3000 point Meeting Engagement, Chaos vs Imperial
With me playing Chaos (of course), with the Imperial side represented
by fellow listee Kevin Kelley & his friend John.
The Armies
==========
No homegrown units or detachments were used.
Chaos (2992 points, 67 morale)
-----
Magnus the Red - Supreme Commander 58 pts
* Daemon Prince + psyker + skimmer
Tac Warband - Chaos Marines 214 pts
* Thousand Sons x6, Rhino x3
* Silver Tower x4
Assault Warband - Chaos Marines 262 pts
* Chaos Lord in Rhino
* Bezerkers x10, Rhino x5
Elite Warband - Chaos Marines 341 pts
* Sorcerer of Tzeentch in Land Raider
* Thousand Son Terminators x4, Land Raider x2
* Chaos Dreadnought x4
Daemons of Tzeentch - Daemon 202 pts
* Lord of Change
* Flamers x5
* Horrors x5
Daemons of Khorne - Daemon 214 pts
* Bloodthirster
* Flesh Hounds x10
Chaos Marine Armor 235 pts
* Land Raider x6
Daemon Engine 181 pts
* Khorne Engine x6
Daemon Engine 325 pts
* Chaos Artillery x6
Chaos Flyer 180 pts
* Doomwing x5
War Engine 225 pts
* Lord of Battles with Death Storm, Chain Fist
War Engine 555 pts
* Warlord Titan with Vortex, Death Ray, HWBx2
Army Design Notes: I was looking to try something a little different.
I decided to try a Chaos army that was "pure", in the sense that it
would have no units of opposing powers. For this battle, I used a
Tzeentch/Khorne force and took no Nurgle or Slaanesh units (i.e. no
Contagions, Noise Marines, etc). I also wanted to try using a Daemon
Prince supreme commander for a change. At this point, a theme for the
army began to take shape and I left the human cultists and their
support platforms at home. This was to be an invastion straight from
the heart of the Eye of Terror, led by a former Space Marine Primarch.
You won't find any wussy humans here. Overall I liked how most of the
army worked, although the battle would have been much easier if I had
brought along my Contagions and support platforms...
Imperial (3000 points, 63 morale)
--------
Supreme Commander 50 pts
* Marine Commander in Land Speeder
Armor Group One - Space Marines 500 pts
* Tac Marines x8
* Devastators x2
* Rhino x2
* Land Raider x6 (not sure who was being transported in what)
* Predator
* Whirlwind x2
Armor Group Two - Space Marines 500 pts
* as above
Assault Group - Space Marines 523 pts
* Librarian
* Tac Marines x4
* Assault Marines x4
* Rhino x2
* Land Raider x3
* Vindicator x3
* Land Speeder x2
* Razorback x3
* Whirlwind
Imperial Artillery 367 pts
* Heavy Artillery x4
* Siege Artillery
* Leman Russ x3
* Guardsmen x4
Imperial Air 205 pts
* Thunderbolt x6
War Engine 465 pts
* Baneblade
* Shadowsword x3
War Engine 390 pts
* Reaver Titan with Death Ray, HWB, CC Weapon
I don't know if Kevin wants to say anything here about this army. I
myself was struck by the large size of his detachments, and I
initially thought he would have some problems because of it. However,
I had no disrupt weapons and didn't do a great deal of shooting, so he
got the benefit of the higher break points without any real downside.
The Field of Battle
===================
The board was roughly 5' by 7'. Because of the extra width, the
objectives ended up being just beyond the center ruins for both
sides. Here is a (very rough) ASCII map (make sure you're using a
fixed width font):
Imperial Side
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
| ffff bbbbbbb rr |
| ffffff bbbbb rr bbb |
| ffffff bbbbb rr bbbbb fffffffff |
| ffffff bbbb rr bbbbbb fffffffffff |
| ffffff bbbb rr bbbbbb fffffffff |
| ffff bbbb rr bbbbbb |
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
Chaos Side
r = road
f = forest
b = building/ruins
The center area was not two large buildings, but rather a dense
"cloud" of (some very nice looking) ruins. There were also some
gently sloping hills scattered around, but they had little impact on
the game.
The Setup
=========
Left and Right is from my perspective, natch.
Imperial setup, from left to right: armor groups one & two,
Shadowswords (SHVs) roughly in the center, supreme commander, Reaver
Titan, artillery on the road, assault group on the right flank.
Chaos setup, from left to right: Flesh Hounds, artillery, Termies,
Lord of Battles (LoB), Bezerkers on the road, Flamers/Horrors, Magnus,
Land Raiders, Warlord Titan (with a clear LOS between the ruins and
rightmost forest to John's Reaver), Khorne Engines, Marines/Towers.
My basic plan was to have the flesh hounds advance up through the left
forest and the bezerkers & other daemons advance through the ruins to
hit the two marine detachments on the left. Everyone else could
steadily advance and shoot up any threats to the main assault force.
That's about as far as my pre-game planning ever goes. =)
The Game
========
Turn One
--------
Both sides advanced forward. The Imp assault group followed
the right table edge. Their supreme cmdr started to reposition
himself over to the right table half as well. The Reaver moved
forward and the SHVs moved diagonally to meet it, apparently intent on
my Warlord Titan. The artillery group marched down the road.
On my side, I played Forced March on my Bezerkers, which allowed them
to reach the ruins on the first turn. My cannons marched forward
and everyone else advanced on assault orders.
Practically nothing happened in the shooting phase, except that my
Warlord fired its Vortex at the artillery detachment and killed 2
basilisks. I was afraid of what the artillery could do to my
assault groups and for some reason was over-anxious to get rid of the
missile. Should have saved it until the SHVs got into LOS, or until
some other guns were in range of the Reaver. Oh well...
MT1 - armor group 1 RVR - reaver
MT2 - armor group 2 ART - arty
MCR - commander MAS - assault group
SHV - SH tanks
Imperial Side Turn 1
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| rr |
| MT1 MT2 SHV ART RVR |
| rr MCR MAS |
| rr |
| ffff bbbbbbb rr |
| ffffff bbbbb rr bbb |
| ffffff bbbbb rr bbbbb fffffffff |
| ffDKHf bbbb BEZbbbbbb fffffffffff |
| ffffff bbbb rr bbbbbb fffffffff |
| ffff bbbb rr bbbbbb |
| rr |
| rr DTZ |
| rr |
| CAN TRM LOB rr MAG LR WAR TOW KHE |
| rr |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
Chaos Side
CAN - cannons LOB - lord of battles
DKH - khorne daemons WAR - warlord
DTZ - tzeentch daemons TOW - 1000 sons/towers
MAG - magnus TRM - termies
KHE - khorne engines BEZ - bezerkers
LR - land raiders
Turn Two
--------
Forced to move first, I completed moving my daemons into the city, put
my arty on overwatch and advanced everyone else forward.
Unfortunately, I mis-judged the distance between our forces and the
rate of the Imperial advance... As a result, my cannons lost a turn
(nothing in range) and a number of my detachments didn't get into
place until after I needed them (like my terminators). This was one
of my two big blunders of the game. =(
I saw that the bezerkers were probably going to have to assault the
right (as opposed to left) marine armor group (the left group was too
far from the ruins) and that my flesh hounds would have to fight
through the other group first in order to get there. So I started to
reroute the doggies through the now-very-crowded ruins, since I wanted
to hit one detachment at a time.
The imperial assault det. hooked up with their supreme cmdr and
approached the gap between the right forest and the table edge. The
Reaver and the SHVs also joined up, directly across from my winged
Warlord Titan of Tzeentch.
Basilisks started to pelt my bezerkers and daemons in the city, and
the two marine armor groups shot up what few units they could see
poking out of the buildings. Everything else was out of range.
My Doomwings did a fly-by on the left marine armor det., but only one
of them made it through to the actual attack. Three got damaged and
one was destroyed by the clunky Imp Thunderbolts. A few of the
Thunderbolts had to break off their intercept prematurely after being
set alight by the Doomwings' flame cannons, but they all made it back
to their airfield in one piece.
MT1 - armor group 1 RVR - reaver
MT2 - armor group 2 ART - arty
MCR - commander MAS - assault group
SHV - SH tanks
Imperial Side Turn 2
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| rr |
| ART |
| MT1 MT2 rr |
| rr SHV RVR |
| ffff bbbbbbb rr MCR MAS |
| ffffff bbbbb rr bbb |
| ffffff bbbbBEZr bbbbb fffffffff |
| ffffff DKHbb rr bbbbbb fffffffffff |
| ffffff bbbb rr bDTZbb fffffffff |
| ffff bbbb rr bbbbbb |
| rr |
| LOB rr MAG LR WAR TOW KHE |
| TRM rr |
| CAN rr |
| rr |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
Chaos Side
CAN - cannons LOB - lord of battles
DKH - khorne daemons WAR - warlord
DTZ - tzeentch daemons TOW - 1000 sons/towers
MAG - magnus TRM - termies
KHE - khorne engines BEZ - bezerkers
LR - land raiders
Turn Three
----------
John moved the Marine assault detachment around the edge of the
right-hand forest. Otherwise, the marines and imperials stood their
ground, waiting for the nightmare forces of Chaos to fall upon them.
My horde scurried foward. I ran the Cannons up so that they would
(hopefully) be in range of the Marine armor groups next turn. My
Termies finally started to get in range of the left-hand armor det.
The LoB headed for the road, as I began to suspect that I might need
it to take down the clustered imperial WEs. My Land Raiders swung out
from behind the ruins and into LOS (and range) of the Imperial SH
tanks. The Thousand Sons and Towers of Tzeentch reached the forest,
and my Engines of Khorne backed away from the rather large marine
assault group heading its way.
In the shooting phase I played Brilliant Strategy? (the card that lets
you sieze initiative) and opend up with my Land Raiders on the heavy
tanks. One of the lascannon shots pierced the Baneblade's hull,
killing the crew and leaving it useless. Another lucky shot hit the
ammo for one of the Shadowswords, and the gigantic tank exploded with
a deafening roar. The remaining two Shadowswords were battered and
shaken but still operational.
The rest of the shooting phase was mostly uneventful. My daemons got
lightly shelled by the artillery but took few losses. The marine
assault group blew one of the Towers out of the sky. My Warlord Titan
and the Reaver traded shots, but only a few void shields were damaged.
At this point my assault detachments were mostly in place, and the 2nd
Marine armor group was treated to the sight of Chaos Marines in
blood-red armor charging forth from the ruined buildings, followed by
nightmarish creatures that ran, hopped, and flew. My side had assault
and psychic superiority, but all three detachments attacking also had
some blast markers thanks to the shelling, so I only had a marginal
bonus to the die roll. In the end, both sides had played cards to
reroll their dice and Chaos was about to over-run the pitiful Space
Marines... In desperation, Kevin & John played a Tarot card that lets
you draw a new card from the deck and apply its effects immeadiately
(name?). The card they drew allowed them to nullify an opponent's
Fate card (name?), and so they cancelled my reroll. Hey! Whose side
is Tzeentch on anyhow?!?
So the daemons were just barely hurled back by a last-ditch attempt by
the valiant Marines. Most of my Bezerkers and my mighty Bloodthirster
were so consumed with bloodlust that they failed to see the tide
turning, and thus were surrounded and cut down by the Marines after the
other, wiser, daemons had fled.
The remnants of my assault dets rallied, and the Horrors and Great
Magnus finally reached the north side of the ruins.
MT1 - armor group 1 RVR - reaver
MT2 - armor group 2 ART - arty
MCR - commander MAS - assault group
SHV - SH tanks
Imperial Side Turn 3
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| rr |
| ART |
| MT1 MT2 rr |
| rr SHV RVR |
| ffff bbbbbbb rr |
| ffffff bbBEZ rr bbb |
| ffffff bDKHb rDTZbbbb fffffffff |
| ffffff bbbb rrMAGbbbb fffffffffffMCR |
| ffffff bbbb rr bbbbbb TOWfffffff MAS |
| ffff bbbbLOB bbbbbb KHE |
| CAN TRM rr LR WAR |
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
Chaos Side
CAN - cannons LOB - lord of battles
DKH - khorne daemons WAR - warlord
DTZ - tzeentch daemons TOW - 1000 sons/towers
MAG - magnus TRM - termies
KHE - khorne engines BEZ - bezerkers
LR - land raiders
Turn Four
---------
Most of the Imperial army once again stood still, waiting for the next
attack. The assault group headed to the left, with the assault
Marines jumping into the forest and the rest splitting up to the north
and south of the trees. Most of the Land Raiders in the detachment
had headed over to the north side, so my Thousand Sons and Engines of
Khorne were mostly facing Razorbacks, Speeders, and Vindicators.
Confident that my Warlord Titan could handle the imp WEs alone, I
moved it forward while swinging my Land Raiders back behind it to
confront the southern half of the assault force. My Thousand Sons
advanced to the northern edge of the forest, where I intended them to
use them to soften up the WEs (turns out they were out of range). Not
knowing what to do with the Khorne Engines, I swept them around to the
left thinking that they might get to assault the Shadowswords - or at
the very least, they'd absorb some fire (bad idea). The Daemons crept
to the edge of ruins once more and the LoB rumbled down the road.
A handful of Thunderbolts tried to attack my Cannons of Khorne, but
were either chased off or failed to hit.
In the shooting phase, my Cannons *finally* got to fire, and damn did
they fire (six heavy barrages on overwatch is nothing to sneeze at).
Their attack nearly wiped out the 2nd Marine armor group, which up
till that point had not taken many losses. They deserved it for
killing my Bezerkers and Bloodthirster anyway. =)
The first armor group and my termies traded shots, each detachment
losing a few units. My Thousand Sons in the forest got shot up by the
assault detachment, and my Khorne Engines absorbed some fire. One of
the Shadowswords had a tread blown off but was still functioning.
The Imperials invoked the power of their Emporer (I think that's the
right card - the Tarot equivilent of Orbital Barrage), beseeching
their Master to smite the vile Cannons of Khorne. But the old Fool is
weak while Khorne is strong, and only a single Cannon was destroyed.
My Warlord Titan opened up on the Reaver, stripping its void shields
and crippling one of its legs, but the ancient machine still stood.
Return fire from the Reaver and Shadowswords never got past the
Warlord's shields.
In the assault phase, my daemons of Tzeentch refused to move
(cowards!), so I held off the impending attack until the next turn.
Over on the other side of the table, John happily swarmed my Thousand
Sons with his assault marines, and my Land Raiders with everything
else. Then I realized in horror THAT I HAD FORGOTTEN TO SHOOT MY LAND
RAIDERS!!! Arrrggghhhh! I lost the fight and the Thousand Sons had
no where to flee to. Two of my Land Raiders survived and hightailed
it back towards the ruins. =(
In the end phase, my Land Raiders refused to rally (obviously my order
to move in front of the enemy and not shoot had shaken their
confidence in me) and my Warlord got most of his shields back.
MT1 - armor group 1 RVR - reaver
MT2 - armor group 2 ART - arty
MCR - commander MAS - assault group
SHV - SH tanks
Imperial Side Turn 4
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| rr |
| ART |
| MT1 MT2 rr |
| rr SHV RVR |
| ffff bbbbbbb rr |
| ffffff bBEZb LOB bbb |
| ffffff bDKHb rDTZbbbb fffffffff |
| ffffff bbbMAGr bbbbbb KHE fffffffffff |
| ffffff bbbb rr bbbbbb fffffffff |
| ffff bbbb rr bbbbbb WAR MAS |
| CAN TRM rr LR MCR |
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
Chaos Side
CAN - cannons LOB - lord of battles
DKH - khorne daemons WAR - warlord
DTZ - tzeentch daemons TRM - termies
MAG - magnus BEZ - bezerkers
KHE - khorne engines LR - land raiders
Turn Five
---------
We played this turn fairly quick as it was starting to get late. The
Marine assault group regrouped south of the forest and came closer to
the back of my titan. In response, I swung the titan around, hoping
that the LoB (just having emerged from the ruins) and the last few
Daemon Engines could take out the remaining WEs. The Termies crept
forward in OW and my daemons got ready to spring forth on the
suspecting Marines. My Land Raiders retreated into the ruins.
As my Lord of Battles rumbled forth from the cover of the buildings,
shots rang out and shells clattered off its impressive frame.
Unfortunately one of those shots penetrated the beast's head and
disabled the cannon there. The possessed machine roared defiance and
revved its chain fist.
The terrifying Warlord Titan of Tzeentch let loose on the Marine
assault detachment but only killed a handful of Marines and vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Shadowswords and Reaver finished off the Khorne Engines
and hit the LoB with a particularly accurate Volcano Cannon shot. The
Lord's armor cracked, letting loose the spirits that powered it. The
mechanical monstrosity fell to the ground in a mangled and
disappointing heap.
The Marine assault group declined to charge or firefight the Warlord
Titan, but the Titan itself was not so cautious. It strode forward
and stepped on as many as those filthy loyalist buggers as it could!
Over in the ruins, Magnus the Read, Daemon Prince and Primarch of the
Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion, rallied the troops and led them on
an ambitious charge against both Marine armor groups (actually there
was not a whole lot left of the second group). Having lost many
daemons in previous turns, the battle was a close one, but in the end
Chaos was able to push the weary and frightened Marines off of their
postion. However, Magnus himself was cut down and sent back to the
Warp while leading the charge.
MT1 - armor group 1 RVR - reaver
MT2 - armor group 2 ART - arty
MCR - commander MAS - assault group
SHV - SH tanks
Imperial Side Turn 5
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| MT1 MT2 rr |
| ART |
| DKH DTZ BEZ rr |
| rr SHV RVR |
| ffff bbbbbbb rr |
| ffffff bbbbb rr bbb |
| ffffff bbbbb rr bbbbb fffffffff |
| ffffff bbbb rr bbbbbb fffffffffff |
| ffffff bbbb rr bbbbbb fffffffff |
| ffff bbbb rr bbLRbb WAR MAS |
| CAN TRM rr MCR |
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
| rr |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
Chaos Side
CAN - cannons WAR - warlord
DKH - khorne daemons TRM - termies
DTZ - tzeentch daemons BEZ - bezerkers
KHE - khorne engines LR - land raiders
The End
=======
And that was the end of the game. The final morale totals were
something like Chaos: 10, Imperials: 20. I had held 2 Take & Holds
for the entire game while Kevin & John had managed to grab only 1 at
most, but I have to say the objectives didn't mean a whole lot for
either side - they were merely minor bonuses.
Most of my units were in tatters or totally wiped out, with the
exception of my Warlord (still untouched), the Termies (lost one stand
and one LR I believe) and the Cannons (lost one of six). Meanwhile,
Kevin & John still had the assault group and the first armor group
bloodied but unbroken, the arty det, two damaged but-still-shooting
Shadowswords and the crippled Reaver. Maybe I could have eventually
won, but it would have been tough... At the end, mostly I was thinking
of all the mistakes I had made.
First off, I completely failed to advance some of my units fast
enough, most notably the Cannons (which only got to shoot once) and
the Termies. Kevin said he had the same problem with his own units,
at least. If my troops had gotten to where they needed to be faster,
I might not have lost that first big assault. And I probably would
have done enough damage to break the first Marine armor group, which
would have cost Kevin 10 morale points and possibly won me the game.
Secondly, I should have held onto the Vortex to use it against either
the Reaver or the super-heavy tanks. I didn't actually realize what
a mistake that was until I was writing this report up...
Thirdly, I didn't know what to do with the Daemon Engines of Khorne.
Using expensive short-ranged tanks has always been a problem for me.
I think they need to be backed up by more far-reaching tanks, or at
least they should only be used on small isolated targets.
Fourthly, I FORGOT TO SHOOT THE LAND RAIDERS!!!! ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
Scott Shupe
shupes_at_... shupes@...
http://www.rpi.edu/~shupes
***********************************************************************
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right
sometimes." - W. Churchill
Received on Fri Aug 07 1998 - 17:54:05 UTC