FAITH IS ETERNAL

Been a while since I played any games, so my recent games with Nahri and Ian proved to be very refreshing. Bringing along the energy from the Iron Painter event, I decided to put aside too much thoughts of making a killer list and went with a 54 infantry list (see previous list). It was a concept that I played for quite a while before getting my first Rhinos in my Megaforce. I'll cut my ramblings short and go to the reports.

21/03/10 1750 game Loss vs Nahri (Space Marines) - Annihilation / Dawn of War

Both Nahri and I haven't played for quite some time, so we eagerly agreed to have a go the following Sunday when we met on a working day. The terrain setup was done by a third player, and man it was really challenging! There were huge city blocks all over the place, providing very little firing zones for my shooty list. It was made worse when we rolled the mission and deployment!

I went first I think, and moved my units into cover as soon as possible. Nahri's list had a Land Raider so I made sure my Attack Bikes moved into position for a turn 2 shot. My Sternguard Drop Pod landed to the right where a squad of Nahri's Scouts infiltrated, and made short work of them. Unfortunately the Pod landed a bit further than expected, and they had a long way to run to reach the expected fighting area.

Nahri's Drop Pod landed in my face, which was kinda annoying since I forgot to prepare for it hehe. My comment, "This looks familiar!", really sets the light tone of the game. It was a brilliant move, as it blocked my Vindicator AND my anti-infantry Devastator squad's LOS. The Ironclad that came out did not help things either as it took out one of my Attack Bikes. When I get an Ironclad in the future I'll be sure to return the favor lol.

The game went downhill from turn 1 to be honest, as my shots failed to do anything to the Drop Pod and Ironclad. My Assault Marines and dual Chaplains engaged in close combat, but failed to do anything. My Attack Bike also failed in its anti-Land Raider mission, either dying or not harming it.

The lack of LOS and lack of mobility really made an impact as the Land Raider continued moving forward, while Nahri's Land Speeders floated around firing a few shots here and there. The Ironclad finally died, but by then the Assault Terminators were within range. Shrike and crew came in from my left, by which time there was almost no stopping the tide of close combat units that just kept on coming.

Despite losing, it was fun to just throw any sense of competitiveness away for a while. Yes the list had some ideas on how to win a game, but of course it was clearly lacking in fine tuning. I should get off my butt and do my list compilation one day, so I can pull out lists like this just for the heck of it. My match with Ian will be up in a few days.


??/04/10 1750 game Draw vs Ian (Chaos IG) - 1+1 / Pitched Battle

It was the last week of Ian's visit, so I had to make sure we got a game together. That's what old friends are for :D Ian's army always moved with forwards with lots of men and gusto, so when it was deployment time I was a bit concerned that there wasn't very much on the table.  Ian mentioned that it was most likely an illusion due to the sparse terrain and white table cloth.

The majority of our forces deployed on my left, with my Attack Bikes and Ian's flamer tank to roughly the right of the table. I piled my objectives near a building ruin in my center, while Ian's objective was placed near his mass of bodies.

The game went favourably for me at first, and then the luck began to even out halfway through. My scouts survived the attacks pretty well, until his AP4 barrage tank shots started landing on target. It was a good thing I had multiple troop units nearby, as he also landed his suicide squad in a sweet spot to take down one of my Combat Squads. They broke and fled when faced with Chaplain Firaya, but he himself died to the wave of infantry that kept coming.

Ian made a brilliant move halfway through the game, using the flame tank to block LOS to one of my anti-infantry Devastator squad. My attack bikes managed to only wreck it, so that wasted a round of firing as they had to go for a lower priority target. One funny moment in the game was when my powerfist Chaplain was inches shot of an assault, and had to face 40+ angry shots from the main bulk of the IG infantry hehe.

The game came to a draw as there was 2 1-man troop units on my objective, and Ian couldn't bring enough firepower to take them down. Some clever hiding by the remaining scout made sure he couldn't be shot at either. If the game went on I imagine I might have lost it since I was almost out of soldiers :D

My match against Dann will be up sometime this week.





To be continued...

Wow.

I honestly was not prepared for the mental and physical marathon that the Iron Painter event turned out to be. Yes I knew it was going to be 12 hours and that I had 20-30 models that needed completion. However, after having been away from model painting I struggled to finish 21 models worth 615 points, earning myself an Iron Painter title.

The event itself was a great success. Jeff as the organizer was happy at the percentage of people who turned up and more importantly, complete it. The participants who completed if I recall correctly were Iskazri, Subhan, Arzmi, Iqbal, Stanley (a Malaysian who works in Singapore), Alvin and myself. In addition, Iqbal won a purity seal for best army while Iskazri and Subhan broke 1000 points at 30 models.

For those who have models that need painting, I highly recommend joining the next event once we plan it. Even if we don't have enough to participate as a full entry, just being there and sharing the painting vibes in light-hearted humour really kept us going. I know that even if I don't meet the requirements next time, I'll come with some of my models that are unpainted just to get things going. It was a tremendous effort, but the rewards were more than worth it.

It's been roughly 2 weeks plus since the campaign started in 2009. Many thanks to Iskazri with a very fun way of getting people playing games in CM. I've personally played against 2 people whom I've never played with in 5th Ed, and Raymond returned to 40k after some study hiatus.

Pretty fun games throughout the campaign, with special rules and mission cards adding to the complexity. There was also some diplomacy all around, with people nudging each other to capture another person's land. Let's have a look at the games I've played.

25/12/09 1000 game Win vs Raymond (Black Templars) - 1+1 / ??

I don't recall the deployment, I think it was spearhead or Dawn of War. Raymond played a mission card that forced infantry all models in the game to move towards the nearest enemy. I deployed my objective behind the huge ice block and parked my Tacticals there. I (over)confidently placed my 4 ML Devastator squad in the open, hoping to score some hits, only to have Raymond seize initiative and kill them in a single round lol.

The actual game became a maneuvering battle as we moved units into LOS to get infantry running. I was careless and let Raymond's Chaplain move into LOS of my troops, but I managed to salvage it with a Rhino blocking in around turn 3 or 4. Raymond also made a mistake by letting his 2nd troop choice into LOS of my unit, forcing them to move away from his objective. I held on to my advantage and won 1-0.


25/12/09 1000 game Win vs Raymond (Black Templars) - Annihilation / Pitched Battle

I picked the mission card that allowed me to choose the mission. I think I chose Kill Points because Raymond seemed eager to preserve his models and I had superior firepower on an open terrain. This game became a preservation of forces game as Raymond could not risk moving his Rhinos forward for fear of being immobilized. The one Rhino that I had a clear shot to was immobilized asap.

I must say that by this point in time I was glad I took at least one Command Center for the free USR. I also began to realize that Space Marines at smaller games have a better fighting chance then at bigger games, since they are not outnumbered as much. This advantage is further increased when we can tailor our lists to the enemy like this campaign.


25/12/09 1000 game Win vs Zaki (Tyranids) - 1+1 / Pitched Battle

This battle was fun for several reasons. I knew that there was a card that allowed you to force rage on your opponent, so I used this card against Zaki to good effect. I put my units in a roughly straight line from the center to the left, leaving one Tactical squad with my objective to the far right. Two units of note were my Devastator squads, one which was on the left and one was in the center with Cassius attached.

It was pretty one-sided until Zaki cleverly maneuvered his Carnifex in such a way that it was equally close to my bait unit Cassius and my Devastator squad. Since Cassius was already swarmed in close combat by that time, it would have made the Carnifex completely useless. as it would just stay near him the whole game. However since Zaki made that brilliant move, the Carnifex ripped through the Devastator squad on the left flank, and proceeded to destroy the nearby Rhino as well later on. The incoming threat forced me to abandon my static gunline and rely only on my Landspeeders and Cassius who soloed 2 Gaunt broods.

Cassius followed his fluff by destroying Gaunts left and right, but the plan backfired when at the end of my Turn 7 one brood was destroyed, allowing it to return in Zaki's turn to force a draw. The other brood had only one more model left and did not perish to combat resolution. It was a really fun game especially when the Carnifex broke through. It goes to show that even the most cunning plans could become wrong if you're not careful.


02/01/10 1000 game Win vs Mark (Imperial Guard) - 1+1 / Dawn of War (?)

In my first game of 2010, I began to notice that a lot of my games were 1+1 games. Playing the same mission several times with the list helped a lot in terms of familiarity. Once again I placed my objective behind a big block terrain and spread out my units. Mark placed his objective on the other end of the table. The plan was to thin out his heavy weapon squads with my Devastators and Landspeeders. Later on I would zoom my Landspeeders in a suicide run to contest Mark's objective. A Rhino with Cassius would be coming in from the right flank.

The game turned out to be very disastrous for Mark. 9 Lascannons and 8 Missile Launchers (or something like that, I don't remember) failed to take down any unit at all. Poor dice rolls meant that there were too many misses while my units kept scoring kills with impunity. His infantry units were scattered and did not move anywhere near my objective. Even though he immobilized Cassisus's Rhino, they managed to move all the way to the enemy objective.

Ultimately I took down his HQ and contested his objective. Despite the bad dice rolls Mark was a good sport about it and hopefully our next game will be more balanced in terms of luck.






To be continued.

Legio's 3rd league is starting tomorrow, and I'm putting this up as preparation for the coming maelstrom of battle. I'm not sure where I'm going to put my two new trophies tomorrow, I almost forgot all about it hehe.

My first game will be against my closest rival for the League Fanatic title. Every season the person who comes closest to beating me is Jin Aun with his one hour games. Since his list is pretty much the same each season, it will be interesting to see if all that experience will help me get a win in my season opening game.

Friday has come and pass, and our fated game was played to immense satisfaction on both sides. To be honest when we rolled the mission it was very heavily tipped to my army, and we both reacted accordingly. Despite having the advantage in terms of the mission conditions, I knew I could not let my guard down as that would quickly turn it into a loss.

Lo and behold, the game turned to be one of the most epic I've had with Jin. While both of us probably won't remember the exact maneuvers, the tide of battle shifted from one side to the other gradually until I was fighting just to survive. With roughly 4 objectives equally divided on the left half and one on my right, I knew where the fight was going to be.

I kept my scouts for outflanking, and my HB landspeeders were kept safe. Everything else was prepared to punish anything that came on the 2/3 of the table, coming in turn 1. Unsurprisingly, Jin deployed nothing, so I used my Sternguard as bait and short range pressure. His Terminators arrived in style and made short work of their targets. Jin even got a crater from the Drop Pod.

Turn 2 saw the light returning to the game's conditions and the death of nearly the entire Terminator squad. I launched everything I could at the left most Land Raider, and immobilized it. His other Land Raiders pushed onwards, one disembarking its contents and moving through the center, while the other went to the right. Both usedsmoke to reduce my melta's power.

In Turn 3 I destroyed the disembarked Grey Knights squad. I was forced to choose between the squad or the incoming central Land Raider, and at that point of time I thought I chose well since his smoke was old school. My remaining scoring units came in from left and right, and I was poised to capture up to 4 objectives at once.

Turn 4 was perhaps the beginning of the end. Everything that was fired at the central Land Raider either bounced off or just resulted in minor weapons damage. My scouts missed  boarding a transport by 1/2 an inch were promptly cut down by Grey Knights on the right flank. The central Land Raider moved left to my objectives and his far Land Raider came in as well. It was a big gamble by Jin to expose his remaining scoring unit, but my weapons were positioned to handle the left flank and he gambled well.

Turn 5 saw another Land Raider immobilized, but it was sitting on an objective. The scoring unit that was near it went forwards with Cassius to another objective, but ran short.  The mobile Land Raider just caused nuisance all over, and simply wouldn't die. I was forced to change to defensive play as there wasn't any useful targets to shoot with some of my units. Any unit that was incapable of S8 firepower went around trying to contest or slow down the roaming Land Raider.

Turn 6 is where I probably made a mistake. I tried to use my remaining Landspeeders to slow down an advance on one of my scoring units, hoping to capture 2 objectives while leaving Jin with only 1, but GK Stern managed to reach my scoring unit and wipe them all out, including Cassius. This left me with one unit left, who managed to stay on the table despite being forced to take a morale check. Despite my best efforts, that remaining Land Raider was alive.

Turn 7 saw a beautiful block on the Land Raider by my Whirlwind and Sternguard, but there was no stopping the firepower that cut down my last scoring unit. Jin's GK had also reached an objective and won the game.

Throughout the entire game I went with aggressive play and was forced to go defensive only on Turn 6. The Land Raiders were tough beyond reason that day, surviving all kinds of melta and missile firepower. It was the best game we've played, and I was glad that Jin upped his gaming that night. I fear for any opponent that plays him if he can keep that level of focus in every game he plays :D


09/10/09 1750 game Win vs Ivan (Chaos Space Marines) - 1+1 / Spearhead

My second game was against Ivan, a new player using a Nurgle themed army. Despite being new to the game, his approach towards the game was optimistic and his painting was at a decent level already. At the start of the league I wasn't sure if I wanted to play him, as I didn't want to seem as a bully towards someone totally new to 40k. I mean, it was only his second ever game! Still, after much consideration, I decided to play Ivan for two reasons. Firstly, SMs can be considered a benchmark, and secondly I had a gift for being a "teacher" type player. I could play to win while still explaining as we went along.

Ivan won the dice roll and went second, so I hid my objective behind some terrain and deployed everythign. Terrain was pretty open so I decided to put everything in to get his Rhinos smashed up early. Ivan deployed his objective relatively close to his center line, with 2 Rhinos ready to advance and his Obliterators with good LOS. Ivan managed to sieze initiative and started first. His Rhinos advanced on my left flank while his Daemon Princes flew behind cover to my right. All seemed well at first, but unfortunately for Ivan, I fired every krak missile available and caused significant damage to his plans. A suicidal Drop Pod also landed right on his objective, adding to his problems.

From then on, Ivan's lack of knowledge about 40k became apparent such as using a poorer shooting option with the Obliterators and ignoring my tact squad that was in rapid fire range of his Nurgle army. I think most of the lessons in this game were learnt by Ivan, I was mostly providing questions and hints as went along. Good application of proper pressure ensured the win.

After losing my focus in 40k, I am reviving it slowly by rediscovering bits and pieces of what made me enjoy it from day one. The recent tournament helped light the spark again so now I'm finishing this delayed lessons section.

Any game with Peter is generally kill or be killed. For a long time I have had problems surviving his torrent of firepower, and even in objective games his troops were a force to reckon with. We deployed our objectives in the rough center of our deployment zones. I left a lot of units in reserve, planning to catch Peter in the crossfire once he was in firing range.

My Tactical Drop Pod was placed near his zone, with the lascannon combat squad planning to lay suppressive fire on Peter's Oblits. I used my Razorback with some scouts inside as bait, while my Devastator squad stood on a hill on my left with Cassius to ensure that they stayed put. Peter predictably moved straight towards the objective, leaving behind one Rhino and an Oblit squad behind to protect his base.

Given how long it's been since the game I don't remember too much of the specific maneuvers, but I know that my reserves didn't come in on time, and my Tactical Squad was left stranded without support alone in Peter's half of the table. What forces I had were torn to shreds as they came in, leaving only my Devastator squad and Cassius alive.

I remember from this mission that I should not leave my forces unsupported. While trying to be "aggressive" in nature, I began to realize that I was playing more fancy than function, as was obvious from the way my Tactical Squad was left unsupported.

I arrived home around 6 p.m. yesterday, and my brother suggested a game of Space Hulk. As there wasn't much time, we decided to file off the sharp bits on models' feet/stand so there wouldn't be any scratches on the board pieces. The game would be played after breaking fast :D

We decided on Mission I. There was several things to consider. Firstly we were not sure how big a space it would take for the actual layout, so we chose a small one. Second, since it was our first ever game, we wanted to play with less models to keep things simple. Also, we decided not to use the sand timer just yet, as we still had many rules to learn and memorize from scratch.

The mission's name was perfect. It was called Suicide! and I was supposed to shoot a Flamer round into a particular room. My brother played the Genestealers quite well. With 2 blips to start with, and 2 blips every turn, he moved everything into position quickly, and despite my fast push into the corridors, I was swarmed and TAed by about Turn 5 or 6. I've always wondered why there was a need to move slowly at some points of the game as a Space Marine, and this game demonstrated it beautifully lol. I can't give tips or learning points like my 40k posts, but the game sure is as fun now as it was back then.

Wow, I never realized how bad the Facebook games can get. It seems I've neglected my lessons blogs for August, and the July entry is pretty much zilch now. Well, at least I can restart for the month of September.

12/09/09 1750 game Draw vs Ceiran (Chaos Space Marines) - 1 + 1 / Dawn of War

This was the first game I've had after my "army blues" post. It was a paradigm shift in my playing style, and I must say I enjoyed it. I was testing out bits and pieces of the list that I would play for the league and possibly tournament, and it was really fun. The inclusion of 2 Typhoon Land Speeders really opened up the game. Without giving the list away, I'll just say that a 60" threat range is nothing to sneeze at.

During this game I went ahead with the aggressive play style suggested by several people in my previous army blues post. I was surprised at how effective it was, and oddly enough I also realized that being aggressive did not necessarily mean being suicidal. Ceiran's opening Rhino filled with Berserkers and Chaos Lord was parked right near the center of the table, forcing me to put a Tactical Squad and Cassius hiding a bit further from my objective. Predictably he surged ahead on turn one, to put pressure on the defenders.

My units scattered all over the place to put pressure on Ceiran's units, and lucky shots from combi-meltas immobilized his Land Raider. I parked my Devastator Squad near my objective and was ready for shooting by turn 2. Surviving all kinds of firepower thrown at it, his Rhino just kept coming closer.

By turns 2-3 my Tactical Squad had arrived via Drop Pod and combat squadded. With a Rhino already moving in and my scouts already in position near Ceiran's objective, his Troops were under great pressure as all kinds of firepower landed on them. Ceiran also learnt the "evil" of Combat Tactics, as my Sternguard ran as often as they could from his Terminators before they could assault. Over at my half of the table, the Khorne Berserkers were assaulting left and right, but my Vindicator inflicted heavy casualties.

By turns 4-6, his Thousand Sons slaves were stuck in combat with Cassius, who turned out to be very sturdy in battle. It was a pity that the Tactical Squad got cut down by the Thousand Sons, but a Rhino can only last for so long in a battle. I managed to force Ceiran to go to ground on turn 6, and he managed to make one save which ensured his Berserkers were in capturing range. Good thing for contesting Land Speeders.

On the other side of the battle, Ceiran's Terminators were just shot to bits with multi-melta weapons, and his CSM that were guarding his objectives were wiped out. Amarre was  ONE INCH short when he rolled for difficult terrain, or it would have been a win. I think the game went to turn 7 I would have taken both objectives as well. Ah the joys of dice rolls :)


12/09/09 1750 game Loss vs Johnny (Space Marines) - Annihilation / Pitched Battle

It was my first time playing Johnny, and with some guidance from Redeye, I think he played an okay game. While he was relatively a new player, he already captured some finer details which can be considered advanced techniques. I believe given a few months time he'll be quite a good player.

The thing that worried me was his 2 Land Raiders. However, from the rumours I've heard, there might be up to FOUR lists with 3 Land Raiders in the league, so I suppose I had to get used to them. I went first and managed to immobilize his Redeemer on turn 1. That was a big relief, since his sponsons would wreck havoc on my lines.

I don't recall much of the game now, as the units moved everywhere. My major mistake I believe was exposing my attack bikes too early, thus losing quite a lot of firepower against Land Raiders. With my multi-melta weaponry down, I didn't have a lot of options left against the Land Raiders, and I conceded by Turn 6. It was a pity, as I was trailing by only one kill point, and if those bikes had survived longer it may have made the difference.


13/09/09 1750 game Draw vs Iskazri (Orks) - 3 Objectives / Spearhead

The third game in 2 days made it a fun weekend. I didn't realize it then, but over the course of 3 games I have played all missions and deployment types at least once. That was a pretty educational weekend :D

The objectives were spread quite nicely, with one roughly in the center on a hill and the others spread in opposing quarters. I took the more defensive quarter, and massed all of my units in anticipation of the Biker rush. I pushed my army in every direction, to force Is to make difficult choices when trying to break into my quarter. This approach is different from my old defense system, which was more passive in nature.

Is's Ork Boys were bound by the Doc's special rule that forced it to move towards the nearest enemy. I used my scouts to good effect by luring the boys away for a turn or two. The same scouts eventually drew Snikrot and friends, as it was causing a logistics problem for the boys, and partly also due to the heavy concentration of units in my quarter. My 2nd Drop Pod arrived early on the central objective, allowing me to push my Tactical Squad into a Razorback to contest or claim the third objective.

Poor reserves rolls meant that the Biker Nobs arrived on turn 4. Snikrot's crew and his Deff Koptas were taken down by then, and his Grots were forced to hide from my roaming Land Speeders. At this point of time I made a mistake of using my Typhoons as bait. Their heavy weaponry should have been diverted towards the soon to come Bikers.

When Iskazri's Nob Bikers arrived, they arrived in style. Swarming the entire left flank, they assaulted 2 Land Speeders, a Sternguard squad, a Vindicator and a Drop Pod. Miraculously, the Sternguard survived with 2 men, and the Vindicator and surviving Land Speeder were only shaken! This allowed me to send them away ready for turn 6. The Boys on the other side made a brilliant move, which Is even hinted at doing. This was a classic example of knowing how your opponent plays, and since he knew I would utilize my Land Speeders as bait, he managed to leave one Boy on the correct side of a wall, near the 3rd objective. It's hard to describe here, so if anyone is intereted in the actual maneuver ask one of us for a replay.

Towards the end of the game, with the amount of units blocking the way, Is's Bikers took out the central objective defenders, and was ready to make a push towards my main objective. The objective nearest to his boys was contested by a Razorback and surviving flamer Tactical Marine, which survived the massed assault the boys poured on. It was a really tough fight enjoyed by both and I may have lost if it went to Turn 7.

One funny thing about this game was that for the first 4 turns, the lack of the Nob Bikers pretty much made me lose some of the focus in the game. I suppose since the tide of battle was in my favour was so long, I may have gotten nervous subconsciously as I got closer to winning. I suppose it's funny because I'm not used to winning against Is's Orks :D


24/09/09 1750 game Draw vs Ian (Traitor Guard) - 1 + 1 / Dawn of War

Ian is back for about two weeks and was raring to go against as many people as he could. It was a good chance to test the new IG Codex, and since I have not played against him for nearly half a year, it was a good time to catch up game-wise. The most obvious change about his army is that it was about 95%-100% painted. This was a good change, since it was a waste to see nicely converted models unpainted. We played on a snowy table, with the majority of the terrain painted blue. I believe the terrain was Mark's work, pretty good I must say.

On to the game itself, we both put our objectives on my right side of the table. My objective was far behind a high rock. While it's not the "Firaya move", it's pretty hard to steal once bunkered down. Ian put his objective near the center line, which seemed to me that he intended to pile as many bodies as he could while moving forwards.

The game went pretty well from my point of view. With the numerical superiority Ian had, I knew I had to cut his firepower down using the terrain. Luckily a massive boulder in the center of the table allowed me to cut off about 1/3 of his infantry firepower, which is a lot considering his army's design. Putting my fast units on my left flank, they ran away once Ian's units came onto the table, allowing me to focus my firepower on the objective area.

One new unit displayed in this game was the Manticore. Firing D3 S10 AP4 big blasts, it was nothing to laugh at. This unit caused an early scare when it wounded my scouts, forcing a morale check. The Rhino that was meant to hold them safe was still en route, so that single blast nearly threw a spanner into my plans. The rest of Ian's units pretty much did what they were meant to do, moving forward bit by bit whittling down my forces as they moved.

My Sternguard suffered heavy casualties early on, but the surviving Heavy Flamer model (I should name him since he's a unique model) kept a lot of Ian's infantry from moving through a gap in the terrain. In hindsight, I'm not sure if I used the anti-tank half of my Sternguard properly. One combi-melta and one regular Sternguard assaulted some troops to hopefully survive an additional turn or two before firing the shot. I was hoping to put pressure on Ian's nearby tanks by winning the assault in his turn, but alas, the plan didn't work.

My 2nd Drop Pod arrived near his objective, but scattered from where I planned. They received a lot of punishment as expected, but failed to keep Ian delayed long enough. Towards the end of the game his Troops broke through and captured the objective that I was planning to contest. Sadly it seems that Ian forgot where I placed my objective. I'm sure his game plan would have changed if he didn't forget.

It was a fun game against an old friend, and I was happy that his skill did not drop at all while in Japan. Maybe we should have an international friendly with the players there one day :D


25/09/09 1750 game Win vs Doc (Dark Eldar) - 4 Objectives / Pitched Battle

Doc's work tends to keep him away from the gaming scene for months at a time, so it was with great anticipation that we started this game. Playing at Legio, we used the black table near the air-con (my favourite!) and spread the objectives pretty evenly. I made sure there was 2 objectives as near the side table edges as I could, in case I wanted to outflank.

Doc deployed his warriors in various locations, utilizing cover well. He kept his Wyches (?) in reserve, as well as his 2+ invul boss and some DSing Scourges. I deployed most of my heavy firepower units out of sight while Cassius made sure my Devastator squad wasn't going anywhere soon. My scouts deployed about 6-10" away from an objective while my Razorback with contents started near another.

Turn 1 turned out to be very bloody for Doc's Dark Eldar. With an uneventful first turn for him, my Sternguard arrived in style and landed in between his Warriors and a transport. Literally wiping out his Warriors and destroying the transport foretold the kind of game that my marines would have that day.

Turn 2 meant that the Wyches arrived in their transport, and they got ready to take me out. Unfortunately Doc wasn't aware of the Combat Tactics rule, which meant my Sternguard ran to fight another day. In my turn, the Wyches transport was immobilized and lost its weapon, so the unit that borrowed it was forced to walk.

Turns 3-4 saw the arrival of the remaining reserves. Doc's 2nd Wych squad came in with style, ripping into a Combat Squad that was near an objective. Thankfully reinforced by Cassius, these melee specialists were tied down the entire game. Doc's flying HQ arrived as well, but didn't make as big an impact as expected.

Turns 5-6 saw the destruction of the remainder of Doc's units, and with only the Wyches alive, he decided to surrender. It was a pretty nasty battle where the space marines managed to perform close to their fluff counterparts, bringing death and destruction on the enemies of the Emperor.

I suggested to Doc that he should send everything in at once, but we'll never know if that will work well since Doc might play his Orkz for the league. I think I applied well what I knew in this game and didn't learn many new things, but still it was fun playing an old friend after so long.


26/09/09 1750 game Loss vs Alvin (CSM - Alpha Legion) - Annihilation / Pitched Battle

The last game of the month turned out to be a nasty demonstration of CSM special weapons. Multiple Rhinos, a Land Raider with twin Lords and some naughty people in the back going pew-pew-pew with S7 weapons really makes it a versatile list.

It's been months since I've played Alvin, and the first time I went against his Alpha Legion. Playing at CM with a big rock in the center, I decided to push Alvin into an area where I could focus my firepower. Massing most of my units on the right side, I left my Vindicator as bait on the left side.

Turns 1-2 saw the Land Raider shrugging off the melta shots that hit, and Alvin's Havoc squad that was running managed to come back. A lot of the Rhinos were also put out of commission through a combination of shots. Needless to say, the nearby scouts, my Sternguard and the Drop Pod didn't last long under the crossfire.

Turns 3-4 marked the turning point in the game. Failing to stop the Land Raider, Alvin's Terminators and Lords came pouring out and ripped anything in their way. Casualties was high as my Vindicator kept the pressure despite being immobilized. Alvin's Obliterators arrived as well, providing much needed meatshields to the Lords.

Turns 5-6 was the crucial part of the game. I made the mistake of confusing the Terminator Lords and their escort. The surviving Terminator was in good LOS of a Lascannon shot, and should have died earlier. I also learnt that while his dual melta weaponry can be a big threat, it can sometimes seem bigger than it should be. In the actual game itself, the Twin Lords were the most brutal units of his army, literally ripping apart everything in the way as they came over to my massed units.

Trailing 8-9 in killpoints, I conceded the game as there wasn't much firepower left to stop the Twin Lords. If we went on with Turn 7 as the dice suggested, it would have easily been 8-10 or worse. It was a good game, with dice rolls just slightly favouring Alvin's side. It will be interesting to play in a more open terrain like Legio and have more opportunity to shoot his transports down.

During the trip to work today, whilst thinking about the Space Hulk box I'll be opening in the evening, I began to have a trip down nostalgia lane. The first trips to Comics Mart when my memories of 40k were Space Hulk and Chaos Gate, opening my first box of Tactical Space Marines, receiving my Codex, meeting the fun people who I still enjoy playing with till today... All that made me realize that over the roughly two years my view of the Space Marines has changed. How so?

Quite lately I have realized that I have been pointing out to people that Space Marines are now easy to learn but difficult to master. When I first played, that 3+ armour save was something special, it was reserved for "elites" who could survive whatever firepower was thrown at them. As time went on, learning about Mathhammer, playing against units with loads of AP3 weapons, facing players with greater tactical acumen than me, made me begin to change how I field my Space Marines. I began to prepare for the worst, making redundancy plans (as best as I could) both in my lists and playing style. The new Codexes released for the various armies didn't help, with newer and badder combinations to deal all manners of death.

So where does two paragraphs worth of ranting lead us? It felt like a revelation, but I believe I was actually losing faith in my own Space Marines. I couldn't believe it at first, but when I began to look at it objectively, it does seem that bit by bit, I was no longer believing in the ability of Space Marines. This was disturbing, especially in a game where faith in your units can swing the tide of battle. I can even see the difference in outlook when I compare myself to completely new players, those who believe in the might of Space Marines and play as such. I know most people will find it hard to believe this coming from a Space Marine fanatic, but it's completely true. Now that I've identified it however, I should be able to remedy it in time for the coming league and tournament.

Has anyone else felt this kind of feeling? Is that why some people stop playing their armies and build new ones?