Alamo GT

[Mysticaria]

Alamo GT 40k - Ultramarines 2000 points

 

Army list:

Chaplain, Terminator Armor w/storm bolter

Tactical Squad x 10, missile, flamer, rhino

Tactical Squad x 10, multimelta, plasmagun, combiplasma, rhino

Terminators x 10, CML x 2, Chainfist x 1

Terminators x 5, lightening claws x 5

Dreadnaught, multimelta, DCCW w/storm bolter

Landspeeder Squadron with 2x Typhoon

Vindicator

Vindicator

 

First, this was an amazing tournament. There was four of us there representing our local gaming group in a tournament with over 40 others from around the country. Having the guys there to talk in between matches and wander around to see how everyone else was doing was just awesome. As a group we had 7 wins, 6 draws, and 7 losses… a 50% win percentage. The Tyranid player did the best with a 3-1-1 record and got 3rd best General. Also, I somehow ended up being the only Ultramarine army there, so I actually felt quite original despite painting my guys like the picture on the box. :ermm: I got a lot of compliments on the painting and modelling so from that aspect the tournament was a total success. The army was not intended to be a powergaming army, but was intended to be competative in most games and I felt that it performed well over the course of the tournament. I had 2-1-2 record with 54/100 battle points. Here's how the games went down.

 

Round #1: vs. Chaos. Pre-heresy models with Horus (as Abaddon), Mortarion (as Nurgle Warptime Winged Daemon Prince), Daemon engine (as Summoned Greater Daemon), 7 plague marines in rhino, 8 khorne berzerkers (with Abaddon in LR), 2 units of 2 Epic Titans (as Oblits), and 4 units of 5 summoned lesser daemons. The mission was 5 objectives; the terrain was all hills taller than our landraiders making it really hard to drive anywhere. This guy finished the tournament in 2nd overall place and the matchup was not in my favor. Still, I killed his DP in one turn and got all his plague marines too. Abaddon and the berserkers killed my chaplain, but couldn’t get the Land Raider to pop. It ended the game contesting an objective while abaddon was knocking weapons off every turn. This game came down to the last turn, where I turbo-boosted a speeder onto an objective to contest it with 3 lesser daemons. The turn before that, I hit greater summoned daemon for 4 wounds with terminators. At that time he only had 2 wounds left and he made three 4+ saves leaving 1 wound. The Daemon ended up getting out of that combat, and assaulted my speeder needing a 6 to hit. He managed to roll a 6 and blew it up securing the objective. I lost objectives 2-1 and lost the table quarters 2-1. Still, a very close game and made the #2 player in the tournament have to get lucky on the last 2 turns to pull out a close victory. (4-20)

 

Round #2: vs. IG. This army was insane. 10 chimeras filled with IG guys and 6 medusas (think 36” range vindicators). Spearhead deployment and 2 objectives. I put mine ¾ back in my area about 10” from any board edge and he put his about middle of his zone. Spearhead deployment helped because his tanks were all blocking each other. Also helped that I got first turn. My vindicators and missile launchers took out two chimeras on the right side, and blew some parts off some on the left side. I decided to ignore his medusas since they would have cover saves. I drove rhinos, dred, and land raider right into the teeth of the enemy, and even though all of my vehicles were destroyed, they were able to get the cargo safely to the drop point. Once my marines were close enough to the objective there was so many wrecked vehicles around that it limited the number of enemy shots that could be directed their way. In the end the chaplain was the only survivor from the terminators (made a couple 4++ vs. meltaguns) and he joined with 3 tactical marines on the objective to make them fearless. It really paid off that last turn as the Chaplain helped soak a lot of shots and kept that last marine from having to take a panic check. Game ended on turn 6 with marines standing on both objectives. Win 2-0 and draw on the secondary objective 3-3 (16-4)

 

Round #3: vs. Black Templars: This army was pretty bad for a tournament in that he only had 2 scoring troops, both of which were 5x power armor guys in a drop pod. Unfortunately for me the scenario was the only one of 5 in the tournament where there was no need to have scoring troops. This meant I was playing an annihilation match against an entire army of elites. He has double Land Raider, Emperor’s Champion, Double biker Chaplain Lightening Claws, super melta biker squad action. To make matters worse he made me go first on dawn of war and reserved everything. There was not a unit in range for me to shoot at until my third turn and even then I think he made about 10/12 of the 3+ invul saves. I knew the dice weren’t with me, and neither was the scenario. In the end I got beat pretty badly in kill points. The bikers meltad my vindicators and I had no solution for the land raiders. They delivered their cargo into my lines and pretty much that was it. The most epic moment of this match was the emperor’s champion and terminators against my chaplain and terminators whose squads wiped each other out and left the emperor’s champ and the chaplain fighting mano-y-mano for three combats before the emperor’s champion took his massive sword and plunged it through the chaplain’s terminator armor. Result was a loss 9-4 on kill points. Draw on secondary objective. (4-16)

 

Round #4: vs. Necrons. His list was 2x lord, 5x 10 warriors, 1x 10 immortals, 3x 3 destroyers. Scenario was 2 objectives with pitched battle. I went first. I placed objective on left side near an outcrop for good line of sight for the planned missile combat squad that would be there. He placed his on the same side in the very corner. I was surprised because I thought he would want to keep the range open, but ok. I deploy my entire army as close as possible ready to make a mad rush at his deployment zone. He deploys everything in the far corner, way way way away from any objectives and my troops. Hmmm. Anyway, he steals the initiative, shoots down landspeeders before they get to move, and stuns a vindicator. This game was pretty fun, although never really in doubt. I drove a rhino 4 turns uncontested onto the other objective with 5 guys inside while the rest of my army tried to get to grips with the crons. My lightening claw termies got in range of assault and killed a necron lord and some warriors before their ride got immobilized from gauss weapons. The most epic moment of the game came when the other necron lord tried to teleport with veil of darkness onto the objective and rolled a mishap, getting a ‘misplaced’ result. Instead of putting him off in no-man’s land I decided to land him on the other objective…. right next to my 9 remaining power-fist terminators. That was good times. Other than watching 15 marines fight 1 necron destroyer, lose combat by 1, fail morale and run off the board (seriously?) everything was ok this game. Win 2-0 and also secondary objective 1-0 (20-0)

 

Round #5: vs. Daemon Hunters. His list was Brother Captain Stern with power armor grey knights in a Standard Land Raider, Grad Master with Grey Knight Terminators in Land Raider Crusader, Inquisitor Lord with Grey Knights in Power Armor with Psycanons, 3 squads of Storm Troopers with meltaguns in rhinos, and an assassin. Game is 5 objectives, lots of low cover saves everywhere and difficult terrain. No place to drive without taking terrain checks, but nothing high enough for a vehicle to get a cover save from. He went first, but with night fighting and nothing on the board didn’t do much. My first turn I did the rhino searchlight, long range missile fire from the back of the board trick and managed to kill a couple dudes. Of course, that rhino was way out front of the rest of the army and they got their rhino popped. They ended up rapid firing a squad of storm troopers to death clearing the objective, and then getting shot in return by some grey knight terminators losing 25%. As they were about to get charged I prepared to use ‘combat tactics’ for the most awesome charge denial ever and promptly fell back… 3” ... hurray! So they got charged anyways, and chopped down to man. My chaplain would not stand for that and promptly assaulted that grandmaster and GKT squad, killing all but 1 termie and leaving the GM with only 1 wound left… which was not enough as the ultramarine chaplain was again killed. The most EPIC moment of the game, and in fact in the entire tournament, was when my 105-point, black reach, no-upgrade dreadnaught walked up to the standard land raider, fired a multimelta into it, blasting it into a crater and killing 3 of the occupants, then rolled a 6” for assault, closed with Brother Captain Stern, survived the brother captain’s vicious attacks with only one immobilized result, hit twice, wounded twice, and then watched one save fail, and then watched the brother captain’s re-roll save fail…. Mwuahahaha! 105-point dred just killed a Land Raider, 3 power armored grey knights, and Brother Captain Stern in one turn! Wow! Anyway, he didn’t live long as an assassin snuck up behind him and strapped a melta-bomb to his back, but what a way to go huh? After turn five I was winning 2-1, but the game kept going. After the end of turn 6 I had only 3 marines left on an objective and it was 1-1, and thankfully the game ended then because 3 power armor marines is not so resilient that I could have counted on them lasting one more turn and was looking at a loss. Result draw, with 2 of 4 objectives. (10-12)

 

Total battle points scored = 54

Total battle points allowed = 52

 

Thoughts about my army: Overall I really liked it. It wasn’t nearly as hard core as a lot of the lists… out of 5 matchups I played two armies with double land raider and two armies with named characters (Abaddon and Brother Captain Stern) and I was in the loser's bracket most times. The chaplain is kind of wasted, being 130 points and really only adding re-rolls to one assault during the game he feels like a waste. Still, the model is cool right? The vindicators were great, even though they hardly ever killed anything. The cover saves everywhere and nearly impossible driving terrain in the tournament were hard to deal with. I could take siege shields, but the vindicators draw so much fire I think that would be a mistake. Rhinos and tactical marines were very successful. They were almost never targeted while terminators and or vindicators were nearby. Every time I decided to combat squad it worked out well, which is different than in our normal play group. I had combat squads claim objectives in all four rounds that had objectives! Wow! The Drednaught definitely has a place in the army. He does things no other model can, like squish ICs, and at 105 points he can be killed without much loss. Land speeders were just awesome. I am definitely happy I used the squadron rules. That never backfired once and actually helped turn some stunned results into shaken. In the end, I felt like I had a unit that could do what was needed. Maybe next time we’ll up the power level a bit.

 

-Myst