256th Imperial Battle Group: 2024 league

Showing posts with label 2024 league. Show all posts

Friday, 26 July 2024

2024 league - guard vs orks

So I played another game in the league, the fourth of five games and another victory, just! This was a very close game with the final score being 69 to the guard and 65 to the orks. There were a few mistakes made in the game but I'll come to them later.

My opponents list was quite scary to look at, as it had a lot of combat punch and his previous game had been against the World Eaters, and had been a resounding victory 78 to 33, so I was really worried. His list included; a beast boss, two beast bosses on Squigosaurs and three warboss' leading two units of beast snagga boyz in kill rigs, two units of squighog boyz and three units of nobz in trukks, plus a unit of Gretchen at the rear.

So lots of mobility and close combat punch, which meant that my plan was to stay back as much as possible and force him to come at me piece meal.

Take and hold, search and destroy, chilling rain

Mission and terrain layout were rolled for randomly.

Terrain layout 3

Deployment

Ork deployment

I didn't get any pictures early game, but during this time.my opponent made, what I think, was his biggest mistake, he held back, worried about my deep striking units. He pushed up with his kill rigs but bottle necked himself in the central terrain pieces. He did manage however to remove my DKoK squad that I had sent up the middle and a cadian squad on the left flank, which had claimed objectives for VP, plus my rough riders that had pushed up the right flank. However, this was over two turns and so the DKoK and Rough Riders returned as Reinforcements.

By the start of turn 3, the game was still very close, with orls now in my lines, with the majority of my units pinned in my deployment zone. I had forced my opponent to move back by bringing the DKoK in behind him but that was it. My scions were still off the table, along side the rough riders. My knight finally did something this turn and chopped up a squad of Squighog boyz, although he failed to take out the Boss. This also saw the start of the battle between Tank commander and beast Snagga boyz. I lost the other tank to kill rig shooting which was unfortunate.

Looking a bit grim for the guard

Nobz out of position after taking on the flanking DKoK.

At the beginning of turn 4 we were still only separated by a few points and I was struggling to score primary points but doing well on secondary points, my opponent had the opposite problem. The scions had dropped in previously but some poor positioning from me and dropped me some easy primary points this turn. The rough riders also reappeared this turn in the far corner to charge down some trukks but failed the charge, twice. The knight however had no trouble dealing with the kill rig that had charged my infantry squad sitting on my home objective. The scions on the top objective were less lucky and were splattered all over the place, luckily for me another (identical) unit was waiting ready to redeploy!

Rough riders pinned in by trukks

Turn 5 saw the knight move up and take on the last kill rig and the rough riders hit both the trukks. With both charges successful and the resultant damage enough to destroy all three units, the rest of the firepower from the two squads of scions was directed at the remaining orks and was enough to destroy all by one lone ork warboss.

There was very little for the orks to do in there turn, having only one model left. They were however able to score a few points. The end result of 65 to 69 for the guard was a pretty fair score for the game, even though I had significantly more units left at the end, although most of these did come from reinforcements.

There are a couple of notes to make though. There were a couple of mistakes made during the game, not just in terms of decisions but also rules wise.

For the orks, the main mistakes were tactical, with pushing both kill rigs in to the ruins turn 1 bottlenecked himself meaning one has to move back to allow the other to move forward. The second mistake was charging the squidosaurs unit into the knight rather than the squad on my home objective. They did some damage but not enough to take.out the knight, although the knight did fail to take them out in return. The last mistake I think was holding on to bring it down for so long. I think that after the second turn it should have been dropped. However, there is a caveat to this, one that is my mistake.

I think I only really made two mistakes, one minor one was holding my knight back so much. I think I should have pushed it up further turn 2 but ultimately it worked out as it was. The second mistake was with "big guns never tire". When my tank was charged I checked the rules as I had a feeling there were restrictions about blast weapons. Having a look through the main rule there was no mention about it, just pistols, so I checked a few.other bits but found nothing, even though I was sure that there was something. Anyway we played on and I shot the plasma guns in combat even thought they were blast. I later found the bit I was looking for and confirmed that blast can't shoot in combat (in the rules commentary). Why they can't just add the restriction to the main rules I don't know, they have stuff about pistols after all. Anyway, this would have meant that I would have pulled the Russ out of combat and fired all the infantry in to the unit and probably done more damage, as they didn't shoot that turn anyway. I don't think this would have affected the game either way however, as even if they had scored the points it was only worth 3 points. There are also a couple of points in the game where I missed out on scoring points. The first was when I dropped in my scions. I dropped them in close to the enemy but if I had dropped just a few inches back, I could have claimed an objective during my next turn or two, without having to move, potentially scoring myself up to 10 extra VP. I also had cleanse for one of my cards in the last turn but got carried away with shooting. If I had done cleanse I could have picked up 3 points myself, for one objective and possibly the full 5 if I had dropped the above squad on the objective.

Overall I don't think any of these rules mistakes would have made a difference to the overall result even though it was a close run thing. Some of the tactical decisions would have had a bigger impact on the game overall and could well have changed the overall result.

Last Ork Standing

Overall this was probably the best game of the league for me so far, not just due to the win but in overall fun and enjoyment and the ork army was very nicely painted as well. I have one last game to try and play but I'm not sure when or even if I will get around to playing it.

Friday, 5 July 2024

2024 League Tau Vs Grey Knights

So this was my son's second game in less than 24 hours! After the previous nights marathon game we were hoping that this game would be a lot quicker. The opponent for this game was playing Grey Knights with a baby carrier heavy list.

The list contained 5 carriers, including ......

You might notice some different terrain on the boards. This was at the request of the opponent, as with his mostly mech suit army it would have been difficult to get in to the building that were on the board, so he fetched some of his terrain to use.

My boy deployed quite well, using his infiltrators to screen out any possibility of the Knights deep striking up the board and this did give his opponent some issues during his first turn.

And that's all the photos I got! Deployment and scout moves! Again I was pulling double duty with child care and various errands, so was only popping in occasionally to see how things were getting on.

The main issue faced by my boy this game was the same as he faced against the Custodies, a 2+ save and 4+ invulnerable, meaning that his big guns with their -4ap were negated a lot of the time and his little guns were struggling to do anything. In turn 1 he encountered another problem, the teleportation shenanigans of the Grey Knights. After taking one down to just a handful of wounds, three I think, it jumped across the board and hid away from more shooting, getting healed up the the Tech-priests. On three separate occasions he got a dreadknight down to just a couple of wounds (a single wound on one occasion) for it to just away and get healed up.

There is no doubt that his opponent did play well, and was lucky in some long bomb charges and on at least one occasion my son was very unlucky with his dice rolls. Dropping in all his suits on one flak to overwhelm the 4 voidsmen, two Grey Knights and an injured Dreadknight (on 7 wounds). With 36 burst, 6 fision, 2 plasma and 3 ion blaster shots he managed to remove a single voidsman and drop 3 wounds on the Dreadknight from a single fusion shot. To top it off, he failed both charges including using a reroll for one of them.

He did play very well and made very few mistakes this game, maybe just being a little too aggressive in his deployment being his biggest. All in all though, despite the final result and the fact that he was tabled turn 4, the opponent said that he did not find the game easy. A lot of the time my son failed to get his cards by the narrowest of margins and then was denied by the Knights shenanigans, such as bring it down where he got the Dreadknight down to a single wound before it jumped away and hit.

Despite the lost again both players seemed to enjoy the game and despite to loss again, his third in a row that is now his hard games done. Two of these the players, this one and the custodies player, are two of the best players in the club, one winning 4 out of 4 games (3 major and one minor victory) and the other having won 4 out of 5 games ( 2 major and 2 minor victories and the loss being to the minor victory for the other player!). His remaining two games should be a little easier and even if he doesn't win then they should be a lot closer.

Tuesday, 2 July 2024

2024 league Tau Vs Ultarmarines

This was my sons second game in the 40k league and it was a mammoth one, after 7 hours and approaching 11 o’clock, we called the game at the end of turn 4. My son did very well to keep his concentration for as log as he did but there were quite a few errors made, due to both a lack of concentration and also tiredness as the game was played on a Friday night after a full week of school and clubs. This will also be quite a quick write up as I wasn't pulling double duty, keeping an eye on the games, babysitting the youngest and also dealing with general house stuff.

The ultramarines army was a fairly troop heavy army and contained a lot of proxy units. The army was lead by Roboute Guilliman, with Marneus Calgar and Cheif Librarian Tigurius, backed by a nameless Lieutenant. Two ten man Tactical squads, loaded with grav, three 5 man Scout squads, a Sternguard and Devastator squad (also with grav) made up the bulk of the troops along with the Company Heroes. These were backed up by a Land Raider Redeemer and a Whirlwind.

Deployment was a tactical battle in itself as both of the players tried to out manoeuvre each other with their infiltrating units.

The game started well, with the land raider getting knocked down to just a single wound, where it remained until its demise in turn 4.

It was in turn 2 that the first mistake from my son popped up. He deployed both his crisis suits in a very bad position at the front of his lines, mostly due to the fact that there wasn’t anywhere else to drop them. He could have placed them on a flank and done some more with them or just have waited until turn 3, but we had been played for the best part of two hours by this point already and he just plonked them down without much thought.

Unfortunately placing the crisis suits down without thinking left him open to quite a difficult second turn with his opponent making the most of it and destroying a number of vehicles and gaining quite a few secondary points. This was a theme through our the match, with my son just plonking units down with our thought and suffering for it.

There were also some unfortunate dice rolls, with farsight charging the remnants of the stern guard and librarian only for his opponent to make four 6 up saves out of six dice.

The Ultarmarines ultimately gained the momentum early on in the game and never let up.

By the end of turn 4 the Tau were on the ropes and I suspect that if we had gone to tur. 5 it was have been a tabling, as there was only dark strider and two broadsides left on the board.

The ultramarine were really geared up for a vehicle heavy army, with all the grav, cannons, guns and pistols, which for a very vehicle heavy list like the Tau, is deadly combination. Combine this with the fixed secondary of bring it down, which count per model and not per unit, means that there is a lot of point up for not a lot of effort. Each crisis squad with character gives up 8 points for bring it down and 4 for assassinate, for a total of 12 points or 24 for both squads, all for 495 points. Over half the available points for just two units and a quarter of the army points.

Overall I think this game was a very bad match up for the tau list, the number of grav weapons with the anti-vehicle 2+ and the number of vehicle models in the army combined with the fixed secondaries was always going to make this a hard game. As far as I know this is the only player in the tournament to take fixed secondaries, so hopefully that should not be a problem in future games.

The game was not a great game for my son, with several movement and tactical errors, most of which were due to tiredness and lack of concentration over the mammoth game, which might well have ended up being a 8 plus hour game if it had gone to it's conclusion. His next game is against Grey Knights and will be another hard game as his opponent is another very good player.

Friday, 21 June 2024

2024 League Guard Vs Space Marines

My latest game was against a White Scars list, with some fast mobile units and some very choppy units backed up by some high power shooting, oh and a very scary Knight. The actual list contained a Captain, Lieutenant combo, a Judiciar and a Chaplain on bike. There were also two 10 and squads of Assault intercessors, a blade guard squad, two eradicator squads and two Hellblaster squads, with two Outrider squads and a Gladiator Reaper for some mobility. All of these were supported (or supporting) a Cerastus Knight Lancer.

It was going to be important who got the first charge between the Knights, as who ever did was more than likely to be the one left standing at the end of it all.

Deployment was as expected, we were both a bit conservative with our Knights, both of them hiding away so as not to be targeted early on.

I had first turn and was very slow to start, just shuffling around a bit to get my cards and some shots down on whatever I could manage. My opponent was far more aggressive, pushing up multiple units including the knight.

This aggressive approach seemed to pay off, as by the end of turn 1 he was in command of no man's land and had wiped out my unit of rough riders, which had disappeared back in to reinforcements thankfully. This did now leave me with a couple of issues, with the assault marines on the right flank, the knight in the middle and the remains of another assault marine unit on the left.

Some of my decisions were made for me when I got my first surprise of the day, with the marines redeployment stratagem, allowing the assault.marines to.move out of sight on the right flank. That meant that all the firepower I had went in to the knight. With all the shooting i managed to take to knight down to just 8 wounds, which was key as it was just one hit from the thunderstrike gauntlet, although I still had to make the charge! In addition, both units of scions dropped in behind the marines and went to work on the Eradicators, removing the other main threat to my Knight and tanks.

Whilst I made the change, fluffed the rolls and only managed to get two wounds through, which with the 50\50 4++ save, proved just enough with one going through, killing the knight.

Retribution however was swift and deadly, with the marines swinging around both flanks and pushing deep in to my deployment zone.

The resulting massacre was not unexpected. I lost nearly all my command squad and infantry platoon, nearly all my Cadians and a few Death Korps. The bikes also appeared on my left ready to charge down the line.

At this point the game could really have gone either way, yes I had taken out the knight and eradicators but now I was severely lacking in troops and in danger of having the rest of my units rolled up in combat.

However, with some dedicated shooting by what remained of the guard I was able to whittle down the marines and hold my lines. I was unable to completely wipe out all the assault squad and the characters, which proved troublesome.

In addition my rough riders proved how fragile they can be. After charging the enemy tank, a prefect target for their melta lances, they managed to take just 5 wounds, two from a Goad lance and two from the Horses and only ONE from the melta.

By turn 5 the game was well and truly over, I had managed to take care of the bikes and chaplain in my deployment zone with the knight and the rough riders had done enough to allow the leman Russ to finish the enemy tank. By the end of turn 5 all that remained of the space marines was a solitary marine in the far corner.

Lone marine just on the right hand side.

The final score doesn't reflect quite how close the game started off. At the end of turn 2 the score was 19 to 18 to the guard and by turn 3 it was only 39 to 26, but after this point the sheer number of guard came in to play. My opponent also had some bad luck with his cards, especially in the last two rounds where his cards were just impossible to achieve.

For myself, I feel that this was a game where everything went just right, granted there were a few moment where the dice let me down but overall everything went as well as I could have hoped for. I made a couple of errors, namely with my Scion command squads and forgetting that the Prime has multiple wounds and kept trying to remove him as a casualty alongside normal scions.

I think my opponent made a couple of key errors that would have changed the game quite dramatically. Firstly pushing the knight forward early. I was anticipating a manoeuvre game, with each of us trying to get the drop on the other, as it was clear that the first to hit would likely walk away. Grantees when I did hit, I only managed to get one hit through, so probably would have died if it hadn't been wounded! Secondly, pushing forward on mass turn 1 left a lot of space for my scions to drop in and do some damage, taking out 190 points of Eradicators, making half their points back in one go. If you opponent had been a little less gung ho with the knight and not pushed as much turn 1, the game could have been very different. Who would have won is an unanswerable question but the game would have been different.

Here are some more shots of the game, taken by my opponent.