Hello to all, another new blogger here. I'm Ryan, the Wellingtonian who often crashes the Horowhenua Wrythhold to enjoy some nerdy past-times. I thought I'd kick off my blogging with (half) a battle report from my first game of 6th edition with my bike army, my favourite army from 5th edition.
My Army:
SM Captain, Bike, Relic Blade, Artificer Armour, Combi
Plasma
SM Librarian, Bike, Telepathy (rolled the Fearless one and
took Shriek)
4 Bikes, 2 Melta, Multimelta attack bike, Meltabombs
4 Bikes, 2 Melta, Multimelta attack bike, Meltabombs
4 Bikes, 2 Plasma, Multimelta attack bike
2 Typhoon Land Speeders
2 Typhoon Land Speeders
Vindicator, Dozer Blade
Vindicator, Dozer Blade
Opponent:
Librarian, Staff, Epistolary (rolled malediction and took
prescience)
Brother Corbulo
10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltagun, Rhino
10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltagun, Rhino
10 Tactical Marines, Missile, Flamer
9(ish?) Death Company, PF, TH, Rhino
Stormraven, TLPC, TLMM
Death Company Dread, Claws.
Mission:
1500pt, big guns never tire, 5 objectives, normal 12”’ deployment
across long edges.
Deployment:
I deployed first. One melta bike squad with librarian on my
left flank with objective, 2 bike squads on right flank with captain and
objective, vindicators in centre on objective with good lines of sight,
speeders behind.
Opponent deployed split tactical squad on objectives and two
rhinos in centre and one rhino on my left flank, dreadnought in raven in
reserve. Assault squads also combat squaded but both squads stayed in the
rhino. Opponent then seized the initiative.
Opponent Turn 1:
I thought I was the fast army! 24” moves from the rhinos
(12” movement plus 12” flat out) meant he was right into my army before I
moved. Tactical squad shooting did little. Centre objective was sabotaged!
Other objective was a stealth generator thing so my opponent ran to the upper
level that my bikes can’t get to.
My Turn 1:
Moved the librarian and buddies forwards on the left against
his stealthed tactical squad, shriek and shooting doing nothing. Speeders and
Vindicators move back a bit and target the rhinos and the death company along
with the right hand bike squads, one of which advances to try and charge anyone
who pops out. All three rhinos die and half of the death company are taken care
of, though I lose a plasma gunner to overheating in the process of killing the
last rhino.
Opponent Turn 2:
Stormraven Zoooooms on right into the heart of my army on
left flank, destroying the main gun from one vindicator and stunning it with
missiles and guns. Assault squads advance, firepower rather ineffective though.
My Turn 2:
Two IC’s split off and head for combat squads with
sergeants, one bike squad heads around the back to another assault combat squad
and the other to the last remaining assault squad. Captain shoots and Librarian
shrieks, doing nothing, and all 4 bike units charge in leaving one out back.
Death company are shot off the board by vindicator and typhoons, along with
Corbulo leaving the Libby by himself. In combat both my IC’s challenge,
thinking to only kill the sergeant and win in the opponents assault phase.
Opponent Turn 3:
Raven hovers, DC Dread jumps out, minces a bike squad in
assault. Librarian joins combat with the other bike squad. Both my IC’s kill a
few more but now marines don’t take fearless when sweeped so they stay locked.
Tac squad does nothing. Firepower takes out one speeder from each squad.
Note: The Stormraven is still alive.
We ended it here as it was pretty late and our excessive
dice rolling was probably keeping my flatmates up. I was pretty confident I
could take out the death company dread with 4 missiles, vindicator, multimelta
and plasma at short range, then I would try to kill the librarian with my ICs
and deal with the rather ineffectual tactical squad at the back of the board.
Still you never know. I decided to ignore the flyer in turn 2 and go for the
scoring squads, having a better chance with them than downing the flyer while it zoomed,
and the dread could only kill one squad after which I could shoot it.
Army changes I’ll probably go back to my codex powers as
Null Zone is simply too good to pass up and the certainty of powers is worth
more than the possibility of getting something awesome like Invisibility (2+
cover yeah). Avenger probably for the second power, used it to good effect in
the past. I would like to fit a power fist on one of the squads to power
through marines, as ATSKNF and Fearless are really going to bog me down in
combat without my captain there, unless I can break and escape the sweeping
advance. Power Sword/Axe/etc. are not great for bike sergeants as you don’t get
the extra attack for having an offhand weapon.
Things for 6th edition particular to my army:
Bikes and speeders with jink saves are awesome. Only have to
move to get a cover save so I have more freedom in moving around the board.
Armour saves against dangerous terrain is fantastic, makes
terrain less of a death trap for me so I can go through it for the close melta
shot or focused fire location.
Hammer of Wrath is a nice bonus, but not going to make my
bikes win any combat except for extremely depleted enemy units. Though it is in
effect two attacks for free against most things with the automatic hit part
acknowledged.
Combat tactics got a huge boost. Now you can always attempt
to flee combat if you lose and worst case scenario you end up locked again.
With no 6” escorting of enemy units it is great to use against enemy shooting
also, almost certainly denying that charge with 3D6”. Just make sure you have
enough room to your board edge.
I’ll stick to heavy bolters on my Typhoons. Yes you can
shoot that multimelta now in addition, but you have to close to within 24” and
that means everything can shoot you back which equals death for your land
speeder. The 48” range is the best asset of typhoons and I bring enough melta
elsewhere.
