1500 point tournament - Imperial Fist Bikes

[Tech Brother Torgo]

This last weekend my store hosted a 3-round 1500 point tournament, with the Grey Knights black box going to the 1st place winner (to be actually picked up after the release of course). Great turn out with 25 players, and it gave me 3 rounds to test out my bikes for their 2nd tournament run ever. Here's the rundown:

 

My list:

HQ

Captain 180

Relic Blade

Space Marine Bike

Artificer Armor

 

Elite

Dreadnought 125

2 Twin-linked Autocannons

 

Troops

Bike Squad 185

4 Bikers

2 Meltaguns

Attack Bike

Multimelta

 

Bike Squad 185

4 Bikers

2 Meltaguns

Attack Bike

Multimelta

 

Bike Squad 225

6 Bikers

2 Flamers

Attack Bike

Multimelta

 

Fast Attack

Land Speeder Squad 180

2 Speeders

2 Typhoon Launchers

 

Land Speeder Squad 180

2 Speeders

2 Typhoon Launchers

 

Heavy Support

Vindicator 120

Dozer Blade

 

Vindicator 120

Dozer Blade

 

TOTAL 1500

 

 

Game 1 vs Tyranids, Capture and Control Pitched Battle

His list:

Tyrant dual scything talons, hive commander, wings

2 squads of Ymgarls

3 squads of genestealers /w toxin sacs, one with broodlord

1 squad of hormogaunts /w adrenal glands

Mawlock

2 Zoanthropes in a pod

 

I won the roll-off and decided to go 2nd. Unfortunately the tables were fairly light on terrain, but we had one ruin on his side near his objective (my left from the table center), a large set of hills on my left table edge, an area cover factory piece in my center and a small ruin on my right. some more random terrain was placed in the right side of the table, but it didn't come into play. My objective was placed in the open between the two terrain features near my deployment zone.

 

He deployed the Mawlock and tyrant behind his ruin, leaving all the other bugs to come in later as a surprise. Seeing all the outflankers and Ymgarls, I went all reserve.

 

Turn 1 Tyranids:

The tyrant takes cover in the ruin for a solo tea party while the mawloc attempts (unsuccessfully) to get a cover save as well. He later realized he forgot to burrow the mawloc...

 

Turn 1 Fists:

Nothing!

 

Turn 2 Tyranids:

Thankfully for me, both of his Ymgarls arrived this turn ruining their surprise assault potential. They took cover in the two terrain pieces on my table edge. The broodlord led stealers outflank on my let side, but he comes in near his table edge to hide behind the hill near his objective. Nothing else showed up, so some shuffling and running to spread out ensued.

 

Turn 2 Fists:

Now the fun begins! With an amazing stroke of luck, everything but my bikes arrived. The vindicators rolled in 6" in front of either Ymgarl nest, while the typhoon squads and the dread walked/flew in on my left to target the monsters. Shooting saw one vindicator kill 3 (of 7 or 8, I don't remember) ymgarls in the left side, while the other scattered waaaaaaay off. All of the emperor's furious firepower might managed to take all of 2 wounds off the mawloc. Whoopee! Ah well, there's always next turn.

 

Turn 3 Bugs:

Zoans pod in near the right objective, the and the hormogaunts and stealers outflank (mercifully) on my right side. He finally remembers to burrow the mawloc while both sets of stealers advance on his objective ruins. The left ymgarls start to move out of the ruins towards the vindicator and the right side ones close on my objective. His shooting results in the zoans immobilizing my right side vindicator. In assault the left side ymgarls manage to get 2 into striking range with the vindicator but fail to do anything.

 

Turn 3 Fists:

Both melta bike squads show up and roll on near their sides' respective vindicator to provide fire support. Typhoons and dread reposition to shoot the ymgarls. A modest showing from the left side shooting (still had cover save) left 2 ymgarls remaining. The right bike squad has trouble getting through the zoans' saves and only kills one, but the vindicator made a genestealer-sized crater, leaving only 2 standing.

 

Turn 4 Filthy Monsters:

Forgets to re-deploy the mawloc... I would have reminded him but I had no idea what the thing did (never played against one before). Final stealer squad moves to the ruin near my objective due to terrible terrain and run rolls. The tyrant finally grows a pair and decides to fly towards the speeders while both squads of stealers on his side take over as cowards and hide in the ruins, capturing his objective. Hormogaunts run towards my bikes while both ymgarls advance on the bike squads near each of them (was really hoping to have wiped them out last turn... uh oh). Zoanthrope finishes his job, blowing the vindicator to kingdom come.

 

In assault, the left ymgarls hit the bikes taking out 3 or 4 with no kills in return but I hold. The right side bikes are hit by the 2 remaining ymgarls and the 15-strong gaunts but only 2 fall. God I love T5. One stealer falls in return. The tyrant assaults one speeder squad, but needing 6s to hit, doesn't do anything. I'm definitely not impressed by the dual scything talon build, devourers would have been much more deadly I think.

 

Turn 4 Fists:

Hoping for my flamer bikes with captain, but a 1 is rolled. All eyes on the left side turn toward the tyrant, and 4 krak missles, a vindicator shell and 4 autocannon shots later the beast is no more. Everything else is in assault for better or worse (probably worse). The left ymgarls kill 2 more bikes, leaving the poor attack bike left with 1 wound. Fortunately the right side fares much better (considering all the bugs it was facing) loosing only 1.

 

Turn 5 Creepy Crawlies:

Mawloc stays burrowed again... whoops! Not much for movement as the stealers near my objective ruins roll a bunch of 1's and 2's for their terrain and running, so they stay in cover. The zoanthrope lance strikes true and blows up my last vindicator. His left ymgarls finish off the last bike and consolodate toward dreadnought. Right side takes no losses and kills 1 gaunt and one ymgarl, leaving only 1 left. Did I mention I love T5?

 

Turn 5 Fists:

Finally, the Captain and his flamer squad arrive! Everybody takes position to fire at the zoan and steelers piled up on the ruin on my right side while the speeders reposition to hammer the coward stealers on his objective and the dread takes aim at the ymgarl. With a great show of promethium, bolter fire and frags, the captain's squad wipe out their steelers and the zoan while the typhoons and dread kill 1 1/2 stealer squads. A frightened looking ymgarl is also no more. It's a good day to be a son of Dorn.

 

In other fortunate news, the two near invincible bikes kill off the last ymgarl. Now that there is no synapse on that side of the table, the gaunts freak out and run, only to be swept by the bikes. 13 kills for free! Bikes consolodate towards table center. Roll comes up a 3 so the game goes on.

 

Turn 6 Quivvering Hive Mind:

Not looking good for the tyranids now, but they fight on. The mawloc finally emerges from his slumber, eating the once invincible bikes. Unfortunately almost everything else is dead.

 

Turn 6 Fists:

Captain squad shoots the contesting spore pod to death and now controls my objective. One squad of speeders flat out to contest his while the other kills off the last stealers just to be sure :) The dread puts another 2 wounds on the mawloc. Game ends!

 

This one went very well, but I believe my opponent made a few mistakes with his deployment and wasn't nearly aggressive enough. I have a lot of luck to thank with the assault on my right side though. One win down!

[Tech Brother Torgo]

Round 2 vs Tau, an enemy I've never played before. We're doing seize ground dawn of war. His list, as best I can remember:

 

Captain suit with plasma, some missiles (not sure what other bits) and 2 shield drones

2 squads of Kroot, one has a bunch of hounds

2 squads of fire warriors in devilfish

2 squads of crisis suits, 2 suits each /w plasma and missles as well as 1 shield drone for each squad

2 broadsides with one shield drone each

pathfinders

hammerhead /w ion cannon and burst cannons

1 squad of 2 piranas

 

The board was peppered with forests and two large LOS blocking bunker things to the left and right of table center (closer to his edge). I won the roll-off and decided to go first. Two objectives were in forests near his table edge, one was in a forest on the left center and two were in the open near my edge.

 

For my deployment I threw down the captain and flamer squad lined up horizontally at the table center and a melta squad on the center right, ready for an aggressive advance. He deployed kroot in both objective forests on his side (the hounds in the center forest, other one on my left) and his captain hid behind the left kroot squad.

 

Turn 1 Fists:

Forward for the emperor! I have everything deploy with both vindicators in the center, the typhoons on my right with the dread and the last bike squad turbo boosting toward the left objective, hidden safely behind the large bunker. Both bike squads advance the max distance and line up their sights on the kroot. All of my long-range shooting fails night fighting checks unfortunately, but not a surprise there. The captain's squad lights up the kroot /w hounds, wiping the entire squad out in a burst of flames! The other bikers shoot down most of the enemy and bravely assault into the forest killing the rest (thankfully failing no terrain saves). Now to see what this famous Tau shooting feels like...

 

Turn 1 Tau:

Miffed by the loss of the sacrificial kroot, everything comes on to the table ready to go. Suits and broadsides on the center/left behind the forest and everything else on the right. All fire warriors disembark to shoot at the bike squad. Plasma, plasma plasma, but amazingly only 2 bikes from the captain squad are killed! T5 really helped out here, but he also missed a lot of shots. How is it a shooty army only has BS3 for the most part?! The right side does better, killing all but one bike and leaving the attack bike with 1 wound left. Still, an ominous start.

 

Turn 2 Fists:

Vindicators advance, but are still quite a ways back. I'm still not sold on including them as they don't seem to keep up with the biker mobility very well. The wounded attack bike lines up a shot on the hammerhead, and the captain's bike squad prepares for a glorious multi-assult (no shooting from them just in case). The typhoons kill both shield drones from the captain and the dread fails to do anything to the hammerhead due to its cover save device. The attack bike takes a brave point-blank shot at the hammer head and merely shakes it. The vindicators both fire on the piranas as that is the only thing in range, but can't penetrate their cover save device. I think my opponent told me it was only 5 points to get that upgrade and my jaw about hit the floor.

 

Assault is a much more satisfying affair as the captain's boys multi-charge both suit squads and one broadside. My opponent didn't think this would be possible, but the long bike bases really make coherency stretch a long way. I only kill 3 shield drones and 1 suit, but that's enough to cause him to fail all leadership tests and run everything off the board.

 

Turn 2 Tau:

He looks a little green about now, but he was a great sport and played on merrily. The pathfinders light up my captain's squad 8 times. He uses 1 to boost the pirana shooting and the other 7 to reduce my leadership. Drones on the piranas manage to score one wound on the bikes, but that pins me thanks to the markerlights. Other shooting kills the lone attack bike, but the captain's squad weathers the storm with only 1 more loss due to a pirana-induced cover save.

 

Turn 3 Fists:

Vindicators move up again, hoping to take out those damn piranas, while my right flank firebase adjusts itself for better angles. The other squad of bikes is still staying put on their objective, hidden from fire. The rifleman smokes his commander, and the typhoon squads destroy one firewarrior squad each, leaving him with no leader or scoring troops. One vindicator destroys a single pirana, while the other takes out a devilfish. His line is looking very, very weak about now.

 

Turn 3 Tau:

Still a good sport, but not much of a light left at the end of his tunnel. He repeats the prior round's shenanigans, pinning the captain's squad once again. The ion cannon on the hammerhead whiffs, missing a vindicator. Not much else left to do ...

 

Turn 4 Fists:

One vindicator takes out the drones left by the last pirana blast while the other misses. My typhoons and dread keep up the firestorm, killing the remaining devilfish, taking the ion cannon off the hammerhead and ridding the world of those pesky pathfinders. I'll definitely be killing those things earlier next time I face this army.

 

Turn 4 Tao:

Not much to see here. A few shots are fired and a couple bikes from the captain's squad fall to the pirana and hammerhead, but it's all but over.

 

Turn 5 Fists:

Clean up duty. The bikes on my left objective conga out to get meltas on the last pirana and the typhoons get close enough to the hammerhead to deny its cover save. Everything shoots, everything dies. Tau are tabled.

 

Wow, did I just outshoot a shooting army? In his defense, the round 1 shooting should have been much worse for me, but that T5 saved me again. My deployment was spot on this time I think. It was the first time I've played dawn of war with bikes, and they really can have their run of the table, particularly against a shooting, weak assault force like the Tao. Two down, one to go.

[Tech Brother Torgo]

Last game of the day up against one of the better mech guard players in the area. Annhilate spearhead. I believe his list was:

 

Primaris psycher deployed in a platoon blob (not much for upgrades)

2 Vandettas I believe (the ones with 3 tl-las cannons and 2 heavy bolters), one empty, one with a melta squad

2 Medusas (not squadron)

2 Hydras in a squadron

1 tank with a melta blast template

4 chimeras (3 empty but packing guns, one with a plasma squad)

 

Holy *%^$ that's a lot of firepower for 1500 points! He wins the roll, going first and taking a table corner that gives me pretty much no cover to use in my advance. His deployment is an artillery parking lot deep in his corner that uses the platoon with the psycher as bubble wrap around the inside curved edge. The Vandettas prepare to fly outwards and the plasma chimera is held in reserve. I reserve everything to avoid a painful, lead filled death.

 

Turn 1 Guard:

Both Vandettas fly around, but with no enemies on the table there isn't much point.

 

Turn 1 Fists:

Hiding off-table somewhere...

 

Guard:0 Fists: 0

 

Turn 2 Guard:

All the tanks shuffle a little in the parking lot and several pop smoke. The melta tank moves forward to the table center back about 18" from my long edge and uses smoke. One vandetta moves flat out behind the tank and the other moves flat out to the right-middle table.

 

Turn 2 Fists:

Ok, no more hiding, let's get this done. Both typhoon squads, the rifleman, one vindicator, one melta squad and the captain's flamer squad arrive, so at least it won't too much of a piecemeal battle. One typhoon squad hugs the left table edge to get shots around the platoon and the other goes to my right table edge with side shots on the right side vandetta. The melta bikes ride up the center towards his melta tank, flanked by the vindicator. The dread hides behind a small building that will allow shots around the side, and the captain's bike squad turbo boosts onto the table center to get a cover save. The plan was to wrap around the platoon and take on the tanks. In hindsight I really should have thrown them directly at the platoon. With their flamers they could have handled them (no power weapons or commisar) but I was too timid. Big mistake.

 

In shooting, the melta bikes only shake the melta tank thing, the left side typhoons fail to do anything due to the smoke, my right side typhoons shake their vandetta and the dread does jack. The vindictor strikes true taking out 5 guardsmen.

 

Guard:0 Fists:0

 

Turn 3 Guard:

This might sting a bit. I forget all the details here, probably due to the pain, but my left typhoon squad is ripped apart by the hydras, leaving one stunned speeder. The right squad looses one, but the other is unscathed. His melta tank moves toward that speeder to try and finish it off next turn (and draw the melta bikes away from the parking lot I expect). My melta bikes are hit hard by both medusae and several bucket loads of multi lasers and stubbers, and the platoon's fire but amazingly only 1 dies. T5 again! A vandetta kills off 2 more however. The other vandetta blows up the vindicator.

 

Turn 3 Fists:

The other melta bikes arrive and turbo boost up the left table edge to try and get at his juicy caramel, er, tank, center. The captain's bike squad closes on the platoon but is out of assault range. For shooting, the rifleman shakes the nearest vandetta and the right side typhoon fails to pierce the other's armor. My melta bikes blow up his melta tank, getting me a kill point.

 

Guard:1 Fists: 1

 

Turn 4 Guard:

His plasma chimera arrives table center and advances toward my flamer bike squad, dismounting. Vandettas fly about but little else for movement. Hydra fire finishes off my left side speeder, one vandetta kills the remaining typhoon, and the remaining laser/stubber/platoon fire kill 2 bikes. He dismounts his melta squad near my melta bike squad (the vandetta then backs up a safe distance), and their fire leaves me with only the attack bike. Medusa 1 then comically scatters a shot onto said melta vet squad, leaving only 2 guys standing (they pass morale). The 2nd medusa isn't so forgiving howver. First two shots fail to kill anyone, but the third one scores 4 wounds. I heroically decide to put one on my captain. What, he has artificer armor? I roll a 1. He dies.

 

Squad then rolls boxcars for pinning and is stuck there slack jawed. Awesome, so much for that plan about creaming his platoon next turn. Fortunately he kills one of his own plasma gunners and only kills one of my bikes with the other guys. My lone attack bike fails his morale test, falls back into dangerous terrain and suffers a wound.

 

Turn 5 Fists:

Ok, that was rough. My last vindicator now arrives and I place it center board with a shot at a vandetta. The attack bike regroups and moves toward his melta squad while the left side melta squad pierce his parking lot to hopefully start some fun of their own. Dreadnought immobilizes a chimera, while the attack bike mows down the melta squad. My melta bikes shoot at the hydras and destroy one of them. Realizing my opponent forgot to move at all last turn, I excitedly charge them at the remaining hydra but fail to pen with any grenades. Thankfully the newly arrived vindicator blows a vandetta out of the sky. We roll for another round.

 

Guard:4 Fists: 3

While the kill points are close, I'm in a terrible position due to my pinned flamer squad and the failure of the melta squad to take out that last hydra. His parking lot unloads, killing the melta squad. The remaining vandetta ganks my attack bike. His plasma guard open up and wound with 5 shots, killing the rest of my bikes. Medusa 1 fires: dead vindicator. Medusa 2 fires: dead dreadnought. That's game!

 

Guard:9 Fists :3 (and tabled)

 

Rough, rough game, but I think I could have done better. Loosing the captain was a big loss, but it was my own fault I didn't play that squad more aggressively. Mech guard is tough, and I'm not sure what I can do to improve my list. My opponent suggested trading the vindicators for more speeders, riflemen or dakka preds that would match range better with the mobile bikes. I have to admit that most games they ended firing at whatever happened to be in range, rather than allowing me some target selection. if I remove two bikes from the flamer squad I could replace the vindis with another rifleman and 2 dakka preds, but I'm not so sure. Have to test it out.

 

At the end of the day it was a fun tournament and some good practice. While I didn't get any grey knights, I did take a $30 prize so I can console myself on the loss while I decide what to add to the force next.

 

Turn 6 Guard:

[Frogstar168]

Nice battle report. I enjoyed reading it. I have a lot of trouble with mech guard, too.

[Something Wycked]

Good stuff, love hearing about batreps from armies that I don't play, so I might have to face ;)

 

One note, though: turn 2, you shook a vendetta, and in the next IG turn, they both fired. IIRC, they don't have PotMS so it shouldn't have been firing, right? That would have saved you either 2 bikers or a Vindicator, but I'm not sure how much help that would have been to you... that was a brutal mech list.

[Tech Brother Torgo]

Good catch! My opponent was as rules conscious as he was brutal, so I'm pretty sure my faulty memory is to blame for that one. There was so much firepower coming at me that turn it was easy to loose track...

 

I'm still second guessing my strategy on the last game, and I can't wait for a rematch. Despite my unease with exposure to that much shooting, I think I'll try a flat out assault next time hoping to flame/assault the platoon and get the melta bikes into the parking lot. Probably would require an entire turn spent turbo boosting, but hopefully enough would survive to follow up with a good charge.

[Something Wycked]

Yeah, when it comes to an army like that, you really have to get across the board ASAP. The more time you spend in his killzone and not shaking the vehicles the worse off you're going to be, especially with how model-light the list is.

 

I share your reservations about the Vindicators (and more, the Dreadnought) being effective with your list. They're simply not mobile enough (if you rolled BA instead of IF, Fast Vindicators might solve your problem.) If you nixed all three, you'd have enough points for two more 185 bike squads, but trading 3 threats for 2 doesn't help you survive any better, regardless of how fast moving and flexible those 2 might be.

 

Something to consider might be replacing them with Assault Squads with some more melta weapons... Deep strike them or jump them across the board with the bikes depending on the situation.