Region: Xenobian sector.
Death Guard vs Craftworld Saim-Hann.
1500 points.
Mission: Roving Patrol.
Deployment: Vanguard Strike.
Having translated in system, Typhus was eager to make planet fall and begin his assigned task. Typhus lead a small vanguard into the overgrown ruins of the ancient Aeldari empire in search of their forgotten relics. But the farseers of the craftworlds had foreseen his arrival and prepared an ambush. Swooping through the trees came the skimmers and grav tanks of Saim-Hann.
At last a chance to play against the new Aeldari codex and my opponent did not disappoint. I picked a mission, Roving Patrol, from Chapter Approved 2017 as I had seen a nice youtube battle report using that once and I had as yet not played any of the new missions. Unfortunately we rolled the one deployment zone that I really hate but we went for it. Using the mission deployment rules Jon set up his small force in his corner and I had a little gathering sitting around my objective. I had hoped that this would help me so that I didn't just get swamped by swarms of jetbikes. I did ponder about trying to seize the initiative but I couldn't fathom a reason to actually do so.
Straight away Jon focused all his fire upon my poor plagueburst crawler but I was lucky and it shrugged off most of the damage. Most of his army also turned up straight away and we had to reset a little as we had both read it wrong as to where they could come in but no harm was done. My first turn and everything except Typhus turned up. I was able to pour some fire into him but not a great amount.
Turn 2 and Jon's army was now inbound. The plagueburst crawler took a lot of damage as did my renegade knight. The ion shield was just not set to resist Aeldari weaponry obviously. My turn and Typhus finally arrived. I tried to use psychic sorcery to hide the crawler but it didn't really help against the alien force arrayed against me. I was able to seize first blood though and took out one of his wave serpents. One poor dire avenger on board was killed but I'll take any victory against the Aeldari.
The next couple turns saw my crawler and my knight destroyed. Disappointing but facing the Aeldari had expected a lot of severe firepower coming my way. I tried to advance forward towards the objective at the center of the table but mass firepower from jetbikes and fire prisms was taking down by plague marines and poxwalkers. I also noticed that Jon had not as yet used his swooping hawks and it occurred that maybe he was waiting for me to move my troops out from my deployment zone before sending them forth to steal my objective. I figured that the game was lost at this point anyway so I set myself the tertiary objective of not letting him having my objective.
Turn 5 went on to turn 6 and Typhus lost his poxwalker screen and soon fell himself to mass firepower. I figure that the Terminus Est has teleport locks on him and pulled him to safety before he could be killed. My plaguecaster used his smite to take out the swooping hawks when they arrived but it did not help. He and the cultists were cut down turn 7. Jon had nicely tabled me.
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Thoughts on the game. I felt that I had made a reasonable list that should have done me well. Had the deployment been different I think I might well have done better. But Vanguard Strike is just hell to play. Jon's much longer range weaponry gave him such an edge in the battle that it was soon apparent to me that I was not going to do well. I was also a little disappointed by the mission as I had figured that it would help me more than him. In the end, the deployment and reserve rules made very little difference to the outcome. A nice fun game as always but one where I think the deployment zone screwed me over.
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++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) ++
Rules: Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon
+ HQ +
Malignant Plaguecaster: Blight Grenades, Bolt pistol, Corrupted staff, Curse of the Leper, Krak grenade, Plague Wind, Smite, The Pandemic Staff
Typhus: Blight Grenades, Master-crafted manreaper, Miasma of Pestilence, Putrescent Vitality, Smite, The Destroyer Hive, Warlord
+ Troops +
Chaos Cultists
. . 8x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon: 8x Autopistol, 8x Brutal assault weapon
. . Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. . Cultist Champion: Shotgun
Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun
Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Blight launcher, Krak grenade, Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plague Spewer
Poxwalkers
. . 11x Poxwalker: 11x Improvised weapon
+ Fast Attack +
Foetid Bloat-drone: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe
+ Heavy Support +
Plagueburst Crawler: 2x Entropy cannon, Plagueburst Mortar, Rothail volley gun
++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Questor Traitoris) ++
+ Lord of War +
Renegade Knight: Heavy stubber, Reaper chainsword, Thermal cannon, Titanic feet
++ Total: [83 PL, 1498pts] ++
My initial deployment. Hold that objective!
The two fire prisms that gave me such trouble.
My army arrives ready to crush the alien!
That is a lot of skimmers...
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