The flesh is weak.
- Iron Hands
Hello one and all, welcome back to Friday on The Art of Caesura!
I'm sending loads of positive vibes your way, especially if you need them today!
I'm sorry this post is a tiny bit late. As I write this, I'm a few hours away from performing in Dublin's Convention Centre, so spare time has been short leading up to this moment.
Today we're looking at my sixth game in our Warhammer league, it was against Rowan and his very nicely painted Iron Hands.
In our local group there are three of us who self identify as painters Rowan and I are two of those people. Prior to this league, neither of us had ever played a 2000 point game. We also spend every match learning new rules and trying to improve at the nuances of the game. For this reason I was really excited to play Rowan, it felt like he and I were really evenly matched. Also, while we both play black power-armoured loyalist Space Marines, our armies and play style could not be more different. His is an entirely shooty force, while mine specialises in close combat.
With this style of match up, it tends to go that if I can keep enough of my stuff alive for the first few turns of the game while I move my dudes up into position, then I'll be in a really good position to multi-charge in turn 3 and hopefully do enough damage that he won't be able to recover. Also, most of his shooting units should hopefully be dead or tied up in combat (and thus, unable to shoot) at that point. His plan would be the opposite - try to cripple my force with ranged shooting so that I don't have enough for my killing blow.
Let's see how it panned out.
Our mission was Hidden Supplies. We messed up the set-up a bit and added two extra objectives rather than one, but everything was still symmetrical and so fair. We were deploying at the short table edges (which would mean a longer trudge for my Black Templars). This was the first league game for which I had already played on that terrain set-up (Layout #7 for those interested) so I just pulled out the deployment map that I had used in my game with Kim and pretty much deployed identically. Aside from the fact that this time the arse of one of my RepEx tanks was sticking out and got blown off the board turn one by a Gladiator Lancer and Redemptor Dread. Sad face.
My last two losses were largely down to failing to correctly prepare my turn 3 multi-charge, so I kept this in the forefront of my mind as I planned my opening moves.
I kept the majority of my force behind the central large terrain piece, this was the perfect staging point for the central objectives. I was much more aggressive on the western flank than I had been before on this map, I immediately moved my tank up into it's firing lane, disembarked the Sword Bros inside and immediately advanced to the objective. They were joined by The Emperor's Champion's unit (Assault Intercessors with 2 OC each). This was crucial - and not something I had done last time. It allowed me to put loads of OC on the western objective that he wasn't able to budge.
My western RepEx was also able to claim vengeance for it's fallen brother, blasting the Gladiator Lancer to bits from across the table. Not bad considering it did so without any re-rolls.
My eastern edge was a little more beleaguered with the early loss of the Repulsor Executioner. The Sword Brethren jumped out (were blown out in the explosion - losing one and a half of their number) and then tried their best to hold the objective before getting shot to ribbons by his RepEx and Intercessors. Only the Marshal remained and he cut down the remaining intercessors and held the objective for a further turn.
My Impulsor zoomed to aid the eastern flank. I zipped in to block his Redemptor Dreadnought and then my Sword Bros got out and gave it a great going over in close combat.
One of my favourite parts of the game was in his Turn 3 when I was focused on staging all of my dudes up the board, his hulking Brutalis Dreadnought krept onto the board behind my lines and annihilated my remaining Repulsor Executioner, the tank exploded and killed loads of my guys - it was hilarious!
His Brutalis then thought my Sword Brethren looked tasty but bit off more than it could chew as I used a 2CP strategem to interrupt the order of combats - he had attacked my Impuslor on the other side of the board with his Redemptor first so I interrupted and attacked his Brutalis with my Sword Bros and they brought it down to 2 wounds.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time (as is our wont) and had to talk through the rest of the game. Having done well with my Primary Objectives, I won over all: 70 - 55. Which makes my league standing 3 wins and 3 losses.
Rowan was a great opponent. And we both got to do cool things with our armies (and forgot loads of other cool things in the process). Here is his list:
Iron Hands (1995 points)
Space Marines
Iron Hands
Strike Force (2000 points)
Ironstorm Spearhead
CHARACTERS
Apothecary Biologis (70 points)
• 1x Absolvor bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
Iron Father Feirros (95 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Bolt Pistol
1x Gorgon’s Wrath
1x Harrowhand
1x Medusan Manipuli
Techmarine (85 points)
• 1x Forge bolter
1x Grav-pistol
1x Omnissian power axe
1x Servo-arm
• Enhancement: Target Augury Web
Techmarine (90 points)
• 1x Forge bolter
1x Grav-pistol
1x Omnissian power axe
1x Servo-arm
• Enhancement: Adept of the Omnissiah
BATTLELINE
Intercessor Squad (80 points)
• 1x Intercessor Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Plasma pistol
1x Power fist
• 4x Intercessor
• 1x Astartes grenade launcher
4x Bolt pistol
4x Bolt rifle
4x Close combat weapon
OTHER DATASHEETS
Aggressor Squad (200 points)
• 1x Aggressor Sergeant
• 1x Auto boltstorm gauntlets
1x Fragstorm grenade launcher
1x Twin power fists
• 5x Aggressor
• 5x Auto boltstorm gauntlets
5x Fragstorm grenade launcher
5x Twin power fists
Ballistus Dreadnought (150 points)
• 1x Armoured feet
1x Ballistus lascannon
1x Ballistus missile launcher
1x Twin storm bolter
Brutalis Dreadnought (160 points)
• 1x Brutalis talons
1x Twin Icarus ironhail heavy stubber
1x Twin multi-melta
Eliminator Squad (85 points)
• 1x Eliminator Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Bolt sniper rifle
1x Close combat weapon
• 2x Eliminator
• 2x Bolt pistol
2x Bolt sniper rifle
2x Close combat weapon
Gladiator Lancer (160 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Ironhail heavy stubber
1x Lancer laser destroyer
2x Storm bolter
Gladiator Reaper (160 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Ironhail heavy stubber
2x Tempest bolter
1x Twin heavy onslaught gatling cannon
Infiltrator Squad (100 points)
• 1x Infiltrator Sergeant
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Marksman bolt carbine
• 4x Infiltrator
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
1x Helix Gauntlet
1x Infiltrator Comms Array
4x Marksman bolt carbine
Redemptor Dreadnought (195 points)
• 1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Macro plasma incinerator
1x Onslaught gatling cannon
1x Redemptor fist
1x Twin storm bolter
Repulsor Executioner (220 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Heavy laser destroyer
1x Heavy onslaught gatling cannon
1x Icarus rocket pod
1x Ironhail heavy stubber
1x Repulsor Executioner defensive array
1x Twin Icarus ironhail heavy stubber
1x Twin heavy bolter
Scout Squad (70 points)
• 1x Scout Sergeant
• 1x Astartes chainsword
1x Bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
• 4x Scout
• 2x Astartes shotgun
4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
1x Heavy bolter
1x Scout sniper rifle
Suppressor Squad (75 points)
• 1x Suppressor Sergeant
• 1x Accelerator autocannon
1x Bolt pistol
1x Close combat weapon
• 2x Suppressor
• 2x Accelerator autocannon
2x Bolt pistol
2x Close combat weapon
Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of us with our model of the match. I'd say mine would have been the surviving RepEx which blew up his Gladiator turn 1 and continued to whittle down his Aggressors and threaten his RepEx for the rest of the game. It even went out with a bang (literally!)
Thanks for tuning into The Art of Caesura! I'll see you next week!
Reading: Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi
Performing in: Vladimir's Family Christmas
Next Week:
Readin'
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