Monday 9 July 2012

Popped my 6th edition cherry!


I had my first game with the new edition against Ben on Saturday night, and we had a really good game!

We decided that we would keep it fairly simple playing Purge the Alien with a Dawn of War deployment but with the use of secondary objectives.

The idea was to get used to the rules as much as focus on the victory conditions, however since we'd need to focus on the secondary objectives going forward we also followed these.

Ben used his Tau which consisted of (I think) 3 Fire Warrior squads (two with Devilfish), 1 Pathfinder squad, 1 large Kroot infiltrator unit, 2 stealth teams, two Hammerheads and was lead by a Commander and retinue with a few drones which Ben kept in reserve.

For my Part I decided to field my Chaos Marines. It has been something of a tradition for me to see in new editions with my Chaos army, so that was a big factor here.

My list consisted of:
  • Lash Sorcerer
  • 10 Chaos Space Marines w/ Asp Champ w/ Powerfist, Undivided Icon, Plasma gun, Heavy Bolter
  • 9 Thousand Sons w/ Sorcerer w/ Doombolt
  • 8 Bezerkers w/ Skull champ w/ Powerfist, 2x Plasma pistols. Mounted in a Land Raider w/ extra armour
  • 4 Bikers w/ Champion w/ Powerfist, 2x Plasma guns, Icon of Nurgle
  • 7 Raptors w/ Asp Champ, Lightning Claws, 2x Flamers, Icon of Slaanesh
  • 2 Obliterators
  • Defiler w/ extra CCW and Reaper Autocannon

I figured that a varied force would allow me to try and deal with a few different options and I hoped that the biker squad specifically would soak up a fair amount of fire being T6. The
Raptors too would probably take a bit of attention since their aim was to get in combat fast and try and hit first. The rest of the force was essentially taken to try and test possibilities. I'd not really used the cult units in the previous editions - I'd only assembled the Plague Marines prior to 6th ed preparations, so I wanted to trial the Bezerkers and the Thousand Sons.

Finally, I had 100 points left and so I decided to take an Aegis defence line with a Quad Gun. I knew that there weren't going to be any fliers in this game, but I suspected that 4 TL S7 shots would at least irritate any lighter tanks.

Ben took the first turn and I failed to seize the initiative. I shall just note the key points from the battle in order to discuss how it played.

Although there weren't too many successes by Ben in first turn (inevitably) those that he did have were particularly good for him. He immobilised the defiler which really caused me issues as that had been one of my forward forces, thus meaning that I would need to re-think my forward forces. I addition, I lost the my Plasma gun to the CSM squad due to not paying attention to wound allocation. Something that I would suffer from again as Ben took a heavy toll on my Raptors with his rapid firing Kroot meaning that as well as a couple of regular raptors I lost their aspiring champion!

I would retaliate, but first I decided to immobilise my Land Raider on a crater. Great. So the Bezerkers disembarked and got ready to find some blood to spill. The Raptors positioned to make the Kroot burn resulting in a bit of crispy space chicken and the bikes took out a Piranha that was edging Its way towards targeting my Land Raider. Meanwhile, I moved the Undivided squad a few inches out of their deployment zone towards the Aegis Defence line and Quad gun which I had deployed slightly forward so that I didn't use up space within the deployment zone - a position I would leave them in for the rest of the battle albeit that I moved squad members around to make best use of firing positions. I also detached the Sorcerer from the Undivided unit so that I could lash one of the Stealth suit squads into range of the Bezerkers so that despite their ride being stationary, they could get stuck in asap. Ben failed his Deny the Witch roll so I moved the suits a decent 8 inches nearer and between the ksons and the bezerkers I managed to destroy the Drones that Ben was using to cunningly shield his more useful troops in order for the bezerkers to wipe them out in combat, which they duly did.

I took the opportunity to issue a challenge trusting that the other bezerkers could cope with with suits. challenge will play a big part in this edition. If you want to keep alive a character that you think will die to a fist sergeant or that would be better taking on multiple opponents (Lelith for example), then it is now possible to sacrifice a Sgt (or equivalent) of your own by issuing or accepting with him. Perhaps using a Fist armed Skull champion to challenge a Shas'ui was somewhat overkill, but at least I know how it works now.

In turn two, Ben managed to explode my Defiler, reduce the Raptors to three (two flamers and the icon), the Bezerkers down to the Skull Champion and a regular Bezerker and took a couple of models out of the Undivided squad.

In retaliation the Raptors wiped out the Pathfinders inc combat. Meanwhile the Thousand sons shot at a Fire Warrior squad reducing them enough for them to fall back thus saving them from being in charge range (note the 2d6 roll required wouldn't reach them even had I had another d6 and got 6 on all!) Also, the bikes turbo boosted to get further up the board and the Obliterators came down, took a couple of shots at the Ion Cannon Hammerhead, both of which penetrated, but Ben managed to pass both his Jink rolls. Say what you want about vehicles in this edition, but Ben is working those Jink saves! out of the approx 15 that I forced on him by the end of turn three, he failed 5, and three of those were on the Piranha's!

Speaking of Turn three, Ben's Commander appeared with his retinue and killed the Obliterators. It seems to me that the only time my Obliterators survive turn 3 or longer is when they don't deep strike, so I think I shall try that next time. The last two Bezerkers died, though it took a great deal of fire power (two squads I think, one being the re-grouped squad that fled in turn 2). In the end I like to think that they took the equivalent number of shots as Boromir and Willem Dafoe in Platoon before becoming the foundations of a giant brass throne. Finally for Ben this turn, a flamer toting Raptor died.

In retribution for the death of the Bezerkers, the two Raptors finished the recently regrouped fire warriors with flame and steel making it fish and fowl for them in a single battle!
The Bikes targeted the Commander's unit taking out most of the drones which the Thousand Sons then also fired upon removing the remaining Drones and one of the bodyguard retinue. The Bikes then charged and won the combat against the commanders unit, but the unit managed to flee, thus meaning that they would keep safely out of charge range if they regrouped, which they would do.

Turn four saw the last squad of Fire Warriors took out the last of the Raptors, though in truth they had done well. They hadn't quite earned their points back (I don't think) but they had occupied what could have been a devastating attack by the Kroot, not to mention the attention of the Fire Warriors. The bikes also died to the Ion Cannon hammerhead, and again they had soaked a lot of fire power before their demise. It's nice to find a use for these guys as I couldn't get them to work in the last edition. The Thousand Sons also took a pounding and were wiped out. They hadn't quite worked how I had planned, but I think that was misuse rather than their ability. They had helped weaken a few units allowing others to wipe out, so maybe that is the way to use them rather than rely on them being game winners.

I'll write up turn 5 and six together as they are a little hazy. Ben managed to wipe out the Undivided squad in turn 5 leaving just the Sorcerer (who was on one wound) and the Land Raider. I cannot remember now, but I think that the Sorcerer died. Luckily however I managed to kill the last of the Commander's unit including the commander himself as well as the last of the stealth suits.

In the end it was a good close game and I did like the changes to the rules that came in to effect here.

Key points to remember are:
  • model placement within the unit, remember to make use of the secondary objectives,
  • use your grenades at range (I didn't really cover it much here, but I did make use of throwing the odd Krak grenade at the Piranhas - stupid Jink Saves)
  • move skimmers - Jink saves can be a real boon
  • remember to state when particular models remain stationary in a moving unit.
  • Remember overwatch

Thanks for reading, let me know if there are any questions.

Drax

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a good game man. Will have to face off against your chaos at some point.

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