Army Throwdown - Heavy Support

The Whirlwind were finished just in time to win me the Third Throwdown - Heavy Support. Thanks to all the voters :-) 

Here are some pictures of the Whirlwind.

This also means that I completed my third vow for the E Tenebrae Lux III run by the Bolter and Chainsword.

That's all for today. Have a fun gaming guys.

2nd Throwdown: Troops

The 2nd Throwdown happened yesterday. I threw in a bunch of Raven Guard Scouts and came out the winner! Hurrah!

With this, I also completed my 2nd vow for the E Tenebrae Lux III.

The next Throwdown will be for Heavy Support and I'll be doing a Whirlwind.

Alright, that's all for now. Have a nice weekend :-)

Edited: add a picture of the Whirlwind 

Army Throwdown : Shadow Captain Shrike

The Dire Avengers won me the 1st Throwdown on May 31st. My morale was high, and I proceed to the next model --> Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike of the 3rd Company Raven Guard. 

The 2nd Throwdown on June 13th is going to be for Troops, so some might ask why paint Shrike? Well... I've made a pledge to paint the Shadow Captain for the E Tenebrae Lux III, and so I want to finish him before I go to the next unit --> Raven Guard Sniper Team.

So here he is. The Shadow Captain. 

As Raven Guard is my favourite army at the moment, expect see him on the table soon :-).

That's all for today. Have a nice day.

Army Throwdown Week 2

Warhammer Fantasy Battles

The 7th Edition of Warhammer 40k is coming. I hope they do it right this time as I find that the 6th is really killing all the fun out of 40k and I find myself looking for more and more games of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. 

Sadly, even with the increase of new fantasy players, I still find difficulty getting casual friendly games at Hobby Forge. Many times did I went there for fantasy games, but couldn't find any opponent and were forced to play 40k instead. I now have allocation to start a new fantasy army (Tomb Kings!), but the fact that I may not find any opponent to play with put that idea on hold. 

Lucky my elder brother suddenly had the urged to make a comeback into the game with his Beastmen army. We had 3 games so far and the latest game was had on Friday, Mei 16th. After two games of which we both had a fair share of win, Din wanted to see how his Beastmen would fare against my tournament list. So I gladly brought out Hellebrone to lead my DE and teach the Beastmen some lesson.

The Beastmen ventured too far into the land of chill,
and so Hellebrone was sent to teach them a lesson

Din brought along a new unit, a flying Jabberslythe. It has a passive ability to cause wound with it's mere presence within 12 of enemy units. With that ability it killed one of my War Hydra, and caused several wounds to my chaff units. Such a pesky unit shouldn't be left alone so I sent my Dark Riders to hunt it down. With strength 3 crossbows, there's nothing much they could do to stop the monster. But still they managed to slowly took it down to the last wound.

Unlike all my opponent in the tournament which chose to face my large blocks directly, Din avoided Hellbrone and the Black Guards to go after my weaker troops. A duo consist of a Beastlord and a Doombull destroyed my Corsair Blocks. Nearby a pair of Chariots slammed into my DE Warriors, killing many with Impact Hits. The Warriors fled from combat and were destroyed by sweeping advance. In their pursuit, the Chariot came into contact with a Dark Rider unit that stay 12 inches behind the Warriors and destroyed them with Impact Hits. It was a massacre and the Beastmen were leading by about 700 points.

But the Seasoned Beastlord made a huge mistake on that last turn, charging a Doombull and the Jabberslythe (with 1 wound left) into my Cold One Knights which was pursuing his block of Minotaurs. The Doombull single handedly destroyed the Knights, but not before The Knights slayed the 275 points Jabberslythe (Yeay!). With the Cold One Knights destroyed, the Doombull (costed 400+ points) was now within the charging arc of Hellebrone and her Black Guards.

In my last gamble to go for a win, I sent my Battle Standard Bearer (BSB) to charge into a rallying block of 4 Minotaur (worth 300+ points), ALONE. My Sorceress then casted the greater version of Word of Pain on the Minotaurs, reducing their WS, BS, S and I by 2 points. With strength of 2, the Minotaurs couldn't harm my BSB who were clad in a 1+ armour and so the BSB managed to win combat by 3 points. The Minotaurs failed their break test and were cut down by sweeping advance.

At the same time, Hellebrone and the Black Guards charged the Doombull. In an act of defiance the Doombull issued a challenge which was gladly accepted by the Hag Queen. 8 swordstrokes later, the Doombull was slain and ready for Pasar Malam. With that final push, I was able to pull some 900 points to put me at the front by 205 points.

It was a tough and a fun game indeed. Din brought 3 Bray Shamans with Shadow Magic. They were there to stop me with the 48 inch hex Signature Spell that reduces my M, WS, BS, and I by D3. Such a simple spell with power level 14 but really works to help his Beastmen against my Dark Elves. Here is the funny part, 2 Shaman were killed by Irresistable Force (IF) and the last one standing lost all of it's magic level, also from IF :lol:. But thanks to all that IF, his Beastmen were able to lead the game all the way into Turn 6.

With the Beastmen threat pushed back into the woods, my DE went back into their casing to mend their wounds. Will they be able to find other worthy opponent soon? I surely hope so. I'll bring them to HF again this week and find out.

The 40k Army Throwdown Challenge

Two weeks into the Army Throwdown, I have gotten more work into my Eldar-Raven Guard Alliance. I finished painting a unit of Dire Avengers, but had no idea what to paint on the Exarch Banner other than the Biel-Tan and Dire Avengers Temple sigil on one side. Then I watch the movie 47 Ronin and something came to me. I'm going to do a Japanese art.

5 minutes browsing the internet, I found what I want. A set of 5 paintings, on geisha. I choose the easiest one for trial, spent the Sunday morning on it and it's done. Not bad for the first try I think :-)

These Avengers fight for love and peace.. and the elven ladies

With one unit done, I moved into Karandras. I had fun painting this lobsterhead. I love painting gems and this one had many large ones. I think I spent about 5  hours on  this guy and now he is done and ready for battle. 

Karandras, The Shadow Hunter

Damn huge lobster, I wonder how he able to hide/infiltrate with that thing on his head. I guess that alone is prove enough that he really deserves to be a Phoenix Lord.

Next will be some Raven Guard loving. But who to begin with? Shrike perhaps.

That's all for today. Thanks again for visiting. Have a nice day.

Legio Malaysia 40k Army Throwdown

Legio Army Throwdown began last Saturday, Mei 3rd. This is the first time I join the throwdown and I've been looking forward to it. Expecting this would take place, I've been saving up some Raven Guard models from last year. Then my elder brother, Din's sudden retirement of 40k (TBH, with all the madness of 6th, I too feels like retiring from 40k sometimes) left me in possession over some of his Eldar stuffs. My Shadow Captain Shrike arrived at Hobby Forge several weeks back, and now I have an army ready for the throwdown.

This is my list for the Throwdown:

Primary: Eldar
Phoenix Lord Karandras The Shadow Hunter (230)
5 Avengers - Exarch with Power Weapon and Shimmershield (95)
5 Avengers - Exarch with Power Weapon and Shimmershield (95)
Crimson Hunter Exarch (180)
Crimson Hunter (160)
Crimson Hunter (160)

Ally: Raven Guard

Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike (185)

5 Vanguard Veterans (250)
5 Snipers with Heavy Bolter (76)
Whirlwind (65)

Total : 1496

Dont think the list would do any good on table. But it got units for all catagories of throwdown. So okay lah kot. Some progress pics since Saturday.

Karandras, The Shadow Hunter

Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike

Raven Guard Scouts: Sargent with Bolter, 3 Snipers, 1 Heavy Bolter 

My first attempt at the Dire Avengers. Until now, have finished painting 2 of them.

Let us see if I can finish all this in time :-)

Have a nice day bros!

Trying out the Mayhem Pack : World Eaters VS Blood Raven 1850 points.

I've painted the Helbrutes Mayhem Pack. It's time to see how they perform on table. So last Friday, I went to the hobby night and had a game with them alongside the World Eaters.

THE WORLD EATERS

Kharn The Betrayer (Warlord)

Khorne Prince - Black Mace, Wings, Armour, Gift (Rolled 41 - Spelleater or something)

8 Berserkers - PFist, Icon of Wrath 

8 Berserkers - PFist (in Rhino with Dozer Blade)

8 Berserkers - PFist (in Rhino with Dozer Blade)

Hadesdrake

Land Raider - Dozer Blade, Dirge Caster

Mayhem Pack - 3 Helbrutes with MMelta and HFlamers

My opponent was the Blood Ravens with Imperial Fist Chapter Tactics. It was quite a scary list, but with low count of scoring unit.

BLOOD RAVENS

Librarian in Terminator Armour - Level 2, Power Axe, Storm Shield (Iron Arm & .....)

10 Tacticals - Meltagun, CombiMeltagun, Missile Launcher 

Dedicated Razorback with Heavy Bolter

5 Scouts - 4 Snipers, 1 Missile Launcher

Storm Talon - Skyhammer

6 Centurions - TL-Lascannon, Missile Launcher

6 Centurions - TL-Heavy Bolter, Missile Launcher

Fire Raptor 

His army was scary, I don't know if my Land Raider would be able to survive against all that Tank Hunter shots. But lucky the table we play was City Fight, so at least I can try my luck on the cover saves. 

GAME : RELIC, NIGHT FIGHTING

DEPLOYMENT : DAWN OF WAR, WORLD EATERS DEPLOYED FIRST

I won the roll for deployment and chose the side where I can gain the most cover from Turn 1. The idea was to grab The Relic early and hide behind the wall of the large ruin in the centre. That way, the enemy will be forced to leave the safety of their deployment zone to reclaim the Relic. We will be waiting with our axes ready :-)

Deployment was as in the first picture.

TURN 1

The Blood Ravens seized the initiative and unleashed hell!
Damocles Rhino called a Orbital Bombardment onto the Rhino and Land Raider, but it scattered 11 inches towards the enemy (phew!)
The Centurion Sargent from the TwinLascannon team splitfire at the front most Rhino. The shot passed through the 4+ cover to instantly destroyed the transport. 8 Berserkers survived the explosion unharmed.
The rest of the army shoot at the Land Raider, causing 4 glance and 1 Penetration but it was saved by the wall.

In my turn, Berserkers 2 run 11 inches forward, followed by the Land Raider and the 2nd Rhino.
The Land Raider flat out forward into the ruin to block all LOS from the left flank. My Troops are almost secured in the middle.
Prince flew forward, joining the rest of the World Eaters behind the ruin.

TURN 2

Fire Raptors came in and shot the Khorne Prince with 7 S6 AP3 and 2 S8 AP2 shots. The Prince had no chance at all.
The TwinLas Centurions shot the Land Raider, aiming to destroy it and clear the LOS to the RELIC. But they failed, the Land Raider was wrecked but will stay there till the end. From the wreck came Kharn and his Berserker retinues.
Storm Talon escorted the Fire Raptor from the table edge and shot Berserker unit 2, killing 2 men.

Came my turn, all my reserves arrived. The Hadesdrake came in to the centre and destroyed the Strom Talon.
The Mayhem pack deepstriked on the right flank, close to enemy table edge. They suffered Fire Frenzy this turn. 4 Multimelta shots destroyed the Damocles Rhino, and the last Helbrute incinerated 3 Snipers on the 1st floor of a nearby ruin .
Kharn led the Berserkers to assaulted the Librarian and BolterCenturions. Kharn killed 3 Centurions and one of his men. My Skull Champion issued a challenge and was accepted by the Librarian. They caused one wound to each other but with Iron Arm in effect, the Librarian came out the winner of that duel.

TURN 3

From the Razorback came 5 man Tactical Squad and they destroyed the closest Helbrute with 2 Melta shots.
Fire Raptors flew towards my deployment zone and shot the last Rhino with Autocannon Battery. The Rhino exploded, killing 4 passengers.
TwinLas Centurions shot down the Hadesdrake.
Kharn slayed the Librarian in a duel (but I just remembered that I didn't roll on the Boon Table). He also killed one Berserker that got in  the way of his swings.

In my turn, Berserkers 2 claimed the objective. Berserkers 3 stand around them to provide 5+ cover if the Fire Raptor came from behind.
The Mayhem Pack gained Blood Rage. One Helbrute moved into the ruins and destroyed the Razorback, the other one assaulted the Tacticals, suffered 1 glance from Overwatch, killed 2 Tacticals and sent the rest fleeing of table.
Kharn killed the Centurion Champion and I gladly rolled for the Chaos Reward. But it came out 21!! - SPAWNHOOD!! :lol:

TURN 4

Fire Raptor crossed to the right and shot Autocannon Battery on one of the Helbrutes, but couldn't get through the side armour of 12.

The Centurions destroyed one of the Helbrutes.
The fight at the centre continued.

In my turn, the last Helbrute entered Fire Frenzy again and killed the last two Scouts atop the 2nd floor of the ruin.
Berserkers 2 and 3 make a run deeper into the ruin. Securing the Relic.
The fight at the centre saw one Centurion and 1 Berserkers dead. One more Centurions to go. This one with a single wound left.

TURN 5

Fire Raptor flew towards their own table edge and destroyed the last Helbrute with 4 S7 shots to the rear.
Berserkers and Spawn killed the last Centurions and consolidated towards the Tacticals nearby.

Spawnlord assaulted the Centurions to deny them from shooting in the next turn. It caused 1 wound to the Centurions and suffered 1 wound. The Berserkers moved towards the Tacticals and successfully reached them with the help of the Icon of Wrath. They killed 3 men, but managed to stop the Tacticals from running.

TURN 6

Fire Raptors hovered 12 inches towards the centre and killed 3 guys from Berserkers 3 (It has no LOS to the Berserkers 2).
Centurions killed my Spawnlord.
My Berserkers wiped out the Tacticals and consolidated towards the Centurions.

Berserkers Assaulted the Centurions and killed one guy. The Centurions pulled a draw by killing one Berserker.

The game ENDED.

RESULT :
World Eaters 5 VPs from Relic, Slay The Warlord and Linebreaker against Blood Ravens 2 VPs from First Blood and Slay The Warlord. World Eaters WON!

This game was for me to try out the Helbrute. I must say they are fun to play with. My Helbrutes were blessed with 3 crazed results that fit perfectly with the situation they're in. Fire Frenzy upon deepstriking is a Godsend. Then Blood Rage (Rage and Fleet) when I want them to assault. And finally Fire Frenzy again to take out the last two Scouts :lol:

My opponent's list was scary. If we were to play on Barren Wasteland for example, he would have defeated me without much difficulty. Imperial Fist Centurions are devastating with Tank Hunters. But the list lacks body to make a push forward in this type of game.

Kharn turned into spawn. Again!! This is the 2nd time and it happened back to back since the last time I field him early last year against the Longinus Initiative (BA Sanguinary Guards army).

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading my batrep.
Have a nice day :-)

Shadows Over Nuln : Warhammer Fantasy Battles Tournament (2500 Points)

Last Saturday, we finally had our very first tournament of the 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WFB). I can't remember well the last time we had a WFB tournament, but it was somewhere in 2009 I think.

I entered this tournament with my army of Naggaroth, the wicked Dark Elves (DE). I only had 3 games of WFB since the new DE army book came out, so my gaming experience was sorely lacking. It took me quite a while to come up with a list that I felt confident to go with. Should I bring my favorite, the Shades OR the mounted armies of Cold Ones Knights OR the 40 Darkshards? Who should lead my army? So many interesting option in the new DE army book.

In the end, I decided to go with the list that had the least number of unpainted models. With only 4 days left until the tournament, I think that was the wisest decision. When I submitted the list below, I had only 17 models to paint (Hellebrone, 1 Battle Standard Bearer, 2 Black Guards, 2 Cauldron Crews, 1 Corsairs, 10 Dark Riders) compared to any other list with 20++ models unpainted.

THE LIST

Crone Hellebrone on Cauldron of Blood
Level 2 Sorceress - Dispell Scroll
Battle Standard Bearer - Full Body Armour + Cloak + Ring of Hotek
25 man Black Ark Corsairs - Full Command
25 man Darkspear Regiement - Full Command
5 man Dark Riders - Reaper Crossbow, Musician
5 man Dark Riders - Reaper Crossbow, Musician
5 man Cold One Knights - Full Command
20 man Black Guards - Full Command, Razor Standard
War Hydra - Flame Breath
War Hydra - Flame Breath

The list was very straight forward. Hellebrone, Battle Standard Bearer, Sorceress and the Black Guards formed a Deathstar. Everything else would support it with screening, harassing, redirecting, march blocking and whatever role I find needed during the game.

SHADOWS OVER NULN

1ST GAME : DARK ELVES VS WARRIORS OF TZEENTCH
SCENARIO : BATTLE LINE

My first opponent had strong control of magic with a Level 4 Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch and a Level 2 Sorcerer with Lore of Shadows. He also had 2 solid blocks of warriors, a full 10 man Chaos Knights and a Mutalith Vortex Beast (Toughness test!) to break my army with.

Warriors of Tzeentch making their first move

To fight this army, I needed to watch out for his large blocks and the Vortex Beast. I made use of the Tower and the large rock, marching my Black Guards between the two structures to deny enemy units any chance for a flank charge. This held back my opponent from sending his Knights charging in the second turn. He wanted to fight me in the open, where he would be able do counter my unit with simultaneous flank-charge using the Knights and 2nd Warrior block. Against such a high level magic user, I wouldn't want to prolong the time my Black Guards stay in the open, so I sent them to charge  the center block of Warriors. To our surprise, my Black Guards were just too strong they actually wiped out the whole block in a single charge.

The Dark Elves flankers getting closer

With the Black Guard's flank exposed, the Chaos Knights charged them to the flank. The Black Guards make way for Hellebrone and she killed 7 of the Knights before they can strike any blow. The remaining 3 Knights were brought down by the 3 Black Guards on the flank.

On the center, my Hydra and Darkspear destroyed the other Chaos Warrior blocks with a successful flank-charge. The Cold Ones Knights slain the Vortex beast, overran into the Level 2 Sorcerer and killed him.

With only one guy left on the table (the Lord), my opponent conceded. None of my units were pushed to below half strength. It was a pure massacre.

**********

2ND GAME : DARK ELVES VS TROLLS OF CHAOS
SCENARIO : MEETING ENGAGEMENT

Monsters of Chaos

This army was said to be one of the strongest in the tournament. It had a scary block of Trolls with 54 wounds, 3 more blocks of Trolls with 21 wounds each, a Giant, a Hellcannon and 3 Special Characters to lead the army.

We were to fight on the same table I fought in the 1st game. This allowed me to use the flank denial strategy and deal with the Troll deathstar while his army had to take time circling the Tower. To achieve best result, I deployed my Black Guards 12 men wide to match the width of the Troll Deathstar. As expected, the opponent deployed his Troll deathstar right in front of my Black Guards. Such confident.

The first turn was mine, and I wasted no time charging my Black Guards towards the Troll deathstar. However the charge failed by one inch. So I sent both of my War Hydras and a unit of Dark Riders to screen my Black Guards from the enemy. Having no choice, the enemy sent Scylla Affingrym to charge my War Hydra. That was a bad mistake because now his Troll wouldnt be able to charge my Black Guards and he was forced to move his Troll 3 inches sideway to clear the route. He then sent his Giant charging my Dark Riders (Reaction : Flee) before redirecting towards the Black Guards. Crone Hellebrone slain the Giant in a heartbeat.

Let the carnage begin!

Came my 2nd Turn, Black Guards charged the Troll deathstars, causing 24 unsaved wounds (8 kills) after the 4+ regeneration save. Even after that many kills, the Trolls still have 30 attacks hitting back on my Black Guards. Only 1/3rd of that was a hit and I lost only 4 models after saving throws. With that, my Black Guards defeated the Trolls and they ran off table. My Black Guards overran into Valkia The Bloody who happened to be standing right behind the Trolls. She didn't stand any chance fighting against Crone Hellebrone.

From there, my Black Guards swept to the left and destroyed the Hellcannon. They then circled around tower and destroyed the Troll King and his retinues before going in to destroy the remaining 2 Troll units.

The Trolls faced defeat for the first time

My Dark Elves won the game. Only one unit (a War Hydra) were lost to the enemy. Another massacre win.

**********

3RD GAME : DARK ELVES VS THE LIZARDMEN OF LUSTRIA
SCENARIO : BATTLE FOR THE PASS

The 3rd game was against a beautiful Lizardmen army of Lustria, led by a Slaan Mage Priest. This army also had a Skink Priest with Lore of Beast and a Stegadon. They would easily have control over the Magic Phase. Not only that, the amount of body they had are more than enough to back the spellcasters against any melee unit coming at them.

A very nice looking army

The table we fought were evenly divided by a river, something that would endanger my large blocks if they attempted to move through it. So I deployed everything on one side of the table, as close as possible to the enemy. My opponent (to my delight) reacted by deploying his army right across mine.

I didn't expect my shooting nor magic would do his army any harm. So for this game, the strategy was to charge straight ahead into the enemy whith all I had while the Cold One Knights closed in from the flank. And so it happened that all my front units successfully reached the Lizardmen battle line in the 2nd Turn.

The 2 Hydras charged the 15 man Saurus Warriors and destroyed the unit in 3 rounds of combat. The Black Ark Corsairs destroyed the Skinks in front of them. The Black Guards destroyed the whole block of 24 Saurus Warriors on the charge and left the Saurus Hero with only one wound. The combat were later joined by the Stegadon but Hellebrone simply killed it and the Saurus Hero in the 2 ensuing close combat round. The Black Guards then reformed to face the Temple Guards. On the left flank, the Cold One Knights destroyed both Salamander units and make a run towards the Temple Guards.

Saurus Cavalry charged my Corsairs in the 2nd turn, the combat lasted for 3 rounds when the Corsairs finally broken from combat and killed by the pursuing predators. Temple Guards attempted to charge the War Hydra, the first one succesfully fled away but the other one were captured and destroyed. But it was all part of the plan to bring them right in front of the Black Guards with their right flank exposed.

With a charge to the flank, my Black Guards destroyed the whole Temple Guards. Crone Hellebrone herself slain the Slaan Magepriest and with that, my opponent conceded the game.

In this game, I lost the Cold One Knights, a unit of Dark Riders, both War Hydras, and the Black Ark Corsairs. But it was still quite a huge win for my Dark Elves.

TOURNAMENT RESULT : 3 WINS

With 3 wins, my Dark Elves were at the top of the chart. They conquered Nuln and I was crowned The Best General of the tournament :-)

Seriously, I was surprised by the performance of the Hellebrone, Cauldron of Blood and the Black Guards. In the first game, I didn't realize that the Cauldron allow re-rolls on any failed rolls To Wound. So I only did re-rolls for failed To Wound rolls of 1 due to Murderous Prowess special rules. But still, they able to wipe out all enemy coming at them.

Hellebrone is a real monster with 8-10 Strength 10 Attacks at Initiative 9 and Always Strike First, giving her rerolls To Hit against almost all enemy and rerolls To Wound thanks to the Murderous Prowess and Cauldron of Blood. Throughout the Tournament, she killed 7 Chaos Knights, a Giant, a Stegadon, a Troll King, Valkia The Bloody, Slaan Magepriest, Saurus Hero and countless infantries be it human or trolls. Damn brutal lar this old hag.

Some people asked me how to defeat this army. The easiest way is using the War Machines, cannons of all kind, Stone Throwers or Bolt Throwers would easily be able to take out the Cauldron of Blood and Hellebrone. There was a Dwarf army in the tournament with 2 Volleyguns, 2 Cannons, and about 40 handgunners or something. I would definitely had difficulty fighting him. Thankfully, the Lizardmen defeated them in the 2nd Round and saved my DE from the trouble :-). Hellebrone could also be brought down easily in combat if you know how, but they have to find out how by themselves lah.

Okay.. That's all my report for the day. Thanks for reading through this till the end.
I wish you all happy gaming and have a nice day.

Triple Deathmatch : Raven Guard VS The Coven, The Knights and ... Err.. The Much Bigger Knights

I had three games last weekend. All with my Raven Guard. I don’t have much time to cover all games in detail, so this time I will try to summarise as best as possible for each game.

The first game happened on Friday, against my good friend Danntoh and his Silent Scorn Coven. This was the 2^nd time we fought each other. I won the first encounter, so this time he came back stronger with a Farseer ally to guide his shots.

GAME : EMPEROR’S WILL, NO NIGHT FIGHT

DEPLOYMENT : VANGUARD STRIKE, DARK ELDAR DEPLOYED FIRST.

Earlier that day, I wanted to try a HQ heavy approach. So I came up with a list with a Chapter Master, Shrike, Cypher and a Command Squad to fill the HQ section. Therefore, it had a lot smaller head count compared to the usual setup I used to play with. It was only during deployment that I felt very much lacking, and regretted the decision to use this list.

The Deployment. I felt so outnumbered.

The game began quite balanced with us both having quite a good rolls. His 1st Turn shooting were superb, and so was my saving throws. But came my first turn, everything went very wrong for my Raven Guard. The Chapter Master and the Command Squad scattered of table and were delayed. Shrike and his Assault Squad attempted to assault the large Grotesque unit, but failed to close the 5-6 inches gap between them and their target. Stranded on clear ground, they were easy target practice for the enemy. They survived the shooting phase quite well, only to be assaulted by the Grotesques. Shrike killed the Haemonculus, and would have killed the Grotesque champion if not because of one successful Feel No Pain. The brute champion fought back and instakilled Shrike with Flesh Gauntlet. My Marines fought the grotesques for two turns before they were wiped out entirely by the end of my 2nd Turn.

The Hero has landed. Would he able to bring change?

In the 2^nd Turn, my Chapter Master and Command Squad landed near the enemy objective. I thought they would be able to tip the balance towards my favor by contesting the objective. But the shooting phase in the 3rd Turn was truly devastating. The Command Squad were destroyed by 2 Liquifier Guns, while The Chapter Master failed Toughness Test against the Shattershard and were removed from the game with no saves of any kind. Tough luck.

Cypher and the Centurions was the only unit that performed well in the game, but even they couldn’t stand against so many Guided / Prescienced poisoned shots coming at them. After taking out 3 vehicles, the Centurions were destroyed somewhere in the 4th Turn. From that point, Cypher fought alone in the middle of the table. In an act that befit a mystical figure like him, survived all the shots coming at him, then made a move towards a 10 man DE Warrior unit nearby. 

With all my forward element gone, Cypher alone had any chance to make a run towards the enemy objective.

In the 5th Turn, He killed 4 with his blazing pistols and would have finished them with an assault. But the DE Warriors failed their morale check and fled 9 inches away, leaving him standing right in the middle of the table. He later got charged by the Grotesques and died in combat.

My Storm Raven came late on Turn 4, It failed to destroy anything and went into ongoing reserves in the 5th Turn. It came back in the 6th Turn to destroyed a Venom. But by then, it was too late already. 

The Silent Scorn Coven spectacularly WON this grudge match.

***************************

The Second game happened on Saturday. My opponent was a super elite GK army with only 14 models. It had Draigo and a squad of Paladins in Land Raider Redeemer, a squad of GK Terminators, and 2 Dreadknights. This time, I used the same list as last week. It felt so much better this way.

GAME : EMPEROR’S WILL, NO NIGHT FIGHT

DEPLOYMENT : HAMMER AND ANVIL, GREY KNIGHTS DEPLOYED FIRST.

Deployment was as follows. I decided not to Sieze the Initiative.

The Raven Guard prepared to fight against the so called best of of the best

1st Turn. My opponent went first but achieved nothing much except killing 2 Marines from the Chapter Master's unit. My Dreadnought landed in front of the Land Raider Redeemer and destroyed it with MultiMelta. The explosion caused 2 wounds to Draigo. A Tactical Squad disembarked and killed one Paladin with Meltagun. Chapter Master stay in place to call Orbital Bombardment on the GK Terminators, but it scattered onto the Drop Pod, causing one hull down.

Here comes the pain! 

On the 2^nd Turn, both Dreadknights shunted forward. One unit targeted Shrike and the 1st Assault Squad, caused 16 wounds to the unit, but only 3 dead after saving throws. The other Dreadknight targeted the Centurions but failed to cause any wound. Paladins destroyed my Dreadnought with Psycannons and the GK Terminators killed Tactical Squad 1(a) in combat.

My favourite part of the game.. Close combat!

In my turn, I sent both Assault Squad to fight the GK Terminators. They killed 3 Terminators, but the Terminators stayed in combat. My Champion fought his GK Champion to a standstill. GravCenturions killed the nearest Dreadknight while the Chapter Master entertained the other one in a close fight. Tactical 2(a) disembarked and shot the Paladin, but the only one that mattered (Meltagun) failed to hit.

In the 3rd Turn, Draigo left his unit and assaulted Tactical Squad 2(a), killed them all and consolidated towards the Centurions. Paladins joined the combat, killed Shrike and destroyed Assault Squad 1. Assault Squad 2 was sent running. Chapter Master defeated Dreadknight 1. 

The Chapter Master went for the kill

In my turn, my Tacticals in both Rhinos destroyed the GK Terminators with Plasmaguns. Centurions killed Draigo. Chapter Master went to fight the Paladins, which he successfully destroyed after 3 close combat rounds.  

My Storm Raven arrived in the 4th Turn, but there's nothing on table for them to have fun with.

The Raven Guard WON.

***********************************

During my game against the Grey Knights, a guy dropped by and ask me for a game. I knew the guy own an interesting White Scars army. I never had a chance to fight him before, so it was a game I gladly accepted and looked forward to.

But I was really caught by surprised when he came back about half an hour later. For in front of me was not an army of bikers, but an Imperial Guard army with 3 Vendettas and 3 newly assembled Imperial Knights. Wow.. Seriously.. I was shocked. 

GAME : RELIC, NIGHT FIGHT

DEPLOYMENT : VANGUARD STRIKE, IMPERIAL GUARDS DEPLOYED FIRST.

This happened to be the first time he brought this army on table. So he was a bit too cautious with his deployment. He had 2 Knight Paladins, both deployed at the furthest corner of his deployment zone. His single Knight Errant deployed to my left, also at the edge of the table.

As for me, I deployed everything except the Storm Raven and Dreadnought (in Drop Pod). They were deployed slightly hidden behind a dilapidated Aquila Stronghold. Shrike and Assault Squad 2 infiltrated atop the Aquila's battlement. Just before the game, my Rhinos scouted 12 inches forward towards the Relic.

My game plan was to grab the Relic early in the first turn, and run for safety. Failing that, I would have to rely on the Secondary Objective. My opponent would definitely gain the First Blood. To balance that, Shrike and his Assault Squad were tasked to gain Linebreaker while the rest of my army destroyed anything that step foot on my deployment zone. Slay the Warlord would determine the winner.

The opponent's 1st Turn wasn’t so effective due to night fighting. I took that advantage to send my Tacticals (in 4 Combat Squads) to capture the Relic. Dreadnought made a drop near the Knight Errant, penetrated the side armour with Multimelta, causing one Hull Point damage.

In the 2^nd Turn, 2 Vendetta came in from reserves and shot down one of my Centurions. The Knight Errant destroyed the closest Rhino for the First Blood. 2 Marines died in the explosion. The Knights Errant then destroyed my Dread in assault. (Super Heavy can shoot and assault different target. Then the D weapon. Damn cheese hahaha). On my turn, my Tactical started moving the Relic towards safety (behind the Stronghold). The move was slowed due to the Relic special rules. Chapter Master called the Orbital Bombardment onto the Knight Errant, causing 3 Hull Points damage. The Storm Raven failed to come this turn.

The Relic had passed into the Raven Guard territory. Now would they be able to take it to the safety zone behind the Aquila Stronghold?

3^rd Turn. One of the Vendetta flew off the board. The 3rd one, a Black Vendetta transporting IG HQ came in from reserves and took the exact place when it left. The two Vendettas worked together to destroy my Centurions. Knight Errant moved 12 inches closer and destroyed the other Rhino (Relic bearer inside). Then with a Heavy Stubber, it killed two marines from a Tactical combat squad, leaving a lone Plasmagunner to guard the centre. Sly Marbo appeared inside a trench hole nearby and threw a Demolition Charge to my Assault Squad, killed some of them.

In my turn, my Assault Squad threw a Krak Grenade into the trench hole, instakilling Sly Marbo. The lone Plasmagunner shot the Knight Errant from the side and took out one Hull Point. The Relic bearer ran into the trench hole. My Storm Raven still lost somewhere.

In the 4^th Turn, the Knight Errant moved closer and successfully assaulted Tactical Squad 1(a) that were pinned when their Rhino exploded earlier. It made a stomp attack and somehow destroyed my Assault Squad 1 nearby. (We made a mistake here, thinking that Stomp roll of 6 destroyed the whole unit. It should only remove model under the blast marker, not the whole unit.) I didn’t remember what the Vendettas did this turn.

My Storm Raven came in and shot one of the Vendetta. It destroyed one of the Lascannon. I sent my Chapter Master to join the Relic bearer. He would personally protect the Relic Bearer to the safety zone. (With Chapter Master right at the front to tank all the coming wounds, I was quite confident that the Relic was safely secured and mine for the win. But suddenly the most unlikely thing happened.) The lone Plasmagunner shot the Knight Errant and successfully took out the last Hull Points. The Super Heavy Walker exploded, and the force of the explosion threw the main bulk of it's body 11 inches away. To our amazement, flew over my Chapter Master and fell on top the Relic bearer, killing him with a Strength D explosion. (WTF! There goes my only chance at winning the game :lol:)

With no one to carry the Relic, how would this battle ended for the Raven Guard?

In the 5^th Turn, my opponent targeted Shrike’s unit but they were safe with stealth + the cover saves from the Aquila's battlement. A squad of Veterans disembarked from one of the Vendetta in attempt to kill the lone Plasmagunner. He survived! The Vendettas targeted my Storm Raven but failed to cause anything except a single glance.

Came my turn, I sent the Storm Raven off table. The Chapter Master jumped to behind the Stronghold, safely out of enemy sight. Shrike and his squad split and jumped off the battlement into the enemy deployment zone for the Linebreaker point. If the game ended now, it would be a DRAW.

But the game went into Turn 6, and the opponent now had a chance to amend his mistakes. Two Vendettas straightaway made a move into my territory. A squad of Veterans made a successful drop near the trench hole where the Relic was dropped to claim a Linebreaker point. A Knight Paladin closed in towards Shrike (now alone from his squad) but failed to kill the Shadow Captain with both shooting and assault. IG now led by 1 VP from First Blood.

This could be the last turn, and I had two option. First is the easy one, destroy the Veterans and let it ended as a draw ... OR ... try to grab a win by killing his Command Squad (in Black Vendetta). The gamble : It would be my lost if even one member of the Command Squad survived. I decided to go for the kill. To clear the enemy Linebreaker, I sent the Chapter Master. He wiped out the whole Veteran Squad in close combat without breaking a sweat. Next is to see if my gamble worked. 

My Storm Raven came in from ongoing reserve to tailgate the Black Vendetta. Multimelta shot to the rear got through the armour and destroyed it in the air. There were 6 passengers inside the Vendetta and they suffered S10 hits with no armour saves due to the explosion. If I succeeded, I would win with Slay The Warlord. But failing that, the opponent would gain back his Linebreaker point and win. 

I rolled the dices and … one of the dices came out 1. (Damn!) 

The game ended. IG and Knights WON!! 

Seriously, the Knights were really scary. I was lucky my opponent went defensive and deployed his Knights far away. Things would have been so much different if they were to deploy right at the front.  He learned that already in this game, so I really pity his next opponent :lol: 

the Knights Paladin was really scary, but opponent seemed to have super bad day with his scatter rolls. The Rapid Firing Battle Cannon scattered away so many times, making them somewhat ineffective in this game. 

As for the weakness. One weakness I found was movement. The Knights would really be slowed down by difficult ground since their maximum move were restricted to just 6 inches instead of the usual 12 inches when moving on clear ground. It wasn't so much of a weakness, but was the reason why the 2 Knight Paladins failed to reach my line. It would have ended in a massacre otherwise.

*********************************

It was a long one this time. Maybe I should have separated the battle reports into 3 separate posts. 

Anyway, I'm glad I finally finished it and I hope you guys enjoy the read.

Oh yah.. I have a WFB tournament coming this saturday. Wish me luck okay :).

Thanks again. Happy gaming.

Gundam Wing : Raven Guard vs Farsight's Enclave

Last saturday I went to Hobby Forge for the March Monster Madness (and the free burger hahah) with my Cauldron of Blood. At first, I wanted to bring my Dark Elf for a fantasy session since we will be having a fantasy tournament in two weeks time. But with no time to pack my fantasy stuffs (painting the Cauldron took all the time I had since the night before), I just grabbed my Raven Guard box and went off to the Hobby Forge. Upon arrival, I met Joe Soon, the Tau guy I fought last week and we had a game.

My list were about the same as before, but with Kayvaan Shrike instead of the Typhoon Speeders.

Chapter Master
Shrike
2x10 Tactical Marines (in Rhinos)
2x10 Assault Marines
Dreadnought in Drop Pod
3 GravCenturions
Storm Raven

My opponent's.. was a scary Riptide Wing.

Buffmander - no ignore cover
Farsight
Earth Caste Riptide (IC?) - heavy burst cannon
4 Riptides - Ion Cannon, Interceptors, 3 with Skyfire
3 Crisis Suits
2x6 Firewarriors
2x4 Pathfinders

With such a small number of troops. It wouldn't be much trouble if we were to play objective based mission. But my opponent rolled the worst possible mission to go against such list -- Purge The Alien!!!

*****

GAME : PURGE THE ALIEN, NIGHT FIGHTING
DEPLOYMENT : DAWN OF WAR, RAVEN GUARD DEPLOYED FIRST

Seriously... I had no chance at all against such list in this kind of mission. But to hell with it, I now wanna see just how far I can push the enemy. Some more I made it my personal mission to survive until turn 5. If the enemy failed to wipe out my Raven Guard by turn 5, then it would be a morale victory equal to winning for me. Now to see how many Riptide could my marines kill before they got TAed :lol:

Deploy:
- Raven Guard deployed on my left quarter.
- Tau deployed on their left quarter, faaaar away from my marines. (see picture in TURN 1)
- Shrike and Assault Squad 1 infiltrated on my right, right across the enemy.
- Both my Rhinos scouted towards the enemy, circling a large ruin in the centre.

TURN 1

Enemy failed to seize the initiative. My Drop Pod came down right in front of enemy troops. Dreadnought disembarked, survived the incoming interceptor shots and burned 4 Pathfinders, claiming First Blood for the Raven Guard.

The rest of my army moved as fast as possible to close the gap between them and the enemy.

Tau retaliated fiercely, killing 9 marines accompanying Shrike and wrecked the front most Rhino.

TURN 2

Storm Raven came in, survived all interceptor shots and shot the Riptide 3, scoring some wounds.
Dread and Drop Pod targeted the 2 Firewarriors unit on top the ruin, killing 6 in one unit and 2 from the other one.
Tactical Squad 1 advanced slowly while taking a shot at the Crisis Suits team. They succesfully took out 2 out of the 3 man team.

Kayvaan Shrike and the lone Veteran Sargent easily close the gap to assault a 4 man Pathfinder team.
The Centurions continued their slow walk towards the enemy line.

Enemy shot back and wrecked the Rhino bearing Tactical Squad 2. This time they also managed to wreck the Dreadnought.
Further attempt at taking out the Storm Raven failed so they changed their focus to Shrike, easily killing the Shadow Captain and the Veteran Sargent.

TURN 3

Storm Raven moved forward, leaving the wounded Riptide 3 (1 wound left) for the Tactical Squad 2. It targeted Riptide 4 causing two wounds.
The Tactical Squad 2 rapid fired Riptide 3, hit twice with the plasmagun but failed to cause any wound. (Damn! I was so confident they could bring it down this turn) It easily shrugged off wounds from the HOLY bolters.
The Chapter Master and Assault Squad 2 destroyed the 4 Firewarriors atop the ruin.
Tactical Squad 1 killed the last guy from the other Firewarrior unit at long range.

With me failing to take out Riptide 3, the enemy had more than enough shots to wipe out Tactical Squad 2 in a single shooting phase. Not only that, they also killed 8 marines from Assault Squad 2 before assaulting the Chapter Master.

Farsight cut down the last 2 marines while the Chapter Master fought Riptide 1 in a challenge where they both caused a wound to each other.

TURN 4

Storm Raven hovered backwards and shot Riptide 2, causing a wound. Tactical Squad one tried to bring down Riptide 4  (1 wound left) with plasmagun, the shot hit but failed to wound it (No luck with plasmagun today)
Centurions finally got into range and killed Riptide 3 with the Gravcannons.
The fight between Chapter Master and Riptide continued in a draw with no wound. The large unit performed Hit and Run 9 inches towards the Centurions.

On enemy turn, The big unit decided to continue the fight against my Chapter Master. They poured many shots to him (causing 1 wound) followed by a charge. This time the Chapter Master fought the EarthTide since Riptide 1 failed to overcharge it's Shield. The Chapter Master suffered another wound, hit back and caused a wound to the EarthTide but was denied by a Feel No Pain roll.
Riptide 2 tried to bring down my Storm Raven with shooting but achieved one glance only. It then assaulted and wrecked it with Smash Attacks.

TURN 5

Centurions killed Riptide 2.
Tactical 1 targeted Riptide 4 for the second time, but still the plasmagun failed to wound.
The fight between Chapter Master and EarthTide continued with no wound caused. The opponent performed another Hit and Run move, but this time towards the Tactical  Squad 1.

The lone Crisis Suit and and Riptide 4 killed my Chapter Master with shooting.
Don't remember what shot the Drop Pod, but it was wrecked in this turn.
EarthTide targeted the Centurions with overcharged Heavy Burst Cannon, killing one.
Farsight lead his team to hunt down Tactical Squad 1.They killed 6 with shooting, and the remaining 4 in the assault phase.

TURN 6
(Note : I achieved my target already, surviving till the end of turn 5!)

Centurions easily get into range and killed Riptide 4. With only 4 wounds left on table, this might be the turn I got TAed.

The Enemy tried to wipe out the Centurions, but the Crisis Suit were out of range, and the EarthTide had no Line of Sight to them. So they only managed to cause another kill. leaving me with one Centurion by the end of the turn.

I rolled for TURN 7, but the dice came up 3. The game ended.

RESULT : Raven Guard - 8 VPs (7 kills, First Blood), Tau - 12 VPs (11 kills, Slay The Warlord). TAU WON!

The Tau list was really strong. I didn't mention in the battle report, but the enemy failed about 6-7 overcharge roll, Gets Hot!, armour saves, low penetration roll and more. But still ended as the winner. With such an army, you don't have to worry about making a mistake, as the army can either recover easily from that mistake or simply ignore the mistake altogether.

I lost the game, but I was seriously satisfied with how my Raven Guard performed. The lost was well within my expectation (and my guess... everyone who watched since we did attract quite a few of spectators). But I had fun. My Raven Guard fought bravely, killed 3 Riptides, wounded the two that remained in the game, and was not TAed. Yup, it was a fine game if you ask me :-)

*****

Thanks for reading my batrep. I hope you guys like it. 

Feel free to throw in suggestions or comments.

Happy wargaming and have a nice day.

Flight of The Valkyries : Raven Guard vs Catachan AirCav 1850 pts

I had a game on Friday, against one of the most veteran player around here. Haven't fought him for more than a year, our last fight was his Alaitoc Rangers vs my 13th Company Space Wolves.

This time, he brought one of his Imperial Guard armies. The Catachan AirCavalry.

******

RAVEN GUARD

Chapter Master - Thunder Hammer, Shield Eternal, Artificer Armour, Jumpack, Auspex

Dreadnought - Multimelta, Heavy Flamer 

Drop Pod with Deathwind Launcher

2x10 man Tactical - Plasmagun, CombiMeltagun in Rhino

10 man Assault Marines - Thunder Hammer

10 man Assault Marines - Power Axe, Meltabomb

2 Typhoon Speeder

3 GravCenturions

Storm Raven

CATACHAN AIR-CAV

Colonel Straken + Command Squad

5x10man Veterans - 3 Special Weapons each

2 squadrons of 2 Vendettas  

2 Valkyries
Basilisk

GAME : Big Guns Never Tire (5), Night Fighting

DEPLOYMENT : Hammer & Anvil, Raven Guard deployed first

RG deploy:

- Deployed everything as forward as possible. Both Tactical Squads broke into 2x5 man combat squads but stays in their Rhino.

- in reserves : Grav Centurions (inside the Storm Raven), Dread (in Drop Pod).

IG deploy:

- a Basilisk right before the table edge, 3 Veteran squads doing a blob formation to protect the Basilisk from Drop Pod Assault.

- in reserves : Straken unit (in Valkyrie), 2 Veteran Squad (One in each Vendetta Squadron).

Before the game began, both Rhinos scouted 12 inches forward. Then the Catachan attempted to seize the initiative, but failed.

TURN 1

Drop Pod deepstriked with minimal scatter, putting the Dreadnought within 12 of the Basilisk. The Dread shot it with the Multimelta, hit, but I rolled 3 on 2D6 for armor penetration. The rest of the army moved forward, but stays 36 inches away from the Basilisk to take advantage of the Night Fight.

Vet 2 circled around the Dreadnought and wrecked it with several shots to the rear armour. Basilisk shot the front Rhino, immobilising it.

TURN 2

Storm Raven didn't came (Note : this is okay result since I will need it to counter the Vendettas)

4 Combat Squads disembarked from the Rhinos. Supported by the Deathwind Launcher from Drop Pod, and Storm Bolters from the Rhinos, they wipedout Vet 1 and killed several in Vet 2.

Chapter Master called Orbital Bombardment to take out the Basilisk. The shot scored a penetrating hit and I rolled 3 for result, which turned into immobilised due to the shot being AP1. Typhoon Speeder followed through with 4 Krak Missiles and destroyed it.
(Note : back home only I remembered that Basilisk was open-topped vehicles. Which means that the Orbital Bombardment would have actually destroyed it).

The Assault Squad 2 moved forward to support the Tacticals.

With an officer giving them +1 to reserves, all the Catachan's air support came in on time. Vedetta Squadron 1 killed 6 marines from Assault Squad 2 while Vendetta Squadron 2 annihilated the Typhoon Speeders.

The Valkyries targeted Tactical 1(b) with 4 S4 large blast and numerous support weapons, causing 9 wounds to Tactical 1(b), 4 wounds to Tactical 2(b) and 2 wounds to Tactical 2(a). However my armor saves were superbly good here and each squad suffered only 1 casualty.

On the ground, his Veteran unit 3 shot plasmaguns at Tactical 1(a) and killed 3.

TURN 3

Again, my Storm Raven failed to come. I really need it to come this turn. Too bad.

Tactical 2(a) and 2(b), reembarked their Rhino and make a move towards Vet 3 by circling the Drop Pod. Tactical 1(a) tried their luck, snapfiring the closest Vendetta Squadron but achieved nothing. Tactical 1(b), Deathwind Launcher and Storm Bolters from the Rhinos reduced Veteran Squad 3 to just 4 guys, and pinned (they choose to go to ground) the Veteran Squad 2.

Assault Squad 2 moved closer and tried to assault Vet 2, but failed to roll anything higher than 4 inches when assaulting through the difficult ground.

Chapter Master and Assault Squad 1 moved forward.

Came enemy turn, both Vendetta Squadrons flew out into ongoing reserve to counter my Storm Raven.

The Valkyries hovered backwards, safely out of my Chapter Master assault range. They shot the Tactical 1(b), causing 8 wounds but none got through the 3+ armour. Then Vet 2 (Snapfiring) and Vet 3 shot the same unit and killed 2 hahaha.

TURN 4

Storm Raven came in and targeted Valkyries but failed to cause anything.
(Note : I knew it wouldn't survive the next turn, but decided to keep the Centurions inside because at that moment I mistaken the Crash and Burn result to be S6 AP-. Not something that my Centurions should worry about)

Having no range for assault, I pulled the Chapter Master and Assault Squad 1 backwards to guard the 3 objectives in my deployment zone. I sent Assault Squad 2 to assault Vet 3. They lose one guy from overwatch and the assault failed.

The rest of my army shot at Vet 2 (2 guys left), but the Catachans showed us why they are the best at jungle fighting, surviving through all that shots, coming from all angle.

The Vendettas came in from reserves. One squadron destroyed the Storm Raven in the air with 6 TL-Lascannons. The explosion instakilled 2 Centurions, and the lone survivor were later killed by 6 TL-Lascannon from the 2nd Vendetta Squadron.
(Note : It was now that I realized my mistake, the Crash and Burn causes S10 hits with no armour saves to passengers, not S6! The S6 was for damage from falling debris. What a silly mistake.)

The Valkyries shot my Tacticals but didn't kill a single model.

TURN 5

This could be the last turn, so all Tacticals disembarked to capture the objectives. Chapter Master and Assault Squad 1 moved further backwards to prevent the Catachan from getting close to the objectives in my deployment zone.

All bolter and Deathwind Launcher focused on the remaining 2 guys from Vet 2, but again they survived like Rambo in The First Blood.

Assault Squad 2 destroyed Vet 3 in assault.

Colonel Straken and his unit disembarked from the Valkyrie into the forest. From the Vendettas 1, Veteran Squad 4 disembarked behind the immobilised Rhino. The other Vendetta Squadron flew across the table.

This time the Catachan's shooting was devastating. Gone was my spectacular armour saves and the IG successfully wipedout all 4 Tactical Squads in this shooting phase.

Without anymore troops, there's nothing I can do to stop the Catachans from winning since they held 3 VPs (First Blood, 2 Heavies) already against my 1 VP (Linebreaker), but we kept on playing.

TURN 6

I tank-shocked a Rhino 12 inches into Vet 2 causing them to flee. The path went straight into Straken and his boys but did nothing since they are fearless. 

(Note: I should have stopped the tank-shock at 6 inches only. That way Straken boys would be perfect target for my Deathwind Launcher. Another mistake.)

Deathwind Launcher shot the Vet 4 and killed 4 guys including 3 guys with special weapons. The rest of were later destroyed by the Chapter Master and Assault Squad 1, coming from 10 inches away. 

Since Vet 2 required Insane Courage to rally, Assault Squad 2 ignored them and moved to assault Straken. They die to overwatch fire.

To my surprise, Collonel Straken can force the Vet 2 to rally with the "Get Back To Combat" order or something. They rallied and proceed to capture the objective nearby. Veteran Squad 5 disembarked from Vendettas 2, into the woods to capture the same objective.

With nothing else on table, the Catachans now focused on the Chapter Master and Assault Squad 1. All that shots killed 9 Assault Marines and wounded the Chapter Master once.

FIIIGHT!!

Straken led his unit to assault the Chapter Master. At initiative 3, they wounded the Chapter Master twice and killed the Assault Veteran Sargeant. Chapter Master fought back with 4 attacks but not a single blow hit the enemy. All that wounds must have reach some vital organs, affecting his swing. Suddenly a Priest came from the back and hit him with the Eviscerator. The attack got through the Eternal Shield and killed the Raven Guard Chapter Master.

With that the game ended.

RESULT : Catachan WON by 5 Victory Points to Raven Guard 0. With not a single infantry left alive, We can say the Catachans even succesfully TAed my Raven Guard forces! Wow!

POST GAME ASSESMENT:
The Air Cavalry was certainly good. My list had no means to handle so many Flyers, and so I focused on killing the Veterans. The hard part was keeping my men alive untill turn 5 when the IG would begin to make their move towards the objective. I think I would have better chance if I were to play my Shrike+Cypher (Shadows of The Fallen?) list with Stealth, Shrouded and Infiltrate to take advantage with.

Another difficulty was to keep up with the speed of the Flyers. They are fast and can easily cover large ground to suddenly drop their passengers on objectives at the other side of the table. So the best approach to prevent this from happening is to keep the objectives close together. That would cancel the advantage of such mobility, and keeps the objectives within charging distance of my jumpacks. In this game I made mistakes by putting 3 objectives on my line, forcing me to split my forces in order to guard the objectives. Now I knew better.

I really missed Shrike in this game. My alpha strike felt lacking without him and 10 Jumpackers infiltrating somewhere. Maybe I should put him back in the list, replacing the fragile (though certainly useful) Typhoon Speeder. 

The Deathwind Launcher works really great in this game, killing Veterans many times over the 15 points I spent on it. 

In the end, my Raven Guard was totally butchered this time. I did several mistakes in the game, the biggest mistake cost me 2 heavy supports casualty in a single shooting phase. This is one of the game where even a single mistake would cost me dearly compared to my opponent. Some more my opponent is a veteran with many tricks under his sleeves. I should be extra careful but went the other way instead hahaha. 

But what a fun game it was thanks to the funny moments we had such as the invincible Veteran Squad 2 that refused to die and my funky armour saves (8 wounds - 1 dead, 4 wounds - 1 dead, 2 wounds - 1 dead, 1 wounds also 1 dead :lol:) in the first four turns. Thanks to my opponent, Bro Lan a.k.a Spunkybass for the fun game.

You wait, I will have my revenge someday :-)

******

That's all for today. Thanks for reading through the battle report.

Have a nice day.