I had wavered quite a bit over what to take to the event but I decided to take my Imperial Fists and run them as Dark Angels as that would be the most similar in point cost to what they would look like. I wanted to see how the army held up at 1500, and if things like running them as Iron Fists (6+ FNP, It will not Die) would be a big upgrade over just running them as Imperial Fists (bolters reroll, devastator/centurions have tank hunters). I think the bolter reroll is just for infantry, so all the heavy bolters on tanks and such probably don't count.
So the list was:
HQ: Ezekiel
Elite: 5 Deathwing Termies TH/SS
Elite: Dreadnought 2x TL Autocannons
Elite: Dreadnought 2x TL Autocannons
Troops: 10 Tacticals, Melta, Razorback Las/Plas
Troops: 5 Tacticals, Melta, Razorback Las/Plas
Fast: Typhoon
Fast: Typhoon
Heavy: Dakka Pred
Heavy: Dakka Pred
Heavy: Whirlwind
Fortification: Aegis, Icarus Lascannon
So a few notes about the list. First is Ezekiel who is a pretty unique HQ. I think for small point games he is a steal at sub 150 pts. He's level 3 but has his own mind worm power. I rolled Diviniation and all 3 games I had Precognition and Prescience. He's got a 2+ save but no invul, is BS 5, has a slightly fancy force sword, and can give a unit nearby +1 WS. My plan was to run him with the termies and/or stand on the icarus.
The list is light on troops. My basic game plan was to combat squad and reserve 5 plain guys. I knew two of the games would have Scouring and Big guns so that would help in that department.
There is not a lot of maneuverability. Sure there are lots of vehicles that can get up and go, but usually they are all taking the 4+ cover and the troops can make some last minute objective grabs. The only real question is whether to deepstrike the Termies turn 1 or walk them.
Game 1: Dawn of War; Primary Crusade (3 Obj); Secondary Relic; Tertiary Warlord, Linebreaker, First blood
Peter's Crimson Fists
HQ: Pedro!
Elite: Assault Termies 3 TH/SS, 2 Lighting Claws
Elite: 5 Sterngaurd, CombiMelta, Lightning Claw, Razorback Las/Plas
Troops: 10 Tacticals, Melta/MM, Razorback Las/Plas
Troops: 5 Scouts, Camo Cloaks, 4 Snipers, Heavy Bolter w/ Hellfire
Troops: 5 Scouts Caom Cloaks, Missile Launcher
Fast: Storm Talon
Fast: Storm Talon w/ Typhoon Missile Launcher
Heavy: Vindicator
Heavy: Whirlwind
Peter is a great guy I have had the pleasure of playing several times, usually on game 1 just like this! This was also a funny match up because not only were we marines on marines but old school models as well!
I got to go first and had a pretty good first turn. I killed a few scouts in shooting and think I poped a razroback as well. Then his turn he unleashed Orbital Bombardment and I was 'oh ya NOOB Pedro is a chapter master!' So my bad there as I had all my tanks clustered together. He got a solid hit and exploded one pred, one Dread, one speeder, and one Razroback. That took a significant amount of firepower out of action early. Later I was never able to properly deal with his fliers as he kept jinking and making saves. Still Ezekial managed to defend sterngaurd off the relic. He had one marine on one objective, two scouts on another, I had first blood and he had warlord. On my turn 7 I had a Dread shoot at the marine and the whirlwind shoot the scouts. If they had been sucessful it would be a tie, but he made every save. So drat, a fun close game gets away from me!
Game 2: Vangaurd; Primary Big Guns (3 Obj); Secondary Purge the Alien; Tertiary Warlord, Linebreaker, First blood
Christophe's Necrons with GK allies
HQ: Coteaz
Troops: Henchmen; 3 Servitors w HBs, 5 Warriors
Troops: Henchmen; 6 Psychers, 3 Warriors
Heavy: Dreadkinght, Gatling Psilencer, Heavy Incinerator, Teleporter
Heavy: Dakka Dread
Heavy: Dakka Dread
HQ: Overlord, Res Orb
Royal Court: Harbinger of Despair, Veil of Darkness
Troops: 9 Immortals
Troops: 9 Warriors
Fast: 4 Destroyers, 2 heavy Gauss Cannons
Fortification: Aegis, Icarus
I'd not met Chris before but I'm worried about his army. I know necrons are resilient and he's got better dreads than I do. It looks like it is going to be a shoot off and I don't know how it is going to trun out at all. I'm not convinced to Deep strike the termies so I keep them with Ezekiel.
He gets to go first and manages to pop my dread for first blood. I had good cover but alas sometimes you just fail those saves. Remarkably that would be my last failed cover save for tanks (or just about it would seem). We traded shots for the first two rounds, with me being unable to pop his dreads (I wanted the heavy points) and him shunting up his Dreadkinght to fry 4 of 5 marines. That marine ran and hid and then I unloaded on the Dreadknight killing it. The Destroyers were flanking me a bit but could not manage to kill my Typhoons and eventually they were killed off as well. His immortals also teleported up but they shot terribly and then were shot to bits over the next few turns.
By turn 3 I realized I needed to be sending my termies to at least defend the central objective which his warriors were now defending. I eventually made it there and killed them off, and finally popped his dread. Then night fight kicked in and there was not much left to be done. My termies started to head off to his main 'camp' but the game ended. In the end the central objective was unclaimed and we had both the big guns objective in our zone, but I had killed two heavies to get the primary. While he had killed some marines and termies, his only killpoint I think was the first Dread, and I had killed several of his units. I ended up with line breaker as well while he had first blood. A interesting and challenging game that went my way the back half of the game.
Game 3: Dawn of War; Primary The Scouring; Secondary Emperors Will; Tertiary Warlord, Linebreaker, First blood
Keith's Necrons
HQ: Imotekh
Royal Court: Harbinger of Destruction w/ Solar Pulse, Harbinger of Destruction, Harbinger of Despair w/ Veil of Darkness
Elite: Triarch Stalker
Troops: 9 Warriors
Troops: 10 Warriors
Troops: 10 Warriors
Fast: 3 Destroyers
Fast: 3 Destroyers
Heavy: Doomsday Ark
Heavy: Doomsday Ark
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| Sadly I didn't snap a picture until well after we had packed up so... ya this is terrible. |
He ended up on the side with more objectives, but as they popped I ended up with the 4 point and a 3 point on my side. I got to go first and decided I would try to deepstrike my termies turn one, why not! Then he stole turn 1! Oh no! After playing against the Stormlord at Golden Throne I knew how terrible that storm could be, and would probably give him first blood.
But as it turns out Keith's dice decided two games were enough for the day and just did not show up all game. The storm did nothing (a hull point here or there). He deepstruck a unit of warriros up with Imotek and unloaded on my killing almost nobody. The rest of his shooting was also just terrible.
I deepstruck my termies right next to his Doomsday arks in the corner and ran toward them spreading out. In shooting I wiped out his whole squad of warriors, but Immotek stood back up. I think I shot a few destroyers this turn. I decided to charge Ezekeil and the 3 marines he was with at Immotek. That combat lasted the rest of the game, as we both could not get through our AP2, and I had Precog up the whole time.
His turn 2 and again his shooting was dismal. I think he killed two of my termies and again a few hull points from the Storm. On my turn the termies charged the Arks and killed one only. They finished the other up turn 3, after he had another dismal turn where the storm went out.
Essentially the whole back half of the game was a bit of a downer in that he had no real options. He hid his two warrior squads the best he could as I moved a bit to pick them off. I had killed his Destroyers and his stalker at some point, and I had just left my solo termie that had survived shooting off in the corner.
In the end I had Scouring and I think we were both tied on Emperors will (I might be wrong on that now) and I had first blood and line breaker and he had linebreaker as well. It was a landside on the table, but we did laugh a whole bunch about how terrible his dice were treating him.
So in the end a 2-1 showing which was great but 3 fun games which was even better. It was hard to rate the opponents for sportsman as you have to give 3 different scores (so a 3, a 2, a 1, or a 0 I guess if it was terrible). So that is always tricky to figure out how to differentiate 3 fun games!
Conversely and somewhat amazingly all 3 of my opponents gave me a 3! Wow! So I ended up with the sportsman prize which is certainly nice, plus a cool old school dread I can add to my orks.
So Captain Soft Score strikes again! The DA were definitely fun, but what about as marines? Well It will not die would really not have come up much in my three games. The tanks usually died straight out, or lost hull points but never died. I guess getting those back would be nice but not entirely necessary. 6++ FNP could have been nice, but likely doesn't amount to much. For the Imperial Fist side of things the reroll bolters would probably have been pretty useless as well.
So I think at this point level really any of the armies is about the same, with maybe Iron Hands taking the lead. However as it scales up I think Dark Angels might be the best, as taking Belial with 10 Th/SS termies is just nasty in the troop department.
But we'll have to see what the Marine dex brings soon enough!
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