The Hunt for Cypher Round 2

Greeting folks,

Its been a while since I posted anything so I would like to jump back in with a battle report. Recently Neverness and I got around to fighting the second round of our Dark Angels vs Cypher saga (part 1 here).

Mission

We decided to do another mission from the Cypher data slate. This time we  went with the mission Turn the Tide. In this mission Cypher and his cronies are backed into a corner with a superior force closing in. Cypher's forces are split in 2 with the primary group deployed normally and a reinforcing element auto arriving on turn 4. Victory Conditions are fairly simple. Cypher's forces get 6 points if they can survive until their turn 4 with the opposing force scoring the same points for destroying Cypher's primary force before reinforcements can show up. Secondary objectives are 1 VP for each unit completely destroyed. No line breaker or any of the normal ones.

Cypher gets a corner with the enemy forces deploying in the remaining 3 with a 12 inch gap between enemy forces.

Forces

1500 point game

Dark Angels

Company Master: Bolt pistol, Mace of Redemtion

Deathwing Knights (5)

Deathwing Squad (5) assault cannon

Deathwing Squad (5) plasma cannon

Tactical Squad (10)  Sargent, missile launcher

Tactical Squad (10) Sargent, plasma gun, missile launcher

Ravenwing Bike Squad: Sargent, attack bike with multi melta, melta gun, 3 Ravenwing

Land Raider Crusader



Cypher and Company

Waiting on Neverness to send me


Set Up

Cypher and his cowardly Fallen started off in the Land Raider with the Vindicator and 2 squads of Chaos Marines deployed around the center of the ruins. The Black Legion squad in the center also contained a Champion. The Khorne Berzerkers and Lord on the Juggernaut remained as the reinforcements. My Deathwing remained in reserve to deploy against Cypher when he came out of hiding with the Knights inside the Land Raider Crusader to deliver a hammer blow. The Tactical Squads and Company Commander deployed to move into the ruins and the Ravenwing set up against the Land Raider.

Turn 1

As the attacker I went first. The Tactical Squads advanced in the ruins along with the Crusader doing some Mass Effect Mako all terrain fu to get in closer in preparation to unleash the Knights. The Ravenwing maneuvered closer to the Land Raider in order to get maximum firepower from the melta weapons. Unfortunately the range didn't matter as the dice weren't with me this round. Between all the bolters and the assault cannon the Black Legion squad was killed to a traitor with the Aspiring Champion legging it for the safety of the table edge.  

The return fire from Nerverness saw both Tactical Squads suffering some casualties. The Vindicator thankfully couldn't hit the broadside of a barn and only a few marines fell to the pie plate of doom. The Ravenwing didn't get so lucky as all but the Sargent and Attack Bike falling to the fire of the Land Raider and Cypher's guns and Fallen. The Ravenwing fell back from the onslaught to hopefully call in the Deathwing on Turn 2

Turn 2

Luckily both Deathwing arrived at the top of Turn 2 and deployed to confront Cypher and the Land Raider. The Tac Squads continued to advance into the ruins in hopes of killing the remaining Chaos Marines and the Vindicator. The firepower of the Deathwing proved too much for the Fallen to withstand as they were gunned down to a traitor with Cypher suffering a wound as well. 

The Traitors weren't out of the fight yet though. Again my Tac squads took casualties for return fire. Yet again the Vindicator scattered wildly. The Ravenwing Sargent fell to the fire of the Land Raider but the attack bike stuck around to fight on. Cypher, seeing which way the wind was blowing after his squad got vaporized, wisely got back into the Land Raider for protection as it retreated back before killing the Sargent.

Turn 3

Turn 3 saw my forces advancing towards the remaining traitor forces. The attack bike finally rolled well with the multi melta and the Land Raider was no more. Cypher stumbled from the wreckage unscathed. The Vindicator suffered a hit from a Krak missile and was destroyed. The Tac squad in the ruins again shot at the traitors opposite them reducing their ranks even further. 

On Neverness's turn he moved the surviving Traitor squad over to Cypher in hopes of surviving to his turn 4 when reinforcements would arrive. 

Turn 4

Barring some truly heroically good or bad dice rolling (depending on who you have been cheering for) it was all over but the crying. All I had to do was pray to the dice gods and stay in their mighty favor and kill the remaining traitors with the seemingly overwhelming preponderance of firepower I had to use. Defeat has been snatched from closer victories though. Cypher fell to the Deathwing and was duly captured by the surviving Ravenwing. The remaining traitors fell to the firepower of the Deathwing and Tac Squad that had been moving in from the rear. With that the game ended with the Unforgiven making a clean sweep of Cypher and his forces while suffering relatively few casualties in return. Now lets hope that Cypher stays captured this time (yeah right).

Conclusion

And with that Cypher is once again on his way back to the deepest, darkest interrogation cell on the Rock. I don't feel this win was really down to superior generalship on my part, but rather to Neverness's dice failing him miserably. My dice were pretty hot too. I generally dithered with the Land Raider Crusader and didn't deploy the beat stick of the Knights. Being forced to make up the points that the Terminators should have occupied was a wrench in the works for sure for Neverness. The Berzerkers and Lord would have been a potential world of hurt had they arrived and the points would have been a lot closer had they shown up. As always I really enjoyed the game. Neverness is a great opponent. Our Kill Team games have been a blast and very close run (we have tied on all of them so far). Until my next emergence from the aether, happy gaming folks!