Hi all,
So my club recently played the Apocalypse battle I designed earlier. While the game tilted one direction by the end it was actually decently close. This was our first apoc game of 10th and I wasn’t sure how it would all shake out. I hope you enjoy the report!
Set Up:
The only changes I made to the deployment rules was that I allowed the attackers to have a 12″ bubble of deployment on each wing board. This was to keep the defenders from just walling them off.
The attackers consisted of Orks, Eldar, Imperial Guard and Space Marines. The defenders included four Space marine players. There were pretty even amounts of superheavies on both side. The defenders had Two warhounds as their major ones while the attackers had a Mastodon, Porphyrion and Revenant Titan. Both sides had an Astraeus and a Falchion. The defenders fielded close to 14 dreadnoughts of almost every variety. The defenders decided to screen out the back board but that left them undermanned on the main battleline.
Turn 1:
Our club rules allowing all monsters and vehicles to act on their bracket at the start of the round, and roll to explode at the end of the round made the carnage this turn pretty fearsome. The defenders managed to hold their objectives (burning their once per game strat) but they lost both Warhound titans (even with the nerfed Fate dice) the Astraeus, Falchion and more than half their dreadnoughts. The attackers also lost a number of models but benefited from some poor dice rolls by the defenders.
One of the best moments comes from the left hand side of the battle. A large umber of Salamanders are holed up in a ruin. Their dreads charge out and are killed to a man, however 2/5 dreadnoughts explode dealing enough mortal wounds to kill the Astraeus which also explodes. The entire flank is rocked by waves of mortal wounds washing over the tightly packed troops.
Another fun moment comes when a Landraider charges a Shadowsword, gets blown up on overwatch (but is not removed until the end of the round) and then kills a manticore with its lascannons.
Turn 2:
Both sides bring in their reinforcements. On the left flank the defenders manage to largely hold their ground while the right flank begins to crumble. The Avatar is wrecking havoc, while the defenders make a few poor tactical choices resulting in the two right hand objectives quickly falling. The attackers do lose the Revenant titan (due to another tank exploding) but are starting to run out of enemy vehicles to kill. Imperial Guard artillery hammers the defenders and the benefits of the Colossus Bombard become apparent.
The Guard begin bringing in reinforcements from their drills and Crassus transport. These units end up getting charged by some bladeguard and a full unit of terminators. Despite the re-rolls the terminators largely fail to do anything to the transport, while the troopers are minced by the Bladeguard.
The Salamanders continue to hold the ruins, killing the enemy Levi dread although they are reduced to one 7-man tactical squad. This squad is charged by the Morkanaught but it only kills three and isn’t able to get on the objective. As expected, these dauntless warriors are bravely holding an entire flank by themselves.
Turn 3:
At this point the defenders know they have likely lost, but will die on their feet. The attackers have killed most enemy vehicles, but still hold two objectives (although one is held only by 4 tactical marines. The attackers surge forwards dumping out a unit of assault centurions and Eradicators on the last objective on the left flank. The Salamanders are finally overwhelmed by the attackers, while the Avatar continues his carnage on the right.
The defenders counter-charge on their last objective, and despite the efforts of a Captain, aggressors and drill they can’t get the attackers off the objective in time. With this result the four main objectives have all been lost, although the fifth board remained untouched.
Conclusion:
While the battle very quickly turned in favor of the attackers, had the defenders played a bit differently they would have won. One issue was that they quickly gave up the avenues into their back boards and spent too many of their resources vainly holding the center. The defenders held 3/5 objectives right up until the final turn. Importantly, everyone had a good time. The new format we use: (Alternating move/charge – shoot – fight) worked very well and helped give combat units an important role in the game.
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