Catching up on battle reports: being murdered by Space Marines who are best buddies with Forge World

I've been lucky enough to have a couple of absolutely awesome games recently.

My first battle was a 1,250 effort which focussed on lots of cheap troops and tanks - an infantry platoon, conscripts, and a pair of Leman Russ tanks. I threw in a Valkyrie to start getting the hang of the flier rules. I was facing a slightly unconventional Space Marine list in "The Relic".

I forgot to take photos until after we'd started, and this was the opening salvo from the Marine shooting. The drop pod had scattered away from my lines, leaving the Sternguard combi-meltas just a little too far away from my Leman Russ Demolisher.

But what's that in the background, trying to hide behind its own army list? A Land Raider Achilles? Really, you shouldn't have.

I mean that.

You shouldn't have.

(All love to the Marine player, he was lovely really!)

The Achilles, for those who haven't encountered one of Forge World's finest, is a Land Raider with a Thunderfire Cannon mounted as a front gun, with an option to take twin linked multi-meltas as its side sponsons. And just to top that all with some extra cheesy icing, melta and lance weapons have no special effect against it.

The enemy army's Warlord was also a Damocles Rhino, just to add to the mayhem. It is a special command vehicle that can be an HQ choice, and can drop orbital barrages on you and all sorts.

You remember those Sternguard who hadn't quite dropped in the right place ending up right in front of a Leman Russ Demolisher?

That went poorly for them. I also got First Blood for turning the Drop Pod itself into a small but rapidly expanding pile of cinders...

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of staying still to do it, so was in turn blown to pieces by grenades. Rookie error!

Aiming for "Slay the Warlord", I poured a lot of fire into the Damocles, immobilising it. Meanwhile, the first of his Storm Talons race on to try and do something about the wave of oncoming tanks...

My conscripts advanced with my Primaris Psyker setting up a telekinetic force dome to protect them from the horrific Thunderfire Cannon.

We had a long discussion to work out how the Achilles could best blow me to pieces (Power of the Machine Spirit complicates your targeting priorities hugely).

The Damocles forgot it was immobilised,
and went on a little imaginary jaunt.
It soon remembered and went back to the
naughty (immobilised) corner.

Volume of fire from the Thunderfire Cannon overcame the psyker's will, blowing him and most of the conscripts to kingdom come...

There was a short exciting moment when my Veterans landed neatly on the Relic, with the intent of carrying it off.

And then they were blown to pieces by all the firing in the world. Especially the Thunderfire Cannon.

I made a last gasp effort to take out his Warlord with the Valkyrie (I'm no longer sure if I did, but I think I did in the end...)

But it was too late and the Relic was firmly in the hands of the Space Marines...

While I did get royally trounced here (I think I was effectively tabled), it was the most fun I'd had in absolutely ages. The Achilles is certainly a monster, but I could have done more to deal with it more effectively.

I was also quite pleased with the area denial effect of my infantry - I had a remarkably affordable mass of mobile cover from the Invulnerable conscripts for a relatively cheap price - although poor placing of the psyker meant they died sooner than they might have otherwise.