HQ - Chaplain, Power Fist
Troop - Crusader Squad x10, x9 Initiates with x1 Melta gun and x1 Power Axe, x1 Sword Brother /w Power Sword and Melta Bombs, x5 Neophytes, /w Land Raider Crusader, Multi-Melta
Troop - Crusader Squad x5, x1 Lascannon, x1 Plasma Gun, /w Rhino
Troop - Crusader Squad x6, Flamer, x1 Neophyte, /w Drop Pod
Fast Attack - Stormtalon, Skyhammer Missile Launcher
Heavy - Thunderfire Cannon
Heavy - Predator, TL Lascannon, Lascannon Sponsons, Storm Bolter, Extra Armor
Imperial Knight - Paladin
*Note that the picture is a bit off. For some reason I added a Plasma gun marine to the drop pod unit with a flamer to fill points, but realized my error when I started telling my opponent my army. It was fixed before deployment.
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Astra Militarum;
HQ - Tank Commander
HQ - Psyker, ML 2
Troop - Sergent, x2 Plasma, lascannon heavy weapon, Chimera
Troop - Sergent, x2 Melta, lascannon heavy weapon, Chimera
Heavy Support - Vanquisher Squad x2
Heavy Support - Hydra x2
Fortification - Aegis Defence Line /w Quad Gun
Lord of War - Storm...Lord? Whatever gets the Heavy 15, Str 6, AP 3 gun.
*Hopefully this is correct. This is actually my first game against guard, so I'm not too familiar with their tanks and stuff.
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MISSION
We played the Maelstrom of War mission number 4. It's draw (up to)three tactical objectives on your turn, but you don't reveal the cards to your opponent.
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Deployment
I won the roll-off to choose who got to deploy first. And I did. I deployed aggressively, because I knew my best chance at taking out his tank line was going to be assault, but that's how I like getting things done anyways.
He deployed pretty much in a gun-line fashion. This ending up being his downfall since it stripped him of maneuverability and versatility on the battlefield. But he rolls pretty crap for most of the game, and that never helps.
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TURN 1
I gun for his deployment line and get myself set up to receive a cover save with my Knight from the green statue near the center of the table. My plan was to fire the Battle Cannon at the Chimera and take it out, and then toss a stubber at a unit to turn my Knight to directly face his army. We couldn't find the rule where walkers turn to face their target in 7th, though, so that might not exist anymore. Bummer. My drop pod scatters a bit, but generally hits exactly where I wanted it to. While he uses the quad gun to intercept them, it pretty much proves useless and I flamer almost his entire squad that he kept out of it's Chimera. 1 lascannon down. I fire all guns that can reach into the Chimera at the bottom that held the melta guns, and took it down (also getting First Blood). I kept my Land Raider close to an objective and was just within 3" to score it since I drew that particular one.
He fired into my Knight with multiple shots, but his dice blow. He does, however, strip it of three hull points from 1 Lascannon shot (which just disembarked, so not sure if it could fire or if he made it snap fire for moving - didn't think to ask/if it was relevant). He fires his Heavy 15 Lord of War cannon at my Las+plas crusader squad up top of my deployment zone in ruins. Since he didn't move he got to fire that gun twice, so I lost all but 1 Crusader, who was still on the objective in case it mattered.
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TURN 2
I get closer with my Knight and spread out with my Land Raider - trying to get it the same cover save my Knight receive from the statue the previous turn. My stormtalon comes on and lays waste to the chimera, but doesn't finish it off. My LRC, however, does. My TFC and Knight pound into his melta unit, and I do minor re-positioning to prepare for a next turn assault. My flamer Crusader squad that came in the drop pod finish off his plasma unit and take Objective 2 for another Victory Point.
1 more Lascannon shot, and another three hull points removed from the Imperial Knight. 2 Lascannon shots = dead knight? If you do the math, that's highly unlikely, but still possible. Oh well, hardly a game over, since I still have the fighting nature of a true Templar. This changes my gameplan a bit, since I was hoping the Knight would take out the Storm____ before it was taken off the board. He destroys my Stormtalon as well, but it took more shooting than he was hoping it would.
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TURN 3
Unfortunately I misread my tactical objectives/forgot about Objective marker 6 (the one in the bottom middle of the table), so I pretty much flat-out acrossed the board to gain the Domination tactical objective. The TFC finished off the bottom melta unit to clear it off that objective. I still score some points here, however, since my tactical objectives was getting two specific objectives (which I had) and then all of them (which I didn't get). So, I pretty much "wasted" a turn getting closer to him. No biggie. The last Crusader with the plasma gun (which you can't see ATM) took further cover behind the ruins to stop Line of Sight so he couldn't be fired upon. With the loss of my Knight so early, I knew that I had to survive for quite a few more rounds before the game would end. He still had plenty of stuff capable of clearing me off of the board, so even with causing severe casualties to him, he was still in it.
He positions his vanquishers to start pounding on my rhino and predator. They both end up surviving, but it's only a matter of time before things go poorly for them. The Hydras fire into my Crusader squad, but 3+ armor is great when it's not ignored.
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TURN 4
I draw the super linebreaker tactical objective (3+ units in 12" of opponent's table edge +d3 Victory Points), so I risk my Land Raider in the difficult terrain. It gets by fine. I fire on the Baneblade, and it has about 7 HP left at this point. TFC pounds on the Hydras and I charge my Crusaders into the Hydra squad as well. They finish it off and consolidate towards his Vanquishers and Tank Commander.
He drives away from the Crusaders and issues an order to split fire with his Vanquishers, taking out my Predator and Rhino. By now the Lord of War's Heavy 15 gun is firing it's second turn of shooting at the TFC (it can see him through a window). With his bad dice rolls and needing 5+ to wound, and my 2+ armor, the TFC survives again. He fires on my LRC with a Lascannon sponson on his Storm____, but only a glance.
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TURN 5
I get to the rear armor of the Storm____ and fire all out, getting it down to 3 hull points. My crusaders charge into the Vanquisher squandron, but only do minor damage to them. I run my Plasma gun crusader out (you can see him now!) of the ruins and make it pretty impossible for any line of sight. The TFC has nothing it can really damage at this point, so I finally make the move to get it fully out of line of sight of the Storm____, just in case things stopped going my way.
I forgot to take a picture at this point, but that was just due to the game ending and he started putting his stuff away before I remembered about the final shot. He failed to kill my Land Raider Crusader, and since the game ended it was pretty much over. I won by a lot, but we didn't bother counting up since that wasn't really the point of the game (still double-checking rules and getting 7th down).
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Tactical Objectives worked in my favor, and the drop pod made a huge difference. I went to my local game store today with a 1,250 list to get everyone up to speed with 7th and to make sure my area started with a strong 7th foundation. My opponent wanted more points, so I just quickly added 400 points.
The game went well, especially since I was effectively 360 points down since my Chaplain and huge Crusader block never left the LRC (and why would I? Heavy 15, Str 6, Ap 3? yeah, I don't think so). The list's core is working out well, and even with the Knight going down pretty early, I've been able to do serious damage (or take out altogether) the threats to the other heavy armor in the list. It's obvious that a gunline army cannot function in the new Tactical Objective missions, and I may have to work some drop pods into the filler points portion of my list since they are just so unbelievable for how Tactical Objectives work. I'm fine with this, though, because I love me some drop pods.
The Crusade continues...
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