[BR] 2k MI vs arachnids(going to be picture heavy!)

[tneva82]

As a teaser for SST game(last of any miniature game I'll be able to play before moving to england) I played today and from which battle report is coming later(with pics! Got new digital camera tuesday so I just had to play around with it ). I try to add notes to pictures like some of the report makers here have done on their reports but don't hold your breath for quality. My first attempt

Anyway game will be 2000 pts game between elements of my New Finland's 34th battallion(sorry. Couldn't resist with planets name. One has right to promote his home country right :lol: ) and nasty swarm of arachnids(unfortunatly plasma bug+blasters will be unpainted but what the heck) as they try to invade beatifull home planet of the regiment(history repeat itself with red enemy invading "Finland". Sorry. Poor joke.).

Here's the army lists:

New Finland's 34th battallion, Bravo company, 2nd CAP platoon. Priority level 2

power suit lietnaunt Mannerheim(shock stick, trenchsweeper) 130
M8 marauder NCO Huovinen(hel infantry flamers) 210

Squad 'Alpha' 8xpower suit troopers(corporal, hel infantry flamer, tripple thudd g/l) 325
Squad 'Bravo' 8xpower suit troopers(corporal, morita sniper rifle, javelin missile launcher, drop pods) 420
Squad 'Charlie' 8xpower suit troopers(corporal, 2x tripple thudd g/l) 335
Squad 'Delta' 8xpower suit troopers(corporal, 2xjavelin missile launcher, sergeant w/platoon standard) 400

CHAS unit 175

total: 1995

Similar to my ropecon list which shouldn't come as a suprise since these are all the models I own I dropped reliants that didn't fit my playing style anyway, decided to try drop pods for one of the squads(chosen for their access on long range firepower in case enemy has moved away) and added last CAP model for full platoon(barring support), the standard bearer, into the mix eventhough it's unpainted. I chose 2 javelin squad as squad as I figured they are going to be furthest from the danger of being swamped by bugs so apart from plasma bug standard should be safe for a while.

Did want to try the cruise missile but it was it or troopper+standard bearer trait for the 2xjavelin squad.

Oh and before anybody decides to nitpick on Finnish flag being wrong way no way! I deliberatly painted it that way as it's New Finlands flag There's also text 34B/2 but that probably doesn't show on the pictures.

Anyway no big devious plan. I'll be using my usual move&shoot tactic with the initial squads(though THIS time I'll remember to concentrate on that plasma bug I'm quaranteed to see(can't reach sensible 2k list without it) with my javelins. That thing MUST DIE!). Marauders and CHAS will be used as rearguard if need be due to their toughness(especially in case of marauder). Then on turn 2 I'll be bringing my drop pods next to plasma bug. They should be able to finnish that bastard(hopefully limiting it to 2 shots in a game. That's 2 shots too much for my taste but without nukes not going to kill it in 2 turns!). They should also prove to be usefull for scenarios I'll be expecting to play(in case of hold I would have squad in his deployment zone which would be good and delay and it will be squad alive giving me boost to my vp total. Since he can't build effective PL1 list those 2 are scenarios I will be facing).

For tactics...Well IDEALLY I would be prefering to get deep defence so defence tactic would sound like smart move. However I'm sure opponent will be aware that I would very much like to get ability to defend by depth so he just might choose probe. To counter this I think I also choose probe as well I think encounter suits my playing style better than battle line so here's hoping.

Priority level 3 arachnid host, or "the red carpet"

15xarachnid warrior(carrion bugs) 300
15xarachnid warrior(carrion bugs) 300
5xarachnid warrior(carrion bugs) 100
5xarachnid warrior(carrion bugs) 100

plasma bug 300
tanker 250

6xblaster bugs 180
5xfirefries 100

4xtunneling entrance 200
3xtunneling marker 150

total: 1980

Yes the plasma bug is very much misconstructed(or not! He's walking! Yes! That's why some legs are up!). Also seems the coins I put inside his head is not enough weigth which compounds the problem of "legs on air".

Anyway I now start to work on the actual report. Stay patient. I'll post them turn by turn as it completed.

 

[tneva82]

To my delight opponent HAD chosen probe tactic. This was very good(or so I theorised) as it gave cornered deployment zone. We put what we thought to be reasonable amount of terrain(of various sizes. Main importance was the GW tree forrest that we judged size 8 to ensure MI won't have it too easy). We also put bunker on the center of board. Would MI dare to use it?

Squad on the left of picture is the squad alpha with tripple thudd and flamer. Squad in center is delta so that I could move to either side depending where that plasma is exactly. Charlie went to right.

As you can see the tunneling markers are in triangle. Tanker was the one on the up(I expected it to be the one in the corner). Forrest wasn't all-goodie for bugs(he won choise to choose the board side btw) but certainly ended up covering plasma nicely as it turned out.

Since I(as an MI player) had lower PL I had choise of wether to deploy first&go first or deploy second and go second. I had opted to go first even at the cost of deploying first.

MI Turn 1 or moving into positions:

I moved squad alpha(with lietnaunt around there as) west landing next to tunnel marker(one troopper top of it). I shot at the tunneling marker(maybe I'll get around destroying it) and caused one hit to it. Huzah! Squad charlie moved north but they failed to harm the tunneling entrance there(I was short of range to arachnids). To my dismay I found out that out of 3 javelins only the CHAS had possibility to get to plasma bug. Atleast he managed to score kill result(javelin against size FIVE is fun. D10+5 against kill value 9? Oh yes!) causing first 2 wounds. 8 more to go...So squad delta and marauder jumped forward and shot at the big swarm. Total: 1 dead warrior, 3 knocked back. I started to hate carrion upgrade already.

Overall suprisingly weak turn for me. I have to admit I expected more but partially I can blame on my overcautious deployment. I should remember I was quaranteed to get first turn! Not hold back like coward. This gave me problems as 2 squads hadn't much to shoot at...

Arachnid turn 1 or CHARGE!

Sounds of scuttling legs heralded arachnids turn as the swarm moved toward at full speed. Well nearly. The 2 warrior tunneling markers moved toward tunnel entrances at reduced speed to match that of tanker to my annoyance. He wanted to keep it secret which one is the bad boy...We had also realised that swarm rule can be used to move those 15 bug swarms with more ease(we HAD wondered how you squeeze 15 warriors so that all are in command range...). This came to help with one of the big swarms(the one partially in forrest.

Then came the event I had feared for. The plasma shot! It aimed at alpha squad with 6" short shot. Of course this just "happened" to hit not only my marauder NCO(which was annihilated by kill result!) but also troopper from squad alpha. Tunnel entrance took another 2 hits but that was small price to pay for death of officer marauder...

Sometimes I swear my troops have plasma magnet attached to them. Especially marauders.

 

[tneva82]

MI turn 2 or incoming!

Turn 1 had been mostly moving forward(this encounter deployment really adds into ranges. Not sure I like about this in practice afterall!). I would need to start doing some REAL damage before I get overrun by those swarms of bugs. To this end Alpha squad jumps forward to bring weapons to bear...However I end up killing NOTHING! Damn those carrion bug upgrades. That reroll to save is real pain. Even tripple thudd gun I was relying on to do something failed me utterly. This was bad.

Meanwhile CHAS jumped further to west and caused yet another kill result to plasma bug. 4 dealt, 6 to go...Finally I decided I would try to blow that damaged tunnel entrance(that tunnel marker was too near to my taste anyway). Squad readied(to give me access to bugshot grenades for reqular trooppers. This proved wise as while javelins caused 2 more wounds(lucky me) it was bugshots that destroyed the entrance. Now only one entrance nearby to worry about.

Perhaps in the end wasn't best use of my firepower but I was getting tad desperate...Meanwhile lietnaunt, realising he's only officer left jumps back. I can't afford to lose him too or I'm screwed.

Finally squad charlie jumped further north and brought tripple thudds to bear. Finally I started to see some effect as 5 warriors are blasted apart. Take that alien scum! Get out of my planet!

Bit better turn but I think I left myself too open for counter strike...

Arachnid turn 2 or crunch time!

Tanker moves up into the entrance and emerges to my horror. 2 nearest troopers are smashed apart by the powerfull close combat attacks of the beast. Meanwhile plasma bug shoots another salvo and this time hits near perfectly(1" short) which burns another 4 trooppers from squad alpha(this also saw death of tripple thudd gun bearer). Have I mentioned I hate plasma bugs? Then to compound my problems small bug squad emerges from tunnel entrance. Reaction fire against bugs in cover sees only 2 of my trooppers running out of ammos for a while...

Needless to say the charge saw death of 3 trooppers from squad delta and yet another from squad alpha. My only relief is that they entered into reaction range of flamer which burned down 2 bugs. Got to love that d10+2 attacks. Strong enough to get those kill results which bypasses rerolls from carrion bugs

And then it's time for the cavalry! Squad bravo drops in their drop pods right next to plasma bug, ready to kill that bastard! To my annouance those blasters were bit too close but even if worst happen I should get rid of that I-kill-you-all artirelly piece.

 

[tneva82]

MI turn 3. Turn of big mistakes:

Turn 3 open with less than suprising action. Squad bravo shoots at the plasma bug and kills the mighty beast. Javelin and sniper rifle both caused kill results(I just LOVE accurate trait against plasma bugs!) while moritas finished it off with overkill with another 3 wounds. Bye bye plasma! I then concidered what I should do. I realised I had put them too far to shoot blasters(oops!) so I readied them instead.

I start to move squad charlie toward my DZ once more(though actually mistake. Should have gone toward north corner instead and draw tanker AWAY from my DZ. REMEMBER THOSE OBJECTIVES! If I manage to keep tanker out of my DZ it would have been _500_ points difference so why on earth did I make it EASIER to reach DZ?). Tripple thudd guns shoot at the tanker but darn beast benefitted from cover of tunnel entrance which ensured that all but 1 wound were saved. Bugger.

I then started to retreat with main force on south as squad alpha moved on foot(and barely got out of 10" reaction range of warriors). Shooting killed warrior from small warrior squad.

I decided things are desperate so CHAS jumps front of big swarm hoping to delay them. Flamer burns mighty four bugs. I'm starting to really like these flamers!

Remaining warriors swarm around the CHAS and cause 1 wound despite target 8. But if he next rolls even one '10' he faces exploding CHAS...Heh. Anyway lietnaunt tries to help squad delta and jumps forward near member of small warrior squad burning yet another of those warriors leaving just one left.

This still left squad delta in trouble. 2 warriors were in range to charge into squad delta(member from big swarm and remaining warrior from small swarm). 2 more in range to react with alarm screech...I would need to kill 3 and flinch another to not cause reactions and if I shoot I would be forced to move by foot through forrest...Not good at all!

In the end I decided to risk it. 2 warriors would be able to charge but what the heck. Squad readies their jump packs and face 2 angry warriors. Unfortunatly both clobbers their target. Rest ran away with their jump packs.

Arachnid turn 3. Time to round things up:

Blasters move toward squad bravo and let go with their fiery death. This results quite annoyingly to 2 dead trooppers. Darn! Tanker continues it's charge and charges uphill into squad charlie(why o why did I move squad so that this brought tanker closer to my DZ?). First attacks causes death of troopper(another survived miraculously!). Squad readied in desperate bid to get the heck out of the beast. Another 2 trooppers killed by tanker before that happens though. Remaining 3 trooppers jump away from the very, VERY angry tanker.

Bad tanker.

On south surviving warrior from small squad moves up toward lietnaunt who shoots and promptly runs out of ammos. Warrior charges in and causes 1 kill result. Shock stick came to rescue though and it was just reqular wound(handy that parry). I had 4+ save to keep my officer alive but annoyingly I promptly rolled a '1'. Bugger. There went last of my officers...

My mind cheered up a bit when CHAS exploded due to too eager warriors and blew another 2 warriors into pieces. Another one is burned by flamer troopper reacting nearby. Swarm then decides to charge toward said swarm but only 1 warrior reach anybody. Somehow troopper managed to survive attention of warrior so once more reaction fire burned and shot 4 more warriors. Darn that carrion though!

Another is burned by nearby flame troopper who reacts. Swarm then heads toward squad alpha but only 1 warrior reach it. Suprisingly MI troopper survives! Flamer burns another 3 bugs and moritas take care of another 1(darned carrions!).

Needless to say things were getting desperate. However I started to remember scenario objectives. If I could wipe out enough squads and keep enough of MY squads alive...Who knows.

 

[tneva82]

MI Turn 4, retreat begins.

Easy stuff first. Bravo squad opens up on the blaster squads and kills 2. It was by now that opponent rechecked his scenario objectives and realised that while I can have bravo squad in his DZ without problem HE would need to get those out of his DZ before end of game or pay penalty. Hehehe.

Charlie squad jumped further south and ensured there's house between them and tanker. Remaining warrior from small squad died. Good. Twice the squads value rather than full value. Good good. Delta squad jumps toward my corner as well shooting at warriors on their way. No effect. Then one troopper from squad alpha that was out of command(due to no officers) started to run toward the delta sergeant with his platoon banner. RUN TROOPPER RUN! If you can survive you deny 325 points to enemy! RUN!

Remaining 2 trooppers shoot at the big swarm. Flamer burns yet another 2 warriors(GOT to get more of flamers! Albeit I had particulary good luck but still ). Bugs charge forward but don't reach CC. Squad shot again but this time it resulted just 2 dead trooppers. Darn. Squad alpha now relied on out of command troopper. Good thing I had that platoon banner!

Arachnid turn 4 or where the prey is running?

Blasters move back to forward to get flinched blasters into range again. Shooting killed another 1 MI troopper dead. Next turn they would have to move out of his DZ so squad survived. Heh. On south remaining 3 warriors from big swarm tries to kill troopper from alpha squad but first action is reacted by moving away(love that banner) which leaves only 1 warrior able to charge him. And troopper survives! Is that troopper blessed or something?

Rest of bug turn saw them moving toward my DZ ASAP.

Wasn't I supposed to stop arachnids from reaching my deployment zone?-)

 

[tneva82]

MI turn 5, the final hour:

Last turn so best make it count. There was just 4 blasters left so maybe I could shoot all of them(giving me whopping 360 pts). Squad shoots twice but...Failed! Argh! In second action I caused 3 wounds toward 2 blasters and he saved 2. Sniper rifle even failed to wound(another darned '1'). Okay 180 pts gained but 180 pts lost.

However squad charlie evened things up as they jumped further south(god bless that tanker for inability to react!) and wiped remaining 3 warriors from big swarm. YES! That's 300 pts extra. Heh. This also cleared way for survivor of alpha squad that moved further away from arachnids. Delta squad tried to bring second small squad below half strenght but 4 morita shots ain't going to kill 3 carrior warriors so failed naturally. With this MI's had done what they could.

Arachnids turn 5. Mission accomplished!

Firefries, after game of constant jumping and trying to get into range, finally found somebody in range. Or rather ONE of them had. Troopper from squad alpha...This would be very important attack as it would decide 325 vp's...So d10 is rolled. It's a wound but not kill! I rolled for a save...And failed. Argh!

Tanker then moved into DZ proper and flamed toward charlie squad. All 3 under template(and big oops from me. I COULD have spaced them further apart...). Luckily 1 of them survives nevertheless. Dodged a bullet there. Anyway rest of bug army just moved into DZ or in case of lone blaster out of it.

Game over.

Not much of MI army left! Not that arachnid army didn't suffer any beating but MI was reduced to barely a full squad...

Survivors:

MI:

Squad Bravo: 5 trooppers
Squad Charlie: 1 troopper
Squad Delta: 2 trooppers

Arachnids:

9/15 warriors
5/5 warriors
5/5 firefries
1/6 blaster
tanker

Also 1 tunnel entrance destroyed

Points for killing:

MI: 1500
Arachnids: 840

Penalty points:

MI: 750
Arachnids: 0

Bonus points:

MI: 188
Arachnids: 750

Final points:

MI: 938
Arachnids: 1590

So 1590-938 in arachnids favour. Clear victory but it's closer than might appear. Let's assume I could have held that tanker from reaching my DZ. That's 250 pts less bonus for arachnids and 250 less penalty for MI. Then if survivor of alpha squad had survived that firefry attack(4+ roll) MI would have won the game! Or if that blaster had died and MI would have been ahead by ~20 pts even with death of alpha squad.

Anyway these are "what if's"

Overall I can blame defeat on my own playing. First: Too cautious deployment which robbed me of crucial shots on turn 1. Turn 2 and I concentrated on tunnel entrance(which was unlikely to succeed in a first place) instead of doing something right. Like jumping(after shooting) further away rather than be clobbered by by warriors coming from entrance. Squad charlie should also have moved toward north-east corner as I had PLANNED but decided to start hopping back. I might have tempted him to seek them out instead and thus deny him of bonus points while reducing my penalty points.

In the end I allowed him to get too many units into my DZ and as they say that was it. As you can see before applying penalties and points(nearly 1500 pts swing into arachnids favour...) I was ahead...Of course I had "bit" of help on there by easier scenario rules but that's what you gain by having lower PL.

Anyway thanks for reading the report. Hopefully you found it of any interest.

 

[dwarvesarethebest]

Great report! Pity about the bug victory. You were playing a "Delay" Mission versus his "Overrun"?

 

[tneva82]

Great report! Pity about the bug victory. You were playing a "Delay" Mission versus his "Overrun"?

PL 2 vs 3 so yes delay vs overrun.

Certainly getting vp's seemed easier with delay than with overrun(as kill points testify). Of course each squad in my DZ being effectively worth twice it's cost countered it effectively. Especially as I failed BIG TIME preventing him to reach my DZ.

 

[roughneck GIR]

Poor MI , now were you useing the bunker as terrain or as an emplacement? Ouch, yes your deployment could have been better :wink:

 

[tneva82]

Poor MI , now were you useing the bunker as terrain or as an emplacement? Ouch, yes your deployment could have been better :wink:

Bunker was there as a terrain in neutral area(afterall arachnids can get cover from it too). Rulewise it worked as a bunker but just deployed between 2 armies and nobody paid points for it.

 

[Poko]

cool report.
but tell me, are those bugs the rumoured "ladybug killer swarm" that never made it to the arachnid book? :wink: (yes, i do like the scheme 8) )

 

[tneva82]

cool report.
but tell me, are those bugs the rumoured "ladybug killer swarm" that never made it to the arachnid book? :wink: (yes, i do like the scheme 8) )

Hah hah Knew I should have chosen another colour scheme. Now that ladybug reference is stuck with them :lol:

 

[roughneck GIR]

cool report.
but tell me, are those bugs the rumoured "ladybug killer swarm" that never made it to the arachnid book? :wink: (yes, i do like the scheme 8) )

Hah hah Knew I should have chosen another colour scheme. Now that ladybug reference is stuck with them :lol:

Oh but I'm sure the tanker is a "manly bug" lol

 

[tneva82]

Oh but I'm sure the tanker is a "manly bug" lol

Hah hah!

But I'm sooooo happy that atlast I managed to actually USE that trenchsweeper. Been using that for a while but never got around using it(funny range on that weapon). Torched warrior for good!

Also that standard bearer trait is soooo usefull got to keep using that. Funny thing that when lietnaunt died leaving command range to 3" it was actually GOOD thing From alpha squad only the one out of command could move outside reaction range so if whole squad had moved or readied or anything it would have been bugs all over. Now that out-of-command could start running toward banner without reactions. And this could have proved vital :lol:

Funny how these things turn up. Not often loss of officers can be good thing.

 

[chris_valera]

This is genius, good on you for pickinga unique background and a custom color scheme.

You sire, are to be commended!

--Chris
www.chrisvalera.com

 

[Rob_A]

That bug army is just plain silly...


I like it! :mrgreen:

Nice battle report. I cant remember the last bug vs MI game I played .

 

[tneva82]

That bug army is just plain silly...

ARGH!

If only I had remembered ladybugs before settling for colour scheme

Bugger :twisted:

Hmmm...I'll change those dots pink ones! Yes that's it! No more ladybug jokes!

 

[Rob_A]

You sooooo wanted them to be ladybugs. No-one except whatever created lady bugs could make that mistake!

 

[tneva82]

You sooooo wanted them to be ladybugs. No-one except whatever created lady bugs could make that mistake!

Honest I didn't even THINK of those when I created colour scheme!

I was poundering on colour scheme for my warriors and since I had devised some time ago nice(even if bit lengthy) way to make red(that chestnut ink did the trick). However I knew plain red would look boring so I wondered what should I add to the mix. Cue in Babylon 5 that I was looking heavily back then(going through entire serie from first episode to the last) and one of my favourite characters there(G'kar). Those black dots worked there so hey presto black dots to my arachnids

First time I realised they looked like ladybug was on ropecon when first jokes about it came along. Then my thoughts were like "drats!" :lol:

 

[Rob_A]

Get an airbrush. But another colour on in stripes with it. That could work. Like a dirty yellow.