Battle of the Blogs III

Once again, this weekend My Thousand Sons clashed with John's Ultramarines from Plastic Legions. We decided to write up a joint battle report. He's also posted this report at his site. We each wrote our own turns a la White Dwarf. I tried to make it clear below who's saying what.

Also, John took some awesome pictures. All of the in-game shots here are his. For added visual interest, I've posted some close ups of my Thousand Sons unit #1, as requested.

My Army list

I have to admit, I hadn’t prepared for this game ahead of time. In fact, for some reason, I thought that we were playing at 600 pts. When John told me 700 pts, I threw a list together without much thought.

HQ

Chaos lieutenant Sorcerer - Derg Corra Amnon (156 pts)
Mark of Tzeentch
Power Weapon
CCW
Bolt of Change
Familiar
Wind of Chaos
Demonic flight

Troops

Thousand Sons Squad 1 (271 pts)
8 Rubric Marines + Free Aspiring Champion - Corracol Serrano
Power Weapon
Thrall
Familiar
Doombolt
Wind of Chaos

Thousand Sons Squad 2 (271 pts)
8 Rubric Marines + Free Aspiring Champion - Rohm Dutt
Power Weapon
Thrall
Familiar
Doombolt
Wind of Chaos

As you can see, all my spell casters have Wind of Chaos. When fighting marines, it’s a necessity. Also, I’ve named all my characters here for fun.

John's List

Ultramarines (695 pts)

HQ

Captain Brother Septimius

Power Weapon
Plasma Pistol
Iron Halo

Troops

Alpha Squad-
Sgt Brother Tiberius
9 Marines
Plasma Gun
Missile Launcher

Rhino Transport

Beta Squad
Sgt Brother Octavian
9 Marines
Plasma Gun
Missile Launcher

Fast Attack

Assault Squad
Sgt Brother Cato
-Terminator honors
-Power Fist
-Combat Shield
5 marines
Plasma Gun
Flamer


Deployment
John - I wanted to get my Assault Squad into CC with Scott's 1st ASAP, my eagerness cost me big time. basically the plan was to get the Assault squad engaged, Alpha Squad gets objective while Beta provided range support... Nice plan, zero execution.

Scott - Take and Hold is absolutely my favorite scenario. Once a unit of Rubrics gets in the center of the board, there is almost no dislodging them.
Since both my Rubric units are basically the same, I deployed one on the left flank and one on the right. I positioned my HQ behind squad #2 on the left.

I knew that John’s Assault Squad was going to cause a lot of problems for me, so I made them target priority #1.

John won the first turn and so it began...

Turn 1

John - Movement-Rhino pulls up toward the lander clear its stormbolter clear shots on Scotts second squad. Alpha Squad with my Commander attached moves up near the transport using it as cover against the open squad. Beta Squad stays put and will fire a Krak missile a scott's second squad. Assault Marines deployed behind a hill fly over the hill into the open toward scotts 1st squad(this was very dumb, I will regret this later and need to learn how to use these guys properly)

Shooting-Rhino fires at squad two, causing 1 wound which scott saves.Beta Squad- fires Krak Missle at Scotts second squad. It misses.

Scott - I knew that I’d have to start getting a move on if I was going to get to the center of the board, so I made Slow and Purposeful (S&P) rolls for both units. I wanted to have squad 1 hang back since John’s assault marines where heading toward me on the right flank but I was afraid that I’d be plagued with bad S&P rolls so I figured just move them up. I also moved my Sorcerer Lord from behind unit #2 toward the right flank for support.

In the shooting phase, unit 1 opened up on the assault marines, causing 6 wounds. John saved all but one. I didn’t think that was good enough, so I sacrificed the thrall and shot Doombolt again, taking one more down. A Bolt of Change from my sorcerer claimed one more. This was enough to make the unit fall back. Ha! I wasn’t going to be charged next turn.

Squad #2 didn’t have any marines in range, so the Aspiring Champion fired Doombolt into the side of the Rhino. The shot was good enough to immobilize it. Hmm, this new Aspiring Champion is already showing promise…

Turn 2

John - Movement-Rhino- immobilized..chooses to fire rather than self repair. Alpha Squad- Holds and Fires into advancing Ksons. Beta Squad Holds and Fires at Scott. Second Squad Assault Squad - Holds stays in cover.

Shooting-Rhino- Fires stormbolter- misses. Alpha Squad- 8 shots, including Krak Missile and Plasma Gun land 4 wounds on scotts 1st squadhe makes all his saves. Beta Squad- fires a Krak and second squad- misses.

Scott - This turn’s moves were basically me moving all my units forward. Unit #2 got a crappy 2” for their S&P roll. That was still not enough for me to target John’s unit hanging back on his right flank.

Shooting wasn’t as impressive as the previous turn. I managed to cause only one casualty on the unit containing John’s leader. Unit #2 Stunned the rhino but kept it’s eyes on that unit far off in the wastes.

Turn 3

John - Movement-Rhino- immobilized..chooses to fire rather than self repair. Alpha Squad- Holds and Fires into advancing Ksons. Beta Squad Holds and Fires at Scott Second Squad. Assault Squads- flies towards scotts advancing squad.

Shooting-Rhino- misses. Assault Squad- fires pistols miss and flamer causes 1 wound.Alpha Squad- lands 5 wounds, plasma gun kills one wounded Chaos Marine, scott saves the restBeta Squad- another Krak missile misses, I did not land one the whole game.

Assault-Critical error... my distance to charge is short by 1 inch!!! My guys are now sitting ducks, lesson learned here.

Scott - Wow, my sorcerers must have cast some kind of hex on John’s Plasma and krak missiles. I truly am blessed of Tzeentch.

Anyway, More slow moving. I position my Sorcerer HQ right in front of John’s unit w/ his HQ and let rip with Wind of Chaos. Four marines were consumed by the dread fire of Tzeentch!
Unit one eliminated the last remnants of John’s assault unit and I breathed a sigh of relief.
My HQ then charged the recently decimated unit of Ultramarines and cut down three more!

Turn 4

John - Movement-Rhino- immobilized... chooses to fire rather than self repair. HQ/ Squad 1- in close combat. Beta Squad- holds and fires.

Shooting-Rhino- fires misses. Beta Squad- entire squads blasts Scotts second squad with rapid fire bolters, plasma gun and krak missile I roll a 13 attacks, Scott's Ksons scoff- my plasma comes up 1 with a gets hot, I fail the save and die, my Krak misses again and all the bolter shots on come out to 1 wound on one soldier after saves.AssaultHQ/ Alpha Squad Close Combat- land 1 wound on his sorcerer lord.

Scott - Movement in this turn is pretty minmal as my HQ Sorcerer is locked in comabt with John's Alpha Squad.

My Squad 2 manages to take John's Beta squad down to three marines.

The Assault phase is tense as our two HQs face off. We pull a Superman/ Doomsday and kill each other simultaneously. I was hoping that my general would do a demonic dance of victory over the corpse of Captain Brother Septimius, but at least I took him out.

Turn 5 (Note - both my and John's notes seem to be fuzzy from here on out.)

John - Movement Rhino- immobilized/ Crew Stunned. Alpha Squad- Shoots then Assaults. Beta Squad- advances and fires.

Shooting/ Assault-Alpha -I can't make out my notes here but either my Sgt's pistol or the assault lands some wounds. I kill one Chaos Marine here. Beta Squad- Bolters fire, I cause a wound here to the other squad.

Scott - I was shocked when alpha squad charged me. I mean, I know I suck at close combat, but that was a brave effort from those marines.

Anyway, we pretty much called the game at this point. Or as John, said, "The Thunderhawk comes down and rescues the last three marines standing."

Fair enough.

Final Recap

John - Wow, some my worst dice to date. I could barely do a thing and failed alot of saves.The highlight of game for me was the commanders taking each other out in a brutal close combat.I personally cant wait for the new Chaos Codex. While AP3 bolters sounds like hell, facing troops with only 1 wound will be nice change in dynamic.

Great game Scott...your revenge was served warm and cold and with a shovel!.

Quote of the day, from Scott after my 6th miss with a Krak missile- "Stop calling it a missile, call it a rocket as missile has the word MISS in it!" So true my friend. Next time- the Ultramarines counter attack.

Scott - I can't complain much about this game. It went smashingly well for me. I think my list could have been a little better. I probably didn't need to buy both my squads Wind of Chaos since neither of them got close enough to use it. I could have spent that money to give my HQ a better edge in close combat. I'm working on a Disc of Tzeentch right now which could have probably swung that last assault in my favor.

Also, John's Army looks great. I only had about 30% of my points painted and my leader looked pretty silly flying around without arms. I really need to try to get more painting done.

PS - Here's one more close up shot. More on the way, I promise.