Last few results - using GKGM

I have played 2 games @ 2000 points running my GKGM "counts as"

1st games was DW vs Sisters of Battle. I am actually pretty bitter about this game. I lost 8-4 on KP. HOWEVER that is with a major caveat. This was my second time in 3 years vs sisters so my knowledge of their rules is not great.

Since I am a trusting sort when I play armies I dont know I trust their owners to be honest. This did not occur in this game.

The majority of my opponents "creative" use of the rules came own to his cannoness with jump pack.

In his army the Blessed Weapon gave +2 strength as well as +2 initiative. The rules only give it +2 strength.
His inferno pistol became AP1 and the jump pack magically gave her "Hit and Run" and she somehow became WS 5.

Because of this I could not kill the cow, especially since she had a cloak St Aspira which gives her a 2++ invuln with a successful Spirit of the Matyr

Again, my fault that I didnt check up on him and I dont know if it would have changed the outcome of the game but I do think it would have been far closer.

If he had been playing properly my GKGM would have killed her on the first or 2nd round of combat as she would not have been able to "hit and run" away. So thats 1 KP extra to me. She would not have killed my Crusader (he got a 4 on the damage chart and because he was playing his inferno pistol as AP1 that went up to 5 - wrecked) So thats -1KP to him Suddenly its 7-5.

Crusader had full weapons and had a deamonhost with a single wound in its sights. May or may not have killed it. So potentially +1 to me.

GKGM was in range of an exorcist which he could have taken with his S6 so another potential +1 to me. All of a sudden its potentially 7-7.

Oh well, live and learn and I know for next time.

Second game was my DW vs Blood Angels at 2000 points. This was a much better game. Lost 6-5 on KP but was a tense and close game. Came down to a final combat with 2 of my terminators needing to kill 5 assault marines. Got 5 hits and then rolled 2 ones :( 2 survive and the game ends. Could have been a draw but as I said I really dont mind because of how fun it was.

Also, the GKTM who couldnt kill a single cannoness in the last game was able to, in 1 round of combat, behead his Sanguinor. My opponent was bitter when I pointed out that my Demonhunters Forceweapon negated Instant Death with its old "Slain Outright" rule <----Sometimes old codex's can be usefull

The GKGM was finally put down but he put down half an assault squad before that happened.

So 1 Sanguinor and 5 Assault marines vs not being able to kill a cannoness. Hmmmm

My Agemman (Counts as Belial) also put up a good show. Took out a full squad of Sanguinary priests before he died

Not a fan of the 3 fast Vindicators but they actually didnt accomplish much. Immobilised 1 LR and destroyed its 2 Lascannons and killed 3 terminators. That being said, they did absorb the combined fire power of said LR and my venerable TLLC dread with only 1 dying.

All in all I am quite happy with this current 2k list of mine. I prefer playing at 1750 but the extra 250 points allows me to play with extra toys.

Also think I am going to remove "Word of the Emperor" from the GKGM and give him Frag Grenades and a Melta Bomb instead which will make him more versatile as well as allowing him to charge into cover and strike at initiative.

Clubbing a Baby Seal

Played a game today, first game in over a month and it was kind of unsatisfying.

You see, the closest real life example would be of clubbing a helpless baby seal. I slaughtered the other player and it was one of the easiest things I have done.

It was a 2500 point game using a Battle Missions mission. I believe it was Dawn Raid from the Dark Eldar missions ( I dont have my book close at hand to check but was 1st mission from the DE section)

I was running a somewhat balanced Marine force that swung towards a gunline and he was running a very odd mish-mashed Chaos Marine force

Due to the size of the store we were forced to use a 4x4 table. I wasnt keen on using 2500 points but he wanted to test his list. Fair enough I guess.

His force from memory was.

Typhus
Demon Prince with wings
5 Terminators
Defiler
Dreadnought with TLLC
Squad of Possessed marines
Squad of Beserkers in rhino
Squad of Noise Marines
Squad of Thousand Sons
Squad of PLague Marines

Mine was:

Captain with Twin Lighting Claws
Command Squad (first outing for new squad)
Land Raider Godhammer
4 x Tactical Squads
2 x Rhinos
1 x Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon
Assault Squad
Land Speeder with HF, MM
Attack Bike with MM
Devestator Squad with 10 marines, 2 x LC, 2 x PC

The rules for the mission made his deployment pretty aweful as he ended up playing as the Dark Eldar which only allowed him to deploy Fast Attack (which he didnt have) and Troops in transports (only the beserkers)

I, on the other hand could only deploy Heavy Support and Troops.

Deployment was table quarters with 4 objectives.

I am not going to go into a detailed turn by turn, just the highlights.

His rhino and Beserkers were his only unit on the table when we started. They were both vaporised from all my heavy guns.

Most of his army came on 2nd turn and had to march across the table towards my quarter. His shooting was ineffective. My turn 2 saw his defiler fall the LR Godhammer and a few Thousand Sons die.

Turn 3. Rest of his army came on. He moved across the board some more towards objectives. He killed off 5 Assault marines with his noise marines. He assaulted my LR with his terminators and they failed to do anything. My turn saw the rest of my army come on. His demon Prince found itself in the sights of the Dev Squad as well as the LR. No more DP :) Plague marines ate a vindicator shell and PC from the dread

Turn 4 saw him assault my Land Speeder with his possessed and wrecking it. His terminators were hit with Lascannons, Plasma Cannons and a Vanquisher shell and were no more. I assaulted his TS with my command squad and killed them all.

Turn 5 only had a few possessed, noise marines dreadnought and typhus left. He assaulted my command Squad with his possessed and they got munched. Command Squad consolidated towards the noise marines. My turn saw Typhus die to massed fire, my command squad go through his noise marines like a knife through butter and the Attack bike melta his dreadnought into a blazing wreck.

Result: Massacre to me. I only lost 5 assault marines, company champion and a tactical marine who died to gets hot.

Not I dont know what this guys issue was. If he just lost interest after his poor deployment or if he was just a bad player but they way he marched his troops into my guns was just bad. Granted the deployment did not favour him but I could have done better with his army and I do not play Chaos. While I enjoyed winning, I took very little satisfaction out of the win.

Lessons learned: Gun Lines still have their place, especially with some of the Battle Mission missions. Also, despite many opinions to the contrary, Lascannons are still potent. S9 shot that can reach out across the table = win in my book.

Unit of the match: Its a toss up between the Captain with command squad and the Land Raider. The raider killed a rhino, defiler, took 2 wounds off a DP, killed 2 terminators and 1 Thousand Son. The Command Squad and Captain on the other hand mopped up 3 squads with only 1 loss.

Battle Report: Ultramarines vs Tau

Yesterday I played a 2000 point game with my Ultramarines vs Tau.

It was an objectives based game with 5 objectives, deployment was standard table edges. I deployed first.

His force looked something like this

TAU:

Farsight, 2 body guards, 2 shield drones

Shas’o, 2 body guards, 2 drones

2  - 7 Man fire warrior teams – markerlight

broadside team with 2 broadsides and  2 shield drones

2 sniper teams

Hammer head

3 stealth suits - 1 fusion balster

2 piranha – fusion, seeker missiles

Kroot – 19 kroot, Shaper, 12 kroot hounds

Mine looked like this:

ULTRAMARINES

3 tactical squads

2 rhinos

Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon

Venerable Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon

Ironclad

Drop pod

Land Raider with MM

5 Vanguard (relic blade, 3 power weapons, TH)

Cassius

Khan

Vindicator

Speeder (MM, H/F)

Attack Bike – MM

Deployment
Marines in Blue. Tau in Red, objectives are the black circles. Ruins and cover are in grey and the green areas are hills. 

First Turn

Marines -

I placed the 2 rhino with attached squads as well as the speeder in reserve. The Ironclad and pod came down and shoots at the piranha squadron with melta and heavy flamer. The melta destroys a fusion blaster and the flamer does nothing but catches some firewarriors that were in the flame path. The Land Raider moves behind cover and the Vindi angles itself so the hammerhead is hitting front armour. Attack bike moves up towards the hammerhead. Plasma shots from dreads prove ineffective.

Tau -

The ironclad is markerlighted and the Piranhas move up behind it before destroying it with a seeker missile. The Land Raider takes 2 marker light hits which reduces its cover to 6+. The 2 broadsides shoot at it, 1 shot manages to penetrate but I roll a 6 to pass the cover save. The venerable dread looses its plasma cannon to a glancing hit from a sniper squad. I forget to ask for the re-roll.

Battlefield at end of turn 1

Turn 2

Marines - 

The 2 Rhinos come on, both on the left – Marines disembark near broadsides and rapid fire, killing a shield drone. The attack bike moves forward and kills the hammerhead with a MM shot. The LR moves forward and immobilizes a piranha which dies to the squadron rules. Vindi and Krak missile from the Tac Squad shoots at at the second piranha to no effect but it is then immobilised by the second dreads plasma cannon

Tau - 

The Sniper teams shoot at the disembarked rhino squad and kill 4. They fail their leadership and fall back.. The immobilised Piranha fires seeker missile at dread but it bounces off the side armour. The Attack bike is killed by fire warriors and a Broadside kills The Venerable dread. Once again I forget to do the re-roll. His Shas'O team deepstrikes but scatters onto the LR and rolls a 1 on the mishap table – lost in warp. Farsight deepstrikes and scatters close to my   lines. He the shoots and kills 2 marines.

Battlefield at end of turn 2

Turn 3

Marines - 

The Land Speeder comes on  - deepstrikes and scatters almost off board near his fire warriors. Flames 2 fire warriors. Falling back tac squad are less than 6" from the enemy and falls back some more. The Plasma dread, vindi and krak missile fire at piranha and again fail to do anything. Long range plasma cannon / gun fire from the second rhino's fire points as well as the rhino's stormbolter kill off one of the sniper teams.

The LR  moves close to Farsight. Khan, Cassius and the Vanguard disembark. Shooting from the raider and from the squad take out the shield drones. They then assault and kill everything, loosing a single vanguard. Consolidate back towards the LR

Tau - 

The Broadsides kill the Rhino on objective, I loose 2 marines to the explosion. The snipers kill more of the falling back tactical squad.

Battlefield at end of turn 3

Turn 4

Marines - 

The Vanguard get back on board LR and the LR moves up board. The piranha is finally killed by a krak missile and its drones get off. The Tac squad rally and move back towards sniper squad. They shoot the squad the sniper squad, cause wounds and the sniper squad runs off the table. The Rhino next to his broadsides then tank shock the broadsides. One of them takes a Death or Glory shot, penetrates the rhino and destroys the Storm Bolter. The rhino squashes the Broadside. The land speeder moves and flames an entire firewarrior squad and kills them all. The Vindi moves up.

Tau - 

The Gundrones close and shot down the land speeder. The second Broadside takes revenge and kills the rhino.

His Kroot come on and assault the tactical squad sitting on the bottom objective. 20 kroot and 12 kroot hounds gave him something like 65 attacks on the charge. He managed to kill 1 marine. I killed 5 kroot. he failed his leadership and I beat his initiative roll so my squad ran them all down and slaughtered them. It was a combat I should not have won.

Battlefield at end of turn 4

Turn 5

Marines - 

The LR moves up and heavy bolters last fire warrior. The tac squad near the broadsides move up, shoot and then assault broadside. They remove a wound and the Broadside fails to wound but passes its leadership. My Vindi moves up.

Tau - 

His Stealth team come on behind the Land Raider and fires afusion blaster at it but only manages to stun it. His Broadside dies to Tac squad.

Battlefield at end of turn 5

Turn 6

Marines - 

Vanguard disembark and move towards stealth team

Vindi fires shot at stealth team and kills them all

Result: Massacre for me.

I think that this is the first time that I have ever tabled an opponent. I have had people concede when its been close before or have the game end with 2 minis on the table but never actually done it.

Lessons learned

 - I don't normally use venerable dreadnoughts so I forgot to force the damage table re-rolls. I think if I had the dread would have lived a bit longer. As it is it made no difference in the end but had the game been close it could well have done so.

- I am not convinces yet about Khan and his outflank rule. It did come in useful this game but for some reason I find it a little gimmicky.

- I am also starting to think this army list is a little too strong for pick-up games. I may have to redesign it. Perhaps drop a dread and get rid of the special characters. It will still be strong but not quite so vicious.