Last weekend we had a 40k Combat Patrol tournament at my gaming group. Over the following days I’ll post a battle report for each of the five games I played.

The rules for army selection were: 400 points, with a single detachment consisting of:

0 – 1 HQ

– 1 – 6 Troops

– Troops 0 – 2 FA

– 0 – 2 HS

– 0 – 2 Elite

Furthermore, no models except Troops could have more than 2 wounds, vehicles could not have a total armour value bigger than 33, and no model could have a save better than 3+.

There would be five games were played on 4’x4’ tables. Each table had a different mission, consisting of a primary objective worth 8 points, a secondary objective worth 8 points, and Slay the Warlord, First Blood and Linebreaker each worth 2 points. So each game was worth a maximum of 22 points to the winner.

I played with the following force:

Scout squad, 5 x CCW , melta mombs

x , melta mombs Scout squad, 5 x sniper rifles, camo cloaks

x sniper rifles, camo cloaks Ravenwing Bike Squad with three bikes

Whirlwind Squadron with three Whirlwinds

My sniper sergeant would be my warlord, and I planned on rolling on the DA table, in the hope of getting Ignore Cover/Precision shots.

Game 1 : Eldar

My first game was against an Eldar list:

3 Scatter bikes

Scatter bikes 5 Dark Reapers with Exarch with tempest Launcher

Dark Reapers with Exarch with tempest Launcher A unit of Guardians with a scatter laser platform

A Vyper with a missile launcher

A War Walker with a scatter Laser and a brightlance

(Looking at the list now, I’m wondering if that was really 400 points, but whatever).

The primary mission was a single objective in the center of the table, which generated Dangerous and Difficult terrain in a radius of 6″ and 12″ around it, respectively. The secondary mission was killpoints.

My opponent got the roll for first turn, and deployed in a wide line. From left to right from my view: Vyper, War Walker, Guardians, Reapers and jetbikes.

I placed my Whirlwinds far back, mostly out of sight. The snipers were set up in cover, but with a good view of the killing ground around the objective. My scouts I infiltrated halfway up the field to the left, out of sight but far forward, in the hope of getting to the Vyper and/or War Walker with the melta bomb. My Ravenwing outflanked.

Turn 1

I failed to seize the initiative, and the game didn’t start off well. A single salvo from the jetbikes and the guardians wiped out the snipers to a man, despite their 3+ cover save. That was one kill point, Slay the Warlord and First Blood to my enemy, as well as one of my better units gone. The other units managed to score a glancing hit on one of the Whirlwinds as well.

Luckily, my first turn wasn’t too bad either. I kept the scouts in cover, as they couldn’t assault this turn anyway, and would be cannon fodder if they went into the open. The Whirlwinds opened fire on the Guardians, which was the biggest cluster of targets. I rolled good on my scatter, and did enough damage to force a Panic test. They failed and promptly ran off the table. 1–1!

Turn 2

The War Walker, Reapers and jetbikes repositioned to take aim on the Whirlwinds managing to kill one and take another down to its last hull point. The Vyper moved forwards to target the scouts, killing all except the sergeant, who passed his panic test.

I rolled succesfully for my reserves, and the Ravenwing bikers turned up right behind the jetbikes, but failed to do any damage with their bolters. The Whirlwinds failed to hit the Jetbikes as well. The scout charged the Vyper and scored a penetrating hit with his melta bomb. Unfortunately, I rolled a weapon destroyed on the shuriken catapults, meaning it would be able to move away and shoot at me next turn.

Turn 3

The jetbikes turbo boosted away from the Ravenwing, fearing an assault. The Vyper took some distance and fired at the scout, but the missile scattered safely away. The Reapers opened up on the Ravenwing and killed two of them. The War Walker destroyed another of the Whirlwinds.

In my turn, the scout chased after the Vyper, while the remaining biker gunned towards the Reapers. My Whirlwind took fire at the jetbikes and took out two of them. In the assault phase the last scout again charged the Vyper, blowing it up. The lone soldier emerged unscathed from the explosion and consolidated into cover, out of sight of the War Walker. The Ravenwing charged the Reapers, but both sides failed to do any damage.

Turn 4

The War Walker moved to get a shot on the last scout, while the last jetbike turbo-boosted into my deployment zone, right next to the last Whirlwind. The War Walker vaporized the last scout, and in the assault phase, the biker managed to kill one of the Reapers, who failed their morale check and were destroyed.

I moved the last biker towards the War walker, but he failed to do damage with his bolters. He declared a charge, and was promptly gunned down by overwatch fire. The Whirlwind got some distance from the Vyper and managed to destroy the last bike.

Turn 5

Turn five would be the last turn, since time for the round was almost up. By moving the Whirlwind away from the last jetbike, I’d put it in a position where the War Walker could shoot at it. It opened up with both weapons and managed to score a glancing and a penetrating hit, taking it down to its last hull point. The roll for the penetrating hit came up a 2, Crew Shaken.

This meant that in my turn, the tank could move and turbo-boost towards the objective, claiming it at the last second.

Score

The last turn claim gave me the primary objective. We both only had one model left, but since his army had started with a unit more, this meant I had more kill points, giving me the secondary objective as well. My opponent had First Blood and Slay the Warlord, while I had Slay the Warlord.

Final score: 18–4 Win.