Following on from my previous post covering games 1, 2 and 3 here comes Saturday evening and game 4. Read on for the battle summaries and photo's...
Saturday night had been the pub quiz which ranged from easy questions, to hard ones. We came somewhere in the middle but it passed the evening and was a good chance for another beer or two.
After that we found out the hall was open for another two hours, until 11pm, so I got a game in vs Dave's Iron Warriors.
Two objectives, spearhead. He had Termie Lord and Sorcerer, 5 or 6 Termies, Bezerkers in Rhino, Chaos Marines in Rhino, 2 Oblit's and 5 Havocs and some lesser Daemons. (for my list, see previous post).
He deployed quite deep in his corner and set off with the Rhinos to meet my Raven. He got the Bezerkers out to try and shoot it down with a plasma pistol and quickly discovered the disadvantages of facing a DC Dreadnought. The 'Zerkers died quickly. His Marine squad died fairly early on too and I assaulted his objective holing Daemons for a dragged out fight (bloody 5++).
I expected his Terminators to come in with the Oblit's near my objective and shoot/charge my Assault Squad off it. He didn't though and brought everything on in his corner, essentially handing me at the very least a draw as he had nothing that could come over to meet me. All I had to do was destroy the remaining Daemons to wipe out his troops, which is what happened.
Won 1-0.
Game 4
Coming off the spanking from the Sisters I was hoping for a decent game to get me back in the swing of things. I wandered over to my assigned table and saw...
Templars. Specifically 20 Terminator Templars, 14 of who were armed with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shields. This was gonna be tough. He also had the Emperors Champion, Pred Annihilator and 3 5 man Crusader squads with a Lascannon and Melta each.
I wasn't worried about the power armour, I can cope with combat squads no problem. The Terminators were potentially going to be a huge problem though.
He set up his 2 squads on close together objectives with his tank in support, everything else would walk on. My whole army waited to come on turn one and respond to where his Terminators arrived.
Turn one his remaining Crusaders walked on to the 3rd objective behind some trees and the Termies came on in two long lines. I brought the Speeders and Raven on my right flank flat out and all 3 squads through the centre (onto one of my objectives).
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| End of turn two, behind enemy lines. |
Turn three and I moved into position to shoot and Assault the Terminators with an Assault Squad, the DC and the DC Dread. Shooting killed two and, thanks to Righteous Zeal (which I didn't know about) the squad moved out of charge range of the DC! Buggers. I don't think I killed anyone in the combat and he blew up the Dread and squashed half the squad who thankfully fled.
This left the DC exposed next turn but also meant his more advanced Termie squad turned back for them (see above). They also died pretty easily once their attacks had done relatively little. The remainder of the previous assaults Assault squad rallied though and jumped through trees to wipe out another Crusader squad. Then then attacked the Terminators to draw them backwards again and killed four through shooting and combat!! They all died in return but it was a worthwhile tactic.
After a rubbish start for me it was now one objective each. and he had four Marines who could claim left. The other, undamaged Assault Squad had entered and combat squads so they moved to go and hold both of my objectives.
He continued to pour fire into the Raven and blew off the Assault Cannon, Multi Melta and one Bloodstrike Missile over a couple of turns, nothing more though. I moved it in to contest his only held objective incase the game ended.
I now was in a winning position - 2-0. I started to think I could actually win! The game continued though and the Raven died. Back to 2-1. His Terminators moved and ran for both my objectives (he didn't roll less than a 4 for run all game, it was annoying!) and it was clear it'd be close.
By my turn 6 he had only two Marines left on his objective and if I stood still at mine I was clearly going to be attacked by 13 Terminators in turn 7. Not good. The squad in the picture above held fast on the off chance they could take down another 3 before getting splatted or if the game ended. The other combat squad though went after his held objective after the Devastators couldn't kill them and the Raven was gone.
Turn 7 did happen and his Terminators, true to form, killed the guys in the above picture so I was now losing 0-1. I assaulted but rolled poorly for my charge through cover and only three Marines got into combat range. Between them they killed one and lost none. The lascanon Crusader of that squad the only model denying me the win at the end of the game.
This was THE single most tense game of 40K I've ever played. sweaty palms and a bit of adrenaline coming and going. My dice let me down a few times (anything involving moving or charging through cover was a 3 at most) and he had some luck (especially with runs). But I didn't dive in and think I did well at outmanoeuvring him where possible. I kept one Terminator squad and the Champion totally out of the game apart from a single, fruitless assault on the Raven which was a good idea!
A good game though against a tough opponent with a nasty army!
Game 5 should be up tomorrow along with some general Warhammer World bits and bobs.
Bye for now!