After winning my first game pretty solidly I was ready for game two. They posted the match ups and I got a bit worried - Tau. Great, I have trouble against Tau. I went and checked out the table and my heart sank. There was an objective in the lower right hand side of the board, and the upper left hand side of the board. Our goal was to protect our objective and claim the enemies objective. I was okay with that, what made my heart sink was the super sparse cover on the table.
Well, everything was not lost. I would have to wait and see what his army looked like.
I didn't have to wait long as my opponent showed up a few minutes later. His list - 2 Hammerhead tanks with Rail Guns, a 3 man unit of Heavy Broadside suits with rail guns and shield drones, a 3 man unit of the light Suits, a one man unit of the jump suit and 4 units of fire warriors. Crap. 5 rail guns. This was going to be tough.
I did not get the first turn so my opponent set up first. The way he deployed set the whole feeling of the game. Basically we divided the table in half and played two games at once. Each of us trying to defend and take the other objective. He set his 2 tanks, heavy suits, and two units of fire warriors up on the right hand side and his remaining units on the left.
I decided to pile as much fury into defending as I could and use numbers to clear out his objective. On the right hand side I deployed my Rhino full of Berzerkers and my Plague Marines in their rhino. I dumped Frik off along with the Obliterators as well. I figured what the hell and put the Deamon Prince over there hiding behind a Rhino so maybe he would live a turn before being rail-gunned to death.
On the other side of the table I laid out 3 Rhinos full of regular Chaos Space Marines along with Frak.
Against my better judgment I kept my Raptors in reserve. I don't know why I do it to myself - I guess I am just a glutton for punishment.
After we deployed it was time for turn one.
My opponent maneuvered his troops around a little bit to take up better firing positions and to get into cover. He advanced both of his tanks forward and prepared to start shooting.
What a shooting phase it was. He managed to immobilize my Plague Rhino and one of my regular Rhinos. I got super lucky as me missed with a shot or two and he was shooting diagonally across the entire board at a few of the targets and this allowed me a cover save from the super sparse cover.
My first turn was a flurry of movement. I drove the Rhino's that were able forward their full movement and popped smoke with them all - hopefully it would buy me one more round. Frik and Frak of course sprinted forward or shot a Rhino. They always do first turn. The Daemon prince tried to hide behind a pile of rocks and the obliterators moved to take shots.
In shooting the only think I managed to do was pepper one of my Rhinos and to shate a one of his Tanks - I was okay with that tough, we were just getting warmed up.
On my opponents next turn he maneuvered his tanks a bit more and then moved right into shooting. He immobilized one rhino, shook another, and blew both arms off of Frik. Frik didn't care though, he could still kick so he was as happy as ever.
Remember me telling you about the sparse cover and trying to hide my prince behind a rock, well, it was not un-sparselike enough and it did not cover up 50% of my Daemon prince so he took a rail gun shot. Took it like a man! If taking it like a man means he lost a wound.
On my turn I sprang into action - with little could still sprang. The remaining rhinos drove like crazy and parked a few inches away from their targets. I decided not to pile them out as that would give too good of a target. My prince jumped over the paltry rock and landed in charge range of a tank - this I could handle. Frik and Frak advanced forward as best they could.
Also my Raptors arrived in grand fashion - deep striking behind a tank and unit of fire warriors over on the side I was defending against. Things were really looking up.
In the shooting phase I decided to try my luck and fire at the unit of heavy suits that were giving me trouble over on the right hand side. I fired up my trusty plasma cannons on my obliterators and laid into them. I wasn't as lucky this round as I was against the terminators in the first game but I did manage to kill enough to force a panic check so I was okay with that.
Since my Raptors had arrived via deep strike I decided to fire them into the unit of fire warriors that were near one of the Hammerhead tanks. I laid into them with bolt pistol, plasma gun, and melta gun and scored enough kills to also force a panic check. If I got lucky one of them would fail.
I was now done with shooting and it was time to roll those panic checks. Apparently the dice gods were with me and my opponent failed both rolls and both units ran off the board. We both just looked in utter amazement. This was a huge loss as he now only had half as many units on that side of the table.
It was now time for assaults. I had only one - my daemon prince assaulted one of his tanks. A few rolls of the dice later and he was now the proud owner of a wrecked hammerhead tank. Things were looking grim.
In my opponents third turn he tried to make a comeback - but it never arrived.
In his movement phase he moved his remaining suits towards my troops in to set up for shooting and the assault. He did the same with his unit of firewarriors on the right hand side of the board. He moved his tank as far away from my Daemon Prince as he could and still be able to shoot - which wasn't very far because they were running together.
In the shooting phase he opened up on my raptors on the right hand side of the board with his firewarriors but didn't kill very many of them. He put another wound on my Daemon Prince with the tank and then opened up on the left hand side of the board.
He was able to wreck one rhino with a melta gun and he opened up on some troops with his other unit of battle suits.
In the assault phase he ran his firewarriors at my raptors and charged a unit of troops with his group of three broadside suits.
In the ensuing combat I came out on top all around but was not able to drive any of the units out of combat.
On my turn I piled everyone out of a Rhino who was still embarked and moved to get the best position for the charge. I chased after the remaining hammerhead tank with my prince and that was about it.
I decided not to do any shooting at his units of troops because I did not want them to break before I could get the charge on them.
In the assault phase I crashed into a unit of firewarriors on left hand side of the board and I hit his tank with my prince. The prince was able to tear the railgun off of the tank and immobilise it. Good enough for me. The firewarriors took quite a few wounds but did not break from combat.
At this time my opponent conceded the game. He didn't have much left on the table and from here on out it was just going to be me slowly slaughtering his troops over the next few rounds.
I got pretty lucky that things went as well for as they did in this game. If his unit of firewarriors and heavy battlesuits had not broke early in the game I would have had a much harder time.
All in all it was a very fun game and it really drove home how important Rhino's are now. My troops would have not made it across the board as intact as they did were it not for their trusty transports.