Already I'm taking some pretty big casualties, despite being in power armor. Fortunately (and cheesily) Berzerkers effectively don't take morale checks, so I didn't really care; I kept popping bolt pistol shots into the groups, not really caring if they landed or not since I was just desperate to launch an assault. Unfortunately I inadvertently cheated, having my right-hand unit of Berzerkers both run and assault during their second turn. While I think I was probably in charge range anyway, this could have made a big difference - either another turn of rapid bolter fire, or a spoiling charge, might have changed the outcome pretty drastically.
The results of my perfidious behavior - each of my squads launched an assault on one of Britt's squads, and the Berzerkers' simply goofy amount of attacks (three, four on the initial assault) took over. Britt's Vindicare keep shooting into the melee, but there wasn't much he could do at one kill a turn. The left-hand Berzerkers killed their way through their victims, and prepared to turn on the Vindicare while their slowpoke comrades kept chainswording their way through the remainder of the Emperor's most devoted servants.
Eventually the surviving Berzerkers took down the Imperial Assassin with a flurry of bolt pistol fire, which seemed anticlimactic but was probably smarter than giving him another round to pinata-stick their noggins.
If, at this point, you find yourself feeling bad for the Sisters of Battle, bear in mind that this act of martyrdom would apparently piss the rest of the chapter off to no end, as they prepare to beat the whiz out of all comers for the rest of these batreps (and possibly the foreseeable future).
Despite the loss, I am hooked on 40k now. There's still a lot of rules to cover (vehicles, etc.) but oh what silly dicefest fun!
ReplyDeleteIt is true, though. After seeing the power of close combat Berzerkers, I knew that I needed to get Penitent Engines into battle. The Sisters cant go toe to toe with Chaos SM.
Let sinners to the Emperor repent and expunge their soul's of the bile that led them to profane against him. Feel the flame and razors of penance and retribution! Bring on a full squad of PE's!
Those things are exasperating. We'll see if the new plan will even slightly slow them down, especially now that you'll be running 3 instead of two.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it does seem like Brad is going with Orks for his first list, so I may well be switching to something else if/when the league kicks off. I did finally e-mail Chris (the guy we met during the 4-way fight at Hypermind), and he still seems enthusiastic, so that's 4 of us. I need to ask Mark if he'd be interested at all in using a loaner - I keep forgetting to ask him at game night, however. Remind me to ask him at the big Hypermind anniversary thing next week.