Immo'rahem vs Imperial Fists/Lysander - Seattle GT Game 4

Immo'rahem vs Seattle GT Game 4

Here's the mission we'll be playing:


Here's my opponents army:

Jason Marcel’s Imperial Fists – Seattle GT Game 4

200 HQ – Lysander
100 HQ – Librarian w/ Avenger, Null Zone
360 ELITE – 10 Sternguard w/2 Melta, 5 CombiMelta, 2 CombiFlamers, 1 CombiMelta & Power Fist in a Drop Pod (Lysander Accompanies)
250 TROOP – 10 Marines w/ Plasmagun & Missile Launcher, Sgt w/ Power Fist & CombiPlasma in a Drop Pod
260 TROOP – 10 Marines w/ Flamer & Missile Launcher, Sgt w/ Power Weapon in a Razorback w/ TL Assault Cannon (Librarian accompanies Flamer& Sgt Combat Squad in Razorback )
300 TROOP – 10 Marines w/ Plasmagun & Lascannon, Sgt w/ Power Fist & CombiPlasma in a Razorback w/ TL Lascannon
110 TROOP – 5 Scouts, Sgt w/ Power Fist & Combi Melta
65 FAST – Land Speeder Storm w/ MultiMelta (transports Scouts)
270 HEAVY – 10 Devastators w/ 2 lascannon, 2 Missile Launchers, Sgt w/ Signum
85 HEAVY – Whirlwind

He went on to win the Players Choice award. I guess people like yellow…


Jeff Bolhassen’s CSM, Seattle GT – Game 5

165 HQ – Daemon Prince w/Mark of Tzeentch, Warp Time, Doom Bolt
100 HQ – Greater Daemon
215 ELITE – 5 Terminators w/ 5 CombiMelta, 2 Champions each w/ Power Fist
255 ELITE – 5 Terminators w/ 4 CombiMelta, Reaper Autocannon, 3 Champions each w/ Power Fist
280 TROOP – 7 Noise Marines w/ 5 Sonic Blasters, 1 Blastmaster, Champion w/ Power Fist in a Rhino
185 TROOP – 6 Noise Marines w/ 5 Sonic Blasters, 1 Blastmaster
300 TROOP – 10 Thousand Sons, Sorceror w/ Doom Bolt
225 HEAVY – 3 Obliterators
150 HEAVY – 2 Obliterators
125 HEAVY – Vindicator

He won the roll to set up first, and here's his set-up of combat-squadded everything shooty in the ruins, and the Librarian joining one of the fighty squads in the Razorbacks.


Here's a view of the board, and my corner in the upper left.

Anything about the terrain stand out as unusual to you? Anything at all?

Time for my long-promised rant on terrain.

I've been playing at the Seattle GT since before it was a GT. Back at the beginning, the 40K was run by the guys from The Game Matrix in Tacoma. A great store I've been a patron of through at least two moves, and their current location has a large gaming area where bigger event such as 'Ard Boyz can be comfortably accommodated. A lot of effort has gone into building interesting theme boards, and the dedication to making it look good shows. However, looking good isn't everything. The terrain has to be useful in games as well.

One of the theme terrain tables everyone learned to dread playing on was the Lava table. It looked beautiful, but had an amazing flaw. You could only win from one side. That side featured the largest unbroken flat expanse which took up the middle 50% of one table edge, and narrowed as it extended just past the center. The majority of the table was broken into areas a Land Raider would just barely fit on, or smaller, divided up with trenches of glowing Difficult and Dangerous terrain running everywhere like a spiderweb. The player setting up on the opposite table edge had to deploy as best he could in this crazy quilt zone, while the player with the 'good' side invariably castled up in the middle and waited for the opponent to slowly cross the intervening hell-scape, shooting them all the way. I even played a game on this board in a tournament where I had Footslogging Orks on the 'bad' edge, while my opponent had all-skimmer and Jetbike Eldar. It made for a quick, but unfun, 45 minutes of me putting models off the table and back in their carrying case. Eventually the board stopped being used for 40K, and the last I saw it was around three years ago when it was brought out for a Flames of War tournament, and at an 'Ard Boyz semi-finals.

Those last three years have also had "some" politics and issues surrounding the Seattle GT. The event organizer for the convention as a whole has a bad reputation due to canceling some events at very short notice (this years Seattle GT was almost among that list), plus there's the video of cheating at the top table last year (no, it says in the book you can't take a cover save against Death or Glory from Tank Shock…), and shenanigans of playing with one army, but putting out different units for the paint judging in years past. This has led to many local game stores unwilling to lend any support of prizes, loaning terrain, or volunteers in a spiral of guilt by association. Only some favors called in and arm-twisting by the people running the Seattle GT (with less than two weeks lead time, IIRC) got the support from other stores in Gig Harbor and some area Games Workshops to send more terrain.

The situation is what it is, and reality has to be dealt with not as you wish it would be, but instead with what actually exists. This means expect not getting a cover save unless you bring it along yourself (KFF, Shield of Sanguinius, screening units) and more advantage going to forces which excel at longer range shooting. That's why I insisted on Smoke Launchers on my Immolators because I knew from past experience there would be practically no impediments to line of sight until later in the game when unit movements had 'muddied the waters' a little.

Now, let's take a look at that terrain again:

My opponent chose his deployment extremely well. His Land Speeder Storm is ready to turbo-scout anywhere on the board, his on-foot shooty section has a commanding overview of the midfield, even with the all-game Night Fight from the scenario, and with a Drop Pod of Lysander and Sternguard coming in Turn 1 he'll have Melta in my face from the word "go". The factory ruin in my corner of the board even blocks off critical real estate I'd prefer to set up in, forcing me to have an even longer slog through the random explosions in the midfield. So neither the terrain, the mission, or my opponent are going to make this easy.

So, I'm considering my deployment and he asks how we should define the terrain. I say the standard "Everything Difficult Terrain, with a 4+ cover save". He agrees and adds "…and the tops of the hills are Level 2."

>insert scratching record sound here<

With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, let's pause and open the rule book to page 85. The section on Template Weapons. Specifically, the bit about them only being able to target models on the same level as the firer, or one level higher or lower. Still no big deal, right? That's what I assumed too. And you know what happens when you assume…

The problem is that Americans and British are divided by a common language. What I thought my opponent meant by "Level 2" is not what the rules designers back in Ol' Blighty mean by "Level 2". Looking at Page 85 in the rule book again, there's a picture which shows three Genestealers on the top floor, two on the middle floor, and one on the bottom floor, and a Marine with a Flamer. The text underneath says"The middle level is declared the target of the flamer and therefore only two Genestealers are hit. Note that the top level is not a valid target as it is too high up".

Now what level is that?

If you're American, you'd say that the lone Genestealer is on the first level, or Level 1, two are on Level 2, and those three Genestealers are on the third level of the ruin, Level 3. If you're British, you'd say the one Genestealer is on the Ground Level, two are on Level 1, and those three at the top are on Level 2. So, because the hills are made of 2 pieces of 2" thick foam, making them 4" tall, my opponent wants me to believe that half the terrain on the table will render him immune to over 80% of all my vehicles shooting.

These nuances slipped by me at the time, because I was thinking about how to best deploy my army to both weather the Lysander-Sternguad Drop Pod and not bunch up all my tanks to make an impassable wall of wrecks either to the left or right of the Factory Ruin blocking my deployment area. I figured a 3 x 3 grid of Immolators would make the front three too likely to stall my later movement, so I set up like this instead:


He makes his Scout move:


I fail to seize the initiative, so here comes Lysander's Drop Pod, targeted to go between two rows of Immolators, but deviating 9" and landing on top of the hill instead, combat squadding upon exit, supported by the Scout Speeder.


Melta shots rain down, and only the front Immolator is Immobilized with its turret blown off, the center survives unscathed, and here the scouts are about to give the IST Immy a Krak enema, which will cause it to explode.


Bottom of turn one, and I'm put on my back foot already. I drive the untouched Immolator out to the midfield, swing two Immolators from the center over to take on Lysander, and drive the three on my right flank towards the shooty Marines stronghold. I forget to take a picture of this, and as I lay my first template down on the Sternguard, the "Level 2" issue comes up.

The paragraphs above explain the problem, but it came down to the fact I was not going to allow poor terrain availability to have such a large disproportionate unbalancing impact on the game. No. Way. In. Hell. were the words I said.

My shooting manages to blow up the drop Pod, kill several Marines (but not a full Combat Squad, unfortunately) and put a wound on Lysander. Moving on to the top of turn 2, one of those "wacky fun" scenario rules explodes one of my Immolators, as my opponent brings in the second Drop Pod full of Tactical Marines.


While he deployed, I got a view from around on his table edge of Lysander's King of the Hill set-up.


Here's what he managed to pull off: Blowing up the HQ Immolator, killing 1, shooting the turret off of the Immolator with the corner just barely poking up at the bottom of the frame, and shooting from his dug-in Marines at the Factory Ruin wrecking an Immolator of Celestians.


Bottom of turn 2, and here comes Al'rahem from reserve. I would have preferred him to come in on the other table edge, but you gets what you gets.


Here are my forces advancing to try and take out the Marines on the hill. After shooting, they're still there.


A whole lot of shooting, and a whole lot of cover and armor saves later, i've managed to whittle the marines down a little. Very little. On the plus side I did rid myself of that Land Speeder and pop open the Razorback with the Librarian riding along. On th eminus side, the Scouts pop open an Immolator, killing three and pinning the survivors.


Top of turn 3, and Lysanders killed the last two ISTs, two fleeing Sternguard with flamers say "hi" to Al'rahem as they pass, and the librarian decides to go it solo and leave Al'tahem to the Combat Squad.


View from above of the Marines moving to clean up my starting table quarter…

…even just firing pistols so they can charge my Canoness.


Even with all-game Night Fight, the Marines shoot extremely well, but the marines closest to the middle move to charge into close combat instead.


Ok, count the charges… the two Marines who flamed all of Al'rahem's squad from around her don't count.

…with the predictable aftermath:


Bottom of turn three (is that all it is?) and things look pretty bleak for me near Ye Old Imperial Fist Shooting Emporium…


Because we'd used up so much time debating the hills being invulnerable to flamers before I put my foot down, this is where the game ended. As you can see, he was well on his way to tabling me so it's no wonder that he was victorious, securing three table quarters to my one. Score was 18 to 5.

When he was filling out the scoring sheet I was honestly surprised he gave me 5 out of 6 for Sportsmanship, the same score I gave him. He played quite well, and the scenario favored him, as it would any army with a good long ranged core, especially since I had no realistic alternative to crossing the midfield of random explosions to get into effective range with him. In the final total, it was my models alone which bore the bunt of those blasts. He was positioned to keep his shooty elements out of range, and engage with his assault elements outside