Warbands League Round 4

It's been 3 weeks already since my last Warband League game. Boy, time does go fast! Me and Leonidas was up to the task but unfortunately Stefanos couldn't play on Sunday since he was working. Furthermore none of the substitutes was available for one reason or the other. This meant that we had to concede two of the games and that would put us 8 points behind before we even start playing any games. So the least we could do to emerge victorious would be to draw once and win three games. That would give us 10 points and 9 points to the opposing team. Not an easy task but certainly not impossible.

Furthermore the FLGS we were supposed to play was having a MtG tournament at the same day. This meant that there was no available space for any other games. Since it is one of the very few gaming stores that cater for Warhammer players (with at least 2 gaming boards suitable for 40K) open on a Sunday we really had a hard time trying to find an alternative place. Fortunately, the excellent people from the Dragon Phoenix Inn let us play over there. The place is not too far away from my home either, so all the better.

My first game was against a friendly chap who was playing Blood Angels. Yes, Blood Angels again! They seem to be very popular with new players, even more popular than Space Marines even. I wonder why. He was using Mephiston, Epistolary, Furioso Librarian, Sanguinary Priest, 2 x 5 Assault Marines in Land Raiders, 5 Assault Marines in a Drop Pod , 7 Assault Marines in a Drop Pod with Deathwing Missile and a Devastator Squad with 2 Lascannons, Missile Launcher and a Plasma Cannon. We rolled for Seize Ground with 5 objectives and Dawn of War and he won the dice roll and opted to go first.

He also got the side that I wanted to deploy with all the Objectives nicely inside terrain. I didn't deploy anything since it was going to die on the first turn from the Marines emerging from the drop pods. Although I think it would be a good idea to deploy a squad as a bait, very far away from my objectives. If he would have gone for it I would probably lose a unit but then he would have been drawn out from the main battle.

When his first turn started Mephiston failed his psychic test and rolled a double six. I chuckled! Then he deepstriked the drop pod with his 7 marines along with the Epistolary & Sanquinary Priest and the other drop pod with the Furioso on the objectives in my table edge.  That what I really wanted him to do since on my turn they got shot to bits from my Medusas. Both the ICs died and just 2 marines remained alive. I also managed to immobilise the Furioso with the veterans using their lovely meltas on it so I didn't bother trowing any more shots. Most importantly I advanced most of my Infantry Squads on the flanks so that they could try to contest the objectives on my opponents table edge.

Next turn Mephiston came close enough end assaulted the Medusas (he realised what a big thread to Marines an AP2 S10 large blast can be). Fortunately he only stunned one but destroyed the main weapon from the other one. Still it could have been much worse. He stunned both of my Vendettas but still didn't manage to kill them.

For the following turns I focused some low AP firepower on Mephiston and took him out. I kept pushing my infantry squads forward so they did contest two objectives in the opposite side of the table in the last turn.  I managed to kill a Land Raider with a lucky lascannon shot but the other survived till the end. His last Drop Pod arrived on turn 5 but and opted to land near one of my objectives in my deployment area. Fortunately it deviated 11'' from its target so it didn't disrupt my plans. In the end I had more objectives than him so I won the game.

Second match was against Stavros and his Imperial Guard. First time I fight against them with my own guard army so this would be interesting. He had a tooled up CCS with Master and Officer, 2 x Veterans with 3 Plasmaguns in Chimeras, 2 x Veterans with 3 Meltaguns (one with Demolitions the other with Chimera), Veterans with Lascannon and Sniper Rifle, Vendetta, Hellhound, Leman Russ Vanquiser (Lascannon) with Pask, Leman Russ with Lascannon Hull and Plasma Sponsors. To be honest at first thought the list looked like a mess but I had no idea how he was planning on using it.

We rolled again for Seize Ground with 5 Objectives and Dawn of War. Also played in the same table. I had a strong sense of deja vu about it! I lost the roll again so I deployed 2 x 2 Infantry Platoons (joined) as my troops. This time I was more careful placing the objectives so 2 big blobs was what I needed so they could contest 4 objectives between them. I opted for the Vendettas to stay in reserve and outflank with the Veterans.

First turn he rolled all his tanks forward but couldn't reach to shoot my infantry squads due to night fight. Second turn he fired with the Hellhound at an Infantry blob that was hiding inside terrain and killed 10 of them. Ouch! In return the squad got an order to bring down the dangerous enemy vehicle but only managed to stun it. Rest of the shooting was quite uneventful but I managed to immobilise and stun his Vendetta. I was very fortunate to have both of my flyers arrive on turn three. I rolled a '5' and a '6' for their outflanking which my opponent forced me to re-roll with his Officer of the Fleet. I then managed to roll another '5' and '6' so the vehicles arrived on the side that I wanted to.

I then had a very good round of shooting. I managed to kill his Veteran Squad that had disembark from his Vendeta on the previous turn with a very accurate throw of a demolition charge along with the rest of the shooting from my Veterans. The other Veteran Squad disembarked behind his Vendetta and turned it into a flaming ruin with their meltaguns. The blast from the Manticore landed spot on Pasks Leman Russ and destroyed it. The Infantry blob that had suffered on the previous turn from the Hellhound managed to blow it up too. I think my opponent thought I was cheating somehow after all this (honestly I wasn't).

Rest of the game was predetermined from that point on. Last few turns I rushed the Vendettas forward to deny his objectives and put my own infantry squads tightly on mine. The game finished 2-1 in my favour after 6 turns of very intense shooting. Unfortunately I was too much in a hurry to enjoy these last few turns and debrief my opponent about our game and I had to run like a bat out of hell.

Leonidas had a tie on his first game. When he later called me he informed me that he had won in his second game. We were fortunate enough to win the round despite our major drawback. It took a lot of effort to play these two games, especially the last one since I was in such a hurry but I think in the end it was worth the trouble.