Clash on the Base 2012

[Muctar]

I was lucky enough to attend a tournament out of my local area yestereday with a brand new list and units that I've barely even had the chance to practice with. The list is posted and had been previously discussed in the army list section here: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=265031. I recommend taking a quick look at it if you like to be familiar with the list I ran.

 

The tournament was three rounds of 1850 points, with differing objectives, deployment, and special rules for each game. I'll try to describe each match succinctly but with enough details so that you know where and when things happened throughout the games.

 

Game 1

The first game was against Tyranids with The Emperor's Will as mission, Dawn of War deployment, Night Fighting Turn 1, and on a board with hills and some jungle terrain. The Tyranids had 2 Flyrants [FR], 2 Tervigons [TG], 2 squads of Termagaunts [G], 2 Trygons [TRY], 3 Hive Guard [HG], and 2 squads of Ymgril Genestealers [YG]. I won the roll-off for side, and again for deployment so I chose to go second since my whole army starts in reserve.

 

The Tyranids deployed in a line much like this (1/2 board diagram), with the blue squad on the objective, and the Ymgril's in their special version of reserve:

|....................G,TG,G,TG................................|

| TRY,TRY,FR,HG,FR.......................................|

|...................................................................|

|..................YG.................................YG........|

 

In his turn everything moved up except the gaunts on the objective, and the Trygons and a Flyrant made a run for my objective on the left of the board in my deployment zone. In mine I dropped my melta tacticals plus libby to the right side close to the tervigons, combat squadded, Enfeebled the nearest Tervigon, and wiped it out. This caused a great many casualties to the nearby 2 squads of gaunts, one of which had been spawned.

 

The nids second turn had no reserves come in, moved up again just like first turn, spawned 18 gaunts (which is the max on one roll) from the remaining Tervigon, and the 2 Flyrants swooped to either side of my squads in a pincer move. Shooting killed a few marines, but I made a lot of armour saves. The 18 gaunts and 6 others assulted the squad and the libby, and I won the combat. In my half of the turn the Storm Eagle + Storm Talon and Vulkan + tactical's pod came in. The SE zoomed close to the two tervigons, but was facing the nearest Flyrant along with the ST. Vulkan and crew dropped close to the nids objective and combat squadded, with flamers on the gaunts' side while Vulkan with the missile launcher squad got out between some gaunts and the Hive Guard. Combined fire from a combat squad, ST and SE took out one Flyrant, the flamer squad roasted all but one gaunt on the objective, and Vulkan's group took 3 wounds off the Hive Guard. I then charged 1 sergeant and a combat squad into the gaunt combat which was ongoing.

 

Nids third turn saw him forget to roll for his Ymgrils, retreat with the Trygons away from the SE, and moving his remaining Flyrant to support his Hive Guard in taking out the SE, and his Tervigon joined the ongoing combat. He unfortunately couldn't take down the SE and remained locked in combat with my combat squads in his deployment zone. My response was to unload the hammernator combat squads into the Tervigons, hover strike the ST into the Flyrant after he had been grounded by a combat squad, cleaned up the last gaunt from the objective in order to capture, and charged Vulkan into the Hive Guard while his combat squad charged into a few gaunts. By the end of the turn the Trygons, gaunts outside of the big combat, and Flyrant were dead, while the Hive Guard remained locked in combat with Vulkan. In the big gaunt/Tervigon combat my libby managed to extricate himself by slaying the remained of the small gaunt squad and was able to pile into the Tervigon.

 

The Ymgril's showed up on the fourth turn, but were too little too late. They did manage to take out the brave combat squad who had previously aided in downing the two Flyrants and a Tervigon [such deeds shall be remembered in the vaults of Prometheus], while the other took several casulties from Vulkan before they could strike (due to charging through terrain) and therefore didn't have enough left to do any damage to him. Vulkan then ran the Hive Guard down and terminated the rest of the Ymgrils in my turn with a quick blast from the Gauntlet of the Forge. By this time all the gaunts in the big combat had been taken out and all that was left was the Tervigon, who was still stuck in. Time was called at this point with the victory points being 6-0 in my favor and I earned a major victory.

 

Game 2

Games two was against Eagle Warriors (C:SM) with Captain (artificer, relic blade, storm shield), Librarian, 3 tacticals with plasma guns and pistols in pods, sniper scouts, 8 Terminators with Cyclone, missile Devastators, Thunderfire, and AC/LC Pred. Deployment was Vanguard Strike, Crusade as mission, no night fighting at all this game, and the board had multi-leveled ruins around the edges with little terrain in the middle. The 5 objectives were all on his side of the table, and from my perspective were: center of the table, northeast from center, north of center, west of center, and northwest of center. My opponent won both roll offs and so chose his corner of the board and also chose to deploy second. Since I had nothing to deploy He placed his TFC in the very back corner next to a ruin, his pred in a tank bunker to the right which he bolstered with the Techmarine, termies in front and to the right of it, the devs up in a ruin to the left of the TFC next to an objective, and the scouts in outflank reserve.

 

Right away I dropped the libby + melta tactical squad in front of the TFC, and Vulkan + flamer tactical directly next to the devastators' ruin. Both tacticals combat squaded, with the Flamer squad with Vulkan getting to the level where the devs were, the missile launcher group running onto the western objective in a ruin, and the two melta squads right in the TFC's face. I managed to destroy the TFC but not kill the Techmarine due to poor my shooting sequence, and kill all the devs but one. The devastator broke but just barely stayed on the table. In the Eagle Warrior's turn the Captain/Libby/Tactical squad podded in near Vulkan and the other tactical scattered away from my melta group. Their terminators and pred shifted position, with the latter somewhat coming out of the bunker. The melta squads were nearly wiped out and one was charged by the Techmarine. Meanwhile Vulkan lost the flamer, sergeant, and marine from his squad.

 

The second turn's reserve rolls were tense for me due to both our warlord traits. My opponent had -1 to my reserve rolls, but I was able to re-roll my reserves, and I dearly needed my air power to come in. Thankfully my re-rolls worked and both my pod and SE + ST came in. The pod landed between the center and western objectives, and the tactical combat squadded within 12" of the Captain's squad. The SE and ST zoomed on within 12" of the terminators with line of sight to the pred's exposed side armour and the enemy tactical squad. Vulkan's squad advanced on the Captain's squad, and my libby charged into the techmarine. The ST blew up the pred, which took out a marine and termie. Then the SE followed up by taking out 2 termies with lascannons and multi-melta, and a few marines at the same time with the Vengeance Launcher by using Power of the Machine Spirit. The rest of my force fired upon the captain's squad killing several, and they fell back but were charged by Vulkan and crew. The combat saw my sergeant die in a challenge, but Vulkan was able to slay his sergeant with precision strikes. Though I lost the combat Vulkan, now alone, passed his leadership. Also, my librarian took out the Techmarine in a challenge, so the two survivors and libby consolidated into the nearby ruins. The bottom of the turn saw the last pod come in and kill a few of my marines who had just come in by pod that turn. The tactical squad and termies moved up and away from the SE, with the tacticals killing one marine in the ruins and the termies failing to take down the SE. In combat Vulkan and the Captain traded blows in a epic AP3, 2+ save derp-fight. Vulkan actually took a wound but stayed put. Relief was on its way.

 

Third turn was very direct. My SE hovered and the 2 hammernator combat squads got out, one towards the terminators in terrain the other trying to get as close to Vulkan and his combat as possible. My librarian moved up and used Smite to take out the last few tactical marines that had been trying to pick off the last of his original meltagun squad, with help from the Storm Talon. Meanwhile, the meltagunner who survived climbed the ruin he was in to claim an objective and vaporized the last devastator. In the middle of the board the 3 combat squads turned their attention to the tactical squad who dropped in behind them, and along with the SE reduced them to 4 men. In assault the hammernators pounded the tac termies and made the survivor run, and they gave chase. The other squad managed to reach Vulkan and help him in assault, turning the tide. Though the sergeant who made a Glorious Intervention died to the Captain, he allowed Vulkan to cut down several marines, with the libby and the rest falling to the hammernators. The second half of the turn saw the Eagle's reduced tactical squad charge my combat squad who were on an objective, and his scouts come in from outflank. In assault, his Captain fell to the Hammernators, and both Vulkan and they consolidated to help relive the beleaguered combat squad locked in combat with a power fist.

 

Fourth was to be the last turn as one squad of hammernators and Vulkan saved the combat squad, while the other squad of hammernators finished off the last terminator. The Storm Talon and Storm Eagle took out all but two of the scouts, and my second combat squad secured the center objective. Unfortunately I lost the meltagunner who was holding an objective to a pod's storm bolter, but at that point we called it a game because if there was a turn 5 he probably would have been left with only one drop pod. So the final score was 8-1, a major victory for myself.

 

Game 3

The final game was against Grey Knights with IG Allies, and proved to be what is most likely the most interesting game of 40k I've ever played. The mission was Big Guns Never Tire, deployment was Dawn of War, with Night Fighting on turn 5, and took place on a board with a ruin in each table sixth, except for a very large 12"x8" solid wall in the very center of the board. The GK/IG had Coteaz, 3 squads of 3 Acolytes in Razorbacks, 3 Strike Squads, Purifiers, Dredknight, Lord Commissar with Power Axe, Platoon Command, and 5 Infantry Squads whose sergeants all had Power Axes. The 5 objectives (blue O) were placed in the center of the board, one due west of center, northwest corner, north, and one in the northeast corner. I won both rolls for side and deployment and elected to go first. Again as I had nothing to deploy he setup his forces like this:

|RB/A....................................................RB, PCS......|

|DK,P,SS,SS&C, 50man Platoon + LC, SS................|

|.......O...................................................................|

|.....................................O........................................|

 

Unfortunately for myself my opponent stole the objective on his second attempt, due to Coteaz. So he used his first turn to move up and spread out his Strike Squads and cast Warp Quake. In response I had to come down on the eastern side, exactly outside of 12" of the strike squads. If I had scattered 1" west or 3" east it would have meant a mishap for either pod. Both pods came in with direct hits. Luckily for me. Vulkan and his squad were closest and moved 6"into terrain with their difficult terrain roll, their counterpart combat squad with the missile launcher holding position near the pod. The melta squad with libby split into two and moved up just inside rapid fire range. 3 squads let loose into the easternmost Strike Squad causing several casualties, including a psycannon, while Vulkan's fried the Platoon Command Squad with ease, denying precious orders and earning me First Blood.

 

To open his second turn my opponent pulled his battered strike squad back towards the 50-man platoon, while bringing some guardsmen back and others forward so they were no closer than 20" of my squads, bunching them up into a massive clump in the process. Everything else in his army moved up and to the east preparing to engage my squads as soon as possible. My libby's squad took the brunt of the shooting, losing a few marines and wounding the libby. Fortunately for me my reserves came in just how I wanted them. The pod remained in reserve with 10 marines but the Storm Eagle and Storm Talon came in from the southwestern corner. The ST targeted the Acolites' razorback on the left flank, immobilizing it. Meanwhile the SE zoomed in putting a Stirke Squad and the 50-man IG blob in it's sights. Firing the lascannons and multi-melta at the Strike Squad it removed 3 knights, and using PotMS it fired the Vengeance Launcher at the IG blob. With minimal scatter and a direct hit for its two shots it hit 43 guardsmen, killing 31. This was a massive blow to my opponent's army. Meanwhile the libby and his remaining marines killed a few some knights and gaining back a wound for the libby due to Life Leech, but failed their charge, while Vulkan and 3 other squads charged the eastern razorback in order to gain distance, blowing it up in the process.

 

At the beginning of turn three the opponent's 2 squads of three acolytes came in from reserve on the western side to hide in the ruins near two objectives. In an attempt to stop both my Storm Eagle and the tacticals he focused all the anti-tank firepower he could into the former and anti-infantry into the latter. He managed to kill off the Libby's escort and wound him again, but the librarian held fast. My opponent also managed one penatrating hit on the Storm Eagle but its pilot jinked the craft out of the way, making his save. In my half of the turn Vulkan and the three squad moved westwards, along with the librarian who was in the center of the board. Two squads and the libby managed to make it into combat with the remnants of the blob squad and a Strike Squad, respectively. So the long and grinding combat against the blob squad began. i would have to find a way to kill the Lord Commissar before I could break them. Meanwhile on the other side of the table the Storm Eagle hovered and the hammernators disembarked, while the Storm Talon again focused on the razorback and destroyed it. One squad of hammernators charged the Purifiers, and the other multi-charged two strike squads (one containing Coteaz), both losing one terminator to overwatch. In combat, for the first time ever, both squads floundered. The multi-charge saw the death of the sergeant in a challenge, and the Purifiers cut down 3 terminators before they could swing. The lone termie stayed in combat while the other squad could not attempt to catch the knights as they fell back out of combat only taking a couple casualties.

 

Turn four was rough for me. In the west the terminators out of combat were gunned down and the one left in was cut down. The two tacticals in combat did not do well and suffered from 5 sergeants with power axes pilling in. The libby was also force weaponed by a Justicar in a challenge before he could strike. Though the SE and ST were thankfully spared they were able to kill some Purifiers and the Dreadknight. My last pod came in with fresh reinforcements in the west, felling a few purifiers on the western objective and acolytes in the ruins near the northwestern one.

 

Turn five saw the game's balance shift in favor of me again. Though the Purifiers charged on the squad who shot them my marines managed to kill a couple and stay in combat, losing only one of their own. Coteaz assaulted and killed a couple marines, but couldn't kill all 5 in the ruins. The remaining acolytes moved through the ruins and claimed the northwestern objective. A strike squad multi-charged into the ongoing combat while the other claimed the central objective. In combat Vulkan challenged the Lord Commissar who either had to accept and possibly die, or refuse which would mean losing Stubborn for the squad. The LC accepted and was duly cut down. Then the strike squads killed 4 marines, which meant the loss of another scoring unit for me. However, at the same time my marines targeted the guardsmen with miraculous rolls and slew 6! This left only one guardsman who without the LC around ran, as well as the strike squads! Vulkan cut down the guardsman and the strike squad ran off the board! With 5 marines in two combat squads left they consolidated towards the eastern and northern objectives while Vulkan charged forwards to engage the strike squad who were on the central objective. In the bottom of the turn both combat squads secured their objectives and turned their guns on the strike squad, felling several of their number. Even though Vulkan charged in he was unable to kill nay of the knights but was able to contest the objective. My tactical in the west killed and was killed down to 2 marines each with the Purifiers, and retreated away from the western objective. As for the acolytes on the northwestern objective they were decimated by the hover strike of the Storm Talon and zooming Storm Eagle, leaving it unclaimed.

 

The game ended there with the victory points standing at 8-0 in my favor giving me my third major victory, and first place at the tournament! It was a great time overall, everyone had lots of fun, and I've got a fantastic gaming story that I'll get to talk about for years into the future.

 

My list performed exactly as it should, using its capability to deploy where it pleases to hit the opponent where it'll hurt the most and then following up by hitting the units who are exposed by the reaction to cripple the army. The best unit was definitely the Storm Eagle as without it I could never have delivered the terminators where they needed to be so fast and safely, or have taken out 30+ guardsmen in one shot, or have taken down 2 Flying Hive Tyrants with such ease. However, I must add that my tactical squad did a lot of the heavy lifting. Both by killing a lot and by surviving to the bitter end.

[Polythemus]

Wow very interesting batreps. Great writing. As for the list Im a little divided in opinion about it. On the one hand i have a storm eagle and i play dark angels and with the new codex due to arrive it seems i may be able to enlist similar tactics to what you did here. On the other hand, vulkan lists... Personally ive played one twice and lost twice and for the amount of points vulkan costs he is still under priced for what he does. I mean the guy gives three different weapon types an army wide reroll to wound!!! But i feel you are also to be congratulated on your list, strategy, and execution of battle tactics. There is surely great synergy between your pods, your planes and the first turn denial. Well done sir. May your storm eagle always arrive on turn 2... Unless your playing me.

[Muctar]

Hahaha. Thanks. Though if I ever do play you I'll try my best to get the re-roll reserves warlord trait :D

 

My thoughts on the Storm Eagle are that it attracts a lot of attention, being transport capacity 20 and an assault vehicle brings something to an army you could never do before, and that lascannons are worth every bit of the 60 points you pay for them.

 

As for Vulkan, yes he's great, but what he gives an army in power it loses tactical flexibility. You can no longer fall back at will when it's advantageous, and you get pigeonholed into operating within 24" of an opponent, which is not always what you want to do depending on your opponent. I don't think he's overpowered, but I do think he is the best character in C:SM by far.

 

Also, he only gives re-rolls to wound for flamers and heavy flamers. Meltas and multi-meltas get re-rolls to hit, not wound. Just as a clarification.

[Polythemus]

Doesnt he also give some benefit to t-hammers? I coulda sworn he does. Hammers not withstanding rerolls to flamers are a dirty dirty weapon in sixth ed. Rerolling to hit with melta vs reroll to wound is also dirty, but not as dirty. Ok rant done.

 

The thing i like about the stormeagle besides looking awesome is it really does give everyone whos not a BA or GK a flying transport, Which is an excellent tactical asset. Now here is my curiousity, have you tried using just missles? for pruposes of its role it seems like the best option (of course they should really come standard, like that darned stormraven) especially to keep the points down. that way you become just as potent versus vehicles, especially since your only going to be using it as a delivery system, which may limit its ability to target vehicles. Also since the missles are ordinance they have a better chance to pen anyway.

[Muctar]

Vulkan does make thunder hammers master-crafted, so each wielder gets one re-roll to hit.

 

The SE is great as a transport, but it needs to be feared as a gunship as well, if upgraded. After it drops off passengers it tends to be ignored, even though that is the best time to take it out as it's hovering. After hovering 6" and unloading passengers the SE can still fire all of its weapons to full effect, and hovering allows it to change its facing to be optimal for shooting. When zooming it can fire all of its weapons as well. Of course if it has missiles then only two can be fired per turn.

 

I will have to try using the Hellstrike Missiles, though I think I'll prefer the TLLCs after seeing what they did. The benefit to missiles is that they are ordinance and AP1. So a better chance to blow up a vehicle on a penetrate, with a good chance of that happening as you get the highest of 2 dice to penetrate. It's true that missiles get as many shots per turn as the lascannons do (2), but the downside is that they can only do that for two turns.

 

The longer a game goes on the LCs become more useful as they never run out of shots, and so the Storm Eagle is just as potent late game as it was when it first came in. The LCs are also S9 and can penetrate AV14, which is something the missiles can't do despite being ordinance, while also being AP2 and therefore still giving you a bonus on the damage chart. From what I saw it was worth paying the 40 points over the cost of missiles to get the lascannons.

 

Both LC and missiles have their merits. Either way, the SE is much more than just a transport, as it can cause some serious havoc on its own.

[Kierdale]

Congratulations, Muctar. It sounds like you've got your tactics down. Job well done, brother!

[Muctar]

Thank you. I always build a list with a strategy in mind and tactics I want to use accomplish it. It makes list-building very enjoyable and keeps things fresh by having to overcome new challenges and adapting to events in games as they progress.

[Polythemus]

muctar i do have a question for you. Clearly from the inclusion of the storm eagle the tournament you played in allowed forgeworld items. Now besides the armies listed above did you happen to observe any other forgeworld models and how they performed?

 

in addition, many players complain of the cron-air and deamon armies. how do you see those matchups versus this army?

[Muctar]

Ya, the local organizers have a list of approved forgeworld units/armies that can be used in tournaments.

 

I did not see any other forgeworld units there, but I do know someone who runs a Death Korps list. It has lots of artillery and lots of bodies on the table, making getting to him very difficult to get to as well as killing off enough stuff to win.

 

As for Cron-air, I'm not sure what units are on the table at the start of the game, but I think I could do fine if I went second. My plan would be to focus two pods worth of forces on one squad to wipe them out right away, then repeat the next turn. Demons I don't see as a problem if I go second, but if I go first I'd probably want to deploy close to terrain and the board edges and force them into getting mishaps.