Conflict 2011: Game 3

Game 3 was straight Annihilation. Kill points right out of the main rule book, with spearhead deployment. I was matched up with Danny "Internets" Matulich. And luckily enough we both had the same amount of kill points, 19, which is always nice and fair, though most of his at least some quality weapons and almost a third of mine were just pods. Ive seen Dan at events in the past and knowing he is such a good player I've always wanted to see how my Dreads would match up against his melta vets.

Dan's List:

Company Command Squad - 4 melta guns - Chimera - heavy flamer

Psyker Battle Squad - Chimera - heavy flamer

Inquisitor - emperor's tarot

10 Veterans - 2 meltas, flamer, auto cannon - Chimera - Heavy flamer

10 Veterans - 2 meltas, flamer, auto cannon - Chimera - Heavy flamer

10 Veterans - 2 meltas, flamer - Chimera - heavy flamer

10 Veterans - 2 meltas, flamer - Chimera - heavy flamer

10 Veterans - demolitions, flamer

Vendetta

Vendetta

Vendetta

Manticore

Manticore

So with tarot in hand Dan won the roll to go first. I deployed my thunderfire cannon in cover. Outflanked my scouts in their speeder, deepstruck my regular speeders for once and had the rest in reserve as well. Dan chose to put everything in reserve.

So turn 1 and 2 I got 4 Dreadnoughts and 1 regular speeder along with my scouts and my rhino filled with guys. I set up along the middle line and on my turn 2 made sure to pop smoke and got the scouts moving flat out. Dice in this picture is smoke.

On Dan's turn 2 he got one Vendetta in along with his command squad, a veteran team with autocannon, and psyker battle squad, and one Manticore, and his solo Inquisitor hiding behind the vehicle wall. Shooting blew away my exposed speeder, but the Manticore wasnt able to break through Dreadnought smoke.
On my third turn I got in the rest of my reserves. Landed my speeder in front of his vendetta, and my last melta Ironclad alongside one of his Chimeras hoping to catch 2 in flamer fire. Shooting netted me 2 wrecked chimera's tumbling the psyker battle squad and a veteran squad onto the table, and shook the vendetta. Then the Thunderfire cannon opened up from range and thinned out the squads a little bit, but their morale held. Everything in my Army slid closer to his lines, and my Rhino popped smoke.
On Dan's turn 3 he got 3 more chimera's filled with nasty melta vets in, along with another Vendetta. He immobilized my speeder, luckily still in melta range of his vendetta. His Manticore shook one of my advancing Ironclads. Two melta vet teams had come in to the right of his Manticore on the far right of the screen, one moved 12 and disembarked behind my Ironclad and Drop pod near his lines, while the other moved 6" so it could shoot from its hatch. The melta team that I had blown out of its ride the turn before also moved towards those nearby targets. The three melta teams easily dispatched the Ironclad and the Drop pod. These couple kills put Danny back into a slight lead.

On my 4th turn I moved Vulkan's ride up and piled out. In front of them was a Chimera with the veterans already outside and pile behind it in nice flamer formation. Shooting at the Chimera easily covered the troops with both Vulkan and the master of the forge's flamers roasting them, and the two melta's in the unit blew up the Chimera. The immobilized but still operational speeder blew up one of the Vendetta's Dan had sitting in front of his Chimera lines. Other shooting managed to shake the remaining vendetta and immobilize the Chimera's on the left side. The thunderfire cannon once again opened fire killing more guardsmen. The scouts having failed to wreck a chimera with their melta, assaulted it and with krak grenades managed to break it down, and I believe pinning the troops.

On Dan's 4th Turn(Picture below shows the end of his 4th turn). He got his last Vendetta packed full of demo vets, and his last Manticore... they arent pictured they are all the way on the far left corner. His Vendetta had decided that my thunderfire cannon was being far too effective against his guardsmen and used its lascannons to end its threat. His Manticores once again were less than effective, terrain gave cover to his new one using direct fire, and the other one scattered and only was able to end the threats of my speeders. The Chimera on the far right moved to keep my guys from instant hitting it, but was shaken and unable to add shooting to the troops. His remaining shooting was unable to oust my exposed scouts and and only shaking my right most Ironclad left it able to advance.
On my 5th turn my marines moved up to flank the right most chimera. With vulkan's heavy flamer and the master of the forge's plasma pistol wrecked the Chimera spilling juicy troops onto the board. Vulkan assaulted the troops along with the tactical marines, while the master managed to link a mulit charge onto the manticore. They destroyed both targets. My still mobile Ironclads moved forward, the one on the right assaulted the Vendetta wrecking it. The one on the right managed to flame the vets, and assault them along with the scouts. It rolled 3 1's to wound and the scouts didnt do much better against the guardsmen, losing combat by 1 even though they krak grenaded the chimera nearby spilling his command squad, they passed their leadership test to stay safe in combat.

On Dan's 5th turn his fresh troops on the unseen side turned their sights on easier targets. The Vendetta shot a pod killing it, and the vets used their melta bombs to kill another. His Manticore tried to kill vulkan and though he killed a few marines non was the forge father. His command squad used their melta weapons to wreck my free roaming Ironclad. In the assault phase the Ironclad was once again inefficient but the scouts finished off the veterans.

We rolled to end the game here and it ended. I was up 6 or 7 killpoints with a few easy ones available had the game gone on further. It was a super intense close game throughout. We traded the kill point lead back and forth every turn until Vulkan's killing spree. After the game we both agreed that send that 4 kill point box forward from the start was well worth the risk and paid off as once he hit the lines he was unstoppable for the dwindling guard.

Once again the Dreadnoughts had proven very tough to kill and that extra armor on the Ironclads is well worth the points. Dan was a great opponent, and this was definitely one of my favorite games in a long while.