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?
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| 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.
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