Okay, rd two pairings are announced...
and who do I get?
Scott Kennedy...my opponent rd 6 from last years Ard Boyz. And he beat me soundly then.
His list;
Vulkan He'stan
Librarian (null zone/GOI)
9x THSS termies (surprise face!) ;)
10x Tac squad (MM/Melta/CombiMelta/Pfist)
Drop Pod
10x Tac squad (MM/Melta/CombiMelta)
Drop Pod
10x Tac squad (MM/Melta/CombiFlamer/Pwpn)
Drop Pod
5x Scouts (CombiMelta/Shotguns/MeltaBombs)
Land Speeder Storm (multi melta)
Mission is Pitched Battle/Objectives
I win the roll to choose first, and defer (again). I wish to see what he deploys, and he has not the long range/AP fire to punish me for deferring.
He deploys the Termies with Libby in his center (on the 12" mark). He then deploys one of the Tacs on his right (my far left) objective, and all else stays in reserve.
I deploy across the center with Belial and his command termies in the center, two termie squads left of center, and one right of center (effectively corner-opposite his Vulkan/Tac deployment). I reserve (for DS) two termie squads, and place my bikes across-opposite his deployed tacs.
I then scout the bikes forward.
Turn 1;
He drops the two full tacs into the front of my left flank, disembarking one 10 man in front of Belial's squad and CS's the other 10 man to threaten both of my other left flank squads. He moves out the assault termies, runs them 6" and then kicks off Null Zone. he shuffles the tacs to my left to try for melta/double tap range on the bikes and then starts shooting. His fire nets the CFist, a THSS in the command termie squad (damned NZ) and a THSS in the left squad. I also lose a single bike to the fire from the obj camping backfield squad.
I go, moving 3 termie squads to close in on the tacs. I DW assault one (out of assault range, barely) off the bike teleport homers to threaten his obj parkers and I move the right termies onto my right objective and well out of range of his assault termies. I also bring the bikes back to threaten one of the CS'd squads (w/out power weapon) with fire and assault.
I look at the field, look at what he has (and needs to do turn two)...and I realize I may have won. With the three ass termie squads in position to wipe out most of his scorers in one or two cc phases, and a termie squad threatening his backfield, I am confident.
I shoot, and charge (around the two Drop Pods, ignoring them in favor of trying to wipe his scoring units).
I wipe ONE Combat squad...that's it. I nearly lost assault with Belial's squad. Belial killed a whopping ONE marine in the 10 man tac squad. His attendant THSS terminators (with 12 THSS attacks) netted TWO. He killed one in return. I moved on to the bike assault, and drew that one. I kill the left CS BARELY. I look at the board, think, and realize that (barring a repeat of my terribad rolls) I still have this one solid, as his assault termies cannot make it on his turn. I'm still confident (if a little distressed) after my bad rolling phase.
Turn 2;
He moves up the Assault termies further, fails to get his reserve scouts on speeder, and doesn't get the empty pod. Runs termies, and kicks off NullZone
He shuffles his backfield Tacs with Vulkan, for double-tap range (and hopefully melta range). He fails to get melta in range, but does get a pistol and bolter in range. He shoots. Hits once to no effect. We got to assault. Bikers first, and they die (killing one). 4 basic marines, two dead bikers. :(
We go to Belial vs 7 marines. Belial kills ONE. Tacs kill nothing. THSSs hit thrice, and kill ONE. He falls back. If I consolidate forward, I should kill the tacs, but die to his AssTermies. It's worth it, as he loses a scoring unit (as the other 5man CS will die to my other 4man THSS coming round a pod). I do so, and position well.
I get no reserves either (lone DW squad waiting in the wings). I pounce. My outriders termies make assault with his backfield tacs. Belial+bozos assaults the wounded CS Tacs while the 4 man assault termies hit his (now devastated) Tac squad.
I devote all my attacks into the bacfield squad (after Vulkan kills a single CFist).
This turn should break his back, and make the game a mop up for me...
I start rolling in binary.
1's everywhere. I killed a total of 2 tacticals in the Command squad assault. They fall back toward the central objective, and I'm ass-out in front of 9x assault MasterCrafted THSS termies.
The 4 man CS manages to have the Sgt survive after 12 Thunder Hammer attacks, and they actually killed a termie.
The backfield squad lost half their number, but stuck due to Vukan. This bodes ill...at the top of the turn, my opponent had a fearful/concerned look on his face.
his assessment seemed to be the same as mine.
At the bottom of turn 2, he had a flabbergasted look...as ones and twos flew out of my hand. He just couldn't believe it. I switched dice after the close of the turn.
Turns 3-5
I'm not going to do this one blow by blow, as it went VERY fast and VERY poorly. My rolls continued, as I lost unit after unit to silliness, and failed to kill nearly anything.
Highlights,
8 crack missile HITS to bring down a landspeeder storm.
a full shooting phase to kill a LONE and out in the open Tactical Sgt.
4 crack missile shots failing to kill the other lone Space Marine.
etc...etc.
I conceded at the bottom of 5, as his untouched Assault terminators gated within range of my reserve unit (which had dropped atop the furthest objective turn 4) and ran 6" (oh, every time they ran, it was a 5 or a 6...I think his dice were just sucking the high numbers out of mine) :o
It was a very good game, and really showed that you don't give up early from a single mistake...you just hope something goes wrong for your opponent!
Scott felt that the initial drop on his Tacs were a mistake.
I felt it was more like a gamble, in the hopes that his opponent would make a mistake in response (or have bad dice). If I had rolled average, the game would have been mine at the end of turn 3/top of turn 4.
Instead, my dice punished my early optimism by proving the fates hate us all!!! :)
Scott was great, and after the game was over we went outside, smoked and laughed our asses off about dice-hate and toy soldiers. He was wholly with me, in the assessment that the game was lost...until the dice turned on me.
He was just as gracious this game as he was at Ard Boyz.
I have a hatred for Vulkan, though, one that he is perpetuating!
Next Time...oh yeah, Scott...NEXT TIME! :)
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