My last match was set up by the opposing team’s captain – Magnus. For those of you who actually read my battle reports you probably recognize him from my round 1 match during Seattle GT in Feburary. Magnus brought his Space Wolves again but instead of rematch he decided to set up a match between Mike Ruscus and myself.
In Magnus’ own words, he described us like Superman and Batman each with an unique playing style and plays extremely well in tournament. He felt that we keep on missing each other on the top tables and is about time for us to have a match to see which of the super heroes will prevail. Honored by Magnus comment, I jokingly took on the alias of Batman since I consider myself a master of all trades.
Mike seemed a good fellow, he arrived at our table and gave me a firm hand shake and let the showdown of Batman vs Superman begin.
Mike’s Brotherhood of the Storm
Mike brought a beautifully painted SM army. He has two of my favorite SM assets, TFC and the Ironclad. I must say I am a bit biased towards liking his army due to the fact that he is using two of my favorite units. He also has Pedro for HQ, a fitting adversary for my Vulcan leading list. Unfortunately, Mike did not part with his list with me, but the shot above is WYSIWYG and should explain enough. (Fortunately, Mike is both an awesome general and a gentleman and included his list in the comment section below 
)
On a glance, Mike’s list has more shooting and more assault than my army. I know then it was going to be an uphill battle.
Special
In case you didn’t pick up the hint from the event title, the special of the scenario is that any none vehicle unit may choose to Warp during the movement phase. That unit may DS anywhere on the board and may even assault afterwards. However, if a double is rolled (there is no way to prevent scattering) then the unit is considered lost to the warp and dies. Fun!
Terrain
I apologize for doing this but the game was nearly 2 weekends ago and I didn’t quite have the exact memory of the exact placement of terrain since they were quite numerous. However, thanked to my recollection of using digital technology (yeah, me!), you can see them clearly from the photos.
Primary Objective (Pushback)
Okay… the primary objective really sucked. At the end of the game, the player who has a model closest to his own long table edge loses. If the difference is less than 2″, then the game is a draw. Since I play with Drop pods, I know that I’ll have to drop them near the edge in order to win.
Secondary Objective
Have more FO categories with a unit still alive at the end of game than your opponent.
Tertiary Objective
Use the warp.
Deployment (Echelon)
Mike won the roll and decided to go first. He spread out his forces across the diagonal and hid his assault marines behind the twin Rhino Chassis at C1. He utilized combat squad on 2 of his squads (Sgt w/ SpWpn in Razor backs) and HwyWpn walking.
I looked at his deployment and pondered whether I should use Reserve Gambit. I knew RG is not favored in this mission because I ran the risk of the unit coming up last and losing the primary objective. But since RG has been so kind for me thus far and I really didn’t want to risk having my LR immobilized early, I decided to go with Reserve Gambit again. I left the Assault Termies in the LR, the Tacs in the Drop pod, and outflanked the entire 10 men scouts. I then put my TFC on the opposite side of Mike’s, and the Predator behind the hills at B3 (a mistake as I should have put it all the way up near the TFC at A2). The rest of units I left in reserves.
Turn 1
BoS
Mike didn’t have much to do since the majority of my forces are not on the table, he ran the 2 5 man support teams and moved up the rest of his forces.
U.R.T.H.
I tried to drop the Ironclad near his Land Raider but it scattered instead to B2. I popped out the Iron Clad and ran it towards one of the 5 man squad. I moved the TFC towards Mike’s board edge. Realizing that I had deployed the Predator too passively and did not want to risk an immobilized result, I moved it 12″ up and popped smoke.
Turn 2
BoS
Seeing that I hauled ass with my TFC, Mike moved his artillery piece as well. He then ignored the Ironclad and blew up my TFC. Little did he know, I actually prefer the Tech Marine without the TFC since he can move more freely and still burn units with a TL flamer. It was an uneventful turn other wise.
U.R.T.H.
My Land Raider, Terminator squad had both arrived. I ran the Land Raider right near his LR and unloaded the Assault Terminators, setting up a possible assault on either the Ironclad or the Land Raider.
By now I am feeling pretty confident, even though my Speeders haven’t shown up, I have enough firing power left on the board that should give me an edge over the ensuring skirmish (In case you can’t tell, I’ve been watching too much Deadly Warriors ) The following turn of events, however, did not unfold as I foresaw due to human errors and dumb luck.
Trying to get his Assault marine to direct attention at my lone Tech Marine, I decided to Tank shock the them with the Predator, thinking it should group them and make them easy target for the Tech Marine. But Mike rolled a “10″ on Ld and fall back 17″ and lost the unit. Trying to salvage the situation, I assault the other 5 men squad with the Ironclad, and completely whiffed.
I decide to leave the Termies near the middle and use them as bait for Mike. I shot 2 missiles into the Vindicator, wrecking it.
Meanwhile, I made a series of error on the Ironclad. For some dumb reason I thought I could hurt the Land Raider and put 3 TH against it and only 2 TH against the Ironclad. It was only during the penetrating step I realized what a mistake I’ve made. I then made another mistake during consolidate and moved the LC terminator next to the Ironclad BtB when I could’ve move it away from the base.
Turn 3
BoS
Mike started his major counter offensive. His assault terminator squad piled out the Land Raider and showed my terminator what meant to be a successive assault. His Rhino and Razor back (and their crew) managed to destroy my Predator and the TFC decided to take my bait of Terminators and fired at them, he then assaulted them with his other Dreadnaught, killing 2. The real disappointment was when his Land Raider fired at mine, it immobilized mine instead of destroying it. I knew by then I could only win by tabling Mike since there was no way that he’ll shoot at my Land Raider again.
U.R.T.H.
All my reserve showed up (or so I thought..). The scouts showed up on the L flank and assaulted the TFC, killing it. The Land Speeders dropped behind Mike’s Land Raider and I took a desperate attempt with the drop pod. I dropped it near one of Mike’s Rhino and split the squad, hoping to either wreck both Rhino chasis or wreck both to prevent his marines from coming out.
Mike’s Land Raider proved to be quite resilient, soaked all of my Speeder’s MM and the Land Raider’s. Meanwhile, the Tac Squad failed to Wreck the Rhino with the 10 men squad (only immobilizing it) and Sirius and the Tech marine managed to only shaken the Razorback. My assault phase sucked completely, the 2 terminators kept on whiffing and got their asses kicked again the dread. The Ironclad continued its whiffing as well, unable to kill any of the 4 SM surrounding it.
Turn 4
BoS
Mike moved Pedro away from the Land Raider, joined by the surviving Assault Termies. They decided to assault the Speeders (after wrecking one) and lost a TH termie to dangerous terrain test. Meanwhile, his 10 men squad aided by his 5 men squad shot and assault Siriu’s 5 men unit, instant killing poor Sirius. The only good thing that happened that turn was his 5 man support team tried to use the warp gate and rolled double and died. Yeah, only 11 more units to go!
U.R.T.H.
I seriously thought of conceding at this point. I didn’t have a clue how am I going to kill off Mike’s 11 units with my original “baiting” strategy changed to a “annihilation” one. But I pressed on (otherwise I wouldn’t have this epic game with Mike) and hoped dumb luck will prevail. I assault the Dreadnought that was tied down with my termie with the scouts (yes, the termies whiffed again last turn) and killing it after suffering some casualties.
I tried to maneuver my 5 man Tac team led by Sgt Kephas has a chance to assault the now 8 men Tac squad of Mike’s with the aid of the Tech Marine. But my desperation attempt backfired, instead of getting a twin linked shot with the Plasma Pistol from the Tech Marine, I rolled “1″ three times and killed him from over heating. I was hoping the Tech Marine would be able to draw the PF away from the squad but now I am fresh out of options. I assaulted Mike’s squad anyway, barely made away with SGT Kephas (Pedro had been a huge help for Mike) alive.
Turn 5
BoS
I hinted Mike to drop the bomb over my Scouts since I have no area terrain to seek cover, but Mike decided to wreck the Drop Pod instead (it had picked off an unluck Assault Terminator earlier). His remaining 5 man squad at B3 assault the lone Sgt Kephas, killing my hope of getting a PF on his other squad. Meanwhile, My Ironclad had finally finished combat.
U.R.T.H.
Before my turn started, I joked with Mike and told him that in order for me to even have a shot, that my dice need to be hot and his dice must fail and the game must go to turn 7. He calmly nodded and agreed with my unlikely hypothesis. The game, however, started to turn in a miraculous fashion.
I shouted “Maximus” and teleported his squad next to Mike’s Rhino at A3. They then assaulted it and destroyed it. The Terminator and the Land Raider tried to play with Mike’s Rhino at E4, but only managed to stun it. The Ironclad assaulted Mike’s Assault Terminator unit and Pedro, barely made it with a hair. Mike’s Ironclad, however, took a LC shot in the face and exploded.
Turn 6
BoS
Mike teleported his now 3 men Tac team near my lone terminator and assaulted it. Amazing it, my invul save held out and bought me a turn of breathing room. Mike’s Assault terminator bit from the Iron Clad.
U.R.T.H.
I sincerely thought my prediction at turn 5 was taking effect. I walked the Ironclad towards the immobilized Rhino at B2 and destroyed it. I then took a risk again, teleporting Maximus next to the engaged Terminator and freed it by killing Mike’s Tac Squad. Mike had now only the Rhino at E4 and a 5 man Tac Squad within. It was at this moment I realized that I forgot about my Storm….. I apologized to Mike and asked him to place it anywhere he want (it ended up being none consequential)
Turn 7
BoS
Mike passed his turn as he has a 5 Tac team inside a stunned Rhino.
U.R.T.H.
I took another risk with SGT Maximus and landed about 1″ away from the Rhino, nearly killing the remaining scouts. I then poured everything into the Rhino and the remaining occupants, trying to instill a failed morale check. The remaining Tac Team, however, seemed possessed with their cover save, and lost only 1 (lost one earlier from explosion) from all the MM and LC shots. The game then came to the final difficult terrain check, a successful assault would be the only chance I need to win and a failed one means game over. I needed at least 3″ to attempt an assault and my rolls were “1″, “2″, “2″.
Batman “0” – Superman “1“
Aftermath
Mike and I gave each other a firm handshake and the favorite opponent as well. I applauded him for not falling for my baits and clever maneuvers and he commended me for not ever giving up and nearly turned the game on him. I was surprised how much fun I have had despite a really messed up mission, I guess that’s what was supposed to happen when two good generals with 2 balanced lists meet – a freaking blast!
I finished with 42 battle points (4-1) for the event and 3 favorite opponents pins, quite a personal accomplishment for myself. I’ve employed Reserve Gambit for all 5 of games and in only failed in one game, which gave me more confidence in my tactics and approach to the current ed. of 40K. Next stop, Portland Conquest in October.