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Round 1: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/435339.page

So round 2 found me pitted against XXXXXX XXXXXXXX GKs. For those of you that don't know XXXX, he's a damn good player. I think he won the Nova Invitational, or placed really well, not sure which. Either way, this would be a tough game.

XXXX's list:
Coteaz
Inquisitor w/rad & psykotrok 'nades, psycher, and three servo skulls
5 x purifiers w/2 psycannons, hammer, halberd, rhino w/dozers and lights
5 x purifiers w/2 psycannons, hammer, rhino w/dozers and lights
5 x strikes w/psycannon, MC hammer, bolterback w/psybolts, lights and dozers (4 of these units)
10 x DCA
rifleman w/psybolts (2 of these)
land raider redeemer w/multimelta, psybolts, lights, and extra armor

XXXX's army on display



My army:
Libby-nullzone and who cares he has nullzone
2 x rifleman dreads
5 x sternguard, 3 x combi-meltas, 2 x combi-flamers, rhino
10 x tac squad (two of these) lascannon, combi-melta, meltagun, rhino
5 x tac squad (two of these) las/plas razor
2 x typhoons (2 units of 1)
2 x multi-melta attack bikes
2 x dakka preds
5 x devs, 4 missile launchers, asscannon razor



This mission was modifed C & C. Place an objective in your deployment zone per normal C & C rules. In addition, two additional objectives were placed on the long center line, 24" from each other and each board edge. Deployment was dawn of war, with darkness on turns 5-7. This would be a major factor in the game.

On a side note, this would be my most strategically sound game of the tournament.

Pregame: I've never played against GK and let XXXX know that before the game. That would bite me in the ass later. I knew I needed to contain the LR and stay away from the DCA and pretty much avoid all assault. I needed to shut down his transports to take away his mobility and somehow keep the dreads out of it because they would wreck face on my transports. Other than all of that, I pretty much already had the game in the bag

I won the roll to go first and took it. I placed my objective in my middle-lower right corner and XXXX put his behind a BLOS building. I combat squaded my tacs and deployed the lascannon teams one on each side of my objective, about five inches away from it. Everything else would roll on turn one. XXXX deployed nothing, declaring everything coming in turn one. He declined to steal and it was game on.

My turn one:

Again, I won the roll to go first and took it.

I had a pred central and the other on the right flank. A dread to back up the marines on the right and the other central. The bikes went behind the razors in the middle and all three rhinos went on the left central. My devs sped up to a piece of terrain on the left and bailed out to get firing positions. I didn't realize the wall in the middle of the board had no windows, so the couldn't see anything. Genious on my part. The speeders split up on the flanks and I turned it over to XXXX.

my left flank. you can barely see the lascannon squad near the bottom.


central


right flank


His turn one. He rolled on with the LR behind the BLOS building in the back and a bolter back to (me left) of it. I couldn't see either. On my right he put the two rhinos and a bolter back in the front with the other two bolter backs in the rear along with the dreads. He popped smoke on the rhinos and front bolter back and turned it over to me. Pretty uneventful turn one for both of us.

My turn two. All three of my rhinos hauled as with much haste forward to the left-central objective. Realizing that I was a complete tool, my devs jumped right back in to their razor and moved toward the terrain in the middle. Both razors moved forward 6" and stayed ass-to-ass, leaving enough room for the bikes to fire through at his rhino while still getting cover saves. Everyone else shuffled.
I then proceeded to unleash everything I had. I immobilized is right rhino, exploded the other and exploded the front bolterback. That then gave me shots at his rear line, so I exploded another bolter back. The preds picked off a few random knights. I think I stunned his right dread, which meant nothing of course. It was it that moment that I finally started to comprehend exactly how much firepower my army could throw across the table. I hadn't even shot the devs or their razorback.

After I popped a few tanks and GKs. All those empty spaces used to be tanks.


XXXX's two, his dreads shuffled. The LR and bolterback near it didn't move because I had three tank hunter units about 14" away from them. I don't think he expected me to come right at him like that. The reason I think that is because he said he didn't want to move because he didn't expect me to come right at him like that. His other bolterback that could still move came forward 6".

His movement. That bolterback in the rear is a wreck.


His purifiers shot my left las/plasback and shook it. I think one dread went for the bikes but they made their saves. The other dread didn't do anything. His bolterback shot my other las/plasback and didn't even scratch the paint. There was no assault so it was back to me.

My three, the pics slowed down a lot as we really started rolling. The rhinos shuffled to cover each other and still keep an eye on the LR. The assback dumped out the devs (again) and they ran for firing positions (again). The stupid really burns sometimes. My shaken las/plasback popped smoke in front of the other for cover. Bikes veered off right to try to do something with the dread. The dreads and speeders moved a bit for shots.
Shooting got me all of the disembarked purifiers but one, but at least the cannons were dead. A few more strikes got wiped and one squad fell back due to failed morale, but didn't go off the table. I immobilized and weapon destroyed the rear dread and only stunned the other with the attack bikes . My left speeder drew a line on last bolterback (the one babysitting the LR) and wrecked it.

XXXX's three, his lone purifier moved toward my las/plasbacks. His strike squad rallied and his dread shook off the stunn. The strikes from the wrecked razor didn't move (they may have been pinned, don't remember). The other strike squad moved toward his objective. Again, the LR did not move.
His purifiers unloaded on the las/plasback back and I think wrecked it. Somebody shot at my bikes and gunned one down. The dread on the right shot a rhino out from under a tac squad and the one-armed dread (from here on out known as "Lefty") didn't do anything. His remaining Strike squad on the right shot at my las-tac squad and killed the lascannon and a bolter guy (I think it was Bob that died) and they fell back. We were basically after each other's troops at this point.
His lone purifier assaulted my razor and bounced.

My four, my assback picked up the tacs that just got forcibly disembarked and hauled butt towards his objective. The 5 man squad that was in the las/plasback jumped out to gun down the lone purifier. My remaining bike again lined up a shot on his right dread. My squad that fell back rallied back into cover. The dreads and speeders moved a bit.
I blasted the Strike squad that was still standing around with frag missiles and heavy bolters and killed all but the hammer I think. I gunned down the lone purifier and the other strikes on the right. Put a few random shots into the dreads, immobilizing the one on the right. The bike failed to do anything again.

I may have lost a turn in here somewhere, my memory isn't what it used to be.

XXXX's four, his LR finally came forward, but only 6". His lone striker moved behind the BLOS building to join up with his other remaining strike squad on his objective. And that was pretty much all he had left that could move.

FEAR MY LR!


The LR stunned the libby's ride and shook my assback. The dreads didn't do anything. The purifiers that were still in the rhino finished off my other bike. For some reason he had a deep dislike for my bikes. It's not like they actually did anything the entire game besides fire warning shots.

OK, so now it was my five. I moved my left speeder flat out to contest his home objective. The assback moved closer to his home objective as well. The libby's rhino and the remaining tac rhino formed an inverted "V" around the left central objective so that the couldn't get to it with his LR. I mourned the loss of my poor attack bikes.
My shooting phase, I was ready to finish off both dreads and the rhino (with embarked purifiers, they were going to die). Just when I started shooting XXXX was like "don't forget to roll to see how far you can shoot for night fighting". OMG I'm a complete idiot. I had nothing in position to light anything up and had totally forgot about night fight beginning on turn 5 . I could have kicked my own ass at that moment.
Needless to say, I did nothing with shooting. I ran my dreads to try to get into range if there was a turn six and that was it.

XXXX's turn five, his LR moved forward and puked out the DCA right in front of my rhinos. His strikes on his home objective started licking their lips and moved towards my typhoon that was contesting (for the moment). His dreads couldn't really do much, but "Lefty" flipped me the bird with his remaining middle finger.
Shooting, his strikes only managed to shake my typhoon (exhale slowly). His LR shook my assback moving towards his objective and I think my remaining las/plasback got stunned or wrecked, not sure which.
His DCA assaulted my rhinos. I tried to hood both hammerhands and he beat me on both rolls, so they were now STR 6 with a lot of attacks. Needless to say both rhinos went "poof". Didn't even kill anyone in the explosions...
His strikes got off hammerhand as well but were unable to hit my typhoon, so it actually lived (wow).

This was right before he pummelled my rhinos with his DCA.


OK, so if the game ended now, I won three objectives to one. So naturally, the game continued.

When he charged my speeder, he left a gap on the other side of his objective for the speeder to move to, so that's exactly where I went. My assback tank shocked his hammer guy on his objective.

MISCOMMUNICATION ALERT (1)

When I tank shocked his hammer, he said he still had STR 10 from hammerhand. Not knowing any differently, I believed him. He rolled a "3" to pen and a "2" to stun, which successfully stopped the tank shock. As I wrote this report, I looked up hammerhand and it only lasts until the end of the assault phase that it was cast in. That means he would have glanced my tank and then only shook it, which would have left me with an assback that could still move and shoot, sitting on his objective, and left him with a dead hammer dude.
We spoke about this after the game (much after) and realized that hammerhand was done wrong, but neither of us caught it then, so it's all gravy. And now back to the show.

The libby and SG rolled a 1 and 2 for DT, so didn't really get to where I could successfully engage my flamers, but I could work with it. The tac squad that just had their rhino exploded moved back behind the libby and SG, hopefully out of assault range of the DCA. My left dread moved toward the DCA to hopefully spotlight them and my two lascannon squads huddled a little closer to my home objective, just to be safe.

Shooting phase

MISCOMMUNICATION ALERT (2)

I asked XXXX what kind of armor save his DCA had, as this would determine what power the libby would use and which ammo the SG would use. He replied that they had a 4+. I looked that up as well and they only have a 5+ with a 5++. I shot flamers, the Avenger, the dread, the 5 man tac, the devs and I think a random lascannon shot in there, leaving Coteaz with one wound and two DCA left. In reality, all of the DCA and probably Coteaz should have died, because the DCA were taking saves on a 4+. Again, my ignorance of the codex rears its ugly head.
We spoke about this as well after the game (again, much after) and determined that this could have been confusion between cover vs armor saves.

Coteaz didn't fall back and I handed it over to XXXX.

XXXX's six, his purifiers jumped out and went toward the right central objective. The LR moved up to deliver a flamestorm to my face. The DCA and Coteaz rolled for DT to try to get around my SG and libby so they could assault my tac squad cowering behind them.
Shooting, the flamestorm cooked 4 of my 5 SG and put a wound on the libby. Because I'm a moron and lined up my tac squad right behind the SG, it also got all of the tac squad but the Sarge. His strikes shot at (and may have killed) my typhoon. It either died in his shooting phase or assualt, one or the other. All of my squads passed leadership and it was on to assault.
Luckily for me his DCA didn't roll high enough to reach my cowering Sgt, but the purifiers did reach a squad and prison bitched them. His hammer that should have been dead exploded my assback that was contesting his home objective, but the tac squad was still close enough to his objective to contest.

The game ended there. Actually, we went seven turns but I forgot one somewhere. The end result was still the same. I contested his home objective, we both contested both central objectives, and I held my home objective. Fists of Redemption win, one objective to zero.

Aftermath:

At the time, I thought it was a great game. I still think it was a great game. He was the best player there, and actually went on to win the whole thing. Due to a miscommunication, instead of a minor win for me and minor loss for him, it should have been a major win and major loss, which would have changed the whole tournament through points and pairings. On the bright side, I was the only guy to beat him during the entire tournament.

Anyway, I was now 2-0 and the next game was vs 'crons, another codex I didn't know anything about. Yay for me...

UPDATE

Spoke to my opponent after this game and we got everything worked out. Couple of miscommunications about rules, but it's all good. Again, a well played game sir.

Congratulations on another win. Have to say these battle reports are hella informative and entertaining.

Foul luck on that Grey Knight game. I know what a its like to get hosed out of a major win because of rule fudging and it really can make a great game unsettling. All in all, you did great and I have to commend you on that.

What probably threw your opponent off is the fact that you were far more aggressive than one he is probably accustomed to, just like you noted. I think as you learn your armies strengths and weaknesses, you'll be able to capitalize on that aggressiveness even more.

Wow, forgetting night fight is really no fun at all. It's enough of a bear to deal with night fighting with a shooty army when you know it's coming.

Also, I've found that owning the Grey Knight codex and reading it is extremely valuable, especially for psychic powers. Not allowing my opponent to cast quicksilver or might of titan in MY turn has made a huge difference in my success rate against Grey Knights. They're good enough without getting benefits beyond what they're given in the book.

Still you played relatively sound despite a few errors. Good win! Your shooting is quite impressive.

Droofus wrote:Wow, forgetting night fight is really no fun at all. It's enough of a bear to deal with night fighting with a shooty army when you know it's coming.

Also, I've found that owning the Grey Knight codex and reading it is extremely valuable, especially for psychic powers. Not allowing my opponent to cast quicksilver or might of titan in MY turn has made a huge difference in my success rate against Grey Knights. They're good enough without getting benefits beyond what they're given in the book.

Still you played relatively sound despite a few errors. Good win! Your shooting is quite impressive.

True dat Drew we have to remind our GK players at T-play regularly that quick silver and might of titans can't be cast durring the opponent's turn. I was the one who actually picked up the GK book and discovered that I think.

Because I work at home and have nothing better to do on my off hours, I sat around one evening and made a Spreadheet of Psychic Powers from all of the armies and used it as something of a study aid to make sure I had the turn sequence and the like down pat.

Another great battle report jesse, I can't wait to see the rest. As a SM player I'm always pleased to see our codex do well. We aren't flashy like the other MEQ dex but we can build reallytough lists if you have a skilled general behind the helm, kudos.

On the issue of cheating. Frankly you seem calmer than I would be. I agree that there was nothing to be done about it at the time as you didn't know the codex, and didn't relize the mistake. Your opponent knew you didn't know the dex and took advantage of it. Example 2 is particularly outragous as I could see example 1 being an actual mistake based on a missed detail (but no one misses the detail of a save). This is the type of behavior that drives people away from the hobby so it hurts everyone not just you. IMO you should publish this guys name. Cheating needs to have consequences and the only real consequence that can happen in a situation like this is a loss of reputation. If someone is properly identified as a cheater they will be less likely to attempt to cheat or get away with it in the future.

As a suggestion to avoid this type of thing happening again you could try what I do. I also don't own the other codexs so i'm constantly encountering knew and unknown things. What I do is ask to see the codex before I ask the rule question/or we move on, but I do so in a way that doesn't indicate I'm arguing. So for example 2) I would say "hey can I see your codex? i want to check a stat before I decide what to do?" Your opponet has no reason to say no, you are not in a fight about anything, and they have lost the ability to give false information. Example 1 is a bit tougher but whenever someone is claiming something I haven't encountered before I always like to see it in the codex, For example 1 saying something like "I didn't know hammerhand lasted the whole game turn and not just in the assault phase, can I read your dex?" again you are not arguing his point and your just asking to see the dex to correct your ignorance so your opponent has no reason to say no.

Pony has excellent points, not only with what to ask for and when, but also how to approach the question.

In the event your opponent says no or refuses, I would ask calmly one more time before calling over a judge.

I've had a similar situation occur and in the end the judge pretty much asked to opposing player to leave due to his noncompliance.

We aren't flashy like the other MEQ dex

We had a bit of a discussion about the different tactics SM armies use, ie TL flamer/melta, fleet, etc. I still think combat tactics is one of the most under estimated powers ever. My first game I was able to un-pin a tac squad because my opponent killed enough of my squad to force a morale check. They then plastered Meph on the next turn. Combat tactics also let me escape from assault throughout all six games, both from being shot and after I had already got charged but lost combat. Once I finish the last batrep, I'll give a unit analysis of my army and how they did and then compare this list to the list I took to the last tournament. Thanks for reading though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Game 3

Game 3 had me up against Wraithwing Necrons. Didn't get many photos, but did get my ass kicked all over the table. My ignorance of the 'cron codex will rapidly become apparent.

Mission was modified sieze ground w/five objectives. At the end of each game round, you earned a point for each objective that you controlled. Deployment was pitched battle, again I won first turn and took it.

His army (from memory)

Lord on command barge (two of these)
5 x wraiths with upgrades for wound funnies
2 x 5 warriors
2 x 5 immortals
2 x lanceteks
2 x tremorteks
C'tan shard w/writhing worldscape and the power that tries to explode meltas and flamers
2 x annihilation barges(?)
few upgrades here and there, not really sure

my list for those of you that missed its awesomeness the first two times:

Libby-nullzone and who cares he has nullzone
2 x rifleman dreads
5 x sternguard, 3 x combi-meltas, 2 x combi-flamers, rhino
10 x tac squad (two of these) lascannon, combi-melta, meltagun, rhino
5 x tac squad (two of these) las/plas razor
2 x typhoons (2 units of 1)
2 x multi-melta attack bikes
2 x dakka preds
5 x devs, 4 missile launchers, asscannon razor

Pregame:

I went into this game pretty confident; to be honest, I believed I was going to kick his ass up and down the board. I'll explain why during turn two. I had six scoring squads and he only had four w/a 4+ save. I figured the preds and typhoons would mow them down while the devs, las/plasbacks, las squads and SG would make the wraiths my personal bitches (in a table top geek manner, of course). Holy sh*t was I wrong.

I had two objectives on my side, one on the right and one on the left. There was one in the center of the table and one to the right of that. The last one was in my upper left corner (his deployment zone).

I deployed a 5 man las squad on each of my objectives. A pred, dread, and las/plasback went on each flank. The devs went in a ruin in the center to cover the entire table. The typhoons went behind that ruin, with the libby/SG and a rhino on the left of that ruin, and the other rhino and empty assback on the right. I was prepared to whoop undead toaster ass in serious SM fashion.

left flank deployment


right side deployment. He had a solar pulse, so the rhino was forward to hopefully spot something on turn 1


He deployed (everything will be from my perspective) his C'tan, a warrior squad w/cryptek, an immortal squad w/crypteck, and an annihiliation barge on my left. Everything else went on my right on or behind a large hill. He declined to seize and it was on.

My one: He popped his solar pulse or flare or whatever that crap is. For some reason I still can't quite fathom, I moved my left pred to the left side where it couldn't see anything, including the objective he would be moving to. Chalk that up to stupidity on my part. The left rhino shot forward to the central objective w/the assback following behind. Both popped smoke. The right rhino went forward six followed by the libby and SG. Everything else shuffled in preperation for my awesome shooting phase.
My front rhino was about 17" from his nearest wraith unit, so I only need a 6 to light them up. The libby popped null zone and the wraiths were in range. At this point I was practically drooling in anticipation of the carnage I was about to wreak on his pitiful wraith squad. My rhino rolled for its spotlight up popped a "1" and a "3". And because my stupidity was so all-consuming, I had no other spotlights anywhere close enough to spot them. So my shooting phase consisted of me bouncing my forehead off the table. At least I stopped drooling on myself.

His one: Everything moved forward either 6" or 12", depending on what it was. His lords turboed up my right flank. I thought the solar thingy lasted through the entire turn, but apparantly the darkness only lasts through my turn, so his barges fired at my rhinos. I think the failed spotlight one was wrecked (it had that coming, such is the price for failure).

wraiths about to smoke me


My two: He popped his other solar thingamajoo. The marines from the wrecked rhino moved towards the all-too-close wraiths. My libby rhino moved up next to the wraiths so the libby and gang could bail out and deliver melta death. My pred on the left moved back 12" to the right, exactly where I had deployed him. I'm stupid. Everything else shuffled for shots.
My shooting, I popped nullzone and lit up the wraiths. And this is where I cost myself the game. I thought that the wraiths only had a 3++, so that meant every wound I caused, regardless of AP, would have to be re-rolled. However, it turns out that they have a 3+ as well. So all of my shooting only amounted to four dead wraiths, whereas I thought I would wipe at least one squad. Well damn.

His two: He did a flyby over my right dread and killed it with on lord. He did a flyby over my right tac squad and killed two of them. The wraiths jumped over my SG so they could somehow multiassault my devs and SG (who were about 10" apart from each other, still trying to figure that one out). The other wraiths moved toward my recently disembarked tac squad. All of his troops shuffled forward.
Shooting shook rhino or two. He destroyed me in assault, killing two devs and most of the SG. The tac squad was eaten and one of his lords wrecked my right pred while the other killed off my right lascannon squad.
The devs fell back but the libby and remaining SG held (unfortunately) and would be up against six pissed off wraiths.

My three: He was finally out of pulses, so at least I could shoot this round. The bikes moved over to the left, the devs regrouped. He had pretty much shredded my entire right flank in one turn, mainly because I'm stupid. Everything I had shot at his warrior squad on the right, but he went to ground and two of them lived.
The libby and SG predictably died in assault.

His three, his shooting didn't do much, mainly because he was running out of targets. The wraiths jumped the bikes, his lord and other wraiths wrecked my right las/plasback and the squad got pinned. Everything he assaulted died.

My four, I finally finished off the warrior squad, but it was too little too late. That was pretty much everything that I had.

His four, his wraiths got my dread and the left lascannon squad. The dread was wrecked but the squad lived. His C'tan finished off my tac squad that had been on the center objective and consolidated toward what was left of my army.

My five, my remaining las/plasback squad jumped out to suicide themselves against the wraiths. The dakka pred shot his immortals but did nothing.
In assault some of my marines actually lived but stayed tied in combat. At that point I conceded the game because he would have tabled me on his turn.

He got the massacre and I got a big zero.

Aftermath:

Well, that was educational. He was an excellent player (he won the SVDM) and I made a lot of mistakes. I should have deployed all my razors and rhinos on the line so I had backup spotlights. Moving my pred on turn one was stupid. I really screwed the pooch when I bailed everything out because I thought wraiths had a 3++; I won't make that mistake again. Once he started rolling my right flank I should have shifted everything left and just kept shooting. I had the firepower to take him down but I just didn't use my head. I have a much better grasp of what necrons can do, so I'm looking forward to playing them again.

I was now 2-1 and still in the running. Next up was the Fists of Redemption vs Space Wolves.

Actually....
From the Necron Codex
"The solar pulse can be used at the start of any turn. If the night fighting rules are in effect, they cease to apply until the end of the turn. If the night fightng rules are not in effect, they are until the end of the turn."
So it reads to me that the effect should have lasted the entire turn.

Actually....
From the Necron Codex
"The solar pulse can be used at the start of any turn. If the night fighting rules are in effect, they cease to apply until the end of the turn. If the night fightng rules are not in effect, they are until the end of the turn."
So it reads to me that the effect should have lasted the entire turn

Nicorex, that is exactly what I thought. But if you check p. 9 of the BRB, it states that "turn" is player turn unless specified otherwise. And I thought GKs were broken...

Another fine rep, too bad your opp cheated, that's just low.

I must say for someone who's been out of the loop for a while you seem to have a pretty good grasp of the game

SevenSins, check the clarification Jesse posted. His third opponent didn't cheat from what we can gather in the batrep. The converted wraiths look cool.

This is the type of behavior that drives people away from the hobby so it hurts everyone not just you. IMO you should publish this guys name.

There were enough hints dropped to be able to identify this player. I'm sure he won't make the same mistakes with his codex again.

More great reports. Thanks very much for sharing!

Hey Jesse, this is your second round opponent. I do appreciate you not using my name, but I would like to share my side of the story on you accusations. I messed up the hammerhand thing, and to be honest it was a real mistake. I just checked it after reading your battle report and I saw that you were right. There is nothing I can really say about this other then that I'm sorry,and I will make a point not to do that again in the future.

(On a simillar note, since the game ended after turn 6, it wouldn't have matter as that objective was contested either way by the other strike squad, not that that is the point at all.)
.
As far as claiming the deathcults to have a 4+ armor save, I really am completely sure I did no such thing. I've been playing with death cults for months now, and in all my other games of the tournament I had told my opponents 5++, and I'm sure other players can attest to that. I have been going to tournaments like this for years, and for me to cheat about something so blatently false, would not only be stupid, but also pointless. I'm not callin you out, as you seemed to be a really nice cool headed guy, and I'm going to assume that this was probably a miscommunication. Perhaps you thought I said I was taking cover saves or something, to be honest I don;t remember. But I mean there are live videos of me playing and losing, and I'm really not someone who would blatently cheat to win like this. In 2 of my games, I let my opponents go back and retake critical mistakes which could have easily cost me the game. One of those was against Eric in round 5 when it really mattered when he forgot to use a solar pulse.

I'm not saying any of this because I want to start a fight with you, especially since you were a pretty cool guy to hang out with, but I would like my side of the story to be heard, which is that I really don;t recall aying the deathcults have a 4+ armor at all.

Regardless, I still had a great game against you, and I really enjoyed it despit losing. I think I misdeployed in the begining which really hurt, but I'm not sure. You played a very tight game and never really slipped up, so great job!

Nick, I would be shocked to hear of you cheating, based on my interactions with you, but if I read it right he's not just saying you said they had 4+, but that you were actually taking 4+ saves.

I asked XXXX what kind of armor save his DCA had, as this would determine what power the libby would use and which ammo the SG would use. He replied that they had a 4+ and I believed him. I looked that up as well and they only have a 5+ with a 5++. I shot flamers, the Avenger, the dread, the 5 man tac, the devs and I think a random lascannon shot in there, leaving Coteaz with one wound and two DCA left. In reality, all of the DCA and probably Coteaz should have died, because the DCA were taking saves on a 4+. Again, my ignorance of the codex rears its ugly head.

Yermom,

Regarding the hammerhand thing, with as good a player as you are, I just found it really difficult to believe that you would forget something like that. However we all mistakes in the heat of the moment, so if you say it was an error, I believe you.

The thing about the armor saves was that you were taking saves against flamers on a 4+; even I know there are no cover saves against flamers. If you recall, I asked what armor save the DCAs had because I was going to use venom bolts with my non-flamer SG instead of combi-meltas. Again, this could have been an oversight or miscommunication because at that point in the game we were down to the wire.

The point I made about the major vs. minor victory/loss was regarding to the objective your DCA contested. Your HQ and LR were too far away to contest, it was just the two DCA within 3". If they were dead, it would have been a 2-0 win in my favor.

All that aside, I'm truly not trying to create internet drama here and would gladly play you again. I think we can both agree that it was a damn fine game on both sides of the table.

Thanks for chiming in and clearing up the rules issue, no hard feelings from me.

PS

Changed the batrep so it doesn't read like I'm backing the bus over you, sorry about that.

And to prove that you are a better person than me, I'll say this: There is NO WAY I would have let Eric go back and use a solar pulse if he forgot about it.

+1 awesomeness to jesse for the adult response...I think these batreps have restored my faith somewhat in the 40kMarch community.

Thanks for taking my side of the story so well, I was really trying my best not to start any unwanted drama, I really appreciate that.

I also thank you for understanding my position with the hamerhand, because it's never actually come up like that, but now that I've thought about it logiaclly, I have realized assuming it went until my next turn is completely wrong, sorry!

About the deathcults, I suppose t's possible that I told you the death cults had a 4+ instead of 5+, but I truely don't remember, and I certainly must have mis spoke. I honestly had no intention of cheating at all. As to taking the 4+ saves, I don't remember what I did, but I do remember what you're talking about with the venom bolts and flamers, so something does seem amiss. (Maybe I thought I was getting shot by things that allowed cover, and allocated the flamer hits to coteaz and the inquisitor?)

I'd also like to say that since I had bottom if worst came to worst the land raider could have just contested the objective by moving 12" instead of 6" so the outcome would have been the same, again not the point at all.

I really appreiate you making it sound like I'm not some a** hole in your report, and like you said it was a damn good game and I'd be happy to play you again. No hard feeligns from me either.

The game againt necrons sounds kind of like my game against an Imperial Fist player, a list somewhat similar to yours (battle report here http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/431021.page). My list was no where near as optimized as Eric's, but it just goes to show that if you're not aware of what the necrons can do, they can spank hard especially in the hands of a capable general.

GAME 4

So after my last humiliating defeat, I needed to score some points to stay in the running for best general. Unfortunately the next mission was kill points and my army bleeds kill points.

Mission: modified kill points; round 1 & 2, all units were 1 KP, round 3 & 4, all units were 2 KPs, round 5+ all units were 3 KPs
Deployment: pitched battle

Space Wolves
Wolf Lord-eternal warrior, TW mount, rune armor, SS, wolf claw
Rune Priest-living lightening, murderous hurricane
Rune Priest-jaws, living lightening
grey hunters x 8, mark, meltagun, rhino
grey hunters x 8, mark, meltagun, rhino
grey hunters x 9, mark, meltagun, rhino
wolf guard x 4, all w/PF, combi-melta
wolf scouts x 5, meltagun
long fangs x 6, 5 missile launchers
long fangs x 6, 4 x multimeltas, missile launcher
TWC x 4, mark, SS & TH, MB & SS, SS

the wolves look awesome


and my list again
Libby-nullzone and who cares he has nullzone
2 x rifleman dreads
5 x sternguard, 3 x combi-meltas, 2 x combi-flamers, rhino
10 x tac squad (two of these) lascannon, combi-melta, meltagun, rhino
5 x tac squad (two of these) las/plas razor
2 x typhoons (2 units of 1)
2 x multi-melta attack bikes
2 x dakka preds
5 x devs, 4 missile launchers, asscannon razor

Pre Game:

I have a very poor record against SW, mainly becuase I've never been able to handle the scouts. I think I've come up with a strategy, but we'll see how it works. If he runs his TWC right at me I'm going to be in trouble, especially if he brings the rhinos at the same time. I have a lot of shooting, but I can't handle 5 wolves and 30 power armored bodies backed up by LFs. I need to stop the transports, eradicate the LFs, and I'll deal with the TWC when I get to them.

Again I win the roll for first turn and take it. I form an armor line with my preds in the center, the devs on a hill to right (but more than 12" from the table side edge), the dreads on the outside of the preds, the razors behind the rhinos (on both sides), the bikes in the rear, and the typhoons behind the tanks for cover.

left side deployment, viewed from his table edge


right side deployment, sorry for the blur


His deployment was a little...odd. There was a long hill in his DZ and he placed all three rhinos and squad of LFs behind this, with the runepriests in the rhinos. The ML LF squad he placed on the hill. His TWC he put behind another hill on the far left side and the scouts were in reserve for OBEL. He rolled to steal and failed, so game on.

My one: I didn't really move much, my right dread went to the right even more to try to get an angle on his rhino behind the hill. Everything else only had the LFs to shoot at so didn't really move.
Shooting, my entire army but the devs unloaded on his missile LFs and killed them in short order. My devs had LOS to a rhino (because they could see over the hill from their hill) but only managed to shake it. Really nothing else to do so I turned it over to him.

His one: His TWC moved around the far side of their hill and then ran, but they really didn't get far. He kept his rhinos and LFs out of sight. Unfortunately, he could see my devs so cast lightening on them, killing two. They made their morale check and he passed the turn to me.

his TWC moving around the far left hill


same turn, different view of TWC. they looked really cool


My two, my devs got the hell off the hill before they got blasted to kingdom come. I expected the scouts to come in this turn, so I moved everything around but the preds, trying to keep everything far enough apart so that he couldn't multicharge me with the scouts if the came in off the back line. The dreads fell back to tie up the scouts. The bikes moved forward so they wouldn't get shot. The typhoons spread out. He still wasn't showing me anything behind the hill, so my right dread went further right, followed by a las/plasback for backup. Of course my strategy for the scouts was to let them come in on two, they would kill probably two of my units for two points, then I could kill them on turn 3 for 2 points because in turn 3 everything would be worth 3 KPs. Everything else swiveled left to hopefully knock a few wounds off the TWC (and I had nothing else to shoot at).
I put a few wounds on the TWC and I think one on the lord, then turned it over to him.

His two: the damn scouts didn't come in (little bastards). The TWC moved and ran again. They were still at least a turn away from a charge. His left rhino peaked around a corner to try to lightening one of my units.
His shooting, the lightening didn't do anything to a rhino and there was no assault.

My three: again my dread and las/plasback crept right to try to get shots on his hidden rhino; I would have it this round. The TWC was closing in, so everything swung left to shoot at them.

Shooting didn't do anything to the hidden rhino and I didn't shoot at the rhino on the left (with the rune priest) because my libby was in hood range of it, so hopefully I could cancel anything he tried. Everything else shot at the TWC. By the time the smoke had cleared, I had killed one TWC and wounded everything, so not too bad.

His three: the damn wolf scouts finally showed up, right behind by two preds. The TWC moved and ran toward me again, but will still be out of charge range. They would have if for sure next turn though. The left rhino crept up some more and his muli-melta LF came over the hill to play.
Shooting, his lightening got hooded by my libby and that was that.
Assault, his scouts blasted my left dread and left nothing but a smoking crater. I was cool with that, because that meant they weren't in assault and I could lay the smack down with shooting. I really hate assault.

My four, my right dread was still working his way right with the las/plasback in tow. This turn they could fire on the rhino and it wouldn't have cover. I moved a typhoon over to block off the TWC and libby and gang moved toward the TWC to make sure they would be caught in nullzone. The bikes moved toward the scouts as did a 10 man and 5 man tac squad. Those little boogers had to die. The other 10 man squad unloaded in front of the LFs, well within rapid fire range.
Shooting finally got me the rhino behind the hill. Unfortunately nullzone got canceled by his runepriest, so that didn't go as planned. I finished the scouts in quick fashion, then unloaded on the TWC. The lord was down to one wound, and there were two TWC left with a wound. They were about to hit me really hard, but I had weakened them. I killed all of his LF but one missile dude that stood tall.

His four, his GH that just had their ride blown up came over the hill at me. The TWC got so close I could smell their foul breath (they needed a mint). The runepriest's rhino moved back to try to get out of hood range. His GHs took aim at my 10 man squad that had just disembarked.
Shooting didn't do much, lightening failed to pen, and most of his GHs were out of range.
In assault his lord and wulfen went against my rhino, the TWC with the hammer on my speeder (which had moved 12"). The rhino moved 12" the previous turn, so the lord and wulfen failed to hit. The hammer actually got two hits on my speeder and came up with a "shaken" and "weapon destroyed". Talk about bad luck for him.

assault on the rhino and speeder


My five; all kills were now worth three points and I was looking at a single missile launcher, a lord and two TWC in open (and wounded), a rhino and some grey hunters clustered around. This was going to be sweet. Again, everything moved for shots, with most of it aimed at the TWC.
Shooting, my nullzone went off this time and I burned down the lord and remaining TWC. The final LF went splat, I killed a few of the grey hunters and I think wrecked the other rhino behind the hill. Not really sure, but I know I scored a buttload of points this round. No assault and it went back to him.

His five; the other GH squad bailed out and joined the first one to try to gun down my 10 man tac squad. The last rhino moved for a shot against a speeder and that was all he had.
Lightening hit my speeder four times with about three pens, but because I was behind a razor, the speeder got cover saves and made all of them. The GHs would have been close enough to charge, but they killed too many of my 10 man tac squad and I pulled the front models. Unfortunately, they failed their morale test and fell back.

We rolled and the game continued to 6.

Not really much to do but clean up at this point. My depleted tac squad regrouped and jumped in the rhino to zoom away. The rest of my army took aim at his remaining units.
Shooting I believe wrecked the last rhino and I think I finished off his GH squad without a runepriest.

His six; he fired living lightening from one runepriest (the other was hooded) and didn't do anything. Game ended on six.

So I won with a massacre, getting a bonus point for HQ still alive, most expensive troop still alive, but missing one bonus point becuase I didn't move a troop unit (who was 5" for three turns) into his deployment zone.

Aftermath:

I think he pretty much screwed himself with his deployment. Like I mentioned, there is no way I could have shut his army down in two turns, which would have been the amount of time it would have taken for his TWC to reach me. For those of you that haven't noticed yet, my primary means of counter assault is to either run away or use combat tactics to fall back from a fight; ie, I have no assault capability. We talked after the game about it and I believe if he would have played more aggressively he would have beat me. Also, he could have multi-assaulted both of my preds and my dread when his scouts came in. He probably would have destroyed at least one pred and he would have been tied in combat so I couldn't shoot him on my turn. But who knows, it's a dice game so anything could have happened.

At the end of the first day, I was 3-1 and still in the top of the tournament. It was agreed upon by all of us that nobody would go undefeated, including best general, so I was still in the running at this point. I packed up my army for the day and called it a night.

Next up, Fists of Redemption vs 'nids.

Another really good report. I hope you make a habit of these!

Great report. Sorry if my last post came off like cheater accusations.. It wasnt ment to be.. more of a mabye he got the rule wrong. But I guess it was me that was getting the rule wrong.. After 5 editions rules can get a bit cluttered in my head LOL

ROUND 5

DISCLAIMER

If you are looking for sound tactics, solid tabletop strategy, and excellent decision making on a toy soldier level, then go read a different battle report. This report will have none of the aforementioned items. It will however present an outstanding example of how to hand your opponent the game on a silver platter without requiring him to do anything other than move forward.

This game still makes me cringe. I should have tabled this guy or at least beat him soundly. Instead of doing that however, I subconscienciously decided that every decision that I had to make would be wrong and I would play so stupidly that he really wouldn't have to roll any dice to beat me. Each bad decision that I make I will label with a "dumbass" counter and at the end of the batrep we'll add them all up just to see how stupid I really am, shall we?

Round five had me pitted against 'nids. Deployment was dawn of war with a twist. Up to four troop choices could deploy, but no HQ.

His list
Swarmlord
2 x tyrant guard, lash whips
3 x hive guard
3 x hive guard
2 x tervigons (both troop choices)
19 x termigants
19 x termigants
tyranid prime, devourer
4 x warriors
3 x venomthropes
10 x genestealers w/broodlord

My list
Libby-nullzone and who cares he has nullzone
2 x rifleman dreads
5 x sternguard, 3 x combi-meltas, 2 x combi-flamers, rhino
10 x tac squad (two of these) lascannon, combi-melta, meltagun, rhino
5 x tac squad (two of these) las/plas razor
2 x typhoons (2 units of 1)
2 x multi-melta attack bikes
2 x dakka preds
5 x devs, 4 missile launchers, asscannon razor

Pregame:

Nothing in this list scared me at all. If he deployed anything I would blow it away on turn one. His army would be footslogging across the table, except the stealers that would probably outflank, which really wasn't that big of a deal. I should take this army apart, knocking out at least a unit a turn, but probably more. This would be a good game to build my tournament points back up to make up for my round 3 loss. I couldn't ask for a better matchup.

We rolled for first turn, he won, then gave it to me (not sure why he did that, but I wasn't going to ask questions).

our table from his side (my right flank)


our whole table; my DZ is on the left with the long hill


our table again from his side (my left flank)


Neither of us deployed anything so we moved into turn one.

What I should have done, since he was footslogging and had almost zero shooting, was deploy both 10 man tacs on the front of the hill in gunline formation. This would had allowed the tacs to fire 24" bolter shots at any gribblies headed my way. If he wanted to shoot the hive guard at my tacs, than even better. Go ahead and waste all those S8 shots... The rhinos would have gone into normal reserve to come on later and move my tacs if needed. I also should have deployed my libby w/SG so the SG could make use of their 30" bolter rounds and cover denying rounds and poisoned rounds. I could have had their rhino deploy in reserve as well. That way I'd have all those bolter shots from turn 1 through turn however long the game went and I would hopefully keep the easy kill point rhinos off the table for a few turns. However, I didn't do any of that (insert dumbass counter here).

My one: The assback dumped the devs on the hill in the middle so they could cover the whole table. The preds, dreads, and las/plasbacks all split on the flanks. The 10 man tac squads each deployed on the end of a flank, anchoring things there, in their respective rhino. The bikes deployed far left with the typhoons on the left as well. I knew the stealers would be outflanking, so to give them easy kill points without having to work for it, I deployed my libby/SG unit w/rhino on the right flank within about 14" of the side edge (dumbass counter).

my right flank deployment. notice the libby/SG placed on the very end of my line, just waiting to die. the dreadnought saw it coming, but didn't speak up...


my left flank/center deployment


I had nothing to shoot at and no reason to pop smoke, so I turned it over to him.

DUMBASS COUNTER NOW AT 2

His one: He brought on his warriors and attached prime on the my far left flank behind the rock formation. He was worried about the abundance of high STR firepower I had insta-splatting his T4 gribblies. His venomthropes came in center, flanked by a tervigon on each side with the termigants in front of them. The hive guard units flanked the venomthropes as well, with the swarmlord and guard on my right flank. He was very careful about leaving all of his units except the warriors within 6" of the venomthropes for the 5+ cover save.

his deployment


more deployment; notice his venomthropes in the middle. they wont' be there in a second...


My two: since he was trying to keep everything within 6" of his venomthropes, I decided to kill them first. This was of course genious on my part, because the the 5+ cover save from the venomthropes was so much better than the 4+ cover save he was already getting from the terrain (that's sarcasm, in case you missed it). I mean, why shouldn't I shoot the zero threat, not doing anything productive at least the next three turns venomthropes, when instead I could be shooting at the hive guard that would be in range of my tanks in one or two turns? I should definately blast the venomthropes just because he kept everything near them. Good lord I'm stupid (dumbass counter).

Movement, I moved my bikes up near mid-table, but out of range of his termagants. Wow, I strike again. Now my bikes were in range of his left HG (the only thing in range) and could be insta-killed by his six STR8 AP4 shots that would be coming my way. That was pure win (dumbass counter). Everything else shuffled for shots. The libby/SG rhino moved 6" so his stealers wouldn't auto-hit (because hitting on a 4+ is so much better for me when they have like 400 attacks).
So I unloaded on the venomthropes and killed them fairly easily. That got my 1 KP and nothing else. Didn't help me in any way. It actually hurt me because I should have been shooting at something that could actually hurt me. I think somehow I used a shred of common sense and actually shot a few rounds at the HG, but don't remember. My bikes that I had moved up for some reason I think shot at the termies (really don't know why).
That was it for me so I turned it over to him.

this is were the venomthropes used to be


DUMBASS COUNTER NOW AT 4

His two, his stealers came in, didn't even need the re-roll from the swarmlord. Naturally they came in on my right, near the libby/SG. His tervigons pooped out termies, with the one on the right rolling doubles so it got constipated and couldn't poop anymore this game. Everything else moved forward. The warriors/prime stayed in the rocks.

the stealers about to rape my rhino. oh noes!


On my left, his HG shot at my bikes. Again, required no thinking on his part, they were the only thing in range. So rolled up three wounds. I have power armor, surely I can roll at least two 3+ saves. So I rolled a 1, 1, 3. Crap. Just handed him a kill point there. On the right I guess my pred was putting his panties in a wad because the HG on that side shot the pred but did nothing.
His stealers assaulted my rhino and wrecked it. Somehow with a 6" move, 6" assault, and 3" fleet he thought that equalled 18" to be able to surround my rhino. We actually had rules issues the entire game, so were really stupid. However, I played so horribly it really didn't matter. Anyway, the libby/SG got out without any issues, but I just handed him another kill point.

My three: the libby/SG jump up on the wrecked rhino to deliver some flamer love to the stealers. The 10 man tac squad rolled out that way to provide bolter support. My right pred (the one just shot at with six impaler cannons) turned to the right to shoot the stealers, exposing its side armor to the HG. Another genious move on my part. I gave up side armor to six krak missile shots, just so I could shoot some stealers that were in cover. I should have pulled back my dread and moved a typhoon over to assist. Between the libby/SG, 10 man tac, asscannon back, dread, and typhoon I had more than enough to take them down. Instead let's just expose our side armor to the bad guys, cause that makes so much more sense (dumbass counter). Everything on the left shuffles to shoot at the tervigon, the one that was constipated. Why? Well let me explain it to you. It wasn't doing anything, was way in the back, nowhere near me, and couldn't even poop out gaunts. It had no way of hurting me (unlike the HG that just blasted my bikes off the board) so why wouldn't I shoot at it instead of the HG? (dumbass counter)
My shooting, on my right I killed all the stealers and wounded the broodlord. The pred that had exposed side armor, so that I could get all those cool shots, between missing and saves only killed one stealer. I finished off the tervigon (yay for me, I accomplished nothing again).
Assault, my libby/SG charged the broodlord. Now let me explain something to all of you non-SM players out there. SM suck in assault; they suck with a vengeance. Even our assault squads, our so-called assault "experts", suck in assault. The only thing we have that even comes close to being good in assault is our termies, and a strong fart will take them out. So do I really think that my libby and five SG are going to take down a 2 wound, T5, rending assault expert? Hell yes I do! (insert dumbass counter)
Anyway, I do one wound to the broodlord and he kills my two combi-flamer SG. He wins assault but I stick.

right after I assault the broodlord. notice the pred giving up side armor.


DUMBASS COUNTER NOW AT 7 (I think)

His two, everything advanced.
Shooting got him the pred that I had given up side armor on. In assault he wounded my libby, but I held.

My three: It finally occurs to me that I may want to start shooting at the HG...hmmm, fascinating concept. So my left side moves around to get shots at his left side HG. On my right, the swarmlord was steadily advancing across the table behind the HG. He was still probably two turns from my 10 man tac squad that had just disembarked from the rhino to rapid fire at the stealers, so instead of having the tac squad help finish off the broodlord, thereby saving my libby and SG, I instead jumped them back in the rhino to move 12" away. (dumbass counter)
In shooting, I poured everything I had into the left HG and finished them off. Everything else went into the righ HG, but I only managed a wound on them. In assault, his broodlord wounded my libby with a rend and won combat, but I stuck.

DUMBASS COUNTER NOW AT 8

His three, he moved his warriors a little closer to try a shot at my typhoon. The HG and swarmlord advanced while the tervigon stayed near his board edge. I think he was afraid that I would start pouring shots into it and exterminate it like I did his constipated brother.

HG advancing


The termagants all clustered together in the forest for cover.
Shooting, his HG didn't do anything that I remember. His prime missed so it was on to assault.
The broodlord did one wound to the libby and killed him. The SG then failed morale and ran off the table. Sh*t. His stealer squad had finished off three kill points and I still hadn't killed it.

My four; the 10 man tac squad that had left the libby to die moved right back to where it was and again everyone jumped out to rapidfire the broodlord. For some idiotic reason, I didn't move my rhino the entire 12"; I think I only went 8". What this did would be to allow the swarmlord and company to assault my squad and rhino, instead of just my rhino. (insert dumbass counter here) Everything on the left lined up to shoot his termagant squad. Not the one with 9 gribblies that he had pooped out, but the original squad with 19 gants. Why? Because obviously it' easier to kill 19 gants than it is to kill 9, duh! (dumbass counter) Everything on the right lined up shots on the remaining HG and the gants in front of them. I think I immobilized my assback this turn as well. I tried moving my left rhino up to double tap the gants, but immobilized it as well. They would spend the rest of the game doing nothing, just like they had to this point (dumbass counter).
Shooting, I got the gants near the HG down to three and killed one of the HG. The 10 man tac finally killed the damn broodlord.

DUMBASS COUNTER NOW AT 10

He moved his HG into cover near the middle of the table. His 3 man gant unit ran for the pred wreckage for cover. The swarmlord and friends moved toward my tac squad that had just blasted the broodlord. Warriors moved a little closer and tervigon lit a smoke in the back. Gants stayed in cover.
His shooting wrecked my right las/plasback and my guys bailed out without difficulty. The prime missed (again).
In assault his swarmlord charged my tac squad rhino but the hive guard reached the tac squad. The swarmlord's attacks missed, my tac squad couldn't hurt the hive guard, but the hive guard killed four of my guys. I failed morale and that squad ran off the table. Jesus.

My five, my left las/plasback moved into the middle of the table, not really sure why. The squad that was in the other las/plasback ran to the left to stay away from the swarmlord. The rhino that the swarmlord just missed hauled ass up the right side of the board. The dev squad ran to the left to avoid the swarmlord, thereby giving up another KP. The right dread also moved left to avoid the swarmlord.

trying to take midfield, to do...something...anything


Shooting, everything either shot at the 19 man gant unit or the HG. What I should have shot at was the remaining 3 gants on my right (they didn't even have cover), but that would have made sense. I could have scored an easy kill point and denied him a bonus point for having a troop in my DZ, but again, that would have made sense. (dumbass counter) Anyway, I didn't kill anything so it was back to him.

DUMBASS COUNTER NOW AT 11

His five, his swarmlord moved toward my units. The three man gaunt squad moved into cover behind my wrecked pred. The HG stayed where they were, as did everything else.
The HG shot at a typhoon, netting a shaken and weapon destroyed, and that was it.

Please let me roll a "1" so this game will be over and I can go kick myself...I rolled a "4", so we continued...

My six, my units moved further away from his swarmlord. I moved my dread, but didn't run so that I could shoot at his HG. Because everyone knows that a rifleman dread can finish off two unwounded HG in cover, all by himself. Hell, it happens all the time. (dumbass counter)

Everything that didn't run shot at his 19 man gant unit and finally finished them off, I think with the SB from the immobilized rhino getting the final wound in there. The las/plas back and dread fired at the HG, doing nothing. The tac squad finally shot at the three man gant squad, killing two with the third making his cover save. Yay for stupidity.

His six, the only thing that moved was the swarmlord and he went right for my dread. The HG shot my assback and exploded it. The prime shot and again did nothing.
His swarmlord smoked my dread with no problem at all and with that the game finally ended.

FINAL DUMBASS COUNT; 12

AFTERMATH

This game still pisses me off. Winning this game would have kept me in the running, and I had already played the two best players there so I didn't have to worry about running into either of them in round 6 if I would have won this game (I actually had the second hardest schedule in the tournament). I wasn't really mad at my opponent, it was mainly at myself for playing so damn stupid. I should have easily walked away with that game. No offense to the guy I had played, but I knew his list better than he did and I definitely had the tools to take it down. Now I know what you guys are thinking, that he was smart enough to take advantage of my mistakes. The thing is, I gave him everything; he really didn't have to make any decisions at all. I fed his stealers 3 KPs, I handed him my bikes, I let his HG just shoot at whatever was in range, I gave his swarmlord easy KPs. Really all he had to do was move toward the closest unit and shoot the nearest target and it was an autowin. Again, not trying to take anything from him, but it is what it is. A four-year-old could have beaten me that game.

So now I was 3-2, out of the running for anything (that last round, the last undefeated player lost to my round 2 opponent). And my next round was against 'nids...again...sh*t.

Ouch! tough one number 5 (no mambo that's for sure)

most people have brainfart games once in a while, but man is it annoying when it happens in a tourney....

nice reps even so looking forward to the last one

Did you under-estimate tyranids or were you unfamiliar with their rules? Or were you just over-confident but tired after 4 games? Very interesting.

Well, at least it was a very enjoyable read, probably much more so than your actual game against your 5th round tyranid opponent.

Did you under-estimate tyranids or were you unfamiliar with their rules? Or were you just over-confident but tired after 4 games? Very interesting.

Nope, wasn't tired or overconfident. I just made stupid mistakes. No excuses.

I like your composition and the color scheme of your army looks great !

Dont you feel your a little light on troops though ? I guess its not a problem though ....

Dont you feel your a little light on troops though ? I guess its not a problem though ....

Not really. I have 2 x 10 tac squads and 2 x 5 man tac squads, so 30 bodies all with power armor and 20 of them usually starting in a vehicle. Objective games I use the 10 man squads to split into lascannon combat squads and they stay back to hold backfield objectives while the tank hunter squads move forward. The las/plasback squads go wherever I need them and rarely come out of their rides. Some people may think I actually have too many troops at the 2000 pt level.

Good reps Jesse, sorry about that loss to the Nids bud.

That said, your army looks great, I'm doing something simular (using Bone White and Codex Grey instead of your colors) for my Deathwing. My wife said "That army looks like a redbull can, maybe he should try and get an endorsement" hahaha. I still think your army looks fantastic tho

ROUND 6
So round 6 I was paired against 'nids (again). The last thing I wanted to do at this point was play against Tyranids again after my last battle. Luckily, I was paired against Al, who I had never met, but got my vote for favorite opponent.

This round was modified C & C, with two objectives being deployed in your deployment zone. Deployment was spearhead.

Al's 'nid list:

Prime-lash whip, bonesword, toxin
hive guard x 3
hive guard x 3
zoans x 3
tervigon x 2 (troops)
gants x 10 (2 of these)
shrike x 3 (barbed strangler)
raveners x 3 (two of these)
trygon prime (two of these)

My list in all of its 'nid slaying asswhoopery:

Libby-nullzone and who cares he has nullzone
2 x rifleman dreads
5 x sternguard, 3 x combi-meltas, 2 x combi-flamers, rhino
10 x tac squad (two of these) lascannon, combi-melta, meltagun, rhino
5 x tac squad (two of these) las/plas razor
2 x typhoons (2 units of 1)
2 x multi-melta attack bikes
2 x dakka preds
5 x devs, 4 missile launchers, asscannon razor

Pregame:

There was a very tall building in one corner, so that was the corner I wanted to deploy in. I was very glad not to see outflanking stealers in this list, so I knew everything would be coming right at me (except deep strikers, but I can deal with those). He had a lot of MCs and if he ran them all at me at once I could be in trouble. Or he could castle up and force me to come to him, which also would be a problem. Nobody wants to try to bust through 2 trygons, 2 tervigons, and a few squads of hive backed up by three zoans. First turn and deployment would be very important this game.

I won the roll to go first and took it, choosing the corner with the tall building. I had gone first every game of the tournament and it usually paid off. Just had to work my magic one more round...
My deployment was my bottom right. The devs went atop the building with LOS to everything on our table and the next three tables down the row. I set up in a defensive formation, not yet knowing what his trygons and raveners would be doing. I combat squaded into two las teams, one each going on the flanks of the devs (tacs where on ground level though). Typhoons were behind the building. Pred, dread, and razor on each side of the building. One tank hunter squad also deployed behind the building in case he tried to deepstrike behind my firebase. The bikes went on the left in the open to wait for the possible trygons/raveners attack. The assback, the other tank hunter squad, one 5 man tac squad out of a las/plasback, and the libby/SG went into reserve to try to come in turn 2 and push into his deployment zone.

you can see both my objectives in these two pics

my deployment from his view (very scary)


my deployment from my side


Al's deployment

Al attached the two primes to the zoan squad and they all went behind a gant screen. The tervigons went more to the rear to cover objectives. The HG hid behind cover along with the tervigons. His raveners, trygons, and shrikes were all deepstriking. I had forgotten about the shrikes; I'll blame that on old age.

Big Al deploying. Two armies about to GET IT ON!


HG covering an objective, screened by gants


Al attempted to seize but didn't get it, so away we went.

My one: Nothing really moved except the typhoons. I had good LOS to everything that I wanted to shoot at and I should have good range. I didn't want to move too much because if two trygons and two raveners units showed up on my doorstep I didn't want all my firepower in the wrong place.
Shooting, everything on the left aimed at one of the HG squads and killed two. Everything on the right aimed at the prime/zoan unit, spreading some wounds around and killing a zoan. I had learned last game that 'nid AT, while not good, still needed to die quickly.

After my turn 1 shooting, the HG unit on the left was reduced to one HG. The zoans in the back are down by one, while the primes each took wounds.


As usual, there was no assault from me so I passed to Big Al.

Al's one: he cast FnP on the remaining HG and I think FnP on one of the tervigons. He also pooped out gants with both. I asked how many spare gants he brought (hoping he would run out) but he had like a gazillion, so no dice there. His primes/zoans unit moved forward behind the gants while the HG with three remaining critters moved forward to blast my left pred.
His shooting, the zoans were still out of range but the HG were in range of my pred and blew off the autocannon and shook it. Damn, I really liked that autocannon too...
That was pretty much it so it went back to me.

My two: the only thing that came in from reserve was my 5 man tank hunter squad in the rhino. I was hoping for a bit more, but I'd make it work somehow. The tank hunter squad moved 12" on to the table hugging the left hand side. My thinking here was that hopefully he would divert something from his base to take on the rhino/squad, leaving me an opening in the middle for the libby/SG and empty assback if they came in on turn 3. Again, my firebase really didn't move much. The shaken pred fell back to lick his wounds for a turn and be out of range of the cursed HG. The bikes stayed back because I didn't want them getting splattered by HG this game like they did last game. See, even I can learn...

My shooting got me the remaining HG on the left and the rest of the zoans/prime squad on the right. I just eliminated about the only threat on my right flank, so I needed to take advantage of that if possible.

Al's two: for reserves, he got both ravener squads and a trygon and dropped everything right in my face. Ouch.

Trygon right in my face


Raveners on my left flank. They almost went off the table...


One squad of gants and one of the tervigons veered off for my rhino/squad on the far left, so that plan worked. The gants that had been screening for the primes/zoans fell back to stay within synapse of the tervigon, so that really opened up the right/center for me. The remaining HG got FnP and he did another crazy 'nid power on something else (can't remember what).

Shooting, he immobilized my rhino on the far left with the HG. I was really lucky that he didn't wreck it. The trygon fired at a las squad and I think maybe killed one. The raveners ran to get closer (ruh roh). Crap, if any of those units, especially the trygon, got to me I was going to be in serious trouble. Lucky for me I have lots of big guns...

There was no assault (thank God), so it went to my three.

My three: I got the assback and libby/SG w/rhino in. I promptly tank shocked the raveners near my table edge with my libby/SG rhino and the raveners broke and fell back. That gave me a little breathing room. The libby/SG unit jumped out to smack around the other ravener squad. The las/plasbacks moved forward to get LOS to the trygon, as did the typhoons. Both dreads and preds lined up on the trygon as well. I was gonna blow that mutha sky high (or it would run through my army like Indian food through me after a night of heavy drinking). The assback pulled up next to the libby rhino back them up if needed. The tac squad on the far left bailed out of their rhino and moved to touble tap the nearest gant squad. They would get charged and probably killed eventually, but I really wanted the middle open to park as many tanks as I could on his objectives.

Tac squad on the far left bail out of their broken down right to deliver bolter death to the gants


Shooting, the SG/libby finished the ravener squad nearest to them without breaking a sweat. Having three wounds doesn't mean much when you're only T4 and catch three melta shots with your face... The devs wasted the ravener squad that had been tank shocked and the trygon got lit up by plasma and then finished off by lascannons from the foots squads. Crap, now I had bad angles with everything else. I really thought it would have taken more that that, but whatever.

There used to be a trygon and six raveners in this picture, but I shot them and then they went away,...


My squad on the far left killed a few gants. On a really positive note, I managed to repair the rhino with a "6". Booya!

I actually felt really bad about that shooting phase. Al and I were having a really laid back game and doing quite a bit of joking and I had just nuetralized any serious threat to my objectives in one shooting phase. I told Al I was sorry and i really wasn't trying to be a dick, I just wanted to win. He was cool with it, but I still felt bad about it.

Al's three: his shrikes came in, but still no trygon. He put the shrikes back on his side, I think to keep them away from my guns. His gants and tervigon on the left moved towards my far left tac squad; didn't look too good for the tacs on that side. The other tervigon moved toward the assback with a hungry look in his eyes.

Shrikes dropping in to crash the party


GAMEBREAK:

Since Big Al was busy moving around like 90 gants, I had a little time on my hands. One of the things I always bring with me to a tournament is my handy-dandy laser pointer (for determining LOS). You ever use a laser pointer to play with a cat? They chase the little red dot all over the place. Turns out, it works on gants as well...

See that little red dot? All the gribblies are running for it.


END GAMEBREAK

Shooting, his gants killed two tac marines from the far left and would still be in charge range (or so he thought). I believe his HG shot at my libby rhino and immobilized it. The shrikes fired a long shot at my devs and actually killed two fo the missile launchers. That sucked a littlbe bit. At the end of the shooting phase I used combat tactics to have my far left squad fall back out of assault range of the gants. They were outside of 6", so they would rally on my turn.

My four, everything started moving toward his objectives. The tac squad on the far left auto-rallied and because I had repaired my rhino on the side my previous turn, they jumped back into it and moved 12" down the left side. My last 5 man squad came in from reserve and jumped in the assback. They zoomed past the encroaching tervigon, through a gant squad (they were fearless) and almost made it to the central 'nid objective but I immobilized it on a rock. Stupid rock... Now my assback was immobilized, surrounded by gribblies, and would get charged next turn by a very pissed off tervigon. That wasn't cool... They were still in contest range though, so that was good. The SG split off from the libby and headed back toward my objectives to await the final trygon. The libby jumped in his immobilized rhino to try to hood any psychic shennanigans from the tervigons. The speeders moved flat out and the both dreads moved forward.

Shooting I think I put four wounds on the tervigon in the middle cause the libby was able to hood a FnP attempt. I also killed a couple of HG this turn too I think. Pinged off a shrike with what I had left. The dread in the middle ran.

Assault, my lower dread charged the gants that I had tank shocked. I needed to pull them away from my rhino so that when the tervigon wrecked it, my tac squad would have a place to bail out. If the rhino got surrounded, the guys inside were going to die horrible deaths. I killed a few gants and got a few more due to fearless wounds and that was it.

I charge the gants. Rowr!


Al's four: His tervigon went straight toward my rhino. His two gant squads in the middle tried to surround it but couldn't quite pull if off. His left tervigon and about three gant squads on that side went for most far left tac squad, trying to do something about them. The remaining shrike ran for cover (wuss). Also of note, the last trygon still had not made an entrance.

Before his movement phase; lots of gribblies headed for my poor rhino.


Shooting got him my immobilized assback. However, because he couldn't quite surround me, I had room at the front of the assback to emergency disembark. I was pinned, but I was also contesting his central objective.

Assault, his tervigon on the far left couldn't hit my moving rhino and the gribblies couldn't hurt it, so that went nowhere. His central tervigon was able to reach my assback squad and killed a few of them, but they held. The dread killed a gant.

My five: I bailed everyone in my backfield out of their rides to surround my objectives. My las squads moved for the objectives as well. The bikes moved forward, but not too far. One typhoon found an opening and turboed to his central objective. My far left rhino tank shocked its way onto his left objective and the tac squad bailed out to rapid fire a gant squad. Looking back, I probably should have left them in their ride, but I was afraid of the tank getting sorrounded and wrecked. The top pred moved 12" toward the central objective and my other dread moved toward it as well. I was just hoping to throw enough tanks at it that Al wouldn't be able to handle them all. The libby jumped out of his rhino and moved toward an unengaged gant squad (he was very brave or very stupid, depending on how you view it). Mainly I was just trying to pull gants away from his central objective, but damn he had a lot of gribblies.

Shooting I think I dropped a HG (they were down to one), the far left tac squad killed a bunch of gants at the squad they shot at, my backfield ran for better objective coverage (didn't want the trygon to deepstrike within 3" of an objective).

Me trying to cover objectives


My far left tac squad killed enough gants to force a morale check and they failed (they were outside synapse). They fell back, never to regroup.

In assault, my dread was down to like one gant and whiffed. The libby assaulted another gant unit and killed a couple, but they were fearless so held. The tacs on the central objective lost two men to the tervigon, but they held as well. My top dread was able to reach a gant squad and contest the central objective at the same time and killed a few.

His five, his trygon finally came in and landed really close to my back objective. His gants and tervigon on the far left moved toward my far left tac squad. Both my rhino and the squad were contesting that objective, so he needed to eliminate both threats. His gants surrounded my typhoon contesting his center objective and the HG took aim at it.

The final trygon lands in my lap and he doesn't look happy.


Shooting, he had two gant squads fire at my far left tac squad. I was already down to just the sarge, a bolter guy, and the melta gun. His first gant squad fired causing three wounds. I lost the meltagun. The second gant squad fired causing three wounds and I lost the bolter guy, but the sarge was hanging in there. His trygon shot my backfield squad surrounding my rear objective and killed two; that would call for a morale check (doh!). His HG shot my contesting typhoon along with the gants, and somewhere in there it was exploded. My far left sarge did was he was supposed to do and passed his morale test as did my backfield squad (close one there).

Assault, his left tervigon assaulted my far left rhino, hit it, and wrecked it. The brave sergeant was charged by like 800 gribblies. He killed two and then got dragged down, securing the objective for Al.

Sarge getting swarmed; this won't end well. The tervigon had already wrecked my rhino.


My libby killed another couple gants and they held. My dread whiffed again against his gribbly and the central tervigon wiped my tac squad contesting that objective.

So if the game ended now, it looked like I would win 2-1 on objectives. So of course, we went to turn 6...

My six, everything in my backfield took aim at the trygon. The top pred moved forward 12", but was just outside of 3" on his central objective. My other speeder found a hole near his central objective and parked there, also contesting.

Shooting, I dropped the trygon in short order and I think killed a few gants.

Assault, my dread killed a few gribblies but they held. My other dread that had been in combat forever whiffed yet again. My libby killed a few more and took a wound and his gribblies held as well.

His central objective was under that base that used to be my typhoon. My dread is contesting. On the right you can barely see my other typhoon and his tervigon going over to try to smash it.


Al's six, he moved his trygon toward my last typhoon to try to wreck it and firmed his hold on the left objective.

He shot his last HG at my typhoon but didn't cause any significant damage and then it was on to assault.

His tervigon charged my typhoon but couldn't hit it. The dread contesting his objective killed a few gants but there were still more left. The bottom dread finally killed that last damn bug and got a 5" consolidate, putting him within 3" of Al's central objective. The libby finished his squad as well and moved toward the middle.

We called it at that point. Fists of Redemption win, 2-1.

Aftermath:

Al was an awesome guy and a great player. I would play him again any time. That was by far the most fun I've had during a game of 40K in quite a while. Big Al if you're reading this, my hat is off to you.

So I ended up 4-2 and finished 5 out of 24. Not bad for a guy that hadn't played in over a year and only had three games under his belt going into this event. I also had the second hardest schedule and was the only guy to beat the person that won best overall (Yermom) so all-in-all not too bad.

Nest up: unit review, overall tournament grade, and pics of some of the armies.






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