BATTLE REPORT - Relic

Forces:

Ultramarines with Allied Elysians - 2000 pts - Chriss
Blood Angels - 2000 pts - Rottimus

The Mission? - The Relic - Vanguard Deployment

A team of scientists have unearthed a mysterious grail!

So the battle would over  a Relic! I find these battles to be particularly tactical as it's all about one single objective. Vanguard deployment and heavy terrain density made my Aegis line hard to place effectively. I brought 2 tacticals, 1 sternguard, a contemptor with blood talons, a death company and DC dread along with 4 typhoon landspeeders and vindicator. A 4 plasma cannon devastator squad camped out in the ruins next to the Aegis. Corbulo was there giving a nice 'feel no pain' bubble.

I set up my defences.

Chriss deployed two tactical squads and two thunder fire cannons. The rest of his army was in reserve. 1 ironclad in a drop pod, a tactical squad in a drop pod and FIVE... yes FIVE flyers. Two Stormtalons, a vendetta, a vulture and a valkyrie with  elysians in their bellies.

 TURN 1
 I won the first turn and proceeded to move forwad with pretty much everything. This game would be all about claiming the relic and shielding the squad that claimed it. I took pots shots with the Quad gun and my landspeeders at the Thunderfire I could see in the church ruins. I was lucky with hits and Chriss failed his armour saves. I killed both the cannon and it's pesky Techmarine. First Blood! With little else on the table, my turn ended.

Charge!

Asshole

Down comes the pod

and out comes the Ironclad

Inevitably, Chriss dumped an ironclad into my lines which promptly proceeded to kill a landspeedr with melta and heavy flames. Chriss killed a couple of sternguard with some well placed shots from his second Thunderfire.

TURN 2

Again there was little on the table to shoot at except a rhino and the Ironclad. My forces moved forward getting very close to the Relic. I zoomed 2 landspeeders over the Ironclad and my devastators took aim. Two landspeeders firing at it's rear armour and a 4 hitting plasma cannons only managed to take to hull points off it and little else. This Ironclad just would not die! Even my sternguard wasted a couple of melta shots and missed. Argh!

Reinforcements!

 The moment I was dreading came, flyers of all shapes and sizes zoomed onto the table. A drop pod fell behind my lines!

The shooting could have been worse. A land speeder was downed and my vindicator got blown sky high by melta wielding tacticals. (not surprised, my vindicator never survives)  My devastators took fire from the Librarian and lost several men. The Ironclad near my Aegis charged into my sternguard and Corbulo and killed a single marine. 'Our weapons are useless!' but my troops failed to make it out of combat.

TURN 3

With flyers zooming about everywhere I had to make sure my lines were cleared of all enemies. My only hope for victory would be to move the Relic back towards my own lines and to safety. My tactical squad finally got into base contact and Claimed the Relic!

My DC dreadnought turned around and moved toward the podded tacticals in my rear lines. Concentrated fire from the dreadnought and the devastators pretty much wiped them out, but the pesky librarian survived. My quad cannon had thus far failed to kill anything in the air, and continued its poor streak failing to penetrate anything.

 In Chriss turn he wittled down my forces considerably. Fire from all directions was taking it's toll. My forces still held the Relic but were looking like they were about to get tabled.

The DC dread is blow up!

 TURN 4
My forces were being slaughtered by the sheer amount of flyers raining death upon me. That Ironclad was still in combat with my forces (i was simply unable to get away). Something broke in my brain and I decided that the chaplain has a stg 6 weapon, and stg 7 on the charge, So i'll charge him and his unit into the Ironclad to get rid of it. (it was a pain and was scoring linebreaker as long as it was alive!) needless to say I failed to damage it and then realised I'd thrown 300 points of fearless marines into a close combat they couldn't leave or affect (Ironclad armour 13!!) What a tit!

What an idiotic move!

 I moved my contemtptor forward, trying to make it a speed bump and keep more troops from nearing the objective. I still held it with about 6 tactical marines. My contemptor ripped open a rhino and Corbulo charged into the Librarian... failing to kill him!

Chriss promptly blew up my Contemptor and downed more marines with his flyers. My ranks were now getting very thin. The Death Company was locked with the Ironclad. 5 Tacticals held onto the Relic and 5 more were still alive. The devastators were down to 1 man and a single landspeeder remained. Chriss slew Corbulo with his forceweapon....

 TURN 5

This was it, with almost nothing left on the table and 2 units of elysians and a full tactical squad within range of the relic, my grasp of victory was falling away. I downed a hovering vendetta with a lucky melta shot. My single surviving sternguard pumped two Vengeance rounds (ap3) into the librarian scoring a wound! Slaying the Warlord!

Chriss spent his turn firing EVERYTHING at the tactical marines. They died... a lot! The relic was now in nobody's hands. Chriss had beaten me back, cut down my forces with skill and precision but would it be enough?

As the sun rises, Chriss' forces close in!

It is within grasp! Claim it!

 So we rolled to see if the game would end here.... I promptly rolled and the result?


a 2!!!!!!!!

The end result?

Black Scorpions (BA) - 2 Victory points - Slay the Warlord, First Blood
Ultramarines - 1 Victory point - Linebreaker


Conclusion

A great game. I knew it would be really tough. Chriss brought a tough list. 5 flyers is pretty insane and my Quad Cannon was terrible, failing to penetrate anything. I've come to the conclusion that it's maybe best to use an Icarus, at least then you have a chance at penetrating armour 12.

I screwed up massively by charging my death company into the Ironclad... what was I thinking? I had no idea I'd be facing so many flyers so my army really wasn't equipped to handle the sheer volume. They really hammered me! Still, A victory none the less. I was SUPER lucky that the game ended when it did, one more turn and Chriss would have easily won, maybe even tabled me.

Good game!