The first mission was Terraform, with sweeping engagement deployment and swift deployment.
My army consisted of:
Angron
Lord Invocatus
Master of Executions- Berserker Glaive
Chaos Lord on Juggernaught- Favoured of Khorne
10 Berzerkers- 3 Plasma Pistols, Icon
Rhino
10 Jakhals
10 Jakhals
2 Chaos Spawn
6 Exalted Eightbound
3 Exalted Eightbound
3 Eightbound
Forgefiend- 2 Hades Autocannons, Ectoplasma Cannon
This is a tournament list I have been playing about with for a little while. It has been performing pretty well for me, so would be interested to see how it fared at a larger event.
Si's army consisted of:
Brokhyr Iron-master
Einhyr Champion
Kahl
10 Hearthkin warriors
3 Sagitaurs
6 Thunderkyn- Graviton
5 Beserks
10 Hearthguard
5 Hearthguard
Hekaton Land Fortress- Conversion Beamer
3 units of 3 Pioneers
10 Yaegirs
The Votaan had a lot of strong firepower, as well as the infiltrators and scouting Pioneers that would mess up my inital scout moves.
I used my standard deployment, with the Exalted and Jakhals up front to scout. I put Angron and the Rhino on the right, with the Forgefiend on the left flank.
Si deployed the Yaegors near the middle objective to screen, with Bikers out on each flank. Most of his forces deployed a bit further back, to stay out of my charge ranges.
I won the roll for first turn, which was great news for me. I used the Scout moves to push up the Jakhals towards the centre, along with the Eightbound. Si moved his Pioneers up to the cover in front of them.
TURN 1
In my first turn, I got No Prisoners and overwhelming force. I also got advance and charge and FNP on my blessings.
I moved the Jakhals and Eightbound up towards the Yaegirs, who used their reactive move to shuffle back behind the ruins. The Spawn and Jugger Lord moved up to the objective on the left, while Angron moved to support the middle block. The Spawn started the Terraform.
In the charge phase, the Jakhals and Eightbound charged the Yaegirs. I had hoped the Jakhals could kill them, while the Eightbound went after the Land Fortress, but both units were required to wipe them out. I did manage to consolidate into the Fortress with the Eightbound and the Pioneers with the Jakhals.
Si had a strat to fall back and shoot, but it could only be used on one unit. I scored 5 pts for No Prisoners and Overwhelming Force.
In his turn, Si drew Recover Assets and Sabotage. The Pioneers moved up on the left to carry out Sabotage, while the Sagitaur, Pioneers and Hearthkin moved up on my right to the ruins to carry out the actions. The Sagitaur started the action, while the Hearthkin started Terraform.
In the middle, the Votaan got out of the Fortress to deal with the World Eaters in front of them. He used the fall back and shoot strat on the Land Fortress and both the Jakhals and Eightbound were dealt with by the combined firepower.
He got 3 on sabotage and Assets was in progress.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 15
Votaan- 13
TURN 2
This turn, I got Storm Hostile and Recover Assets. I also completed the Terraform for 2 pts and got 8 more on the primary, as well as advance and charge and FNP on my blessings.
I decided to go after the right flank to hopefully shut down the Terraform and stop Si from racking up the points. The Berzerkers advanced up on the Votaan in the ruins. Lord Invocatus moved up to the middle objective. I did assets with the Spawn and Jackals on my home objective.
In the charge phase, the Berzerkers went in, killing the Hearthkin to stop the Terraform and killing one Biker. I scored Storm for 4 pts, and Si completed Recover Assets.
In his turn, Si got behind enemy lines and storm secure NML.
The Pioneers and Sagitaur fell back from combat with the Berzerkers, while the other vehicles moved up to target Lord Invocatus. I used Rapid Ingress to bring in the 3-man Exalted near his home objective. On the left flank, the vehicles moved up on the other objective.
Si didn't fire on Lord Invocatus, wanting to charge him with the Hearthguard and grab the objective, but he failed the charge. This was probably the correct call. If he killed me with his shooting, I would have just used the stratagem to sticky the objective and he would have no way to move up on it.
The Berserkers killed the Bikers to give me the objective and deny secure.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 32
Votaan- 20
TURN 3
This turn, I drew Behind Enemy Lines and Sabotage. I scored 14 pts on the primary.
The lone Exalted moved up on the Votaan home objective, while the Berserkers started the Terraform action.
The Spawn started doing sabotage, while the Exalted killed three of the squad in combat. I ended a very quick turn, getting 3 pts on behind. The Rhino moved up and charged the Hearthguard to tie them up in combat. I did a few wounds with a tank shock, and got taken down to 1 wound in reply.
Si got Storm Hostile and Area Denial, and 4 on the primary. He moved the Votaan round to the left flank objective, moving up the Pioneers to grab the objective. The forces also moved to the centre to target my forces on the objectives. The other Hearthkin moved in on the left flank.
The Hearthkin fired at the Berserkers, killing the squad and leaving the MOE alive. I used the strat to sticky the objective. The Land Fortress killed the Forgefiend. The Votaan then made the charge on the MOE and Invocatus in the middle objective, killing both. He scored Area Denial and Storm Hostile, while I got Sabotage.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 50
Votaan- 33
TURN 4
I got 6 on the primary, and drew Bring it Down and Defend Stronghold.
I moved up my forces, the Jugger Lord and Exalted going after the middle objective, while Angron moved up on the Land Fortress.
I charged in, killing the Votaan in the middle and the Land Fortress. The lone Exalted was able to charge the Sagitaur, but failed to kill it.
I scored 4 pts for Bring it Down and started defend.
Si got 12 on his primary and drew Extend and Bring it Down. The Sagitaur in combat with Angron fell back, while the Votaan moved up to target my forces. The Hearthkin fired on Angron, but failed to do a lot of damge. The other Hearthkin fired at the Jugger Lord, killing him.
He scored Storm and discarded Bring it Down.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 63
Votaan- 50
TURN 5
In my final turn, I drew Area Denial and Assassinate. I got advance and charge and FNP.
The Exalted Eightbound moved up to the Votaan home objective, while Angron stayed on the middle objective. The Eightbond charged and killed the Sagitaur on the home objective.
I scored Area Denial for 5 and discarded Assassinate.
In his final turn, I don't have note of what Si drew. He moved up to grab the objectives.
He scored 8 on the primary and 9 on his secondaries, after failing to kill Angron.
The final score was:
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 80
Votaan- 68
A win for the World Eaters!
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
That was a fun and tough game. Getting first turn was really useful, as it normally is with the World Eaters. This allowed me to get a Terraform up on turn 1, as well as using the Jakhals and Eightbound to move block many of the Votaan units.
I think it probably would have been better to use the Berserkers to target the enemy units, rather than trying to sit on the objective. They probably could have done more damage, rather than just holding the objecitve.
Other than that, I think the game went pretty well. I don't tend to go too aggressive with the army early on, as I don't want to throw away Angron and the Exalted too easily for no reason.
The Forgefiend wasn't as effective in this game, but that was because he didn't really get line of sight on much before being killed.