Jump to content

SA regionals- Heat 1


Morticon

Recommended Posts

Corby- after this tourney i'm of the opinion now more than ever that the board, game type and opponent match up you play are JUST as important to your victory as your list/game play.

 

Its also why I try avoid completely "matter-of-fact" language/ ways of speaking relating to hypothetical situations.

 

 

You're speaking like rhinos just automatically implode when looked at angrily. They dont.

Those "paper thin" rhinos are more resilient than you imply.

 

The odds of a space marine lascannon blowing up a rhino in cover -> 18%

 

Deploy in cover.

If you dont have cover - thats what smoke is for.

If you dont have first turn then deploy off board and move on - then smoke.

If you're not doing these things - you're playing like a muppet....and thats your fault - not the DCs.

 

The flip side of this coin is OF COURSE the fact that a lucky shot stops you in your tracks. 100% understandable. No contest.

But as a BA player, we should be smart enough that by the time your DC rhino is 18" (bare minimum with smoke) on to the board your army should be either in his face with other things, or shooting the crap out of him. If you're not doing those things, you've failed somewhere.

 

All of this is ALSO assuming you're on a table with little to no terrain - which automatically favours certain builds and makes your arguments specific to YOUR case.

 

I acknowledge heavily that my victory this tourney was very largely influenced by the fact Table 1 had loads of los blocking cover, but thats how the game works.

 

If i had rolled pitched battle, or spearhead with little-no terrain and gone second against a heavily shooty guard list...with an astropath....THEN..sure..i'd be destroyed.

But, why do I need that many variables to scare me off a unit.

 

All I have to say on the matter is that in my games, in this tourney, on the boards I played, in the ( 6 ) missions I had, on the tables I played... the DC were HARDLY a wild card. They were pivotal in every victory I had and a great asset to me, my list and my eventual win over 45 other players.

Perhaps its our differences of experiences with the meta game. As I see from your reports , yourself and alot of your opponents had little mech. A very big difference from armies I normally see in tournaments. And the meta game itself probally distorts peoples views of how certain units perform. But I standby my point. I do not believe the death company to be an effective tool , regardless of how well they are played. They are still unpredictable. They are still a wild card. You can migitate it. But you can't erase it.

 

As I said. I'm not questioning your ability as a general. ( as I can't challenge it based on the result) But I am questioning the effectiveness of the Death Company. One Result will not change my mind.

 

As to the paper thin nature of rhinos. They are Paper thin. ( Think Dark Eldar Ravangers without open topped) They will be destroyed quite easily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats dude and looking forward to the other games; especially because you seem to have played a couple of good lists. (ignoring both Eldar lists for a moment ^^)

 

:ph34r:

 

You know, I looked at the list and didnt think much of it (the last one), but as it turned out, the player was really good and actually did quite well in the tourney.

 

He came 6th :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well done on the win Mort, on all 6 of them ;)

 

You really set the bar high this year by starting with such a great win. Interesting list you played, and I quite like the DC in there, I've been playing some with a DC dread in a Stormraven for the past 3 months, and they have not failed me yet. Once they're in the enemy lines there is always someting to kill :ph34r:

 

Looking forward to play a game against you this year. If not at ICON then definatly at Nationals in Sept down in the Cape. Just hope I can hold the BA banner as high here in the North like you are doing down there.

 

The Reroll with Corb's far-seeing eye you mentioned sounds epic!... I would have loved to see your opponents face when you poped Bjorn and he could not do anything as he already said he's fine with the roll :rolleyes: ... That's the best Corb reroll I've heard of yet.

 

Keep it up

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ron1n, if any of you up North can make it down over the long weekend in March the Veterans tourney is gonna be the tournament of the year in SA!! 2500 points and it counts for the national ranking! We can organise a place to stay for you peeps too! Spread the word!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I said. I'm not questioning your ability as a general. ( as I can't challenge it based on the result) But I am questioning the effectiveness of the Death Company. One Result will not change my mind.

 

just to play along here, i don't know that one can say that the Death Company are "ineffective". They are very good at doing what they were designed to do - fire magnet/be real killy/scare the bejeebus out of people. But they do have a flaw, Rage. So i think one could more properly say that they are unreliable before one said they were ineffective. In my experiences with DC (which i run in every list)if you field properly, you can pretty much make rage a non issue. Only once has an army raged my DC off into the wild blue yonder - an all bike Space Marine list. One time out of 12 months of weekly games and monthly tournies. There are a lot of other things in my army that have messed up or failed me more than my DC. I would encourage you to run some or watch them be run if you haven't, but it seems your mind is made up against them, which is perfectly fine. That is why there is more than one choice in the dex, cause different people like different things. However, i must disagree with you on the level of "Effectiveness" of the unit.

 

Oh yeah, and Mort, Congrats buddy, 6 in a row aint easy, even when you are the Sons of Sanguinius!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ron1n, if any of you up North can make it down over the long weekend in March the Veterans tourney is gonna be the tournament of the year in SA!! 2500 points and it counts for the national ranking! We can organise a place to stay for you peeps too! Spread the word!

 

Would have loved to. 2500 points would have been awesome to play. You can fit so many nice tings in there, but alas, I'll only make 1 trip there this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I said. I'm not questioning your ability as a general. ( as I can't challenge it based on the result) But I am questioning the effectiveness of the Death Company. One Result will not change my mind.

 

just to play along here, i don't know that one can say that the Death Company are "ineffective". They are very good at doing what they were designed to do - fire magnet/be real killy/scare the bejeebus out of people. But they do have a flaw, Rage. So i think one could more properly say that they are unreliable before one said they were ineffective. In my experiences with DC (which i run in every list)if you field properly, you can pretty much make rage a non issue. Only once has an army raged my DC off into the wild blue yonder - an all bike Space Marine list. One time out of 12 months of weekly games and monthly tournies. There are a lot of other things in my army that have messed up or failed me more than my DC. I would encourage you to run some or watch them be run if you haven't, but it seems your mind is made up against them, which is perfectly fine. That is why there is more than one choice in the dex, cause different people like different things. However, i must disagree with you on the level of "Effectiveness" of the unit.

 

Oh yeah, and Mort, Congrats buddy, 6 in a row aint easy, even when you are the Sons of Sanguinius!

 

 

 

Very well written Grizzly Adams.

I've run them plenty a time in the past , and throughout it all I've disdained the "wildcard" factor of them. I did enjoy playing with them , don't get me wrong on that. But in a dedicated tournament build , where your reliance on your army and its individual units is critical for effective play , they perform at a sub par standard , with rage being a far greater drawback than ever. That is my opinion from watching them been run and having run them myself throughout the years in tournaments and regular play.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 2 (As is custom down here, on Day 2 they switch up the top tables a bit. They rolled a random starting point of four corners and thankfully table one became a really cool, ruined building area with decent los blocking terrain!! As noted above, this was a heavy contributer to me winning this tourney).

 

Game 4 - Guard (top Ranked player in SA)

 

 

Command Squad- lascannon, Astropath (-1 reserve to me?)

Junior Command - melta

Inq Lord -mystics

Chimera

2x 3 Lascannon Team

10 Platoon - lascannon

10 Platoon- lascannon

chimera?

10 Vets - melta/flamers

10 Vets- melta

Vendetta - HB

Vendetta- HB

2 Russes - HB

2 Hydras - closed top

1 Medusa - hull Breacher round? (S10, blast, ap1, 2d6pen)

 

 

While not a "leafblower" list per se, it usually wins by wiping his opponents clear off the board. It is an alpha strike of NOTE.

 

He is however weak in DOW - SCOOOORE !!

 

We are playing Dawn of War and Kill Points.

 

 

We roll off and I win first turn. Something I learned from playing this guy is that you need to go first, or you will stand little chance.

I opt for first and combat squad my RAS.

 

Now, in a KP game thats usually the last thing you do. However, the multiple small units of threat were MUCh more valuable as a game tactic than a single KP more. Additionally, it allowed me to put on my 2 Troops without losing any mobility (since everything else was zooming on 18") and put them on RIGHT up 24" deep into enemy territory to force the opponent off the opposing parapets/ruins where he could deploy his lascannons. (thanks 18" push-back).

 

Furthermore, I took a look at the board and decided that it would be best to attack from left to right - since that was the best attack path as far as cover was going. How i made sure the opponent deployed in the corner I wanted him in, was to put mephiston on the side I didnt want him in.

 

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/861/img3253s.jpg

 

(note my opponent already assuming the position after seeing Mephiston !!! hahaha :) ;) )

 

Naturally, it worked and he deployed away from Mephy into the corner I needed him in.

He deployed his command squad and 2 lasteams.

 

In my first turn, I still didnt know where the majority of his units where going to be coming from.

 

So, to dictate where I wanted him, I deployed like this:

 

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/8412/img3254v.jpg

(ignore his models for the most part- he was just getting set up)

 

My attack bikes came in hard on the left flank, using the cover, but also creating a huge threat on my left flank so as to make sure he didnt deploy there. Mephy and the RAS headed up deep into cover so they could try close the gap needed if he did come on the left flank.

 

The DC of course stayed in cover...as you do.

 

I ran with everything that could and fired nothing in the first turn.

 

He then came on ->

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6504/img3258p.jpg

 

 

Thankfully due to my placement and his stressing and toiling about the BA speed, he didnt place as optimally as I think he would have liked.

He started shooting at the most immediate threat- the RAS in his front yard.

However, since he was restricted with his movement on (and as as a result his firepower) he only managed to do a grand total of 8 wounds to my RAS - 5 of which I saved

Same went for my Rhino in cover.

 

next turn would be pain for him and- at the risk of sounding cocky, I would have had to do something either very very stupid or get very unlucky to duff it ->

 

Turn 2 ->

 

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/137/img3259w.jpg

(the missing vendetta is due to him changing his mind after i took the snap, so he deployed it on the far left)

 

As you can see, I had now boxed him.

 

 

Couple of turns later ...

 

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/3338/img3262n.jpg

 

 

By the end of the systemati destruction he had 1 veteran guardsman and the Inq lord with 1 mystic left on the table.

 

It ended in 5th turn.

 

I lost 4KP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nice, youve convinced me to start running at least 1 bike squad - do you feel regular bikes are worth it compared to attack bikes?

 

Alos, i undersatnd its a differnt game in tournies, but ive only had one mishap so far with my DC - and that was getting wiped by a vindi team my 2nd game.Usually i just drop them in between a few enemy units (usually troops actually) and then just let em go, rage then works as a reliable bonus if you will.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

note my opponent already assuming the position after seeing Mephiston !!! hahaha

oh dude .

 

Anyway interesting set up for IG . I always though that if people went for las canons set up in troops then they go hvy on troops and low on chimera and stuff and spam , hydras +vendettas as only support . But that maybe just me , to be honest am too much of a chicken to play a hybrid build that plays a bit of everything.

 

I love how people still think about MM attack bikes as if they were playing against vulkan builds :D they aint bad , but they dont realy destroy stuff [cover , chance to miss and they are "only" str 8 over 12"] . too much testing can hurt you too.

 

Interesting that he was shielding the lemmans and not the chimeras even when it is harder to hit with blast templates at short range and an opponent that can spread . I would try to protect the multi shot stuff , but again am not a top IG player myself .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

MM attack bikes have a good threat range for a fast moving mobile list. Like most things in the list, they are there to offer a perceived threat, whilst not being durable enough to actually stand up to any sort of focussed fire.

 

Seeing so many Multi Meltas and Mephiston line up all down one side is going to subconsciously cause the opponent to keep his armoured targets away.

 

I do like the Attack Bikes because if needed they can weigh in and support Assaults that go wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting game. It shows nicely how IG gets pretty much massacred when they haven't got enough shooting turns. It's not only because of you getting the 1st turn and DoW though, because then they would trouble much more often while apparntly people believe that they are thé army to beat. I think it's more the fault of the list; like Jeske says: normally you wouldnt just take so many lasscannon teams. Íf you play with non-mech units, you should go for 'blob' squads: combined squads with a comissar for Stubborn and re-roll for the Ld. Such a squad can act as a bubblewrap/screen to hold up some of the oppenents units, granting the IG effectively another turn of shooting usually.

 

I don't get the hate for MM Attack Bikes.... or the lack of love for them actually. They are just a very good unit in my opinion and have some important advantages over Speeders: not as easily shut down with S5-S7 fire, which forces your oppenent to either point heavy fire at them or run the risk of not killing them. Even then a 3+ cover save is still pretty good to avoid being killed by Missiles and the like. Sure Vulkan makes them more reliable; but without vulkan they are still a good unit imo. (easier to hide and being able to tie stuff up in CC are other advantages ofc, while speeder can deepstrike and block stuff better)

 

Well played though of course from your side. It's funny to see how good players who actually play and win big tournaments usually don't have the standard 'spam' or 'msu' lists, which are argued as being the best lists. Not surprised about that though, because theory and actual playing is a difference ;) Not that those 'spam/msu' lists are bad though; just that it's not the end of all being.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting game. It shows nicely how IG gets pretty much massacred when they haven't got enough shooting turns. It's not only because of you getting the 1st turn and DoW though, because then they would trouble much more often while apparntly people believe that they are thé army to beat. I think it's more the fault of the list; like Jeske says: normally you wouldnt just take so many lasscannon teams. Íf you play with non-mech units, you should go for 'blob' squads: combined squads with a comissar for Stubborn and re-roll for the Ld. Such a squad can act as a bubblewrap/screen to hold up some of the oppenents units, granting the IG effectively another turn of shooting usually.

 

 

Interesting to note though is that this list is why the player behind it is ranked number one in our country.

80% of his games end in massacres for him.

 

Those las teams are pivotal in taking out transports and hard units while the other units continue to pile on the pain. In its first turn it can put out 12 twin linked lascannon shots, not to mention everything else.

 

OH !! I forgot- the list has marbo too of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting to note though is that this list is why the player behind it is ranked number one in our country.

80% of his games end in massacres for him.

 

Those las teams are pivotal in taking out transports and hard units while the other units continue to pile on the pain. In its first turn it can put out 12 twin linked lascannon shots, not to mention everything else.

 

OH !! I forgot- the list has marbo too of course.

Haha, well I don't mean that it's a bad list by any means; but it relies a bit too much on the first turns I think. If he goes 2nd and has 1 crappy round of shooting such a list can't recover from it well enough; simply because he doesn't have much to stop the other playing from completely rolling him over then. Either full-Mech (for more blocking potentail) or a blob squad when you decide to go and play with Heavy Weapon teams should make for a more stable list. Overall less power; but less dependant on dice/terrain/oppenents so you can prevent complete massacres (which puts you out of some tourneys regarding a good placement)

 

Such things though only potentially matter against other good players, where you are an example of clearly, and/or when he does get some back luck...

 

Some thoughts though; maybe I'm wrong and his list is completely optimised, hard to judge on paper of course ^^ But then again, would you have won so big then? As you say he is no1 ranking player.... :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah my thoughts exactly I would understand the las teams if he had 18+ shot with them per turn[so a slogger build] otherwise if he doesnt start he is for a world of hurt , specialy as IG are bs 3 ,with a 50% to hit and smokes they can have horrible shoting turns[even worse against something fast moving like BAs or when they dont go first] . Again just like Z said am not dissing the list or the player , I just dont understand the list mind set [and as I said before am too much of a chicken to play hybrid builds] . IMO if he had run auto canons it should at least technicly run more smoothly , his list was mostly mecha . the lack of short range support [like plasma vets protected inside chimeras walls] was kind of a showing too.

 

To be honest I kind of a like the non mecha IG builds [and not because they are a good match up for EC :P] they are very freshing and good counter list for those sm builds that try to go gunline or semi gunline . There is something that makes me smile when a guy tells me those 22 dice he is rolling are just the lascanons .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

sounds like a potent IG list. maybe not optimal for tourney play but those are alot of lascannons :D also dont forget that he can use his commander for gaining rerolls on his lascannon teams. those 3 lascannons become alot more dangerous when they can suddenly reroll ;)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Game 5 - Imperial Guard

 

Command Squad - master of ordnance, lascannon

Inq lord- mystics, hood, incinerator

Chimera

junior command.

2 Platoons- lascannons , 1 commissar

2 Veterans - stuff (demo)

9 Psychic battle choir

Chimera

Marbo

Colossus

Manticore

2 Hydras

3 Vendettas

 

 

I was up against the U18 regional Champion. Ashley is only 15 years old, but travelled up to the nationals up-country last year and placed higher than me and a lot of other people twice his age. He's an excellent player, with a great command of his army....To that point in the tournament, he had not lost a game. He was 4 for 4 when he was then put up against the BA.

 

 

Our game was on the top table, and was Capture and Control (2 objectives) and pitched battle.

 

Ash made one fundamental flaw that I believe cost him the game.

He chose to go second.

His tactic to date was to rely on his shooting to slow opponents down and then use his vendettas to come in, mop up and claim where he needed.

He didn't factor for BA speed.

 

I placed the objective on the left side of the board, hoping he would deploy as far away as possible thereby forcing him into the corner I wanted to attack - same tactic as before. He didnt fall for it. He deployed on the closer side, but the side that had much better fire lanes for his army.

 

 

I set up my army, spread accross the board again, hoping to outflank from the right side if need be and then gun through to him.

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/8509/img3264ci.jpg

(me on the right)

 

He set up like such

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/6078/img3263j.jpg

 

He deployed one Vendetta- the other two opting to move on from the edge. He also put the Junior command into reserve, hoping for a late claim.

Finally he put the colossus on the far right flank to bombard away as i attacked the main force of his army.

 

In my first turn, I zoomed what i could as much as I could. I did however take the chance to shoot at the chimera (side armour) carrying the battle choir- i hate those guys- and they can WRECK your day something fierce.

 

Luckily I managed to blow it up!! Yay AP1 !!

The resulting explosion took out a few guys too.

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/3117/img3266p.jpg

 

 

In his turn, he targetted my bikes something FIERCE - knowing that my only long range threats were in 3 units and a "paper thin" (:P) Razorback.

 

 

Thing is, with 18" rhinos on pitched, you get first turn, or its trouble time.

2nd turn I was in combat.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/4476/img3267b.jpg

 

He pulled another sneaky, taking off the commissar making them break and thus able to shoot at the DC.

 

He also got a bit unlucky when in his 2nd, neither of his vendettas showed up - marbo too.

 

By that stage, he was in a lot of trouble.

I started chewing away at his army where he could, and he at mine (largely losing the bikers) and the jumpers.

DC started on the tanks after they mopped up the guardsmen - mephy jumped up a level to attack the command squad.

 

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/3913/img3268.jpg

 

 

Marbo came on in 3rd, with the other vendettas, and not wanting to just be an instant give away, opted to deploy back on my objective.

However, by this time, most of his army was going down to the DC chomping their way from tank to tank.

 

 

In the 5th turn, I moved onto his objective in the far corner, deploying my untouched RAS, and surrounding it so that he wouldnt be able to come within 3" of it.

I did the same for my objective.

 

In the 5th, he knew that he couldnt contest onto it - he turned his vendettas on Mephiston, and shot him to death, before conceeding the game at the end of his 5th and knew that even if he played for 2 more turns, he would not be able to move me from both objectives.

 

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6610/img3270mq.jpg

 

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6484/img3269v.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Game 5 - Imperial Guard

 

 

 

In his turn, he targetted my bikes something FIERCE - knowing that my only long range threats were in 3 units and a "paper thin" (:D) Razorback.

 

:P

 

Touché.

 

 

Once again , another interesting Battle report Mort.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 in a row is, if one can apply (sexual) evolutionary theory within a fair environment to 40k, a watershed number.

 

Simply put, it means your army (+playstyle) is deemed superior. Despite potential for aberrances, you've an army that is number 1 (~ top 1%) in a sample deemed a fair and representative population.

 

Congratulations. Seriously.

 

Now, if you can find and beat 7 opponents in a row that have also won 7+ in a row, you can say you've got a universally perfect army list (and playstyle).

 

*salute*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wow a 15 year old whos awesome at tourneys? sounds like some of the brats at my store voice themselves out tbe....except that he IS that awesome :P

 

good jobv beating him man :) beating someone on a 4-4 winning streak must have given him a pretty sour face :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Game 6 - Space Wolves.

 

I was SOOOOO happy to hear that my opponent was Jake the SW player. He's a legend of a guy just really cool guy to game with.

He also wasn't a guard player.

He had played his game 6 against the near carbon copy of Ashley's IG (my game 5) and managed to pull a win.

 

When I saw his list, I wasnt too overwhelmed. It seemed like he had won a lot of his games through cunning use of Bjorn.

Jake had made it to the final table with 4 wins and 1 draw under his belt. Now he faced the BA.

 

List:

 

Rune Priest- bling (Livin' Lightnin', Murderous Hurricane)

Bjorn (plascan)

4 Wolf Guard - various bling.

5 Scouts - stuff

10 Hunters- lots of bling

10 Hunters- lots of bling

9 Hunters- lts of bling

Rhino

6 Fangs - 3 LC, 2 ML

6 Fangs - 3 LC, 2 ML

 

 

GAME - 3 Objectives, Spearhead.

 

 

Once again fate shone on me and I was able to get first turn, even with Bjorns reroll.

I deployed in the corner I liked and just left one squad of bikers off the board.

 

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/8857/img3271i.jpg

 

He deployed his scouts onto the board, 18" away from me hoping for them to be a distraction on my side while his forces marched forward.

 

In my first turn everything moved into cove with the jumpers going towards the wolf scouts and mephy heading towards the right away from the Rune priest. I also boosted a biker squad off behind cover deep into his lines to start taking shots in subsequent turns.

 

In his first turn, he marched forward what he could, and took shots where he could. Luckily cover held up for the most part and my DC rhino was only stunned.

Bjorn marched closer and closer while the one hunter squad moved towards an objective, taking a quick detour thanks to them taking the bait and shooting/assaulting the bikers (putting them out of range of hood!).

 

Mephy was free to wreak havoc. The jumpers engaged the Scouts, while mephy engaged the big wolf squad.

 

The fight lasted a few turns.

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/371/img3273o.jpg

 

With reserves coming in from both sides ->

 

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/5336/img3274ii.jpg

 

and then bjorn smashing the DC Rhino up.

http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/6720/img3275.jpg

 

 

My counter to their counter then came out- The Rhino libby squad made short work with FNP/FC and then came the shocker of the game for my opponent.

 

As mentioned earlier, bjorn took a hit from a multimelta biker. He failed his cover save and I rolled a ONE on the pen table.

My opponent said he would keep it. (ie: not reroll it with his venerable ability).

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/5310/img3276x.jpg

 

 

However- the wolves werent the only one with tricksey rerolls up their sleeves. Corbulo used the Far Seeing Eye to reroll the dice and I got a SIX ! BOOM went bjorn and I now had another objective in my midst.

 

The best thing was that since it was a reroll of the dice, no further reroll would be possible! (circumventing his Venerable rule).

 

From that point, there was not much he could do. He had gotten unlucky in combat and was struggling to kill both bikers in time to get back on to the objectives/support his units.

 

By 4th/5th turns, Mephy was flying up to engage Fangs, and the DC were trooping forward to kick ass of whats left.

 

They met in the middle somewhere and fought out for the following turn or so, while my RAS squad (in razor) hopped out to claim one objective and the 8man ras spread out to support claim 3 objectives!!

 

 

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/8683/img3277a.jpg

 

 

Solid Victory to the BA!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.