Friday 6 December 2019

Tournament Battle Report: Warfare 2019- Game 2- White Scars vs Drukhari

The second game of the Warfare 40k tournament would see my White Scars take on Giles' Drukhari in the Vital Intelligence Eternal War mission, using Vanguard Strike deployment. 

My army consisted of:
Battalion Detachment
Captain on Bike- Twin Bolter, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Chogorian Storm, Master of Snares, Wrath of the Heavens
Librarian- Jump Pack, Force Stave, Mantle of the Stormseer, Ride the Winds, Storm-wreathed
5 Intercessors- Bolt Rifles, Bolt Pistols
5 Intercessors- Bolt Rifles, Bolt Pistols
5 Intercessors- Bolt Rifles, Bolt Pistols
5 Scouts Bikers- Twin Bolters, Shotguns, Combat Knives

Battalion Detachment
Captain- Jump Pack, Master-crafted Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield
Lieutenant- Jump Pack, Power Axe, MC Bolter
5 Scouts- Bolters
5 Scouts- Bolters
5 Scouts- Bolt Pistol, Combat Knives

Spearhead Detachment
Chaplain- Jump Pack, Crozius Arcanum, Bolt Pistol, Litan of Hate
10 Vanguard Veterans- 5 with 2 Chainswords, 5 with two Lightning Claws
5 Vanguard Veterans- Chainswords and Plasma Pistols
5 Devastators- Bolters, 2 Missile Launchers, Heavy Bolter
5 Devastators- Bolters, 2 Missile Launchers
Thunderfire Cannon- Techmarine Gunner with Flamer, Plasma Cutter, 2 Servo-arms



Giles' army consisted of:
Patrol Detachment (Kabal of the Black Heart)
Archon- Huskblade, Labyrinthine Cunning, Writ of the Living Muse
5 Kabalites- Blaster, Phantasm Grenade Launcher
5 Kabalites- Blaster, Phantasm Grenade Launcher
Lhamean
Lhamean
Ravager- 3 Disintegrator Cannons
Ravager- 3 Disintegrator Cannons
Raider- Disintegrator Cannon, Shock Prow
Razorwing Jetfighter- Twin Splinter Rifle, four Disintegrator Cannons
Voidraven- 2 Dark Scythes, Voidraven Missiles

Patrol Detachment (Kabal of the Black Heart)
Archon- Huskblade
5 Kabalites- Blaster, Phantasm Grenade Launcher
5 Kabalites- Blaster, Phantasm Grenade Launcher
Lhamean
Ur-Ghul
Ravager- 3 Disintegrator Cannons
5 Scourges
Venom- Splinter Cannon, Twin Splinter Rifle
Venom- Splinter Cannon, Twin Splinter Rifle
Venom- Splinter Cannon, Twin Splinter Rifle
Venom- Splinter Cannon, Twin Splinter Rifle

Patrol Detachment (Prophets of Flesh)
Haemonculus- Diabolical Soothsayer, Electrocorrosive Whip, Splinter Pistol, Vexator Mask
10 Wracks- Electrocorrosive Whip
10 Wracks- Electrocorrosive Whip

An infantry heavy Dark Eldar force with some tricky vehicle elements. The Ravagers can do a lot of damage to my Marines, and the Venoms are annoying to deal with thanks to -1 to hit in shooting and their invulnerable save. The high mobility of the army would also be useful for getting to the objectives.

The position of the objectives was fixed in this mission, putting them near the cover in many cases. We decided to play the ITC ruin rules, where the bottom floor of the ruins blocks line of sight, as there was very little blocking terrain on the table, with much of the ruins being open.

I won the roll off and deployed my forces first. I put the bulk of my army in the ruins in my deployment zone. The Devastators deployed out of line of sight in the ruins, along with my characters. I put the Scout Bikers to the right of the ruins, and used a unit of Intercessors to screen ou my backfield. I put one unit of Intercessors in the ruins to the left as well. I spent a CP to outflank one unit of Intercessors.
The Scouts went in the ruins around the battlefield, ready to move out to grab the objectives. I put the Vanguard Veterans in reserve as well.

In reply, Giles put his two flyers in his backfield, with the Wracks lining up across his deployment zone. The Venoms, Raider and Ravagers went behind these units. The Scourges went into reserve.












I then chose to give Giles the first turn. My units were poised to jump on the objectives in my turn, so I wanted to keep them safe from the enemy firepower while they were hidden on turn 1. In this mission, it is generally better to go second, as you can see how your opponent plays and counter their moves before the objectives are scored.

TURN 1- DRUKHARI
Objective 4 was active this turn. My Canticle failed on the Chaplain.

The two flyers moved up on the enemy lines, eager to get to grips with the Marines. The Venoms moved up on the objectives in the centre and on the right flank, while the Raider and Ravagers moved up as well towards the centre of the battlefield. The Wracks advanced, while one Archon disembarked from the Raider to support the Ravagers.






The Raider fired at the Scouts on the left, wounding them once, but I made my 6+ armour save. One Ravager fired at the Scout Bikers, killing three. The second Ravager fired at the Devastators, wounding 5 times and killing three. The third fired at the Scouts on the left flank, killing the unit. One Flyer opened up at the Scout Bikers and Devastators, killing one Biker, but failing to damage the Devastators.

The other flyer fired at the Thunderfire Cannon and Devastators, killing one Marine and putting one wound on the Cannon. A Venom fired at the Intercessors in front of them, wounding them once.

In the morale phase, one Scout Biker and one Devastator fled the field. At the end of his turn, Giles scored First Strike.

That was annoying. My plan was to advance the last Scout Biker onto the objective to claim it this turn, but he fled to morale.

TURN 1- WHITE SCARS

On the left flank, the two units of Scouts moved up on the Venoms, hoping to wrest the objective from them. The Intercessors moved up towards the central objective, while the Captain and Lieutenant advanced towards the enemy flyer. The Librarian, Chaplain and Biker Captain moved up towards the objective on the right.



The Librarian cast Ride the Winds and Storm Wreathed on the Biker Captain.

The Intercessors in the centre fired on the Wracks, killing one. The Thunderfire Cannon added its firepower, killing one more. I decided not to fire it again, as there were few decent targets currently on the board.
Two units of Scouts fired on a Venom, taking three wounds from it. The Devastator squads fired at the wounded Venom, but failed to do any harm.



In the charge phase, the Scouts assaulted both Venoms. The Captain and Librarian charged the Ravagers, the Captain charging all three to tie them up in combat. The Chaplain charged another. In the centre, the Intercessors charged a Venom. The Lieutenant and Captain charged the Voidraven.

In the fight phase, the Captain struck at the Ravager, doing four wounds, three of which got through to do 9 damage. The Librarian attacked, killing the Ravager. The Chaplain was able to do two wounds on one more of the enemy skimmers.

The Scouts attacked a Venom, doing two wounds, on one and three on another. The Intercessors did a couple of wounds on the central Venom.



The Jump Pack Captain then struck the enemy flyer, doing four wounds, 16 damage and slaying it outright.

The attacks back managed to kill one Scout. The Archon failed to wound the Captain on Bike, but the Ravagers managed to do two wounds on him. I spent 3CP to attack again with the Biker Captain to try and take out another Ravager, but only managed to do 6 damage on one, leaving it alive on a couple of wounds.



At the end of my turn, my aggressive charge had seen me get First strike and 5 points for the objectives.

VICTORY POINTS:
Drukhari- 1
White Scars- 6

I was very aggressive in my first turn, allowing me to go up by 5 points at the end of turn 1. Few of the enemy vehicles had been slain, so they could fall back and shoot at my exposed forces in the next turn. Would the aggressive moves be my downfall in the later game?

TURN 2- DRUKHARI
Once more, objective 4 was the active objective. I switched to the Tactical Doctrine, and my Chaplain used the Litany to give me re-rolls to hit.

The Razorwing moved up on the White Scars firebase, while the Venoms fell back from combat. One Venom advanced to secure the objective. The Wracks moved up on the enemy forces as well. The Master of Snares ability stopped one Ravager and the Archon from falling back from combat, while one Ravager moved away. The Drukhari forces disembarked from the Raider, the forces moving up on the enemy characters, while the Raider moved off towards the objectives. The Scourges arrived on the Bunker in their deployment zone.




The Ravager fired at the Intercessors in front of it, killing four of the squad. The Flyer fired at the Devastators, killing the squad. The Raider fired at the central unit of Intercessors, killing one. The Archons their pistols at the Chaplain, but both missed even with their re-rolls (four 1's to hit!).




The Venoms opened fire on the Scouts, killing one squad and one Scout from the other squad. The Scourges fired at the central Intercessors, killing one more of the squad.

In the charge phase, the Wracks assaulted the Intercessors, while the second Wrack unit charged the Chaplain on the objective. The Archons, Haemonculus and Lhameans charged the Librarian and Captain.

In the fight phase, the Wracks did 5 wounds on the Intercessors, but I made all my armour saves. I spent 2CP to interrupt with the Captain, striking at the Ravager. I did 5 hits, but only 1 wound on a 3+!



The rest of the Drukhari then attacked, killing the Librarian and the Biker Captain. I spent another 2CP to fight with the Captain in death, but Giles used Agent of Vect to block it, getting a 6 and forcing me to spend the CP anyway.

The Wracks struck at the Chaplain, wounding him twice. My attacks back saw the Chaplain kill one Wrack, while the Intercessors killed one wrack.

At the end of his turn, Giles scored Slay the Warlord and was sitting on a few of the objectives.

TURN 2- WHITE SCARS

The Chaplain fell back from combat towards the central objective, the Captain and Lieutenant moving up to support them. The lone Intercessor moved up on the objective, while on the other flank the Scouts moved to secure the other objective.




At the end of the phase, I brought in the Intercessors near the Venom holding the objective, while the Vanguard Veterans arrived to the south to go after the Wracks.

The Lieutenant fired at the Venom, wounding it once. The Scouts fired their Bolters at it, but failed to do any harm. The Thunderfire Cannon fired at the Scourges. Giles used a stratagem to give them +1 save in cover, the Cannon killing two of them.

In the charge phase, the Captain, Lieutenant and Chaplain charged the Wracks. The Intercessors made their charge on the Venom, but the Vanguard Veterans failed the charge on the Wracks.




The White Scars characters struck, killing all but four of the Wracks. The Intercessors did one wound on the Venom, but were able to consolidate into range of the objective to grab it. The attacks back from the Drukhari did no damage.

I spent my last 3CP to fight again with my Captain to try and wipe out the Wracks, but only managed to kill two of the squad.

At the end of the turn, I scored four objective points. Giles scored two objective points.

VICTORY POINTS:
Drukhari- 4
White Scars- 10

At the end of turn 2, I was still in a good position, having taken many objectives during the game. However, my forces were starting to suffer for it, with few of my units remaining.

TURN 3- DRUKHARI
At the start of the third turn, Objective 1 was the active objective. I also switched to the Assault Doctrine and used the Canticle of Hate. We were also running low on time in the game.

Giles used 2CP on Black Cornucopian, removing the central Wracks and bringing them on near my Intercessors. The Venom fell back from combat, while the rest of the forces moved up on the objectives.




In the shooting phase, the Drukhari guns were able to kill the Chaplain, the Intercessors and the Lieutenant. The Venom put three wounds on the Captain and killed the Scout squad. The Vanguard Veterans took some firepower and lost four of the squad. The lone Intercessor holding the objective was also slain.


In the charge phase, the Wracks charged the Intercessors and the other forces charged the Captain.

The Captain was slain by the Wracks, while the other squad did only a single wound on the Intercessors.

TURN 3- WHITE SCARS

With the game taking a while, I had about two minutes to play my final turn.

The Vanguard Veterans moved towards an objective, while the Thunderfire Cannon and Techmarine advanced on the other objective.

The Intercessors fell back from combat towards the Scourges, while the Plasma Pistol Vanguard Veterans arrived to help them.

The Veterans fired at the Scourges, but only managed to kill one. The Intercessors then charged the Scourges, slaying them.

At the end of the turn, I scored two objective points and Linebreaker. Giles scored four objective points and Linebreaker.

VICTORY POINTS:
Drukhari- 9
White Scars- 13
End of the game. 

A win for the White Scars.

AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
A very close game that could have gone either way.

Going second in this game was definitely an advantage. I was able to counter Giles' moves onto the objectives in his turn in my own to help me to score more points.

Once again, the Drukhari vehicles proved to be very annoying. Their -1 to hit and invulnerable saves make them reasonably durable to medium strength shooting and low strength combat attacks. The Ravagers also proved fairly durable to the Thunder Hammer attacks, taking two rounds of attacks from my Captain to take one out. I thought this was going to be problematic, as their Disintegrator Cannon attacks could make a mess of my Marines.

Again, we didn't get too far into the game, which was a shame. I really think Giles would have gained the advantage after turn 3, as I had very few forces left on the battlefield at that point. It was also a disadvantage for me, as my army doesn't get their Devastating Charge bonuses until the start of turn 3.

In the second turn, I forgot about some key stratagems to use on the Vanguard Veterans. Using the stratagem to roll 3D6 for the charge and pick the two highest might have allowed them to get into combat with the Wracks. Had they done so, I think I would have been able to easily take out the unit and stop them from coming back in turn 3 to grab the objective.

Not too much to change from this game. With two wins under my belt, I was imagining I would be having a tough time in my third match up. This would be a maelstrom game against a mixed force of Space Marines, Blood Angels and Astra Militarum. 

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