Game 5: Dawn Assault vs Chaos

This next battle was a Dawn Assault against this Chaos army:

Daemon Prince, Khornate type, flying and all
Bloodthirster
3 Oblits
7-man CSM squad, Undivided, with daemonvessel, 2 meltas, in Rhino with smoke and extra armor
10-man CSM squad, Undivided, with tooled up asp. champion, 2 meltas, Rhino w. smoke and extra armor
2 Predators, both with all-lascannon, mutated hull, daemonic possession

Again, I won't do a detailed batrep. Just the hilites, if you will. No prizes for guessing which 2 units got sent to reserves

He got 1st turn, and under cover of darkness, the daemon vessel Rhino advanced up my left, while the other Rhino creeped up my right. His Preds couldn't see anything.

My 1st turn objective was to destroy/stop the Rhino with the daemonvessel, does giving me more shooty time. I moved 2 WLs, 1 Serpent and 2 vypers to shoot up the Rhino. The LAST brightlance destroyed it. The undivided CSMs baled out in my direction. Seizing the opportunity, my Farseer targeted the daemonvessel (let's go for instability!!) and cast mindwar. Of course, I rolled a 12 and the old Seer took a wound.

Next turn, he invited the bloodthirster. Both the Oblits and DP came in from reserve and started to advance up my right flank. The Preds opened fire on my Fire Dragon Serpent, stunning it (Serpents can take a lot of pounding or what?) The Oblits opened fire on my Stormie Serpent, to no effect. The Bloodthirster then charged the nearest WL, which happened to be on the edge of the ruins in the center of the board. Striking first, my WL scored 2 wounds which the daemon saved. Then he took apart the WL.

Luckily, my Dragon serpent drifted backwards and therefore in cover. Now, I focused on 2 things: 1) kill the greater daemon, 2) lay a trap for his DP. On my right, I moved everything except the Stormie Serpent to beyond charge range of the DP. The Stormies disembark, of course. On my left, I concentrated all kinds of stuff to kill the Bloodthirster. Shooting was really bad though, and I had to finish off the daemon with a WL charge. Luckily the daemon didn't wound him.

Predictably, the DP advanced towards my Stormie serpent. Supporting CSM in Rhino continued to race up the right flank. CSMs on the left advanced on foot. This time the survivng WL received the full attention of enemy fire and was killed. The DP charged the Serpent, hitting it 3 times!!! but scored only 1 glancing blow. And the serpent crashed! Talk about mixed fortunes.

The Fire Dragon Serpent moved towards the DP, disembarking its cargo. The Farseer advanced towards the CSM squad on the left (no point trying mindwar on the DP, he's got collar of khorne). two thirds of my army shot at and killed the DP. The Serpent's brightlance penetrated the Rhino hull, but only shook it. Snipers and mindwar bring down the CSM squad on the left to 3 men. My Farseer charges them, killing another!

The surviving CSM Rhino races behind a mound to get hull down position. Oblits try to move up. They shoot and destroy the Dragons' Serpent. The combat between the Seer and CSMs ended in a draw.

Snipers concentrate fire on the Oblits. But I didn't have enough snipers with LOS, and only 1 Oblit died. Starcannons shoot and destroy the other Rhino. In close combat, the CSMs score 2 wounds on my Seer (out of 3 attacks) ... and of course, i failed both saves and he died.

With no more bright lances on the table, the enemy Preds advanced out of the woods they were skulking in, to grab quarters. My pathfinders holding the left quarter got the full attention of the Oblits' heavy bolters. But cover was good, and only 1 Pathfinder died.

As this was a variable game length scenario, I gambled that this was the last turn. One Vyper streaked full speed into enemy quarter. Rangers supporting my Pathfinders went behind the hill they used as cover to stay out of harm's way. 3 Ranger squads advanced thru cover towards enemy quarter. Fire Dragons, Stormies and the other Vyper moved to take down the surviving CSM squad. In a hail of fusion gun, sniper, starcannon, flamer and shuriken fire, the CSM squad was wiped out. On the left, Pathfinders wipe out the remaining 2 CSMs. I rolled dice for end-game -- end rolled too high!

One Pred and Oblits tried to make for my quarter, but couldn't quite make it. Oblits fire on my Dragons, but cover was good and only 2 died. My Vyper in his quarter got a lot of attention from his anti-tank Pred and was utterly destroyed. In my turn, 2 Ranger squads broke into his quarter while still remaining in cover (cover was so good, I forgot about one squad when I was packing up). Dragons also made towards enemy quarter, behind safety of a mound. Pathfinders and a couple of Rangers kill another Oblit. This time the roll was good and game ended with me controlling 2 quarters with the other 2 contested.

We're in the final!