So we begin day 2, and to be honest I was a bit annoyed with myself after game 3, realising the mistakes I'd done on the drive home. So I was determined to win big as I'd dropped down to 17th in the rankings.
So I stroll into the main room and Scotty informs me I’m playing my good friend Luke and his Space marines.
The mission is:
Pitched Battle, Primary Seize ground (5 counters), Secondary Kill Points
His list is:
Libby, gate and null zone
2x 10 man tactical squads both with Metagun / Missile Launcher, sgts with power fists and combis (I think) in Razorbacks with TL Plasma / las
10 scouts with snipers, Sgt has PF and combi-melta
5 TH/SS termies in Land raider Redeemer with Multimelta
2 rifleman dreads
1 autolas predator
Luke wins the roll to place objectives first then wins the roll to go first. He deploys nothing. I deploy my army across the board with PCS's in behind the lines and Straken in the middle of my lines.
Deployment (His stuff isn't in play)
His turn 1, nothing happens as all in reserve. in my turn 1 I shuffle a bit but nothing happens.
Turn 2 and his Land raider with termies, both razorbacks, a tactical squad come on in the middle of his deployment zone.
My turn 2 I stun the razorback on my left.
Turn 3 and he gets his predator, a rifleman and scout squad and keeps them mostly central again.
In my turn the outflank blob comes on, and I bring it on my left flank, also I begin advancing the blobs deciding that the lascannons won't win me this match as the objectives are on his side of the table.
Turn 4 and the rifleman dread walks in right in front of my outflanking blob while the tactical squad comes on in a gap behind. In being quick I didn't bother moving my men up to cover the gap and this was a lazy mistake. He assaults the special weapon squad and Al's command squad with the tacticals wiping them out, while the dread piles into the blob but the melta bombs fail to hit.
I knew I was silly for not moving the men up to cover the edge, but in game terms it wouldn't change much, though I should have done this to keep those two squads alive for just in case. Mistake definitely noted.
in my turn 4 I move forward again and HTH with the dread is nothing happens, damnit I have loads of melta bombs in that squad why won't they roll a 6 (So far 1 six) and then roll higher than a 3 on double dice (the one six I rolled got me a 2 and a 1 on the double dice for penning) pen!
Luke's turn 5, he moves the dread forward to my outflank blob while the land raider rumbles forward and disembarks the terminators. Usually I'd be nervous with this happening but after discussions with Mike from game 1 and seeing how the blob did vs. his termies I was actually not panicking as much, confident in a turn or 2 I can hopefully thin them out. they assault my left hand blob and boom, Sgt Statistics throws me a curveball, ...the good type, I hit with 15 power weapon attacks (Got counter attack off so had 20 total) and wound with 9 which wipe out the termies before they get to hit. Bonus for me and saves me having to use my turn 5 to try to finish off them assuming I got 2 kills first round.
In my turn 5 I decide to make the most of this extra turn of movement from the left blob and after consolidating them forward towards his scouts move them right up in his face. I then assault the scouts, his razorback right beside them after meltaing the Landraider with Straken's squad and blowing it up, wounding 17 of my own men but saving most. The scouts are almost wiped out in HTH and the Razorback explodes (Damnit... again with the exploding!) causing a few wounds, but I'm still solid. During this fighting my right hand blob had been skipping forward to take the objective on the right hand flank screening it with meltagnus and melta bombs in case the predator got ram happy.
Ralph 'lovely man' Risk rolls to continue and turn 6 comes up. I deeply love him for this, and I'm sure Luke hates him for the game continuing.
Luke's turn is again just a few kills, assaults my left blob which had almost wiped out the scouts with his tactical squad and I finish off the scouts and a few tactical marines as well as the usual up to this point of his dread (And other dread now) both in HTH with the outflanking blob causing a wound or 2 and me saving usually half of them or just under and the blob staying put happily (No point mentioning each turn he kills and 1 I make leadership) with my melta bombs still forsaking me bar another six! And another 2 and 1 on the pen rolls!! I’m going to have the commissars investigate the stock of melta bombs; I’m not sure their working properly.
He also moved the librarian forward (Straken's squad failed charge due to diff terrain previous turn) and assaults killing the banner guy, Straken hits 4 times and kills 4 times. The libby is well squished. They consol forward towards middle objective.
my turn 6 I kill of the tactical squad, consol forward onto objectives, move Straken forward to within charge rage of his other tactical squad, and move the right hand blob forward towards them still melta screening. The right hand PCS moves towards his remaining razorback and fire stunning immobing it (then assault it blowing it u but only as a wreck, yay finally no wounding my own guys!). I don't shoot and assault the tactical son both ends meaning very few can fight back. and with furious charge on both Straken and the blob's mass power weapons I maul them down to 1 man who breaks and flees away, I consolidate Straken onto an obj just in case still on cover and the blob consolidates onto another obj, meaning both my blobs are holding 2 objs (left hand PCS also holding it just in case) and the right hand blob is within 6 inches of his guy meaning he'll have to flee again and hopefully off the table unless Luke rolls low (And if the game continues).
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| Ralph 'Lovely man' Risk giving me the approivng thumbs, he got hugged after this game to even it out. |
We roll to continue and it ends. Damn I’d have loved a turn 7 for a chance to blow up the hiding predator tank chase the final guy off the battlefield and hopefully blow a dreadnought for some more victory point difference. But it’s a solid result against a good friend. Piss taking was light as it was scary how until the start of my turn 5 Luke had an army, at the end of my turn 5 He had only a few men left. The power of the blob is fast and vengeful it seems.
I win both objectives, and the VP difference is vastly in my favour for a 18-2 win. I'd have loved to get the final 2 points (In hindsight as I know I needed them now of course). Either way I’m jumped back up to 6th. Nice.
Blob Learning’s.
- The lascannons are there for early game damage, but I should not sit back and rely on them, marching the blobs forward along with the out flanking blob put Luke under a lot of pressure, something which wouldn't have happened if I sat back. So I need to remember the mass of bodies is another advantage and use them to pin in the opponent while advancing to then allow charges where I can gain ground and hopefully wipe them out.
- Never time save if it means leaving gaps, while the loss of Al's PCS and the SWS was not noticeable in this battle I should not become as slack as to not bother filling gaps properly. They could have found a use later on instead of dying stupidly. Noted to self and will try not to do this again.
- Terminators charging counter attacked up blobs with 20 power weapons and 35 normal attacks (the guys within range only) can expect a sore welcome, I'm getting more confident with my guys now vs. termies as I'm seeing they can hold them up and win over turns, my old mind set of playing marines / GK's and mech guard makes me anxious as the termies usually smash something expensive. In this army the expensive stuff is masses of guardsmen wounds which I shouldn't worry about as much. Or the short version I need to not be precious with the men, they are there to take hits and let the power weapons do their jobs.
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