Epic Marine Victory!

Good afternoon,

Yesterday afternoon Mark O and I got together for a good ol' Epic Bash, the likes of which I haven't had for ages.

Good stuff!

I was pitting my Marines...

• 1 Tactical Detachment with Supreme Commander and Rhinos
• 6 Marine stands with transports
• 1 Tactical Detachment with 2 Dreadnaughts
• 6 Marine stands with, well, Dreadnaughts
• 1 Terminator Detachment with Librarian
• 4 Terminator stands - tough blighters, they've got re-rolls on their armour saves
• 1 Assault Detachment
• 4 Assault Marine stands
• 1 Land Raider Detachment
• 4 Land Raiders with re-enforced armour. Think Judge Dredd Land Raider
• 1 Predator Annihilator Detachment
• 4 Predators - the smaller tanks
• 1 Whirlwind Detachment
• 4 Whirlwinds - rocket launching, well, Rhinos really
• 1 Bike Detachment
• 5 Bike stands
• 2 Warhound Titans
• Mark's two white walker things

...against Mark's Orks...

• 1 Gargant with Warlord
• 1 Stompa Mod with Dreadnaughts
• 6 Stompas and 4 Dreads
• 1 Blitz Brigade with Odd Boyz
• 6 Gunwagons with 2 Odd Boy speedas with supper zappy guns.
• 1 Blitz Brigade
• 8 Deth Koptas
• 1 Cult of Speed
• 8 Buggies
• 1 Cult of Speed
• 8 Bikes stands
• 2 Warbands
• 2 Nobs stands, 6 Boys' stands and 2 Grots stands
• 1 Storboyz Warhorde
• 6 Stormboy stands

So, we set up...







Mark deployed his two infantry-only formations garrisoned in two of the ruins...



...while I garrisoned mine just across the way.


And away we went.

Mark stomped up the centre of the ruins, so I rolled forward with my Predators and took down its shields.


To the left, I scooted forward and grabbed the other end of the ruins that contained Mark's other Warband, backed up by a heap of bikes.


Determined to take out that Gargant, I sent forward my two Warhound titans, which managed to inflict some damage. Not enough as I'd like, but there you go...


Mark flew his Deth Kopters to threaten my left flank, so I sent forward my Land Raiders (well, I wanted to secure the hill anyways)...


...and, supported by my bikes, they finished up the Kopters.


Unfortunately, I also suffered some losses to the bikes.


On the other flank, Mark tried to take on my Whirlwinds with a double move around the ruins with his buggies...



...while he stomped up his Stompas in the centre.


So, at the end of Turn 1, things looked something like this.



At the beginning of the next turn, I teleported my Terminator detatchment in behind the Odd Boyz' Blitz Brigade and close assaulted them.


Huzzah!


Unfortunately, the Stompas across the way unleased a gazillion shots on my Land Raiders, and, well...


...that was the number of saves I had to make! I only failed 3, but, well...3 dead Land Raiders from 4 still makes one thoroughly broken formation!

In the meantime I at least was able to hurl a Whirlwind barrage atop those threatening buggies...


...which saw what was left of them scarpering off.


Not as of as far as I would have liked, but there you go.

Back at the other end of the 'city', I brought forward my Tactical Marines, supported by their Assault brothers, and managed to break their opposing Orks - the ruins were ours!


Wasn't sure what to do about those Bikes...


...or more worringly, those stupid stinking Stompas!


But at least I had control of one of the objectives.


As it happened, I needn't have worried about those Bikes staring down my Tacticals.  They shot off and mobbed my own bikes, with, well...


...predictable results.


Worse still, even though my Warhounds had broken Mark's Gargant, he managed to rally it at the end of the turn.


So, at the end of the turn, I was facing another threat to my Whirlwinds - Mark had flown them to threaten my rear at the end of the turn - and I had nothing in range with which to defend them. I was unable to rally my remaining Land Raider...



In fact, those Bikes looked rather menacing too.


So there we were at the end of Turn 2.






I won the initiative for Turn 3, and, well...


...I piled on some more hurt from the Whirlwinds!


Alas, so did Mark on my Terminators from his Stompa Mob.


That's how many saves I had to make!


(And this is the same shot taken from my phone.)


After loosing another Terminator stand, I figured, well, if I stay there I'm gonna get slowly but surely cut down, so, well...

...in they go!

They took out some Killa Kanz before they themselves got squashed, but, importantly, they also piled on some more blast markers. Same # of BMs on a unit as # of stands in that unit and they break. (Well, apart from the Marines, where it takes two per remaining element to break them). So piling on the hurt takes it's toll...


That dratted Gargant...


...also took a toll on my poor Predators.


Two more down, only one blast marker away from breaking.

Ah, but speaking of being close to the edge, I thought, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, and flew in my Assault Marines to try to push the Stompas over.

Unfortunately, even with the support of their Tactical brothers behind them, the initial assault was a draw, so...onto round 2.


It didn't end well for the Marines. Wiped out to a man. But they did manage to put enough blast markers on the Stompas that the formation broke and fled.

Back in the centre, my Warhounds poured some fire into the garrisoned Ork Warband...


...and managed to break them too!


Huzzah!

And at the end of the turn, I even managed to rally the Land Raider, though it still came back with a BM...


...which immediately pushed it over the edge when it came under fire from the buggies.


(You automatically receive 1 BM for coming under fire).

However, return fire from the Tactical formation that I pulled back for the task broke them in turn.


Last move of the turn, and Mark moves up those dreaded Bikes from the hill, ready to strike next turn. Gulp.


At least the Gargant wasn't in a very good way. Only three hull points left before boom time.


Alas for me, Mark wins the initiative for the Turn 4, and, before I could pound him, he pounced on my Whirlwinds.

They broke and fled, which gave him possession of my base line objective.

Bother.


And to add insult to injury, the Gargant finally managed to take out the remaining Predators.

Here they aren't here.


But, with some lucky shots with my Warhounds, I managed to take another point of damage off the Gragant, which breaks it, and score a critical hit, which caused an ongoing fire!

He moves it to his right, behind the hill.


I move forward my Tacticals to try to secure that forward objective...


...while my other Tactical formation runs the other way to try to deal with those bikes.




Unsuccessfully.

Meanwhile my Warhounds look after the objective that the Tacticals have just left so they can deal with the bikes.


As a last gasp measure, Mark then secrets forward what remains of one of his Warbands to secure for himself the objective that my Tacticals had vacated to secure that forward objective.


And so the game ended. Neither of us had secured enough of the objectives to claim a Victory Point...

 

...so it came down to points destroyed or broken. I won with a ratio of 2:1.

:-)

 

And a good time was had by all!

 

Thanks for the game Mark, it was quite a challenge, and great fun!

 

Nick

Oh, and you can read Mark's account of the battle here.