This was my first game with DS since last June I believe. It's not that we don't game together anymore, more that we have more opponents now! He fielded his AM while I took a Storm Eagle/Drop-Heavy list.

DS, if you have your list can you post it?

Raven Guard
475 Tactical
  Supreme Commander, Hunter
300 Tactical (Drop Pods)
350 Raven Guard Assault (Drop)
  Storm Eagles
350 Raven Guard Assault (Drop)
  Storm Eagles
200 Land Speeders (Drop)
200 Land Speeders (Drop)
250 Land Speeders (Drop)
   3 Tornado, 2 Typhoon
250 Land Speeders
   3 Tornado, 2 Typhoon
400 Terminators (Teleport)
  Chaplain
200 Strike Cruiser
2975(9)

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

Turn 1
Strategy: Raven Guard

Start of Game


Start of Game


The orbital bombardment hits some targets.


Two Praetorians and two Sentinels go down, the Hydra take a BM.


The Tacticals hit dirtside and place a BM on the Sentinels and Skitarri.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

The Land Speeders and Storm Eagles land.


The remaining drop forces.


The Raven Guard retains and assaults the Ordinatus.


The Marines are wiped out, but the Ordinatus nearly broken.


It attempt to advance, fails, re-rolls, fails again and breaks. The Land Speeders chase it down.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

The Tacticals attempt to sustain but fail and take a BM, they fire on the Macharius.


The Reaver advances out of the Speeders ZoC and destroys all but one of them.


Another group of Speeders double and break the Basilisk.


The Land Speeders retain and advance on the Ordinatus, they destroy it with a crit. The broken Sentinel, Hydra and Basilisk are all hacked down by the BM from the crit.


The Macharius advance out of the ZoC of the Speeders and destroy all but one.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

The Marauders straffe the Speeders and take out one.


The Raven Guard Assault double to within charge range of the Reaver.


End Phase
Everything but a single Land Speeder rallies.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

Turn 2
Strategy: Raven Guard

Turn 2


Turn 2


The SC engages the Skitarii thanks to their Rhinos.


Two marines go down, all but the Tech-Lord, a Praetorian and a Skitarii stand remain.


The Terminators attempt to engage, fail, re-roll and fail again. They fire on the Reaver.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

The Reaver engages the Raven Guard Assault.


It makes all of its saves, a single Storm Eagle and Marine stand break.


The Tacticals advance on the Macharius, score two hits, a crit and break them.


The Land Speeders retain, fail and advance towards them.


The Marauders break the Land Speeders on their second run.


End Phase
Everything but the Macharius and Raven Guard Assault Rally.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

Turn 3
Strategy: Adeptus Mechanicus

Turn 3


Turn 3


The Reaver advances on the Terminators and destroys one.


The Land Speeders sustain on the broken Macharius.


The Marauders straffe the tacticals and destroy two stands.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

They attempt to advance, fail, and regroup.


The Land Speeders take their turns on the Tech-Lord, he finally goes down.


Another Land Speeder doubles to the Marine Blitz.


The HQ advance on the Tech-Lord's sole remaining Praetorian, destroys it and claims Defend the Flag.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

End of Game


End of Game

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

Thanks for the report!  Great pictures!

You battlefield does look a little light on terrain/cover; not a lot of places to hunker down.  What do the "brown patches" represent?

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Failing to activate the Ordinatus with the re-roll (and having it break) was the nail in the coffin. With it broken I just kept on hammering it to get BTS, and with the crit I scored 3 more of DS's formations that were broken were hacked down. After that he only had 3 activations on the board and by the end of turn 3 it was 5-0 Raven Guard. There was a pretty hefty RG cassuality pile though at the end of the game (see the second to last picture, they're in the bottom right).

Short of putting them in a Thunderhawk I think Storm Eagles are the best option for the Raven Guard Assault. Between the 15cm planetfall placement and a 35cm move, chances are you can get them into base-to-base.

In terms of place style, dropping lots of speeders really puts you in a "shoot first" mentality. I find myself retaining a lot more then I do with the core Marine list (and failing a lot more ), in attempt to break another formation before it can fire at me.

Neal, I have another batrep from last Wednesday against Black Legion. It was using LI's old playtest stats though so it will be of little use to Steve. Are you interested in seeing it?

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

The hills were scrub and the brown stuff rubble. -1 to hit infantry in both, -1 to hit vehicles only in the rubble.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

Yes.

What's your overall impression of the list?  It looks like RG's been winning most of the fights.  Even granting some lack of experience against massive drops and the occasional bad die roll (like the Ordinatus in this one), it looks to me like it might be a bit too powerful.

_________________
Neal

Allowing planetfalling Speeders makes it possible to have nearly your entire army drop. They're also in a position to do some harm where normally you have to spend atleast one turn maneuvering them. Between that and the re-roll on scatter, upping the cost of them or the Strike Cruiser might be in order. On the other hand, they die like flies when they drop (3 formations reduced to 1 LS each after 3 turns in this battle).

Let me get a few more games in against them, Matt and I have only played one so far. I want to see if it's inexperience playing against a drop heavy list rather than a balance issue.

I'll post the Black Legion one now too.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17