Now that I have my army back on their bases, I decided to take a short break from painting and get a game in. I threw out a challenge and my buddy Horst accepted. He has a huge Aurora Chapter collection that he's played as codex marines and blood angels. With the new ally rules, he can now play both at the same time! It's also interesting to note that Horst started airbrushing about the same time as me and both our armies are heavily airbrushed.
His List (approx):
Mephiston (warlord - FnP by objectives, keeps codex powers)
SM Librarian + null zone, avenger
BA Assault squad + melta gun, las/plas razorback + hunter killer missile
BA Assault squad + melta gun, las/plas razorback + hunter killer missile
BA Assault squad + melta gun, las/plas razorback + hunter killer missile
SM Tac Squad + melta gun, hvy bolter razorback
Ball Predator + asscan, hvy bolters
Ball Predator + asscan, hvy bolters
BA Predator + lascannon sponsons
BA Predator + lascannon sponsons
BA Vindicator
SM Vindicator
Basically 10 tanks, 6 av13, 4 av11 plus Mephiston and a null zone libby.
My List:
Lady Malys (warlord - outflankers have acute senses)
Baron Sathonyx
Maugan Ra
Grotesques x8 + liquifier, aberration, venom blade (Maugan here)
Kabalite Warriors x15 + blaster, splinter cannon, sybarite, venom blade (Malys here)
Wyches x10 + shardnet, hekatrix, agonizer
Rangers x5
Beastmasters x5 - 12 khymerae, 2 razorwings, clawed fiend (Baron here)
War Walkers x3 + scatter lasers x6
Razorwing Jetfighter
Aegis Defense Line + icarus lascannon
I'm figuring this will be a hard match if we get objectives as he has more scoring units and 10 tanks to push me off objectives. Luckily, Horst rolls Purge the Alien! We set up terrain and end up with this:
My ADL is about 4" beyond my DZ. I'm going to have to play aggressively since his army is so fast and shooty. It's also the first time I've played mech/MSU in 6th. I also put 5 impassible rocks ahead of my ADL to try and block some tanks and maybe force them into narrow lanes. Horst took some ruins and we placed some area terrain around. I won first turn thanks to the Baron (we both rolled 1's). No night fight.
Here's my initial deployment before Malys's ability.
Horst deploys the wall of steel. Everything up front is av13. Mephiston is behind the second baal from the left. I roll 3 units for the redeploy.
I swap the beasts to the right away from the null zone libby and the warriors to the left so that Malys can move up and take the icarus. I also shift Maugan and his unit a bit to the left so he can see a razorback (since he can ignore cover). Rangers are outflanking and the flyer is reserved.
War walker scout up to get side armor on a baal or razorback and Horst counter scouts his baals to get +1 cover and front armor. He fails to seize.
I move the war walkers up and line up on the razorback. Warriors move up to the ADL and Malys takes the lascannon. Beasts move up and run away from the null zone libby's razorback. Grotesques shuffle up a couple inches.
Quite the intimidating view! Maugan targets the razorback behind the vindi with hazard stripes, blows off the lascannon and strips another hull point with a glance. Malys pegs a baal with the icarus but fails to pen.
War walkers give the flank razorback a full volley and wreck it by removing exactly 3 hull points (first blood).
The parking lot shuffles around and line up on the beasts.
The libby is in the razorback behind Meph, gets off null zone, and is in range of the beasts. The baals and vindis pound the beasts and I lose 10 khymerae, but they pass morale. The regular preds and razorbacks take out all 3 war walkers.
End of turn 1: DE 2vp, BA 1vp
Both my reserved units arrive and I take an acute senses reroll for the rangers to get the right side, bringing them into area terrain.
The razorwing lines up a strafing run on the left wall of tanks. The Baron leaves the beasts and joins the warriors with Malys (wait for it).
The remaining beasts run up towards the predators. Maugan and his grotesques shuffle up a bit. His shots bounce off the razorback with 1 hp left. The jetfighter immobilizes the closest baal and strips a hull point from the razorback next to it, surprisingly both from monoscythe missiles. The warriors shift left and open up on Meph. I sneak 3 wounds through with the blaster and a ton of poisoned shots.
Beasts declare the further predator as primary target and multi-assault the second and I roll 4" which is perfect to get both. The clawed fiend explodes the lead predator with a lucky pen.
The vehicle gunline realigns on the beasts with the null zone libby in range again.
The immobilized baal immobilizes/vector locks my jetfighter and the last predator strips another hull point. The rest of the army fires on beasts, I go to ground, and only 1 beast master survives with the razorwings, but they do pass morale.
Mephiston fails his test for wings but comes out regardless. He has 2 wounds left and loses another to overwatch, but makes his assault range.
I sacrifice my sybarite to a challenge, lose combat by 1, pass morale, and pass my init test to hit-and-run the hell out of there!
End of turn 2: DE 3vp, BA 1vp
The warriors that hit-and-run away from Meph retake their positions and form a firing squad. I fly my jetfighter off the table as it could only snapfire anyways.
I bring Maugan and the grots up a bit more. The warriors shoot down Meph's last wound with 28 poisoned shots after the blaster and icarus lascannon fail to hit/wound (slay the warlord). Maugan wrecks the damaged razorback. Those rangers on the hill get a lucky rend and explode the last predator.
At the end of my turn 3, Horst concedes. The score is 7-1vp (8-1 with rangers as linebreaker) and he doesn't think he can kill enough units to come back. It didn't help that his list had 16vp to start and mine had 10vp. I can understand calling it when you're too far behind to come back, but I would have still liked to play it out. Instead, we chatted a bit about allies, the upcoming chaos release, and our local events.
It was a fun game while it lasted. To be honest, I expected to lose badly with less shooting than many armies and such fragile foot units. The redeploy really helped me to move poisoned shooting closer to Meph and beasts further from the null zone libby. My beasts took most of the fire for 2 turns and didn't give up the vp. By then, I had a large enough lead and his damage output had diminished. The poisoned shots in general took him by surprise and Meph failing his test for wings meant he could only assault the Baron's unit. By sacrificing the sybarite and risking the single morale test, I was able to hit-and-run out and reform the firing squad. A lot of this learning was on the fly, but I'm starting to get comfortable with the army. This mech/MCU list with 10 tanks and Meph definitely could have gone the other way. I'd be interested in having a go at it in an objective game. It even has 8 scoring units for BGNT.
Hope you enjoyed seeing 2 airbrushed armies go at it even if it was only a few turns. This was also my first batrep with this army fully basecoated and based. I have another game next Saturday and the monthly tournament on October 13th. In between those events and batreps will be hobby and updates as I continue to push towards DaBoyz GT 2012!
Some great battle pictures there :D
ReplyDeleteGreat report and well played on this game. I think that running high armor vehicles is a strong strategy in 6th edition - the Baals, Vindis and Preds are difficult to wreck, have enough Hull Points to survive and with some good cover (or a BA Librarian w/ Shield) they can take a surprising amount of firepower.
ReplyDeleteI think where Horsts list falls apart a bit is it is still stuck in 5th edition with its troop selections. Those heavy tanks really need ground based infantry now to support them - with it being so easy t strip hull points and crush tanks in CC - you need to be able to screen them, or have a viable counter assault threat. Mephiston could fulfill that role to an extent - but Characters in general are less effective than the past and your Sybarite demonstrated why.
The way this game played out is almost exactly how all three games with my Daemons at the last tournament played out. I took some shooting in the early turns - but as soon as my units closed vehicles were turned upside down left and right.
Agreed on all points.
DeleteI try to make it a point in my batreps to discuss my own successes and failures rather than focus on my opponent's. The key is pushing my advantages if there's a weakness in their list or formation.
My plan was pretty simple and I was shocked it worked so well so quickly. His fast vehicles and long range punch meant I was probably going to lose the war walkers turn 1 no matter what. I pushed for first blood with the razorback and though the trade in units wasn't even, 2vp for 1vp gave me an early lead. Then I went for the easiest/most convenient kills just to maintain a lead.
It was a lucky mission for me also since his army would have 4-8 scoring units on the other objective missions. Overall tho, I feel 6th is very balanced and rewards balanced armies. All mech armies with minimum scoring units and not much assault power are going to struggle a lot more than they used to. Hitting BA tanks on 3+ instead of 6+ is a massive difference.
I like both armyes and those wreckage-markers are awesome. Great pics as a result!
ReplyDeleteQuick thinking there using the Baron so you could hit and run mephiston. That is a great tactic.
ReplyDeleteThanks mate. TBH that move wasn't even in my playbook until the turn I made it happen. I expected him to hold Meph as a counter assault unit for my beasts and wasn't prepared when he came right for my line. Luckily the Baron was only 13" from my warriors at the start of that movement phase. That's why I like practicing out of a tournament setting because I can take the time to step back and see opportunities as they arise.
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