Skitarii and Imperial Knight vs Space Marines White Scars Chapter.
My opponent brought 5 Tactical Squads, a Command Squad, and a Captain. All on bikes, which was pretty scary, fast and deadly. Turbo-boost was pretty powerful, as was their 12" movement. So was their 3+ jink save, argh. Added to that force was 2 Land Speeders and a single Stormtalon gunship. Heh.
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| White Scars Space Marines, all on bikes! |
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| Skitarii and Imperial Knight |
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| Deployment |
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| Deployment |
Turn 1
Without further ado, I unleashed the awesome firepower of my Skitarii. My Onager Dunecrawlers ripped apart a single Land Speeder, granting me First Blood, yay. My Infiltrators killed a bike with their flechette blasters, my Knight Crusader killed very little bikers with his Avenging Gatling cannon, which missed half of his BS4 shots (what?! terrible rolls, I know), but managed to kill 1 with his Stormspear rocket pod. One battle cannon blast scattered very badly, while I managed to inflict a couple of wounds on the bikers, killing one and leaving one gunner dude with one wound. Forgot to fire the heavy stubbers, whoops.
My Ironstrider Ballistarius actually killed a single guy in the open with his lascannon. Wow. I think my Rangers didn't do much, with him saving against their S4 AP4 galvanic rifles, everyone was out of range or out of sight of my Ruststalkers and Vanguard, so they did nothing.
My Knight Crusader tried to charge, failed his charge, and his overwatch failed to hit. Phew.
My opponent threw all his bikes forward. I can't remember, but he took out 3 of my Ruststalkers. Hmm...he also took out 2 hull points from my Knight after shooting whatever melta he had, immobilized a single Onager Dunecrawler and left him on 2 hull points. I think that was it, surprisingly enough.
Turn 2
This time, I had a far better turn. My 2 remaining Ruststalkers tossed their Haywire grenades at the remaining Land Speeder and glanced a hull point off it. A hailstorm of radium rounds from my Vanguard saw me wipe out an entire biker squad (rad poisoning is so rad!), my Infiltrators ran and I think my Knight Crusader wiped out half of another with combined firepower from my snap-firing Onager Dunecrawlers, 2 of whom broke away from the immobilized one. My Ruststalkers then charged into the Land Speeder and killed it with an Initiative 10 Haywire attack from the Princeps's Prehensile Dataspike. Cool. My Knight Crusader then charged another squad and smashed them in combat, so in total, 2 and a half biker squads and 2 land speeders destroyed. Stupidly enough, my Battle Cannon scattered horribly both times, doing absolutely nothing except glancing my poor Onager Dunecrawler from behind! Ouch. Ironstrider Ballistarius did nothing, I think.
My opponent then brought in his 5th outflanking biker squad, and brought his command bike squad forward, as well as brought his Stormtalon on from reserve. The outflanking biker squad annihilated my Rangers in cover. Well, 10 wounds, and I saved 5. But I only have 5 of them...wait, I screwed up there! I forgot my Ranger Alpha has 2 Wounds! OH NO! I FORGOT! Too late to regret it now.
Anyway, the command squad killed 5 of my Vanguard, and then split charged my Ruststalkers and Vanguard. Before that, the Stormtalon took out 3 of my Infiltrators with its assault cannon. Ouch. The two remaining Bikers from the half-squad that I took out earlier fired and MISSED both their melta shots. I think the other bikers also missed all their melta shots, and what hit failed to damage. Huh. Terrible rolling, my poor opponent. I think I only did one wound to my opponent, who failed his Iron Halo and Feel No Pain saves, but I took about 2-3 wounds and my surviving Vanguard fled. Or something. Fortunately, he couldn't chase because they're still locked in combat with my 2 Ruststalkers.
Turn 3
Fortunately, I wiped out the half-squad with lucky rolls from my 2 Onager Dunecrawlers, and my Immobilized Dunecrawler funnily enough killed the Stormtalon all by himself. Meanwhile my Knight Crusader turned around and ripped apart the squad with just shooting, leaving only one survivor, who he smashed in combat. Hey, even without a Destroyer weapon, a Knight Crusader's S10 AP2 melee attacks are nothing to sneeze at. My Vanguard ran into cover, which was useless. Hmm, I think I lost one Ruststalker while dealing a 2nd wound to the Captain, who only had 1 wound remaining. I charged my Infiltrators in but my opponent made all his armor saves against their taser goads. They're not very good in combat against bikers, huh. Oh well.
My Ironstrider did nothing against the biker squad, who jinked. Oh well. By this point, my opponent had only one biker squad, 1 command squad and his captain left. But all that will change soon.
My opponent hit and run, and chased down my Vanguard, because my Warlord is in there. Needless to say, he shot and killed 3 more Vanguard, then charged and challenged my Warlord before killing him combat. He rolled a 5, and thus earned 3 (D3) Victory Points, and with Slay the Warlord, he had 4 to my 1...except that I killed all 3 of his Fast Attack units so I actually have 4 as well. Thanks to my opponent for reminding me, thank you! Anyway, the final biker squad charged my Onager Dunecrawler, and I did nothing while I think he only stunned one of them. Ouch.
Turn 4
I had my final Ruststalker and 2 surviving Infiltrators moving and running, as did my Knight, who also moved and ran. Er...combat continued, and nothing happened, with no wounds dealt on either Onager Dunecrawler or biker squad. During my opponent's turn, he turbo-boosted his bikes into cover. I think. Combat continued, and I think he finally killed one of my Onager Dunecrawler, but the other guy was still full health. Did I kill a bike? I think I did. Only 1, though. Must have failed an armor save or something.
Turn 5
I continued moving my Ruststalker Infiltrators and running them, while my Knight slowly moved forward and running. Oh well. Combat continued...and nothing happened to both my Dunecrawler and the biker squad. During his turn, my opponent finally separated his Captain from his command squad and had him run all the way to an objective while his command squad tried to hit my Knight with krak grenades and then charge him with melta bombs. I actually lost 2 hull points in that combat, failed to hit most of my hits, and what I did hit and wound (S10 AP2 after all), his Stormshield made his 3+ invulnerable save. What...Stomp did some damage, but he made all his armor saves. Ouch.
Turn 6
This continued on to the 6th turn when my opponent rolled and the dice gods indicate that the match shall continue. I had better luck this time, and while my opponent killed my Ruststalker from hit and run, I think, I charged in my Infiltrators, and with good rolling from the taser goads, had 9 hits and 9 wounds. Wow. Surprisingly enough. My opponent made half of his saves, but failed 4 of them..which was enough to wipe out the entire squad. Not bad, my Infiltrators were boss! Upon winning combat, I had them consolidate on the nearest objective to claim 2 points to draw with my opponent, whose captain was still on the 2-point objective.
As for my Knight...my opponent whiffed all his hits, or did absolutely nothing. I did one wound, but again, that stupid Stormshield meant he saved it. Argh. However, my Stomp scored a 6 this time and I removed 3 bikers under the small blast marker from play. Ha ha ha ha! Stomp actually rocks if you roll a 6! However, 2 more bikers were left, so...oh well. Anyway, with only 2 bikers from his command squad and his Warlord left, my opponent didn't do much except roll to see if the game would continue to the 7th turn. And it didn't.
So it turned out to be a draw! I had 6 points, 1 from First Blood, 3 from killing Fast Attack units, 2 from objective, and my opponent had 6 points, 1 from Slay the Warlord, 3 (because D3) from his Captain's special characteristic, and 2 from objective. So 6-6. Not bad!
Post-match analysis
I think I should get rid of the Ironstrider Ballistarius, I totally forgot I still had him. I should have moved him and had him run to another objective, so my fault there for having the game end a draw. Oh well, I should trade him for Cognis Manipulators so my Onager Dunecrawlers would have totally destroyed those bikers in combat instead of being tied up for so long. Argh. I should also bring plasma calivers, considering the radium carbines weren't that effective against the command squad's 3+ armor saves (but the sheer amount of wounds did help me wipe out a single biker squad all on their own!), and I forgot that I have Preferred Enemy from my Warlord, so I should have re-rolled ones to hit! Argh. My Ruststalkers weren't that effective, but they did survive quite a lot, surprisingly. Might want to swap them out for upgrades instead, I sure could have used a 4+ invulnerable save!
I don't understand the abuse Infiltrators get from Abusepuppy, they were very effective both at tying up the opponent in combat, reducing my opponents' stats, and dealing a lot of wounds. Just 2 of them - ONLY TWO! - wiped out 4 bikers in combat. A joke unit if I had ever seen one. Yet Abusepuppy insists on abusing them and calling them rubbish (according to a comment he made regarding the War Convocation. It's not a conclave, it's a Convocation!). Or maybe he has changed his mind after play-testing them, I don't know. Oh well. Anyway, never ever underestimate Infiltrators! They are awesome! Really!
Can't wait to try my Skitarii again, they are really an effective fighting force, and if I learn how to use them properly (which I didn't in this game, how did I forget to move and run my Ironstrider Ballistarius?!) I might actually start winning games. Well...admittedly I already crushed a 1,000-point Tau army with my Skitarii Battle Maniple, but against other armies...hmm...we shall see.
For the Emperor! Or Omnissiah.
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