Blog Wars 4 . Bat Reps...

So it was full of Gusto I breezed in to my second Blog Wars with my tourney untested new marine creation, I was hopeful as in play testing the "tool kit" army seemed to be working well and had yet to be trounced (which is not the same as "not lost" :P )

Anyway this was the list I took. The inclusion of Chronus was due to the mission pack making special characters score or give away extra vps but you HAD to take one. Either way a scoring predator that could then cheekily throw the character from the wreckage to go and hide in a squad seemed a good bet. The fact he then gave me immune to stunned and shaken and bs5 was just icing on the cake:

Libby - Gate and Null Zone
10 Sternguard in a pod
Iron Clad with 2 hunter killers in pod

10 tacs with the holy trinity of melta in pod
10 tac with missile, plasma and assault cannon razorback
10 sniper scouts with Telion
Aegis with Las

Storm talon with cyclone
Vindicator
Thunder Fire
Dakka Pred with Chronus

Let's see how I got on then..




Game 1: Crusade, Vanguard Deployment - Vs Keith with his Necrons:

Tryz the Infinite
Royal Court with 5 Crypteks of Various (but one with a veil) and 5!! mini lords with warscythe, 2+ and 3++ :/ plus a res orb.

20 warriors
10 warriors
10 tesla immortals

wraiths

Annie Barge

So a weird teleporting death star, solid scoring and obligatory wraiths. Hmm a new one on me - well time to break out the toolkit and see what I can crack this nut with (the army, not Kieth :) )

Keith put his 2 objective "next" to each other in a ruin and a wood-  where as I did mine in depth - with one in front of the other. One went in a wood and one in a reinforced ruin in my right hand corner. I created a courtyard by the ruin for my vehicles with the aegis, while all the footslogging infantry sat in the building claiming the objective and firing over the vehicles. I combat squaded the tac so I had 5 guys to rush forward for the second late game.  Keith set up across the table opposite as close as he could with the death star. The immortals sat on my far right claiming the objective; well away from any of my stuff.

I went first and went for my Alpha strike on the wraiths, those bad boys needed to die. Null zone  + hunter killers/sternguard  vengeance rounds and a few shots from my fire base did that. Hussah! I even had enough units left to shoot other stuff. A combat squad of stern guard , the thunder fire and Chronus had a pop at the warriors - felling about 14 after resurrection over the 2 units. Lastly the sniper scouts and Telion shot the death star using precision strikes to circumnavigate the nasty lords at the front and pick on the crypteks ....the veil did not get back up...double hussah!!

Keith looked a bit stunned - his dice were appalling to be fair, his resurrections just were not working. But he soldiered on. The immortals took out a few sternguard and the Annie Barge glanced to death my pred..boo!!. Chronus hoped out the back and joined a tac combat squad hanging near my closest objective to the enemy in the courtyard.

The next 2-3 turns I'm afraid to say though were little more than a dice rolling exercise. My storm talon turned up to add some more fire power but died later to the Annie Barge. The Iron clad smashed the Immortals off the objective. My tac squad turned up, combat squaded and jumped on his 2 objectives. The thunder fire cannon and stern guard made a mess of the warriors (gotta love ap 4 bolter rounds!). I backed off from the now walking death star shooting as I went, casting null zone to make sure the lords started to drop. On the final turn it was a simple matter to drop a vindicator shell on the Annie Barge and the tabling was complete. Game one in the bag. Kudos to Keith though. Smashing fella.

So game 2 - Franco Marufo - My erstwhile compatriot from 40kuk. Mission was Hammer and Anvil Relic.

Franco had:

Castelean Crowe
Coteaz

10 Purifiers with 4 cannons
10 Purifiers with 4 cannons
10 Interceptors with 2 cannons

Libby with null zone and gate
10 tacs with melta and stuff in pod
10 tacs with melta and stuff in pod
thunderfire cannon with pod.

Hmm - so similar ish thing to me. But more character centric. I got first turn and also rolled the warlord trait that made my libby scoring. So my plan was to land on the relic, libby grabs it and then run back to my lines while my fire base covers me. When his pods turn up it will be to get at the stern guard unit right in front of my guns and next to the baby sitting Iron Clad. Plan. I rolled spells as he didn't have much in the way of ++ saves, and I got live leech and Psychic Scream (which is ace btw).

Right, time to get this party star....

.....he stole the initiative and landed both pods behind my vehicle courtyard. Doh!!

Franco had deployed his 20 puri's as close to the Relic as poss and combat squaded the interceptors and they came in a wave up the table. His thunder fire was way way back field, which was fine by me as it was night fight turn one and it was out of range.

Luckily I had at least the presence of mind to back my courtyard on to a wood as so a combination of bad rolling and some nice saves meant that I only lost a few scouts and  a hull point on the vindi.

Ok so all is not lost, but I do need a bit of a plan change. Plan B then, Alpha strike his failed Alpha strikers !! :) First blood is so so important now I think in 6th ed and Franco had failed to capitalize. I landed my stern guard and combat squaded to shoot the melta gun combat squad that had failed to take out my vindi while I shuffled my other infantry round to deal with the invaders. I made the decision to ignore the 2 combat squads and 10 man tac with libby hanging in my back lines with my vehicles - face front, shoot the oncoming silver horde and prey I haven't left my ass hanging.

It doesn't start well, I kill 2 of my own sternguard with vengeance rounds, fail to kill any of the melta combat squad and then they also Deny the witch from psychic scream..sigh. A few marines die from the libby squad thanks to some vengeance rounds and sniper rifles. But I really dont deal with any of them. The Iron clad makes the tough choice to nuke a drop pod for first blood rather than the vain hope of killing a combat squad of 4 in cover with his 4 guns. I do however charge 10 tacs in to 5 of his to tie them up. But I really haven't dealt with them sufficiently. The tanks and thunder fire however do better and maul a puri squad.

Franco moves up again shooting cannons at my tanks, a few hull points here and there but the pred ignores the shaken result, The libby casts puppet master into my thunderfire cannon which mauls a sternguard unit, the melta combat squad shoot a melta and then charge 2 tanks to krak them - but whiff. The libby and squad goes to charge the scouts until I point out he fired a witch fire at the thunderfire cannon and so cant. Id rather have had the stern guard back than the scouts but it would have got too confusing going back in time to a previous phase and working out what "you would have done had I known that" Sorry, but know the rules :). The tac on tac combat has devolved in to a happy slapping contest...

My turn, the Storm Talon roars on and the tac's in pod stay in orbit (happy about this as I want them to get vanguard or jump on the relic late game.. perhaps both) The mission to clear up my fire base continues while the hammering of the puri's continues with anything I can spare.  Over the next 2 turns there are charges and counter charges all over the shop- the 2 interceptors squads shunt in too and crowe joins the party.  The thunder fire cannon dies and so even the techmarine piles in too, it was furious and fun!!:). At the start of my turn 4,  in the courtyard there is: one enemy marine, crowe on a wound, an iron clad, Chronus on foot and a few folorn drop pods. That's it. Meanwhile the puris have been whittled down to a squad of 3 and a squad of 2 with Coteaz. They have the relic-but I've still got a my storm talon and a razorback that's pushed forward running away from the "carnage at the carpark".

Then my pod with 10 tacs turn up... cavalry's here people!!. I land and combat squad. All meltas in one gunning for coteaz's squad and the 5 basic guys running in to his deployment zone but still close enough to pew pew. I lose 2 marines from "Ive been expecting you".

Looking at the score i'm losing 5-2. He has vanguard, warlord and the relic, I have vanguard and first blood....Coteaz and friends must die....and so begins so much assault cannon, missile, melta and bolter fire in to 3 gone to ground dudes as you ever did see. In the end the squad dies and Coteaz bites the big one to a long range melta shot from the iron clad, but I had really been saving that for charging crowe who was getting vanguard for Franco. But never mind.

We have 10 mins left and discuss if we can get another turn in - I'm winning 3-2 now and we decide as we have little left we can make it. Crowe runs further in to my deployment zone and the 3 puris go for my 4 tac marines - these are the only 7 models that can claim the relic now. Franco's in cover though and doesn't shoot for fear of putting me out of range of this important charge. Triples ones!! the four man tac squad are save and moon walk on to the relic on the last turn. Out of spite I blow the 3 puris to oblivion and the Iron clad charges a single marine as Crowes too far away.

Irritatingly Crowe on one wound, getting vanguard, meant the score was 6-2 and so I just missed out on getting max tourney points, 6-1 would have put me on table one I think for the last round.....and I was itching for a rematch....

....but as it was I was playing Greame White in kill points, Dawn of War. A gun line guard list with 3 dettas:

Plasma Command squad in chimera
Commisar Lord

40 man guard blob, split in to one 20 man with 2 las and mini commissar, one with 2 autocannon
Platoon command with plasma in chimera
Plasma vets in chimera
flamer special weapon squad
Aegis with quad

3 Dettas with heavy bolters.

Manticore
Hydra
Pask in an Executioner Russ.

We both car parked behind our Aegis's (Aegisi ??) opposite each other but Mr White had first turn and there was no night night. I left my razor back in reserve figuring it was the easiest first blood victim. I shouldn't have bothered as I totally didn't see that Pask had been deployed on his own in the far corner from the main gun line in an attempt to draw me out of position (as it was worth 2 kill points as hes a character). Id given pask a clear bead on the side of Chronus's pred and and he instantly got junked, but he did jump out and join the tac squad thereby saving a kill point - woot!! I love it when a cunning plan works. He kills a few marines including a missile launcher, but nothing of note.

Ok, so no first blood for me but I do get the jump on a static gun line with  pods. I decide to leave the Ironclad in orbit and bring down the 21 infantry instead. I figured I could cause more carnage that way. I aimed to misbehave. Lol.

Boy did it work. Id swapped my powers on the libby to get psychic scream again (no armor, no cover, hits get worse the lower your ld is...vs guard behind an aegis??? go on then) The stern guard come in and shoot the commissar lords squad manning the aegis. I plan to take it over and kill his own flyers with it. Ignore cover save bolters and the scream wound the lord and drop about half the squad. Meanwhile the vindi, the scouts, snap firing storm bolters and the tacs do a similar number on the other blob squad, including sniping out the Commissar and the 2 sergs. Hahah! The vindi even catches the Platoon Command Chimera, wrecks it and the squad inside run from the table after taking hits from the ka-boom......But, the pi-ester resistance this turn is the melta tac squad. They find a nice spot behind the vehicles to land, combat squad and blow the manticore and the vets chimera to kingdom come. Boom!! To add insult to injury the thunder fire finishes off the vets that pile pile out the exploded vehicle. The fire base is a shambles now.

Greames taken a mauling but then his 3 dettas turn up (even with my minus one warlord power). I knock a hull point off with the intercepting lascannon. Everything that can, loads in to my sternguard (in cover) I lose a little over half. Plasma and las hump in to my combat squads in his corner killing about 4 and about 2 of his own plasma gunners. One detta shakes my vindicator and another fails to make a scratch on the thunderfire cannon that is frankly decimating his troops. Pask fails to dent it too.

I'm still in his lines and have the tools to take out guard like no one's business. The Iron clad drops and blows pask to high heaven. The thunder fire, pods and stern guard/libby kill the blob maning the quad gun including the commisar lord. The mauled combat squads in the back lines take out the command chimera and the last 2 plasma's leaving the commander. I manage to get a few hull points off the dettas when my talon and razor back turn up too. The talon deftly avoiding the commissars quad gun swan song.

The dettas have to start hovering here to carry on getting any shots.The flamer special weapon squad get out to flame the stern guard. The combined fire power manages to blow the sternguard bar one away and kill the vindicator. The last infantry kill a single marine from the melta suicde squad. My libby's alive though and runs for the quad gun.

At this point I feel the games won but need to really make sure to get max points in case table one ends in a stalemate or at least close. So I apologize to Greame and go for the throat:

Thunderfire, tacs and storm bolters kill the last of the blob.
The other tacs shoot and charge the hydra.
The special weapon squad is vaporised by psychic scream.
Thrown krak grenades, las, storm talon and razorback kill 2 of the hovering dettas.

Greames final act of defiance is to kill the last stern guard with his last detta and charge his commander in to the 2 tacs that are strapping kraks on the hydra. I kill the commander and then my next turn take out the hydra on the charge and the detta cinematically gets shot down by the libby on the guards own quad gun. Hannibal loves it when a plan comes together :). The tabling is complete.

So what did I make of this first outing of the Toolbox army?

Three big wins. Very pleased with the army. Worked like a charm, I always felt I had a handle on things and even when it got messy in game 2 I always found I had options, always had a back up in case plan A went down the pooper, always felt I was in it. As greame said "you had the tools to do everything, anti tank, anti infantry, mobility and strong scoring". I don't think its unbeatable, not by a long shot, but I feel ill always have a chance no mater what I face, bad match ups just wont be a thing I worry about (apart from maybe flyer spam).

I dropped one tourney point all weekend (well 3, but the scoring system was in increments of 3 I think) so Crowe on one wound has cost me max points.

Was it enough to blag the title from Andy??? Well...I think I'll let him tell you....

G