BlogWars Game 2

So with my win in the first round, VPs meant that I was on table 4 for round 2 of BlogWars and it turned out I was facing up with a now much more familiar opponent, Andy (Atreides from Sons of Sanguinius) who I met the day before at Warhammer World.  We managed a game that day which you can see here.

The random selection meant that round 2 was Annihilation with Dawn of War deployment, and I just knew that Andy would be out for revenge after the previous day ;).  You can find my list here, and Andy's list was in his own words a Straken Hybrid.

Company Command with Straken, Medic, Bodyguard, Banner, Chimera

2 x Veteran Squad - 3 Meltaguns, Chimera

Platoon Command Squad - 4 Meltas, Chimera

3 x Infantry Squad (blobbed) - Commissar (power sword), 3xSergeant (power sword), 2xmeltagun, 2xautocannon

Platoon Command Squad - Autocannon

3 x Infantry Squad (blobbed) - Commissar (power sword), 3xSergeant (power sword), 2xmeltagun, 2xautocannon

2xVendetta Gunship

3xHydra Flak Tank

Summary

Andy played a great game, perhaps having learned to fear my Grey Hunters from a pretty lucky showing (on my behalf) the day before, he did his best to keep me at arms length and then pretty much wiped me from the board with his overwhelming fire-power.  A textbook game for the Guard, and I just couldn't get across the board to engage his squads.  Looking back, I realise there were some things I should have done differently that might have given me a better chance, but that doesn't take away that I was beaten by the better player.

Andy was also a fantastic opponent, and his army really really looks good (you can see it here).  Andy also had his SLR setup so when he gets round to posting his battle report there'll be much better pictures to see.

There was also a comedy moment involving my tournament MVP - a Rhino.

The Game

The table didn't have much terrain, there was a hill in the centre that we decided would give a cover save if you were on the shoulder of, but not on the top, and would be difficult terrain for movement, a ruin in one corner, a piece of area terrain in the opposite corner, and a few other pieces of relatively inconsequential terrain.  I won the roll-off and for reasons that escape me decided to go first.  I pick the side of the table with the large ruin and setup my Land Raider with Logan and Wolf Guard behind that ruin which is on my right.  Andy sets up one of his big squads in the area terrain which is just left of centre from my point of view.

Turn 1

I move 2 of my Rhino's on 12", pop smoke on them, the other Rhino moves up behind the one on the left, and the Land Raider moves around the ruins a bit.  My Long Fangs move on behind the small ruin in the centre of my edge of the board, and then run into the cover to get firing positions.  The image shows the start of the Guard turn 1.

Andy moves everything on, most of the Chimera's form a wall to the right of the blob squad, the second squad comes on behind the blob squad, and the Vendetta's and Hydra's are spread around the board.  A lot of the Guard vehicles pop smoke.

Turn 2

My Rhino's do the Rhino shuffle so that the one that hadn't popped smoke is now in front, with smoke popped, and the Rune Priests Rhino is behind it.  The other Rhino gets into cover behind the hill, and the Land Raider moves forward.  My shooting isn't particularly effective, a lascannon shot immobilises a Hydra.  The only good was my Long Fangs killing the right Vendetta.  I was hoping for an explodes as it was mixed in with one of the big blob squads and would have done a serious amount of damage to them, but I manage to only get a wrecked.

Andy's turn 2 was a cracker!  There was some shuffling of tanks, but generally very little movement.  His shooting was devastating though. On the left my front Rhino is wrecked, the Rhino behind it explodes (thankfully everyone inside is ok), and my third Rhino behind the hill is immobilised.  About the only thing to escape the wrath of the Guard were my Long Fangs.  My Land Raider shrugged off a few shots too.

Turn 3

Right now I'm in trouble, and finally I decided to try and be aggressive although it was already too late.  The Land Raider goes flat out up the right hand side of the hill and all the Grey Hunters get as far forward as possible.  I roll poorly and the second squad end up in the same place the front squad started.  Shooting is terrible, doing pretty much nothing.  The only high point of the shooting phase is the Rhino behind the hill manages to repair itself - I'm pretty sure this is the first time this has ever happened for me, and from here on I'll be referring to it as the Rhino That Repaired.  In assault, I only need a 3 or 4 to make contact with the large squad in the terrain, the dice come up 1 and 2 - d'oh!
Again, almost no moving from the Guard, although the wall of Chimerae do come forward.  Shooting is where it goes down.  The Land Raider is blown sky high by multiple meltaguns, thankfully Logan & Co aren't hurt or pinned.  The blob squad open up with First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire, putting 12 wounds on the front squad of Grey Hunters.  I roll the specials first, Wolf Guard, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard and meltagun, and all survive.  Next up are the 8 wounds on the 5 regular Hunters, and to both Andy and my amazement they all survive too.  We're both stunned that not one Grey Hunter has died.  Andy goes with exactly the same from the back squad, although there are less that can see - 9 wounds.  I roll my saves, same as before, but this time;  BANG, the Wolf Guard is dead, BANG, the Mark is dead, BANG, the Standard is dead, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, 4 regular Hunters are dead.  Seems like payback has decided to turn up, 9 wounds on 9 Grey Hunters and I'm left with 2.  They then get finished off pretty quickly by some meltaguns from the Chimerae.  Andy wants his kill-point back from the Rhino That Repaired so it weathers a hail of fire but is only Stunned.

 Turn 4
I'm really in trouble now, I need to try and get across the board, but because of the poor terrain rolls last turn, my other Grey Hunter unit isn't far enough forward to get into combat, so I decide to hug the hill (which we'd agreed was cover) to try and get closer, and I bring my final Grey Hunter squad out from the Rhino to follow behind.  My idea at this point is to try to get across the board en-mass then at least some of the squads will make contact and start to earn me some Kill Points.  Shooting is again terrible, with neither of my RPs or the LFs doing anything of note.  Logan & Co. manage to blow up a Chimera and charge and wipe out the passengers.

In Andy's turn, he re-positions his Chimerae so that most of them can target Logan & Co, and Straken and his bodyguard get out ready to charge into Logan.  A few GH are whittled form the front squad on the hill, and the Rhino That Repaired was Stunned again (after a considerable amount of shooting).  Logan & Co die to concentrated melta fire thanks to me failing pretty much every cover save in existence, and Straken has nothing to charge.

Turn 5
I get my GHs as far forward as possible.  If you look in the picture, you'll see that I've moved the RP in the second squad out to the extremity - for a very good reason.  Shooting, I finally manage to kill a second Vendetta, but otherwise don't cause too much damage.  I know I need to start killing squads etc. to get back some Kill Points, but with Commissars in the squads making the stubborn, I doubt I'll be able to chew through 30+ models even in a couple of rounds of combat.  So, that RP who's moved to the edge of his squad, casts Jaws at the Commissar in the front squad, and not only manages to get him, but takes out a couple of other men and one of the Robots (weapon squad) in the back platoon.  In Assault, I just make contact with the front squad, kill about 13 Guard, take a couple of hits back, then because they aren't Stubborn any more run the squad down - yay, plan achieved.
With nothing to the right of the board, Andy moves his Chimerae over towards the terrain on the left.  I get First Rank, Second Rank Fired, and shot with a whole load of melta, killing off the whole squad in terrain that had just taken out some guard, although the Rune Priest does hold out almost to the very end thanks to some lucky cover saves.  I also lose a few from the last Grey Hunter squad.  The Rhino That Repaird is stunned once again!
Turns 6 & 7
In the final turns, I try to kill what I can with the remaining Grey Hunters before they get gunned down by massed melta-fire.  The Long Fangs and the Rune Priest continue to fluff pretty much everything.  In the final moments of the 7th turn, Andy moves a few of his Chimerae forward, killing my Rune Priest, and finally, as his last action, blowing up the Rhino That Repaired - although when it blew up it killed a couple of guardsmen, and caused the squad to flee therefore earning me a Kill Point - yay Rhino!  I ended the game with just the Long Fangs left, losing about 11-6.


Conclusion
Andy played a great game, and I was thoroughly beaten.  I got a bit unlucky with some of my rolls, and it seemed like my Rune Priests and Long Fangs could do nothing against the Chimerae or Vendetta's for a lot of the game, but that isn't why I think I lost.  I just wasn't aggressive enough getting myself across the board and so Andy was able to pick my army apart.  Instead of the deployment I used, I should have done the classic 2 Rhino's 7" onto the board, and I should have kept everything together in one area.  I didn't need to worry about Rhino shell games to try and give each other cover, even if they'd died, if I'd been most of the way across the board I could have done a lot more damage.  Andy was simply the better player, which he proved going on to come 2nd overall, and was a great opponent, and we had a lot of fun during the game.  Andy, thanks for a great game.


I'm off on holiday for 10 days, but I've got game 3 and another post scheduled to come up during that time, so it won't be too quiet on here while I'm away.  Cheers - Andy