BoLS Pic Batrep: Interrogator_Chaplain Vs. Mr.Mystery! (Pic Heavy)

[interrogator_chaplain]

Good day!

I had the great fortune to be able head over to the U.K. for a family vacation which included a trip to Warhammer World! After a quick search, I managed, through lucky coincidence, to land a game with BoLS Lounge member Mr.Mystery! Who graciously agreed to bring along some Necrons in trek all the way up from the Southern end of the U.K., at which point I brought along a camera to document the ensuing carnage.

The batrep as follows is fairly pic heavy, and will be in order but even still this information is still about 2-3 weeks old, so there may be some gaps in my memory, but the overall game is still fairly solid in my memory so it will be accurate. (Mr.Mystery will probably pop in to fill in any gaps I missed (Or omitted due to embarrassment)) Anything marked with an asterisk *, indicates moments in which I'm fuzzy on the details.

This is also my first batrep on this board (Of many, I hope!), and discovering that the limit of pictures is 4, so I'll be rolling this out as quickly as possible, but there might be gaps. But hopefully you've come to expect that this far.

Dark Angels Army List:
HQ
Belial, Grandmaster of the Deathwing
Belial with Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter, Teleport Homer and Sword of Silence.
190 Points.

Troops
Knights of the Old Days
Deathwing Terminator Squad with 6 Terminators, 3 with Lightning Claws, 2 with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields, 1 with Assault Cannon.
294 Points.
Tactical Squad Soldiers of Judgement
Tactical Squad with 10 Marines, Veteran Sergeant with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, 1 with Lascannon.
170 Points.
Tactical Squad Scions of the Rock
Tactical Squad with 10 Marines, Veteran Sergeant with Plasma Pistol and Chainsword, 1 with Flamer, 1 with Heavy Bolter.
180 Points.

Fast Attack
Murder of Angels
Ravenwing Attack Squadron with 3 Bikers and Attack Bike, Veteran Sergeant with Power Weapon and Melta Bombs, 1 Biker with Melta Gun, Attack Bike with Multi-Melta.
160 Points.


The game begun with our the rolls for scenario's, I rolled 3 for Big Guns Never Tire:


And Mr. Mystery rolled 5 for Vanguard Strike:


We rolled for objectives and came up with 3, and I used Canadian Dimes for the markers.

Rolling for deployment, I went first and Mr.Mystery failed to Seize
My Deployment:


Mr.Mystery's Deployment:


(On to Turn 1...)

[interrogator_chaplain]

Interrogator_Chaplain Turn 1:
Fairly quiet turn one, the Fortress of Redemption in the middle blocked off a really large chunk of the table, hiding the vast majority of Mr.Mystery's Immortals and Annihilation Barges, with 1 squad of Immortals peeking out. I moved one half of my combat-squaded Tacticals towards the objective on the opposite edge of the table, while the other moved up to support the Bikers, the Lascannon marine fell asleep waiting for the Annihilation Barges to pop up. I Turbo-Boosted my Bikers towards the middle objective intent on maybe next turn assaulting the Immortals and teleport homering in the Terminators, and finally my large Tactical Squad moved up to take the objective on Mr.Mystery's board edge. Nothing was really in range so my turn ended swiftly. Rolling for the Mystery Objective, the result was a 2 and had No Effect.*

Initial Moves:


Off to capture objectives:



Mr.Mystery Turn 1:
Feeling confident in my jink saves and T5, Mr. Mystery began his advance towards my edge of the table. Large block of 2 Immortal squads and their Lord overseers advanced towards the objective on my side of the table, the Fortress of Redemption completely blocking their line of sight. The Annihilation Barges make their dangerous terrain rolls and glide on top of the Fortress and take aim at my Bikers and the final block of Immortals stay put at the back edge of the tables.


Soon!:


The first shooting of the match begun with me really struggling not to crawl under the table and adopt the foetal position, as the Immortals and Annihilation Barges opened up with about enough tesla weaponry to make Nikola proud. The exact numbers escape me*, but it was enough to completely wipe out my Ravenwing Bike Squad. After Mr.Mystery convinced me that life was worth living after all, he then ran his Immortals towards the objective a mighty 2"....

(Turn 2 and my poor, dead Ravenwing...)

[interrogator_chaplain]

Sad face:


Interrogator_Chaplain Turn 2:
Well... That could've gone better. Was hoping that the Ravenwing would've lasted through Turn 1 at least enough to go in and mess with the Lord and his Immortals for a turn or two, but that was not meant to be it seems.
Turn 2 begun with Belial dropped in (It was at this point that the penny dropped and I realized that I didn't need the Bike to use teleport in as Belial doesn't scatter, d'oh.) with his gang of 6 Terminators where the Ravenwing died.


The small squad of Marines continued to move towards the objective in the middle, the large squad moved further towards the objective on the opposite side and finally the other small squad woke up the Lascannon marine as the Annihilation Barges hove into view.


Shooting began with the Terminator squad blasting the Immortal squad with Belial's storm bolter and the assault cannon. Ultimately, two Immortals were knocked down and did not get back up again.


The shooting on my side continued with the Lascannon marine taking a shot at the Annihilation Barge closest to Mr.Mystery's table edge, and, displaying his typical accuracy, missed entirely. (He does this a lot.) The phase concluded with the Heavy Bolter in the large squad snap-shotting at the Annihilation Barge but failed to hit.

(Mr.Mystery's Second Turn...)

[interrogator_chaplain]

Mr.Mystery Turn 2:
Taking stock of the situation and the new and terrifying block of Terminators, the Immortals began a march towards the Fortress of Redemption to potentially clamber over and lend their firepower.


The other squad of Immortals continued to stand their ground and the Annihilation Barges kept to their positions on the Fortress of Redemption.
The shooting phase blasted everything at the Terminators, with the threat being quite great, the Annihilation Barges and Immortals poured tesla fire at Belial and his men. After a few multiply rolls, it ended with 3 Terminators falling to the ground, their charred corpses smoking in their Tactical Dreadnought Armour.


No assault took place, as the only viable targets were Terminators and, well, let's face it, that would just be foolish.


(Interrogator_Chaplain's Turn 3...)

[interrogator_chaplain]

Interrogator_Chaplain Turn 3:
Well then, thankfully, Terminators lived through everything thrown at them with enough left to actually do something! Belial, starring daggers at the Annihilation Barge with revenge in mind, ordered his Terminators to march towards the Fortress of Redemption. The small Tactical made it to the objective, and with no plan in mind, squatted upon the objective.


Finally the large squad made it to the objective on Mr.Mystery's side,
and the rolled for Mysterious Objective, and rolled a 1!! Rolling for the explosion a roll of 3 was made and no explosion was had.


The shooting phase did NOT begin with the Terminators shooting at anything, as there was something else planned for them. The small Tactical squad shot at the Immortals near the border edge and managed to drop three Immortals*, but only one stayed down for good. (RESSURECTION ORRRRRBBBB!!!) The Lascannon took a shot at the Annihilation Barge closer to my board edge but in his usual fashion missed by a country mile. (I really should paint up another Lascannon guy...)


The large Tactical squad's Heavy Bolter marine took some snap shots at the Annihilation Barge the Lascannon marine shot at and hit once, but failed to glance.
Finally with a vengeance upon his lips, Belial roared the order to charge the Annihilation Barge! As they were standing at the base of the Fortress of Redemption, they had no problem making the charge of about 3". Belial and the three remaining Terminators, one with Assault Cannon and Power Fist and one with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, struck with most furious vengeance and wrecked the Annihilation Barge!


Consolidation was a measly 1". So there was nothing more than a little bit of shifting as the turn ended.

(Mr.Mystery's Turn 3...)

[interrogator_chaplain]

Mr.Mystery's Turn 3:
With just simply nervous look passing across his face, Mr.Mystery set about reacting to the loss of a big source of firepower, which he did by pulling his Immortal Squad further away from the Terminators now dangerous glaring in their way. The large block of Immortals really started freaking out and marched straight to the Fortress to keep the Terminators from going after their leader.


The Annihilation Barge held its position on the Fortress and laid down fire on the squad squatting upon the objective, with 2 shots hitting, 2 wounding and 1 Marine dying.


The fire rained down upon the Terminators* and when all was said and done, the fire from two squads* had killed one Terminator.


So the Terminators remain a threat glaring down on the Immortals guarding his deployment area as Turn 3 ends.

(Interrogator_Chaplain's Turn 4...)

[interrogator_chaplain]

Interrogator_Chaplain's Turn 4:
Finally realizing the stupid amount of danger that I had put them in, I moved the small Tactical squad out of line of sight of the Annihilation Barge, somehow thinking that there's no way the Annihilation Barge could possibly move to see them. (I honestly screwed the pooch with this unit, I had no idea what I was doing.)
I then rolled difficult terrain for the Terminators to get them down and ready to assault the Immortals. I rolled 3". Not really what I needed right now. With a quick pre-measuring I found that I needed 8", not fantastic.
The squad guarding the Objective on the left side continued to hold the objective, rolling for Sabotage failed to blow up. (Both to I and Mr.Mystery's annoyance, we both wanted it to blow up for giggles.)
And the Lascannon squad continued to target the remaining Annihilation Barge, while 3 other Marines taped "Kick me!" signs to his back.

"Brother Gadriel, maybe you should try the 8th Company?"


The Belial and the Terminators elected not to shoot so as to preserve the already tenuous charge range between them and the Immortals.
The small squad also elects not to shoot, mostly because they can't kill the Annihilation Barge and don't want to mess up Belial's charge.
The Lascannon marine takes another mighty shot at the Annihilation Barge, but only manages to burst a bit of flying native fauna. (Seriously, this guy sucks.)
The Objective squad fires the Heavy Bolter at the Annihilation Barge, hitting twice, but failing to glance.

Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for, a pivotal moment, Belial and the 2 remaining Terminators declare a charge on the Immortals. Mr.Mystery overwatches and pulls out three 6's with the Tesla Carbines and drops 6 wounds* on the Terminators, Belial takes 1 wound and the Assault Cannon Terminator dies, but the rest are saved. I then grab the dice, mouth a quick: "The Emperor Protects" and roll:

"6"


So the charge fails... Yeah, that hurt.

Mr.Mystery Turn 4:
After he'd finished his victory dance, he elected to move his troops back to get line of sight on the remaining Terminators.
Looking at my small objective squad with appropriate exhasperation, Mr.Mystery rolled successfully on his dangerous terrain for his Annihilation Barge and moved the Barge onto the objective and as the game type is Big Guns Never Tire, began holding the objective.

"Peek-a-boo!"


The shooting phase began with unholy amounts of Tesla fire being poured onto Belial and his last man from 3 Immortal squads, and without much fanfare their electrocution was swift.


And the Annihilation Barge failed to annihilate anything by failing its to-hit rolls against the small squad. Thus ending at this point, most of the action of the game.

(Interrogator_Chaplain Turn 5...)

[interrogator_chaplain]

Interrogator_Chaplain Turn 5:
We'd entered basically the last of the game by this point. The large squad wasn't moving from the objective, which also failed to explode this turn. The small Tactical squad decided to try and move behind the Annihilation Barge, but just ended up besides it.

The shooting phase saw my small squad attempting to run, but, graciously (Or mostly out of pity... Not sure which), Mr.Mystery pointed out that I could've used a Krak Grenade and allowed me to give that a shot.
The Lascannon marine took yet another shot at the Annihilation Barge, and HIT!!!! Rolling after that is always easier, penetrating the Barge, it Immobilized it.
The large squad took 3 shots at the Barge and hit, but failed to glance.

Finally the small squad assaulted the Barge and managed to glance it, taking it down to 1 hull point.


Mr.Mystery Turn 5:
With the Terminator threat now totally dealt with, the two blocks of Immortals made all speed for the objective on my side.


The other squad of Immortals moved to hide behind the Fortress of Redemption.

The Annihilation Barge, now enraged, turned it's Tesla Destructors (360 arc, as my Marines suddenly learned, the hard way.) and unleashed a hideous storm of green lightning, with something in the neighbourhood of 9 wounds*. The small squad promptly failed 5 and was wiped out.

"LastPost.mp3"


The Immortals ran towards the objective but only managed 1".

We rolled on Random Game Length and it came up as 5, Turn 6 ho!

(Both players Turn 6&7...)

[interrogator_chaplain]

Interrogator_Chaplain & Mr.Mystery Turns 6&7:

Interrogator_Chaplain Turn 6:
Rolling on the Sabotaged objective failed to explode yet again.
Both squads stayed put, the Lascannon marine took a shot at the Annihilation Barge but missed. The Heavy Bolter marine in the large squad took 3 shots at the Barge but failed to do damage.

Mr.Mystery Turn 6:
The Immortals move up and capture the objective on my side of the table. (I cannot, for the life of me remember what the Mysterious Objective was.) As there is nothing in range, there is no shooting and the second Immortals group runs to also be on top of the Objective.


Rolling Random Game Length, it's a 4! Turn 7!

Interrogator_Chaplain Turn 7:
For the final time, the sabotaged objective fails to explode. What a lousy trap.

The Lascannon and Heavy Bolter fail to do anything to the Annihilation barge once again. Seriously, going to have to do something about that Lascannon.

Mr.Mystery Turn 7:
Basically nothing, the Immortals envelope the objective.


And that's game!

Interrogator_Chaplain: 3 Points! 1 Objective!
Mr.Mystery: 8 Points! First Blood, Slay the Warlord, 2 Objectives!

(Postgame...)

[interrogator_chaplain]

Postgame!
It was a fantastic game with me making a lot of my classic tactical blunders, but very fun none the less. I could blame a lot of my brain farts on the fact that I was in the throws of a nasty 24-hour head cold (I fell asleep in Bugman's after the game waiting for my ride, it sucked.) but I won't. I really shouldn't have played my Ravenwing the way I did, but as it was the first time playing Belial, I was ignorant of that rule. I also should've swapped the big squad and the small squads that were going for objectives, but I mistakenly thought Mr.Mystery was going to make a play for all 3 objectives.
Some of it was bad luck (*Cough*Lascannon*Cough*) but it was mostly foolish tactics on my part. It was lessons well learned, and if we'd had a chance to play again, I think things would've gone differently, but that's how it is sometimes.

Necrons take the Bluenose! (Canadian Dime)


Necron Dead (3 Immortals and 1 Annihilation Barge)


Dark Angel Dead (1 Ravenwing Bike Squad, 1 Deathwing Terminator Squad, Belial, 0.5 Combat Squadded Tactical Squad)


I'd like to thank Mr. Mystery for coming out to game against me and helping make my vacation all the more special, it really was one of the best highlights of my trip and the memories will last much longer now that I've got it down in Battle Report form. If you'd like to post a detailed Army List, I can edit and include it in the first post.

And thanks to all of you who read through, I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and feedback on my Batrep writing would be appreciated!

(P.S. Mr. Mystery, you left your tape measurer behind, I have it, if you want me to send it to you give me a PM.)