1850 Batrep vs Ultramarines

Leif came over this week to practice for this weekend's tourney at Millennium Games.  I unfortunately won't be able to make it as Saturday is my future wife's birthday, but I was going to give Leif a taste of what could show up to a non-comp tournament...


My List:
Tervigon (HQ) + ag, cat, cs, ts
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Genestealers x18 + ts
Termagants x11 + devourers
Tervigon + ag, cat, cs, ts
Raveners x3 + rending
Raveners x3 + rending
Tyrannofex + cs, ssb, rc
Tyrannofex + cs, ssb, rc

Leif's List (from memory):
Chaplain Cassius
Librarian + avenger, null zone
Tactical Terminators + cyclone
Dreadnaught + multimelta
Dreadnaught + multimelta
Scouts x10 shotguns, some ccw's, power weapon
Tactical Squad x10 + missile, flamer, power weapon, plasmaback
Tactical Squad x10 + missile, flamer, fist, razorback
Tactical Squad x10 + multimelta, melta, power weapon, rhino
Land Speeder Storm + heavy flamer
Land Speeder Storm + multimelta
Devestators x5 + 3 missiles, 1 lascannon

The table:

The game:  Dawn of War, Capture and Control.  I won first turn.

The pre-game:  At this point, I'm starting to get pretty comfortable with this list.  It takes apart mechanized armies from turn 1 (well not in DoW) and Leif list doesn't have any massive threats.  It is a pretty well balanced list, probably only lacking in heavy armor.  It does have a several heavy weapons on different platforms and a bunch of flamers so I can't get too sloppy.  The scouts and storm speeders combined with deep strikign terminators could prove to be a wild car also.  DoW gives me a good chance to try a design concept I used in building this list; deploying 2 tervigons and a big unit of genestealers.

Deployment:
I deploy my objective in my back right corner, behind a small tree and near area terrain.  Leif puts his in the opposite corner near area terrain.  I deploy my scoring tervigon just on my side of center, in cover.  My hq tervigon goes behind the tree by my objective (lower right).

Leif puts a missile launcher combat squad in the area terrain by his objective (top left).  Another combat squad goes behind his big LoS blocking tree with Cassius (top center-right), close to the board edge so he can drive on a transport and embark.  I infiltrate my 18 toxic genestealers 12" from Cassius and 18" from Leif's scoring unit with a majority in cover from both directions.

He attempts to seize, but fails.

My turn 1...  I walk everything on.  You know my drill by now.  Hive guard centralized to maximize threat arcs.  Raveners behind hive guard and tyrannos on either side.  I bring in the devilgaunts on the left across from Leif's objective.  The hq tervigon by my objective spawns 13 gants (no dubs) and perils on 6,6 for catalyst.  Genestealers move up, but only the lead models towards his objective.  I know I'll need them to take his objective away, but I want to keep pressure on Cassius at the same time.  They get FnP from the troop tervigon, who stays in cover.  Starting her at midfeild allows me to bide time a bid and stay in cover.

I don't waste time gaming night fight so I run everything.  It's noteworthy that I could have got a 1st turn assault on Cassius with a good run as I infiltrated 12" out of LoS.  I felt like this would have displaced my 300+pt unit and left them in the open to all the rapid fire that was about to come on.

Leif's turn 1...  He's going to deep strike the storms and terminators, but everything else is walking on.

Both dreads come on far left with the rhino in front of them.  The devestators walk on behind the rhino.  Another missile combat suad walks up with the plasmaback behind; librarian inside.  The razorback rolls on and Cassius jumps in with his combat squad.  Both scout combat squads walk on from the edge.

Night fighting and a lot of movement make for little shooting.  Cover and FnP also reduce the shooting to a loss of only 1 genestealer.

My turn 2...  No reserves.  Now I know where just about everything is, only need to prepare for 3 deep striking units.  Everything except the genestealers moves up again.  Yup, genestealers stay put again.  17 left in cover with FnP is controlling the center of the table.

I don't spawn any more gants.  I have 1 scoring unit near my objective and I don't want to burn out on dubs before I see where the terminators are going.  I'm not 100% sure on my hive guard ranges so 2 units run.  One unit shakes Cassius' razorback.  One tyrannofex immobilizes the plasmaback and the other wiffs.

Leif's turn 2...  He gets the storm with the heavy flamer on my left by my devilgaunts.

And the tactical terminators on the right near my objective.

The dreads and rhino advance on my left flank.

On the right, scouts advance and the razorback scoots around the big tree.

The storm flames away 3 devilgaunts.  The devestators, combat squads, and everything else in general wiffs or fails against cover and FnP.  I lose 1 genestealer.  The terminators gun down 4 gants from the spawned unit by my objective.

My turn 3...  Now that 2/3 of his reserves are in, I can get in the fight and start comitting units.  My whole offensive force moves up with a minor speedbump.  His librarian is 23" from my lead tervigon and successfully hoods FnP off my genestealers.

On my right, I move the spawned units of gants up to tarpit the terminators.  The hq tervigon spawns 9 more gants (no dubs again!) and perils again (2nd time) on FnP, this time on 1's.  The new unit will be my scoring anchor and the tervigon advances towards the terminators.  My rightmost tyrannofex moves to the center so he can threaten the whole board.

Everything is sinally in position and I unleash my "jack in the box" with impaler cannons, rupture cannons, devourers, and raveners assaulting out of the center.  Cassius' razorback gets shaken.  The storm speeder loses it's heavy flamer.  The rhino with the 10 man melta/multimelta squad gets stunned.  A tyrannofex explodes the lead dread.  In the center, I set up a passive assault.

And execute...  The lead stealer was 5" away and I rolled a 6 for MTC.

I lose 1 stealer before I can swing.  The execution was on, but Leif's dice weren't...  I scored 1 rend and he failed 4 normal armor saves.  Squad wiped and I consolidate only 2", not enough to get into the area terrain, but I form up in a spear to at least cover some units from each shooting angle.  I also used this consolidation move to move away from the dreads.  Raveners jump out into the storm.  It already lost it's only weapon, but the assault move put me a lot closer to Leif's main force, and also gave me solid cover behind the log.

They manage one pen and stun the speeder, guaranteeing I get free hits on it again next round.

Leif's turn 3... His multimelta storm arrives on the right by my objective.  Cassius' ride zooms up and smokes.  Scouts advance.

The librarian and combat squad jump out of the plasmaback and take aim at the genestealers.

The 10 man squad jumps out of their stunned rhino also.  Here you can see where my consolidation formation will pay off, giving me cover saves from every unit except the librarian's.

2 flamer templates, 3 rapid fire squads, and 4 frag missiles later, 11 genestealer are gunned down and I'm left with 4 and I left one in synapse.  I survived!  Somewhere in that mess my lead tervigon took a wound.  Terminators gun down 5 more gants but fail assault.  My raveners wreck the stunned speeder.

My turn 4...  Time to drive the nails in the coffin.  The durability of the list comes to fruition as I haven't lost a single unit left and everything bears down.  I spread out my forces across the entire board, which I normally frown upon.  However, raveners, tyrannofexes, and hive guard have such huge threat ranges when controlling the center, I have plenty of options.  My troop tervigon is holding synapse solid with 5 wounds.  She spawns 6 gants (dubs doh! actually triple 2's) and gives the painted raveners FnP.

On my right, the hq tervigon makes up for it and spawns 15 gants (6,5,4, yeah...) and gives the lead tarpit unit FnP.  The unpainted tyrannodex shifts to that side to threaten the terminators, storm, or Cassius depending on how everything else does.  This is pretty much an oprimal position for me.  I have 4 units between his terminators and my objective.  I won't assault, but force him to assault me and re-surround him afterword.

I drop the hammer.  The last deadnaught explodes.  The laserback explodes.  Cassius' ride gets immobilized and loses it's turret.  The painted tyrannofex decides to help out the raveners and knocks 2 marines over.  Raveners assault the tac squad and we trade a couple wounds.

The genestealers assault the librarian's combat squad (the missile launcher is part of a separate unit).  3 marines get torn apart and the librarian takes a wound, but we lock.

And the unpainted raveners assault the scouts.  I didn't want to go for the razorback as there was a fist inside.  Assaulting the scouts also put me behind Cassius, but within assault range providing bait.

I kill 3 scouts, he inflicts 2 wounds, he breaks and gets away from me running towards his edge.  I consolidate to escort them off the board.

Leif's turn 4...  His scouts flee 2" and stay on the table...  He flat-outs the speeder by my objective and advances his terminators.

Cassius and his squad jump out but don't take the bait.  Instead he sets up a brutal multi-assault between the combat squad, terminators, and 2 squads of spawned gants.

In the center, most units are locked in combat, but he manages to kill 2 devilgaunts and 3 from the spawned unit of 6.  He executes his multi-assault.  He actually magnetized Cassius at the waist, that's why his torso is lying in the field.

 My counterattacking toxic gants only manage to kill 2 marines.  After casualties and no retreat, only a single gant remained.  I left it with the terminators to keep them locked.  I lose a genestealer and the painted raveners finish the tac squad.

My turn 5...  Leif's objective is not held right now and I'm at risk of losing mine to Cassius's unit, the terminators, or the speeder.  I spawn 11 more gants on my objective (no dubs for the 4th time lol) and castle it up with the tyrannofex and tervigon.

The unpainted raveners fail instinctive behaviour and find the immobile rhino is actually closest, pulling them away from the fleeing scouts.

On the left, I rush for Leif's objective and aim to take out his last scoring units.

Shooting kills a bunch...  I explode the rhino that's baiting the raveners and they turn their attention on the 5 man scout squad.  4 of the devestators drop to cluster spines, rupture cannons, and devourers.  The unpainted tyrannofex drops a couple marines with the full broadside of rupture cannon, cluster spines, and shreddershard beetles.  Spawned gants run for his objective.  Raveners assault the last full combat squad.

Genestealers kill the librarian, but the sarge with his power weapon finishes the genestealers and consolidates towards his objective.

Leif's turn 5...  Not much left now.  Cassius splits off from his unit and they try to sneak up to my objective (Cassius is right behind the tyranno).

His lone sarge runs towards his objective.  He assaults...

My tyranno takes 2 wounds but kills the combat squad with some lucky rolls.  My gants lose by a lot but hold the terminators up.

We roll for the end, and the game goes on...

My turn 6...  We just roll a couple dice to see if I can kill his lone sarge and lone devestator which I do.  That gives me his objective.  We don't bother at mine as I have 2 MC's and 3 squads of gants as I can still spawn again.

Game ends, win 2-0 objectives.

Post game:  Well, needless to say I'm happy with the execution of this list.  Pretty textbook for how I designed it.  I was blessed with great spawn rolls, but many perils.  Leif's dice were less forgiving.  Here was another example of why I never play C&C to draw.  I was intimidated by his 2 transports, 2 dreads, and total of 30 marines at his objective and in cover.  I wasn't going to turn around and sit on my objective tho, so I sent 65% of my force head-on into his objective and steamrolled it.  306pts of genestealers is a lot, but played right they are a huge weapon of terror and mass destruction.  Usually by midgame, my opponent has forgotten about raveners and devilgaunts and that's when I strike with them, cleaning up after the hive guard and tyrannofex fire.

So I hope y'all enjoyed it.  It's a lot more pictures and content that my norm, but my playstyle jived well with Leif and the game was moving at a pace that allowed me to take more pics.  He's a super cool dude and can't wait for more games with him.  He's from Boston and used to hang with the ETC guys from there and wants to up his competitive game, so I know our future games will just get better.  This will probably be my last batrep until I get back from my honeymoon mid March.  As always, thanks for reading!