Marshall Hans Ubrecht
(6/30/02 3:48:33 pm)

This batrep is on a game I played last Saturday at a GW store tournament in Lubbock TX. We were told before the tournament to prepare a 1500 pt. army with an extra HQ and elite choice if you wanted them (3 HQ and 4 elites possible). All the scenarios were custom designed ones by the tournament director. Special Characters were also allowed. There were 8 players in the tournament and I was paired up against a BA player (not my friend Mike) for the first scenario.

The scenario rules are as follows: the director randomly chose a defender (the BA) and an attacker (me) by die roll. The defender had to designate one of his troop units as the ore transporters. This transporter squad had to be at least 10 troops to carry 10 pieces of rare mineral ore (nuclear, or volatile material of some sort). If your army did not have one squad large enough then you could designate two combined squads for the duty. The transporting squad could not shoot while carrying the ore but could cc normally, and they could not be transported by a vehicle. Transporting figures could only carry one piece of ore at a time. The transporting squad could not be fired at in the first two turns either. The objective for the defender was to get as may pieces of ore as possible off of the attacker’s deployment zone board edges. The defender got one victory point for each piece of ore he carried off the enemy zone.

The board was divided like a cleanse mission with the attacker and defender setting up in diagonal board quarters. The attacker got one victory point for every piece of ore in his own possession at the game's end. The winner in points also got 3 victory points for winning the scenario. The attacker could capture a piece of ore by killing it’s carrier in cc. The attacking figure now had to follow the transporter rules (could not shoot). The game length was 6 turns. No optional rules were used (no deepstrike, infiltration, etc.). You also got one victory point for each enemy HQ you killed. Now here is the kicker, if you fired at a transporter figure and killed it then a 6S ordinance explosion occurred, which if it killed another transporter figure then another explosion would occur, and you could have a chain reaction that could kill the whole transporter squad and anyone around them, YIKES! [:D]

Armies:
BT 14th Crusade – 1500 points
HQ:
Senior Marshall Hans Ubrecht w/paxe/bp/mbomb/frag
Marshall Jacques LeBlade w/2 lclaws/mbomb/frag/jpack
Chaplain Rodrigo delaVega w/jpack/thonors/bp/mbomb/frag
Emperor's Champion Dirk deHaviland
 

Troops:
Tactical Squad One: Champion's Escort: 9 initiates w/1 p-fist/bp's and ccw's/rhino w/ea/smoke/db (EC attached)
Tactical Squad Two: Emperor's Sword - 9 ini's - 1 pf & bp/8 bps & ccws, rhino w/extra armor/db/smoke (Marshall Ubrecht attached)
Tactical Squad Three: Emperor's Light - 5 ini's - 1 lascanon/1 pgun/3 brifles

Fast Attack:
Assault Squad One: Emperor's Fist: 7 assault marines w/1 p-
pistol/1 p-fist/2 sshields/bps and ccws (Chaplain attached)
Assault Squad Two: Emperor’s Hammer: 6 assault marines w/1 p-
pistol/1 p-fist/2 sshields/bps and ccws (Marshall LeBlade attached)
Land Speeder: Emperor's Stallion: 1 landspeeder
w/mmelta

Heavy Support
Predator Annihilator: Emperor's Flame – searchlight/lascanon
sponsons
 

Blood Angels – around 1500 points

HQ:
Force Commander w/psword/sbolter/thonors/aarmor/mbomb/frag
Chaplain w/thonors/bp/mbomb/frags with his DC (7 marines with brifles) w/no jpacks and no rhino. Very unusual!

Elites:
Terminator Squad: Sgt. w/psword/sbolter, 9 termies w/pfists/sbolters
Vindicaire Assassin: (Boo, hiss) [:b]

Troops:
Tactical Squad One: 9 marines w/brifles, 1 w/mlauncher, rhino
Tactical Squad Two: 9 marines w/brifles, 1 w/mlauncher, rhino

Fast Attack:
Assault Squad: 8 marines w/2 ppistols & ccw/6 bps & ccw

The Map and Deployment:
The map was a standard 6x4” board. There was a large 12x14” two level hill in the center of the northern third with 2 impassable cliffs on the west and south sides. The center section had a small 6x6” woods in the exact center of the board with a 2 level building just to the east of it. There was a smaller hill and another small woods in the southern zone but these would have no effect on the game. I won the roll to select my zone and I chose the southeast quarter, which put him in the northwest quarter. I also won the roll to place the first unit and I placed my pred. in the small central woods to force him back into his zone as he had to place all of his units at least 24” from mine. We alternated deployment and I ended up with my Tacs One and Two loaded in their rhinos with their attached HQ’s behind the small central woods with the 2 assault squads and attached HQ’s behind the rhinos with the speeder. My shooty Tac 3 was deployed on the roof of the 2 story building on the northern edge of my deployment zone with an excellent field of fire. The pred. also had clear LOS to everything except behind the large hill to the north of it. He placed his dismounted Tac One (the transporters) 24” away from my pred. to the west of the large hill with the FC nearby. He placed his assault squad behind the transporters with his Vindicaire. He placed his termies and DC on top of the large hill? His two rhinos were placed behind the north edge of the large hill, out of sight. He rolled to go first.

BA Turn One: He moved his two rhinos around the east side of the large hill. He moved his termies down the east side of the large hill. His Tac one transporters advanced 6” towards my pred. in the center. His assault squad jumped in front of his Tac One to shield them. His Vindicaire stood still. His force commander moved up with his Tac One but he made a serious mistake by leaving him more than 6” away from any other squad. He moved his Chaplain and DC forward on the hill towards the south end? The only firing he had was his Vindicaire firing a penetrator round at my pred. hull down in the woods. He rolled a glancing hit and immobilized it! Boy how I hate assassins! [:(] No assault occurred.

BT Turn Two: I moved my Tac One rhino forward 10" and
unloaded the EC and squad in his assault's squad's face. I followed with LeBlade and Assault 2, moving them behind the rhino. The speeder also moved out 12" to fire at the termies on the hill. My Tac 2's rhino followed Tac One and stayed behind it still loaded. My Chaplain and Assault 1 jumped behind Tac 2's rhino. My pred. and Tac Three stood still. Tac three fired at his loaded rhino and blew it up killing 2 marines inside. Tac Three fired at the termies and missed. My pred. fired at his FC all alone by himself and burned him to a crisp (that'll teach him to leave him alone). My speeder fired at the termies and killed one. Tac One withheld it's fire to get the charge bonus. I then charged his assault squad with Tac One killing all of it except for two, and I lost one ini. He made his morale check and we consolidated.

BA Turn Two:He moved his empty rhino towards my Tac 3 along with his now dismounted Tac Two. The termies continued their descent from the hill on the east side. The DC moved further towards the south side of the hill. His Tac One transporters moved away from my advancing Templars towards the north near the Vindicaire. The Vindicaire stood still to fire. The Vindicaire fired at my pred. again and failed to penetrate (ping). His termies fired their stormbolters at my speeder and shook it (18 stormbolter shots, boy was he doing some dodging) [:)] The cc continued with his assault squad remnants and my EC. The EC gutted them and then he and Tac One consolidated forward towards his transporters.

BT Turn Two: I moved up Tac One and the EC towards the transporters with Assault 2 and Marshall LeBlade joining them near the west side of the hill in charge range of the Vindicaire and the transporters. I moved Tac 2's rhino up also, but kept the squad loaded. The pred. and Tac 3 stood still. My shaken speeder hid behind the small woods again. Assault One jumped up behind Tac 2's rhino. Tac One's rhino moved up behind it's squad. I fired the pred., and both rhinos at the DC and killed 4 of them. Tac 3 all fired at the termies killing one with the lascanon and one with the plasmagun. Tac 1 and Assault 2 withheld their fire to get their charge bonus. I charged into the transporters and the Vindicaire. Marshall LeBlade got into btb with the Vindicaire and sliced and diced him up with his lightning claws (this moment was worth the whole tournament to me, did I mention that I hate assassins) [:lol] Tac One, the EC, and the rest of my Assault 2 finished his Tac One in one phase with the loss of one ini in Tac One. I picked up 8 pieces of ore with Tac One and the EC and left two on the ground for now. I consolidated with Assault 2 shielding Tac One from fire.

BA Turn Three: He moved his Tac 2 towards my Tac 3 in the building. The termies moved around the south end of the large hill right in front of my pred. but not in charge range of it. He moved his one empty rhino to support his Tac 2. He moved his DC back towards the west side of the hill to fire at my Assault 2. He fired his termies that could see, and DC into Assault 2 killing 2 ini's. He fired his rhino and Tac 2 at my Tac 3 killing one ini. No assault occurred.

BT Turn Three: I moved my Tac One and EC with 8 pieces of ore towards the northeast corner away from the termies and DC. I shielded them with the remnants of Assault 2 and Assault 1. Tac 2 unloaded on the two remaining pieces of ore and picked them up, shielded by their rhino and Tac 1's from the advancing termies. My speeder zipped out again from behind the woods to get a shot at the termies. My pred. and Tac 3 stood still. I fired the pred., the speeder and both rhinos at the termies killing 4, and they made their morale check. Tac 3 rapid fired at his Tac 2 killing 5, and he failed their morale check and they fell back 10"! No assault occurred.

BA Turn Four: He continued to move his persistent termies towards my assault squads. They remained just out of charge range. His DC decided to move towards the north end of the large hill to cut me off. His regrouped Tac 2 moved back towards my Tac 3. His last rhino stood still to fire at Tac 3. He fired his termies at Assault One and only killed one ini. He was out of range with his Tac 2. His rhino fired at my Tac 3 and failed to wound anyone. No one was within assault range.

BT Turn Four: I moved my ore transporters down the west side of the board towards the south shielded by their rhinos. The assault squads jumped within range of the termies to fire at them. The speeder moved 7" and stayed within range of the termies. My pred. and Tac 3 stood still. I fired my assault squads, pred. and speeder at the termies wiping them out. Tac 3 fired again at his Tac 2 and killed 2 more of them, but they held morale this time. No assault occurred.

At this point he conceded, as he was almost wiped out, and I had most of my army left. I had only lost about 6 marines. I got 14 victory points for the game, 10 for the ore, 1 for his killed FC, and 3 for victory. Not bad for the first game of the tournament.

After Action Report:
BT: His set-up and army choices gave him a severe handicap in this game. I have never seen such a poorly designed BA force before. He had almost no heavy weapons that could take out my pred. at range. My tactics were fairly simple, take the ore with a bum's rush assault with everything, supported by the pred. and Tac 3. It worked to perfection. I liked my force selection, it worked out excellently for this scenario, however in the next one it was not so ideal.

BA: He made some serious mistakes, starting with his force selection. Who ever heard of a DC on foot? I've never seen one before without a rhino at least. He did not have enough heavy weapons to provide much fire support. He left his FC all alone with no squad around and I made him pay for this mistake. His termies were placed in a very poor postition to start. He should have had them leading his transporting squad instead of on a hill with an impassable cliff between them. He rushed his assault squad right out in front of his army and I stomped them with my EC and rhino squad. I hope he learned something from this.

To be continured…..

"It is not our responsibilty to cleanse the Imperium of heretics, it is our privilege! Nay, our RIGHT!" - High Marshall Hellbrecht
Edited by: Marshall Hans Ubrecht at: 6/30/02 6:30:43 pm
 

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