Quote: (nealhunt @ 27 Aug. 2008, 21:58 )
Going totally from the description, so only a fuzzy idea of where things really were, I would have gone with...
1) Warhound sustains on the Chosen with BMs.  There's about a 50% chance of 2 kills, which would break them outright - 4 units, 5 BMs (2 from teleport, 2 from kills, 1 for coming under fire).
2) If they don't break, FF them with the Reaver with the Warhound and Termies in support.  FF is not likely to wipe out the shields, so no kills for CSMs, average ~2 kills for marines, no BM vs BM, outnumbering (Reaver at 6, Chosen almost certainly at least 1 casualty)... that's about +4 resolution mod (+5, -1 for Inspiring DP).  That should have stripped them down to just the DP and the Reaver should have been able to get close enough to the Termies that if the other Chosen assaulted, it could support.  In fact, if the placement was right, the Reaver could have left one of the non-engaged Chosen in support range just so they would get a BM for supporting a lost engagement.
If you get lucky and they break then you hammer the other formation of Chosen with either the Reaver or the Termies and make sure you keep everyone close enough to support against any assaults.
Hmmm - not so sure there Neal. In retrospect, I did make two slight blunders and as a consequence, your approach might have done better than TRC's. Instead of teleporting into a cross-fire position and placing the DPs in the rear of each formation relative to the WEs, it seems the formations would probably have been better side-by-side with the DPs in the front; or even possibly intermingled to provide a 12 strong formation.
However, assuming I had placed the Chosen better, or you had left the second formation "in support", and given average dice rolling I think the assault stats would be pretty close :-
:- Black Legion would get 12x 3+ and 2x 3+ MW (assuming no Oblits

)
:- Marines would get 10x 3+ and 3x 4+
That should work out at BL getting 8 normal and 1.3 MW hits, Vs Marines getting 8 normal hits. After the shields are stripped away, I think that could still cause ~2 hits on the Reaver, while assuming the DP is in the front rank, slightly less than 2 Chosen die in return. OK, so the marines are up +2 overall for BMs ('Inspiring' cancelling out outnumbering) and the BL lose with the broken DP and 1 or two Chosen scuttling off somewhere (as occurred in the game).
However, the BL now have the second Chosen formation together with a set of Daemons ready to pounce on the unshielded and damaged Reaver in CC. Given the large number of normal and MW dice this would generate, I would suggest there is every chance that the Reaver would die before the supports get a look in, leaving a relatively undamaged Chosen formation (~5 units and Daemons) sitting on the Blitz with the WH and Termies in attendance - by no means a foregone conclusion either way in the following turn ÂÂ
Worse, given that the broken DP has moved more than 30cms away, it has a 2/3 chance of rallying, shedding all it's BMs, generating more daemons and coming back into the fight to tip the odds back in favour of the BL.
Or in summary, statistically the 970 point BL formations would seem to be roughly equivalent to the 1325 point Marine formations. Does that seem right?? ÂÂ
