Never get out of the boat

(with apologies to Apocalypse Now)

So, it's once again that time where I look back at yesterday's game and go through all the stupid mistakes I've made. On the down side these articles aren't getting any smaller so I'm still making lots of mistakes. On the plus side the mistakes are different each week so at least I'm learning something (I think that's probably the definition of blind optimism) Anyway, let's see what went wrong this week:

Stay in the Transport

When I put the list together I made the explicit point that "the Grey Hunters only get out of their vehicles in extreme circumstances" I think that shooting at a Captain and a Combat Squad of Tactical Marines hardly classifies as "extreme circumstances" does it? The worst thing is I was never going to cause 8 wounds with 4 Assault Cannon shots, 8 Bolter shots and a Meltagun especially since the squad was in cover. I was lucky with the combat that followed as the Captain couldn't get make it so I managed to hold him up until I could get my Rune Priest in. I should have opened fire with the Razorback and then let him try and charge it. As it worked out he wouldn't have made it into combat and then I could just have shot him again. Even if he had got in he'd have had to roll 4s to hit it and either 4s (Krak Grenades) or 6s (standard close combat attacks) just to glance it. All in all, my squad would have been more likely to survive and with another scoring unit the last couple of turns wouldn't have been quite so nail biting.

Get out of the way

I also managed to block off most of my long range shooting in the game. I was a bit unlucky on the first turn with the Drop Pod cutting off lines of sight for my Land Speeder and Razorback but I completely failed to give myself any decent fire lanes after that had happened. The plan had been to use the Typhoon to try and get side shots on the Vindicator or to use the Rune Priest in the Rhino for the same purpose. At least I managed to get some good use out of my Vindicator with it taking out a good chunk of the enemy army. However, with that constantly moving around to get past the Drop Pod it was also cutting down on firing solutions for everyone else. So, clearly the real issue was the Drop Pod. I was slightly too aggressive with it and next time I need to think a bit harder about where to drop it to gain maximum benefit. I was pretty impressed with the Dreadnought though. He might not have killed much but he did attract a lot of enemy firepower which is one of the reasons he's in the list.

So, I practically table my opponent for the loss of just a Rhino and 6 Grey Hunters and I'm still not happy. Well, of course not, you never should be while you're still making silly mistakes. When I get beat by someone who has played a better game than I have then that's fair enough. When I almost beat myself, well, then I'll keep giving myself a hard time. At least the list looks quite promising; quite killy yet quite hard to kill. I just need to play it a bit more to get used to the Drop Pod and then we'll see how it gets on once the competition starts.