Battle Report: Chaos vs. Orks 4000 pts

I'm going to try and get back into video battle reports. This one leaves a little to be desired but a lot was going on and I was a bit rusty at narration. 

Epic game though, with lots of rarities to provide entertainment along with the ultraviolence. 

Enjoy!

Video Battle Report: Chaos Space Marines (Khorne) vs. Space Marines (Iron Hands) 1850

Here's another video battle report. Still experimenting with my editing software, liked a few things but I apparently set it on a background unintentionally. Good game against Dan, more skulls for my Khorniacs! Let me know if you have any suggestions regarding the commentary or format. I can't improve the actual video quality much, but... more zoom-ins on the models? more detail on the game play? British accent? I usually report on every full game turn because I often forget if I try to do every player turn. I actually played another game that same night against Kings' Mantis Warriors using the new Forgeworld Mantis chapter tactics and special character, which will come out on BOLS in the near future. Stay tuned.

Video Battle Report: Tau vs. Chaos Daemons 1850

I tried my hand at a video battle report! I've already got some ideas on how to improve and make it more interesting next time. Stay tuned.

Battle Report:: Imperial Guard vs. Eldar 4/8/11

The ambush elements of the Catachan XIV were dug in along their front line, each man scanning the horizon for any indication of the enemy. It was still dark and despite their sharp, battle-hardened eyes, there had been no contact as of yet. Still, details were hard to pick out in the distance, and the guardsmen could not shake the feeling that they were being watched. When a private from bravo squad's head suddenly exploded without warning, a different feeling entirely surged through the men of the Fighting Fourteenth. Bravo squad hit the dirt while the other units squinted into the darkness, still unable to find a target. An orange glow slowly suffused the skyline and the air in the valley grew palpably warmer, as if heated by the fires of some hellish forge. A horrible alien battlecry pulsed over them - through them - and each man felt the rise of terror in their guts. The Eldar had returned to Tra-El in force and with sinister purpose. Would reinforcements arrive in time to save the failed ambush?

Shaun and I played a 2000 point dawn of war annihilation matchup that turned out to be a blast. I was playing with a command HQ in a chimera with 2 plasma guns and a lascannon, a lord commissar leading 5 ogryns in a chimera, Harker veterans with 3 grenade launchers and an autocannon, an infantry platoon consisting of a command squad with 4 flamers and three grenade launcher/autocannon infantry squads, a missile launcher squad, a mortar squad, a vendetta, 3 scout sentinels, a hellhound, a manticore, a medusa with camo netting, and a leman russ with heavy bolter sponsons and a pintle heavy stubber. Shaun's Eldar consisted of Radeld Ranulth (Eldrad), 5 warlocks including 3 with destructor and 3 with spears and embolden, the Avatar, 6 wraithguard, 2 squads of 8 pathfinders, a squad of 5 dire avengers, 10 warp spiders including an exarch with twin power blades and withdraw, a falcon with a scatter laser, and 3 war walkers with scatter lasers and rocket launchers. I rolled to go first, but Shaun seized the initiative and just like that, the hunters became the hunted!

Turn 1

Shaun moved up the rest of his forces to support the seer council and pathfinders that had started on the board. The pathfinders picked out a guardsman dug in around the bunker and sent the squad to ground. The warp spiders teleport up and form the eldar front line. I also moved up my firing line and tried to put some heat on the warp spiders. A blast from the leman russ drops a single warp spider.



Despite being pinned, sergeant Taylor of bravo squad picks out movement behind the forested hill in the distance and manages to direct ordnance fire. Unfortunately, thick cover reduces the effectiveness of the barrage and only one of the loathsome aliens is brought down.

Turn 2

Radeld and his buddies fortune up the warp spiders and guide the pathfinders. The warp spiders teleport forward and combine fire with the two pathfinder squads, reducing the guard infantry squad to two pinned guardsmen who continue to survive all kinds of fire for another turn. The Avatar and wraithguard kill a couple from the other guard squad. In return, my command HQ lights up the avatar with plas and las fire but inflict only 3 wounds, just short of killing the ancient demon. My missile launchers join them on high ground. The hellhound covers the warp spiders in burning fuel and the manticore drops a single rocket blast on them, but the prescience of their thrice damned farseer allows them to survive relatively unscathed and only one dies. Harker and his squad come wading up the river on my right and pour fire into the spiders as well, but the alien magicks are strong and no further casualties can be inflicted.

Turn 3

The mighty avatar storms the bunker and wipes out the infantry squad there, while Radeld and the seer council approach behind him. My right flank is threatened when war walkers sneak onto the field and tear into the back of the hellhound with rockets and laser fire, causing a catastrophic explosion. Thankfully, noone is near enough to be hurt by the blast. The warp spiders react to the veterans on their own flank and wipe them out in assault after some softening up. I had a big turn as well: the Avatar was finally brought down in a hail of krak missiles, and the command HQ combined with my ordnance to kill more than half of the wraithguard. My sentinels came in on my right and attacked the warwalkers, bringing two down with their multilasers and emu-kicking the last one down in assault. I also finished off the warp spiders with manticore, mortar, and chimera fire, and killed one of the warlocks hanging out with Radeld. In the haste to join the fray, the ogryn's chimera threw a track and got stuck at the base of the hill.

After days of hunting the eldar walkers through the thick forests of Tan-El, the scout sentinels made their way to the front line, stepping gingerly through the smoking wreckage of their prey. Unfortunately, the attack came too late to save their brothers manning the hellhound.

Turn 4

The wraithguard destroy the ogryn chimera, wounding one of the big lugs in the explosion. Radeld and his crew have a big turn and wipe out the command HQ and one missile launcher team with destructor fire and the bale energies of an eldritch storm. The sentinels, chimera, and ogryns return fire and reduce the wraithguard to a single alien ghost zombie. Marbo emerges from his hiding spot atop the wrecked bunker and hurls a demolition charge into the eldar seer council, killing two more of the pointy-eared bastards. Finally, the vendetta emerges on my left flank and hurries towards the eldar firing line, missing a lascannon shot at the falcon on the way.



Marbo lay flat and completely still on the roof of the burned out bunker. Hidden amongst the blackened corpses of his fallen brothers, he watched and waited as the enemy approached. The alien witch was only 6 paces away now. Slowly engaging the primer on his detpack, Marbo flexed his muscles and prepared himself once again to make what was likely to be his last living act.

Turn 5 and 6

As is wont to happen in the late stages of a game, I rushed from the 5th turn into the 6th and forgot to take a picture. Radeld joined the wraithguard in shooting at the ogryns, to little effect, while the destructor warlocks had themselves a little Mar-b-que. The falcon zoomed forward and the dire avengers disembarked on the next turn, lighting up the mortar squad and killing 2 of the 3 teams. Pulse laser fire from the falcon destroyed the leman russ' battlecannon. The lord commissar and ogryns charged into Radeld and the last wraithguard, but the combat was largely a draw over two turns before the game ended. The vendetta brought the platoon command over next to one of the pathfinder squads, and they promptly immolated them on the spot with combined fire from their flamers. Unfortunately, the lascannons on the vendetta could not find their mark on the eldar skimmer across the table. The medusa was of little help as well, only managing to destroy the tank's pulse laser. Having exhausted its missile supply, the manticore rushed forward and flamed the dire avengers to death. Shaun wins the epic match by 3 killpoints!

As the enemy drew near, Commissar Lenck bellowed the signal to attack and his ogryn kill team roared in answer, the lot of them charging forward out of the wreckage of their former transport. Despite outnumbering them two to one (and probably moreso considering the substantial girth of the ogryns), the assault seemed to falter immediately. Lenck himself struggled to engage the enemy witch, but his sword and powerfist could find no mark as the alien always danced sideways or backwards in time to avoid his attacks. Similarly, the punishing blows from the ogryn bashers seemed to have no effect on the eldar wraith construct, their oversized fists glancing harmlessly from the loathsome creature's thick armor. Then, in a flash, the aliens were gone from the battlefield, leaving only the sounds of groaning men and the smell of burning wreckage. The Catachan ambush had failed, and the Fourteenth had suffered significant losses. Could they recover in time to defend the colonies on Tan-El from what would in all likelihood be a future of unending, uncomfortable, and embarrassing eldar butt probes?

DUN DUN DUN

Battle Report: Space Wolves vs. Necrons 1-10-08

Before my buddy Mack moves out west, we decided to get one more game in and so revived an old rivalry between his Necrons and my Space Pups. His army consisted of two lords, one with a destroyer body, warscythe, phylactery, and res orb, and the other with a res orb, staff of light, and veil of darkness, four squads of ten warriors, two tomb spyders, three wraiths, six scarab swarms with disruption fields, five destroyers, a heavy destroyer, and a monolith. The Wolves had a wolf priest and a rune priest riding with eight blood claws in a land raider, a drop pod of four wolf guard and a battle leader in terminator armor, four wolf scouts with a meltagun and two power weapons, an AC/HF venerable dreadnought in a drop pod, nine grey hunters and a wolf guard leader with plasma and power fists in a drop pod, two attack bikes with multimeltas, and five long fangs including two lascannons, two missile launchers, and a pack leader. For our random mission we rolled "recon." Mack rolled to win choice of table edge, but there was a pretty even mix of cover on both sides.

Turn 1

With the help of the venerable dreadnought's centuries of wisdom, I re-rolled to win first turn. Unfortunately there wasn't that much to do. The bikes and land raider wheeled around to my right flank, and the long fangs picked off a single wraith with their heavy weapons. Mack responded by moving everyone up and opening up on the aged wolves with a few of the destroyers, but his small opening volley bounced off of the space marines' armor.

Turn 2

Half of my reserves came in on the second turn, with the grey hunters dropping in on the necron right flank, and the terminators supporting the units moving up on the opposite side of the table. The grey hunters were able to drop several warriors with their extensive collection of plasma weaponry, but most of them got back up in the next turn. The land raider moved up and disgorged two priests and the squad of blood claws, and together with the terminators and bikes they destroyed both tomb spyders with shooting. Eager for revenge, Mack's destroyers moved forward and obliterated the long fangs with heavy gauss fire. Warriors and the heavy destroyer took the grey hunters below 50% and sent them fleeing for their table edge.

Turn 3

Unfortunately for me, the close proximity of a necron warrior squad meant the retreating grey hunters were unable to regroup as normal, and they continued to fall back a small distance. However, the wolf scouts arrived and pounced on the heavy destroyer, killed it in close combat, and ran to take cover behind a nearby building. The dreadnought also arrived and knocked down a couple of warriors with his assault cannon. The terminators moved forward into the woods and killed several warriors themselves with the same weaponry. The bikes and blood claws swept around the woods to be in position to help the dreadnought if he needed it. The land raider hung back for one last shot at any necrons trying to move into my deployment zone. The unit of scarab swarms and the monolith both arrived. The destroyers lit up the dreadnought but could only shake it for a turn. Most of the warriors downed by assault cannons got back up and managed to destroy a drop pod and kill off a wolf guard terminator with return fire.

Turn 4

With all the foot traffic in the area, I wasn't sure I would have enough turns to get the land raider into his deployment area, so I wrote off any more shooting and moved the tank forward. The grey hunters regrouped and managed to inflict a few wounds on the scarabs, the only target they could all see. The terminators shot ineffectually into one squad of warriors, and the dreadnought charged into another, killing one in the initial round of assault. The necrons continued to move en masse towards my deployment zone, shot up the grey hunters and another drop pod, and second warrior fell in combat with the dreadnought.

Turn 5

The bikes swerved around the melee for a couple of shots at the necron warriors moving away, completely missing their target for the third or fourth time in the game. The blood claws squad, terminators, and land raider pulled up further into his deployment zone, while the dreadnought grappled with the warriors for another phase with little result. The monolith teleported one warrior squad directly into my deployment zone, with the other squads not far behind. The dreadnought wrapped up the turn by ripping apart two more necrons in his assault phase and sending them fleeing off of their table edge.

Turn 6

Everyone basically cozied up in their opponent's deployment zone, except for a single confrontation on his side (my side now, bitch!) that threatened to put the kibosh on the draw I was trying to hold. The bikes and dreadnought poured fire into the destroyer lord and managed to inflict a single wound. The lord responded by charging into the bikes, his warscythe swinging wide on every attack. The bikes weren't able to inflict any wounds back, so the combat and the entire game ended in a close draw, with Mack scoring around 150 points more than me. Recon might have made the game a little non-confrontational, but we still both had a good time getting the kills that we did. I think the flank is a good tactic for the wolves but I would have liked to have seen the priests and blood claws get into it a bit more. They should have held back and launched out of the land raider straight into his big group in the middle; with high initiative power weapons, sweeping advances, and a little luck, I might have even been able to force a phase out after a couple of turns. I love the re-rolls for first turn and damage results, but the venerable dread rarely ever gets his points back, so I might swap a vindicator in for him next time.

Battle Report: Tyranids vs. Imperial Guard 12-13-07

Last night I threw down with Clay at Ninja Pirates in a 2000 point take and hold match. I used my latest bug list: 36 scuttling carapace genestealers, 6 flying CC warriors, dakkarant, dakka fex, lictor, 2 sniperfexes, and blast/scream zoanthropes. He was playing a big guard gunline army, with a high Ld CHQ with vox, a few heavy weapon squads (autocannons and missile launchers), a squad of ogryns in a chimera, two platoons with three infantry squads each (with autocannon teams), two hellhounds, two HB/LC leman russes, and a basilisk. He rolled to pick his deployment as well as to go first.

Turn 1

After the genestealer squads scuttled forward towards their lines, Clay's guardsmen loosed their heavy guns and tried to squash as many bugs as possible. Several different stealer squads, one sniperfex, and the dakkafex all took wounds from mass ordnance, rockets and autocannon fire. His hellhounds moved forward into the center piece of terrain, one of them burning up an entire stealer squad in great one gout of flame. The ogryn taxi moved up as well. In my turn, all the remaining stealers moved up, hiding in terrain whenever possible, and thanks to a six inch fleet move, a squad of six made it into combat with one of the fire support squads. A predictable amount of bloodshed ensued, and they consolidated into a nearby missile launcher squad. The hive tyrant and winged warriors jumped to face the right guard flank, the tyrant's devourers bringing down the senior officer and three of his attendants, leaving the commissar in charge. The sniperfexes and zoanthropes stunned one of the hellhounds and destroyed the other, leaving it stranded in the center terrain. A damn fine first turn for me! I had managed to turn down the heat some (literally), hurt the command HQ a little bit, and tied up most of his left flank.

Turn 2

In his second turn, Clay pulled the ogryns back to support the center of his line, and finished off the last two stragglers from one of the genestealer squads. He also reduced the stealer squad on my far right to a single man. Then he charged into the melee in progress on his left with one of the nearby infantry squads. With their high initiative, the genestealers broke the missile launcher squad and hacked apart most of the infantry that had just charged them. In my turn, the sniperfexes destroyed the chimera with a glancing 6 from a venom cannon and entangled the passengers. After some unlucky armor save rolls, one of the ogrys died in the explosion, another took two wounds, and the commissar also took a wound. The lictor emerged from a shed in the middle of his gunline and assaulted a nearby infantry squad, only killing one or two before taking a wound himself. The hive tyrant dealt heavy casualties to a missile launcher squad, sending the survivors fleeing for the hills. The flying warriors jumped into assault with a squad of guardsmen but was only able to kill a few of them. The zoanthropes tried to finish off the hellhound in the middle to no avail, only managing to stun it once more. Another stealer squad charged his center left, tying up two infantry squads and killing four men from each unit. The last surviving black-headed stealer on my right was finally made it into assault with an infantry squad as well, but was knocked in the head with a rifle butt and killed after his own swings went wide. Things just kept getting better for the bugs, and we decided to tentatively play out a third turn to see if the guard could turn things around...

Turn 3

They couldn't. It was too late, and his subsequent guardsmen charges into my genestealer units were mostly ineffective. He managed to bring down one of the flying warriors with his commissar, and a command squad helped infantry squad remnants kill off the lictor, but I had dug pretty deep into his lines and we decided to call it as an inevitable victory for the bugs.

This game was probably more fun for me, but there were some great misadventures on both sides. I liked fielding a strong flank with the genestealers - it worked much better than spreading them out across the entire table. The warriors were about as strong as I expected, in other words not that strong, but I thought the one squad definitely served its purpose by supporting the zopes and sniperfexes in the middle, providing synapse and counterassault if necessary. The hive tyrant did well against guard, even with a lower BS than usual; we'll see if the good results can be repeated against marines. I think the most important thing was keeping the stealers away from the leman russes. Even if he destroyed four of the six squads, it only took the two stealer units that made it across the board to wipe out all the infantry on his left flank.

Warhammer 30,000: Week 3

Dire Portents this week, as the Warmaster gathers to him his most trusted brother Primarchs and their legions. During an attack on forces loyal to a traitorous planetary governor, the Death Guard and World Eaters discover a strange ziggurat near a former listening post in the (apparently) frozen wastelands of Istvaan Extremis. As they begin to search the area they come under attack by a human army led by a potent mutant psyker, a.k.a. the Warsinger, a.k.a me! We decided to represent the Warsinger with a model from Aventine's collection - his zealot leader - using the mutant psyker rules in the Witchhunters codex. In exchange for her cost plus the three available psychic powers, the Death Guard took an additional land speeder. It was a rather poor trade in the end for the soon-to-be traitor legions... muahahahaha!

Deployment

For our random special mission we drew "Rescue." The legion players, Bigred (Death Guard) and Adam (World Eaters) decided to use the corner deployment, choosing the one with the most mystery tokens nearby. Apparently there's some dispute over whether your opponent has to also use corner deployment if you do, but it wasn't worth bothering about so I just used a corner too. The Death Guard and World Eaters color schemes looked really great together as they deployed their tac squads along the inside borders of their corner. I basically mirrored them with my infantry squads. It would be a dead sprint to find the right token!

Turn 1 & Turn 2

I rolled to go first. Given the corner deployment zones there had to be a lot of movement before anything really heated up. However, at the end of the second turn, I turned over the very first token and it was the objective! The Warsinger's quarry (a mysterious box) was very nearly in her possession. Of my reserves I only had my hellhound and one sentinel come in. The rest of the Istvaan guard infantry moved forward and hunkered down to wait for the approaching legions.

Turn 3

Turn 3 saw the arrival of the command HQ elements, including heavy weapons and mortar teams, as well as the last two sentinels and one of the veteran squads. My heavy tanks were still waiting in reserve! The squad with the objective passed it off to the command squad behind them. The HQ chimera drove out to supplement the forward lines, and most of the infantry squads got shots off at nearby enemies, dropping a few marines here and there (no thanks to a succesful prayer from Garro as Bigred used his special faith point to give the big Death Guard infantry squad invulnerable 3+ saves). The hellhound helped to inflict heavy casualties on the large World Eaters tac squad, but shortly thereafter a Death Guard landspeeder arrived and killed the flame tank with a precision multimelta shot. The legions' precious Land Raider arrived chock full of Berzerkers, including Khârn, and moved up towards the main event about to go down in the center of the table.

Turn 4

The command squad holding the objective ran back towards my table edge, and the Command HQ's chimera drove forward in front of them, moving into position to cover their retreat from the main body of the marine forces. The heavy armor arrived and reduced the Death Guard squad to less than a "decade." A World Eaters combat squad botched an easy target priority test to kill the objective-carrier and had to shoot at the closer infantry squad, wiping them out. They are indeed the Shaq legion! One of the Death Guard landspeeders pulled up right in front of the guard frontlines and wiped out 6 or 7 traitors with their heavy flamer. Then their dreadnought penetrated the chimera's hull but could not wreck it. The command HQ, including the Warsinger, jumped out but passed their pinning test like champs. The Death Guard and World Eaters infantry charged into combat with the traitorous guardsmen - the World Eaters wiped out their opponents completely and followed up into a sentinel, but the Death Guard were bogged down in the last three members of an infantry squad. They were in perfect position for my Warsinger to bring the pain.

Turn 5

Time left for the legions to stop and retake the objective from the Warsinger's forces were running out. Heavy bolters on one side of my lines shook one landspeeder, and lascannon teams destroyed both weapons on the other. Two of my sentinels came around from cover, one shooting the nearby crippled landspeeder and missing, and the second took a chance shot at the heavily obscured back corner of the World Eaters land raider. Three sixes later: KABOOM! The legions were stunned in the face of such a tragedy, and could only watch as a mighty machine spirit went up in smoke. As the Death Guard began to realize the hopelessness of their situation, the Warsinger pounced and used her mutant powers to turn them against one another. Four Death Guard fell by their own hands, and the legions decided to withdraw. Garro himself was grievously wounded, and the Warsinger and her minions were victorious... for now.

Rescue was a double edged sword for me - the other two special missions could have been total disasters (especially night fight with those Berzerkers and Land Raider). But I also got really lucky when the objective token happened to be the closest one to my deployment. After that it was just a matter of running away from marine shooting, and I got lucky again with some of those World Eater misses (thanks guys). This was probably the most fun week yet of the campaign, but next week promises to be even crazier, with the bombing of Istvaan III. I even feel as if I had some hand in provoking that legendary tragedy!

Battle Report: Witch Hunters vs. Chaos 8-11-07

Bully vs. c2 - 2000 points - Cleanse

I changed my 2000 point list from last weekend's Thor's tournament to switch out the armored fist squads' autocannons with lascannons, and removing the infantry command squad's lascannon to include two meltaguns and a plasma gun. I planned on driving them around in the back of the immolator to hop out and deliver some low AP fire. c2 ran her usual chaos army.

Turn 1

Witch Hunters: For the first time, my inquisitor's liber heresius failed to work and c2 was able to pick sides. I rolled to get first turn, however, and tried to get my money's worth working on the only squad I could see: the havocs. I used "word in your ear" to move the chaos heavy weapons out of cover and opened fire on them with the leman russ, sentinel, and infantry squads. Five of them went down. The seraphim, immolator, infantry command squad, and one of the chimeras moved up on the chaos flank.

Chaos: The berzerkers roll blood frenzy and go screaming through the ruined church toward the immolator. The demon prince moves into the ruins along with the obliterators. They try to shoot the seraphim with heavy bolters but fail to kill any. The havocs blow up the immolator's heavy flamer turret.

Turn 2

Witch Hunters: The berzerkers were exposed so I tried to pour fire into them while I could. The leman russ, the nearest chimera and several infantry squad lascannons shoot up the squad, killing five of eight. The exorcist pulls out around the other chimera and puts four blessed missiles into the obliterators, inflicting two instant deaths, wiping them out. The immolator moves further up the flank, staying in between the havocs and the seraphim. The callidus assassin arrives, kills two khorne bikers with the neural shredder, whiffs in close combat, but survives another turn.

Chaos: The demon prince jumps from the church ruins to a nearby wall. The terminators deep strike in and open fire on the seraphim, killing four. The havocs wreck the nearby chimera. The possessed jump in with the bikers and kill the callidus.

Turn 3

Witch Hunters: The seraphim jump into the terminators, flaming them up good, but they fail their divine guidance faith test and only one is killed in the shooting phase. The busted immolator moves up and the infantry command squad tries in vain to wound the demon prince. The sister and infantry squads move back to avoid being charged. The exorcist manages to pick off the berzerker aspiring champion with six rockets. In close combat, the seraphim use three different faith points to kill three terminators, only losing one of their own. The chaos terminators fail their leadership and are wiped out by a sweeping advance.

Chaos: The bloodletters arrive only to scatter off the table! The demon prince bounds over the immolator to take revenge on the seraphim. The surviving havocs and berzerkers pull back into the church ruins. Four of them are killed quite handily and the last breaks and retreats towards my table edge.

Turn 4

Witch Hunters: The command squad and sentinel try to shoot up the demon prince again but can't inflict any damage. The exorcist and leman russ burst forward to get close to the chaos-held quarters. The last seraphim continues her retreat towards my table edge.

Chaos: The demon prince lays waste to the command squad and regroups behind the wrecked chimera.

Turn 5

Witch Hunters: The last seraphim flies off the table. The exorcist and leman russ drive full bore into the chaos home quarter, and the immolator races away to avoid the demon prince. The rear-most infantry squad moves over into the adjacent quarter.

Chaos: The rhino drives out from behind the church to cover the possessed and bikes from the exorcist, shooting its smoke launchers. The demon prince moves closer to the retreating immolator.

Turn 6

Witch Hunters: The leman russ drives far into the chaos quarter to avoid the demon prince's charge. The immolator tries to turtle up, backing into a nearby wall and leaving its best armor to the outside. The exorcist destroys the rhino regardless of the smokescreen. The sentinel moves into the adjacent quarter.

Chaos: All the hiding chaos elements burn out into the open to secure quarters at the last minute. The demon prince brings down the immolator with several swings of his mighty axe of khorne. The havocs in the corner of the ruins destroys the sentinel.

Some good rolling on my part and bad rolling on c2's part left Witch Hunters with a solid victory - but just barely! She maneuvered well to overcome some early setbacks and severely reduce my margin of victory. I've found that boldness rarely pays off with the fragile witch hunters and tried to keep myself from getting too greedy.

Battle Report: Chaos vs. Imperial Guard 6-16-07

Bully vs c2 - 2000 points - Secure and Control

For this game I switched out sharpshooters for a mortar squad. My other doctrines were light infantry, iron discipline, close order drill, and special weapons squads. C2 fielded her now classic khorne/black legion force: flying khorne demon prince, flying khorne possessed, big terminator squad, berzerkers, bloodletters, khorne bikes, obliterators, and havocs. We played a random standard mission, which turned out to be secure and control with 4 objectives.

Turn 1

Chaos: The bikes roar forward and gain an invulnerable save. The Terminators shoot up one of the infantry squads across the field and kill five of them. They hold their ground, encouraged by the nearby command squad. The Havocs destroy the chimera facing them down on the other side of the battle and the command squad inside tumbles out, entangled in the wreckage.

Imperial Guard: The basilisk fires indirectly across the battle and blows up the berzerkers' rhino, pinning the passengers. The hellhound and special weapons squad moves up to put their all into killing the approaching bikes. Somehow they survive numerous blasts of gunfire and different templates; at least the demo pack didn't fall back on the squad! The last chimera and the right side guard wing opens up on the terminators, killing 4. The tanks on the other side try to shoot up the havocs but only one or two are downed. Already by this point I'd already rolled plenty of ones that could have used a reroll.

Turn 2

Chaos: The demon prince decides to join the fight, heading towards the main infantry formation. The bikes charge the special weapons squad, wipe them out, and consolidate further into cover. The bloodletters arrive next to the berzerkers and they erupt from the forest, charging into the nearest infantry squad. Losing but one of their own number, they kill all of their opponents and consolidate into another 10-man squad. The terminators open fire on the members of a further infantry squad, killing everyone but the plasma gunner, who stands his ground!

Imperial Guard: The Leman Russ demolisher moves up to reach the havocs with his main gun; unfortunately his shot goes stray and misses the chaos heavy weapons completely. The command squad from the broken chimera climbs onto the wreckage to get cover and shoot at the havocs next turn. The sentinels, hellhound, and Leman Russ open up on the bikes, killing only two of them. Mass infantry shooting kills another terminator. The basilisk drops an ordnance round on the berzerkers and kills 6 of them. Lascannon teams and chimera shoot up the approaching demon prince but can't do any damage. However, the lone plasma gunner passes his last-man-standing test and fires his weapon, inflicting a single wound on the prince! The bloodletters wipe out another infantry squad in assault (my guys killed another one though - thanks, COD!). The demons position themselves to move into another squad in their own turn.

Turn 3

Chaos: The terminators move behind the hill and shoot up the infantry squad they can see, killing three more with reaper fire. The havocs and obliterators shoot up the front of the demolisher, destroying the main weapon and shaking the crew. The demon prince flies over a forest and lands behind the hellhound, exploding it with a swing of his enormous axe of khorne. The bikes and possessed again hold tight in forested cover near objectives. The bloodletters charge into the command HQ and lascannon squad, killing them all and consolidating into the second command squad just behind them. The last 2 berzerkers roll blood rage and charge out into the open.

Imperial Guard: The command squad rethinks their position and dismounts from the wrecked chimera. The demolisher rethinks its foolhardy charge and pulls its shaken ass back behind the forest. The last surviving infantry squads shoot the berzerkers, killing only one, with the plasma gunner barely surviving an overheat. Everyone else brings their weapons to bear on the demon prince and he is brought down in a hail of mass lascannon and heavy bolter fire from the sentinels, chimera, leman russ, and fire support squad.

Turn 4:

Chaos: The bikes retreat back behind their forest, passing their dangerous terrain tests (damn!), and the possessed further consolidate onto the nearby loot counter. The terminators kill off the infantry squad they've been firing at to a man, but the man in question fails leadership (the command squads were all dead too!) and falls back screaming with terror. The havocs and obliterators fire on the sentinel in the open, shaking it. The bloodletters finish off their last infantry squad but their consolidation roll isn't enough to take them into the heavy bolter teams nearby!

Imperial Guard: The stubborn plasma gunner passes another last-man-standing and shoots down the berzerker aspiring champion. The Leman Russ kills two havocs with ordnance. The mortars, chimera, fire support team and one sentinel wipe out the bloodletters. Couldn't have done it without those two close combat kills I got earlier thanks to COD!

Turn 5:

Chaos: The terminators climb aboard the rhino wreckage and into the forest. The havocs explode one sentinel on their side of the field, leaving only a crater behind. The obliterators destroy the main weapon on the leman russ.

Imperial Guard: The Chimera kills one more khorne biker, leaving only the aspiring champion. Shooting from the heavy bolter teams (just barely too far away!) and nearby sentinel can't bring down the terminator champion visible in the woods. The second sentinel on the far side climbs into the crater made by his dead colleague.

Turn 6:

Chaos: The biker champion zooms away back into his deployment zone to deny the kill. The havocs somehow pick out the basilisk's obscured side in the distance and wreck it. The other two terminators climb into the forest and open up on the close sentinel, destroying it as well.

Imperial Guard: The tanks move to grab the nearby loot counter, demolisher and sentinel manage to drop one of the obliterators.

The game ends with c2 controlling one more objective than me, and together with the victory points she earns a solid victory!