PT vs. SM (1500pts)

So, I finally got a chance to testing the Mandrakes in Venoms strategy I suggested a while back.

This is the list I went with:

Poison Tongue Kabal Battalion (+5CP)
Archon (Huskblade, Splinter Pistol, Soul Seeker) – 76 (Warlord: Soul Thirst)
Archon (Huskblade, Splinter Pistol, PGL) – 79
3 Lhamaeans – 45
- Venom (Twin Splinter Rifle) – 65
5 Kabalite Warriors (Blaster) – 47
5 Kabalite Warriors (Blaster) – 47
- Raider (Dark Lance) – 85
5 Kabalite Warriors (Blaster) – 47
5 Kabalite Warriors (Blaster) – 47
- Raider (Dark Lance) – 85
5 Kabalite Warriors (Blaster) – 47
- Venom (Twin Splinter Rifle) – 65
5 Mandrakes – 80
- Venom (Twin Splinter Rifle) – 65
5 Mandrakes – 80
- Venom (Twin Splinter Rifle) – 65
5 Mandrakes – 80
- Raider (Dark Lance, Shock Prow) – 86
5 Scourges (4x Haywire Blaster) – 92
5 Scourges (4x Haywire Blaster) – 92
Ravager (3x Disintegrator) – 125
1500pts (8CP)

(The Warlord-Archon went with the Mandrakes in the Raider, the other Archon went with the Lhamaeans in the Venom.)


His list was:

UM Battalion
Captain w/ Power Fist, Grav Pistol, 3++ relic (Warlord: regain CPs on 5+)
Lieutenant
Apocathery
Tech Marine on bike
10 Tactical Marines w/ plasmagun, missile launcher
10 Intercessors(?) w/ missile launcher
5 Assault marines
5 Scouts w/ sniper rifles and camo cloaks
10 Devastators w/ 2 lascannons, 2 missile launchers
Whirlwind
Contemptor dreadnought
Some sort of flyer (can't remember the name – might have been a Stormhawk – but it had 2 assault cannons, 2 heavy bolters and a lascannon)
~1500pts (8CP)

We played EW mission 1, standard deployment, with the 4 objectives roughly in the 4 corners of the table.

At the beginning of the game, he spent 3CP to make his Captain a Chapter Master, and I spent 1CP to give my second Archon the Djin Blade (I’d wanted to leave myself the option of taking the Helm of Spite).

He deployed most of his army in a large ruins, just left of centre in his deployment zone, where one of the objectives was. His characters all went in the middle with the devastators above them, 5 intercessors (via Combat Squads) and 10 tactical marines in front of them, the whirlwind to the back and the dreadnought to the right. His scouts went on top of some terrain to the right, with his flyer a bit further along. The other 5 intercessors and his assault marines went to the left, far away from any objectives, and I prepared to diligently ignore them.

Since he elected to concentrate most of his forces, I chose to do the same (I could have elected to try for a ranged battle, but I wasn’t sure it would go my way and in any case firing long-range poison at marines in cover is a snorefest). My thought was that if I just destroyed his flier, I’d have a much better chance at grabbing the objectives late-game than he would. I deployed my 2 Mandrake Venoms opposite the bulk of his army, with the Mandrake Raider (which also contained my Warlord Archon) just behind them. One Warrior Raiders went on the left, the other went on the right, along with the Lhamaean Venom (which contained my secondary Archon). The Warrior Venom went far to the right, near the objective in that corner (I thought it would be useful to start something there, just in case). The 2 Scourge units went into reserve, and I also used Screaming Jets to put the Ravager in reserve (I think I overestimated how useful it would be).

The Plan:
1) The flier and dreadnought are my primary targets. Both have weapons that are dangerous to my infantry and vehicles. Also, I’ve got very little that can seriously threaten the dreadnought in melee and the flier is one of his only sources of mobility.
2) The devastators should probably be my next target, as with them gone he’ll struggle to hurt my vehicles. Also, their elevation will make it nigh impossible to engage them in melee.
3) With so many of his units in cover, I won’t be able to kill them with shooting alone. Once the dreadnought is dead, I’ll aim to charge in 2-3 units of Mandrakes and my Archon/Lhamaean squad.
4) In the meantime, my Warlord Archon will start sniping at his support characters.
5) If things start to go badly, I’ll aim to rush my surviving units to the farthest objectives. Hopefully he won’t be able to reach them before the game ends.
(He wins the roll off and elects to go first.)

His Turn 1:
The Assault squad shuffles a bit, the tactical squad (save for the missile launcher) inches forward, I think the dreadnought moves forwards a little, and the flier moves into range of the Captain’s aura and enters Hover mode.

Shooting from various sources destroyed the Warrior-Raider on my right (additional shooting leaves both squads inside with just 2 models each – the Sabarite and Blaster), and one of the Mandrake-Venoms.

My Turn 1:
My disembarked Mandrakes move forward and the surviving Mandrake-Venom hops over some ruins to join them. The Mandrake-Raider again moves up behind, getting my Warlord in range of his characters. My Lhamaean-Venom moves into a bit of terrain very near his main army and just in front of his flier. My surviving Warrior-Raider moves up into rapid-fire range of the tactical squad and I also decide to bring my Warrior-Venom over into Blaster-range of the flier (since it’s clearly not going for the objectives any time soon). I also bring in both Scourge units and my Ravager. The Ravager goes to my left, drawing a bead on the devastators, whilst the scourges both go on my right (one could just about get in range of the dreadnought from my deployment zone).

The Scourges along with Blasters, Dark Lances, and the Raider-Mandrakes managed to kill off both the flier and the dreadnought. A couple of marines from the devastator and tactical squads also died to poison, Ravager and Mandrake shooting. Since the Captain had 5 wounds and a 3++, I decided to go for the squishier target and aimed my Archon’s Soul Seeker at the Lieutenant, taking 3 wounds off him.

His turn 2:
The Apothecary restores a wound to the injured Lieutenant. The Assault Squad shuffle round a bit more.

Shooting goes very poorly for him. The Warrior-Raider loses about 3 wounds and the Mandrake-Venom loses 2. A Mandrake dies along with a couple of Scourges, but that’s about it.

My turn 2:
The Venom Mandrakes disembark and head round to the side of the SM block, whilst the already-disembarked Mandrakes head to the front of them. The Archon and Lhamaeans head around to the right, trying to get to his Captain. I decide to keep my Warlord and his Mandrake squad mobile and elect not to disembark them this turn. The scourges move to draw a bead on the Whirlwind and other stuff moves around a little.

Shooting from various sources takes out the devastators. The Scourges and various darklight weapons shoot the whirlwind, stripping some wounds but not actually killing it. A few more tactical marines and some Intercessors die to mandrake and poison shooting. The warlord-Archon spies the injured Lieutenant and takes another shot, this time burning the poor man’s soul to ash.

Shooting done, 2 Lhamaeans and the Archon charge the Captain, the third Lhamaean and one Mandrake squad charge the Intercessors (the Captain would have been a more awkward charge for that Lhamaean) and the other Mandrake squad charges the tactical marines. The Archon is the first to swing. He raises his mighty Djin Blade, unleashes a torrent of lightning-fast swings... and completely fails to do any damage. The Captain turns and immediately pulverises the Archon’s face with his Power Fist (he used the stratagem to fight next and the Archon rolled a 1 for his first shadowfield save. Classic.). After spending a CP to reroll a FNP save, the Archon is left clinging to life on a single wound. The Lhamaeans do considerably better, reducing the Captain to 1 wound and finishing off the 2 remaining Intercessors (the Mandrakes there, who haven’t get got to swing, consolidate into the Apothecary). The other Mandrakes reduce the tactical marines to just 2 models.

His turn 3:
His apothecary heals his Captain for 1, his techmarine moves to charge my Archon, and the Assault Squad along with the other half of the Intercessor squad move towards my Warrior-Raider.

Shooting knocks some more wounds off my Warrior-Raider and kills the rest of the wounded Scourge squad. Not much else happens.

In combat, techmarine charged the Archon and the assault squad and intercessors charged the Raider. The Archon, the 2 Lhamaeans fighting the captain and all the Mandrakes are killed off. In hindsight, I should have used the stratagem to let one of my Lhamaeans fight after the techmarine, to have a last shot at his captain. Oh well. The Raider actually survived, clinging to life on 2 wounds.

My turn 3:
The Warlord Archon and his Mandrake entourage finally disembarked, moving to the centre of the fray. The 2 Warrior units in the Raider both disembarked, and then the Raider fell back, engines spluttering with the effort. The Archon took a shot at the captain but was unable to finish him.

Various shooting knocked the Intercessors down to 2 models and killed off the assault squad entirely. The techmarine was knocked down to 1-2 wounds, and the whirlwind was destroyed.

He elected to call the game there.


Post-Game Thoughts:
- That actually went pretty much to plan.
- Having the Mandrakes in vehicles made it a lot easier to set up early charges.
- I was a bit more aggressive with my warlord Archon this game and I think it paid off. Killing the Lieutenant on turn 2 was very useful, and he probably could have killed more had the game not ended on turn 3.
- The Djin Blade (not for the first time) proved something of a disappointment. I don’t think I’ll bother with it in future.
- The Ravager also performed poorly this game, barely managing to kill any marines. Although, even if it had done well, I don’t think it was valuable enough to use a CP to put into reserve.
- I can see why people like Flayed Skull. I don’t think my description highlighted the sheer volume of poison shots that the marines shrugged off. I’m very glad I had the Mandrakes and Lhamaeans to flush them out.
- My opponent’s army seemed a little lacking in firepower – with most of it being concentrated into just a few units. It was particularly noticeable when the assault squad assaulted the Raider, but had no special or melee weapons to really threaten it. I think he might have been better off dropping one or both of the Apothecary and Techmarine.
- I think it was also a mistake for him to deploy the assault squad and half the intercessors to his left. There was nothing of value on that side and it meant they spent most of the game outside of the battle.

Anyway, this was a fun game overall and a good first run for my Mandrake-Venom strategy.

Nice report. It looks like you had a blast.

I am a little puzzled about your points values. I don't have the codex yet, so I haven't seen if many of our units are now much cheaper.
However, how is your Ravager w. 3 Disintegrator Cannons only 125 pts? And how are your Raiders only 85? Have you seen that the base points values are not including wargear? As I understand it, that Ravager should be 185 pts. according to the Index.

TSkouboe wrote:

Nice report. It looks like you had a blast.

Thanks.

And yeah, it was a lot of fun. Pretty much every unit (bar maybe the second Archon) managed to do their job well. And my Warlord finally managed to snipe a character with the Soul Seeker.

TSkouboe wrote:

However, how is your Ravager w. 3 Disintegrator Cannons only 125 pts? And how are your Raiders only 85? Have you seen that the base points values are not including wargear? As I understand it, that Ravager should be 185 pts. according to the Index.

Point costs have gone down quite a bit since the Index.

Disintegrators have literally halved in cost, and Raiders are now 65pts before wargear. I think Ravagers might have gone down slightly as well (currently, they're 80pts, base).

Not bad. You must have used them well, then.
I should probably re-read the post to learn

Okay, wow.
I suppose I have to get the codex, then.

TSkouboe wrote:

Not bad. You must have used them well, then.

Well, I've been playing for years now, so I think I've gotten quite good with target priority.

This was also an unusual game as far as deployment went, since both of our armies ended up pretty clustered, rather than spread out.

TSkouboe wrote:

I should probably re-read the post to learn

To be honest, you might actually learn a lot more from games when things don't go to plan.

It's definitely nice to have things work out as intended, but being on the back-foot is what really makes you think tactically.

It's also useful to know what needs to die first (i.e. target priority), but also what you can afford to lose.

TSkouboe wrote:

Okay, wow.
I suppose I have to get the codex, then.

It's certainly a significant improvement over the index in terms of both fluff and power.