[Epic] My DexCon Epic 40k experiences (Part 2)

From: Erik K. Rutins <snowdo1_at_...>
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 1997 10:44:45 -0400

Here's the final battle report from the DexCon tournament...

The final battle was against a player with a Space Marine army that
consisted of roughly the following:

1 detachment of land raiders and whirlwinds
1 large detachment of LOTS of tac, assault, dev infantry in rhinos with
predators, vindicators and whirlwinds in support. (I think this was at
least a 600 point detachment)
1 detachment of tactical infantry in rhinos with predators, vindicators
and whirlwinds in support.
1 Thunderhawk gunship
1 small detachment (loaded on the Thunderhawk) of assault and
terminator marines.
1 Warlord Titan (2x Death Ray, 1x Vortex, 1x Heavy Wpn Battery)
3 Baneblade Super Heavy Tanks


Beginning: My Morale: 43 His Morale: 40

I deployed most of my army right in the center. The tank detachments
flanked my central infantry detachment and the Warlord titan was just
to the right. I left the left flank (temporarily) uncovered. He
deployed his land raiders on my left flank with his large detachment of
infantry and his tactical detachment right in the middle, supported by
the Warlord and the Baneblades.

Turn 1:

Despite having the lower strategy rating again, I won initiative in the
first movement phase so my opponent moved first. He decided that he
wanted to march every detachment that could. The result was that he
was very far across the board and unloaded into buildings (practically
in my face) but unable to shoot. Also, his titan and baneblades were
now straggling behind his marines. I decided that counter-marching was
a good bet since I knew he couldn't shoot and that I would try to swing
around his flank with my Leman Russ tanks (Team Yankee) and firefight
his large detachment when he least expected it. Unfortunately, I moved
a bit too close and in snap fire I lost two of my six Leman Russes.

Shooting was almost non-existent. I was just in range on my death ray
and mega-cannon - the death ray missed (!) and the mega-cannon killed a
tactical stand on the detachment about to be in a firefight (adding
blast markers...). I also used the Astropath card and dropped a 10FP
orbital barrage on his large detachment which didn't do much besides
kill a rhino or two as he was almost entirely in cover. He picked off
one of my leman russes with a death ray (only one he could see).

In the firefight phase, the combination of leman russes and hellhounds
overwhelmed his tactical stands and his large detachment broke.
Unfortunately, despite my repeatedly stating that he would have to make
sure he was 15cm away while he was making his retreat move, he assumed
one building which was within 12cm was not and the four broken tactical
stands within were destroyed after the firefight.

His broken detachment failed to rally.

End of Turn 1: My Morale: 43 His Morale: 37

On this turn the flyers appeared. I declared ground attack and he
declared transport.

I moved first, so my flyers swooped down and killed enough of the land
raiders+whirlwinds detachment to bring it to half strength (it was only
three land raiders + three whirlwinds).

My assault marines then landed behind some buildings on the left flank
and advanced on assault orders to where they could see the approaching
land raiders and the flank of the central detachments.

The rest of my army went on overwatch and the Titan advanced.

He retreated his broken detachment further. Meanwhile his other
central detachment of infantry took up assault orders and advanced to
where they could charge into my land raiders or my II Company infantry
(Force Caius). His Thunderhawk then landed two terminator and four
assault marine stands behind my land raiders, strafing my titan on the
way out and dropping a void shield. He began to repeat something that
sounded like 'Hammer and Anvil'... <g>

In the shooting phase his land raiders took out two of my assault
marines and their captain. I returned fire with my land raiders and
devastated the detachment to my front (I rolled remarkably and hit with
every shot!). The tactical and devastator marines in the nearby
detachment, on overwatch, split their fire between the just-landed
terminators and assault marines and the remaining central assault
detachment. The terminators (he didn't make their saves once) and the
assault marines were completely wiped out, along with blast markers.
The central detachment was again ravaged and very suppressed. The
Leman Russes then opened fire on the broken detachment, killing just
enough to break their morale completely.

The Reaper continued the barrage on the central detachment, opening up
with all weapons. The death ray missed again, but the mega-cannon and
heavy batteries cleared the rest of the opposing marines from the
building and demoralizing the detachment. His Titan, still out of
range of just about everything, continued to advance along with his
Baneblades.

My assault marines jumped into contact with the remains of his central
detachment. The assault was resoundingly successful and the remaining
predator and vindicator high-tailed it towards the rear. However, the
rest of the large (albeit broken) detachment was within firefight range
and briefly shot up and drove off my assault marines. They quickly
rallied.

At this point all of his space marine detachments were broken or wiped
out. His titan and baneblades would have been close enough to fire
next turn but hadn't had any effect yet due to terrain and distance.
My force was only slightly bloodied and in control of two objectives.
I destroyed the capture objective to reduce his morale and gained 2
morale from the Take and Hold.

End of Turn 2: My Morale: 43 His Morale <0

The battle was over and I had pulled out a victory in the tournament!
As I packed up, my opponents and I chatted and exchanged information.
We all had a great time and even in the last game while I was beating
up my opponent's army we were laughing and joking. Tournament or not,
I will play these guys again and perhaps I won't be as lucky next time!

Regards,

- Erik

"Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble
up, if you will ever dig."
- Marcus Aurelius
Received on Tue Jul 08 1997 - 14:44:45 UTC