Mission - Maelstrom of War: Contact Lost, Eternal War: Frontline Warfare
Deployment type: Spearhead Assault
Point Limit: 2000
Lists - from team "The Soup"
The Deployment:
I had some minor nerves going into this game, seeing what my opponent brought and the massive size difference of the armies model-wise. Nonetheless I decided to keep as cool a head as possible.
Due to the FAQ I was no longer worried about a potential turn 1 tempestus drop so I positioned as best I could on the objectives to try and get an early malestrom lead starting turn 2. The brave Archon camps behind a rock on the lower right side. Wraithknight posted in front to look threatening, flanked by jetbikes and transports. The raider used Screaming jets to be set up in deepstrike. In my mind the lack of -1 to hit and lower invulnerable save made it a more brittle piece that needed protection in case of a seize and there were too many lascannons on the field to feel comfortable about letting it on the ground.
My opponent created a veritable fortress on his side of the field, castling up his units as best as he could and filling any gaps so that my dancers of death couldn't slip in to wreak havoc. Sentinels with heavy flamers and Tempestus Scions would supposedly provide mobility to his static gunline.
Harlequins turn 1:
The +1 to the roll-off helped me get first turn and my opponent failed to seize. I opted for a cautious advance of my forces - excepting the Wraithknight and the jetbikes. I tried moving the 3 Skyweavers to look the least threatening they can, expecting to go in hard turn 2. It was a gamble, trying to bait the opponent into ignoring a good chunk of the harlequin's protection but one that paid off. Wraithknight Charges the sentinel and a heavy weapon team, combined shuriken fire from the voidweaver and bikes kills a second sentinel. The rest of the shuricannons get scattered among the guard squads out in the open to which they had range, trying to cause morale issues - with little success since there were 3 Ordo Xenos Inquisitors making sure no filthy hive-scum would flee this battle!
Astra Militarum turn 1:
The gamble paid off! In the above photo we can see the Lord-General measuring a dropzone for his Tempestus force to come in and give the towering Wraith-construct a greeting with copious amounts of overcharged plasma. The Sentinel move up to the Starweaver so as to set it ablaze with its heavy flamer. The entire guard gunline hunkers down and receivers orders to TAKE AIM, thanks to them being Cadians - they get to reroll everything to hit. Who needs Guilliman, right? One crucial mistake I made on my opponent's turn was not using Agents of Vect to counter "Overlapping fields of fire". If that stratagem would have failed the Wraithknight may have had 1-2 wounds left to be an annoyance. Alas, this was my first game against Astra Militarum this new edition so my unfamiliarity with the matchup was showing. The bikes take a pounding and lose 2 members, even with the stratagem to improve their invulnerables and the Wraithknight goes down to the onslaught of shots - even the humble lasgun scoring some wounds.
Harlequins turn 2:
The gloves were off now. I had to go in as hard as I could this turn or risk getting obliterated by return fire on his next turn. I disembarked the green weaver, blitzed the solitaire and advanced the troupe inside. There were no vehicles I could reliable use their fusion-pistols on and the guardsmen would fall like chaff to their Harlequin's Embraces. The raider, filled to the brim with Kabalites smashed down on the battlefield to deliver a poisonous payload to the Tempestus Scions. Before retreating the red-weaver to capture an objective I disembarked the troupe to try and tie-up the artillery. The troupe couldn't get to the artillery proper, but the master - The Red Swan - dived over what remained of the artillery defenders with a flourish. The manticore was still a threat so I charged it with the 2 remaining skyweavers, but alas one perished from overwatch. The blitzing solitaire decapitated an Astropath and an Inquisitor.
Astra Militarum Turn 2:
Despite my valiant attempt to lock as much of the guard in combat on my previous round, this Lord General knew how to whip his men into shape even after falling back. Most of the infantry squads received the order to get back into the fight so I would start eating piles of mortar and lasgun fire.
Thankfully the artillery was silenced for the time but my opponent had a nasty surprise for the Solitaire - an Ogrynn Bodyguard with the Deathmask of Ollanius. A nigh-indestructible beatstick who gave the Solitaire a solid beating, barely leaving him alive. My vehicles managed to weather the storm thanks to their natural -1 to hit and I used Lightning Reflexes on the raider to boost it as well. The guard player started faltering after this turn. Not managing to kill my troupe master tying up his artillery and not inflicting enough damage on the vehicles to deny me board presence.
Harlequins turn 3:
This was my opportunity to seal the game, I had a large lead in maelstrom points and kill points that I wanted to solidify as much as possible. By this point I had too few fusion pistols on the board to be able to contend with the artillery pieces and the Voidweaver was nowhere near it to start pinging it with haywire. On this turn I wanted to clear out most of the infantry, especially the mortar teams, while I still had infantry of my own on the field. The lone Troupe Master was still doing an admirable job holding down that flank. I attempted to slay the warlord with the Solitaire - but I failed, my opponent getting a good roll on his refractor field saves.
Conclusions:
The final two rounds of the game were played at a very brisk pace since we were getting close to the clock, and my opponent knew he couldn't catch up on the victory point lead I had amassed with what he had left and he didn't see the chance to table me in one or two rounds. Solitaire died, Troupe master died, and the last remaining troupe I had on the table also died from the return fire from the guard but it was a retreating volley already. The game ended 18-2 for the Harlequins. This game gave me a large morale boost for the rest of the tournament. I have faced a guard list that outnumbered me greatly and had a shocking amount of firepower and I somehow managed to weather the storm, play for objective and keep his field as busy as I could with my units. The raider filled with kabalites, a disintegrator cannon and a shredder helped immensely against the hordes of guardsmen and would be a key piece in the games to come.
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