247 Dusting-Off Unloved Units...and Why

Hullo, Faithful Readers!

I played Jay at the club t'other day. Regardless of the result, the fun thing here is that I used a whole bunch of units just for the sake of it!

We played 2000pts. I knew he'd be taking his Blood Angels and I was properly affrighted, but I'd already decided beforehand that I just fancied a giggle with some unloved units and all my AV12 vehicles, and I knew that he's the kind of opponent who really appreciates a fun game, so this is what I fielded:

HQ: Primaris Psyker

HQ: Techpriest w. 2 tech servitors(!)

EL: 5 Stormtroopers (2 melta)

EL: 10 Battle Psykers in a chimera

EL: 5 non-Ratling snipers

TP: Armoured Fist Platoon as follows:

-- HQ Sect w. plas, 2 gren, flamer, chimera

-- 1 Sect w. plas, m/launcher, chimera

-- 2 Sect w. melta, m/launcher, chimera
-- 3 Sect w. gren, m/launcher, chimera

TP: Hardened Vets w. Harker, demo, las, 2 plas, gren

TP: Penal Legion

FA: Hellhound

FA: Devil Dog w. multimelta

FA: Banewolf

+ I thought I was a little under-points, so Jay kindly allowed me a Scout Sentinel too

HS: 2 Griffon Bty

HS: Hydra

HS: Medusa

This actually totalled 2010pts, I think, (sorry, Jay: last-minute tweaks threw my maths) but it was a true delight to field units just for the hell of it. From my perspective, these included the following:

The Techpriest and Servitors. Were it not for games like this, such an awesome-looking unit would never get to play. As it was, they didn't attempt to fix anything, and despite charging Jay's landraider their servo arms didn't even dent it.

The Stormtroopers. They did what they were designed for, I guess: dropped in (accurately) and shot the landraider...but only managed to blow off its assault cannon before being slaughtered wholesale the following turn.

The Snipers. They did something cool which I'll discuss below.

Armoured Fist Platoon. I could easily have fielded a bunch of chimera-mounted veterans, but instead I really wanted to play my normal A/F Platoon. No-one in their right mind would waste missile launchers on transported troops who are supposed to be moving, but I like the models!

G/Sgt Harker's Vets. For his 55pts I could've given them a chimera...but that's boring (and I'd run out!) so having blown 55pts on him(!) I then decided to give them a demo charge and a lascannon too...just for the hell of it. A ludicrously overpriced unit.

The Griffons. I have three and I'm keen to play the three of them together, but in this game I also wanted to try out my new medusa conversion, so I just had the two. They weren't only fun to play with (as barrage weapons always are) but they were surprisingly effective, too - their re-roll is great!

AV12-only vehicles. Naturally, I could've fielded a few Leman Russes, but again, I wanted to have a bit of fun. To be honest, when almost everything is AV10 in the inevitable close assault, it doesn't really matter much!

Well, the story goes like this: I chose Jay to deploy and move first, which he did...and after a spiffingly good game which ran very close right upto the wire, he had only a damaged Landraider left at the end of 6 turns, and I had 2/4 objectives. I'm ashamed to note that had the game continued I probably would've been unable to damage the Landraider after another turn!

Here (for those of you still reading) are my post-game notes:

• Jay is an sporting, fun and generous opponent
• I was very lucky with my reserve rolls and scatter rolls throughout
• I did less well with morale checks, and at least three units ran off the board
• Astorath the Grim and 4-5 assault marines were killed by the Vets' demo charge
• The Reclusiarch was finished off by a point-blank krak missile to the face
• All the psykers did well and the griffons were superbly reliable throughout
• The snipers stared death in the face when on their first turn the Landraider thundered towards them and from it poured forth five TH/SS and LC terminators...who then proceeded to fail their charge range into terrain! Having breathed a thankful sigh of relief for their already-brown trousers, the snipers then calmly ignored the impending brutes in order to pick off an assault marine on their left flank
• 2 Section finished off the last of the terminators with a stirring bayonet charge...in the next turn their immobilised transport destroyed the vindicator with a lucky flank shot from the multilaser!
• The deepstriking Stormtroopers ought really to have gone for the vindicator
• The Banewolf (which I've fancied having a play with for a while now) wiped out almost an entire squad of tactical marines, after coming on from reserve
• I've decided that I now dislike 'fast' vindicators and Power of the Machine Spirit. Grrrr.

That is all. Thanks for reading, All!

- Drax.