Part 3 of our 3 part series: Gamesday LA 40k RTT
So I end up drawing Greg (Inquisitor Malice) in round #3. We are both coming off of 2 massacres and so I stay on table #1, and he moves up from table #2.
Greg and my Adepticon team Captain Bill (Centurian99) know each other, and they have a bet on whose team will place higher at Adepticon ‘08. I have seen Greg around (mostly at the top tables) and although we have never played, we know each other. Also, since he is ranked in the top 5 of the GT Circuit points, I knew I was in for a tough game.
I thought this did not bode well, because Greg and Mike Mutscheller have almost the same armies. If you read Bill (Centurian99) Chi-town GT batrap, in round 3 you will read about the Stealer Shock list vs. Mike’s Chaos list. Mike made some mistakes like leaving a unit out there in no-man’s land to act like a speed bump, but Bill exploits that to hit the rest of his army. So I knew Greg read that, and I did not think he would make the same mistake. The other thing was that Mike and Darrian13 played in round #2, and Mike shredded Darrian’s Tyranids.
So I had a lot of pressure on me because if Greg beat me, he would start to plan if he wants the porterhouse, the T-bone, or the filet minion.
Game #3
<st1:city><st1:place>Mission</st1:place></st1:city>: Hold at all costs (Gain VPs equal to the scoring units within 12” of the center of the table)
Level: Gamma
Greg rolls a ‘6’ for nightfight, so it would be dusk.
His List:
Chaos Lord w/Collar of Khorne, D. Aura, D. Rune, D. Essence, D. Armor, Feel No Pain, CSM Bike, Plasma Gun, Spiky Bits, Mark of Khorne, Furious Charge, Lightning Claws, Powerfist, Kitchen Sink.
Chaos LT w/D. Essence, D. Armor, Feel No Pain, CSM Bike, Mark of Khorne, Furious Charge, Lightning Claws, Powerfist
3 Obliterators
5 CSM w/Mark of Chaos Undivided, Lascannon
5 CSM w/Mark of Chaos Undivided, Lascannon
5 CSM w/Mark of Chaos Undivided, Lascannon, Plasma gun, Infiltrate
5 CSM w/Mark of Chaos Undivided, Lascannon, Plasma gun, Infiltrate
5 Furies
5 CSM Havocs w/4 Heavy Bolters, Infiltrate, Tank Hunters
5 CSM Havocs w/3 Heavy Bolters, Autocannon, Infiltrate, Tank Hunters
So, I am up against a static, infiltrating, heavy bolter, shooting army of death, with 2 heavy hitting HQs in it. Him…this will be harder than I thought.
The set up:
He won the dice roll for table sides and chose the one with the best fields of fire of course.
Tactical aside #1: He was going to infiltrate his army, so I really did not know where to set up. We had the rock pile in the center of the board that was level 3, and if I knew where he was going to go, I could use that as cover to shield my army from most of his shooting while I advanced. But since I did not know what he was going to do, I ended up deployed on the left where there was the most cover to hide behind.
This is after he placed his infiltrators to counter my setup.
He set up a las-plas squad on the left in the forested hill with his LT behind them. Then the oblits, the Havoc squad with the heavy bolters and auto cannon with a las cannon squad behind them. Then the lord on the bike to the center-right. Behind him was the other Havoc squad with another lascannon squad behind them, and to the right in the building was a las-plas squad.
<strong style=""><em style="">Tactical Aside #2:[/i][/b]<em style=""> Since the [/i]<st1:place><em style="">Midwest[/i]</st1:place><em style=""> is tyranid central, you can tell that he has had a lot of experience fighting the bugs. Most people subconsciously grab cover, but a true veteran of the tyranid wars stands out in the open. Since the bugs have no AP shooting to speak of, your power armor is your best friend. That, and the fact that he is spread out to protect himself against barbed stranglers means he has been to the circus, and has seen the tyranid dog-and-pony show. (Compare this to the player in game #1 who was bunched up in cover). [/i]
Tactical aside #3: I had a hard decision about what to do. He had an army that was made for bug Armageddon, and he set up pretty far back with good field of fire. So, as I saw it, I could run at him full speed and be sure of a massacre result (either his or mine), or I could try a more tactical game. I knew he had a stationary army with cement shoes. The only units that he had that can move were his furies, oblits that can slowly move, and his HQs that were non-scoring units. There was no way in heck that he would even try to get close to the objective. So the other option for me was that I could just hunker down, grab some cover, and hope he would not destroy me after 5 turns of shooting and make for the objective under the cover of night.
As a general rule, your army has a game plan. The shooty armies shoot, and the assault armies assault. If you deviate from the plan, you end up in trouble. For example: The last time I tried to get fancy and try a tactical game and play for the objectives was at the Adepticon RTT with my Word Bearers against Eldar, and that was a huge mistake. I should have just demon bombed him, and hacked his scoring units to pieces, but instead I held back playing for the objectives, and I ended up losing the game.
I thought that if I tried to reach him in assault, there was a very good chance that I was going to get torn apart before I could reach him, so I would gamble and hide for 5 turns, and pray. So with the Scuttle move, I hid as best as I could.
Turn #1
I win the die roll for who goes first, and I gave it to him.
Tactical aside #4: I was taking a huge chance here by giving him the first turn because I have bugs out in the open, but it would let me move to the objective in turn #5, then be protected by night at the top of 6, and then another move on the bottom of 6. I though about this over the last couple of days, and I still do not know if I did the right thing, because if I took the first turn, I could have hid more bugs, but at the bottom of turn #5 he could have shot me as I made me move to the objective, and on turn #6 he could have shot me up while I was on the objective since it would have been close to him.
Top of turn #1
When I have to think a lot (normally because I losing), I forget to take pictures.
He does not move except to move his lord to the front of his army.
His havocs kill the squad of genestealers on the right that are trying to shoot the gap to get into cover. He picks off some genestealers that are hanging out side of cover on the left. The oblits kill 7 of the 8 spinegaunts.
Bottom of turn #1
Anything that was out of cover, I try to get behind cover. One ravener was able to get across the open field and behind the rock pile, but the second ravener rolled badly for terrain, and so I did not want to chance getting caught out in the open.
I know that the oblits are the biggest threat. They shoot heavy bolters at the genestealers, and lascannons at the big bigs, so they have to die. I shoot the big bugs at the oblits and he rolls a '1' and loses one do to the strength 10.
The zoanthrope on the left kills 2 marines on the hill with a warp blast.
I think his lord was to be bait for me to try to charge, and then he will run away, but I was not going to break formation. I did think I could kill him with shooting, so I moved up so shoot him with a zoanthrope and warp blast, and the flyrant. Boy was I in for a surprise...I did nothing to him.
Tactical aside #5: Always read our opponents list. We exchanged lists at the beginning of the game, but I did not read his. I did not know that his Lord was 280 points of butt kicking goodness. I shot the crap out of him and did nothing. (Just like Greg had planned). If I knew the load out of his DP, I would have never wasted those shots. Also reading a list can be very useful because in game #1 my opponent placed a Whirlwind down that was not on his list.
Turn #2
Top of turn #2
No picture 
I am getting close to the marines on the hill on the left. He summons his furies there, then flies behind it to hide. He then moves his marines to the center of the hill and bunches up. This is another bait unit that he wants me to charge into cover so I will fail to make it and get hung out in the open. Also note (see below) that he is not spread out in a line like Mike did and just get an end killed. If I make it to them, he wants them all to die so the can kill my genestealers from shooting in the next turn.
He moves his lord back to get ready for a counter charge if I assault with my Flyrant.
He shoots the crap out of my carnifex on the left with all of his havocs, and does a wound. His obilts shoot the canifex on the right with autocannons but I make my saves. His lord puts a wound on my Flyrant with a plasma gun. His lascannons take out the the zoanthrope in the middle.
Bottom of turn #2
I move my last spinegaunt up so that he has to take target priority checks to shoot the genestealers behind him. I move into what I call my 'bowling pin' formation where my squads form a triangle to minimize exposure to shooting. I roll badly again for difficult terrain for my ravener, and I can't make it to the rocks.
I move my Flyrant to what I thought was a perfect place to hide. It is screened by the level 3 rocks from almost all of his army, and I can start to shoot at one squad at a time and work my way down. The Flyrant kills 4 CSM that are hiding in the building, leaving one left. I shoot around at other CSM squads, but he makes his saves.
Turn #3
Top of Turn #3
Again, no picture. I guess I am so busy thinking about what I am going to do on my turn that I forget to take them after his turn.
His only movement is to move his Lord over to counter the Flyrant.
His shooting kills the zoanthrope on the left making the spinegaunt lurk for the rest of the game.
He shoots the crap out of my carnifex again, but I make all of my saves.
Bottom of turn #3
The only movement I had was to walk the ravenor over to the rocks behind the Carnifex, because he can't get there on his own with my bad terrain rolls. Seeing that the heavy bolters can't hurt the carnifex, my walking hive tyrant moves up to take some shots at the oblits.
I shoot his Lord with the Flyrant hoping to do some wounds to soften him up because I didn't buy implant attack. He ends up making about eleven 2+ saves.
I shoot the big guns at the Obilts, and I am able to kill them when he rolls all of the "1"s that his Lord didn't.
Turn #4
Finally a pic of his turn:
He moves up his Lord and moves his LT over.
All that shooting that my carnifex shrugged off for 2 turns blows away my walking Hive Tyrant.
His Lord attacks my Flyrant and I whiff, and he cuts me down with his powerfist.
Synapse is for pussys anyways.
Bottom of turn #4 
I make all my morale rolls to move.
Since my Carnifex on the left is so slow, I start to move him closer to the objective.
The carnifex on the right moves closer to the Lord and hits the Lord with all 3 shots, and he failed 2 saves. (That helped a lot). I then assaulted with the carnifex and the 2 ravenors. The Lord rolls really bad and only does one wound to a ravenor. The ravenors put one wound on the Lord, and the Carnifex hits once, and ends the Lords life.
The carnifex and a ravenor jump into the rocks for saftey, but the wounded ravenor only rolls 1" and gets stranded out in the open (Must have taken the wound on the leg).
Turn #5 
On the left side, the squad on the hill has been taking shots at the genestealers infront of them, and had killed a couple. A lascannon shot was an acceptable<em style=""> [/i] loss for the hive mind. But on turn #5 he failed his target priority test, and kill the last spinegaunt. The spinegaunts had a rough 3 games, but the earned their points and then some.
A havoc squad blows away the wounded ravenor, and he again fails to hurt the carnifex.
Bottom of turn #5 
Turn 6 will be night fight, so I move out and head for the objective under the cover of night. My carnifex in the rock pile fails it's leadership and has to lurk.
Turn #6
Top of turn #6
He shoots at the genestealers that are a scoring unit out in the open in the middle. His first havoc squad rolls 21" for visability<em style=""> [/i] and they are just out of range. The second Havoc squad rolls 24" and the closet model is just barely in range to the closest genestealer. He rolls above average, and ends up wiping out the whole squad. Rats!
Bottom of turn #6
No one goes stupid, and I move everyone that I have left onto the objective.
End Game
<strong style="">
[/b]
<strong style="">Totaling up the points. [/b]
<strong style=""> He killed [/b]
Flyrant for 196
Hive Tyrant for 145
8 Genestealers w/Carapace for 184
6 Genestealers for 114
Half of a unit of 6 genestealers for 57
8 Spinegaunts for 56
1 Ravener for 40
2 Zoanthropes for 130
He killed 922 points
<strong style="">I killed: [/b]
1 Lord for 285 points
3 Oblits for 210
Flyrant killed half a CSM squad in the building for 45 points
I killed 540 points.
Bonus points:
8 Genestealers w/Carapace 184
1 Ravener 40
1 Carnifex 148
1 Carnifex 148
Total Bonus: 520
Inquisitor Malice: 922 Points
Blackmoor: 1060
Blackmoor +138
<strong style=""> Result: Tie [/b]
If only he did not spot my genestealers....if only he would leave one alive...if only that raverner rolled higher than 1" to get into cover, if only he didn't fail that target priority test and shoot the last spinegaunt.....ARGH!!
There is only one reason for this result...Cheesy Chaos!
I can’t wait till the crying, the wailing, and gnashing of teeth that the new codex will gift us with!
All i have to say the that they are lucky there is no Cleveland Gamesday so I can fly across the country and ruin their chance at winning an
RTT!
On a serious note, Greg was a great guy. It was a challenging, great, fun game, and he earned my favorite opponent vote, and max in sports.
That is the problem with being on the top tables is that you draw the top talent and end up knocking each other out of the running for overall. Greg ended up still in 3rd place, and I ended up in 6th (darn you soft scores! You are my bane!). If only I could stick with one army long enough to get it fully painted....
