Sinewy Scourge
Murfreesboro, TN
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I was lucky enough to have won my local preliminary round of ‘Ard Boyz and to have a shop within a 2 hour drive hosting a Semi (Dicehead Games). So I packed up my Dark Eldar and headed out with the Necron player I had narrowly beat out for first, our third having cancelled the night before because he had gotten a date (priorities people! Plastic over p…well you know). So we got there and with plenty of time to spare and to hang out with some of my fellow Blade-n-Bolters. After a few the shop opened and we found out that there would be over 20 participants…yay. As everyone was getting set up I noticed that, as often happens, I was the only dark elder player in attendance. I saw a lot of varied lists and none that I was too worried about, though some would give me trouble in the 2nd round.
Here is my list:
HQ
Archon – punisher, tormentor helm, combat drugs, shadow field, plasma grenades, animus vitae, trophy rack (rides with a wyche squad)
Dracite – agonizer, plasma grenades
7 wyche retinue – succubus w/agonizer, w.w., plasma grenades, x2 blasters, goblet of spite
Raider – nightshields, horrofex, torture amp
Elite
3x 8 Wyches - succubus w/agonizer, w.w., plasma grenades x2 blasters
Raider – nightshields, horrofex, torture amp
Troops
3x 7 warriors – sybarite w/poison blades, terrofex, blaster, splinter cannon
Raider – nightshields, horrofex
2x 5 warriors – dark lance
Raider– nightshields, horrofex
10 warriors – 2 dark lances
Heavy
3x Ravagers – x3 disintegrators, nightshields
Round 1:
My opponent was a nice gentlemen who had obviously been playing for a long time. I could tell this would be a great game. His list:
Ghazgul
Wazz’dakka
3x 15 tankbusta – x2 tankhammers, x3 bomb squigs, nob with boss pole
5x 30 shoota boyz – x3 rokkits, nob with p.klaw and boss pole
2x killa kans – big shootas
199 models!
He won the roll to go first and took it.
Deployment: The only good thing about the number of orks he brought was that he would have to cover the field. He had a very unique and interesting way of deploying his tankbustas. He would deploy a 30 man mob in a square formation with another empty square space in the middle. That is where he put his tankbustas. He put two of these formations on my left and one on my right with another 30 man squad in between them led by Ghazzie , the last 30 man mob went into a building on my right and the kans and wazzdakka where on my far left.
I castled up on my right side with the raiders practically sitting on top of each other (no blast weapons yay).
Turn 1
He moves everything forward and all the left units start moving towards the right, or would have if not for some terrible difficult terrain tests, Wazzdakka turbos to join a unit in the center. His shooting is completely negated by my nightshields (24” range rokkits rule!)
I shuttle a few units around to prepare for a turn 2 assault while trying not to look like that’s what I’m doing. In the shooting phase I manage to kill half of the rightmost tankbustas (he made LOADS of cover saves) and also half of the unit covering them.
Turn 2
He moves forward again, and his left most units still struggle to move up. Wazzdakka turbos over to join the same unit as Ghazgul. His rocket shooting shakes a warrior raider that I had placed to cover my ravagers and Wazzdakka shoots down my dracites raider. He also shoots down a dark lance raider and the explosions kills enough of them that they run off the board (4 killpoints like that ).
I move all my wyches forward and disembark them in front of all 3 boyz units on my side of the table as well as the raider squad who had been shaken. Shooting sees the tankbusta’s pinned by a horrofex and a number of orks from ghazgul’s squad and the right most boyz squad killed. In the assault I multi assault all 3 shoota squads with 3 wyche squads, my Archon, and a raider squad. Crucially I manage to engage the models so that ghazgul would be unable to get into base to base and that when, next turn, the orks counter attacked, they had only limiter access between my raider and his already engaged orks. In the combat I managed to win by 14 overall (awesomely one of my Succubus’ was in base with Wazzdakka and caused 3 wounds with her agonize killing him outright!). That killed all of the center shoota boyz and severly mauled the remaining two shoota squads, and do to the distance involved the combat broke up into two separate close combats (separated by over 20”).
Turn 3
In his turn he managed used Ghazgul’s waagh and brought one of his two remaing shoota boyz into the combat involving Ghazgul, but as space was limited could only get in about 6 models. His shooting phase saw 2 wyches from the dracites squad die, but that was all. In close combat the the wyche and warrior squads finished off the right most shoota squad while in the center I won combat again, but only by 5 this time and I was fast running out of wyches.
On my turn my dracite’s squad moved to join the mass melee along with another raider squad, the victors from the right headed in to try and join the same combat and bring in the remnants of the tankbustas. I also moved 2 raiders to block any other orks from joining the combat that would soon involve even more of my units. My shooting killed a few tankbusta from the center squad but most was saved by cover. In the assault the right most wyches failed to make it to the main combat and where able to engage the tankbustas only, and the dracite and warriors piled into the main. The combat when very well with me winning by 5 again, but disastrously my archon was wounded once and rolled a 1 for his shadowdfield and died (he had taken 2 wounds from combat drugs).
Turn 4
Time was short and this would be the last round. He moves to shoot my raiders with he tankbusta’s and last shoota squad. He manages to down the 2 empty raiders this turn..ug. But in the big combat I finally manage to finish off all the orks in the center and run ghazgul down.
I move towards his remaining to tankbusta squads with my wyches and dracite squad. I shoot the crap out of the furthest away squad but they hold on the bosspole re-roll…arg. I assault and wipe out the other tankbusta squad.
The game ends with a major victory for me 18-10kps. If the last tankbusta squad had run I would have had a massacre, but that I didn’t turned out to be ok.
Result 19-3 Battle points (my damn archon failing his only saving throw cost 1 bp…stupid archon)
Game 2
I made the mistake of going into this thinking that, because of the all game night fight I would love to play guard or tau. Well I got my wish, and oh did I wish wrong….
My opponents list (from memory, rough because I don’t know all the weird tau names for things)
Suit commander with body guard – plasma and missiles, blacksun cheater filters
X2 crisis suits – missiles and plasma, blacksun cheater filters
X5 10 man fire warrior squads with sergeant – devilfish with burst cannon and smart missiles
10 pathfinders- Motha-fuggin marker lights
2 hammer heads – blacksun filters…
3 broadside suits – blacksun filters and commander can shoot different target
I’m sure I missed some wargear.
He wins the roll and decides to go first, I am way cool with that.
Deployment
He buts a devilfish way up front and his commander back in cover. I deploy my 10 man foot squad as possible to the center maybe-objective and that’s it. He immediately regrets going first.
Turn 1
Everthing moves on with all of his devilfish in a line in the center/center left, hammerheads on the flanks, crisis suits behind that, and the path finders and broadsides move on into the area terrain on my right. He starts rolling night fight and I start to develop an irrational hatred of blacksun filters (the suck the rest of the time right?) He kills 1 DE warrior.
I move on with the bulk of my forces (2 wyches, dracite, lord and 3 warrior squads on the left (where most of the objectives are). The ravagers near the center, 1 dark lance raider squad in the center/left and the wyches that had rolled 12” assault up the right, along with a warrior raider.
Turn 2 – we roll and the first objective is on my side of the table on my left (yes!)
He moves all his vehicles back. In the shooting phase he marker lights the right side raider squad and shoots it down, pinning the squad, the wyches on that side are also shot down but not pinned. A ravager is destroyed that’s about it.
I move up into his face (to get into blaster range) but have to turbo a lot to do this. The downed wyches move to get into assault range of the broadsides. The rest of my fire results in the left hammerhead getting shaken…that’s it….. On happier news my wyches roll awesome on their fleet and getting into combat with the broadsides…oh wait no they roll a 1 for the fleet and then fail the needed 4 on their difficult terrain test and end up sitting in the open….yay
Turn 3
He moves a devil fish in front of my wyches and deploys the firewarriors, no idea whats going to happen there…. He moves the rest of his guys vehicles back (yay). In the shooting phase the wyches are reduced to a fine red mist, the previously pinned warriors are shot and they break and run (though still over 50% (though they play no more roll in the battle they will rally). A wyche and a warrior raider is shot down, as well as a ravager.
Ok I have been hurt bad, but now the reckoning…right? I move a squad of wyches with archon to the left of the line and they deploy (with the archon leaving the unit to go chase suits). My shooting does nothing…until I switch dice, then my last blaster shot shoots down a devilfish (yay first blood….). My archon assaults the HQ suit team and kills the body guard, the Commander stays.
Turn 4 – the objective is on his side of the table on the right in the area terrain, right next to 3 suit squads, the pathfinders and the broadsides.
He moves his suits away from my archon, as well as the left hammerhead. In shooting he kills the downed wyche squad after marker lighting them like crazy, as well as killing the dracites raider and immobilizing both ravagers. He also kills most of the wyche squad on the left (cover saves 4). In assault my archon beats and runs down his commander, activating the animus vitae (+1str and ws).
Ok at least I have killed some stuff now. My dracites squad moves across the open in the off chance that a good fleet roll will get them in range of the hated pathfinders. My leftmost wyches move to assault the outed firewarriors and my archon moves to beat on some fish. My shooting downs a hammerhead and shakes a couple of fish, my dracite fluffs her fleet roll…goody. In assault my wyches run down the firewarriors, my archon immobilizes and knocks all the guns off the fish, and my dracite opps to do something before she and her squad dies and assaults another fish, and manages to take off all its guns with just agonizers and plasma grenades.
Turn 5
He realizes now what I have been doing (keeping him penned into his starting area) and starts to move out. His shooting manages to kill the exposed dracite and squad, shoots guns of two of my raiders and not much else (he finally started to fail some night fighting rolls). In assault my lord finishes off the immobilized fish wrecking it.
I turbo my last 8 man raider squad into a position where the warriors will be able to move to contest even if the raider gets shot down. My lord bypasses the outed firewarriors and goes for the pathfinders. The squad of raiderless warriors on my right move to be in position to take/contest whichever marker turns out to be the last objective, while the last wyche squad moves to assault the firewarriors. In the shooting phase I kill the devilfish the was moving towards my objective and those firewarriors are in range of my wyches. I also pin the firewarrior squad the lost their ride to the archon. In assault the archon goes in and wipes out the pathfinders and the wyches kill 3 of the firewarriors that just lost their fish but they hold..dang
Turn 6 – the last objective is sitting right next to the pinned firewarriors….damn.
He disembarks 10 firewarriors on top of the round 4 objective, and then moves that fish to contest the newly revealed objective. His non-pinned firewarriors open up on the archon and cause 9 wounds and a make 8…there goes the shadowfield…but I am in cover. Then a squad of suits fires on her…and I make all my cover saves..Then another squad of suits opens up on him and I make all the saves again…ooops no wait that’s a 3, damn she’s dead. The broadsides manage to wreck the last mobile raider, but I pass my pinning check. In the assault the wyches are still stuck in combat with the firewarriors.
Ok right now he has 2 and I have 1 objective, I can contest one easily, but will have to assault the firewarriors sitting on the left one. My shooting doesn’t come to much. In the assault the wyches finish off the firewarriors they where fighting but who cares, the warriors charge in and kill one firewarrior and in return lose 3….crap, beatin in assault by firewarriors, how shameful! Now if I fail my break check I he gets a minor victory to kill points, if they hold I win a major victory……I roll the dice….and it’s a 3…yay dice!
So after getting my face just smashed in by tau shooting I manage to eek out the major win +1
Result 18-3
Round 3 – going into this round I am in 3rd place. I need to massacre my opponent and have the top two either draw or minor win.
Opponents List
Dakka Tyrant – dual, twin-linked devourers
2 tyrant guard
Broad lord and genestealer retinue
2x lictors
2x Carnifexes – scything talons, barbed strangler
2x 15 termagaunts – without number
20-25 hormaguants - +1 init and str
3x 8 genestealers – scuttlers, feeder tendrils
3x Carnifexes - +1 toughness, +1 wound, 2+ save, venom cannon, barbed strangler
He wins the roll and makes me go first…hehe
Deployment.
I cover my table corner in raiders and ravagers, mindful not to be to near the table edge. He puts his broodlord, all his stealers, the lictors, and the hormaguants into reserve.
I would give you the play by play but this was such a bad list mis-match as to not even be funny. I killed the hive tyrant and one of the heavy carnies in the first round, and I would continue to kill 2 monstrous creatures a round until they where gone. I lanced and blastered the lictors after they came in, and my wyches killed the genestealers and broodlord in close combat. I managed to kill each without number squads and delay their exits off the table or keep them pinned with horrorfexes.
In the end I was able to table him (as much as you can with without number units), and get all 4 bonus points
Result 24-0
After my round was done I went over to the top table to see how it was going. It looked like a heck of a fight with the advantage to CSM. The where about to begin turn 6 where it probably have been a major win for the CSM, when the judge reminded them of random game length. They rolled the dice…2….. That meant a minor win with no bonus points for Chaos…..Still I dared not hope until the TO confirmed that that had put me into first. I still refused to celebrate until the TO called out my name, even then it had felt unreal.
So to wrap it up, I had two really hard fought games and three great opponents, with no issues, even the Nid player was one hell of a sport. And I get one hell of a prize. Not sure what I will pick up but I’m leaning towards guard or daemons.
And thanks to Dicehead Games for running one hell of an event, I don’t think there was any major issues the whole tourney.
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= 3500 
= 3500 
= 4000 
= 2500 
= 1000 
= 500 
= 3000 
= 2000 
= 1000 
= 2500 
= 1500
