So let's see if I can remember his list.
Duke Sliscus
Haemonculus, Agonizer
Haemonculus, Agonizer
Trueborn x 6 (I think), Shardcarbines x 4, Splinter Cannon x 2
Trueborn x 4, Blasters x 4, Venom, Extra Splinter Cannon
Trueborn x 4, Blasters x 4, Venom, Extra Splinter Cannon
Wyches x 9, Hydra Gauntlets, Hekatrix, Agonizer, Raider, Dark Lance
Wyches x 9, Hydra Gauntlets, Hekatrix, Agonizer, Raider, Dark Lance
Wracks x 8, Liquifier
Wracks x 8, Liquifier
Ravager, 3 Dark Lances
Ravager, 3 Dark Lances
Ravager, 3 Dark Lances
I might be missing something there, but that seems about right. A decent list, with plenty of lances to scare my Land Raider (more on that later).
Here's a picture of the board during setup. My guys aren't really there. We rolled up Dawn of War, three Objectives. The objectives got deployed in a pretty standard centrally located triangle, with two of them towards his side of the table. Advantage, him.
He won the roll and elected to go first. During his Dawn of War deployment he deployed both units of Wracks half-way up the table and in cover. He put everything except the Duke's unit in Dawn of War reserve, and the Duke's unit of Dakka trueborn would walk on his board edge later in the game.
I elected not to deploy anything in the pre-game, though I had considered putting my Strike Squads on the table but figured they would just get torn to pieces by his alpha strike, so I put everything in Dawn of War reserve rolling on Turn 1.
He zoomed his vehicles onto the table. His Wych-raiders with Haemonculii threatened all the way to my board edge with assaults. His Ravagers were close to his table edge. His Venoms zoomed up close.
Some more shots of the table and his deployment.
I wasn't sure what to do with Draigo's D3 gets "something" ability. In a regular deployment I would have scouted some units to get better firepower, but with Dawn of War that ability wouldn't work. I could have outflanked some stuff, sure, but I wasn't convinced that was a good idea here.
In the end I decided to use the "this unit can score" ability and gave one of my Dreadnoughts and my Interceptors scoring status.
So there is my opponent, he's turbo-boosted everything onto the board. He threatens my board edge with his Wyches, his Blasters are right in my face, and he has three Ravagers on his back edge with Flicker Fields and Night Shields. Now, I was very concerned that those Ravagers would simply out-range me all game long, he would take out my Dreadnoughts early and they would just blast me to pieces.
So I decided to make use of one of the "toys" of the codex by combat-squadding my Interceptors and shunting them 30" onto the board on the first turn. I put one combat squad each into the face of two of his Ravagers, within like 7 inches I think. I figured they would die but if I could destroy or suppress his Ravagers I would be in a good position overall.
I brought my Land Raider on my left flank. I came on 12", and then turned it slightly to my left. I was mostly obscured by hills from anything that wasn't directly across from me, but I popped smoke anyways. I deployed my Paladins, putting the two Psycannons out front as far forward as I could, and putting the remaining four models (three Paladins plus Draigo) behind the Raider (remember it was angled off to my left). This gave me the firepower from the Psycannons while ensuring cover.
The two Strike Squads rolled on in their Rhinos in the midfield. I brought them on and then angled the hulls so that they were in a "V" formation pointed straight towards the middle of the board with a gap (less than 1" wide) between the two hulls. The Strike Squads deployed behind and between the Rhinos with the Psycannons in the middle with clear shots between the Rhinos at his two Venoms and his right-most Raider.
The Dreadnoughts walked on and tried to grab cover. I decided not to pop smoke on them hoping that I would get some lucky night-fighting rolls.
The Interceptors each fired at a Ravager and effectively suppressed a good portion of his firepower. I cannot recall what the exact results were but I believe that both Ravagers were stunned because I recall I got to shoot them again the next turn.
This picture is out of sequence, but it shows the placement of my Interceptors. One combat squad was in the top floor of the ruin on the right, and the other was spread out on the hill to the left. The crater is where one of his Ravagers was (foreshadowing!) and the other Ravager is visible in this picture. So you can see how close I shoved them to the Ravagers to ensure I could see him.
The Strike Squads wrecked one of the Venoms and the Wych Raider. The left-most Wych Raider was also destroyed. Neither Dreadnought got to shoot (should have popped smoke and ran).
During his turn he immobilized my Land Raider with his Trueborn, immobilized my left Rhino, and put Stunned and Shaken results on both my Rhinos, my Dreadnought and my Land Raider. He dropped a liquifier template on one of my Interceptor squads from some menacing Wracks, rolled AP 3, and killed three of them in one shot. The left Interceptor squad was threatened by a Wych squad coming for them. No one made it into combat with them this turn due to miserable terrain roles, but I knew that wouldn't keep them safe. His left-most Wyches charged my Paladins, did wounds on 3 of them, and then lost 6 wyches and fled.
I had a choice to make at this point - save the Interceptors or have them sit still and fire four shots each at the Ravagers. Well, I elected to have them sit still, for better or for worse. I knew I would lose them but I figured taking down his heavy firepower would be worth it.
So at the bottom of two I moved my Dreadnoughts forward, kept my Strike Squads stationary (they still had good targets) and advanced with my Paladins. I tank shocked the dismounted unit of Trueborn, who fled back over the hill they were standing in front of. Nice. I can't remember if the Paladins shot at anything. The Land Raider contributed its Assault Cannon to that project, and shot its Multimelta at the living Venom, which as I recall missed or was Flicked or something equally obnoxious. My Dreadnoughts took shots at his remaining Ravagers and the Interceptors also poured fire into them. I took off a Dark Lance but still wasn't able to kill them (so he has two left at this point).
So at the top of three things were looking grim-ish for my opponent, but he still had a unit of Trueborn in a fully functioning Venom, two Ravager that yet lived, and a full unit of Wyches and two full units of Wracks. And Duke had yet to come out to play.
At the top of three the reserved Trueborn squad with Duke Sliscus came on. He brought them on across from my Paladins and opened up with his Splinter Cannons. He did a good number of wounds but my armor saved them all. I knew once he got closer and the shardcarbines started to shoot I would start taking wounds more quickly. Both my Interceptor units got WTFPwnd by Wracks and Wyches as I knew they would.
On my turn I tank shocked my Rhino into his Trueborn again, causing them to flee backwards. I formed a nice wall with the Rhino shielding my Paladins from the running Trueborn's blasters, which you can see in the photo below.
Amazingly, I don't think I killed his Ravager during this turn, and his Venom still lived.
Flicker fields = amazing.
I'm moving towards his objective, but too slowly.
Duke Sliscus gets killed by a Tank Shocking Rhino. Draigo drops a psychic flame template on some Trueborn and finishes that unit in Close combat. The Paladins continue to advance towards the back left objective.
His Venom turns out to be completely unkillable. I am shooting everything at it and it just won't go away. I tear off weapons, stun and immobilize it but just cannot wreck it. My Dreadnought shoots it and charges it, whacks it multiple times in combat at S6, but just cannot make it go away.
His Trueborn disembark to shoot, his Wyches move up to try and capture the objective.
On the bottom of the sixth turn I shoot his Wyches who break and run, I wipe out the Trueborn squad, I destroy his Ravager which turbo-boosted into contesting range of the objective, but still cannot destroy that damned Venom. So this objective is contested.
My Paladins cannot make it to his back objective due to poor terrain rolls while squeezing past his wrecked Raider. I destroy everything but some wracks and contest the objective with my Rhino.
And of course he holds his back objective with some remaining Wracks.
So we roll for game end and it does. Two contested objectives and he holds one.
Here's the broad overview.
So there are a few lessons I learned from this game. I can see where my "unoptimized" approach to this army did bite me a few times, but you know, it was fun. I also made some mistakes, which didn't help. I think I probably would have combat squadded the Strike squads if I played the game again, and I would have put the Paladins more centrally located from the start. I probably wouldn't have been so willing to sacrifice my Interceptors, who could have really made a difference late game. Oh well, not bad for a first run.
Going to bed now. Later on homies.
