Water-Caste Negotiator
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My mate David and I went to the the GT this weekend just gone; his first and my second GT season with just a handful of 5th ed games under our belts, mostly vs each other:
My list:
autarch Doujan (aka Yuriel)
farseer Visariya (fortune)
8 warlocks (embolden, enhance)
serpent (ss, t-l sc)
6 fire dragons (ex, dbf, crackshot)
serpent (ss, t-l sc)
5 fire dragons
serpent (ss, t-l sc)
10 dire avengers (ex, bladestorm)
serpent (ss, t-l sc)
10 dire avengers (ex, bladestorm)
serpent (ss, t-l sc)
1497 points
The refs were good to me by clarifying my farseer can cast fortune whilst in the serpent. I presented an argument to the head judge Saturday morning and he agreed with me that the house rules were obsolete. Hopefully they will update the FAQ/rules for fellow Eldar players as I had to get the head judge over to confirm in three games I think it was. Apparently feed back from UK GTs is passed to the game designers.
Game 1 (table 37?) vs all infiltrating/flanking foot marines (4th ed codex only at heat 1)/2 objectives Dow
Thought I was in trouble vs a librarian plus 12x missile launching devs but the mission really helped me out Yuriel managed to kill the librarian early then went on a rampage taking out a scout squad then using his eye to gut a tactical squad. Managed to tank shock three dev squads off the back of the board with the same wave serpent. Nice bloke who had awful dice on the tank shock leaderships and a mission which kind of shafted him. 2-0 objectives/900 vps difference to me. Swampy was a pleasure to play against and was a chatty soul too!
Game 2 (table 11) vs dual foot council/3 wraithlord/2 objectives Pitched battle?
Played Rich (I think!?) from Mertha Tydfil really nice fella, had a few chats with him and his Dad over the weekend. His crowd broke out Space Hulk in Bugman’s on Saturday which was quality.
Thought if I could split his army I might have a chance. He only had 2x3 bikes and 8x pathfinders for troops who were quite vulnerable. However he had all the runes on his two farseers and I didn't so wasn't getting fortune often. Great game had to really think hard, avengers managed to double bladestorm and gut a council, Yuriel took out some pathfinders and a wraithlord. Tight game with his council knocking two serpents out of the sky. 1-1/400 vps difference to me?
Game 3 (table 15) vs dual lash/3 plague marine/vindi/3 oblits chaos
3 objectives DoW
Was dreading playing this army and things went bad from the start with the council's serpent coming down and I stupidly didn't move them out of lash range. They were immense though taking four turns in the end to kill despite taking the full force of his fire power and two daemon prince charges. My farseer survived two rounds of combat with the princes despite no fortune. I went for the 5th turn land grab once the council had been gutted and it nearly came off except he had last turn and managed to take down a serpent leaving the score 1-1 so another draw which I would have taken at the start so was happy-ish. 1-1/300ish vps to opponent. Chris was a pleasant chap
Game 4 vs Eldar (table 25?), annihilation, dawn of war maybe?
Played a really cool Spanish guy after having to swap with Chris, my game 3 opponent. The match up couldn’t have been much worse for Gulio(sp?) as he had Eldrad, fortune-seer, small destructor council, 2x3 walkers (dual shuris/dual scatters), 5 man harlequins w/seer, a couple of min DA squads and two min. pathfinders plus holo-falcon. Basically not much which could pen my skimmers.
I was pretty tired and I made a mistake which made the game much closer than it should have been but it was straight forward enough in the end. Blat the council forward into his walkers and managed to catch the falcon too in assault. Man I hate holofields, as an ex ‘user’ I can really appreciate the frustration they must have caused in 4th. Seven pens from the council and only took it down on the last dice roll and that’s attacking rear armour with the new skimmer damage table! He wisely kept his min squads away from me so he had two dire avengers and a pathfinder unit left whilst he had killed Yuriel, fire dragons and both dire avenger squads.
The DAs died because for some reason I thought that if I charge my council into the falcon and then his council bailed out they could double bladestorm them. Obviously it had escaped me that assault happens after shooting…I blame a bad nights sleep and a dodgy stomach from the continental beer the night before. So both DAs met a sticky end to a double destructor in the face and a harlequin charge. 8-4 in the end. Nice guy and a pleasant game. I also found out that two independent characters can form a “super-unit” which is pretty cool!
Game 5 vs Orks (tables 14?), 5 objectives, spearhead I think (I don’t tend to pay much attention to set up as most games I start everything in reserve)
Again I got paired with Chris from game 3 and I had to swap and play AndyG a mate from 1st co. vets. We didn’t really want to play each other as we can play any time on a Thursday night plus Andy was through with a painting nomination and didn’t want to hamper my chances of going through as I needed at least one more win.
This looked bleak for me. Andy has a beautiful painted army with a fantastic converted battlewagon, his army is well balanced and he really knows his stuff. We’ve played about four times before and I’ve not beaten him yet so I wasn’t brimming with confidence, add onto that the fact Andy has uncommonly good shooting for an ork general. Add five objectives into the mix with his six scoring units and my two and it looked even more bleak.
I got the council stuck in early and they chewed through half of Andy’s orks but I made a really bad tactical decision splitting my forces to threaten all the objectives and keep the majority of my skimmers away from the looters. It wasn’t needed and if I’d kept everything on the flank with the council I may have done better in the game.
Andy played a faultless game, his looters were on form blasting two serpents down including the council’s turn two. I didn’t really get anything out of the serpents until very late and turn five I held one objective to Andy’s three with one contested and I desperately needed a turn six.
We got it and I managed to contest another two objectives for a draw. Moment of the game was turn five a serpent ramming a truck, blowing it up, it kareened(sp?) but stayed on the objective, my serpent also blew up killing two dragons inside. Three dragons got out passed the pin check. Next turn they hiked through the dangerous truck wreckage and two died. The last one fleeted further through the truck wreckage to get within three inches of the objective and passed my fourth dangerous terrain check! Should also mention Andy’s 40 point grot unit made its points back killing two warlocks with shooting, ha! Quality game, felt as though I’d robbed Andy of a win with a last turn land grab again but when you play a mobile army it’s the risk you run if there are still units left at the end. 1-1, Andy won by several hundred vps though.
Game 6 and I definitely needed a win on table 25 again. I sidled up and surprise, surprise there was Chris from game 3, 4 and 5 again so we swapped and I ended up playing Mike with a fluffy plague marines army which had beaten my mate first game of the day. He had 2x 6 PMs w/dual plas and fist, 1x 5 PMs w/dual plas and fist all in rhinos, landraider plus termi lord with claws plus three termis with claws, a 5 strong squad of daemons and a single oblit. I’d chatted earlier with this guy and he admitted it wasn’t a particularly strong chaos list but he enjoyed using it plus it was compact and tough.
The mission came up as annihilation again which I was quite pleased with as objectives with only two troops can make you work hard.
I had a plan to get the rhinos down early to keep me up on KPs and only expose the council to return fire and charges. The council were unbelievably immense, Yuriel in particular, they charged in and destroyed two rhinos. Then got blasted by shooting and took a charge from the lord, daemons and a PM squad. Saw them all off and the termis over three turns then chased after the landraider but failing to take it out with 26 S9 attacks, doh!
A dragon squad killed the oblit and the avengers did a couple of double bladestorms on the remaining PMs helped by the dragons. Mike was a fantastic opponent and he took it well losing his last game which would have seen him through to his first final. He had a landraider left whilst I’d lost just the 5 elf dragons and a t-l shuriken off a serpent. 10-1 KPs and 1200ish vps difference.
30/133 overall for me and undefeated so well and truly chuffed with that.
Review of my army:
Council – immense, they chewed through units, soaked up masses of fire and scared the cr@p out of some of my opponents. Even when I made a mistake with them in game 3 getting lashed they still held up his entire army for four turns so everything else survived to contest/claim objectives.
Autarch Doujan (aka Yuriel) – definitely my MVP. His kills for the tournament:
Game 1: Librarian, 5 scouts, 6 tacticals
Game 2: Yuriel-Wraithlord duel = dead wraithlord, 2 pathfinders
Game 3: 6 plague marines
Game 4: 2 warwalkers
Game 5: 16 orks
Game 6: Lord, 1 terminator, 6 plague marines
He adds much needed power weapon attacks to the council and when desperate can bust out the S6 AP3 template.
Fire Dragons – I felt they under achieved and I might be tempted to get another exarch with the flamer and crackshot in and drop one fusion guy. Then just double the squads up when I want to take out a vehicle.
Avengers – superb unit, wish I could have another one at 1500 points. I tried to keep them safe and only take calculated risks with them in objective missions e.g. double bladestorm on the council in game 3. I always had at least one unit left alive at the end of the game except when I made that stupid mistake game 4.
Wave Serpents –The best part of the list. Mobility, survivability, massed fire power if needed, and the ability to contest anything within 24” makes this army. Wish I could squeeze another one in without gutting the hard hitting elements of the list.
Overall I thought I got pretty decent match ups as I didn’t face anyone with the same sort of mobility as me so that helped with qualifying. Elements of the list were put together with CSM/marines and Orks being dominant and I think it stood me in good stead. Three of my opponents placed well:
Rich’s(?) Eldar finished 15th
Andy’s Orks finished 20th
Chris’ dual DP chaos finished 29th
I didn’t actually beat anyone who finished above me, only drew which shows I struggle against the more hardcore tournament players. It was very close against Rich’s Eldar and I felt I could have won but the other two games were hard work to get a draw through a combination of my tactical mistakes and their good play. If I could get more practice against tournament players and lists I think I could do better.
Great weekend, loving 5th edition for the streamlined feel and looking forward to the final in March next year.
Results for anyone who is interested:
Top 10
1. Orks
2. Eldar
3. CSM
4. Orks
5. CSM
6. DoC
7. Orks
8. Eldar
9. Tau
10. DA
I predicted an ork win (no surprise really) and another two in the top ten plus a daemon army up there too!
Cheers for reading.
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