Road to Glory Campaign, Flesh VS Iron Options

[Barret]

Yes, it's another campaign blog from me. We all know how the last one went (or rather, didn't), but I swear to Ferrus Manus I'll do better this time.

In about two and a half hours, Muskie and I will begin playing the Road to Glory campaign from the 5th Ed Rulebook. It's the Iron Hands versus the Diseased Sons in a idealogical grudge match! The first game is at 500 points in an objective-counter-seizing mission (I can't remember what it's called off hand), and we've decided to culminate the campaign with a 3000 point battle (the Iron Hands will likely have to be aided by the Sons of Dagda in that one). I'll post my side of things here, but I'm going to leave the actual battle report writing to Muskie, as he's better (and more reliable) about it.

The main purpose of this campaign is so that the two of us can start learning 5th Ed and hopefully get a good handle on how to restructure our army lists for West Coast Mayhem '08 in October, as neither of us have historically run 5th Ed-friendly lists. And of course because Muskie likes to run his mouth and paint offensive bumper stickers on his Rhinos (specifically, a Nurgling puking on the Iron Hands glyph), for which the sons of Medusa will have to lay the smacketh down. Since I'll be getting the shiny new Codex partway through the campaign, it'll also help push me to expand the army.



To battle! For glory! For vengeance! For Ferrus Manus! The (Diseased) Flesh is Weak!

[Master of Sancti...]

Kudos for taking on 3000 pts with new 5th ed rules. Show those heretics how it's done.

[Muskie]

Those heretics already have well over 3000 points of stuff painted including models that have never seen a gaming table or haven't seen one in over a decade...

I've only fielded 3000 points once this millenium but I should have a fair amount of stuff to draw from. Are we using one force org chart or two?

So does it go: 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 3000 like I proposed?

You can see the pre-vomit bumper sticker here.

[Barret]

That escalation sounds good to me.

As for the org charts, I'm probably going to use two so I suppose it's fair that you can, too...


I really need to start adding campaign badges. I'll probably do that for the Iron Hands and the Sons of Dagda once I've got my painting station set up and unpacked...

[Barret]

Victory to the Iron Hands! Defeat to the forces of Nurgle! The Flesh is Weak!

Current Score:
Iron Hands: 1
Diseased Sons: 0


It was a pretty fast game, mostly slowed by our need to keep referencing the rulebook, especially as we set up the mission. It was the mission with D3+2 objectives (still can't remember the name) with the Dawn of War deployment. I won the roll to choose turns, and decided to go second as that would allow me the final turn of the game to try last-minute objective seizing, but I didn't realize that that mean that Muskie got to deploy all his troops first and pick sides. Unfortunately, we both forgot our cameras (and dice, and measuring tapes and, in my case, rulebook and Codex) so there's no pictures to go with this report.

We played on a 4x4 table (which was a mistake, it would have been a better game on 6x4 even at 500 points) that was relatively crammed with terrain. A few low hills, lots of craters and two buildings in Muskie's corners. We ended up with three objectives, one in a crater just on Muskie's side of the board, one at the centre-most corner of a building on Muskie's side and one on a grassy knoll on my side.

The armies looked something like this:

Diseased Sons:

Terminator Lord w/ Mark of Nurgle, Combi-Bolter, Power Weapon, Personal Icon, Terminator Armour
5x Plague Marines w/ Icon, 2x Plasma Guns
5x Plague Marines w/ Icon, 2x Melta Guns
5x Lesser Daemons (Plague Bearers)

Iron Hands:

Iron Father w/ Master Crafted Power Weapon, Servo-Harness, Iron Halo, Plasma Pistol, Frags
5x Marines w/ Lascannon
5x Marines w/ Powerfist, Frags, Meltagun
5x Marines w/ Powerfist, Frags, Meltagun


Muskie deployed his troops first, situating the plasma squad in the building on Objective 2, and the melta squad on Objective 1 around the crater. He held his Lord and Plague Bearers in Reserve for Deep Striking/Summoning. I wasn't able to deploy on Objective 3 (on the hill) as that was within 18" of Objective 1 and the Melta Plague Marines, so I dropped the lascannon squad on top of a giant skull statue thing, where they had line of sight to all the Objectives and could snipe. The bolter Marines I mostly hid behind the statue so that they would be in cover. Tactical Squad I I placed in a line directly in front of the statue, facing Objective 1 and the Iron-Father joined them. Tactical Squad II I did not put in Reserve so that they could run on at the beginning of my first turn.

Muskie took his first turn and elected to stand still and shoot at me, all to no effect (even though we totally forgot about Night Fighting on the first turn). In my turn the Iron-Father and Tac I moved up to within 12" of Objective 1 and the melta squad while Tac II moved from the board edge towards Objective 3 and reached it by Running in the shooting phase. The lascannon whiffed in Turn 1, and the massed shooting of the Iron-Father and both Tactical Squad I and II managed to kill...nothing. Woo.

Turn Two started with neither of Muskie's reserves showing up. The plasma squad moved out of the building (but stayed within 3" of Objective 2) with their Icon Bearer out front, while the melta squad moved up an inch or two to get more into cover. Once again, a whole lot of nothing was accomplished in his shooting phase, save that he hilled a Marine from Tac I. In my turn Tac I and the Iron-Father moved nice and close to Objective 1, while Tac II moved up enough to be in melta range it and be within 3" of Objective 3. The lascannon...did nothing. All the shooting from the Iron-Father, and both Tactical Squads killed exactly one Plague Marine from the melta squad. Tac I and the Iron-Father charged the melta Plague Marines and cut them down, the sole survivor succumbing to No Retreat! wounds. They consolidated onto the Objective.

Turn Three started with the remaining Plague Marines advancing further and summoning the Plague Bearers, but fortunately outside of charge range of Objective 1. I think Muskie's shooting killed a Marine from Tac I. In my turn, I stood my ground and opened fire. The lascannon finally killed something. A single Plague Marine, meaning that entire 100 point squad earned back...twenty-three points. Woo. The rest of my shooting wasn't much more effective, accounting for two Plague Bearers.

Turn Four started with the Plague Marines advancing further and summoning the Lord down onto the table. Muskie only shot with the Lord, who failed to wound, and then charge the Plague Bearers into my Iron-Father and the Plague Marines into Tac I. Combat was bloody, with the Iron-Father cutting down all of the Plague Bearers and not being hurt, while the Plague Marines lost none and killed a Tactical Marine. The Plague Marines shrugged off the No Retreat! Wounds and we piled in. Bottom of the turn started with the lascannon drawing a bead on the Lord and...whiffing. At this point I was remembering why I stopped using lascannons in Tactical Squads. The meltagun in Tac II, fortunately, turned the Lord into sizzling goo. Combat on Objective 1 continued, with Muskie losing all of the Plague Marines but the Icon Bearer, and me losing a third Marine from Tac I. I now had one Objective and was contesting another, while Muskie had a single model on the table...

Turn Five went about as expected. Muskie whiffed both his attacks, I whiffed all of mine (continuing to forget about Master Crafting...). Bottom of the turn, though, saw that Icon Bearer finally get beaten down by a lot of power fist attacks.


And thus, the first battle of the Road to Glory campaign goes to the Iron Hands! That means that, in the final game of the campaign, I will be able to give Preferred Enemy(Muskie) and Tank Hunters to as many units as I've won in the campaign. I sense some trophies coming, especially for the Sergeant of Tac I (who didn't earn any in the Mighty Empires Campaign, and hasn't yet received his for Astronomi-con due to a lack of Necron bits) and for the Iron-Father as I think he deserves it for whacking a whole squad of daemons on his own.

Yes, I know Lesser Daemons aren't exactly ferocious, but give the guy a break. He's probably going to lose his spot as Warleader of Clan-Company Griogaar once a certain modeling project is done...


Overall, I'm really happy with 5th Edition. I can play it without referring to the rulebook too much (other than for how starting and setting up the game worked) and the new rules for running, close combat and casualty removal are fast and easy. The emphasis on Troops is great, as is the focus on Objectives, which is so much more interesting than the boring old "who kills most" game. Of course, my seven tank, twelve infantry army is a thing of the past, but hey, that's a good thing. It was starting to get stale anyways.



Oh, and Musk and I didn't discuss whether we are going to use the new Experience and Battle Honours rules, but I think we should. Tac I was definitely the MVP of the game, accounting for two Plague Marine Squads and holding the central objective. Also, we decided to alter the escalation of the games a bit. Game 2 will be 1250, Game 3 will be 1500 and Game 4 will be 1700. We picked those points as they're the most common tournament sizes. Game 5 will remain at 3000 points, and we'll both be using two Force Org Charts. It will not, however, be an Apocalypse game, despite what the rulebook suggests. Games 2-4 will be on 6x4, and Game 5 will be on 8x4. Dun dun dunnnn!


On the to-do list is to think up a new army list for next week (and accompanying new Tactics), add Campaign Badges for WCM '07 and the Mighty Empires Campaign and post pictures of what's on my workbench (well, actually they're in a box somewhere as I just finished moving house).


Until next time,

[Muskie]

I thought you had no internet access, did you stop at work on your way home? I also thought I was typing this crap up? Here I am in waves at 9:52 pm again... Next time we just do one battle report you can ramble as much as you want on my site and link to it from here plus people can use this thread for comments.

We so need a camera next time. My goal of portability will have to be sacrificed for a better army list and room for all the things we forgot. I have Saturday pretty free so I can get a little painting in then. But I have a lot of different models and squads I can use to keep you guessing. Plus for the first time in like a decade I might just tailor my army to crush the Iron Hands.

[Barret]

Yup, that's exactly what I did.

I will definitely bring my camera next time, and you should bring yours, too. I'll also endeavour to remember my (shiny new) dice, tape measure, rulebook, Codex and templates. I need to read up on the next scenario, but I think it's a Secure & Control mission, where we have to seize each other's "command centres". If so, we should think about bringing our own objectives to make it more interesting than seizing scraps of paper. I have a homemade bunker that would do nicely.

[Commissar Moloto...]

Looking forward to seeing this log go further than Barret's last attempt...

My local circle is looking to do it between Tau and Orks as the set-up for a large Campaign. So it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

Keep us updated!

[Muskie]

Here is another take on the battle report with comments from both of us looking forward to next Thursday.

Feel free to comment on this thread, I'll try to check it regularly. Also feel free to place bets. :-)

This post has been edited by Muskie: Aug 8 2008, 09:24 PM

[Muskie]

What no update this morning? Things are probably still "interesting" eh... No worries we'll have the full battle report up by the end of the weekend I imagine until then both your loyal readers will just have anticipate another glorious Iron Hands victory.

[Barret]

Oh, aren't you funny? Nerf herder.

That's right, the forces of Nurgle were too cunning for the Iron Hands (who were handicapped by a rather poor force disposition and tactical control). That means that, for the next three games of the campaign, I am the Defender and Muskie the Attacker. Of course, it's really all a big trap, giving Muskie the chance to break himself on my stalwart defenses! Bwahaha!


I won't get too into the details of the battle itself this time, as Muskie is writing up a proper batrep (with pictures this time!), but I got properly whupped. Although we had to end the game early, the situation was such that I had been soundly out-maneuvered and the best I could hope for was a draw, while Muskie had a strong shot at a win if the game continued. So I conceded. Not a very Iron Hands-y thing to do, I know, but fair and sporting if I do say so myself.

A new squad, that I had codenamed Project Horrible Surprise made their debut in this game, and proceeded to do very little. They are an eight-man Devastator Squad with four Plasma Cannons that I had high hopes for in terms of Plague Marine killing, and they kind of blew. It's partly my fault for deploying them incredibly poorly. Actually, that's most of the problem. I stuck them in a corner with very limited lines of sight and they fired exactly once, and only because Muskie outflanked a unit right in front of them.

Oh, yeah. Outflank? NASTY. A five-man Chosen squad with a melta, flamer and three plasma guns suddenly showed up on my left flank and mowed down almost half the Devastators. It probably would have been all of them if they hadn't been in a handy trench. As it was, they got five kills, four of which were the enemy (one cannon overheated, and I flubbed the armour save).

Overall, my army list was terrible (no Dreads, no Vindis). I took lots of things that could hold objectives, but nothing that could take them. In conclusion, I still need all my killy units! Muskie, on the other hand, had a solid list I wasn't expecting, and he deployed and used them well. I was beaten, fair and square.


Because I'm getting married next week and will be on honeymoon after that, we won't be playing until the second week of September at the earliest, but that should hopefully give me a chance to come up with some diabolical new tactics. I'll get you next time, Gadget!

[Muskie]

I'm not sure being the attacker is an advantage for me. I'll have to read the next few missions. My army has historically done just fine thank you when the enemy has to advance upon me.

See you in a couple weeks.

[Barret]

Well, in this case "Attacker" and "Defender" are very different than in previous editions. We play another of the "Seize Ground" mission (the one with the D3+2 Objectives) and another of the "Capture and Control" (the one we just played), and then a Kill Point mission for the last game. It's not like Meat Grinder or Breakthrough kind of Attacker and Defender anymore...

[Muskie]

Here is the battle report, I need more of a social life. I did drink afterwork at the Patricia...

[Muskie]

I read the rules and I've started to think a little about the next game, the game after, the final conflict and West Coast Mayhem. You should put into your paint queue some mindfield markers. You also get to bring your own bunker to the final game, I get very little cover but I get to make a makeshift command post. I also will be bringin' the pain in the final game. I should be able to paint a half dozen or so models by then, I just have to be strategic...

[Barret]

Yep, I'll be making some objective markers. I'd also like to bring my bunker, but it's bare cardboard right now, and I don't think Darren would be cool with that. If I can get it more finished, I will, or we can use something they have there.

[Commissar Moloto...]

the absolute best I could hope for was to scrape out a draw (an eventuality the campaign rules don't cover, oddly)

I think that the intimation is that if you draw, you're meant to use victory points to determine who won?

[Barret]

That's my guess yeah, that or Kill Points. But nothing explicit, which is strange to me as I see there being a lot of potential for draws being the norm with that mission, or at least victories of 1-0 instead of 2-0.