Cities of Death- Battle report

Chris and I played Deamonhunters versus Thousand Sons on a Cities of Death board last night and I have to say, even with my second forray into COD, I really really like it. There's something of the grittiness of Rogue Trader in it but with the rule clarity of 4th ed.. We played the second level up on Firesweep mission, so it was essentially capture the flag with five ruined buildings and one intact building (a water cooler). I think my major victory came the very first roll of the game when my dreadnought got firefrenzy with the Inquisitor's squad in his sight (twin linked las cannon and havoc launcher). After that, it was all sort of downhill for the Emperor's finest.

However, Chris and I had loads of fun. I think we had more fun being in a city then we did playing the game, but we both kind of came to the same agreements and I thought I'd share them with you.

First of all, if you're going to take special building stratagems (like ammo dump or medical facility) then take them all in the closest building. Chris kind of spread them out and it just ended up taking too long to get to the building that would have allowed him to re-roll to wound rolls.

Second, range is never better than punch. You're just never able to get a long shot off. So, if you have the choice, I would suggest always going for the punchier short range weapons, or even better, load up on hand to hand troops--they will come in immensely handy.

A spin off on this is that dreadnoughts seem to be far more useful than vehicles. Your average tank is going to get within charging range before it can get its shots off, and that means its opened itself up to some of the more powerful weapons in the game.

Third, we decided that at least one grey knight in any squad should be armed with a thunder hammer, because, man, they can't do shit against dreadnoughts. Oh, I know, this is their downfall, but its a huge downfall. They are supposed to be bad asses, but they never seem to come through. If you're playing daemonhunters concentrate on the army that they're running around with. Think of it as an IG army that can get terminators or a space marine army that can get crazy personalities, but don't think of it as a daemonhunter army with some people tagging along. You'll be wondering why you have no las cannons and you won't be able to stop the predators, the Land Raiders, or the Dreadnoughts.

I'm still curious to see what my Eldar do in the city fight. I think next week we're back to a 2 on 2 match up, so we'll see then maybe.

By the way, I got the booby trap stratagem. It was absolutely awesome. I think it killed one guy, but who cares. I had booby traps everywhere! If the rules allow, get it twice.