Adepticon 2011, Part III: Team Tournament, Game 2 vs. A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Well, after the awesome Draw and Loss against the coalitions from Team Sweden it was time to go to our second game. Despite the rough start we were supper excited to see who our opponents were and fate put us against the jolly and "slightly" inebriated fellas from The Heroic 28s Podcast (Great, casual podcast that I've been enjoying ever since!). So without further ado, let me introduce you to Team..

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

 

They had a very mixed army and had written up a bunch of fluff to make it work, however I seem to have misplaced their story, so if any of you 28s reads this and you have a digital copy, please send it to me and I'll add it. Unfortunately we were too excited and the game went by pretty fast, so I didn't remember to take any pictures. The Coalition we faced had a Vulkan He'Stan Salamanders-themed SM list AND a Null-Deployment Style Tyranids. I am 99% sure that these lists below are correct since I saw them posted on their forums.. so join us after the break to see them AND read the battle report!

HQ190 Vulcan He'Stan

          Elite 115 Dreadnought with Multi Melta & Heavy Flamer
          35 Drop Pod 4 Storm Bolter

Elite 105 Dreadnought Multi Melta & Storm Bolter
35 Drop Pod 4 Storm Bolter

Troop 170 Tactical Squad
5 Marines(9) 4 4 4 4 1 4 1 9 3 Melta(5), Missile Launcher
25 Sergeant 4 4 4 4 1 4 2 9 3 Power Fist & Bolt Pistol
40 Razorback 4 Twin Linked Heavy Bolter

FA 125 Van Guard Veterans
Veteran 4 4 4 4 1 4 2(3) 9 3 Chain Sword & Bolt Pistol
Sergeant 4 4 4 4 1 4 2(3) 9 3 Power Sword
35 Drop Pod 4 Storm Bolter

HS 115 Vindicator - Dozer Blade

and

HQ Hive Tyrant w/ wings, hive commander, & Venom Cannon
Elite - 3 Lictors
Troops - 28 Hormogaunts w/Toxin Sacs & Adrenal Glands
HS - Trygon

This game I was with Nolan, who was running a cheap Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf, two Thunderwolf Cavalry squads identical to mine and a Rhino with 10 Grey Hunters without a Wolf Standard! Things were looking pretty good for us with the Vindicator being the only long range power their Coalition had and all the big bugs meant that Skarvald the Troll-faced's Saga of the Beastslayer was finally going to pay for its points! :) All in all, the game was destined to turn into a big brawl at one point or another.. 

Mission#2 was Those Treasures Will Never Befall You!

Deployment was Cleanse, which is the awkward diagonal measured 18'' from the left side of each player's long and short table edge. Primary objective was Allied Table Quarters, so a Scoring Unit from each Coalition Team Member had to be in an uncontested quarter to control it. Secondary objective was the good ole Annihilation (yay KPs!) and Tertiary was kill the Most Costly Unit. For them, their most costly unit was the Hive Tyrant and for us it was Skarvald's Thunderwolf Cavalry. All 3 squads were the same, so we picked the one that was following the most decked out Lord. 

We also used the Command Tokens, allowing our only two Scoring Units to control or contest a table quarter without its normal Coaltion counterpart. That way we could grab two quarters with two Scoring Units! 

Tactical Bonus of +1 point was given for each HQ (up to 2) inside the enemy's deployment zone and +3 for having a Comman Token-bearing unit controlling a quarter that was not contested.

We rolled for deployment and as usual the Long Fangs got inside some area terrain (some creepy forest), with the Rhinos behind a wall of wolves. A very fast and simple deployment, don't you agree? There was an annoying LoS-blocking piece of terrain in the middle.. so that was annoying. 

The Salamanders player deployed the Razorback with Vulcan. The Vets were to enter the vehicle on turn one since it was not their dedicated transport and their Drop Pod was to be empty. The Tac squad was combad squad'ed and put in Reserves. Both Dreads were naturally going to come via Drop Pod-strike. 

The Tyranid player had his Trygon and Hive Tyrant Deep Striking, his Lictors were to use their special mumbo-jumbo and the Hormogaunts were outflanking! 

They failed to steal the initiative. 

Turn 1

.. and what a boring turn it was. Nolan's Thunderwolves split and were to go around the LoS building with a squad going down the middle. His Rhino was just chilling and moved 12''. My Rhino moved 6'' towards the right flank, desperately hoping for a glance with Living Lightning, which didn't happen. Missiles failed too against AV13 on the Vindicator. Yaaay! 

On their turn both Dreadnoughts showed up, all choosing to deploy close to the Long Fang's forest. One multi-melta'd and flamed them and I lost 1 guy. The second Dread was ballsy and went for the Thunderwolves, failing to make them fail armor saves and the Storm Shield guy made his 3+ against the melta. Vindicator was out of range to hit anything. Vulkan's vehicle moved a bunch.

Turn 2

The Long Fangs were in trouble, so we had to do something. Nolan's Lord continued towards the building and his second cavalry unit moved 6'' but still in range to make an assault by Fleet-ing in case the Long Fangs failed to do anything against the Dread's rear armor. Yeah, we thought that because of the multi-melta and heavy flamer, the Dreadnought had no Close Combat arms.. Nolan's Rhino double melted the Dreadnought stunning and immobilizing it. That was good enough. The Rhino on the right flank moved a few inches and Living Lightning failed to do anything. The Long Fangs shot at the rear side of the Dread... and failed to do anything. *sigh* 

Time for the Thunderwolves to clean up the mess... and then it turned out the Dread DID have a Close Combat Arm.. which killed 3 Thunderwolves. That was my bad. But at least the Thunder hammer bludgeoned it to pieces! 

"Lictor? But I hardly knew her!"

On their turn, A Day Late and a Dollar Short got most of their reserves in play. The empty Drop Pod showed up between the Vindicator and Nolan's Thunderwolves. The split Tac Squad moved from the table edge but from both ends of it. The hormogaunts picked the right side of the table, in charge range of my Rhino. Oh oh. Then the Trygon popped up within Synapse range of them, that was a smart decision. The Lictors appeared inside the LoS-blocking building. So pretty much anything but the Hive Tyrant came in on a 3+. The Trygon shot at my squad of Thunderwolves failing to cause any damage and the Lictors didn't do anything with their shooting attack. 

The remaining Dread couldn't assault or shoot so he just stayed there and the Vindicator scattered too much to damage Nolan's Thunderwolves! Vulkan's squad just moved.. During the Assault phase all 28 Hormogaunts surrounded and assaulted my Rhino. 81 S4 attacks managed to produce 3 glancing hits... Which all ended up as Crew - Shaken! Woot! 

Turn 3

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
  Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
  And stood awhile in thought.


And, as in uffish thought he stood,
  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
  And burbled as it came!


One, two! One, two! And through and through
  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
  He went galumphing back.

Well, it was time to kick ass and chew bubblegum.. Nolan wanted to assault the stupid Vindicator once and for all but he rolled crap on his difficult terrain check and his two remaining Thunderwolves were getting ready to play with the Lictors! Nolan's Rhino moved to the side. As for Skarvald..  well, there was a Trygon that was going to feel very small.. very fast. Grey Hunters somehow manage to disembark from the Rhino, which then makes some of the hormogaunts move away by moving combat speed. The Rune Priest fails to cast Murderous Hurricane on the Tyranids because of Shadow in the Warp coming from the Trygon, but bolt pistols do some damage! Skarvald's unit shoots the few bolt pistols they have just to see what would happen.. Nothing happened. Realizing that he couldn't possibly manage to assault the Vindicator, Nolan ran back towards the Lictors and assaulted them, because assaulting and killing the Drop Pod would have left his squad bunched up for the Vindicator's S10 AP1 Large Blast to clean up the mess..

The Long Fangs managed to shake the Dreadnought again! 

The Grey Hunters raise their Wolf Standard and charge the hormogaunts, causing tons of damage, but a few also die. At that time they are still fearless because of the Trygon so they take even more wounds, but 2-3 are still stuck in combat with the squad.

Skarvald's runic axe, aided by Saga of the Beastslayer swings and hits the Trygon seven times and manages to score 4 wounds on the big bug, which then strikes at the squad and does 4 wounds. The Thunderwolves then mop up and that's a dead Trygon for you! 

Nolan's Lord also gets some, and the Lictors die after maybe causing a wound. He then consolidates INTO the LoS blocking building, protecting the squad against the Vindicator's blast. 

On their turn, all that the Tyranid player had remaining was the Hive Tyrant who deep struck, shot his little S9 blast at my Thunderwolves only to have it absorbed by a Storm Shield. Vulkan moved some more, woot! Dread was stuck in the mud of the forest.. Vindicator moved and didn't really have a clear target. A missile launcher from the Tac Squad failed to do anything. The combat between the hormogaunts and Grey Hunters ended and the Space Wolves consolidated towards their ride. 

Turn 4

More movement for Nolan's Rhino, which is now between tow quarters of the map and his Thunderwolf squad get some pretty good run and fleet moves, putting them in assault range of Vulkan's Razorback. My Grey Hunters get inside the Rhino and it's all pedal to the metal towards the quarter, but close enough to enter the enemy's deployment zone with the Rune Priest for the Tactical Bonus. At that point there's just 5 Salamanders in that quarter.. Skarvald then sees yet another big bug and the challenge is on! But first the Long Fangs soften it up, causing 2 wounds with their Missile Launchers. Or was it 1? Oh, well. 

Two squads of Thunderwolves assault the Razorback making it go BOOM! Vulkan then disembarks eager to BBQ some TWC. 

The Hive Tyrant then makes everyone Initiative 1 and only manages to score 2 wounds, one of which is shrugged off by a Storm Shield and another one goes on the melta bomb guy, who makes his Ld 8 "Save or Die". Despite the Hive Tyrant's WS of 8, Skarvald's wolftooth necklace lets him always hit on 3+ and Saga of the Beastslayer cut the last Tyranid model off the table.

Our opponents' Vindicator does not want to risk shooting at the TWC and then scattering on top of Vulkan's head, so it shoots and (I think?) misses Nolan's Rhino and the missile launcher from the distant Tac Squad misses mine. The Dreadnought now finally flames and shoots my Long Fangs but a cover save is made and so are all armor saves. Poor Dreadnought didn't have any luck this game. But at least it survived! 

Vulkan then shoots and flames the crap out of the Thunderwolves, the flames catching both squads and doing a few wounds. He then assaults the smaller TWC squad and kills it. 

Turn 5

Skarvald is making a run for the opponent's deployment zone and my Grey Hunters disembark and then rapid fire some bolters, melta and Murderous Hurricane into the Salamanders who lose a few guys but don't run away. The Long Fangs are sick of fighting in a muddy, burning forest so they move out of it and out of that pesky little Dreadnought. The Rhino is still there and popped smoke! :) 

Nolan's Lord assaults Vulkan's squad and both HQ's direct attacks against each other... and Vulkan actually manages to survive and slay the Wolf Lord. The same can't be said about his squad, though and in the end the brave Salamanders have only a few guys stuck with the Thunderwolves. 

Their Vindicator and missile launcher again went for the Rhino and after some cover saves it lost the storm bolter.. Dreadnought was not officially useless except for a multi-melta gun which hit a tree. the Tac Squad with the Sargent moved and shot bolt pistols at the Grey Hunters. Our opponent was a sport and just wanted to have some fun so he didn't run and hide like an Ultramarine - he charged! And then died.. 

The Thunderwolves suffered a wound or two from Vulkan and then ate the remaining Vets. Then Vulkan had to take a few armor saves and some Thunder hammer wounds. Unfrotunately he failed that very important 3+ save and got Instapunk'd. Consolidation moves were then made towards the deployment zone and then we decided to end the game.

Results:

We had two scoring units with Command Tokens in two quarters and our enemy had no quarters, so we got the Primary Objective (+15 pts.) and the Orders Issued Tactical Bonus (+3 pts.). We had more Kill Points for the Annihilation Secondary objective (+7 pts.)m killed the Hive Tyrant without Skarvald's unit dieing achieving the Tertiary Most Costly Unit (+3 pts.) and at the end we had Skarvald and my Rune Priest inside the enemy's deployment zone scoring the maximum amount of points from the Across Enemy Lines Tactical Bonus (+2 pts.). We had both of our Command Tokens alive (+2 pts.), 1 Coalition Commander (+1 pt.) alive and killed 2 Coalition Commanders (+2 pts.), while our enemies managed to get a total points for killing one of our HQ's and not using any Command Tokens. In the end we had a very strong victory, scoring a total of 35 points! 

VICTORY!

We managed to win because our opponent lacked the firepower to take us down and the Null Deployment of the Tyranids meant that until Turn 3 there really wasn't anything to really damage the Thunderwolves to stop them from spreading out across the table and threaten the quadrants with their fleet and 12'' charge range. The correct way to play against us would have been to field the Hive Tyrant then direct both Dreadnoughts' against the Long Fangs. With the Long Fangs gone, the Hive Tyrant would have been able to fly around almost like some kind of a Free Bird and just support charge. He also should have directed all attacks against Skarvald in close combat, since he only had a 4+ invulnerable. We also got really lucky that the hormogaunts did not stun or immobilize the Rhino with their glancing hits.. or wreck it, lol. The drunk Vindicator also did help. Generally, using Null Deployment with someone who really doesn't commit to one is dangerous, since it exposes one player for the first 2 turns of the game. I would have put the Vindicator in reserve since he couldn't really shoot things the first two turns anyway and just deploy them wherever he was actually needed.

As for us, I think we did a really good job with the army, except for the assault against that Dreadnought and me driving my Rhino too close to a table edge when there were outflanking hormogaunts. I also think that our correct deployment should have been two Rhinos close to the Long Fangs and then all Thunderwolves bubble wrap the vehicles and the Long Fangs giving them cover from multi-meltas and making the Drop Pods to land as far away from our only fire base as possible. But hey, things worked out in the end! 

We had a lot of fun playing against this team and hopefully next year we'll be as drunk as they were! Thanks for the great game, Heroic 28s! Sorry for the Thunderwolf craziness!