Nerd Week Part III: Hang in there

As I mentioned earlier, Karl and I played a second game on Monday.  It was a 2000 point game with 3 objectives.  I took 1 10 man sniper scout squad, the Sanguinar, 1 vindicator,  1 regular dreadnought in a drop pod, 1 10 man assault squad minus jump packs in a drop pod, 1 Baal Predator (outflanking), 1 5 man assault squad in Razorback, and a Stormraven with a cheater claw Furioso dreadnought, a Sanguinary Priest, and 5 Sanguinary Guard.

Karl took a pretty bad ass shooty list.  Again, I won't be able to remember everything but it was brutal.  1 blob squad, 1 Valkyrie, 1 vendetta (both filled with some special weapons and suitcase bombs I believe), 3 leman russes (2 battle cannons and 1 plasma), a command squad in a chimera, another chimera with plasma dudes, an outflanking sentinal, some heavy weapon teams, a Manticore, and Harker and his boys in a outflanking Chimera (there may have been more, but my memory is fuzzy a few days later and Karl had a ton of shit).

half of my snipers and my razorback getting ready for a pounding

I won the roll off.  I deployed first, put two objectives in my zone and got ready to rush at Karl.  My plan was simple.  I combat squaded the snipers and put them on each objective in cover.  I parked the Razorback near one of them.  I put the Vindicator behind some cover and hide the Sanguinar behind it.  My stormraven was in reserve, as were my pods and Baals.  I was hoping to hold the objectives with my troops and move forward with the stormraven and the Sanguinar when the big bird came on.  The Guard, Sanguinar, and the Cheater dread would have absolutely made a wreck of Karl's troops in hand to hand.  Of course none of that happened because Karl seized.  I think I seized the initiative once ever and have never seen it happen besides that.  My plans were quickly thrown to the wind.  Karl opened up. (Edit:blogger gets really wonky with spacing when I use too many pics, don't worry I usually never remember to take this many pics).

Even immortal avenging angels of death sometimes hide behind tanks

"Hmmm, all I see are tanks."

His first or second shot of the game wrecked my vindicator (poopie!).  Although the shooting seemed to last forever, besides the vindicator Karl immobilized my Razorback and maybe killed a scout...not too bad considering.

Blobby Flischler hidden amongst the trees, hanging on an objective

"Krazzy Karls used IG vehicle super store, the prices will kill you!"

 On my turn 1 I didn't do too much.  My only real play was my 1 incoming drop pod.  I crapped the regular dreadnought behind Karl's lines hoping to pop 1 flyer.  I failed to do anything.  I literally removed my pants for Karl at this point.  I had one dreadnought behind his lines sitting there like a dink and 2 objectives held by a handful of scouts at this point.  Karl had everything on the board but Harker and a Sentinal.

"Please shoot me with your plasma"

In Karl's phase Harker came on next to my objective with the Razorback and Scouts.  Shooting was ineffectual for him.  The rest of Karl's army opened up on my dreadnought and failed to do anything!  I made some cover saves, but Karl botched many, many rolls to penetrate.  This would prove to be huge for me.  In my turn 2, I charged the dreadnought into Karl's blob squad.  Neither of us could really do anything but I managed to tie up his 20+ man unit for the rest of the game.

Seriously, this crap dreadnought killed like 2 IG infantry over the next 4

+ turns

My Stormraven also came in.  I can't remember if it was the shooting from the stormraven or a lucky missile shot from my scouts, but I brought 1 bird down.  I also got my assault marines out of the razorback, shot at and charged the Harker Chimera.  I immobilized it.  With its only access point being the rear it meant only 1 model would be able to get out (as Karl had only just moved it on to the board).  It was a weird situation.

Short lived victory

Harkers squad disembarks on the edge of the world

At this point I was starting to feel good.  My big unit was on the table, I had finished off a flyer, and the Harker Squad was essentially dead.  In my next turn I would zoom the stormraven into Karl's lines and begin the slaughter.  Karl got immediate revenge and blew my stormraven up leaving all of my units contained within about 4 inches from my table edge.  Not how I had it worked out in my head.  The rest of Karls turn 3 shooting killed 1 or 2 Sanguinary Guard and my scouts on the far objective continued to get whittled down.

On my next turn I moved the Sanguinary Guard unit, the Sanguinar, and my Furioso towards the Harker Chimera.  My Baal predator came in near Karls objective and just started shooting.  I think I popped a Chimera.

On Turn 4 Karl finally finished off the scouts on my far objective.  That was ok, I had a masterful plan that could not possibly be beaten.  Besides that he removed an arm from my furioso and reduced my Sanguinary Guard squad to just 2 men (the priest died).  On my turn 4 my master-unbeatable-plan went into action.  My last drop pod containing 10 assault marines dropped right on the objective my recently deceased scouts had occupied.  Back in business!  I finished off the Harker squad (well, just Harker, everyone else walked into the abyss of off the table).  I ran my assault squad onto the objective, but my other 5 man assault squad back into my Razorback, and moved all my sanguinary type folks around to get cover saves around my other objective.

The remains of my "hammer unit" hides behind an immobilized armor 11 tank

no way this squad could be pushed off this objective

At the start of turn 5 I had two objectives, and Karl had 1 (although my dreadnought may have been close enough to contest).  I was feeling pretty, pretty, pretty good.  Once again, Karl crushed my hopes and dreams.

My assault squad looks on as Karl decides what to shoot me with

Karl had the most impressive round of shooting thus far.  He stunned my Baal, reduced my remaining scouts to 3, and then proceeded to completely annihilate my entire 10 man assault squad.  With my hopes and dreams turned to blood and tears Karl then put a unit of vets in his remaining flyer and zoomed to claim the now open objective.  It was a brutal swing. 

In a quick turn of events, Karl moves his parking lot towards the now open objective

I really had nothing that could pop his flyer or the 3 flippin' Leman Russes he had left, so I decided to ignore the far objective.  With 3 scouts remaining and 5 assault marines in a Razorback I felt safe enough moving my Dreadnought and guard away from it.  Hoping to ensure Karl's objective was contested I moved everything towards it.  The Baal predator was unable to shoot, but it parked right on the objective.

puttin' it in park

running like ladies towards Karl's objective

The game didn't end after 5 (as I had hoped) and went to turn 6.  Karl moved his flyer towards the objective (he would get their next round) and did some rather unimpressive shooting (he did kill 1 more scout, but the squad held on).

 I dropped the sanguinar onto Karl's objective and ran everyone else towards it.  My lone missile launcher scout hit and penetrated the Valkyrie but only caused it to not shoot, meaning he would claim that objective on turn 7.  Luckily we rolled and the game ended.  I had 1 objective, and Karl had none (my Baal's and the Sanguinar contested his).

275 points to contest 1 objective, I should have gotten more scouts!

I was lucky, Karl owned my ass the whole game.  Karl not being able to kill my dreadnought and the resiliency of my scouts were the only reason this game was close.  This list Karl is running has a soul crushing amount of long range shooting.  After these two games it seems obvious to me that when I play Karl I need to bring more land raiders.

The stars of the game

This cat is a sniper scout