Drive a spearhead through this area,
clearing enemy objectives of resistance as you push forwards,
but do not allow the enemy to encircle us
and cut off our supply lines.
Sweeping Raid - Games Workshop
Welcome gamer and hobbyists of all stripes to The Art of Caesura!
Today is a slightly different one, I'm going to try to write up a bit of a battle report about my first game of 10th Edition Combat Patrol that I played a couple weeks ago. Last week, you might have read the narrative version of the game, but today I'll try to go through the broad strokes of having played the game and my in-the-moment thoughts and post-game reflections.
First, we can see those Black Templars who would not be partaking in the Combat Patrol game marching to battle to cheer on thier comrades!
I would suggest that this post will be very technical into the gaming aspects of 40k. I am aware that this may not be of as much interest to those of you who usually tune in for my painting content, but there will be much more of that on the way!
We played 10th Edition Combat Patrol (next week's post will go into the nitty gritty of this game-type), my Black Templars vs. Tris' Tyranids. You can find downloads for the Combat Patrol Rules as well as the rules for both armies on Warhammer Community here. As a novice, I will go through each step of the game:
1) Select Combat Patrol and Enhancements
Me: Black Templars - Righteous Defiance: Bearer has 5+ FNP and once per battle, bearer's unit gets 4+ FNP
Tris: Tyranids - Secretion Goad: Units within 6" improve AP by 1 once per turn.
2) Determine Mission
We rolled to randomise and got: Sweeping Raid
There are 4 objectives, the one in your opponents deployment zone is worth 10 points if controlled at the end of the game.
3) Create Battlefield
We supplemented what terrain the FLGS had (a mix of AoS terrain and some cool Tyranid-looking stalks) with some ruins I had from Imperium Magazine.
4) Determine Attacker and Defender
Tris won the roll and I was Attacker and he Defender. The Templars would be taking it to the Tyranids.
5) Declare Battle Formations
We both Patrol Squaded our largest units (My Crusader Squad and Tris's Termagaunts). The rules are very specific about how I had to split up my squad - the Neophytes and Sword Brother were in one 5-man squad (Beta Squad) and the Initiates (with mandatory Pyreblaster) were in another squad that I attached my Marshal to. This unit (5 Initiates + Marshal Grymm - I called "Alpha Squad") I placed in the Impulsor (which was my friend's Salamander Rhino proxied for this game).
6) Deploy Armies
I found deployment tense and exciting! You really have to have a good idea of your game plan prior to deploying.
I knew that, given the mission and my Secondary Objective (Path of Purgation), both of which involved scoring the most points for being in Tris' deployment zone / capturing his home objective, that I would want to be quite mobile and aggressive. BUT if you control your own home objective then you have a chance each turn of getting an extra Command Point.
With Alpha Squad in the Impulsor, I only had 3 squads to deploy to Tris' 6. I under-estimated how much this hampered my ability to line my guys up against enemies that they would actually like to fight.
As it was, I deployed my weakest unit (the Sword Bro + 4 Neophytes) to be controlling my home objective (I wouldn't claim it till the second Battle Round, but would still need to be in range.
My Intercessors were close to the northerly objective and my Impulsor with Alpha Squad onboard tore up the centre.
I don't think I would have done much differently at this stage. As I mentioned, with only 3 drops, I did not get much say over who would be facing what. I needed to play the objective game and I felt that I had my units in a good position to do so.
Tris deployed most of his units out of firing range. He infiltrated the Von Ryan's Leapers up behind the central ruin - well out of line of sight.
7) Determine First Turn
We rolled off, and I won this time - meaning that I had to go first. This was not great. My Intercessors and my Impulsors were the only things with any kind of range and Tris had been careful to deploy so that they wouldn't really have any good shots.
8) Resolve Pre-Battle Rules
We didn't have any.
9) Begin the Battle
Rather than speak in specifics about what happened each turn (I can't remember!) I will speak more generally about how things went.
Battle Round 1
Black Templars:
Movement:
With the first turn, I moved my Intercessors up to within range of the northern objective, they were still out of line of sight of the Barbgaunts (up on the ruin in Tris' deployment zone).
I moved Beta Squad (my Sword Bro and Neophytes) a little forward so that they were still controlling my home objective and out of line of sight of any shooting.
The Impulsor just tore up the centre of the battlefield, hiding behind a bit of a ruin.
Shooting:
Intercessors shot at the Psychophage and didn't scratch it (needing 6's to wound was not very helpful) and Oath of Moment only helped rerolling hits, not wounds.
Impulsor shot at the more northerly termagaunts (the only thing it could see) and killed half of them - which would just end up respawning. Grrr.
Charge / Combat:
Nil
Tyranids:
Movement:
Tris pushed the Psychophage up as far as it could go towards the intercessors and moved all of the gaunts up towards the southern objective. His Leapers stayed where they were - lurking behind the central ruin. I can't remember where his warlord (the Winged Prime) started - I can't see it in the deployment picture above.
Shooting:
I was amazed that something so puny and numerous as Termagaunts have strength 5 standard ranged weapons! Fortunately though, I didn't really give Tris any good shooting targets. He maybe took a wound off the Impulsor.
Charge / Combat:
Nil
Battle Rounds 2 & 3
Black Templars:
The mid-game saw Squad Beta wade into the mid-field and desperately try to take the southern objective, they probably had the output to mow through the gaunts (20 Astartes chainsword attacks on the Neophytes alone and then 3 power weapon attacks (I believe) on the Sword Bro), but I just couldn't get through them and they kept re-spawning - BLOODY TERMAGAUNTS!! When the Von Ryan's Leapers...leaped in, Beta Squad was toast. They survived a round of combat with the three squads (Leapers and two squads of gaunts) but I made the tactical error of targeting the gaunts with my attacks rather than the Leapers.
I reasoned that if I could kill enough gaunts then I could take the objective on OC alone (I was already about 10 points ahead in the early game). I was also under the impression that the gaunts would be much easier to mow through than the Leapers (which have multiple wounds and an invuln save). The problem was, I didn't kill enough gaunts so couldn't contest the objective, and those I did kill just respawned - whereas the Leapers wouldn't have been able to respawn and went on to take my home objective which gave them huge points at the end of the game.
It's a tough call. Reflecting on it, even in the best case scenerio, if I had been able to kill the Leapers, the gaunts would have just been able to run down to my home objective instead so it might not have made any difference.
It was in the midgame that I realized the Multimelta on the Impulsor is what I should have been shooting at the Psychophage. One round of shooting from it brought the monster down to just 2 or 3 wounds!!
Tyranids:
Tris attacked with his Leapers and gaunts as described above and moved his Warlord into a central position. The Barbgaunts were still out of position but were guarding his home objective (under the ruin in the north of his deployment zone that the Barbgaunts are atop).
Battle Rounds 4 & 5
Black Templars:
I found myself in a tough position. I had lost the Beta Squad and thus the southern objective to the gaunts and Leapers, I lost the northern one when the Psychophage got into combat with my Intercessors. And after the Leapers ate Beta Squad, they headed over to my Home Objective (worth 10 points to Tris at the end of the game). By this point, I really really needed to capture his home objective and I only had my Alpha Squad in the Impulsor remaining - that was still a hefty punch but they could only really be in one place at a time.
I moved my Impulsor right up into his half of the board, blasted his Winged Prime with the multi-melta, obliterating it in one shot, then tank-shocked the Termagaunts that were holding the southern objective and tried to physically block them off. I disgorged Alpha Squad and they started moving towards the Barbgaunts on Tris' home objective.
The Impulsor got taken down (but unfortunately didn't explode as that would have meant a nice Deadly Demise hit on the two units of gaunts and the Leapers). All I had left on the board was Alpha Squad, which annoyingly didn't take out the Barbgaunts in one turn so the buggers managed to fall back and be even more annoying. I had to chase them further into their end-zone to wipe them out to claim the objective. At least this meant that my warlord was in position to score my secondary.
10) End the Battle
Towards the end of the game, I had 25 Victory Points to Tris' 45. BUT...he was on my home objective for an extra 10 points bringing his final total to a seemingly insurmountable 55 points. HOWEVER...my army was fully painted and his was not, bringing me to 35 AND I was in his deployment zone with my Warlord (my secondary objective) making the score 45 - 55. Finally, having spent two turns killing the bloody Barbgaunts, I now controlled his home objective at the end of the game which would have brought my total up to 55 for a tie game, except he had used in Shadow in the Warp detachment rule in the last turn and, crushingly, Alpha Squad failed - I even had a command point left, but you can't Command Re-roll a Battle Shock test nor can you "Insane Bravery" a Battle Shock test out of sequence!
So due to that failed Battleshock test, my OC was reduced to zero and I did not hold his home objective leaving the final score at 55 - 45 for the Tyranids.
11) Determine Victor
It was a very fun, strategic and nail-bitey game, and pretty much came down to the final dice roll. Tris was an excellent opponent, and I can't wait to play him again.
With their job done, the entire Black Templars combat patrol (minus Impulsor) packed up very neatly. Though I am working on the whole Tupperware + magnets transport process as the moment!
I do think that Combat Patrol is an under-rated system and that it's not just for beginners. I'll talk about this more next week right here on The Art of Caesura!
Reading: The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles
Watching: Yellowjackets
Gaming: Civilization Beyond Earth
Next Week:
Combat Patrol Thoughts...
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