My most recent game was against Rhett and his Chaos Marines. Rhett has had a hankering for Planetstrike lately, so I suggested we use that for our league game. We ended up at 1850pts, with me as the defender against a Chaos incursion.
I altered my standard league list a bit, dropping things like rhinos (squads would be in bastions) and the whirlwind for some terminators. When I started unpacking, I realized I didn't have the second squad of terminators I thought I had, so I quickly redid the list to get back to points, tossing scouts and the ironclad back in.
Rhett had: Typhus, seven terminators, 2x10 plague marines in rhinos, 10xwarp talons, 3xbikers, heldrake with autocannon. Other than the bikers, everything had mark of nurgle.
As defender, it was my job to set up the battlefield.
The two bastions would be our objectives, and since he could choose what table side to come in from, I decided to set up in the middle. I left the field very open, with difficult terrain along the shortest distances, which would slow him down one way or another, by slogging through it or by going around. I set up tactical squads in the bastions and kept everything else in reserve.
Pre-game, the attacker gets to launch orbital strikes onto the defenders, a large part of why I wanted to keep so much in reserve. He also had an advance observer on the field which let him reroll scatter, letting many of the blasts hit the bastions. One bastion (which was a command center, giving my guys nearby counter attack) was damaged, making it easier prey for the attackers when they arrived.
Turn one everything but one squad of plague marines arrives. The warp talons hit a krak grenade trap, but it does no damage to them. The interceptor guns pepper the heldrake and take off two hull points.
Typhus and the terminators scattered into the perfect position between both bastions.
In planetstrike, units that can deepstrike naturally can assault the turn they arrive, allowing the terminators to charge into one of the bastions. One chainfist later, detonation! The bastion was destroyed and the squad inside dies from the resulting 22 wounds. One terminator also goes down from the blast.
My turn one, and Space Shark reinforcements start arriving. Everything but the dreadnought and speeder show up. I tried to get the terminators over to assault the warp talons, but they scattered very far off. They shot into the talons, but only managed to kill one biker from a scattering frag missile.
More Space Sharks arrive.
Chaos moves in on the other bastion.
And the chainfist works its magic again, destroying the other bastion. This time only half the squad dies, with the rest spilling out onto the field.
Dread arrives, hunter killer missiles plink off of the rhino.
Marines pull back to await the Chaos troopers.
Chapter master's orbital strike scatters off of the terminators and along with other shooting kills a few warp talons. Precision shot bolter from the bikers takes out the chainfist terminator, but too late for the bastions.
Chaos moves around the ruined bastion. Biker and terminator charges fail, but warp talons make it to contact.
The Space Shark assault squad uses hit and run to disengage.
Bikers and assault squad pile into chaos terminators, while firepower takes out the lone biker but fails to damage the warp talons. My librarian tries to psychic scream Typhus but a 12 on the leadership check stops that. Typhus and Chapter Master head into challenge land.
The second plague marine squad arrives, and my terminators destroy their rhino. Assault grinds on with Typhus and chapter master.
Warp Talons join the fray.
Plague marine shooting takes out all but one terminator, who gets pulled down by plague knives.
Dread gets up towards the plague marines, but a meltagun shot pops him.
Warp talons finish off the assault squad, but the chapter master takes out Typhus. Bikers hit and run away, last warp talon gets shot up.
The bikers make it to one plague marine squad, but the Space Shark forces are pretty thin. The game ends turn five, with the attacker in contact with both bastions, therefore with both objectives, giving him the win. Chaos victory!
I think that's the last game for me for this league, though I'm not sure when it will be officially over.
Your bike squad is awesome. I don't recognize the speeder bike.
ReplyDeleteSpace Sharks never lose, they may appear to run, but they're simply choosing to attack in a different direction.
The bike is by Kromlech. http://bitsofwar.com/home/121-iron-shark-assault-jetbike.html
DeleteI agree with your assessment, one of the reasons I went with White Scars tactics for them - the attack, circle, attack again seemed very fitting based on the name and their described tactics.
If you like the Sharks, be sure to check out their army profile: http://sonsoftaurus.blogspot.com/2012/11/army-profile-space-sharks.html
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