They call him Marbo .....

Had a game down the club on Friday night playing against Andy's eldar. Playing Andy is always a pleasure as he plays the game for a laugh and it doesn't matter who's winning or what's happening on the table, we're always laughing. Well, this game was no different, and we were clearly the loudest players in the club with shouts 'YES!', 'NOOOOO!' and numerous quite offensive insults been thrown back and forth, it's just the way we roll.

We were playing capture and control on a spearhead deployment and it was clear by the end of turn two that the best I could do was going to be a draw. My objective was protected by a good chunk of 2nd platoon, around forty models and they'd already dealt with his scorpians, avatar and only had his ten man harlequin coming at my lines which worried me quite a bit as if they got into combat, it'd have been a slaughter. His objective was protected by fire dragons, dire avengers and howling banshees, so I didn't have much chance to getting to it with what I had left. So, all I had to do was deal with this 310pt killing clowns advancing in the clear using veil of tears to stop me shooting them.

Bring in Marbo!

The clowns got pie plated, scoring 9 hits and then failing 8 4+ Inv saves. The remaining two charged Marbo taking one wound whilst he killed one in return, drawn combat. The scene was set for an epic battle between the hardened loner with a single wound left and a 5+ save against the xenos Shadowseer. Attacking on I6, the xenos went first and this is how it played out over the next 3 rounds of combat.

• Shadowseer scored 2 wounds, Marbo saved on 5,6 (1 in 12 chance)
• Marbo scored 1 wound, Shadowseer saved on a 4+ Inv - Drawn combat
• Shadowseer scored another 2 wounds, Marbo saved on 6,6 (1 in 36 chance)
• Marbo scored 3 wounds, Shadowseer saved on a 4+ Inv - Drawn combat
• Shadowseer scored another 2 wounds again, Marbo saved on 6,6 again (1 in 36 chance)
• Marbo scored 2 wounds, Shadowseer died!

The roof went off, an epic battle had been fought and Marbo was victorious! Both me and Andy abandoned the rest of the game and both agreed it was the best game of 40k we'd ever played.When I got home, I worked out the odds of rolling those dice for Marbo's saves - 1 in 15,552!

A so, I make this solemn promise that the Corbanian 1st will never go into combat without him again. I'm also going to keep this post a service record of Marbo's actions in combat. So, without further ado .....

CSgt Marbo (24909925) - 571 Infantry Company 

M20090130 (Gateway sector) - CSgt Marbo ambushed a retinue of xenos harlequins threatening to overrun Imperial lines. CSgt Marbo killed all but the xenos Shadowseer in the initial ambush whilst receiving a serious wound himself. CSgt Marbo then defeated the xenos Shadowseer in a prolonged hand to hand combat where he sustained multiple wounds counting no less than six. For this action, CSgt Marbo was cited in Regimental Orders, and mentioned in Dispatches - END.

M20090212 (Gateway sector) - In a surprise attack by the Angels of Blood Astartes chapter, CSgt Marbo received a shrapnel wound whilst preparing to attack a Rhino transport vehicle that was destroy by Vendetta air support. Whilst wounded, CSgt Marbo ambushed a Death Company squad that had evacuated the Rhino transport killing 8 Death Company Astartes marines before becoming seriously wounded and unable to continue the fight by bolter fire from a supporting dreadnought. CSgt Marbo was cited in Regimental Orders - END

Bat Rep - IG v Eldar

I headed down to gatekeepers, my local gaming club to see how my guys would handle the new codex whilst playing the club pro, so to speak. Dave, my oponent is a exGW staffer and regularly wins everything at the club. In the few games we've had, I've never beaten him.

So, we rolled annihilation and spearhead deployment. I deployed first and setup an even spread with a russ in the centre and on the flanks, supported by a devildog on the right, a mech vet squad in the centre and las toting sentinels on the right whilst keeping a mech vet squad and a mech command squad in the rear.

Simple plan, hold the line whilst using the rear mech units to bolster any weak points. Dave's Eldar setup, with snipers and vibro canons in the rear, two wave serpents, a vyper and a guardian squad on my right, leaving a wraithlord, avatar, vyper and a guardian squad threatening my left flank.







He tried to sweep his wave serpent full of fire dragons around my right flank, which was held by a russ and a devildog. One melta cannon shot later, out piled the fire dragons as their transport went down in smoke, all nicely grouped together for the battle cannon, one big blast and nine heavy bolter shots later, a single fire dragon went running for the hills whilst mumbles of broken codex's could be heard across the table.

On the center and left flanks, my forces traded fire with the Eldar but the concern of wraithlord and avatar combo coming straight at me was getting a little concerning.



So, I sent in the center mech vet squad, I knew they were going to die but I just needed to hold them up.

It paid off, over the next two rounds, the center and left russ hammered them with unrelenting fire power. With the major threat in the center dealt with, my center and left flanks started dealing with the guardians and vypers whilst on my right, I faced a new deadly threat.

The second wave serpent approached my lines, destroying the devildog and then dropping off a large unit of wraithguard. The russ didn't even have time to shoot before their warp weapons made short work of it.

Before they had time to sweep my flank, I redeployed my center russ to bring death to the entire unit. At this point, it was clear that I had won the field, 9 kill points to 6, VICTORY!!!! Overall, a really good game.

After each game, I take a little time to chew over what I did wrong, check into the rule issues or enemy units that came up and also figure out what I did right. After this battle, my main thoughts are :-

1. I didn't get chance to try the new orders, so I'm going to have to save that for another game.
2. Master of Ord. won't hit the unit you aim the blast at, the scatter is just too high, unless the enemy is tightly packed, it's not going to do much.
3. Eldar snipers are deadly to sentinels, I need to read into their rules, sniper rules and rending rules.
4. Although the devildog didn't do much, it's potential is great, especially considering it's a FAST vehicle, so could easily contest an objective with it.
5. Under the new rules, the russ with heavy bolters on the hull and sponsors throws out a horrendus amount of firepower. Sponsors rule again.

That's it for this report, I'm off to work on 1st platoon.