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The low down:
- The Relic.
- Dawn of War
- We won deployment and went first.
- Warlord Trait - Strategic Genius - Re-roll reserves
We were up against Alistair who had travelled from Adelaide Australia, although we couldn't rib him for the Ashes as he had a British passport. He was fielding both sides of his army, which made me think Dan could have done the same but he was adamant he was happy having asked for a Battle Brother. Anyway, Dan had the Defenders of Vogan, an Imperial Guard/Imperial Fists force.
I don't have a list but there was a Demolisher, Storm Talon, some mortar behind the ruins in front of him Aegis [which he artfully employed to get two layers of cover saves, Quad Gun Vet Squads and some Rough Riders!
Interesting how the Aegis doubles back, no? And he also maxed out his back field making it very difficult for the Doom or any other deep strikers to make an impact.
As you can see we pressed forwards, my Tervigon spawned 9, which headed towards the Relic, the other 11 went through the woods. Dan spawned out on 14. The HQ Tervigon spawned out on 5! and failed his Iron Arm roll with 11.
By the end of turn 1 we'd surrounded the Relic with Dan's Devgaunts holding the Bastion. We managed to take down a few of the front rank of Imperial Guard [I think with the Hive Tyrant swooping through the ruins on the left] but the ADL was quite efficient in saving their behinds, although the Commissar shooting one of them dead did prevent them running off the board
Alistair repositioned his forces.
My vanilla Tervigon takes a wound, despite Endurance and four of my gaunts are killed alongside four of Dan's, that Relic is looking slightly more accessible now.
The Defenders of Vogan hunker down for turn two.
And all hell breaks loose! The Doom arrives alongside the Trygon, using the ruins as cover so his Quad Gun can't target them. My Tervigon spawns 11 more gaunts and eventually picks up the Relic, he passed his Endurance roll on Snake Eyes suffering another wound while the HQ Tervigon fails his Iron Arm on 11 again! Dan's Tervigon gets Iron Arm and his Termagants move up in support of mine, while my other 11 break from the woods.
The Iron Armed Hive Tyrant jumps over the building, I think he failed his dangerous terrain test but passed his save.
He shoots some of the Space Marines to thin their numbers. The Hive Guard blow up the Chimera on the left, First Blood perhaps.
Or perhaps this, the guard squad beside the ruins, get Doomed, Bio-Electric Pulsed, and Deathspitted.
Leaving that flank open and the Doom with a lot of wounds. My Termagants split either side of the ruins.
The Tyrant gets into combat, I think Dan challenged so he could stay in combat during Alistair's turn and hopefully break free for ours, he was very good at judging this, I never think that far ahead, its always kill now, repent later!
Storm Talon arrives, we have no answer to this. You may also notice there are no Termagants in front of that ruin, those las-guns were vicious!
Tervigon takes another wound.
The Rough Riders had very cleverly kept out of the Doom's leech range, they get first hits in - they manage to wound 5 times and it saves all of them killing one in return.
My Tervigon spawns out finally on 16 sending them and the remaining 5 from the first turn on another suicide mission. The Trygon immediately after smashes through the ruins.
My Tervigon then takes the Relic and together with his non-identical twin head back to the hive, at the end of our movement he hands it off to it's twin. The Devgaunts leave the Bastion and move to join up with the Tervigons.
HQ Tervigon Iron Arms up and smashes through the ruins
Hive Tyrant takes a wound and Termagants support the Tervigon.
The Doom also gets a bit of support and the Rough Riders hold their nerve against Spirit Leech. The Trygon gets to grips with the mortar and blows that up.
But one rider goes down.
The Storm Talon zooms off towards the board edge.
And my suicidal Termagants get their wish like their lemming-like predecessors.
The Hive Tyrant gets blown to pieces by Melta Bombs I think.
Despite +1 Toughness the Tervigon takes a wound and my Termagants are roasted in hot Promethium.
And buoyed by their success the Vets charge down the Tervigon,
Only for their Sergeant to be eaten alive.
Having handed off the Relic my Tervigon races off to take charge of the Termagants
The Trygon heads for the Guard Command Squad.
The Rough Riders just will not die, they pass their Leech test and hold the Doom up for a third turn. We all agreed they were absolute stars of the game for Alistair. The Storm Talon breaks right and heads for our back field.
The Trygon eats the Command Squad but is open to fire from, well just about everyone!
So not surprising he goes down.
The Doom sucks the life from the remaining horsemen.
My Tervigon is on 3 wounds now having typically failed his Iron Arm with yet another 11.
And I'm assuming a combination of melta and probably more melta puts it down, giving Alistair Slay the Warlord.
And by the end his back field was clear at least and some big beast had gone down.
But we had the Relic, Slay the Warlord [I think], Line Breaker and Firstblood giving us the max 6 VPs to Alistair's 1 VP. So a first round win. I threw away some gaunts needlessly heading for the ADL instead of through cover and the Devgaunts didn't do a great deal in the Bastion but we can't complain with max VPs. Alistair was a great laugh too and Dan and I seemed to find a natural symbiosis with playing, We both were very comfortable with our armies and where we were deficient the other player had advice or their own experiences to support the decision making process. I was liking this format.
