Before
I begin, let me say how thrilled I am about the “Death From the
Skies” supplement. Seriously, stormravens not only make vanilla
more competitive, they also make close combat dreadnoughts and
stormtalons a lot more desirable because they provide them with
reliable assault transport and awesome target saturation,
respectively. This not only opens up a variety of new lists and
tactics, it actually turns vanilla into a nice ally option for other
armies. For example, a nullzone libby, a tac squad, a stormraven, and
perhaps a stormtalon or 5 hammernators strike me as a neat addition
to armies who lack their own (good) fliers, such as space wolves,
tau, eldar, dark angels, etc. Also, skyhammer stormtalons that cost the same as rifleman dreads are insanely good. Food for thought.
1850
pts armies, rulebook missions + the nemesis special rule. The nemesis
special rule states that any unit who scores first blood is
automatically worth one victory point if destroyed. My list:
Captain
Adolf von Klinkerhofen (Vulkan counts as)
Tactical
Squad RED – flamer, combiflamer, plasma cannon, rhino
Tactical
Squad YELLOW – flamer, combiflamer, plasma cannon, rhino
Tactical
Squad GREEN – flamer, combiflamer, missile launcher
5x
Hammernators
2x
multimelta Attack Bikes
Land
Speeder – heavy flamer & multimelta
Land
Speeder – heavy flamer & multimelta
Land
Raider Godhammer – multimelta
Vindicator
– dozer blade
Vindicator
– dozer blade
Aegis
Defense Line – quad-gun
TOTAL:
1850 pts
The
plan (short version): turn 1 – rush towards the enemy, turn 2 –
kill everything. The plan (long version): I definitely want to
get first turn. Tactical Squad Green sits behind aegis defense line &
mans the quad-gun and maybe holds an objective, while plasma cannon
combat squads camp in terrain. Everything else turbo-boosts forward.
Bikes move 24" in front of the vehicles to give them cover
saves. If opponent has barrages or something else that negates
standard cover, tanks move 12" and pop smoke. Speeders deep
strike. Turn 2, everything comes in 6-24" range and makes
someone's mother cry.
FUN
FACT: I'll forever hold Vulkan close to my heart because he's the
first HQ I have ever fielded and the one I took my baby steps with.
When I started 40k in early 5th edition, all my lists
typically consisted of Vulkan & hammernators in a LR, with three
tactical squads with MLs, flamers, combiflamers, power fists, and
rhinos. 1500 pts armies were the standard back then. Needless to say,
there weren't many points leftover for other stuff, so I tended to
lose whenever someone immobilized or destroyed my LR early on.
However, due to the fact I was one of few mech players back then (and
mech was overpowered in 5th) and that my regular opponents
were tyranids, ultramarines, world eaters, necrons, and blood angels,
I actually managed to win the majority of my games. I even believed I
was an awesome general. Good times.
FIRST
BATTLE – LUKA'S SPACE WOLVES
You may remember this guy from the
goddamn LOS-blocking hill battle report. Guess what, we ended
up playing on a table with the same oversized hill again. The good
news, however, was that he was fielding a pure drop pod list, so the
hill wasn't going to come into play. Four of his five pods were full
of wolf guard with combiplasmas and combimeltas, plus two
terminators, one with assault cannon, another with hammer &
shield. The fifth pod carried Logan Grimnar, Arjac Rockfist, and
three more th/ss termies. The mission was four objectives (each worth
3 VPs), 12" deployment. He wins the roll-off and decides to give
me the first turn. I deploy in a defensive position to make it hard
for combimeltas to get into 6" range. My plan is to basically be
a rock and let him break against me.
TURN 1:
I spread out and pop smoke with all my vehicles.
Three drop pods, one of them
containing Logan & his hammernators, arrive. The left-side rhino
is blown up by meltas. The right-side vindicator is immobilized by
Arjac's hammer.
TURN 2:
Both speeders arrive. One scatters off
the table, resulting in a mishap that has it placed in the upper
right corner. Undaunted, its driver steps on the pedal and
turbo-boosts back towards my deployment zone. Lots of shooting
occurs, killing plenty of wolf guard and one of Logan's terminator
buddies. Hammernators try to charge Logan & co, but roll poorly
and fail their charge. The centermost wolf guard squad is assaulted
by Vulkan, who kills four of them. They inflict two wounds on him,
lose combat, and manage to flee, leaving him in the open.
The remaining two drop pods arrive.
Vulkan is plasmaed to death. The surviving two wolf guard from the
squad Vulkan charged rally and assault a plasma cannon combat squad.
Hammernators are shot at by combiplasmas and two of them go down.
They then fail their leadership test and run off the board. Logan &
co assault and wipe out a combat squad. I'm hating life.
TURN 3:
I turbo-boost the right-side rhino
with a combat squad inside into the midfield, so it can grab an objective in the opponent's deployment zone and score linebreaker. The left-side vindicator turns to face the wolf guard
squad between it and the LR, and in a moment of true beauty pays for
itself and probably for its twin brother by vaporizing 7 out of 8 of
them with a single shot. My tacs, attack bikes, speeder, and LR mop
up, opening fire on the remaining wolf guard, but failing to wipe
them out. My combat squad kills the last wolf guard in combat and
consolidates.
Opponent moves his surviving wolf guard
squad up and attempts a multiple assault, but shoots too well and
ends up taking out his primary target. Logan & co assault the
quad-gun crew and the immobilized vindicator, with predictable
results.
TURN 4:
My left-most combat squads gets epic
terrain and run moves, managing to reach the other objective in the
opponent's deployment zone. The rest of my army takes out a drop pod
as well as the last few wolf guards. The mishapped speeder finally
arrives and joins the fun.
Logan & co charge the closest
combat squad, stomp them into the ground, and move into midfield.
TURN 5:
I point all my guns at Logan's unit.
The last two terminators are turned into molten slag. Both Arjac and
the Great Wolf are reduced to a single wound each. At that point I'm pretty confident I'm going to win. Logan & Arjac are stuck in midfield, far away from
the two objectives I hold, and unlikely to be able to do
anything meaningful. Then, to my horror, they fail their morale test,
resulting in a 11" retreat + 3" regroup, which enables the
two of them to...
...Get close enough to assault one of my two remaining combat squads, decimate them, and then seize the objective, possibly
resulting in a draw thanks to a single failed leadership test.
Thankfully, the match goes on for another turn.
TURNS 6 & 7:
The left-side vindicator moves into
terrain, shoots at Arjac and Logan, and scores a direct hit, mowing
both of them down and winning me the battle. Overall, that one 120 pts
tank took out 700+ pts of deathstar/wolf guard during the course of
the match. It's almost as if Lando himself was piloting it.
The rest of the 6th turn
and all of the 7th is spent wrecking drop pods, resulting
in me winning by tabling the opponent.
AFTERTHOUGHTS:
I botched up my deployment and first
turn, allowing Arjac and combimelta wolf guard to get within 6"
of my LR and right-side vindicator. I also had the disadvantages of
going first and getting the table side with a single objective, but I
dealt with it well, if I do may say so. My dice rolls during the
first couple of turns were depressing, what with hammernators running off the board and Vulkan getting shot up like a total chump. Logan &
Arjac failing a ld10 roll and getting a free 14" move that
almost won/tied them the game was frustrating.
SECOND
BATTLE – OTA'S ORKS
Nob bikerz list, the first one I've
ever faced. Two big units, each with a powerklaw warboss, boss pole,
painboy, cybork bodies, two powerklaws, big choppas, and
combiscorchas. Also, a unit of four outflanking deffkoptas with
rokkits. Three objectives, one in the middle worth 3 pts, one in your
deployment zone worth 2 pts, the one in opponent's deployment zone
worth 4 pts. Diagonal/table quarters deployment. He gets first turn
and night fighting is active. I place my objective on top of a
wrecked building, preventing him from being able to contest it. The
central objective is inside the middle ruin. I put one combat squad
with a rhino in reserve. My plan was to shoot most of his nobz to
death and then go medieval on the remainders with vulkan & th/ss termies, at which point I would grab either the objective in the middle or the one in his
deployment zone with the reserved combat squad.
TURN 1:
The bikers advance. The
left-side unit remains rather far back though.
I smell blood and go all out on the
right-side bikerz unit, determined to wipe them out fast.
They're pretty close, so the LR leaves the safety of the defense line
in order to disembark my th/ss termies into 2-3" range of the
closest nob. Regrettably, my shooting ends up being too effective,
killing so many nobz that my terminators remain too far away and fail
their charge.
TURN 2:
Deffkoptas stay in reserve. The
right-side warboss leaves his unit and assaults the attack bikes,
wiping them out. The three surviving bikerz pull back to contest the
objective in their deployment zone. The other biker unit shoots up
the terminators, killing 3, and then multiple-charges them and the LR
but, to my misfortune, fails to wipe them out, meaning they're locked
in combat and safe from my shooting. The LR is stunned.
Speeders arrive from reserve, both of
them deep striking around the opponent's objective, both scattering
too far to be able to use their flamers. I move one of my
rhinos up, creating a mini-wall to prevent them from getting more charges off in the following turn. The warboss who slaughtered the
attack bikes is shot to death. During assault phase, the two terminators
finally die.
TURN 3:
Deffkoptas are still in reserve. The
three bikerz at the opponent's objective move down and destroy the
speeder. The big nob unit in the middle shoots like crazy, but fails
to destroy the rhino. They then assault the LR and the rhino,
stripping another two hull points off the LR and exploding the rhino.
Rhino combat squad arrives from
reserves and rushes towards the opponent's objective. I open fire,
killing and wounding a bunch of nobz as well as injuring the warboss.
TURN 4:
Deffkoptas arrive and blast the
combat squad rhino to pieces. The three bikerz then assault the combat squad
and, although they suffer some wounds from overwatch, they manage to
decimate them without any casualties. The warboss keeps hitting the
LR, failing to do anything to it. The middle nobz multiple-assault
the quad-gun combat squad and the nearby vindicator, destroying them all.
I shoot my depleted guns at the nobz,
killing some, but it's not enough. Furthermore, I assault the warboss with Vulkan, hoping to strip his last wound before he gets to
swing. Vulkan's dice suck, however, and he ends up getting
powerklawed by the warboss.
TURN 5:
Middle nobz are pulled back to contest
the middle objective. Warboss assaults and destroys the second
vindicator.
Shooting from combat squads finally
strips the warboss of his last wound. The remaining speeder moves in
on the three nobz at the opponent's objective and sends all three of
them to green heaven. Game ends. Opponent wins 5-4.
AFTERTHOUGHTS:
I've made serious mistakes in this
match. Getting greedy and disembarking my hammernators on first turn
was by far the worst. If I had managed to pull that charge off, I probably
would've been able to wipe out the entire unit and keep my attack
bikes, but failure to do so would result in my LR & termies being left in the
open to die, effectively stripping me of my counter-charge unit early
on, which is exactly what happened. It was an unnecessary gamble, and
it ended up biting me in the ass. I would've been much better off
keeping my vindicators and LR further back, and bubble-wrapping them
with a pair of flamer combat squads. Speaking of which, I should've
kept pulling my left-side vindicator back during turns 2 & 3,
instead of leaving it vulnerable to a multiple assault. Reserving
that rhino combat squad for a late game objective grab wasn't such a
bad idea, but it relied on me being able to quickly take out at least
one of the two nob units. Aside from all this, it was my first time
facing a nob bikerz list and to be honest I have underestimated them. A lesson well learned.
THIRD
BATTLE – BOCA'S BLOOD ANGELS
6 objectives, one in the center of
each 1/6 of the table. Objectives in your deployment zone are worth 2
pts, the ones in middle 3 pts, and the ones in opponent's deployment
zone 4 pts. Annoying table-sides deployment. His was a weird list. It
consisted of a minimal sniper squad, Dante, a small unit of
sanguinary guard, 10 assault marines with meltaguns and a sanguinary
priest, a stormraven, and ~20 tactical terminators with assault
cannons. He had first turn. I was expecting him to combat squad and
deep strike everything while hiding the scouts behind terrain, only
to be surprised when he placed his termies on the table and
infiltrated his scouts on top of the central building. I responded to
this the way any self-respecting ultramarine successor should when
faced with a band of bloodthirsty power-armored mutants: by deploying
in a massive gunline. I had no intention whatsoever of going for his
objectives, or even the ones in the middle.
TURN 1:
His terminators advance towards me,
rolling 1s and 2s on their run rolls. Snipers shoot, but being scouts
they don't do crap.
A rhino illuminates the left/upper
terminator squad with its searchlight, and a couple are killed by
shooting. The other rhino illuminates the scouts and the rest of my
army shoots at them, killing three. I spread out my infantry and
bikes behind my land raider and vindicators to make it harder
for the incoming meltas get into range.
TURN 2:
Dante arrives with the sanguinary
guard, deepstriking behind my lines. Assault marines appear right in
front of my LR. Terminators advance. Assaulters shoot at the LR, yet
their meltaguns are impotent. Dante fires his melta pistol at a
vindicator, but his gun is no match for its indomitable rear armor.
Just kidding, it blew up like Christian Bale on the set of Terminator
4.
Both speeders arrive. One attempts to
roast the scouts, only to scatter out of template range and roast the termies instead. The other is placed behind the upper terminator
unit so it can provoke them into wasting shots or even assaulting it,
but it too scatters too far to use its flamer. Still, it manages to
snipe the assault cannon guy. Vulkan & the combat squads
disembark and burn the crap out of assault marines, leaving only the
priest alive. Hammernators disembark so they can charge Dante &
co, but it's unnecessary, as my shooting is more than sufficient to
vaporize the entire unit. Lastly, empty rhinos turbo-boost forward to
block the path of the incoming terminators.
TURN 3:
Stormraven still refuses to arrive.
Sanguinary priest assaults the speeder in the middle, and fails to do
anything to it. Terminators do some more walking.
Vulkan & the hammernators return to the LR. I try to move the middle speeder up to take out the
scouts, but it fails its terrain test and is immobilized. My combat
squads move forward to serve as bait for the incoming terminators.
The sanguinary priest takes a bolt to the face. For some reason, I try to tank shock the lower terminator unit,
resulting in a successful death-or-glory and a disintegrated rhino.
The vindicator tries to move over the aegis defense line and manages
to immobilize itself despite having a dozer blade. Oh well, it was
bound to happen sooner or later.
TURN 4:
Stormraven arrives and tries to
dislodge some of my combat squads at the objectives. One terminator
unit takes the bait and assaults a combat squad, killing four marines
and putting themselves in perfect assault range of my hammernators.
The other advances and shoots a bit.
I disembark my hammernators. However,
once again they don't get to kill anything because my shooting
destroys the offending terminators before they can charge. As for the other terminator unit,
all but one are gunned down. The speeder turbo boosts to the top of the
central building so it can succeed where its twin failed ie. killing
the snipers.
TURN 5:
Stormraven keeps attacking the combat squad at the lower objective, but they go to ground behind
the defense line and it fails to wipe them out. Scouts assault the speeder, to no effect.
Sergeant Jurgen & gunner Albrecht
pump the stormraven full of quad-gun bullets, blowing it to pieces.
Hammernators charge the last remaining blood angel terminator, and the
resulting combat is as one-sided as you can imagine. The speeder
opens fire on the two scouts, killing one. Game ends, with just one
scout standing between me and a victory by tabling.
AFTERTHOUGTHS:
I had many things going for me here. My dice were incredibly good, my opponent's list was far from
optimized, the deployment was the best I could hope for, and I even
got to pick my side. From then on, it was a matter of
withstanding his 2nd turn alpha strike and then
retaliating with overwhelming firepower.
OVERALL
AFTERTHOUGHTS:
I really enjoyed this tournament.
Opponents had cool in-yo-face armies, resulting in close-fought matches and plenty of epic moments. Also, taking Vulkan
out for a ride had a lot of nostalgia value for me. I ended up getting 2nd place on the tournament and winning a box of blue GW dice. Yay!
Strange thing I noticed: unless I'm playing against imperial guard, I always end up turtling while my opponent tries to bash my skull in. This happens even when I bring out assault/short range armies such as this Vulkan list or the Lysander list I fielded in my first battle report. I have no idea why this is so. Maybe my lists are imbalanced in favor of passive play. Or maybe my opponents are more offensive-minded than me. Or maybe the vanilla dex can't really support a truly aggressive playstyle. Or hell, maybe I'm just a pussy.
Strange thing I noticed: unless I'm playing against imperial guard, I always end up turtling while my opponent tries to bash my skull in. This happens even when I bring out assault/short range armies such as this Vulkan list or the Lysander list I fielded in my first battle report. I have no idea why this is so. Maybe my lists are imbalanced in favor of passive play. Or maybe my opponents are more offensive-minded than me. Or maybe the vanilla dex can't really support a truly aggressive playstyle. Or hell, maybe I'm just a pussy.
Sadly, although Vulkan is a pretty
cool guy, I can't justify fielding him in 6th ed. The loss
of combat tactics is a considerable liability, and so is his price
tag, while meltas & flamers are just not all that hot in this age
of plasma, feel no pain, T5, and footsloggers. To top it all off,
he's just a 3 attack captain-equivalent with an AP4 template, an AP3
spear, and no eternal warrior. A list with plenty of
plasmagun/combiplasma tacticals, in las/plas razorbacks, led by a
naked null zone + avenger librarian, just seems like a superior
all-comers option, especially since my local metagame is almost 100%
MEQ. Come to think of it, Vulkan is so expensive I could easily
replace him with a naked libby + an allied DA libby with a power
field generator. 4++ vindicators, anyone?
