Counter Offensive 5

Counter Offensive 5.

One small weekend in August I returned to Dreamwizards in Rockville for our annual Meet & Beat called Counter Offensive V.

I was lucky enough to play 5 games; I will tell you, lucky reader, the stories.

Game One.

I played against Bryan Layton, “The Lawman” and his Chaos Space Marines.

He brought a Death Guard Army. I seem to recall 3 squads of plague marines, 2 defilers, a daemon prince, and some terminators. I brought my eldar.

The mission? Dawn of war annihilation.

Bryan Deployed first and went first.

Turn 1:

Bryan: Does nothing.

Me: De-guns a Rhino. (Take that!!)

Turn 2:

Bryan: Terminators come in with a heavy flamer and roast the rangers out of existence. (ballsy) 2 defilers also lumber on the board.

Mike: I get my fire dragons, both dire avenger squads, my autarch, and my farseer.

A shuriken Cannon pops one of the rhinos. No plague marine casualties. The fire dragons roll in and only manage to kill 4 terminators, 4 down 1 to go…

Turn 3:

Bryan: His other rhino does not arrive. He beings by immobilizing one of my wave serpents. Meltaguns kill my other wave serpent, 3 dire avengers die in the crash. The lone terminator walks over, heavy flamers 5 dragons to death, then assaults the remaining 5 AND an autarch. Despite going last, the terminator survived all of my attacks. On his swing, he beat down 2 Fire Dragons, I then proceeded to brick my morale test and ran like a little girl.

Mike: I began my turn watching my fire dragons and autarch run off of the board. My farseer “dooms” a big plague marine squad. My dire avenger squads combine fire and only manage to kill 3 plague marines. That’s right, 50 shots, re rolling to wound, 3 casualties.

Turn 4:

Bryan: His final rhino arrives. A wave serpent gets de-gunned. The winged daemon prince charges; I go first, but I fail to wound. The daemon prince kills 2 avengers, they pass their morale test.

Mike: I doom a squad of plague marines, my avenger squad bladestorms and kills Zero plague marines. In combat, the daemon prince kills 3, I kill zero, I break. At this point I think it prudent to concede a devastating loss.

Game 2:

My opponent is Jen Burdoo, she brings her Fighting Tigers of Veda.

The mission was another Dawn of war annihilation.

Jen sets up first, but being a crafty veteran, I steal the initiative.

Turn 1:

Mike: I open by killing 2 space marines. Lucky for me they fail their morale test.

Jen: Jens lascannon kills one chaos marine, her plasma cannon overheats.

Turn 2:

Me: 2 10-man chaos squads and nurgle terminators arrive.. My sorcerer lashes a 4-man squad, pinning them. They also lose two of their number to shooting.

Jen: A land speeder, a 9-man tac squad, and 2 6-man tac squads arrive. Jen runs the 2 6-man squads forward. The heavy bolter kills 0, and the twin-lascannon fails to wound.

Turn 3:

Me: My Slaanesh Terminators arrive and kill 2 from a 6-man squad. I stun and immobilize the land speeder.

Jen: Her assault squad, devastators, Scouts, and a Multi-melta speeder arrive.

Her army combines fire to kill 4 Noise Marines.

Turn 4:

Me: My last obliterator arrives. My sorcerer lashes a 6-man squad into range of the Doom Siren, killing all of them. The terminators kill a land speeder, an obliterator shakes a rhino.

Jen: Jirbu Gosh and her Vindicator arrive. Krak missiles kill 2 noise marines, the vindicator kills a terminator.

Turn 5:

Me: I valiantly destroy a rhino, and nothing else…

Jen: Jen wipes out the noise marine squad. The vindicator kills another slaanesh terminator. The terminators splatter Jirbu Gosh, the assault squad combat ends in a draw.

Turn 6:

Me: An obliterator lascannon stuns the vindicator. In close combat, the squads draw.

Jen: Close combat ends with me killing 3 and losing 1.

The game ends with me having 7 kill points to Jens 3.

Game 3:

Josh brings his Black Templars, I bring the Blood Angels.

The mission is the one with the 5 loot counters.

Josh gets first turn…

Turn 1:

Josh: Josh begins by moving all of his units forward. He kills 1 model with bikes.

Me: I manage to kill one bike, I also destroy both rhinos. My grey squad runs forward.

Turn 2:

Josh: Josh kills one of my attack bikes (Attack Bikes are awesome) He also uses bolt pistols to kill 3 marines. (WTF?)

Me: Combined fire manages to kill all of the command squad. I manage to immobilize and shake the predator. I shoot 5 assault marines to death. My Death Company charge and roll like champs killing all of the bikes except the attack bike. (Attack Bikes are awesome)

Turn 3:

Josh: The assault squad kills 1, one of his squads breaks off of the board. He kills 3 out of the HB devastator squad. The DC finally kill the attack bike.

Mike: I have some terrible shooting. The death company kill 1, lose 3 of their number and lose another on the subsequent combat resolution. The assault squad loses 1 and falls back.

Turn 4:

Josh: Boltguns kill both Heavy Bolters. The death company and the Templar squad draw with 2 kills each.

Me: Combined fire kills 8 templars. The death company kill 1, no other casualties.

Turn 5:

Josh: He kills a multi-melta and a boltgun guy. The DC kill 1 and get wiped out.

The emperors champion and 2 other guys kill 3, and lose 1 of their number. I pass my break test.

Me: I kill the lone guy, wipe a tactical squad. I take the autocannon off of the predator.

Turn 6:

Josh: The predator kills an Attack Bike. (I love Attack Bikes)

Me: I kill the emperors champion. I pile in a rhino and roll out to the objective. I also have the other one.

Me:2

Josh:0

Writers note: Black Templars re-rolling misses is re-god-damn-diculous. I got PUMMELED in close combat.

Game 4:

I play against long time friend and jungle creator, Kenton Kilgore. He brings the Fighting Tigers of Veda. (www.fightingtigersofveda.com) I bring the Eldar.

Again, I am stuck with Dawn of War annihilation. (Rolling too many sixes)

I roll for myself and Kenton, he gets first turn.

Turn 1:

Kenton: Kenton walks some kids forward.

Me: I don’t manage to do much of anything with my sniper rifles.

Turn 2:

Kenton: His whirlwind and vets arrive. The vets slide in from the side. He rocks some fire from a 6-an squad and kills a ranger.

Me: A falcon and some dire avengers (in a serpent)

The avengers bladestorm and kill all of the infiltrating veterans.

Turn 3:

Kenton: Kentons Attack Bikes arrive (Game Over) they turbo boost.

One unit of scouts outflanks and comes in behind the bikes. The dreadnought also arrives, fires and misses. Another unit of scouts outflanks to where the avengers are. The scouts shoot and kill 6 avengers (bolt pistols FTW). The avengers break like girls, get assaulted, rally, get beat up in combat and run off of the board.

Mike: My other Falcon and some fire dragons and Autarch in a serpent arrive.

The dragons torch the scouts with a heavy flamer and some meltaguns. A falcon kills a marine in the building. My other falcon fires at the attack bikes and whiffs.

Turn 4:

Kenton: Kentons attack bikes destroy my falcon, god they’re awesome.

The dreadnought fires and destroys an empty wave serpent.

The Whirlwind kills a pathfinder who passes his pinning test.

Mike: The fire dragons jump into their serpent, they ride towards the dreadnought.

Dire Avengers walk on from the board edge with the farseer.

The falcon kills a marine in the building with a plasma missile.

The avengers shoot and cause 9 wounds the bikes save 6 of them, they pass their Ld test.

Turn 5:

Kenton: The whirlwind fires and kills 6 dire avengers.

The scouts fire a missile killing zero, but a rogue boltgun kills the exarch.

The attack bikes destroy another falcon (that’s 2 falcons, throw your speeders away.)

Another squad fires at a wave serpent, but doesn’t penetrate it.

The dreadnought fires at the serpent carrying the fire dragons, I save it away.

Mike: I disembark the fire dragons near the dreadnought.

The farseer dooms the attack bikes, him and the avengers move and fleet towards them.

The fire dragons destroy the dreadnought. Their wave serpent fires at the wave serpent.

*writers note: my loyal scribe wrote on the report that I admit to being “possibly retarded”, no offense to anyone.

The other serpent kills 2 marines out of the building.

The avengers/farseer combo does a wound to the attack bikes, they pass their break test.

I roll the die of destiny, turn 6 arrives.

Turn 6:

Kenton: Kenton rolls a poor difficult terrain test, his marines in the building fail to get down. The whirlwind kills 5 fire dragons. The marine squad takes the shuriken cannon off of the serpent. The dragons pass their Ld test. The close combat between the attack bikes and the farseer/dire avenger combo ends with 0 wounds on each side.

Mike: The farseer dooms the attack bike squadron. The fire dragons move up and kill the marines in the ruins. Rangers kill a marine in the building, they pass their pinning test. The wave serpent rams the whirlwind they each lose a weapon. The farseer+friends and the attack BIKE cause no wounds to one another.

I roll the die of destiny again, turn 7 it is. I have to stop rolling sixes, its like an addiction.

Turn 7:

Kenton: The whirlwind rams the other wave serpent, it immobilizes itself. The command squad repels down the building and assaults the other wave serpent. The powerfist immobilizes and destroys the wave serpent. I close combat the avengers kill the attack bike.

Mike: The wave serpent tank shocks the command squad, they pass. The other serpent Rams and shakes the rhino. The rangers fire and kill one marine. The avengers fire and kill 5 scouts on the right side of the board.

At the end of a long and rough fight, I prevail 6 to 5.

I want to point out that a squad of 3 attack bikes accounted for 40% of Kentons kill points.

Game 5:

I face Beth, Daughter of Kenton. She brings sisters of battle. I bring my chaos.

The mission is the “capture the flag” mission, where we each have one objective in our deployment zone.

I win the roll-off and decide to go first.

Turn 1:

Mike: I deploy one of my units on my objective, in the hopes that they will never have to leave. The rest of my force moves forward, behind the terminators. I attempt to use Lash of Submission, the Sisters squad ignores it. (shield of faith) I also shake an Immolator.

Beth: Her exorcist kills two terminators.

Turn 2:

Mike: I move forward, my Nurgle terminators immobilize an immolator.

I use the Lash of Submission on a sisters squad moving them 8 inches towards me, they fail their pinning test. The terminators kill one sister.

Beth: Beth moves some units around, the exorcist kills an obliterator.

Turn 3:

Mike: The Noise Marines kill 2 sisters out of the dominion squad. The nurgle terminators kill 2 dominion sisters. The other terminators kill 2 sisters, the other chaos space marine squad kills 4 sisters. My lascannon bounces.

Beth: Beth moves up her 2 rhinos, the dominion squad kills one nurgle terminator.

Turn 4:

Mike: I try to use the Lash of Submission, but peril and lose a wound. My terminators kill one sister.

Beth: Rolls her 2 rhinos out and disembarks, through acts of faith the following die. 3 Noise marines, 3 of the terminators, and 2 undivided space marines. The exorcist kills the last terminator and the sorcerer.

Turn 5:

Mike: The noise marines roll forward and use the doom siren to kill 5 sisters. The noise marines assault and kill 2 sisters, they pass their leadership test. The undivided marines move into assault, killing all but one sister, she flees and is cut down.

Beth: Beth embarks a scoring unit into a rhino and parks it on her objective. She moves the seraphim up to assault. The canoness kills 2 noise marines, My marines kill 2 sisters. There is a drawn combat.

After measurement, it seems that my noise marines are not in range to contest the objective.

This game ends in a draw.

Game 6:

I play Bryan “Lawman” Layton again, this time he brings his orks, I bring the Blood Angels.

The game is seize ground with a pitched battle deployment. (d3+2 objectives)

Bryan wins the go first die roll.

Turn 1:

Bryan: moves his trucks and mobs forward. The lootas shoot and immobilize a razorback. Another wound is caused by big shootas, but my medic saves it away.

Mike: I multi-melta a truck but it makes it cover save. The trucks also save away a lascannon. I manage to immobilize one. I destroy another truck . I kill 2 lootas.

Turn 2:

Bryan: Bryan moves everything forward again. The battlewagon wounds an attack bike. The truck kills a multi-melta attack bike. A heavy bolter attack bike also dies. (whats with the hate on attack bikes)

Mike: Heavy bolters kill 3 lootas, they break and roll-out. I destroy another truck and immobilize the battle wagon. A frag missile kills 5 orks. The death company charge a truck squad and kill 7, lose 1 of their number, the orks break and are cut down.

Turn 3:

Bryan: Bryan again moves the majority of his army forward. The riggers fail to fix the immobilized truck. The boomgun kills a missile launcher marine. A shoota kills one marine from the blue squad. Rokkits kill a heavy bolter attack bike. Another truck mob charges the death company, each lose 2 models.

Mike: I kill 8 orks from one of the huge squads. 2 tactical squads and corbulo charge the truck mob and wipe it out.

Turn 4:

Bryan: The battlewagon kills a marine. A huge ork squad shoots and kills 3 from the blue squad, in combat, another marine dies. Warboss whiffs, powerfist kills the bigmek, nob kills 2 marines, huge combat turn.

Mike: Attack bike multi-meltas the battlewagon, bryan fails 10 out of 10 cover saves from shooting, after that, the orks no longer got cover saves. Fire brutalizes the other big ork mob, after break tests, bryan has no scoring units left.

Bryan concedes.

So, at CO5, I went 4-1-1. I traded victories with Brian, drew with Beth and defeated Kenton, Josh, and Jen…

Great times, but I declare that my eldar vehicles kind of suck.

-Mike