Opponent: Mr Talbot
Mission: Pitched Battle
1st turn: Imperial Guard
Points: 1000
Chaos Space Marines - Iron Warriors
- Daemon Prince
- Predator Annihilator
- 8 Chaos Space Marines in Rhino
- 5 Chaos Space Marines with lascannon
- 3 Obliterators
- Basilisk
Terrain and deployment
I didn't get the full name of the guy I played in my third game so I only know him as Mr Talbot. After being outshot in my previous game I was looking forward to regaining that advantage only to find I was drawn against an Iron Warrior army!
It was a tough army too with a lot of hitting power in shooting and assault. I felt that played well it should own my Guard army. The one big weakness it had though was it's low model count - I counted a grand total of twenty models.
I deployed centrally around a small wood. Captain Kennell and the lascannon anti-tank squad hid inside with the Basilisk behind. The Infantry squads layered up in front with the conscripts on the outer edge.
This pushed the Iron Warriors back from the centre and they ended up deploying in each corner. Mr Talbot placed his Basilisk, lascannon marines, Daemon Prince and Obliterators towards my left flank and his predator and rhino on the right.The game
Thankfully I won first turn. I stunned the predator on my right flank and on the left I targeted the Chaos basilisk with my own but missed. The action was split neatly between my left and right flank from that point on.
On the left we traded basilisk shots for three more turns until I destroyed the vehicle. Mr Talbot advanced his Obliterators in the open and I killed one per turn. I dropped the first two with missile launcher shots, and the last fell to a lascannon shot.
The Chaos Space Marines on foot stayed put and pumped shots into my basilisk until they destroyed it in the fourth turn. I never got close enough to threaten them so the squad survived to the end of the game.
Surprisingly the Daemon Prince didn't die either. He advanced up behind a small wood and then just hid there for the rest of the battle. I think my opponent was too worried by my firepower to expose him. Funnily enough I didn't fancy sallying out and taking him on at close quarters!
As a result my army took extremely light casualties on this flank.
On the right Mr Talbot sat his Predator and Iron Warrior marines out in the open plinking away at my conscripts at long range. I'll never know why he didn't whiz the rhino forward and try to take me on in assault.
My lascannons took out the predator and rhino in quick succession and the rest of my infantry began to whittle down the Chaos marines. I dropped my Stormtroopers in nearby but they whiffed their shots and took six casualties in return. The two survivors failed their morale test and began to retreat. Maybe it was the same two stormtroopers that made it through my first game alive?
I won the uneven firefight and wiped the squad out to a man. They just couldn't stand up to the hail of lasgun shots along with the odd missile launcher, grenade launcher and plasma gun.
Result: Win - you massacred 'im (we didn't bother totting up the points as I was so far ahead)
Learning points
- Although my opponent had a hard army list his tactics were poor. He should never have split up his forces and he should have pressed the assault at every opportunity. It just goes to show that it's not all about the army list in 40k - I think player skill is a bigger factor in deciding the winner of a game. Of course the list matters when player skills are equal but good players can often bridge the gap between the lists.
- After this game I was pleased that I'd won two games out of three, which was an improvement over last year, but I was kicking myself that I'd lost that second game. If I had even pulled out a draw I might have been challenging for the top spot but I knew I would fall short.
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