Weekend Tourney Batrep (Eldar/SW/IG)

[trefenwyd]

For those of you who haven't been following along on my Army List forum post, the skinny is that my gaming group thinks SW are overpowered because of Long Fangs and I have been challenged to see if I can win without them. I gladly took that challenge (i.e., I took pity on my opponents) and designed the following "fun" list:

 

HQ:

Wolf Lord, Runic Armour, Wolf Claw, Thunder Hammer (yes, you read that right, both a WC and TH), SM bike, Belt of Russ, SoT Bear Pts: 265

Wolf Lord, Runic Armour, Frost Blade, Storm Shield, SM bike, Wolf Tooth Tali, Saga of Majesty Pts: 230

Wolf Priest, Runic Armour, SM bike, Wolf Tooth Tali, Melta bombs Pts: 165

Wolf Priest, Runic Armour, SM bike Pts: 155

 

Troops:

10 GH, 2 plasmaguns, 1 MoTW/Standard, 1 Power Fist, 6 normal, drop pod Pts: 210

5 GH, flamer, Razorback w/TLHB Pts: 115

 

Elites:

Dreadnought, multi-melta, DCCW w/HF, drop pod Pts: 150

Dreadnought, multi-melta, DCCW w/HF, drop pod Pts: 150

Iron Priest, 4 cyberwolves, 3 thralls, 2 armed with plasma cannons Pts: 180

 

Fast Attack:

4 swiftclaws, 1 meltagun/PF, 2 normal, 1 attack bike w/multi-melta Pts: 150

4 swiftclaws, 1 meltagun/PF, 2 normal, 1 attack bike w/multi-melta Pts: 150

10 Fenrisian Wolves

 

Heavy support:

None

 

Total: 2000 pts

 

Only 2 troops choices, 815 pts worth of ICs, Fen wolves without a TW lord, and an Iron Priest with plasma cannon thralls - what's not to love about this list? I normally run a shooty gun-line type army (my GHs rarely if ever see combat), so I was happy to change things up and just have fun.

 

The tourney players:

me

Another SW player, running 3 x LFs, 4 x Rhinos w/GHs, scouts, Rune Priest, Wolf Lord

Chaos Marines led by Khârn, 2 defilers, 2+ units of beserkers, 10-man terminator squad

Nids, 2 tervigons, about 40 gaunts, 20 genestealers, 3 x zoanthropes, venomthrope

Eldar, Wraithguard/Eldrad, 3 x wave serpents, howling banshees, striking scorpions, pathfinders, dire avengers, Wraithlord

IG mech-list, 2x colossus, 6 x Hydra, 4 veteran squads, 2 command squads

 

1st games, I was paired up against the Eldar.

 

Spearhead deployment, Annihilation.

 

I win deployment roll, and not being one to ever give up the chance to do some damage right off the bat (more on this later), I choose to go first.

I deploy my wolves on my left flank, covering the flank and then spreading out at the forward edge of my deployment to screen the etire left half of my army. There is a medium sized piece of terrain right in the center of my deployment corner, so my Iron Priest goes there, with his cyberwolves spread out to his right and effectively screening the right side of my army (but with 2" between them so I can still move my bikers up). I deploy biker squad #1 (frost-blade lord) on my left and biker squad #2 (WC/TH eternal warrior lord) on my right flank. Lastly, my razorback brings up the rear.

He deploys his wraithguard/warlock/eldrad in a wave serpent facing my left flank, with the wraithlord nearby. His center is anchored by a jetbike squad (2 catapults, shining spear, 4 normal) and a light skimmer with a bright lance. He finishes his deployment with his 6-man dire avenger squad in a wave serpent deployed behind terrain facing my right flank. For infiltrarors, he then places his pathfinders in cover on my right flank, halfway up the board. He keeps his howling banshees in reserve and his striking scorpions outflanking in a wave serpent (which is illegal, but he didn't know that and I figured he had a special rule that allowed him to outflank vehicles, but oh well). He rolls to steal initiative, but fails, and I begin the game.

 

Turn 1:

Top:

I am anxious to get this close combat army going, but before I can unleash the hounds on the eldar, I need to pry them out of their transports. That must mean it's time for drop pod assualt, and I bring in my 2 multi-melta dreads. I have to say that I took these in the army list because I felt I absolutely needed some anti-armor, but I balked at the 300 pt cost. I knew that, being the only real armor in my army, they weren't going to live past their arrival turn, but hopefully they could so some key damage. Boy was I wrong. My first target has to be the wraithguard waveserpent. He's deployed them against the rear table edge, so I can't get a rear armor shot (and his front/side negate the melta rule) but I still have to try - if I can get them footslogging all game from their table edge, I'll never have to worry about them. Dread #1 scatters horribly, ending up some 16 " away, but since he ignores melta rule, it's not a big deal. Dread #2 comes down right on target, on my right flank, facing his other wave serpernt carrying the dire avengers. I move my fen wolves forwards 6", still screening my army, and then move biker squad #1 (on the left) about 10" forwards (so they are about 1.5" in front of the wolves). Biker squad #2 turbo-boosts up the right flank, ending up 1" away from the pathfinders and about 6" away from his center bike unit. The Iron Priest sits tight, and the razor moves up even with him. Time for glorious shooting. Dread #1 takes careful aim and manages to blow off the Bright Lance from the wraithguard waveserpent. Dread #2 was took shook up from the pod landing and missed his waveserpernt horribly. Biker squad #1 fires its bolters and multimelta at the jetbike squad holding his center, sending 2 jetbikes crashing to the ground. The Fen wolves then run 4", putting them in front of the bikers and screening them again. The plasma cannon thralls and the razorback both aim for the jetbike sqaud, but fail to wound. All in all, a fairly pathetic shooting turn. With no assault, it's time for his revenge.

 

Bottom:

He moves his wraithguard waveserpent next to my Dread #1 on the left flank, deep on his side of the table, and unloads the wraithguard. His wraithlord meanders on over as well, stopping 5" away and commences a staring contest with my dread. In his center, he retreats his jetbike squad a short amount, and pulls his dire avenger wave serpent back further into his deployment zone. Eldrad then attempts to "Doom" my biker squad #2 but I am saved by my wolf tail tali!. Eldrad then casts Fortune on his unit, and continues to do so every turn, granting his unit a permanent save reroll. In the shooting phase, he fires with his wraithguard into my dread #1, stunning it, and blowing off the DCCW. Next, the wraithlord fires his bright lance into the same dread, blowing off his melta-arm (guess we know who won that staring contest). His jetbikes and pathfinders combine to kill my 2 normal bikes from bike squad #2 on the right flank. His dire avenger waveserpent takes aim at dread #2 but misses. In assault, his wraithguard and wraithlord charge into my armless dread #1, and manage to wreck it.

 

Turn 2:

Top: Reserves roll, and my 3rd drop pod stays up in orbit a bit longer. My wolves move forward, planning on charging the jetbikes, and my dread#2, rather than chase after the wave serpent, decides to instead, turn around and charge the pathfinders. I roll for difficult terrain, and make it far enough to stop 1" short of them. That frees up my biker squad #2 to advance towards the wave serpent and its precious dire avenger cargo. Everything going according to plan in the center/right flank. On the left flank, however, I have my close combat biker squad #1 staring at Eldrad/Warlock/Wraithguard and the Wraithlord. I spend a few agonizing seconds debating what to do and in the end, I flee away, turboboosting to the right side of the board. Now, I'm starting to feel a little sick to my stomach - I built a close combat biker army and here I am fleeing from Eldar!?! I just couldn't see either hurting Eldrad (3+ invul with rerolls) or the wraithguard (T6) with my biker squad. Combine that with the fact that he would hit first with 2+ to wound from both Eldrad and the Warlock, and the Wraithlord would join combat on his turn and I just got scared. I may mathhammer it later, but back on the gaming table, my biker squad is now 30" away. My Iron Priest's thralls take aim at the Wraithguard/wraithlord and manage 3 hits on the guard and 2 on the lord - all guard hits are cover saved, but the Wraithlord takes a wound from each hit! The razor attempts to finish it off, but fails to roll the '6' it needed on any of its hits. On the right side, I shoot biker squad #2 into the light skimmer, sending it down in flames. Dread #2 opts not to fire his heavy flamer, as each casualty inflicted would increase my charge roll needed by and inch. In assault, my wolves charge into his 4 remaining jetbikes, and the dread advances upon the pathfinders. The wolves tear the jetbikes to shreds while the dread makes pathfinder putty out of 2 of the squad. The 5 remaining, however, apparently have no care for life or limb as they stay in combat with an enemy they can't even scratch.

 

Bottom:

Reserves roll, and both his howling banshees and striking scorpions come in. He places the howling banshees 5" away from my Iron Priest, and I scream "6" towards me baby" . . . and he scatters . . . 6" directly towards me. I'm busting a gut laughing for 15 minutes while he rolls for mishap and luckily gets to put them back into reserves. His striking scorpions all-out outflank (illegal, yes we know) next to my Iron priest unit and he then moves his wraithguard back into their waveserpent and the wraithlord advances on the dread's drop pod. On my right, he pulls his dire avenger wave serpent back and unloads his dire avengers against his board edge, and he screams "Bladestorm" as they unleash everything they have into my wolves, destroying them utterly. His wave serpent attempts to destroy dread #2's drop pod, but misses. In combat, his wraithlord rips apart my drop pod to take a 3-2 lead(dread/pod/wolves to bikes/skimmer). My dread then rips apart 2 more pathfinders, and now the squad has finally had enough and turns tail to run, only to get cut down by my rampaging dread, evening the score at 3 all.

 

Turn 3:

Top:

My drop podding GHs decide to come in this turn, and the aim for a spot right between the 2 wave serpents (striking scorpions and wraithguard). I'm hoping to pop the wraithguard transport and then plasma them to death (or at least bloody a few). My biker squad #2 contunes its advance on the dire avengers, whie biker squad #1 comes around in behind the wraithguard wave serpent. My razor retreats a bit, and the Iron Priest remains stationary. In the shooting phase, biker squad #2 allocates melta shots against the wave serpent, which stun it and blow off its bright lance, but don't wreck it as hoped (damned anti-melta rule!). Biker squad #1 does better, however, with a rear armor melta shot sending the waveserpent down and forcing the wraithguard out. (4-3 for me now). Yipee! Now I get to plasama cannon the bunched-up wraithguard and then rapid-fire plasma gun the rest. Great plan, until both plasma shots scatter wide, and the combined shooting of my drop pod grey hunter unit manages only 1 wound (Eldrad of course took a plasma shot which he saved). Gulp - not good, not good at all. Time for assault, and finally my biker units see some action, as biker squad #2 declares a multiple assault against the wave serpent and the dire avengers, with the lord hitting the wave serpent while the priest and 2 other bikers charged the dire avengers. Since the wave serpent moved more than 6", I need 6s to hit it, and fail utterly. The wolf priest and unit don't do any better, managing to kill only 1 measly elf. They kill one in return, drawing combat! My lord consolidates into combat with the dire avengers since you can't be locked in combat with a vehicle.

 

Bottom:

Tournament organizer announces "5 minutes left" and my opponent and I wonder where all the time went to. Oh well, all his banshees need to come in is a 2 this turn, and he promptly rolls a '1'. There were only 3 meaningful actions. First, his wraithguard move up, fire, and assault my grey hunters. 2nd, the biker/dire avenger battle continues, and 3rd, his striking scorpions charge into combat with my Iron Priest. In the first, he kills to GHs from shooting, then annihilates another 5 in close combat. In return, they do nothing, with Eldrad saving both of his powerfist wounds. My GHs promptly turn tail and run, and he chooses not to pursue. In the 2nd combat, my Wolf Lord opts for the Wolf Claw over the ThunderHammer, and manages to kill 3 dire avengers. The rest of the squad adds one more, leaving one left alive, who promptly passes his morale test, denying me their kill point. In the final assault, the striking scorpions find the T5 of the unit (yeah cyberwolves) too much to handle, and only mangage to kill one thrall. The Iron Priest retaliates, killing 3 scorpions, but again, they pass their morale test.

 

Game ends with a 6-4 victory for me, thanks to his banshees never making it to the game. All in all, a fairly weak showing from the wolves. I just had no answer to his Wraithguard or his wave serpents. I got lucky with plasma cannons wounding his wraithlord, and I eventually downed a wave serpent with a multi-melta, but that was it. Regarding the 4 victory points I gave up, I expect to lose the dreads/pods/wolves, but I definitely should not have brought my GHs down anywhere near his wraithguard. Yeah, the "plasma them to death" plan is great, if I hit dead on with the cannons and then all 4 plasmagun shots, but when both cannons scatter and you hit with 2/4 gun shots, life isn't so good. Oh well, my objective coming in was to have fun and try to win 1/3 games. Well, I won the game, and I always have fun, but at the of the game, my biker squads succeeding in killing a total of 0 units in close combat, and only had one wave serpent to their name. That's not why I built this army, and I vowed not to let it happen again.

 

Stay tuned for BATREPs 2/3, which are significantly more exciting,

 

Trefenwyd

[TiguriusX]

Congrats to the rookie WL with his shiny new bike. A victory is a victory. Lets see how he adapts in rounds 2 and 3!!

[trefenwyd]

Time for the 2nd battle, this time against the other SW player. His list:

 

HQ:

Rune Priest w/chooser, LL, SC

Wolf Lord w/Frost Axe

WGBL attached to the scouts

 

Troops:

4 full GH squads in Rhinos, 2 with attached Wolf guard with fist/combi-melta

 

Elites;

Wolf guard spread throughout the squads, including ablative wounds for Long Fangs

10 man scout unit

 

Heavy Support:

3 LF squads, 4 ML, 1 LC per squad

 

The game this time was seize ground, 5 objectives, spearhead deployment. We place objectives in such a way so that 4 of them run down one long side of the board, and the other is in a far corner (as much as it can be). I win the 'go-first' roll, and choose the deployment zone with three objectives in it. One is on my left flank, one directly in the center, and one in my right flank (all in relation to a spearhead deployment). Further up my right flank is another objective, while the 5th one is laying in the center of his deployment. All in all, a very preferable set up for me, but he's got some decent mobility with 4 rhinos, and I only have 2 troops choices anyway, so it might not matter. I mirror my deployment from game #1 exactly, with the only change being my razor starting in reserve. He deploys his long fangs in cover, 2 units on hill facing my left flank (near the forward edge of his deployment) and the other on a hill facing my right flank. His rhinos are focused on my right flank, with 2 of them there, 1 holding the ceneter (with his Rune Priest), and his final rhino supporting his 2 LF squads on my left. He fails to seize initiative, and we commence.

 

Turn 1:

Top:

Dreads come down via drop pod assault, looking to target some juicy rhinos. I choose the rhino closest to his 2 LF squads as my prime objective, which will shield me from most of the melta in his other rhinos as well as hopefully focus his LF fire on them instead of my bikes. The first one comes down and scatters 12" away, off to the left of everything. The other one comes down on target, right behind the rhino. The rest of my movement is just like game #1, wolves move forward, bikers move slightly ahead of the wolves, then after shooting my wolves run past the bikers. This time, I don't turbo-boost anyone, prefering to shoot with the bikes. Dread #1, who scattered horribly, takes aim, and hits the rhino. Due to extended range, however, I manage only a glancing hit, which blows off its storm bolter. Dread #2 takes aim from behind, and really truly couldn't hit a barn door as his misses horribly. Biker squad #1, on the left, fires into the Long Fangs, killing both the squad leader and the wolf guard. Biker squad #2 misses with their multimelta. Plasma cannons managed to kill one of my Thralls as it exploded it a mess of green goo. Right about now, I realize that my wolves might be in charge range of the Long Fangs, and I roll a '4' (double to an '8'), leaving me 1.5" short. Oh well. 1st turn assault is over-rated anyhow.

 

Bottom:

His left Rhino advances forwards slightly, taking cover behind a hill in the middle of the board but still in range of his objective, while his rhino on my right flank advaces and take an objective (right now it's 2-0, him). His two rhinos in the middle advance forward slightly. Time for shooting. His Long Fangs on my left, thoroughly distracted by the dreads, open fire with abandon. 8 missiles and 2 lascannons later, both of my dreads are smoking ruins. On my right flank, his long fangs and his rune priest open up on my biker squad #2. Of course his RP rolls a '6' for living lightning, but he misses with the lascannon and hits with 3 missiles. Once the smoke clears, my squad has been reduced by 3, my melta/fist and 2 normal bikers lie dead, while my lord has suffered a wound (but thanks to SoT Bear, he casually absorbed the missile, asking "is that all you have?"). They pass their morale test, and we move to round 2.

 

Turn 2:

Top:

Reserves roll, and my razorback comes in, promptly moving 12" towards my leftmost objective. My plan is to wait until turn 5, then deploy the 5-man unit out from the razorback, taking both of my "home" objectives with the unit. The objectives are 12" apart, and one 5-man unit can cover 19" if spaced out approrpiately (13" from unit start to unit end plus 3" either side). So I just need to survive my razorback, move in between the objectives turn 4, and then 8" move (or rather 2" deployment + 6" move) will be enough to disperse the unit to cover both objectives. Good plan... now I just need to keep him occupied on his half of the table. My wolves advance on my left/left-center, preparing to charge the Long Fangs. Biker squad #2, now down to three models, advances around the center hill, stopping about 4" from his leftmost rhino. Biker squad #1 moves the other way around that hill, out of charge range, but ready to either help pop the rhino or pepper the LFs, as appropriate. In the shooting phase, Biker Squad #2 manages to explode the rhino in front of them with a close range multi-melta shot, scoring an all-important vehicle explodes result. Had I only wrecked it, he could have deployed behind the rhino and out of charge range, leaving my 3 bikers with no cover and nothing to charge at. As it is, he is about 5" away, and since bikers don't reduce distance for difficult terrain, charge will be assured! That frees up biker squad #1 to pepper his left-most LF squad, while the wolves prepare to charge the other LF squad on that hill. After all the shooting, he's lost 2 missile launchers, and the squad is now out of coherency and will have to spend a turn moving to get back together. For assault, my wolves charge in, taking out 2 LFs, leaving 2 locked in combat with the wolves. Biker squad #2 charges across the crater to engage his Grey Hunters, my wolf priest taking a wound in the charge. I opt for the wolf claw over the thunderhammer, and promptly disfigure 4 marines. My wolf priest and attack bike combine to add 2 more marines to the dead pile, while he mangages nothing in return. He quickly fails his morale test, get sweeping advanced, pulled back into combat, and then fails his ATSKNF saves, wiping the squad to a man.

 

Bottom:

Things are looking good - I am dominating the left flank and my razor is quietly hiding behind some terrain waiting for an "objective assault" later in the game. But my opponent wasn't going to just let me win... His scouts come in, but on my right board edge (probably his least desireable). He keeps his right-objective holding rhino stationary, while moving up his 2 center rhinos a bit. He re-forms his LF squad into coherency and prepares to charge into my wolves! In shooting, he again unleashes 4ML/1LC and living lightning into my biker squad #2, this time putting another wound on my lord and annihilating my attack bike. That squad is now down to a Lord and a Wolf Priest, each with one wound left - it's worth noting that I have made several runic armor saves - very nice especially against missile spam. In assault, I lose one wolf, and only manage to cause 2 wounds on his Long Fangs - and I watch with glee as he fails both saves and I wipe that squad and consolidate into the new squad, which has 4 members.

 

Turn 3:

Top:

It's time to pull my biker squad #2 out from danger, so I move biker squad #1 up next to the crater, and then pass both dangerous terrain tests for my lord and priest, and I move out of the crater and join biker squad #1, which now has 8 members. My army still can't hit the broad side of a barn as both melta shots fail to do anything against his rhinos. My second Thrall servitor also can't seem how to remember to make his plasma cannon function as it blows up in his face. In assault, my wolves kill 2 Long Fangs, and lose 2 in return - combat is now 5 wolves against his squad leader and wolf guard.

 

Bottom:

He now starts to head towards my objectives, moving his rune priest rhino 12" towards what we'll call the "middle" objective on the right side. He continues to hold the "right far" objective with one of his rhinos. He disembarks his wolf lord/gh squad in front of my bikers, hoping to rapid-fire them to death. The combination of long fang and GH fire is impressive, but through it all, runic armor prevails and I only lose 2 normal bikers. In assault, my wolves finally lose to the now 2-man marine squad, and they turn tail and flee. They did, however, thoroughly decimate 2 LF squads, and the 2 marines that remain can't claim the objective, so mission well accomplished.

 

Turn 4:

Top:

Things are starting to get hairy, with his rhino advancing towards what is for now an unclaimed objective. His lord/GH unit could also easily take the "far left" objective if I don't take care of them. So . . . I split the squad, all 4 ICs heading towards his lord/GH unit (what a sight!) and the 2 melta bikes heading towards his rune priest rhino. And to top it all off, my drop pod descends out of orbit, along with its cargo of 10 GHs, and they plop down in cover, next to his Rune Priest rhino. If I can pop the rhino with my melta bikes, I'll be able to rapid fire the squad, then take that objective and be up 3-1. Well, things didn't go exactly according to plan. For starters, my melta bikes hit with one shot, but managed to roll a '3' for penetration and only managed to glance it - a shake. Rapid fire plasmaguns didn't do anything either, and the squad gets ready for their retaliation. On a better note, what do you get when you charge 2 biker lords and 2 biker wolf priests into a unit of T4 infantry? I'll let you use your imagination, but the result wasn't pretty. 8 wounds for him, 0 for me. His lord (2 wounds left) and his remainig 2 marines high tailed it away, as I was unable to sweeping advance (i.e., didn't roll well enough).

 

Bottom:

unable to move his RP rhino, he disembarked and then proceeded to rapid fire/LL the heck out of my squad. At the end of the round, only 5 are left standing. His scouts finally move far enough onto the board to do something, and charge my 2 melta bikes, wiping them out. His Long Fangs continue fire at my IC unit, managing to finally put a missile through my runic armor, sending a Wolf Priest to his grave.

 

Turn 5:

Top:

Last turn, per the time left, and I execute my objective ambush, unloading my 5-man razor unit and spreading out to cover both objectives. The Razor moves forward to block the lane his rhino could take, and my Iron Priest unit moves forward to contest the middle right objective. I need to do 2 things this turn 1) ensure his lord is unable to rally and then bring his marines onto the far-left objective. 2) destroy his rhino/RP squad so they can't take the middle right objective. To accomplsish #1, I split off my WC/TH lord and move to 1" away from his retreating lord. To accomplish #2, I move my remaining Wolf Lord/Wolf Priest towards his Rune Priest unit, along with my now 5-man GH squad. I kill 2 marines with shooting, and then charge in with everyone. My FB/SS wolf lord kills 4, my Wolf Priest adds 2, my GH squad kills one, and then my Power First finishes up and leaves a bloody mess where his Rune Priest used to be. In retaliation, he mangages to kill 4 of my GH squad members, leaving only my power fist alive, who consolidates back towards the middle objective.

 

Bottom:

His lord and unit continue to flee, off the table this time. He moves his scouts up and the combined fire of the scouts and his Long Fangs manage to kill my 2 ICs out in the open (finally rolled some 1s). His rhinos and wolf guard/squad leader (who had been moving toward me since their combat ended) managed to kill my last remaining GH who had just consolidated close to the middle right objective (he was probably a little more than 3") And the game ends in a 2-1 victory for me!

 

Wow, at least I got to use my bikers like they were meant to be used this game. They single-handedly wiped out 3 full GH squads, including a Wolf Lord and Rune Priest (ok, they had a tiny bit of help with the Rune Priest unit, but they would have won it single-handedly). My inability to pop armor keeps showing up. If my opponent hadn't decided to disembark so he could rapid-fire me, I'm not sure I would have ever been able to get him out of his rhinos. In 2 games, I have destroyed a grand total of 2 out of 7 AV12 or less vehicles. I'm used to destroying more than that PER TURN! I suppose I'm 2-0 at this point, and despite several deficiencies with the list, I'm still managing to pull it out.

 

With my armor-popping problems, you can imagine how happy I was to then play the store-champ's IG-mech list in the tourney finale...

[Bergtorp]

Like both of them. But I can't feel that you didn't fullfill your oaths for your lords in the first game. In the second I see that you fullfilled them. You don't give any exact numbers for your lords, but as I see it your WC/TH lord earned his oath when he took a missilie to his chest and just laughed. I think your other lords kills a lot of enemies so he should pass. ^^

[TiguriusX]

Like both of them. But I can't feel that you didn't fullfill your oaths for your lords in the first game. In the second I see that you fullfilled them. You don't give any exact numbers for your lords, but as I see it your WC/TH lord earned his oath when he took a missilie to his chest and just laughed. I think your other lords kills a lot of enemies so he should pass. ^^

 

 

Lord #2 is a Majesty Saga not warrior.

[trefenwyd]

And on to the tourney finale - both of us are undefeated, and he tabled his last opponent (Chaos Marines) on turn 3.

 

His uber-dakka list:

HQ:

2 command squads, each with the ability to call down a demolisher shell (S9 AP3) shell every turn

 

Troops:

4 veteran squads, 2 with lascannons, 2 with 3 meltaguns each

 

Elites

10-man ratling squad with sniper rifles

3 sentinel squad, AV 12 closed top, all armed with plasma cannons

 

Heavy Support:

3 x Hydras

3 x Hydras

2 x Colossus

 

For those of you who don't know much about IG (myself included), the Hydra each have 2 twin-linked autocannons, that's a total of 24 twin-linked autocannon shots/turn, or on average, 36 hits, if you want to think about it that way. The Colossus drops a S6 AP3 IGNORE COVER large template (so much for my turbo-boost cover save or wolf shield). Add 2 S9 AP3 large templates every turn and 3 plasma cannons, and it's starting to paint a bleak picture for my elite (i.e., not many) Power Armour, thrives-on-cover army.

 

The game: seize ground, 5 objectives, pitched battle deployment. We place the pbjective fairly well spaced out (unlike game #2) with 3 closer to one side. We roll for first turn, and I win. And for the first time ever, I promptly give it right to him. He gives me a queer look and then sets up his army in typical castle fashion. He deploys his 2 colossus in the far right corner, with 3 Hydras right in front of them. The 3 other hydras go in the far left corner (he's not too worries with his 72" range). Next to each corner, deployed on his back lines, go his command squadds, and in front of each of them, both veteran squads. He deploys his sentinels in the middle (the only thing in the middle - it looks like he has 2 mini armies completely unable to support each other, but then again he's planning on blowing me out of the water. If I get to combat, I win - at least that corner.) I promptly declare everything in reserve, which he thinks is an absurd decision - what's better that 36 autocannon hits/turn? Being able to focus fire each unit as they arrive! He then deploys his ratlings in some ruins on the right side. Going back to the reserve-the-army decision, I just didn't see how I was going to be able to survive 5 turns of fire (I now understand how he tabled his previous opponent turn 3), and there was no way that going first was going to enable me to kill any of his tanks - my best strategy was to hope for as late of an arrival as possible, try to hide from LOS of his Hydras and hope his Colossus scatters. I decline to steal initiative and we begin.

 

Turn 1:

Top:

He promptly pops smoke with all Hydras, giving them a 3+ cover with their camo netting) and goes to ground with his 4 veteran squads.

 

Bottom:

Drop Pod Assault! If I ever needed my dreads to do some good work, this was it. I could deal with the Hydras - at least I got a save from them. One Colossus shell, however, would insta-kill my entire bike squad (except for the ICs), and they only had a 4+ save, getting cover from the Hydras in front of them, but no camo netting. So, I aim the pods for the right flank, just in front of the Hydras . . . and both come down more or less on target. Once they deploy, both dreads are about 3" from the Hydras and 9" from the Colossi. They take aim, steady . . . steady . . . steady, and one hits. And he promptly cover saves. Uggh, and it just gets uglier.

 

Turn 2:

Top:

He issues order for his veteran squads to all stand back up, and they do! His foremost squad on my left flank advances towards the closest objective, while the foremost squad on my right opens fire with 3 meltas and turns one dread into molten metal. I don't remember exactly what happened next . . . way too much lead flying for me to figure out who killed who, but after 3 plasma cannons, 24 twin-linked autocannons, and 2 lascannons, my other dread joined his brother in twisted agony, and one drop pod lay in ruins (but hey, all is not lost, I still have one drop pod alive)

 

Bottom:

Reserves roll. I need to a 5, since his army includes whomever it is that makes me add one to my die roll needed (or subtract one from my actual die roll, however its worded). Secretly, I think this works to my benefit, but my dice feel like rolling high and my razor squad and both biker squads come in turn 2. The razor promptly parks itself behind a large building complex, hiding it from view from anything, and both biker squads turbo-boost up the right flank, making a line of 12 bikes. His Colossus have a 24" minimum range, so by forcing him to deploy first, then turbo-boosting on the board directly towards the Colossus, I have effectively negated his colossus being able to shoot at my bikes! I'm feeling fairly good right now, giving my opponent the mental "how do you like them apples", a feeling which lasted until his autocannons started throwing those apples back at me...

 

Turn 3:

Top:

He moves his sentinels into LOS of my bikes, and advances the same squad he did last time, this time ending up in some ruins, within 3" of the objective. The other 2 objectives on his side of the board are on the right side, so he can't move his troops forwards without fear of biker assault, so he leaves them where they are. And time for shooting. My bikes hunker down to endure the worst 10 minutes of their life. The Hydras special rule negates their turbo-boost save (good thing autocannons are only AP4), while the lascannons/plasma cannons/demolisher shells from orbit negate their power armour (good thing I turbo-boosted). All in all, I suffered about 28 autocannon wounds, 6 demolisher shell wounds, 4 plasma cannon wounds, 1 lascannon wound, and 3 sniper wounds. 42 wounds on 12 models. But as they came in piecemeal, I was able to assign the first ones to my runic-armoured ICs, enhancing my save chances, and at the end of the round, both squads are battered, but alive. My far right squad is relatively unscathed, having lost 2 normal bikes and a wound on the FB/SS lord. The squad to their left, however, bore the brunt of the Hydras and its Wolf Priest was blown off his bike, the WC/TH lord suffered a wound, and another biker met his demise. My 12 models have been reduced to 7. But they are 7 very pissed off marines...

 

Bottom:

Time to call in for reinforcements, and my fen. wolves answer the call. They charge onto the board, heading straight for my opponents' advancing veteran squad, and then running, ducking into cover. On the right side, Biker squad #2 moves forward and prepares to unleash melta and then charge the Hydras. It looks like Biker squad #1 has no where to go, due to the drop pod/dread rubble in front of him and the ratling infested ruins to their front-left. "Forward like you've got a pair!" screams the lord as he guns his bike over and through the rubble, popping out the other side in front of a very surprised veteran squad. His 2 remaining squad-mates follow suit, and make it over with ease. My razor continues to hide. In shooting, biker squad #1 opens up on the veteran squad in front of them, causing 3 wounds and forcing them to flee. My melta finally works against the hydras, turning one into a flaming wreck. In combat, I charge closet-to-closes against the hydras, then move the biker furthest left the full 6", which will put him within 6" of the now-fleeing veteran squad, ensuring they run off the table. The rest of the squad piles in, and we do our best with krak grenades and the Wolf Priests' Melta Bombs. We end up destroying 3 weapons, both autocannon towers and one of the hydras' heavy bolters.

 

Turn 4:

Top:

Ok, so my biker squad #1 forced the veterans to flee, but now they are sitting there asking for more punishment. And my opponent is ready to deliver. The "other" hydras, both lascannon teams, and the plasma cannon sentinels open fire on that biker squad, killing off the attack bike and the melta, and leaving my WC/TH Lord all by himself with 1 wound left. My opponent does not move his right (my left) rear veteran squad at all, preferring to fire their lascannon than attempt to cature another objective. His left veteran squad still has 2 biker squads nearby, so nothing for them to really do, and my opponent's thrid troop choice continues to sit on their objective. Right now, 1-0 for him, and it's looking like my opponent is content to keep one objective and just hammer my into oblivion. His sentinels then charge into combat with my Wolf Lord, who promptly uses his Thunder Hammer to wreck one of the Sentinels.

 

Bottom:

My remaining 4-man biker squad moves to in front of the remaining veteran squad on my right side. My attack bike is apparently not suited for off-road travel, and fails his dangerous terrain test, exploding in a shower of springs and bolts. My wolves continue their advance in their attempt to contest the enemy's objective. My Iron Priest comes in and starts marching up the left flank, to contest that same objective should the game run long enough. My Biker squad fires into and then charges the veteran squad. Having seen his fellow bikers being blown to bits around him, Wolf Lord #2 is not a happy Space Wolf and he unleashes all his fury into the diminutive guardsmen. The combined fury of the Lord, Priest, and melta biker are enought to wipe the squad from existence. In combat with the sentinels, my wolf lord finds their armor too think to pentrate this time around.

 

Turn 5:

Top:

Time for the Hydras to go to work. . . my Biker squad #2 is now facing his command squad, and his HQ calls in the Hydra strike and a lascannon to take care of my pesky bikers. The HQ then calls down 2 demolisher shells on them, one of which scatters back onto the HQ squad itself! Ater all is said and done, the Priest dies gloriously along with my melta biker, leaving my Wolf Lord by himself with 1 wound remaining. His sniper take aim at my wolves and they lose three and promptly turn tail and run. The Colossus squad, who forgot to fire last turn, take aim on the wolves, but scatter

In assault, my Lord and his sentinels again fight to a draw.

 

Bottom:

Reserves roll, and my drop pod comes in. I couldn't have drawn this up any better. The drop pod takes aim on my right objective, and scores a direct hit. The GHs deploy in a large circle 2" away from the pod and 2" away from each other - like a big group of school camp kids holding hands around a campfire. My razor moves all out and parks himself over my left objective, popping smoke. My wolves miraculously rally and run back into the approximate position they were in before they fled. If we go to 6 turns, they'll be able to contest my enemy's objective. The Iron Priest and his contingent continue their march, now offset and about 4" behind the wolves. My drop pod squad takes aim at the ratlings in the ruins and kill 3, which quickly prompts them to run. My wolf lord #2 (FB/SS) charges into combat with my opponent's command squad, ripping 3 to shreds and mocking their feeble attempts to wound him. Wolf Lord #1, however, finally decided to end combat with the Sentinels, and rather than smashing them both to bits, he ended it by letting one of them get in a lucky shot to his head, and he fell lifeless.

 

Now for the all important die roll . . . a 1 or a 2, and I've just pulled off a 2-1 miracle. I roll, and die comes up '4'.

 

Turn 6:

Top:

He moves his plasma cannon Sentinels into position for LOS on my drop pod squad, and the colossus finally do someting. A direct hit x 2, but due to squad dispersion, he can only hit 3 per shot, so 6 marines die. Plasma cannons take out one more, leaving me with 3. Demolisher shell scatters, and his other hydras and lascannon don't have LOS. As long as they pass their morale test, I'll hang on to the objective. . . and of course they pass - they are marines after all! On my left flank, He targets my wolves with his hydras, otherwise I would contest his objective . . . he wounds an insane amount, and I promptly fail 8 cover saves, one more than models alive, and the wolves instanly disappear in a cloud of red mist and fur. In close combat, my lord takes out 3 more of his comamnd squad, only to be humiliatingly destroyed when his commander gets lucky and rolls a '6' to wound as he pounds my lord with his fist, to which I respond with a '1' for my save. I have now lost my entire biker contingent, but what a glorious swatch of destruction!

 

Bottom:

Ok, since I passed my morale, I still win if the game ends here, but there's not much I can do to set myself up if it continues. I'm pretty sure my three marines aren't going to last long. If I'm lucky, it'll take him a few hits to open up my razorback and at least some of that squad will survive. And if they do, and my Iron Priests can move up to contest his objective, it'll be a 1-0 victory for me. With that plan in mind, I reposition my razorback to be out of LOS of the Hydras and move my iron priest up to be able to contest next turn (pretty sure they'll get annhilated by the Hydras but it's worth a shot). The only real decision is whether or not to fire my plasmagun from my 3-man unit at an approaching weaponless hydra. If we do go another turn, the Hydra will be able to contest their objective, but if I kill myself with the plasmagun and then flee, I've lost the objective this turn. In the end, I decide that that squad is dead next turn anyway, so it doesn't matter if the Hydra can contest, and I withhold fire.

 

So I roll for game end, pleading for a 1-4, and quickly roll a '3'. Yippee!! 2-1 in my favor. I may only have 9 marines, 3 thralls, and 4 cyberwolves left on the board, but it's a victory nonetheless. That's what you call playing to win based on the objective of the game. In the end, I killed 1 Hydra, blew the autocannons off of 2 others, ripped through 2 veteran squads and 3/4 of a command squad, bashed in one sentinel, and forced the ratlings to flee. He was still left with 3 functional Hydras, 2 Colossus, 2 full veteran squads, 1 1/4 command squads, and 2 sentinels.

 

Lessons learned: I cannot emphasize the impact that runic armor had on games 2 and 3. The number of AP3 weapons I was able to make saves on was more than worth the 80 pts the armour cost on all my ICs. I also cannot emphasize enough just how many saves I was taking in game 3. He doesn't call it his Dakka list for nothing. Also, it paid to have no fear. I would put insta-death AP3 weapons on my wolf priests rather than lose regular bikers and I had no qualms about moving over difficult terrain with the bikes. I'm pretty sure I used them to their full potential in games 2/3 and while I'm not 100% sold on that many points in a unit being competitively effective, it sure was fun to play. The list was created to specifically use some "bad" units (like plasma cannon thralls) and those units performed . . . badly. And the list had a very hard time dealing with armor or high T characters. I'm especially upset that my WC/TH lord was pummeled by 2 sentinels (who don't even have DCCW). Why make a 265 model that can't even kill sentinels - you could argue that meltabombs would have been essential then, but 4 attacks = 3 hits at 4+ to glace or 5+ to pen is about the same as 66% chance to pen (if you combine with WTN and argue that it can be used for meltabombs - didn't want to get into that with my group) or a 16% chance if you need '6s'. Anyway, if I ditch the Iron Priest and 2 Dreads for 3 LF squads, and reduce the 10-man GH team to 2 5-man teams in razors, and add a suicide combi-melta pod, this list has some serious potential. Since I'm still under Long Fang ban for 1 3/4 months, I'll be brainstorming new ways to try to pop armor and MCs... Thanks for reading, and let me know your thoughts,

 

Trefenwyd

[trefenwyd]

Well, regarding Oaths, my Majesty Saga Oath was fulfilled all three games - no going to ground or falling back for me! Regarding the Bear Oath - the need to cause the deathblow on an enemy character; yeah, I'll take a pass on that one. My options were:

1. Eldrad with 3+ invul, re-roll fails, and he deployed Eldrad on the other side of the board from my Bear lord

2. Wolf Lord, WGBL, Rune Priest. My Bear Lord destroyed one unit (no IC) but when in combat with his Wolf Lord w/Frost Axe, I chose to attack him with my Frost Blade Lord (who had no wounds and a better invul save) instead of my twice-wounded Bear Lord. Call it 'attempting to win the game triumphing over Oath fulfillment'

3. IG HQ squads. I did everything I could to get to them. Ended up being intercepted by dang sentinels...

 

Not counting the first game, I was very pleased with my biker squad use - I definitely didn't hold back as every biker and IC was dead at the end of games 2/3 except for my Bear Lord in game 2. And it wasn't just due to them being shot and killed. They ravaged squads left and right. Still not sure if that's the best use of 1,100+ pts, but it was fun.

[Glendor]

wow those were some truly amazing games especially when you count the stupid things you did in your list.

[trefenwyd]

Hey, I tried to nerf myself pretty good. Next time I'll go for 3 Iron Priests!