Recently I attended the annual Fire & Ice Rogue Trader tournament in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. I brought Ultramarines and, while I went 0-1-2, I managed to walk away with the 2nd Place Sportsmanship award! =)
I had perfect marks in soft scores and army composition with my list being, basically, half a Battle Company. Here was my list:
ULTRAMARINES 3RD CO.
Chaplain w/Jump Pack
10 Terminators - 2 Cyclone Missile Launchers
Dreadnought - Assault Cannon
Assault Squad – Sergeant w/Power Fist + Bolt Pistol, 2x Plasma Pistols
Tactical Squad w/Rhino – Sergeant w/Power Fist + Melta, Multi-Melta
Tactical Squad w/Rhino – Flamer, Plasma Cannon
Tactical Squad w/Rhino – Flamer, Plasma Cannon
Predator Annihilator – Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Predator Annihilator – Heavy Bolter Sponsons
TOTAL 1850
Game 1: Tau (Draw): 2 Objectives.
Pathfinders, Firewarriors, and
Deathrain XV8s were the MVPs for my opponent's Mech Tau list. We tied: I was unable to move to his objective, but he was unable to shoot my two tactical squads and terminator squad off of mine.
I played for the win until around turn 3, when my assault squad (intent on assaulting a unit of
Fireknife XV8s) was forced to assault a Devilfish. I killed it, its Firewarriors popped out, and immediately jumped up on the wreckage and rapid-fired me to death. Clever move, and definitely forced me into playing for the Draw.
Game 2: Dark Angels Deathwing (Loss). 4 Objectives.
This game was my first playing against Dark Angels. His army consisted of six Terminator Troops, Belial, and one Elite squad of Terminators.
While I was able to shoot most of his army to pieces and bring the game to a draw by turn 5, on turn 6 my luck turned against me: he killed my Chaplain, who was contesting an objective, and I was unable to kill a lone terminator who was capturing an additional objective.
Moral of the story: Terminators are dead hard.
Game 3: Dark Angels Deathwing (Loss). Victory Points, Table Quarters.
Quite possibly the best game I've ever played.
My opponent brought a mere fifteen Terminators, Interrogator Chaplain, and Belial, plus 3 Venerable Dreadnoughts and a Land Raider.
Describing this game as anything other than a bloodbath would be impossible. He popped both my predators early, having positioned his Land Raider where I could not hit it with Meltaguns (at least, not without running my melta squad naked through the center of the board ><
. He then proceeded, every turn, to vaporize something important of mine with his Land Raider.
I was able to whittle his terminators down to nothing, killing all of his troops choices and - in a shining, glorious moment - smashing his venerable dreads to pieces with my lone vanilla dread.
The Chaplain and Belial faced off in mortal combat during the last turn of the game, killing one another in a pyrrhic frenzy.
Although he won due to the fact that his Land Raider cost more points than anything I had left in my army, it was really a battle of attrition that left both of us feeling like we'd played our hearts out.
We even decided to re-paint some of our troops to commemorate it: he said he'd add the Ultramarines U to his company banner, and I'm thinking I'll re-paint my Sergeant's Power Fist bleached bone. =)
----
The overall winner of the tournament brought Chaos Daemons: an Undivided list with plenty of Juggernauts, Daemonettes, and Horrors. It was gorgeously painted and amazing to watch it take on 150+ Orks in round 2!
----
While my performance was a bit lacking, I had only played one game of 5th Edition with my Space Marines before attending. I think with more practice, I could learn my current list well enough to be competitive next time!
I've also fallen in love with the Deathwing, nerfed codex or not. Deathwing was the most fun and interesting army I've ever played against, and I can definitely see the appeal of fielding it... But I'll save my musings on Deathwing for another post!
Thanks for reading!
