And the game would become the final one using the current Codex Heretic Astartes, as the new and updated edition should be arriving by post next week.
Of course, I had Iwan throw the dice for the scenario, and becursed he rolled Cloak and Shadows, so for the second time out of three league games so far my gunline will be hampered with the -1 to hit.
I had brought along the same force as I did against the Drukhari a few weeks ago, but my suprise was big when Mike unpacked his force... barely 25 boys and a lot of big war engines, including a "squiggoth" spider and a Gorkanought, including aerial support and all.
To make matter worse, he would have the first turn as he was actually faster deployed then me as a result, and stuffed the big walker in reserve...
Turn 1
The Orks began their advance, hellbend on taking out my Rapier platforms as soon as possible. And he did, destroying both the laser destroyer and one quad bolter before they ever got the chance to fire.
His jet roared forward as well, while the boys sneaked up on my right flank... failing their charge rolls.
I couldn't destroy any of his units in my turn, hampered by the modifiers, though his jet and boys did get a serious pummeling. He was forced to save the boys from fleeing, and would bring them back in his second turn with his stratagem, but burning through all his cp as a result.
So turn 1 ended with a 1-0 lead for me...
Turn 2
The Ork pounding endured, as now my Noise Marines and missile dreadnought got the full bearing of his dakkadakka.
The Gorkanought had appeared on my left flank, which was only protected by a Marine squad, while his boyz had appeared as expected back on the right flank on full strength.
With the loss of two Rapiers and now the Noise Marines and Dreadnought, my gunline was broken and I was hanging in the ropes. I needed to wonder how to survive his onslaught, with 34 points "on the table" in front of me in the form of the Squiggoth and the Gorkanought, lacking high penetration firepower now, and play for the objective points as good as it would go.
This caused me to go on another route as usual, and forced my hand to play very aggressive, in order to prevent him charging me, and make the most of my legion trait that way.
A hailstorm of about everything I had took down the Squiggoth, and with some incredible 10 and 11 inch charges I tossed myself on the survivors of the downed trasport. The Warlord and the marines, together with the clobbering mass of cultist attacks, took down the flash gitz.
And got me into a 4 - 3 lead by the end of the turn, but barely a force resembling an army.
Turn 3
That big Gorkanought fell back from the Marines to unleash his terrible amount of shooting on my units, while his boys failed a three inch charge.
Luckily for Mike he had Ere we Go and he got them in combat with the lone rapier crewman.
The battle in the centre continued, but my warlord fell to the Gorkanought after at least seriously damaging him...
So turn 3 ended 7 - 4 in my favour.
Turn 4
Perhaps the shortest turn of the game, as we both hadn't had anything decent left or it was stuck in combat.
The Gorkanought survived just about everything I threw and shot at it, lumbering around still with 3 wounds left. My Apostle tried to charge it, but failed the 5 inch range...
The Cultists decided they had enough and legged it (gaining a vp for ending in his deployment zone as I had the objective card for that) to safer lands.
But this was a bad turn for Mike, as he hadn't scored enough points, and this would prove fatal. I pulled away to 10 - 6 and this might be holdable, IF he didn't table me in turn 5 and possible next turns.
Turn 5
The Gorkanought unleashed all his firepower on the cultists, leaving only the champion standing as 5 others exploded in a barrage of all sorts of dakka dakka... and he rolled a 1, saving his ass in the morale phase later on.
He lumbered towards the Predator... and didn't charge. This was the nail in the coffin, because as he was blown up by heavy blastmaster volleys from the sonic dreadnought, he exploded taking along his warlord, and netting me a lot of additional points as I had Assassinate and kingslayer in hand...
The tally went up to 15 - 7... and Mike rolled a 2 for the turn continuation, ending the battle.
What a game... by the end of his 2nd turn, I was virtually done for, but he failed to finish me off. Playing to the objectives from then on to try and score 2 - 3 points a turn kept me in the lead, mainly due to Mike's failure of getting a turn of "big points" in, as he started lacking units to move around.
As my shooting was miserable this game, I tried to keep his army tied up as much as I could to further prevent him from fancy manouvers... and it paid off in the end.
Thought the final points total is far overrated, it was a great battle, fun opponent, and some not 40k related plans where explored further as well.
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