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Throne of Skulls, 15/16 Oct 2011


Brother Vader

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Hello Brothers,

 

This weekend I went to Throne of Skulls. I'm going to do a little write up of my games and results here, no great details as I didn't take extensive notes and just don't have time to write up 5 full-length battle reports. I'm going to start with my army list and add additional posts for each of the games and a summary as and when I get a chance over the next couple of days.

 

First up.....my army. This isn't tournament optimised at all, it's basically a load of my old skool stuff and newer models I really like playing with. So don't bother telling me that a LRC is better than a Phobos......la la la la la, I'm not listening ;) :D

 

The Vetus Schola Mortis Crusade

 

Reclusiarch, BP, Frags. Chaplain Karras

The Emperor's Champion, Abhor the Witch. Brother Vader

 

5 Terminators, 2 CML, Tank Hunters. Squad Araya

Dreadnought, TLLC, XA, Smoke. Brother Johannes

Dreadnought, TLLC, XA, Smoke. Brother Sec

 

Crusader Squad, 5/4, BP/CCW, Fist, Meltagun. Rhino, XA, Smoke. Squad Yoshimitsu

Crusader Squad, 5/4, BP/CCW, Fist, Meltagun. Rhino, XA, Smoke. Squad Baracus

Crusader Squad, 5/4, BP/CCW, Fist, Meltagun. Squad Cletus

 

Landspeeder Tornado. MM, HF. Strike Team Honda

 

Vindicator, Smoke. Sigismund's Fist

Land Raider, XA, Smoke. The Ascendant Rogal Dorn's Immortal Spirit

 

 

So, that was the list that I took to ToS, my lunch break is over now, so the mini bat-reps will be coming later.

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Round 1.

 

Opponent: Richard Beckett (Iron Father Rik, here on B&C), Space Marines.

Terminator Librarian

5 Hammernators

2 Tac squads in Rhinos

1 Tac Squad in Razorback

Scout bike squad

1 Dev Squad, 4 missile launchers

Thunderfire Cannon

Land Raider Phobos

Mission: Capture and Control, Dawn of War.

 

First game of the weekend and feeling slightly bleary-eyed I was hoping for a chilled out opponent and a nice easy game. I got a chilled out opponent, but he wasn't messing around in trying to grab my objective. I'd left it undefended to make use of LOS blocking terrain and he gunned a rhino towards it and the scout bikers outflanked over there on Turn 2. I had a bit of a brain-fart and forgot about 'Combat Tactics' allowing his Hammernators to escape a potentially devastating combo charge and get the jump on my termies and the devs to frag a crusader squad to death. The left flank and any chance of claiming his objective was lost, but he hadn't taken out the Landraider. The right flank and my objective faired much better, a combo charge by the chappy and a crusader squad on his (now depleted) tac squad and bikers saw all of them destroyed in one combat phase. Jumping back into their Rhino next turn the crusader squad secured my objective. Meanwhile my Landraider had survived 2 vortex attacks from the libby, a barrage of missiles and lascannon shots and a few whacks from the lone surviving hammernator to tank-shock onto his objective to contest it. I was winning...woo hoo. Now to survive his last turn! Rik fired everything at the Landraider and it all bounced off until the last lascannon shot.....a hit......a pen.........wrecked. Game Drawn.

I was happy to draw, despite being ahead on turn 7 as at one point I thought I was finished and it still felt like I'd rescued a draw rather than lost out on a win. Rik was a great opponent and went on to win 'Best Space Marine Player'.

 

It was time for a beer. So far so good.

Round 2.

 

Opponent: Ross Drummond, Chaos Space Marines.

Khârn

2 squads of 'Zerks in Rhinos

4 man Termi Squad, various weapons

10 man Chosen Squad, various weapons

10 Possessed (he rolled 'fleet' for this game)

Defiler

 

Mission: Annihilation, Spearhead Deployment.

 

Ross' army was full of cool conversions including a very cool Defiler made from a Daemon Prince and an Arachnarok Spider, but with no Obliterators or Daemon Prince I fancied this match-up. The Terrain didn't help him either, there was a big wood in the middle of the table, but no LOS blocking terrain anywhere significant, so I was going to have free reign to shoot pretty much where I wanted. I deployed in a close formation away from the edge of the table to minimise the threat of his outflanking chosen and ensure that deep-striking termies would get to shoot at one vehicle only before being annihilated by every gun I could bring to bear. He did manage to get a couple of shots off with those squads though, a plasma shot from the chosen taking one of my dread's TLLCs off. His termies proved to be surprisingly resilient, deepstriking too far away to melta my LR they popped a rhino with the Reaper autocannon, then one of them made about 5 invunerable saves to survive my turn and have a melta shot at my LR in his next turn....he whiffed and took 2 Godhammers to the face for his troubles. The rest of my army was kiting around, skirting the wood and trying to maximise fire power while the vindi pounded the chosen into little bits. Eventually when I felt that I couldn't lose the game I decided to cut loose and risk some combat. The EC and his squad charged Khârn and his squad. The crusader squad was butchered, but the EC lasted until the next turn before being torn to shreds. The Terminators led by the Chappy volley charged the possessed and annihilated them before adding another KP by trashing a Rhino with a missile volley....gotta love twin-CML Termies. Final Result: My first win of the weekend.

 

I don't think this match-up or terrain favoured Ross at all, and I wasn't going to give him a sniff of combat until I was well ahead on KPs, so it can't have been much fun for him. Nevertheless he was gracious and sporting and we had some good banter and a beer. Top bloke.

 

So far I had 1 win and a draw and the weekend was going well. Time for a beer....

Round 3.

 

Opponent: Rich Chapman, Grey Knights.

Draigo

Librarian

3 Paladins

5 GKT

2 Dreadknights with Swords

Storm Raven

 

Mission, Seize Ground (5 objectives), Piched Battle.

 

Rich had an awesome Adeptus Custodes themed GK army, with a conversion of The Emperor for the Librarian, 2 Contemptors with massive halberds as Dreadknights and a Stormraven with an Eagle-head prow, all painted in an almost cartoony way that was getting lots of attention on day 1. Very cool, eye-catching army. It was also tiny, so with 5 objectives I was in with a chance. I won the roll to place objectives and put 3 in wide open spaces as I was meched-up, he wasn't and I had a vindicator. The Stormraven with the Libby's 3++ took two full turns of everything I had to die. When it did, Draigo, the Libby and the Paladins were convenienly placed for my vindi to roll on from reserve and give them some demolisher loving. Annoyingly most of them survived the hellstorm I unleashed on them, but the Librarian failed his cover save and was instagibbed, I had killed The Emperor.......oooh, the delicious heresy of it. One Dreadknight ate some lascannon and melta and when it dragged it's scorched body into combat with a crusader squad the EC delivered the coup-de-grace. Draigo and the Paladins went for the EC's squad and Rich decided to play for narrative at this point and rather than go for the squad he had Draigo attack the EC in a heroic clash. One annihilated squad and a dead EC later and the Dreadknight was avenged. The other Dreadknight was on 2 wounds and charged my Termies in cover......striking simultaneously.....I was feeling good about this combat.......one round of uber-whiffing later and the Termies were down to 2 and the DK was untouched, finishing them off in the next turn. The GKTs had been getting some attention from a Dread and the LR's TLLCs and were down to 2 guys, sheltering in a wood away from an objective to get cover...this was to prove crucial. At the end of turn 5 Rich was down to 6 scoring models, one being a badly wounded Dreadknight, Draigo was in the centre of the board, too far from my objectives to do much and so he needed a big turn from his last two GKTs and the Dreadknight to remove my crusader squad happily camped out in the LR. He didn't get it, the game ended and measuring the distance from his GKT to the objective we found that they were too far away to claim it.

Final Result: My second win.

 

Rich was another great opponent and the 3rd guy from Glasgow I'd played that day! You've got to give kudos to a guy who builds a themed, heavily converted army, takes Draigo, but doesn't do the usual 10-Paladin deathstar and who comes to play tactical games of Warhammer 40K, not "my paladins are unkillable, lets play dicehammer 40K".

 

It was time for beer. I'd played 3 great blokes, I had 2 wins and a draw and it was Brother Vader: 2, Glasgow: 0. I was really happy that I'd broken even already, I now couldn't lose more games than I won, so whatever happened on Sunday I knew I'd feel good about this tournament. A quick look at the draw for Sunday and I found out I was on table 9. The rarified atmosphere of the top tables beckoned. Time to get a good night's sleep...........yeah right!

Round 4.

 

Opponent: Demetrius Tampakoudis (DaemonPrinceDargor on B&C), Blood Angels.

Sanguinor

Priest

Librarian Dreadnought

Assault Termies in vanilla Land Raider

Assault Squad in vanilla Land Raider

Assault Squad in Rhino

 

Mission: Annihilation, Pitched Battle.

 

It's Sunday morning and I'm half asleep. 9:30am on a Sunday is not a civilised hour at the best of times, and certainly not if you've been up all night headbanging in Rock City like you did when you were a teenager (in the unlikely event that my girlfriend reads this: no honey I didn't chat up any girls). My neck hurt....getting old. Fortunately this army (and it's jovial and talented owner) was waiting to greet me and perk me up a bit:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=236706

Demetrius deservedly won the 'Best Army' award for this army and was even relaxed enough to trust complete strangers (i.e. me) to pick up his exquisitely painted models to have a closer look. He also recognised my Emperor's Champion from my avatar here on B&C, which was nice, that's my 15 seconds of internet fame there!

We both deployed conservatively, using LOS blocking terrain to shield our vehicles from eachother's lascannons. I managed to seize the initiative and attacked, peeking out from cover to unleash the jammiest shooting phase ever. I managed to wreck the Rhino, explode the Termies' Land Raider which revealed the Libby Dread, who I then proceded to immobilise....get in there! Next turn my speeder showed up and immobilised the other Land Raider, the Angels were walking and I just had to be careful and finish them off..........well that was the plan anyway. Dice are fickle things however and after that his stuff just refused to do the decent thing and die! The dice gods had decided that I'd had enough good luck and rewarded me with 4 rolls of 1 for my Termies' saves in one combat phase, then a carelessly placed rhino got popped by the immobilised Land Raider and it also got my speeder too. Demetrius was right back in the game. The crucial combat came on turns 4 and 5......one of my Dreads had been immobilised by his Landraider and his 3 surviving Termies charged it. The dread killed one, but lost it's DCCW in the process. In an effort to both rescue a KP and gain one at the same time I charged in the other Dread, he managed to kill the last claw Termi, but the TH/SS Termi, aided by the Sanguinor's extra attack bonus trashed both Dreads. This earned Squad Leonis the 'Most Infamous Unit' award and put Demitrus firmly ahead. I needed a 6th turn to pull things back, but it was not to be and the game ended after turn 5.

Final Result: Loss

 

This was a great game, despite the loss. It looked superb thanks to Demetruis' fantastic army and he was a proper gent. Many players would have got 'the face' after the 1st turn hammering I'd inflicted, but he didn't and carried on playing with great spirit to come back to snatch the win. He went on to win 'Best Blood Angels Player' too (and his team won the quiz that night).

 

I'd suffered my first loss of the weekend, but it was ok, I'd had a great game anyway.

It was time for a beer.

Round 5.

 

Opponent: James Orford, Orks.

Ghazgull

Mek with Kustom Force Field

Big mob of Nobz

2 Big mobs of Boyz

Grotz

Lootaz

4 Deffcoptaz

3 Killa Kanz

Battlewagon with Deffrolla

 

Mission: Seize Ground (4 objectives), Dawn of War.

 

It was time for the last game of the tournament and a familiar face greeted me at the table. James was a member of my team (a loose collective of two clubs and various individuals), but we'd never played eachother before. James' deployment and opening turn were both super aggressive, setting up amost on halfway and steaming forwards like all proper Orks should. I knew I'd only have a couple of turns shooting before he declared Waaaagh and was on top of me, so I had to make it count...........but I didn't. In one of my most glorious displays of whiffing yet my termies loaded rubber missiles and merely tickled the Orks, the Vindi appeared to be shooting fluffy pillows instead of vindicator shells and the normally nuclear-powered fury of my TLLCs was merely annoying, like a teenanger with a low attention span and a laser pointer. Now my own aggressive deployment was looking ill-advised and Ghazgull declared the Waaagh! Pretty soon I had lost the Vindi, the Termies, the Chappy and a Dread, while the other Dread was immobilised. Ouch. I still had all 3 of my troops left intact though. Two of my crusader squads disembarked and combo-charged an Ork Boyz mob, annihilating it and leaving us with 3 troops choices each (Ghaz makes Nobz a troops choice). Game on.

The battlewagon tank-shocked both my disembarked squads, mauling one badly with the Deffrolla, but being immoblilised by the meltagun of the EC's squad. Now I was meched-up and James' only transport was (temporarily) out of the game...............and I had a cunning plan. James had extended his grots to hold two objectives, if I could reach them and if the game went to 6 turns I could clear 2 objectives in one go and salvage the game.

Leaving the mauled squad and their rhino to contest an objective and force Ghaz and the nobs to deal with them, the EC and his squad embarked into their Rhino and set off at full speed for the grots. James saw the danger and shot everything at the Rhino, even managing to get a Killa Kan into combat (which failed to hit, thankfully). After 2 turns of Orky firepower the Rhino was close enough to the grots that I could dismebark and assault next turn.....if there was one. James rolled and the dice came up with a 4, bring on turn 6.

The Orks pummelled the Rhino again, merely immobilising it and The EC and his squad disembarked, slaughtered the grots and consolidated to one of the objectives. Almost unbelievably I was actually winning now, after 5 turns of having my backside handed to me on a plate! Incredible. Now I needed the game to end, but it continued to turn 7.

I was expecting to lose the squad now, there was no realistic way they could survive.................or was there? The Mek fixed the Battlewagon and it rammed the Squad again, again the meltagun fired getting an immobilised result. The lootaz and a nearby Boyz mob fired and I lost a few guys. I was down to The EC and a Neophyte....then the Boys charged. They'd been shot at earlier in the game and were down to 12 models, but that's still enough to finish off 2 space marines....maybe. The EC swung first, killing 3 Orks and the Neophyte killed one more, the Orks swung (and I prepared to lose with grace and dignity), but all the attacks directed at the champion bounced off his armour, then all the attacks at the Neophyte bounced off too! Uber-neophyte to the rescue. The Nob with claw could only swing at the EC and killed him, but I'd won the combat by 2. The Orks broke and the Neophyte ran them down. The game ended with the lone Neophyte standing on top of a pile of Ork corpses, flicking two fingers up at the immobilised Battlewagon...objective contested.

Final Result: A draw, and one of the craziest games of 40K I'd played for a long time.

 

This game was completely bonkers from start to finish, but it was loads of fun. James was a great guy and since I live within striking distance of his club I feel a re-match may well be on the cards. I still can't believe that I actually managed to rescue that game.

 

I'd finished the weekend with 2 wins, 2 draws and only a single loss. Not bad going.

It was time for a beer.............I needed it.

well done vader! impressive to see that opportunity to capture that objective on turn 6. thanks for sharing! i thoroughly enjoy reading battle reports form more experienced players to soak up strategy. do you have an photos of your army? you goin to any other tournys? thanks again for the batreps, well done

Cheers guys,

 

@Castellan Alaric. I do have some photos in my albums, I think they're set to allow B&C members to view them. I'm going to a small Tourney at my local club this weekend and I'll take the opportunity to take some better photos of recent additions to my crusade, like my Vindi and Land Raider.

You played 3 of my mates from Glasgow, glad you did well and Beckett & Ross are top guys. Ross's Khorne army is fantastic looking, I played him a few months ago before the tournament and we had an absolute blast of a game.

 

You probably met me at the weekend, I was the guy who won Best Dark Angel player with my Deathwing army?

Hi Vagabond, yeah I think I probably did meet you. Congrats on winning Best Dark Angel Player. It seemed like half of Glasgow was at Throne of Skulls......for some crazy Pirate-Thundercat convention! :) I saw Rich wandering around with the Sword of Omens after lunch on Sunday, and then suddenly you were all at it.....Bonkers! Top blokes, looks like a great gaming scene you've got up there. Hopefully I'll bump into you guys at another event sometime.

 

@Siegfried, cheers buddy, he may get a little trophy, he deserves it.

Yeah for every member of Glasgow that won an award we all running up to the front with the sword held high, if you look at pictures from the weekend you'll see the Glasgow guys with the sword in each of our pictures. There was over 20 guys from Glasgow going down and 9 of us came back with awards and I finished 5th overall which was great for me since it was my first GT.

 

The pirate hat was something we came up, if one member of the group won a game and they had to wear it and swap with another guy if they'd won their game.

 

There was also a sailor's hat for the loser... :)

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