BatRep vs. John's Iron Warriors

Here's my batrep from my match against IW last night.

My army:
1875 Pts - Nomad Squadron

Shas'el and Bodyguard (261 Pts)
1 Shas'el - FB; HWMT; PR; TA
2 Shas'vre - FB; HWMT; PR; TA

Stealth Team (245 Pts)
2 Shas'ui - 4xMD
1 Team Leader - BK; ML; HWTL; TA

Crisis Battlesuit Team (138 Pts)
3 Shas'ui - TLMP, BF

Crisis Battlesuit Team (186 Pts)
3 Shas'ui - FB, PR, MT

2x Fire Warrior Team (185 Pts)
8 Shas'la - PR
1 Devilfish BC, GD, MT, DL, 1xSM

Kroot Carnivore Squad (77 Pts)
11 Kroot

Gun Drone Squadron (96 Pts)
8 Gun Drones

Hammerhead Gunship (165 Pts)
RG; 2xBC; TA; MT; DL

Hammerhead Gunship (130 Pts)
IC; 2xBC; TA; MT; DL

Broadside Battlesuit Team (200 Pts)
1 Shas'ui - BK; SMS; 2xSD; ASS
1 Shas'ui - SMS; ASS


My opponents IW army looked something like this:
Tooled up DP with Speed and lotsa other stuff. No Stature, which was good.

2x Assault squads

3x 2-man Oblits

Havoc squad with HB (He was expecting static Tau )

Havocs with 2xLC, 2xML and Tank Hunters

2x6-man LasPlaz squads
2x6-man 2xMelta squads

Bassy with Indirect Fire

Setup:
Very heavy terrain consisting mostly of low walls, hills, steep hills and woods. I screwed up on terrain placement and allowed him a nice hidey-hole for his Bassy, much to my chagrin. I think I should have piled more terrain towards the middle, too, but that would have closed down too many firelanes, so maybe I'm just a well off with things as they were.


Mission: Recon Gamma

Deployment from left to right from my perspective:
Me - DF on left flank behind woods. Stealths in open about 30" from his lines. BAss team in farm complex >6" from edge, HQ behind farm complex (which counted as area terrain. Too close to the BAss team, as we'll see. Deathrains behind hill to right of center of the line. Both HHs, remaining DF and Helios teams behind hills on right flank. Having no suitable place for the Kroot, I infiltrated them behind a hill close to his deployment zone. Drones held in reserve.

Him - more or less spread out across his entire deployment zone. Bassy to extreme left in the afore-mentioned hidey-hole. LazPlaz, Oblits, Melta, 2xAssault squads with HQ, Tank-hunting Havocs, HB Havocs, Oblits, Melta squad, LasPlaz squad, Oblits.

Turn 1:

He goes first. Most of my stuff is hidden, but he was able to winkle out an obscured shot with a LC on one of the DFs, Shaking the crew. This DF went on to great heroics, being shaken every turn until it died, but still held the flank. Then, the Bassy speaks. Took out my entire HQ squad with one shot. Ouch. The troops on the left flank move full speed towards my lines.

Me: Move BAss up to get LOS. Same with the HHs. Kroot moved suicidally up to draw fire and cover the advance of my Helos team. Shaken DF on left moved right to get 6", but this put it into the open. Oh well, they'd have a lot of targets anyways. Sometimes this will split a player's fire. The other DF moved to stay out of the way. Deathrains did their JSJ thing. Stealths markerlight the Tankhunting Havocs, and combined fire from other units put down about half their number. Plinking and sniping put down some marines. Nothing to write home about..

Turn 2:
His troops continue to press my left flank, shaking the DF again, killing a marker drone and generally pushing me back. He holds the troops on my right back to snipe my tanks, oblits angling for shots. The Bassy and oblits finish off the Helios team with another direct hit, and my hopes fade. The IonHead gets stunned. Heavy Bolters rack the Kroot, but they hang in there with 4 guys left.

In the left center of his line, the Demon Boss is hiding in an assault squad. I send the shaken DF up to try to sacrifice itself for the Greater Good and slow their advance. The MarkerLights light up the Assault squad, and through combined fire and leadership reduction, I drive it off, leaving the HQ exposed. Railhead starts attacking the Oblits with a veangence - they are the only targets it has left.

Key point #1 - Once my Helios suits and HQ were gone, I had only the Railguns which could reliably fight the Oblits. My opponent was worried about the Tau RGs, and deliberately did not bring tanks for them to pop. This freed up my RGs to switch missions, and I made the switch at the right time.

Key point #2 - I am really ready to throw in the towel at this point. I'm not seeing a way to win, and expecting a rout of my forces. I'm forgetting to move units, and am generally not in the game. I realize now that I deployed my Stealths too far to my left, and they are not supporting the tanks. The Bassy is destroying units at will. Everything is going wrong.

At a point like this, one has to step away, take a breath, and regain their center. Fight on, if only to die well. I regain my center and start playing smart from here on.

Turn 3:
His troops on my left press hard. The HQ moves up unprotected and charges the drones (fatal move!). He kills them, and consolidates towards the farm. His troops on the right continue to plink away, but fail to do real damage. He shakes the left DF again, kills the Firewarriors it carried, and is forcing me out of that half of the board.

I begin my push up on the right. With two fully-functioning HHs, Deathrains and mounted FW team in support, I move them up and start targetting Oblits and the TH Havocs with everything they have. Tankhunters are down to two men, and a few lucky shots have reduced the Oblits to just one model with one wound. It will take until turn 5 for that guy to finally go down. The MLs mark the HQ, and the BAsses take him down, as he's closest to my troops. My left DF, still shaken, parks in a gap between terrain pieces and slows down the enemy advance. It will die next turn, but they will have to go around or through it, and it slows them down just enough so they won't score.

Turn 4: He runs pell-mell for my left flank, but there's nothing left to kill there, so they just run. His troops on my right begin a refused flank, and his lone Oblit moves up to try to take down my tanks, but he misses. He kills the left DF, of course, but can't capitalize on it much. There's too much terrain to move through now.

Me: Continuing to press on the right, I arrange the tanks in a wall. The FWs dismount in an FOF to try to shoot down the Oblit, but really to get out of their flying deathtrap in case the Oblit survives and decides to kill it. Fire EVERYTHING on the right flank at the Oblit, and he makes all his saves. Ugh!.

The BAsses and Stealth team make their escape to my right. The Stealths jump into the farm complex to use their Burst Cannons on some marines and fail two Dangerous Terrain tests! One Stealth and two drones remain, and all my shooting there misses. I roll a Yahtzee for 1's.

Some days I just HATE this game.

Turn 5: It's a race now. His forces try to score on my left flank, while I try to score on the right. I think he's got me on points, and he's probably thinking the same thing.

His forces catch the BAsses and kill them while the Stealth completes his escape. My tanks and re-mounted FWs move into his DZ, finish off the Oblit and put some ineffective wounds into the nearest marine squad. The Deathrains move like hell for the DZ.

Turn 6: His right flank melts away, trying to preserve victory points, while his troops on my left make their final moves into my DZ. Will they make it?

My right flank consolidates into his DZ, the Railhead tries for an extreme-range shot on the Bassy along his baseline and misses. We finish off the marine squad and that's about it.

Scoring units: Him - 1 squad of marines. Two more were close, but had stragglers beyond 15". Me - both HHs and the FW team. The Deathrains didn't make it.

Final score: Me- 1516, Him - 1245.

Overall, a brutal game and great fun. I really was ready to toss it in when the early game went bad, so let this be a lesson to me to never give up.