Doubles Trial Game 1

So this week myself and my Doubles tournament buddy Tom managed to get a game in. 500 Points a side Compulsory 1 Troop, 1 HQ Option: All the rest, but you must have 1 Elite, 1 Fast Attack & 1 Heavy Support before you can take a second of any choice. We faced off against my Brothers Space Marines... his forces had just given Tom a real drubbing (and I seriously cannot emphasize how much of a drubbing without being partnerless for this tournament) and he was after revenge. Our Forces; Company Command Squad, 2 x Meltagun, Vox Caster Platoon: Command Squad, 2 x Plasma Guns, Medi Pack, Vox Caster Infantry Squad Infantry Squad Heavy Weapons Squad: 3 x Rocket Launcher Heavy Weapons Squad: 3 x Rocket Launcher Special Weapons Team: 3 x Grenade Launcher Shrike 5 Scouts: 4 x Sniper Rifles, 1 Rocket Launcher 10 Assault Marines: Sergeant with Lightning Claws My Brother had: Captain: Artificer Armour, Digital Weapons, Thunder Hammer Ironclad, 2 x Close Combat Weapons (I forget the name), Drop Pod Dreadnought, Rocket Launcher, Twin Linked Lascannon Dreadnought, Multi-melta Tactical Squad: Flamer, Rocket Launcher, Rhino Tactical Squad: Flamer, Rocket Launcher We rolled a HQ objective, where you each have one objective, and Dawn of War. My Bro set half of one tactical squad up in some ruins at the other end of the Long Board Edge. Rocket Launcher Included. His Rhino had the other half of the squad, and his captain setup as far forward as they could. His other tactical squad setup in some ruins with his objective. Tom set his scouts up directly in front of the Rhino the minimum distance away in some ruins. My Guardsmen (the whole Army) deployed directly opposite his Objective, the infantry squads and the command squad merged together (gotta love a 25 man unit with FNP). The Rocket launcher units setup on either flank, the Special weapons squad in front of the Rocket Launchers on the far right... mainly there as ablative armour. We kept Shrike and the Assault Squad in reserve Outflanking. Turn 1: Space Marines His Ironclad in the drop pod deep striked directly in front of my lines, happily rolling a hit. The Ironclad strode out and laid waste to the 25 man squad with flamer and melta. Causing only 2 Casualties (thank god for FNP). Two Dreadnoughts walked onto the board, not really able to drawn line of sight or do anything this turn. The Rhino rolled forward, deployed its unit and fired upon the scouts... only managing to Kill 1. The Marine unit on their objective took aim and wiped out the Special Weapons Squad. Turn 1: Alliance Our Turn 1 resulted in very little movement, my Command Squad moved so that the meltas had range on the Ironclad, but could only get towards its side armour. The Scouts opened fire on the marines in front of them and caused a grand total of no casualties. The Company Command Squad ordered one of the rocket launcher units to Fire of his target resulting in nothing. He then ordered his own unit to fire on the Ironclad and they scored 2 hits and two glances. Getting us an Immobilised and Shaken result... at least it wasn’t gonna charge us. The Infantry squad took aim on the Marines in the Unit and with First Rank FIRE and Second Rank FIRE managed to bring down another 2 (I only had 9 men in range). Turn 2: Marine. The Marines steeled themselves and continued to advance with their Dreadnoughts, and the Captain and his 5 man unit got into position to wipe out the Scouts. The Dreadnought with the Rocket Launcher and Twin Linked Lascannon shot at my far right Heavy weapons squad and managed to kill one... fortunately I passed my Morale check. The Drop pod and Marine unit in the objective opened up on my 25 man infantry squad... once again FNP saved my backside and only 2 Guardsmen died. The Captain and his marines charged in and smacked the scouts around a bit, wiping them out with no losses in return. Turn 2: Alliance: Now for reserve rolls. We Rolled for Shrike... and.. he turned up! However his Outflank sort of lets us down and didn’t as he came on the board edge next to our object, and the 5 man unit and Captain that were holding it. Not bad in the sense that I needed him to kill them as my Guardsmen were getting twitchy. I moved my 25 man unit forward, favouring around the drop pod and stationary Ironclad. The Command Squad moved to within the kill range for their Meltas. The Shooting phase was pretty quick, The Command Squad ordered the Rocket unit to fire on the Ironclad with No effect, however the same order on themselves resulted in 1 penetrating hit with a roll of a 4... I was devastated until we remembered AP1 and it became a 5 destroying the damned thing. It was far to close to my battle lines for comfort. The 25 man Unit listened to the officer in their midst and obeyed the First Rank FIRE, Second Rank FIRE without hesitation... another 3 marines fell.. but no fallback move. The Rocket Launchers tried and failed to destroy the drop pod... but they did take off the stormbolter. Shrike and his Assault Squad charged into the Combat Squad and Captain. Shrike Directed all his attacks against the Captain and took off 2 wounds. The 10 man assault squad managed to knock down 2 Marine, and the response from the Combat squad was to kill 1 Assault Marine. The Captain then wiped out another 2 marines with mighty swings of his thunderhammer. This meant the Captain and his men failed their leadership check and fled away from Shrike, however their run move only carried them 7", with Shrike and his Marines less than 1" behind there would be no regrouping next turn. Turn 3 Marines: With the Captain fleeing and their left flank beginning to Shatter the Marines advanced... en mass. The Remains of the tactical squad on their objective moved to within charge range of my Imperial Guard, as did the Meta wielding Dreadnought. The Shooting phase was painful, as the Tactical Squad near their board edge and the Twin Linked Lascannon Dreadnought Opened fire on Shrikes Squad, wiping them all out Save Shrike and the Sergeant, but the Dreadnought itself was too far away to charge. The Combat Squads Rhino Tank Shocked Shrike but they passed their Morale check and moved out of its way. In the Assault Phase my 25 man Guard squad got charged by the Dreadnought and Tactical squad, losing 2 to the Powerfisted machine, but no casualties to from the Tactical unit, in return they killed 2 Marines resulting in a much needed draw... however now my Objective based unit was tied into a combat it could never win. Turn 3 Alliance; Shrike and his Sergeant stinging from the Firepower they had directed at them advanced on the Captains unit, intent on wiping them out. The Guardsmen didn’t do much, save a little movement from my Company Command Squad. The shooting phase began with the Left hand side Rocket Squad being order to Fire on my Target on the Dreadnought that was uncomfortably close to Shrike, 2 Rockets struck home, with one Penetrating and blowing it up. The Command Squad then fired on the drop pod... somehow failing to do anything useful. The Combat Phase went Shrikes way this time with him killing the Captain, the Sergeant wiped out the rest of the unit. This left just Shrike and his Sergeant advancing on a Combat Squad armed with a Rocket Launcher... not looking too good. The Combat with the Dreadnought and 3 Marines resulted in a grand total of NO Guardsmen Casualties. The Dreadnought Missed with both attacks and the 5+ Armour Save, followed by FNP meant not one Guardsman fell to the marines. Their attacks back were filled with some holy fury as they killed the remaining 3 Marines meaning they now only had the Dreadnought left to fight... Turn 4 Marines: Things were looking bad for the Marines now... reduced to a Rhino, Combat Squad, and Dreadnought locked in a combat that looked like it would never end. At this point my Brother nearly gave up and called it quits, but we convinced him to keep on playing. He positioned his Rhino read to get stuck in with another Tank Shock. The Combat Squad didn’t move and Shot at Shrike, causing 3 wounds, 1 of which was a Krak Rocket. The Sergeant Bravely dived in front of Shrike and took the Rocket for his beloved commander. Shrike took no wounds from the hail of fire, and turned his attention to the Combat Squad. The Dreadnought proceeded to strike at the Guardsmen hitting once, and wounding once... no Armour Save or FNP from this one and the Guardsmen bit the dust. With combat resolution at 1 against the Guard, I took up my dice and rolled, needing a 7 or less... getting a 10. Not good. It got worse when the Dreadnought rolled a 6 + 4 (for his I) and meant I couldn’t get away. The remaining 19 men died Horribly under the Dreadnoughts flailing arms and stomping feet. Turn 4 Alliance: With the final goal in mind, Shrike swooped forward to wipe out the remaining Combat Squad so they could not possibly contest any objectives in any way. The Rocket Squad on the left began to move towards my objective, as did the Command Squad. The Rocket Squad on the Right stayed put ready to take a pot shot at the Dreadnought. The Shooting phase was quiet with two MOVE MOVE MOVE! Orders being used, one on the Heavy Weapons Squad and 1 on the Company Command Squad. I was now holding an objective. The Rockets on the right both managed to miss the Dreadnought and it simply swivelled to face the unit. Shrike charged the combat squad and got 5 hits followed by 5 wounds and wiped them out. He Consolidated towards the Dreadnought lurking near the Marine Objective. Turn 5 Marines: With only a Rhino and Dreadnought left there was not much to do. The Dreadnought didn’t move, but instead turned to face the Approaching Shrike. Then the Rhino Tank Shocked the Heavy Weapons Squad Holding the Objective on the Left... and they failed their Morale check... being within 3" of the board was not good and they fled in terror from the field of battle. Turn 5 Alliance: With nothing left to do and having run out of time at our gaming centre we called the game a draw. The Analysis: The Imperial Guard section of the army did well at range, but as soon as I moved them to rapid fire the marines and Dreadnought trundled in. I actually thought I had a bit of room to manoeuvre and that the Dreadnought wouldn’t make combat, but that was my mistake and a poor judgement. So the next list I use will have to include something that can get rid of those things in combat. The Marines worked well, however we perhaps left the scouts out to dry as a sacrifice, a mistake we won’t make again. All in all it was a good fun game that all of us involved enjoyed, as did the spectator we had.

Comments

Rusty Nail said…
Was indeed a good game, (and yes the drubbing in the previous game was of apoplexy inducing proportion), and I reckon we learned a fair bit including the fact that Dreadnoughts are hard to kill with only two lots of 500pts per side.
For the next game, As Baldrick would say "I have a cunning plan"
Rusty Nail said…
Well it can be done - points wise anyway - now we'll just have to see how it works out in a game?
Raptor1313 said…
Hate to break it to you, but you CANNOT fold platoon command in with the infantry squad.

Check the infantry squad entry. ONLY infantry squads may use the 'combined squad' special rule.

If you want to do the massive infantry squad that won't go away, you want 2-3 Infantry Squads; meltaguns in there (for anti-tank), and each Sarge picks up a power weapon and meltabomb. Then, you issue each massed 20-30 man squad a single power-weapon-wielding commissar, and march at the enemy. Better yet, you have a Priest w/ Eviscerator. Gets pricy, but that sounds like what you want.

That aside...
Dawn of War is one of the missions that shafts Shrike and Co when 'co' isn't a troops unit. That Outflank hosing HURTS when it doesn't go off. In that small of points it's a bit of a gamble, but it goes well enough with Guard.

For your Bro's army, a question...do you think he had an advantage in only having to take one HQ? It pretty much would've cost him a dread.

The other thing I think that comes out with this team format is that you just don't really see vehicles much. Dreadnoughts and other ~100pt choices are affordable, as are designated transports, but very little past that.

Then again, you bring some AT as well with the rocket launchers, and can twin-link them to at least get SOME hits out of the bloody things.

I'd still vote to give your 'toon command cheaper weapons.
Kraggi said…
Hmmm... I had thought that it seemed too op.

Well that wil teach me for listening to others and not checking the actual book. Dont have it to hand with me, but will have to have another look at the army list and see what options I have.

Ah well... I dont mind putting my noobishness up on the net... hehe it happens to the best of us lol.

As for my bro's army, he definately benefitted from the extra HQ... so we know that games against double players will be different, but its worth seing how it goes.