[Epic] Fight for Sulphur river

From: Stephen Sheldon <stephes_at_...>
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 15:36:19 -0700 (PDT)

Last night, John (Tzeench) and I played quite possibly the most amazing
game ever. 3000 points, Imperial Guard vs. Chaos, playing the Sulphur
River refight scenario.

I had (to the best of my memory)
Tactical squad: Command squads, 6 tactical squads, 2 ratlings, and ogryn
and 9 chimera, and a griffon
Heavy squad: Griffon, 3 heavy squads, 3 SWP, 3 chimera and 6 Leman Russ
Support Squad: 3 Hellhounds, 1 tactical, 1 griffon, 1 chimera, 2 gorgon,
10 sentinels.
Bomber wing: 5 Marauders
Interceptor wing: 3 Thunderbolts
Assault detachment: 6 Roughriders, command section, 10 sentinels, 3
hellhounds.
Vanguard: Commander, 6 IG bikes.
Artillery 1: Hydra, 3 Heavy, 3 siege
Artillery 2: As Artilery 1
Superheavies 1: 2 Shadowswords, 1 Baneblade
Superheavies 2: 1 Shadowsword, 2 Baneblades

He Had:
Supreme Commander in Rhino
10 Flamers with 2 LoC
10 Fiends
5 Noise MArine Squads in Rhos
5 Landraiders
5 Berserkers in Rhinos.
A whole crapload of cultists with some SWP and a Hydra
5 Chimera full o' beastmen.
5 chaos artillery with 4 contagions
2 firelords
2 firelords
4 doomwings
Warlord Titan with CC weapon, Vortex Missile HWB and death ray.

SETUP:
The bridge on my side of the table was in a fairly built up area, and
therefore quite defendable, this is where the RR went with the Vanguard
in a position which could be used either way. It was clear at this point
that the fight would be based on the chaos bridge. One problem with IG is
that they have so many number they are very prone to barrage.

After setup, I started advancing all my troops towards the bridge, he did
likewise, the only fire was a countered orbital barrage from John, and my
siege artillery raining down on a few little targets, one of which was
his supreme commander, who was in a position to give all of his daemons
the stubborn ability. The RR detachment moved into the metropolitan area
b=on the chaos side of the river.

Second turn, John getsall of his fliers, and I get just my interceptors.
I shoot down a firelord, and in turn lose a thunderbolt. Nothing
spectacular occurs here. His fiends advance towards my rough riders.
His artillery decides to pound down on my IG infantry with devestating
accuracy, I lose so much, I am ready to give it up. I lose one baneblade,
wrecked fortunately, because I have a very high density of troops in that
region (hence the effect of the heavy barrage). All was going okay until
his Titan decided to fire the vortex missile and deatray taking out all 3
shadowswords and a baneblade, along with a couple of Leman Russ (I mean
really packed together) My fault entirely, I didn't register the missile
on the carapace, I just thought, woo, a warlord. After a very bloody
exchange of fire, I was left really crippled and severely pinned, and he
took advantage launching an assault and breaking me.
It was not looking good right now. My Rough Riders had driven off the
fiends, and I was holding one bridge.

I decided that I had to take out the warlord, and focused everything on
it, this is where John made a critical error, he got overconfident and
pulled back his Landraiders and Noise marines to start the assault on the
other bridge. I managed to rally the Troops and launched a full scale
offensive on the warlord, just pounding on it, no tactics, just BFI, the
IG way. luckily for me the only unit he was not rolling amazing CC for
was his berzerkers who did next to nothing. His flamers had penetrated my
line and assaulted the artillery, but fortunately I lost no siege units,
and faired alright from the outcome. My rough riders were doing a
fabulous job, they were the heroes of the day, 244 points well spent.,
Realising that they would need some forcefull removal, John gave up his
assault on the artillery to aid the bridge combat. All the combined fire,
I managed to knock out the Warlord and suffered the first good luck of
the game, I blew up the titan with a 14cm radius, which helped thin out
the numbers on the bridge. I launched an assault and after a brief scary
encounter with the berserkers (which I emerged barely victorious) I sent
in the guardsmen and the Close support to hold ground and firefight if
the tacticals failed.
The bridge was mine. (This all occured on the last turn, 6) At a cost of
course, both remains of the daemon detatchments assaulted the survicing
members of my RR squad and wiped them out, leaving 11 rather pissed off
daemons sitting on the bridge, fortunately I had my captain (Psyker) on a
bike, who raced up and firefighted them, they had 1 BM, so I had +6,
which I needed, because it was a 1 vs 6 die roll. He managed to keep two
daemons on the dridge which is ~20cm long, therefore it was in dispute,
and I had the other one. At the end of my winning draw, I had 2 chimera,
2 griffon, 1 bike, 1 sentinel, 2 IG tac. squads, 2 basilisk, 6 bombards
and half my flyers left alive. HEAVY HEAVY casualties. If the game had
gone for one more turn I would have lost for sure.

The best game I have ever played. Super intense, 5.5 hours non-stop, it
was really exciting. It proved my friends point that I am best at
deperation tactics...
Steve

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
When you dream there are no rules, people can fly, anything can happen.
Sometimes, there's a moment as you're waking, that you become aware of
the real world around you, but you're still dreaming.
You may think you can fly, but you better not try it...
-------------------------------------------------stephes_at_...--------
Received on Tue Jun 23 1998 - 22:36:19 UTC