Hello again, Sam here again with another installment of the ArcArmy Challenge... as its getting closer to the deadline its time to make so decisions!
Practice Game 2 - Nick Steel's Astra Militarum again. Unfortunately, I had to proxi a number of models to see if it would work. Nick was running a slightly different list as well. He had also optimised the wargear taking the relic banner 'Final of Nemrodesh 1st'. This gives Core units within 6" of the models unit, ignore any or all modifiers to hit. In addition, that enemy model cannot use any rules to ignore the wounds it looses. Ouch... that is really good and get past all my rebuffs.
We decided to play the first mission again and we rolled up to see who would go first. I was relieved I won the roll but realised I wasn't going to be able to sit back and play cagey this game. Be'lakor cannot be hidden and my army wasnt going to receive any buffs so I decided to push forward. The rest of my units positioned them self's.
Nick moved his whole army up into the middle of the board and shot Be'Lakor with everything killing him to the wound. Be'Lakor died bottom of Turn 1. It was a blow loosing him turn 1 but he did soak up a lot of firepower.
Turn 2 my flamers came in from Strategic Reserve and toasted 1 and a half squads of guards men. My Fleshhounds moved up to charge the remaining men. My Bloodlettter's came in but failed their charge into the Bullgryn on the centre objective. The game was nicely poised at this point as I was ahead on primary objectives and secondaries were even.
Nick shot and then charged the flamers with his ‘armour’ to try and slow them down but as they have fly they were able to move away and the two combats rolled on.
Turn 3 & 4 moved quickly - I could see things slipping away. Nick had taken the objectives away from me so he was going to move ahead on scoring primary points. I decided to respond by teleporting my Pink Horrors next to Nicks home objective. A risky move as I needed a 9" charge pull it of and get me onto the objective but being objective secured meant it would have been hard for Nick to take the objective back from me.
Turn 5 we called it; 75 to 95 in Nick's favour. I just didnt have enough models on the table in the end. Looking back at the game there were a number of stratagems and abilities from the Warp Storm table that I could have used to my advantage. Giving a 3d6 charge - dropping the lowest roll - to those Bloodletters might of gotten them into the Bullgryn; 6's to auto wound with the Daemonettes might also have been decisive… But to be honest the main issue was in loosing Be'Lakor in Turn 1.
So a new plan - in future, against shootie armies, I may tactically reserve him. Being there on turn 2 to charge and buff the rest of my army as it gets stuck in might help more.
A new feature at Arc40k this year is that our Army List's dont have to be submitted until the day of the event. Everything still has to be painted to make the table top - So I’m locking in my list now and working to complete it by the 3rd of March.
HQ
Be'lakor (WL)
Changecaster
Tranceweaver
Troops
10 Bloodletters
10 Daemonettes
10 Pink Horrors
2X4 Nurglings
Elites
6 Flamers
Fast Attack
5 Flesh Hounds
Luckily there’s currently just two models left to paint - the Transweaver & Changecaster - Plus there’s my non-combative (1x60mm & 3x40mm) pieces to do as well.
I’ve a load of other things to get sorted - like finalising my background play testing some more and getting my huge display board finished. Hopefully I get one last chance to show how it all comes together - time to put an article and finish ready for Arc40k is getting tight. Otherwise keep an eye out for my army during the weekend -particularly when it’s at it’s full glory during the Parade of Armies Saturday Lunchtime.
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