Sunday, August 29, 2010

Kill It With (Weight of) Fire

1,000 point game on Thurs, 2010/08/26, SM vs. Tau.  Mission was rolled as Annihilation/Dawn of War.  I won the roll-off and made amrbean deploy first and get first turn, but failed to seize the initiative.  For any who don't know, Dawn of War deployment is up to 1 HQ and 2 Troops on the table at deployment, with nightfighting rules for turn 1 and anything not in reserve entering from your edge of the table at the beginning of the turn.

SM:
  • Chapter Master
  • Drop Pod w/ embarked 10-man TSM squad
  • Land Raider w/ embarked 10-man TSM squad
  • Predator
  • Land Speeder

Tau:
  • Shas'el w/ Shield Drone
  • Shas'el w/ Shield Drone & Gun Drone
  • 2 XV8 attached to Shas'el #2
  • 6 FW
  • 6 FW
  • 5 Pathfinders w/ Devilfish (not embarked)
  • 3 XV88
  • Hammerhead

Turn 1 was fairly ineffective for both of us; amrbean failed to see a unit he was shooting at but his drop-pod landed exactly where he placed it and disgorged an entire 10-man TSM squad.  His HQ is skulking around in the building on the mid-right and scatttered an orbital bombardment completely off my deployed FW squad on the right.  The Land Speeder also scattered on deep strike, but not terribly far.

My deployment was the XV8 Shas'el and a FW squad behind the the hillside on the left and another FW squad on the right in a bombed-out corner of a building.  The only units I placed in reserve were the combined shas'el + XV8 team.  Everything else was set to float/run on at the start of my turn.

This must be from either the end of Turn 1 or the beginning of Turn 2.  The Land Raider and Predator have both rolled up and gotten a few shots off to little effect.  My Pathfinders are running for the hill so they can start dropping markerlights on high-priority targets, and their Devilfish (who's drones I apparently forgot) skimmed up to take on the FWs.  The Hammherhead is hiding behind a low wall and taking submunition + burst cannon shots at the TSMs that spilled from the drop pod, while the Speeder had no luck with its shooting.

Middle of Turn 2.  The right FW squad has been annihilated (first kill point goes to the SMs), but in return my shas'el took out the Land Speeder, my Broadsides blew up the Predator, and my Hammerhead is whittling away the TSMs.  The Chapter Master has come around the corner and has a long way to go to get to anywhere useful.  My shas'el + XV8 kill team has made an on-target deep strike, but I misjudged the ranges by a smidgen and only 1 of them is within half-range of its fusion blaster (which is a Melta weapon).  I fail to get a useful result and jump backwards...

...but not far enough.  The TSMs get out, fire their few pistols + flamer, and then assault in and start chewing me up.  My Hammerhead loses its railgun to a twin-linked lascannon shot and continues plinking at the drop-pod squad with is burst cannons.  Railgun after railgun fires at the Land Raider, but AV14 is a bitch to penetrate, even with S10.  The Devilfish doesn't really know what to do, so it just sorta hovers around in the background.  My lone shas'el bounces back and forth, trying to help take out the drop-pod TSMs.

Shas'el moves up and pew-pews, Hammerhead moves away, Broadsides rip a twin-linked lascannon off the Land Raider, shas'el + XV8s swing about wildly and actually knock a few SM heads off.  Devilfish takes a chance and moves onto the hill without getting immobilized while trying not to block the PFs' markerlights.

The melee ended when I took some wounds, failed a morale test, and failed the initiative test, getting quite a few points' worth of units chopped to bits in the TSM's sweeping advance.

Not that much movement; Land Raider is immobilized and Tau are most comfortable standing around and sniping.  The Devilfish is getting setup for some fun times, though.

SMs are stepping forward, right into my waiting trap.  Pathfinders have taken casualties, but they weren't disappointing underachievers the whole game so I'm not too torn up over it.

Trap springs!  The FWs disembark and the Devilfish surges forward for a tank shock.  Surprisingly enough it works, with the TSMs failing a morale test and falling back.  The Hammerhead and shas'el trim down the drop-pod squad, finally breaking them and causing the sole survivor to also fall back.  Land Raider takes a glancing blow and I roll a 5; that rounds down to a 3 (due to the glance) but is bumped up to a 4 because railguns are AP1. When an immobilized target takes another immobilized result that in turn bumps up to a Destroyed - Wrecked, and it goes down.  Or up; belly-up, that is.

My FWs scootch forward a little bit and it takes the combined firepower of them, my shas'el, and my Hammerhead to wipe the Chapter Master and the lone TSM over there off the board.  The drop-pod finally goes down to my Broadsides.  The Devilfish shoots at the TSM squad but, more importantly, stays within 6" of them so they cannot regroup even with the benefit of And They Shall Know No Fear.

End of Turn 7.  That solitary sergeant is the sole surviving SM model, but even he counts as destroyed when the end of the game comes up and he's still falling back.  Result: Tau victory, Space Marines tabled by rules.

Lessons learned:

  • Land Raiders don't fit 1k point games
  • Don't forget drones on Devilfish (duh?!)
  • BS3, even (especially?) on twin-linked railguns sucks
  • If you bring a Pathfinder Devilfish so you can reroll your deep strike scatter dice, make sure it has LOS when your reserves roll on

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