UKGT Heat 3 Report

[Nightrunner]

Well, Heat 3 of the UKGT was this past weekend. I had a great time, and really, really enjoyed the whole time.

For anyone who has never been, its ace - you should go!!!!!!

So anyway, I finally settled on the following:

Rune Priest with Chooser, L.Lightning and Murderous Hurricane.

Dreadnought with PC.

3x1 WG;

WG1 with PF/C.Melta,

WG2 with PW/C.plasma,

WG3 with TDA/WC/C/flamer

Land Raider dedicated transport with multimelta

5GH with MG in Rhino (+WG1)

5GH with PG in HB Razorback (+WG2)

5BC's with flamer (+WG3)

6 Long fangs with 5xML

Pred with HB/AC

Vindicator with S.shield

4 TWC with one PF; one with bolter; one with MB's; last basic.

Total: 1499pts

I previously had 2x 3TWC, but dropped one and upped the other as I wanted a dreadnought, just on the off chance that I hit something that really needed a dreadnought to hold it up.

GAME 1

Mission: Seize Ground (5 objectives); Spearhead

Opponent; Orks!

My opponent had 5x Nob Bikers with 2PF's, one Waaagh banner, painboy, cybork bodies.

Warboss on bike with PK and cybork body, bosspole

3x 11 (or 12) boys in trukk with Nob with PK and bosspole.

Ghaz

5 Mega-armoured nobs in trukk

2 Deffcoptas with a rokkit launcher

Well, I won the roll and went first after the two coptas boosted up to within 12.5" of my squads, shown in the deployment photo below. Basically, turn 1 I immobilised one trukk, blew up Ghaz's trukk on the spot, another Kareened to within 12" of my lines, and then immobilised another one, hidden behind Ghaz's trukk. My TWC killed both coptas in combat, and consolidated back into a nearby wood, out of assault range of the bikes. Meanwhile, my LF's and Vindicator both had to turn and shoot the squad whose trukk was suddenly right in my face, killing all but the wounded Nob, who then ran away! ;)

I think my opponent was pretty shocked by the damage output of my list. The nob bikers boosted right into the middle of the table, and just close enough to try and tempt me into combat. Meanwhile, Ghaz and his accompanying MANz moved through the wreck of their own trukk, and out of 5 dangerous terrain tests, he failed 3 - one dead, one wounded!!!! The mob that had been sat in the central, immobilised trukk moved up, and then ran to get close.

My turn 2, I was pleased. The Bikers had boosted with the warboss at the front, and he was now within charge range of my dreasdnought. with this in mind, the RP, the MG GH squad and the TWC moved up to take on the bikers. Shooting managed to wound one; meanwhile, my other GH squad, the vindicator and the LF's killed the Ork squad that had been running in the open. In assault, the dread hit twice, wounding the warboss once - instant kill. The rest of the combat ended with all of the bikers dead, along with two of the TWC. The rest of the game saw his last mob hide in their trukk, with the aim of maybe capturing one or more objectives; I countered this with the empty LR, moving it to cover one, one rhino covering the closest one to his trukk, which i had ignored as immobilised was fine by me!!!!! The last two TWC died killing the MANz thanks to Ghaz, who then took 3(!!!) turns to kill my dread. I boxed him in with a vindicator, the razorback, and fed him a GH squad to keep him stuck. I win 2-0!

A good start, although I was lucky with lots of things; the table and getting first turn, combined with my opening round of shooting really helped. This game in particlular made me happy that I had taken the dread and 4TWC instead of three and three, right off the bat. Happy, and ready for the next game....

Game two later or tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed the read! ;)

NR B)

[Natanael]

Great report! More games, please :P

[Nightrunner]

After the win of the first game, I was sent leaping up the tables to number 17. The next mission was pitched battle, kill points, against Dark Eldar. Eeeek.

Things didn't really get better in my mind when I saw his list. It was roughly as follows:

Archon with agoniser, combat drugs, shadowfield

Drachite (Wych leader dude) with similar wargear

A unit of Wyches to go with each HQ choice in a Raider.

2 Ravagers

5 Units of warriors with 2 dark lances each.

Well, I lost the roll and was made to go first. The photo below shows the table layout. I chose a table with ruins in my bottom left corner, where the Long fangs set up, whilst my LR, Vindicator and TWC set up centrally. My predator, RB and dread went slightly to my right, whilst the RP and his rhino put themselves behind the LF's ruin, with a perfect, hatch-height hole for the RP to fire LL out of.

Turn 1 saw me kill one raider, with a good portion of the squad dying. A few casualties here and there, but nothing major. In reply, the vindicator got immobilised, the long fangs failed every single cover save and got reduced to 2 men, and the TWC got charged by the other Wych squad with drachite, killing two in return and staying in combat.

Turn 2, and i was suddenly a little more worried. The TWC were basically dead, and I didn't want to add the LR's blood claw cargo to that mess, so moved the raider up 12" towards the huddle of squads in my opponent's central building. Every one else shuffled to get better shots, bar the Long Fangs, who decided that not being an extra kill point would be a good thing - they moved and ran, ending up out of LOS behind the Rune Priest's Rhino.

Shooting saw my RP immobilise one ravager, and I killed most of a squad of warriors with a lucky vindicator shot. They then ran off the board! The LR decided not to be a wimp and pop smoke, instead taking out the wyches' raider with a lone multi-melta shot.

In the DE turn, the vindicator survived, but lost both its remaining guns. Still alive! Hurrah! I had forgotten AGAIN that the wyches had the 12" charge power, and so they got into an butchered the BC's, who were now out of their LR. On my far left, the Lord started making a run towards the RP's Rhino....

Turn 3 and the LR backed off 12". Again, everyone shuffled. Shooting saw me wipe another DE squad, fail to "hurricane" the Archon (passing 7 2+ saves, grumble grumble). However, the LR pulled off the shot of the game, penning and blowing up the other ravager which had a 3+ cover save. Score :D

The last two turns, as it turned out, would see the vindicator stunned or shaken but the GH crew happily slapping their backsides out of the glowing hole where the cannon used to be at the lacklustre Dark-lance fire; the RP and squad die in CC with the Archon, followed by the other two LF's; I continued whittling down DE squads in range.

By the end, I had lost the RP, his GH squad, their Rhino, the blood claws, the TWC and the long fangs. He had lost two raiders, two ravagers, two squads. Tie! Had it continued, I would most likely have lost the Vindicator, but reckon I could have killed another DE squad. I was still mighty pleased, as quite frankly, I was worried from the outset about that many lances. I figured I would end up dead, a smouldering collection of wrecks. Not to be, and I was very pleased!!!!!!

Things to remember from this game: as my second game with the TWC, I am going to have to remember to gauge distances more and keep the TWC a little more protected. Also, never, ever try to hit a wych when you can shoot it instead!!!!!!

This result actually saw me move up a table (!) to number 16 for the last battle of the day, against.........

[Baragash]

Hehe, that's my CSM about to get pwned by the Orks on the next table, although I recovered to finish 16th in the end. (I'd not played against Orks before, but I learned my lesson that game and reduced an Ork army running a max allocation Nobz biker and max allocation Nobz mob unit to just a Warboss on 2 wounds in game 5).

[antique_nova]

hmm. apart from the fact that these tournament winning lists. They are very good batreps. We want the third batrep!*Gives nightrunner a large ale* Hope that speeds up your batrep <_<.

thanks

antique_nova

[Ragnars Claw]

Hey Night runner, i saw your army next to and around mine for most of the weekend. Whilst usually a wolf player i borrow a Ghaz/4 battlewagon cheese army for the heat. Wolves for the final though.

 

Looking forward to reading the rest of your report :)

[antique_nova]

lol, i played a ghazghull/4 battlwagon list,. it isnt' cheese and is quite easy to beat. GL wolves though!

[Dezartfox]

Ooh well done against the DE, I played against a DE list in Heat 2 with my Deathwing.. could only play for a draw.. I didn't make one cover save all game.. stupid dark lances.

[Ragnars Claw]

lol, i played a ghazghull/4 battlwagon list,. it isnt' cheese and is quite easy to beat. GL wolves though!

 

Thats not what people who went to heat 1 and 2 thought :)

[Night Runner]

Great batreps Nightrunner. IT the first time I've read any report with the TWC in a game. It was interesting to see how they performed. The first against the Ork was entertaining, but I prefered the one against the DE. You must of been biting your nails throught the game, especially when you lost the TWC.

 

Anyways, great games. Hope to read more. :)

[antique_nova]

lol, i played a ghazghull/4 battlwagon list,. it isnt' cheese and is quite easy to beat. GL wolves though!

 

Thats not what people who went to heat 1 and 2 thought ^_^

Man damn the whelp for stealing my ride, thunderhawk, i can't go to the GT and teach them a lesson :). lol, i will be their next year!

thanks

antique_nova

[Nightrunner]

@ Baragash; Yeah, I remember that game. It didn't look fun!!!!! Was kinda glad it wasn't me. Sorry, lol!!!!

@ Ragnar's Claw: If you take that to the final, shame on you. There were only two wolves players at Heat 3! Shocking turn-out!

@ Antique: Thanks for the ale. Here goes!

Game three, and I had moved up to table 16 against the army that I hate more than any other.... Eldar.

However, I have to give my opponent credit; his list wasnt an uber cheesy seer council eldrad spam. It just had Eldrad. Sigh!

Eldrad Ulthran

Avatar

2x 8 Warp Spiders including Exarch with dual spinners/withdraw.

3x 3 Guardian Bikers with Shurrican Cannon in each

Wraithlord with Scatter laser/shurrican cannon

8 Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent with twin Shurrican Cannons, spirit stones

3 War Walkers with Scatter laser/shurrican cannon

The mission was Capture and Control, Dawn of War. Yay. My two favourite game types, combined together for a massive barrel of laughs....

My opponent won the roll for deployment and first turn, taking a side with a massive ruin in the top right corner as his objective's hiding place. He deployed only the Avatar, with the JB's in reserve. His furst turn, the Avatar ran as far forward as possible, getting to within 4" of where my objective (the little jolly buddah model who will forever remain my objective from now on) was hiding his little jolly self. Eeeek. As well as that, Eldrad and the Fire Dragons boosted on the full 24", just to the right behind the Avatar.

The photo below is an idea of the table, taken at the end of turn 1 i.e. after the Avatar was "dealt with".....

So, my turn 1, and I bring on my two GH squads, the TWC, the Vindicator and the LR pretty much in a line, starting centrally by my objective with the armour all to the right in a long conga line of tanks. My right corner had a medium sized hill, behind which the LF's ran on, ready to shoot next turn. The Predator I brought on in my bottom left, where a unit of spiders looked to be advancing.

Well, i was pretty sure that I would maybe be able to get a bit of luck, and take some wounds off the Avatar, and that would mean the TWC might have a slight chance (hitting on 5's! So lame) of knocking off those last one or two wounds.

I began the shooting with Murderous Hurricane. The RP hit seven times, and wounded three. The Avatar failed all three saves :)

Next, I fired the GH's bolters, and did two wounds - one failed save, Avatar Dead.

Now, I know that my opponent was shocked, but I was kind of thrown; I had really expected a huge scrum to start the game, and was massively relieved that it hadn't come to pass. My shooting units tried to re-target, and I managed to shake the Wave serpent with a rather random Vindicator shot. Hurrah.

Turn 2, and my RP had the first opportunity to nullify some powers; I managed to cancel the Fortune that was cast on the WS by eldrad, although the TWC sadly got doomed. The Wave serpent then boosted away.

On my right, the LF's lost no-one to the WL's shooting, whilst the TWC each took a wound from the war-walkers, but were otherwise fine. Also, the GH's rhino got immobilised in the objective ruin on my half of the table by the Spyders there.

I responded by moving the TWC, who failed to really get far at all (1" run. As they would start to do every game, for the rest of the tournament). The Rune priest took a wound trying to Murderous Hurricane the Warp Spiders. Meanwhile, the Long fangs, dread, vindicator and RB heavy bolter managed to kill all three Walkers, who had moved forwards out of the cover they had occupied first turn to try and take down the TWC. The preadator killed a couple of the Warp Spiders in front of it.

Turn 3 saw the WS move again, hiding further back, and out of range of all of my guns. The warp spiders on the left made a boost forwards to take on the Gh and Rp squad that were sat on my objective, whilst the Wraithlord moved forwards to shoot the LF's. I appeared that I couldnt pass an armour save this turn; the LF's got reduced to 3 ML's, whilst the RP's Gh squad failed 6 saves with every single roll coming up as a 2 on a D6. However, after the Avatar's premature death, I couldn't really complain!

My shooting, and I had decided that if I was going to make a push for a win rather than a draw, the only unit that would be able to manage it would be the LR. With this in mind, it moved forwards 6", trying to take shots at the WS and blowing its guns off. The LF's faild to do a single wound to the WL, which was going to be in the way of the LR if I wanted to reach that objective. My shooting by my own objective was a lot more successful; the other GH squad and Rb had moved over, combining with the pred and a risky murderous hurricane cast from the RP, who killed all but three spyders (including the Exarch).

Turn 4; some jetbikes arrive, and the WS boosts 24" to head towards the LR. However, the dice were once again shining on the sons of Russ.... it rolled a 1 for terriain, crashed and burned. The dragons inside couldnt shoot; happy times! The remaining shooting saw the Warp Spyders try and killl the RP but fail, whilst the other squad moved forwards. The WL failed to hurt my vindicator.

My turn, and the TWC finally got mobile, and charged and killed the Warp spyders that had been lurkign near my objective. The Vindicator and dread moved up onto the hill, shooting at and taking out some of the fire Dragons, whilst the BC's from the Land Raider (please note- in every game, the BC's and their WG have got in the LR in every report, asap) had gotten out, and were ready to charge the spyders to stop them contesting my objective. The LR moved 6", and shot at the Wraithlord, taking it down to one wound. The LF's fired on the huddled fire dragons as well, but failed to do any more damage. The TWC annihilated the WS's in combat, as did the BC's their squad.

Turn 5, and Eldrad and friends spread out; the remaining WS squad started making a beeline for my objective. Eldrad was a cheeky bugger and managed to eldritch storm and spin my vindicator, allowing the WS's to kill it. Lame. Meanwhile, the FD's hunkered down in cover, taking out my BC's. The WL had moved to get within assualt range of the LR, but was just out. One of the units of Guardian jetbikes had moved up, and now got within 3" of my home objective.

The LR moved 12", and with the help of the LF's, finally killed the WL. My dread had moved up again, and killed some fire dragons with the help of my razorback, causing them to run away (but still at 50% size). The TWC and my Rp charged the three bikers that were contesting, and unsurprisingly managed to wipe them.

I needed the game to continue at this point, for me to get any chance of getting any more than a bore-draw. Luckily, it did ;)

Turn 6; the remaining four dragons rallied, and moved to shoot the LR. They could only take off a gun with a glance. It was at this point that Eldrad once again started playing silly buggers with his psychic powers; he hit and PENNED with a double 6 for penentration with Eldritch Storm. He rolled a 2 and I suddenly thought my dream of a win was over. However, I then made my opponent check the details for Eldritch storm, which is AP - ; that meant -1 to the roll, and suddenly my LR was moving again. With a relieved 12 " move, I pushed it forwards to within 3" of his objective. Shooting saw me kill all but one fire dragon, and kill a lone biker from one od the squads holding his objective that had been sticking out of cover. It was around now I really wanted the game to end; sadly it didnt!!!!

Turn 7: Eldrad and the last dragon moved up to try and kill the LR. Sadly for him, the dragon missed, Eldrad didn't make it into assault range due to difficult terrain, and then in CC the dragon missed. I pivoted the LR in my last turn to get out of CC with the last dragon, who died to HB rounds. Game ends, SW win 1-0!!!!!!!

Well, that had been a hell of a game. I was really pleased with the LR, which had totally proved its worth in the list as something that, with a little luck, can totally carry a game and contest like a right bugger!

I had been very lucky though (the WS killing itself; the Avatar dying so quick) but you can't complain about luck. That made it Win-Draw-Win, and looking forwards to the ridiculous army I would probably face on the next day, now that i was climbing up to the top tables.....!

[antique_nova]

Erm what WS is the avatar? the guy would of needed to be WS9 for your TWC to hit on 5s. To hit on 5s for anyone your opponent's WS must be doulbe +1 of what yours is.

Anyway good game! have another ale :) *passes a large jug of ale with a big juicy stake on a plate ontop of the drink ^^. unlucky avatar!

thanks

antique_nova

[Walker]

Yeah

The avatar is actually WS 10!

Tough guy...

 

And @ Nightrunner:

Very nice reports. I enjoyed reading them.

 

~

[Baragash]

Avatar is WS10!!

[Ragnars Claw]

@ Ragnar's Claw: If you take that to the final, shame on you. There were only two wolves players at Heat 3! Shocking turn-out!

 

Nope definately wolves for me at the final. I'm toying with a Bjorn and 3 dread army. It would be rubbish but fun :P

[Darkangeldentist]

Nice battle reports and I'm waiting for more (now that I've finished mine). Was nice playing next to you and thanks for your words of encouragement during game 3. (After all, destroying xenos comes before rivalry.)

 

To think we missed playing each other twice this tournament by just one table. I still haven't played any wolves yet. :P

 

Looking forward to the rest of the games.

 

See you at the final.

[Sandokann]

Nice report, still I think Lonewolves in Razorbacks > TWC

Also I would take more LFs.

I love the good use you give to the Rune Priest

[Night Runner]

I enjoyed that. Hope you post more in the future.

[Nightrunner]

Well, thanks for the kind words guys. After a weekend away, here are the rest of the reports......!

PS @Darkangeldentist: So close! I know, one table...well, if we get each other at the final, it will most certainly be game on. No swapping! Also, just got the 40k wildcard email through today - tell Marcus congratulations, I'm chuffed for him that he made it!

BATTLE 4 - DAWN OF WAR; SEIZE GROUND

After a night of semi-drunkeness at Bugman's (I am a SW player...) I arrived bright and early, the first GW sunday where my plans to not get totally mashed and ruin game four actually stuck, lol. I was all the way up on table 8 (1 down from Darkangeldentist!!!) against the following:

My Opponent: Ultramarines

Vulkan Counts-as

5 TH/SS Termies

MM/HF dread in pod

2x Tactical squad (10) with Multi-melta, meltagun, combi-melta, PF (maybe only one PF...not sure!). Mounted in DP with locator beacon.

3 Landspeeders with 2 HB's

2 Landspeeders with HF/MM

2 Landspeeders with HF/MM

For me, this was an intimidating list due to the speed and Vulkan bringing down the pain of twin-linked goodness and the reach of the speeders. My opponent was one of the Italian team, and I knew that he would definitely be bringing a hard game.

However, I was fairly confident with some things; I've played pods myself enough to know I would need to counter everything with my reserve decisions. If the termies came running at my lines, I was less confident of dealing with them than the speeders, but such is life.

After placing 3 objectives (one in a large pond, one on the top of the only building on the board, and the last to the bottom right of the photo below), sadly, my opponent won the roll to choose sides and made me go first.

TURN 1

I put everything in reserve. Yay for reserves.....

He brought down a Tactical pod to the left of a central ruin (see the photo below), totally hiding them from view from my table edge and combat squadding them. He also brought the dread, which scattered 6" towards the right board edge. The three speeder squadrons also came on, boosting to within 24" of the large ruin which, with the help of the Tac squad's pod, was perfectly placed to create a massive wall for my opponent's entire army to hide.

TURN 2

I rolled and got the LR (obviously empty to begin), the predator and the Vindicator. With the speeders behind the building, i didn't want to put all my armour to close straight away, and so put the three tanks in a line stretching to my left from mid-table; the vindicator, then the LR, then the pred. Their combined shooting then attemped to take out the tac-pod in an effort to open up some LoS to the speeders. All i managed to do was stun it.

In response, the speeders re-positioned, and another tac-squad came down with Vulkan in tow, arriving on the other side of the ruins. The first tac-squad's combat squads moved and ran up the building to try and capture an objective.

TURN 3

I got everything else! Everything came on by the pred to make use of my range and reach (bar the BC's, who got in the LR) bar the dread and TWC's I brought on in the right corner, where I hoped I would be able to get stuck into some tac combat-squads. However, I managed to roll another spectacular double-1 on the difficult terrain. Well out of assault range.... my dread managed to shake a speeder, and my combined shooting managed to....wreck a single drop-pod. I had received two turns of mediocre shooting and by this point, was not very impressed....

Shooting from the ultramarines saw the dread lose its PC, and the TWC took a few wounds. Bar that, though, it was stalemate, although the terminators also arrvied this turn in the rear of my opponent's lines.

TURN 4

I started pushing forwards this turn, or at least trying to. With the speeders all but out of sight, my LF's, Razorback, dakka pred and RP started trying to whittle down the marines in the ruins that were holding my opponent's pod, whilst the other units attempted to take out the DP's that were shield much of my opponent's army in the other corner. Shooting saw fair results, with the 15 marines of the three combat squads losing about 5 men between them. A lucky vindicator shot snuck between some ruins and a pod, hitting Vulkan's combat squad and the termies, but only killing two tac marines. I had tried to move the TWC, but this turn rolled a double 2 for their terrain move, then managed to roll a pair of 3's for their assault roll. Another turn stood in the open. Ace.

In his turn, my opponent started making a push out from his spot behind the ruin to kill some things. The LS's all moved, with two successfully killing my vindicator that had strayed too close... On the other side, the TWC were reduced to 2 from shooting, before they found themselves getting assaulted by Vulkan and a combat squad. That was pretty much it from my opponent's shooting, the other MM's failing to hurt my dread who was still hiding in cover. In assault, the TWC lost their last full man to Vulkan, but before the sergeant's PF killed him, the TWC killed all three members of the tac squad. Phew ;)

TURN 5

My dred moved forwards to take on Vulkan in assault; everything else moved to shoot the tac marines and newly appeared speeders. The result was that two MM/HF rides were dead from one squadron, and another was reduced to a shaken and an unharmed speeder. My other shooting improved, killing one tac squad and whittling the other two down further.

My opponent's turn and his other speeder squadron moved to shoot my RB squad that had gotten out of their ride to shoot some tac marines last turn. They broke, but would rally next turn. Other shooting saw the LR untouched by the remaining MM speeder.

My opponent moved the remaining tac marines, trying to get as many as possible within 3" of the objective in the central building. Two speeders from one squadron moved MM my Raider. In combat, vulkan and the dread failed to do any damage.

It was currently 1-1; he still had the central objective, whilst I had the far left objective with my rhino-mounted GH's, who had snuck up over the last 5 turns to capture the objective in the pond in the open with the help of their trusty rhino! ;)

I rolled.... and we got a turn 6!!!!!!!

TURN 6

I moved the LR forwards 12", but i would need another turn before it got in range of the right-corner objective with its BC cargo. I got the Gh's out of their their rhino, and did the now-obligatory "circle the objective" move to ensure no sneaky speeders could get within 3".

My shooting this turn was otherwise all aimed at killing the tac marines in the middle; five hits with frag missiles from the LF's helped (2 hits, 3 scatters of a 3 - :)?!?!?) but still left 1 marine hiding within 3".

In combat, vulkan got squished by my dread! Victory dancing was had, for no other reason than it felt good to actually be able to kill that ridiculous character.

In my opponent's turn, he boosted a LS to what might have been contesting distance of an objective. We decided to measure it later for contesting issues. I needed another turn to get that last objective and get the win.... sadly, it wasn't to be. My opponent rolled a 2; game over!!!!!

We checked post game, and his speeder was just out. Close, and I was really glad I had moved the GH's to cover the objective just in case.

Another great game, and the one in which I had been forced to think the most. I felt quite frustrated throughout this game; I think that, ultimately, the terrain that allowed my opponent to hide really blunted my force and my poor shooting at the opening didn't help. Also, the TWC were massively annoying; no distance travelled at all. Ah well, it was close, and i had nearly been able to scratch out a win.

Lessons learned: My army has the applied firepower to really kill anything, even masses of marines in cover. I'm not even kidding when I said that this was the main thing I took from this game, and it was a good thing too; my next game was not to be as fun....

Picture showing the last-turn positions of my stuff and the table in general

[rodgers37]

Very Good reports so far :P keep them going for the last two games :D

[Nightrunner]

By this point, I was on two wins and two draws. Another win would most likely see me through to the final; I bumped into the head ref as I headed over for my next game, who after speaking to me a few times in my game against the Eldar told me that no-one had qualified with SW's from the other two heats. Just this one to go, then, and there was another SW player knocking around the top tables with a beautifully painted SW army of Logan, a mixed-armament squad of LF's, GH's in a pod, a some squads of termies (all with cyclones). I wanted to qualify higher than him, just for honor's sake.

 

The look of my next opponent's army wasn't a great sight to me.

 

GAME 5 - SPEARHEAD, CAPTURE AND CONTROL

 

Daemon Prince (no upgrades)

Greater Daemon

3x 10 Marines with undivided icon; lascannon; champion.

2x 11 Marines with undicidied icon; lascannon; champion.

2x 2 Obliterators.

 

I didn't like this list. Whilst individually the squads were quite bare, the sheer number of LD10 (with re-roll for the icon) marines meant I was going to have to have some luck in killing them all and having any hope of holding my obective whilst trying to contest his.

 

My opponent won first turn, and deployed everyone out in the open or near cover, on a board where there was next to no LOS blocking terrain between out two quarters. His objective went in massive piece of area terrain in his back left corner. I deployed my LF's halfway up a hill in mine, with the RB squad hiding behind the hill with my own objective. My LR, vindicator, dread and TWC went as far forwards as possible.

 

I know this sounds silly, and at the end of this report you might feel like I am lying, but I really had a good feeling here that I was going to steal the objective. With this in mind, everything was placed as far forwards as possible. I declared i wanted to steal it, and with a mighty D6 roll, the first turn was....

 

TURN 1

Woooooo! Mine! To make things even better, the TWC managed to roll a 6 to get them out of the difficult terrain in front of them. The LR and vindicator moved 12", the LR shielding the siege tank and popping smoke to try and get closer. My shooting phase saw one of the 11-man squads reduced to 3 men by the RP, RB, dread and pred, whilst the LF's starting whittling down the other 11-man squad with some frag missiles (one group was particularly bunched up). In the assault phase, my TWC hit home - first turn charge! Ace :P Sadly, their excitement didn't carry on into the combat; I only did three wounds and took two in return. I had hoped to wipe the marines and move away from the prince, who was lurking far too close nearby.

 

In his turn, my opponent moved to counter my push into his lines. Most of the squads simply pivoted to shoot, with the obliterators staggering forwards. The first shot of his hit, penned and immobilised the raider. Ugh. Also, the dread lost its plasma cannon arm. In the combat phase, the size of the DP's base meant he couldn't reach the combat and the TWC managed to wipe the squad in combat with them.

 

TURN 2

The TWC moved away from the combat-monster in front of them, and started a conga-line like move between the trees nearby. My plan was to send them after teh oblits; i really needed to kill a few of them as their firepower was scary to a lot of my force. The vindicator moved up to shoot another squad of marines that had moved up behind the TWC's target. I started moving the RP and the empty RB forwards, whilst the dread moved up towards the enemy lines. The BC's also got out of their now broken ride, in an effort to take out the DP in combat if it came to it.

My aim with the shooting phase had been to aim most of my army at the DP. However, I managed to reduce him to a single wound with some notable fire from the BC's pistols before the dread's storm bolter took his last wound!

 

For the second time in the tourney, I had killed an enemy HQ with silly firepower. Cool! Once again, my opponent didnt think so.

 

Meanwhile, the vindicator took out nearly half the squad that had been left in the open after the TWC's combat ended.

 

Combat saw a the TWC disappointingly only manage to kill one Oblit, from one squad, leaving the other guy with a single wound, the the TWC ready for the mother of all counter-charges. Doh.

My opponent's turn was basically that; the GD arrived and charged into combat with the TWC along with another squad of basic marines. The unengaged oblits decided to plasma cannon the BC's who had been left caught in the open, but with going to ground only managed to kill one. Combat saw the TWC die, but I directed some rending attacks at the marine squad, killing two of them before they went.

 

TURN 3

The vindicator moved up; the dread was in range of the 3-man survivor unit of the first turn's shooting; the RP's GH squad and the empty Razorback moved up again. Shooting saw the squad that had been in combat with the TWC wiped from the vindicator; the dread was able to reach and kill the 3-man unit; and the shooting from everyone else managed to bring the Greater daemon down to 2 wounds.

In response, the Vindicator lost its cannon (doh), and the GD started heading towards my dread, but didn't make it. Once again the BC's got PC'd, but only lost another one thanks to going to ground again.

 

TURN 4

The vindicator this turn moved up and popped smoke. The dread moved and ran forwards, flanking the vindicator to stop it from getting assaulted. Again the Rp and Rb moved, with the combined firepower of everything else bringing the 2-man oblit unit down to one, and taking some guys off the smaller of the two larger units near my opponent's objective. Everything else was directed at the GD, who finally went down to some Living Lightning action :D

In response, the single wounded oblit managed to immobilise my dread, whilst the fire from the other oblit and last two chaos units flew wide.

 

TURN 5

It was going to be close, and I needed to really direct my firepower this turn. First, a lucky SB shot from the dread managed to kill the wounded obliterator. I had moved the RP and GH squad up with the RB to try and kill the last full marine squad.

Some lucky MG fire, and the oblit was dead. This meant that everything else went into the two marine squads near my opponent's objective (only 1 of which was holding it). I managed to bring one unit down to 1, lascannon toting marine, who didn't run away. However, my fire had also managed to do enough casualities to force a morale test on the mostly undamaged, larger squad. My opponent rolled; first time 11. Re-roll for MoCU; 12!!!!!!!! They ran off the board.

 

In his turn, my opponent was obviously quite shocked. However, he could still claim the draw; his lascannon guy moved and ran to get onto the objective counter. We then rolled.......

 

TURN 6: My opponent was wiped out.

 

I was over the moon with the way this game had gone. I had been uber, uber, lucky in winning the first turn, and a few things (my LF's general firepower; the DP; the ridiculous morale test for the last turn).

 

Looking back, I think I still would have been able to win, even if the large squad hadn't ran off the board; they would have had to have chosen between lascannoning the Vindicator, or shooting my GH's and RP. Next turn, the rhino, vindicator and RB were all in range to tank shock the objective, with my GH and RP in assault range.

 

I think i would have rather have won it like that than with freak luck. My opponent was really great, and ultimately very gracious in the face of terrible luck right at the death, which I think is really important in this kind of tournament setting when qualification is on the line!

 

Such are the ways of the Warhammer world. Oh, and I was overjoyed, as I had qualified for the final with SW's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Onto the last game of the weekend......which will have to wait until I get more time. Work calls! Hope everyone is still enjoying the reads.

[Darkangeldentist]

Awesome game for you, one little continuity question. In turn 2 you said you ran the dread and popped smoke with him but later he shot and killed the daemon prince with the storm bolter?

 

Sometimes it's hard when your opponent is rolling just what they need and you roll exactly the opposite, so my sympathy to your opponent. By the sounds of it he had some terrible luck. (Killing just single Bloodclaws with multiple plasma blasts and getting both daemons shot down by small arms fire is really rough.)

 

Looking forward to the last game.

[Nightrunner]

Awesome game for you, one little continuity question. In turn 2 you said you ran the dread and popped smoke with him but later he shot and killed the daemon prince with the storm bolter?

 

Sometimes it's hard when your opponent is rolling just what they need and you roll exactly the opposite, so my sympathy to your opponent. By the sounds of it he had some terrible luck. (Killing just single Bloodclaws with multiple plasma blasts and getting both daemons shot down by small arms fire is really rough.)

 

Looking forward to the last game.

 

Thanks for that mate. I definitely fired him, just getting mixed up whilst writing. The death of the DP was certainly a fact :)

 

This game was such a rush in my mind, and it literally finished in, like, 45 mins as there was little to no terrain, my opponent and I just moved towards each other (or he didn't move at all to maximise shooting).

 

As for my luck, well, it was just ridiculous. I think things like the BC's absorbing shots that would have been better used elsewhere was one of those little things that, really, I didn't think much of at the time, but that when you point them out probably only added to my opponent's woes.

 

Really nice guy, ridiculous luck for me; I had been sure that I was going to be able to fend off most of the army, but have to bog him down in combat mid-table for a draw.

 

Also, did you see what I said about Marcus? ;)

 

NR :huh:

[Darkangeldentist]

Marcus is really looking forward to the final. His air cavalry had great fun up at the heat and he only just missed qualification (46th!) but our club knew if anyone got a wildcard it would be him. At least two of the italian team offered him a ticket as they'd qualified on points and painting. Marcus seems to attract Italians like wasps to jam, he played 4 of them.

 

So you'll see the both of us (and Col.Gravis) at the final.