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Tournament Report – The Eastern Edge II


Morollan

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This was a small friendly tournament hosted by Tabletop Nation in Essex (UK). Armies were set at 1200 points with random rulebook mission and deployment rolled before each game and applying to all tables. The tables were all very nice looking with plenty of terrain but little that totally blocked line of sight. There were supposed to be 4 games but the event was called after 3 as at least one game in each round had overrun by a fairly significant amount of time and people needed to leave.

 

My list was:

 

Librarian

Librarian on Bike

2 Priests

10-man Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher and Plasmagun

5-man Assault Squad with Meltagun and Power Fist in TLLC Razorback with Dozer Blade

5-man Assault Squad with Meltagun and Power Fist in Las/Plas Razorback with Dozer Blade

Bike Squad with 4 bikers, Power Weapon, Meltagun, Plasmagun and Attack Bike with Multi-melta

Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun

 

First Battle

Purge the Alien with Hammer and Anvil deployment

 

My opponent was playing Orks and his list was something like:

Warboss with Mega Armour and Attack Squig

Nobz Mob with Painboy, Cybork Bodies and a mix of big choppas and Klaws

Battlewagon

10 Lootas

30 Slugga Boyz

30 Shootas

Dakka Jet

 

Terrain was fairly scattered with some small clumps of forest and plenty of ruins and area terrain so there was lots of cover available. I placed my defence line across the battlefield linking up two ruins about 12” in from my edge. I set up first and deployed the bike squad on my left along with the Quad Gun. I Combat Squadded my Tac Squad and put one in the ruins on my right (with the Missile Launcher) and the other behind the defence line adjacent to the other squad. The first combat squad had the Librarian and a Priest attached. The 2 Razors were place on the far right table edge as far forward as possible.

 

The Orks deployed both big infantry mobs on my left, as far forward as possible in as much cover as possible. The Battlewagon deployed on my right, again as far forward as possible. The Lootas were in some forests on my right towards the rear of the battlefield.

Warlord traits were pretty useless for both sides. I rolled Divination powers for both librarians but didn’t get much of use and basically just used Prescience on both for the entire battle.

 

First turn I realised I’d made a huge cock up as I had inexplicably deployed a Quad Gun with nobody to fire it so one combat squad hurried embarrassedly over to my left to man the gun but could not fire it this turn as they needed to run to get there. The bike squad didn’t like the look of the 60 Orks bearing down on them and decided to relocate quickly to my right, using their Turbo Boost to shift a full 24” across and leave the huge Ork mobs pretty much out of the battle. The 2 Razors moved forward to get LOS on the Battlewagon. My shooting killed a couple of Lootas and knocked a HP off the Battlewagon.

 

The Orks moved the Slugga Boyz forward towards the combat squad with the quad gun and the Shootas shuffled over towards my right in an attempt to get back into the battle. Both mobs rolled poorly for their Run rolls though and made little progress. The Battlewagon moved forward 6” and disembarked the Warboss and Nobs near to my lead Razorback. The Ork shooting was almost completely ineffective and the Warboss failed to make the required distance on the charge roll, leaving him and his mob dangerously exposed in the open.

 

Turn 2 I moved my Bike Squad towards the Nobz and the Razors shuffled about to get good LOS on as many targets as possible. Not much else moved. The quad gun opened up on the sluggas and killed a few of them. The ML combat squad killed a couple more Lootas and the Razors managed to wreck the Battlewagon with a lucky lascannon shot (First Blood and 1 VP). The bike squad opened up on the Nobz and took a wound off the Warboss and killed a couple of Nobz. As it was charge or be charged I decided to charge them, with the Warboss issuing a challenge which my Librarian accepted. With a Force Axe, he was the only member of the squad who could reasonably damage Mega Armour. The combat was pretty uneventful though and whilst the Librarian managed to inflict a wound on the Warboss before being squashed (VP to the Orks), the rest of the squad did little and the combat ended a draw.

 

The Ork flyer failed to arrive and the two big mobs continued doing what they were doing last turn. The Lootas again failed to do much of note and the combat between the bikers and the Nobz ended with the lone surviving Sergeant managing to escape the clutches of the Orks, who consolidated into nearby ruins in the middle of the table.

 

Turn 3 I disembarked both assault squads, moving one into some ruins and the second into cover behind a Razorback. The surviving biker regrouped and rode back towards the razorbacks, taking cover behind one of them to avoid the Lootas. Shooting was concentrated on the Warboss and his surviving Nobz in the middle and succeeded in slaying the whole unit (Slay the Warlord and another 2 VPs).

 

The Ork flyer turned up but was promptly Stunned by the Quad Gun so did nothing of note. The Sluggas moved up towards the defence line and the Shootas moved towards the Assault Squads on the right. The Lootas opened fire and finally destroyed a Razorback (1 VP) and the Shootas opened up on the Assault Squad in the ruins but a combination of poor rolling, 5+ cover, 3+ armour and 5+ FNP meant only one marine died. Sluggas and Shootas both attempted to charge but the Sluggas were 9” away, charging into terrain and lost 4 Orks to Overwatch so they failed the charge. The Shootas faced a similar situation but were a bit closer to their target and managed to get into combat. I issued a challenge but the Nob decided to skulk at the back instead of facing me. The Orks rolled several bucket loads of dice but did very little, again due to 3+ armour and FNP. I managed to pick off a few Boyz for no loss but they were Fearless so the fight continued.

 

Turn 4 I moved the Biker Sergeant up towards the Lootas and piled the second Assault Squad into the combat with the Shootas. The two combat squads opened fire on the Slugga Boyz and thinned their ranks a little but assault was inevitable this turn so the squad on my left braced themselves for the onrushing green tide. The biker fired on the Lootas, killing one and then charged in, somehow surviving the Overwatch fire and butchering the Lootas with his trusty power sword. The survivors broke and ran but were caught and killed (another VP), with the biker consolidating into the forest and settling down with a nice cup of tea to wait for his VP for getting Linebreaker.

 

The Sluggas finally moved close enough to the tactical marines to guarantee a charge and the dakka jet moved over towards the other combat squad in the ruins. The flyer opened fire but only killed one marine. The Sluggas charged in and wiped out the combat squad (another VP). The fight on the right continued with the second assault squad bolstering my forces in the fight. The Nob issued a challenge but a series of 1’s from both players resulted in a no score draw and the rest of the fight continued in a similar vein, with my marines winning but the Orks remaining Fearless.

 

Turn 5 I shot up the Sluggas but they were still a decent sized unit. The biker remained where he was and the fight on the right ground on. The Nob won his challenge but the Marines reduced the Orks down to 10 Boyz and won combat but they passed their break test. The game ended at that point and a quick tally revealed that I had killed 4 units and claimed all 3 secondary objectives and the Orks had killed 5 units but only had 1 secondary objective (linebreaker for the Sluggas) so I won 7-6. This game was a lot of fun and the Ork player had some terrible luck with his dice but I think I managed to outmanoeuvre him by shifting everything over to my right and keep his big mobs out of the fight for most of the battle, and that was just enough to tip the balance in my favour.

 

 

Second Battle

The Relic with Dawn of War deployment

 

This battle was against a fellow Blood Angel and his list was:

Librarian

2 Priests

Furioso with Frag Cannon

Tactical Squad with Lascannon and Plasmagun

Tactical Squad with Plasma Cannon and Meltagun

Stormraven with Plasma Cannons, Missile Launcher and Hurricane Bolters

Stormraven with Plasma Cannons and Missile Launcher

 

The battlefield had lots of craters along each flank, creating a tricky path to manoeuvre through and lots of ruins clustered around the middle, restricting but not generally blocking firing lines. I again used my Aegis line to link two ruins and create a solid line of defence about 12” across the table.

 

His Librarian took the Primaris powers from Telekinesis and Divination. I took Prescience on both Libs and rolled Perfect Timing on the infantry Lib and Forewarning on the Biker lib. Both Warlord traits were unusable or unimportant.

 

I won the dice roll and opted to go second. My opponent combat squadded both tactical squads and deployed half of each squad forwards and in cover whilst the other half stayed back in cover with heavy weapons. The Stormravens were of course in reserve. I deployed the bike squad and both Razors on my left with the tactical squad, Lib and priest deployed behind the Aegis line and in ruins.

 

Turn 1 was fairly quiet. He moved two combat squads forward towards the relic but wanted to stay in cover so progress was slow. His other squads opened fire on my Razors stunning one and destroying a weapon on the other. On my turn I moved the unstunned Razor and the Bike Squad forward and attempted to get as much cover as possible. The other Razor popped smoke. The Librarian with the tactical squad used Perfect Timing to open fire with the entire squad and the quad gun on one of the tactical combat squads that was creeping towards the relic. I killed 3 of them, including a priest, and the survivors broke and fled back towards their table edge.

 

On turn 2 both Stormravens arrived. One came on from my left and moved about halfway across the board. The other came from the right and moved towards the middle, again getting about halfway in. I opted to open fire on the SR on the left with the Quad Gun which managed to hit and penetrate, causing an explosion that also took the power fist from the Dreadnought which landed in a crater on my left. The remaining SR opened fire on the Razorbacks and destroyed one. The plasma cannon and lascannon opened up on the squad that emerged from the destroyed Razor and killed 2 of them.

 

On my turn my bike squad moved towards the Dreadnought. The surviving assault marines moved into cover and the Razorback moved to get a better shot on the SR. The bike squad destroyed the Dreadnought easily and the Razorback opened fire on the Stormraven but managed only to destroy one missile. The tactical squad used Perfect Timing once again to open up on the combat squad that had approached the relic and killed all but one.

 

Turn 3 and the second combat squad moved cautiously towards the relic whilst the sole survivor regrouped and moved into contact with the relic. The Stormraven switched to Hover mode and opened fire on the assault marines, killing 2 of them. The two tactical squads also opened fire and destroyed the second Razorback, but the passengers all survived and disembarked nearer to the Relic.

 

On my turn I moved the bikes through some ruins to get to the second combat squad near the relic. The depleted assault squad moved into cover and the intact combat squad moved towards the lone marine carrying the precious relic. The bike squad opened fire on the combat squad, killing everyone apart from the priest. The depleted assault squad tried to kill the priest but failed. The intact assault squad shot at and killed the relic bearer. The tactical squad brought everything to bear on the Stormraven and also used Perfect Timing to negate its Jink save. The ensuing firestorm wrecked the flyer. I opted not to charge the bike squad into the Priest as it would pull them out of cover and leave them exposed to the shooting of both tactical squads.

 

Turn 4 and the game was nearing the end. Both tactical squads opened fire but killed only 1 marine and 1 biker. The priest charged the bike squad but they had cast Prescience the previous turn and the Overwatch killed the plucky Priest. On my turn I moved the bike squad towards the tacticals with the plasma cannon, moved the assault squad 6” back towards my own lines with the Relic and opened fire with Perfect Timing on the Librarians combat squad, killing 3. The bikes killed 4 of the combat squad with the plasma cannon and charged the survivor but fell short of the required distance.

 

The game ended with me having the Relic plus First Blood and Linebreaker. My opponent only had his Librarian and 2 tactical marines from 1 squad and 1 from the other.

 

 

Third Battle

Big Guns Never Tire with Vanguard Strike deployment

 

My opponent was playing Chaos Daemons and, like me, we were both 2-0 so far today so it should have been a good match. Sadly for me, it didn’t turn out that way!

 

His list was:

 

Bloodthirster

3 x 4 Flamers

2 x 10 Pink Horrors (one unit with The Changeling)

2 x Soulgrinders

 

He split these fairly evenly down the middle for his two waves. He got first turn. Basically his flamers came in and destroyed a tactical combat squad. His Horrors and one Soulgrinder destroyed one Razorback and the squad inside. And that was just the first turn. I did 1 wound on a Flamer and 1 HP on a Soulgrinder. In the second turn he destroyed the other Razorback and the squad inside and the flamers finished off the tactical squad. My bikes arrived and opened up on the damaged Soul Grinder with a multi-melta, meltagun and plasmagun which all missed. The plasmagun overheated and destroyed the gunner. The daemons fired back in the third turn and I ended up with one Biker. At that point I conceded.

 

There was absolutely nothing I could do against that army. I had no way of stopping the flamers getting close, not enough firepower to repel them and the horrors, very little that could damage the Soulgrinders and nothing that could take on the Bloodthirster. My opponent was a nice guy though and we had a good laugh and a long chat after the game. I believe he went on to win the tournament as he was a good general and I don’t think anyone had an army that could deal with his Daemons.

 

Summary

 

A nice little tournament in a good venue with good tables. Duration of the battles needed to be more enforced and the plan to play 4 battles was a bit optimistic. The 3rd round was still going on at 5.00 when I left and a 4th round would easily have gone on to 8.00 in the evening. As it was a 9.30am registration that’s a long day, especially for those of us with an hour’s drive to get there and back. But Tabletop Nation are still finding their feet and I think they will only improve their events with time. Look forward to the next one!

Great battles dude. Thanks for posting about them.

 

I completely sympathize with your game against the Daemons. If you can't take them as they come then you can take them period. At 1200, a Bloodthirster is brutal and Flamers are great no matter the game level.

 

Better luck next time.

  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for posting the batreps! For 1200 points you faced some scary stuff... daemons and twin storm ravens! I'm pretty shocked at how easily you handled those ravens actually.

 

Also, really liked your writing style, easy to read and to the point, but I could definitely picture the battle playing out.

 

:)

Nice write-up. Its always good to hear about people having a laugh at tournament games.

 

Fwiw, you can always just take pics on a camera or phone and throw them onto photobucket, flickr or picasa and link them here. There's also having your own blog and being able to post up batreps via that. I use blogger (see my sig) but there's a host of other companies that make running a blog quite easy. Just something to keep in mind for future reference. :)

 

Out of curiosity, how long were the games running? If its 1200 pts then surely they don't take that long to play (~ 2 hrs seems about right).

Out of curiosity, how long were the games running? If its 1200 pts then surely they don't take that long to play (~ 2 hrs seems about right).

 

Most of the games were coming in under 2 hours but unfortunately there was at least one game in each round that went longer for one reason or another. I don't think there was any deliberate slow play, or at least not in the sense of trying to achieve any advantage. I think there were just a couple of players who seemed to take a great deal of time thinking of what they wanted to do. Not inexperienced, just thoughtful and perhaps a little too thoughtful!

Great battles dude. Thanks for posting about them.

 

I completely sympathize with your game against the Daemons. If you can't take them as they come then you can take them period. At 1200, a Bloodthirster is brutal and Flamers are great no matter the game level.

 

Better luck next time.

 

I sympathize about the demons... I played them in a 900 point "beginners" league and was off the table by the start of turn 4, mostly by half my opponent's army - a unit of 9 flamers and a unit of 9 screamers. I have no idea how to counter them either and I got to both make them go first and reduced their ability to get their reserves in with my Warlord trait. They arrive and whatever the flamers target dies. If you charge the flamers the unit that did so dies. The only thing I can think of is to have units in threes - The first gets killed when the flamers arrive, and on your turn you declare a charge with one unit. If the flamers overwatch and kill it, then the second gets the charge in. If the flamers don't overwatch the first unit, the second doesn't charge. Otherwise, you don't have time to widdle away the flamers with shooting because each unit of them kills a unit a turn.

 

And then there are screamers which are like 25 point deep striking, tank busting, lightning claw assault terminators. They kill terminators and vehicles like no one's business. I don't know how to counter them at all except with massed missile and lascannon fire which you can't field in this point range.

 

They are at their most lethal at lower point values too, and especially in purge the alien or some other kill point mission. You HAVE to squad to be able to have enough elements to survive the initial assault, yet doing so adds adds a metric ton to the kill points you give the demons.

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