This week's game sees the World Eaters take on the Leagues of Votaan in a 2000 pts UKTC game. After a random draw of the cards, we were playing Priority Targets on Search and Destroy, with secret intel (can draw an extra secondary card).
My army consisted of:
Angron
Lord Invocatus
Master of Execution (Berserker Glaive)
10 Berzerkers
5 Berzerkers
Rhino
10 Jackals
10 Jackals
2 Spawn
3 Eightbound
6 Exalted Eightbound
3 Exalted Eightbound
Maulerfiend
A very similar list to the last game, but this time I switched out a unit of Eightbound for the Maulerfiend. I had recently picked one up and wanted to try it out. I think the tougher body and high damage attacks should prove to be useful in the army, and give my opponent another target other than Angron to think about.
Ian's army consisted of:
Kahl
Kahl
Grimnyr
5 Hearthkin
5 Hearthkin
10 Hearthkin
Sagitaur
Sagitaur
5 Beserks
5 Beserks
3 Pioneers
3 Pioneers
6 Hearthguard
10 Hearthguard
Land Fortress
Land Fortress
I haven't played Votaan in ages, so was unsure what I would be facing. I knew they had some potent firepower at their disposal, as well as some decent Scout units.
We deployed as shown below.
I concentrated the bulk of my forces behind the medium ruins on the bottom of the battlefield, ready to push up the centre and engage the Votaan. I put the Jackals on the home objective and the Spawn and Berzerkers ready to move up on the top objective.
I set up my Scout moves on the Exalted Eightbound and Jackals to either push forward or get behind terrain. The 3-man Exalted went into deep strike.
Ian set up the Land Fortresses at the back, with a unit of Berserks and the Grimnyr on the home objective. The Sagitaurs and Pioneers set up forward on the line, with the Hearthkin taking up position behind the ruins.
Ian won the roll off for first turn. He Scouted the Bikers and Sagitaurs forward, while I used my Scout moves to move the Jackals back, and the Exalted went up into the central ruins. He put his grudge markers on Angron, the Maulerfiend, Jackals and 6-man Exalted Eightbound.
TURN 1
Ian drew Bring it Down and Extend Battle Lines. I rolled for the blessings and chose Advance and Charge and Feel no Pain.
The Bikers moved towards my lines, while a Sagitaur moved up to join them, the Hearthkin disembarking to screen my lines. The Berserks jumped in the other Sagitaur and it moved towards the objective on the bottom of the battlefield. The Pioneers moved towards the other objective.
The Pioneers, Hearthkin and Sagitaur fired at the Maulerfiend, taking a few wounds from it.
At the end of his turn, he scored Extend and kept Bring it Down.
In my turn, I drew Area Denial and Deploy Teleport Homers, a pretty good draw.
I used the stratagem to advance Angron 6" towards the Sagitaur on the bottom. The Jackals and Eightbound advanced towards the Hearthkin and other Sagitaur. The Spawn advanced onto the top objective.
Lord Invocatus did the Teleport Homers on the centre objective. In the charge phase, Angron charged the Sagitaur, the Jackals and Eightbound charged the Hearthkin, while the Maulerfiend and Exalted charged the Pioneers.
In the fight phase, all the Votaan targets were taken out by the World Eaters, a good haul for turn 1!
VICTORY POINTS:
Votaan- 5
World Eater- 8
TURN 2
In his second turn, Ian drew Engage on all Fronts to go with Bring it Down. He got 5 on the primary, I got Fight on Death and Feel No Pain for my blessings.
The Pioneers moved across to tackle the spawn, while the Land Fortresses moved up to engage with the World Eaters, the Hearthkin disembarking from one of them. Finally, a unit of Hearthguard deep struck near the bottom objective next to Angron and the Rhino.
In the shooting phase, one Land Fortress opened fire on Angron. It's main gun scored a Devastating Wound and took a whopping 12 damage from Angron! The rest of the fire took him down to 3 wounds. The Hearthguard fired at the Rhino, but despite the anti-vehicle fire, it only took a couple of wounds.
The other Land Fortress and Hearthkin fired at the Jackals and Eightbound, reducing them both to a single Eightbound. The Pioneers failed to kill the spawn, only doing a couple of wounds.
In the charge phase, the Berserks charged Angron, killing him. I failed the roll to fight on death and Angron perished.
At the end of his turn, Ian scored Engage for 3 pts and Bring it Down for 5 pts.
I scored 10 on the primary, and drew Extend Battle Lines and Secure No Man's Land. Another great draw.
The Master of Execution led the Berzerksers towards the Hearthguard, while the Rhino and last of the Eightbound moved to engage the Berserks. The other Berzerker squad advanced onto the objective, while the Spawn moved up on the Pioneers. The Lord Invocatus and Maulerfiend moved to grab the central objective, while the Exalted moved back to the cover of the lower ruin.
The Hearthguard fired overwatch at the Berzerkers, managing to kill a couple. I brought the three Exalted in near the bottom objective to hopefully charge and secure it.
In the shooting phase, the Rhino fired at the Berserks, managing to kill two. In the charge phase, the Rhino moved in and performed at Tank Shock, killing all but one of the Berserk. The Eightbound joined him, while the MoE charged the Hearthguard.
The Spawn charged the Pioneers, while the Maulerfiend failed a charge on the Hearthkin sheltering in the middle ruins.
In the fight phase, the MoE and Eightbound destroyed the two Votaan units, while the Spawn was able to kill a single Pioneer. I scored my 10 secondary points.
VICTORY POINTS:
Votaan- 18
World Eater- 28
TURN 3
In turn 3, Ian drew Defend Stronghold and Storm Hostile Objective. I rolled my blessings, getting feel no pain and managing to bring Angron back too!
The Hearthkin jumped back in the Land Fortress, which then moved up on the central objective. The other Fortress moved to take on the forces at the bottom of the map. The Hearthkin in the middle ruins moved out to grab the objective in the centre. The Pioneers fell back.
The Hearthguard then arrived, landing to the top near the centre objective. I then used rapid ingress to bring in Angron to support the MoE. He could only be seen by one Land Fortress and I wanted to force a decision about which unit to go after. It was unlikely one could kill Angron unless he got very lucky, and I would be able to move up and deal with the vehicles later.
The Heathguard fired, killing the Maulerfiend thanks to the lethal hits from the Kahl. It blew up, killing a couple of the Hearthkin and putting a wound on Invocatus. The Land Fortress fired at Angron, but the main gun failed to hit and the small guns did a couple of wounds.
The other Land Fortress destroyed the Rhino and killed a few Berzerkers. The Lord Invocatus lost a few wounds from other firepower.
He scored storm hostile and would likely get Defend in my turn too.
In my turn, I drew Storm Hostile Objective and Engage, and scored another 10 on the primary. Angron and the Berzerkers moved up on the Land Fortresses, while the Exalted moved up towards the middle, while the 3-man moved to secure the bottom objective. The Spawn moved back onto the objective.
In the shooting phase, the Lord Invocatus threw a grenade, killing the squad in the middle.
In the charge phase, the Berzerkers charged one Fortress, while Angron charged the other. Angron easily took out one vehicle, while the Berzerkers and MoE took 9 wounds off the other with the +1 to wound strat helping.
I scored Storm for 5 and Engage for 3.
VICTORY POINTS:
Votaan- 31
World Eater- 46
TURN 4
In turn 4, Ian drew Area Denial and Overwhelming Force. I rolled for my blessings and rolled 1,1,1,2,3,4,5,6 after re-rolls. For the first time ever, I could only select one blessing! I picked feel no pain for some added protection.
Ian used a stratagem to allow the Land Fortress to fall back and still shoot and charge, which he used to move the Fortress towards the centre. The squad inside disembarked first to target the Berzerkers, while the Berserks moved up to support them.
The Pioneers and Hearthguard moved to target the objective beside them.
The Land Fortress fired at Lord Invocatus, killing him. The Hearthkin fired at the Berzerkers, but only killed one after some truly terrible rolling. The Berzerkers blood surged into both the Hearthkin and Berserks.
The Pioneers fired at the other Berzerker squad, killing one.
In the charge phase, the Pioneers and Hearthguard charged the Berzerkers and Spawn on the left, while the Land Fortress charged the other unit of Berzerkers. Ian used Tank Shock, killing three of the Berzerkers after doing the max 6 mortal wounds.
The Master of Execution and Berzerkers attacked, killing all but one of the Berzerks and a couple of the Hearthkin.
The Hearthguard were able to kill the Berzerkers on the other flank, while the Pioneers failed to kill the spawn.
Ian scored Area Denial for 3 points and overwhelming force for 5 points.
In my turn, I drew Bring it Down and Tempting Target, which was the one held by the Hearthguard and Pioneers.
Angron moved up on the Land Fortress, while the Exalted Eightbound moved to target the tempting objective.
Angron charged the Land Fortress, killing it. The Exalted charged the Hearthguard, using the +1 to wound strat to counteract the -1 to wound. They managed to kill 5 of the Hearthguard, but the attacks back killed three of the Exalted. The Spawn then killed the Pioneers. The Hearthkin were able to kill the Master of Execution and Berzerkers.
At the end of the turn, I scored Bring it down for 5 points and discarded Tempting.
VICTORY POINTS:
Votaan- 44
World Eater- 61
TURN 5
In his final turn, Ian drew No Prisoners and Tempting Target. I got Advance and charge and FNP on my blessings.
He Heathguard fell back, using the strat to shoot and wipe out the Exalted. He then charged in and attacked the Spawn. I used the -1 damage stratagem and they were able to survive the attacks.
In my turn, I drew Cleanse and Signals. I moved up onto the objectives with Angron and the Exalted to do the cleanse, while the Jackals advanced onto the objective held by the Hearthkin.
I scored Cleanse and the bonus points for holding the objectives at the end of the game.
VICTORY POINTS:
Votaan- 53
World Eater- 91
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Thanks to Ian for a fun game, it was really tough for the Votaan against the World Eaters.
My plan worked pretty well, I was able to get to the Votaan forces quickly and take them out with the superior combat attacks.
We spoke after the game and I wasn't sure what Ian was trying to achieve with his turn 1 moves. He was looking to screen out his forces, but ended up just giving me units to charge and kill. I would likely have used the Pioneers to block the bottom ruins containing most of my forces, and kept the rest of them back. This would have hampered my movement in turn 1 and not given up so many of his forces to my counter attack.
The Maulerfiend was a fun addition, I will probably try it in a few more lists to see how it fares.