Turn Two Gamble Bites Me In the Ass Again

I had my rematch with Jeff at St Laurent last night and sadly came away defeated once again.

Our 3000 pt armies looked like this:

Black Storm:
Deathwheel
Deathwheel
Feral Titan
Platoon with havocs and rhinos
2 x Platoon with rhinos
2 x  Forlorn Hope with rhinos
Terminators with Daemon Prince
Terminators

Imperial Guard:
Mechanized Infantry
2 x Infantry Platoon
2 x Vulture formations
2 x Shadow Swords
Super Heavy Tank Company - 1 Shadow Sword, 2 Baneblades
2 x Hydra formations
Thunderbolt Squadron

My battle plan was to use mobility to get in close and ravage him at firefights and close combats, with the terminators coming down in turn 2 to nuke the super heavy tanks. Alas turn one saw one deathwheel and the feral titan become victims of the Vultures with no return casualities, and then my main platoon lost a couple rhinos to slow it down. Still, I had my ~750 pts of terminators coming in so I forged bravely ahead.

They teleported in with the Daemon Prince led terminators landing near the super heavy tank company with an eye towards demolishing it with TK and MW attacks, while the second went after a lone shadowsword. Of course, I lost the strategy roll. SIgh. Jeff pounced and assaulted my terminators with his mechanized infantry and with supporting fire wore me down to win the fight and eliminate the threat. The rest of the game was basically an effort by me to prevent Jeff from getting enough objectives to win by killing whatever targets I could. The last deathwheel proved handy by assaulting and breaking a couple formations, and my infantry platoons tried valiantly to hold on, but ultimately my early losses in turn 1 and 2 proved to be too much and after four turns and no goals held by either side, Jeff won on Victory Points by a score of ~1750 to 1050.

Here's a handful of pcitures from turn 1 and early turn 2.

Analysis:

A while back I stopped going for the turn 2 kill with terminators and instead used them for reinforcing and taking objectives. Then recently I started the practice up again and now remember why its a bad idea. If I don't get initiative, I'm doomed. Additionally, Jeff pointed out something that I never realized. If I win the strategy roll in turn 1, then the next turn my +2 advantage is actually only +1 because a tie is a win for the other side. Its so obvious in hindsight, and I wouldn't gamble on a +1 as much as I do on a +2.

Had I won the roll in turn 2 I think the game could have been very different. Simply the chance to whack those superheavy tanks with 2 TK attacks and 5 MW attacks and 5 regular attacks (all hitting on 3+) would have been enough to at least break them I suspect. Alas, it was not meant to be and I must go back to the drawing board. Time to get back to using my terminators more responsibly.

Jeff played a solid game once again, showing why he is at the top of the ladder and climbing. His fairly solid and mobile army is proving to be very difficult for me, especially all those super heavies and those damn vultures.