I played a 1,000 point RTT tournament at my local GW and decided I was going to give the wyches a try. I then discovered that GW was going to split the tables in half as to get as many players into the game as possible – of course, I started frothing at the mouth with the thought of playing on 3x4’ board. My list:
Archite: WW, punisher, t-helm, drugs, SF, plasma, t-rack.
8 wyches, WW, plasma, 2 blasters w/succubus, agoniser, pistol. Raider, darklance
8 wyches, WW, plasma, 2 blasters w/succubus, agoniser, pistol. Raider, darklance
8 wyches, WW, plasma, 2 blasters w/succubus, agoniser, pistol. Raider, darklance
Ravager, 3 lance
Ravager, 3 dissy
The tables had decent terrain I and I usually had enough cover to hide 1 raider and 1 ravager and plenty of time to play a full game I figured if I got first turn to go ahead and place everyone on the table and if I move 2nd then I would place units in reserve in case the enemy, terrain and mission endangered my chances of getting the wyches into combat.
1st game was against vanilla space marines and the player was a beginner. He had never played before and I would have to “spoon feed” him the rules and at the same time try not to take advantage of his experience. I basically told the guy that I would help him defeat me but leave the most of the dice rolling to chance – the dice were going to decide his fate. His list was:
Captain with bolt pistol and power weapon
10 terminators with storm bolters and power fists and sgt. with sb and power weapon.
10 Tac Squad with a flamer and missle launcher and a Sgt. with nothing
10 Tac Squad with a flamer and missle launcher and a Sgt. with nothing
7 Devastators with 4 missle launchers and sgt with nothing.
Once I found out how wacked the list was I asked him about it and he said that he wanted a very plain jane list with nothing “fancy” in it. He said it was all new to him and he didn’t want to get confused with a bunch of special rules.
He won the roll to setup first and placed both tac squads behind cover with the devastators sitting in the middle in the open with the terminator squad standing in front. The mission was the old take n’ hold mission from 4th using the pitched battle setup and it was clear that he would have to take 2 to 3 turns of moving to get to the center objective.
I decided to put 2 wyches into reserves so the archite started on the lone wych squad starting on the raider behind cover along with both ravagers. The wyches on the table had the +1 attack and the other 2 had +1 strength and always strike first.
Turn 1: He moved both tac squads on both flanks along with the terminators that just moved straight ahead up the middle. His devastator squad had a choice either ravager and he chose the 3 dissy one, I failed the 4+ cover and he blew it up.
In my turn I turbo charged the archite and wych raider behind a windmill on the left flank to challenge the tac squad with the captain in it and moved the 3 lance ravager forward to fire 3 shots at the devastators and ended up killing 2 marines and the sgt.! He passed their morale so it looked like I was going to lose that ravager now.
Turn 2: He moved the same squads again and the devastator squad scored 2 hits but only shook the ravager. His terminators were now close enough to the archite/wych raider and stunned it with bolter fire.
I first moved the shaken ravager behind cover and the Archite and wyches disembark from the stunned raider with the Archite separating from the wych squad as the marines looked as if I could fail the charge with them being in cover. The both had pretty good “run” rolls so I was confident that they would make it. The other 2 wych squads became available and I sent the +1 strength wyches at the terminators in the center and the always strike first wyches at the far right tac squad. Both wyches went “flat-out” as to incur the 4+ cover save. The Archite and wyches both made the assault on the marines in cover and ended up killing 6 marines and a wound on the Captain – I ended up losing 1 wych. He ended up failing morale and could’nt break away and with 6 addition armor saves caused by “no retreat” he passed all 6 saves.
Turn 3: He still moves the terminators forward as to be within inches of the objective and the far right tac squad was still trudging through the forest to the very edge, in one turn they could be able to be in scoring position if they moved and “ran” well. Both the terminators and the tac squad fired at each wych raider but failed to do anything to them thanks to the 4+ cover save. The 4 missle launcher dev squad fired at the wyches threatening the terminators and hit with 3 of them and I failed all 3 4+ cover saves - then he rolled 3 “1’s” for armor penetration. In his assault phase, I chose to put all the archite attacks on the captain and although I hit him 4 times I fail to wound him at all. The wyches ended up killing 2 marines and the marines killed another wych. He passes his moral check.
In my turn both wyches disembark and charged their assigned targets. The ravager moves back out and fires at the terminator squad as to “soften” them up for the wyches and only kills 1. All 3 empty raiders fired at the terminators and again only 1 terminator drops dead. In assault, the Archite and wyches totally “whiff” and no wounds made it through (perhaps the worst example of bad dice rolling I ever had). Luckily, he does nothing as well and we continue on. The wyches charging the terminators killing 3 and the terminators only kill 2 wyches and he passes his 1 save for being fearless. The wyches charging the far right tac squad manage to only kill 3 marines and then the marines dished out 4 kills of their own to win combat. My dice rolling was pathetic and the wyches lose morale and break off .
Turn 4: He fired his dev squad at the 3 lance ravager and destroyed it and the far right marine squad flames the wyches dead. The Archite and wyches finally finishes off the captain and remaining sgt. and I consolidated those wyches towards the dev squad and the Archite towards the terminators. The wyches in the center only manage 1 terminator kill and the terminators kill 3 wyches. I pass my morale with only 3 wyches left.
In my turn the remaining wych squad is now 1” away from the dev squad and move an empty raider next to the dev squad. The Archite is within 1” of the terminators. All 3 empty raiders fire at the tac squad and only manage to kill 1. The wyches charge the dev squad and they are destroyed and consolidate to within 2” of the empty raider. I decided to charge the Archite at the remaining tac squad as to tie them up while the wyches try to kill the terminator squad themselves. The Archite kills 4 marines while they all manage to do nothing back at the Archite, they pass morale. The wyches do manage to kill 2 terminators and I then lose 2 of mine and so we tied combat again.
Turn 5: His assault phase: The Archite kills 2 more and he failed to do anything to the Archite, they pass morale. The one wych with the agoniser actually kills the remaining terminators and consolidates into scoring postion at the objective.
In my turn the wyches on the raider move to the tac squad and disembark 1” away getting ready for a big rush. He concedes at that point.
Man, I thought his bad list was going to be a “push over” but he tested the wyches and I think that with all the points he saved on fancy wargear really put a lot of bodies on the table (especially the 10 man terminator squad) which nearly broke me in the ending turns. My opponent had a fun time and thanked me for helping him out. He knew it was going to be tough and he never got angry at all, I think this introduction into 40k is going to “reel” him in big time.
I will post game 2 of 3 next.