Welcome back to another Friday on The Art of Caesura!
Autumn has arrived, my favourite time of year. The mornings are crisp and bright and the days haven't yet shortened to their winter stature.
With the arrival of autumn, comes my second game in our Warhammer league!
You can check out last week's game in the previous post.
With our ability to change one thing in our list after each game, the only change that I made after game one was to turf one of the Crusader Squads in favour of a Scout Squad and a squad of Assault Intercessors. This would give me more utility to have multiple units to complete objectives / actions etc. My next change would be to get more ranged anti-tank fire-power which, as you will see, would have been useful in today's game.
My second league game (and second ever 2000 point game) was against Robin, a consummate tournament player who has literally hundreds of games of 10th edition under his belt. In my eyes, Robin is the one to beat in this league - even though another member of the league placed higher than him at a local tournament last weekend...
With all that in mind, I managed my expectations and went into this game with the intention of learning a lot and having fun and (spoiler alert) I achieved both of those things! I'll pop Robin's list at the bottom of this post for those interested.
Above is Robin's deployment from my perspective and below is from his.
Our primary mission objective this time was Terraform, a primary mission where players score victory points (VPs) by performing an action to control objectives on the midboard. There is constant jostling for these objectives, because you can un-terraform an objective that your opponent has already claimed and score it for yourself. Importantly, scoring happens at the end of a player's command phase (not the end of an opponents turn or battle round), and units need to complete the action to secure the point.
Above is my deployment from my perspective, and below is from his.
I deployed quite aggressively (as is my wont) with everything pretty much right up on the line. I want to meditate on my deployment for a minute because, where attack allocation was one my learning points for my last league game, deployment was something that I really want to focus on from this game.
My rationale for how I deployed was: I wanted to get an early lead as my army doesn't really stand up to attrition too well anymore so I deployed my Scouts on objective 3) (they're still at the "sprayed black" stage...so they kind of blend in) so that they could start claim the objective and start Terraforming (you can start Terraforming on Turn 1 but only start scoring on Turn 2). I wanted my RepEx to be able to shoot something, so I plunked it in the only place that looked like it would have any kind of firing lines. I put my foot-slogging units (Assault Intercessors and Crusader Squad with Grimaldus) towards the right, so that they wouldn't have as far to go to get into the action. I put the Heavy Ints on my home objective and everything else where it would fit, trying to position the tanks so that they would have lanes to drive up.
What I should have done:
I really need to get it into my head that the position of models at deployment is really only a snapshot, and not at all a reflection of where they will be when it actually comes time for you to interact with them. So I had positioned some of my units in the positions that I thought would be best to counter his, as he set his up, where really I needed to be thinking about where his units were going to be going and set up accordingly. In retrospect, I should have set my RepEx up more where my Land Raider was, which, while it wouldn't have had a target to shoot at first turn, it would be well positioned to blow things out of the middle of the board later in the game (plus it might have survived long enough to have a chance to shoot). I think I was okay deploying my Scouts so far up, they immediately got charged by a blob of 20 Kriegsmen on the other side of the ruin, but I managed to fallback, survive and let the LRC light up the hapless Kriegsmen (only to have them resurrect later in the game). I'm not exactly sure where the best place to deploy by LRC and Impulsor would have been, but in general, more conservatively probably.
I was impressed (and surprised) that Robin also deployed about as aggressively as possible. As I learned with T'au last week, gone are the days of a shooting army sitting at the back, blowing you off the board.
At the start of the game, Robin immediately blew my RepEx off the board, so the dudes that were in it (Assault Intercessors with Emp Champ) tore off towards the nearest objective, alongside the other Assault Ints that were beside them.
Remembering how annoying Rogan's Piranha had been, I was being equally triggered by Robin's Sentinel, so I prioritized that as well as some of his Chimeras with what remained of my shooting. My plan for the Rogal Dorn Battletank (hiding in the ruin at the top of the picture above) was to basically ignore it as I had done with Rogan's Riptide. After the RepEx was gone, my only unit which might reliably get rid of the Dorn was my blender unit (Marshal, Castellan with Sword Bros in the LRC) but, having positioned my LRC way out of the action, this hampered that as a later possibility.
The problem with ignoring the Rogal Dorn was that it was just so oppressive. It could delete a unit (almost two) reliably every single turn. Leman Russes (the smaller battle tanks) were also no joke; they hit surprisingly hard and were very difficult to deal with.
I started to zoom my Impulsor and LRC into the middle of the board and after they got blown up, their units charged into his Kasarkin (specialist infantry) and Chimera (transport). I was scared to charge the Hellhounds (for fear of being absolutely roasted in overwatch) but without any firepower of my own to deal with them, it meant I wasn't too sure how to handle them. I did try to bait out some overwatches - knowing that he would only be able to use the strategem once per phase, but he was on to me!
I did what I could, and it did feel great when Helbrecht, Marsh, Cast and all the Sword Bros got into the middle of the table and started mincing Kaserkin and light ATVs but it was too little, too late...
I conceded at the end of Battle Round 3 and we talked through the rest of the game.
Robin was a really excellent opponent. He was fun, helpful and, like a good Shakespearean play, always told me what he was going to do before he did it - so his victory was down to skill, rather than "gotcha" moments.
So it was a loss for me (though not as brutally as I might have expected) which brings me 1 -1 in the league so far. You can find the score card below as well as Robin's list.
Astra Militarum
Combined Arms
Strike Force (2,000 Points)
CHARACTERS
Cadian Command Squad (65 Points)
• 1x Cadian Commander
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
◦ 1x Power fist
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Laspistol
◦ 1x Plasma gun
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Lasgun
◦ 1x Master Vox
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Lasgun
◦ 1x Medi-pack
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Meltagun
Rogal Dorn Commander (280 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Coaxial autocannon
• 1x Heavy stubber
• 2x Meltagun
• 2x Multi-melta
• 1x Oppressor cannon
• 1x Pulveriser cannon
• Enhancements: Grand Strategist
Tech-Priest Enginseer (45 Points)
• 1x Enginseer axe
• 1x Mechanicus pistol
• 1x Servo-arm
Ursula Creed (85 Points)
• 1x Duty and Vengeance
• 1x Power weapon
BATTLELINE
Cadian Shock Troops (65 Points)
• 1x Shock Trooper Sergeant
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Sergeant’s autogun
• 9x Shock Trooper
◦ 9x Close combat weapon
◦ 7x Lasgun
◦ 1x Meltagun
◦ 1x Plasma gun
◦ 1x Vox-caster
Catachan Jungle Fighters (65 Points)
• 1x Jungle Fighter Sergeant
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Laspistol
• 9x Jungle Fighter
◦ 9x Close combat weapon
◦ 2x Flamer
◦ 7x Lasgun
◦ 1x Vox-caster
Death Korps of Krieg (145 Points)
• 2x Death Korps Watchmaster
◦ 2x Plasma pistol
◦ 2x Power weapon
• 18x Death Korps Trooper
◦ 18x Close combat weapon
◦ 2x Death Korps Medi-pack
◦ 14x Lasgun
◦ 2x Meltagun
◦ 2x Plasma gun
◦ 2x Vox-caster
DEDICATED TRANSPORTS
Chimera (85 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Heavy flamer
• 1x Heavy flamer
• 1x Heavy stubber
• 1x Hunter-killer missile
• 1x Lasgun array
Chimera (85 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Heavy flamer
• 1x Heavy flamer
• 1x Heavy stubber
• 1x Hunter-killer missile
• 1x Lasgun array
Taurox (75 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Storm bolter
• 1x Twin autocannon
OTHER DATASHEETS
Hellhound (125 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Hunter-killer missile
• 1x Inferno cannon
• 1x Multi-melta
Hellhound (125 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Hunter-killer missile
• 1x Inferno cannon
• 1x Multi-melta
Kasrkin (110 Points)
• 1x Kasrkin Sergeant
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
◦ 1x Power weapon
• 9x Kasrkin
◦ 9x Close combat weapon
◦ 3x Hot-shot lasgun
◦ 1x Hot-shot laspistol
◦ 1x Hot-shot marksman rifle
◦ 1x Melta Mine
◦ 2x Meltagun
◦ 2x Plasma gun
◦ 1x Vox-caster
Kasrkin (110 Points)
• 1x Kasrkin Sergeant
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
◦ 1x Power weapon
• 9x Kasrkin
◦ 9x Close combat weapon
◦ 3x Hot-shot lasgun
◦ 1x Hot-shot laspistol
◦ 1x Hot-shot marksman rifle
◦ 1x Melta Mine
◦ 2x Meltagun
◦ 2x Plasma gun
◦ 1x Vox-caster
Kasrkin (110 Points)
• 1x Kasrkin Sergeant
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
◦ 1x Power weapon
• 9x Kasrkin
◦ 9x Close combat weapon
◦ 3x Hot-shot lasgun
◦ 1x Hot-shot laspistol
◦ 1x Hot-shot marksman rifle
◦ 1x Melta Mine
◦ 2x Meltagun
◦ 2x Plasma gun
◦ 1x Vox-caster
Leman Russ Battle Tank (185 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Heavy stubber
• 1x Hunter-killer missile
• 1x Lascannon
• 1x Leman Russ battle cannon
• 2x Multi-melta
Leman Russ Battle Tank (185 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Heavy stubber
• 1x Hunter-killer missile
• 1x Lascannon
• 1x Leman Russ battle cannon
• 2x Multi-melta
Scout Sentinels (55 Points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Hunter-killer missile
• 1x Lascannon
• 1x Sentinel chainsaw
Thanks for tuning in! I'll see you next week on The Art of Caesura!
Reading: Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer
Watching: Alien: Earth
Next Week:
Nemesis...
Comments
Post a Comment
Tell me all...