Squeaker and a Squealer

I traversed the rain of Milwaukee and the whatever you call it, snow-ice-poo of the Valley in order to play a few games of 40k with Karl. We got two games in. I'll go over one in detail, and for the other one my eyes will glaze over in horror as I think of the mass trauma inflicted upon my noble, innocent and delicate Blood Angels at the hands of the vile, brutish thugs of the Imperial Guard (probably traitors).

Both games were 2000 points, and before I begin I want to comment on that. I'm not sure I like 2000 point games. It's fun to throw together big lists like that, but perhaps it's too much. I will admit that 1500 seems just a bit too small (maybe that's good?), perhaps there is a reason that most tournaments run that magic 1850 number. I'm probably just over thinking it too much (I've really only played about a dozen 5th ed games and only 4 or 5 of those were at 2000 points) but I wouldn't mind seeing what everyone else thinks.

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but for both games Karl took a Valkyrie with some dudes (I forget there exact designation, faceless guardsmen, most likely armed with meltaguns and/or plasma guns), a Sentinel, two Leman Russ' (one with plasma, one with battle cannon), a blob squad with Commissar, Gay Marbo, a heavy weapon teams with 3 sets (lascannon, autocannon, missile launcher), 2 Chimera filled with dudes, a Platoon Command squad with Straken, and Harker was in there with some infiltrating squad. I think that is it, he had a lot of guys!

For the first match, I took a bunch of new toys. A stormraven with Terminator Assault squad and Sanguinary Priest, a Furioso Dreadnought with cheater claws, a Vindicator (which I remembered to deploy), 2 units of Assault marines, a 5 man scout squad with sniper rifles, Mephiston, and a 8 man bike squad with Sanguinary priest and attack bike.

We rolled dawn of war, with 3 objectives. Two of which were in my area. I put my scouts on one, held my assault marines for deep strike and I deployed Mephiston near Karl's far left flank. Karl put out his blob squad, his command squad Chimera, and his trooper Chimera all near his objective. He infiltrated a squad onto the last objective (which was in my zone). Everything else came on turn 1. I won the roll off to go first.

TURN 1
Unlike my first game with the Stormraven, I went hard core with it. I flat out moved it 24" into Karl's lines, used power of the machine spirit and boom, blew a Chimera! My Vindicator came on and blew away a few of his infiltrators. Mephy moved about, the bikers came on and turbo boosted on his left flank.

Karl brought his stuff on and immediately wrecked my Stormraven and my Vindicator (the vindicator was immobilized, but it was so far away from anything it didn't do anything useful the rest of the game). This took a good amount of wind out of my sails early. My Terminators and Dreadnought piled out and awaited the onslaught. Since it was dawn of war, Karl couldn't do much else, but these two units were out in the middle of nowhere.

TURN 2
My terminators started "sprinting" towards Karl's lines (I couldn't roll over a 2 for run movement either game for any unit). 1 unit of assault marines came in, Mephiston wounded himself casting Wings of Sanguinius and the bikers closed in on Karl's troops. I did a lot of shooting, but had little success. The Dreadnought shot at the infiltrating squad on my objective. They broke, and he the ran them down. After that the dreadnought just walked around the table trying to find things to kill. He was eventually gunned down trying to make it over some terrain.

All of Karl's outflankers came in, the Valkyrie, sentinel, and gay Marbo. The two vehicles came in on my left flank to capture the objective and finish off my Vindicator. Gay Marbo managed to kill 8 of my assault marines with his gay bomb and then the rest of Karl's shooting killed a few bikers and all but the Sergeant of said assault squad. A few terminators also got picked off.

TURN 3
My second assault squad still refused to join the fight. My bikers hit one squad with fire and then assault and managed to kill them. The lone Sergeant managed to extract his revenge on Gay Marbo, Mephiston phisted a unit of guardsmen, and my terminators hit the squad that was in the blown Chimera and finished them off. Things were looking up, until Karl started shooting again.

Karl blew apart my Terminators with something like 700 plasma guns, shot at my bikers (further reducing them) and prepared to defend his objective and the second one in my zone.

TURN 4
Seeing that only Mephiston a lone assault guy, and a handful of bikers remained, My assault marines decided that perhaps it was best just to not join the fight. Mephiston and the assault marine ripped into the command squad, it broke and they wiped them out. The bikers shot at and then assaulted the blob squad. It stayed strong and killed a few bikers with the power weapons buried in the mob. Although it was stubborn, I told Karl he was going to roll two 6's and then 2 5's and that the squad would break...it did not.

On Karl's turn he got ready for my eventual assault, his troops disembarked from his Valkyrie and worked towards the last objective. Shooting didn't do too much damage to me since everything was tied up. In assault both sides took damage, but Karl lost the fight and proceeded to roll boxcars on his leadership roll. His Commissar executed a man and he rerolled, 2 5's! Great Success! The blob broke and I was free, FREE!!!

TURN 5
My second assault marines were contractually obligated to join the fight at this point. I placed them near the second objective (by the Valkyrie). On their shooting phase, I ran them 1 inch closer). Mephiston took another wound trying to use a power and couldn't fly towards Karl's line. He got into combat, but not where I wanted him to be. Mephiston and the lone Sergeant charged the battle cannon Russ and popped it, the remaining bikers threw everything they had at the Plasma Russ and managed to stun it. With consolidation rolls, Mephiston and the Sergeant inched closer to contesting Karl's objective.

Karl ran his troops towards that second objective and threw everything the Valkyrie had at my assault marines. A few died, but they held. All of Karl's remaining army opened up on Mephiston and the Bikers. The Lord of Death finally died (mostly because he did two wounds to himself) and the bikers got dusted. The Lone Sergeant held strong. We rolled and the game came to an end.

RESULT
My scouts (whom I've neglected to mention this entire report) did nothing all game. However, they were camped on my objective so I got one point. The objective in Karl's zone was hotly contested, my solo marine was about 4 inches from it, so he couldn't contest. However, Karl's troop choice on that side of the board was destroyed by my Stormraven and Terminators, so I guess even though those things didn't come close to killing their points, they did well enough. The second objective on my side was another story. After some final measuring it was determined that Karl's guys were 4 inches away and mine were about 3.1 inches away. I won 1-0. A victory, but it was nearly a slaughter. If it had gone to turn 6, I would have been tabled. An ugly victory to say the least.

In retrospect, I probably would have fared better if I had been defensive (not my style) and some elements of my list don't work that way (Bikes, Mephiston, Dreadnought, Assault Terminators), but my army probably would have been a bit more intact by the end.

Of the new toys I used, I was impressed by the bikes. I would probably try them again in two squads (not 1 large one) on opposite sides of the board. The toughness 5 with Sanguinary Priest was a good combo. However, I feel against other armies they would be much more effective. Karl is very good at maxing the number of AP2 or 3 shots that also ignore Feel No Pain. The scouts did their job, but were unimpressive. I can see taking them again to hold objectives while I load up on Death Company. The Stormraven got shot down immediately, so it was hard to judge it again...so far not worth the 230 points. I have a feeling that like my land raiders most of the time it's going to disappoint but every once in awhile it will shine. Mephiston once again was a beast, he's almost mandatory in a 2000 point game.

GAME 2!
I'll make this quick. Karl took the same list. I had been dreaming of trying an all deep striking jump pack army for awhile. I was imagining that it would get the drop on Karl's IG and allow me to avoid 1-2 rounds of shooting. My list included Dante and an Honor Guard squad all decked out, a Vanguard Veteran Squad nearly decked out, a Sanguinary Guard squad with Captain, and Sanguinary Priest. Two units of Assault marines (one with Sanguinary priest). 2000 points, 5 units!

There were 2 objectives (one in each deployment area). I won the roll and let Karl go first. Karl castled up (I deployed nothing) and waited. Both of us did nothing on turn 1. Karl's turn 2 failed to bring in any of his reserves, this would prove to be key. Part of the success of this pogo build I made relies on my guys getting the drop on the IG, not the other way around. All of my units save 1 unit of Assault marines came in. My deep strikes worked out great. I covered Karl's left flank with the Vanguard Vets and the Sanguinary Guard, Dante came right in the middle of the IG castle, and my assault guys came in on Karl's right side. Dante popped the plasma russ, my Vanguard vets charged Karl's blob squad and did huge damage (but also lost a decent amount in return), and my assault squad got some good shots in on a weapons team. Even better was that Karl's blob squad broke again! I caught it, destroyed it and consolidated into cover. It was at this point I thought, "wow, this build rocks!". Sure, I knew Karl had tons of shooting, but I had strategically placed at least 2-3 guys in each squad that had invulnerable saves (except the assault marines). With those catching the plasma fire, I was sure to hold on through one round of shooting, that's all I needed. I would be able to charge almost everything Karl had on the board at that point on my next turn. I was wrong.

Karl proceeded to slaughter me like a fattened hog. First off Gay Marbo killed the entire assault squad, Karl used all of his shooting on my Vanguard Squad and Dante's squad. I failed every single invul save right away opening me up to a torrent of plasma fire. Dante's squad got obliterated, the Vanguard got hit hard and had only 4 guys left when Straken charged in and finished them off. By my turn 3 I had the Sanguinary Guard Squad left and nothing else. My second assault squad failed to come in.

I played my turn 3, charged my Sanguinary/Captain squad into the Straken squad and finished them off. This unit was still a tough unit, I was hoping to hold out till my turn 4 and see what I could do. It didn't matter, Karl's Valkyrie came in next to me on his turn 4, dropped a load and finished off the Sanguinary guard. I called for mercy at that point.

While I think that the deep striking pogo list can be effective versus guard, this particular list matches up poorly. I have too many units that cost over 500 points each. Those needed to be regular assault squads. I needed more bodies. Furthermore, I think that I've come to the realization that against Guard, Sanguinary Priests are a waste. Why pay 90 points for 1 guy who grants me an ability that is ignored by most IG shooting?

If Karl's reserves had come in earlier or if I had passed a few saves (my rolls were really bad this game) things may have been different, but I doubt if it would have helped me win. Perhaps instead of getting tabled I would have just lost. The list I used may be good against other marines or Tyranids for example, but against anything with mass firepower it's doomed to fail. Perhaps someday I will revisit the deep striking pogo list vs. IG but it will need a massive overhaul.

Despite the crushing defeat, I had a blast. The first game was a nice close, tight game and the second while not competitive, was a good time. Can't wait to play some more! Next up for me I think is some Razorback spam!

I also got to play some Dark Heresy this weekend, but I'll save that for another post.