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| The Emperor's Ghosts in full regalia! |
So what was my army in the end:
Chapter master (Sentinels of Terra) with bike, artificer armour, storm shield, power fist
Ko'Sarro Khan (White Scars) with bike
Tactical Squad (Sentinels) with drop pod (locator beacon), plasmagun, combi-plasma
Combat Squad with bolters
Bikes (4) with grav-gun x2, combi-grav, multi-melta attack bike
Bikes (4) with grav-gun x2, combi-grav, multi-melta attack bike
Storm Raven with lascannons and multi-melta
Thunderfire cannon
Tactical terminators (5)
Sentinels of Terra are allowed to re-roll all their failed to hit rolls when firing bolter-based weaponry within half range of an enemy. The idea was to drive the bikes forward with scout, drop the pod in the front lines and then teleport the terminators off its locator beacon while the storm Raven zoomed forward so my entire army was in my opponents deployment zone ASAP. I think it would have worked if the terminators were another bike squad, or the tactical squad was another bike squad. In any case, I needed another bike squad in every game. I didn't want to use three squads because I thought it was a bit cheap in an event meant to be friendly, but it really cost me. If I could have my time again I would swap the terminators for a command squad with four combi-gravs and melta bombs, make the bike squads melta gun squads and put the tactical squad in a Rhino to focus on securing objectives (the points would even out).
In hindsight, I think I could have won all my games except the last one where the dice went dark on me, but I'm not that good a player unfortunately. I had bad target priority in my first game, whcih also ended up exposing my chapter master to instant death. In game two I needed to hit one flank harder, but also got a little unlucky when my drop pod got wiped by a single AP1 shot, so my terminators mishap'ed (terrain was everywhere). Game three I thought I played really well but my opponent drew good objectives that he could score and so we ended up drawing. At one point I secured all 6 objectives on the board! Game four I won because my opponent was immobile. Game five the dice went dark but I managed to only lose by 1 because by then I had realised that bikes are best used turbo boosting to objectives and avoiding casualties rather than actually hurting your opponent.
So that's the summary, now for some detail:
Game 1: Ultramarines
My opponents list:
Chapter Master on bike with shield eternal, burning blade, artificer armour, bike*
5 bikes with no upgrades
Tactical squad with flamer and rocket launcher, flamer in razorback, rocket launcher on Quad
Tactical squad with flamer and rocket launcher, flamer in Land Raider, RK behind Aegis
6 scouts with sniper rifles, one with heavy bolter with hellfire (2+) rounds
Venerable dreadnought with assault cannon
Thunderfire cannon
Pretty sure you can't have burning blade and the shield on the same model, but the TOs didn't pick it up and I don't think it's broken so I didn't mention it.
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| Lighting was bad |
He went first, deployed across his zone with the Raider, dread and razorback on one flank, the bikes in the middle with the cannon and a combat squad and the quad gun on the other end with a combat squad. I scouted the bikes forward but out of rapid fire and charge range (well, 10", which he didn't make). My cannon sat in a bolstered ruin from where he could see most things. Everything else was in reserve. he deployed his scouts on top of a tall building in the middle of the table. See below (lighting was terrible that early in the morning).
First turn he moved forward and did some ineffectual shooting (his thunderfire missed). My turn I grav-gunned 2 of his bikes and set up the pseudo-command squad for the charge on his CM. My other bikes shot his quad gun squad, killing 2. My thunderfire missed the scouts. My pod come down and I killed the thunderfire with plasma shots and killed a tactical marine with bolter fire. In assault I wiped the rest of the bikes with Khan and the two Chapter masters traded a wound.
His turn 2 he killed some of my marines with his land raider and moved forward with the Razorback and Dreadnought on the flank towards my lines. They were effectively stranded at this point. However, his dreadnought did shoot at my thunderfire and got a rend which killed the techmarine and so the model was removed. Now I should have said something here, but IDK, maybe I was trying to be sporting and not rules lawyer or something, but he couldn't see the techmarine, only the cannon, so I think the cannon should have taken the wound. I confirm this later with other people. Probably quite important to the outcome of the match because I had to stop my opponent scoring an nearby objective next turn. The CMs traded another wound and then I hit and ran out of the close combat.
My turn the terminators arrived adjacent to the pod, the Raven stayed off. This is where I blundered big. I went for quantity of kills rather than quality. I should have thrown everything at the chapter master. He was the only serious threat on the table. My Raven was going to kill the Dreadnought as soon as it arrived and the Raider couldn't do enough damage to really annoy me. Instead I shot a bunch of stuff at the CM - enough to kill him statistically, but he passed about 10 3++ saves and a bunch more 2+, so still had his 2 wounds. I should also have put all my terminators and bolters into him, and then charged him if I still needed to kill him. Instead I stuck with my original plan of charging Khan into a combat squad (he wiped them) and killing another with the terminators. My Chapter master reversed to kill a razorback with a punch in the bum.
Then it all went pear shaped. The CM went on a rampage over the next few turns and I couldn't run away from him because I needed objectives. My CM popped the 55 point Razorback but then got instant killed in assault by the Dreadnought. My Raven arrived on turn 4 and wasn't able to get me enough objectives. I lost bad.
In hindsight I should have thrown everything at the CM, including in Assault and killed him. I could have even consolidated the bikes behind a wall to avoid fire from the raider. I could then have sent the Terminators and CM to try and kill the raider with their fists in assault. My Raven would have arrived to kill the Dreadnought before it reached anything important. My bikes could have played cat and mouse with it, killing tactical marines and siezing objectives as necessary, and Khan would have lived to be a nuisance. Main lesson I take away from this game is that sportsmanship doesn't involve not saying when you think the rules are different. My opponent once shot his scouts when I don't think he had line of site from most of the unit. My techmarine should have lived. Second lesson I take is that target priority is key when playing bikes, especially against marines who may well have limited ways to kill you. Once the CM was dead I could have taken apart the rest of his army without many casualties.
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| The crows are wound markers |
GAME 2: Tau
His list:
Commander with Puretide chip, drone controller
3 crisis suits
Broadside squad with railguns and missile drones
Riptide with Ion
fire warrior squad with fireblade and devilfish
fire warrior squad with devilfish
big pathfinder squad
I got first turn and got the Tide down to 1 wound, killed some drones and a broadside, killed some drones in the crisis team. The drop pod ate interceptor fire from the Tide which killed both plasma gunners and exploded, leaving me with no locator beacon on a congested table. My terminators had a mishap when they rolled 8 on the scatter and ended up deployed out of the action. I was maybe winning, then I took a few too many casualties and the Tau managed to exit their deployment zone in time to score enough objectives and win.
Lessons: I should have hit one flank harder. The single grav teams weren't enough to kill their targets because of the ablative drones. I could have killed the tide and then concentrated everything on the commanders team. This would have allowed me to avoid half the shooting from the fire warriors and taken down parts of his army in isolation. Instead, I was seduced by the opportunity to score three objectives, but it meant my commander died too cheap and Khan wasn't around long enough to make up for it (though he was mowing units). Taking objectives is an interesting conundrum against Tau and Guard. On the one hand you have to move forward to kill their units or they'll shoot you over the range of the entire board. The table had a lot of terrain but none of it blocked line of site. On the other hand, you need to leave some units milling about the table to capture objectives. I probably could have managed with more bikes/Rhinos, but then my comp score would have been lower and a low comp Tau army would be two tides and missile-sides, which would have made the situation almost identical.
The Raven was effective but he managed to get his broadsides onto a mysterious skyfire objective and shoot it down. Flyers are much weaker in mysterious objective games. If the terminators had been another bike squad I think I would have won this game quite comfortably. Instead I lost pretty bad. I had a great time though. My opponent was good for the lols and he had a bunch of mates walking around giving hilarious spot commentary on our and nearby games. Much was made of 'some Tau bullshit'. Like 'Oh yeah, my ballistic skill is rubbish but I basically ignore that rule because all my guns are twin-linked...or some Tau bullshit'. 'Oh no I've only rolled half my shooting; I get an extra shot from the fireblade...what?...it's some Tau bullshit'.
GAME 3: 30K World Eaters
Angron again, but this time we played on a Zone Mortalis table. For those who don't know, it's a three dimensional space hulk table. It was pretty ideal for my army because the bikes could duck behind cover and redeploy while his all foot army was stranded. My thunderfire was also completely unassailable, though it didn't have line of site to anything. His army was:
Angron
tactical squad with apothecary (artificer), sergeant with power axe
tactical squad with apothecary (artificer), sergeant with power axe
tactical squad with apothecary (artificer), sergeant with power axe
I played this pretty well except the last turn which didn't matter anyway. I think maybe at one point I should have pushed a combat squad a little more forward but otherwise I was good. I remember the last game, so I dropped an empty pod onto an objective and started the terminators on foot. The bikes shot forward to objectives and weakened some squads, then withdrew to focus on an isolated squad in a corner before coming back when needed to claim all six objectives. I suffered few casualties other than my terminators, who were pretty pathetic (couldn't beat a tactical squad - though mostly because of the power axe at the back of the squad). In the end though, it was a draw. How? Well he drew objectives he could score in the early game and got way ahead. He rolled 3VP for two objectives as well. To be fair though, he had a chance to win the game on the last turn when Fleet Angron had to roll a 7 on the charge and failed twice. No lessons from this one. Maybe pay attention to the score. I wasn't discarding as thoughtfully as I could.
GAME 4: Iron hands
I got a win! We played the mission where you draw equal to the number of objectives you have and I drew about 10 cards before he drew 2. His army wasn't well equipped for Maelstrom, but we had a good chat about it.
Chapter Master with artificer armour, thunder hammer and storm shield
5 terminators with lightning claws
5 Vanguard with power weapons and relic blades
devastator squad with lascannons and rocket launchers
Tactical squad with heavy bolter and flamer
Tactical squad with rocket launcher and flamer
Dreadnought with assault cannon and flamer in pod
Land Raider redeemer
I went first and scouted stuff onto objectives. My pod landed on an elevated objective. I had the terminators on foot and they just stood on an open ground objective. I killed some stuff, notably his devastators on turn 1, but the main thing was I was clearing all my objective cards every turn. When the Raven arrived it made it even easier because the terminators could move forward to reinforce the bikes who had been whittled down by then. I got plasma into the dreadnought and krak grenades into its pod. When his terminators and Vanguard arrived I had the time to redeploy and weaken them with grav before they could charge, and my CM got to grips with the terminators who couldn't clear his artificer armour.
GAME 5: Necrons
Another rematch. A few reports ago I mentioned a game where my Chapter master at the front of a command squad failed a whole bunch of feel no pain and artificer armour saves. Same opponent, same thing happened. I went second, which wasn't a huge disadvantage. My drop pod squad failed to put even a single hull point on his big scary barge. My bikes did almost no wounds and then got smoked in return fire. I opened the game by failing 3 out of 5 artificer armour saves.
I managed to bring it back by drawing a lot of 'secure objective X' cards and zooming around with one and two man bike squads to grab them. I deployed the terminators and the combat squad in the Raven deep in my zone so he had to walk over to me. My Raven got some Big Game Hunter points and some scoring points, so in the end I think I only lost by 2. Against immobile armies like Crons, take out the few fast units and then just play cat and mouse.
So my main lessons:
1. All my games were winnable except number 5, and maybe 3. If you don't take a power list (even then) you're going to need to play well to win
2. Bikes fall apart pretty easily if you start to take casualties. Don't be afraid to turbo boost away in turn 3 or so to conserve units for scoring objectives later.
3. You want three bike squads, not two, especially if you've invested in Khan
4. Terminators really do suck, even though I love them. There are better things to do with those points. Every game a tactical squad in a Rhino would have been better.
5. As a marine player you need to kill things that can kill you. The rest is pretty redundant because you can sit on objectives all day.
6. If you think the rules don't support something then say so. Don't stay quite.
I leave you with some shots from the team game in round three, where you played with your opponent from round 2 against another pair in a modified relic game (you have to get the relic into your opponent's deployment zone - Rugby with guns and tanks). We had a Tau gun line and a bike army against two foot armies. Was rough...for our opponents. But it seemed like everyone had a good time. On a nearby table Angron smacked a Maulerfiend in the butt and it proceeded to pass 7 of 9 daemon saves. lol.
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