Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Space Hulk - Exterminate

Space Hulk mission recap


Blood Angels


Sgt Gideon- Thunderhammer/ Storm Shield

Brother Leon w/ Assault Cannon
Brother Valencio w/Chain Fist
Brother Scipio
Brother Omnio

Genestealers- 35


Mission 2- Exterminate. Once again we rolled off and I got the Marines. The mission features a very large map and all the marines begin dispersed, The Genestealer player alternates with the Marine player in placing the Space Marines down in one of the 6 rooms on the map.
I ended up with the Sgt Gideon, Leon and Valencio at the Southern end of the map with Scipio and Omnio on the northern half. Deployment in this mission is crucial as you can block the Stealers from entering the board by getting within 6 of any deployment area, Do this on both ends of the map and the Marines win.

Since the Blood Angels were dispersed and Gideon was closer to the men on the southern end of the map, I started moving the Sgt that way. I set the Assault Cannon up covering the long Southern hall, and had the Chain Fist marine move position against another approach and hope to get moving south toward the entry area.


Initial Deployment
'
Southern Side of Map, a few turns in

Bill learing his lesson from Mission 1 and knowing he had finite resources start stacking up blips on the north end of the map with only a few to the south, knowing I had less men there. My men to the North start backpedding toward the center. My strategy was to try to block the Southern entry, then link everyone else up and then move north until we could block or kill all the Genestealers.


Omino and Scipio move toward the center


Wasting too much time here


Bill- building up the Blip Horde to the the North.

I had numerous opportunities on the Southern End to move toward the block point however I choose to wait for his initial Stealer to attack and the he just held them back. I should just went for the Southern Block point right off and used the Assault cannon to cover his rear and move forward shooting until either the Chainfist Marine died or I reached the Objective. Instead I wasted time, moving around try to cover various approaches..I was stupidly moving backwards in the hallway at one point on overwatch try to protect the chainfist marine who had Stealers coming at him both ways. The Assault Cannon blazed away and killed many stealers. The Chainfist Marine was insanely lucky fending of three close combat attacks at "6" in a row by rolling 3- "6"'s in a row. at This point I had seen that thing weren't going to happen to the south if they did it be pure dice luck..so I was moving my Sgt toward the Other two marines. The two Standard marines where held up in the very center room positioned on overwatch so both could shoot into the hallway where the 20+ model conga line of Stealers was building. I actually ran out of time in turn couldn't everyone on overwatch and the Marine with the Chainfist..finally fell...the Assualt Cannon blazed away but eventually I had two rounds of not getting a "5" and the Stealers where on him and he died...I used about 6 of my 10 shots with AC.


Leon with the AC is just out of this picture to the left, I actually survived this onslaught
with some Assault Cannon clearing and Valencio rolling three back 2 back "6"s" in assault to survive the turn.


Not so lucky here, Leon is dead, Valencio will soon follow.


Three men left bunkered down at the center of the map, out numbered 20+ "we'll have to kill em all, the Sgt says"

With my Marines bunkered down in the center room and are already shooting at the genestealers and killing ALOT.. Sgt Gideon enters the room and stands next to the door way so he can swing at anyone coming in and I have Scipio and Omnio on overwatch shooting at either hallway as Bugs approach. Bill is moving two Conga lines of Stealers at the Blood Angels, one from the North one from the South..with twice as many models coming North. At this point I am killing a ton of Genestealers and Bill is worried as all the Stealers are on the board..he has around 10 left to my three marines. He rushes both rooms..I kill a few more and Scipio covering the southern approach is killed. Backs to the wall Gideon to taking on every Stealer coming at him, while Omino shoots at everything he can finally the Sgt Gideon Falls. Omino now is alone on he goes off overwatch using his last 2 AP to shoot twice and kills two of the remaining 3 stealers. It is now ONE VS ONE for the game..Bill attacks and rolls a 1,2,3 its 50/50 I can win the game all I need is a 4+, I roll a "1" Omino falls the Genestealers win!

Blood Angels Kills 34, Genestealers 5


The First "Conga Line" moving from the north, despite the Jam you see there
we cleared this one out pretty good.



With Leon and Valencio Dead, Genestealers are now on us from two directions.



Here they come from the North.



Backs to the wall!!



One VS One for all the marbles!!

Bill played this exactly right this time, my errors were clear and some hot dice steaks made it the coin flip it turned out to be. The Assault cannon definitely needs to go on the North Side of the Map in this mission. Bill and Billy played mission 2, twice more after I had played. In Game 2 the Bill played the Marines won in a closer game, and by Game 3 Billy who now had the Marines had broke the curve on how to win this and Blocked both exits early and had an easy win shutting down the Stealer extermination style.

In review, very fun mission although at first glance this seems very difficult for the Marines, once you figure it out the Marines have the advantage.

next up, Mission 3- Rescue

2 comments:

Bill Lim said...

John,
Good write up. The pictures don't quite do justice to the "conga line". I'm amazed at how much the Marines were actually able to clear.

In my 3rd game (I was Marines, Billy was Genestealers) I got completely PWND. Its not often that I'll use internet speak, but this was a PWNING true to the word. By the end of the game Billy had cleared all of the stealers off the board and suffered....0 casualties!!!

Space Hulk is a great game, high quality pieces, quick and simple rule set, yet still all of the tactical "crunch".

Looking forward to Mission 3 "Rescue" soon.

Bill

Conspyre said...

It's an interesting mission, but I do think it pretty much all comes down to Assault Cannon placement and lucky dice rolls. I was able to completely empty the Assault Cannon and had to finish the job with Storm Bolters.

 

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