Mission: Eternal War - Ascension
Team "Echipa 1 pisa tot" (Team 1 pisses all :D)
Battalion detachment: Heretic Astartes, World Eaters
- Dark Apostle, Warlord, The Black Mace
- Exalted Champion, Power Sword
- 5-man Khorne Berzerkers, Chainaxes, Power Axe
- 5-man Khorne Berzerkers, Chainaxes, Power Fist
- 5-man Khorne Berzerkers, Chainaxes
- 10-man Khorne Berzerkers, Chainaxes, Power Fist, Icon of Wrath
- 8-man Khorne Berzerkers, Chainaxes, Power Fist
- 3x Chaos Rhino
Supreme Command Detachment: T'au Empire
- 2x Commander, 4x Fusion Blaster, 2x Marker Drone
- 3x Commander, 4x Plasma Rifle, 2x Marker Drone
- 3-man Crisis Battlesuits, 3x Burst Cannons each
This looked to be a simple and straightforward game. All the T'au stuff await in the Manta Strike. Bloodletters and Bloodmaster are clawing their way out of the warp. Everything else on the table forming a battleline (except the Horrors who are doing deep strike deny).
We lost the roll-off for going first and did not attempt to Seize the Initiative. I did not want a first-turn charge by Berzerkers.
Chaos/T'au, turn 1
Rhinos advanced and blocked the passageways (very cleverly done). Crisis Suits and a Commander land on the center objective. They open up fire and score First Blood on the center group of Flesh Hounds. Score 2 more points for holding two objectives.
Team Chaos, turn 1
We advanced our forces towards the phalanx of Rhinos. I landed my Bloodletters behind them for a classic pincer move.
Banner of Blood and voila, all 3 Rhinos are engaged and mostly surrounded.
But I only managed to kill 1 Rhino. The Bloodletters were disappointing in this manner. Sure enough, they minced the infantry, but they barely scored any wounds on the vehicles. The bottom Rhino proved marvelously resilient, as it resisted the attentions of the Daemon Prince, the Spawn and a group of Flesh Hounds, besides a couple of Bloodletters. This worked in our advantage, locking these units into combat, safe from shooting. The top Rhino died to concentrated Bloodletter attacks, but one squad of 5 managed to get out safely.
Turn 2
8 Berzerkers and the 2 characters squeezed out of the chrome Rhino. At this point, the center of the battlefield devolved into a bloody mess, and the game was bogged down by constant argument and finally downright shouting as the ruin was closely surrounded, and every inch counted for charges, counter-charges, pile ins, consolidates, and heroic interventions. I didn't even take pictures.
In the first turn, the Berzerkers from the destroyed Rhino butchered half of the Bloodletters, but I interrupted combat and killed them all. The freshly out Berzerkers cleared the area of Cultists.
In the second turn, I finally managed to bring down the other Rhino, this time having successfully surrounded it, instantly killing 10 Berzerkers - a heavy blow. A T'au Commander landed, but failed to kill the Bloodmaster. We kept the Obliterators back in a game of Deep Strike chicken.
Points were scored by both sides, and we were ahead by only 1.
Turn 3
We decided to go into turn 3, even though it would clearly be over time. All the Commanders landed and cleared the Flesh Hounds, then the Berzerkers charged in and killed the Daemon Prince. The Bloodletters also died at this point. This netted enough points such that, had we simply ended our turn after landing the Black Legion to achieve Line Breaker, the game would have ended with a tie. But we made a mad dash for victory.
We had 3 distinct possibilities: If the Bloodmaster charged the Crisis Suits and survived the combat, it would hold the center objective. If the Obliterators charged the Berzerkers after wearing them down, they could hold the far objective. Finally, Abaddon could kill the Dark Apostle for Slay the Warlord. We went for all 3.
The Obliterators killed the Berzerkers outright, opening up a better possibility: Abaddon could charge into the Exalted Champion holding the far objective and hold it. We were super lucky with a 10 inch roll, and the Champion died easily, having no invulnerable save.
Going for a moral victory, the Crisis Suits interrupted combat and took off the Bloodmaster's last wound.
Aftermath
Boy, is close combat complicated in 8th edition. I tried to be very exact in placing my models, but things still slipped through. Luckily, my team mate had a few international tournaments under his belt, and brought his experience to bear. Let's just say that I thought that I knew how the game worked, before. :) All these minutiae frustrated our opponents to no end, and I have to say that this was the worst experience I ever had as far as 40k games go.
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