Local Single Battalion Tourney Win - Part 2 (Kabalites v Cadian IG)

My list is posted here

Match 2
Scenario
The second match was to just kill each other. Points were tallied at the end of the match. Your victory points were the total PL you removed from the board (partial kills counted; killing 3 out of 5 models from a 6PL squad would net you 0.72 VP). The only sudden death available was tabling your opponent. All tables used the Search And Destroy deployment and the LOS blocking terrain piece was rotated 45 degrees to provide maximum blockage (in my map the two blank corners did have terrain, but they didn’t come in to play  so I don’t really remember what they were and they aren’t really important).



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My Opponent
Imperial Guard Battalion- Cadian

HQ
Creeeeeeeeeed
Company Commander

Troops
10x Guardsmen
10x Guardsmen
10x Guardsmen
10x Guardsmen

Elites
5x Bullgryns
1x Master of Ordinance
1x Special Weapons Squad (3x Mortars)

Fast Attack
1x Hellhound
1x Hellhound

Heavy Support
1x Punisher Leman
1x Punisher Leman
1x Wyvern Squadron (3x Wyverns)

Flyer
1x Vulture Gunship (2x punisher cannons)

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Deployment
My second opponent took up the majority of his deployment zone. The wyvers, mortars, and mortar squads were tucked away behind his corner ruins, with some guard for screening. A punisher and hellhound were each covering one of the routes around the center terrain. Bullgryns right along the center border. More guard and creed behind them. I kept all of my units back behind my own building and out of range of the mortars, as with the last match, the mandrakes and scourges were in deep strike.



Round 1
My opponent won the rolloff, but after looking at the deployment, decided to go second. I played conservatively and moved the flyers, the ravagers and two of the venoms to the left.  There, they took out the first venom and put some wounds into one of the bullgryns. Not much was in range.

My opponent moved the fwd hellhound & punisher & one squad to the right. The other punisher, the left guard squad, and the vulture gunship moved towards center-back. The bullgryns and the third guard squad moved against the middle rock formation where the bullgryns ‘move-move-move’d’ up and over. I had mis-measured my movement & had one of my ravagers within range of two of the wyverns. The vulture, punisher, & wyverns did their best, but some poor shot rolls and some lucky saves kept one ravager unharmed & two alive on 1 wound.

Round 2
I moved forward right with the venoms & flyers and moved the ravagers back out of range of the mortars, hugging the left wall of my building.  I dripped my scourges in my back-right corner where they just had range and LoS on the right punisher and would be out of range of everything else the following turn (if everything went to plan). The mandrakes came in forward of my building to take shots on either the leman or the bullgryns, depending on what my other units did.  My firing priority was the gunship, since it could get in range of anything, then the bullgryns, as I didn’t want any kind of melee in my lines, and then the punisher on my right flank. If needed, the mandrakes would be used to charge the bullgryns.  Two venom squads and both of my archons were able to blaster the vulture dead.  The ravagers and flyers took out the bullgryns. My remaining venoms, the scourges and the mandrakes tried to kill the right punisher, but it survived on one wound remaining. I considered, but declined, to make a charge against the 1-wound punisher with the mandrakes, rightly thinking that there wasn’t much a leman hitting on 6’s could do to me.

My opponent kept the wounded leman stationary and moved the hellhound into range of my units. The left punisher leman also moved into range of my left flank.  The guard units moved as well, with one taking position on top of the rocks.  The full punisher took out both of my wounded ravagers.  The hellhound brought one of the razorwings to three wounds remaining. Mortar fire downed one of the venoms and the wounded punisher and guard squad on the rock took out the freshly disembarked kabalites.

Round 3
In moving forward my opponent left Creed vulnerable to me parking my flyers right next to him, which is exactly what I did. I continued pushing forward on the right flank, keeping my venoms and non-WL archon outside of exploding distance from the hellhound. The Mandrakes moved towards the guardsmen on the rock. The ravager and WL stayed put. The Scourges moved up to get range on both lemans and the hellhound.  Creed, the wounded leman, the hellhound, and 2 of the guard squads fell. The fresh leman russ was taken down to its middle profile.

Recognizing the danger of the blasters, my opponent put his focus on my venoms, downing one and putting another on 2 wounds remaining.  He also finished off the wounded razorwing. Guardsmen brought the escaped squad down to three remaining.

Round 4
I moved the venoms of my right flank up to get range on some of the wyverns with my blasters. The scourges, ravager, & Warlord moved to engage the remaining leman russ.  The mandrakes took to the rocks to finish off one of the guard squads or the leman russ, if needed.  

Before the shooting phase started, my opponent stopped me and we talked it out.  By his estimate, I would kill the Leman, the guard squad on my half of the table, the mortar squad, and probably one of the wyverns that turn.  His next turn he would only be able to take out the Kabalites from the cracked open venom and the scourges. At the top of the 5th round he thought I’d still have enough on the board to table him.  He agreed to call it a turn 5 sudden death victory in my favor.

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What I did right
-Since I knew I was dealing with 24” range on the punisher cannons, I deployed deep in my territory to deny him any first turn shooting from them or the hellhounds.
-I feel like my targeting priorities were pretty on point.
-Positioning the scourges (and Fire and Fading them) in a way that kept them alive for 3 turns of shooting
-Killing Creed, because smoking is bad for your health

What I could have done better:
-My biggest mistake was that measuring error on the first turn.  Both wounded ravagers wiffed on the second turn.  If they had been alive, I probably would have been able to finish off that first leman on turn 2. This was in part due to not agreeing before the match were models were measured to and from.  I usually play where the shock prow isn’t used when measuring with my raiders & ravagers, but I wasn’t going to be the guy saying “oh, well this is where I actually measure from” after I saw him including them in his measurements. Gotta remember to agree on these things beforehand.
-Likewise, even though the intent of the middle terrain was to be impassable by ground units, we didn’t agree on it before the match, allowing him to move his bullgryns over the large rocks, which would have caused significant issues if I didn’t have the tools to deal with them. Gotta remember to agree on these things beforehand.

What my opponent did right:
-He put as much pressure on me as soon as he could.
-He had a pretty good game plan of trying to contain me from both side, denying me my mobility and pounding me from afar with the mortars.
-The punisher lemans and hellhounds were ideal for discouraging me from trying to tarpit those units with my mandrakes or venoms.

What my opponent could have done better
-I think he made a big mistake by putting his wyverns in his back corner.  Had he put them perhaps right behind where he deployed the bullgryns, he would have range to any point on the board with them.  That would allow him much better targeting options turn 1. Likewise, it would have given him incentive to not give me the first turn, and start putting that pressure on me from both sides on turn 1 (then again, I wouldn’t have had reason to be conservative with the venoms turn 1, and I would have likely picked one flank and made an all out push in that direction to destroy its leman and hellhound). Who knows how it would have gone, but I think it would have been a much closer game with this deployment.
-Picking Cadia as his regiment.  Due to the shorter range on the punishers lemans and the hellhounds, he knew he wound have to move them in these matches.  Using Catachans seems like it would have made more sense. He would have lost Creed, but gained the ability to reroll shot rolls for the wyverns and the hellhounds (and he did end up with numerous poor shot rolls with his mortars). On top of that, the +1S would make his bullgryn unit beefier as well. Plus, who doesn’t want the opportunity to bring Sly Marbo. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
-While normally going after the ravagers early would be a good idea, given the amount of T7 & T8 in the list, I think he should have focused his turn one efforts with the gunship and the left punisher on cracking open the two venoms on that side. Apart from the bullgryns, the dissies didn’t give me that much production.  The scourges and the blasters were the all-stars of this match-up.

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Please let me know if you have any questions about the match or anything that wasn't clear.