Blink .. no reference Dr Who' weeping angels, but definitely some weeping as I suffer what may be the fastest defeat I've ever been handed in 40K. Adrian and I met for our 4th game of Warhammer 4th Edition in a row .. our way of learning the rules. We each used a different army this time: for me Space Marines, and for Adrian Sisters of Battle. The game was a 1500 point match, playing the 'Recon' scenario from the 4th Edition rule book.
My SM army was a little unbalanced as I used what I had available:
1 x Space Marine Captain
1 x Space Marine Chaplain
2 x 9 SMs with Sergeant
1 x 6 SMs with Sergeant
1 x 10 Assault Marines
1 x 10 Vanguard in drop pod
1 x 5 Devastators with 2 x Plasma cannon and 1 x Lascannon, mounted in Razorback with T/L Lascannon
1 x 5 Devastators with 3 x M/Ls and 1 x Heavy Bolter
So, being a little light in the flexible heavy support, we went at it.
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| Initial deployment with Space Marines on the left, and Sisters on the right |
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| I just live those penitent engines, here backed up with 8 Seraphim |
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| St Celestine.. she turned out to be one tough ...... |
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| Space Marine anti tank support |
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| Assault Marines ready to go .. I planned to hold them back ready to race into Adrian's set up zone . but ... |
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| Devastator Squad in position in some ruins |
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| Opening move .. |
Adrian one first move and managed to destroy the Razorback before it managed to fire a single shot .. ouch
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| The Librarian used psychic powers to take a SM tactical squad deep into the enemy lines |
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| The drop pod is deployed first turn as it is required to do. |
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Here's where it starts to go wrong ..
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I decided to move the assault marines forward in support of the Vanguard veterans . This wasn't the original plan, and brought them close to the advancing penitent engines .. in hindsight this was never going to end well, but .. sigh...
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| In the first turn I managed to destroy the Sisters heavy support, and bring down some fearsome fire on this squad positioned in some ruins. |
After an initial successful turn, the rest of the game went very sour from the SM point of view. St Celestine and a squad of seraphim assaulted the Librarian and his tactical squad... result? massacre .. oh my G*** ...
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| The penitent engines charged the assault marines and .. again, pretty much a massacre .. |
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| The Vanguard veterans having emerged from their drop pod were assaulted by seraphim and... yep .. massacre . |
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| The smaller tactical squad advanced and assaulted a unit of sisters and.. not enough to win the assault. |
By the start of turn 3 there wasn't a lot left. The penitent engines shifted their focus to the left flank devastator squad. Aha, I thought .. eat my shorts, here come two plasma cannons and a lascannon. Net result? NOTHING.. not a single wound. OOooo this is going to hurt again ..
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| The cannoness destroys the drop pod with her inferno pistol |
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| The devastators have missed and are now open to assault ... |
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St Celestine in her glory.
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So we called it after turn 3.. I simply had no way of scoring enough victory points in terms of the scenario conditions to come even close.
Now that was a real 'thumping. Looks like I have a little to learn about how to use Space Marines then, but the game looked great. Again a lot of fun pushing beautiful miniatures around on the table.
