Monday, June 28, 2010

Apocalypse Battle Report: Eldar vs. Nurgle or Chester Gets Schooled!

This one is a bit late so the details are a bit fuzzy. Didn't have the time I usually have to write it up since I was playing and modeling too much.
C'est un peu vieux donc j'ai oublié les détails.

So, without further ado...
Donc, ont commences?

The Eldar player held everything in reserve whereas I put most of my army on the table. End result, winning the initiative was rendered worthless.
Le joueur Eldar a gardé tout en réserve mais moi j'ai sorti presque tout. Ma premier grosse erreur. Gagné Init étais inutile pour moi.

Targets arrive but a little too late
Les Eldar arrive mais trôp tard


I had nothing to shoot with my warhound when it was my turn and then he blew the force D weapon off when it came to his turn.
J'ai eu rien à pété pour mon tour et lui a détruit l'arme force D de Chester dès qu'ils sont arrivé.

Chester gets an arm blown off when he tries to make some new friends. Eldar are meanies...
Pauvre Chester, ces nouveaux amies ne sont pas gentils


I knew it was downhill from there. However, I took the game as a learning experience and decided I would consider it research into Eldar armoury and tactics.
J'ai connu que le jeu sont perdu la, mais j'ai considéré comme genre d'apprentisage des tactiques Eldar.

I managed to protect my daemon princes well enough with the cover available because the Eldar player didn't seem to have that much long range firepower and they both made it into close combat.
J'ai protégé mes Princes Daemons assez bien avec Cover et les deux ont reussi à assaut proche.

Hopscotching Daemon Princes
Saute mouton avec les Princes Daemons


They then proceeded to bang up the grav tanks.
Ils ont continues à abusé les Grav tanks.

Plague Princess having fun
La Princesse des Plagues Joue avec les Grav


Once a squad was sortied, my warhound wasted the entire squad in one shot. The princess got to chew on some guardians as well. It didn't take the eldar player long after that to kill them both though.
Quand elle a sortie le squad, elle la bouffé bien. Malgré, le Joueur Eldar a pété les deux après.

On my side I took some heavy hits when my PMs came on from reserve. Popped from their rhino, 250 pts of dudes were wiped out in one destroyer hit. Then my other squad got hit too.
À mon côté mon squad de PM ont mangé un tir D qui a pété l'escouade dans un coup. Mon autre squad a mangé un coup aussi.

Eldar Revenant Titan in position to smoke my PMs with one destroyer hit
Le Titan Eldar se positionné pour me fais mal


Typhus was beyond pointless because he totally messed up his deepstrike and the eldar player placed him and his termie retinue far away where they proved to be totally useless for the rest of the game.
Typhus a été inutile tout le partie. Il a gâché son Deepstrike et le joueur Eldar le place loins de la bataille.

Bye Bye Typhus
Salut Typhus


By turn 3 I managed to pop the Eldar super heavy with nothing more than my three havoc squads sporting only 1 lascannon each (and a missile launcher instead of a las in one). The havocs survived so long because there was so much multi-level cover. It was impossible to wipe the squad in one shot.
Les havocs a été bon parce qu'il lui protégé avec le terrain multi-niveau. C'est mes Havocs qui ont détruit le super heavy.
Havocs appreciate multi-level cover
Terrain multi-niveau est bon pour les Havocs


The warhound took a lot of abuse but finally kissed it when a full squad of fire dragons maybe popped out with meltas and roasted him from close range.
Chester a été pété finalement par les Fire dragons.
Chester's Deliverance
Délivrance de Chester


With only one troop left each, the eldar player flew up to the objective and grabbed it.
Le joueur Eldar a pris un de les objectif avec son troop squad qui reste.

Eldar player moves on the objective
L'objectif capturé


I only had one or two havocs left to contest and they were quickly wiped out. However, the game came down to my one surviving plague marine. I had an asset that gave me double points for a single objective. My adversary was contesting said objective with a grav tank. His destroyer shot scattered wiping out my PM's buddies but left one alive because my PM was on a different level. The shot also scattered onto my adversary's grav and so all I had to do was roll a 4+ for penetration damage and I would have won. Unfortunately, I rolled a 3 and so my adversary won with his uncontested objective.
J'ai eu juste un ou deux havocs qui reste pour contesté l'objectif de les Eldars, donc ils sont morts vites. Mon objectif il l'a contesté avec un grav et il essayé de me détruire avec un autre tir force D. Malgré pour lui, il l'a scatter et frappé sont grav. J'ai eu un asset qui m'a donne deux points pour mon objectif. Si j'ai roulé 4+ pour dommage de pénétration, je l'ai gagné. Mais non, j'ai roulé un trois.
The crux of the game was whether or not this puppy popped
Tout le partie sont déterminé par un roule de d6 pour si je pété cet grav


In retrospect I needed to not take Typhus and a termie retinue, load up on lascannons, and perhaps have another superheavy because his 2 to my one unbalanced things considerably. I was just eating D shots the whole game without being able to give much back. That, and I will keep Chester in reserve if possible next time and make sure he has his day in the sun.
Pour la prochaine fois, je vais laissé Typhus à la maison. Il sont trôp lent. Aussi, j'ai besoins plus de lascannons, et peut être un autre super heavy. J'ai mangé des tirs D tout le jeu sans être capable de le retourné. Finalement je vais gardé Chester à reserve. Comme ça il peut avoir son journée dans le soleil.

As a final note mini Apocalypse games kick butt. It took only 2 hours maybe and we both got to field some cool gear which we usually aren't allowed. It was a good time against a tough player.
Les jeux Apocalypes en mini sont bien cool. Il l'a pris comme deux heures et nous deux ont eu l'opportunité de joué avec nos modèles prèférés. Un bon temps contre un joueur formidable.

Cheers

Scratchbuilding and painting:

Warhound

Plague Reaper

Warhound's Necrotic Companions

Fellios the Fallen and cohorts

New table

Chaos Lord

Chosen squad

Scratchbuilt Greater Daemon

Scratchbuilt Rhino

Epic Titans

Team game battle reports

Heretics of the Broken Dawn 2 x2

Lady Pestilence’s' 1st Outing

Regular Battle reports

Scrapyard Blues

Making Don’s BA sweat

First time facing pure Necrons

Christmas with the Greenskins

Don’s IG on a new board

Nurgle Annihilated by Blood Angels

1st time versus Tarkand

Mexican standoff: 2nd Game vs. Tarkand

Nurgle Downs the Sisters

Faceoff with the Lions of Achaea on a brand new board

Tight match against Corbeau’s Nids

The death of Pedro Kantor

Apocalypse battle reports

La Chute de Dominus Org (Fr.)

Fall of Dominus Org (Eng.)

The betrayal of Fellios and the fall of Engel Sarg

Chester’s first outing and first time going Nuclear!

Chester gets schooled by the Eldar!

Experimental Games

NERFed Battle with the Tau

Convergence

Easter Egg hunt

Super Heavy Scrum

1st Spearhead Match

A tenuous alliance

Events

Chaos Ludik 2011!

Storms Cityfight Tournament: part 2

Storms Cityfight Tournament: part 1

’Ard Boyz Practice Match against Valkom’s IG

Game Summit

Random stuff

Gorillapod tripod test with remote

Warhammer in a nutshell

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Battle Report #5: Retrospective

In retrospect I (re)learned the following:

1) DON'T SPLIT UP MY FORCES! How many times do I need to learn this lesson. Every Plague Marine is precious. They are tough but they can't go it alone.

2) Use cover more. My opponent used cover to excellent advantage whereas I literally handed him an expensive Oblit. squad 2x on a platter by not sitting them in cover.

3) Make a plan and stick to it. The 2nd game went much better because I wasn't just dazzled by random targets. I had clear objectives and so could guide my units better.

4) Land Raiders kick ass! Both my opponent's and my Land Raider took so much punishment in both games without dying (actually mine might have in the 1st game but only in the final turns). I will have to try them for terminator transport.

5) Deepstrikes are a huge gamble. They can be fantastic when they go well but otherwise they're rather like bending over and waiting for the end. You take heavy abuse for your arrival turn which can easily smoke your expensive unit.

6) Double-tapping bolters is rather effective, much more so than I initially understood. Get a full squad of PMs and it could be a formidable strategy.

7) Vindicators blow (when they're in your opponent's force). I have to remember to keep my distance until I can pop it.

8) I have to read my Chaos Codex more carefully. The 'expendable' Chaos Space Marine I got so much mileage out of these two games was not legal. I mixed them up with plague marines who are able to carry 2 special weapons in a 5 man squad. CSMs can only have 1 special weapon per 5 man squad. I need a 10 man squad to field 2, which effectively makes CSMs lose most of their value. PMs however are truly an amazing value - can field 2 special weapons, fearless, feel no pain, blight grenades. Thank you Nurgle for showing me the light and bringing me back to the fold.

Scratchbuilding and painting:

Warhound

Plague Reaper

Warhound's Necrotic Companions

Fellios the Fallen and cohorts

New table

Chaos Lord

Chosen squad

Scratchbuilt Greater Daemon

Scratchbuilt Rhino

Epic Titans

Team game battle reports

Heretics of the Broken Dawn 2 x2

Lady Pestilence’s' 1st Outing

Regular Battle reports

Scrapyard Blues

Making Don’s BA sweat

First time facing pure Necrons

Christmas with the Greenskins

Don’s IG on a new board

Nurgle Annihilated by Blood Angels

1st time versus Tarkand

Mexican standoff: 2nd Game vs. Tarkand

Nurgle Downs the Sisters

Faceoff with the Lions of Achaea on a brand new board

Tight match against Corbeau’s Nids

The death of Pedro Kantor

Apocalypse battle reports

La Chute de Dominus Org (Fr.)

Fall of Dominus Org (Eng.)

The betrayal of Fellios and the fall of Engel Sarg

Chester’s first outing and first time going Nuclear!

Chester gets schooled by the Eldar!

Experimental Games

NERFed Battle with the Tau

Convergence

Easter Egg hunt

Super Heavy Scrum

1st Spearhead Match

A tenuous alliance

Events

Chaos Ludik 2011!

Storms Cityfight Tournament: part 2

Storms Cityfight Tournament: part 1

’Ard Boyz Practice Match against Valkom’s IG

Game Summit

Random stuff

Gorillapod tripod test with remote

Warhammer in a nutshell

Battle report #5b - A Mexican Standoff

The second game went better. This time it was seize ground and then spearhead again. My opponent decided to head straight for me. He got the initiative but nothing of great consequence happened in the first turn.



Here come the marines!



What I noticed right away was that my adversary left only a lone unit to hold the fort. My plan therefore was as follows.

1) Deepstrike termies into his backyard and wipe them out.

2) Use the cover to move the rest of my force into the table center and then flank the vehicles from the left with the daemon princess and all my chosen.

In flanking position



3) Camp the plague marines in the land raider (this was a modification) and the rhino on the objective.



Anybody bring marshmallows?



4) Use the expendable marines in the rhino as a tool to control the movement of the spawn and set it up for a nice assault.



The Gameplay

I took a bad hit in the beginning (either turn 1 or 2) when the vindicator smoked my obliterators. However my plan to sideswipe worked pretty well. The plasma Chosen popped the tactical rhino and then my daemon princess chewed them up. She did however get badly bruised up in the process losing 2 wounds.



Mmm, mmm. Tasty tactical squad


The termies also landed on target and although they didn't do anything with their plasma against the predator, they served their purpose of contesting the objective. I forgot the vindicator could simply turn around to blast them, but 3 of them still survived to bring the pain to the objective holders. This tactic was a gamble but critical to at least securing a tie.



Happy landings!



We're in!



From there I simply trusted in Nurgle and the fortitude of the plague marines to hold my objective. I knew my adversary would have a hell of a time popping the land raider and if he succeeded in that, he'd have to remove the plague marines, all 10! No easy task. Even in wipeout games, there's usually a few plague marines still strolling around, sniffing the flowers as bullets riddle their flesh and ricochet off their helmets.

My adversary's termies finished the princess (really, no respect for a lady!) but I was satisfied she'd wiped out most of a tactical squad.

His dreadnought charged my chosen so I threw my spawn into the mix which did nothing really but tie it up for the next few turns.

Futile for my part but worked as a delay tactic


Around my objective, my expendable CSM squad popped another rhino with their meltas and then my plague marines barbecued the survivors with flamers before hammering them with a hailstorm of bolterfire. I now have renewed respect for my plague marines. They are pretty badass against the right opponent.


Shouldn't get so cozy with plague marines

Sent the commander packin'

By the seventh turn, my adversary was hoping to crack open the land raider but failed. Thus I had the last say, which was pretty nice after all the crappy rolling I did in both games. My plague marines hopped out of the land raider, flamed the entire squad of termies 2x and rained bolter hell on them as well, mounting up 16 shots. This was enough to eliminate 3 termies, a nice surprise at the end of the game.

Final result was a tie, with 2 land raiders staring each other down, nose-to-nose. A Mexican standoff!
Barbecued termies and a Land Raider Mexican standoff

Retrospective

Back


Scratchbuilding and painting:

Warhound

Plague Reaper

Warhound's Necrotic Companions

Fellios the Fallen and cohorts

New table

Chaos Lord

Chosen squad

Scratchbuilt Greater Daemon

Scratchbuilt Rhino

Epic Titans

Team game battle reports

Heretics of the Broken Dawn 2 x2

Lady Pestilence’s' 1st Outing

Regular Battle reports

Scrapyard Blues

Making Don’s BA sweat

First time facing pure Necrons

Christmas with the Greenskins

Don’s IG on a new board

Nurgle Annihilated by Blood Angels

1st time versus Tarkand

Mexican standoff: 2nd Game vs. Tarkand

Nurgle Downs the Sisters

Faceoff with the Lions of Achaea on a brand new board

Tight match against Corbeau’s Nids

The death of Pedro Kantor

Apocalypse battle reports

La Chute de Dominus Org (Fr.)

Fall of Dominus Org (Eng.)

The betrayal of Fellios and the fall of Engel Sarg

Chester’s first outing and first time going Nuclear!

Chester gets schooled by the Eldar!

Experimental Games

NERFed Battle with the Tau

Convergence

Easter Egg hunt

Super Heavy Scrum

1st Spearhead Match

A tenuous alliance

Events

Chaos Ludik 2011!

Storms Cityfight Tournament: part 2

Storms Cityfight Tournament: part 1

’Ard Boyz Practice Match against Valkom’s IG

Game Summit

Random stuff

Gorillapod tripod test with remote

Warhammer in a nutshell

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Battle report #5a - Nurgle Wiped Out!

This will actually be 2 reports in one. Went head-to-head against a marine force in a 2 game showdown. First game resulted in Nurgle's total annihilation due to several tactical errors, but I managed to squeeze out a draw from the second despite the worst possible dice rolls imaginable. My opponent was a pleasure to play against as he was an excellent tactician. This made for two very challenging games.
Ça va être 2 rapports en un. J'ai affronté un force de marine dans un match de deux parties. J'ai été anéantir durant le premier partie mais J'ai réussi à faire un nul au deuxième. Mon adversiare m'a donné un bon défi dû à il est un trés bon tacticien.

The 1st game was Annihilation/Spearhead. Here was the initial setup for both sides:
Le premier partie étais Annihilation/Spearhead. Voici le setup pour les deux adversaires:



Marine Setup


Nurgle Setup


My main mistake was to focus all my heavy firepower on my opponent's land raider, a largely futile effort that wasted 4 lascannon shots a round. Had I succeeded, I would have received 1 point when there were far easier targets on the table.

Mon erreur majeur étais mon gaspillage de la fortitude des armes de mon Land Raider et Obliterators en éssais de fracassé son Land Raider. Il existe des objectifs plus faciles.

Tempting Target
Tentation

My second mistake was to split my forces up and spread them all over the table again. My opponent had his firepower concentrated and so he was clearing a unit a turn.

Mon deuxième erreur étais que j'ai trop separés mes unités. Mon adversaire a détruit un par tour avec sa puissance de feu concentré.



Chosen taking a pounding
Les Chosen battu

My third mistake was to take my plague marines out too early. I gambled the land raider and the obliterators could pop the bunker and then my PMs could flame the survivors. It didn't happen and I was left with the desperate gambit of assaulting a bunker with a lone survivor (which actually went pretty well, all things considered). A full squad would have done some serious damage.

Ma troisième erreur étais que j'ai sorti trop tôt de mon rhino avec les plague marines. J'ai risqué que mon LR et Oblits peu fassent tombé le bunker pour que mes PM peu fassent un SM barbecue avec leurs flamers. Mais ça se ne produit pas. Finalement j'ai étais laisser avec un PM qui a affronté les SM tout seule. Un squad au complet réussiraient plus facilement.


Plague Marines are buttkickers in close combat even when they go solo
Les PMs: pas pire, même solo

My final mistake was to send in the deepstrikers (Plague princess & Termies) into the thick of it where they received the full wrath of a vindicator, predator and squad of tacticals. I hate the 'sit-and-wait-to-be-annihilated' rule for deepstrikers. To be fair to myself, it was a gamble that the termies would be able to dust the vindicator with their plasma. Unfortunately my rolls were abysmal.

Mon dernier erreur fatale étais de l'envoyé mes deepstrikers en face de trop des fusils peu amical (un Vindicator, un Predator, et un escouade tactique). Je déteste le réglement que les deepstrikers dois attendre un tour. J'ai risqué que mon squad de Termies peu détruise le Vindicator mais ça n'a pas marché dû à mes jeté de dés misérables.

Bad landing
Mal placé

Things that went well were few and far between. I kept my 2nd Chosen squad alive until the final turn by hiding them in the bunker. They took severe punishment from the vindicator, turn after turn but didn't die until I took them out.

Il n'y a pas tellement de bonnes nouvelles de Nurgle. Malgré, j'ai gardé ma deuxième escouade Chosen vivant en se cacher dans le bunker. Le vindicator a se secoué quelque fois mais les Chosen n'étais pas endommagé de que je les sortent.

Another shaken/stunned roll? Where's the aceteminophen?
Secoué encore? C'est ou l'acetiminophen?


Also, my cheapie marine squad took down a dreadnought with their meltas. They were very effective in both games.

Comme bonus, mes CSM pas cher a planté un dread avec leurs Meltas. Je l'ai trouvé efficace dans les deux parties.

My 'expendable' squad was the most effective
Dread planté

The end result, Nurgle wipeout.

Résultat: Nurgle anéanti!

Game 2

Retrospective


Scratchbuilding and painting:

Warhound

Plague Reaper

Warhound's Necrotic Companions

Fellios the Fallen and cohorts

New table

Chaos Lord

Chosen squad

Scratchbuilt Greater Daemon

Scratchbuilt Rhino

Epic Titans

Team game battle reports

Heretics of the Broken Dawn 2 x2

Lady Pestilence’s' 1st Outing

Regular Battle reports

Scrapyard Blues

Making Don’s BA sweat

First time facing pure Necrons

Christmas with the Greenskins

Don’s IG on a new board

Nurgle Annihilated by Blood Angels

1st time versus Tarkand

Mexican standoff: 2nd Game vs. Tarkand

Nurgle Downs the Sisters

Faceoff with the Lions of Achaea on a brand new board

Tight match against Corbeau’s Nids

The death of Pedro Kantor

Apocalypse battle reports

La Chute de Dominus Org (Fr.)

Fall of Dominus Org (Eng.)

The betrayal of Fellios and the fall of Engel Sarg

Chester’s first outing and first time going Nuclear!

Chester gets schooled by the Eldar!

Experimental Games

NERFed Battle with the Tau

Convergence

Easter Egg hunt

Super Heavy Scrum

1st Spearhead Match

A tenuous alliance

Events

Chaos Ludik 2011!

Storms Cityfight Tournament: part 2

Storms Cityfight Tournament: part 1

’Ard Boyz Practice Match against Valkom’s IG

Game Summit

Random stuff

Gorillapod tripod test with remote

Warhammer in a nutshell