Battle 3
This battle was spearhead deployment with 5 objectives. Troops had the without number special rule, though dedicated transports would not be allowed to come back. Thinking of my fast movement of my Jetbikes, I placed my 2 objectives under 24” of my board edge. This would allow me a last turn jump on objectives if my jetbike squads were killed or running away the previous turn.
Saim-Hann force130 Farseer Nayr; jetbike, runes of warding and fortune
310 Warlocks – 6; Jetbikes, 1 embolden, 1 enhance and 2 destructors
202 Jetbikes – 7; 2 cannons, warlock with embolden
151 Jetbikes – 5; 1 cannon, warlock with embolden & spear
127 Guardian Storm squad – 11; 2 fusion guns, warlock with destructor
110 Wave Serpent; t.l. shuriken cannons, spirit stone
60 Vyper; scatter laser
160 Fire Prism; prism cannon, holo-field and spirit stones
1,250 3 scoring units
Chaos force110 Lord with meltabomb and power weapon
185 Plague marines – 5; 2 meltaguns, rhino with havoc launcher
185 Plague marines – 5; 2 meltaguns, rhino with havoc launcher
185 Plague marines – 5; 2 meltaguns, rhino with havoc launcher
185 Plague marines – 5; 2 meltaguns, rhino with havoc launcher
125 Vindicator
125 Vindicator
150 Defiler with 2 ccw and battle cannon
1,250 and 4 annoyingly hard to kill scoring units.
SetupMy opponent won the roll of and decided to go first so I would not kill his tanks. He deployed near the middle with his rhinos in front. I decided to deploy in cover of the hill to my right, making sure that his Defiler did not have line of sight to ANY unit. I could only fit 14 jetbikes packed in there, so I left everything else in reserves. I really wanted to put my fire prism back there with my HQ squad, but this left the possibility of a battle cannon shot drifting onto my HQ on turn 1. I put the wave serpent in cover of the middle hill. I wanted to star with it on the board to hinder my opponent’s movement on turn 1.
Saim-Hann 0 – Chaos 2Turn 1ChaosEverything moves up, the purple rhino pops smoke and the Defiler shoots at the wave serpent, but it scattered.
Saim-HannFarseer fortunes the warlocks and they move 12” forward and 6” in the assault phase, making sure to stay away from the rhinos. The 7 man jetbike squad moves from behind the hill, tries to shoot at the purple rhino, but it was too far away, then they move back behind the hill. The Wave serpent moves forward at cruising speed and fired at the black rhino, destroying the havoc launcher.
Saim-Hann 0 – Chaos 1Turn 2ChaosBlack rhino moves at cruising speed, all other rhinos move at combat speed and fire their havoc launchers at Farseer Nayr’s squad. The Defiler joins in the firing and in the end two warlocks were killed. The Plague Marines in the purple rhino shot meltas at the wave serpent and destroyed the t.l. shuriken cannon.
Saim-HannFarseer Nayr fortunes his warlocks and leads them toward the Chaos force. The 5 man jetbike squad comes in and moves closer to the black rhino in the middle. The Fire Prism entered the battle field and fired a clear shot at the side of the night Vindicator, but did not hurt it’s armor
I rolled a 1 for AP! The 5 man squad is unable to damage the black rhino, so they move back in the assault phase.
I rolled 1 hit on the shuriken cannon and missed with the spear! The 7 man squad moves and shoots at the purple rhino, hitting twice, but does no damage. The wave serpent moved at cruising speed to hamper the enemy force. In the assault, Farseer Nay’s squad charged the purple rhino and did no damage.
This kind of annoyed me because my opponent said it moved 12” last turn and I rolled no 6’s on 15 dice. I should have looked at the picture or remembered that the guys inside shot. The chaos vehicles appeared to have been blessed greatly by Nurgle.
Saim-Hann 0 – Chaos 0Turn 3ChaosThe red rhino moved up a bit and killed a jetbike from the 5 man squad with its havoc launcher. The night Vindicator fired at the Fire Prism, immobilizing it. The vehicles on the right side move around a little bit to clear a firing lane. The PM in the black rhino fired their melta guns and the PM in the purple rhino fired at the warlocks, killing one. The day vindicator again fired at the wave serpent, destroying the shuriken catapults.
I forgot that embarked troops could fire from within rhinos. Man, I hate those rhinos. Definitely worth more than 35 points. Saim-HannThe Vyper came in and exploded the red rhino.
Finally, I destroyed one! We both forgot to have the PM take str 4 wounds though. Both Jetbikes try to damage the rhinos again, but accomplish nothing.
I was averaging 1 hit on every 3 cannon shots, and the spear missed again. The Fire Prism shot at the blue rhino, but only managed to destroy the havoc launcher.
I wanted to fire at the PMs from the exploded rhino, but didn’t because they were in cover. My gut was right and I should have fired at them instead/ The wave serpent moved around again to block rhinos. Farseer Nayr’s squad assaulted both rhinos, stunning the black rhino and shaking the purple rhino.
Both of us forgot that my str 9 was against his rear armor of 10. I used armor 11 and only got 1 damage roll for each vehicle. Saim-Hann 1 – Chaos 1Turn 4ChaosNight vindicator moves up and destroys the prism cannon. The blue rhino drops off is passengers and moves with the walking PMs moved toward the middle objective. The Plague Marines from both right rhinos disembark and rapid fire Farseer Nayr’s squad, killing no warlocks. It took a blast from the defiler to kill one warlock. Even the vindicator tried to kill the warlocks, but was unable to penetrate their rune armor.
I was hoping the vindicator would scatter back and kill at least one PM squad for me. The warlocks immobilized the black rhino in the continued assault.
Saim-HannThe wave serpent drove flat out to get out of the way of the Jetbikes and move into scoring position next turn. The Vyper shot at the side armor of the vindicator, but only hit once and did not damage it. The 5 man jetbike squad shot at the middle plague marines and killed one. The seven man squad shot at the PM that came out of the purple rhino and killed one. Farseer Nayr moved behind the PMs from the purple rhino and ordered their death. The two warlocks assaulted the Plague Marines, while Faseer Nayr attacked the rhino and destroyed it. The warlocks and the Plague marines were unable to harm each other, so Farseer Nayr moved into the wreckage to help his warlocks attack the plague marines.
Saim-Hann 1 – Chaos 1Turn 5ChaosThe night vindicator and defiler both fired at the Vyper, destroying the scatter laser and then the vehicle itself. The day vindicator killed two Jetbikes from the 7 man squad as the middle plague marines killed one in the 5 man jetbike squad, sending them running from the battlefield. The Plague marines captured the middle objective. The Chaos Lord and his squad also captured an objective. In assault, the plague marines and warlocks failed to kill anyone.
Saim-HannAnother 5 man jetbike squad entered the battlefield and killed 1 plage marine on the objective. The wave serpent moved at cruising speed to contest the Lord’s objective as the 7 man jetbike squad again fired into the Lord’s squad, but failed to kill any plague marines. In combat, a warlock and Farseer Nayr each killed a plague marine. The five man jetbike squad then moved up and captured one objective while contesting the middle objective.
Saim-Hann 1 – Chaos 1Turn 6ChaosThe blue rhino drove into the 5 man jetbike squad, but they simply moved out of the way. The night vindicator and middle plague marines again whittled away at the 5 man jetbike squad, but they stayed in the fight. The day vindicator and the defiler each killed a jetbike from the 7 man squad (now down to three), but they too were determined to stay. The Chaos Lord and his squad assaulted the wave serpent and immobilized it.
Saim-HannThe guardian storm squad exited their wave serpent and shot at the plague marines, killing one. The remaining 3 jetbikes killed one more plague marine. The storm guardians assaulted the plague marines to contest the objective. One guardian was killed and the Chaos Lord destroyed the wave serpent, but the guardians stayed in the fight.
I didn’t want to disembark from the wave serpent, but figured I had to in order to contest the objective. I knew the Lord would finish off the wave serpent with his auto hitting meltabomb.Saim-Hann 1 – Chaos 1Turn 7ChaosThe middle plague marines finished of the small jetbike squad as the blue rhino drove over to contest the long held Eldar objective.
I knew I should have shot at it last turn! The defiler killed one more jetbike and both combats are draws.
I was surprised that the guardians fought to a draw with the Lord now in combat.Saim-HannAnother jetbike squad entered the battlefield and managed to damage the blue rhino, but only by immobilizing it. The remaining two Jetbikes from the seven man squad moved up to contest the objective near the cliff and failed to damage the blue rhino. In the assault phase the 5 man jetbike squad moved up to contest two objectives. Seeing that his forces were dwindling, Farseer Nayr called a retreat. He would be back to fight this Chaos force with more anti-tank weapons later.
Saim-Hann 0 – Chaos 1Wrap-upMy opponent is tied for top spot in the campaign and I have seen him roll over most of his opponents. It was a hard fought battle for me, but I stood toe to toe with him and had a draw if the game ended on turn 5 or 6. I believed I had enough anti-tank in my army to take him down, but I forgot how bad I am at destroying rhinos with shuriken cannons. I wish they were str 7. It was a very challenging game for me with MANY crappy dice rolls. We also seemed to forget rules that benefited him… I guess Nurgle has blessed this table because I was the first person to destroy any of his rhinos on it. That black one was very annoying and has not been destroyed yet this campaign. At the end of the game he was actually complaining about not being able to kill my HQ with their 3+/4++ re-rollable save. I was having a hard time killing his 3+/4+ FnP guys, but he didn’t complain about that.. In total I killed 5 plague marines in three different squads. I should have been more aggressive with my Jetbikes, as I could bring them back in, while he would have a harder time getting his PMs walking back in to score. I’ll do better next time I face him at a higher point limit…