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40k Escalation League Week 2 mission, Secure & defend


Dark Trainer

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To be fair, this was only my third game with this army. I’m still trying to figure things out.

I like Agressors, even if the one game I used them saw them plagued by bad dice rolls on offense. (The Dice Gods were kind to them on the defense, the weathered a ridiculous amount of incoming attacks.) One game isn’t enough to draw conclusions, but I think they’ll prove to be a personal favorite.

Intercessors with assault bolt rifles seem lacking. I used a five-man squad of them last week and they did great — ten 4/0/1 shots on the move is handy. Problem is that the bolt carbine available to Reivers has the exact same profile and Reivers are better suited to the role. Grappling hooks, shock grenades, leadership rebuff... Still, I’ve got a full ten-man Intercessors with assault bolt rifles squad built. I plan to keep experimenting with them.

Haven’t gotten to use Inceptors. Yet. Plan to get at least a five-man squad of them (at present, I only have two) all equipped with assault bolters. Plasma might be better on paper, but I like the idea of dropping them into my opponent’s rear echelon (especially if they have a “Loyal 32” camping on an Objective) and using the Bolter Drill Stratagem (6+ to hit procs another shot). 

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2 hours ago, Ish said:

As predicted, this one was a real knife fight. Brutal, nasty, and short-ranged. 

Had a great game against Paxmiles. Those Tau Crisis Suits are nasty little critters, I’m really starting to feel hampered the lack of mobility of Primaris Marines... I needed a way to get more of my men across the table, en masse, to put pressure on him. God damn it, I wish I had Rhinos!

 

Rhinos wouldn't have helped much. They wouldn't have increased your speed by enough to justify their cost at this point level. And, since there's no more rhino fire points, it would have meant less turns of shooting.

This is game two against primaris Hellblaster units within the escalation league. Getting them locked up in melee is the key. Doesn't even need to be a competent unit, just one that survives basic S4 attacks. Unit doesn't seem to be able to take power weapons and despite their melee vulnerablity, unit never seems to have a screening unit.

You need a screening unit for your hellblasters. Auspex Scan isn't enough, need a proper unit that prevents me from deep striking near them. Or just field more similar units so attacking that one hellblaster unit is less desirable.

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Don’t misunderstand me, even though tonight’s game was a Loss (and barely), I’m still very happy with my army choice. It plays in a fashion that meshes with my play style, they have some solid Chapter specific Relics and Traits, and dammit I like the Chapter Tactic! 

I strongly suspect most of the people on the Internet just aren’t playing games on tables with appropriately dense terrain and/or are playing mostly against other Space Marines. Most Tau, most Guard, most GSC, some Eldar, some Tyranids, and some Orks all rely on cover pretty extensively. Denying them that strategy is useful, I don’t care what “the meta” says. 

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8 minutes ago, paxmiles said:

[The Hellblasters unit] doesn't seem to be able to take power weapons and despite their melee vulnerablity, unit never seems to have a screening unit

Yep, the entire squad gets one of their three plasma incinerator variants, a bolt pistol, frag and krak grenades. The Sergeant has the option to swap out his bolt pistol for a plasma pistol... That’s it. Can’t even give Sarge a bloody chainsword, let alone a power weapon or  ‘fist.

I probably shouldn’t have used them at this points level, but seeing Leman Russ tanks on the table at 500 Points last week made me nervous! “Always fighting the last war,” I guess. 

They definitely need a “bodyguard” unit, some Aggressors nearby or even just a unit of Intercessors screening them will probably be an important part of my plans for them.

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7 hours ago, Ish said:

Don’t misunderstand me, even though tonight’s game was a Loss (and barely), I’m still very happy with my army choice. It plays in a fashion that meshes with my play style, they have some solid Chapter specific Relics and Traits, and dammit I like the Chapter Tactic! 

I strongly suspect most of the people on the Internet just aren’t playing games on tables with appropriately dense terrain and/or are playing mostly against other Space Marines. Most Tau, most Guard, most GSC, some Eldar, some Tyranids, and some Orks all rely on cover pretty extensively. Denying them that strategy is useful, I don’t care what “the meta” says. 

Wait... Orks rely on cover? I thought it was just the cover of a Kustom Force Field 

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16 minutes ago, paxmiles said:

Isn't it an Inv save? Or is it cover granting in this edition?

It’s an Invulnerable Save, Lyraeus was making a joke. But, believe it or not, it is possible to run Orks without a KFF Mek! I know, I know... I didn’t think it was true either. 😁

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3 minutes ago, Ish said:

It’s an Invulnerable Save, Lyraeus was making a joke. But, believe it or not, it is possible to run Orks without a KFF Mek! I know, I know... I didn’t think it was true either. 😁

Indeed you can. Especially with a relic that gives a heavy 2d6 random strength ap-5 Dmg D6 weapon... Oh that is 60"

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@Dark TrainerRegarding the mission itself: 

I don't think we had enough points to both secure our objective and have an offensive group take the other objective. Purely judging from the one game I played, but that was my impression.

It was still fun and I enjoyed a very close game.

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9 minutes ago, paxmiles said:

@Dark TrainerRegarding the mission itself: 

I don't think we had enough points to both secure our objective and have an offensive group take the other objective. Purely judging from the one game I played, but that was my impression.

It was still fun and I enjoyed a very close game.

Since anything can hold an objective, it's just about defend and capture. This is why they were in the center of the deployment zones rather than at the back where it wouldn't be realistic. Razing a base was meant to be hard and improbable. It came down to a choice, which was the idea here.

 

Looking forward to 1k next week!

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I thought it was a good mission, you had to either commit to a strong offense and hope you could clear them out or a strong defense and hope you could hold the line.

I tried to do both and succeeded at doing neither.

It’s a mission I’d like to play again.

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14 hours ago, Inquisitor66 said:

My one possible recommendation would be to have a small vote for best newly painted model every week, but just make it worth 1 tournament point so its not that big a deal.

The only problem here is, Sunday players, off site players, etc. Hard to organize/manage. But yeah, I always like a 'players choice' kind of aspect. I'll see what I can do. It'll definitely be something we do at the March 9th tournament.

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