The layout of the board was from White Dwarf 333, pg 38. Lot's of little terrain cover and a few large structures concentrated on the East side of the board.
Mission : Annihilation.
I won the the board edge and deployed a very heavy infantry based force in the large ruins adjacent a height 3 impassable building. The main bulk of my 1500pt force was focused on my
HQ. I used Iron Hands, Master of Ordnance and the Fleet Officer (He had several units in reserve) as well as two bodyguards. Into this mix was a medic, regimental standard, a sniper, vox and two veterans with CQ weapons. I also had Yarrick on the board just to there right. (the
HQ was in ruins)
Troops where deployed in 3 squads, the first lot, 30 conscripts, about 8 inches away from the impassible terrain and just in range to gain Strackens and Yarricks SR's. They had a PHQ made up of Chekov and 3 snipers and a vox. This give them the Send in the next wave rule. The two other squads, a mix of 10 guards men, both with Vox and snipers, there was also heavy bolter team in the first squad, were deployed on hills to the right of the ruins. My heavy support where screened by the conscripts consisted of one ballisk with camo netting and a eradicator russ with no sponsons and a heavy flamer just incase they got close. Finally in reserve was my 2nd troop choice, a veteran squad made up with 3 melta's and a Valykire.
The
BT player had an all infantry army, bar the two landspeeder tornadoes in reserve. He deployed his
HQ in a ruin opposite the impassable building, again on the East side of the board. He deployed his two 8 men crusader squads towards the center of the map, unfortantly for him he placed one in open ground and declined the option to move it into cover during deployment. He also had a Terminator Sword Brethren squad in reserve. His
HQ was very point heavy, High Marshall Helbrecht, Chaplain Grimaldus, Some kind of 3 man retinue that carried a Holy Relic and an emperors champion. In addition they where 3 CQ Sm's and a Sgt.
SM, again CQ. The Crusaders squads had all CQ weapons apart from 1 melta man respectively. He took No matter vow.
Turn 1.
I elected to go first. I didn't do any moving and my first action was to give my PHQ the order Bring it Down, which gives there weapons twin linked. As my opponent moved his
HQ from ruins into open ground as well as his first crusader squad my guys had them in full view. The 2nd order failed (re-roll cover saves) and Chekov barked at the Conscripts to get back into the fight. I then used the Master of Ordanace to fire on
HQ. It scored a direct hit. his 3 marines died outright and he rolled and failed all invulnerable and armor saves. He took wounds on all his men, the retinue however where out of radius so where untouched but now out of coherence. The first Crusader squad where hit hard by the Ballisk, leaving only 3 guys after cover saves. They where finished off by the Eradicator who just made the first guy and got a hit on the scatter. The snipers in the PHQ caused further wounds to the
HQ. The first set of troops opened fire with the Heavy bolter scoring a wound on the High Marshal. The snipers missed unfortantly.
As none of his units could shoot, not being in range (he had nothing but CQ weapons) Turn 2 commenced.
He passed all pinning and leadership tests, that bastard High Marshall passes on his ldr 10 onto any unit and I'm told by 2
SM players that marines don't get negative modifiers except on Assault.
Turn 2 - Moved my tank a touch to get in range of his
HQ but he countered this later by moving them behind the impassible terrain. We no more moves he began his, first calling his deep striking landspeeders. With the Fleet officer he gets a -1 to his
D6 role, great little thing... except he rolled two sixes (one for each unit).
He dropped 1 in front of my
HQ and got a minor movement of 4 inches actually towards my
HQ, just missing the terrain and putting his flamers on top of me. The 2nd deep striked off the board and died (There was some debate about this). Mind he did try to do a very deep strike in a very risky place, between the edge of the board and impassible terrain, which had about a 3" gap. His termies failed there roll on. He finally moved his 1 remaining squad to the right of his
HQ and just before the alley where his landspeeder had fallen of the board.
Shooting. I fired my ballisk, direct hit on the
HQ. This killed his champion, the retinues and he got another wound on the Marshal and Chaplin. Dead. He also lost 1 marine in the 2nd crusader squad. The master of ordnance finished off the other Crusader squad and I was about to risk firing my Nova cannon at the Landerspeeder (and potentially killing my
HQ) when the game ended. He for fitted and gracefully accepted defeat. (well, he ranted about the Ballisk and Master but hey its in the Codex/Rulebook)
Result. Total Victory. My Losses = 0! Yes, thats right, even with 30 Conscripts on I didn't loose a single trooper. That said he didn't get a shoot off.
I pointed out to him he would of been better off saving some points and getting Rhinos for his Troops or even his Landspeeder Crusader in his
HQ choice to rush me as I had no AT (my backup was swapping out the Edradticor for a Vanquisher but even so that's not much good against 14 all around). I also pointed out that Jump troops could of really spoilt my day and thinking back to when King wiped me out with his
DA bikes I suggested bikes. However this fell on deaf ears! I got lucky (5 hits on a scatter!) but even without that, I had enough to deal with his
HQ and troops. Conscripts worked a treat as he later said he was aiming for them and had equipped his army to deal with it. 700+
HQ to deal with 80pts. Meat shields FTW.