Having reviewed the main armies of mine and the changed that 8th brings, I thought I would slot in a couple of battle reports. These where the last games I played under 7th Ed rules a few weeks ago. While 7th is probably long forgotten by most people out there, there hasn't been a chance to post these up and so I though that I would still do it anyway.
For this game I was playing an opponent who hadn't played in a while and wanted to try a few units before they disappeared forever, at least in their current form. His list therefore consisted of a librarian conclave including Tiggy and a drop pod full of grav-Dev's, also in the list were 3 tac squads, two razorbacks and a squad of TH/SS termies. Nothing too challenging apart from two of the libby's managed to role invisibility!
The battlefield
The guard lines
The ultramarines lines
We were playing the relic, placed in the center of the square buildings in the center of the board.
Turn 1
Turn one started quite badly for me.
Clear shots on the razorback and tic squad on the roof
Not so clear shot
The drop pod of doom landed smack in front of my lines. It had scattered forward a bit so the grav Dev's had to sot beside rather than infront ofthe pod, but it made little difference, with a whole hostofhits reducing one wyvern to a smoldering wreck and taking a hull point and immobilizing the other. Later in the game it transpired that I had inadvertently cheated, when asked about saves I had stated that everything was a 5+ when in fact the command squad was a 4+. Had I remembered this has would have targeted the command squad and not the wyvern. But in truth, he actually removed the bigger threat, as even one wyvern managed to kill off a 5 man tac squad to earn me first blood. I also put every single other shot in to killing off the Dev's, even the quad gun joined in. Nothing else really happened as the terminator's went invisible and ran for the relic.
End of turn one, not a pleasent sight for the guardsmen
Turn 2
Again, my opponent played itfairly safe. Invisibly was cast on the termies who collected the relic this turn. The rest of the units mostly shuffled around bit, but did little to my army. On my side the vendetta came on and fluffed its shots at the second razorback, getting only one glance from 3 twin linked lascannon shots that auto glance on side armour!
Target sighted........target missed!
Other than that all the happened was that my squads moved forward, looking to try and overrun the marines with there greater numbers.
End of turn 2 and its looking a little shaky for the guard.
Turn 3
This turn my opponent did exactly what he needed to do. He withdrew back away from my advancing hordes. He took a few potshots but nothing of note. In reply my guard did little as well. What it did do was take out tiggy, dropping the psykic powers down a bit and i also got a few marines holding the enemies left flank. The vendetta finally killed of the second razorback, but only just, a glance and a pen. 6 twin linked strength 9 ap2 shots should do a lot more than 2 glances and 1 pen to an armour 10 rhino, I'm looking forward to seeing what damage the vendetta is capable of doing in 8th.
Finally killed off.
More aerial reinforcements
Turn 4
At this point things were getting a bit precarious for my opponent, having just a razorback, two libby's, a captain and half a tactical squad, along side his termies. Now, at this critical point his psychic dice failed him, failing to cast invisibility. I want really in a place to take full advantage of it, but I did mange to take down one of the termies, alongside the captain for slay the warlord. In total I whittled down his forces to just a few tactical marines, a libby, a razorback and a handful of tactical marines. I was quietly confident at this point that I could force a draw, or at least a very narrow defeat, but without invisibility the terminator's were now at least possible to kill.
The remaining ultramarine forces
The table
The guard forces swarming forward. The drop pod is just out of range for line breaker.
Turn 5
This turn started off with the Ultramarines pulling back, trying desperately to keep hold of the relic. With 4 termies, 4 tactical marines and a Libby left it was going to be close. The ultramarines did little else but move around, including boosting the last razorback in to.my deployment zone. The left me with 2 options, destroy the rhino and force the draw or go for the relic and hope I kill of the termies. I chose the latter and it didn't quite make it. With the termies hiding in a ruin I shot what I could at it and everything else shot the tactical marines. The tactical marines were wiped out but the termies proved a little bit harder to remove. 4 rapid fire plasma guns and a plasma pistol, resulting in 4 hits and 2 dead guardsmen!, 3 twin linked lascannon, 4 flames, hitting a total of 14 times, and a multilaser for good measure resulted in just 3 dead termies. Leaving 1 holding the relic and nothing left for me to shoot at. It was also out of sight of anything that could charge.
End of turn 5, the last remaining termie pulls back in to the ruin
Balanced on a knife edge
So turn 5 was over and done, the score was sitting at 4 to 3 against me and there was just one dice roll to go. That dice roll turned out to be a 4 and we moved on to turn 6
Turn 6
So game went in to turn 6, much to my opponents disappointment. by going in to turn 6 it gave me the upper hand and the chance to win. As it was, all I had to do was take out 1 terminator, and with 2 plasma guns and a plasma pistol, 3 twinlinked lascannons plus some flamers and multilaser, things were looking grim for the lone terminator. Needless to say, it was dispatched in short order, although I was unable to claim the objective.
As the dust settles, the Relic is left, laying out in the open.
The last remaining forces of the Ultramarines.
So, with the last terminator dispatched, my turn ended and we rolled to see if we went to turn 7 but unfortunately we didn't. A roll of a 2 meant the game ended as a 3 to 1 victory to me. While the game may have seemed onesided it wasn't quite so much. My opposition had a few very expensive units, the termies at near 500 points and the grav-devs over 200 (I think). Combined with tiggy and that pod, that accounts for around 1000 points. In a 1500 point match its a lot of points for not very many models and facing my horde, they were very much out numbered from the off.
I think he played the game well, but I would have been far more aggressive withthe rest of the army, charging up the field to support the drop pod and put pressure on my lines. This may have given him more space at the back or even in the big ruins in the center to hide from my flyers and the plasma command squad. Using the termies to hold the relic and casting invisibility on them effectively made them invincible, hitting on 6's and always gaining a 3+ meant my only 2 real options, the plasma and lascannons, were about as useful as the massed lasgun fire. Although, you should never underestimate the effect of massed lasgun fire!
I have one last batrep for 7th coming up and then its on to 8th. By the time you've read this I will have played a couple of games already and have some idea about the new game but that's for another post.
