Warhammer 40K "Iron Man" Rogue Trader!

23 February 2003, a cold and wet Sunday, found a few WH40K players gathered at Dakka Dakka for their GW sponsored and run "Iron Man" Rogue Trader Tournament.

As noted, we brought the Storm Lords, as we had yet to use the recently created Predator, veteran bikers, bike mounted force commander, the Land Speeder Typhoon, scout bike squad, and the corresponding White Scar Rule Set. For a complete roster, click here.

So how did we do? Here are the results.

Battle vs Craig Gallant and his amazingly painted Imperial Guard Army - Loss (close). Note that Craig won best overall, best painted, best army, and combat, 2nd place, so I wasn't too disappointed.

Four way capture the objective battle vs Craig Gallant (again!), Russ Wakelin (also IG, and winner of Combat 3rd place), and Chad Halliday (Space Marines) - an agonizing loss (the IG players teamed up, and Chad back shot me in the third turn.

Battle vs. Leif Magnuson (Space Marines) - Victory!

Overall we managed a combat honorable mention; our best posting ever at a rogue trader! Not too shabby as this was the first time out with these models and rule sets! Now onto the pictures!

Battle 1 - Imperial Guard

Craig's IG was a real winner, and this table helped him shoot the heck out of me before I could get in close. This was a table quarters mission though, and despite the fact at the end all I had was both scout units, and a tac squad we could have tied - but I forgot to move my foot slugging scouts, on my last turn, which could have contested the quarter and tied the game. My dumb mistake. Also hurting me was Craig going first, he managed a lot of hits on me in the first turn alone (can you say goodbye predator?)
Initial formation. The bikes took center, the predator covered the right flank, and the razorbacks and rhinos advanced in a sweeping left maneuver.
The opposition. Leman Russ, a demolisher, and a basilisk hiding behind a mountain, not to mention the daemon hunters and massed troops!
The predator went down quickly, not to mention loosing a number of bikes to the basilisk. Here the remaining mobile units continue their advance despite the withering fire.

 

Battle 2 - Carnage

This was a four way battle, and it was a blast! The two IG players were set up on one end of the table, and formed a tight alliance. The other Space Marine player and I were on the other end, and we agreed to the same. Alas, his treacherous heart shown through, and in the third turn the marine commander odered his troops to fire upon us, and he shot up one of my razorbacks. His got his payback though, as Kahn Scarpia ripped through his Force Commander with the ease provided to the Emperor's true believers. Despite my now threatened flank and rear, we did not pursue this petty vengeance and instead attempted to win the mission outright. We came pretty darn close, and if Russ had blown his deep strike, we might have acutely done it. Kudos go to our foot scouts, who secured the objective from the onset, and managed to hold on for two turns before being blasted out by 4000 pts of combined IG firepower. Also painful to my position was the simple fact that I went last each turn. This means in the end, I had to endure three rounds of shooting before I could shoot back!
The objective - this arcane object atop the ice mountain. Storm Lord Scouts managed to infiltrate immediately to the objective; their orders simple ones. Hold until reinforced! In the rear of the photo, the relief column is in sight.
The relief column in our 2 square foot deployment zone. Yes, it's a nice parking lot for a basilisk shot, and that's exactly what happened!
Enemy in sight! Russ's IG gets ready to rumble!
Craig's amazing IG army, painfully packed into his deployment zone. Alas, I didn't have a basilisk, but he did!
Traitor Marines! Chad and I agreed that if the IG players teamed up, we would as well. That only lasted until the third turn, when he popped one of my razorbacks from behind.
Craig suffered an early on loss when his Demolisher took a direct shot from a lascannon.
The Storm Lords fan out in order to minimize the highly effective ordinance shooting. We lost the veteran bikers to it, as well as half of our assault marines. In the rear you can see the back shot razorback, and the traitor marines that would pay for their lack of faith in the Emperor.
The scout bikes were a charm each and every game. Being able to come on as reserve, anywhere except for a deployment zone, move 12 inches, shoot one unit, and assault another up to 6 (with a thunder hammer) caused a lot of grief in each battle. Here, they arrive just in time to shoot up one of Craig's units enough to make them break, and than assault and crush Russ's griffon mortar. As always, the bikes would survive the game and account for multiple units.
Forsake not the Mission at Hand in the Name of the Emporer! Despite the objective now being held by 6 deep striking Gray Knights, Three Storm Lord Assault Marines, after helping to wipe out the traitor marine command squad, leap to battle! The managed to down one Knight with concentrated plasma fire, but were crushed by the Knight's superior hand to hand abilities.
Racing to aid the assault marines, Kahn Scarpia rides up the mountain face. He obliterated the traitor marine commander in single combat, shot up another of Russ's units, and managed multiple difficult terrain tests before making it into combat with one of Craig's units that was helping to guard the objective. Two of the IG soldiers perished on the narrow pass, and surely more would have followed had the game continued.


Battle 3- Shoot out at the 40K Corral.

This one started out with all of our units in reserve except for our HQ, and a chosen retinue. I picked the veteran bikers, and found myself facing terminators, and wishing that I had more power weapons... I tried to hit and run, but couldn't get far enough away, and he caught and wiped me out. ARGH! He than got a lot of reserves, but than so did I, and my shooting was a lot more effective than his. On this kind of mission, I think it is better to go second than first, a position I found myself in. In this way, he had placed most of his reinforcements first, and I was able to position and concentrate my firepower on one side of the table, ignoring the other (a predator and rhino), and allowing my scout bikes and attack bike deal with that minor threat.

Face off at the 40K corral. Alas, our Kahn and the veteran bikers were no match for the terminators and chaplin of our Ultramarine opponent. We lost a biker to shooting, and won the first round of hand to hand combat upon our charge. We tried to hit and run, but didn't pull back far enough, this allowed us to be counter charged by his unit, and the Good Kahn went down under repeated power fist attacks. The remainder of his retinue only lasted another turn though, as massed firepower ripped them apart.
Retribution has arrived! Angered over the death of the Kahn, Storm Lord forces pump heavy bolter, plasma, and melta gun fire into the remaining Ultramarine retinue.
Uh Oh! A land raider, and assault marines advance across the table. Fortunately between the predator and a razorback, the land raider would become a non issue. Similarly, the assault marines were reduced to below their original number by combined shooting.
For once, this package worked out. The razor back arrived and immediately unloaded the small, lascannon toting tactical squad into this bunker. The razorback was immobilized, but its important twin linked lascannons were still very effective, as his land raider found out.
The scout bikes arrive! Perfectly situated, they popped in, and destroyed his predator from the rear. The smashed rhino in the front was put down by heavy bolter fire from the attack bike.
He got one more squad of reinforcements, this small tactical squad that showed up and shot at the scouts. Despite the shooting, and a two sided assault, the bikes managed to hold out, and hit and run deeper into his deployment zone. In the end to be sporting, we reversed direction, eliminated the remainder of the small tac squad, and took a bite out of the bigger one.