Opponent: Brad Lee
Deployment: Dawn of War
Mission: The Scouring
Reclusiarch
Reclusiarch
Librarian w/Terminator Armour
10 x Death Company w/Land Raider
10 x Death Company w/Land Raider
Death Company Dreadnought
Stormraven
5 x Devastators w/4 x Plasma Cannon
5 x Devastators w/4 x Lascannon
I was joking with Brad about his army
design, which has no scoring elements; he said if an objective
mission rolled up, his best bet was to go for the tabling! And lo
and behold, the Scouring; let's see how a non-scoring force does in a
six-objective mission, shall we?
I won the roll-off, and although
nothing was Deep Striking I went with the bunker for my Aegis; I'm
honestly not sure what I was thinking. Anyway, I had my usual 'tank
and quad in the middle, ringed by suits, ringed by wall' arrangement,
with a unit of Fire Warriors along the front line, while one of my
XV88 squads and a unit of Fire Warriors were on my right flank near a
bit of ruin, and the third Fire Warrior squad and my 'El with
Deathrains were on the left-centre. Brad put a Reclusiarch with each
squad of Death Company and piled them into their Land Raiders, while
the Librarian and Dreadnought embarked on the Stormraven. The two
Devastator squads were on either flank, the plasma cannons on my
right, and the Land Raiders were in the middle, with a large ruined
church between me and them, for the cover save. Brad failed to
seize, and good heavens, did I make him pay for that!
At the start of my first turn, there
were two tanks and ten Marines on the table; at the end, there were
two tanks and two Marines. Aside from the XV88s, whose rounds true to form
bounced harmlessly off the Land Raiders, I threw everything I had at
those Devastators, with tremendous results. The plasma cannon squad
simply disappeared, scoring me First Blood, while one of the
lascannon Marines and the sergeant hung on. And the most amusing
part was, it was all done with AP4 and 5 weapons; those Marines got
to take every single one of their 3+ saves. Just goes to show, even
the vaunted Space Marines will go down if you force them to roll
enough dice. Somewhat shocked by the ferocity of my opening salvo,
Brad revved his Land Raiders into the church, while the sole
lascannon aimed for my right-side XV88. Thankfully, cover protected
him, though the lascannons on the Land Raiders did manage to pop one of my Fireknife suits. Thankfully, they didn't break.
Turn two, both my reserve units came in. My
assault element (back to being a Captain, Sanguinary Priest and 5
Marines after the underwhelming performance last game) dropped in the back, near the Lascannon
team, while the Stormraven had just enough room to stop an inch short
of the Land Raider on my left. Its lascannon and multi-melta managed
to blow that tracked behemoth to pieces, despite the cover of the
ruins, spilling surviving Death Company out to face the same torrent
of fire that so slaughtered the Devastators. And yet again Tau
firepower, properly focused, dealt overwhelming amounts of damage. When I finally ran out of guns only the
Reclusiarch had survived, wounded, while the assault squad never even got
to charge as my right-side Fire Warriors picked off the surviving
Devastators.
Unfortunately, I didn't get it all my
way. Brad's own reserves arrived, his Stormraven threatening mine
until Interceptor fire from my quad gun forced him to Evade. And the
surviving Land Raider drove clear up to the edge of my little bunker
and emptied out its contents, the Death Company, joined by the second
Reclusiarch, multi-charging my two Fireknife squads. I couldn't even
cost him anything with Overwatch before thirty attacks, re-rolling
misses, absolutely slaughtered a handful of Tau XV8s.
Again, however, concentrated fire
proved my saviour. While my infantry Allies hustled for the
three-point objective on Brad's side of the table, almost everything
else turned on the Death Company. The only exceptions were my
Stormraven, which flew off the board to get a better attack run next
turn, and my XV88s, which were preoccupied with failing to kill the
Land Raider. Everything else opened up on the Death Company,
however, and once again they melted away like a snowflake in a
furnace. The two Reclusiarchs were on their own, but stubbornly
refused to die. Brad switched his Stormraven over to hover, dropping
his Librarian and Dreadnought, while his Reclusiarchs went for my
XV88s and his Land Raider's lascannons wrecked my Hammerhead and the
assault cannon mowed down Fire Warriors. In assault, however, even
with the power of their mauls his Reclusiarchs just could not make a
wound stick through my 2+ saves, while my own measly four attacks
failed to connect. Combat was drawn, and would continue,
indefinitely in fact. Rather more decisive was the Dreadnought's charge into my left-flank Fire Warrior squad, the big beast unsurprisingly crushing them in combat and then running them down with a sweeping advance.
Arriving from ongoing reserves, my
Stormraven set out to avenge my Hammerhead, while my unengaged XV88
turned to take advantage of the now-hovering enemy Stormraven. Both
vehicles went down in flames, while the Librarian and Dreadnought
perished under a hail of bolts and missile fire, the latter exploding
just shy of my 'El and his Deathrains. The only survivors, at the
end of the battle, were the two Reclusiarchs, who I might have been
able to kill by feeding more squads in there, but it was hardly a
sure thing. Rather than tabling me, it was Brad and his non-scoring
force that nearly got that treatment. And my assault Marines spent
the entire game in Brad's deployment zone, accomplishing nothing but
holding a 3-point objective and scoring Linebreaker.
Results: 3-0 primary, 2-0 secondary,
Tau forces capture Hive City tile
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