40K Battle Report

Tim and got together on Sunday in my unusually cool garage for a game of 40K. My friend Lonnie, who is working in Iraq, requested a battle report to help pass the time. This battle report is my second game of the new 5th edition of 40K.

I have been working on several projects related to 40K and this seemed like a good time to get the stuff out. A coupe of years ago Tim and I started a very large city ruins project that had kind of fallen by the wayside. I have been putting in a bunch of time to get this stuff based and painted and I almost have enough to cover a 4x6.

The new Space Marine codex has me adding lots of new stuff to my Knights of Eden Space Marines. These guys started life as a part of my Daemonhunters and I 'almost' have a proper 1500 army ready.

For our battle I took the following, mostly painted, 1500 point Space Marine army:

HQ
Chaplain with Jump pack and a Plasma pistol

Elite
9 man Terminator squad

Troops
10 man tactical squad with missile launcher, flamer and a Rhino
10 man tactical squad with heavy bolter and flamer
10 man scout squad with sniper rifles
10 man scout squad with 5 close combat and 5 bolters

Fast Attack
Landspeeder with Multi-Melta
10 man assault squad with 3 plasma pistols and a power fist

Tim decided to dust off his Sisters of Battle army. Here is what I can remember about his army. I am sure I will get some of the unit names wrong but hey, no one really cares!

HQ
Flying saint chick with a flaming sword of some type

Troops
3x 20 Sisters squads with heavy flamers and meltaguns. Oh, and a crap load of bolters

Fast Attack
A unit of 10 flying nuns

Heavy Support
2 Exorcist tanks

In the picture above you can see an overview of the battlefield and some of the initial starting points for the units. The scenario we rolled was the Capture and Control with the Pitched Battle deployment. The table was basically symmetrical with 9 building ruins evenly placed across the table. We each place our home objective markers in the building in the center of our lines. The difference being Tim's building was a single level ruin and mine was a 3 level ruin.

Tim massed the majority of his forces in the center of his line as you can see from the picture above.

On his right he placed a 20 man sisters unit in a three level building.

On his left he deployed his HQ and flying nuns.

For my deployment if chose to place the sniper scouts in the building guarding the home objective. In the same center zone I places the Rhino mounted tac squad. I split the other tac squad into combat squads, placing the heavy bolter and 4 men in a building to my right and the remaining troops in the center. Also on the right were the Terminators.

On my right I deployed the Assault Marines and the Chaplain. I also placed the Landspeeder on this side. My general plan would be a rapid attack from my Assault Marines on my left with the idea of tying up and perhaps destroying one of the large troop units. While this quick, deep attack was raging my troops in the center would advance, safely, through the center. The Terminators on my right would push through and draw as much fire as possible. The combat squad with the heavy bolter would pore fire on the sisters holding their objective. Since I deployed first my plan would have to be flexible.


My initial attack with the Assault Marines went better than I expected. I cleared the dangerous terrain with minimal losses and struck a unit of sister in the clear on the second turn. The battle lasted for 2 player turns with the sisters eventually falling back.

While this fight rages the Rhino troops moved up to support the Assault Marine's attack.


Meanwhile the flying nuns and their Saint advanced on a unit of scouts that had infiltrated in front of the Terminators. Tim's plan was to strike the scouts quickly and then use the Hit and Run to skip over the Terminators and make s B-line for the objective. It was a good plan that suffered from poor execution. You see, Tim decided to shoot at the scouts before launching his assault. His shooting turned out to me massively successful and 7 scouts fell. The remaining scouts fell back out of assault range. The nuns were stuck and the Terminators were bearing down on them. When the smoke cleared the flying nun were gone and the Saint was all alone and moving deeper into my lines, but the Terminators were unharmed and continuing their advance.

With Tim deploying his Exorcists on his center left my best anti-tank unit, the landspeeder, would have to cross a large amount of terrain to engage the enemy tanks.


This turned out to be a bit of a waste as I missed with the only shot I would get from the landspeeder. The Exorcists would make short work of it.


With the victory over the first unit of sisters complete the surviving assault marines and the Chaplain pressed on and struck the sisters unit guarding the objective. The initial goal with this attack was to tie up the enemy long enough for additional help to arrive. It seemed like a long shot because the Terminators and the combat squad were a long way off and the Exorcists were still on the hunt. Amazingly the Chaplain and the assault marines won! Because of the close proximity neither of the sisters units could regroup and they fled off the table.


The Chaplain and the Assault Marines would continue their reign of terror and kill both the Exorcists in the turns to follow. While all of this drama was unfolding the Saint was locked in a life and death struggle with the scouts right next to my home objective. This battle would rage for several assault phases but in the end the Saint would fall.

By the time Tim figured out what was happening all he had left on the table was the sisters unit he has deployed on his right. This unit made a vain attempt to shift back to the center and retake his objective. Even the arrival of the resurrected Saint to contest his object could not prevent utter defeat.

In the end the Knights of Eden held their own objective and had contested the enemy objective. While many marines had fallen during the fight on the landspeeder had been eliminated. The sisters, on the other hand, had been decimated. At the end of the battle about a dozen sisters were left.

Some lessons from this battle. First, sniper rifles are not very useful any more. I don't think I can justify taking a full 10 man unit of these. Second, the landspeeder with the multi-melta is useless. I don't think I have ever done anything with this unit going back several years. Third, Terminators are scary! The unit I took had no heavy weapons - just stormbolters and powerfists (oh, and a powersword on the sgt). Finally, assault marines are the sh*t! Wow! What can I say. Combine the Chaplain with the assault marines and you have a real killer unit. In this battle the assault marines were responsible for the destruction of 4 of the 7 enemy units. I also found that you should not fear the dangerous terrain test. I had to make a couple of these with the assault marines and I lost three models. This was before any fighting.