Played against captPiett and his Baran Siege Masters (BSM) this morning. He was thrilled to let me see his new bunkers up close and personal...you can see them in his painting thread! He'll post his list later.

My List (2970 points):
1. Traitor Retinue (8 CSM, 1 CSM Sorcerer Lord, 2 Dreadnaughts, 10 Drop Pods) - 425
2. Traitor Retinue (8 CSM, 1 CSM Warlord, 8 Drop Pods) - 315
3. Terminator Retinue (6 Terminators, 1 CSM Chaos Lord, 1 Obliterator) - 470
4. Chaos Thunderhawk - 250
5. Chaos Thunderhawk - 250
6. Raptor Cult (7 Raptor unit, 1 CSM Chaos Lord) - 280
7. Raptor Cult (7 Raptor unit, 1 CSM Chaos Lord) - 280
8. Armored Company (6 Predators) - 300
9. Hellblade Interceptors (3 Hellblade Interceptors) - 200
10. Chaos Strike Cruiser - 200

You'll notice I didn't pay for my Warlord. This is because in the current list there's actually no cost for the upgrade, he's just one of the flavors of free lord you can take. As such, I was able to fit an Obliterator into my list when I shouldn't have.

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SET UP

After placing objectives, captPiett placed his bunkers, trenches, and barbed wire, surrounding one of the objectives I placed. He then went to wander around the store while I plotted my OB and drops. I declared I was dropping in on turn 1.


DEPLOYMENT

captPiett garrisoned, and then we did the rest of our deployment. You'll notice he avoided his own bunkers and trenches, he was gambling that I had plotted the OB there. The rest of my army is off table. The two Retinues are in the spaceship, each Raptor Cult is in a Thunderhawk, and the Terminators will teleport in.



TURN 1

I won the dice roll (eventually, we tied at least once). I opened up with my Strike Cruiser, with the OB coming down on his right flank. I figured he was going to avoid deploying in such a concentrated area, since both of my template would have hit everything there. I hit his Roughriders with a Commissar and Infantry Company with Thud Guns.




The Traitor Retinue with Dreads dropped into the bunkers, and the Traitor Retinue with the Warlord dropped into the bunkers. Deathwind laid a bm on Infantry Company with Rapiers #2.



I retained with my Traitor Retinue with Dreads, sustaining on Infantry Company with Rapiers #1.


BSM Artillery Company #1 sustained on my Warlord formation, killing 2 and laying 3 bm. (I missed taking a picture here.) The Warlord formation then marshalled, shooting Infantry Company with Rapiers #2, removing all blast markers.


The first unit of Thunderbolts came in, with a ground attack on my Predators, laying a bm.


My Hellblades went on CAP.


Infantry Company with Rapiers #1 marshalled, shooting on the Retinue with Dreads, and removing a few bm.


The Infantry Company with Thud Guns also marshalled, just laying another bm and removing most of their bm.


Being (overly) cautious, the first Thunderhawk just laid a bm on the Blitzen in emplacements.


Artillery Company #2 sustained on the Warlord formation, laying a bm.


The second Thunderhawk, also being (overly) cautious, killed one of the Blitzen in the forest on captPiett's right flank.


The Roughriders with a Commissar marched.


My Predators doubled, hoping to kill off some more Blitzen. Hoping was the key word, they only laid a bm.


Infantry Company with Rapiers #2 sustained on my Predators, killing one.


Blitzen in emplacements attempted to marshall, and failed, breaking in the process.


The Infantry Company with snipers marched, settling on the objective.


The Blitzen in the forest attempted to marshall, failed to activate, and just regrouped.


The BSM SC formation (it was HUGE) went on overwatch.


The Sigfrieds marched.


The Roughriders also marched.


Thunderbolts #2 came in and ground attacked my Predators. My Hellblades intercepted, and took fire from the Blitzen in the forest. I saved with a 6, then captPiett saved with a 6, and then knocked out 2 Predators. They fell back to hang out on an objective if they rallied.




END TURN 1.

TURN 2

Everything but the Blitzen rallied.


The Terminators teleport in but the Infantry Company with Snipers, taking just one bm.


I win strategy. The predators advance, killing off a sniper and a few guardsmen in a crossfire.


I retained and engaged with the Terminators. It was bloody.



Artillery Company #1 sustained yet again on my Warlord formation.


captPiett retained and engaged with Infantry Company with Rapiers #2. It was also bloody, and I lost my reroll.



I followed up with my Thunderhawk full of wing-a-ling Raptor Cult, engaging the Infantry with Thud Guns. I wiped out the unit with hackdowns.



Artillery company #2 sustained on my Retinue with Dreads, and I couldn't even make a 3+ save in those loyal, loyal bunkers, losing 2 CSM.


My Hellblades attempted to go on CAP, and failed, standing down.


The Roughriders engaged my Predators, wiping them out.



After a lot of deliberation, I ended up engaging with Thunderhawk #2 and Blue Raptor Cult, intermingling the two Artillery Companies. It wasn't pretty, but there were survivors. Apparently the attack needed more cowbell.



Infantry Company with Rapiers #1 advanced and broke the Retinue with Dreads. Poor Jim and Steve.


The Blitzen in the forest went on overwatch.

Thunderbolts #1 ground attacked Blue Raptor Cult, laying a bm.


Thunderbolts #2 ground attacked the Retinue that formerly contained Dreads, hacking down half of them.


BSM SC formation decided to engage Blur Raptor Cult, declaring them intermingled with the Thunderhawk. They wiped the Raptors out to the man with hackdowns, but the Thunderhawk survived because it was outside of 15cm.



The Roughriders with Commissar marched again.


And the Sigfrieds doubled towards my blitz.


END TURN 2

TURN 3

I failed to rally my broken Retinue. captPiett finally rallied his Blitzen in emplacements.


I won the strategy, and immediately brought on my Hellblades, ground attacking the Roughriders.


I retained and engaged with my Terminators, wiping the Roughriders out in ff. (Forgot to take a "before" picture)


Infantry Company with Rapiers #1 attempted to double, failed to activate, and just moved into the woods.


The Wing-a-ling Raptor Cult engaged the Blitzen in the forest.



Infantry Company #2 marched, finally settling into their bunkers.


Thunderhawk #1 came on, activating with 4 bms, and ground attacked the Sigfrieds, landing in the forest.


Thunderbolt #1 ground attacked the Wing-a-ling Raptor Cult, breaking them.


Thunderhawk #2, with 2bm, failed to activate and stood down.


Thunderbolt #2 ground attacked the Wing-a-ling Raptors.


The mighty Sigfrieds engaged the landed Thunderhawk, losing two to walker tests. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.



The Roughriders with Commissar engaged the remains of my Retinue with Dreads, and it wasn't pretty.



The BSM SC marched.


The Blitzen in emplacements marshalled.


END TURN 3

TURN 4

I forgot to take a picture at the start of turn 4. However, captPiett only had Defend the Flag. I rallied the lone Wing-a-ling Raptor, and denied They Shall Not Pass. The Thunderhawk holding my blitz stayed on the ground.

I won strategy, and the lone Wing-a-ling Raptor marched back to help get Defend the Flag. At the time, it felt safer than denying They Shall Not Pass, and I knew I had a chance at contesting captPiett's DtF.


Alas, Thunderbolt #1 came on and broke the Wing-a-ling Raptor. All that running for nothing.


Thunderhawk #2 (with 1DC left, by the way) heroically landed in the forest, contesting captPiett's blitz, and denying him DtF. He would be forced to deal with it, and hopefully it would force him off other objectives.


Thunderbolts #2 made it on, and just laid a bm on the Thunderhawk.


My Terminators went on overwatch.

Infantry Company with Rapiers #1 doubled, broke, and hacked down the Thunderhawk. My only chance at forcing it to points (or the dreaded 5th turn when it's 2 hours past lunch) was to get my Hellblades on the table, and break the Infantry Company with Rapiers #1. I could do it with 6 hits, if he saved none of them. I rolled well, but he was in cover so two of the dice didn't count, and I only got four hits, saving one of them (I think?)


At this point we called the game. I was out of activations, and couldn't contest any of his objectives.

END TURN 4

Baran Siege Masters: 2 (They Shall Not Pass, Defend the Flag)
Red Corsairs: 0

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--Ruth

Night Lords Sub-AC

Night Lords Painting Blog

Here's my list:

A Steaming Pile o' Siege, 3000 POINTS
Baran Siege Masters (NetEA Compendium 1.0)
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REGIMENTAL HQ [450]
Supreme Commander, 9 Siege Infantry, Sniper unit, Hellhound Squadron (3 Hellhounds), Siege Infantry Platoon (6 Siege Infantry)

INFANTRY COMPANY [250]
Commander, 9 Siege Infantry, Rapier Platoon (3 Rapier laser destroyer units)

INFANTRY COMPANY [250]
Commander, 9 Siege Infantry, Rapier Platoon (3 Rapier laser destroyer units)

INFANTRY COMPANY [250]
Commander, 9 Siege Infantry, Thudd Gun Platoon (3 Guns)

INFANTRY COMPANY [225]
Commander, 9 Siege Infantry, 2 Sniper units

LIGHT TANK PLATOON [150]
6 Siegfried Light Tanks

ROUGH RIDER PLATOON [150]
6 Rough Riders

ROUGH RIDER PLATOON [150]
6 Rough Riders

SAPPER PLATOON [250]
8 Sapper Units

SIEGE REGIMENT ARTILLERY BATTERY [150]
3 Gotterdammerung Howitzers, 3 Land Crawlers

SIEGE REGIMENT ARTILLERY BATTERY [150]
3 Gotterdammerung Howitzers, 3 Land Crawlers

SIEGE REGIMENT FLAK BATTERY [100]
3 Blitzen AA Guns, Land Crawlers

SIEGE REGIMENT FLAK BATTERY [100]
3 Blitzen AA Guns, Gun Emplacements

FORTIFIED POSITION [75]
Up to 50cm trenches, 50cm razor wire, plus 6 Gun Emplacements.

THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150]
2 Thunderbolts

THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150]
2 Thunderbolts

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Let us playtest like the Greeks of old... You know the ones I mean

Thanks for the report! Great report!

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https://epic40ksweden.wordpress.com/

"You have a right to be offended" - Steve Hughes
"Your feelings are hurting my thoughts" - Aron Flam

Many thanks for the report! Good to see fellow siegies in action (especially when he has modeled fortifications ), in great amount of pics. Moreover the Chaos units look very good aswell!

As BSM player I'm curious about how the Sappers were splitted? Did they have any impact in engagements?
Since I have planned the same for my battles, but in the last moments, decided to rather keep them together, further pumping the activation, also seperating the tasks.

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The casualities today have been spent well, with righteous determination and thus victory is achieved! Well done, Lord Commander!

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Epic Commander of the Prassium Invasion Troops 214th Regiment
***Action is our prayer. Victory is our offering.***

Great report, and interesting tactics on both sides.
So what have each of you learned, and what would you have done differently?

I'm not entirely sure what I would have changed. I would have liked to be able to do more with the predators, and it was risky (a poor decision, really) to leave then parked right in front of that infantry company. I could have also had at least 4 land raiders for the same price, which might have been a little more resilient. I probably could have stood to get closer with the thunderhawks on turn 1. They were going to take those aa shots on the way out anyways. Since they were light vehicles I could have had 4 shots on them instead of just hoping to get lucky with one.

I'll have to admit that this is one of very few games that the thunderhawks have survived to the last turn of the game. I (maybe we, I know captPiett changed the thunderhawk in the EC list) still feel that the chaos thunderhawk is overpriced. It either needs a price reduction to be on par with the SM thunderhawk, or a shot in the arm of some sort to rationalize the increased price. Red Corsairs is meant to be a traitor marine list, which implies that they have the same things available to them, minus ATSKNF. It doesnt make sense for somethi.g that's worse to cost more.

Just my two cents on that whole issue.

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--Ruth

Night Lords Sub-AC

Night Lords Painting Blog

Commissar: I split the sappers between 4 infantry companies. The theory was that they could boost the companies' assault capabilities in attack and defense. Also a whole formation of sappers would attract undue attention or be completely avoided (relatively easily with their 15cm movement) as no one wants to be BtB with 8 EA+1 MW attacks. I was able to use one of them in an assault, and the MW actually hit. He was killed for his trouble. The assault (the one that killed the RC warlord) was prepped and I went in with an advantage, so I'm not sure the sappers made a difference. I also used them to shield my rapiers and thud guns since they don't have cc values. I think that's my main gripe with Baran. Everything should at least have a 6+. Even a tractor can run over someone. Tractors, being tractors in a siege list, should have walker too. As uberChris so accurately put it, Baran siege masters aren't so much siege masters as besieged masters. I'm not too worked up about it though. The sappers could've been replaced with deathstrikes or a shadowsword plus another sniper somewhere and been better equipped to deal with WEs.

The attempt to claim the blitz with an assault on the landed t-hawk was pretty reckless, not sure if I would've done that again. On the RC, the heavy air assault build Ruth used was hard hitting, but it allowed me to hide away my scouts to get on the other side of the board (difficult for Baran), concentrate on the predators, and generally absorb the blow and counter with the remaining activations. I think testing should explore how well a t-hawk boosts a non-drop army.

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Let us playtest like the Greeks of old... You know the ones I mean

Love siegemasters, I really do..... nice report guys thanks for sharing

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Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

[quote="captPiett"]Baran siege masters aren't so much siege masters as besieged masters.

Yeah, the army title suggests that they excel in breaking tough enemy defences, but in reality, they excel at being attacked (hence the 0-1 sappers and strategy 1). I also found it amusing that the army notes stated that the list could also represent a Planetary Defense Force (ie. a desperate defence with no outside help ) but did not mention any list modifications. The "we'll grind them into paste" attrition style of play can be rough to face, but it suits them well - I hope to field the army sometime in the future (Warning: the holding of one's breath could be hazardous to one's health).

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"Live off the land. Go to find war. Kill wot comes close. The old ways are best." - Grodd, Ork Snakebite Runtherd