Weekly Battle Report #11: Salamanders vs. Ironclad Spam (With Pictures!)

Hey there folks, bet you forgot about the Weekly Battle Reports!  I've actually been doing pretty well at giving you battle reports weekly, though they haven't been labeled as such.  Lots of tournaments have been the name of the game lately, though this week gets to see the return of my erstwhile Salamanders.  If you want more reports of the Salamanders, there is a Battle Reports Link on the top right side of the blog.  Lots and lots of reports on there, actually, not limited to just Salamanders. 

This battle was played over 2 months ago, so expect a little rust from my memory on what exactly happened.  First, let's go with the lists:

1850 Salamanders


Vulkan
Librarian w/ Null Zone/Avenger

10x Tactical Marines w/ Flamer, Combi-flamer, Missile Launcher, Rhino
10x Tactical Marines w/ Flamer, Combi-flamer, Missile Launcher, HB Razorback
10x Tactical Marines w/ Melta, Combi-melta, Multi-melta, Power Fist, Rhino

Dreadnought w/ Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod
5x Terminators w/ 5x Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield

2x Attack Bikes w/ Multi-Meltas
2x Speeders w/ Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer
1x Speeder w/ Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer

Land Raider Redeemer w/ Multi-melta, Extra Armor

Yes, I realize it isn't perfect.  I'm working on a tweaked list, don't worry.  A list with more melta, less BS (i.e. Dreadnought)

His list (entirely from memory):

Master of the Forge w/ 2 servitors


5x Tactical Marines w/ Rhino, Power Weapon, Combi-melta
5x Tactical Marines w/ Rhino, Power Weapon, Combi-melta
5x Scouts w/ Sniper Rifles
5x Scouts w/ Sniper Rifles

Ironclad Dreadnought w/ 2x HK Missiles
Ironclad Dreadnought w/ 2x HK Missiles
Ironclad Dreadnought w/ 2x HK Missiles

Ironclad Dreadnought w/ 2x HK Missiles
Ironclad Dreadnought w/ 2x HK Missiles
Ironclad Dreadnought w/ 2x HK Missiles

2x Attack Bikes

Overview:

Well, he's got a lot lot lot of armor here.  The TH/SS Termies are somewhat useless against AV13 if I'm honest, as is any sort of combat ability I have.  That means that this game will need to be won with shooting.  Still, my relative lack of Melta spam is going to make this list a very tough nut to crack.

The mission:

The mission was Standard Deployment, with Kill Points.  He won the roll to go first, and took it. 

He deployed a little spread out, with a scout squad in the terrain on the far right side, a scout squad in the terrain on the far left side, and the attack bikes kind of on the left.  The Ironclads were positioned clustered together in the center.

I put Vulkan + Libby in with the Termies this game, and hid the Attack Bikes from his HK missiles.  The (relatively useless) tac squads I held in reserve, though I for some reason unknown to myself left their combat squads out with their (extremely useful against AV13) missile launchers (lol).

Ironclad Spam Turn 1:

So, he advanced.  Nothing too crazy, really.  He ran everything, since he didn't have any good targets with his HK missiles. His attack bikes zoom forward 24" toward me on the right side.


Salamanders Turn 1:

Pod came in, and I dropped it close to his scouts in the right corner, within easy flamer range.

All I knew was that I needed to stay out of range of those Ironclads.  Luckily, they didn't have great range, and I could just try to get some easy kill points to start the game off.  I was in range of his attack bikes, to charge and shoot them with the guys in the Land Raider.  So, that's what I did.  I moved the Land Raider toward them, and got Vulkan out.  That way if he shot H/K missiles at Vulkan, he might kill him, but most likely it would bounce off his 2+ save- it was a calculated risk to get him to waste the HK missiles.

My attack bikes killed one of his bikes with shooting, and my dreadnought somehow flamered all 5 scouts into oblivion.  Nice!

In combat, Vulkan charged, and easily dispatched the final attack bike.

Kill Point Count:
Salamanders:  2
Ironclads: 0


NOTE:  IF YOU WANT BIGGER PICTURES, CLICK ON THEM!!

See... my attack bikes are positioned so as to soak up lots of HK missile fire. 

Ironclads Turn 2:

He advanced a little bit.  The tactical squad in the rhino closest to the dread moved up to get a rear shot on the dread himself.

Shooting saw him drag my poor attack bikes down with mass HK missile fire.  At least they wasted some shots on them :)  The tactical squad immobilized my dread.

It looks here like Vulkan somehow took a wound.  I'm honestly not sure how he did, or if he in actuality even did.  It's really not that important one way or another though.

Salamanders Turn 2:

Lots of my reserves came in, including all three tac squads and the both speeder squads.  So actually, all of them came in.

I got Vulkan back into his ride, and moved the Raider away from his Ironclads, ready for some attempts at rending them.  The speeders came in off the locator beacon from the pod, ready to kill the rhino there.

In shooting, I was able to kill his rhino closest to the drop pod, pinning the squad inside.  I was also able to take a couple random potshots at the ironclads with the raider and two missile launchers.  One of the shots got through, and killed one of the ironclads.  Lucky of me!  The luck faded however, as the squadron of two speeders both missed their target rhino toward the left side, despite the rerolls.

Kill Point Count:
Salamanders: 4
Ironclads: 1

This is a pretty terrible picture- doesn't show anything going on where my pod is.  You can see where I brought in my marines though.

Ironclads Turn 3:

He decided not to chase my Raider, and instead go for the much easier tactical marines with his Ironclads/Master of the Forge (who was following them around)

He had a couple missiles left, and was able to pop one of my rhinos with them, which complicated matters.  He stunned another one.  The speeders somehow all survived, and it was my turn.

Ironclads are scary in groups of 6.  Seriously, I'm not sure how this list can deal with them, other than trying to ignore them.  On another note, I don't know when or how, but he also killed my Drop Pod.

Salamanders Turn 3:

I just needed to keep trying to keep away from his Dreadnoughts, and focus on the easy kill points.  To do that, I moved the 'big' tactical squad up 12" toward his scouts on the left.  The other tactical marines just huddled away from the Ironclads.  The Land Raider moved up to support the speeders, and disembarked Vulkan.

In shooting, I was able to mostly fail.  My two speeders on the left took shots at the rhino, and again both missed.  Talk about statistically improbable! :-p  Still, my other shooting was somehow able to drag yet another Ironclad down. 

Vulkan charged in, and killed a few marines, who stuck into combat.

Kill Point Count:
Salamanders: 5
Ironclads:3

Hm, looks like Vulkan is fighting the marines still.  That speeder is shaken, apparently.

Ironclads Turn 4:

He advanced his ironclads at my combat squads.  Next turn, they'd be dead for sure.

Not much else.  I think he popped one of my speeders in the squadron.

In combat, Vulkan killed off the rest of the squad.

Not a whole lot.  Next turn will hurt though.

Poor blighters.

Salamanders Turn 4:

 I moved the Raider up to help shoot at his Ironclad rear armor.  A small flamer squad moved up and got ready to torch his scout squad on the hill (disembarking to do so).  For some reason I kept my multi-melta squad where they were to shoot his Ironclad.

In shooting, I failed again to kill his Rhino on the left, and the Multi-melta from the bunker rhino missed.  Sigh. The flamers killed a few scouts, but didn't get all of them.

Kill Point Count:
Salamanders: 6
Ironclads: 3

Yikes.  Hope I can survive this turn.

Ironclads Turn 5:

This is my turn of pain.  He advanced a little more, and got ready to kill my combat squads.

He was able to kill another speeder, for another killpoint.

In assault, he wiped out my combat squads, as expected.

Things are now tied, though I still have 2 more turns than him.

Salamanders Turn 5:

The flamer squad got ready to multi-assault his rhino on the left, as well as the depleted scout squad.  The bunker squad decided it was time to GTFO (get the ... out) and drove away 12".

Shooting once again accomplished nothing.

In assault, I was able to wipe out his scouts and his rhino on the left, finally!

Kill Point Count:
Salamanders: 8
Ironclads: 6

Can I hold on for one more turn?

Ironclads Turn 6:

His tacticals on the left got ready to charge my tacticals.  The ironclads all got ready to charge my lone combat squad who had been forcibly disembarked.

...and that's what he did.  The assault of tacs vs. tacs went nowhere quickly, and the ironclads made my combat squad sad.

Poor, brave souls.  I played them entirely wrong this game.

Last picture.  I have one turn left.

Salamanders Turn 6:

I didn't have a whole lot to do.  My Land Raider zoomed forward to get a shot at one of his Ironclads' rear armor, and killed it.  We drew combat in tactical squad vs. tactical squad.

End Kill Point Count:
Salamanders: 9
Ironclads: 7

So, a very hard-fought battle against a list that my current iteration of Salamanders has trouble dealing with.  I made quite a few mistakes, including not simply running all my tacticals on the left up the board instead of lingering and letting the ironclads get them.

In the end, I think I played it right in a killpoints mission by concentrating on his 'easy' kill points and trying to simply ignore his ironclads.  Had it been a capture and control mission however, the game would likely have gone far worse for me.

Anyways, I'm tired, so I'll let it stop there.  Hope you enjoyed it!  Tune in next week for my Tournament Report of my Wolfstar playing in the Finals of the Feast of Blades!