Sunday, May 5, 2013

Batrep: Chaos Marine vs Space Marines & Imperial Guard

Once again, the Spikey Bikey Lord rode forth. This time the Black Legion faced the hated Imperium of Man! Right, to business...

My List:
Chaos Lord on bike, with Mark of Khorne, Sigil of Corruption, Axe of Blind Fury, Gift of Mutation (Nothing!)
10 Chaos Marines with 2 plasmaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
10 Chaos Marines with 2 meltaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
10 Chaos Marines with 2 meltaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
7 Bikers with Mark of Khorne, 2 meltaguns, Icon of Wrath and a lightning claw for the champion
Helldrake with Baleflamer
Forgefiend with 2 Hades Autocannons
5 Havocs with 4 Autocannons
Vindicator with Siege Shield

Warlord Trait: Hatred

Same list as before. Probably the most balanced list I've concocted of all my armies, with a nice, kickass Warlord on a bike. Who, I must add, still hasn't had a chance to turn into a daemon prince. Somehow, I doubt it'll ever happen...


Wong's Space Marine & Imperial Guard:
Vulcan Hestan
Master of the Forge
Company Command Squad with 3 meltaguns, plasma pistol and vox caster
Ironclad Dread with meltagun, heavy flamer and chainfist in a Drop pod
Ironclad Dread with meltagun, heavy flamer and chainfist in a Drop pod
5 Scouts with sniper rifles, a missile launcher and camo cloaks
5 Tactical marines with combimelta and meltabombs for the sergeant in a Drop Pod
Platoon Command Squad with 4 sniper rifles
Infantry Squad with meltagun, autocannon and vox caster
Infantry Squad with meltagun and autocannon
Vendetta with heavy bolter sponsons
Rifleman dreadnought
Rifleman dreadnought
Leman Russ Demolisher with hull-mounted heavy bolter

Warlord Trait: Counterattack while in deployment zone.

Drop pods full of nasty-ass Ironclads. And with Vulcan Hestan there, that massively increases their reliability in nuking vehicles in a static gunline. On top of that, 3 troops choices with 3 radically different approaches to taking objectives: Guardsmen to sit on an objective within one's deployment zone, Scouts to infiltrate onto one, and Tactical Marines in a Drop Pod to wrest it from the foe by force. Looks to me like this list would be murder on a gunline army. Against something like my Black Legion, designed to surge forward, disembark and overwhelm with a mass of fairly high-quality troops, I'm not so sure, but we'll see, yes?

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire, 3 objectives
Deployment: Vanguard strike. Wong won the roll off and forced me to go first. Night fighting was active on the first turn.


Knowing there's going to be Ironclads with twin-linked meltaguns dropping into my midst, I elected to leave my Vindicator and Forgefiend in reserve, which would at least guarantee they get one shot in. The strategy, then, was very simple.

I'll have the bikes, Rhinos and Havocs on the board. The bikes and Rhinos would move at full speed towards the enemy lines. Looking at the list, I could see there was really nothing in Wong's army which could withstand a solid charge from the bikers. The contents of each Rhino were pretty mean, too, so I was pretty confident in chucking them right in. If they get to enemy lines, they shoot stuff and beat it up in close combat. If their Rhinos blow up, they can either plod forwards, bolters blazing, or shuffle back to the objective in the middle.

The Havocs, meanwhile, would camp on their objective and shoot whatever comes into range. On top of that, being a heavy support choice sitting on an objective and only comprising 5 measly MEQ models, I knew the Havocs would prove an irresistible target which would command a lot of attention while the rest of my army went to work.

That was the plan. Here's how it worked...