Greetings again loyal Fist Fans. This weekend I was able to get to RedCap's Corner in Philly for a small
RTT. Unfortunately most of the regulars had a tournament the day before, so the turnout was somewhat small, only eight players. Everyone was playing a different army so at least I wouldn't be playing only Space Marines all day long.
I took:
Libby-nullzone/avenger
5 sternguard-3 combi meltas, 2 combi flamers w/rhino
2 x rifleman dreads
2 x 10
tac marines- combi melta, melta, lascannon, rhinos
5
tac marines in las/plasback
2 x typhoons (2 squads)
2 multi melta attack bikes
2 x dakka preds
5
devs - 4 missile launchers, las/plasback
This is just a paired down version of my 2000 pt list, with one less razor and five fewer
tac marines.
ROUND 1
Round one had me paired against Chris playing Blood Angels.
Chris in all of his badassery. Looks mean doesn't he? He was actually pretty laid back.
(from memory)
Meph
Reclusiarch
8 x death company, all w/power weapons in a standard
LR
10 VAS w/2 x melta,
PF and attached priest
stormraven
DC dread
5
devs w/missile launchers
5 x sang guard with inferno pistol(s)
I think that was about right.
Scenario: was some weird C & C that none of us really understood. You had to capture your opponent's objective and then get it back into your own deployment zone. It was pretty much a guarenteed auto-draw.
massacre: have both objectives in your deployment zone w/o your opponent ever controlling yours
major win: have both objectives in your deployment zone
minor win: not really sure
draw: one objective in each deployment zone
Deployment: dawn of war, further complicating getting to your opponent's objective.
PREGAME
Well, he had a lot of toys. If just about anything go to my lines I would be in trouble. Meph is really good at killing things and all those
DC would kill any infantry that they hit. The dread wasn't much better. Unfortunately for Chris, he had brought a lot of bling and not much sting; really wasn't a lot of substance or coherency to this list. When I asked him about it, he said he just played for fun, so that explained it.
I won the roll to go first and decided to stay on the side that I had. No particular reason, I'm just fat and lazy and didn't feel like moving (it's called the "slug style" of playing; all the top players use that style).
I deployed my objective near my board edge toward the center. My
tac squads split, with one las squad going in terrain on the left and one in terrain on the right.
Chris deployed his objective in a ruin on my left and about 12"ish from his table edge. The
LR deployed 18" from my right
tac squad, so they were going to die a nasty death. But that would get the
DC out of the
LR and that's all I cared about. The VAS would deepstrike and everything else walk (or fly on).
Chris' objective. Didn't get a picture of mine for some reason...
So Chris, in an utter nutshot move, stole the initiative. DOH!
Chris' one: His
LR went right for my
tac squad on the right and the
DC w/reclusiarch jumped out and started licking their lips while staring at my
tac squad. Meph and the psycho dread flew on in the SR to midfield and then just hovered there like an unholy angel of death. And that was it. He forgot to bring on the
devs and later when we remembered we agreed that they would come on in regular reserve. And then we both forgot about them, so they never came on at all. Didn't get the memo I suppose...
DC are jumping out (action shot)
Meph's pimp ride of death coming on
His shooting, the
DC killed one of my marines on the right. I pulled the front one hoping to be out of assault range, but unlike what I keep telling my wife, 4" really doesn't equal 9", so I was still in assault range. His SR used
POTMS to shoot a marine on the left.
Assault, the
tac squad went down like panties on prom night. The
DC consolidated toward my objective and he handed off to me.
My one, everything rolled on. The
devs jumped out of their ride and into some weird terrain on the right. The two
tac squads circled their rhinos around my objective and one jumped out to claim it. The bikes moved up to be within 12" of the
LR (he didn't pop smoke). The other las/plasback and the two typhoons went far left to make a move at his objective. One dread came on and went toward his
DC while the other came on more to the left to light up the SR. The preds came on one on the left and one on the right.
my right side
Shooting, the dread was able to spotlight the SR, got a pen through cover saves, and exploded (go go robot arms!). The
DC dread didn't sustain any damage and Meph just got pissed because his robes got dirty. Everything else on the left tried to spot the dread but couldn't see it. The bikes, in a fit of epic fail, both hit the
LR and then both failed to pen or glance while being within 12"
. The
devs scrambled to get higher and I bounced a las shot off the
LR from a las/plasback. The dread on the right shot the
DC, which only made them angrier than usual.
Assault, the dread charged the
DC and they slapped each other for no damage (this would go on for a while).
Dread taking on the
DC-GET SOME! Those white stones around my tanks are smoke. Yes, yes I am cheap.
Chris's two; even with the reroll, the VAS didnt' come in. Meph tried to get wings off, but I had parked my libby within 24" so wings didn't happen. He moved about 3" through terrain. The dread didn't do much better. The
LR moved to my right (not sure why, but he did). The Sang Guard came in. Chris really wanted to kill my left dread, so he tried to land the Sang G within 3" so he could get melta shots. So naturally they scattered right on top of the dread. He rolled a 1 for mishap and that took care of the Sang Guard.
Shooting, Meph rolled a 2 for fleet and the dread rolled a 1, so neither really went anywhere. The
LR shot a lascannon at my right pred, got through smoke, and exploded it. I guess that was payback for the SR. He used
POTMS to fire a shot at my left dread, hit, and immobilized it. I thought it odd that he totally ignored the two attack bikes in his face, but he was out to have fun, so I wasn't going to question it.
Assault, the dread and
DC slapped each other some more.
My two, the typhoons and las/plasback on the left moved closer to his objective. I used the typhoons to try to screen the razor in case his VAS came down next to me, I didn't want them getting melta'd out of their ride. The bikes moved again to get shots at the
LR with the
SG and libby moving their rhino within 6" of the
LR so they could take shots if the bikes screwed the pooch again. My tacs that grabbed the objective jumped back in their rhino with it (yes, we could do that) and shot off to the right with the other rhino covering the rear.
Shooting, the bikes wrecked the
LR (finally). The
devs stood around looking good. One of the typhoons wrecked the crazy dread. I put a few shots into Meph and actually managed to knock off a few wounds.
Angry dread before shooting phase:
Angry dread after shooting (hehe, booyaa)
Assault, I think I got lucky and actually killed two
DC this phase (these would be the only casualties on each side for the rest of the game).
Chris' three; the VAS still didn't come in despite the re-roll. Meph went for wings again and again I blocked it (100 pt Libby - 2, 275 pt Meph - 0).
Counts as Meph, very angry because he's walking
Shooting, Meph got a 2 or something to fleet, so would still not be in assault range of anything.
Assault, ...yeah...as if.
My three, everything on the left moved forward toward his objective. I managed to immobilize one of my typhoons on the ruin where his objective was parked. Everything on the right moved to get shots on Meph except the rhino with my objective in it and the one flanking it. My
devs didn't have anything to shoot at so surrounded my objective rhino in anticipation of the VAS coming in. The
SG jumped out to fire at Meph, but the libby stayed in the rhino (he's not dumb, Meph might live).
Shooting, the
SG took down Meph and I had nothing else to shoot at, so on to...yeah, whatever.
Chris' four; his VAS finally come in. He could have landed on his objective and went for the draw, but Chris went for the throat and wanted to deepstrike near my objective rhino. The only area remotely open was the crater where my pred had got exploded and he went for it. He rolled a scatter die and got a
Damn, two inches either way would have bee a mishap.
Chris placing his first VAS. My objective rhino is to the left, just out of the picture.
On the bright side, he lost two to dangerous terrain. That was all he had to move.
Shooting, predictably he exploded my rhino. Didn't lose any marines and they weren't pinned.
Assault, yeah...
My four, my las/plasback reached his objective and I bailed out to capture it.
My
SG re-joined the libby and they moved toward the finally arrived VAS. The
tac squad with the objective jumped in the empty las/plasback and moved 6" away from the VAS. The bikes turned to shoot and assault the VAS with the libby and friends. Everything else moved for shots on the VAS. They were in a crater and had a priest so were going to be hard to take down.
Shooting, everything unloaded on his one squad. By the time the smoke had cleared, there was the priest, the sarge, two normal guys, and I think a melta gun.
Assault, I charged with the bikes, the libby, and the
SG. The bikes got the sarge before he could swing his powerfist (thank God), the libby cut down the priest and the
SG took out two. I won by four and the squad had got the blood thirst so were fearless. Four saves later, the last guy was dead.
Notice the complete lack of anything wearing red
After that we called it as he couldn't get my objective and I would have his in my deployment zone in my turn.
AFTERMATH
I screwed up because I should have had a stronger push going towards his objective. I also got lucky that his VAS didn't come in until late because it allowed me take his army down piece-by-piece. I was extremely lucky that his Sang Guard died on entry because they really could have messed me up. Like I already mentioned, he could have played for the draw but instead went for the throat. I think that much candy at 1850 is just too much; that's actually too much for 2000. Only having one (or two) scoring units would really hurt in objective games. Chris was good guy to play against and was really upbeat the entire time.
About the scenario, we were the only game not to draw. We had a discussion on the tournament forum about the scenarios for this tournament a few days before the tournament. I didn't like this scenario because it was C & C but much harder and would be almost impossible for some armies to win. Nothing against the guys running it, they were really cool and open to suggestion, but the scenarios and scoring were actually issues throughout the entire tournament and I heard a lot of complaints, but I'll get more into that after I post the last battle.
So I got the massacre and one bonus point for killing Meph. Next up, Fists of Redemption vs
IG in a
kp mission. Yay me!
