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Author Topic: 'Ard Boyz Practice Battle (Vulkan vs DH)  (Read 1044 times)

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Offline f.desrochers

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'Ard Boyz Practice Battle (Vulkan vs DH)
« on: May 17, 2010, 09:25:48 AM »
Well, after a call went out from a local player to test his 'Ard Boyz list, I figured I'd give it a go.  Amidst the collective groans of others, it was a Vulkan list.  <shrug>  Never one to back down, in I went with my stock 2000 point list, plus an IG platoon and an additional GKT.  I will apologize for the lack of pics - my camera battery apprently decided to fry it that afternoon.

As an aside, this battle took place well over a week ago and has been sitting in the hopper until after Round 1, at the player's request (for obvious reasons).

Army List

Daemonhunters

BC Stern w/ 5 x GKT, 1 x psycannon, 1 x TH/SS
Inq Ld w/ psycannon, psyhood, emperor's tarot, auspex, 3 x HB servitors, 2 x mystics, 1 x sage, LR dedicated transport w/ EA, smoke
Callidus
(Squad Alpha) IST x 6 w/ 2 x flamers, Rhino dedicated transport w/ EA, smoke
(Squad Beta)  IST x 10 w/ 2 x plasmaguns
Grey Knights x 8 w/ 2 x incincerators, Justicar w/ targeter, frag grenades
IG Platoon
- Comd Squad w/ 4 x flamers, Chimera dedicated transport w/ EA, smoke, dozer, lite, PMSB
- Sect w/ lascannon, Commissar
- Sect w/ lascannon, Chimera dedicated transport w/ EA, smoke, dozer, lite, PMSB
Land Raider Crusader w/ smoke
GK Dread w/ lascannon, incinerator, smoke, EA
GK Dread w/ lascannon, incinerator, smoke, EA

Vulkan Salamanders

Vulkan
Tactical w/ flamer, plasma cannon, pf, Rhino dedicated transport w/ EA, smoke (?)
Tactical w/ flamer, plasma cannon, pf, Rhino dedicated transport w/ EA, smoke (?)
Tactical w/ meltagun, MM, pf, Rhino dedicated transport w/ EA, smoke, dozer (?)
Tactical w/ meltagun, MM, pf, Drop Pod
Assault Terminators w/ Land Raider Redeemer dedicated transport w/ MM, EA
Ironclad w/ DCCW , heavy flamer, seismic hammer + meltagun, Drop Pod
Ironclad w/ DCCW , heavy flamer, seismic hammer + meltagun, Drop Pod
Attack Bike Squadron - 3 x MM
Vindicator w/ siege shield
Vindicator w/ siege shield
Predator w/ autocannon, lc sponsons

Terrain (from my eventual point-of-view)

A nicely done modular board, it had a sewer system running down from one long-edge to another, off-set right of center, with a huge tower between two small bridges.  The left hand half of the board had a series of ruins surrounding a large courtyard strewn with random rubble, tank barriers and the like – a factorium along the left board edge, ruins along each long board edge. The right side of the board had a pair of ruins along the sewer and open space the rest of the quarter, the far right corner dominated by a centrally located church ruin.

Mission and Deployment

The mission was Capture and Control with a Spearhead deployment.  Great, my least favourite mission with my least favourite deployment; at least neither of us will be making initial use of that sewage treatment tower. I pull the Emperor’s Tarot and then remember I’m facing a Vulkan list with drop pods. I win but let him go first. He places an objective in the church ruin, second level. I place mine in the back left corner at ground level.

SM:  The Land Raider Redeemer bearing Vulkan and the Assault Terminators sets up on my side of the sewer, along with three multi-melta Attack Bikes.  On the edge of the bridge (just within the 12-inch Spearhead bubble) he places his two Vindicators, each flanked by Rhinos and another Rhino just behind, a Predator tucked along the board edge.  He combat squads two of his Tac Squads with the plasma cannons taking up on positions in the church with his objective. He has three drop pods in waiting: two Ironclads and a Tac Squad.

DH:  The Inquisitor Lord sets up in the corner ruin on the top floor with great overview.  Below him on ground level I placed a dreadnaught, the Land Raider transport tucked into the corner to guard the objective. The Imperial Guard sets up at ground level of the factorium with the Chimera to the front-left edge of the ruins, Beta Squad up on the roof.  The LRC and PAGK squad deploys next to my bridge on my right flank, the Platoon Command Squad next to it. In Reserve I’ve got Stern and the boys, the Callidus, a second dreadnaught and Alpha Squad.  With the Callidus, I force Vulkan’s Land Raider across the sewers, now forced to wait for five tanks to cross the bottle-necking bridge.

Turn 1 – The daunting sounds of tanks

SM:  In come the two drop-pods, the first deviating from my dreadnaught, back and to my right, hiding behind the drop pod; the second lands next to my empty Chimera but due to terrain and the one-inch rule, is forced to deploy in the open.  My mystics have distance to both, yet my dreadnaught only fires on the one in the open, destroying the melta-gun arm. The bikes turbo-boost left behind some cover, while the two Vindicators lead the tank rush across the bridge, a Rhino accompanying with the Redeemer picking up the rear; the second Rhino moves back to help secure their Objective while third Rhino stays put.  All except the LR pops smoke.  The Predator takes aim at my LR through a gap he left between his vehicles, the lascannon bouncing off the armour.  The multi-melta in the stationary Rhino tries for my LRC and is just shy for distance.

DH:  Well, an on-rush of armour.  Didn’t quite expect to see that.  I fully expected a half-dozen drop-pods in the first turn. Ho-hum, on to Movement. My LRC pops smoke after moving right and across the bridge, my PCS Chimera following, crossing the bridge, the rest of the army remaining static. The Guard platoon fired lascannons at a Vindicator, destroying the demolisher cannon. Beta Squad and the Inquisitor Lord fired plasmaguns, heavy bolters and psycannon at the attack bikers, causing all of a single wound. The dreadnaught fired at the previously damaged Ironclad, immobilizing it. Not a great turn.

Turn 2 – How bad could it get?

SM:  The Reserve roll passes – yeah, another drop pod.  The Tac Squad arrives just shy of the ruin to the right of my Inquisitor Lord and Dreadnaught; Mystics direct the Dreadnaught and its incinerator and lascannon kill a single marine – a theme emerging?  The return melta fire immobilizes and rips the DCCW arm off. The Vindicator hull (the one without the demolisher cannon) rumbles to the far left corner and hides behind terrain. The other Vindicators moves right up the middle, along with the Rhino on his far side.  His demolisher cannon fires into the platoon, deviating so that four guys on the far side of the building and four in LOS are hit – 7 of 8 cover saves made; three more die to the immobilized Ironclad’s heavy flamer and drop pod storm bolters. The Attack Bikes moves through terrain, pass their dangerous terrain tests and their multi-meltas junk my LR. His Land Raider Redeemer moves up and takes position next to his Vindicator, no targets within range. The Predator tries for the LRC, shots missing or bouncing off armour.  The two Tac Squad plasma cannons range in utterly destroy the PCS Chimera, pinning the five survivors.

DH:  Thankfully I get all my Reserves.  The Callidus spots herself on the second level of the church ruin, while Stern Deep Strikes in behind it. The second dreadnaught moves in on my right flank while Alpha Squad moves on left of center, disembarking and flaming the newly arrived Tac Squad, killing three. My lone remaining Chimera scoots away from the immobilized Ironclad and takes up position in the crater left my by LR, popping smoke. The Inquisitor Lord shakes the Rhino across the courtyard, while Beta Squad plasmas two wounds on the attack bikes. The IG platoon fires lascannons into the visible Vindicator, shaking it. The LRC moves through the ruins next to the sewer, its hurricane bolters failing to wound the marines holding the enemy’s objective. Stern and retinue killed a pair of marines from one of the objective claiming Tac Squads, while the Callidus flamer covered two from one squad and the other entirely, killing two from each squad; her following charge only killed a single marine while taking a wound.

Turn 3 – Insert your witty comment about Marine retribution….

SM:  The Attack Bikes move right up to the corner ruins, taking aim at my Chimera and doing nothing more than Crew Shaken (love those 3rd edition smoke launchers). The Vindicator hull moves further into the for left corner terrain. The other Vindicator moves into the courtyard to get a shot next turn. His immobilized Rhino fails to repair itself yet the squad within disembarks and runs across part of the courtyard towards my corner ruin and objective.  The Tac Squad facing off Alpha Squad moves over and does a combined charge against the Rhino and squad: assault kills 2, Rhino explosion kills 2, squad gets run down. The immobilised Ironclad has no targets, the other moving into the corner ruin and runs up to the second level (that’s going to hurt next round). His Redeemer does a 180 and zooms back towards his own objective.  His second Rhino moves back to help secure the home Objective, a pair of meltas zapping two GKTs. The third Rhino moves to threaten my LRC, which I thought was odd until he fired both a melta and combi-melta from 3 inch range with a pretty obvious result. The Predator fires into Stern’s squad, killing one, while the plasma cannon squad not in CC fails its Shrouding test on a triple 1. The Callidus kills another Marine with the poison attack without taking a hit in return (nothing but 1s and 2s), the squad holding.

DH:  Not much movement, except the dreadnaught and Grey Knights moving to get to that damned Rhino that destroyed the LRC. I forget to move Stern… Beta Squad and the Inquisitor’s retinue kills the Attack Bikes, the IG platoon failing to get a lascannon to glance the Vindicator right in front of them (ugh).  The Grey Knights and dreadnaught team up to finally destroy the Rhino, the survivors piling into the crater.  The dreadnaught gets through the difficult terrain into combat and kills two Marines with no damage in return (I keep forgetting Marines get krak grenades for free, grrrr); the Grey Knights wiff their terrain test and are sitting out in the open – yet again.  I also fail to withdraw the Callidus from combat at the beginning of the round, neither side getting any wounds (another spectacular round of combat…).  Stern and the boys destroy the Rhino right next to them, pinning the guys as they bail.

Turn 4 – Let the twin-linked hammers fall…

SM:  The battle is shaping up on the two objectives. On my end, the Vindicator hull moves through terrain to shove my IG platoon into the corner where my objective was; I’m happy to oblige.  The other Vindicator shoots at my remaining Chimera and scatters wide onto open terrain. The Tac Squad that finished off Alpha Squad moved to the edge of my corner ruin, while the Ironclad charged into my Inquisitor Lord’s retinue, killing a Mystic and Sage (I’d lost the other Mystic to drop pod storm bolter fire, I think); can’t hurt him in return so I decided to fail and ran all of six inches and down two levels to the ground; Ironclad rolls 3 inches and moves down one level. The combat squad of Tac Marines moves to the edge of the corner ruins and fails to hit my Chimera with a meltagun.  The Redeemer moves and unloads Vulkan (there you are) along with a boat-load of thunder hammer-toting Terminators. They charge Stern, with obvious results, but lost four of their numbers (all hits targeting the squad to try and reduce incoming attacks instead of trying to insta-gib Vulkan). The plasma cannon fails to see the Grey Knights (phew).  The Callidus finally kills off the Tac Marines she’s in combat with, consolidating up a level to take care of the other squad, while the Predator fires everything into her; she saved the one wounds. My dreadnaught kills another couple of Marines, losing its DCCW in the process.

DH:  Rules dispute over the Inquisitor Lord auto-rally is diced-off (it wasn’t even an option in retrospect, but it was a moot point now anyways) and he rallied, firing the psycannon and killing two more Marines from the squad that killed my Alpha Squad. The Chimera and Beta Squad fires into the combat squad in front of the corner ruin, killing three. Both squads passed their Leadership tests. The IG platoon moves over to claim the objective. My Grey Knights charge and wipe-out the Tac Marines bashing on my dreadnaught, losing one guy in return. The Callidus, having survived that do-or-die round of shooting from the Predator, fires her template and kills both remaining Tac Marines, freeing up the enemy objective.

Endgame – Insert your witty comment about Daemonhunters

Well, I’ve got to say that Vulkan lists are just brutal.  I found that this list was the best-rounded, with only 3 drop-pods in all and a lot of supporting units that worked well together. Two Vindicators supporting a Rhino-Raider rush just…. hurts. My saving grace was terrain use and challenging his objective in Turn 2 with a significant enough force ratio.

Not normally used to playing lists at 2500 points, I found that the DH codex doesn’t allow for as many gucchi gizmos and units that newer codices allow for (no real surprise here). It is more challenging to make a 1500-2000 point list, yet the same restriction is placed on my opponent; they can simply draw in more synergies that I can over 2000 points.  That said I was pleasantly surprised at the IG-blob platoon plus Commissar, which alongside an extra GKT and some very minor upgrades elsewhere was all that I added from my 2000 point list.

NB:  The Vulkan list ended up getting 2nd place in the first round in these parts, just behind a CSM list.

;francois
;f.desrochers

 


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