Close to you

Well, that was a lot closer than expected. Dave's list looks really unfocused (this is because it's every model that he owns) but he played it really well. Before we start congratulating Dave, let's have a look at what I did right/wrong...

Deployment

Again. I was pretty happy with the set up of my Long Fangs since they had pretty good lines of fire over the centre of the field. However, due to the hill and the ruins that they were in meant that I had a couple of turns where I couldn't actually see anything to shoot. Also placing both of my counter-assault units (Dreadnought and Lone Wolf) on the same flank meant that I didn't have anything to deal with Dave's main thrust. The Dreadnought eventually managed to make it back into where he was needed but it was after I'd already lost a number of units. I should also have started with the Vindicator on the board since Dave didn't really have the long range firepower to take it out.

Playing the Mission

For the first time in a long time, I actually managed to focus on the actual objectives of the mission. With so little on my right flank, I could easily claim my quarter and Dave's quarter. There would definitely have been times where I would have brought my both Razorbacks onto my left flank to try and stop Dave's assault so that went pretty well.

In general, I was happy with the way I played the mission. Let's have a look at the other side of the table and see what Dave did...

First Turn

I was really surprised that Dave gave up first turn. He didn't have a large amount of long range firepower so I would have thought that he'd have wanted to give them a chance to shoot at me before I shot at him. He could also have popped smoke on his Rhinos on his first turn. Obviously, in the end I wasn't able to take out his lead Rhino but I probably should have done and if the first one had gone down the second one would have had to go the long way round. He could also have used his Vindicator to control my deployment. I would have had to make sure that I didn't deploy on the edge of my deployment zone so that I was out of range.

Pushing home your advantage

With his two Rhinos shrugging off anything that I could fire at them they made really good progress. But them the second one stopped to shoot. Had they kept moving forward I would have had to deal with the Captain, his Combat Squad, the Chaplain, his Assault Squad and a Tactical Squad. I would have really struggled to take out that many Marines in quick succession and Dave could have taken that lank with a bit more aggression.

Peek-a-boo

One thing that Dave did really well was keeping his Assualt squad hidden behind his Rhinos. I couldn't trace LoS to them so they made it into combat relatively unscathed. Admittedly I was unlucky not to take out the Rhinos earlier but keeping the Assault Marines safe meant that they still had some oompf when they arrived.

Accepted Flank

The other thing that Dave did was concentrate all of his forces on one flank. Okay, he was a bit lucky that the Scouts came on in the right place but it basically meant that he could keep most of his army out of LoS from my Long Fangs which kept them alive.

Risky Deep Strike

It's a bit hypocritical of me to talk about Dave making risky deep strikes when one of my Speeder suffered a mishap. However, he deep struck his Speeder to try and get it into Melta range to take out Rhino. With a Typhoon you're better off to Deep Strike in a safer place and then shoot the Rhino with two Krak Missiles. Yes, he was unlucky to immobilise it but it wouldn't have been an issue if he'd have picked a better DS site.

All in all, it was a good game. Dave has definitely come a long way since the last time I played him (and I mean that so I hope it doesn't sound patronising) There was definitely a time where he could easily have claimed my left flank and forced a draw. I think it definitely shows that sometimes you're better off learning how the units that you have work rather than shelling out on new stuff.