40K Friday - Chaos School part 2

This is not exactly true anymore but they're still a pain 

The day after yesterday's battle, I played Apprentice Red's Necron army. To get in in before he had to go to work we kept it to 750 points. We also kept the table with the same setup as the previous battle. We decided the narrative was that the Eldar from yesterday were trolling the chaos force by popping in, waking up the Necrons, and popping out, leaving my poor chaos lord to find out what he was sitting on the hard way.

Red came in with a Necron lord, some other Necron HQ thing, 2 20-man warrior squads (!), and a single heavy destroyer. I asked him if he would rather play Orks since he was clearly going for a horde but he insisted he was OK.

I took the same end of the table with a slightly different force:


Chaos Space Marines Army                                                                 

Unit Name                       

Chaos Lord (HQ)                  150
                               Fearless; Champion of Chaos; Independent
                               Character; Terminator Armour; Burning Brand of
                               Skalathrax; Mark of Nurgle; Power Weapon; Warlord

Chaos Terminators (Elites)     140
                               Terminator Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Power Weapon
                               (x2); Combi-Flamer (x2)
  Terminator Champion          
                               (character); Champion of Chaos; Terminator
                               Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Combi-Flamer; Power Fist
                               (x1)

Chaos Space Marines (Troops)    115
                               Power Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol (x4);
                               Bolter (x3); Plasma Gun; Frag Grenades; Krak
                               Grenades
  Aspiring Champion             
                               (character); Champion of Chaos; Power Armour;
                               Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol; CCW; Combi-Plasma;
                               Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades

Chaos Space Marines (Troops)   115
                               Power Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol (x4);
                               Bolter (x3); Plasma Gun; Frag Grenades; Krak
                               Grenades
  Aspiring Champion           
                               (character); Champion of Chaos; Power Armour;
                               Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol; CCW; Combi-Plasma;
                               Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades

Chaos Space Marines (Troops)    115
                               Power Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol (x4);
                               Bolter (x3); Plasma Gun; Frag Grenades; Krak
                               Grenades
  Aspiring Champion            
                               (character); Champion of Chaos; Power Armour;
                               Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol; CCW; Combi-Plasma;
                               Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades

Chaos Space Marines (Troops)    115
                               Power Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol (x4);
                               Bolter (x3); Plasma Gun; Frag Grenades; Krak
                               Grenades
  Aspiring Champion          
                               (character); Champion of Chaos; Power Armour;
                               Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol; CCW; Combi-Plasma;
                               Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades

Total Army Cost: 750

Models in Army: 24

So it's MSU CSM spam! Necrons are hell on vehicles and after yesterday's debacle I had no interest in another wreck-fest. I figured two in the backfield, two up front, and the lord dropping in would net me enough firepower  and objectives to pull off a win. Once I saw he was going for a warrior horde I figured I might need to throw in one more of those squads and I was right.

I chose to set up second and move second. He set up one warrior blob on his home objective to my right. The other set up next to them and proceeded to march forward towards the midfield objective. His plan apparently is to hold two objectives and go for the secondaries for the win. 

Now it occurs to me if I just sit on my two home objectives (with a squad each) and contest the midfield with my other two squads plus the terminators) I probably have a win here. So that's what I do - two sit, two march forth, and the lord waits in the warp. 

For the first two turns not much happens, just a few casualties here and there. The necrons have taken the ruin but are in range of 3 marine squads so are taking some fire and are shooting back at me.

Oh look, he brought a book to read while he's waiting to deep strike!
(not mine but very nice)

Then on Turn 3 my Chaos Lord and his retinue deep strike in and end up a couple of inches from the objective ruin full of Necrons - this is better than I hoped! Three combi-flamers and the Burning Brand of Skalathrax open up and take down 14 warriors! Supporting fire from the other marines takes down a few more! Awesome! Then we roll for resurrection and only 4 of them stay dead - nooooooooooo!

The hapless chaos lord knows what's coming now - he is perfectly positioned to be in rapid fire range of most of both necron blobs. Thirty gauss shots (and a disgusting number of 1's on armor saves) later his retinue is blasted into a fine red mist and he is wounded. He only has a few seconds to notice this though as then thirty more gauss shots ring out and manage two more unsaved wounds, just enough to kill him too! He didn't even last a full turn on the table!

Realizing what's at stake the two closest marine squads charge into hand to hand. They do have the higher initiative but they are not kitted out for an extended combat. The champion must challenge the Necron Lord, which he does, but he does not have a power weapon and so does nothing, and is cut down by the machine. Everyone stays locked in combat.

At this point I make a mistake that lost me the game. I have two objectives, he has one, and we are contesting another. He has first blood and slay the warlord. Technically I am up 6-5 and if my two squads in hand to hand can hold on then I will win. For some reason I miscalculated made the bold decision to  charge one of my other squads forward to assist in the hand to hand, afraid that his lord would be able to win the fight and take the objective. This was unlikely but for some reason I thought I needed to go all-in. My third squad moved up and charged in on Turn 4. Now the only way I could win would be to win this combat and take the objective.

It was a meat grinder. My poorly-equipped-for-assault marines against his even less capable warriors dragged through a series of single-casualty assault rounds because I was T5 3+ and he had that !$@$#@$ resurrection orb so that what I did kill had a 50/50 chance of coming back anyway. I fed a total of 3 aspiring champions to the lord who managed to not kill one of them in at least one round so the fight was still going on when the fight finally ended on turn 6.

Necrons 5, Chaos Marines 3.

Lessons Learned:

• Even a small unit of Nurgle Terminators and the Nurgle Lord are pretty tough. It took 60 Gauss shots to kill them. Unfortunately they landed where that could happen in a single shooting phase, but that was still somewhat impressive and it came down to the last save. One more 2+ roll and he's in assault the next turn, putting the hurt on that Necron lord. Chaos is fickle ...
• I should have given each squad a CCW. I also should have given some of the champs power weapons at least. This oversight severely limited them in assault and limited the leaders in that challenge.
• Putting 1/4 of my main force on a back objective felt like a waste. I probably could have used cultists again for that one and then used the points to add the assault upgrades I needed to make the offensive units better. 
• Small marine units may be fine for holding objectives in a bigger battle but they do not generate volume of fire. All 5 guys in rapid fire range is still only 10 shots. Against Necrons that nets out to about 1 kill, after toughness, armor saves, and "we'll be back". Sure they can cover more ground but they don't do a whole lot when they get there. This was exacerbated by his massive squads

And probably the biggest lesson: remember the mission! I'm usually better about that but I really dropped it here. Next time!

40K Friday on Thursday - Chaos School part 1

...as in getting schooled. The Apprentices and I finally had time to get in a couple of games of 40K over the weekend and I lost both of them. Here's the rundown:

Game 1 was 1250 points of my CSM's vs. Apprentice Blaster's shiny new Eldar. Here's a blurry picture of the table:

So that's a ruin and a wooded area and a LOS blocker in each deployment zone with a small wooded area and a small ruin in the middle of the table. We ended up with the short-vs-short arrangement so that's why we're looking at it from that angle. The objectives were basically in an "X" pattern - 2 in each deployment zone, 1 in the middle.

Blaster took a Farseer, 2 units of Guardians with missile launchers (sitting on two objectives), a unit of Dire Avengers, a unit of Reapers in that middle bunker, a unit of Harlequins, a Falcon, and a Wraithlord.

My list:


Chaos Space Marines Army                                                                

Unit Name                  

Chaos Lord (HQ)     165
                               Fearless; Champion of Chaos; Independent
                               Character; Terminator Armour; Burning Brand of
                               Skalathrax; Blight Grenades; Mark of Nurgle;
                               Power Fist; Warlord

Sorcerer (HQ)          125
                               Champion of Chaos; Independent Character; Psyker
                               (2); Terminator Armour; Mark of Slaanesh;
                               Combi-Bolter; Force Weapon

Helbrute (Elites)       115
                               Vehicle (Walker); Crazed; Heavy Flamer (x1);
                               Multi-Melta; Power Fist

Helbrute (Elites)       115
                               Vehicle (Walker); Crazed; Power Fist (x2); Heavy
                               Flamer (x1)

Chaos Terminators (Elites)    144
                               Terminator Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Power Fist
                               (x2); Combi-Flamer (x2)
  Terminator Champion  
                               (character); Champion of Chaos; Terminator
                               Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Combi-Flamer; Power
                               Weapon

Plague Marines (Troops)      174
                               Fearless; Feel No Pain; Power Armour; Mark of
                               Nurgle; Plague Knife; Bolt Pistol (x5); Bolter
                               (x3); Meltagun (x2); Blight Grenades; Krak
                               Grenades
  Plague Champion            
                               (character); Champion of Chaos; Mark of Nurgle;
                               Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Plague Knife;
                               Combi-Melta; Krak Grenades

Chaos Space Marines (Troops)    210
                               Feel No Pain; Power Armour; Mark of Slaanesh;
                               Bolt Pistol (x9); Bolter (x7); Flamer;
                               Autocannon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Icon of
                               Excess
  Aspiring Champion          
                               (character); Champion of Chaos; Power Armour;
                               Mark of Slaanesh; Bolt Pistol; CCW; Bolter; Frag
                               Grenades; Krak Grenades; Melta Bombs

Chaos Cultists (Troops)            65
                               Improvised Armour; CCW; Autogun (x8); Heavy
                               Stubber
  Cultist Champion  
                               Champion of Chaos; CCW; Autopistol; Shotgun

Maulerfiend (Heavy Support)     135
                               Vehicle (Walker); Daemon; Daemonforge; Fleet; It
                               Will Not Die; Move Through Cover; Siege Crawler;
                               #Daemonic Possession; Lasher Tendrils (x2); Power
                               Fist (x2)
                   
Total Army Cost: 1248
Models in Army: 34

The Plan: 

• Cultists hold a backfield objective, CSM's hold a forward objective aided by the sorcerer, Plagues hold the other forward objective and threaten the midfield one if possible.
• The Lord deep strikes in with the terminator unit and fries whatever is close, ideally clearing an objectve.
• The two helbrutes and the maulerfiend form a "right hook" that powers up the right side of the field to stop the enemy from taking the midfield and possibly supporting the plagues or termies in securing one of the Eldar home objectives.

It's sort of a "refused flank" approach, holding on the left while charging up on the right. I still think it was a good plan, even if the execution failed. The spiky marines' biggest problem is having a lot of stuff that would like to be at 12" or less range while lacking a means of getting there. Between deep striking and a speedy vehicle backed up by more vehicles, I thought I could overcome this. I did not.

I chose to set up first and move first, which was a mistake. It just meant my attacking units were out in the open for the Eldar to blast. I moved up the fiend, the brutes, and the plague marines on the right and did very little to him. He did some damage to my vehicles (Falcon + missile launchers + reapers = quite shooty).

This is pretty much what he did for me all game.

Over on my left I was holding an objective in some ruins with a unit of CSM's setup like normal marine tac squad + sorcerer. Opposing this he had guardians sitting back, plus a wraithlord who also sat back, and a unit of harlies that advanced pretty quickly. Shooting at the harlies was tricky with their shadowseer's power, and I was a little worried about the wraithlord, so I diverted one of my helbrutes over in that direction - another mistake! On Turn 2 the brute was pounded by missile fire, stunned, then finally knocked out on Turn 3, never getting to fire a single weapon. I shot the harlies up when they charged and had them down to about 5 clowns when they hit my squad. By Turn 4 my CSM's were dead and the 4 remaining harlies were having a tea party in the ruins. 

Over on the right the maulerfiend was killed at the top of turn 2, the helbrute was stunned and eventually killed, but the plague marines made it into the ruins to hold the objective. Then disaster struck!

A very nicely painted maulerfiend - not mine, but it is very nice

The deep striking termies + lord came in with a bad, long scatter roll and ended up in a place where impassable terrain forced me to place one of the terminators less than an inch from the dire avengers, creating a mishap! I rolled and Apprentice Blaster got to place my heavy hitters on the table instead of me. They ended up near the back of my deployment zone in some woods, forcing them to take a dangerous terrain test, which one of them promptly failed and died. They spent the rest of the game hoofing it towards the battle. 

"Chaos is Fickle"

The plague marines are left facing off with the dire avengers for control of the middle objective and it's a battle they cannot win. The game ends with me controlling one objective and Blaster controlling two plus first blood and linebreaker, 8-3 for the Eldar.

Lessons learned:

• I really thought my 10-man CSM + Slaaneshi sorcerer would be able to hold those ruins. 3+/4++ cover/with Feel No Pain, plus psyker buffs + I5 should have made them hell for any attacking unit. Unfortunately for me Harlequins are I6, so they got to strike first and I don't think I made a single FNP roll the entire game. Once they crumbled I had no way to reclaim that objective. I think a nurgle mark would have been more help.
• All that my armor did was give his Falcon and his Guardians something to shoot. I used to be against putting anti-armor guns on guardian squads but given their usual 12" range then if they're objective-sitting the 48" launcher lets them contribute in a meaningful way against high-value targets even from the backfield. I thought 3 AV12 units was enough to do something but I was wrong. 
• The deep strike ... I still think the terminator drop-in is one of the few ways for CSM's to get into the enemy's face on Turn 2. Guardians in ruins are easy meat for flamers so that was my intended target but I got greedy, tried to get in close and paid for it. Relying on one unit was probably a mistake. Another unit or two, instead of the helbrutes, would have been a much more reliable approach. Maybe two units of 5, upping each to include a reaper cannon and making that the primary striking force would have done even more.

Ah well, it was fairly close. A lot of 1's in the Harlequin fight and one bad roll for the teleporters and the battle went against me - a small change on either of those and things are looking quite different. I need more battles with CSM's to figure out how I want to run them so there are a lot of unpainted and proxy models seeing action right now. I'm pretty sure there are bikes in my future, so I need to get those built to try them out. I also need some long range firepower, so havocs or obliterators are on the short list as well.

Underreaction Wednesday

There is just not a whole lot going on out there. I suppose we're in a pre-gen-con slow period but it still seems really quiet right now as far as RPG activity. There are a few things that might be of interest though:

• Stonehell Part 2 continues to move forward - looking forward to it Mr. Curtis
• Here's a sorta-kinds Dark Sun update. Not sure about the album part of it but it's something though there's not much to it yet.
• EN World has a poll up about most anticipated RPG of 2013. Compared to last year I'm not seeing much but SR5 should be worth a look at least. Stonehell and Emerald City may be the "peaks" for me for the remainder of 2013.
• Updates etc. about Next here
• There's been some talk on the mailing list over the last few weeks about a second edition for ICONS - Steve Kenson discusses it here. I'm not sure it needs one but if we're talking "revamp" more than "re-do" I think it's probably fine.

Latest Project

It's a work in progress but I wanted to improve our terrain options for our 40K games.

For a variety of reasons we settled on a bridge. It gives us some height, some LOS blockage, and it's an excuse to build some river terrain to go with it. Right now it's held together with toothpicks as we work through our paint scheme ideas but once we solidify those we will forge ahead.

That's a 2'x4' board. I wanted to make it longer but we typically play on a 6'x4' table. Keeping it to 4' at the longest let's us use it either "horizontally" or "vertically", rather than forcing us to let it stretch all the way across the battlefield. There's enough space between the pillars to let a Rhino pass through, so right now we're debating whether to make the under-bridge terrain more river or more street. I think it makes more sense if there's a river, even a dried-up river, but a street or just flat terrain is more practical as then I don't have to account for the river on the adjacent boards. Either way it should be interesting.

It also got the apprentices thinking about other terrain options, so there are coke-can power stations and exotic forests of styrofoam and toothpicks being worked on as well. Pretty much anything that can fit with our generic green woods & ruins battlefield and make it more interesting.

My original idea was to build some arctic ice-field type boards but it's been years since i've bit any significant terrain and though a more general shotgun approach might be better to start with, and then once we are back in that groove we can get more ambitious. Something like this example is along the lines of what I'm thinking.

More to come!

Motivational Monday