Redstone Rumble 2013

[Calnus]

The Rumble is a two-day tournament hosted locally in Huntsville, Alabama.  Its in its second year (first was actually held on Redstone Arsenal, which was cool), and starts tomorrow.

 

Link to tournament website:  http://www.redstone-rumble.com/

 

Why do I put this on the B&C for my fellow Blood Angels to review?  Because I'm going to try and win it of course!

 

I'm taking my successor chapter, who are the Blood Raptors this week.  I'll try and get a picture of the whole thing on its display board edited into this post at some point this weekend.

 

Here's the tournament list, as it will be presented to my opponents:

 

Blood Raptors Redstone Strike Force

Librarian Faust

  -counts-as Mephiston

Codicier Calnus

  -Librarian, Jump Pack, Force Maul, ML 1

Brother-Dreadnought Travian

  -Furioso Dreadnought, Frag Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod

Brother-Dreadnought Raphael

  -Furioso Dreadnought, Blood Talons, Magna-grapple, Drop Pod

Assault Squad Ezio

  -Assault Marine squad, 10 Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Sergeant Ezio has a Power Fist

Assault Squad Donatello

  -Assault Marine squad, 10 Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Sergeant Donatello has a Power Sword and Melta Bombs

Tactical Squad "Black Swords"

  -Tactical Marine squad, 10 Marines, Plasmagun, Lascannon, Sergeant Locke has a Power Fist, Drop Pod

Attack Bike Squad "Sky Swords"

  -Attack Bikes x3, Multi-melta x3

Land Speeder "Dustbringer"

  -Land Speeder x1, Typhoon Missile Launcher

Land Speeder "Bombardier"

  -Land Speeder x1, Typhoon Missile Launcher

Stormraven Gunship "Rolling Thunder"

  -Stormraven, Assault Cannon, Multi-Melta, Hurricane Bolter Sponsons

 

Hopefully, I'll have battle reports to put up Monday. 

 

[Taranis]

Sounds fun.:) I for one am looking forward to seeing your reports.

Do your legion proud but above all. Have fun. :yes:

[Calnus]

Last year I went 2-3, with both a major win and major loss (they use battle points, so you get major and minor win/loss).  If I can just go 3-2 or better this year I'll call that a win.

 

The Rumble is now a qualifier for the NOVA Invitational, so if I make it high enough to qualify, I'm going to try and beg time off work and take the trip up to Virginia next year.  If that happens, you will definitely be reading about it here.

[JamesI]

Good luck!

 

By the way, why a force maul?  I use Ahriman a lot and I hate the force staff's AP4, just hurts so much.

[Calnus]

I pulled it off a Dark Angels sprue a couple years ago and glued it together because it looked cool.  I do like the way the Librarian model turned out, but the force maul really doesn't cut it.

 

However--

 

There is a combo of sorts between the Maul Libby and the Power Fist sergeant.  If I'm not stuck in a challenge, I can use the Maul to reduce anything that I2-3 to I1 before it swings, allowing the Fist to get a shot at it simultaneously.  Alternately, if I do get the Lib stuck in a challenge, I *think* I can pull a Glorious Intervention with the sergeant after the Lib swings and get the power fist hits in.  That's kind of sketchy though, as I've read the intervention rule once, maybe, and hardly remember it.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Have fun, brother, do us proud!

 

Re: heroic intervention, it has to be done at the start of combat on your turn (official wording: "start of his own fight sub-phase and before any blows are struck"). Means you have to smack 'em with the maul in -their- turn, and then glorious intervention in your own turn to get the fist hit.

[Zynk Kaladin]

Hmm, interesting list. I get the feeling squad Donatello should have a power staff rather than a power sword.

Give them hell brother! I expect greatness.

[Paulochromis]

you are missing half the turtles - where are Leonardo and Michelangelo?

[Chaplain Admetus]

Scarfing pizza

 

(also, nobody liked Michaelangelo... Raphael ftw)

[Calnus]

Alright, time for the RESULTS!

 

Blood Angels went 1-4 this tournament. 

 

Score breakdown:

 

Game 1 vs. Imperial Fists.  Mission was Crusade, 5 objectives, win conditions were Objective Primary, Warlord, Linebreaker, Kill Points Secondary, Table Quarters Tertiary.  Score was 20-0 Blood Angels, for winning all three conditions.  Only lost on KP.

 

Game 2 vs. Chaos Space Marines + Black Legion.  Mission was Relic, score determined by mission points.  2 points for controlling the Relic, 2 points for a majority of 4 additional corner objectives, 1 point for Warlord, 1 point for Linebreaker.  Lost by Linebreaker in turn 6, because my 5 marines holding the objective in his deployment zone were removed by Obliterators.  7-13 loss.

 

Game 3 vs. White Scars + Iron Fists.  Mission was Crusade, same as first, but with secondary quarters and Warlord, Linebreaker, and KP making up the tertiary.  Lost 0-20, due to being tabled in turn 4.

 

Game 4 vs. Black Templars.  Mission was Emperor's Will, but with mission points.  So 4 points for holding all of the 4 objectives, 2 for holding more than your opponent, and 1 each for Warlord, Linebreaker, and a central objective.  Technically a tie (we both had 1 mission point due to tieing corner objectives), lost on points destroyed, 10-10 score.

 

Game 5 vs. Tyrannids.  Mission was Scouring, primary of 5 objectives, with 3 on table centerline, secondary was quarters, tertiary was the combination of Warlord, Linebreaker and KP.  Lost by quarters, warlord, and KP, so score 3-17.

[Calnus]

Major tournament takeaways:

 

Grav guns are...something else.  Game 3 was against 13 squads of bikes carrying 2 grav guns each.  He went first and by the time I was able to roll for reserves, I had 5 models left on the table, not including two drop pods.

 

I really missed the Sanguinary Priest in this list.  Almost every list I faced was designed to ignore armor saves (either at range or CC), but would not have been S8 or greater except on the MCs, so would have gotten FnP against most things that actually killed marines.

 

Only 2 games had any flyers worth mentioning, but still would have wanted my second Stormraven.  Kept wanting more missile/melta shots.

 

The new 6th edition books have reduced the life expectancy of a marine on the ground to just about nil.  Dreadnoughts aren't much better off.

[Calnus]

Link to detailed results (credit Torrent of Fire, running the tournament through the app helped greatly, as it was hard to hear table assignments in the venue):

 

http://app.torrentoffire.com/#/tournament/Redstone-Rumble/1/leaderboard

 

The soft score listed was paint. 

[Ushtarador]

This sadly just confirms my experience that regular marines (tacs and jumpers) are just not good anymore in our codex :/ also how the hell did he get THIRTEEN biker squads?! And there we thought ravenwing was cheesy..

[Calnus]

The game 3 List (my worst nightmare essentially, it still messes with my head):

 

Primary Detachment - White Scars:

Khan, on Moondraken

Bikers x5, Grav guns x2, melta bombs (troops)

Bikers x5, Grav guns x2, melta bombs (troops)

Bikers x5, Grav guns x2, melta bombs (troops)

Bikers x5, Grav guns x2, melta bombs (troops)

Bikers x5, Grav guns x2, melta bombs (troops)

Bikers x5, Grav guns x2, melta bombs (troops)

Bikers x3, Grav guns x2 (fast attack)

Bikers x3, Grav guns x2 (fast attack)

Bikers x3, Grav guns x2 (fast attack)

Allied Detachment- Iron Hands

Captain on bike, Thunder Hammer, Shield Eternal

Bikers x5, Grav guns x2, melta bombs (troops)

Bikers x5, Grav guns x2, melta bombs (troops)

Bikers x3, Grav guns x2 (fast attack)

 

So yeah, that's 45 marines with scout, 4+ cover, hit and run, and 6 AP2 attacks per squad wounding marines on 3+ each turn.  Then, an additional 13 marines with the same attacks, but instead having a 6+ FnP and the Eternal Warrior captain.

[Calnus]

Battle Report, Game 1

 

Sorry about lack of pictures, I got caught up in the games.  So this will be a massive wall of text, my apologies.

 

Opponent's List:

Imperial Fists

Captain, bike, Artificer Armor, Shield Eternal, Thunder Hammer

Command Squad, Bikes, Apothecary

Tactical Squad x2, Plasma gun, Plasma Cannon, Combi-melta

Tactical Squad x2, Missile Launcher, Meltagun, Combi-plasma

Sternguard x10, Combi-melta x3, Heavy Flamer x2

Bike Squad x8, Meltagun x2

Land Raider Crusader, MM

Predator, TL lascannon turret

 

(Going off memory, will check and edit later)

 

Terrain was mostly Styrofoam hills, couple pieces of flat area in each deployment zone, most hills were 3" tall or better.  Deployment was hammer and Anvil.  I won the roll to go first.  Objectives were placed by mission rules in the center of each table quarter.

 

I deployed attack bikes and Mephiston on my left flank, Meph standing on terrain for 5+ cover, bikes behind a hill out of LoS.  Librarian and 10 jump marines with fist deploy center forward, behind a 2-level center terrain piece.  Tactical combat squad with plasmagun and lascannon deploy in area terrain next to an objective on my right flank.  Melta combat squad from the second jump unit went into DS reserve, sword combat squad went into Stormraven.  Tactical sergeant's combat squad stayed in their drop pod.  Both speeders deployed on my right to support the tacticals' mini-firebase.

 

Fists deployed across from my right flank, putting Sternguard into the LRC in the center back, tacticals in each terrain piece on the right (my right, I'll call it that the whole time), bike squad in front of the LRC, 4th tactical squad in a ruin terrain piece on the left, spread across 2 floors.  Predator stays in the very back, behind and to the left of the LRC.  Command squad with Captain deploys just to the left of the bike squad.

 

Mephiston was scoring (thanks Warlord table!), other Warlord didn't roll anything of note.  He also failed to sieze, so I went first.

 

Drop pods released the two dreadnoughts into his deployment zone.  Blood Talons took on the predator, doing 2 hull points and immobilizing it.  Frag Cannon put wounds onto the command squad, killing 3 from the side.  Attack bikes got just barely into range and pinged off another model, dropping it to just the captain and apothecary.  Librarian's squad jumped up the second level of the central terrain piece, where they could assault or melta anything they wanted the next turn.  Land Speeders removed a few models from bike squad and forward tactical squad on the right.

 

Fists first turn saw the predator get revenge, exploding the talon dread on a roll of 6.  Shooting from all the tacticals whittled the central jump squad down to 6 men, including the Librarian and 2 melta gunners positioned at the back.  The bike squad and captain joined up to charge the Fragioso, losing most of the bike squad in the process, but with the Captain finishing off the dreadnought in turn 2-3 after getting whittled down to 2 wounds.

 

The middle is a bit hard to remember, but the meltaguns popped his LRC, pinning the Sternguard.  The melta combat team came in late, dropping onto my left rear objective (which put them 24"+ from any action at all).  Mephiston took his time (and a dangerous terrain wound) getting over to the left objective of my opponent's and charging the tactical squad in the ruins there.  His tactical squad on the right advanced into firepower from both speeders, killing all but 4 marines and losing a speeder in exchange.  The stormraven attempted to clean up the backfield and Sternguard, but couldn't remove any of the squads, instead dropping bodies as targets were available.  The tactical drop pod came in to grab the left objective Mephiston was gunning for, surviving Sternguard shooting to hold it after Mephiston pulled the fist tacticals away from it with pile-in moves.

 

Final turn of the game saw the Fists's captain (with one wound left) attempt to charge the tactical combat squad on my right objective.  he took 1 wound on overwatch, and failed his save to give me warlord (and deny himself linebreaker in the process).  Had he survived, he would have almost assuredly murdered the 5 marines, and prevented me winning the secondary goal.  Also, had my tacticals in the pod not passed 12+ saves from the last couple turns of shooting, they would not have been able to claim my opponent's left objective and left us tied 1-1 on objectives.

 

So, won objectives with combat squads, 2-1.  Lost on Kill Points (he had 5, I only had 4), but managed Linebreaker and Warlord for the secondary.  Won Table quarters because I had managed to keep him bottled up in his own back left deployment, due to removing anything that tried to leave.  Final score, 20 battle points to none.

[ChapelXIII]

That bike list looks super nasty for power armor armies and for most things to be honest. However, a decent hell drake list would probably make a meal out of it. Lists seems to be very paper rock scissors these days. 

[the jeske]

no it wouldn't at those points the chaos marine player will have 2 helldrakes , if he takes 3 he risks being tabled . And the new marine guns do horrible things anything with an AV value . One should be happy that the sm player self allys and doesn't take DA ally to get knights and divination libby.

[Calnus]

There was exactly 1 helldrake present at this tournament, out of 3-4 players that brought Chaos marines at all.  The new space marines made up a full quarter of all armies used.

 

However, the tau still did really well, as did Eldar.  And in a stunning reversal, immediately before I played against it, the bike list of graviton death was tabled by the single Ork player.  Who is locally known as a fantastic player, even with sub-par lists.  But still, all those grav guns and bolter, and he was still tabled by orks.

[JamesI]

There was exactly 1 helldrake present at this tournament, out of 3-4 players that brought Chaos marines at all.  The new space marines made up a full quarter of all armies used.

 

However, the tau still did really well, as did Eldar.  And in a stunning reversal, immediately before I played against it, the bike list of graviton death was tabled by the single Ork player.  Who is locally known as a fantastic player, even with sub-par lists.  But still, all those grav guns and bolter, and he was still tabled by orks.

I played a game against Eldar with my Chaos recently (sorry BA players, I have sinned against the Angels).  He looked at me and said "a chaos army without a helldrake.  I have no idea what to expect."