Monday 14 May 2018

Apocalypse-ish Game

Yesterday, I had a 4000 point game of Warhammer 40K against my friend Chris. We hadn't seen each other for a while, so a game was the perfect opportunity to have a catch-up. We decided on such a large points value so that he could field George, his Warhound Titan dedicated to his Grandfather.



My List

I'll discuss my list in-depth in another post.




  • Autarch
  • Autarch with Swooping Hawk Wings
  • Farseer
  • Spiritseer
  • Spiritseer
  • Avatar
  • Guardians
  • Guardians
  • Guardians
  • Guardians
  • Dire Avengers
  • Dire Avengers
  • Wraithblades
  • Wraithblades
  • Wraithguard
  • Bonesinger
  • Windriders
  • Windriders
  • Windriders
  • Support Weapons
  • Wraithlord
  • Wraithlord
  • Wave Serpent
  • Wave Serpent
  • Crimson Hunter Exarch
  • Hemlock Wraithfighter
  • Wraithknight
All with the Iyanden keyword, essentially a Wraith Host with some Guardian support and a small group of Aspect Warriors lead by the Avatar of Khaine.

Chris' List


 

  • Warhound
  • Imperial Knight
  • Imperial Knight
  • Imperial Knight
  • Captain
  • Sanguinary Priest
  • Scouts
  • Scouts
  • Scouts
  • Baal Predator
The Marines were all Blood Angels.  An intimidating wall of machines.

The Battlefield






We had the benefit of being the only 40K game going on that day, so we had our choice of the available terrain.

The Mission


We used the Open War cards to build the mission. We drew the above deployment card, and I won the roll off. I chose the Player A Deployment Zone, mostly to keep the Titans focused in the middle.

The Objective we drew was Take and Hold, which places one objective in the centre of the battlefield and one in each deployment zone. Controlling an objective at the end of your turn gives you 1 point. If you have controlled it since at least your previous turn, it's 3 points instead. The winner is determined by most points at the end of the fifth battle round.

The Twist we drew was Dead of Night, which limits the range of Shooting and Psychic powers to 12", and then from the second battle round there is a roll each round to try and extend the range.

Finally, as Chris had lower Power Level, we drew a Ruse. This ended up being Inspiring Speech, not ideal for his infantry light army.

The Game

With a much smaller army, Chris was set to go first and I failed to seize. Marines were already holding the centre objective and his backfield one, while I had covered mine with Guardians. Due to the mission and the range limitation from the twist, Chris' plan was move George to hold the centre and throw the Knights at my army. It was a good plan, even with all my Wraith-units it takes a lot of effort to shift a Knight.

It also meant I wouldn't be able to quickly shift his backfield, allowing him to rack up points quickly while I was facing the Titans. End of Round One, the score was 2-1 in his favour. End of Round Two, the score was 8-5 as I had just managed to claim his deployment zone's objective by getting Wraithblades there via a Wave Serpent. His turn 3 ended with him on 11 points, so with a 6 point deficit, I had some work to do.

Meanwhile, my offensive was hit and miss. The encroaching mechs had put me on the back foot. Shout out to Doom and Jinx making 2 of the Knights easier to kill across the first two turns. Shuriken Catapults need 6s to wound a Knight, and Doom gives them re-rolls to wound. When a Shuriken Weapon gets a 6 to wound,  it's save modifier increases to -3. This means the Knight ends up choosing between it's 5+ Ion Shield invulnerable save or it's now modified 5+ armour save. Jinx reduces their saving rolls by 1, making both saves now a 6+. With a lot of shots coming in, the ones that wound normally then get through the armour. Each turn Catapults were responsible for about half the wounds on a Knight. The D-Cannons would then usually finish the Knight off, allowing me to keep my objective.

As I'd put the Wraithblades in Wave Serpents, they and the Windriders made a beeline for his back objective. The shooting removed the Scouts in the first turn but failed to clear the Sanguinary Priest. The Psytronome of Iyanden allowed the Wraithblades with Ghostswords to slaughter the Captain in combat, but the Priest rolled three 6s for the three saves he was required to make that combat. Luckily I outnumbered him to control the objective. He didn't survive the next Fight Phase.

The Dire Avengers got shot to pieces by the Baal Predator, but then took a couple of wounds off it on Overwatch and in the ensuing combat. The moved away to eventually deal with some Scouts, leaving the Avatar to destroy the tank. It's a shame he then failed to charge 6" to reach the nearest Knight, despite his natural re-roll and was gunned down by that Knight in Chris' turn.

The Warhound, once he got into range, was terrifying. His Dual Turbo-laser Destructor killed my Wraithknight in one salvo, then the following turn shot down the Crimson Hunter Exarch. It was only the Lightning Fast Reflexes Stratagem that forced the Plasma Blast gun to take 2 turns to kill the Wraithguard. However, in the final turn, he fell to massed firepower and the Wraithblades with Axes, backed up by several Smites and casting Jinx on him. Their Spiritseer caused the final wound.

Up until that point, despite 6 vehicles being destroyed, nothing had exploded. So, of course, the Warhound went up. Here are the units that suffered Mortal Wounds in his demise;
  • The Winged Autarch
  • Both units of Wraithblades
  • Both Spiritseers
  • Both Wave Serpents
  • The Hemlock
  • Two units of Windriders
  • The lone survivor of the Wraithguard
  • A Wraithlord
  • The Bonesinger
Everyone took a bunch of Mortal Wounds, and the Spiritseer that killed George was slain in the explosion. Talk about vengeance.

The defeat of the Warhound not only removed Chris' last model from the table (as the lone surviving Dire Avenger Exarch killed the final 4 Scouts) but gave me control of the centre objective, allowing me to rack up 7 points at the end of the turn. Final score 11-12 in my favour. 

It was a fun game, and a great way to spend an afternoon. If you've got a friend you haven't seen in a while that plays 40K, I'd suggest a similar size game as a catch-up.


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