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| Emperor's Children VS Catachan |
I was playing Traitor Astartes, and with such a small number of points my list was pretty small. I wanted to try out bikes on a larger scale, so I had a unit of 5 with 2 meltaguns and a combi-melta on the champ. I wanted to combo that with them shooting twice(spoiler, I never did) so I needed to take the Mark of Slaanesh. I decided that I would just give it to everything so I might as well play Emperor's children. My Lord had the Slaanesh elixir relic, giving him +1S and A, with a power axe, a combi-melta and the Warlord trait that gives him an extra attack. To break that down he has 6A at 6S, hitting on 2's re-rolling 1's, -2AP, and with DthFE I'm getting extra attacks on hit rolls of 6 in combat. I had a unit of 5 marines in a rhino and rounded out the Outrider detachment with 2 single units of spawn. I was kind of slip flopping on what legion I wanted to use and had originally though about just taking a renegade chapter so I could advance the bikes and still charge. I'm glad I didn't though because bikes are not really all that deadly in combat, it's their mobile fire base that makes them so dangerous.
Karl was trying something very new compared to his typical play style also. He had a Vanguard detachment with 2 units of Vets with flamers in Chimeras with Harker and Strakken. His idea was to rush me, jump out turn 2, burn me, and smash what was left.
We played one of the new missions in the Chapter Approved, Ascension, which was pretty well balanced and simple. One objective in the middle of the table, and each player places one on the table for a total of 3. At the end of your turn you score a point for each objective you hold.
Karl gets to deploy first, finishes first, and gets the first turn which he spent rushing his 2 Chimeras full of promethium spraying goodness straight up the middle. He advanced so he didn't have anything else to do but sit on an objective. Chaos - 0, IG - 1
I had lots to do. My bikes moved up, my Lord jumps out and joins the bikes looking to take out the Chimera on my right. My marines got out and moved over to the left a bit to start work on the Chimera on the left. Both spawn moved up to hopefully get to his back objective...eventually.
The bikes and Lord managed to wreck their Chimera, they needed all the bolters and VotlW to pull it off, which is a little disheartening but they pulled it off. They then failed the charge to wipe out the juicy bits that got out, losing a bike to overwatch. The marines did nothing in the shooting phase, but managed to make their charge into the Chimera and deal a total of 2 wounds, which was actually done by the spawn. Chaos - 2, IG - 1
Things went a little south for me as the Chimera drove it's ass out of there leaving behind the aforementioned flamey goodness of the Catachan jungle fighters and Strakken, who wiped out the Marines and spawn. I made a bit of a mistake as I could have used my pile in move to get the spawn around to the front of the tank which may have been able to prevent it from leaving combat. I did pile in the marines accordingly, which is how I got that one so close to the objective. On the other side there was a little more trouble taking out the bikers as their 5T and 2W went a long way. Chaos - 2, IG - 2
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| Before shooting |
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| After shooting |
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| Pile in |
My second turn and things are not looking particularly great. The right side is a meat grinder, with a bunch of guardsmen engaged with the bikes. I decide to leave the bikers in combat since I probably have the edge with my higher T and S. He does have a power fist in there, but he isn't doing much damage as he only hits on 5's...at least he doesn't this turn. My left flank has completely fallen apart and it's up to the Lord to go and straighten shit out, and he does so in spectacular fashion jumping into the unit of guardsmen and cutting down 8 of them, then Karl pulls the power fist to Morale. Things start looking up for me. Chaos - 2, IG - 2
Karl is in a bit of trouble now and needs some magic to happen. He charges his Chimera into the Lord, hoping to at least hold him in place so he can't go over and punch Strakken in the face. I split my attacks and fail to kill the last guardsman but manage to take a couple wounds off the chimera. The Bikes loose a man, they are down to 2, but they manage to chop up a couple more Rambos. Chaos - 2, IG - 3
My turn see's some pretty cool shit happen. His power fist, on the right side, manages to take out the last 2 bikes and the last 3 guys from that side of the table are finally free. I put another couple wounds on the Chimera, bringing it down to 2, and finally kill the last vet, who happens to have a Vox Caster. Well, if you happen to remember from my Astra Militarum review, there is a stratagem that costs 3CP and when the last model removed from a unit is one with a Vox caster you can roll a D6 for each unit within 3" of him. On a 4+ he deals D3 mortal wounds to the unit, that's why he pulled the power fist off from the morale check if you were wondering, cause I was. Well, he manages to hit both the Lord, taking off 2 wounds, and the Chimera, taking off it's final wounds. It would have been amazing if the Chimera then blew up, but it didn't.
Turn 5 ends up being the last turn, and we are both down to our last legs. I have my Lord and a Rhino left, and he has Strakken, Harker, and 2 guardsmen left. Harker and the 2 guardsmen move to the right side hoping to get to the objective next turn, and Strakken takes some cover and lines up a supercharged plasma pistol shot at the Lord, who would have died had he not made his 4+ Sigil of Corruption invulnerable save.
I wrap up the game by charging Strakken with the Lord and dealing 7 wounds to him.
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| Poor Strakken |
I charge my Rhino into both Harker and the Guardsmen which will prevent them from making it to the objective next turn as they needed to be able to advance to get there. Chaos - 4, IG - 3.
This was a real nail biter of a game and it came right down to the end. Thanks a lot for the super fun game Karl, I look forward to a re-match when our armies are a little bigger and there is more stuff to die.
After the game we chatted about a couple things, some changes he could make to his army, some ideas for mine, and how you can't rely on dice. That last one I already knew.
With a big focus on flamers, he would have probably been better off swapping out one of the veteran squads for 2 squads of special weapons teams with 3 flamers each. The only difference is their BS and flamers auto hit so taking 2 units that end up costing about the same with twice as many flamers is probably the better way to go. We also discussed giving the vets actual special weapons to benefit from their 3+BS. Yes those guns are more expensive on 3+BS models (at least they are in the AM book), but it makes up for the need to take multiples for similar damage output.
Bikes are pretty good. They are among the fastest units in the game with a move of 14", and the chaos ones can auto advance 6" (not sure about others). After that they can still shoot meltaguns or flamers, giving them a pretty huge threat range. However I learned that they are really a mobile fire platform instead of a combat unit, unless of course they are definitely going to win the combat. Against 10 guardsmen they need a little more punch to wade through the bodies so they can use their guns again. Paired up with a combat Lord on a bike will keep them from getting bogged down. I had considered taking Renegade Chapter traits to let them advance and assault, but changed my mind last minute as I was hoping to have them shoot more than they did. I feel that maybe plasma might be better on them, with a larger range it will keep them out of combat more, but losing one to an overheat would hurt more. I'm thinking I'll keep them with the meltaguns and keep a Lord nearby to help with getting bogged down. My marines ate it hardcore, so I'm thinking I either need a bigger unit, or don't bother with them. I'm trying to figure out if an equal number of points worth of Cultists would be better than the marines and rhino, which would be about 30 cultists. I'm thinking the cultists would be the better choice.
Thanks for reading and hope you learned something.
Until next time, keep them dice rollin.
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