2008/02/24: PAGE Sunday Night Fights (40k)

My first couple real games of 40k beyond some demo action. 750 pts, Space Marines.

First round was a breakout scenario on a 4'x6' board against Lovell and his Necrons. My troops had to escort the woebegone Lt Varras from some sort of temple thing across an open plain and on to freedom. Of interest was the extreme paucity of terrain in play. Other than the mostly decorative temple, there was a small river with an opening that served as a bottleneck, and that's about it. Lots of shooting going on. Early on I took turns alternating movement between two tactical units, each firing its missile launcher when not moving, and the other taking Varras forward. This seemed to work reasonably well. In particular, Krak missiles took out a coupler larger Necron monstrosities pretty early on. The one critical mistake was Deep Striking two squads of Terminators too far to the rear. They were not able to close in & assault the Necrons so as to distract them from attacking Lt Varras. In the end the Necrons were nearly forced to Phase Out, but they held on just long enough to route the beleaguered Space Marines.

Second round was a City Fight on a 4'x4' board using a lot of Heroscape ruins and other bits against Akil and his Tau. We rolled to played a Firesweep (?) scenario, the goal being to control five areas by turn 6. My tactical units held a good battle repelling the enemy from our quadrant of the board. I slowly lost ground in the city however as Akil's much more mobile forces sweep through the ruins. Fortunately, the tide started to change when my two squads of Terminators finally rolled to Deep Strike. Having learned my lesson in the early game, this time they took a risk and dropped right on top of two of the control points in the ruins. After a quick fight w/ some Tau jumpers and slaughtering a herd of Kroot, those Terminators rightfully overturned two control points. Unfortunately, in the meantime a Tau Swordfish had finally managed to break through the Tactical units and claim the control point they were guarding. As the game wound to a close, that left both sides with two points and the city still hotly contested.

Playtime

Two games, setup, and a lot of BSing in about three and a half hours.

Results

One loss against the Necron menace is a pure shooting battle.

One draw against the Tau in yet another of interminably many ruins set among the stars.

Lessons

Missile launchers. They did a great job busting up some Tau vehicles and nailing the Necron at distance, but they highly constrict movement in use.

Terminators need to Deep Strike right down in the enemies' face and then get right down to an Assault as fast as possible.