New gaming night and a new Warsone session! Me and my mate Ivo played a 1000 points match and here are our forces:\
Marijn - CybertronicCustom Warlord (Ranged; 140)
6 Chasseurs
6 Armoured Chasseurs
6 Armoured Chasseurs + 1 TSW4000 LMG
2 Atillas
3 Machinators
1 Scorpion
Ivo - CapitolHenry Thomas
7 Heavy Infantry
5 Light Infantry
5 Airborne Cavalry
5 Martian Banshees
2 Purple Sharks
1 Orca
Ivo went for the minefield upgrade, yielding him 3 Minefield tokens.
ScenarioPriority mission: Free for All
Pre-deployment tableSo a combination of buildings to block line of sight and light terrain in the form of three woods. Several small cover pieces to top it all off. The rest of the photos are from the other side of the table by the way.
DeploymentThis scenario is a weird one as all of your models have a 50% chance of deploying in turn 1, 75% chance of deploying in turn 2 and 100% chance in turn 3. The models then arrive on a random table edge with 5% chance of deploying on your opponent's table edge and the rest divided over the other three. So random as hell. Next up is the scenario, where you pick one of the three objectives on the table. From turn 4, if you have all your models within 12" and no enemies within 15" you win. Wait...what??? We were sceptical from the start, it all sounded weird. Right, let's get down to gaming! I chose the objective on the left and Ivo the one on the right.
I won Initiative and rolled to see what units arrived:
Marijn: 6 Armoured Chasseurs + LMG (left side) & 6 Chasseurs (right side)
Ivo: 2 Purple Sharks (left side), Orca (my table edge). Ivo kept the Rapid Deployment squads in the air.
The three Minefields were placed around my objective...curses!
Turn 1I activated the Armoured Chasseurs. Two aimed, spent 2 Resources for extra shots and fired at the lead Shark. They inflicted two damage points. The others Blinked forwards and also poured shots into the Shark, but couldn't take it down. Darn...this was going to be painful! Ivo responded with the Sharks who zoomed forwards and unloaded 12 shots into the Armoured Chasseurs. Two of them went down, including the squad commander. My Chasseurs kept behind the buildings and ran forwards, hugging behind the Noodle Bar.
With screaming jets, the Martian Banshees dropped from the skies on top of the garage box. They landed where Ivo wanted them to go and Ivo used Resources to buy 3 extra shots. The RS15 is nasty and four of my Chasseurs went down. The last two were pinned and hunkered down. Ouch. Painful. Finally, the Orca lumbered forwards...within 4" of a mine. It didn't explode, and Ivo unloaded on the Minefield without effect. Doh.
Turn 2Ivo won Initiative.
We rolled for deployment:
Ivo: Heavy Infantry (left side), Light Infantry (his table edge)...so basically everything if you include the Rapid Deployers.
Marijn: Atillas (left side), Armoured Chasseurs (my table edge), Warlord (right table edge). The Machinators didn't arrive, so would arrive automatically in turn 3.
Ivo deployed the Heavy Infantry behind the Purple Sharks and the Light Infantry in the middle of his table edge, 6" forwards. My Atillas deployed behind the forest behind the Armoured Chasseurs. The Warlord deployed close to the Chasseurs behind the Noodle Bar (maybe he was skulking inside?). Finally, my Armoured Chasseurs deployed way to the right behind cover to STAY AWAY from Heavy Infantry
Ivo activated the Sharks first. They moved around a bit and blasted two of the Armoured Chasseurs to bits, including the LMG. Two left. Ouch. Time to get the Scorpion into action. Before the game we told our buddy the Scorpion was very nasty and powerful. So silence settled in when I popped the Scorpion on the field in CCWR of 5 Heavy Infantry and one Purple Shark. It made its Rapid Deployment roll, so time to make 6 Armour checks! Ivo failed one...darn. Next up, I burned a Resource for an extra attack and two hit, but he saved two Armour Checks. So 8 Armour checks...1 failed. Sad Panda. Next up were Ivo's Heavy Infantry. One walked into combat with the Scorpion and revved up the chainsaw. Two hits...two failed Armour Checks...dead Scorpion. Uhm...okay....that was a weird one. The rest stomped forwards...I think one was blasted apart by the minefield. They unloaded into two Armoured Chasseurs. One went down and the last one fled through the woods. The other shots took down one wound of the Atillas with a 1. My Warlord activated, moved around the building, burned a Resource for 5 shots and poured one into each Banshee. Three of them went down and the squad was pinned. Ivo activated the Banshees who unpinned but their shots didn't do a thing.
Time for some more Rapid Deployment! Ivo sent in his Airborne Cavalry and they went close to the Armoured Chasseurs to get line of sight. He Hail-Maried with the rocket launchers to blast them to bits. It was afterwards we saw that these attacks don't even need line of sight, so he could have parked them in a safer place. Live and learn. The explosions scattered and due to the thick armour only one Armoured Chasseur perished.
Then the Atillas activated. One moved forwards around the forest and blasted into the Light Infantry. It killed the first two. The second Atilla fired at the Purple Shark and caused one damage point. The Orca activated and the Minefield triggered. BOOM! One damage to the engine...and there was a lot of rejoycing. It unloaded into the right Atilla...Both the heavy guns missed but all three rockets hit home (I think he rolled 4,4,2) causing two wounds to the Atilla and blasting the fleeing Armoured Chasseur apart. Wow! And finally we have the Armoured Chasseurs on the right. The first one was close enough to the LIght Infantry so unloaded with both shotgun and nailgun, taking one down. The next blinked and spent a Resource to do the same. It blasted two apart. The third Blinked and with two shots he killed one of the Banshees. The last one routed IIRC. The last two Chasseurs Blinked and killed the last of the Airborne Cavalry. That was one heck of an activation!
(My Warlord and pinned Chasseurs after my Warlord unloaded his gun into the Banshees)
(The Heavy Infantry and damaged Sharks after destroying the Armoured Chasseurs. In the back you can see the wounded Atilla)
Turn 3Ivo won Initiative. My Machinators arrived and they arrived on the right side of the table. I kept them behind a building, since they didn't care about the buildings anyway.
The Heavy Infantry went first. They went forwards and one more exploded due to the mines (Ivo then vowed NEVER to take this upgrade ever again
) but the last four of them easily stripped off the last 3 wounds of the two Atillas. I was thinking who to activate first: Warlord or Armoured Chasseurs. In the end I went for the Armoured Chasseurs as they had 10 shots in total. They unloaded on the Orca with aimed shots, taking off two structure points (Engine and Body). One shot at Light Infantry in the center, taking him down. Next up was the Orca. It pivoted around until it has it sights on the Armoured Chasseurs. Due to the close range it was limited in shooting (the Armoured Chasseurs were within 12") and this caused him to take down two of the Armoured Chasseurs. I activated my Warlord, who rounded the Noodle Bar and saw the Orca in the distance. Aiming, he unloaded with 5 shots (for 2 Resources) and he took down another Engine point. One point left! The Sharks raced towards my right side and one poured 6 shots into one Amoured Chasseur who was blasted apart. The last two didn't pin. My Chasseurs activated and the squad commander took down the last Banshee, giving the second one the chance to move and fire at the Orca without effect.
Racing down from the skies, Henry Thomas landed in the centre of the board, within 14" of one Armoured Chasseur. With his brace of M13's he loaded 3 hits into the Armoured Chasseur and this was too much. The squad was down to one model. The Enhanced Machinators advanced and unloaded their guns...they couldn't destroy the Orca, but the aimed shot at the Purple Shark came up with a 1, so the driver was shot through the head. One shark down! The two Light Infantry moved forwards, one climbed the building but missed his shot.
Turn 4I won Initiative. Officialy we could see if one would have won, but that was a silly thought.
I started with the Warlord. With his 4+1 AVV2 shots he had a good chance of finishing off the Orca. It worked and with another 1 I destroyed its engine. Kaboom! Pfew! That was a major thorn in my side, so nice to see it gone. Ivo went with the Heavy Infantry and once again the Mines were his arch enemies. The Squad Commander stepped on one and became a red mist. The other three ran and fired (with some Resources) and they inflicted one wound on a Machinator. I then activated the Machinators. They advanced and killed two of the Heavy Infantry and the Light Infantry on the building. The Light Ifnantry was pinned and the last Heavy Infantry failed its Rout test and ran...through the Minefield (without effect!). Ivo activated Henry Thomas who advanced and then saw that Armour17 Machinators are scary if you don't have a suitable weapon. He hit multiple times but couldn't damage them. The Chasseurs didn't do a lot. The Squad Commander tried to finish off the last of the Light Infantry but failed.
Turn 5+6Ivo won Initiative and activated the Purple Shark. It zoomed forwards and blasted the wounded Machinator apart. My Warlord responded by destroying the Shark. Henry Thomas went around the large organic rock and fired an armour piercing grenade at my Warlord...but missed. My Chasseur fired at Thomas and took off the first wound. And then the Machinators. I decided to charge Henry Thomas and that was quite insane: it was a charge down from a building by a medium based model. So STR 12 +2 (fists) + 6 (3" building) +4 (medium based model) = ST24 charge attack! The Machinator hit...but Capitol makes excellent (impenetrable) armour and he saved the insane hit (which would have inflicted 4 wounds). The other attacks were enough to kill Thomas though. We then called it a game.
AfterthoughtsScenario: What a terrible scenario...truly stupid IMO. The deployment is all over the place, making it almost impossible to win on scenario unless you kill almost everything. In addition, I'm not a fan of Escalation deployment as it is way too random. It feels as tactical as playing Yahtzee.
The game: The game went weird. At first I rolled terrible, while Ivo rolled well. With him obliterating my left side it already felt like a lost game. But halfway the luck reversed and it quickly turned around. Okay, his Minefield also helped me
.
My force: My force behaved totally different from my last game. My Atillas performed quite poorly and the Scorpion was a total joke. The Armoured Chasseurs on the left didn't do a lot, while on the right they did very well. I'm not convinced by the LMG upgrade. It only gives +1 shot (and Rail...meh) and costs a whopping 20 points. For 5 poitns more I'd rather have one extra Armoured Chasseur. For me, the Warlord and Machinators were the stars of the day, killing a lot. The Machinators soaked up lots of firepower and were hard to kill without Plasma shots.
Now the custom Warlord...WOW! For only 140 points I had a real killer. Pumping out 5 RS18 ST16 shots each turn was insane...it's hard to counter and takes down a a lot of models with ease. In fact, I am wondering why I would ever want to field either the Immortal or Everassur in terms of efficiency. Not only that, but I could field TWO of these Warlords instead of the Immortal. Damn...
His force: The Orca is S-C-A-R-Y! High AV value, lots of structure points and loads of attacks. The only way of taking it down fast enough is by aiming and focussing on its Engine. But this still takes a lot of firepower. And I'm lucky with all my models having at least AVV1. Heavy Infantry and Sharks were scary as usual. In previous games the Banshees were quite useless, but Rapid Deployment really helps them a lot. Henry Thomas gives nice options to your army, but in terms of damage output he is a bit of a wimp. I'd rather face him than one of the other Capitol Warlords!