Adam showed up not long after and we headed to table 6 to start our game. It was Pitched Battle Capture and Control. Having drawn with a tougher Chaos list earlier in the same scenario I figured I might be able to pull out a win on this one so as long as I didn't get cluster-fkd by several units bunched together. I would need to spread him out.
Daemon Prince
Mark of Nurgle, Wings
Sorcerer
Mark of Nurgle, Personal Icon, Wind of Chaos
Chaos Dreadnought
Missile Launcher, Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon, Heavy Flamer
9x Plague Marines
2x Flamers, Champion with Power Fist in Transport 1
10x Chaos Space Marines
2x Meltaguns, Icon of Chaos Glory, Champion with Power Fist in Transport 2
10x Chaos Space Marines
2x Meltaguns, Icon of Chaos Glory, Champion with Power Fist in Transport 2
Blight Drone
3x Obliterators
Plague Hulk
Great Unclean One
10x Plaguebearers
Transport 1: Rhino
Transport 2: Rhino
Transport 3: Rhino
The Hulk and Drone could be big problems for me if I disembarked my vehicles so I knew they had to go down as early as possible. As mentioned earlier, I hoped to spread him out as his army didn't have incredible punch to break through to my objective and was more defensive, so if I kept his lines thin I should be able to break through.
I won the roll-off for first turn and deployed pretty evenly across the board, Infiltrating with the Vindicare and reserving Crowe. He deployed a unit of Marines in their Rhino and the Oblits near his objective in the north-eastern ruins (mine was in the south-western rubble) and put his Hulk and Dreadnought in the central ruins in his deployment zone with the Daemon Prince behind; the Vindicare set up in the south-eastern ruins to draw a bead on the Hulk.
Turn 1
Not much movement, just some jigging around of stuff; the Dread and Ven Dread swapping places and the Razorback getting up in cover. First shot of the game the Vindicare shoots at the Hulk and roll quadruple 1's for penetration; epic fail. Land Raider tried at it too but to no avail. The Eastern Dread shoots at the Oblits but they pass their saves and the rest of the army shoot at the Dreadnought, taking him out.
In Adam's turn the Prince, Hulk and Oblits all advance, with the Oblits shooting my eastern Dreadnought with Lascannons, blowing him up.
Turn 2
Crowe came on and slowly moved into the rubble before him. The Razorback and Dreads shuffled some more and the Land Raider swung around to the east flank, popping smoke; we had a plan. The Vindicare tried again and only took the Hulk's cannon off, while everything else tried shots at the Prince or Oblits to no avail. Another poor round of shooting.
Adam was relieved that his Daemons didn't show up this turn as the Plague Marines rolled onto the board near his objective in their Rhino. The rest of the army replicated last turn with the Oblits shooting Multi-Meltas at the Land Raider this time instead, however without results.
Turn 3
The Grey Knights decided this turn to up their game to make up for the last two turns. The Land Raider began the run by ramming the Marines' Rhino, wrecking it. The Terminators then bailed out ready to assault the Oblits. The Raider then shot its Heavy Bolter at the Marines that has just bailed, killing one.
The Vindicare opend up on the Hulk once more, only getting a glance this time but yet managing to wreck it. Everything else opened up the Daemon Prince and when the smoke was cleared he was no more. The Terminators assaulted the Oblits killing two with Halberds only unfortunately as the remaining Oblit took out two Halberds before the Hammer squished him. The Terminators consolidated back in the ruins to try stay in cover.
The second unit of Marines came on the board gunning for my objective, popping smoke as they went. Then the Champion of the other Marine unit exploded as the Great Unclean One was brought into form, followed closely by his Plaguebearer minions. This was all exactly what I didn't want to happen as now he was piled around his objective which would make it very hard for me to punch through. Still, Adam was intimidated by the Terminators close by and unleashed the Plaguebearers, the Marines and the Plague Marines at them, and through hail of fire and assault they just about went down with the Hammer taking two Plaguebearers with him. Nearby the GUO tried his luck at the Land Raider but with no results.
Turn 4
Needing to make some aggressive moves the OXI's Razorback cruised around the central ruins, ready to get stuck in next turn. The Land Raider kept on the aggressive also, tank shocking through the mass of Marines to get to the Chaos objective, though one Marine gave his life to blow off one of the Lascannons with his Meltagun.
Seeing that one Meltagun had been killed, and knowing that the Land Raider had a good chance otherwise to stay contesting that objective, I opted to use the Vindicare to snipe the other Meltagun in the squad, leaving that side of the board now Melta free. The Dreads teamed up to take out two Plaguebearers and the two LasPlasBacks teamed up to Immobolise the most recent arrival.
The Land Raider was now putting huge pressure on the Chaos forces and Adam needed to make sure it went down. Not risking anything he moved the GUO and Plague Marines in to counter it. The Plague Marine's Rhino tried to move out of the way but didn't get far as it blew a track on the terrain, Immobolising itself. The Plaguebearers moved out to get the Vindicare while the regular Marines moved to try intercept the incoming Purifiers.
On the other side of the board the Blight Drone arrived moving Flat Out across the table while the Marines abandoned their Rhino to run across toward my objective.
The Sorcerer cast Wind of Chaos successfully on the Land Raider but only managed to Shake it. In anger his unit along with the GUO then charged it but failed to damage it. The Plaguebearers were more successful, assaulting the Vindicare and with a wealth of attacks (thanks to me forgetting my Blind Grenades) killed him outright.
Turn 5
Crowe decided to try slow down the incoming Marines by charging out at them. The Ven Dread came back to support the objective and the OXI and his unit bailed out, running toward the Marines; their Razorback kept on the move incase the Plaguebearers managed to get hear it. The Dreadnought moved in toward the Plaguebearers and the Land Raider made a short Tank Shock just to make sure the Chaos forces didn't hit it automatically when they charged again next turn.
The two LasPlasBacks and the Ven Dread shot all they had at the Blight Drone but managed to only destroy one of its weapons. A rake of assaults took place, with Crowe going into the Marines, the Dread going into the Plaguebearers and the OXI leading his unit into the Marines in the east. Crowe had a good enough run killing all but one model in base contact with him, however this one model was the Power Fist totting Champion who splatted Crowe in the face. Crowe however managed to take him with him, reducing the unit in half by himself. The Dread fought a stalemate with the Plaguebearers. Elsewhere some bad luck struck as the Knight of the Flame rolled Perils and died leaving only one Halberd left to attack before the Marines. By the combat's end the Marines were wiped out, however the loss of those 3 attacks (and subsequently the extra attacks the Marine got from that) was enough to kill off the Halberd and Hammer, leaving the unit now devoid of Force Weapons, meaning taking on the GUO was no longer an option.
The Chaos army continued their paces, casting Wind on the Raider and then double charging it to no avail. The Drone and the consolidated Marines moved in to contest the objective, giving Adam the draw if the game now ended.
However it went on, giving me a chance to pull back the win.
Turns 6-7
It was down to holding on and clawing back points mostly this turn so the Ven Dread moved back to support the home objective. The Purifiers holding it both disembarked and moved toward the Drone and Marines respectively while the Razorback got out of their way. The Land Raider continued to make small Tank Shock moves to stay moving.
The Purifiers and OXI left in the East charged the Plague Marines hoping to pull them off their objective and hold them, but despite the mind boggling effects of the Psychotroke Grenades forcing the Plague Marines to turn on each other, the Sorcerer pulled through and killed the OXI outright with a single Marine also pulling through and killing one Purifier. The Marines then attacked themselves but did no casualties as did the Purifier who then died to a single Fearless save.
The Dread remained locked in a stalemate with the Plaguebearers. The Purifiers on the home objective shot the Drone but failed to hurt it and so assaulted it, wrecking it. The other unit charged the Marines killing four, though the last held. The Razorbacks also took out the Immobolised Rhino for points.
In a last ditch effort to pull Adam continued to charge everything at the Land Raider and it finally paid off as the GUO managed to penetrate it 5 times, destroying it. Elsewhere the stalemate continued, and the last Marine died.
The game continued to a 7th turn, however it was a draw either way, so all that happened was two Plaguebearers died, giving me half points for them.
Conclusions
This was my favourite game of the whole event. There was a lot of whacky moments and a good handfull of ups and downs for both of us. The early turns were good for Adam however turn 3 pulled it back for me.
Overall I think it went pretty well for me, and it was a pity that the Land Raider couldn't hold on any longer, as it lasted half the game on that objective. The Drone gave me a scare there in turn 5, as it meant that Adam could win the game if he took out the Land Raider there and then and the game went on. Luckily this didn't happen. The Land Raider has to be the MVP without a shadow of a doubt here.
I think one mistake I made was with the empty Razorback toward the end. If I had moved it toward the objective in turn 6 and then Tank Shocked turn 7 while popping smoke, I might have been able to keep the Plague Marines off their objective just long enough to win the game, with failure still only resulting in a draw.
I got an 11-9 out of this one meaning a win in my last game could put me at a good standing. Low and behold, a familiar face shows itself as I get Jason Lane and a second run at his Draigowing (from the first post).
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