High Speed Dirt

[bzarcher]

So, we went to War today.



Since we've proven that A) My 'nid GT list is tooled up to hell and gone, even if I don't go to the GT and B) people are sick of playing against my 'nids right now, I happily took my Dark Angels over to Todd's place to experiement a bit.

As it turned out, we easily had enough to just run a big FFA battle, with each side taking about 500 points, and everyone at least in theory attempting to take and hold an objective at the centre of the board.

Note where I said "in theory."

I decided to try running my terminator librarian without a command squad, backed up by 2 drop-podding tactical teams. (Sadly, they were only at 7 models a squad due to the points limit, but still, a neat proof of concept.)

The board ended up with Dave's Tau on one corner, Alex's Sisters at the opposite corner, John's eldar next to Alex, my librarian feeling very lonely across the board from John, and Todd's codex marine force at the final table edge.

The first turns went fairly for Todd, and my Librarian, though he did decide to open fire on my Librarian, and after the terminator armour finished resisting the bolter shells, I fried a few with Fury of the Aincents to make him reconsider than plan - as well as lining everything up in a straight line.

Then, John's dire avengers and reapers ended up tearing about 50 holes through Alex's sisters, leaving one squad decimated and retreating, while Dave's mechanized tau spun up the board and deployed the Peanut Butter Firing Line to take large bloody chunks out of Alex's flank.

As the 2nd turn began, John pressed his assault while Todd started to move towards the objective. I rolled my reserves and got 1 of my 2 pods, and managed to bring it down directly next to the objective. The first squad of the High Speed Dirt deployed and shot almost entirely ineffectively at Dave's forces, and were blasted off the map a short time later by his new Vespid stingwings. (Those Marine-killer guns are a BITCH, let me tell you...) My Librarian put some mental hurtin' on John's Reapers, but he decided to focus on pressing his advantage into Alex. Alex repulsed some of the assault, but was dragged into a whole new world of Pain by the Howling Banshees and was quickly fighting for his life.

Meanwhile, after his Vespids cleaned out my first squad, Dave quickly brough his Devilfish mounted fire warriors up and into the objective area, seizing it with authoritah.

I started to debate if I could drop in and counterattack when I got my 2nd pod out of reserves, but then Todd decided to have another go at the Librarian. As I trundled into a counterattack, I noticed at least a chance to get my own back - Todd had put his forces in a position where I could screen much of his initial counterfire with the Pod if I got lucky.

So, with a good reserve and scatter roll, I quickly dropped in my 2nd squad (ironically in Pod 1) and destroyed almost all of Todd's command squad on their opening salvo, while my Librarian started to chew through 1 of Todd's 2 tactical squads.

From there, the battle quickly turned into a rout of Alex by the Eldar, and the two space marine armies locking into close combat, while Dave consolidated on the objective. My drop pod's storm bolter attempted to force a few casualties, but it was not to be - Dave had basically won the day. John's eldar didn't have the numbers or position to get up into the objective and challenge Dave, and Todd and I quickly turned into a meat grinder. Game was called shortly thereafter.



From there, dinner was ordered, and a D&D game was hastily proposed and assembled, with our characters beginning to explore several pizza filled mysteries. It should be a rather fun game and diversion from our 40k stuff.

This sunday Pataskala trip thing is starting to really turn into something awesome. It's nice to see the social circle expand a bit more. :D

Comments

[dklegman.livejournal.com]

All's I gotta say:



Best 80 points in my list. ;-)

[flying-landon.livejournal.com]

Dev squads are hell in 500 point games. No one expects to have to deal or is prepared to deal with a missile launcher and a plasma cannon.

[avylin.livejournal.com]

Maaaan, I wish I had a million bux to spend on figures and figure painting ski11z.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Not arguing. :D

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

The profile for this was 1 HQ and 2 troops, and even small tac squads fill that up quickly. But, next time may get a bit more freedom on the points, and then the fun starts, oh, yes.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

It's not so bad as you'd think, especially if you buy it all 2nd or 3rd hand...

[avylin.livejournal.com]

That just makes it, like, $500 instead of $1000, doesn't it?

[(Anonymous)]

*grins* Yeah, something like that...

(Seriously, you could probably get going for under $200 very easily.)

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Ah, dadgummit. That was me.