IG Conflict 2: The Sprog Strikes Back

Hi,

Hard back at work, but thought I'd take a minute to post an AAR of the second game vs. the Cub, this one down at the local GW.  This one was bigger, 1000 points a side.  I took my warboss, a painboy, a couple units of 20 shootas, a couple of units of grots, a maxed-out unit of tankbustas, and a unit of deff koptas.  The Cub had a full tac squad, split, a 5-man tac squad, maxed assault marines, a razorback, 3 bikes, and a landraider redeemer, aka, priority one.

A few more boys painted up this time.  The horde grows.

For simplicity's sake, we used the same scenario as last game, rolling 4 objectives this time around.  I won the roll to set up / go first, and spread the boys out.  The plan was to concentrate fire on the Redeemer with the Deffcoptas and Tankbustas, and hope to smoke it before it could bring it's very scary (twin flame templates that wound on re-rollable 2s, and ignore all cover and armour saves in my army) to bear.

The Cub, not being anybody's fool, opted for a "shove the big scary thing down Dad's throat" approach, piling the redeemer straight forward, with the bikes and jump squad trailing in support.  Oh, and he had a combat squad with his Very Scary Chaplain inside.

Twin uberflamers, twin-linked Asscannon, twin-linked multi-melta.  What was I thinking when I got him this thing?

I moved into rokkit range, and unloaded everything on the Redeemer, hoping to remove the threat before it could become a real problem.  18 rokkit shots later, 5 of them twin-linked, I had removed one (yes, one) hull-point from the beastie.

On his next turn, Cub jammed the beast forward again.  This is where the game started to shift a bit from our last one.  I pointed out to Cub that the terrain right in front of the Redeemer allowed a more direct route, but posed a risk; it was possible his Redeemer might get stuck on it, and be unable to move.  Cub thought it out, and decided he wanted to take the risk to bring his flame weapons to bear.

It simply will not die.  Not the Chaplain, though, he died easy.

At which point, he inevitably rolled the "1", and immobilized his Redeemer ;)

We then had another conversation about what to do with his squad inside.  I told him he could deploy them, and either shoot or assault, but not both (as they were packing rapid-fire weapons.  He opted to assault, but was promptly blasted by overwatch fire, and then I think failed the assault roll.  At any rate, he was left with a sole veteran sergeant who opted for the better part of valour.

On my turn, I unloaded the coptas and tank-bustas on the Redeemer again, doing 2 more hull points (not enough to kill it!), and sent one of the two shoota squads after the razorback.  The Nob was packing a Big Choppa, and S7 on the charge was enough to pop it.

No more Asscannon for you!

On his turn, the Cub unleashed the destructive power of his fully armed and operational Redeemer on my poor shootaboys, killing 11 with one flamey salvo.

No cream can deal with this itching, burning sensation.

On the right, Cub sent in his Assault marines against the un-toasted shootas, but not before we had a little conversation about overwatch.  I reminded him of what had happened to the Chaplain's squad earlier.  I also pointed out that I could only shoot overwatch once, and that he had a perfectly disposable, *cough*, I meant, serviceable veteran sergeant just hanging about.

Cub used the Vet to soak my overwatch fire, and THEN sent in the marines, who performed quite credibly.

They fight almost as good as orks.

On my turn, I sent the rest of my toasted orks over to help out their buddies, and the whole thing turned into one of those multi-round grind-fests.  The orks eventually won, of course (of course!), but it did take a few rounds.

Just keep swinging, just keep swinging . . . 

In the center, my tankbustas, who'd also taken a hit from the flame templates, managed to rally, and finished off the Redeemer.  They were, however, now faced with a choice.  We had 4 objectives on the board, and the game could end in the next turn.  I talked to Cub about what I was doing and why, reminding him that it was the objectives that would most likely win either of us the game.  I opted to go for one of the further objectives with the remains of the tankbustas, and redeploy my grots, in the hopes that the game would stretch out and I could eke out a win.  On his turn,Cub also redeployed his two "shooting squads" to make a play for the objectives as well.

Tac squad on the objective, grots just out of range.

Tac squad 2 on the objective as well.

We rolled for another turn, but the dice came up short.  I had an objective, first blood, and the warlord bonus, Cub had 2 objectives and line-breaker.  Win to the Sprog.

Warboss Binky is evidently more Brutal than Cunnin'.  That dead Redeemer was pretty sweet, though.

What impressed me this game was a) how much Cub had learned from the last one, and b) that he thought through what he needed to do in order to win.  He used his Redeemer as a perfect distraction unit, took the necessary steps to secure objectives, and even tried to use units in support of one another.  Didn't always work out for him, but given this is only his third or fourth game, it shows some significant growth.  Well, done, kiddo.

Cub insisted on the glam shot.

Next post will probably be painting / modelling related, and then we're likely back to the once-a-week-I-hope schedule as normalcy and the associated busyness assert themselves.

Have yourselves a terrific end of 2014, and a not-too-hungover start to 2015.

FMB