Got a game against a Lord of Skulls

[Guest]

GG league, 2k per side, dawn of war, big guns never tire. Opponent is sort of a veteran-noob hybrid.

 

Opponent had this:

 

CSM

Warlord - Tzeentch non-psyker lord with black mace, sigil and jump pack

CSM troops in two 10-man blobs (no upgrades)

Helldrake (flamer)

CD

Bloodthirster

10 bloodletters

Fort

Aegis (quad)

LoW

Lord of Skulls (ID flamer, massive S9 blast that I re-roll saves against)

 

My army was a bit more silly as I include a deathstrike this time around. It war pretty clear from pre-game that this would be an uphill battle, but I still wanted to try to face a super heavy.

 

DA

Warlord DA Libby (TDA, Lion's Roar, Force Axe, PFG, Got Precience and on the escalation traits, gor prefered enemy: LoW, which was useless as he already has prefered enemy CSM...)

Sammael (Sableclaw)

Troops Scouts (5, cloaks, flakk missile launcher, combi-melta)

Troops Scouts (5, cloaks, flakk missile launcher, combi-melta)

Black Knights (5, 1x GL)

Devastators (10, 4x lascannons, combi-flamer)

IG

Primaris (Force Staff, rolled enfeeble and endurance)

Vets (10, 3x GL, 1x ML)

-Chimera (Hull HF)

Vets (10, 3x GL, 1x ML)

-Chimera (Hull HF)

Vendettas (2)

Deathstrike

Fort

Firestorm Redoubt

 

Terrain was placed before knowing deployment zones, with one large ruin or dilapidated building in the center of each 2'x2' section. There was a lake dead center of the board. Dawn of war deployment, so my Firestorm replaced a building in the center 2'x2' section of my table, while his replaced a building on his right 2'x2' section. Lots of tall terrain pieces

 

He deployed first. Thirster, flyer, warlord and 10 CSM were reserve. Lord of skulls, 10 CSM, and 10 bloodletters deployed on the table in his mid and right section. This was also about where 2 of 3 objectives were placed. My objective was placed in the opposite corner, where I thought was out of TLOS, but turned out not to be.

 

I insisted on mysterious objectives, which did turn out to have both of his sabotaged, and mine got a lucky targeting relay.

 

I deployed very scattered, with attempts to get side arc no matter where he went. Would be difficult without a drawing. Devs split and half we one place with primaris and half were with my warlord. Vets arrived in the vendattas, while their chimeras started on the table. Knights outflanked and scouts infiltrated for better side arc positioning.

 

I can't do a turn by turn, as my memory confuses them. I can do a unit by unit review:

 

I did go second and I did lose, though in my defense, I was giving him pointers by turn 4+, as he seemed to have lots of trouble deciding what to do.

 

Primaris and half the devs were totally useless. Despite a perfect shot for front arc and endurance to move and fire, they kept rolling 1s and 2s all game, inflicting a single HP of damage to the Lord of skulls all game.

 

Warlord and other half of Devs weren't as bad. But they too did barely any damage to the lord of skulls. In their defense, both the thirster and helldrake came over to their hiding place and distracted them from shoot the lord of skulls on the turns that it wasn't hiding out of TLOS.

 

Sammy was amazing, as usual. I know the speeder version looks lackluster on paper, but he's really durable and often get's ignored due to his somewhat less impressive shooting. That said, I got 3 HP of damage on the rear of the helldrake over two turns. I also removed a wound from the flying thirster. I'm not sure he's worth 200pts.

 

Firestorm was pretty amazing this game. I deployed it empty when I realized that the opponent didn't have units that could realistically take it.

As per the new stronghold assault rules, I can still auto-fire it, which is all the FSR can do anyway. Got the two final wounds on the thirster and inflicted a 4th HP of damage on the hell drake (regenerated one). This lascannon unit, also, couldn't seem to damage the lord of skulls.

 

Vendettas arrived and popped 2 HP off the the lord of skulls. Bloodletters manning the quad gun were annoying, but failed to glance on entry turn. Blood thirster was actually pretty scary, as he flew after these guys with his BS10 S6 whip and forced them to evade and then popped one on a later turn. Got another 1 HP of damage. Cargo droped one unit of vets on my objective, other unit bailed out when it was wrecked, though that unit was killed right away by bolter fire from the camping CSM. Unit on my objective survived a few turns, but died when opponent figured out that he could draw TLOS from his Lord of Skulls massive blast. Lost warlord and unit this way. One vet unit did manage to wound the thirster, I think.

 

Deathstrike fired turn 4, I think. Removed 6 CSM from behind an aegis wall and 2 blood letters. Was really hoping for a larger blast roll.

 

Chimeras. One, with help of the deathstrike, whittle the bloodletters to 3-man. When Lord of skulls finally advanced (at my advice turn 4+), chimera moved to side arc and actually removed an HP from the lord of skulls. Other chimera was dead turn 1 or 2, from massive blasts and quad gun.

 

Black knights ended up on the table edge further from the enemy, after arriving late. They advanced and shot up the warlord's CSM unit. Killed a few guys and lost one to over heat. GL was out of range of special grenades, so got to fire krak. Opponent split the unit, with warlord charging the bikes and unit staying 2.6" from an objective. We got a wound on the warlord in overwatch and lost another member to overheat. He challenged and I accepted without thinking. The mace, with 10 attacks, wound me twice and I failed 1, which in turn killed another biker. The remaining 1, fled with hit-n-run.

 

Scouts were fun, but lost one to vector strikes, which I totally forgot about. Others 3 members, fled down 9" from a building and lost another member. Sarge moved out and glance the side of the Lord of Skulls with a long range MG shot.

 

In end, I inflicted 4 HP on the Lord of skulls. I may have actually inflicted more, but it regenerated. My rolling was very terrible when it counter, and it was an uphill battle.

 

Still, opponent should have wiped me. Opponent kept his lord of skulls in that defensive corner and out of hellstorm range for most of the game. I finally started giving him advice, which actually is what started to kill me turn 4+, but it was too sad to watch a cowardly lord of skulls.

 

In response, I bought a baneblade kit.

-Pax

[Threejacks]

 Wow..why didn't he want to move the Lord of Skulls forward?...that thing needs face time asap much like stompas do,heh.

 

 Did you guys play a scenario from the Escalation book?

[Guest]

Second game against same opponent. He went pure CSM, with lots of little tweaks.

 

CSM

Warlord - Tzeentch non-psyker lord with black mace, sigil and jump pack

Hellbrute (ML/PC)

CSM troops (10)

CSM troops (5)

Helldrake (flamer)

Warp Talons (5, MoK, Vets)

Warp Talons (5, MoT, Vets)

Obliterator (1)

LoW

Lord of Skulls

 

I failed in time useage, so list was about the same as last time, but with deathstrike, 1x GL black knight and the Firestorm Redoubt replaced with a single Bane Hammer. To do this, IG were primary, so my list with two DA HQs was cheating - didn't notice until this writing this review.

IG

Warlord Primaris (Force Staff)

Vets (10, 3x GL, 1x ML)

-Chimera (Hull HF)

Vets (10, 3x GL, 1x ML)

-Chimera (Hull HF)

Vendettas (2)

LOW

Banehammer (no sponsons)

DA

DA Libby (TDA, Lion's Roar, Force Axe, PFG)

Sammael (Sableclaw)

Troops Scouts (5, cloaks, flakk missile launcher, combi-melta)

Troops Scouts (5, cloaks, flakk missile launcher, combi-melta)

Black Knights (4)

Devastators (10, 4x lascannons, combi-flamer)

 

Deployment was dawn of war, mission was scouring, no night fight turn 1. Game ended pre-maturely, as opponent had to leave early - this coupled with me arriving late. We misplaced an objective, so the 4pt scouring objective wasn't used (the one we lost...).

 

Both players use strategic warlord traits and both rolled a 6, so we both did minor re-deploys. Opponent went first. I lost, 3:6, not sure if game would have resolved differently if we had continued, as much was left undecided. Again, unit by unit reivews.

 

Banehammer was interesting. At 410pts, it was much more durable than a similar cost unit. It really didn't kill much, but my fragile primaris and two units of vets remained undamaged all game. Lost only a single HP, as AV14 front is very impressive. Being able to move 12" per turn, shoot, and ignore dangerous was really impressive. As an IG player, I was able to get my troops into the enemy deployment zone without DS or outflank. With lower read, tank sort of strafed along the sides. 6" requirement to disembark and vulnerable rear AV made disembarking models much more challenging. I may reconsider which units to embark. We did rule that the "turret" of the banehammer blocked TLOS from the back hatch, so the unit embarked wasn't able to fire at targets in the front arc.

 

Vendettas were great again. This time they scored 6 HP of damage on the Lord of Skulls, 5 of which on the entry turn (1 glance, 2 pens with rolled explosions and an extra 2 HP lost, failed saves on the Lord of Skulls). Pens do seem to be the secret to super heavy destruction. Ran these empty this time, I think I may need more infantry if I continue to run so many transports.

 

Both Chimeras exploded to that enemy oblit in separate turns due to accidentally exposed side armor. Granted First blood. Very annoying.

 

Scouts were fine, but I have yet to use the flakk missiles. Might be a waste. One scout unit did kill the enemy oblit over two turns, only to die to warp talons. Other unit was deployed badly and suffered.

 

Devs were fine, but helldrake was more a threat without the inclusion of the Firestorm Redoubt. I do need more AT in this list. Again, using combat squads. On unit met a helldrake death, while the other unit died to warp talons.

 

Libby was very interesting. Rolled puppet master on Telepathy. DSed solo and succeeded in puppet master on the Lord of Skulls. Used the walker pivot to hellstorm his own troops, removing 6 from his own objective. After reading the telepathy power closely, we concluded that "a shooting attack" meant I could only fire one weapon. That was fine, it was pretty cool. He died shortly after, but this was a turn 1 DS, so it wasn't too bad. I wish I had given him less gadgets if I had planned to use him this way.

 

Sammy on his Speeder was still about as impressive. He's actually a pretty impressive AA unit. 3 TL S5 shots and 4 TL S6 rending shots, for a total of 7 TL shots that can pen the rear on a helldrake. Side AV 14 meant that he couldn't vector strike it to death. I remain unclear on this unit's value, but it has survived most, if not every game I have used it in, despite being HP2 and rear AV10.

 

Knights were bad in this game. Arrived, did minor damage, got vector striked, then baleflamed. End of that unit. I either need to make them more durable (PFG), or ditch the unit. A biker techmarine with PFG would work.

-Pax