Mega Battle Guard Review

So the new Guard was used for the mega-battle.

List- (only weapon upgrades mentioned)
Creed, Kell, Deddog in Command Squad: Melta Gun
Commissar Lord (attached to combined Infantry squad)
Commissar Lord (attached to Ogryn Squad)
Tech Priest Enginseer w/ HB servitor
Ogryn Squad (5)
Stormtrooper Squad: GL, Flamer, Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon
Infantry Platoon
-Platoon Command Squad: Lascannon, Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol
-Infantry Squad: GL and ML
-Infantry Squad: GL and ML
-Special Weapons Squad: 3 x Sniper Rifles
Infantry Platoon
-Platoon Command Squad: Lascannon, Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol
-Infantry Squad: Flamer and Autocannon
-Infantry Squad: Flamer and Autocannon
-Veteran Squad w/ Bastonne: GL and HB
4 x Leman Russ
-Pask on one
-Sponson HB x 3, Plasma Cannon x 1
-Hull Lascannon x 3, HB x 1

I did 2 squads of DKK Deathriders as well. Better than normal Rough riders, as they have a 6+ invulnerable save and can have Laspistol, CCW, AND the lance.

All in all, the list worked pretty well. The Leman Russ are of course superior than before. And the Orders are very nice, especially with Creed issuing 4 a turn. When on the defence in a scenario like this, they were golden, and everyone was in his command radius.

We combined one of the infantry platoon's squads, since he was facing a Khorne army, we wanted to make the assaults get bogged down rather than take only one turn. 20 guard and a Commissar Lord CAN beat a squad of Khorne Beserkers. I know because these guys did. We chose the Autocannon/Flamer squads so the ML and GL ones could target armour independently if need be. The Commissar Lord was definitely key in this sucess though, having the unit hold with his leadership of 10.

Bastonne is a nice upgrade, but if you take Creed I almost wouldn't bother. We had more orders per turn to issue than squads to receive them it seemed. Although, if you put Bastonne with a squad in a chimera, and give them say... 3 melta guns, you can go hunting and have orders right there handy, plus the squad will always regroup with his Never give up rule.

Stormtroopers are ALWAYS worth it now. AP3 weapons. Take them. Depending on your interpretation of the rules First Rank FIRE Second Rank FIRE may be extremely useful (it says lasguns and they use Hot Shot Lasguns, so how literal are you? Expect to see that in an FAQ). Bring it down can be usefull if you have 2 metal guns or plasma guns. And their Special Operations rule make them rather flexible and you no longer have to pay to infiltrate or deep strike and they are better at it!

Mega Battle: Photos from the Front

Defenders are deployed.

Right before Turn One.

A view of the walls. Paper was used so segments could be torn out, allowing us to actually destroy the wall when needed.

Kharne the Betrayer...er faces hordes of assault marines, but lasts through two assault phases before being dispatched by a Dark Angel Power Fist.

The Roughriders arrive to attempt and turn the battle for the first objective, assaulting the Chaos Space Marines in amongst the Imperial Guard. Even with initial sucesses, their momentum could not be maintained.

Kharne dispatches the last of the roughriders, slaying each with a "decapitating" blow.

The Daemon Prince makes his fatefull assualt, that see's himself chased back to the Warp without doing any harm on the Imperials. Go 10th Squad Devs!

The Necrons advance around Razorwire, and even dare attempt the minefield.

Mega Battle Coverage

See the forces here and the scenario here.

So the game went well overall. I don't have detailed notes but I can give a brief over view.

Turn one saw a relatively effective shooting phase from the defenders, as well as our blind barrage blocking off the Pylon and half the field of fire for the Doomsday Monolith. For the attackers, it brought in the interdiction force and the Monolith Phalanx.

From then on the turns really lose focus in my mind. I know the Dark Eldar Splinter force appeared in turn 2, bearing webway portals, allowing for the arrival of Dark Eldar Infantry in turn 4. A blind barrage helped to cover their arrival within our fortress from the Ultramarines and Imperial Guard upon the parapet.

Turn 2 saw the first objective fall to Flank marching CSM. This was on the outside left of the fortress, an area defended by the Imperial Guard, who even though became swamped with CSM and Dark Eldar, managed to last until turn 5, seeing the battle through with one tank remaining at the end.

Turn 3 saw the second objective fall, taken by Tau Battlesuits. This was the outside objective on the right side of the fortress defended by the Defender's Tau.

Turn 4 saw the third objective fall; this one to CSM Terminators that had flank marched back in turn 2. Though valiantly fought over by the Ultramarines directly under Calgar, and requiring the sacrifice of a bike mounted Master of the Forge, the objective was lost.

Turn 5 was down to the wire. The Necrons and Tau were unable to make headway on the second objective on their side, and the Dark Angels had decimated the forces assaulting the front of the fortress. In a desperate gambit, the Tau force on the attackers rushed one Objective with a devilfish, tank shocking through Belial's Terminator Squad. Boldly, a lone Terminator stepped forward with his chain fist, and after some confusion with the Death or Glory rules, it was realized that he had destroyed the Devilfish, forcing the fire warriors within to disembark short of the objective, and with too much resistance between them to run to/assault the final position. At the end of turn 5, the game stood at 3/3 in terms of objectives.

Though we called the game here, it was called for the attackers. In terms of Kill Points, they had given up far less then the defenders as a ratio of their total force and were in place to definitely capture one, if not 2 more objectives had we played out the planned turn 6. Though the Imperium fought with gallantry, they could not stem the relentless Xenos advance.

Highlights of the game:
Samael's death at the hand of 2 Gundrones from a destroyed Piranha.
A Commissar Lord besting a Chaos Lord on a juggernaut in single combat after 3 turns of fighting (to be fair, the Lord's Daemon weapon loped his own head off, I assume it wass displeased for not havign dispatched of the Commissar, then going on to assault a Stormsword (though failing at it).
A deepstriking Monolith being blown to smitherines by the Hammerhead it displaced.
The Ork force entirely strategically re-deploying amongst the Tau to aid them on their quest for an objective.
A unit of roughriders eliminating 9 Khorne Beserkers only to leave Kharn there to dispatch the entire squad (6 in one turn, the remaining 4 the next).
Deddog, Creed and Kell weathering 2 turns of assault to fall to shooting later on.
A unit of witches miraculously surving a turn of combat against Marneus Calgar and his command squad, allowing other DE to come in next turn and dispatch them.
The Pylon failing to destroy the Baneblade for 2 turns, then annihilating it all at once.
The Necrons failing to breach the door, dying in multitudes at the entrance.
A khorne DP assaulting a Dev combat squad and dying without inflicting a single wound.
A squad of CSM Terminators with a Sorceror and Lord deepstriking of the table, wasting the Vortex grenade with them.

Forces of the Megabattle

Defenders:
Dark Angels- 8400
Imperial Guard- 3225
Ultramarines (Right)- 4500
Ultramarines (Left)- 4000
Tau- 2200

Attackers:
Chaos Space Marines (Khornate)- 5000
Dark Eldar- 3940
Tau- 6000
Necrons- 7065
Orks- 740
Renegades (Khorne CSM and Armoured Company)- 4580

Defenders Assets-
Blind Barrage
Supreme HQ
Shield Generator
Disruptor Beacon
Minefields
Obstacles- Razor wire

Attackers Assets-
Blind Barrage
Flank March
Vortex Grenade
Strategic Redeployment
Shield Generator
Careful Planning

Defender Formations/Legendary Units:
Dark Angels Battle Company
Dark Angels Masters of the Chapter
Ultramarine Baneblade

Attackers Formations/Legendary Units:
CSM Stormsword
Tau Rapid Insertion Force
Tau Armoured Interdiction Cadre
Tau Firestream/Ranged Piranha/Patrol Wing (one is reload, one is website, same thing, different names).
Necron Gauss Pylon
Necron Monolith Phalanx
Necron Doomsday Phalanx
Necron Shroudweaver War Cell
Dark Eldar Splinter Raid Force

Defender Special Characters-
Lord Castellan Usarkar E. Creed
Colour Sergeant Jarran Kell
Knight Commander Pask
Nork Deddog
Sergeant Lukas Bastonne
Azrael, Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels
Ezekiel, Chief Librarian of the Dark Angels
Belial, Master of the Deathwing
Sammael, Master of the Ravenwing
Marneus Calgar, Lord of Macragge
Tigirius, Chief Librarian of the Ultramarines

Attacker Special Characters-
Kharn the Betrayer
Kharn the Betrayer…er
Shas’o R’myr
The Nightbringer
The Deceiver

Units of Note:
4 Exalted Champions of Khorne, Kharn, and 4 Berserkers in 1 Squad
Azrael, Ezekiel, 4 Captains, Chaplain, and Honour Guard in 1 Squad
Creed, Kell, and Deddog in one Squad

Mega Battle Scenario

Defender/Attacker Ratio:
Still not exactly sure. My side was down 6k and it was okay. What hurt was a lack of Ordnance, Super-heavies and Formations as compared to the opposing side.

Scenario:
The Defenders start with a fortress in the shape of a U (See pictures). The long walls are 48” with 6” doors. The angled walls are 18” with 4” doors. The short walls at the “top” of the U are 12” (giving the fortress a depth of 12”) with 3” infantry only doors.
There are 6 objectives, 4 in the fortress, two outside, but still in the defender’s deployment zone. To capture the objectives, any offensive infantry/jump infantry/cavalry that deployed on a table edge (so no deepstriking units) must be in contact with the objective at the end of their player turn. The objective then “explodes” as if it were a vehicle. This represents the enemy “bombing” key buildings. Once an objective is detonated, it may not be retaken by the defenders.

The walls give a 5+ cover save on the parapets. Each segment is 7” (48-6 = 42, 42/6 = 7). Wall segments are AV 14 and have 2 structure points. When a segment loses its first structure point, the cover save is negated on that segment. When it loses its second, anything on the parapet must “disembark” that segment and pass a dangerous terrain test. There then is a 7” gap in the wall. Penetrating hits remove a structure point on a 3+, glancing hits on a 5+.

Doors are as follows:
6” – AV 13
4” – AV 12
3” – AV 11
3+/5+ destroy the doors, each is 1 structure point.

Doors may be opened/closed at the beginning of the movement phase only. May only open/close a door once per game turn.



Victory Conditions:
Defenders hold 4+ objectives- Victory
Attackers take 4+ objectives- Victory
Defenders hold/Attackers take 3 objectives- Tie Breaker

Tie-breaker:
If opposing is below ½ starting Kill points, receive 1 point. If opposing side is below ¼ starting kill points, receive 2 points. Side with more points wins. If still tied, then game is a tie.

Terrain:
Each player rolls a d20. Go in order from highest to lowest. Each player deploys 2 pieces of terrain. Tied d20 rolls are rolled off to determine who goes before the other. Terrain may not be deployed inside the fortress.

Deployment:
Defenders deplow first. Attackers second. May use full 30 minutes each. We also set the condition that no unit may deploy 8 ft from another in the army, to make the battle run smoothly without players running all around the table during the game.

First Turn:
Defenders go first.

Strategic Reserves:
The attackers follow normal strategic reserves rules.
The Defenders may each only hold ¼ of their forces in reserves (not cumulative for the whole force)

Formations/Legendary units:
All allowed, including FW and Reload

Game Length:
We tried for 6, but only got in 5.

Assets:
Each side receives one for each player on the largest team (Our game was 6 v 5, so both sides received 6, plus any from formations).

The following assets are not allowed:
- Vital Objective
- Jammers
- Anti-Plant Barrage
- All Reload Assets (except ork rok attack)
- My club also banned any form of bombardment, but this need not be done.

The following assets are modified as follows:
-Ambush, when used by defenders, may not be used against enemy units flank marching
-Obstacles may not be placed in front of any doors
-Flank March, when used by the attackers, may not bring them within the fortress walls
-Tunnels may not be put inside the Fortress or in the Attackers Deployment zone.
-Bunkers may not be put in front of doors.

Other Rules:
Necron Wraiths may not score objectives. Moving through walls is cheap, and how can you carry a bomb when you phase in and out.
Monoliths and Super Heavies may not deepstrike into the fortress. That is too cheap.

Coverage of the game tomorrow. I am still waiting on some players highlights of the game and need to narrow down which pictures to use. But it will be up, I promise!