After a spot of lunch and a browse around the trade stalls it was time for game 3, my opponent had already set up on the table we were playing on. A quick glance at this army and I saw two Land Raider Crusaders a bunch of Nurgle Marines and the Space Wolf codex sat next to them. What?!? How dare he disgrace our sacred book of Russ with the taint of Nurgle. These traitors must be punished once I figure out how to sort those two Land Raiders out.
Mission: Secure & Control
Set Up: Dawn of War
Army List:
Rune Priest
10 Grey Hunters, 2 Meltaguns, Wolf Standard
10 Grey Hunters, 2 Meltaguns, Wolf Standard, Mark of Wulfen
Land Raider Crusader, Multi Melta
Land Raider Crusader, Multi Melta
DeploymentI try to place more objectives on my opponents side of the table as I dont want to be hanging around capturing stuff on my side with a unit when I could be killing things with my troops. We end up with a nice triangle of objectives near his deployment zone.
The terrain was made up of quite a few Ruined buildings providing cover but still had plenty of lanes of fire to cause me problems. True to usual Bradimus form I lost the roll and end up going first.
Heres why I make my first mess up and I hold my entire force off the table, what I should have done was deploy a pack far forward to get stuck in straight away but isnt Hind sight brilliant. My opponent elects to hold his entire force off board too waiting to see where my Rhinos pop up.
Turn 1First turn I move all three Rhinos on 12" straight towards the centre of the battle field and the objective. I pop smoke on all three and Ulf casts storm caller just in case. The Long Fangs slog onto the board and make good progress setting up into some ruins.
Both Land Raiders come on 12" putting them just in range to shoot. Only one can draw line of sight but a melta shot hits Ulfs Rhino and sends it up in ball of flames, Ulf and the boys bail out.
Turn 2
Ulfs pack heads for cover of the nearest building, trying to close the gap I move a Rhino over the difficult terrain caused by Ulfs Rhino and as expected immobilise my Rhino.
My Third Rhino heads for cover getting out of the way of those Land Raiders, Ulf tries to cast storm caller again but his traitorous counter part blocks his attempt.
Both Land Raiders open up on Ulfs pack who failed to get out of sight fully and they end up taking heavy casualties leaving Ulf and a few Grey Hunters standing.
Turn 3Things are going badly already for me and heres where I make the most stupid decision of the tournament. I move my Last working Rhino 12" straight in front of a Land Raider, what I should have done is jumped out and melta'd it into next week instead I just sat in the Rhino and did nothing thinking to take what ever attacks next turn and then attack. Duh!
With a nice big juicy target sat right in front of them both Squads of Nurgle Hunters jump out of the Land Raiders and take aim at the lone Rhino. Now if gaming miracles could happen this is one of them. After four Meltagun shots, 2 Multimelta and 8 Assault cannon shots my Rhino is still sat there with a missing storm bolter and an immbolised engine with some rather shaken crew inside.
I would have probably been better off losing the Rhino because now I had 20 Marines climbing all over my Rhino this is bad because if he gets a wrecked result I've got no where to climb out of that Rhino safely. As expected after some 20 something krak grenades later my Rhino gets wrecked and only three of my nine Grey Hunters make it out alive but pinned.
Turn 4
With things going from bad to worse I must admit I lose my composure here and just cant think how to recover this situation. My Long Fangs stun one of the Land Raiders whilst Ulf and a few survivors run into some ruins and claim an objective.
Ulf tries to cast Living Lightning but is shut down by the Nurgle Rune priest.
The Nurglings advance on Ulf and his depleted pack, the un stunned Land Raider tries to move into position but immobilises itself on some terrain.
The remaining pack members who escaped from the Rhino are gunned down as they try to get thier senses.
In Assault Ulf is swarmed by Traitor marines and he and is pack is brought down before any damage could be caused. They then consilidate onto the objective in the ruins.
Turn 5
It looks like its all over for me, I had kept my last pack inside the immbilised Rhino hidden just in case I could jump out and claim the nearest objetive at last minute but that looked impossible. However the Marines that had just killed Ulf looked to be within 12" so I decide to dismount and make a move towards them.
In assault I get the "6" I need for movement and I charge into the Marines in the ruins. The combat is bloody but thanks to my Wolf Standard and Powerfists I give them a bloodied nose but they hold ground.
The un engaged squad of Traitors move to claim an objective in the open and with nothing to fire at we go straight to combat. The fight is pretty much one way, my Grey Hunters finsh off the enemy and kill the Nurgle Rune priest. I roll a 6 for consilidation and move straight towards his remaining squad.
We roll to see if the game ends and I get the result I wanted, the game continues.
Turn 6
My last pack hungry for blood and overcome by the inner wolf head straight for the enemy, I dont fire my pistols as the charge distance is pretty fine.
My Long Fangs Stun the Land Raider again.
I assault the enemy and cause massive damage with my fists with little in return, they break from combat and I let them run.
My opponent has nothing to do in his turn, he cannot rally his marines as I am within 6".
At this the game ends a draw with neither sides claiming any objectives.
Conclusion
Wow what a game, I was sure it was all over for me by turn 3. My set up and battle plan were poor to say the least and I certainly did not use the terrain to my advantage. By rights I should have lost but the ferociousness of my packs saved it for me. That one Grey Hunter pack disabled his troops in two turns ending the chances of a win and only just pulling a draw for me. His land Raiders posed a real problem for me as I had no long range method of taking them out but I knew this when designing the list as one of my weaknesses.
On a personal level I lost my composure in this game when things were not looking good for me especially when I pulled the "Dont get out of the Rhino stunt" I had the face on a little bit.
The thing is I realised this and took a deep breath and sorted my head out but it showed how easy this happens as I've often had opponents get the "face" on with me during games, its definately something to watch for in future games.
1 comments:
February 21, 2010 at 6:21 AM
Nice report and a classic reason for never giving up well done that man!
When I was reading it I really didn't think you were going to have a chance after sitting in the Rhino - (I've done the same thing myself and lost horribly), but was reading quicker and quicker until the end hoping for the pups to put one over on the traitors - Once again nice Bat Rep
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