Battle Report #11: Lahkers vs. Imperial Guard Armored Company

The final game for the June league!  I was matched against Charles again, this time fighting his Imperial Guard rather than his Tyranids.  I was excited and intimidated when he plunked a dozen vehicles on the table. 

My list was much the same as last week, except instead of the Nightmare Shroud and a Gauntlet of Fire or two, I gave both Overlords (Rynkelyh and Kobeh) Tachyon arrows.  My idea of "reliable long-range anti-tank".

Charles' list:

3x Russes (2x Executioners w/plasma sponsons, 1x Punisher w/heavy bolter sponsons and Pask)

2x Demolishers w/heavy bolter sponsons

6x Chimeras each with 10-man squad w/krak nades, 1x with Command Squad

3x Wyverns

everything has pintle-mounted heavy stubbers

Mission was Purge the Alien, good old kill points, deployment Vanguard Strike.  Rynkelyh, my warlord, rolled Hyperlogical Strategist, which buffed my reserve rolls.  I won the roll-off and deployed on the edge of my zone, anticipating having to close with the Guard to beat their ranged advantage.  The Canoptek Harvest and CCB were set up to charged either right or center, and hopefully take some heat off the rest of the army.

Charles set up with his artillery in back, his tanks in front, and his Chimeras with their Guardsmen in flanking positions.  Really, he could have set them up in a smiley-face, and I would not have been any less frightened of that wall of guns.

He rolled to seize, failed, and the fourth June league game began.

Turn 1

So.  I had the honor of marching into a Guard armored division's guns.  Fun, right?

Bunker Hill, Pickett's Charge, Gallipoli, these are all synonyms for this picture.

Okay, not that fun, but I told myself, if I got wiped, it would at least be by a well-painted (color-coded even!) Guard army.  Man up and wargame like you mean it.

Everything moved up, the Canoptek Harvest and CCB pulling the same schtick as last time, run and chop, with the Spyder giving out Reanimation Protocols.  The gunline advanced towards the center, with the warrior blob as the lynchpin and bullet sponge.  I barely had any shooting that could reach Charles' army, all my gauss-fire plinked off the tanks, and the Tachyon arrows, as I feared, went afoul.  Rynkelyh at the back totally missed his shot, and Kobeh in the Barge hit, but only rolled a 2 for armor pen.

Charles' turn, he unleashed the firepower characteristic of the Guard.  The Demolishers and Chimeras on the right focused on the Wraiths, and poured probably nearly a hundred shots into them, dealt 30 wounds, and thanks to some crazy rolling from my dice, inflicted only 1 wound at the end of it all.  The warrior blob was less lucky, hit by everything the Executioners and Wyverns had.  15 warriors were worn down to 6 warriors, and Nahz took a wound.

Hairbo snacks, objective primaris, hold at all costs.

Two things: Decurion is where it's at, and thank you Lady (C'tan? maybe?) Luck.

Turn 2

The Deathmarks and single squad of Immortals came in.  Immortals walked onto the board to the bottom right, the Deathmarks tried to deep-strike by the Wyverns.  One succeeded and then forgot to shoot that turn, the other mishapped and rolled a 2.  Not dead, just useless, as Charles positioned them at the bottom left.

Oh yay, another suicide mission.  Thanks, nemesor.

Again, I scooted the gunline up, and directed the Wraiths and the CCB towards the Executioners, while the Scarabs went for the Demolishers.  During shooting, the warrior blob, Ark, and embarked warriors glanced 2 HP off the nearest Executioner, and the warriors on the left flank killed a Chimera, earning First Blood.

Then it was assault time.  The Wraiths and CCB assaulted the Executioners, the Scarabs went for a Demolisher.  The dice were suddenly on fire: the Scarabs nibbled the Demolisher to death, and the Wraiths tore up both Executioners and Pask so fast that Kobeh didn't even get to swing.  (And with his newly redone warscythe, too.)  I wasn't complaining, that was the turning point of the game.

For my next trick, I will make these two tanks disappear.  Please sign these waivers and don your hard hats.

Charles, like anyone with Wraiths in their face, pulled his center back, and deployed all Guardsmen.  He cleaned up the Scarabs quick with the remaining Demolisher and loads of las-fire and stubbers, and the Guardsmen on the left flank killed enough of the warriors nearby they forced a morale check.  The squad broke and ran to the Tomb Blades.  The Wyverns focused on killing the Deathmarks, and got all but one.

Turn 3

With Charles' army split in half, I had the Wraiths and CCB go right, aiming to clean up the Demolisher and Wyverns, and the Ark and warriors go left to engage the Guardsmen.  The running warriors regained their nerve and stopped running, both Immortal squads ran forward to try and be useful, and the lone Deathmark in a position to do something set himself up for an assault on the Wyverns.  I went to shooting, the Deathmark lined up his shot, with his rapid-fire sniper weapon, and then literally missed the broadside of a tank.  60 million years of skill, right?

Um.

At this point, Charles chose to concede the game.  The Wraiths were on the way to wrecking the Demolisher, Charles' only remaining source of heavy firepower, and then it would have been grinding down the Guardsmen and Chimeras.

Finale

Final score: Lahkers got First Blood, Line Breaker, and killed a Chimera and Pask's squadron for 4 VP, and Charles killed the Scarabs for 1 VP.  LAHKER VICTORY!

That was genuinely unexpected.  I was 80% sure, even with Decurion buffs, that the Guard would open fire and half my army would vanish.  Turns out everyone else knows my army's strengths better than me, i.e. Decurion might lose to flyer spam and that's it.  Final June league score for the Lahkers is 2 wins, 2 losses, one win better than the February league.  I am happy.

Thanks to Charles for playing and for letting me take photos of those incredible tanks.  They're color-coded by platoon, if you look closely enough.

Extra Pics:

Battle Report #10: Lahkers vs. Salamanders

Third week of the league, the Sons of Vulkan appeared and challenged the Lahkers to a battle.  It was a glorious fight, and would have been more so had I not forgotten my camera, and had to resort to taking pics with my phone.  Apologies for the drop in quality.

I had modified my list from last week (again), this time deciding to go pure 'crons.  On the plus side, this gave me loads of troops; on the minus side, I removed the only long-range anti-tank I had.  Rynkelyh was my warlord, and he had the Nightmare Shroud (+2 save) and the Veil of Darkness (deep strike him and unit once a game, even out of combat).

there should be a divider for the Royal Court between them and the Canoptek units

My opponent, Harry, had a list with Vulkan He'stan himself, and was very troops- and flamer-heavy.  All three Tac squads (10 men each) had Rhinos with HK missiles, and both Dreadnoughts were running twin Autocannons.  Vulkan was buddying up with the level 2 Librarian and a Sternguard squad with three combi-meltas, two heavy flamers, and melta bombs, all in the drop pod.

Deployment was Hammer and Anvil, mission was Spoils of War, the Maelstrom mission where you can steal each others "Secure Objective X" objectives.

I won the roll-off to deploy, and set up with the Canoptek Harvest in the center, Kobeh on his Command Barge with them, and weighing the left flank heavier than the right (more objectives over there).  Rynkelyh and the Cryptek were on the left with the warrior blob, and Nahz was on the right with the regular squad.

Harry weighed his right flank up, made sure his Tac Marine transports had cover, and put his lascannon Devastators on the top floor of the building in the upper left.  Remember that.  They were key in this battle.

Harry failed to seize, and the game went ahead.

Turn 1

I liked my setup, I had my fire lanes, I controlled two objectives, I just needed to be in range of the enemy.  My first turn was completely taken up with moving up, and then running a little in the shooting phase.

Here we see Kobeh.

Harry's first turn, he dropped Vulkan down by the warrior blob and Ghost Ark.  The Vendread waddled in a threatening manner towards my Wraiths.  In shooting, Vulkan and his Sternguard opened up with meltas and flamers; the Ark jinked the meltas, but lost a few warriors inside to the flamers.  The rest of the Salamander prioritized Overlord Kobeh and his barge, and a hail of autocannon and las-fire later, Kobeh's barge was but dust on the wind, giving Harry first blood.  The VenDread tried to charge the Wraiths and failed by a couple inches.

Here we see a distinct lack of Kobeh.

I achieved no objectives, Harry achieved one or two.

Turn 2

My turn, one squad of Deathmarks arrived, I put them within sight of the Devastators.  The warriors and Nahz strolled up the right flank, the Immortals followed, and the Canoptek Harvest moved into the center of the board.  The Ark swiveled around to hide its back armor against a building.  During shooting, Rynkelyh's squad and the Ark's warriors killed off a couple Sternguard and laid a wound on Vulkan.  The Deathmarks killed the Devastator sarge, and everything else was out of range.  The Wraiths assaulted and wounded the VenDread once, and they became locked in combat.  The Scarabs attacked the green Rhino, hit with 35 attacks, and failed to remove a single hull point.

Rynkelyh made a note to have harsh and possibly excruciating words with the current Canoptek overseer at the tomb world.

Harry hit back by moving his Rhinos towards the Wraiths, inching his AC Pred on his right flank up, and moving Vulkan and Bros. towards the Ghost Ark.  The Devastator squad killed the Spyder, denying my Harvest their reanimation rolls.  The Sternguard killed the Ark and then charged the warriors that scrambled out of the Ark.  The left-flank AC Dread charged and wiped my Tomb Blades (jetbikes unable to win initiative test against a walker...shameful...), and the VenDread tanked my Wraiths and only lost a single hull point, now down to 1.

You'd think we could surround him and hit his rear armor, but noooo...

Harry achieved a Secure Objective, and stole another one from me.  I think I achieved one or two, but I was behind in VP.

Turn 3

My other squad of Deathmarks came in.  Their only viable targets were to my left of midfield, so I set them down there.  They and the other Deathmarks killed a landspeeder, getting a multi-melta off the field, but left the Devastators alone.  A mistake, in hindsight.  Rynkelyh's squad plinked away at the AC Pred and failed to do damage.  Nahz's squad took possession of the right-most objective, and the Immortals continued to troop forwards.  In assault, the Wraiths fared uncommonly badly, unable to wound the VenDread.  At least the Scarabs got their scrap together and chewed two hull points off the green Rhino.

Harry decided to take his Rhino, move at cruising speed, and go flat out, through a building, and try to contest the objective Rynkelyh was holding.  It was such a ballsy move that, in the spirit of fun, I let it go.  Besides, I got this shot:

too epic to disallow

Vulcan finished off the warriors from the Ark, and the VenDread continued to embarrass my Wraiths.

Harry got an objective for killing the squad from the Ark.  I got two Secure Objectives, one of mine, and one of his.  At this point we were tied.

Turn 4

Drop pod was absentmindedly moved for a moment, whoops.

After sending the migrating drop pod back to its proper spot, Rynkelyh's squad glanced the nearby Rhino to death, and the Marines jumped out to contest the objective.  Nahz's squad sat on their objective.  The Scarabs went on to kill the other Land Speeder, and the Wraiths still couldn't kill the Vendread.

Harry's turn, his Librarian, who had been fluffing his powers the whole game, finally started to earn his points.  He cast Enfeeble on Rynkelyh's squad, causing Rynkelyh himself to become T4, and the warriors T3.  Vulkan's squad and the Tac squad killed most of Rynkelyh's warriors at range, and then charged in and killed all but one warrior and Rynkelyh.  The Wraiths finally killed the VenDread, and headed for a Rhino.

Nahz got a Secure Objective for me, for once Harry scored nothing.

Turn 5

Rynkelyh used the Veil of Darkness to teleport out of combat and away to my right flank, with a single warrior with him.  There was halfhearted shooting at the other Marines, and the Wraiths may have got into combat with the debarked Tac squad in the center.

Alas, in my haste to get Rynkelyh away from Vulkan, I failed to check to see who could still see him.  The Librarian cast Enfeeble again on Rynkelyh, and Vulkan's squad, the AC Dread on Harry's left, and possibly a HK missile all took shots at the Overlord.  They brought him down to one wound, and then the Devastators opened fire on him.  Rynkelyh was unable to reanimate, and gave Harry Slay the Warlord.

Welp.

MVP Devastators, punishing the inattentive, the xenos, and sometimes both at once.

The game concluded, with the scores at Lahkers 10 VP to Salamanders 11 VP.  The Emperor's boyz brought it back for a SALAMANDER VICTORY.

I think this list could have worked, and made it without long-range anti-tank, had old Vulkan not dropped in for some fun.  I dunno.  I had fun, Harry was a chill opponent.  One more week.  I aim to win this one.

Extra crappy phone pics:

Aw damn.  There goes another prospective vacation home.

Epic duel on the table nearby.

Battle Report #9: Lahkers vs. Slaanesh Daemons

HOOOLLLLLD! HOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLD!

Fight time with seductive goat daemons?
Sorry.  This was my first game against a pure Daemon army.  I was excited and anxious.  Memories of the Bikestar were still fresh in my mind, I did not want a repeat of that, even with beautifully-painted models.

I brought my usual gunline, augmented with a few Marines in a Razorback and a vanilla Dreadnought in a drop pod, my only reliable sources of anti-tank.

Aaron brought a troops-heavy CAD, the main points of which were the flying Daemon Prince, a Keeper of Secrets (warlord), and the big squad of Seekers and two Soul Grinders.

Aaron won the initiative roll-off, and set up symmetrically, save for the Fiends on the left.  He held three squads of Daemonettes in reserve.

Still skittish about bikers, cavalry, and anything with a 12" move, I set up a plain old gunline a few inches behind my depolyment line, Canoptek units up front, the Catacomb Command Barge placed where the Overlord's morale/pinning/reroll trait could do the most good.  (And be an emergency choppy unit if necessary.)

I rolled to seize initiative and got it!  Not really set up to take advantage of it, but a seize is a seize, I cannot complain.

Turn 1

Inspired by Ike's tactics, I dropped my Dreadnought down right behind the right Soul Grinder and blew it away.  That was my big success for turn 1, other than that, the Lahkers inched forwards, pushed center with the Wraiths, and acted like the gunline they were.  On the right flank, the Marines took potshots at the goat-daemonettes; the plasma-gunner burned himself but made his save.  One Immortal squad grabbed the lower objective, and the other sat on the tower and rebuked me for not providing targets to shoot.

Aaron's first turn, he moved everything up.  The Daemon Prince cast Grimoire on the riders for a ++3, the Herald spawned a vortex that would auto-spawn daemons (and did in fact spawn a few Plaguebearers at some point), and two Pyschic Shrieks failed to wound my Spyder.  His Fiends assaulted the Tomb Blades, forced a morale check, and the 18" Immortal Hubris bubble came in handy when the Blades failed their first check.  They made their reroll and stayed in.  The Seekers assaulted the Wraiths, Wraiths won combat, and the Seekers stayed in.

Turn 2

I brought my single reserve in, the Deathmarks, and tried landing them near the Keeper of Secrets.  They scattered onto the Keeper and rolled a 1 for mishap.  Apparently a goat-demoness can distract even soulless robots.

And you're an "Elites" choice?  For shame.

Deathmark fail aside, turn 2 was similar to turn 1, I continued to move up.  The Dread destroyed the vortex, the Wraiths finished off the Seekers and consolidated towards the Keeper.  I got a wound or two on the Keeper, I think through the Razorback's lascannon.  The CCB got stuck in with the Fiends and Tomb Blades.

Aaron's turn.  He had a squad of Daemonettes deep-strike high on the left flank, and moved the Soul Grinder and Keeper in on the Wraiths.  The Daemonettes at the bottom right assaulted and cracked the Razorback, plasma-guy burned himself again (made the save, too), and the Soul Grinder and Keeper got into combat with the Wraiths, killing one.

Turn 3

At this point, I started really thinking about contesting and claiming objectives, and realized this could easily end in a tie.  I moved the warrior blob into the center, ready to take the objective, or if necessary, be a tarpit.  I moved the leftmost Immortal squad towards the left objective, and the Scarabs up to join up in the fight with the Keeper.  The CCB continued to hold the line against the Fiends, and the Scarabs jumped in and did zero wounds to the Keeper.  The Wraiths killed off the Soul Grinder, and the Dreadnought killed off the couple Plaguebearers trying to block it.

Aaron focused on moving his troops towards objectives, and charged the Marine squad and the warriors on the left with his Daemonettes.  The Marines were engaged, and only by a miracle did the Daemonettes fail to make it to my warriors, the game might have been much different if they had.

Turn 4

My fourth turn, the Dreadnought realized victory was on the line and waddled towards the top objective.  The warrior blob got as close to the objective as they could without joining the combat, and the Fiends worked the CCB down to 1 wound.

Aaron's turn, he ran towards the objectives as well, and had his Daemon Prince swoop over and shoot an Immortal or two down.  The Fiends killed off the CCB at last, and consolidated towards the left objective.

Turn 5

Not much happened, besides warriors crowding around the left objective and ongoing combats.  The Plaguebearers glanced the Dread, and the Wraiths finally got the Keeper, scoring the Warlord kill.

Aaron rushed his Daemonettes to contest the top objective, and his Fiends assaulted the Immortals by the left objective, intending to get stuck in close enough to contest the objective.  The Fiends did too well, killed the Immortals, and were left, in the open, in front of 20 gauss flayers.  On the lower part of the board, his other Daemonette squad headed for my lonely Immortals in the forest, getting close enough to contest their objective.

We rolled for game end, and it went on.  Had it ended here, Aaron would have won, holding the top objective and with Line Breaker.

Turn 6

As expected, 20 rapid-fire weapons versus a couple Fiends ended with no Fiends in sight, and the left objective in my hands.  The Wraiths lunged at the Plaguebearers up top, charged them, and wiped them out.  The warriors grabbed the center objective.

Aaron landed his Daemon Prince and I believe got the Grimoire off on one of his squads, and tried to Psychic Shriek the warrior blob, with little to no effect.  The Daemonettes by the lower objective assaulted the Immortals, but didn't kill them.

We rolled for game end again, and this time it did end.  I held one objective and had First Blood and Slay the Warlord, he held one, we both had line breaker, and the remaining two objectives were contested.  End result: Lahkers 6 VP, Daemons 4 VP.

Lahker victory!

Thanks to Aaron for the game, and for being an awesome opponent.

Extra pics:

"If we're very quiet, and we don't move, maybe it won't notice us..."

"Yes, Command, objective is secure...totally secure...gimme a sec..."*punching noises*

"Half dead, squad gone, Razorback wrecked...these day trips aren't what they used to be."

Hero Immortals!

Love it when you get the backlighting on gauss bits.