Friday, April 04, 2008

+ 2000 Points of Sisters Facebeat +

Yesterday had my first game against Witch Hunters and also my first game at 2000 points. My army was the 2k list posted earlier, and the table was made up of several large sand dunes (5+ cover), a marshy patch (5+ difficult terrain) and a ruin in the very center that was the objective at Turn 6.

Undivided vs Witch Hunters [2000] - His Sisters were cannoness (S5, inferno pistol, jump pack), elite INQ w/ shooty retinue (2 heavy bolter, 1 plasma cannon), 6 dominions (3 melta, 1 flamer) in immolator (heavy flamers), callidus assassin (!), 13 sisters (3 storm bolters), 2x 10 sisters (melta, flamer), 2x 6 seraphim (2x flamers, 1 w/ power sword, 1 w/ eviscerator), 8-10 retributers (3 multi-melta, 1 heavy bolter), 2x exorcists.

WH 0 - Callidus pulls the shooty CSM squad + deathscreamer lord up out of the dunes they were in and towards the center of the table, putting them closer to the objective ... and many guns.

WH 1 - 10 strong sisters squads push forward, dominions cruise forward in their tank and hop out in easy range of the shooty CSM squad, and seraphim squads both move up behind the immolator and central objective, with the cannoness hanging out between them. Shooting - divine and otherwise - kills the shooty CSM squad down to lord + 4 dudes (AC, plasma, 2 bolters) and the fisty CSM squad down to 6 dudes. Dominions totally flopping helped me out.

Chaos 1 - Dread fire frenzies, and the 1k Sons right in front of him try to shuffle away but only get 4" from him. Oblit gets LoS to left exorcist, biker lord boosts over from the right flank to the middle (hugging cover for a counter charge later), deathscreamer lord joins the 1k Sons and remnants of the shooty CSM move up to assault the seraphim near the objective. 1k Sons + lord target 10 sisters getting ready to push through the marsh, but the robots fail and the doombolt is shut down by the sisters' psychic save thing. The deathscreamer says 6! though and 4 sisters die. The blastmaster crunches the dominions down to 2 (meltas), breaking them back several inches - note that they failed their '3+ inv save' act. Raider scoots over 6" but misses the exorcist with 1 twin las. Then Oblit zaps the launcher off one exorcist and the fisty CSM lascannon kills the other one, and havoks triple krak the smoked immolator but only manage to shake it. And the dread killed 4 1k Sons ...

In assault the CSM smacked against the seraphim but the power weapon AC killed all 4 chicks in the kill zone, including the eviscerator. The seraphim broke 10" away and the CSM consolidated into the 4+ ruins objective.

WH 2 - He popped the 'fearless' act to rally the dominions and seraphim, and the callidus showed up over in my fire support right flank, right next to noise marines. Immolator tank shocked the 1k Sons + lord, who shrugged and stepped next to it, and the wounded exorcist tanked forward towards the oblit / fisty CSM. Full seraphim squad + cannoness hoped up to blast the 1k Sons + lord, deathscreamed sister squad stumbled into the marsh 2" and other 10 sister squad moves up some. Divine guidance on the big sister squad splattered the CSM remnants in the ruins, INQ plasma cannon finishes off the 1k Sons, and callidus' shredder does jack to the noise marines.

Seraphim and cannoness smack into the lord, and despite popping +2 Init and 2+ inv save the cannoness does nothing and the lord ignores her and kills 2 seraphim. The seraphim hit & run over by the dread, leaving the cannoness on her own. The callidus kills 3 noise marines and gets punched in the face for her trouble (yea Init 5), taking 1 wound.

Chaos 2 - No deep strike, and dread blood rages ... towards the seraphim 3" in front of him. Oblit shuffles around, raider parks up on the dunes to get some guns on the retributors, and it's on to shooting. Oblit + fisty CSM knock the sisters in the marsh down to 2 (melta, flamer), havoks frag and bolter the big sister squad for 0-1 dead girls and raider removes a couple retributors.

Dread charges the seraphim, who get 1 krak through but to no avail, and kills 1. They hold and then hit & run over towards the havoks. The deathscreamer can't get through the cannoness' 2+ inv save and takes a wound in return. Noise marines club the callidus down for no loses.

WH 3 - Seraphim move to flame the havoks, dominion remnant moves up, seraphim remnant moves up, exorcist rumbles towards the oblit, marsh sisters zip 6" towards the dread, retributors move from the flank towards the center, immolator scoots 6" to cook the fisty CSM. Which it does, for 1 marine, and the INQ team plasmas them down to 3 (AC, flamer, las). Various combined fire on the havoks strips out the bolter marines. The marsh meltagun hits the dread ... and does nothing.

Seraphim kill 1 havok in assault and tie them up in combat, losing 1 girl in return. Cannoness continues to deny the lord and puts another wound on him.

Chaos 3 - Lesser demonettes summon down almost dead center off the deathscreamer's icon and the termies strike 6" from the retributors, scattering 10-11" towards the right table edge but still within rapid fire range. Dread keeps his cool and advances to stomp the 2 sisters in the marsh, oblit stomps within 12" of the exorcist and fisty CSM squad move off the dune to crump the immolator in combat. And the biker lord guns his bike 12" to charge the 10 strong sister squad at last ... Termi plasma rips into the retributors (4 wounds) and raider finishes the last girl off, and the blastmaster explodes 1-2 girls from the big squad - and they're PINNED. Dread plasmas off 1 girl but holds his heavy flamer so he can have some assault fun. Oblit fires a multi-melta for the first time ever, detonating the exorcist on a 6.

Fisty CSM follow that up by detonating the immolator on a 6 (taking no wounds from the explosion), but exposing themselves to an easy INQ plasma cannon template next turn. Dread rolls the 2" he needs and creams the melta sister. With the Sisters out of faith, the deathscreamer lord tears all 3 wounds off the cannoness at once and massacres 4" towards the biker's combat. And he'll need the help, as he rolls a 1 for the demogauntlet and hits himself in the nuts for 1 wound ... Girls do nothing in return and pack in. Havoks lose another CSM to the seraphim, who hit and run near the noise marines. Over in the center, the summoned demons make assault with the 2 dominions, killing 1 (with 12 wounds caused), breaking the last chick, catching her and consolidating into the seraphim.

WH 4 - Seraphim hop to flame the noise marines, and everybody else is pinned, engaged or ready to shoot. And the INQ does that, using the plasma template on the bunched up fisty CSM and finishing them. Seraphim do nothing to the noise marines.

In assault the seraphim carve the noise marines down to the blastmaster, losing only 1 girl in return. The sisters fighting the biker use the faith from the cannoness' death to call on divine guidance, but the only 6 is saved by the biker's aura. BUT ONCE AGAIN the demogauntlet rolls a 1, the wound thankfully saved by the 5+ aura. Back in the center, the seraphim kill 1 demon but are torn apart, giving the demons the 4" massacre to contact the big pinned sister squad in the center ...

Chaos 4 - Dread controls himself, termies start the long stomp back to the action and deathscreamer prepares to help the biker out. Templates from the oblit, dread and havok account for 2 pointless wounds to the INQ team.

The deathscreamer lord charges in ... and rolls a 1, but takes no wound. Biker lord is feeling better and smacks some girls dead, but they hold. Demons kill their kill zone of 3, the sisters hold and the 9 demons swarm in. Seraphim kill the blastmaster.

WH 5 - Seraphim hop over to the last havok and bolter him down. INQ team immobilizes the dread with a lucky plasma shot. Deathscreamer and biker lords rip into the sisters, who break and are caught. The demons chew up their sisters and catch them when they break.

With just the inquisiton team and 2 seraphim left, the Witch Hunter player concedes as 9 demons dance about the objective.

Chaos Win

So lesser demons won me the game hands down, securing the middle despite all my attempts to get my stuff away from it. Second place would have to go to the blastmaster for pinning that squad in place for that critical turn, and possibly third to the CSM lascannon guy for making that shot and taking the exorcist out first turn. Last place goes to the land raider, though the demo-biker is close with those 2 angry weapon rolls in a row!

And with that, I've decided to return to painting the defiler and let the raider languish a bit. She did sooo little for her 240 points, and while the defiler will die every game he'll toss out at least 1 big template most times and give out only 150 points when he bites it!

Painting: Defiler
Building: Dread?

2 comments:

Wehrkind said...

I dunno, I think the Blastmaster should get MVP, with the demons and the Lascannon getting the tie. That single noise marine caused a lot of casualties, and that pinning result just broke my heart as it kept me from spraying your demons with a boat load of bolter fire.

Still, that was a good game. I really thought I had it cinched before the end of turn 3, when it all started to unravel. I was so disappointed with the Retributors and Dominions that I am thinking of putting the Penitents and Repentia back in (!). At least when they die it is kind of funny, and takes some heat off other units.

Boss Salvage said...

That game definitely reminded me that people are wrong when they say Ld plays no part in 40k. Panicing back a couple of your squads and pinning the big squad saved my butt. You weren't using the Library like most WH players, but still think it shows that the Ld system as noted isn't a total joke.

Note that I refuse to call it 'psychology' like in Fantasy, where it's a BIG deal.

Yeah, the retributors were screwed over with those 24" multi-meltas. They're good deterrance, and the main reason my raider didn't venture out of it's corner, but can be isolated and pounded pretty easily and at the enemy's leisure. The dominions, I dunno maybe you were using them wrong? They're clearly tank or MC hunters, but besides the dread and the raider worlds away from them I didn't have too many targets to make them instantly get their points back.

- Salvage