Battle Missions: Double Battle Report

So in a streak of crazy i managed to get Wed. afternoon off and attended my local comic shop to throw some dice down with the regulars.

I ended up playing through 2 Battle missions.

Game 1: VS Vanilla Marines
We randomed off and pulled up the Battle mission "War of Attrition" for the IG.  This meant it was table halves with deployment all the way to the middle line, and any troops destroyed could re-enter battle from reserves.  Victory points decided the winner.



The enemy got to deploy first, so he of course setup his entire force along the middle line to force me up against the edge and to get his units up close fast.  I deployed along a semi extended front, but with the bulk of my force in the west opposite the bulk of his force.  It was odd deploying second when i more or less knew i had first turn...

The game went fast, after second turn was over my opponent had little to nothing left and we spent the next few turns mopping up.  In the end the "unlimted reserves" never kicked in.  It was a nice twist but again didnt make a huge difference in game play.

Game 2: VS Tyranids
We rolled the "First Contact" battle mission for this one, and let me tell you right now...This Sh&% is Banana's.

So the table is divided into 6 squares, each has an objective dead center.  The non-Tyranid player, thats me, rolls a dice for each of his units.  That dice roll determines which square that unit deploys in. And no reserves are allowed.

My Units deployed in an almost even randomness around the board, but wherever possible i kept them near the middle.  The Nid's keep everything in reserver, or walking on first turn alla dawn of war.  But everything that comes on has to roll just like me, and it then comes in from a board edge in that zone, or deep strikes into that zone.

My opponent had his 3 Zoanthropes and a Biovore walk on turn 1, 2 Zoans and the biovore all managed to come in on the same zone, and right in front of my leman russ.  The Zoan's manged to blast off the battle cannon and the Biovore manged to nuke my stormtroopers from 7 guys to 2.  The other Zoan came in across the board and immobilized the Manticore.  I wiped them all out in my turn.

Next his Massive warrior squad with Prime came in, along with a large genestealer squad with lord.  They came in on zones next to each other so they bunched up along the line.  The warriors shot up a chimera causing some damage, then the genestealers assaulted it wrecking it.  In my turn i managed to wipe out a good 60% of the warriors and all but 3 genestealers and their lord.

Next his Tyrant and guard came on, along with a Carnifex.  The Tyrant assaulted my Demolisher russ and blew it sky high, the Carnifex was across the board near nothing so it just moved toward an objective.  The Genestealers assaulted the Vet's that were in the chimera and decimated them.  The warriors shot up and killed the remaining two stormtroopers. In my turn i killed a tyrant guard and the last genestealers but not the damned lord, all but the warrior prime died as well.

Lastly his final squad of Genestealers arrived from the opposite board edge, the Carnifex was pissed he was alone so he reverted to his base instincts and ran blindly after my prisoners instead of holding the objective.  The Tyrant moved toward the new squad of genestealers and shoot at the prisoners pinning them in the woods.  The new stealers squad managed to reach my Command Chimera and wreck it in assault.  In my turn Straken was pissed about his ride getting blown up and ordered the force to focus all fire on the genestealers, killing all but 3 and the lord, who he then assaulted.  The other Brood lord alone assaulted my Sentinels, and they would remain locked in mortal combat for the game.  The Prime received a gift in the form of my last Manticore round, but didn't survive to thank me.  Straken successfully killed the last 3 genestealers, leaving only him and the broodlord, which he now had to be in base contact with....

the Tyrant joined up in assault against Straken and the Carnifex lumbered on fixed on the prisoners in the woods.  Straken sadly dared look in the eyes of the Brood lord and was unable to attack...his squad took a few loses as a result and did nothing in return.  In my turn i dropped squads off at 3 objectives, and my Vendetta's took care of the lumbering Carnifex with ease.  The Prisoners ran at full speed toward the straken assault, as it was near an objective.

The end result was that Straken spent the rest of his assault phases transfixed and unable to attack until finnally dieing (it took 4 rounds though...he even survived a bone sword hit).  The Prisoners successfully stayed in the area though and contested the objective, leaving the score 3 objectives to 0 in my favor.

Overall this was a BLAST it was super weird, and super fun.  I think my opponents point heavy force needed more bulk and it would have more effective overall, but as it was i was forced to constantly react to monsters coming from random sides....