Meanwhile I rocked up with my 1000pt list for Warhammer World [7 days to go!] and Roy decided to take me on, a real challenge to trim down his Vendetta list. We had two objectives and set up was Dawn of War. In the end Roy's list was something like:
- 2 Vendettas - Plasma Vets
- 3 Guard squads, at least 10 in each squad
- 1 Five man squad of Flamer vets
- 2 Hydra Flak tanks
- 1 Manticore Missile Launcher
Once again no pics, I'm afraid. I'll try and take some next time, well it'll be Warhammer World so I expect a good few 'rolls of film' to be taken. Roy generously gave me a lot of advice during the game. I know I've talked in the past about being 'part' of the club and my experiences in being part of my kendo club. At kendo I was of senior grade to the rest of the members. As such it was my responsibility to help them improve, to adjust my practice to accommodate their ability and over advice and opportunity so they would get better. This is very similar at Lost Boys, presumably because they want a good game, not a walk in the park. the better I get the more challenging I am and therefore push them to improve. It also means if I join them in a tournament and they've asked me to come along a few times already, they know I can bring my 'game' to the table and do well, alongside having fun.
The game itself was great, Roy suggested if I let him go first because of Dawn of War he wouldn't be able to shoot me first turn. I could see his deployment and then choose to focus my deployment on just once section of the board, wipe that out and then steam roll the rest. Thankfully there was a large building in the middle of the board that could hide my Tervigon and Warrior/Prime unit first turn.
In my first turn the Warriors took cover in the shadow of the building and the Tervigon went round the side and Cluster Spined a squad of troops on the opposite side of the building. Having moved already I didn't get to spawn some Termagants, did that come back to haunt me AGAIN? Hormagaunts raced up the field.
Roys 2nd turn and the Warriors took a few hits from the Manticore and Las Cannon. Some wounds were taken and a Deathspitter was insta-killed. The tervigon may have taken a wound too.
My turn 2, Genestealers and Spore Pod came on. Genestealers on the right flank, next to the Manticore, 10 man squad, a Flak tank and a Vendetta. The Spore pod landed perfectly, behind the Vendetta and next to the Flak Tank. the Genestealers went on to multi-assault the Manticore and 10 man Squad which were whittled down a bit through Devgaunt fire once they exited the pod. The Manticore was blown to pieces and the squad was slaughtered. they later spent two turns thrashing the Flak tank, taking off weapons, shaking it and all sorts until one penetrating hit finally thrashed it.
The Warrior squad slowly got whittled down and I eventually had to remove the Prime and send him scuttling back to my objective because late in the game Roy made a backfield play for my objectives and thee Termagant brood I had in cover next to it were barbecued by the Vet flamers.
The Tervigon continued to take fire, amusingly he was shot by Plasma vets who both overheated and killed themselves leaving one unit leader with a las pistol left. However, their deaths were not in vain as they took the final wound of the Tervigon and it keeled over. The Trygon turned up in turn 3 I think. He survived his first turn as most of the fire was targeted at my scoring Hormagaunts. They'd conga lined through cover and captured Roy's objective. Next turn though the Trygon tore the second Hydra apart and then went on to eat most of the guard squad in the ruined building next to it.
By now it was a mad rush to try and get back to my own objective and still secure Roy's with my 4 remaining gaunts. Eventually they were reduce to two and as the Prime was killed I needed to get the Barbed Strangler warrior back to my objective and shoot the unit of Vets camping in the cover next to it. Because the Warrior moved the Gaunts failed their leadership as they were not in Synapse and legged it - BUGGER! The warrior failed to destroy the Vet squad, seriously? Just one died.
It went into turn 6 and 7, my genestealers had run the width of the board and needed to position themselves to either assault the Vets or the Vendetta contesting the objective. The Warrior tried to remove the Vets from the equation but the Barbed Strangler deviated onto itself and the Stealers, killing one, wounding the Broodlord and I believe killing the Warrior itself! By this time we called it a draw the only other thing of not was one Termagant that had been locked in combat with the sole remaining las-pistol toting unit leader from the unlucky plasma vets. We rolled to see who would die but they were forever to remain locked in melee.
A much better game on my part, helped mostly by Roy's generosity and tactical advice. He says I'm improving and having talked over some options I may well prepare a list with Hive Guard and Mawloc to to try and take out some of his Vendettas and artillery. He was very impressed with the Mawloc rules, describing it as a 'must take' so we'll see for next time.
Hope this hasn't been too tedious, I appreciate a battle report without pics isn't too great but it's useful for me at least as a record