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| Climbing a great height may lead to a rapid descent |
So it was with cautious optimism that I reviewed the army list handed to me by our very friendly opponents. Nothing immediately jumped out at me as being particularly threatening except possibly the Helldrake, but surely we could handle that right?
"Khan!!!!"
Chaos Marines x10 Lascannon and Melta gun
Chaos Marines x10 2x Plasma gun
Chaos Marines x10 2x Plasma gun
Hemonculus
Kabalite Warriors x10, Blaster, Raider w. Splinter Racks
Kabalite Warriors x10, Dark Lance, Raider w. Splinter Racks
Ravager
3 objectives with Hammer & Anvil Deployment
Khan's squad were deployed in the open so we thought they were the best target for our Sternguard Alpha-Strike with Lysander surely able to take on Khan. Shooting ensues and the squad is removed, however Khan survives unharmed. Our second drop is a Tactical Squad w. Melta but they mishap and are "misplaced" to the back of our deployment zone, not too bad, I thought as we needed some re-enforcement on our home objective anyway. The Thunderfire Cannon and Quad-Gun focus n the nearest marine squad (painted as Night Lords) and take out 3 of them.
Here's where it starts to go wrong, the combined fire of two 10 man Chaos Marine Squads reduces Lysander to 1 wound and kills more than half of the Sternbguard. Khan easily finished off Lysander in a Challenge on the ensuing charge. The Dark Eldar combined fire kills 2 Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminators.
The Librarian Plasma Squad Drops in, in front of the Night Lords Squad and only manages to kill two marines (the Plasma gun rolls two Gets Hot results to hit, and dies - our luck was definitely on the slide). The TFC kills 4 from the third Chaos Marine squad sitting at the back of the board on an objective; and the Quad Gun kills the Ravager. The Terminators fail a charge at a Raider and another one dies to Overwatch fire. Khan finishes off the Sternguard and consolidates towards the Night Lord squad, and towards the center of the board.
Khan joins the Night Lord squad and they shoot at the Librarian's Tactical Squad along with shooting from one of the Kabalite Warrior squads in their Raider and reduce the squad to 5. The other Kabalite squad wipe out the THSS Terminators and then Khan's squad charged and wiped out the Tactical Squad.
The Quad Gun takes down the Raider responsible for wiping the THSS Terminators, the Thunderfire kills a couple more of the Marines right at the back of the board breaking them and they flee off the table. The misplaced Tac Squad have a few shots at the de-meched DE warriors but with little effect.
Khan and his squad head towards the back of the board to claim the objective there. The Helldrake arrives, zooming down our left flank; Interceptor fire strips a hull point off it. The remaining Raider rounds the corner of terrain in the center of the table and heads towards my deployment zone. The de-meched Warriors rapid fire the scouts who go to ground and shrugged off the splinter fire.
Now the Helldrake had free reign and was clearly going to be a problem, there wasn't a lot we could do about it so we decided to do as much as possible to defend our home objective. The Thunderfire Cannon and the Tactical Squad in the back-lines opened up on the DE warriors in the open wiping the squad.
The remaining Raider edged towards our lines while Khan and his remaining Marines made it to the back objective. The Helldrake shot a pillar of flame at the Tactical Squad in the open killing three.
Realising that we didn't have much hope of doing anything against the Helldrake the Quad Gun took out the last Raider the Thunderfire Cannonhad a go at Khan's squad but could only kill one and the Tactical Squad were similarly ineffective against the remaining Warriors.
The Helldrake got into perfect position and hit the Thunderfire Cannon and the Scouts, leaving only the Techmarine Gunner alive. The Warriors fired furiously wiping out the remaining Tactical Marines and despite the three Drop Pods remaining unscathed, the game was over.
1-4
While our dice had been horrible and we had been out-played, we had not realised that due to the make-up of our opponent's list, the Dark Eldar component were not able to capture or deny objectives. If we'd know this we could have focused fire on the Chaos Marine component and forced a Draw. I would have probably been a 1-1 draw which would not have helped in the grand scheme of things but who knows what that may have affected.
None-the-less a good game and a lesson well learned.