Snow Monkey Fight! Battle Report: Scythiak vs. Inquisition

http://fun-gallery.com/pictures/animals/snow-monkey-snowball-fight-2005/

At our local Games Day, my first game was against a fellow allegedly named "D.C."  who posts over at Assault Phase.  I brought in the Scythiak, he pulled out his Inquisition (Grey Knights henchmen) army and we played a 1500pt Annihilation/Spearhead match.

The Inquisition brought a psyfleman dread, a Chimera with Coteaz and a mixed retinue (bunch of guys with stormbolters, meltagun, two Jokaero, two HB servitors), Stormraven with Techmarine and deathcult squad, Land Raider Redeemer with spare inquisitor and arco-flagellants, Rhino with psyker squad.

The Scythiak forces that deployed - two platoons, Ogryn, heavy weapons squads, Russ.  No real cover for shooty units, so if they were going to be exposed anyways I figured that I may as well have the heavies elevated so they might be able to see something.

Scythiak reserves - rough riders, Khonan (Marbo), and outflanking Spawn Riders (sentinels).

Inq. deployment.  The dread is behind the trees, obviously having just been dropped off by the Stormraven.


I figure it will be a rough day, with lots of ways for him to clear large chunks of my force at a time, nasty CC units, funky grenades and whatnot to make a mockery of the Ogryn and everything meched up.

But, I'm going first, so if I can get some good early shots and immobilize something things might open up.

So of course he rolls a six to seize and rolls out.  So much for plan A.

Soon the lascannons and missile launchers are wiped out and the tank is stunned.  Whee.

You there with the frag grenades!  Go take out that Land Raider!  Defile the shinyness!

Here I expect these guys to die, but hope he'll have to jump out to do it, letting the Ogryn engage them in turn.

The Stormraven zips over to take a flank shot at the Russ, but the lascannons are thwarted by the icy hill.

Outflanking spawn riders miss, but a solid meltagun glance from a cultist immobilizes the flyer.  The cultists swarm over it, not able to do further damage but to block a few exits and hopefully discourage any shooting at them that might deviate.

Rough Riders arrive.  I put them on the far end, hoping to distract him a bit from the main mass and looking for any opportunities that might present themselves.

The techmarine and his wyche/death cult posse hop out and prepare to chastise the cultists for damaging his ride. 

As expected, the cultists make short work of the cultists.  Umm, yeah.  Retaliatory fire kills a number of cultists and the techmarine.

Raider pulls up and the inquisitor and arco-flagellants hop out to polish off the techno-barbarian command squad.

KPOW!

Not lookin' too good over here.

On the other side of the field, the rough riders have been getting shot up but enough managed to survive to charge and explode the psykers' Rhino.  Khonan also arrived up on the hill but I forgot to have him toss his "present".

Ogryn manage to corner and wreck the Chimera.

D.C.'s henchmen were pretty neat looking.  Cadian legs and arms, with Necron warrior torsos and modified Necron heads.  Added purity seals to the chest to make them look more Imperial and less Necronish.

Well that's the end of that.

The last rough riders are easily shot down by the dread.  Marbo comes out and tosses his charge at the dread, stunning it and charging in hoping for a lucky meltabomb hit.

I could have gone into the psykers here and likely would have slaughtered them, but I figured then I would have just died to the dread.  Going for the gold, I figured if I could take out the dread first then the psykers could be handled.

Though the fight lasted a few rounds, eventually the dread squished him.  Oh well.

The Ogryn and Coteaz's retinue go a few rounds, with both sides getting whittled down.

Just the big man himself left.








The game ended here, with the Inquisition having a very comfortable 11-3 (or 4?  Does Coteaz's retinue count as a separate unit?) lead in Kill Points.  I managed to kill the two weak vehicles (Rhino and Chimera, the Techmarine, and Coteaz's buddies.  A number of other squads were weakened but I wasn't able to finish them off.

Despite the uphill struggle I had a good time, and hope D.C. did as well.

Stay tuned in the next few days for Scythiak vs. Black Templars!  This time with cover!