Not so many lessons

I played a game this week but it was a bit uneventful. It was against a lovely guy who I've played about a half dozen times now and he's just really bad at playing the game. Amazing painter, very poor general. I suppose those things do tend to go together. His list has improved over the months and I even brought a fairly toned down list, but it was a slaughter.

My list (Imperial fists tactics)

Chapter Master w/Bike, artificer armour, storm shield, power fist

4 bikes with two grav guns and combi-grav, attack bike with multi-melta
5 scouts with camo cloaks and boltguns
10 tactical marines in a Rhino with a plasma gun and combi-plasma

10 Sternguard in a pod with five combi-meltas; combat squads
7 Terminators with storm bolters

Storm talon

Thunderfire Cannon

His List

Chaos Lord with mark of nurgle, demonheart, slaughters horns, power sword?
ML3 Sorcerer

10 plague marines in a Rhino with two plasma-guns
10 plague marines in a Rhino with two plasma guns

3 obliterators
Lascannon Predator

Helldrake with baleflamer

We played mission four, where you can't discard tactical objectives and anyone can score 'secure objective X' rather than just the player who has it in hand. It uses long table edges. He rolled on divination for his sorcerer rather than summoning, even though plague marines hardly need any more buffs. He elected to go first. He deployed his obliterators, which I think is strange but he seems to really dislike deep-striking them. He spread his guys out across his board edge, which I think is totally the wrong way to play a foot army, especially when I'm going to deep strike two elite squads and a jet. He always spreads out and it doesn't make any sense! I deployed everything on the flank with his predator and one Rhino. He seemed surprised when I elected not to seize the initiative. I'll take turn 2 every time if my opponent doesn't have anything but a predator in range on turn 1.

On his first turn his plague marines disembarked from one of his Rhinos for no apparent reason. He shot his predator and obliterators at my Rhino but only put one hull points on it because the lascannon couldn't bring all its sponsons to bear because he had it behind cover for no reason, and one of his obliterators couldn't draw line of sight because it too was behind cover. Lascannons also suck. On my turn I podded down next to his full Rhino and Predator and nuked the Rhino. I shot some 2+ wound rounds into the plague marines. The blast and shooting killed 3 guys. I shot more from the bikes, which killed more guys. The thunderfire indirect fired at the distant squad and scattered to nowhere.

Keep running, we'll get there eventually...

His turn his empty Rhino drove towards my thunderfire for no discernible reason, and his plague marines plodded 6" towards my guys, remaining more than 24" away. He did not spread them out 2". If he had stayed in his Rhino he could have gotten his guys over to me for some effectual shooting. His oblits could have dropped down and flamed some shit or fired plasma at my sternguard from a good position, but instead he shot plasma cannons at my bikes, where the Chapter Master predictably tanked most of the wounds. He charged my sternguard, killing one. His predator shot my Rhino and did another hull point. Again, one sponson was out of action due to positioning to avoid my non-existent anti-tank. His drake came on and flamed by my bikes, doing 0 wounds because my CM got a 2+. Again, why not flame the sternguard and keep your plague marines alive while also ensuring the drake has something to do next turn.

My turn the terminators stayed off but the talon came on. It destroyed his empty Rhino. I've found talons largely unable to hamper Drakes, so I don't even bother. It's not an AA flyer, it's an infantry hunter and it kills transports really well. I thought I'd left it out of vector strike range but I let my opponent VS next turn even though the drake couldn't fly over it and so technically flew alongside it rather than VS it. Whatever. The thunderfire put 12 wounds on the unattached plague marine squad with a direct hit, killing maybe 3 of them. It would have been almost totally ineffectual if they were still in a Rhino, and they could have been threatening said cannon. My bikes and second Sternguard combat squad charged his surviving plague marines. My scouts held an objective. My Rhino dropped some guys then zoomed over to an objective. I offloaded the marines because the Rhino was in vector strike range of the drake with only 1 hull point left and I didn't want them to be stranded on the distant objective it was holding. They disembarked behind cover in my backfield so I scored 'hold the line'. The plague marines died before they could swing because they are I3. It was a bit awkward there for a second because he was very adamant that they were I4 and I tried to politely suggest we check because in my game last weekend I remember them being I3. So we checked and then we both had a laugh, so all good.

His turn he Vector Striked my talon as I mentioned, killing it. His blob again chose to shoot my Chapter Master, doing nothing because only about 5 boltguns were in range. He did a wound with his obliterators. My turn the terminators teleported to about 7" from his blob. I used orbital bombardment on it, and hit! I've never hit with it before. It was devastating. My sternguard (only a few could see), scouts and tactical marines all shot at the obliterators and did three wounds. The terminators left one standing. My bikes shot the remainder of his blog, reducing it to his lord and two plague marines. I didn't make the 11" charge. He conceded. Because he had three models left and the score was 6-2 or something and I was holding the 'secure all objectives for D6+6 points' card which I would score next turn.

Remember this scene? It was a bit like that...

Some musing: I feel bad for this guy. I brought a middle of the road list. Not weak, but not uber either. Terminators are generally considered terrible. I used Imperial Fist rules. Scouts are pretty shit. I didn't OS spam. I only brought one bike squad. The chapter master didn't have the shield eternal. But he still got smashed. He always gets smashed. I think if we swapped armies I could have made a red-hot go of it, especially if I could make a cut to give the sorcerer a spell familiar and just sit him in a corner casting summoning all game. That's even considering that his sorcerer isn't on a bike, nor is his lord and he doesn't have any units beside the drake that really put the hurt on. I also know he has spawn so maybe drop the predator, stick meltaguns on the plague marines and stick that Lord on a bike and let him ride with some spawn. Why did he spread his troops out? Why did he disembark his plague marines and then drive off the Rhino, thereby stranding one of his core units? Why did his Helldrake shoot at my chapter master? Why didn't he teleport his obliterators? My girlfriend says he obviously just enjoys the game in a different way, which is fair enough, as I said his painting his amazing and I always try to compliment him on it, but I can't imagine someone likes losing all the time. I don't understand why he doesn't get better. Like I said, he always spreads out and it never works, even when he was using an Aegis Defence Line. Ugh, anyway...

Lessons:
- Confirmed: plague marines are super tough but will die if you can concentrate a lot of fire on them.
- Now that Drakes are nerfed, you can effectively hide from them with a 2+ save or by sitting in a Rhino.
- Drakes are now devastating at AA, but can't pop tanks with a VS+Hades combo like they used to
- Fear not the lascannon

Next time I play this guy I'm going to try to bring the worst possible units (that's not really how the space marine codex works - everything is okay): devastator squads, predators, dreadnoughts, assault marines, assault terminators without a land raider etc and see what happens. Maybe something like this:

ULTRAMARINES

Name: to the fluff!

HQ: Chapter Master with terminator armour, thunder hammer and storm shield (190)

5 Assault Terminators - 3 lightning claws, 2 thunder hammer and storm shield (210)
Dreadnought with assault cannon in a drop pod (135)

tactical squad in Rhino with plasmagun and combi-plasma (200)
tactical squad in Rhino with meltagun and combi-melta (190)
5 scouts with camo cloaks and boltguns (65)

Devastator squad with 4 rocket launchers and an extra body (144 points)

10 Assault marines with jump packs, veteran sergeant with power fist (240 points!)

Vindicator (125)

Total: 1499

I predict the Helldrake will go on a rampage if I'm not in assault immediately.