot at repeatedly by Monoliths and bikers, which thins my squads down even further, our Turn 2 makes liberal use of cover, blocking and lots of movement to better position our guys.
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| Fuzzy picture of me getting attacked by Bikes and the Demon Prince. |
The demon Prince pulls my squad right off the objective through assault and kicks the bejeezus out of my doodz. BigSword (aka Darious) was left to face him all alone.
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| My partner, blocking the bikers from attacking me. Thanks! |
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Turn 3 brings the Grey Knights out of the Land Raider to attack -well, whatever's handy. Which happens to be Oblits. THANK YOU, PARTNER. Oblits need to die in a hole- and man, GK SMOKED those guys. (On a plain, but they died and that's all I care about. THANK YOU!)
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| Somehow our opponents see them as a threat. |
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Rain of fire (Monolith shots, Oblits, bikers, warriors double tapping with Gauss thingys) opens up on the Grey Knights, with the Bikers coming in to assault. Meanwhile, our concentrated fire plan against the Monoliths continues to do a whole lot of nothing. (we realize in Turn FOUR we should have been barraging the Warriors)
Turn four:
GreyKnights continue to get attacked. I don't have any idea why....
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| Yeah, Ok, maybe I DO know why. They roll a LOT of dice. |
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| After a round of combat- a LOT of guys (theirs and ours) are gone. |
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| Another round gone by. More bikers gone, but only 2 GK left. |
We really should have shot at Warriors and not the Monoliths. We do a little moving to try to hold onto our objectives, or at least refuse assault.
Turn 5- The Raptors finally come in. They pile in right where the GK and Bikers are (homing in on an icon) and start kicking some ass. One of the last of the GK fall, but luckily for us, the Assassin has been waiting for something to do all game and the LC Raptor dies quickly.
We would really love for the game to end; as we're at a draw. I roll, and fail yet again.
Turn 6, Those Raptors decide they want to get me off my objective- NOW.
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| I am Raptor dinner. |
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One of the GK tries sitting on our opponent's objective, and it sort of works until he's destroyed by shooting from a Monolith (I think). My last little squad from on top of the building starts doing a conga line over towards the objective, and actually makes it ONTO the terrain holding our dear marker. Unfortunately, my little Raptor Lunchmates will not die and there's fall-in on assault right next to the terrain and one of the Raptors is within 3 of the objective when I roll to end at the end of turn 6.
Quick recap: WOW, this was an AWESOME game. SO MUCH FUN! I'll get into detail in a moment- but I wanted to get it out that this was an absolute blast.
What I learned: I am getting better. (But not on my own. I am getting help.) With one or two exceptions, I understood WHY we were making the choices we were making and have gained a HUGE grasp of cover and using firelines due to some incredible instruction through my partner being super patient with me.
What I need to improve on: Using the 2" allowed between guys for coherency to my advantage- ie: SPREAD OUT if I'm facing template weapons.
About my opponents: They are funny. They are smart. They are deceptive- with their "I can't roll for crap, I always lose" mantras, they could "seem" like easy pickings to other teams. I knew better- one of them is a fantastic skirmish-based game player and applies a lot of that theory to his 40K playing, and the other is far more analytical than he seems with his goofball personality. They were a serious challenge. I kept asking "are we about to die?" to my opponent- because I thought they had us dead to rights at least twice before the game was over.
The game was fun, challenging, and very tough. I loved it because I understood almost everything that was going on. I had a couple moments of serious confusion; but mostly based on not knowing the opponent's rules. I felt like I actually contributed some instead of just listening to directions- although the instructions sure did not hurt when I DID listen.
About my partner: For a silly list, that was awesome! I'm bringing feet again next time, right?
