2k Tourney - Battle Reports

[Chaplain Admetus]

Hey all, been quite a while since I posted anything of substance (my hobbying has rather lapsed in the last year or so). My local GW is running a 2k tournament this week, first round was this evening. Its above what I usually play (1.5k), and I wasn't comfortable building and playing an untested list from the ground up, so I took my tried and true 1.5 list and added 500 points on the top:

 

HQ:

Librarian with Jump pack (Shield of Sanguinius and Unleash Rage)

 

Elites:

7 Sternguard, Power Fist, 3 Combi Meltas, 1 Meltagun in a drop pod

 

2x Sanguinary Priest, 1 with Jump Pack and Power weapon

 

Furioso Dreadnought with Heavy Flamer and searchlight in a drop pod

 

Troops:

10 man Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher, Meltagun, Powerfist in a Rhino

10 Man Assault Squad with Thunder Hammer

9 Man Assault Squad with Power Fist, Flamer, Plasma Pistol in a Rhino

10 Man Tactical Squad with Power Weapon, Plasma Cannon, Flamer in a Rhino

 

Fast Attack:

Baal Predator with Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter Sponsons

 

Heavy Support:

5 man Devastator Squad with 4 Missile Launchers, with a Razorback with twin-linked lascannons

 

(If anyone's interested, the additions were the podding Furioso, the 10 man squad with the plasma cannon, and the razorback)

 

We had a lot more people turn up than anticipated, and were struggling to find enough gaming space - in the end the painting tables had to be replaced with another gaming table, and 2 games had to be played on the 4x4 tables used for intro games.

 

Round 1 was Dawn of War, Seize Ground, and I got drawn against a vanilla Space Marine army, but unfortunately we were one of the ones stuck on a small table (annoying for me, since it neutralises my force's superior manoeuvrability)

His list from memory - Librarian in a lascannon razorback with 5 sternguard, 3 bikes, several 10 man tactical squads in rhinos (4, I think, all with missile launchers), 5 Tactical Terminators, 5 scouts with sniper rifles and a missile launcher, a whirlwind, a vindicator, and an all-lascannon predator.

Table had a shrine in the dead centre, a forest on the left hand side in the middle of the table, on a hill, a forest in the bottom right quarter, and one in the top right quarter (all from my perspective). Objectives were in the 4 terrain pieces. My opponent won the roll and elected to make me go first; I deployed a combat squad with plasma cannon in the shrine on the centre point of the table, left the Baal to outflank, and the rest came on turn 1, with the other combat squad succumbing to the Red Thirst.

 

Turn 1:

Everything that could came on; Sternguard podded in towards the left objective and ran into the forest, the idea being to make him fight his way through them if he wanted to take it. The Rhino with a full tactical squad pulled up behind the bottom right forest to hold the objective, with the razorback speeding up to the top of the forest, and unloading the devastators into a decent fire position. The jumpy assault squad (with priest and librarian) flew on and came up to support the sternguard with a FNP bubble, and the rhino with assault squad and priest parked itself behind the shrine. With nothing to shoot, it was over to the marines.

He moved everything on from his board edge; Razor and a Rhino with tacticals came on my left, heading towards my sternguard. Whirlwind, vindicator and predator all came on in roughly the centre, with the terminators next, and then 3 rhinos with tactical squads moving behind the nearest forest, the scouts and a combat squad of marines coming up behind them. Shooting fortunately didn't do very much, I think I lost 1 sternguard.

 

Turn 2:

Baal is lazy. Furioso pods in towards the back-right objective, since there's 3 squads over there, but all he has that can scratch it are a trinity of missile launchers, and with front armour 13 I fancy my chances. Razorback moves out to take a pot shot, and the sternguard and assault squad consolidate their position. The red thirst combat squad in their rhino heads for the objective he's got a lot of stuff on, to try and take down the combat squad over there. Razorback scores a hit on the vindicator, and promptly rolls a 1... would be bad enough, but the furioso decides it wants to outdo this. Takes a point blank shot into the nearest rhino, and coats it with the heavy flamer to scour 4 scouts on the other side. Misses with the meltagun, and the scouts get nothing worse than a sunburn ;) . I kill a few marines here and there with pot shots, the star being the plasma cannon dropping the terminator sergeant and one of his buddies. This turn or next (its a bit hazy already) a glancing hit from a missile launcher manages to rip the gun off of the Vindicator.

The marines continue shooting my stuff; I lose a few more from the assault and sternguard squad, but not too many thanks to the priest with feel no pain bubble. The tactical squad on the far left have deployed out of their rhino, ready to advance on my sternguard. Terminators move around towards the objective, and 3 missiles slap the furioso and bounce off. Razorback on razorback action sees the red one coming off worse, and ending up upside down, kissing goodbye to my best ranged anti armour weapon, with all of his armour still on the table. Not good. The bikers charge my sternguard, end up losing 2 of their number in the resulting combat to my none (thanks to Feel No Pain), and the remaining biker is taken out by no retreat! saves.

 

Turn 3:

The Baal is still adamant that it has better things to do than turn up and fight. Not a whole lot of movement from me as most things are optimally placed. Sternguard move out of their forest, with the assault squad advancing just close enough to keep them in FnP range with the priest. The combat squad advance through the woods towards their opposite number. Dreadnought decides to have another go, since I want to pop a rhino, assault the squad that comes out, and be locked in combat for a while (since he can't be hurt, and can't be shot). Misses again with the melta, but barbecues some scouts this time. Off on the other side of the table, sternguard unload with the AP3 Gets Hot ammo, relying on the priest to keep them safe. Kill half the squad, with no casualties. The devastator squad manage to stun and immobilise the lascannon predator. Furioso charges the rhino, and my tacticals charge his. Honours even in the combat, killing 3 but taking 2 casualties in return, and the dreadnought rips the rhino to bits, killing the remaining scout in the explosion.

The marines tire of the one way traffic and the remaining tacticals charge my sadly depleted sternguard squad. The tactical squad on the far right moves behind my furioso, and unloads bolters into the rear armour, immobilising and stunning it. Both remaining rhinos with tac squads move round in preparation to make a move against my forces. The terminators make the difference in the combat and my squad gets wiped out, termies consolidating towards the furioso. Sternguard vs tacticals ends in a draw.

 

Turn 4: Baal shows up on my right, moving on in the far corner. I park the empty rhino on top of the objective, since I control the other 3 and want to make that one as difficult as possible for him to get. The assault squad charges the now empty rhino on the far left, as at this point I'm busy trying to remove his ability to contest objectives - despite being far ahead, I could see him getting a scoring unit onto the one objective I don't control, and using tanks to contest the rest, and with him going second, I have to pre-emptively counter this. Baal unloads into the back of the tactical squad, kills some stuff. Assault squad easily blows the rhino to bits as it hasn't moved, losing one of their own number in the explosion. The devvies, along with a cheeky shot from the tactical marine with a missile launcher, manage to blow up the razorback, kill two opposing sternguard in the explosion, AND pin the remaining 3 and librarian! The tactical vs sternguard fight drags on, as my guy with the powerfist decides he'd rather just wave it around ineffectually.

His turn 4, the vindicator surges towards my assault squad. A tactical squad rhino moves round the forest and unloads its crew, preparing to unload into the combat squad I have in the centre. The terminators decide to go after the Baal. Lascannons from the predator, and the occasional missile launcher, render the dreadnought further unable to do anything, and combined with the glancing hits from the tac squad, wipe it out. The tactical squad unload into the combat squad, who lose two members and fall back. Terminators go after and eliminate the Baal. Whirlwind shots kill another one assault marine. Sternguard and tacticals are still unable to do anything more than hurl insults at each other.

 

Turn 5: Combat squad rallies, and moves off to the left to get a shot at the vindicator. I have no way of taking the back right objective, so decide to turn the forest into a parking lot: my assault squad get out of the rhino and move to charge his tacticals, and the rhino zooms in to the objective (so I now have a drop pod and 2 rhinos contesting it), which also blocks the only rhino he had capable of contesting the bottom right objective. The plasma cannon fails to dent the vindicator, so its left to the assault squad to take it down. The rest of my shooting is largely ineffectual. Assault squad easily handles the tacticals in a fight, and consolidate back onto the objective. Flying assault squad explode the vindicator, taking another casualty or two. Sternguard -finally- finish off the tactical marines, and consolidate towards the librarian and sternguard to act as a speedbump.

On my opponents turn, the writings pretty much on the wall. The last tactical squad moves round to rapid fire my assault squad on the central objective, and the librarian separates from the sternguard to go and kill mine in a fight. Shooting from the lascannon pred ruins one rhino, and the terminators with their fists rip the drop pod to shreds. The rapid firing tactical squad kills a few assault marines, but not enough to make them run from the objective. Librarian kills my last two sternguard in an assault, and then the dice roll to see if the game continues....comes up a 2. Victory to the Blood Angels by 3 objectives to 0

 

The 4x4 table changed the game dynamic significantly, but I got lucky to face off against one of the other more balanced lists in the tournament, rather than some of the really power-gamed armies that were out there. I'm not entirely sure I played optimally, but I focussed on the objectives more than anything else. Blowing the vindicator's gun off early on was really helpful, as that thing scares me with its ability to wipe marine squads off the table.

Heroes: The two sanguinary priests - I passed so many feel no pain saves it felt almost unfair; anything with a missile launcher - for stepping up when my main anti armour units couldn't get the job done

Zeroes: The furioso - I have never seen a single model fail so badly at its one and only duty; lascannon razorback for succumbing to 'anything but a 1' syndrome.

 

Any comments on the list/bat rep greatly appreciated :). The next two rounds are on Saturday so I'll update then with the results of the other games, and I'll try and get an army shot uploaded (might be up sooner)

[sp4rky]

Well that sounds like a good game there... shame about the 4x4 table, that must have been cosy with 4000 points of marines on it :D

 

Looking forward to more results!

[Chaplain Admetus]

I wasn't worried about the cosiness of 4k of marines, especially since we'd mitigated the factor by bringing something like 8 transports between us, which meant that a lot of models were off-table for the most part. Frankly, I was more thankful that the Green Tide player with close-on 200 orks wasn't on a 4 by 4! The other game was Dark Eldar vs Regular Eldar and was absolutely brutal...they went the full 7 turns and ended up with only 12 models left, 2 wyches being the only models on the DE side and managing to just cling to an objective to take the win. We're not expecting as many players for day 2 (due to people having work/other commitments etc), but we've been told that nobody will have to play on a 4x4 board twice

[BloodTzar]

Overall nice rep, pics would be awesome.

 

~Bt

[Chaplain Admetus]

Cheers :wacko:. I'll try to find my camera and if I can pics will be forthcoming (moved back to Scotland from Wales a few weeks back, and I haven't a clue where about 80% of my stuff is :cuss )

[Chaplain Admetus]

So, that's me back from day 2 - two more battle reports, and the overall results. Game 2 is a bit of a blur, so sadly the report won't be a bit full as it could be, I'm a little hazy on details.

 

Round 2 was Capture and Control, Spearhead (affectionately referred to as the "draw scenario"). I was playing against Orks, speedfreakz army. Looted wagon with a boomgun, Ghazkull with some boyz in a battlewagon, big mek with forcefield (obviously) full squad of lootas, squad of commandos, unit of stormboyz, 4 units of boyz in trukks (from what I can remember). I won the roll and chose to deploy first - terrain had some rocks in the bottom right and left corners, a hill and some other bits of terrain towards the middle with some rocks in the top centre, a ruined building on the central right, and another ruin in the back left corner. I took the bottom left, as the top right was the area with the least cover. Deployed a combat squad with a plasma cannon on my objective in the rocks, and had the other half of the squad nearby in their rhino (as insurance in case of outflanking things). The assault squad set up towards the middle of the table, as close as I could get, with the devastators behind them on a hill. Razorback behind the hill, and other tanks with units in them on the edge of my deployment zone. He left a trukk, the commandos and stormboyz in reserve, the lootas on his objective in the building (so fairly far forward and on my right), Ghaz and the battlewagon behind the rocks, near the trucks and boomgun. I scouted the Baal to the right behind a rock, and the devastators succumbed to the red thirst. He failed to seize the initiative.

 

The sternguard podded in right in the heart of his army. Razorback popped out to get a shot, the full tactical squad in the rhino advanced as far as it could. The baal crept round to the far right of the table, and the assault squad and assault squad in the rhino moved down to come around behind them. The Sternguard turned the battlewagon to mush forcing Ghaz to walk; the razorback immobilised the looted wagon. The devastators managed to pick off a trukk, killing some orks in the explosion (the Big Mek was completely asleep at the switch). Baal opened up on the lootas, killing 4 or so. A couple more pot shots picked off some extra orks. Ork turn 1, he brought a couple of guys forward, and took some shots. Not much damaged, except for the sternguard and their pod, who were deservedly torn to pieces.

 

My strike force continued round the long way. Dread didn't turn up. Some pot shots picked off some more orks, but the Mek woke up and I didn't do much to the vehicles. The kommandos came on and attacked my assault squad to try and whittle them down as he knew how nasty a unit it was. Didn't manage to do much to them though, and I battered them.

From turn 3 onwards everything melds together. The furioso podded in and flamed a lot of orks, but got immobilised in combat and was useless afterwards. I ploughed into the units on his objective with my assault squad. Ghaz and friends called a waaagh and piled in (only about 2 orks left, I'd shot down the rest), and killed the squad, leaving me with the characters. I piled in my reserve assault squad, to try and sponge the hits. After prolonged combat the priest, as my last model in the fight, decapitated Ghazkull before dying to power klaws. The game ended on turn 5 - he hadn't managed to get anything outside of his own table quarter because I popped enough tanks early on to put him on the defensive. I had enough things contesting his objective at the end that he just couldn't kill them all (tacticals, rhino, and baal) - his last ditch assault against all 3 units failed.

 

Between rounds 2 and 3 we did the votes for best painted army, and one of the staff came around to check the things for soft scores - armies fully painted, based, own dice/templates/tape measure and stuff - I had all, so got the maximum points available for this. Going into the final round, there were 5 of us on 2 wins: myself, a DE wych cult army, an ork green tide, a tau list, and an all deepstriking Blood Angels list (Night Lords using the BA dex). The Orks got paired against the Tau, the Night Lords squared off against the DE, and I found myself paired down against an Eldar list with a win and a draw.

 

Round 3 - Pitched Battle, Annihilation. This is the mission I was scared of, as I have a lot of relatively easy kill points in my transports. His list was a farseer with 3 warlocks on foot, 3 war walkers, avatar, fire dragons in a falcon with all the trimmings, a unit of guardians on foot with warlock, a unit of dire avengers in a wave serpent, a unit of guardians in a wave serpent, a big unit of harlequins (10), and a wraithlord. He won the roll to go first, and outflanked the war walkers. Avatar set up slightly right of the middle (from my perspective), with the harlies to the right of that. Farseer and buddies on a hill, guardians in a building with the wraithlord in front, and the two wave serpents in the left hand corner. I outflanked the baal, kept everything in their transports except for the devastators on a hill, with the razorback nearby. Plasma tacticals on the right, assault squads in the middle, missile tacticals on the left. I rolled to seize the initiative, and got a 6. This roll set the tone for the rest of the game...

Turn 1 I brought the sternguard down near his lines, and advanced everything except the plasma cannon rhino. The sternguard rapid fired their poisoned rounds into the wraithlord, taking off some of its wounds, bringing it low enough for the missile launcher devastators to finish the job. The lascannon shook the falcon, and the plasma cannon marine fired out of the hatch in an attempt to bring down the falcon. 1...followed by a 1. Well, he won't be doing that again....

Eldar advanced forwards, brought their firepower to bear on my sternguard but thanks to the priest in a rhino nearby, only 1 succumbed.

 

Turn 2 - the furioso turned up, and landed between the farseer's unit, and the recently advanced guardians. The rhino with the plasma cannon attempted to redeploy to make a move at the harlequins. Lots of shots from sternguard, plus the heavy flamer from the furioso, took the guardian squad out. Razorback took a wound off the avatar. The devastators landed 3 missiles on the avatar, but he passed all 3 invulnerables. I spent ages agonising over whether to charge the farseer's unit with my assault squad. Pros: I'd probably walk through them with no bother, and get 2 kill points. Cons: (partly due to me thinking the avatar was tougher than it was) - I'd need my psychic power to be sure, and could take a wound thanks to the farseer, but the biggest con was that the avatar would be able to charge afterwards. I decided that discretion was safer, and ran them to make sure they were out of charge range - my opponent then told me that he was absolutely bricking it and was hoping I wouldn't charge, and I felt I'd made an error...

In the eldar turn, the war walkers turned up on the left. The avatar slogged forwards, and the harlequins ran. Made their fleet roll and it came up a 5, putting them just within charge range of my assault squad. At this point, I'm really sure I've cocked up. Guns don't do a huge amount, short of shaking my rhino on the left, and war walkers kill 2 ML devastators, and my sergeant. The farseer and his unit assault and wreck the furioso, and the harlequins charge my assault squad (eep...). Harlequins get to go first, and I brace myself for a big loss.... rubber weapons. Armour and feel no pain keep all my guys alive, I end up losing a wound off the librarian and a solo assault marine to rending hits. My unit gets to fight back, and the librarian passed his power (despite the farseer's influence), preferred enemy helping immensely. Harlequins get wiped out, and I'm suddenly a lot more confident about this.

 

Turn 3 - the worm has turned, and I'm determined to make the most of my advantage. The Baal turns up on the left. I disembark the tactical squad to have a go at the war walkers. The sternguard advance towards the wave serpent with dire avengers on board. Assault squad are determined to make up for their earlier mistake, and advance with malicious intent towards the farseer and warlocks. Shooting - I manage to ruin two of the war walkers. The sternguard use their combi meltas to destroy the wave serpent. The baal unloads on the dire avengers, and with storm bolter assistance from pods wipes them out. The guardians die in assault, and the flying squad hits the farseer's unit. My librarian attempts unleash rage, and rolls 6,4,2. Brain's leaking out of his ears, he won't be taking part in the rest of the battle... I wipe him down to the farseer (who takes 1 wound), he flees and I consolidate into the building (half in for cover).

Eldar turn 3, the farseer only runs 3 and stays on the table. He kills my priest with mind war (taking a wound from perils in the process), and this means my squad is no longer majority in cover. Fire dragons kill several, and the remaining ones leg it a mighty 17 inches! He moves the avatar to get within 12" of the farseer, making him fearless (so he won't run away). The guardians hop out, and take shots at my sternguard.

 

Turn 4 - Assault squad rallies well away from the avatar, and go after the remaining war walker. The assault squad in the rhino hops out, and goes for the guardians who are in convenient flamer formation... The ensuing shooting and assault phases ensure that they're gone. The heavy weapons from the devastators immobilise the last wave serpent, and the sternguard assault it trying to take it down with a power fist. 3 automatic hits... triple 1 *facepalm*. The hammer doesn't manage to do a whole lot to the war walker (immobilised and shaken).

 

Its all but over from here, so edited highlights up to the end of the game (went the full 7 turns). Fire dragons hopped back on board the falcon and went to hide. The thunder hammer finally (on turn 6 or so) managed to put paid to the last war walker. The avatar plodded across the board and ruined both drop pods, but the Baal hopped out and managed to take away all his remaining wounds. Fairly comfortable win in the end, 11 kill points to 5 or something like that.

 

 

 

So, the results - 3 players finished with 3 wins (myself, the DE wych army, and the Ork Green Tide), however I was the only one of us with a fully painted and based army, so I got the maximum bonus points for this, making me the store champion :blink: A victory for the Angels Sanguine and Sanguinius! Apparently the Tau player came second in the end as the full scores for painting etc. outstripped a win (I think it was 5 for everything, but I'm not sure how they calculated it). I was really surprised to win, felt a bit lucky to avoid a lot of the cheese lists. Was very pleased to face 3 very different armies, and think I gave a good account of myself - hope I've helped bring glory to the rest of us battle brothers!

 

Final awards: Men of the match(es) go squarely to the Sternguard - making a fairly hefty dent in game 1, stopping Ghaz in game 2, and breaking the back of the Eldar army by bringing the Avatar down on turn 1. Tool of the Tournament is well deserved by the Furioso... scoring a colossal 1 hit with his meltagun over all 3 games, managing to not come anywhere close to bringing down his own points, and suffering an ignominious fate every time. I'll try and update with an army shot in the next week or so, whenever I get the certificate/trophy/squig to display alongside them.

[Morticon]

YAY!! BA for the wiiiiiiiiin !!