For this game we were playing The Relic, 1000 points with Dawn of War Deployment. It was my Flesh Tearers vs Imperium, made up of Space Wolves and Custodians.
The Lists
Flesh Tearers
Captain in Terminator Armour with Storm Bolter, Hammer of Baal and Gift of Foresight
Librarian with Jump Pack, Force Stave, Plasma Pistol, Unleash Rage and Shield of Sanguinius
5 man Scout Squad with 4 Sniper Rifles and a Missile Launcher
5 man Scout Squad with Bolt Pistols, 4 Combat Knives and a Chainsword
5 man Scout Squad with 4 Boltguns and 1 Heavy Bolter
Chaplain with Bolt Pistol and Jump Pack
Sanguinary Priest with Jump Pack, Bolt Pistol and Chainsword
5 man Death Company with Boltguns and Chainswords
Furioso Dreadnought with Frag Cannon, Furioso Fist, Heavy Flamer and Magna-Grapple
4 man Sanguinary Guard with 1 Encarmine Axe, 3 Encarmine Swords, 1 Inferno Pistol and 3 Angelus Boltguns
Imperium
Shield Captain in Allarus Terminator Armour with Castellan Axe and Misericordia
Shield Captain in Allarus Terminator Armour with Castellan Axe and Misericordia
Sheild Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Salvo Launcher
Sheild Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Salvo Launcher
Sheild Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Salvo Launcher
Wolf Lord with Wolf Claws
5 Fenrisian Wolves
5 Fenrisian Wolves
5 Fenrisian Wolves
Deployment
 |
| The Board at Deployment |
On the other side the Wolf Lord and 2 units of Wolves deployed in the wood to one side and the Dawneagle Jetbikes deployed in the centre with a line of Wolves to block my deep strikers. The two Shield Captains in Allarus Terminator Armour were held back in reserve as well.
The Relic was the gold Custodian's dice in the middle of the board (because we forgot to bring any objective markers with us). I was a little lucky that we rolled the Relic, in the mission infantry units can move the Relic if they are in base-to-base with it but the Imperium army only had 3 models with the infantry keyword and they were all fairly slow.
The Game
I got 1st turn and before the game started moved my Death Company forwards with a stratagem to get a possible 1st turn charge.
The rest of my army moved up into the trees on my right except the combat Scouts on the left who moved up towards the the edge of the woods they were in and the Relic.
During shooting I used the bolters from my Scouts to target the units of Wolves blocking the Wolf Lord from my shooting and the sniper rifles to target him directly. I successfully killed a few wolves but wasn't able to put a wound on the Wolf Lord. My Death Company targeted the squad of wolves screening the Shield-Captains and killed most of them as well. It was my Scout missile launcher that really did well, able to score a hit on the Warlord Shield-Captain after a few wolves were cleared he used a krak missile to drop him to just 3 remaining wounds. I was tempted to use a re-roll and try and get 5 or 6 off him but I knew that was just tempting fate so stuck with 4.
 |
| End of Flesh Tearers Turn 1 |
Then it was my charge phase and I went for the turn one charge against one of the Dawneagle Jetbikes. I charged in and only managed to do a single wound to the Shield-Captain. In return the other two heroically intervened and between the three of them they wiped out my Death Company unit. This was disappointing for me, I know I was using a smaller unit than normal and without some thunder hammers and power fists I normally use but just normal bolter/chainsword Death Company have done really well for me in the past but against the Custodians they really struggled.
During Moral another couple of wolves were lost leaving two of the units with only one left each.
The Imperium turn started with them coming straight for my main force in the trees. The wolves that were left advanced towards me with the Wolf Lord just behind and the Dawneagle Jetbike tore straight towards me.
In the shooting phase the Jetbikes tried to take out Furioso down as much as possible to soften him up for a charge but didn't have much luck only doing a couple of wounds between them. It really wasn't looking good for me because I had seen these Shield-Captains rip though multiple units before so thought they were going to get through most of my army quite quickly.
 |
| End of Imperium turn 1 |
They all multi-charged getting my bolter Scouts, Furioso, Librarian and Captain into combat with one or more of the Shield-Captains. My Furioso managed 1 wound in overwatch against the unwounded Jetbike that charged first and then the rest of them got into combat.
The first bike attacked my Captain and left him with just 2 wounds remaining. Next I interrupted with my Furioso hoping to kill a bike before it was killed by the second two Shield-Captains. As it was this was a waste of time with the Dread failing to wound anything. The two Shield-Captains then took down the Dreadnought between them. I had a chance to hit back with my Scouts, Librarian and Captain now. My Captain swung The Hammer of Baal at the Custodian's Warlord and managed to kill him. The Scouts were now out of combat because it was only the Warlord that had charged them so I kept them out the way and fought with my Librarian who wasn't able to score any wounds against the Shield-Captain he attacked.
Start of turn 2 I knew I had to deal with the bikes as fast as possible and try and tie them up long enough to grab the objective and move it way from them. I started by moving my combat Scouts up towards the Relic again and pulling my Libririan (my only model left in combat now) out of combat and just onto the other side of the Jetbikes, between them and the Relic. I also dropped my reserves as close as I could to one of the Shield-Captains. My plan was to charge my reserves into one bike and my Captain into the other and wanted to weaken both as much as possible.
In the Psychic phase I gave my Captain, who had moved to towards another Shield-Captain, Unleash Rage and cast Smite on the closest Dawneagle to me (that my reserves would be going for) causing a couple more wounds.
In the shooting phase I used my bolter scouts to target the last full unit of Wolves again and mostly killed them off, moral would finish them. Then my snipers and missile launchers targeted the Shield-Captains, the missile launcher didn't hurt them but I was able to cause some mortal wounds with the sniper rifles.
 |
| End of Flesh Tearers turn 2 |
Then I charged, my Sanguinary Guard got into combat with one Dawneagle and my Captain into combat with the other. The Sanguinary Guard's target had lost the most wounds so far due to Smite and the Sniper rifles. I attacked first with my Captain since he had only two wounds left I was worried they might interrupt and try and finish him off first. With his thunder hammer he was able to take out a second bike. The Sanguinary Guard also got to attack and with the D3 damage on their power weapons were able to get enough attacks through to kill the last Jetbike. They then consolidated to the Relic (and one of the remaining Fenrisian Wolves) securing that for me.
With only 2 Fenrisian Wolves and a Wolf Lord on the table it had really turned around for me, the two Shield-Captains in Allarus Armour would still be coming on but I had manage to take out most of the Space Wolves and all 3 of the Shield-Captains on Dawneagle Jetbikes (including the Warlord) already.
The remaining Space Wolves started the turn with the Wolf Lord and his Wolf heading towards my Captain and the Wolf in combat with my Sanguinary Guard leaving combat and heading towards my combat scouts. Then at the end of the phase the last two Shield-Captains in Allarus Armour entered the game, both dropped just outside their deployment zone, 9" away from my Sanguinary Guard.
Shooting was completely uneventful with the Shield-Captains not able to crack my Sanguinary Guards armour and none of the Space Wolves having guns but then we reached the combat phase.
 |
| End of Imperium turn 2 |
It started with the two Shield -Captains trying to charge my Sanguinary Guard, one made it and the other failed. Then the Wolf Lord charged my Captain and the Wolf with him charged my Librarian. The Wolf Lord attacked my Captain first but even with his Wolf Claws wasn't able to kill him and in return was smacked with the Hammer of Baal and killed. Next to them the Wolf wasn't able to cause any wounds to the Librarian and was quickly dispatched by the psyker. The Shield-Captain had better luck killing two of the Sanguinary Guard and dropping another to just 1 wound left, only suffering 1 wound in return.
After killing the Wolf my Librarian consolidated right onto the Relic placing it firmly in my control. I knew that the Custodians were still good enough to do some serious damage to my army but they weren't fast enough to catch up with my jump pack Librarian so if he took the Relic with him the game was mine.
The rest of my army had a simple mission at this point, either kill the two Custodians or hold them up long enough for my Librarian to get away and give me the victory.
I started my movement phase by jumping the Sanguinary Guard out of combat with the Shield-Captain, I thought that their inferno pistol and the scouts fire power would do better than the two of them would in close combat against him. Then I moved my combat Scouts, Priest, Chaplain and Captain towards the Shield-Captain. My Librarian ran back to my deployment zone and brought the Relic with him getting it as far from the Custodians as possible.
In shooting the inferno pistol was useless and missed even with my CP re-roll. The missile launcher also failed to wound but again my sniper rifles paid off and scored a couple of wounds against him. The combat Scouts managed to kill the last Space Wolf with their bolt pistols and it was left just Flesh Tearers vs Custodians.
 |
| End of Flesh Tearers turn 3 |
I charged everything I could into the Shield-Captain and my Priest, Chaplain and Captain all made it in. Between the three of them buffing each other it was looking really good and my Captain claimed another victim with the Hammer of Baal.
It was now just one Shield-Captain in Allarus Armour facing down 3 Scout Squads, a Chaplain, a Priest, 2 Sanguinary Guard and a Captain with 1 wound left while my Librarian ran off with the Relic.
Not wanting to give up (or more likely wanting to kill my Warlord that had taken down so many HQs) my opponent carried on.
 |
| End if Imperium turn 3 |
The Custodian moved down towards my HQs and in a massive anti-climax for a model that had done so much this game shot and killed my Captain. Then without giving me time to grieve he charged my Chaplain and my Priest heroically intervened. In combat the Shield-Captain was able to drop the Chaplain to 1 wound left but my Priest armed only with a chainsword managed to do 2 wounds to the Custodian in return.
With only one model left that was the end of the turn.
We decided to play out my last turn, more or less to see if I could table him at this point.
I moved everything I could up to get as short a charge as possible (while still running my Librarian away just in case). My bolter Scouts, combat Scouts and Sanguinary Guard all moved into position to help my Priest and Chaplain.
I was successful with all my charges and with no CP left to interrupt me it was just a case of rolling dice to see if I could take the Custodian down.
My Chaplain attacked, but the Shield-Captain Survived.
My Priest attacked, but the Shield-Captain Survived.
My Sanguinary Guard attacked, but the Shield-Captain Survived.
My combat Scouts attacked, but the Shield-Captain Survived.
 |
| End of Flesh Tearers turn 4 |
With only one wound left after all of that the Shield-Captain was still alive and I only had 6 attacks with my bolter Scouts left to roll. With re-rolls to hit from the Chaplain I was able to get most of the attacks to land, with the Red Thirst and strength bonus from the Sanguinary Priest I managed to get 3 to wound. The Custodian had to make 3 saves with no AP to survive...and he failed one. He died and that game was over. A decisive victory for the Flesh Tearers.
I had tabled the Custodians, which I never thought I'd do given how much effort I had to put in just to kill one in my previous games against them, and secured the Relic.
Post Game
I am really pleased with how I played this one. The Scout snipers and missile launcher really performed well, able to get a few big hits on the Shield-Captains and put mortal wounds onto them so ignoring their decent armour and invun saves. My thunder hammer Captain also performed really well, killing 3 Shield-Captains (two on Dawneagle Jetbikes and one in Allarus Terminator Armour) and a Wolf Lord and makes me want to go for the generic "Slamguinius" Captain that everyone seems to be using.
I do think that the Custodian supreme command doesn't work as well at 1000 points as it does at 2000 points. At the event most of the Imperial players in the tournament had a Custodian supreme command in their list (not all of them but their were plenty that I saw) so they are clearly very good but without other units to work as a distraction they simply take up too many points and once they start to die they find themselves too heavily outnumbered. At 1000 points I wouldn't use the HQs as much and use regular Custodian units to get more numbers on the board. If I had been dealing with other units at the same time I would have struggled more but as it was I could concentrate on the Shield-Captains one at a time and was killing off the Fenrisian Wolves with small arms fire if I couldn't shoot anything else.
No comments:
Post a Comment