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.