Yesterday, small fleet of my Pirates decided to pay a small imperial town a visit. You know, friendly "give me all your money or I will eat your guts" visit. Sadly, on the way to mutual happieness stood a local contingent of Imperial Guard.
My army I've already described in the
previous post. Imperial forces consisted of two Leman Russ tanks (one "classic", one with that nasty plasma "three blasts ap:2" weapon), one infantry unit with two heavy weapon teams (lascannons), two plasmas and commisar, command squad in chimera and level 2 psyker.
We rolled "Big guns never tire", placed objectives, and rolled for deployment. I won the roll, and deployed my forces.
Wide deployment, perfect for getting to all those objectives and holding them tight. I imagine those as a treasure chests for my Pirates :). From my left to right, Rhino carrying CSM squad, Vindicator, Obliterator (near the landing pad), Cultists (above him), and Daemon Prince, hiding behind the terrain...
...just in case the Guardsmen steal the first turn from me.
Guard deployed a bit tighter, with two tanks in the middle, platoon next to them, and chimera in the corner.
I got first turn, my Cultists moved forward to hold the objective, Vindicator was out of range, so moved forward as well. Rhino drove closer to the objective. Marines disembarked and shot at guardsmen, killing one.
Daemon Prince flew a bit closer to the Imperial Battleline.
Obliterator shot at Chimera, scoring penetrating hit and shaking the crew in result.
Imperial line moved forward. Both tanks shot at my CSM squad...
Killing everyone but the Champion.
In my turn Vindicator shot at both tanks, taking one hull point from each, and destroying Leman Russes heavy bolter.
Daemon Prince used some psychic mambo-jambo, killing some guardsmen, and cursing their weapons, then he charged at command squad's chimera.
Of course the armour of such a tiny vehicle was not enough to stop the mighty Daemon. Chimera turned into wreck, and command squad had to dissembark.
In imperial turn both tanks moved forward, driving onto some craters. The result - two dangerous terrain tests, two 1's, two immobile vehicles.
Whole platoon shot at Daemon Prince, careless about their getting-hot guns, but managed to score only one wound, thanks to 2+ jink save. In return, getting hot guns killed quite a few guardsmen.
Prince flew over the infantry, and wrecked both tanks in close combat.
Vindicator and Obliterator shot at the infantry, killing most of the unit. They, in return, managed to kill the Daemon Prince!
All in all, I controled most of the objectives.
Unfortunately, lone Cultist holding the objective didn't make it.
Last soldier of command unit not only grabbed the objective, but killed my last model holding one of my objectives, that's 6 points difference!
Nevertheless, I managed to win. Three objectives, 3 points each, Slay the Warlord, First Blood and Linebreaker gave me 12 poinst. Radek managed to grab one objective, and slay my warlord, wchich gave him 4 points in total. With 8 points difference, it was a pretty solid victory for the Pirates.
They may freely kill, burn, steal, and do all the other fun pirate-stuff :)
To sum a game up, I admit I've made a few mistakes. I could have held my cultists, and move them on the objective in last turn. I could have shot with Obliterator at tanks, leaving the Chimera to the Prince, who would score 3 glances as easyly as 2.
The test, however, went great. I know how powerfull that Daemon can be, and I will take him as a HQ choice on the nearest tournament (in just 4 days!).
After the battle I've bought a Land Raider for my army, and I'll use that too. I think I'll also take the Vindicator. Many players don't like that tank, but I think that it's relatively cheap, and can pay for himself with only one shot. We'll see :).
