@Tangi&Alienscar- Thanks so much guys! The bits if I remember correctly are from a drop-pod (one of the best kitbashing kits for making endless terrain and cheap too!) and some Leman Russ bits is all it took. Oh yeah and the dish itself is from a plastic wine glass! Full credit to my brother he created this little beast while I did most of the painting. Such an awesome piece… having stuff like this in your terrain collection goes such a long way.
IMPERIAL ARMOR 11: DOOM OF MYMEARA CAMPAIGN
GAME 1Hey guys! Well finally got in another game and its the first in the Imperial Armor: 11 campaign that me and my brother are playing. It was a custom mission that we developed ourselves to represent the Eldar Corsairs initial attack on Betalis IV. They begin their campaign with a major raid to destablize the planets communication systems before pushing on to their true and enigmatic goal.
To represent this we made a cool Magna-Vox which had to be destroyed before Turn 3. If I was able to destroy it before Turn 3 I got a Victory Point. If I failed to do so the VP went to the Imperial Guard. Other than that there were 2 objectives placed by myself, 2 by my brother and we played an 1850pts game.
THE ARMIESImperial Guard
Company Command Squad-Company Commander, 3x Plasma, Vox
Veterans x10: 3x Plasma, Carapace Armor
Veterans x10: 3x Plasma, Carapace Armor
Veterans x10: 3x Plasma, Carapace Armor
Leman Russ Squadron-
Punisher- Pask, Heavy Bolters x2
Leman Russ- Battle Cannon, Double Melta, Lascannon
Executioner: Plasma Sponsons
Basilisk
Manticore
Vendetta
Vindicare Assassin
Eldar Corsairs
Autarch- Banshee Mask, Soulshrive
Archon: Webway Portal, Armor of Misery, Shadowfield, Powersword
Wraithblades x5
Wave Serpent: Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon
Warriors x5
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Jetbikes x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Nightwing
Hornets x3- Pulse Lasers x3
Crimson Hunter- Exarch
Raider- Dark Lance
Aspect Host:
Swooping Hawks x6- Exarch, Sunrifle
Striking Scorpions x10- Exarch, Claw
Fire Dragons x6- Exarch
DEPLOYMENTAs usual I failed the roll to go first…. we set up and this is what the board looked like.
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My brother castled up in the corner and facing all that artillery I elected to reserve nearly everything as I usually do. Deploying only my Warlord and his Wraithblade retinue in their Wave Serpent, the Scorpions and the Dark Eldar Warriors.
I was bracing myself for the artillery pounding when then this happened!
I stole the initiative which so RARELY happens for me. Most of the time I don't even bother as I'm so used to going second. Anyway I took the opportunity and ran with it!
TURN 1Eldar Corsairs- Very brief as you may have guessed. I ran the Scorpions from the rocky outcropping to the woods near the Manticore and the Veterans in the large ruin. The Wave Serpent shot out to the right flank to get into position for a turn 3 disembarkation for Autarch and his Wraithblades. The Warriors sat on their objective closing out an uneventful Turn 1.
Imperial Guard- The IG let rip as always they do. The Plasmacutioner, the Veterans, the Leman Russ all let rip on the Scorpions dropping them to only 3 models! Oof that hurt but it was to be expected. I was hoping to have access to some ruins before the game began to get that nice 2+ cover but it wasn't to be. Even still I was hoping for more, but hey its like they say Big Guns Never Tire! Then the Manticore and the Basilisk unloaded into Wave Serpent pummeling it and I got Immobilized after failing my Serpent Shield save as often I do. Damn! My close-combat units were in a bad situation right from the get-go. I needed my reserves and I needed them pronto!
TURN 2Eldar Corsairs- Hornets, the WWP Archon attached to the Fire Dragons in the Raider, Nightwing, Crimson Hunter, and all three units of Jetbikes all came on and came in with a bang. The Archon and the Fire Dragons descended on the Leman Russ Squadron and utterly annihilated them. Despite the fantastic results it was actually a bummer for us because that was the heart of my brothers army and the Fire Dragons incinierated it with ridiculous ease. Squadroning them was probably a mistake and something we talked a lot about later, and I'll discuss at the end of the bat-rep.
Amidst the destruction the Crimson Hunter and Nightwing came screaming in and combined fire to take out Magna-Vox which is very cool. The jetbikes came on and blasted up a bunch of Veterans but they made most of their saves resulting in only a few casualties. My Eldar had their characteristic Turn 2 which is just absolutely punishing.
Imperial Guard- The Guard were hurting after that fussilade of fire but managed to punch back. After some very disappointing firepower from the Vets and some white hot jink-saves, the Vindicare was forced to step in and blow-up the Raider.
The Company Command Squad wiped out the remaining Scorpions. The Manticore then hammered the Hornets but again the Jink saves were hot and only one was actually damaged but it was immobilized and the others were jinking which was good. The Manticore then unloaded on the Warriors killing all but one.
The outflanking Vendetta showed up and stripped a HP off the Crimson Hunter and vector locked it forcing me to move it off the board in my turn. It could have been better but the Guard managed to silence my big guns for a turn.
TURN 3Eldar Corsairs- With most of the armor dealt with the high strength weaponry of the Eldar was of little use against the castled up infantry. The Hornets shot forward snap-shooting into the Company Command Squad. The Fire Dragons and Archon seperated with the Dragons running out of LOS of the Vindicare while the Archon was not going to make it out of LOS of the Vindicare made moves to assault the Veteran squad that was protecting the wrecked Magna-Vox. Meanwhile the Swooping Hawks came bombing on to the scene and took out a Veteran Squad.
The Jetbikes continued to harrass the Veterans but excellent cover protected them. The Nightwing strafed the Vindicare and caused a wound on the assassin. Closing out the turn the Archon threw a grenade into the Guardsmen, assaulted and broke their morale with the Armor of Misery and then ran them down, consolidating 5" and out of LOS of the Assassin as I had planned. However he lost his Shadowfield in combat with the Guardsmen! Blasphemy! This would prove costly as you'll see.
Imperial Guard- I couldn't help but think what a different game it would have been if those Leman Russ' werent squadroned as only one of them would have died to the Fire Dragons, because this is when the Guard tend to shine with the Veterans receiving orders and punishing my Corsairs as they've closed with 24" while the artillery continues to pound my backfield. Regardless my brother stuck to his guns and played to the mission. He moved his Assassin a little to the left and shot into my Archon with his Exitus Pistol (wasn't expecting that) racking up another wound. He then peppered the Dragons but I only lost 1. He then shot Basilisk at the remaining Dark Eldar Warriors eliminating them forcing me to keep a Jetbike unit back to try and score as the game was actually still close on points. The last of the Stormeagle rockets were fired by the Manticore at a unit of Jetbikes but I made my 3+ armor saves to add insult to injury.
-WRAP UP-We played two more turns culiminating in an epic clash between the Vindcare and the Archon who leapt all the way atop the ruin seeking retribution for destroying his Raider and wounding him previously. Couldn't be a more shocking conclusion when the Vindicare killed the Archon! It was a nice morale victory for the Guardsmen who had a very tough time of it in this game. With that a general retreat was sounded and the Imperial Guard fell back to fight another day. Game 1 in the Campaign went to the Eldar Corsairs who won in style.
THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONSWell to be honest it was a very disappointing game. My brother had spent a ton of time working on his army and collaborating with me to make new terrain clean up the board and get all our 40k stuff in order. If he had not squadroned the Leman Russ and taken his Vulture instead of the Assassin as he usually does it would have been a much different game. Yet at the same time I can't deny just how VERY strong the Craftworld codex is. I'm so used to playing against Space Marine Battle-Companies, Thunderwolf Cav, Necron Decurions etc. that I feel that I could have taken my list down a notch making for a much more fun game.
However my brother is adamant that I don't scale back my force because he wants to play against me at my best. However the next game should be very interesting as my brother gets access to a LoW in the form of his Imperial Knight while I do not.
We learned a lot from this game, such as ways to manipulate the FoC to get access to extra slots for the IG so squadroning is not necessary, the value of the Vindicare and the incredible strength of the Fire Dragons who had under-performed in games thus far for me.
Personally I'm hellbent to get a TRUE Corsairs force ready for games. They are still VERY deadly but are much more fragile and have significant vulnerabilities but suit my playstyle much more. Also of note is that we bought our first game mat from gamemat.eu, and picked up our first directional light so the work towards getting our youtube channel going is certainly underway. Next step build a dedicated gaming table. So stay tuned for that. Anyway hope you guys enjoyed and stay-tuned for the next installment in the campaign!