Had another game against dptdexys last night, I took the following:
Retinue - warlord, pact, obliterator - 425
Retinue - pact, rhinos - 340
Terminators - pact - 325 (testing them at 300)
Chosen - pact, pods - 285
berzerkers - pact - 300 (testing at 8 stands)
Brass scorpions - 250
thunderhawk - 200
thunderhawk - 200
strike cruiser - 200
Hellblades - 200
Hell Talons - 225
+5 lesser daemons - 50 (testing at CC4+/10 points each)
dptdexys took the following:
HQ - gorgons
infantry company - gorgons
infantry company - gorgons
death rider company
shadowsword
shadowsword
AA guns
AA guns
field guns
thunderbolts
thunderbolts
I transported the terminators and berzerkers in thunderhawks, and put the chosen in pods, Dave massed more over on my left side, I plotted the barrage and pods 12cm in from his blitz (actually forgot it was a strike cruiser and thought I had a pinpoint until we both remembered!)
Turn 1
RC win initiative, spaceship activates and templates hit field guns and infantry company, killing ~6 stands, drop pod scatters and ends up on the backline, chosen summon 2 daemons and engage and destroy the AA, chosen are then engaged by damaged infantry company and reduced to a single broken stand, hellblades refuse to ground attack and stand down, there is some tit-for-tat shooting, including a hell talon being CAP-ed and shot down attempting to hit the right most infantry company who are out of the gorgons, no shots fired due to jink. As the last RC activation, the berzerkers ground attack the infantry company, they score the full 9 hits, killing 5 infantry and doing a point of damage on the gorgon, they take 5 hits in return and fail four saves
they lose the combat by 1 and break, the thunderhawk exploding in the process.... the terminators had planned to land and shoot the rough riders claiming a crossfire from the berzerkers, but they are now forced to engage, the thunderhawk takes a point of damage from CAPing thunderbolts, but the terminators kill 4 death riders and lose 1 in return, winning the combat, no chaos units rally, all the krieg stuff does.... ![:{[]](./images/smilies/headbang.gif "Headbang")
turn 2
RC win strategy roll, mounted RC retinue engages and breaks one shadowsword, scorpions retain and break the other, reducing it to 1DC, Krieg infantry company engages mounted retinue, breaking them, hellblades fail to activate again, wasting the re-roll in the process.... grrrr.... krieg continue to strip activations from RC, tbolts kill a terminator stand, breaking the formation, no RC formations rally....
Turn 3
RC win strategy roll, scorpions sustain on death riders, wiping them out, krieg fail to engage them wasting the re-roll, hellblades kill a shadowsword with a crit, shadowsword blasts a scorpion to bits, foot retinue doubles back to blitz to hide from nearby infantry company, other gorgon company engages and destroys terminators, thanks to lone berzerker rallying, krieg are denied the victory on turn 3
Turn 4
Krieg win rolloff, berzerker is engaged and saves the 4 hits caused on him, he still loses and breaks, thunderhawk lands to contest T&H objective, but is plinked and broken, then destroyed by thunderbolts, krieg march onto RC blitz and win 4-0 (Blitz, T&H, DTF, TSNP)
Thoughts:
I struggled to make a dent in the huge infantry companies here, the bad luck with the berzerkers failing so many saves turned a solid position into a winning one for dave, my lack of ground units able to march up and engage really hurt in this game, as well as solid flak cover, the problem with the list for codex-marine style play is that it lacks really cheap yet useful formations like scouts or thunderbolts which allow you to pump your activation count up, 2 thunderhawks full of troops mean you can't hope to out-activate your opponents and end up throwing the thunderhawks in early and exposing them, I'll try something different next week
on the changes, all seemed fine, daemons are still useful but felt good at 10 points for a single CC4+ attack, berzerkers felt right at 8 stands, there are some applications that they excel at (shredding infantry for example) and the increased unit size is nice, they are also great out of a thunderhawk, they didn't feel overpowered, but they felt competetive which was nice, terminators again didn't get a chance to get stuck in properly
unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the game, I'll do better next time!
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