Sorta BatRep
I played a game tonight, but it wasn't much of a game. We went 7 turns, I lost 8 models and tabled him. In many ways it was frustrating for me, because he kept wandering off in the middle of my turn. Every time I'd roll hit, roll wounds, and he'd be off at another table trading miniatures with another guy. I almost just packed up and left, but this was part of a open play league night and I didn't want to let my teammates down.
Regardless, there were some points from the game that were worth noting. Specifically, I think my opponent lost the game in his army selection and deployment, with his tactics not far behind.
It was Dawn of War, Crusade, Night Fight on the first turn, and 1500 points. I was playing White Templars; he was playing Gray Knights. My warlord was Tenacity and his let him choose nightfight on the first turn; neither affected the game. My psychic powers were Endurance and Warp Speed; neither of them ever mattered.
The White Templar force (1500 points), commanded by Librarian Grammatacus consisted of:
* Librarian Grammaticus in terminator armor with a force stave and a storm shield
* Tactical Squad I (10) with a plasmagun and a lascannon
* Tactical Squad IV (10) with a plasmagun and a missile launcher
* Scout Squad VIII (6) with a missile launcher and Sgt. Castle (Telion)
* Terminator Squad III (5) with an assault cannon and chainfist
* Sternguard Squad V (10) with 2 combi-meltas and a power fist
* A Land Speeder Typhoon from Squadron II
* Brother Veritas the Dreadnought with extra armor
* Brother Zeus and his Thunderfire Cannon
The Gray Templars were:
* 2 Paladins
* A squad of about 7 Gray Knight Marines
* A squad of about 10 Gray Knight Marines
* A unit of 5 or 6 terminators. * 2 Inquisitors
* 12 cultists(?) geared for CC
* 12 cultists geared for shooting
Manifestly, the cultists were to bubble wrap his HQs, or so he said.
We rolled 4 objectives. Immediately noted that he had 3 troop choices and planned my strategy accordingly.
He place his objectives out of my line of sight in ruin in his far rear corners, both left and right. I placed mine in the open, right in front of my DZ on my left, making sure they were three inches away from any cover. I was running a gun line and I wanted him to walk into the valley of death to get to my objectives and then to have to stand on them taking shots. It never occurred to me that he might not get to them - Gray Knights are assaulty right?
He won initiative and had me go first. To my observation about his only having three troop choices, I added the fact he had no weapons that could shoot beyond 24". I set up my gunline in a U around the two objectives in my area,tossed 5 tactical and the dreadnought on my right flank (which was about midway along my DZ), and stuck my scouts in reserve figuring they'd be good for coming in from the side and threatening his objectives which might cause him to pull back to defend them, giving me more time to shoot at him. I intended to hold my two objectives and play for the secondary objectives. Depending on the situation, the scouts would either be throw aways or they would be there to contest/take an objective. I planned to give him the objective in the right (my right) rear of his DZ.
He placed his 7 Gray Knights in reserve and one of his bubble wrap squads. I have no idea why because neither could deep strike and all reserving them did was mean that they had to start walking from his back DZ line later in the game than the rest of his army. Maybe, I thought, he planned to have the Gray Knights walk on to one of his objectives late game. He then placed his larger Gray Knight squad on the objective in his DZ on my right. He placed his terminators, his paladins and his Warlord with a bubble wrap squad centrally. He placed his solo HQ in hiding on top of his objective on my left.
My T1 shooting wasn't too great; I killed one paladin with a Lascannon, wounded the other one, and killed about 7 of the Warlord's bubble wrap. He advanced his forces across his line. In T2, I killed his other paladin (first blood)and two or three of his terminators along with more of his bubble wrap. At this point, I was doing well enough with shooting that I was keeping him out of assault range. He got both his reserves on T2 and did something I simply cannot explain. He brought his other bubble wrap squad in to mate up with his solo inquisitor sitting on his objective to my left and his Gray Knights onto the board in the center of his DZ. He advanced everything, did some shooting, killed a couple guys.
My reserves came in on T3 on the left, right where I wanted them. I placed them about 12 inches from his left objective, got a lucky snap shot and sniped his HQ which was fun. More importantly, I was in a position to get a scoring unit on that objective and he had no scoring units of his own so he could only contest. I continued to shoot up his terminators, killing them, shot at his larger Gray Knight Squad. For his T3-T4 he pretty much marched his reserved Gray Knight squad right towards my two objectives and into the teeth of my gunline, taking lascannons, krak missiles, assault cannons, plasmaguns, bolters, and storm bolters all the way. He even advanced them pretty much one at a time and they were simply destroyed. He did manage to kill four men from one of the Sternguard half-squads, 2 guys from a tactical half-squad, and 3 scouts. But he never finished off any of them, allowing my Sternguard singleton to assault his bubblewrap unit and stop it from shooting up the scouts camped on his objective. His bubblewrap was then killed on my next turn when my terminators got into the assault. That left only his guys on his objective on my right and, at that point, I had the game already with three objectives, first blood, warlord, and linebreaker. But we kept rolling for the game to go on so I advanced my dread toward this squad full of S4 shooting. I killed some guys on the way until he decided to attempt an 8" assault on the dread. I over watched, and for the first time it actually did something. The multi-melta and the storm bolter all rolled 6's. That killed 2 of his guys and made him fail the charge. On my turn, I moved in and charged him in such a way that his loan demon hammer guy was more than 3" from my dread. It took that turn and his turn, but the dread killed that squad, sustaining 2 glancing hits. That was the end of 7, he had no army, and the score was WT12; GK 0.
I didn't learn much, but I think my objective placement was well done as was my deployment. My favorite moments were sniping his HQ with Tellion and rolling 3 6's on overwatch with the dread. Anotther smart thing I did was attempt a charge with my terminators on the bubblewarp that had been harrasing my scouts. I knew that my solo Sternguard who was 2 inches away from them was going to make his charge, but didn't want that one guy to take the overwatch. So I declared with the terminators (instead of running them closer to charge next round) and he took the bait, wasting his overwatch on 2+ armor saves to no effect. Then my Sternguard moved in.
Unfortunately, I don't see any glaring errors which makes learning hard. Atone point, I started to shoot his bubblewarp near his objective on my left and realized I was only making it harder for my terminators to get the charge in. Indeed, they failed that charge as discussed above.
Anyway, I hope for more challenging games this coming weekend.
Regardless, there were some points from the game that were worth noting. Specifically, I think my opponent lost the game in his army selection and deployment, with his tactics not far behind.
It was Dawn of War, Crusade, Night Fight on the first turn, and 1500 points. I was playing White Templars; he was playing Gray Knights. My warlord was Tenacity and his let him choose nightfight on the first turn; neither affected the game. My psychic powers were Endurance and Warp Speed; neither of them ever mattered.
The White Templar force (1500 points), commanded by Librarian Grammatacus consisted of:
* Librarian Grammaticus in terminator armor with a force stave and a storm shield
* Tactical Squad I (10) with a plasmagun and a lascannon
* Tactical Squad IV (10) with a plasmagun and a missile launcher
* Scout Squad VIII (6) with a missile launcher and Sgt. Castle (Telion)
* Terminator Squad III (5) with an assault cannon and chainfist
* Sternguard Squad V (10) with 2 combi-meltas and a power fist
* A Land Speeder Typhoon from Squadron II
* Brother Veritas the Dreadnought with extra armor
* Brother Zeus and his Thunderfire Cannon
The Gray Templars were:
* 2 Paladins
* A squad of about 7 Gray Knight Marines
* A squad of about 10 Gray Knight Marines
* A unit of 5 or 6 terminators. * 2 Inquisitors
* 12 cultists(?) geared for CC
* 12 cultists geared for shooting
Manifestly, the cultists were to bubble wrap his HQs, or so he said.
We rolled 4 objectives. Immediately noted that he had 3 troop choices and planned my strategy accordingly.
He place his objectives out of my line of sight in ruin in his far rear corners, both left and right. I placed mine in the open, right in front of my DZ on my left, making sure they were three inches away from any cover. I was running a gun line and I wanted him to walk into the valley of death to get to my objectives and then to have to stand on them taking shots. It never occurred to me that he might not get to them - Gray Knights are assaulty right?
He won initiative and had me go first. To my observation about his only having three troop choices, I added the fact he had no weapons that could shoot beyond 24". I set up my gunline in a U around the two objectives in my area,tossed 5 tactical and the dreadnought on my right flank (which was about midway along my DZ), and stuck my scouts in reserve figuring they'd be good for coming in from the side and threatening his objectives which might cause him to pull back to defend them, giving me more time to shoot at him. I intended to hold my two objectives and play for the secondary objectives. Depending on the situation, the scouts would either be throw aways or they would be there to contest/take an objective. I planned to give him the objective in the right (my right) rear of his DZ.
He placed his 7 Gray Knights in reserve and one of his bubble wrap squads. I have no idea why because neither could deep strike and all reserving them did was mean that they had to start walking from his back DZ line later in the game than the rest of his army. Maybe, I thought, he planned to have the Gray Knights walk on to one of his objectives late game. He then placed his larger Gray Knight squad on the objective in his DZ on my right. He placed his terminators, his paladins and his Warlord with a bubble wrap squad centrally. He placed his solo HQ in hiding on top of his objective on my left.
My T1 shooting wasn't too great; I killed one paladin with a Lascannon, wounded the other one, and killed about 7 of the Warlord's bubble wrap. He advanced his forces across his line. In T2, I killed his other paladin (first blood)and two or three of his terminators along with more of his bubble wrap. At this point, I was doing well enough with shooting that I was keeping him out of assault range. He got both his reserves on T2 and did something I simply cannot explain. He brought his other bubble wrap squad in to mate up with his solo inquisitor sitting on his objective to my left and his Gray Knights onto the board in the center of his DZ. He advanced everything, did some shooting, killed a couple guys.
My reserves came in on T3 on the left, right where I wanted them. I placed them about 12 inches from his left objective, got a lucky snap shot and sniped his HQ which was fun. More importantly, I was in a position to get a scoring unit on that objective and he had no scoring units of his own so he could only contest. I continued to shoot up his terminators, killing them, shot at his larger Gray Knight Squad. For his T3-T4 he pretty much marched his reserved Gray Knight squad right towards my two objectives and into the teeth of my gunline, taking lascannons, krak missiles, assault cannons, plasmaguns, bolters, and storm bolters all the way. He even advanced them pretty much one at a time and they were simply destroyed. He did manage to kill four men from one of the Sternguard half-squads, 2 guys from a tactical half-squad, and 3 scouts. But he never finished off any of them, allowing my Sternguard singleton to assault his bubblewrap unit and stop it from shooting up the scouts camped on his objective. His bubblewrap was then killed on my next turn when my terminators got into the assault. That left only his guys on his objective on my right and, at that point, I had the game already with three objectives, first blood, warlord, and linebreaker. But we kept rolling for the game to go on so I advanced my dread toward this squad full of S4 shooting. I killed some guys on the way until he decided to attempt an 8" assault on the dread. I over watched, and for the first time it actually did something. The multi-melta and the storm bolter all rolled 6's. That killed 2 of his guys and made him fail the charge. On my turn, I moved in and charged him in such a way that his loan demon hammer guy was more than 3" from my dread. It took that turn and his turn, but the dread killed that squad, sustaining 2 glancing hits. That was the end of 7, he had no army, and the score was WT12; GK 0.
I didn't learn much, but I think my objective placement was well done as was my deployment. My favorite moments were sniping his HQ with Tellion and rolling 3 6's on overwatch with the dread. Anotther smart thing I did was attempt a charge with my terminators on the bubblewarp that had been harrasing my scouts. I knew that my solo Sternguard who was 2 inches away from them was going to make his charge, but didn't want that one guy to take the overwatch. So I declared with the terminators (instead of running them closer to charge next round) and he took the bait, wasting his overwatch on 2+ armor saves to no effect. Then my Sternguard moved in.
Unfortunately, I don't see any glaring errors which makes learning hard. Atone point, I started to shoot his bubblewarp near his objective on my left and realized I was only making it harder for my terminators to get the charge in. Indeed, they failed that charge as discussed above.
Anyway, I hope for more challenging games this coming weekend.
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