GAME THREE:
Elsaurios’s Squats (Thurgrimm Stronghold V1.5) Vs Dan's Steel Legion

Dan is one of the pillars of the local gaming group. All around nice guy with lots of involvement in Blood Bowl and Epic, he was the first person to teach me how to play Epic Armageddon. All you need to know about his nerd credentials is that his most recent birthday cake was a Blood Bowl Dice. I've known him for years and never seem him pull a dick move on any opponent.*


This cake could be filled with curry powder instead of sugar and still be the sweetest cake ever

I have played against Dan's Guard (or more correctly; a lot of guard, period) so I wasn't too worried about not knowing what to do tactically.


Regimental HQ 550
Imperial Guard Supreme Commander
12xImperial Guard Infantry
7xChimera
Hydra

Super Heavy Tank Company 550
3xShadowswords
Hydra

Super Heavy Tank Company 600
3xBaneblades
Ogryns
Hydra

Rough Rider Platoon 150
6xRough Riders

Rough Rider Platoon 150
6xRough Riders

Sentinel Squadron 100
4xSentinel

Super Heavy Tank Platoon 200
Shadowsword

Warhound Titan 275
Warhound Titan

Warhound Titan 275
Warhound Titan

Thunderbolt Squadron 150
2xThunderbolt Fighter-Bomber





Surprisingly heavy on the DC warmachines. I'm glad there are no Deathstrikes, and as long as I can keep his 4 shadowswords getting a clear shot at my Overlords/Land Train, I should be okay.

*like bringing twin Overlords to a tournament.

Deployment!
The board picked for 'Dan's Last Stand: Guard vs Squats' was the super heavily covered desert city terrain.

This game would be won or lost in the deployment phase so it's worth taking a look at how I deployed.

I stuck the artillery and blitz in the centre, until I started to get an idea of where his shadowswords were going to land. Once they were placed on the far left, I countered with my Squat Warriors, who were more than happy to take that TK hit on a single Rhino.

The Gyrocopters and Overlords were then poised to swing right, away from the 'swords and towards the Baneblades/Warhounds





There was a bit of tussle in the middle as the garrisons lined up against each other. Whoever got first turn would be winning that particular fight.

I knew that clearing off the chaff first would be the key to winning the further war.

Turn One

Squats win initiative! Knowing that destroying the garrisons in the middle would mean a lot, I focused fire on them

S1: The Thudd Guns activate and blows away 4 Rough Riders, including the commissar*. They break and flee. Retain with the Mole Mortars (thanks Living Ancestor!) but their rolling is appalling and they do nothing but a single blast marker on the sentinels

*Note: loosing commissars due to chance would be a running theme in this game, lets see how many die.



G1: A Warhound moves up on the right hand side
S2: The Goliaths fire at the large infantry block, killing two stands and a chimera.
G2: The 3 x BaneBlades move up on the right, as does a Warhound
S3: The Overlords move up and focus fire on the large baneblade unit, then call in a 4BP MW shot from the Land Train. 4DC is spread amongst the BaneBlades
G3: Rough Riders at the back reposition
S4: The BTS Warrior Squard doubles onto the landing pad ad takes a pot-shot at the single ShadowSword, doing nothing
G4: That ShadowSword fires back and takes out a Rhino in return
S5: The rightmost gyros shoot at the 3 x Baneblades, doing the single blast marker it needed to break the formation.
G5: On the left wing, 3 x ShadowSwords move under the monorail and fire at the Thudd Gunns, killing one. Moving under the monorail, one ShadowSword clips the terrain and is destroyed.*

*And you guessed it, it was the one with the commissar!



S6: Thunderfires fail to activate
G6: The Guard Infantry doubles toward the centre and takes out three Thudd Guns



S7: The 2nd Gyro group swoop in and shoot into the broken BaneBlades. Killing one *damaging another and killing an Ogryn!

(with the commissar!)

G7: The Fighter Aircraft swoop in on the BTW warrior group, killing a Rhino



End of turn one. The Squats are barely scratched and I've taken a number of the formations out of the run already. If I can keep up this momentum I will do well.

Ouch! not a nice turn one for IG. That was some serious commissar

Turn Two

Squats win initiative again!

S1: In a fun display of "what Golaiths can really do" a double blastmarker is dropped on the Guard Infantry, killing 8 as well as three tanks.*

*The commissar dies, of course

Retain, and attempt to assault the ShadowSwords with the Squat Warriors.... Losing! Warriors break and retreat

G1: The Shadowswords fire at the Squat warriors, killing one.
S2: Retaining, the Overlords and Gyros concentrate fire on the Warhound, killing it.



G2: The Sentinels fire on the Squat Warriors, killing one.
S3: The Mole Mortars kill a single Rough Rider
G3: The ShadowSwords engage the Squat Warriors for round 2, and fail. The Shadowswords are completely wiped out.
S4: The Land Train fires at the BTS BaneBlades, completely wiping them out.
G4: That second Warhound fires, killing a Gyro
G5: Again, the Fighter Aircraft swoop in on the BTW warrior group, killing three


End of turn two. There is less and less guard on the table.

Turn Three

The Bezerkers pop up on the Blitz, but within charge range of the Rough Riders. Hopefully the Guard will not win first activation.

Guard wins first activation!

G1: The six Rough Riders charge into the Bezerkers. Since the Bezerkers are in cover, the Rough Riders need to take a difficult terrain test. One fails. I'll let you guess which one*



*The commissar dies, of course

The resulting battle is close, but just enough for the Bezerkers to wipe out the Riders. They really needed the Commissar.



The game is over at this point with only a little mopping up to do. All that remains on the table at the end of the turn is a broken Warhound on 1 DC, a single broken stand from the infantry (The Grand Commander) and a Shadowsword in the far corner.





5-0 Win for the Squats!

Post Game Analysis

In some games, everything just works together and the war machine keep rolling forward. Deployment played a big part, in making sure the right units were matched up against the right targets. The Warrior Brotherhood actually accomplished something by taking out 2 Shadowswrods.

Points in my favour
+1 Good Deployment
+1 I know how to face Guard
+1 Dice were with me, especially killing commissars.
+1 Heavy cover favoured my army


On to Round Four!

GAME FOUR:
Elsaurios’s Squats (Thurgrimm Stronghold V1.5) Vs Cal's Space Wolves 2.4.2

The first three games had been played on the Saturday, and now we had staggered back in on the Sunday for finish of the remaining two games. Castle Assault has a reputation for a big Saturday Night Pub Crawl and many of the compatriots were looking a little worse for wear this morning.*

The two big wins from the previous night had catapulted back up the rankings to 4th place and I knew I would be facing a tough opponent.

Enter the Space Wolves


1. Great Company - 600
+ Wolf Lord
+ Grey Hunters
+ Land Raider
+ Razorback (Lascannon)
+ Hunter

2. Wolf Guard Terminators - 375
+ Wolf Priest

3. Swiftclaw Bikes - 250
+ 2 x Attack Bikes
+ Wolf Priest

4. Land Speeders - 200

5. Land Speeders - 200

6. Land Raiders - 325

7. Thunderhawk Gunship - 225

8. Reaver Titan - 650 - BTS

9. Thunderbolt Fighters - 175


I was a bit worried about this as the fast-moving and fast-hitting marines could really mess me up if they got in close. The existence of a Reaver was unusual, but I planned to ignore it as I knew the firepower output of Reavers are a little low compared to their points, and I would only bother to shoot at it if I really decided I wanted to take it down.



Thunderhawks full of Terminators were going to be a problem though, and I was eager to avoid a repeat of "torn apart in close combat" like against the Tyranids of the first game



*I had avoided any drinking as I had gone home early to my young baby. Those of you who have young babies would probably understand that after a night dealing with teething, I was in worse shape than many of the drinkers.

Hence why I purposely DIDN'T avoid drinking and I had 2 at the same time!

very interested to see the final outcome!

_________________
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-I HAVE NO POINT
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Still enjoying these reports greatly! Keep them coming

Deployment!
The board picked for 'Oh god! Oh God! The wolf pack is on me! They're tearing me to shreds! *: Space Wolf vs Squats' was on the alien 'Crystal Meth' board. Or after seeing the copious amount of pink and purple crystals and glitter that made up the terrain, I renamed it the "My Little Pony, Friendship is Tragic" terrain board*

There wasn't a great deal of useful cover, so I tried to deploy with a 'refused flank' with my blitz and the majority of my Army on the left hand side.

My Arty and Gyrocopters struggled to hide in what little cover I had, and my Garrisons were pushed a little to far forward for my liking





*No seriously! All I can see is claws and fangs! I'm going to die! I'm going to die!

*Anyone with a 6 year old daughter would get the reference.

(I've included two footnotes in this post. Make sure you marry up the right footnote to the right asterisk or you get something really disturbed when switched around.

Turn One: The Howling Begins

As expected, the Speesh Mahreens won initiative and it was game on!

SW1: The Land Speeders fling around on the right hand side
S1: The Goliath fire at the Great company, killing a mere three infantry
SW2: Bikes move up
S2: Gyros move out on the far right and kill a single Land Speeder
SW3: Land Speeders move on up on the left, but they are hit with overwatched Thuddguns and only two are left.
S3: Unable to see anything much the Land Train shoots off a few bikes
SW4: Thunderbolts swoop in, an with some nifty dice rolling, kill three of the rightmost Gyros. So much for keeping them alive.
S4: The Thunderfires kill another bike

SW5: The Reaver Titan strides forward into view, and unloads on the BTS Warriors, killing two Rhinos and two infantry. As I said, a Reaver's weapon load out isn't that nasty.

S5: I know that I was planning to ignore the Titan, but as Cal had expertly hidden most of his army behind cover, I took the bait and unloaded everything from the Overlords into it. Nice rolling saw it down a DC with no void shields. Didn't roll a '6' for the critical, sadly.

SW4: Thunderhawks come down into the middle of the field, disgorging all the Terminators into a massive combined assault with the Great Company and Speeders involved. As expected, the Thudd Guns and Mole Mortars are wiped out to a Dwarf.




End of turn one. I'm a little worried. The Space Wolves are already half way across the table and except for a few infantry/light vehicles I have barely scratched them.

Loosing the Thudds/Mortars early was fair enough as they were too far forward. At least I know where the Termiantors are now.

Cal has been very good at using the terrain so I hope that next turn I can take a few more off the table before they reach me.

Great report!
Got to ask - where's the Monorail from?

_________________

Monorail is from Dropzone commander.
While 10mm scale, fits perfectly for "heroic" 6mm epic.

It was one of the main things i wanted for my table, we use it as difficult terrain for war engines.