Imperial Entanglements Part II

 And Now The Thrilling Conclusion ...

WM: Imperial Guard – Turn 3: The majority of the army continued their advance towards the Dark Angels deployment zone or shuffled around to create better fire lanes.  The infantry squad in the center of the table, whipped to a fervor by the exhalation of their commissar and accompanying priest, charged the scout squad in the middle of the table!  The Legion of the Damned troopers opened fire on the remaining members of the Devastator combat squad, opening the flankfor a final drive.  Once again the Terminators outside of combat weathered the fire of almost the entire Guard 

army.  Almost.  The missile launcher team, detached from the squad charging up the center, opened fire and struck the assault cannon armed terminator, which promptly failed its save!  I’m not sure two turns of firing was worth a single Terminator but it sure felt good when one finally died!  The Librarian must have been struggling to control the warp in the close combat phase as he failed to kill any of the mortar crew members he was fighting.  The Priest's zeal was a little misplaced as he was cut down by a Scout in close combat, buta pistol shot through the eye brought down a scout!  The Deathwing were also having a hard time making their superior skills pay off and only killed a single Infantryman in close combat.  

Follow along after the jump to read the rest of the battle report

WM: Dark Angels – Turn 3 - Floyd had a dirty trick up his sleeve and played his Reinforcements! card!  This allowed him to place his fully destroyed Devastator squad on his back table edge, outside of 24” of any enemy troops.  By this point his position was severely limited as the Catachans were pushing their objective, but it also meant he had plenty of targets!  The Tech-priest, prepared to sell his life dearly for the Omnissiah, stepped out of cover and leveled his plasma pistol at the approaching Leman Russ…which promptly jammed!  There was some more small arms fire killing a few guardsmen.  In close combat the Commissar was taken out by a scout and a few infantrymen went down.  The Terminators turned a few more guardsmen to pulp, but the remainder of the squad passed their leadership test and stayed in the fight!  Once again the warp was quiet and the Librarian had to content himself with fighting the mortar team, which broke and ran.

FL: By the end of turn three, too many of my marines were dead and as a result I was unable to stop the turn four guard pincer movement that had a Legion of the Damned squad supported by a Leman Russ closing in from the right while a Hellhound and guard squad moving in tandem threatened my deployment zone on the right.  I had one last trick up my sleeve, I could play an unused Strategy card called Reinforcements to bring any eliminated unit or vehicle back onto the board from my table edge, as long as it was 24" from the enemy.  I chose the big guns of the Devastator squad that had been eliminated by turn 2.  After a short debate over whether the card allowed me to bring back a combat squad or the full ten man unit, my Devastators marched onto my right flank in perfect position to take on the Hellhound.  Alas all their shooting was off target and their firepower made no difference in the outcome.

WM: Imperial Guard – Turn 4 - The Hellhound crew found themselves in front of the newly arrived Devastator squad, who was backed up by a combat squad with a missile launcher.  Having moved at combat speed the previous turn it wouldn’t be able to slow down enough to stay out of sight.  The crew found itself with a sudden life or death choice of fight or flight.  The commander realized he wouldn’t be able to kill enough of the heavily armored marines so he ordered the driver to punch it up to Fast Speed and hope its speed and the intervening terrain would shake their aim.  The Leman Russ changed directions and along with the Legion of the Damned moved up into the Dark Angels deployment zone.  There were only a few marines left on that flank and unless something crazy happened it appeared likely the Catachans would be able to maintain their foothold in the warriors of Caliban’s deployment zone.  In the shooting phase the Demolisher opened fire on the combat squad lurking around the main building and missed with everything.  The demolisher shell scattered directly towards the Leman Russ and promptly, and much to Floyd’s chagrin, failed to roll the 4+ to actually hit the friendly tank!  The Basilisk opened fire and killed three more Marines.  The Librarian suddenly heard the all too familiar sound of the warp crackling and turned just in time to face the Catachan Lieutenant who had stalked up behind him as he lobbed a Vortex Grenade at him!  The grenade landed right on target and the Librarian was torn screaming into the warp!  In close combat the Deathwing finally killed off the last of the infantry squad they had been fighting since turn 2.  In the protracted fight between the infantry and the scouts one guardsman was killed, but the ferocious Catachans killed two scouts, the remainder of which promptly fled!  

FL: Librarian Azathor continued to acquit himself valiantly slaying gunners and loaders of the mortar platoon, until he was ignominiously killed by a vortex grenade on turn 3.  As much as it stung to lose such a valuable member of my forces, it was pure 2nd edition awesome to see it happen with an against the odds vortex grenade toss.

WM: Dark Angels – Turn 4 - WM: Dark Angels – Turn 4 - The Terminators who were finally freed to resume their advance moved towards the Basilisk and saw the Lieutenant standing in the open.  They wrecked bloody revenge on the heroic Lieutenant and shot him down where he stood, the look of victory still on his face!  Five heavy weapons opened fire on the Hellhound but between its speed, and the little cover afforded by the terrain against some of the weapons it was only hit twice, once by a Missile launcher and once by the multi-melta.  The Missile launcher hit the tracks but only managed to roll a 12, failing to penetrate the 16 armor.  Floyd and I both held our breath as the armor piercing was rolled for the multi-melta but when both the D12 came up as 1’s the Hellhounds gambit paid off and it escaped without a scratch!

At this point Floyd was pretty close to the time he needed to pack up and a cursory glance at the battlefield showed an extra turn might close the victory point gap but not enough to change the course of the battle.  The Catachans had achieved their mission and broke into the Dark Angels deployment zone which prevented the Dark Angels from achieving their goal of defending their half of the table.  The result was victory to the Catachans!

Victory Points:

Imperial Guard – 14

Dark Angels – 5

FL:  The scout squad also deserves an honorable mention, using their infiltrated position to get into charge position by turn three.  They also fought a multiple round melee like the Terminators and made a great accounting of themselves with their two close combat weapons giving them a fantastic advantage against the IG.  Casualties caused by the scouts in that close combat scuffle included a priest, a vaunted commissar, and at least five guardsmen.  Considering they did almost as much damage as the Terminators for a fifth of the points certainly gives me some thoughts about future army list building.

Sadly my Devastator squad and two Tactical squads seemed to only exist to give the guard something to shoot at with all their many guns.   The 30 marines that made up the bulk of my army inflicted very little casualties on the guardsmen, and in a repeat of our first game my opponent focused on using the massive firepower of his army to eliminate my Devastator squad by the end of the first turn.  In addition to my opponent's skill at directing his fire at the biggest threats to his forces each turn, I have not yet figured out the best ways to move my combat squads to positions where their firing will be effective. As a result in each game I've played they draw a withering amount of fire that makes them unable to render much effect on the game by turn three or four.   Space Marines may "Know No Fear" but I would swear my Dark Angels were getting pretty jumpy everytime those barrage templates were placed on the table in turn after turn.  

Two more poorly used assets were my Dark Angels master and my techmarine.  The 4th Company Master Korlael wasn't embarrassingly killed like he was in my first matchup against the guard, but he also didn't do anything significant either.  This game I had even taken a conversion field as his wargear but I didn't throw him into the thick of the fight for fear of losing him.  Next time I need to have confidence in the gadgets to get him into a position to wreak some havoc with his power sword and superior weapon skill.

Similarly Techmarine Haephaetus also had no contributions other than a comedic moment in the third turn when popped out from cover to take on a Leman Russ point blank with his plasma pistol.  What should have been a spray of superheated shots was a jam on the sustained fire dice leaving him in the open staring down a tank.  The Techmarine was chosen to fill out points in my first 40K2ndAC and because I liked the look of the model.  I didn't realize at the time that a Techmarine has limited usefulness in a 2nd Edition Space Marine army that contains no vehicles.  

With my army failing at their objective of keeping guard units off our half of the board and the Catachans completing their mission of getting multiple units into my deployment zone, the final victory point tally was heavily in the favor of the guardsmen.  While much of my analysis of the battle reviews the Dark Angels actions, I must mention that my opponent did a great job adjusting his strategy when my Terminators punched a hole the center of his battleline and compromised both of his heavy weapon sections.  Like X-wings in the Death Star trench, the Wachtmeister stayed on target and came away with the win in a closely fought game.  

This was another fantastically fun game of 2nd edition, even though I don't like my Dark Angels falling to the Imperial Guard for a third time.  I'm starting to have a lot more sympathy for Jervis Johnson's performances in the classic 2nd edition battle reports.   End game victory point totals make the game appear less close than it was, with a few different decisions I think I could have swung the game in my favor.  The Wachtmeister is always a tough but enjoyable opponent to square off against and we had our most competitive meeting yet (to be clear the lack of competitiveness in earlier games was all on my end).  The experience of playing a game just like the ones I loved to read about when I first entered the hobby was incredible and I can't wait until we have a chance to play again.  2nd edition WH40K is rapidly becoming my favorite game to play, thanks to Dr The Viking for bringing this joy into my life through the 40K2ndAC. 

Thanks for reading, especially with the long gap in between posts!