Astra Militarum vs Yellow Scars, 25.05.2022

My third attempt at Tempest of War and the first game against marines in a long time. With Armor of Contempt center stage, I grew tired of opposing armies either ignoring the -1AP or downgrading D2 to D1 so I switched out heavy bolters with multimeltas. I am quite pleased with the change, we'll keep it.

Deployment

Weird triangles. The Scars won both roll-offs for first turn and first redeploy, so I had to deal with 3 Phobos units in my face on the left flank. I redeployed a heroic squad of demonic Conscripts to hold them off.

Yellow Scars, turn 1

The phobos marines advanced on my positions.

ATVs take the middle.

Bikes take the flank. It's been some time since I fought this army, and I forgot how fast and in-your-face it can be.

After all the possible shots, the Conscripts (having taken cover) were not really phased, but the marines showed their mettle in the fight phase. 30->2. 

Overwatch with defensive gunners on a Basilisk resulted in exactly 0 wounds, showing for the first (but not the last) time the value of Armor of Contempt.

The ATVs annihilated one Chimera, and the Dreadnought the other one. More shots by the bikes also decimated the nuns debarked from the destroyed tank.

The Scars scored only 1 objective card but effectively boxed me in and destroyed all my mobility. Sigh.

Nuns, turn 1

I drew Storm Hostile Objective so I tried to focus down the phobos marines. With Smokescreen and Transhuman Physiology, Pask did 0 wounds with a demolisher cannon and multimeltas. Sigh. I gave up on the idea.

On the other hand, 28 Conscripts with First rank, fire! Second rank, fire! killed two Eliminators and wounded the 3rd, who eventually died to chip damage. I only did it for the lulz, but it proved surprisingly effective.

The combined firepower of the other two tank commanders, the disembarked nun squads and artillery took out all the ATVs and the Dreadnought (scoring No prisoners).

The Conscripts then charged into the Apothecary, piled into the Outriders and took the objective, scoring Storm Hostile Objective. True heroes of the Imperium!

Yellow Scars, turn 2

The marines started racking up points by razing the objective in my territory and Deploy Teleport Homers. At least my flank was safe.

Everything advanced on my Conscripts...

Less bullets than last time, but enough to take out a bunch of nuns.

Terminators arrived from deep strike to annihilate a Basilisk with chainfists. A Redemptor came out of outflank reserves to shoot down a tank commander.

Who are the heroes of the Imperium? That's right, Conscripts. They survived everything, holding the objective.

We had to end the game there due to running out of time.

Aftermath

This game had a very slow beginning, with about 1 hour for the first turn for the marines. Thus we only made it 1.5 turns before the store closed - and I technically won after battle round 1 with 10-5 as I achieved 2 cards versus the one card of the marines. I did not play my second turn but I did draw my cards. We would have ended tied on primaries but I was unsure if I could have achieved more than 1 card. We will never know...

Anyway, the marines had a good showing. Armor of Contempt is brutal. Combined with cover and stratagems, it makes them very hard to kill.