It's been quite a bit of work lately, and I haven't been able to push my dollies and throw the cruel cubes of probability... I missed it. While the family and I have squeezed in a couple of board games (like Batman: GCC), my son and I were itching to get some 40k on. Better, my wife was begging for some Age of Sigmar! I think I can make these happen...Yesterday, we played our games. My son brought out his Dark Angels to battle my Chaos Marines first. Lately, his streak of losses has been getting longer. His force typically relies on Devastators and rerolls and we play Maelstrom missions, meaning that the cards can be absolutely vicious and determine the winner more than they should. So we decided to play an Eternal War mission and to change up his forces a bit.
The battlefield
We found a neat little app in the Play Store that randomizes missions and decided to take advantage of it. We made sure to choose the Chapter Approved 2018 tab and pressed the button... And it gave us the mission "No Mercy". Kill Points. Hmmm...
This was going to be interesting because the adjustments that we made to his Dark Angels was including more and faster units so he could actually claim some objectives. And the first mission we get is Kill Points. Oh goody.
While my Chaos Marines haven't changed from what I'm going to paint up when I'm done with this commission project, his Dark Angels are quite a bit different. He brought Scouts to make up the troops in his Battalion, Azrael to buff his Devastators- now each including Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters to take advantage of the strategems, and a bunch of bikes. Three-mans with plasma guns and Black Knights equals a lot of speed and dakka. And then he brought the flyer that loves doing mortal wounds...
My army has a couple of huge blobs of heretics- either Marines or Possessed (and a Greater Possessed to buff them). Otherwise, the firepower is taken care of with Autocannon-Havocs and a heavy weapon tossed into some small units. The pressure is from Heldrakes and deep-striking Obliterators, and it's all led by Huron, a Daemon Prince, and a Sorcerer. Not too many units so not much to score in a Kill Point scenario, while the Dark Angels have a ton of Kill Points to give away.
Deployment
The Dark Angels placed their firebase in a building for cover and covering fire, formed a hammer of characters and Scouts around the Dreadnought, and scattered bikes on the flanks and in counter position. The flyer set up to directly attack the mobs of heretics and make them pay.
The Chaos marines were worried about the snipers deployed in tall ruins and the huge amount of mobility they were facing. The Dark Angels could quickly pen-in and slaughter their forces if they didn't get the initiative. With that, all marines were deployed in ruins or cover with heavy weapons taking the highest points they could. By being on upper levels, the bikes couldn't get to them and could have to rely on shooting. All characters were completely hidden from the view of the snipers, which really limited their impact on the strategy. Finally, the two Heldrakes were deployed with the express purpose of killing snipers and flyers so the characters could come out. Either this strategy works or the Chaos forces will be 'walking in the rain'.
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| Deployment |
First Battle Round
By the glory of the gods and antiquated rules, I finished deploying my smaller army first and got to choose first turn. The Dark Angels felt too confident and didn't attempt to Seize, for which Chaos took full advantage...Having a strategy, the Heldrakes launched forward and immediately engaged their targets. On one end of the street, the flying beast unleashed his balefire into the ruins and killed three of the Scouts and then charged into some Black Knights in the alley. Suffering a little damage, he managed to destroy one of the bikers and wound another. The other end of the street had a balefire blast as well into the buildings, immolating a Devastator, and then the beast charging into the flyer. With damage from the Lascannon, Missile Launcher, and four Autocannons from the Chaos lines, the loyalist flyer was in no shape to survive that daemonic onslaught and fell from the sky. While the furious assault took place, the hordes on the ground rushed forward as fast as they could, with the Daemon Prince even hiding from the snipers despite his mighty form.
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| Chaos Turn 1 |
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| Dark Angels Turn 1 |
Battle Round 2
With the snipers mostly neutralized, the Chaos characters were emboldened and ordered the army forward. The Daemon Prince and his mob of Chaos Marines rounded the corner and faced the core of the loyalist line. With a roar of bolter and plasma gun fire, the mob wiped out one of the Devastator squads sheltering in ruins. With an equal roar, the Daemon Prince let lose with his Warp Bolter and slew a Scout in preparation to charge and wipe the rest out. The surviving Heldrake flew into the block and sent balefire into the ruins, killing another sniper, and prepared to charge a unit of Scouts on the ground. Possessed, curious and anxious to fight, rounded the other end of the block and prepared to rampage through at least two units of bikers. And to make the entire situation even more hopeless- a flash of light saw Obliterators appearing behind the lines and wiping out the last big unit of bikes.  |
| Chaos Turn 2 |
That was it- Azrael called the retreat and the Dark Angels conceded the battle. With a final score of 5-1 and very probably 9-2 at the end of Round 2, the outcome was a given. There was just nothing the Dark Angels could do to kill that much and catch up in points.
Some thoughts- First, it was very nice to have a strategy and then see it executed so perfectly in the first turn. I cannot remember a game that I played where this is the case, and it was cool. Especially with an army that isn't 'optimized' in any way. But this is where the first point comes in- the first turn is too powerful in these old missions! Being able to choose going first can be a real boon that directly impacts the game and that's where the whole idea of 'alpha strike' comes in. If he had gotten first turn, I would have been pretty well demolished and it would have been a struggle for me. I am happy with the modern first-turn rules.
Second, Kill Points is such an unfair condition in ways. It accentuates the 'alpha strike' mentality and really unbalances things to one army over another. For example- my IG brigade in this mission would never lose if it got first turn and never win if it didn't. The only army I might want to go second with is Orks, but I'm not sure there either. My son complained about Objectives a few days ago and I explained this exact problem to him. It was convenient to see it in practice and demonstrate why Objectives are so necessary to this game.Finally, I REALLY LIKE PLAYING THIS LIST! It's not spammy other than a second Heldrake, it doesn't have anything really good other than a single unit of Obliterators (and that's still 345 points!), and it doesn't rely on crazy specialist detachment rules or anything that requires an analysis out of your oppenents. It has everything I want- shooting, speed, Smite, and strength. I think I may have a decent list!
Any good games of 40k lately? Let me know below!
