At the end of the first Turn the Adepta Sororitas have 1 VPs, Tau have 2 VPs and Deathwatch have 1 VPs.
Turn Two was a blood bath compared to the previous round. The Hogziliary were wiped out by the approaching Sisters. The Kroot were also targets of these fanatical warrior women, with only one left remaining.
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Nothing can save their bacon. |
The Librarian was mowed down as predicted. Being left out in the open due to a failed charge, he just couldn't survive having more than half of the tau army blasting at him. The added Toughness and two Wounds only made his demise take a little longer. It was a bummer.
But at least the bikers got to kill some more Tau in the close combat phase.
I honestly thought the bikers would've been better than this, but eventually their foes were defeated. Again, Cheef's uncanny ability to roll successful Saves stymied my 28mm ambitions...
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The Tau in the tower target the Librarian, ready to remove his final Wounds |
The Terminators arrived on my turn and they mowed down the Tau squad on the hill. Three Assault Cannons in a single squad is.... awesome!
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Terminators wipe out a squad of Tau. |
By the end of Turn Two, the Adepta Sororitas have 2 VPs, Tau have 4 VPs, and Deathwatch have 2 VPs.
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The single Kroot holds an objective. |
We contemplated stopping here as it was getting late and Mike and I didn't suppose that we could catch up to the Tau's current points. We agreed to play one more turn.
Turn three.
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Beginning of Turn 3. |
Turn 3 starts off with the Sisters making a bold ploy to take an objective in Tau zone. It works, as the final Paragon Warsuit kills the final Kroot and takes the objective.
I pushed Mike in declaring a 12 inch charge ("You got nothing to lose and you'll be claiming the objective if you kill them.") And as you can see in the pic below...
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Yeah, double 6's. |
...the Sisters made the charge!
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There was much slapping and scratching. |
Conveniently, he was able to position those models to get some of them close enough to claim that objective.
On the Tau turn, the Strike Team wiped out the Paragon Warsuit. And the Tau also eliminated the Veteran Bikers. The Tau leader charged the Terminators, but it didn't go his way and he took a lot more damage than he dealt .
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The Warsuit charges the DW Termies. |
Also of note was the charge of the Kroot Shaper (painted in a fabulous red tone) against Morvenn Vahl. Hilariously, that guy was hidden from Mike's POV for the whole battle as he pretty stayed in the same sitting area at the table for much of the game. So he didn't see it nor did he know that it was even there until it jumped out and charged his leader.. It really didn't end well for that poor Xenos bugger, but the surprise reaction was quite amusing regardless.
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"Surprise!" "Was he there the whole time?!" |
Not much happened on my turn other than the Deathwatch Terminators killed the Tau leader in the close combat phase.
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Thunder hammers and power fists for the win. |
Killed 'em dead!
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Down with the Xenos filth! |
And that was all. The Sister took those two objectives, in addition to holding one in their own Deployment Zone to accrue 5vps in this turn taking their total score to 7vps to the Tau's 5 VPs and the Deathwatch's 3 VPs. A win for Mike's new Adepta Sororitas army! Even if we did have more time to play I doubt the Tau of Deathwatch could have caught him in VPs let alone surpass that score.
In hindsight, I had an uphill climb from the get go. There was no cover or LOS blocking terrain in my DZ, so I felt like a sitting duck for most of the game. My army was built around the Librarian being able to dish out buffs to the other Deathwatch units throughout the game but losing him before he got a second turn was a painful event for sure. Another factor was that Deathwatch have an ability (Chapter Tactics) called Deathwatch: Xenos Hunters which allows the Deathwatch to rerolls hit rolls of a 1 in melee, but also allows them to select a Battlefield Role (i.e. HQ, Troops, Elites, Fast Attack, Flyer, Heavy Support, Fortification, Dedicated Transport and Lord Of War) and throughout the whole battle the Deathwatch can re-roll a wound roll of 1 against that Battlefield Role. Yeah, I totally forgot that. We were amused that my Xenos Hunters were better at killing humans than they were actual xenos...
The Tau were impressive. The Sept ability to always be treated as if they were in light cover from ranged attacks was a very beneficial thing. My Warlord trait could have removed that from at least one unit at a time had I remembered it. Or, had he lived long enough for it to matter. Frankie seemed to relish blowing up the Razorback. It's a shame we weren't playing an older edition of 40k when exploding vehicles were more dramatic, and common, thing to observe.
And finally the Sisters did very well. They took a lot of punishment but, at the end of the day, they executed the mission parameters whereas the Tau and Deathwatch were more into killing targets than they were objective acquisition. And it cost us.
It was a fun game, and it's got me thinking about playing more with the Deathwatch and getting a better grip on their rules.
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Games here... |
As an aside, there was a huge turn out at Hobbytown that night. And it was noisy! But it was very cool to see everyone and their models. I got to observe a few very hard fought and challenging games, and there was an atmosphere of fun and enjoyment in the game hall. And that is what I missed most over the past two years of lockdown restrictions and social avoidance, and I hope to be back at it again soon.