Bat Rep 1500 Raven Guard vs Crimson Fists


Thou shall not pass...
I thought I'd share another battle report I was involved in to showcase the Land Raider Achilles.  Before fielding one, I read up on the interwebz and saw nothing but whining and moaning from people on how overpowered it was.  I'm convinced that all of the crybabies who whine about forgeworld units are exactly that, naive children who haven't actually seen the units in practice.



Anyway having played it, it basically only removes the viability of meltaguns which 90% of the community has come to rely on instead of having actual alternatives.  Remember when Monoliths ignored ALL +1D6 modifiers from things like chainfists too?  Well this isn't even as bad!  Anyway moral of the story, I'd just ignore the thing.  Onward to the report and a couple cool photos; this is written from the point of view of the RavenGuard player (blog here).  My comments are in red.

Game is 1500 Points, Kill Points, with DoW Deployment

Raven Guard

Terminator Libby w/ SS, Smite, and Might of the Ancients
Scouts w/ Rifles, Cloaks, ML
Scouts w/ CCW, Sgt w/PW
Scouts w/ CCW, Sgt w/PW
Assault Terminators w/ x3 TH+SS, x2 LC
Land Speeder Storm w/ MM
Land Speeder Storm w/ MM
Assault Squad x10, Sgt w/ PF and Plasma Pistol
Devastators x3 ML, x1 Lascannon
Land Raider Redeemer w/ MM
Thunderfire Cannon


Crimson Fists (Space Marine Codex; forgive the space wolves)
Pedro Kantor
Scouts w/ Boltguns
Scouts w/ CCW
Assault Terminators x5 TH+SS
Terminators x10 w/ x2 Cyclone ML
Dreadnought w/ x2 TL Autocannons
Land Speeder Storm
Land Raider Achilles **This is a Forge World variant. It's AV14, armed with TFC, x2 TL MM Sponsons. It has no Assault Ramp or Assault Launchers, and treats all Penetrating hits with a -1 modifier to the damage roll. In addition, Melta weaps do not gain the extra D6 to strength rolls and Lance weapons do not gain their AV12 Bonus**

Turn 1 [RG 0 Fists 0]

Right Flank
Ambit wins the roll and defers 1st turn to me. I deployed only my sniper scouts in the bolstered ruin, thanks to the techmarine attached to the TFC. Since he deployed nothing I begin to roll the rest of my units on. The Devs and Scouts now occupy the fortified ruin, with the Land Raider moving into the central area of the board, flanking to its right I bring in the remaining forces.

Squad Melek takes Position
I try to make as much of the cover as possible, knowing that the Night Fighting will probably render his shooting fairly ineffective. This would turn out to be true.



Turn 1 Fists [RG 0 Fists 0]

Ambit moves his Dreadnought into a ruin and gains firing position. He reserved his Assault termies, speeder, and one group of normal terminators. The Achilles and his Cyclone group walk onto his left flank. He attempts to gain a foothold in shooting but as mentioned prior, cannot see anything in the grim darkness of the 41st millenium.


Turn 2 Raven Guard [RG 0 Fists 0]

My Redeemer forward, as do my Speeders supported by the Assault Marines. I send a Speeder over to my Scouts in the ruin, hoping to deter a Deep Strike there with my Jamming Beacon. Shooting sees the Snipers pour fire into his dreadnought in the ruin and despite some good hits, cannot breach its armor. The Devs open fire on his terminators, taking 1 down with their Lascannon in the mix, supported by the Sgt's signum. The TFC also fires its Surface shell into the dreadnought, failing to break him.



The Raven Guard advance.
Turn 2 Fists [RG 0 Fists 0]

This turn sees the arrival of both his assault termies and his outflanking speeder. He decides to play it safe with the speeder and hide in it in a far ruin, out of line of sight from all my nearby units. He then decides to Deep Strike his Termies near my scouts/devs in their ruin. Since the Speeder is parked in front he needs to deep strike close to the board edge in a risky move. This doesn't pay off as he mishaps and they are lost to the warp. Roll for sadness.....critical fail.  I want to interject here and state that my hammer terminators were being played as space wolves.  This is the second time I have done this and BOTH times they mishapped and were lost to the warp.  I should trust the Space Wolf fear of teleporters and stop forcing them to try it.  He the proceeds to fire his dreadnought into my other speeder on the right flank, breaking its MM and Stunning it for a turn. His Achilles moves closer and he fires into the Assault Marines with its onboard TFC, but the marine armor holds, and I lose only 1 model. He did fire his Tremor shell meaning that my marines would need to take Dangerous terrain checks if they wanted to move next turn. His Cyclones also fire into my Speeder, scoring another Stun.


Turn 3 - Raven Guard [RG 1 Fists 0]

I move forward with the Crusader and Assault Marines, losing none to the Dangerous tests thank the Emperor. I take aim with the Snipers at the dreadnought again, this time missing badly. The Devastators fire into the Achilles, hoping for a lucky Lascannon strike but to no avail. My Crusader is out of range of his terminators next to the Achilles, and my TFC fires into the Dreadnought again, as there is a complete lack of other targets with LoS. He fails to beat the armor of the dreadnought again.


Turn 3 - Fists [RG 1 Fists 0]

His second squad of terminators arrives from reserve and he deep strikes them in the same location as his first group, this time, in the free and clear. He then moves he Achilles forward and shuffles his terminators to gain better LoS. The TwinLinked MultiMeltas of the Achilles take aim at my Crusader and wreck it with a single shot, my libby and termies are forced to disembark and pass their pinning test. His Terminators line up my Devs and manage to kill two of them, the Sgt and a ML. His Dreadnought also attempts to take down the Devs but to no avail, while his TFC unloads into my Assault marines with its Tremor shell once again. This time its attacks are quite devastating as between it and his Cyclones I lose all but 3. They promptly pass their leadership test and hold fast.

Assault Marines supported by their Terminator brethren.

Turn 4 - Raven Guard [RG 1 Fists 1]

I move my Termies towards his Achilles and the Assault marines follow suit. I try to send my Speeder into cover on the right flank, while my second speeder takes up firing position on his termies that deep struck. My Techmarine lines up his TFC to fire at the same terminators, scoring 14 wounds but only manage to down 1 of them. The Devs spin on their heels and manage to take down another of them, while a lucky Bolt Pistol round takes another from the scouts onboard the speeder. My Libby channels his psychic ability to cast Smite at his termies, but fails to bring a single one down. My assault Sgt. attempts his plasma pistol only to have it overheat but I make the armor save.

Turn 4 - Fists [RG 1 Fists 1]

Ambit moves his terminators to engage mine and moves his Achilles slightly backwards. Shooting sees his dreadnought end my speeder on the right flank, wrecking it and the scouts dive out, no worse for wear. His Achilles unloads into my terminators and kills one of them. His other terminators move on mine and prepare to launch their assault. The terminators in the scout ruin engage the Devs. That assault sees no casualties on either side as his and mine both whiff their attacks. The other combat, sees my Librarian Perils on his Might test, but still manages to fell one of his terminators, while my LC pierce their protection but the Crux saves all 3 of them. Then his fists attack back taking both LC's from me. My TH then strike in return, felling one more of his, tying the combat.


Turn 5 [RG 1 Fists 2]

The Veterans fight to the end.

My assault marines jump in to attempt to Melta Bomb his Achilles, while my scouts dismount and intend to put down some terminators. Shooting sees me once again to drop the dreadnought with both the Scouts and TFC, and, despite great hits, I cannot breach it! Instead I concentrate on winning the assaults. My Libby and remaining Hammers down all but one of his cyclones. His fails to beat my storm shields, but being stubborn he easily passes the Ld test. The other assault goes decisively my way as my Scout sgt cuts down two the remaining two terminators with his power axe.

The remaining Terminators are laid low .

Turn 5 Fists [RG 2 Fists 2]

His Achilles tank shocks my Assault marines and I elect to Death or Glory with my melta bomb sgt. I manage to score a Stun on it, but due to its special rule its downgraded to a 1 and I lose him. The others shuffle out of the way. He then fires his dreadnought into my Devs, and takes another ML out. His Achilles cannot shoot, thanks to the melta bomb so it uses PotMS as Pedro contemplates disembarking and aiding the final terminator. His firing take down my remaining two assault marines. Assault sees my terminators take down the final terminator, but I lose the Librarian to his powerfist.

Turn 6 -Raven Guard [RG 3 Fists 4]


Sgt. Bertramus and Brother Matthias move on the Achilles...
I'm down by one and need to get some kind of result, my best bet is his dreadnought, so I embark my scouts and move to gain a firing lane. I then proceed to fire the MM on the Speeder, all Sniper Scouts, and the TFC into his dreadnought, and fail to score a single damage result. Not good. That leaves a lucky Lascannon shot from my Devs, but with no Signum to guide him, the brother falls short of the mark. My terminators engage his Achilles but their hammers are not potent enough to score any results.


Turn 6 -Fists [RG 3 Fists 4]


Their Speeder destroyed, the Scouts take cover.
The game pretty much concluded at this point, Ambit fires his Dreadnought into the speeder that tried to line him up and manages to explode it, forcing the scouts to come crashing out. He then targets his MM's on his Achilles at the last two Assault Termies but their Shields hold true, and they do not falter.

FINAL SCORE - Raven Guard 3 Fists 5

Hero of the Day - Scout Sgt. who helped bring down the Terminators and save his Devastator brethren.

Nemesis of the Match: His Dreadnought, I could not break him, no matter how much fire was poured into him. That point would have brought the game to a draw.

Grats to Ambit on another win.


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