Okay so today my
FLGS was running a fast and furious 1000pt tournament, scoring system was simple
VPs for what you killed + 100pts for each objective captured or Kill Point, or 500VPs for the last game which was kill the general.
so my list, i threw this together at the store when i popped in for some glue that they were holding the tournament and they wanted some
GT players in it as well as the store regulars to make it more interesting as the regulars were asking if
GT players were going to be attending so they could take us on (of us that attend Vets night there are 6 regular
GT goers and they like playing us with our tournament armies to see how they do against us). I must confess i was a little bit taken aback by playing a 1000pts as i havent played the game at that points for so many years and making a list was proving to be extremely difficult as i didn't know what to put in it or how to make a rounded force that supported each other. Still after some deliberation this is what i put together i felt it could have 4 scoring units which was a must in 5th ed with a decent amount of fire power and a strong combat unit that could be used to countercharge/infiltrate and cause as much havoc before finally dying (which is how i used them in 3 of my 4 games oddly enough) still here it is:
Shrike
10 Man
Tac Squad: Melta, Power Weapon, Missile Launcher, Rhino x2
5 Assault Marines: Fist
2 Vindicators
Missions were all using standard pitched battle setup and went: Kill Point, Loot Counters, Capture and Control (2 objectives), and Kill the General.
Game 1:
Game one was against a space marine player his army was pretty basic, 2
tac squads with flamers, Scouts with Telion, Scouts with Sniper Rifle/ M Launcher, 3 Scout Bikers, 1 Command Squad + Chapter Master in Rhino.
I setup in and around a building maxing out on the cover for both my combat squadded units and tanks, he set up all across the board with the Rhino anchoring one flank and the scouts holding the other flank, Shrike and his unit infiltrated in front of Telions unit, he lost the roll for initiative and of course Shrike got a first turn charge against one combat squad and his assault sqaud broke off to assault Telion's unit, the vindicators stunned the Rhino and in the assault phase the assault marines broke Telions unit and Shrike destroyed a combat squad, for this game that was pretty much it the rest of the game was spent mopping up the remaining units scoring me my maximum 9
KPs and only losing my assault marines in the entire game, so 1900
VPs to me and the award for bloodiest game, with which i won an Archaon on foot model (theres my iron warrior Sorcerer sorted out with a few simple conversions)
Game 2:
Game 2 was against another Space Marine player, Ultramarines this time, this was against a good friend of mine so we both knew we were in for a good game. His army comprised of: Captain with Power Weapon + Digital Weapons, 2
Tac Squads: missile, plasma, power weapon, razorbacks (1 w/
HB 1w/
TL Assault Cannon, Techmarine w/ full servo harness and a Land Speeder Tempest w/multimelta, and a scout squad with snipers + telion (a theme throughout this tournament methinks). I won the roll for set up again.
I setup turtle shelled around a building again maximising on my cover again but being in a position to break out and assault and capture the 3 objectives we rolled, he setup across the board the two razorback combat squads with the captain and techmarine in each to grab one objective the other units held the other flank with the other objective closest to him, obviously shrike positioned himself for a first turn charge again.
So turn one Shrike and the assault squad move to charge two units again, the vindicators blow up one combat squad and stun a razorback and the missile launchers stun and immobilize the landspeeder, Shrike charges two units and bounce off failing to kill alot of them and the assault marines take some casualties in return but remain locked in combat, my first turn casualties were pretty light losing one space marine to shooting whilst his two razorback squads jump out and charge shrike and his unit, this happens and i am left with the assault marine sergeant left! he stays though and i did take out a few of his men in return cutting down the size of his scoring units.
Turn 3, one combat squad jumps out on a objective to shoot one of the razorbacks and the other does the same on another objective one meltagun misses one of the razorbacks the other stuns it, one missile launcher kills the missile launcher left out of a combat squad and the other misses the landspeeder, not a great turn for me but i am still in the game. the vindicators didnt do a great deal in this phase. in the assault phase the assault sergeant finally gives in and dies. His turn 3 the captain and his two remaining marines move to assault one unit holding the objective and Telion and his unit move to grab the final objective, the techmarine repairs the landspeeder too, in the shooting phase one razorback shoots a man off the other unit holding the objective and the razorback with the assault cannon blows up one of my vindicators. assault phase and the captain cuts up the unit holding the objective and moves slightly away from to hide from the final vindicator and make a fifth turn land grab.
Turn 4 again i do a great amount of very little but so does he the land speeder moves up to fire on my 2 combat squads hunkering down in the building and telions unit shoots one space marine dead.
Turn 5, it was make it or break it time. my 2 rhinos moved and contested the two objectives he now had in his posession. the vindicator shot and killed a couple of scouts from telions unit the missile launchers did a great amount of nothing again.. and the meltagun missed a razorback that was directly in front of him. the techmarine and the captains units moved to charge my rhinos respectively but as they had both moved 6 inches they missed completely and the razorback and landspeeder reduced the squad holding my objective to one man who passed his test. The dice was rolled and the game ended there. That was lucky.another turn and i would have lost the game, we both enjoyed it as it was highly challenging and just generally a good fun clean game to play, i was surprised i won when Shrike bounced i thought that was it but i just managed to hold on long enough to grab the win so that was another win to me 518
VPs to 482
VPs, it was close but an awesome game against an awesome opponent.
Game 3:
More Space Marines, this time Black Templars his list was 2 squads of neophytes with Lascannon and the other with plasma cannon/plasma gun and another massive unit with a chaplain, powerfist, melta gun, buy with lightning claws.
the two objectives were situated in buildings in either side of the deployment zones i lost set up this time and he deployed his two shooty squads in two buildings, one holding the objective and the other on the other side of the board and the massive unit in the middle behind a crater. i set up in a building and behind a wood, with one combat squad holding the far flank (not that it needed to it was just an advantageous firing position). his first turn yielded no casualties for me, my first turn both vindicators fired at the unit now in the crater, hitting twice and reducing 15 men down to 3 and i killed a couple of men off both squads forcing them to move out of there cover and towards me, turn 2 again i had no casualties, so on my turn shrike and his unit jumped to charge the chaplain and his few remaining friends, the vindicators blew the lascannon squad away and i killed one more man off the plasma unit forcing them forward again and shrike and his buddies killed the chaplains squad despite loosing 3 men of there own. turn 4 and he kills the assault squad. for me i move one rhino unit up to capture his objective and position shrike to run and charge the unit thats left alive, not that i needed too as the vindicators wiped them out with some lucky hits and that was another win the mess 1200
VPs to 125VPs putting my total up to 3618
Game 4:
Space Marines again! (i missed the tau, ork and eldar players out oddly but it was the luck of the draw). This time it was kill the general and it was against another friend with is new Crimson Fist army (ive started playing Chaos finally and hes turned to the Imperial Side, its strange how some things work out). His army was: 2
Tac Squads with Fists, Flamer and Missile Launcher, Lysander and a massive stern guard unit with a Fist and a Dread with Lascannon.
I win the roll for set up and deploy 2 Vindicators on one flankbehind a building with one combat squad in the building, on the other flank another combat squad in a building with 2 Rhinos and there squads behind it. He deploys, Lysander fortifying one large building he promptly deploys the Sternguard, one Squad and the Dread in the fortified building and 2 combat squads in the building on the far flank. a tough nut to crack and having Lysander as his general made this alot tougher. Shrike deployed with the intention of killing the two combat squads on the one flank to get the most out of him the either go for a last ditch assault on Lysander or lurk to safe his skin.
Turn 1: Shrike does as expected and with the Vindicators out of range i Frag the building with most of his army in to at least try and cause as many wounds as possible as kraks were a waste of time. the Vindicators move up so they are in range and the Rhinos advance popping smoke. I assault the one Combat squad with Shrike managing to leave one alive so they would not get shot up in the following turns. His turn nothing moves except the second combat squad which moves to charge the assault marines. the Sternguard kill one marine from a combat squad and the dreads stun the Vindicator. in the Assault Shrike kills the remaining squad member from the previous turns combat and the assault marines kill 2 members from the other squad with just winning the combat the Fists taking there losses and running for the hills promptly only falling back 5 inches so they could rally next turn.
Turn 2 i moved up the one vindicator and the rhinos to shoot the building the marine squads get out the other sides of the rhinos so they could get shot and were safe for a turn just encase i needed to resort to the assault phase to shift them. the vindicator kills a sternguard and the missiles do nothing, Shrike moved through the building just incase he was needed also. In his turn 2 nothing moves and the unit falling back runs off the board leaving me with this tough nut to crack still.. the army opens up on shrike and his unit with the assault marines dying and Shrike making a lucky iron halo save from a missile launcher that could have cost me the game.
Turn 3 with Shrike now stranded he promptly falls back out of sight to preserve his own skin and the game for me. the rhinos move right in front of the building and its doors and windows to force the tactical squad and dread to move as even if they shoot at me i was still obscured so to do any damage both those units have to shoot reducing there effectiveness and forcing them from that lovely 3+ cover save. and promptly open up on the sternguard with every single gun i had, reducing them down to the sergeant and lysander on one wound left (there were some lucky shooting dice and unlucky save dice that helped me out there), and the also in a great shock and to the dismay of the passer by watching the game Lysander fails his
Ld Test and runs 5 inches leaving him within 6" of an enemy model and unable to regroup.
Turn 4 and the game winner Lysander runs off the table, the dread and
tac squad move out of the building and open up on one of my combat squads killing the lot. I open up on the tactical squad and reduce it from 10 to 3 three men with every gun i had they ran away and were within 6" of an enemy model again so would continue running. which they did and off the board again. the dread killed a few off the tactical squad and moved to try and be concealed but failed thanks to my rhinos blocking it in. Turn 5 and i open up on the dread finally killing it with the last vindicator shot of the game giving me the massacre 1500
Vps - 125
Vps ( i see a trend of that assault squad dying every game without fail, but they made a great shrike delivery system) giving me a total of 5118pts for the day and the end of the tournament from gaming + 270points for having a fully painted army (for each model painted you got 5 points and 10 points for a vehicle i think that was designed to encourage people to get there armies finished for the day, sadly many didnt). totalling 5388
VPs for the tournament and landing me first place which i won an old box of chaos marines (the 3rd ed ones) another perfect addition to the iron warriors army im trying to do on the cheap
As for my model of the tournament it has to go to Shrike and his Assault Marines, whilst the vindicators and 2 rhino'd up combat squads were my game winners and killed a hell of alot of stuff, Shrike and his unit force my opponent to go on the back foot from the start of the game and by making sure they were always charging troops choices they were tying up/killing units that could have run forward and claimed objectives and the opponents had to kill/tie them up so they could cause alot of havoc which was what Shrike did in the first game and to some degree the 4th Game
Still a great tournament that was brilliantly run considering it was during opening hours and all such, still i must confess i was rather fortunate that I didnt run into the 120 Ork Horde or the Lash/Lesser Daemon Bomb or the eldar army with asurman and a couple of fire prisms which all lost one game and came 5th (Daemon Bomb, 4th (Eldar), 3rd (Orks), 2nd (Salamanders with He'Stan)
still a great day and some good challenging games, hope you enjoyed reading this report
