So my list was basically:
Succubus with agoniser, haywire
9 Wyches with haywire, razorflail; hekatrix with agoniser, in Raider
10 Warriors with blaster, splinter cannon in Raider
5 Warriors with blaster in Venom
6 Reavers, with 2 heat lances and 2 cluster caltrops
9 Hellions
Ravager
Razorwing with flickerfield
Seen here on the table I drew for my first game - Meatropolis!
A totally sweet board, that went on to win Player's Choice for best table. Light up streetlights included!
Pretty as it was, I couldn't help but think that there was only a little LOS-blocking terrain, distributed toward the edges of the table. Still, there was plenty of area terrain (lots of craters, in particular, although they would be of dubious benefit to the largely flying-based parts of my army). So long as I didn't draw Imperial Guard or something, I figured I'd be right.
After a stroll around looking at all the pretty models on show (there were a lot!), I came back to find my opponent had arrived. I introduced myself, and sauntered around to check which army I would be arrayed against.
Damn.
Oliver's Imperial Guard was roughly:
Lord Commissar
Platoon -
PCS with heavy bolter (or was it an autocannon?), couple of plasma
2 x infantry squad with autocannon, plasma
autocannon squad
Veterans, with 3 x some special (meltas?), in a Chimera
Vendetta
2 x Sentinels with heavy flamers
Leman Russ with heavy bolters all around
Hydra
Basilisk
AEgis line (no upgrade)
I didn't take very many photos, as this was my first tourney in 10 years, and I was a bit out of practice. So I've made some after action maps in Vassal, which will hopefully help tell the story.
The mission for this first game was a variation on Crusade; there were 5 objectives, the Imperial Guard player counted his Fast Attack as scoring units, and I counted my Heavy Support as scoring units. We joked that in our case it should probably have been the other way around, but whatever. Deployment was Dawn of War. Also, secondary objectives didn't count for victory, only for overall standings.
Here's a (slightly shonky) map of the ground.
The white 'hills' represent the slopes on the board, which generally was high in the south-west and low in the north-east. The bridges were open terrain; the ruins in the far east, and the walls in the north-west and centre-west were the only LOS blocking terrain. There was however a sewer/ditch kinda thing running along the west side, represented here as a trench. There were also two large ground vents, which were an artistic way of allowing access to LED controls etc, and we simply treated these as open ground. Although we tried not to roll dice near them!
I ended up in the bottom deployment zone, perhaps because I won the roll to choose. However Oliver had first place of objectives, so perhaps I am misremembering. In any case, he placed his Aegis line in the north west corner, bridging a line between the wall on the west and the hill slope on the east, then placed his first objective snugly inside.
I placed mine opposite, about 12" away, in front of the other wall, more or less on the centreline. I had no reason to hang around in my own deployment zone, after all. He then placed his next under the bridge in his deployment zone, forming a neat triangle. With my second and final objective, I went as far east as I could manage, placing just north of the ruins there, in fairly open terrain. I did this to encourage him to either split his forces, or leave an objective for to take unopposed. I would be happy with either. I've actually forgotten where the 5th objective went (this is clearly what comes of stuffing around too long before writing a report!), but it didn't play any part in the battle. I think it must have been near the trees in the middle.
Unaccountably, I forgot to add the objectives to my map pictures until about Turn 2. Oops. They are there, I simply forgot about them earlier :(
Anyway, with that we rolled for choice of first turn, and I won this roll. I considered going second to see how he reacted to the objective split, but since he had already telegraphed his infantry deployment with his AEgis, and also since I had little to hide behind, I took first turn. I deployed in a broad line, just so that if he happened to seize my whole army wouldn't be wiped by ordnance blasts (been there, bought the T-Shirt, not risking it again). My Ravager, scoring in this mission, was deployed on the east to threaten the objective there while swooping around to menace any vehicles - there was limited room behind his AEgis, so I expected his vehicles at the bottom of his bridge, protecting the objective there. My wyches and bikes were on the west, aiming to use the cover of the walls to get into his infantry. Warriors and Hellions took the middle.
Deployment was a little more scattered than I would normally opt for, and didn't focus heavily on either flank. I was hoping to remove his infantry from the equation by outranging them on the east and hiding on the west. But perhaps I was too scared of his ordnance, also.
I'm always a little nervous about fighting Imperial Guard; they really are my bete noir. So I hoped for a good drug roll, and was slightly miffed to roll Hypex. On the bright side, running further would probably be more use than a buff to attacks or wound (I wasn't expecting to have trouble killing his dudes in melee), but +1 S to hit vehicles or a pain token would have been really handy. Oh, well, I still had first turn.
Oliver surprised me a little with his counter-deployment, putting the Hydra and Leman Russ exposed on the east, with the Sentinels scouting forward aggressively to seize the eastern objective. I didn't think this was such a big issue; as my Ravager was in a perfect position to neutralise his Hydra first-up, and support from both Warrior squads should be able to hold his Russ at bay. As long as he didn't seize the initiative, of course.
Deployment
Naturally, he then seized the initiative
Fuck.
As Nightfight hadn't been in the mission briefing, we didn't roll for it. After round one we found out that we were supposed to be rolling for it per the rulebook. It would've been handy in a situation like this, but such is life! We did roll for warlord traits, but both proved inconsequential.
Turn One - Imperial Guard
Getting seized on always feels bad. I've been thinking about taking the second turn more often, just so that I can be the one trying to seize. Anyway, the damage was significant (Ravager blown away, Warrior's Raider fragged), but not terminal. The Warriors that survived their explosion were pinned, but at least didn't run, and a Reaver hiding in the trees was ganked by a (very) stray battlecannon blast. The Sentinels ran ahead of the objective to hide behind the ruin, no doubt with itchy promethium trigger fingers. The wyches were unharmed, and thee Hellions may or may not have lost one guy. Then, it was my (belated) first turn.
Turn One - Dark Eldar
Time to pick up the pieces. Luckily my Reavers and Wyches were mostly intact, and so they raced up the west lank in accordance with the plan. The Reavers used their turbo-boost to hide behind the north-west wall, practically in Oliver's deployment zone. Tempted as I always am to bladvane targets of opportunity, in this case trying to fit them into the mess behind the AEgis line would have been counterproductive (and fatal), so I settled for biding my time.
Meanwhile, the Hellions leapt for the trees in the middle of the board, running to make it a bit closer, ready to launch splinter fire and assaults across the line next turn. They made their difficult terrain checks without incident. The Venom wheeled around and forwards, and I hoped next turn to be able to do some damage with the blaster on board, while maybe killing a guardsman or two with the splinter cannons. The turn ended without further incident, and I girded my loins for the next fusillade.
Turn Two - Imperial Guard
As luck would have it, the Vendetta stayed off for now. Meanwhile, the Hellions copped a lot of heat from most of the army, being reduced to only three models. Amusingly, the Hydra failed to down the Venom, but the Sentinels had marched forwards and found themselves just in range to barbecue it, which they did. Four warriors were killed in the ensuing explosion, leaving just the blaster guy alive.
On the west, the Lord Commissar accompanied a single squad of guard in sallying forth from the AEgis line to rapid fire into the jetbikes. This was preceded by a blast from the heavy flamer of the Basilisk - I was surprised at this, since the wall was quite high and blocked line of sight completely, but I've always been a bit hazy on the rules for templates and LOS so I didn't make a scene. I must either clarify it or try and remember it for the future, though; my poor bikes are flame magnets. Luckily, three survived the onslaught, including both heat lances.
Just as I was counting my lucky stars, both the Hellions and the single blaster dude failed leadership and ran for the hills. Can't have everything I guess.
Turn 2 - Dark Eldar
Unlike the tardy Imperial flyer, my Razorwing was prompt, which was nice because I desperately needed more forces! It came in immediately opposite the IG main infantry concentration, looking to thin out their numbers.
Then, the Hellions failed to rally and ran off the board, and the lone blaster did likewise, leaving me with no presence on the eastern flank at all.
In the centre, my warriors advanced slowly toward the objective, having rolled poorly for difficult terrain. The splinter cannon however was able to snap off some shots at the Gardsmen still behind the AEgis, and killed a couple.
The Reavers popped over the wall and fried the Basilisk in an eminently satisfying fashion. I did however manage to lose the third, non-heat lance biker in the explosion - oops - before leaping backwards to relative safety. Said explosion also aced the platoon commander, who happened to be the closest to the hapless vehicle. The rest of the platoon command squad was killed shortly after by errant monoscythe missiles. Despite being aimed at the point where the two squads overlapped, and adding dark lances into the autocannon heavy weapon squad to boot, not a single one of the weapon teams were killed. They could have shown their officer's squad a thing or two about using cover, for sure.
Then, I think the other squad behind the AEgis ran away, frolicking off the board in a cowardly cavalcade that was exceptionally handy for me.
My wyches advanced and disembarked, preparing to assault the bravely advancing Imperial Guardsmen. Tempted as I was to frag a bunch of them with a plasma grenade, I opted not to shoot so as not to leave myself swinging in the breeze. Or, for that matter, scattering hot plasma onto my scantily-clad self. Instead I skipped straight to assaulting. I lost a wych to overwatch, and another to the combat, but reduced the squad to just the heavy weapons team and the enemy Warlord himself. The squad sergeant accepted my Succubus' challenge, with immediately fatal consequences. Testing on the Lord Commissar's high, stubborn Ld, they held for round two.
Turn Three - Imperial Guard
The Vendetta arrived, and promptly targeted the Razorwing, like almost all of the Imperial Guard army. The Sentinels moved in to become the undisputed masters of the eastern objective, and the autocannon squad fragged the Wych's Raider before it got any funny ideas. Miraculously, the Razorwing survived on locked velocity, with 1 Hull Point left, thanks to some poor shooting and good flickerfield saves. Which brought us on to combat, where the Lord Commissar challenged my Succubus, who eagerly accepted.
They duelled (cinematically!) on the bridge over the sewer, while the other wyches butchered the heavy weapons team. I think the two warlords each inflicted a wound on each other. Needless to say, the Commissar held his ground.
Turn Three - Dark Eldar
At this point I had at best one action with the Razorwing. I couldn't hit the Vendetta - it was too close to me - and so I opted to have a crack at the Sentinels sitting happily on the objective. Two missiles and two dark lances produced one Hull Point of damage. So much for that.
The Reavers performed much better, however, instakilling two of the autocannon teams with their heat lances, then charging into the remaining one. Who refused to die, so that we drew combat.
In the other combat, it occurred to me that I didn't really want to win this combat on my turn, so I called a Glorious Intervention by my Hekatrix. Buoyed by a pain token from wiping the squad and rerolls from the bystanders, I figured she would be able to cut up the Commissar in two turns. In th end she did a wound that was saved on his refractor field, and he did a wound that she didn't feel, so we stayed where we were.
And of course while this was all happening, my warriors continued to approach the centre-west objective.
Turn Four - Imperial Guard
It was turn 4, and we started to hear the ten minute warning music. Whaaat? Had we been playing so long? Oh well, time to hurry up a bit.
The Razorwing was easily knocked out of the air by the Hydra, while the Vendetta dropped into hovermode to attack the warriors getting dangerously close to the objective, reducing them to four.
In the melees, the autocannon team took a wound from the Reavers and legged it; the Reavers caught them in a sweeping advance to earn a pain token. I was about to declare that my Succubus would intervene in the challenge, when I remembered that I could only do that on my turn. Oops, well it was up to the Hekatrix after all! She failed to close out the deal, doing no damage and taking none from the resolute Commissar.
Turn Four - Dark Eldar
The four remaining warriors took possession of the centre-west objective, giving me a chance. Then, the Reavers annihilated the Chimera containing the Veterans; many veterans died in the explosion and in another lucky break, the remainder fled from the board. His bridge objective, so secure just a couple of turns ago, was now seriously shaky. I'd wiped out all his Troops, so only is Sentinels and Vendetta could now score. But I was running low on scoring units myself, and I needed to finish off his Commissar so that my Wyches could score the objective behind his AEgis line - not least to give me another chance should he wipe my warriors next turn.
So, the Succubus intervened for real, telling the Hekatrix sharply that she'd had her chance! A flurry of blows later, and the Lord Commissar was left on one wound; he stubbornly stayed in the uneven fight.
Turn Five - Imperial Guard
We weren't sure if we would be able to finish turn 5, but we agreed to go for it and call it a draw (one objective each) if we didn't finish in time.
Then we moved to melee. All I had to do was take his Commissar's last wound, and stroll onto his objective in my turn and I was home free. My Succubus smashed three wounds into him, and he... made three refractor field saves? Fuck!
Turn Five - Dark Eldar
My last Reaver went for his hovering Vendetta, and immobilised it! No scoring for him. The warriors sat, scoring their objective. My Succubus launched some more volleys of blows, and eventually brought down the valiant Commissar, after seven rounds of melee combat! It was up to the consolidate move to score the objective. I measured the distance before rolling - they were just under 7" away, so I needed a four. I rolled a five, and took the lead for the first time.
Here, we checked the clock, and discovered that we were 20 minutes after the end time that we had been told. Unsure of the go, we agreed to call it there. Presumably the other organisers needed the data from the game to plot the next round? However, we later noticed other people playing through lunch, so I couldn't help but feel a heel. We would probably have drawn had we gone to turn six, and he would definitely have won if we'd gone to turn seven. So it would have been nice if clearer direction on timing had been provided.
Still, the result stood. I got away with one there. Thanks very much for Oliver, who was a very generous and engaging opponent; hopefully next year you'll get the chance to level the score!
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