Battle Report 64- 1850 pts White Scars vs Space Marines

This week's battle report was another practice game for my White Scars list that I was planning to take to Caledonian Revolution against Innes' Space Marines army. This game was played at my house, the first game I have had there in a long time.

My army consisted of:

Scarblade Strike Force

Hunting Force

Khan- Moondrakken (with CS or K)

Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 grav guns, 4 storm shields (CS)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS1)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

Attack Bike- Multimelta (AB)

6 Scout Bikers- 2 Grenades launchers, sergeant with meltabombs and homing beacon (SB)

Stormbringer Squadron

5 Scouts- bolt pistols, combat weapons, sergeant with meltabombs (S1)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS1)

Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (L)

 

Combined Arms Detachment

Librarian- Bike, Hunter's Eye, Meltabombs, Mastery Level 2, Force Sword (with CS or L)

5 Scouts- Camo cloaks, sniper rifles (SS)

5 Scouts- Bolters, sergeant with meltabombs (S2)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS2)

3 Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS3)

3 Centurions- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricane bolters (C)

Drop Pod (DP)

Stormtalon- TL assault cannon, Skyhammer missile launcher (ST)

My warlord trait was fixed with Khan (giving me re-rolls for morale and pinning tests and Scout moves for my bikes and transports). My Librarian rolled on the Librarius table and got The Emperor's Wrath, Veil of Time and Fury of the Ancients. I'm not wild about Fury, but Veil of Time is a solid power and the Emperor's Wrath can be useful.

Innes' army underwent some modifications since I last played him. The army consisted of:
Dark Angles CAD
Azrael (A)
Ezekiel (E)
5 Scouts- Bolters (S1)
5 Scouts- Bolters (S2)

Librarius Conclave
Tigirius (T)
Librarian 1- Mastery level 2, Bike, Force Axe (L1)
Librarian 2- Mastery level 2, Bike, Force Axe (L2)
Librarian 3- Mastery level 2, Bike, Force Stave (L3)
Librarian 4- Mastery level 2, Jump Pack, Force Axe (L4)

Allied Detachment
Pedro Kantor (PK)
5 Assault Centurions (AC)
5 Scouts- Bolters (S3)
Thunderfire Cannon (TC)

Inquisitor Detachment
Inquisitor Lord Coteaz- 3 servo-skulls (C)

His warlord was Azrael and chose Rapid Manoeuvre (+3" to charge and run moves). His many (many) psychic powers were:
Ezekiel- (Fulmination) Electrosurge, Electroshield, Magnetokinesis, Electrodisplacement
Tigirius- (Librarius) Emperor's Wrath, Veil of Time, Psychic Fortress, Might of Heroes
Librarian 1- (Telepathy) Psychic Shriek, Mental Fortitude, Terrify
Librarian 2- (Telepathy) Psychic Shriek, Dominate, Terrify
Librarian 3- (Telepathy) Psychic Shriek, Dominate, Terrify
Librarian 4- (Telepathy) Psychic Shriek, Dominate, Invisibility
Coteaz- (Telepathy) Psychic Shriek, Mental Fortitude, Hallucination

So Innes' army had lost the Imperial Knight and taken an additional Scout squad and some Dark Angels special characters. Again, the deathstar would be incredibly powerful. I had never played against servo skulls before and was interested to see how they would affect my army.

The psychic powers were incredibly powerful and would make the Deathstar practically invincible.

We rolled for ETC mission and got the Scouring as the Primary Mission and Deadlock as the Secondary mission (starting with 6 maelstrom cards on the first turn, 5 on the second, etc.). We set up the objectives as shown below:

Innes won the roll for deployment zone and chose the side with the Imperial Bunker. I won the roll for deployment and chose to go first.

I set up the Command Squad in the centre to go for the biggest threat first. The large bike unit went on my left flank, while the smaller 4-man squad went on the right flank. The sniper scouts went in the woods in the centre of my deployment zone. I decided to set up both Landspeeder Storms- the servo skulls would prevent me from Infiltrating much of the board, so it was probably best to deploy them on the table. I kept a unit of 6 bikers from the hunting force and the Scout bikers to Outflank (I was running out of space and wanted some units for late in the game objective grabbing).

Innes deployed his Thunderfire cannon on top of the bunker, while the deathstar containing the Centurions and characters went in front of the bunker. He infiltrated three units of scouts in front of my lines and deployed the three servo skulls in front of my battle lines.

For my hunting force, I chose the following targets:
Primary- Jump Pack Librarian
Secondary- Centurions
Tertiary- Thunderfire Cannon

Innes managed to seize the initiative (at +1 to seize with a re-roll he had a good chance of doing so). He used his Scout moves to move one scout unit forward, while the two other units retreated to the objectives. The servo skulls essentially shut down my Scout moves and I had nowhere to go.

TURN 1- SPACE MARINES
In the first game turn, Innes drew Objective 1, Objective 2, Objective 3, Objective 4, Big Game Hunter (destroy an enemy vehicle) and Overwhelming Firepower (destroy an enemy unit in the shooting phase).

One Scout unit moved up towards the White Scars command squad, the other two units moving up on the objectives. The Centurion unit advanced on the White Scars lines.

In the psychic phase, the warp blew strong, giving Innes 17 dice to my 3! He threw Electrodisplacement with 7 dice, which I failed to block. The front Scout unit and the deathstar switched places, practically right on top of my unit. He then cast Invisibility and Veil of Time on the unit.
One Librarian launched a psychic shriek at the attack bike, but he failed to roll high enough to damage it. Tigirius then launched the Emperor's Wrath at the closest Landspeeder Storm, but failed to damage the jinking skimmer.

In the shooting phase, the Inquisitor launched a psych-grenade at the command squad, wounding the Librarian, but the feel no pain roll saved him. The Thunderifre cannon attacked the Landspeeder Storm, glancing it twice and wrecking the vehicle.

In the assault phase, the Centurion unit launched an assault on the Command Squad, Sniper Scouts and the attack bike. The three squads fired at the squad in overwatch and managed to wound a single Librarian (I caused a few wounds, but the 4+ re-rollable invulnerable save blocked a lot of the shots).

The Scouts and attack bike struck at the Centurions, but a combination of Invisibility and re-rollable 2+ armour save kept them safe from harm. The psych-grenades forced Khan, two of the Command Squad and three scouts to target their own unit.

Azrael issued a challenge that Khan accepted. Khan was forced to attack his own squad, but fortunately caused no harm. Azrael struck at Khan, wounding him twice. The Space Marine forces struck, killing all of the Scouts, the attack bike, the Librarian and four of the Command Squad. My attacks back wounded one of the Librarians. I lost the combat and failed my morale test. I remained locked in combat and chose to hit and run towards the centre of the battlefield.

At the end of his turn, Innes chose to score Big Game Hunter and Objective 4 for 2 points and discarded Overwhelming Firepower (ETC missions only allow you to score 2 maelstrom cards per turn). He also scored 5 kill points.

TURN 1- WHITE SCARS
That was a brutal first turn. I would have to be incredibly lucky not to be tabled going up against that Deathstar for the remaining turns. . In my first turn, I drew Objective 2, Objective 5, No Prisoners (kill 3 enemy units), Witchhunter (kill an enemy psyker) and Supremacy (control at least 2 objectives and twice as many as your opponent).

The drop pod carrying the Centurions arrived, crashing to the ground besides the enemy Scouts on objective 4. The unit of bikers on the left flank moved to join them.

Khan led the last surviving member of the Command Squad up on objective 5, while the meltagun bikers moved to the side of the ruins to support them.

The meltagun bikers and the Command Squad opened fire on the scouts in front of them, killing 3 of the unit.

On the other flank, the second bike unit opened fire on the Scouts, killing three of the squad. The Centurions fired at the Thunderfire Cannon, killing the cannon with their grav guns. The hurricane bolters failed to harm the Techmarine. The Landspeeder fired its frag missiles at the third unit of scouts, killing one of the squad.

In the assault phase, the 6-man bike squad charged the two remaining scouts, wiping them out with their hammer of wrath attacks.

Khan and the veteran assaulted the Scout unit in front of them, the hammer of wrath attacks killing the unit once more.

At the end of my turn, I chose to score Supremacy and Objective 5, discarding Witchhunter. I also scored 2 kill points.

VICTORY POINTS:
Space Marines- 2 Maelstrom Points + 4 Kill Points
White Scars- 3 Maelstrom Points + 2 Kill Points

TURN 2- SPACE MARINES
This turn, Innes drew Objective 1, Objective 2, Objective 3, Objective 6 and Blood and Guts (destroy 2 units in the assault phase).

The large unit decided to break up and take on several targets at once. Azrael, Ezekiel and the jump pack librarian moved to engage the meltagun bikers. Kantor, Coteaz and a Librarian went after the scouts besides the woods. while the Centurions moved after the White Scars Centurions.

In the psychic phase, the power of the warp was strong once more as Innes rolled a 6 for the warp charge. He started by casting Invisibility on the Centurions. He then launched a psychic Shriek at Khan, but the single wound was saved.
He then rolled for Electrodisplacement on his Scouts near my Centurions. He succeeded on three dice. I rolled to deny and came up with three 6's. So close to blocking this game winning spell.

So close! I almost had a chance to get back in the game.

He then cast Veil of Time on Tigirius and his unit. Ezekiel then cast Electrosurge on the large biker unit, killing three of them. He then cast the Emperor's Will on the Command Squad, killing the last Veteran.

In the shooting phase, the Scouts fired at Khan, killing him with their bolters. The Assault Centurions fired their flamers at the White Scars Centurions causing one wound. Based on how my luck was going, I of course failed the 2+ armour save and one Centurion was wounded.

Kantor led a charge against the Scouts. The Scouts failed to wound them and were wiped out easily.

Azrael led his unit in a charge against the three bikers, easily wiping them out.

The assault Centurions launched a multiple charge on the Grav Centurions, drop pod and Landspeeder. They wiped out the speeder and Centurions with ease, but left the drop pod on a single hull point.

At the end of his turn, Innes scored Blood and Guts and Objective 3, as well as another 6 kill points. He discarded Objective 6.

TURN 2- WHITE SCARS
This turn, I drew Objective 2, Objective 3, Objective 4, No Prisoners and Behind Enemy lines (have unit in the enemy deployment zone).

The Stormtalon arrived, moving on to engage the Scouts that had killed Khan. I moved a Landspeeder Storm to grab objective 3, knowing it would die the following turn. The other Landspeeder moved after objective 2, turbo-boosting to get into range. The bikers moved away from the Centurions.

In the shooting phase, the Stormtalon fired at the Scouts, killing three of the squad and leaving one left.

At the end of my turn, I scored Objective 2 and Behind Enemy Lines for 2 points.

VICTORY POINTS:
Space Marines- 5 Maelstrom Points + 10 Kill Points
White Scars- 5 Maelstrom Points + 2 Kill Points

TURN 3- SPACE MARINES
This turn, Innes drew Objective 1, Objective 2, Objective 5 and Supremacy.

The Techmarine moved up on the Landspeeder Storm, while the Centurions went after the drop pod.

In the psychic phase, a Librarian launched a psychic shriek at the bikers, wiping the unit out. He then cast Invisibility on Azrael's unit.

Kantor threw a grenade at the Stormtalon, glancing it once (I did not think grenades could be through at zooming flyers, but apparently they can).

The Techmarine fired his flamer at the Landspeeder Storm, killing one scout and immobilising the skimmer. He then charged the vehicle, easily blowing it up and pinning the surviving Scouts.

The Centurions finished off the drop pod.

At the end of his turn, Innes scored Objective 1 and Supremacy for 3 points and gained another 2 kill points.

TURN 3- WHITE SCARS
This turn, I drew Hungry for Glory (issue a challenge), Blood and Guts (kill a unit in assault), Objective 3 and Objective 4.

The Scout Bikers arrived, outflanking to grab objective 3. The third unit of White Scars bikers also arrived, outflanking to go after the Techmarine.

The Scout Bikers fired at the last Scout in front of them, killing him. The bikers fired at the Techmarine, wounding him 4 times with their grav guns, but he passed all his cover saves. Their bolters did manage to wound him once. The Stormtalon fired at the Techmarine, killing him.

I scored objective 3 and discarded Blood and Guts. I also picked up 2 kill points.

VICTORY POINTS:
Space Marines- 8 Maelstrom Points + 12 Kill Points
White Scars- 6 Maelstrom Points + 4 Kill Points

TURN 4- SPACE MARINES
This turn, Innes drew Objective 2, Objective 5 and Assassinate.

Azrael led his unit up to the Scout Bikers, while the Centurions went after the Scouts on the Bunker.

In the psychic phase, a Librarian launched psychic shriek at the Scouts, but I managed to block the attempt. He then cast Electrosurge on the Stormtalon, but failed to hit it. Tigirius cast Invisibility on his unit, but periled in the process and died, wouding Azrael in the process. A Librarian then cast Veil of Time on the Centurion unit.

One of the marines threw a grenade at the Stormtalon, glancing it once more and destroying the flyer.

The Centurions charged the Scouts, wiping them out. Azrael charged the Scout Bikers, wiping them out in combat.

At the end of the turn, he scored objective 2 and Assassinate for 2 points and scored 3 kill points.

TURN 4- WHITE SCARS
This turn, I drew Objective 4, Hungry for Glory and Objective 1.

I turbo-boosted my last unit onto objective 4 and scored it for this turn.

VICTORY POINTS:
Space Marines- 10 Maelstrom Points + 15 Kill Points
White Scars- 7 Maelstrom Points + 5 Kill Points

I decided to call the game there, I had one unit left that would easily die next turn.

End of the game.

AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
I hope Innes won't mind me saying, but that was one of the least enjoyable games of 40k I have ever played.

I would have called it quits after his first turn, but I wanted to get a least a few turns of play to make a decent length battle report and to see if I could pull something back or learn something. As it was, it was just an exercise in futility and didn't really improve any over the course of 4 turns.

There has been a lot of debate online about shifting worldscape being overpowered, but I think Electrodisplacement is just as strong. The ability to charge on the first turn with his deathstar thanks to the psychic power and the Scouts is just too powerful. I felt very much like a spectator in that game, my only job was to remove 2-5 of my units each turn and fail to even touch his invincible deathstar. Without that power, I don't think the army would be as strong as its mobility would be much more limited. As it is, he can use Electrodisplacement to move up to 18", then "conga-line" the unit to stay in coherence and have a threat range of about 4 feet!

On the first turn, it had a 2+ re-rollable armour save, a 4+ re-rollable invulnerable save and was Invisible. I don't think there is a single unit in the game that would have the ability to take that out, outside of a Stomp attack rolling a 6 (though I think the tournament rules comp it so that you can take invulnerable saves against these now). I should probably have conceded as soon as he seized the initiative and made things easier on myself. Given that he gets +1 to seize the initiative and a re-roll automatically, that means over a 50% chance of seizing.

It was a pretty hopeless game, but I may very well come up against something like that at Caledonian Revolution, so let see if there were any lessons to be learnt:

1. Servo-skulls are incredibly powerful. For the cost of 9 pts, his three servo skulls were able to entirely eliminate my Scout and Infiltration. Without the skulls I think I may have had a chance. I could have Scouted my army away from his infiltrating Scouts, possibly stopping a first turn charge. Unfortunately, there is no counter to servo skulls that I am aware of. They can deploy anywhere outside of my deployment zone and prevent Scouting or Infiltrating within 12".

2. My deployment was not ideal. Had I spread my units out a bit more, I would have limited the Deathstar to only charging a single unit and cut the damage down significantly.

3. I should have kept more units in reserve. Deploying only a token unit or two would have helped cut down my losses in the first and second turn. At the very least, reserving my Command Squad would have allowed me to target the non-Invisible units when the Deathstar split up and would have helped me rack up a few more kill points and victory points.

4. Sending the drop pod and Centurions after the Techmarine may have been a better choice. Had I been able to kill him in my first shooting phase, the Deathstar would have been unable to get to me for a couple of turns, where I could maybe had gotten some wounds off of them as they advanced (though difficult with Invisibility).

5. Losing the Stormtalon to grenades was just ridiculous. How they can be thrown at zooming flyers, I do not know. I chose not to Jink with the Stormtalon as I honestly didn't expect it to be taken out. Innes was able to roll a 6 to hit and a 5 or a 6 to damage two turns in a row!

I think that I may drop the Librarian from my list and replace him with a Chaplain. On his own, the Librarian does not really achieve much, especially against psychic heavy armies. The Chaplain would at least give the Command Squad a bit more punch in combat, in addition to another character with an invulnerable save.

Innes army is incredibly strong, but it completely reliant on getting the first turn for it to be successful. Had I been able to take the first turn, I would have almost annihilated his Centurions with my own grav centurions and grav command squad. Fortunately, with Coteaz and his re-rolls, he has a very good chance of getting first turn or seizing from his opponent.

What about the rest of you out there? Anything I could have done after turn 1 to improve my odds of winning?