Raven Guard vs White Scars

This one happened a few days before the Wira Cup. We both were using our tournament list, so I agreed to delay my battle report until the tournament was over. 

It was a much needed practice for us both. I actually asked the guy for a WFB match, but my opponent (who like me, also prefer WFB compare to 40k) was in dire need of 40k game to familiarize with the 40k rules before the tourney. Turned out it he did a few mistakes in his army build that would be quite troublesome if were  only found out on the tourney day.

His army was the new Anvil Strike Force from the Angel of Death book.

1 Techmarine with Servitors
3 units of 1 Vindicators
1 Land Speeder with 2 Heavy Flamers
1 Thunderfire Cannon
LR Crusaders (LR Spearhead)
Imperial Knight Errant

Mission : Scouring
Deployment : Hammer and Anvil.

White Scars (WS) deployed everything forward. I reacted by deploying far away from the Vindicators. Centurions would dealt with the Land Raider Crusaders (LRC) while the Devastator Squad took position on the ruin to the left with my Shadow Captain. 2 Sniper Squads infiltrated at the middle of table.

Deployment

First Turn. Vindicators combine shot into one big Apocalypse Megablast at  S10 AP1 Ignores Cover. They targeted the Snipers near the ruins, scattered 4 inches and wipedout both the Snipers and Centurions unit. What a devastating first shot. Thunderfire Cannon and Imperial Knight (IK) targeted the Devastators, killed my Captain (First Blood and Slay The Warlord) and 2 Marines. The LRCs targeted my Snipers at the center, killing one guy.

Raven Guard's (RG) Alpha Strike wasn't so great. Two Tactical Squads dropped near the Vindicators but failed to destroyed any (even with Tactical Doctrine in effect), causing only one immobilized result to the rear most Vindi. Typhoon Speeders swerved to the right and targeted the Vindis, but my armour penetration sucks this round. The rest focused on the IK but it survived.

Turn 2. Techmarines repaired the Imobilised Vindicator. They moved forward and shot the Apocalypse Megablast, this time to the 3 man Devastators. It wipedout the unit and destroyed a Razorback that was parked nearby. The IK came closer and shot the Melta Cannon. It destroyed one Razorback and Weapon destroyed another. Land Speeder went after my Tactical Squad at the rear and burned 3 marines to crisp.

It was now that we realized my friend has been playing the Vindicators wrongly. The Apocalypse Megablast can only be used if the Vindicators formed a squadron. But my opponent took them in three (3) seperate units to fill the requirement of Armoured Task Force formation. Dont want to restart the game, we decided that the only kill that count was the Sniper unit, and returned the 3 Devastators, Razorback and the Centurions back where they were before.

Scouts with shotguns came from the enemy right flank. Together with Sniper team, they took out the Land Speeder. Devastators destroyed one Vindicator and the Typhoon Speeder destroyed the Demolisher Cannon of another. Centurions claimed 3 Hull Points from the closest LRCs, immobilising it.

Turn 3. Techmarine and retinue disembarked to repair the front most Vindicator but the attempt failed. 2 LRCs targeted the Centurions, killed 2 and left the last one with 1 wound. The last Vindicator killed 3 Tactical Marines.

The last Centurion wrecked the Immobilised LRC. Razorbacks focussed on the IK but it survived with 3/4 hull points. My Dreadnought dropped behind one of the LRC, shoot Multimelta at point blank range and ... missed! One Tactical Squad disembarked near the tower in the middle to deal with the Techmarine, which they slain without any trouble.

Thing were looking quite even at this moment. IK getting closer!

Turn 4. The front most LRC killed the last Centurion and took out one Hull Point from one of the Typhoon. The LRC at the rear turned and shoot the Dread with Assault cannon but nothing happened. IK move into combat, killed 3 marines and sent the other two running. TFC wipedout the Tactical Squad that killed their Techmarine.

In my turn, Dreadnought moved closer to the LRC and this time the Multimelta didn't missed. It penetrated the armour and the LR exploded. Tacticals and Razorback surrounded the IK and destroyed it with Plasmaguns and Lasscannons.

By this time I controlled 5 Objectives againts my opponent 0. Seeing that he can't do anything to change the result, my opponent conceded.

Result : Raven Guard won!

It was a fun game. My opponent's army list was tough. Though I think it would be so much better if he used Iron Hands Chapter Tactics instead of the White Scars.

It was a very important game for us both. To relearn the 40k rules and tactics. For me, this was the 1st time I brought out my Gladius Strike Force since right after the Kauyon release (Okt/Nov 2015?). As for my opponent, this was his first attempt at playing the Anvil Strike Force. We both must have gained a lot from this encounter since we ended up placing quite well, 3rd (my opponent) and 4th (me) in the Wira Cup.

That is all for today. I hope you guys enjoyed the batrep. Till next time, have a nice day.

Regards,

-AK-