The Prize Is Futility

 Battle report time! 

"Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!!!"

Da Masta Cheef and I were able to get another game in and this time we didn't have anyone else joining us, it was just our two Space Marine armies. Cheef brought his Silver Drakes and I brought my original, or as the kids today call 'em, Firstborn, Ultramarines. My Ultramarines were led by an Inquisitor since it's Paint an Inquisitor month here at the Hobby Chronicle I felt the need to put one into action.

The cards of fate.

Once again we used the cards and we pulled The Prize for our goal and we got a Cyclone for the Twist. That Twist (minus one to Strength if attacks are more than 18" away) would have a significant impact on this game. 

1,000 points of 'Firstborn'.

1,000 points of 'Primaris'. 

The old ghost town of Toxicwasteville. One of the reasons I was OK with us changing gaming venues (the old venue was fine but air-conditioning is a massive plus) was a change in scenery. Too many of my battle reports literally appear on the same table. This table we set used old west buildings, stones, ruins and roads that have definitely never appeared on either of our blogs before and it's a nice change of appearance. Clearly our two forces are going to be meeting at high noon in this old ghost town for a show down over 'the prize'. Whatever that is. Probably some sort of archeotech. 

The old ghost town of Toxicwasteville.

Cheef won the roll off and got the first turn. I played a Ruse card during set up that got three units positioned to basically start me out on The Prize. But no one wins this game unless that have The Prize at the end of Turn Five. 

Ambush! 

The board was set, and you can see forces aligned against each other. 

Set up.

One of the Drake's star players was to be this guy, Lieutenant Warmonger.

Lt. Warmonger.

Here's another of Cheef's units.

Here's another pre-start pic. The red marbles represent the deployment zone edge. You can get a good sense from this of just how far forward the Ambushers are from the rest of the force. 

At the start the action was definitely going to be in the center of the board. With The Prize being the object of the whole game, how could it not? 

After a spattering fire was peppered at my force, I did lose a few models here and there. As troubling as that was, I was more alarmed at how dismal my dice were rolling. Usually they tend to be fairly average but right off the bat my penchant for rolling 1's was back with a humbling vengeance. Amazingly my unit wasn't outright killed by Cheef's successful charge, two guys stubbornly refused to die where only... actually none of his fell. 

Smiting from the Chief Librarian and the Inquisitor finally took out two of them, but I had no choice but to commit a second five man Tactical squad into melee. Along with the Inquisitior himself. 

The Whirlwind eliminated a Reiver.  And the Vindicare Assassin tore some wounds off of the Primaris Lieutenant but he had some relic that allowed him to shrug wounds, so he was still very much alive and kicking and continuing to sheppard forward a mob of Hellblasters and a unit if Primaris Veterans. 

Turn Two and the meat grinder in the middle grounded on. The Reivers moved up, eager to get on the action. The howitzer thing moved to get a shot at the Whirlwind and did some light damage to it. I had the Librarian and the Tactical squad he was with jump the Reivers, and despite my horrendous dice rolls I still managed to eliminate all but one of them.

"Gosh they have scary masks!"

Turn 3. 

The body count continues to climb, at least on my side of the table. Even with Armor Of Contempt giving me an advantage against the Primaris Bolt Rifles I was still botching Saves almost every time I rolled for one. On the other hand Cheef made a surprising amount of them. Another roll I made was my Veterans charge into the Primaris Veterans.  Of course my Captain failed his charge and I was out of CPs. My Vets performed poorly with what few hits made it through being saved by the drakes.  It wasn't going to plan at all for them...

"Charge!"

Yup, stuck out in no man's land with a full squad of Hellblasters lurking behind those rocks, the Captain could only watch as his bodyguards ran forth towards their senseless deaths. 

"Um...guys?"

The Ultramarines Vets were beaten down, and the Captain was vaporized. But all was not lost. The Inquisitor had grabbed the Prize and withdrew from combat. The Librarian and his accompanying Tactical Squad had finished off the terrorifying Reivers and had now positioned themselves in a way to try to shield the Inquisitor.

Strategy in a time of gloom.

Cute though those tactics were, nothing was going to stop Cheef's hot dice, especially when mine were so, so bitterly cold. The Primaris Vets charged the Tactical Squad in the street, and wiped them out! They consolidated into the Librarian who struck one down with his Force Axe. 

My turn 4, and I was running out of stuff to do. The Whirlwind was taking  damage and not reciprocating likewise. Again,, Cheef was rocking his saves. The first Tactical squad, reduced to just two guys, gave chase to the Primaris guys and got them locked in melee. And after four rounds, the Vindicare finally dispatched Warmonger the Primaris Lieutenant. The Hellblasters had wounded him earlier but the Vindicare only had eyes for the Primaris Lieutenant. 

"Take that one in the heart!"

 What I needed to do was get Inquisitor Hiser the Hisarion into some cover or out of LOS to win this thing.

But at the Top of Turn 5, the Hellblasters brought him down! 

Inquisitor Hiser the Hisarion falls.

The Librarian fell also, botching his saves as well.  With no one near the objective to pick it up, it was now stranded in the dust outside of town.  The Librarian fell in the Fight Phase due to some amazingly bad save rolls from me, leaving me with very little to do in my turn but try to get in a few more kills.  I had the Vindicare dive into the Hellblasters, who, quite hilariously, beat him to death (he had two Wounds left, he had to make two saves and I rolled a 1 for each one!). 

Well, at least he looked good dying...

The Sergeant from the second Tactical Squad was still holding on. He and the opposition's Sergeant were now locked in combat, neither gaining the upper hand. It's likely he was so focused on this fight that he was oblivious to the fact that his side had lost and that he was now it's sole survivor. Along with a damaged Whirlwind. 

Determination. 

And here's the view from Cheef's side of the table with their foe  swept away. And yet we end this fight with an official tie as neither side was holding the objective at the end of Turn Five.

"We have assumed control."

Fun game. My dice rolls were definitely on the low side, but mostly when a Save was required. And the opposite seemed to hold true for Cheef. I am considering moving these archaic miniatures of mine over to Horus Heresy where they will likely perform better in that meta. (God, did I really just type that?!) Granted, my die rolls can be flakey regardless of the game being played so that might not matter in the end. I do have a desire to paint up some more of the first born models I have for the Ultramarines.  And I have been working on some Primaris guys as well that I think are turning out nicely.  

Cheef's dice were definitely hotter than mine which allowed his strategy to work as he intended. He was even able to hold a unit in the backfield to protect his gun turret. It was well executed but he failed to get The Prize in the end, but he was willing to accept a draw if ment I did win. Plus he got the satisfaction of vaping an Inquisitor.