Well, that didn't work!

Well, yesterday's battle was in one way a complete disaster, but in another way extremely useful. My friend Pete arrived with an army of Dark Eldar – the first time he'd played the army, so naively I thought that might give me a little advantage – but I was totally annihilated not once, but twice. Tabled twice. First battle was 6-1, the second 5-2 – though those scores aren't really true, as both games ended on Turn 5 with the destruction of all of my forces, so likely Pete would have had time to secure the remainder of the objectives.

My army for the day consisted of the following, at 1,000 points:

Captain (Power Sword, Artificer Armour, Plasma Pistol)

Librarian (Force Sword, Power Armour)

Techmarine (Power Axe, Servitor)

Tactical Squad (Multi-Melta, Melta)

Tactical Squad (Missile Launcher, Flamer)

Scout Squad (Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks, Missile Launcher)

Scout Squad (Combat Knives, Bolt Pistols)

Dreadnought (Plasma Cannon, Close Combat Weapon)

Where is everybody? 

The first battle was 'Big Guns Never Tire'. Pete deployed first, with his three Raiders and a Ravager starting in the upper left corner of the table; he also had nine jetbikes held in reserve. I placed my units to cover the objectives on my side of the board. My plan was to, essentially, hold and shoot! Most of my forces were in range, and I knew that even bolters would have a chance of doing some damage against the AV10 forces...not that this happened. First turn was fought under 'night fighting' conditions. His first turn shooting was not that great, neither was mine; I lost a couple of marines and the Techmarine, giving him First Blood, he lost one of his Raiders. The second turn was the breaking point; I got slaughted! One tactical squad wiped out, leaving the Captain standing alone by himself...and the jetbikes came on and started to Bladestorm everything that moved!

The rest of the battle essentially followed the same pattern; I had deployed my forces too far apart, attempting to cover too many flanks, and he was able to use the superior manoeuvrability of his forces to knock me out piecemeal. The Multi-Melta Tactical Squad was the last to fall; it was the best performer of the battle, but by Turn 5, it was all over.

The second battle had the same forces, but this time we were playing 'The Scouring'. This time I deployed on a much narrower front, but critically we were playing the long way across the table, which turned out to be something of a problem, as almost none of my units were in range! I ended up running forces across the table, as Pete elected to allow me to come to him, while plonking me with his 36” weapons, and once again – I got taken out piecemeal, though at least this time the Techmarine got into hand-to-hand combat and demonstrated some of his usefulness.

C'mon lads, let's go get them! 

To rate my forces, then:

• Captain – Never even got into combat, unleashed a couple of ineffective shots with his pistol.
• Librarian – In the first battle 'Endurance' proved a very useful adjunct to the Multi-Melta Squad, in the second he did almost nothing, as his powers were too short-ranged to be effective.
• Techmarine – First battle died on the first turn, second battle was one of the last units to fall, and managed to get into combat...effective. I like Techmarines, they are a surprisingly low-cost close combat monster...
• Tactical Squads – The Multi-Melta was one of the few things Pete was afraid of, and it really influenced his deployment. The Missile Launcher, less so. As for the rest – they died gloriously, which is about what you can expect.
• Scout Snipers – Not really their battle. By the time anything emerged they could shoot, they were dead.
• Combat Scouts – Rather better. In the first and second battles they had opportunities for hand-to-hand combat, and actually took down a Raider in the second battle.
• Dreadnought – Ker-plonk. Did nothing. Plasma Cannon proved extremely disappointing.

The main thing I am missing is mobility. Even in a small battle-environment, the stand-back-and-let-them-come-to-me proved totally ineffective. Going full circle, I have decided to go with the following list for the tournament:

Rhino One

Captain (Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Artificer Armour)

Command Squad (Champion, Apothecary, Flamer, Flamer, Flamer)

Techmarine (Servo-Harness, Servitor)

Rhino Two

Tactical Squad (Flamer, Heavy Bolter)

Rhino Three

Tactical Squad (Meltagun, Multi-Melta)

Land Speeder Storm
Scout Squad (Combat Knives, Bolt Pistols, Melta Bombs)

Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

Last stand at Skull Rock

I've now gone completely full-circle; everything is now to be carried on transports, to provide both maneuverability and protection. Obviously Rhino One and the Storm are the major close-combat elements here; the idea is that they engage anything particularly tough (with the option of detaching the Techmarine if necessary) while Rhinos Two and Three provide close-quarters fire support - though they should also be pretty good in a fight. The Attack Bike follows on as a tank-plonker...hopefully. Originally this list had a Predator instead of the Storm/Scouts combination, but I changed my mind at the last minute, if I'm going to make this charge hit home, then I need the strongest selection of models I can deploy. I'll decide whether to put the Storm and the Bike in reserve when I see the battlefield, but my inclination is to get everything into the fray as quickly as possible.

I'll be fighting three battles with this list on Sunday - against Dark Eldar (Pete) again, Tau (Greg) and Tyranids (Mark). It will be interesting to see how the re-match with Pete goes; at this point I am probably most confident about the Tyranids and least confident about the Tau.

For reference...the first time we did one of these tournaments I placed third out of four, playing my Ork horde - one win and two losses. (The win was against Grey Knights; the best moment was when a reduced mob of Boyz sent a Grey Knight Strike Squad running off the table, simply by shooting at them! They weren't even Shootas, just a mob of Sluggas making their 'might as well make some bangs before charging' rolls!) I'd like to beat this if possible, of course...but that would mean three out of three wins, most likely! Let's see what happens.

Tomorrow - I'm going to take a look at where it all began, with a look at the first 40k-verse game I ever played: Space Crusade!