Double Elimination

The second game Mike and I played on Tuesday.  Somehow he managed to roll spearhead/annihilation again, which probably should have been an indication that the dice weren't going to be with Mike for this game.  We swapped back to our traditional table corners and shuffled the terrain a bit to try and make it as different as possible from the game we'd just finished.  We started playing at about 2120, and Mike had told his wife he'd be home by 2130, so we made a conscious choice to play as quickly as we could and as a result there are a few "missing" pictures.

Deployment complete.  Such a no-nonsense look of intensity.  TSM + Chapter Master behind the central plateau, TSM squad embarked in the Rhino.  Shas'el Fireknife and elite Deathrains parked pretty far forward.  Not entire sure what I was thinking, there.  Broadside as far "up" the long table edge as allowed, and as far back as possible to avoid the early Zerg rush.  Kroot Carnivores + Hounds infiltrated with the intention of running and bum-rushing in Turn 2.

Middle of turn 1.  Not much I could do given Mike's counter-deployment, so just some movement.

End of turn 1.  TSMs and CM started coming around the plateau, but the CM's orbital bombardment scattered into uselessness instead of taking out the XV88.  To make up for it, the combat-squadded TSMs gunned down a Deathrain; I almost miffed up the wound allocation and didn't remove one of the Deathrains, but I caught myself before turn 2 started.

Middle of turn 2.  The Rhino hadn't popped smoke, so the Fireknife and the surviving Deathrain got a bit over-excited and let it rip, but they were largely ineffective.  The XV88 joined in the part, but between them all they only came away with a weapon destroyed and an immobilized.  The Kroot just sorta...stood there, not sure what to do with a Rhino in their face.

End of turn 2.  Kroot BBQ, anyone?  The flamer-wielding TSM from the Rhino turned 11 of 12 members of the Kroot squad into charcoal, and bolter-fire took care of the remaining one.  The surviving Deathrain had a rain of death poured in his direction and also went down.  Things are looking mighty grim for the cadre at the moment; I've only got 3 models on the field of battle, and one of them is a gun drone.

Middle of turn 3.  I managed to roll my reinforcements on and scored a mont'ka ("killing blow") on the Rhino. So now we've got an isolated TSM squad squeezed between the cratered wreckage of their rhino and a tall hill, and the tattered remains of a pair of combat squads that are within rapid fire range of a plasma rifle and a FW squad, as well as the Devilfish's burst cannon and gun drones.  Something is missing from the sequence of events, because the Chapter Master is gone from the field but I would have sworn I hit him with the XV88 and popped the instant-kill shot through his Iron Halo.  Based on the geometry, though, sheer weight of fire from the shas'el Fireknife must've done him in, so I guess the one-shot was the previous game.

End of turn 3.  The full TSM squad runs to support their lone comrade, who, in turn, charges the FWs but is too saddened by the loss of so many battle-brothers and isn't able to bust and blue-skin heads.

From here on out I'm not sure which turns the pics  are from; we were trying to get the game done and moved pretty quickly.  It did roll all the way into turn 7, so we're definitely missing a few.  Mike's dice also go frigid on him; for the remainder of the game his TSMs shoot wildly inaccurately and their power armor decides to take a vacation and turn into speedos.  I don't know that I couldn't have won, but I didn't win so much as Mike was defeated by his own dice.

I think the is the end of turn 5, but I'm not sure.  The shas'el and the Devilfish take refuge behind the plateau, while the FWs stay put to get their single 30" shot, should the game continue.  Which it does.

Somewhere in turn 6.  I have no idea what's going on here.  Devilfish detached its gun drones behind the central plateau??  FWs don't care about a 4+ cover save the DFish is granting the TSMs, since a TSM's armor save is 3+.  Shas'el + FWs + DFish take a reaping of the TSM squad.

Middle of turn 7, end of game.  One of those gun drones is actually dead and the other is falling back, but hell if I can remember which or who was targeting them.  At any rate, sheer weight of fire whittles the TSMs down to nothing and the game ends with Mike being tabled.