Imperial Fists vs Plague Marines - 2,000 points Planetstrike

[mercer]

Had me a game of Planetstrike last night (Sunday) against my mates Plague Marines. I've beaten the Plague Marines before with Orks in a normal game of 40k, but without numbers on my side will I win?

http://imperiusdominatus.blogspot.com/2009/11/battle-report-imperial-fists-vs-plague.html - pictures in the link :cool:

Imperial Fists

1 x Captain - relic blade, storm shield & artificer armour

1 x Chaplain - terminator armour

1 x Master of the Forge - conversion beamer

5 x Terminators - assault cannon

5 x Assault Terminators - 2 x lightning claws & 3 x thunder hammers

8 x Sternguard - 2 x combi meltas

10 x Tactical Marines - plasma gun & plasma cannon - sgt w/ power fist

10 x Tactical Marines - missile launcher & meltagun

1 x Dreadnought - heavy flamer & storm bolter

1 x Dreadnought - assault cannon & storm bolter

1 x Dreadnought - assault cannon & storm bolter

1 x Dreadnought - assault cannon & storm bolter

1 x Dreadnought - assault cannon & heavy flamer




Plague Marines

1 x Daemon Prince - MoN & warptime

1 x Sorcerer - lash of submission

1 x Sorcerer - lash of submission

1 x Greater Daemon

8 x Plague Marines - 2 x melta guns - champ w/ power fist

8 x Plague Marines - 2 x melta guns - champ w/ power fist

8 x Plague Marines - 2 x plasma guns - champ w/ power fist

2 x Obliterators

2 x Obliterators

2 x Obliterators



Chaos gets 7 firestorm templates in total, after the destruction a dreadnought loses a dccw, few barricades are broken and two marines from the plasma gun combat squad are killed.

The entire army deep strikes, 3 units of plague marines and 2 raptor squads deep strike in. Only one raptor squad scatters and is mis-placed on the mishap table in dangerous terrain. Two raptors are killed in the dangerous terrain, and one plague marine from the plasma squad is killed by the interceptor quad guns.



In the first turn of chaos shooting two assault cannon dreadnoughts are destroyed, the sternguard bastion is wrecked and both combi melta sternguard are killed in the explosion :(



In the Fists first turn the sternguard take a pinning test, and fail. Combat plasma squad moves towards the raptors in the dangerous terrain and the captain and assault terminators move out the gun pit. The three remaining dreadnoughts move through cover to the plague marine squads.

In the shooting phase the the plasma cannon fires at the nurgle plasma squad, it lands on target and kills all but one of them! One of the melta plague marine squad takes a few wounds, and the heavy flamer dreadnought burns and charges the other raptor squad and kills them all.



Turn 2


All remaining chaos forces arrive from reserve. All plague marine squads move into the craters, both sorcerers dettach from the units and move into cover also. The raptors move out of dangerous terrain, the one armed with the melta gun is killed.

In the shooting phase the two obliterators which levelled the bastion the sternguard held wiped out the sternguard with mass plasma cannon fire. One sorcerer uses lash of submission on the captain and assault terminators and lashes them away from the daemon prince by 6". One plague marine squad fires melta guns at the ironclad dreadnought and pops it. Two obliterators fire at the heavy flamer dreadnought, but do nothing. The raptors shoot at the remaining plasma gun combat squad and kill all put the sgt.

In the assault phase the greater daemon charges against a assault cannon dreadnought, the dreadnought explodes and the daemon suffers one wound. The daemon prince charges and destroys the entire plasma cannon combat squad. The two obliterators charge the heavy flamer dreadnought, one is insta-killed after failing its invulnerable save and the dreadnought suffers a crew stunned result. The raptors assault the sgt and suffer one wound, but pass morale and stay in combat.



The fists attempt to strike back, but efforts are futile and hardly any damage is done. Though one obliterator is killed which deep striked in at the start of the turn.

In combat the power fist sgt gets killed by the raptors.


Turn 3

Most forces move towards the remaining bastion.

In the shooting phase the solo obliterator fires and wrecks the bastion. The other two obliterators which previously killed the sternguard fire at the assault terminators, killing one and putting two wounds on the captain, though one of the sorcerers lashes and moves the assault terminators only 3".

In assault the daemon prince and solo obliterator charge the tactical squad and master of the forge in the bastion ruins, a few marines are killed by chaos suffers no wounds at all. The greater daemon charges the heavy flamer dreadnought and scores weapon destroyed result, though the obliterator is killed.

In the fists turn the captain and assault terminators fail leadership test as took 25% damage, and fall back 7" off the table! The other terminator unit moves towards the bastion, but are out of range of doing any real damage.

In the shooting phase the terminators fire at a plague marine squad, but do little damage.

In assault the greater daemon and single obliterator kill the master of the forge and tactical squad. The greater daemon also wrecks the heavy flamer dreadnought.



Plague Marines win capturing two objectives and the Imperial Fists have one surviving unit!

[DarkLink]

I've noticed a few things about Planetstrike.

1. The game will almost invariably end up with someone getting tabled.
2. If the attacker can cripple the defender early on, the attacker will win. If the defender can weather the storm, the defender will win.

Based on the second point, as a defender I've learned that you should never deploy something if it is not either AV14 all around, or inside a Bastion. Everything else should walk on from reserve. This not only protects you pretty well from the Firestorm barrage, but will also be highly effective in blunting the attacker's first turn or two.

From point one, don't worry about the number of Bastions. The game won't come down to objectives. Someone will get tabled, so objectives won't matter.


Oh, and I noticed you didn't list the Raptors in the Chaos list on accident, fyi.

[mercer]

1. Most definatley.
2. Agreed. If the attacker gets a good foot hold then they will win. Same for the defender, but defender relies on terrain. Make the entire board count as difficult and dangerous terrain and throw in impassable terrain will make it difficult for the attacker to move or deep strike.

The master of the forge bolstered one defence line giving a nice 3+ cover save, I perhaps should have mentioned that.

Thanks about the raptors ;) was two squads with two meltas btw.

[Okidus]

our group quickly learned that as well.

One squad per bastion, the rest in reserves.

Attacker is forced to DS, attack a 'bait' bastion, then take it in the face.

Part of the reason I don't really like PS, as this seems like the only strategy: Hi, I'm attacking! Hi! I'm hiding in reserve... ?

[mercer]

Only thing about defender reserves is the random board edge they come on in, I really don't like that. I do usually tend to pop as many infantry units in buildings as possible. Though I have re-written this list with 2 land raiders in and cut down on a terminator squad and the amount of dreadnoughts.