Counter Offensive 6: Battle Summaries, Part 1
So did everyone's favorite Stripeypants do with their Drop-Pod list? Wellllll.......

For my first game with my Marines, I squared off against James Arnold (author of the Fighting Tiger Black Ops series) and his gorgeously-painted Black Templars successor. I would have preferred to use my Dvergar against his guys, but James asked for some Tiger action. Even though a Drop Pod-list is NOT ordinarily what I would use against Templars, I went for it. 

James had several large squads (Marines + Newbies), a Dread, and a Land Raider Crusader stuffed with Terminators, a Marshal, and the Emperor’s Champion. We played a Seize Ground/Pitched Battle with four objectives, and I dropped my Pods on one of his flanks and went to work with some short-range shooting. When his Termies and heroes swung towards my Podders to crush them, I reinforced with Deep Striking Assault Marines and my Librarian, Zaghnal Maratha. 

I enjoyed some success with shooting, taking out the Termies and the Marshal, and fending off the regular BTs and their sidekicks. My use of Combat Tactics to pull squads out of close combat and away from Templars who fired on my guys, bedeviled and annoyed James, but I was unable to stop the Emperor’s Champion, the Dreadnought, and the LRC, which tore through my Marines and Scouts. I conceded at Turn 5.

My next game was another Seize Ground (this time with five objectives and the Dawn of War deployment) against Michael Lietzke, whom I’ve corresponded with (via e-mail) for years. Mike’s Vindicator Marines were heavily mechanized (two Rhinos, two Razorbacks, two Vindicators) and mobile (Assault Marines w/ jump-pack Chaplain): again, not the ideal opponent for my Drop-Podding Tigers. But Tigers was what Mike wanted to play against, so I gritted my teeth and tried again.

I dropped my Pods on one of Mike’s flanks, and he responded by using his mobility to run away—right towards my deployment zone, where my Scouts held some objectives. Despite my Librarian not Deep Striking in until Turn 4, the rest of my guys (especially my Scouts) did well, taking down Mike’s Chaplain and Assault Marines. I threw guys into close combat against the Vindicator Tactical Marines pressing deep into my territory, and Mike had several really bad rolls that enabled me, along with the use of Combat Tactics, to hang on. 

Trying to secure a win on Turn 5, I sent a Tactical Squad to claim an objective in open ground. I forgot to use the new Go to Ground rule and was instead relying on the game to end then. Of course it did not, and of course, Mike’s Vindicator tanks drove barely into range and obliterated my dudes. Nevertheless, I scratched my way to a draw, with each of us holding one objective each.

I didn’t win these games, but I learned that if I’m going to use Drop Pods, I should use them against static, shooty armies; I should place them aggressively to block lines of sight for enemy heavy weapon squads; I should load them with heavy hitters like Sternguard; and I should combine them with some jump-packing Vanguard that can use the Pod’s locator beacons for a  Heroic Intervention. 

Related Pages 
Other Counter Offensives

Posted September 2009
 

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