Hey guys. Like I promised, I wanted to give an analysis to my part of the whole battle. Think of it like an overview of what went wrong, what went well, etc.
My Analysis:
Overall, I think everything was well. Like before, I didn't have an exact deployment plan for Dawn of War, so everything was planned last minute, and only took me a few minutes to plan in my head. Strategically, my plan was to keep my opponent in the small corner of the table he was in like so.
Honestly, it did go well until around turn 5 when he finally assaulted a tactical squad. It did take awhile for him to do because my forces slowly crept to his side of the table. Speeders went first (above) then died, two Rhinos went (then died), then Dreadnought ( two immobilized, one died). So I think I should've kept the speeders behind my Rhinos and moved out later. Turn 1 they provided too much terrain much too early. I knew that toe to toe, Grey Knight Strike Squads are a lot better then your friendly neighborhood tactical squad. They have power weapons, psycannons, storm bolters, and psychic powers. They can shunt, outshoot, and downright assault and win. I had no choice then to lever what my army can do against the threat that GK can do extremely well, use my synergy. I don't just send a unit or two, I send out whatever I can with a combination of movement blocking, shooting, and assaulting. Let's face it, my Dreadnoughts will never be as awesome as GK Dreadnoughts with all those psychic powers, force weapons, daemonhammers, psycannons, psybolt ammo, and fortitude. My Autocannons are no psycannons, marines will always fold in a one on one mexican standoff against GK Terminators and Strike Squads. But by leveraging what I can pull with my army I can hold my own and still win or at least pull a draw. Yes I will take many losses, but remember, "40k isn't about losing models, it's about being at the right place at the right time". And if we finished the game, I think I would've won.
My opponent's army is extremely elite, and yet very fluffy. It's not the most competitive list, but Craig still let me feel the sting. I just couldn't avoid it all game. I had the numbers over him. 3x Dakka Preds, 3x Black Reach Dreadnoughts, 4x Rhinos, 4x Tactical Squads, 10x Sniper Scouts, 4x Suicidal Landspeeders, and 1x Guy with a big gun, is A LOT to kill for 2x GK Strike Squads, 1x GK Terminator Squad, 1x Storm Raven, Kaldor, 1x Paladin Squad, and a Venerable Dreadnought is hard and challenging. We are playing seize ground so killing was not as important. I managed to whittle down Craig's GK Strike Squads to less than 5 dudes per squad. 1 had a Psycannon and that was it, the other had a Justicar, a knight, and a psycannon left. That's pretty good when it comes to turn 5. Dakka Preds still do their best despite the cover from dead vehicles and The Shrouding. That's what it can get you along with the small arms fire from Dreads, Tac Squads, and the Conversion Beamer. If I continued to hammer down and successfully kill his Strike Squads, that would force Craig to put his Paladins and Terminator Squad on his own objective. One would probably be in combat, while the other would be securing the objective.
Here's where the Paladins and Kaldor may need to be at turn 6...
Those knights would obviously be gone.
The chest is where the Terminators need to be. The Venerable Dread may need to be here too to help hold it.
See where these guns are pointed? Yeah, that chest objective. The Scouts are right there too. So I can just park all my Preds to there to help contest. If I could contest then that may be game. I just need to worry about the other objective.
The Dread there is immobilized but contests the chest at 3 inches. The Rhino can still move. The Tac Squad can still go in the Rhino. They can hop right in and contest the objective above. The Storm Raven is destroyed so no worries for contesting about my other objective below...
See? But if I had any speeders alive, that would've been great...
I think that's one thing I did not do quite right. The speeders died to soon because I forced them to.
Everything else seemed to be just fine. If that lone Tac squad with the last functioning Rhino needed help with contesting the objective held by the Termies, then a Pred or two could move over to it as well. The Scouts hidden here (below)
Couldve gotten out of the tower and ran to the other objective. While the Tac Squad holding this one (below)
Could run to the objective supposedly held by the Paladins and Kaldor to help contest.
But hey it may have been a draw or a win. I definitely think that I would've lost. Everything was planned accordingly and in such a short time. I guess you could say that I am getting used to playing this army.
Deployment was nice as you can see...
Predators are key when it comes to deployment. They have to be placed in a position where they can get plenty of shots at the opponent. Remember the opponent will be moving, but only question is where? I placed the objectives accordingly so my force can keep the enemy secluded in one part of the table. You know? Control their threat area. Rhinos and Dreads helped with that of course. Rhinos are great and very cheap for what they can do. No they are not like the gunboat that IG have with Chimeras. They are not like the Dark Eldar with their assault ships that they call Raiders. They are not like Tau Devilfish where they always get a cover save no matter what. They are big moving bricks, specifically designed to be used as a metal bunker for Multimelta madness, and mobile cover for Speeders, Dreads, and Preds. Like I said this army is very synergetic. Everything supports each other well and doesn't over do it. Vanilla marines are usually looked down upon as a "boring" and "uncompetitive" and everyone else likes to agree. But I am one of the few believers who seem to believe that marines can always put up a good fight in the end. I've got plenty of mobility, shooting both at midrange and at long range, many troops, and assault capability. Yes I'm not BA where everything is fast and can jump on you first turn with furious vampires. Yes I'm not SW where I shoot you with Long Fangs, Razorbacks chock full of Grey Hunters, and assault you with Thunderwolf Cavalry. Yes I'm not Grey Knights where they seem to be nastier in shooting, assaulting, and in psychic mojo then Vanilla Marines will ever be. But just because these marines need a crutch on special rules, and Vanilla Marines don't doesn't make a difference does it? Yeah so what if some think that we need special characters to do us good, but my army proves that you don't need any of that. You don't need crazy psychic mumbo jumbo, force weapons in every corner, and other special rules of the like. You just need to think tactically and address situations accordingly. My list isn't designed to beat every codex, it's designed to provide tactical options in most if not all situations in the battlefield. It isn't the best list out there but it sure as hell proves that Vanilla Marines can still put up a hell of a fight. Take that and chew on it for a bit.
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