Black Templars vs. Salamanders Part 1

So today I had nothing to do. Sounds like a great day for some 40K right?

1850 Points - Annihilation - Spearhead 

Salamanders vs. Black Templars 

I brought my camera, in hopes of getting some great pictures of the battle. But sadly, I realized that I had forgotten the memory card. So, we will have to do with Vassal 40K pictures.

My opponent deployed first, splitting his forces in two, while gaining a bit of cover at the same time from the building. My deployment was rather clustered. I knew my opponent had a drop pod coming in on the first turn. Inside would be a dreadnought armed with a melta. Now, I could have prevented this by putting my forces in reserve. But as of lately, I've been having some unlucky rolls for my reserves. Always rolling just short of what I needed. So, I put some faith in my dice for the attempt to seize the initiative. Was I successful?

Nope. First turn, my opponent spread his forces out as you can see. Trying to corner me from the looks of it. It was actually pretty scary, just seeing how out-numbered I was. Something I will go over in the future in another blog post. Everything moved forward from it's deployed position. The Rhinos moved all out, while the Land Raider moved 6" to get out some fire. The unit of bikers to the north moved 12", but didn't fire. I honestly do not know why. And the speeder flew south, moving all out into cover. Meltas fired from three units. When the drop pod came in, my opponent really wanted to sink his teeth into my Land Raider, confidently dropping in within' inches of my hull. Luckily for me, the pod scattered directly up, landing on the edge of the building, thus guiding itself over to the right. Luckily for him, the melta was just in range, so he could get a shot. But it failed to hit, even after the re-roll for Vulkan.

The same thing happened with the Land Raider, which fired at the Razorback w/ Lascannons. Fortunately, although it did hit, it was unable to scratch the paint of my holy armor. As with the Bikers coming around from the left however, they were able to hit my second Razorback armed w/ Heavy Bolters. Luckily for me, I was able to roll a 5 of my cover save from the wrecked Rhino placed between us.

Now came my turn. It wasn't as successful as I had hoped it would be. But, it was better than my opponents. Razorbacks moved straight forward, firing. The lascannons fired into the Rhino directly ahead, but twin-missed. The heavy bolters fired into the bikes up north, and took out one biker. Not enough to force a leadership; which would have been awesome if they failed. 

The dreadnought moved over the tank traps with ease, firing into the bikers to the west. Got a bunch of rending shots into them, taking out 3. The storm bolter failed to wound. 

The rhino behind followed up from behind the dreadnought, and popped smoke. Now my Land Raider is holding back, even though it is transporting some Assault Terminators with Lightning Claws. Patience is key in Warhammer. I instead maneuvered back a bit away from the Iron Clad, firing lascannons into it's face. I was able to destroy a weapon, and chose the melta arm. 

Well after my first turn, I took quite the beating. Luckily, his second drop pod refused to come in. One less melta firing at me. Well here's what went down. Both razorbacks were popped. The Redeemer fired into the Emperor's Champion's Razorback, causing it to explode. One marine died from the explosion allow for a righteous zeal movement. The other Razorback was popped by the bikers, killing one of the marines. Again, allowing another righteous zeal.
Bikers from the west fired all three of their meltas into my dreadnought. All three caused an explosion result. I ask to re-roll them, thanks to being a venerable. This time, he rolled two weapon destroyed and a stunned. 

Will I be able to recover? 

To an extent, I was able to get back on my feet. I was able to stun 4 units, and lock another in combat. One of my reserves came in via deep strike with the help of a Teleport Homer placed by my marshal who got out of the Rhino before it swung around to open the line of sight for my Land Raider. Firing both lascannons into the Redeemer, I was able to stun it and destroy one of it's flamestorm cannons; picking the one that could get the most marines without moving too much.And then I used the machine spirit to fire the multimelta into the Iron Clad, stunning it.

My Marshal was able to fire his storm bolter at the speeder and actually glance it twice, stunning itas well.

The Champion's squad assaulted the Rhino, stunning it. And then the other Crusader squad assaulted the bikers to the north, killing two. Unfortunately, they passed their leadership and didn't run off the table.

That's the first two turns. More to come tomorrow.