Tale of Gamers Month 4 - The Game

Pre-Game

So here it is, game 4 of the Tale of Gamers campaign for Mid-Sussex Wargamers. I settled on the Land Raider Redeemer out of simplicity and cost, it was already sitting around begging for some love and would have cost nothing extra. A good job with Salute this month but that's another post entirely.

Unfortuantely the Multi-Melta fell off and wouldn't go back on, so I slapped some Melta-bombs on one of the Veteran Sergeants and went in with a 5 point deficit. It will hurt the Land Raider's anti-tank capability but it also makes transport and painting much easier.

It was painted rather last minute and still has some touching up to do, but tabletop quality is good enough and I can re-visit some areas I don't like. It should make a nice distraction though, so on to the game...

On The Tabletop

This month's opponent is the Tau again, this time a player with an unbound list consisting of a Riptide and a host of Crisis Suits plus some Fire Warriors and Pathfinders. They also had Stealth Suits but forgot to put them on the table! The mission is Deadlock with the counting down number of objective markers.

The turns started with some fairly inconsequential shooting by both sides. The Deathwatch moved up to take objectives and claim control of the centre of the table with the Tau throwing some firepower in return. The objectives fell in my favour, I simply needed to take twice as many objectives as my opponent followed by control at least three objectives. The Tau shot down the counter-attack squad's Rhino however and scored first blood.

By mid-game the Deathwatch was in the Tau's face and laying down shooting. The Land Raider was happily watching shots ping off it's armour and the Frag Cannon squad made a brave stand on a key objective. A large cache of objective points followed putting me firmly in the lead, but units were exposed. The closer range meant Tau firepower was ramped up and the bikers were killed all but to a man. The last biker tried to batter a Crisis Suit to death in melee, killing one but his comrade cut him down with close range blasts from his plasma weapons.

The Tau warlord turned his attention to the snipers after dispatching the Deathwatch Veterans and they ran off the table! The Frag Cannons applied some damage to the Riptide but eventually all that was left was a lone Land Raider (on the other side of the table having finished incinerating the Pathfinders on an objective). A tabling would mean the large objective lead would mean nothing and the Tau would win.

Assault Cannons ripped the Tau commander apart but the Riptide wasn't happy and charged in with the intent of smashing it to pieces instead of shooting. It took a swing at the bulky tank but the dice gods were laughing, a miss followed by game end!

Post-Game

I'll be blunt, I was very lucky to win this game as the Land Raider was down to 1 hull point and the Riptide should have torn it to shreds. But playing to objectives worked in my favour even though I should have by all rights lost this match. Those missing Stealth Suits could have made a difference and the Deathwatch units were left exposed to too much firepower.

Large and unpleasant creatures like the Riptide can be handled by Frag Cannons but their range is short and once again I find myself lacking in the big guns department. The snipers were also deployed in the corner again and too close to the table edge, the same problem I had last game.

Elites are next for Month 5 along with a manic 4 player carnage game and this gives me a chance to make use of a Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Lascannon to cover the big guns gap. I will have to see what else I can put in with the spare points.

Overall, the Deathwatch remain undefeated and on maximum campaign points. But only by the roll of a dice!