Still recuperating from finals and about to begin the work week, so while you guys are waiting for the 4th and final game from my Adepticon 2012 Team Tournament coverage, why don't you take a look at my brand spankin' newBattle Reports page? You know, the one beneath the sweet header image thing with Skarvald the Troll-faced's pretty mug onnit? Yeah, that one. Click on it. Cliiiick on it.
You know you want too...
Honestly, I like to think that I'm pretty good at writing battle reports. They do end up being pretty verbose, but are always dripping with gory detail and there are also some pretty nifty pictures to boot. I do spend a long time writing them, so I'd appreciate any and all the comments you guys can give me.
Just some reading material for the summer, you know?
Soon I hope to write a few more and will even branch out to Warmachine battle reports featuring my slowly growing Khador army.
While I'm still recuperating from the glory that was Adepticon let me share with you the triumphs and tribulations of a friend of mine who for a second year in a row decided to rub elbows with some of the greatest wargamers at the Warhammer 40,000 Championships! Tom was kind enough to write up a few quick battle reports from his four games and there are some pretty sweet pictures to boot! Since I couldn't really play the tourist role at the Championships (it interfered with the Killzone events we were running) this is my way of covering the event through the point of view of Tom's Dark Eldar, led by the Lord Hellions himself..
More Gentleman's Grand Tournament! I have not forgotten about it, thankyouverymuch!
With game 3 and my victory against Clay's incredibly shooty and pesky Dark Eldar, it was time to meet my 4th opponent on Sunday. I was feeling pretty good and quite confident with my 2-1 record, but was now expecting to face something scary - perhaps a Grey Knights army.. or even more I.G?
I was wrong, though. Fate put me up against yet another Dark Eldar army, which was interesting considering there were only 3 Dark Eldar armies at the Gentleman's Grant Tournament to begin with. Well, this time I had some experience with the sinister Dark Elves from Outer Space and was going to do my best in order to keep winning.
Steve's list was very different from Clay's Dark Eldar. It still packed quite the punch in the Shooting phase, but its potency was all about Close Combat, baby.
A very potent Archon with all the goodies needed to kill my Thunderwolves, leading a 5-man Incubi unit in a Raider. A small 3-man unit of shooty Trueborn. For troops there were x3 identical Kabalite Wariors in Venoms with the usual poison crap and Nightshields. x2 Wyches with all the goodies in Raiders with Flicker Field and Night Shields. For Fast Attack - a bigass Beast Master squad with x10 Khymeras and 4 Razorwings. For Heavy Support - x3 Ravagers with Flickerfields and Night Shields.
Overall a very balanced list with enough shooting and plenty of close combat craziness to be problematic for me.
Round 4
Five by Five
This mission follows all the normal rules for games of Warhammer 40,000
as outlined in the Organizing a Battle chapter of the Warhammer 40,000
rulebook (e.g, Ending the Game [p. 90], Seize the Initiative! [p.92], Mission Special Rules [pp.94-95], etc.), except as already noted in your tournament rules packed and described below.
Overview of the table.. Pretty legit when ti comes to tournament terrain...
Deployment:
This mission employs the Pitched Battle deployment. (See p. 92 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.)
Primary Objective (4 points) Marked for Death: To sum it up.. You choose 5 unit from your opponent's list and they are the only thing that count as Kill Points. Your opponent then does the same to your units. Whoever has the most KP wins the Primary.
Secondary Objective (3 points)
Follow the Seize Ground standard mission rules defined on p. 91 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook, except that you must employ 5 objective markers.
Tertiary Objective (2 points) Victory Points: Accumulate at least 250 Victory Points more than your opponent. Employ the Victory Points rules from p. 300 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook Reference.
To be honest.. this mission was very bad for my opponent. Very, very bad. Limited Kill Points is bad.. as if KP was not bad enough for Dark Eldar. I marked the Raider of the Incubi and the two Wyches units AND their Raiders for my Kill Points. Why? Because those squads had to come to me to do anything effective, which would expose them to my shooting and Grey Hunters. Besides, that gave me yet another reason to wreck their Raiders, because they would be practically useless on the field.
Steve marked my two Long Fang squads, my Thunderwolves and two of my Rhinos.
I had the first turn!
And here is my deployment. You can see that I chose the side with the best places for my Long Fangs. Not that they really need the cover, but if just feels right, haha. I had pretty good fire lanes. I deployed everything except the Thunderwolves and the Marked for Death Rhinos. My idea was to move the two Rhinos I had in position to where the objectives are and then to reinforce them with the Rhinos in Reserve. The Thunderwolves were there to counter-attack from Reserve as well. I knew that he would rush me with the Best Masters, so I had to think of ways to deal with them without allocating too much firepower.
Steve had a solid deployment. He positioned his Beasts as close as possible in a way that he could move them without going through difficult terrain and his Raiders were positioned as far as possible behind cover and giving each other cover as well. He was doing his best to avoid the range of my Long Fangs.
His x3 Ravagers were on the other side of the board doing their thing and staying out of range of my Long Fangs with their Night Shields and Flickerfields.
His Venoms were out of LoS behind a building. He had the small Trueborn squad in the middle, behind some ruins.
My Turn 1
Priorities had to be set. I was going to have to ignore the Ravagers for a while and do my best to slow his advance by destroying the Raiders. The Venoms were going to be a pain in the ass, but at least my Thunderwolves were not in play yet, so he would have to close in and shoot at the closest Long Fangs squad. I was okay with that..
My movement was limited. The Vindicator got inside the building and I can't quite remember if he managed to get a shot at the Beasts or not, but he really didn't do anything too spectacular. He was going to be my fire magnet. The Rhino on the left side, containing my Rune Priest moved 6'' to get a better LoS. Setting the Trap! Here is what I know about Beast units - They are scary, with tons of attacks at low-to-medium Strength. They have some trouble dealing with vehicles especially if those vehicles need 6's to be hit. The Rhino on the right was going to be bait and with some luck it was going to provoke Steve to assault it with the Beasts. My hopes were that he was going to roll low or average with his fleet move and then only be able to get in his Razorwing Flocks in there to do any damage. After that I was going to have him all clumped up for some template love and close enough to my table edge to assault him with my Thunderwolves from reserve. So I moved my Rhino the full 12'' towards his Beasts, but slightly at an angle and popped Smoke. Was the risk going to be worth it?
The Rune Priest inside the Rhino cast Living Lightning at the middle Raider, because I knew that only the front one would be in range for my Long Fangs. And what do you know, I made it explode! The Wyches poured out and most of them died to the explosion. 1 Kill Point for me. Second Raider got hit by five rockets and also exploded, killing a bunch of Wyches who then failed their Pinning check. 2 Kill Points for me.
Steve's Turn 1
He moved his Wyches in cover and then moved his last Raider as far as possible, hugging his long table edge. I guess he panicked and realized that only my Living Lightning was going to reach it? The Venoms quickly flanked me on my right like a swarm of pesky little flies and were clearly going to unleash their splinter whatevers at my Long Fangs. Ravagers moved a little and as I predicted, his Beast Masters were going after my Rhino.
His shooting phase was not very impressive. A lot of his shooting went into that one Rhino with the Smoke, but a series of misses, bad rolls to pen with Dark Lances, and lucky 4+ cover saves on my part left the Rhino unscathed. I thin kthat some Lances were fired at the Vindicator, but I don't remember what happened there. Then he fired hundreds of shots at my Long Fangs and only 1 was left. But he didn't run. It was actually the exact same model that was left from the previous game against Clay's Dark Eldar! Spring the Trap! His Beasts then rolled average for their Fleet moved and charged my Rhino. As predicted only 3 of the Birds and some Khymeras managed to get in the fun. He was going to need 6's to hit, 6's to glance with the Khymeras. The Birds were S3 Rending.. So what happened? Only a single "Crew Shaken" result, which didn't bother me at all! Everything was working according to plan..
My Turn 2
This was going be pretty pivotal. I was either going to find a way to deal with the Beast unit on time, or I was going to get bogged down by 'em. All of my Reserves arrived, except a Rhino. The Thunderwolves moved towards the Beasts ready to assault them. I moved my Rune Priest's Rhino another 6''.
I figured.. hey.. why not.. and tank shocked the Beast Masters.
In quite possibly the luckiest, craziest turn of events.. the Beasts failed their Morale check and ran 11'' away from the Rhino!!! Yeah.. I know. Crazy, right? Without allocating any firepower or assaulting I was able to win some precious time, and that was pretty darn important. I actually felt kind of bad, because clearly luck was on my side. Was it a good tactical decision? Yes. But then again.. The best part of the whole ordeal was that the Beast Squad was still within 6'' of my Rhino and was going to continue running on Steve's turn.
The Grey Hunters disembarked, ready to unleash their bolters on the Wyches that were not pinned.
The Thunderwolves were sad and just kind of shuffled around, expecting the poison next turn.
Rune Priest cast Living Lightning and wrecked the Raider of the Archon's Incubi. Oh, what a glorious thing you are, Living Lightning... Indeed.
Rockets were then fired at the Venoms and one was wrecked, another immobilized and one was stunned.
The Grey Hunters then opened fire at the Wyches, who went to ground for a 3+ cover save and actually one one of them died.
No assaults.. ;(
Here's what happened..
Steve's Turn 2
The Beasts had to automatically run away from the Rhino and Steve rolled 11'' for their fleeing distance.
From here on the game is becoming fuzzy, but not a whole lot of things change.
Steve shot at my units. A lot. He also fired tons of lances at the dangerous Rhino but they all missed and/or failed to even glance. One actually did glance, but it was a Weapon Destroyed result!
The Archon and Incubi got behind the building and some of the Wyches took positions.
My Turn 3
At this point I knew I had the Primary. All three Marked for Death Raiders were dead already and the two Wyches squad were damaged and too far from to assault my Long Fangs and too fragile to kill my Thunderwolves. Not to mention the two Marked for Death Rhinos. They were going to be taken care of. The Ravagers would be my next target to prevent the destruction of my Rhinos..
The Rhino in the middle moved 12'' - next to the Beasts. I felt like a total douchebag but the big pile o' feathers was going to evanesce. The Thunderwolves and Skarvald split and moved forward, both units getting great Fleet results. I threw one pack of Grey Hunters towards a Wych squad and Skarvald towards another one while the Thunderwolves were going to crush some Venoms!
My Shooting Phase was only so-so. I really don't remember much.
Skarvald almost squished the entire Wych squad but some lucky 4+ dodge saves saved the squad and it actually stayed in combat. The Venoms were wrecked as well by the Thunderwolves.
Steve's Turn 3
The Beasts ran away! Not a whole lot of moving for Steve's Dark Eldar. He kind of copied my maneuver and split his Archon and Incubi. The Archon was going after Skarvald while the Incubi - towards the Thunderwolves.
Shooting destroyed some Grey Hunters but it was not going to be enough. The Grey Hunters and their transports were not going to move from their objectives!
In the Assault phase the Archon failed to wound Skarvald and the infamous Wolf Lord wiped out the Wyches. He was now stuck in a duel against the scary Dark Eldar elf dude! The Incubi had to go through difficult terrain to assault my Thunderwolves and their lack of grenades spelled their doom. Literally every single Incubus died before they could even strike.
My Turn 4
This turn I dedicated to the Ravagers. I didn't want them to contest any objectives! So blah-blah shooting, they got glanced/penned. Basically were not a threat. I think maybe I had a squad of Grey Hunters in the Rhino.. maybe it went somewhere? I dunno..
Then the Dark Eldar Archon kind of had his way with Skarvald.. ;_;
Steve's Turn 4
At this point we were ready to call it, but I insisted on Steve to at least charge my Thunderwolves with his Archon. And he did! And he killed all of them! Hahaha... Stupid Archon. <_<
VICTORY!
This was my biggest victory in the Tournament. I won all three Objectives! Getting rid of the painful Beast squad without the need of any firepower was sooo lucky. I think it was what tipped the scales in my favor. That and just the fact that the mission was too mean for the Dark Eldar player. The experience I got from the previous Dark Eldar opponent definitely helped me. It was a great game, though. Every time I play against Dark Eldar the games are just a blast. Always bloody, always gimmicky, always requiring extra preparation and thought behind every move! Just goes to prove that Phil Kelly really is the best codex author in Games Workshop!
Here's some battle rep-inspired music for you to listen to as well... I guess:
Game 5 had me facing a codex that I had never had to face before, but was prepared to anyways..
Well, after getting pulverized by Jarred's I.G list during the second game it was obvious that I wasn't going to win.
SADNESS DOUGHNUTS!
Not that I had any real hope of doing so, but the pressure was gone to say the least. I think of it as that sweet treat that helps you deal with the bitterness of defeat. Hmm.. the phrase "sadness doughnut" comes to mind, but I'm not sure why..
Honestly I had my ass handed to me and I just don't think that I could ever suffer a bigger defeat. ? Now I was just going to play against other Imperial forces, because lets face it, Xenos players just don't even bother to show up at tournaments.. Right? Right?
Wrong.
Enter Clay McCarty's beautifully painted and converted Kabal of the Crystal Spider! One of the few Xeno players at the tournament, Clay managed to surprise everyone with an astonishing aesthetics and a brutal virulent Dark Eldar list! Clay's army had a lot of bright colors - greens and sweet-looking purple were all over the place. His Venoms were all converted and looked very, very different due to some minor conversions and different painted patterns! Not to mention that every model was on a scenic base, even his fully built-from-scratch Razorwing was on one and it was atteched to it with a metal screw! Check a picture I took of his army during one of the first turns of our game and see for yourself:
Clay McCarty's Kabal of the Crystal Spider
Our game was incredibly brutal and kept on switching from slow-paced to fast-paced turn after turn.. after turn. And as always I failed to take a lot of pictures, especially during this game. I have to say, though, Clay's army is by far the best looking army I have ever had the chance to face against.
Yet, just because his army was painted beautifully it didn't mean that his list was inferior. On the contrary, Clay ran a !@#$%^& scary-ass ultra-shooty list. Literally there were hundreds of tiny poisonous splinters every turn, a bunch of tiny but vicious Venoms with small, but deadly cargoes. Oh, and a 20-man Hellion blob lead by THE Baron. :-O
This was my first game against the new Dark Eldar to boot as well..
I knew what I had to do in theory, but was I going to be able to pull it off in practice? We'll see if good ole Skarvald the Troll-faced had it in him after the jump..
After winning my first game I took a deep breath and took my well-deserved 1 hour break. I didn't have a huge victory so I didn't expect to face the worst. Basically I was just hoping for anything but I.G or Grey Knights. And of course, my opponent just happened to be an I.G player. Was I doomed?
Enter Jarred Saxman's Imperial Guard! The fact that the I.G codex is still one of the armies out there says enough about the book itself. The Imperial Guard players have been able to use the versatility, efficiency and specialization to face every meta (ugh, how I hate this word..). Superior firepower in both volume and templates, durable and cheap vehicles, more troops than anyone else and the right tools for any job make the I.G an amazing codex that can face and beat any opponent.
CLICK HERE!
With plenty of meltagun and plasma Veteran Squads, two very efficient triple twin-linked lascannon Vendettas, a Mandicore, two Hydras, a Leman Russ Executioner and a scary Psyker Battle Squad, Jarred's list was the Wolfsbane to my Space Wolves. I did, however, put up a fight despite being outclassed in everything and Jarred proved to be a very skilled and pleasant opponent to play against. I don't face I.G with my Space Wolves on a regular basis and never on such a level, but I believe that I've learned a few very important lessons.
Click on the image on the right for Jarred's list.
I had to obtain a Scanner STC in order to present to you his entire list... There was no way I was going to type out the whole shebang. Noooo way..
Round 2
Sort of like this...
Grinder
This mission follows all the normal rules for games of Warhammer 40,000
as outlined in the Organizing a Battle chapter of the Warhammer 40,000
rulebook (e.g, Ending the Game [p. 90], Seize the Initiative! [p.92], Mission Special Rules [pp.94-95], etc.), except as already noted in your tournament rules packed and described below.
Game Length:
This game cannot end before the 6th turn.
Deployment:
This mission employs the Dawn of War deployment. (See p. 93 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.)
Primary Objective (4 points)
Follow the Capture and Controlmission rules defined on p. 91 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.
Secondary Objective (3 points) Table Quarters: Divide the table into four equal quarters by drawing an imaginary line from the center point of each table edge to the center points of the opposite table edge. Players claim a table quarter by having more Victory Points’ worth of units - including at least one Scoring Unit - in the quarter than their opponent. (The Victory Points rules are on p. 300 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.) A player that has at least as many Victory Points’ worth of units in a quarter as their opponent but without any Scoring Units has successfully contested that quarter.
A unit can only contest or claim a single table quarters, no matter how many quarters it actually straddles. A unit that is capable of contesting or claiming more than one table quarter will contest or claim the quarter where the majority of the unit resides. If you cannot determine in which quarter the majority of a unit resides, the owning player must randomly determine which quarter the units “counts as” claiming or contesting.
The player that claims the most table quarters wins this Objective.
Tertiary Objective (2 points) Victory Points: Accumulate at least 250 Victory Points more than your opponent. Employ the Victory Points rules from p. 300 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook Reference.
Foreshadowing... isn't it? ;D
Deployment: Huzzah! I got to deploy and pick tables sides! Basically I picked the side with the most "cover" and LoS-shenanigans.. which was still not enough. Nothing protects you from scouting-super-fast-Vendettas with three twin-linked lascannons. Going first was a small advantage, I guess - especially against I.G, but Dawn of War meant that none of my real firepower was going to be able to shoot on turn 1 (the one big disadvantage of Long Fangs - Heavy weapons.. ) and my Thunderwolves were going to be far, far away from all of Jarred's firebase.
I deployed two Rhinos. One of them had my Rune Priest.
My opponent then deployed a single Chimera with a Plasma Vet Squad or was it the Company Command Squad? Storm Troopers were going to Deep Strike and Gunnery Sergeant Harker was outflanking with a Meltagun Vet Squad.
My Turn 1
Dawn War makes for some pretty boring first turns. This one was not an exception. All of my Rhinos came in from the board and so did the two units of Long Fangs with Missile Launchers. The Thunderwolves with Skarvald the Troll-faced started huffing and puffing from the table edge - seeking to go around the LoS-blocking platform kind of in the middle. Two of my Rhinos were on the right flank - headed straight for his objective. The other two were on the left flank protecting mine. The only thing that could have shot at the Chimera in the middle was my Rune Priest but he failed to see it even with Acute Senses..
Jarred's Turn 1:
Time for some delicious-delicious canned meat! Vendettas moved full speed ahead going for my left flank while "castling up"his Manticore behind two Hydras and a bunch of Chimeras. And yes, one of them had the dreaded Psyker Battle Squad. A Leman Russ EXECUTIONER with an Executioner Plasma Cannon and two Plasma Cannon sponsons was slowly driving towards me as well. Fuck...
Almost no shooting from the I.G. Thanks, Dawn of War.
My Turn 2
Alright. Time for all the Rhinos one the right flank to move flat out and pretty much hug his objective. What could possibly go wrong.. At least it was going to be a small distraction. The Thunderwolves kept on moving, all spread out because they knew that the Manticore was out to get them..
My shooting produced a stunned Vendetta (I think) and a wrecked Hydra. Possibly some more shaken results.
Jarred's Turn 2
All of his reserves arrived. Storm Troopers with two Meltaguns Deep Struck and got a nice position close to one of my Rhinos. Harker's squad arrived on the right next to my two Rhinos and two Chimeras were sent to support him. The Leman Russ moved straight ahead. Vendettas did what Vendettas did best and started shooting at my Vindicator, making a mockery of him. He had no weapon, basically.
The Manticore killed 1 or 2 Thunderwolves with its S10 AP4 templates of DOOM, but praise the Allfather the Psyker Battle Squad was an inch away from messing with their mind.
Harker and his lads (all of them had names on their bases.. one of them was Bunny!) melta'd the crap out of one of my Rhinos, but nothing else managed to draw line of sight to my Grey Hunters because they used the wreckage for cover.
Storm Troopers shot at something.. Not sure if they killed anything.
Leman Russ Battle Tank killed 4 out of 6 Long Fangs and made them run for their lives but not far enough to run off the board. They were the lads from the foreshadowing picture.
My Turn 3 My Rhino-less Grey Hunters surrounded Harker. Thunderwolves moved around things not sure where to commit. I should have put them in Reserve.. The other right flank Rhino shot some Meltas at a nearby Chimera but failed to do anything. Rune Priest (whose Rhino was also kaput) shot at the Psyker Battle Squad but Living Lightning failed to do anything.
Not that even glancing was going to do anything, really.. Weaken Resolve is not even a Shooting Power, which means that Jarred could move 12" to get in 32'' range.. or move out of my 24'' Psyker Protection bubble.
Vindicator tank shocked a Hydra, doing nothing..
I managed to shoot a Vendetta with some lucky Long Fang missiles, though. The other one I stunned. Oh, and I didn't even bother with the Leman Russ. AV14 on the front meant it was going to have its way with my Space Wolves. Kind of ironic considering their very own Primarch made the Leman Russ Battle Tanks viable and famous, huh?
Some pistol shots and an assault later and Harker was the only survivor. However he managed to pass a Leadership check and a bunch of Armor/FNP saves, getting stuck in close combat with my Grey Hunters. Great success, right?
NOPE. Chuck Testa.
Jarred's Turn 3 Psyker Battle Squad got in range of my Thunderwolves. Chimeras were zipping left and right supporting vital objectives and units.. you know.. I.G stuff and what-not. The Leman Russ just stayed there - he was already in range of all my juicy bits. A unit of Plasma Vets disembarked from the Vendetta and the Stormtroopers embarked in it.
I think his shooting pretty much got rid of all of my Vehicles, except an immobilized Rhino. The last Rhino on the right got wrecked by some melta guns inside a nearby Chimera and the Grey Hunters got pinned. :(
A Long Fang squad got squished leaving only two actual Missile Launcher dudes hiding out of LoS.
The assault against Harker? A huge failure. He actually won and we stayed in combat. Bad juju... Bad, bad juju.
The Thunderwolves got molested again by the Manticore, leaving only 2 Thunderwolves, who then got their Resolves Weakenes by the Psyker Battle Squad and started running like crazy.. but not off the board.
My Turn 4
Things were not going my way. Too much firepower, too many things to deal with and not enough firepower on my side to deal with any actual threats. Not to mention that my Thunderwolves got pretty much neutered.. and a very important Grey Hunter squad got pinned. BUT I didn't give up.
The single remaining Thunderwolf rolled triple Gentleman's Ones for his running distance, putting him close to a Guardsman squad next to my immobilized Rhino. The guys from the Rhino disembarked and shot their meltas at the nearby Vendetta, hoping to be able to multi-assault some Guardsmen if things didn't go as planned.. but they did... and the Vendetta went KABOOM. But then my Grey Hunters were in the open.
Vindicator tank shocked a Chimera.. doing nothing.
The rest is pretty much a blur, really.
I finally disintegrated Harker in close combat, but it was far too late... Far... too.. late.
Jarred's Turn 4
Jarred didn't have to move much. Tons of plasma quickly decreased my numbers.. in all squads. And it wasn't plasma guns.. it was hot-shot lasguns. Or meltas. Or plasma cannons. Even with some cover the volume of fire got the best of me.. The now out of combat squad of Grey Hunters got almost wiped out and the big pinned unit of pinned Grey Hunters got plasma'd and then targeted by Weaken Resolve.. and they ran. With at least two more turns left in the game (Grinder, remember? At least 6 turns...) it meant that everything I had near his objective marker was going to be double-dead.
Tons of plasma also obliterated my Rune Priest's unit, leaving the HQ and 1-2 dudes left.
Turn 5
This was going to be the last turn of the game. I spent a few minutes trying to come up with some kind of a scenario. ANYTHING, that could have scored me ANY points, you know? But I just couldn't see it happening. I just didn't have the right tools. Where were the Wolf Scouts to get rid of his Manticore and/or Hydras.. and/or Psyker Battle Squad? Where were the Lascannons to deal reliably with Armor 12+?
Not in my list, obviously.
The Thunderwolf rolled triple Gentleman's Ones again! Yaaay... D; With what was left of my firepower I tried to at least get rid of his Company Command Squad.. but bolter fire and frag missiles didn't cut it, since his unit was inside a forest.
Jarred's Turn 5
One of Jarred's sweet Objective Markers!
I am not really sure what happened exactly.. but it was pretty much clean-up time. What didn't die was sent running away by the Psyker Battle Squad and Jarred just moved his units, securing his own Capture and Control Objective, securing more Table Quarters.. and obviously dominating me in the Victory Points Tertiary objective.
LOSS
What a great game, though. I definitely need to play more against I.G. This game was definitely an uphill battle from the very start and did shed some light on some things that I need to change in my 1850 list, but I'll go over it after I'm done with the tournament coverage.
Jarred was a very smart and efficient player who never lost track of the objectives and clearly had a plan throughout the entire game! Definitely a worthy opponent that taught me a few very important lessons while kicking my ass. Yeah, losing sucks, but I think it was an important loss for me.. since it doesn't happen to me that often.
Thank you, Jarred for the brutal, merciless game! Hope to play you again one day.. ;P
And here's this battle report's music video:
Thus begins the epic tale of Skavald the Troll-faced's competitive Warhammer 40k!
On Saturday, November 5th, I played my first tournament game of 40k and as per usual my luck put me up against last year's Gentleman's GT Champion! Reminds me of my first swimming lesson, when the instructor pushed me into the deepest part of the pool. Thankfull for me, my opponent was not playing Carcharadons...
Enter John Pickle's Fire Angels!
Now, now, don't let the name fool you. The Fire Angels have nothing to do with Sanguinius' boys. They are an Ultramarines successor chapter of the 25th Founding and are known for their participation in the Badab Wars. What you see on the left is their Badab War era power armour. "Nowadays" it is silver, rather than white.
John's army was using the Badab patterns and colors for his Marines and naturally used Codex Space Marines for them as well.
I actually don't face a lot of pure Space Marine players. At least not on a regular basis. While a lot of people tend to underestimate them I personally think that there are a lot of interesting, very competitive builds that can easily wreck my Space Wolves' day. John's list..... was one of them:
Ahoy there, Mateys, today is "Talk like a Pirate Day" and while this particular post won't be written in like I am a drunken sailor, it will involve my favorite 40k pirates, the Dark Eldar. I played a game at a different store than the one I normally go to, and this seemed like the perfect day to write a battle report for that game.
So there we were, Team Razorback's debut in the "tourney" scene and boy were we all excited to eat stuff with our Thunderwolves as various kinds of ammunition went "plink!" against their cybernetics and fur. All of our.. well.. hard work was hopefully going to pay off and we were either going to get crushed or win with a bloody massacre. Well, neither happened but our very first game at the Adepticon 2011 Team Tournament quickly became the highlight of the entire event for we were playing..
Team Sweden
"AAAHHHhhhhh! We come from the land of the ice and snow.."
With their blue-and-yellow T-shirts, blue-and-yellow dice and blue bottle of booze, we were destined to face one of the top teams at Adepticon 2011. Unlike last year we didn't luck out with an easy team. This one was going to be.. hm.. what was that, little thunderwolf puppy? Ruff? Yeah, exactly that - rough.
Hey there, Battle Brothers!
Just a quick note about my recent absence and the lack of posts..I've been having problems with the fan of my beloved PC and when my dad opened it up to clean some of the dust, etc. etc. he also removed the processor in order to clean around and beneath it. Unfortunately, when he tried to put it back he managed to bend 4 or 5 of the many pins. I know it is fixable, but with finals, work and more around the corner we just haven been able to repair it.
Add to that some glitches with the Internet connection and some nasty cold weather here in Chicagoland and maybe you'll understand my frustration.... ;_;
I've been playing a bunch of games, though - I wrote up and ran a Spearhead Free For All event a little after Thanksgiving (it was appropriately named "Tanksgiving") and participated in a very cool Apocalypse game with 3,000 pts. of Space Wolves. My first bigger game with my Wolves, in fact. My Wolves were bravely defending an important bastion from the invading Orkz, Chaos Space Marines and Tyranids while Skarvald the Troll-faced reaped a great tally by slaying an incredibly powerful Daemon and then counter-attacking Ghazghkull and his Nobz.
Our local Games Workshop also ran a 400 pt. Combat Patrol tournament of which I also have some nifty picture.
I will do my best to write up some battle reports for you guys.
In the mean time I will try to catch up with the painting of my Space Wolves..
Thanks for the patience!
- Skarvald the Troll-faced
Are Space Wolves overpowered?
The question was haunting me after a 2,000 pt. game I played against Chaos Space Marines a few days ago.
It didn't hit me because I thought they were overpowered, it is what my opponent thought... and it sort of got to me. Space Wolves are my second army and like my Orkz I decided to play them because of their style, look and fluff. It was not a specific mechanic, it was not a specific unit (although I fell in love with the Rune Priests and Thunderwolf Cavalry)... it was the whole army in general that got to me. I love the way they are supposed to be played - brave, heroic packs that fight for glory and use their cunning instincts to surround and trap their enemy.
It is what I do, what my list was designed to do and what won me that one game. I simply played my army the right way.
But it just sucks that after you win a game in which you gave your best as an army general and a sportsman to have your army be called overpowered. It just makes the victory sour when you know your opponent is thinking that the only reason you beat him was because of your army and army list..
I was playing against a very powerful Slaanesh-themed army with some Noise Marines, Chosen, Slaanesh Terminators, Defiler, Chaos Sorcerer, Raptors, a Chaos Lord and a Demon Prince with Wings. There were 2 Rhinos on the board and one was outflanking. The Terminators were going to Deep Strike. He also had 2 units of Obliterators - I think 1 and 2..Three HQs, but that was because it was his Planetstrike list. No biggie.
A lot of people think that Chaos Space Marines are outdated... and they are right, of course.
However, from the games that I have played against them, even a fairly new CSM player can give Space Wolves a run for their money. They are just a lot of units that can give us (and especially Thunderwolves) a bad day - Defiler with their S10 attack are deadly. Khorne Berzerkers are very mean even against Thunderwolves on the charge and hit us on 3s and wound on 4s before we can say "Aaargh!". Chaos Lords have some scary equipment options, their Terminators are cheaper than ours and can Deep Strike and Slaanesh-devoted armies are just as killy in close combat PLUS have a higher initiative than us.
My List? Notice how I do not play Razorspam or Thunderwolf Spam. My list is simple:
2 Rhinos with 9 Grey Hunters and 2 Rhinos with 8 Grey Hunters. They all have a guy with a melta gun, Wolf Banner and Mark of the Wulfen. All four squads of Grey Hunters have a Wolf Guard with a combi-melta and a Power Fist and two have a Rune Priest. One has Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane and a Chooser of the Slain, the other one has Living Lightning and Jaws of the World Wolf (useless against Slaanesh!). A squad of Long Fangs with 5 Missile Launchers were accompanied by my fifth Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour with a Cyclone Missile Launcher. And the "cheese" - 5 Thunderwolves with different equipment and a Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf with Saga of the Beast Slayer, Frost Axe, Runic Armor and Belt of Russ.
Oh, and a Vindicator.
Is it a good list? Yeah, I think so. It uses a lot of Grey Hunters, which are really good. I have the Vindicator in the middle, surrounded by two Rhinos to hide side armor. The Thunderwolves start in a flank, getting cover from one of the Rhinos and my Long Fangs are in a building in the center of my deployment zone where they can support my army with 7 Missiles a turn. The Thunderwolves are always a tasty distraction which absorbs a lot of fire or a scary unit in my flank, which forces my opponent to pay more attention on the other flank. My Rhinos move as a group, leaving only when they can unleash their Rapid Fire bolters and prepare for a Counter Attack. If they survive, they will be joined by more Grey Hunters. \(o_O)/
At what point does an army become overpowered? Or are there just certain abusive lists that are overpowered? I am aware of point-and-click razorspam lists that require no skill to play (no matter what "competitive players" think), but the list that I field is pretty far away from that type of play. There are a lot of other units that I would love to field - Arjac Rockfist, Njal Stormcaller, Lone Wolves, Fenrisian Wolves.. but I either don't have the models or a way to play them (for example - a drop pod or a Land Raider for Arjac/Njal). The list that I field is close to one of the possible combinations for Adepticon 2011 and it is intended to be able to face all challengers, yet I enjoy playing it and think that other people should also enjoy playing against it. This was supposed to be a friendly game, but my opponent got frustrated by my luck and his own misfortune. Add the fact that he had never played against Space Wolves before (even though I'm a SW newbie) and I am afraid that he will never play me or my army ever again. I am afraid now that if I play more people they will think the same thing.. I play in a very new Games Workshop store and the community is still small and young so I don't want to be "that guy".
""Gentleman's Ones" is an expression commonly used among friends here to describe those devious double-ones required to pass a morale test when everything has otherwise gone horribly, horribly wrong. It's an admission that one doesn't really deserve to be on the table, but just might continue to fight anyway."
- from A Gentleman's Ones
If you still haven't visited this marvelous blog, now is your chance. Check out the awesome models that B. Smoove has painted, his beautiful 3D interpretation of Space Hulk and all the other crazy projects that, without a doubt, will blow your mind.
And now I will share with you MY "Gentleman's Ones"
1. This one was recent. I was playing a 1750 pt. game using my buddy's Ork list against a very nasty Imperial Guard player who knew he was going to face Orkz and thus fielded tons of heavy bolters. His list consisted of 2 Leman Russ squadrons (not sure which type), a Psycher Battle Squad in a Chimera and then a bunch of other vehicles, few Sentinels.. Overall a pretty good, annoying list.
The list that I ran was fairly simple - 2 Warbosses with PKs - each with 10 Nobz (Painboy, Waagh banner, one with PK and everyone else with Big Choppas). One of them was in a trukk, one in a Battle Wagon with a Deff Rolla. There were two units of 30 Boyz with Nobz and Zagstruk with his Stormboyz was in reserve. Notice how the Nobz are not really kitted out for mean wound allocation!
So first turn I see a squad of Boyz whittled down to 3 Boyz and a Nob (they make their saves) and the Trukk is glanced and stunned from Heavy Bolters.. or something.
Yes. My Nobz had the balls.
My army advances and does nothing. Until the end of the game one unit of Boyz will never get in close combat and the Trukk will always be stunned, shaken or immobilized but never wrecked or destroyed. Zagstruk shows up and assaults a Leman Russ squadron, wrecking all 3 vehicles. Next turn he ends up being the only survivor and will wreck a Chimera before getting shot to death. The 3 Boyz and a Nob squad becomes just a lonely Nob who ends up killing 2 vehicles in the next 2 turns all by himself AND survives the game. However, it all seems lost when my closest Nob squad gets hit with his psychic power and their Ld gets reduced to 2. They get shot.. a LOT.. . I roll like a 9 or 10 and use my boss pole to re-roll the moral save... and BAM! A GENTLEMAN'S ONES!
I then start screaming WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! from joy and proceed to humiliate his Leman Russes. I really needed that save, because my whole army was being kited around and when I made it, it really changed the game around for me. Final result was 7 KP to 2 for me - He got a point for killing my Battlewagon and Zagstruk's unit. Silly Guardsmen.
But then you'll probably say "But Vlaaaaaaaaad, you had a boss pol and that was not faaaaaair!"
Well, then... sit tight for I have yet another story to tell! : )
2. Da Sevun Bloo Boyz
The store had a pretty big Planetstrike game in which everyone brought 1,000 points of their army. My team was playing Attackers and for most of the game my Boyz were pretty much unharmed. A turn or so before the game ended I had a unit of 25+ Boyz with a Power Klaw Nob and they were headed for this tiny sandbag bunker in the middle of the map. Now, in Planetstrike Attackers touching an objective count as controlling it and it just so happened that my Orkz were the only ones around AND this little bunker was the tiebreaker. What was in the bunker? Genestealers and Scarab Swarms. My Boyz WAAAAAGH and multi-assault them sustaining minor injuries due to lucky rolling. So far so good.
Next turn they get assaulted by..
Ultramarines Terminators
Blood Angels Assault Squad
Corbulo
A few Tactical Marines NECRON WARRIORS - Yes, that's right. They assaulted me since they had nothing to shoot at.
Uh-oh. I get to watch my Boyz dieing like flies before they can even strike back. However, Mork was watching over me and he made sure that 7 Boyz remained. Their attacks killed a few Scarab Swarms, but the damage was done. I had to allocate wounds on my Nob and he ended up dieing so that meant no bosspole morale re-roll for me. ;_; Luckily my boyz were not Fearless, which would have meant taking like 15 armor saves. Yikes. Combat ended and I needed to take that impossible morale save. It was the very last turn of the game (Defenders didn't get their turn because they had the points advantage and we were running out of time).. and I rolled A GENTLEMAN'S ONES.
My brave Ork Boyz decided to stay and fight for this meaningless little bunker. Was it because of sheer stupidity or blood lust? Probably.
Da Sevun Bloo Boyz
Later that same day I repainted those seven Boyz from red to blue. After all, Orkz believe that blue brings luck to their race and they WERE lucky to survive that meat grinder.
Since then, I started painting my Orkz blue. My painting skills have evolved since then but these little guys are always in the front lines of one of my Ork Mobz and no matter the tactical situation, I always, always remove them last. They have never stopped working for me.
I haven't had any Gentleman's Ones with my Space Wolves, but I believe that when I start playing with them more often they will also get to experience the epic power of the double ones.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Jetbike Eldar vs. Blood Angels
This was the game today from the 40k campaign in my local shop. I was challenged by a younger guy with his blood angels army. He is doing decently well in the campaign against the other space marine players (8 different marines types, 1 eldar, 1 tau, 1 ork, 1 SoB). Playing marines every week does get a bit bland, but at least they were a slightly different flavor this time.
He had: Mephiston with Honor Guard (they have various doodads like a banner), 2 10 man tac squads, 1 5man assault squad, 5 Death Company, 1 Venerable Dread, 1 techmarine with 4 servitors (2 gun and 2 regular), 2 whirlwinds.
I had: 2 farseer + bike squads (the usual), Warp Spiders, 3 warwalkers with scatters, 2 squads of 2 vypers with starcannons
I won the roll and chose first turn. Setup was like this. I put the one objective on my side, he put the one behind the rocks, and I put the last one on his side out in the open. I hoped that he would place his guys across me and out in the open so I could easily kill them and zoom over the at the end to contest/claim if I had to. On my first turn I moved everything but my spiders. I wanted to go easy this turn, so I spread fire around. I killed a few tac marines in a combat squad with a missile launcher, 1 honor guard, and a few assault marines.
His assault marines fail their leadership and run off the board. I hop back with my bikes to give cover to my walkers and vypers. My other vypers are save from fire as they are already behind cover.
He moves his honor guard, dread, and death company forward. The death company don't have jump pack so they move slowly (he didn't field his rhino for some reason). Now I have only ever played again 2 BA players before, but they both just moved their honor guard out in the open. This time it was with Meph, and the other with Dante. Is this a common tactic? His two tac squads on the right move so they can see/claim. He fires his missile killing a jetbike. His assault cannon dread does nothing, and his two whirlwinds don't do anything either. Well with the honor guard out in the open the choice is easy. I have seen this before and it fared just as well the first time. My left hand jetbike squad goes after the dread to get character campaign points, otherwise I probably would have just ignored it. Everything else moves and fire on the honor guard and Mephiston, killing them.
I assault the dread, take an arm off and immobilize it. My other jetbikes hop back to protect my walkers and spiders move in front to cover the vypers.
He runs his death company into terrain for cover from the starcannons. Each missile fires at a different vyper squad, destroying one on the left and stunning one on the right. A plasmacannon fires on my bikes killing one. He fails to repair his dread. I finish off the dread, it explodes killing 2 servitors but my bikes are fine.
My vypers, jetbikes and warp spiders all move up to engage different units. My walkers move forward to have a clear shot on just about anything. My spiders wipe a unit by themself with some poor armor save rolls, the lone vyper kills the lone missile marines, and my bikes and the other vyper combine to kill the other missile tac squad. My jetbikes on the far left fire on his objective holding tac squad, killing the Sergent and 2 others. I assault the marines and kill them taking no damage. My jetbikes and warp spiders jump out of assault range.
With nothing to attack he runs his death company in between to cover both objectives. He moves his techmarine in and flames by bikes, but it does nothing.
He called the game. Another victory for the Eldar.
Not the best game as it was very one sided, but I hope that this will give those of you not familiar with my Battle Reports an idea of what to expect.
I look forward to the local tournament in a month where I will be bringing my sisters of battle. Those should be some great fights and hopefully some even better reports!
