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Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:49 am
Posts: 2830
Location: South East UK
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The Desert Ferrin got their second outing on Monday night - and this time things went a lot better!
I had no intention of playing this week, but because I'm lazy & the car hadnt been emptied since the previous monday, I happened to have the miniatures handy when I discovered last weeks intended opponent (who fell ill & missed last week) was there this week without a game - Bonus!
He didnt have his army with him, so we split the DF two ways for a quick game as we didnt have much time. It also meant that I got to learn a lot more about my chosen army since all the units on the board were from my force 
His army:
Leman Russ Company (commissar)
SHT company - 3 baneblades (commissar)
Mechanised company (commissar) & support fire squad in chimeras
Sentinel Squadron
My Army:
Artillery company (9 Manticore) (commissar)
Mechanised Company (commissar) & support fire squad in chimeras
Sentinel Squadron
Bombard Battery
Basilisk Battery (commissar)
We decided that we'd do one definite defending force, whilst the other was more of a Fast (for IG) mecahnised assault force trying to overrun the still-loyal defences.
Setup
Noe: all "left/right" comments are from my perspective of the game.
Table was 4x4 - could have gone bigger, but we were after a quick game and smaller tables produce just that!
Scenics were placed in a mutually agreeable manner. I had two small hills withing 30cm of my table edge, on on the far right & one left of center. The middle of the board was pretty much open. On both sides about halfway down the board were small clumps of SMI & II era buildings. Finally, a large L shaped hill stood just off from his table edge in a center Right position, with just enough space behind it for him to hide 10 leman russ & three SHTs in turn 1.
I set up with the Mechanised company in my center, ready to react anywhere across the board. Beside them was the Basilisks, placed to act in a direct fire AT role from the center, with a good arc of fire to harass the Russ' and Baneblades.
My Sentinel squadron were acting as a garrisson for an objective on my righ flank, hiding behind the hill on which the objective stood. Behind them were the bombards.
On the left, the Manticore company sat behind a small hill ready to rain death.
His forces were set up with the Leman Russ & SHT companies to the center. The Mechanised company and Sentinels deployed to the left (from my view), with the sentinels acting to garrison the objective inthe buildings on the left.
the game
I won the first initiative role and decided to take full advantage of the latest setup rules (ie units setup on board &dont have to start with a move) to try and give the Leman Russ an early pounding. 6 Manticore fired in barrage, but only took out 1 tank. However, it did inflict enough barrage points to keep me happy. In hindsight I should have shot at the Mech company to take out the inf still in their vehicles, but the early chance to have a go at the scary tank company got the better of me.
His mechanised company rushed forwards along with the sentinels & ended up staring down the racks of the manticores in just one movement! - whose idea was it to use a small table again? 
In response, I risked my flank to wheel my mechanised company to face the oncoming foe & defend the manticores. A double move & shoot a good portion of the units into range & LoS. It was risky as it opened their flank to the enemy, with the armour heading down the center towards them, but he would certainly have despatched of my arty in quick order in turn 2 without a bold move. Even with the minus 1 to hit I managed to inflict a decent number of casualties & the reultant blast markers would make it difficult for him to be effective in an assault.
His entire army rolled forward at scary pace, fulfilling their designation as the fast moving mechanised attackers. Even the baneblades tripple moved as I took in effective pot shots from across the board. My sentinels failed to activate & had to make do with a slow advance up the unprotected right table edge.
Turn 2 & i managed to win the initiative again. Didnt take much to decide on the action - my mechanised infantry company moved forwards to get all guns into Los & they opened up on their opposing number, convincingly breaking them & saving the manticores! Yay!
Then the enemy armour started to extract some revenge as it advanced down the center towards the hill my dear infantry had just defended so gallantly. Suprisingly few casualties were actually taken, and in return I did manage to take out a couple of LRs with my basilisks & remaining 3 Manticores which hadnt fired last turn.
Turn three saw the Mechanised company regret their bravado & being broken by a hail of fire from the SHTs, Leman russ (on Marshall to loose some BMs)and some scary flashlites being shone in their general direction by the enemy sentinels. My army generally "redecorated their trousers" as the mass of armour beared down on them, with shooting being wholely ineffective - that re-roll for reinforced armour makes a hell of a big difference! I think I took down one more Leman Russ & 2 Damage points off a Baneblade in total that turn. The last move of the turn saw my sentinels bravely run up onto the hill near the enemy table edge to grab the objective there & generally shout "we're over here, look at us" in a hope of taking enemy eyes off of my main line for a moment.
Just to rub salt in the wounds, the enemy mechanised company rallied in the end phase whilst mine kept on running.
Turn four saw the effect of a full on armoured attack against unprotected artillery. He won the initiative and opened with a truly brilliant show of dice rolling as the remnants of his mechanised company managed to wipe out my Manticores in a single round of ranged shooting.
He retained the initiative & opened with his baneblades to great effect on my helpless Basilisks wiping them out with many a shot to spare.
All I could do in response was add a blast marker or two to the Tank company with my Bombards.
Embarassingly, hi sentinels saw off the shattered remains of my Mech. co. leaving half a dozen leman russ to turn around and take potshots at the Sentinels behind them.
Prior to that turn, only my Mechanised company had taken fire. By the end of that turn, all I had left on the board was 3 Bombards. Ouch......
It started well for me but ended in disaster, loosing 4-0 on the Victory conditions.
At the end of the day, it was a good fun, very fast, game that still managed toteach me a lot, both bout the game as a wholeand agood deal about the strengths and weaknesses of my varied units & how (not) to use them.
_________________ Cheers, Paul "TuffSkull" T. http://hobbybrush.com - My New Website, with thousands of painted Mini Pics :) http://hobbybrush.blogspot.com - My Hobby Blog TuffSkull's notepad- My Old Blog on Wargames Wiki.
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