This week saw my second challenge game, against Alfie Bennet's Astra Militarum. For reference, my army is here;
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.com/2018/06/landos-friday-challenge.html
Alfie took the following (in order of deployment)
- Tempestor Prime (in deep strike)
- Militarum Tempestus Command Squad (in deep strike)
- Company Commander
- Heavy Weapons Team, with Missile Launchers
- Taurox Prime, containing a squad of 10 Tempestus Scions
- Chimera, containing a Company Commander and Infantry Squad
- Tempestus Scions
- Tank Commander, in Leman Russ Battle Tank
- Leman Russ Demolisher
- Stormlord, filled with the rest of the infantry (38 models)
I foolishly didn't make note of how they were organized. I think it was 2 Battalions and a Supreme Command. I know the Scions were in a Militarum Tempestus Detachment and the regular Guard were Armageddon Regiment.
It was a lot of troopers and a Super-heavy Tank to boot. That's a lot of firepower, and quite intimidating.
Alfie wanted to play the Open War cards. For deployment, we got standard Dawn of War. The Objective card was Burn and Pillage. That's 3 objectives in each deployment zone and if you control an opposing one at the end of the turn, you destroy it. The winner is the first one to destroy all three of their opponent's objectives. Finally, the Twist was Warpstorm, adding one to all Psychic and Deny the Witch tests. Great for my three Shadowseers, less good for Alfie's lack of Psykers.
The Game
With the Stormlord carrying so many units, I feared going second. So I put my Skyweavers in the Webway, to bring in at an opportune moment. My fears were realised when he finished deploying before me and I failed to seize the initiative.
Round 1
Astra Militarum turn 1
The Chimera moved to the middle of the table to start heading towards my objectives, followed by the Taurox Prime. Then his guns opened up on a couple of Troupes and two of the Death Jesters. It felt like I couldn't make a save and I took a lot of casualties and lost the Death Jesters. If that carried on, this game was going to be an uphill struggle.
Harlequins turn 1
I wasn't going to gain much by sitting back. I left the two dwindled Troupes guarding objectives and ploughed forward. Heroe's Path once again sent my heroes forward to key positions and the bulk of my force moved straight up the centre. I also once again used the Shadowseer with Twilight Pathways to send the Starweaver forward.
My shooting finished off the Tempestus squad out in the open, after Mirror of Minds had killed four of them, and the remaining Death Jester dropped the Commander with the Heavy Weapons squad to 1 wound.
My charge phase saw me successfully engage the Tank Commander with the Starweaver, the Heavy Weapons and Officer with the Death Jester, The Taurox Prime with a Shadowseer and the Chimera ended up surrounded by the bulk of my force. The only disappointment was the Solitaire failing its charge.
The Death Jester killed off the Company Commander and held up the Missile Launchers, meanwhile the Shadowseer and Starweaver prepared to stop their tanks from firing in the next turn. Versus the Chimera, my goal was to surround it and lock it in combat to keep the bulk of my force from being shot in Alfie's second turn. To my horror, the Troupe with Kisses killed it outright, leaving my army out in the open right in front of Alfie's.
Round 2
Astra Militarum turn 1
His deep striking Storm Troopers arrived on my back line, near the Voidweavers. The Leman Russ' fell back from the Starweaver and a lot of troops disembarked. There were a lot of guns pointing at the bulk of my force.
The good (for me) part of his shooting phase was him losing 3 Tempestus Plasma Gunners overcharging against a Voidweaver. Everything else found its mark and I took a hammering. By the end of his turn, I had gone from 3 Troupes, the Great Harlequin and a Shadowseer at his front line, to just the two characters. Both of whom were surrounded by Guardsmen and Officers.
Harlequins turn 2
I had gone from being outnumbered to being severely outnumbered and on the verge of being tabled. 4+ Invulnerable saves don't cut it when mixed with Toughness 3, and the Shadowseer's aura can only do so much. Luckily, the mission we were playing had an instant win condition - control all three opposing Objectives at the end of turn.
One Objective had the Missile Launchers on it. If the Solitaire and or the Skyweavers could kill them in melee, that would easily give me that one. Even if they failed, the bikes should outnumber the heavy weapons at the end of turn.
The second Objective was currently held by the Leman Russ and the Stormlord. While the Russ is Objective Secured, so is the Troupe in the nearby Starweaver. If they disembark and sit on the Objective, I can steal that one away.
The final Objective was the tricky one. After some measuring, it was clear that the Taurox and the Stormlord were out of range to control it. I could also move the Starweaver into range after the Troupe disembarked. However, it was being controlled by a lot of Objective Secured Storm Troopers. This could be the one that makes or breaks me.
The second Objective was easy. The Troupe disembarked and moved onto their Objective. As long as I didn't go crazy and assault either tank, that one was mine.
The first Objective was straightforward. The Death Jester fell out of combat, as his firepower would be needed elsewhere. The Solitaire moved up and I brought the Skyweavers out of the Webway.
That third Objective.....
The Great Harlequin and Shadowseer fell out of combat, ready to brave the Overwatch from the Tempestus if needed. The Death Jester prepared to fire. The Starweaver moved over behind them to hold the Objective should they fall. The remaining Voidweaver moved into range of them. The final Shadowseer even used Twilight Pathways on herself to close the gap.
It took pretty much all of the Psychic and Shooting phases, but the Tempestus' were slain, leaving the Starweaver in control of the Objective. The Troupe it had protected were in control of another, leaving just the Skyweavers and Solitaire to succeed in the Fight phase to give me the win.
Thankfully, the Skyweavers made their charge, only losing 1 bike to Overwatch. I fear that if they had failed and the Solitaire had to move in, thee n an errant Krak Missile would have spelt it's doom. Their Zephyrglaives being 2 damage each sealed the Heavy Weapons Team's fate, giving me the third Objective and the game.
Aftermath
Looking back, Alfie reflected that he could have positioned better on the Objectives. While he is right, as it allowed me to steal the game out from under him, I was so under pressure from his other decisions that I had to go for the desperate triple grab.
His firepower was really good, and it felt like I was unable to make any saves. That last bit probably isn't true, but I was pulling a lot of models off the table at a worrying rate. I was able to close the distance really quickly though, so getting to his army wasn't a problem.
If positioning was Alfie's mistake, underconfidence was mine. When the Chimera died to the first unit I had activated, I realised I had made a grave error. My goal was to lock it in combat, to skip Alfie's second shooting phase, and instead, I put all the best targets directly into Rapid Fire range. To make matters worse, I had jumped across terrain that would have protected me from so much firepower by blocking lines of sight, allowing me to pick and choose what I engaged in my second turn. If the mission hadn't had an instant win condition, I doubt I could have taken control of the game back and would have been tabled turn 4, if not turn 3.
This teaches me two things; firstly, don't get carried away trying to do sneaky tactics. Sometimes patience is the way forward. Secondly, always play the mission.
ALWAYS PLAY THE MISSION!
Many players get distracted trying to table their opponent and lose because their opponent was either too hard to kill or better at killing than them. But the mission allows you to win when facing superior troops. Every turn you should be keeping in mind what you need to do to achieve the mission, this being a wargame means killing will be part of that. Learning to play to win rather than play to kill will increase your ability to win games and still lead to epic stories.
As an aside, Alfie has long been wondering about the Stormlord as a choice for his army. His worries have been twofold. If he puts it in every Guard army, does that make him boring? Also, as a Titanic unit, is it fair on his opponents for him to bring it?
For the latter point, at 2000 points it seems silly to stop someone playing Titanic units. Thier reputation from 7th Edition for dominating the game just isn't true anymore. You can ignore them, their effectiveness lessens as they take damage and every weapon has a chance of hurting them. In this game, I used terrain where I could to block its lines of sight and mostly ignored it. Killing it wouldn't have achieved the mission, so I didn't look to doing so.
As for the former point, is starting your army building with the same unit everytime boring?
No. We all have a unit or character we like to field. Maybe they are the character that attracted us to the game/army. Maybe we really like the model/paint job/conversion and want to show it off. Maybe we really like what it does on the tabletop or how efficient it is. Whatever the reason, we should be able to field that unit. What's the point in spending money on a unit and spending time putting it together and painting it, if we are going to guilt trip ourselves into not using it?
I look forward to facing my next opponent.
