Battle Report: Tournament-Style 1750pts

[CitadelArmyGuy]

We played ‘Tournament Style’—meaning we used the Mission Primer from the NOVA Open (2012). The rules for those unfamiliar are as follows:

Mission Goals: Tiers---- During each round of the tournament, the following Goals will be set as Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary. If you win the Primary, you win the Round. If you tie the Primary, determine winner via the Secondary, and so on toward the Tertiary. If you tie all three goals, use the Tiebreaker.

Goal One: Collecting the Loot / Objective Markers

There are FIVE Objectives on the table. One is placed in the center of each Table Quarter, and one is placed in the board center. These are controlled with Scoring Units, contested with Denial Units.

Goal Two: Control the Field / Table Quarters

Each of the playing surface’s 4 Table Quarters can be captured. They are captured by a Points pre-ponderance. ONLY Scoring and Denial Units count for Points in this fashion.

Goal Three: Eliminate the Enemy / Modified Kill Points

Every enemy unit completely destroyed awards 1 Kill Point. In order to win this goal, you must score 3 more Kill Points than your opponent.

WHEW ok well with that out of the way, here’s the battle report. We rolled up the mission as Round 1: so Primary was Goal 2, Secondary was Goal 1 and Tertiary was Goal 3. Also, the mission special rule was Big Guns Never Tire, so Heavy Supports were scoring for Goal 2 only.

My list is exactly as listed in the original post found here http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=261124 ---- the only change is the Raven TLLC switched to TLAC.

My opponent’s list was Space Wolves with allied Imperial Guard:

Wolf Priest: Saga of Hunter, PlasPist, MB, Necklace, Talisman

10x Grey Hunters: PG, MG, PlasPist, Axe, Banner, MarkofWulfen

10x Grey Hunters: PG, MG, PlasPist, Axe, Banner, MarkofWulfen

10x Grey Hunters: PG, MG, PlasPist, Axe, Banner, MarkofWulfen

6x Long Fangs: 2x Lascannon, 3x Missile Launcher

6x Long Fangs: 2x Lascannon, 3x Missile Launcher

6x Long Fangs: 2x Lascannon, 3x Missile Launcher

Lord Commissar

10x Veteran Squad

Vendetta

Hydra: Camo Nets

Aegis Defense Line: Quadgun

Deployment was Dawn of War, and we rolled Night Fight for Turn 1 so that helped me out more than him (nasty Long Fangs). We both rolled worthless Warlord powers (even with the NOVA rules to roll two and pick favorite). I won roll-off and decided to go second, per ‘dogfighting doctrine’ and also because going 2nd with no random game length is great. So he deployed his Long Fangs equally across his back edge, taking advantage of their scoring status. Then he created a heavy flank with his Hydra, Defense Line (quad manned by LongFangs), and two of the GH deployed on his left. He had the Vets with Commie in the Vendetta (probably last turn objective grabbers) and the WolfPriest outflanked with the remaining Hunters. I reacted by also creating a strong left, so our refused flanks were opposite each other. I combined the IG into one squad, since they’d be worth full points down to the last man (and also because screens were not necessary). My Librarian rolled Prescience and Perfect Timing, Mephiston kept codex powers.

DEPLOYMENT

SW T1: I declined to even attempt to Seize so Wolves are up. Hunters move up into the ruins on his left. For shooting, whatever was in range shot at my quadgun, and anything else shot at the RAS in the area terrain. The Quadgun only took a wound, and I only lost 1 marine, so a good start!

BA T1: I put Prescience onto the IG squad, then I moved the Libby and attached him to them (He was on his way to attach himself to the RAS in the ruins in case the Wolf Priest decides to show up on that side). Mephiston flew straight behind the center ruins, with LOS denied to everything in front of him. Sanguinary Priest’s RAS walked through the area terrain, and the SP ended within 6” of Meph just in case. My IG shooting put 9 wounds onto the Long Fangs on the elevation to my left, so he went to ground for 2+ cover and saved them all (I’m fine with his choice though!)

END TURN 1

SW T2: Both the Vendetta and the Wolf Priest’s Hunters show up. He commits the Hunters to the refused flank rather than commit seppuku in the face of my strong flank (my repositioned Libby discouraged him too, he was hoping I’d already have committed to a general forward advance—my ‘stationary’ tactic threw him). The vendetta shows up on my left, and lines up a gunrun on Mephiston who’d have no cover, only FnP. However, my BS5 quadgun managed one Penetrate using Interceptor rule and I shook it, so it misses all its shots. With nightfight gone, two of the Long Fang squads hammer the RAS in area terrain again and I need them alive for my plans to work, so I go to ground but I still lose 4 RAS.

BA T2: Marbo shows up, but both my Vendetta and my Stormraven fail their roll. So much for dogfighting. Marbo’s choice of location is mitigated by that nasty quadgun who can now use Interceptor on him (as my fliers are no show) so I decide to throw a roadblock at the Wolf Priest’s Hunters, who are nicely grouped and could hit 9 of 11 with the demo charge. Mephiston flies straight forward, leaving him 8” from the central Long Fangs in area terrain. The RAS on my left jump out of terrain then Run towards the Long Fangs across from them (I’m thinking that if Meph fails the charge, then the RAS won’t get shot since attention will be on Him). The IG continue gestalt movement forward, keeping the autocannons still of course. The Librarian jumps out to be within 12” of the RAS to Prescience them next turn for their charge. For shooting, Marbo’s demo charge scatters the full 7” (yep… boxcars) and I miss the Hunters completely. SIGH. My ‘roadblock’ just became a speedbump. My assault phase goes much better, because Mephiston rolls 5,1,1 for his charge range, and I choose to reroll the 1s to get a 5,5,3! He’s in! However a Missile Launcher overwatched and I failed his 2+ so there’s a wound. I don’t cast any powers so I only kill 3 of 6 Long Fangs while they deal no wounds, and they failed to flee so they stay locked.

END OF TURN 2

SW T3: Wolf Priest’s Hunters form a firing-line to execute Marbo; he rapidfires since he over-estimates his melee ability and doesn't want to charge, but Marbo passes 15 saves for 2+ cover (went to ground in area terrain). The hydra immobilizes itself trying to drive past the quadgun to escape Mephiston who will be headed that way soon, and the Long Fangs shoot at the RAS bearing down on them but whiff all shots for no wounds. One Grey Hunter squad heads towards Mephiston while the other is slow to extricate itself from the Ruins but still squats on the objective there. It’s looking like we’ll be tying Table Quarters, so it’ll be Objectives that wins this game. His vendetta leaves the table, looking to get the drop on my fliers next turn. In melee, Mephiston snakeyes Perils his Unleash Rage which takes off his second wound (I only cast to make sure he didn’t whiff and remain locked) but kills the remaining Long Fangs. A real bad turn for my opponent.

BA T3: My fliers arrive, and I line up the Raven to soften the Grey Hunters which Mephiston plans to assault. My Vendetta arrives on my right and lines up a gun run on the quadgun. My Librarian casts Prescience on the Assault Squad, who charge and wipe the Long Fangs and now control both that Quarter and Objective. I jump the Librarian to link up with the Sanguinary Priest’s squad—except the SangPriest decided to fail his dangerous terrain, his armor and his FnP…. facepalm. The central RAS squad makes it behind the ruins with LOS denied, 5” from the central objective and Libby attached. His quadgun uses Interceptor on my Vendetta and scores both a glance and a penetrate, shaking it. Interesting note, we found you must declare Evade before armor penetrations are made—that stinks. The IG autocannons and my quadgun kill the Hydra through hullpoints. My raven kills 3 Grey Hunters, and Mephiston’s plasma pistol Gets Hot and he fails his 2+… so he’s lost 3 wounds. Seriously? He loses a 4th wound to a Plasmagun on overwatch, but he kills 4 GHs and my opponent fails to wound with 3 Axe hits or Rend with 7 Wulfen hits… WHEW!! Meph remains locked in combat with 3 GHs left.

NO PIC FOR END OF TURN 3! I’m pissed I forgot to take one apparently.

SW T4: His vendetta reappears, again on my left—and it looks like he doesn’t appreciate my scoring Stormraven. This time my quadgun’s Interceptor has no effect. The Wolf Priest’s Hunters fire again at Marbo, but only pistols this time so that he can charge, but I choose not to go to ground (and hence deny him a charge move and consolidate move) so Marbo dies. For 65pts though, he tangoed with 355pts for two whole turns (and if that blammin demo had’ve hit, he’d have been a hero). The other GHs move towards Mephiston’s melee, hoping to get that other Axe and Wulfen into the mix I’m sure, but he rolls low on Difficult Terrain and fails the charge. The Vendetta obliterates the Stormraven with 3 hits and 3 penetrates; I fail Evade for all of them. In melee, Mephiston slays the remainder and consolidates towards the scoring Long Fangs.

BA T4: My vendetta leaves the table in order to prepare for a Turn 5 Grav Shute Insertion onto an objective with the 30pt Platoon Leader squad. My librarian casts Prescience on the IG, hoping their autocannons can do something about that Vendetta—but they fail armor penetration rolls. Mephiston cozies on up to the Long Fangs to say hello, looking to score a Hat Trick of ‘Units Slain.’ My center-RAS crowds in a ring around the objective, preventing a Grav Shute Insertion from his Vendetta next turn. Mephiston’s plasma pistol works this time, killing one, and he kills the other 5 Long Fangs in melee—he consolidates behind my opponent’s Quadgun.

END OF TURN 4

SW T5: The vendetta hovers, and disgorges the IG Vets with Commissar Lord. They contest the objective my IG blob was sitting next to, which is entirely my fault because I had nothing but time to blob up over it to deny such silliness. The Wolf Priest’s Hunters do well for their difficult terrain move and run, easily making it to my right flank objective (Marbo’s sacrifice in vain?). His vendetta shoots at my RAS on my forward-left, hoping to force a failed morale but they go to ground and take no wounds. The GHs near Mephiston can’t charge him without leaving their objective, so they rapid-fire at him. I go to ground, and since I’m behind a Defense Line he gets a 2+ Cover and passes them all! I’m pretty happy Mephiston survived this game, since 2 of his 4 wounds were self-inflicted.

BA T5: Well right now we’re tied on Quarters and Tied on Objectives. But now I get the final turn! Meph went to ground, but he snap-shots the opponent’s quadgun (to no effect, but fun just because). My vendetta arrives, and I execute Grav Shute Insertion to attempt denial of the objective held by the Hunters near Meph, but they mishap and die (the chance was there though!). So it looks like it’s up to the IG Blob Squad led by Commissar Fisty Larue! The Librarian was still within 12” so I remembered to cast Prescience—then they charged right in to the IG Vets led by the opposing Commissar. ~30 IG with rerolls versus 10 Vets (and I had the charge) meant I swept them away. Fun cinematic: My Lord Commissar issued a challenge, and his Lord Commissar accepted—his naked Commissar slapped one wound off mine, then mine jammed a powerfist straight through his face :D With that objective reclaimed, we tied on Table Quarters and I won objectives, 3 to 2.

Well it’s late, I will post up my final thoughts and comments in the replies section.

[Taranis]

Great report. I like it. Congratulations on the win. Looking forward to your comments/additions.

In your turn 2 did Mephiston use jump move and also reroll on assault range or is that fleet? Can't remember all his rules.

 

Cheers.

[Morticon]

terrain seems mad sparse? That usual?

[ianj253]

Why did you choose not to use mephiston's sanguine sword and unleash rage when he was in CC? Was it because you wanted him to remain locked in combat and thus avoid shooting?

[CitadelArmyGuy]

@Taranis: Mephiston has Fleet, so he used Wings to jump 12" and then can choose to reroll any of his charge range dice (so I kept his original '5' and traded the 1,1 for a new 5,3). The huge threat range (and opportunity for Turn 2 charge) is exactly why I keep Mephiston with his codex powers.

 

@Morticon: The NOVA Mission Primer has 'preset terrain' so there are 7 pieces, arranged as shown (three across middle, four in each corner). We couldn't get our hand on larger pieces though, or we'd have used pieces with bigger footprints for the 4 'corner' pieces than those shown. One thing I've noticed with Tournaments in general though is that there's never enough terrain as you'd like. With D3 density of terrain as part of the Book missions now, I've noticed there's more terrain than ever before. I've been gettin' spoiled having thick terrain too, so it was fun to have a game to practice against open fields of fire for once.

 

@ianj253: Exactly! I don't cast Unleash Rage on the turn he charges, unless there's 7 or more Marines. He gets 6 attacks on the charge, so if he kills them all, he'll be stuck in the open subject to shooting. In this game, Mephiston only received Overwatch shooting-- literally he only got shot at in the normal shooting phase once, on Turn5. :tu:

 

For my final thoughts on the game, it seemed at times the dice had gone crazy--- both my Fliers failed to arrive T2 (either would've vaporized his vendetta rear-armor), Meph's pistol wounded himself, Marbo's demo scattered boxcars, and my Sanguinary Priest died jumping out of area terrain lol. Fortunately these accumulated only to make the game close (none of it costed me the win), and I feel it would've been a blow-out in my favor if things had gone smoothly :lol:

 

The quadgun is a must-take (Interceptor Rule is just too good). The defense line is definitely a must-take, for any tournament list I write from now on. Defense Line is not just for shooty Armies--- Especially if tournament terrain is poorly placed to allowed RAS and Meph to advance, a defense line stretched across the middle of the board would do awesome things. For me in this particular game, I placed my Defense Line too conservatively. I placed it exactly at 12.5" from my board edge, meaning 'protecting' my deployment zone. I should have put it 18"-24" away from my board edge, so that movement on Turn 1 would let my troops 'occupy' it while retaining cover and closing distance to the opponent. Especially examining my opponent's list, I should have predicted that my Aegis Line would be best if situated in the midfield instead of my backfield (maybe with a dog-leg to keep the quadgun in my deployment zone so I can start shooting it Turn 1). Question: with the new rulebook FAQ, does the Quadgun have to touch another pieces of the ADL? Or can it be way off by itself somewhere?

 

My Librarian is jiving really well when he operates within 12" of the IG. Being able to cast buffs (mostly Prescience) on 40 Dudesmen has worked out quite well in several games now. The more bodies you have to give Force Multiplication, the more 'bang for your buck' and visible returns you get. The 4 autocannons and quadgun with reroll hits are able to put out pretty decent damage, while being nearly immovable against shooting. The IG blob isn't going anywhere unless they assault it off the table. I DO want to write a battle report on how the IG perform when they are split into 4 separate cheap screening units though--- they can spread out to provide screening against Drop-Pods, Daemons, and other alphastrikers.

 

My Blood Angels performed excellently as always-- the RAS did well in the face of 15 antitank weapons, granted those were mitigated heavily by the old Lord of Death ^_^ . For the Stormraven, I think the TLAC is gonna be a keeper. It's better versus infantry, and since it's on a Turret you can get into other flier's rear-arcs and hammer them down that way. It's too bad mine missed his chance, because that opposing Vendetta would've received just that treatment. I still think my list will suffer in the face of Heavy Infantry-- but you can go to the Armylist subforum for thoughts about my list.

[Chaplain Admetus]

At what points limit would you say the defence line with quad gun becomes a necessity? I'm just wondering since our troops choices (and units as a whole) are fairly expensive, if playing with essentially a 1400 point list is worth doing? At 1750 and above it stops being so much of an issue, but at lower points it might be more of a luxury.

 

And Mephiston could have done worse, I've seen him take 3 of his own wounds away in the same turn before! Snake eyes for wings, failed dangerous terrain test, and then an overheating plasma pistol - 5 consecutive 1s (this was 5th ed.) Needless to say the owning player was less than impressed.

[CitadelArmyGuy]

At what points limit would you say the defence line with quad gun becomes a necessity? I'm just wondering since our troops choices (and units as a whole) are fairly expensive, if playing with essentially a 1400 point list is worth doing? At 1750 and above it stops being so much of an issue, but at lower points it might be more of a luxury.

In my opinion, for Tournaments, the Defense Line is a must-take at anything above 1000pts. I'd been thinking that was the case on paper, but now having playtested it so many times, my opinion is confirmed. Having deployable cover to either protect a firebase or protect your advance at midfield is simply an unparalleled bonus. 4+ Cover with 2+ if GtG means a pure shooting list won't be able to defeat you in an objective-based game. They won't. A defense line stretched across the midfield means any given list *must* have an assault capability to move you off. So for 50pts, you negate entire lists which might have tabled you in 5th Edition.

 

The quadgun isn't strictly necessary until higher than 1500, I agree with you there-- but if you take no flyers, and since you'll already have an ADL, then for 50pts more you get something useful for AA, plus it has other uses such as hurting Reserves Arrivals or bolstering shooting versus high-Toughness and Light Vehicles.

 

 

On the complete other hand!!! For pickup games and Eternal War missions from the rulebook, I don't think you need the ADL at all. The ability to choose terrain placement as part of the game means you will be able to self-protect your midfield advance or backfield defense all by yourself for no points cost at all. But in tournaments, the terrain will be pre-set, and you won't have any means to affect it-- but since the ADL is added to your table half of the Tourny terrain, it makes it simply the best way to spend 50pts I've ever seen.

[ianj253]

Have you ever taken sternguard vets? I was thinking about taking some and was wondering what your thoughts were on them .