Intoxicated Centigor
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I was recently able to attend a tournament in Colorado Springs (a three hour drive from Laramie, WY where I'm from), put on by the Wrecking Crew. The Wrecking Crew is a group of very competitive gamers, who are known to bring very tough lists (lots of people have been known to call their lists broken), and I wanted to see what it was like playing in a tournament where everyone I would play against would be extremely tough competitively. I wasn't disappointed.
Going into the tournament, there were a couple double lash lists, a scary looking speed freaks ork army, skimmer eldar, an enormous mech imp guard list, and a lot of other really well-painted and competitive lists. There were about 18 people total. I brought my Blood Angels that I've had a fair bit of success with, though admittedly not against such a tough group of opponents. The two lists I didn't want to play against from the start were the fast Eldar army and the Speed Freak Orks, having already had the pleasure of playing against both players in past tournaments, I knew those games would be pretty rough if I had to play against them.
Here's the 1850 point list I brought:
HQ:
Dante
Corbulo
Troops:
5-man Assault Squad w/ Power Fist and Rhino w/ Extra Armor
5-man Assault Squad w/ Power Fist and Rhino w/ Extra Armor
5 Grey Knights
Elites:
7-man Veteran Squad w/ 3 dual Lightning Claws, 2 Melta Guns and Rhino w/ Extra Armor
8-man Veteran Squad w/ 3 Power Fists, 2 Melta Guns and Rhino w/ Extra Armor
7- man Death Company
Fast Attack:
3 Attack Bikes w/ Multi-meltas
1 Attack Bike w/ Multi-melta
1 Attack Bike w/ Multi-melta
We did players choice first, which was sort of cool, since that got the display board out of the way from the beginning. After that, it was time for our matchups.
Game 1: Blood Angels vs. Mike Haspil's Space Marines w/ Allied Grey Knights
His list:
Pedro Kantor
Librarian w/ The Avenger & Gate of Infinity
Ironclad Dreadnought w/ Drop Pod
Terminator Assault Squad w/ 3 TH/SS and 2 Lightning Claws
6 Grey Knight Allies
10 Tactical Marines w/ Missile Launcher, melta, and Power Weapon, Razorback
10 Tactical Marines w/ Missile Launcher, melta, and Power Weapon, Razorback
Vindicator
Vindicator
Land Raider (the original one, with Las Cannon Sponsons)
The Mission: Annihilation
Primary: Kill Points
Secondary: Win by more than 250 Victory Points
Tertiary: Eliminate opponent's Troop choices, including dedicated transports
The deployment was standard 12" deployment, and he allowed me to go first, though with his low range firepower, I'd have preferred to go 2nd.
The terrain on this table was strange, and I honestly think some of it was fish tank paraphanalia. There were plants and little sea urchin things all over the place, as well as rock formations scattered everywhere. There wasn't anywhere on the table that had more terrain than the other, and neither side offered an advantage for me, so I chose the side opposite the one my opponent was already behind. No need to make things uncomfortable, eh?
I deployed everything near the middle, and off to one side, between terrain. My two veteran rhinos I stacked on the right, with the Power Fist Vet squad up more. The two assault squad rhinos I put next to the other two rhinos, just to the left, and left the rear one empty, choosing instead to let one assault squad foot slog, with the intention of putting my Grey Knights in the rhino at the start of turn one (I did this in every subsequent game, so if I don't mention it, just assume thats what I did). Death company with Dante I put behind the rhinos (Dante, likewise, always started with Death Company), and the 3-man attack bike squad I put on the far left flank. The other two single attack bikes I deployed to the right, to make my opponent unsure where to put his vindicators. Corbulo went into one of the veteran rhinos.
He then deployed, choosing to keep the termies in reserve. The land raider was in the very center, with the vindicators about 8" from either side. The tactical squads he hid to my far right corner, staring out with their missile launchers, ready to snipe my attack bikes. The razorbacks he put on the far flanks. Pedro and the Librarian and the Grey Knights all went into the Land Raider. It was gonna be tough to get kill points from this list. He tried to steal the initiative and failed.
Turn 1: Blood Angels
I turbo-boosted my 3-man attack bike squad on the left, toward his left vindicator, and also turbo-boosted one of my attack bikes toward his land raider so he'd have to deal with it if he didn't want to lose his land raider. My other attack bike I just moved 12" toward his rightmost vindicator to try to get a side armor shot on it. The rest of my army surged forward, the front two rhinos popping smoke afterwards.
Shooting saw my melta bike in range of the side armor of his Vindicator. If I could get rid of one now, it would REALLY help the rest of the game. I roll to shoot and... miss. His turn.
Turn 1: Space Marines
His drop podding ironclad came in directly to the left of my rhino formation, excited to melta me. For movement, the marines basically stayed where they were, with the exception of the vindicators shuffling around a bit for a good shot.
Shooting saw him kill the single turbo-boosting attack bike near his land raider with a missile launcher, and the Ironclad fragged the assault squad rhino he was shooting at, despite my smoke launchers. Otherwise, he stunned my top right veteran rhino and blew its weapon off, and that was it. I made a fair number of saves, though he had the edge in kill points already.
Kill point tally:
Blood Angels: 0
Space Marines: 2
Turn 2: Blood Angels
I needed to get rid of the vindicators, and pronto. But I also had an ironclad right there, ready to charge my foot-slogging marines, so I needed to do something about that as well. So, I moved my single attack bike toward his vindicator on the right, and my 3-man attack bike squad toward his vindicator on the left. I moved death company toward the dreadnought, disembarked my power fist veteran squad, and got my lightning claw veterans into close melta range of the ironclad. The two assault squads readied to assault with power fists if need be.
Shooting saw both the ironclad AND the drop pod go down in a flurry of melta shots. On the left, the 3-man melta bike squad was able to explode their vindicator, but the lone melta bike on the right was only able to stun his, making him an extremely easy kill point next turn. No assaults, his turn!
Turn 2: Space Marines
His Termies rolled a 4 to come in, and he opted to deep strike them just outside of easy charge range of my rhinos. I'd have to deal with them next turn or there'd be hell to pay. His land raider moved toward my big assault bike squad and disembarked everyone, well within charge range. ut oh. One of his tactical squads moved up a bit closer to me for some reason, and his vindicator stayed where it was. Time for some pain.
He missed with his missile shot against my lone attack bike, and there was hope for me (I thought) when he shot a razorback's heavy bolter at me, caused 2 wounds, and I managed to fail both of them. Bad day to be an attack bike, apparently.
Shooting having done nothing conclusive to my rhinos or troops, he charged Pedro and his whole squad at the 3 attack bikes, ending their sad existence rather easily. Bad day for attack bikes indeed. And even worse, there was absolutely nothing I could do next turn.
Kill point tally:
Blood Angels: 3
Space Marines: 4
Turn 3: Blood Angels
Well, I had nothing much to do, really. I needed to be mindful of the terminators on my right flank, and stay out of vindicator range. I also needed to try to get to his tactical squads, for the tertiary objective. So, I embarked everyone back into their rhinos, and moved forward, and toward the terminators, slightly. My power fist vet squad I moved the full 12" toward his tactical squads, turning it on it's side to provide cover to the various foot-sloggers. I kept the death company near the center, and behind rhinos, so as to stay behind cover and stay out of charge range of the termies. I had absolutely nothing to shoot, so I popped smoke on my two rhinos that had smoke, and it was his turn.
Turn 3: Space Marines
He moved his termies toward my closest rhino hungrily. His vindicator shifted slightly, and lined up a shot at the death company, who would get a cover save. Pedro's squad stood still, prepping an orbital bombardment.
His shooting phase came and went, with his orbital bombardment and vindicator killing 3 death company, and a missile launcher immobilizing my powerfist veteran rhino, which was poised to be able to charge his nearest tactical squad next turn.
Terminators assaulted one of my rhinos, and stunned it, since it was so hard to hit (I had moved over 6").
Kill point tally:
Blood Angels: 3
Space Marines: 4
Turn 4: Blood Angels
It was make it or break it time for me. My fist veterans moved closer to the tactical squad, Dante detached from the death company and joined an assault squad who had been running alongside death company, so as to provide his bubble of preferred enemy to both of the soon-to-be assaults. Death company, my grey knights, my lightning claw vets, and an assault squad all gathered around the terminators, determined to wipe them out in one turn if at all possible.
Shooting was fairly uneventful, as the fist veterans were too far to want to kill any of his tactical marines (for fear of him allocating the wounds to marines that were in the front, preventing a charge), and a flurry of bolt pistol shots killed two of the terminators, one lightning claw, one storm sheild.
Assault happened, and was fast and brutal. The tactical squad was wiped out to a man after inflicting zero casualties to my veteran squad. The terminators met the same fate, and I consolidated towards the rest of his lines.
Turn 4: Space Marines
He was desparate, needing something to happen, and knowing that he would lose the game if he didn't try something drastic. So he used the gate of infinity on his grey knights/Pedro/Librarian squad, sending them on a risky deep strike close to the heart of my lines. He got a 'hit' result on the scatter, and prepped to give me everything he had. His remaining tactical squad moved up and shot the crap out of my veteran squad, which in the end only had 2 marines left (a melta and powerfist).
His shooting was a little above average, but my saving was also far above average, and when the smoke cleared I still had 3 of my original 5 grey knights alive (Corbulo is a Gem, since he can ignore one failed save). He shot more at the rhinos, and I was fortunate enough to survive the flurry of shots yet again. My veterans passed their moral test and it was my turn.
Kill point tally:
Blood Angels: 5
Space Marines: 4
Turn 5: Blood Angels
I moved everyone close to Pedro's squad of death, except for my two remaining fist veterans, who I moved close to his veterans. I shot everything I had into the grey knights, and was able to kill all but a couple of them. The melta did nothing to his vindicator, and it was time to charge.
In the ensuing combats, Pedro, the librarian, and all the grey knights were killed before they could strike, and the fist veterans destroyed his last vindicator.
Turn 5: Space Marines
He shot everything he had left (his land raider, a tactical squad, and two razorbacks) into my fist veteran squad, and killed them.
We rolled a 2 to see if the game went on, and just like that, it was over.
Final Kill point tally:
Blood Angels: 9
Space Marines: 5
Result: 37-2 victory for the Blood Angels!
In the end, I rolled pretty well, and he rolled average to poorly. I'm not sure that was the ONLY reason I won, but it certainly didn't hurt. He was a really nice guy, and even told me he voted for me on players choice. His army was really well painted as well, and ironically enough, I had voted on his army for players choice.
Other results in the tournament came in: the speed freaks army had gotten an impressive 48/48 battle points for the first mission, and one of the lash lists and the fast eldar list had also gotten 37 points. I was in for a tough next game, no matter how you looked at it.
Game 2: Blood Angels vs. Kenny Boucher's Ork Speed Freaks
When he announced my name at the 'head' table, I let out an audible groan. Kenny and I had played one other game a few tournaments prior, in which he had trounced my poor blood angels with his Deathguard army, so it was somewhat of a grudge match for me. I needed to win this game to keep him from running away with the tournament. If I only tied him, I felt that his list had what it took to max out his other games, better than I could, certainly). It was gonna be a rough game.
His list (from memory, since he didn't have a copy of the list I could hold on to):
Ghazkull
Wazdakka
15ish Ork Bikers (NOT nobs, thank Jesus)
6 Deffkoptas (all what he liked to call 'complex', meaning they all had different armaments) all w/ buzzsaws (the powerfist things)
12-boy slugga squad in trukk w/ fist
12-boy slugga squad in trukk w/ fist
12-boy 'ard boyz squad in trukk w/ fist
4 Mega-nobz, in trukk w/ Ghazkull
He had a fair number of boyz, and the buzzsaw deffkoptas were very scary. Frankly, I didn't want to deal with his list. It's super fast, with a lot of shooty, combined with a LOT of attacks, a TON of which are power weapons. He had tabled his other opponent, and I had to be very careful.
The mission:
Primary: It was a weird sort of mission. We would play 'kill eachother' until turn 4, when we rolled a dice. On a 1-2, the objective was to claim table quarters. On a 3-4 it was to seize ground, and every terrain element was an objective. On a 5-6 it was whoever has the most scoring units FULLY within 12" of the center of the table (not possible to be contested). If we didn't get to turn 4, we both lost. The mission went a minimum of 6 turns, with a possible 7th.
Secondary: Score 500 more victory points than your opponent
Tertiary: Eliminate all of the opponent's HQ choices.
I hate objective claiming missions vs. orks. It's always pretty tough, because usually their entire army is scoring. But, gripes aside, thats how the mission read, and I had to play it.
We rolled for deployment, and I won. I chose to go second. Deployment was dawn of war.
He deployed one squad of boyz in a trukk near the center, and I opted to keep everything until it came in on turn 1. I didn't try to steal the initiative, and it was his turn.
Turn 1: Orks
He turbo-boosted everything onto the field. He kept the bikers in a really long congo-line in front of the rest of his forces, with the trukks behind the right side of the line and his koptas to the left side. Not much else but the movement.
Turn 1: Blood Angels
I moved everything onto the table. I castled everything to the right side of the board, with Dante and the death company to the right, and the 3-man attack bike squad to the far right flank. On the left, I put my other two attack bikes, and my two assault squads. The veterans formed up in the center. I took a few potshots with my attack bikes, and he made his cover saves. Popping smoke, I let him go.
Turn 2: Orks
He moved everything their full distance without turbo-boosting, basically staying in a straight line again with his bikers in the front, the only change being his koptas who moved to my left outside flank. The trukks stayed castled behind the bikers. Wazdakka stayed behind the line as well, still part of the squad, but sort of far back. The bikers shot everything they had at my 3-man squad of bikes, causing 3 wounds.
The deff koptas dual-charged my two attack bikes on my left flank, killing them both. Sad state of affairs, I say. At least now it's my turn.
Turn 2: Blood Angels
The ork army was for sure going to get their charges next turn, there was no doubt. I knew the bikers were going to be extremely hard-hitting, especially accompanied by Wazdakka. But I had an idea on how to deal with them, and I had the perfect squad to try it with. I detatched Dante from the Death Company, debarking another assault squad so that Dante could join them as a unit. The Death Company I moved close to the Biker Squad. My remaining 3 attack bikes moved up the right flank, drawing a bead on Ghazkull's trukk. The rhinos all shifted slightly, making sure to move more than 6" so it would be hard to wreck them if he tried to Power Klaw me.
I didn't have a ton of shooting. I took a couple potshots at the deffkoptas, and I think they saved them all. The attack bikes all shot and finally wrecked Ghazkull's trukk (the trukk I'd been trying to wreck since last turn). Death Company didn't dare shoot at all for fear of him taking models out of charge range.
Now it was time to see if my plan would work: I could charge the bikers without Wazdakka being in range to strike back. If I did that, the rest of his bikes were spread out enough that a lot of them wouldn't get their attacks back either. If I could cause enough wounds with death company and take very few in return, I could cause a leadership check on a VERY low number and force Wazdakka and crew to run off the board.
So I charged, and sure enough, I killed 9 and he was only able to kill 3 in return (gotta love feel no pain!). He took two moral checks, and though I somehow flubbed the initiative check, he was still below half and Wazdakka never got to do anything. Just like that, an enormous threat to me evaporated, and for the price of 3 Death Company. Even if they lost horribly in the next combat, they for sure did their part in this battle!
Turn 3: Orks
Kenny was none too pleased about Wazdakka being forced to flee with his squad, never to rejoin combat. He thought I had gotten lucky, but he wasn't about to roll over and die. His deffkoptas moved toward Dante's assault squad, and his trukks zoomed forward, toward my rhinos. One trukk decided to go pick on my attack bikes on the right (he disembarked his full squad) and Ghazkull's squad trudged their way toward the Death Company. haha, dangit!
He didn't have a whole lot of shooting. He called the waaagh so as to get Ghaz up to my death company for sure, and shot 2 of my assault marines from Dante's squad with his Deff Koptas. Then he charged.
It turned out he had boarding planks on his trukks, and he ended up exploding my power fist veteran rhino with them, despite my over 6" of movement. Wow, didn't see that one coming! Ghazkull and co. annihilated my poor Death Company, and consolidated backwards to stay out of range. His Deffkoptas charged Dante's squad, though the way I had positioned my rhinos, he was only able to get a couple into base to base, and had to dual-charge into a rhino as well. I had actually wanted this, so he wouldn't get as many strikes against Dante, and so I could force a leadership check on them. Dante caused a single wound, and the squad caused 3 more (gotta love powerfists!) and his deffkoptas (who didn't target Dante at all) caused 3 (only because there were only 3 in the squad, he would have caused like 10!). I won combat by one, and he failed his leadership check! I won the initiative roll, and just like that, his complex unit of koptas evaporated as well! As a side note, my attack bikes on the right hand side whiffed everything and died horribly to his PK nob.
Turn 3: Blood Angels
I needed to get his orks out of their trukks, is what I needed to do. So everyone disembarked and shot a ton of meltas and bolt pistol shots, and did... absolutely nothing to them. Charging also did nothing, and I had wasted an entire turn!
Turn 4: Orks
It was time to roll to see what objectives we had to claim! We rolled for table quarters, so Kenny flat-out moved his two trukks to claim table quarters. The boyz who had killed the bikes a turn earlier turned around and ran upward into the top right deployment. Ghaz moved toward my fist veteran squad, and was able to charge it, wiping it out, and through some reasonably sad rolling, I was only able to inflict 3 insta-deaths on the mega-nobs and 1 wound to Ghaz before they died. Nothing else to do. It's my turn.
Turn 4: Blood Angels
Well, I needed to kill Ghaz first and foremost, but also keep my two remaining troop squad alive and mobile. I kept my assault squad in the lower right table quarter, and had my grey knights get into a rhino and zoom into the lower left quarter, so as to hold/contest it with Kenny's 'ard boyz. Corbulo, the claw veterans, and Dante all converged on Ghaz.
I had joined Dante to the claw veteran squad, so I could shoot meltas at the squad and force him to allocate one melta wound onto the lone nob left with Ghaz. I wanted all my attacks to be on Ghazkull himself. So I shot them up, putting a wound on Ghaz and killing the nob.
In assault I killed Ghaz before he could strike back. Whew! Consolidate toward the center of the table!
Turn 5: Orks
Kenny moved his orks more deeply into their quarters. The ard boyz in the lower left corner he moved into a rock formation close to the center of the table, leaving his trukk to keep my rhinos out of his top left quarter. He moved another squad of boyz to his upper left quarter, also dropping off his trukk to keep me out of the quarter.
No charges or shooting, my turn.
Turn 5: Blood Angels
I moved my assault squad toward his 'ard boyz, and had Dante join the squad. The veterans also moved toward the center. The grey knights all disembarked and readied to charge his 'ard boyz trukk. Their rhino moved upwards to contest his upper left, and another stray rhino moved upward to contest his upper right.
Dante shoots and wrecks one of his trukks blockading me from his upper left corner.
Not much else to do but charge, and I wrecked the trukk with the Grey Knights. He's down to 2 boyz squads, 1 'ard boyz squad, and 1 trukk (which is way up in a quarter, unable to do anything next turn, in all liklihood.
Turn 6: Orks
Potentially his last turn, he has to do something, or I'll probably end up winning. So he charges his 'ard boyz into my assault squad with Dante. He ends up killing all of them but Dante, but combat is a push, and now my veterans can wade into them.
Turn 6: Blood Angels
The veterans wipe out his 'ard boyz to a man, and my rhinos all move into his table quarters.
We roll: the game is over!
He has a squad of boyz in the top two quarters, I have one scoring unit uncontested in the lower left quarter (the grey knights), and my rhino in the top right is contesting his quarter. So it's time to measure for the other rhino, who is VERY close to the top left quarter. It's in, by about an inch or so, but clearly not fully within the quarter.
I personally think thats it's pretty clear that I'm contesting the quarter, since I can choose which quarter I want to be in. But Kenny says that we have to roll to determine which quarter I'm in. So we call a judge, and he rules in my favor... at first. After a while of Kenny telling him that he's wrong because the rules are ambiguous (Kenny being the judge's older brother) the judge decides to dice it off, and I win the dice roll anyways. Still, I don't really think there should have been a dice roll. Tough to deal with older brothers sometimes I guess.
I won by over 500 victory points vs. Kenny as well, and was able to kill all of his HQ, so I claimed all three objectives!
Result: 46-0 Victory for the Blood Angels!
Apparently the other Blood Angel guy had been doing well, and I was the lucky one to get to play him.
Game 3: Blood Angels vs. Steve's Blood Angels
His list:
Dante
Corbulo
10 Tactical marines w/ las cannon, melta gun, power fist, rhino
10 Tactical marines w/ las cannon, melta gun, power fist, rhino
10 Assault marines w/ 2 plasma pistols, power fist
5 Death Company w/ rhino
10 Veterans w/ 3 power fists and 2 meltas, jump packs
Land Raider Crusader
Multi-melta attack bike
It was a very close match to my list, and going into it, I was excited to play another Blood Angels player.
However, I'm sorry to say, I'm not going to write a report on this battle. It wasn't really a game, as much as a very frustrating 2 hours. There was no part of the game that I enjoyed, and it was in fact the LEAST favorite game I've ever played (and I've played a LOT of 40k).
The guy was friendly enough off the table, but once we got onto the table, he was sort of a nightmare to deal with. After I had deployed, he came around the table and checked (without asking) to make sure I was fully within 12" and hadn't cheated or gotten an extra centimeter or something.
The entire game, when I disagreed with a rule with him, instead of talking about it, he would just proceed to roll, or move his guys, and tell me he was right. When a judge was called at the end of the game to determine an objective that I felt he had moved his troops wrong, he lied to the judge. Every time he would roll badly (or when his dice went off the table), he would LOUDLY curse. At one point in time he rolled a one for a melta shot and grabbed the dice, rerolling it, saying 'it was going off the table'. And perhaps I could deal with all of this, except on his last turn, it was clear that it would either be a tie or a win for me, depending on if we got another turn or not, and he literally took 45 minutes to take his turn, forcing a tie for me.
Except then he moved his guys too far, and then lied to the judge (loudly), contesting my objective, and winning. I'll never play this guy again, regardless of if it's the last game of a tournament and I could win the whole thing. It was least enjoyable game I've every played, and no amount of prize support or prestige is worth playing against him again.
Result: 13-7 loss for MY Blood Angels
Now, the third mission was a VERY hard mission to get points in, and nobody really scored over 20 (out of a possible 48), so I was still potentially in it. I just needed to do really well in my last game.
Game 4: Blood Angels vs. Chad Nelson's 'Complete and total anOrky'
By this point, I was pretty mentally exhausted. I probably didn't mention it before, but I hadn't slept the night before, trying to get my army ready for the tournament, and even when I did lay down to sleep for a few hours, my mind was going too fast to be able to sleep. After a full day of driving and wargaming against extremely difficult opponents, I felt like I was running on empty.
And then they paired me up with Chad. I really like Chad. He's from the gaming club in Fort Collins, and in the past 2 'finals' that I've played in where he was in the same tournament, we've played together. He's a nice guy, and I was really grateful to have an opponent I could 'relax' around. He's a tough player, though, and despite the fact that I've beat him the two times I've played against him, it was always very close and it could be argued that I got lucky in both games.
His list:
Warboss w/ all the good stuff
Big Mek w/ KFF
14 Kommandos+ Snikrot (I think 2 or 3 burnaboyz with them)
10 Lootas
20 Boyz w/ PK nob
20 Boyz w/ PK nob
20 Boyz w/ PK nob
12 Boyz w/ PK nob in Trukk
11 Boyz w// PK nob in Trukk
11 Boyz w/ PK nob in Trukk
2 Killa Kanz
2 Killa Kanz
2 Killa Kanz
There were a LOT of models to kill. His army always intimidates me when we play, because the whole army gets a cover save due to the KFF and even if you kill half his army, he still has SO MUCH MORE to send. The kanz I needed to get rid of early, because they would just lock me in an unwinnable combat, and hold me til the boyz arrived.
The mission: Wreck the Crew
At the start of the game, we both had to nominate which unit was our 'Wrecking Crew'. It was the unit that was worth most points. We weren't allowed to add independant characters to that squad. It came into play in the Tertiary objective. My wrecking crew was my PF Veteran Squad, and his were his Kommandos.
Primary: Control Table Quarters. Your opponent's deployment zone (deployment was spearhead) was worth 10, the other two that weren't your deployment zone were worth 5 each, and your own was worth zero. The twist: only scoring units could contest/control table quarters.
Secondary: Control your own deployment quarter.
Tertiary: Wreck the opponents crew, not counting dedicated transports.
We rolled to see who went first and... I got to! I'd have rather gone 2nd, but blah.. whatever.
The terrain was pretty open, and the only thing that really came into play was a big rock formation in the center that you could walk a fair number of troops into. It didn't really block line of sight to anything.
I deployed my guys in a pretty tight formation about 16" from the center. I kept the two veteran squads and Dante on the left, and the 3 troop squads to the right. I was hoping to lure him over to my 'wrecking crew' on the left, leaving the right uncontested, so that my troops could sneak in and either flank him or take the far two objectives.
He deployed his troops like the other times I've played him, with the 3 squads of kanz in front of the rest of the army, the big mek in the very center with the trukks, and the big boyz squads all spread out to the left, center, and right. The lootas he deployed as close to my 'crew' as possible, in the top left corner of his deployment zone.
He tried to steal the initiative, and failed.
Turn 1: Blood Angels
I didn't have a lot to do, really. I moved my two veteran rhinos forward, and the death company behind them. The 3 melta bikes on the right side turbo-boosted farther toward the lower right quarter, hoping to get a bead on some kanz next turn.
The other two melta bikes on my left moved their full 12" and shot at his leftmost kanz, taking the weapon off of one.
Turn 1: Orks
He surged forward. One of his big boyz units decided to head toward the lower right objective. I didn't want that at all.
His lootas shot at and stunned my 'crew' rhino, and then it was my turn again!
Turn 2: Blood Angels
He had moved his leftmost squad of boyz close enough to my lightning claw vets rhino for me to be able to charge, so I disembarked and moved really close to them. His kanz had had a terrible run move and the boyz a good one, so the kanz were a little farther back. I'd have preferred to have killed a few first before they charged me. Death company w/ Dante stayed in the background, ready to counter-charge. Nobody else really moved, besides the 3 bikes at the bottom, who moved closer to the center and shot at a few kanz, killing one from the center squad.
The charging veterans did their job well, and wiped the squad of 20 boyz out to a man, before they got to strike back. Lightning claws + preferred enemy FTW! That was it. Time for the turn of pain.
Turn 2: Orks
His Kommandos came in, and decided to come in right behind Dante and the Death Company. An ork trukk with all boyz surged forward and disembarked, preparing to assault my two lone attack bikes. All the other boyz also moved forward, ready to rape and pillage my poor claw veteran squad. The center kan moved toward my attack bike, and the rightmost squad of boyz also moved toward them.
Not much shooting, since he called the waagh this turn, I think the lootas tried to kill a rhino again and failed.
His charge was massive. Kommandos into the Death Company ended in disaster for him, since Death Company go first and have feel no pain, The kommandos didn't quite break, but they were reduced to a few models, and only killed 3 Death Company in the process. The trukk squad annihilated the two poor attack bikes (after losing 3 boyz! go bikes!) on the upper right, and in the lower right, the boyz + kan assaulted my bikes and... somehow only killed 1.5 bikes! The nob hadn't been in range to strike though, and neither were most of the boyz squad. The Kan whiffed and only hit once. Good result for the bikes, since they also caused 3 wounds, it was a push! The big combat against my lightning claws ended well for me as well, since they still had preferred enemy, the claws killed a LOT of boyz, and the end result was that the orks lost, with 3 claws and 1 melta veteran still on the table. The boyz stayed in the battle though, and I was unable to do anything to the kanz. Whew, survived that one reasonably well!
Turn 3: Blood Angels
Well, I needed to take care of the rightmost boyz squad, though it was risky, because the only units in range to charge them were my 3 troop squads, and they were out of the furious charge + preferred enemy bonuses conferred by Dante and Corbulo. If they died, I couldn't win or even tie the game! Still, I needed to get the charge and get rid of that squad. So I disembarked them all, and set them up to charge. The fist veterans got ready to fist the remaining orks and killa kanz in the left side combat.
I didn't have anything to shoot, since I kept the rhinos moving over 6".
The combat on the left with the kanz and a few boyz went as expected: I wiped them out to a man, except, surprisingly, for the kanz, one of which stayed alive, but without his combat arm. The death company were also able to wipe the rest of the kommandos out (tertiary: complete!) and in the right hand combat, my troop choices performed admirably, and killing the remaining orks, but not the killa kan. They in turn killed my two remaining bikes. I consolidated into combat with the kan.
Whew! All three big boyz squads are wiped out as well as the kommandos, with minimal casualties! He still has all of his lootas, 3 trukks of boyz, 2 kanz, and his two HQ though, and ALL my squads are vulnerable to counterassault. It's not over yet!
Turn 3: Orks
He decides to try to wipe out my crew, and moves his warboss toward them, though he's going to have to wait another turn to finally kill them. He also moved one of his trukks to the right, towards my troops fighting his killa kan. He embarks his 12-boy squad that had killed the bikes into his trukk again, and zooms off in hopes of holding or contesting an objective.
He doesn't have much shooting, so he charges his two remaining kanz into combat with my two veteran squads. The vets perform admirably, even killing a kan with a krak grenade. I end up killing 2 kanz, with my claw vet squad down to two claws and a melta gun left. My troops in the right combat kill the kan, and consolidate, one to the lower right corner to contest, one to my quarter to hold, and one to the upper right to (surprisingly) hold his quarter.
Turn 4: Blood Angels
I move my troops farther toward their quarters, and Death Company decides to stay back once again, to countercharge the warboss.
No real shooting, and my veterans finally pulp the last kan, and prepare to take the charge from the warboss.
Turn 4: Orks
His 12-boy trukk squad moves again, and stays in the upper left quarter, since he wont be able to make it fully into my quarter. His 11-boy trukk squad moves again, but stays in the lower right table quarter. The warboss and his squad take great pains to make sure they can't charge my lightning claw squad.
The lootas open up on my fist veteran squad, and kill all but 2 fists. Very poor saving rolls for me, lol. The warboss then proceeds to charge and tear the remaining 2 to shreds, after I choose to use normal attacks instead of fist attacks, and kill 2 orks.
And... our time was up. We thought maybe we'd have time for one more turn, but we decided that in the end there wouldn't be too different of a result.
I held his quarter and my quarter, we contested the lower right quarter, and he held the upper left one. We had both killed eachother's crews (something we could both accomplish), and I controlled my quarter for the secondary.
Result: 35-15 win for the Blood Angels!
Whew! It was finally over! And with a result that I liked a lot, actually. I wasn't sure how I had done overall, but I was just glad it was over.
They finally proclaimed the winner: The Eldar player had squeaked into best overall, and I got Best General. I asked how close it had been to best overall, and they said that in the end it was my sportsmanship scores that had screwed me. Both Kenny and Steve docked me bigtime on them, and made the tournament unwinnable. I was a little disappointed in the result, but best general is still the 2nd most prestigous prize, and I was able to buy some firewarriors for my up and coming Tau army, so I was overall content. Mostly, I was just glad it was over.
They said they're having another one in roughly 6 months. I'm not sure if I want to go to it or not, though. It's fun to play against good players, and there were those in abundance this tournament, but I discovered another thing: playing against people wo want to win that bad is hard for me to do. I like to win as much as the next guy, but when it gets in the way of having fun, and having a relaxing weekend of rolling dice, I'm not sure I'm up for it.
5.5 hour drive back home (there were two huge wrecks late at night on the interstate, apparently) and I fell asleep instantly and dreamed about killing orks...
How did I do? Let me know, please! I'm happy to answer your questions! Also, I've written enough battle reports that I think it warrants a separate page giving links to the others. Watch for that in my signature in the near future!
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-5000 pts
-2500 pts
22-3(Local) GT Circuit 2-0-1
54-8-4 (local) 5-1 Ard Boyz
