Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Old Battle Report: Allied Objective Game

This was our most recent game, hopefully that means I will remember it better.

There were four of us, so we allied 2 on 2. We had a person playing for the first time, one person playing a new army for the first time. We also had both of my Brother-in-laws, so we are going to make this less confusing:

Loyalist Guardsmen and Space Marines made up one Army.

Tyranid Genestealers and Infected Guardsmen made the second Army.

We set points at 500 per player, full rule enforcement. We had 3 objectives, and a fair number of buildings. One objective was in Ruins. One objective was Dangerous Terrain Building. Last Objective was a Concrete Building.

Army Lists:

Team 1-
Loyalist Guardsmen
2 command squads w/ heavy bolter, grenade launcher, and flamer
4 guardsman squads w/ auto cannon and grenade launcher
1 rough rider squad with grenade launchers

Space Marines
marine captain
1 10-man tac squad w/ flamer and missile launcher
1 6-man tac squad
1 5-man dev squad w/ 4 missile launchers

Team 2-
Infected Guardsmen
2 command squads w/ missile and grenade launchers
2 guardsmen squads w/ grenade launchers and autocannons
2 guardsmen squads w/ grenade launchers and lascannons

Tyranid Genestealers
1 broodlord w/ 6 genestealer retinue (extended carapace on stealers)
2 10-man units of genestealers
3 clusters of spore mines

Deployment
We divided the table into quarters and then deployed one half verses the other half. The entire Tyranid force opted to Outflank, while the Infected guardsmen took a prime position close to 2 of the objectives. The Loyalist guardsmen set up near the remaining objective. Space Marines set up in cover behind a building.

Turn 1-
Infected Guardsmen
Couple of squads moved forward to stake a claim on the Ruins, another squad entered the Building Objective. The stationary squads sent some shots across the map to hit the Loyalist Guardsmen.

Tyranids
Busy outflanking.

Space Marines
Unnaturally scared of the Heavy weapons of the Infected Guardsmen, all of the Space Marines ducked behind cover and stayed there. The Devastator Squad entered the building.

Loyalist Guardsmen
Movement phase saw not one unit move. Every unit that could draw LOS on a target fired, or tried to fire for those out of range. Most missed, or were saved due to cover.

Turn 2-
Infected Guardsmen
Scoring units dug in a little deeper. Units around the Building objective fired at the Loyalists. All other units fired upon the building the Marine Devastators entered, determined to bring it down. Lascannon, grenades and missiles only managed to shake the troops inside.

Tyranids
Tyranids rolled to arrive... and one single unit showed up. The broodlord and his genesteales arrived by outflanking in the corner by the Loyalists and the 3rd Objective. The Broodlord charged into close combat and ripped apart a Guardsmen squad. The squad was killed in one round.

Space Marines
Space Marines poke their heads out and move into the center of the map, finding cover in some rubble. The Devastators kept their heads down due to the suppressing fire from the Infected Guardsmen.

Loyalist Guardsmen
The guardsmen isolated a unit closest to the genestealers and pulled back the nearby units. All units out of range fired into the Broodlord and Genestealers, dropping a couple.

Turn 3-
Infected Guardsmen
All units around the Ruins fired at the building with the Devastators, again only getting a shaken result. All of the units around the occupied building fired at the now exposed Marine Tactical squads. One Marine fell to the concentrated fire.

Tyranids
Second chance for Tyranid re-enforcement... Two spore mines. One mine scatters amount the Loyalist Guardsmen and causes enough casualties to force a squad to flee, the second hits among the Rough Riders and kills 2. The Broodlord and his unit charge back into close combat with the isolated Guardsmen squad, and kill the squad to a man leaving them open to fire, again.

Space Marines
Sick of the wasted turns, the Devastators leave the building and move into the center of the board with the rest of the Marines. One tactical squad moves toward the 3rd Objective while the other sends a missile toward the Infected guardsmen only to miss.

Loyalist Guardsmen
Every unit, command, cavalry... every single unit fires at the Broodlord and Genestealers. A few genestealers do fall to the volley, but the carapaces keep a few alive.

Turn 4-Infected Guardsmen
Units without a shot, move for better positions. A command squad begins to move around the occupied building getting into firing position on the remaining objective. All units fire into the Devastators and Tac Squad of the Marines. Every shot misses. In one of the most shocking moments of the game, every single shot misses.

Tyranids
The remaining units arrive. The 2 genestealer units arrive on either side of the remaining objective. The Spore mine scatters into the Marines, but their armor saves them. All of the tyranids move toward targets and attempt to run within assault range, the rolls come up short for the genestealers, but the Broodlord charges into another Guardsmen unit and starts racking up kills.

Space Marines
The Tactical Squad with the Captain moves into assault with the Broodlord. The other Tactical Squad moves toward the top genestealer unit. The Devastator squad sends 4 missiles at the top genestealer unit, causes a good amount of damage. In close combat, the marines lose a few, the broodlord takes a hit and a genestealer falls.

Loyalist Guardsmen
The Loyalists fire into the other Genestealer unit. The combined fire is enough to finish them off.

Turn 5-Infected Guardsmen
Another round of shooting at the Space Marines. This time with a little more luck. A few marines fall from the Tac Squad, and one from the Devastators. The Guardsmen at this point securely hold 2 objectives and are by themselves winning the game.

Tyranids
The top genestealers duck behind the objective to avoid more missile fire. The Broodlord claims a Marine or two every combat, but each round it loses a few wounds as well.

Space Marines
The reality sets in that only 2 turns remain, and all three objective are controlled by the enemy. The Tactical squad begins to move toward the occupied Building objective. The Devastator squad lays down its terrifying firepower at the Ruins and succeeds in blasting the entrenched unit out of the ruins. The close combat continues to drag on with horrible loses on either side. By the end of this round, the Broodlord lives with a wound or two, and the Captain still has a single Marine at his side.

Loyalist Guardsmen
The remnants of the Loyalists had been driven almost from the field by the Genestealers, now they rush back toward the objectives.

Turn 6-
Infected Guardsmen
The troops fleeing from the Ruins fail to rally. The occupied Building is still securely held. The forward units fire at the advancing Tactical squad, causing a few Marines to fall. The back squads move forward to try and get in range of the Ruins.

Tyranids
The Genestealers move just as close as they can to the Dangerous Building Objective. They are too far out of LOS to be hit, so they are safe to contest the Objective. The Broodlord finally falls in combat to the Marines, having caused dozens of Casualties before he finally fell.

Space Marines
The Tactical squad continues toward the Objectives, but even running cannot make the distance. In a final act of desperation (or defiance) the Devastator team fires its missiles into the Building Objective hoping for a explosion and some amazing dice rolls. No penetrating hits, no explosion. The Captain and his squad move withing contesting range of the Dangerous Building.

Loyalist Guardsmen
The guardsman move toward the dangerous building as well.

In the end, the Infected Guard and Genestealers have one objective to none. A victory for them! This was a very fun game for all of us, none of us had played an objective game before.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Old Battle Report: Space Marines vs Imperial Guard

Another old Battle Report from memory. Same Brother-in-law, different army. This time we worked hard for a urban feel to the game. Terrain was lovingly, and painstakingly placed to make a cityfight map. 2 buildings served as impassible terrain, and were tall enough to completely block LOS. We had 2 buildings that could hold 1 squad each, plenty of firepoints, and made them of concrete. (AV 12) For the centerpiece we had a large building, able to hold 2 squads. Same as the other buildings, lots of firepoints and AV12, but to spice things up we had 2 turret mounted Heavy Bolters at the main corners of the building. The large building was directly in the middle of the board, with a commanding view of the approaches. The other occupyable buildings were farther back, one in each of our sides. The last buildings were even farther back toward our deployments zones. The layout would make heavy weapon fire very difficult, as there were buildings everywhere. And on top of that we added plenty of rubble to give cover saves and make movement annoying.

Army Lists:
We had another light game, about 600 pts and we lightened up on restrictions.

Space Marines
HQ- Captain
TRP- Tactical Marine Squad, 10-man w/flamer and missile launcher
ELT- Dreadnought w/ MultiMelta and Dread CCW/combi StormBolter
ELT- Terminator 5-man powerfists and StormBolters (sarge has Powersword)

Imperial Guard
HQ- Command Squad w/ plasma rifle
TRP- Guardsman squad 10-man w/ Lascannon and Grenade Launcher
TRP- Guardsman squad 10-man w/ Autocannon and Grenade Launcher
ELT- 3 Veteran 5-man squads w/ 3 plasma rifles

All three of the Veteran Guardsman infiltrated. One took up position in the Large building, with the other two being on the ground around the Occupyable building near my table end.

Turn 1-
Space Marines
I moved my Tactical Squad (Captain had joined the squad) forward and ducked out of LOS behind the building opposite the side with the 2 Veteran squads. The Dreadnought moved around the Impassible Building to get to the back of the Large building (while also keeping away from Lascannon fire) The Terminators moved forward, toward cover but didn't make it.

Imperial Guard
The Veterans in the large building poured out some Heavy Bolter and Plasma rifle shots into the Terminators. Two Terminators fall to the massed fire. Some troop movement here and there, but no one can really get a shot.

Turn 2-
Space Marines
My Dreadnought moved out of cover and fired on the large building with the MultiMelta, shaking the Veterans in the building. The terminators duck out of LOS from the large building, and fire StormBolter rounds at one of the exposed Veteran squads, forcing a morale check. The Tactical squad occupies the building and barricade the doors against the Veteran on the other side.

Imperial Guard
The turn is uneventful for the Guardsman. One Veteran squad falling back, one shaken, the other out of sight. The main gunline cannot get a shot on any of the Space Marine models. The command squad moves forward to reinforce the Veterans, with the two Guardsman squads covering the main lanes with heavy weapons.

Turn 3-
Space Marines
The Dreadnought moves forward, and throws more MultiMelta fire into the building, to little effect. The Terminators move out of cover to advance at the building. The Tactical Squad opens fire on the falling back Veterans, wiping it out.

Imperial Guard
The Command squad has moved up to the opposite side of the large building. The Guardsman squads have advanced slightly trying to get in better position. The Veterans in the building keep their heads down with all the of Metla fire coming at the building. The other veteran squad moves out a bid and fire at the exposed Terminators, killing another expensive soldier.

Turn 4-
Space Marines
Disgusted by the lack of progress on the building, the Dreadnought moves into base contact with the structure. The Terminators move up into better position and return fire at the Veterans, forcing them to fall back. The Tactical squad fires into the Veterans as well finishing them off. Now in close combat, the Dreadnought finally scores a penetrating hit. We roll for damage, and come up with Explodes. We replace the building with a huge hole in the ground, and the Command Squad, the Veteran Squad, the Dreadnought, and Terminators all take a STR 3 hit. The Dread and Termies survive the explosion just fine. But the guardsmen end up suffering a surprising amount of casualties.

Imperial Guard
An fortunate side effect of the large building being destroyed... just about everyone can suddenly draw LOS on somebody! The whole Guardsman concentrates fire on the Dreadnought, pouring Plasma shots, Lascannon shots and the like into it. Almost all the shots miss, the few that hit are all glancing. And only one shaken results from all of it.

Turn 5-
Space Marines
The Tactical squad exit the building and fire into the command Squad, killing the Commander. The Terminators assault the Veterans and finish them off. The Dreadnought assaults the Command Squad the kills the remaining Guardsman.

Imperial Guard
Two Guardsman squads remain, and they pick their targets and open up. The Combined fire Kills the Terminators and Stuns the Dreadnought.

Turn 6 and Onward
-note-
We were playing Annihilation and didn't really keep track of turns. This game actually dragged out for several more turns, but they get more and more tedious so I will sum up:

Space Marines continued to advance. The combined fire of the Tac Squad and Dreadnought picked off Guardsman slowly but steadily. The Guardsmen were never able to get an effective hit on the Dreadnought, but they did cause a fair number of casualties to the Space Marine squad. The end of the game had a single guardsmen survive a shooting phase, and pass a morale test. He then recieved an assault from a Dreadnought, alone. That human was a badass, regardless of anything else.

A last little PS here, this was my second 40K game, and my Brother-in-law had never played Guardsmen before. We messed up A Lot this game. I didn't know that Terminators got an Invulnerable save, because I hadn't picked up a codex before the game. I also completely forgot Bolters were rapid fire and treated them as Assault 1 guns. Brother-in-law forgot to use BS 4 for his Veterans, and he shot all game like they were BS 3. Combine all that together, and the poor Guardsmen really got screwed this game. A lot more of the plasma shot should have hit, and a lot less Guardsmen should have been shot. Oh well, we learned a lot.

Old Battle Report: Space Marines vs Necrons

This one is going off memory, so bear with me:



My very first 40K game, against one of my brother-in-laws. His established Necron force, against my Space Marine starter set. For both of us, this was a game that featured plenty of rule checking and in retrospect: we cheated each other, and ourselves a lot. But hey, gotta learn somehow.



We agreed to a 750 point battle, which would include all of my units versus a paltry few of his.



My army list was:

HQ- Space Marine Captain w/ Powersword and Boltgun

TRP- two 10-man Space Marine squads w/ Flamers and Missile Launchers

ELT- 5-man Terminator squad w/ Powerfist (sarge has Powersword) and StormBolters

ELT- Dreadnought w/ DreadCCW w/ StormBolter and MultiMelta



As I remember, his army list was something like:

HQ- Necron Lord w/ Power weapon

TRP- two 10-man Necron Warrior squads

FA- 3-unit Necron Destroyer squad

ELT- 5 Flayed Ones



We set up terrain on a 4ft by 3ft table. All 4+ cover save, difficult terrain. We deployed pretty basically, with the Necron Lord and the Flayed Ones together, and my Marine Captain independent.



Turn 1-
Space Marines
I don't really remember who won for first turn, so I will just start with me. I moved my Dreadnought and Terminators up the center of the map, and kept my two Tactical Squads back in the right and left sides. The captain stuck him thumb up his ass, were it would remain for almost all of the game. Missiles from the Tac Squads claimed a couple of Necrons.

Necrons
Destroyers put out some fire toward one of the Tactical Squads, light casualties. The Necron units moved forward into cover toward firing positions. Necron Lord and Flayed ones walked back and forth a little bit.

Turn 2-
Space Marines
The Destroyers had drawn some blood from one of the Tactical Squads, and I began an unnatural fear of them. The bloodied Tactical Squad sent a missile at them to no effect. The other Tactical Squad claimed another Necron with Krak missile. Captain left his finger were it was. The Dreadnought my forward most unit, and it proceeded up toward the enemy center and fired to moderate effect. The Terminators stayed on the Dreadnoughts tail and followed right up the middle.

Necrons
The Destroyers see the Dreadnought and move to get into firing positions. One of the Necron Warrior squads moves withing 2ft of a Tactical Marine Squad. The other Warrior squad pours some ineffective fire into the Dreadnought. The Lord and Flayed Ones decide to take things up a notch and opt to Teleport. Things don't go well for them, and a Deep Strike mishap forces them to delay their re-arrival on the board.

Turn 3-
Space Marines
With the Destroyers moved, the Tactical Squad Advanced down the side of the board. The other Tactical Squad pours some fire into one of the Necron Warrior units. The Dreadnought moves a little closer and fires some more into the other Warrior Squad. Terminators move up, and add their StormBolter fire into the Unit. Captain rotates the finger in the ass, and moves a small amount.

Necron
If memory serves, the Necron Lord and Flayed Ones stay MIA. The Destroyers, and both squads of Warriors shoot every single shot they have at the Dreadnought. It produces just enough glancing hits (strength wasn't enough to ever be able to penetrate) to destroy all the weapons and cause an Immobilization. Dreadnought becomes an expensive roadblock.

Turn 4-
Space Marines
Tactical Squad continues to move up, followed slowly by the Captain. Other Tactical Squad continues to fire at its Necron Warrior unit, with only the Krak Missile having much effect. (They Will Be Back and all that) The Terminators move around the Dreadnought, fire and assault the Necron Warrior squad. The assault works out well, and kills what was left of the Warriors to a man. (cyborg, metal thing, whatever)

Necron
The Lord and his Flayed Ones arrive back on the board. Having missed half of the battle, they arrive with a vengeance. They move into combat with the Terminators. The Destroyer shoots at the approaching Tactical Squad. The remaining Necron Warrior unit start to inflict some serious hurt on it's targeted Tactical Squad. The Terminators and wiped out in the Assault with the Lord and Flayed Ones.

Turn 5-
Space Marines
The Tactical squad avoids the Destroyer fire and use the flamer at the Flayed Ones and the Lord (risking a Marine in the process) and then assault into them. The other Tactical squad gives out ineffective fire at the Warriors.

Necrons
The Warriors finish off the Space Marine squad with a little help from the Destroyers. Things are looking damn good for the Necrons, only a handful of marines remain. But the close combat phase is disastrous. After barely receiving more wounds than the Marines, the Lord fails his morale check and breaks from combat. The Lord begins to flee from the board followed by his Flayed Ones.

Turn 6-
Space Marines
Now my memory is a little shaky, and I am not solid on this rule anyway, but the special rule of the Necrons to have so many models on the board or they automatically lose? Yeah the magic number of Necrons in this battle was 7. My Space Marines throw some Bolter fire at the Warriors and kill off a few warriors.

Necrons-
The damnest thing happens. The Necron Lord leaves the table. With him gone, and the casualties that end up failing their "They Will Be Back" special rule, the number of Necrons on the table suddenly drops to 6. So just like that, they all disappear into the mist and leave a handful of Marines with a victory. Madness.

First Post

Welcome to Hive World.

I plan on using this Blog for posting Battle Reports, but I would also love to get some Tactics and Army Lists posted. I will update Battle Reports as fast as I can play them... which will be admittedly slow.