Monday, April 20, 2009

Mega Battle Coverage

See the forces here and the scenario here.

So the game went well overall. I don't have detailed notes but I can give a brief over view.

Turn one saw a relatively effective shooting phase from the defenders, as well as our blind barrage blocking off the Pylon and half the field of fire for the Doomsday Monolith. For the attackers, it brought in the interdiction force and the Monolith Phalanx.

From then on the turns really lose focus in my mind. I know the Dark Eldar Splinter force appeared in turn 2, bearing webway portals, allowing for the arrival of Dark Eldar Infantry in turn 4. A blind barrage helped to cover their arrival within our fortress from the Ultramarines and Imperial Guard upon the parapet.

Turn 2 saw the first objective fall to Flank marching CSM. This was on the outside left of the fortress, an area defended by the Imperial Guard, who even though became swamped with CSM and Dark Eldar, managed to last until turn 5, seeing the battle through with one tank remaining at the end.

Turn 3 saw the second objective fall, taken by Tau Battlesuits. This was the outside objective on the right side of the fortress defended by the Defender's Tau.

Turn 4 saw the third objective fall; this one to CSM Terminators that had flank marched back in turn 2. Though valiantly fought over by the Ultramarines directly under Calgar, and requiring the sacrifice of a bike mounted Master of the Forge, the objective was lost.

Turn 5 was down to the wire. The Necrons and Tau were unable to make headway on the second objective on their side, and the Dark Angels had decimated the forces assaulting the front of the fortress. In a desperate gambit, the Tau force on the attackers rushed one Objective with a devilfish, tank shocking through Belial's Terminator Squad. Boldly, a lone Terminator stepped forward with his chain fist, and after some confusion with the Death or Glory rules, it was realized that he had destroyed the Devilfish, forcing the fire warriors within to disembark short of the objective, and with too much resistance between them to run to/assault the final position. At the end of turn 5, the game stood at 3/3 in terms of objectives.

Though we called the game here, it was called for the attackers. In terms of Kill Points, they had given up far less then the defenders as a ratio of their total force and were in place to definitely capture one, if not 2 more objectives had we played out the planned turn 6. Though the Imperium fought with gallantry, they could not stem the relentless Xenos advance.

Highlights of the game:
Samael's death at the hand of 2 Gundrones from a destroyed Piranha.
A Commissar Lord besting a Chaos Lord on a juggernaut in single combat after 3 turns of fighting (to be fair, the Lord's Daemon weapon loped his own head off, I assume it wass displeased for not havign dispatched of the Commissar, then going on to assault a Stormsword (though failing at it).
A deepstriking Monolith being blown to smitherines by the Hammerhead it displaced.
The Ork force entirely strategically re-deploying amongst the Tau to aid them on their quest for an objective.
A unit of roughriders eliminating 9 Khorne Beserkers only to leave Kharn there to dispatch the entire squad (6 in one turn, the remaining 4 the next).
Deddog, Creed and Kell weathering 2 turns of assault to fall to shooting later on.
A unit of witches miraculously surving a turn of combat against Marneus Calgar and his command squad, allowing other DE to come in next turn and dispatch them.
The Pylon failing to destroy the Baneblade for 2 turns, then annihilating it all at once.
The Necrons failing to breach the door, dying in multitudes at the entrance.
A khorne DP assaulting a Dev combat squad and dying without inflicting a single wound.
A squad of CSM Terminators with a Sorceror and Lord deepstriking of the table, wasting the Vortex grenade with them.