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So I've decided I want to start writing Battle Reports from the tournaments that I go to, and maybe some games with friends as well.

Here are some of the tournaments I am going to go to in the forseeable future:
Trumpeter's Salute RTT -- March 14th
Strategies Games & Hobbies tourney -- March 21st
'Ard Boyz -- May
Conquest Annihilation GT -- July
Astronomi-Con -- August
West Coast Mayhem (if they are having it this year) -- September(?)
World Wide War -- November(?)

Plus I'll be hitting up as many small local RTTs as I can. I will hopefully be taking pictures of my battles as well. Hopefully this will be of some help to players who are new to the 40K tournament scene.

Enjoy!

So I figured I should write up a battle report or two so that this isn’t just a pointless empty thread for the next 2 weeks. This was a game I played a couple days ago. I was Necrons and my opponent was playing Tyranids. 1750 points.

Necrons
- The Deceiver
- 10 Warriors
- 10 Warriors
- 5 Destroyers
- 5 Destroyers
- 10 Scarab Swarms
- Monolith
- Monolith

Tyranids
- Swarmlord
- Flyrant w/ Hive Commander + other stuff
- Doom of Malan’Tai + spore
- 3 Zoanthropes + spore
- 3 Zoanthropes + spore
- 9 Genestealers + Broodlord
- 9 Genestealers + Broodlord
- 9 Genestealers + Broodlord

Setup
Mission was Annihilation; deployment was Spearhead. I won the roll for first, and I considered giving it up because I was predicting he would put everything in reserve, but in the end I decided to take first.

Deployment
The quarter I chose was on the left side of the board. I deployed everything as far away from the short table edges as possible because I didn’t want to get roflpwned by his genestealers outflanking. Monoliths were close to the center; warriors and C’tan behind them with the Scarabs slightly to the left. Destroyers were lined up on my table edge right behind my warriors.

He kept everything in reserve as I had predicted. Stealers outflanking, Swarmlord walking on and everything else was deep striking.

Turns 1&2 – Necrons
I shuffled my models into a piece of area terrain about 3 inches off my table edge. Monoliths in front, C’tan and warriors surrounded by scarabs with my destroyers in the back, right along my table edge. All the jetbikes had turbo-boosted for the 3+ cover (2+ for scarabs). I left a big hole in the warriors to bait the Doom to DS there, then get killed by Big D.

Turn 2 – Tyranids
Everything came in from reserve. Swarmlord moved and ran forward. All of his stealers came in on my left in a big horde. The Zoanthropes dropped about 12” in front of my monoliths. His tyrant landed about 9” forward/left of my army. He would need to be killed next turn. DoM took the bait and landed right in the middle of my warriors, taking off 2 scarab wounds, then dropping its psychic power pie plate instant-killing 4 swarm bases (I forgot to take cover saves lol). The zoanthropes shoot at my monoliths, destroying one.

Turn 3 – Necrons
I turbo-boost my remaining scarab I shuffle my Necrons around a bit, getting my destroyers into LOS of the tyrant. My surviving monolith moves forward. DoM takes a wound off my C’tan. My shooting goes fantastically. The flyrant goes down to destroyer fire, while the Doom’s pod is killed by my warriors’ mass rapid-firing. Then I shoot my monolith’s pie plate at the left zoies. I hit and wound all three, and he fails all three invulnerable saves in some awesome luck. The Deceiver kills the Doom in assault. 4 KPs in one turn, not bad!

Turn 3 – Tyranids
At this point it’s an uphill battle for him. He has 3 Genestealer squads on the left, 1 Zoanthrope squad, the Swarmlord and 2 spores. Basically in this turn he moved and ran his Swarmlord forward, Zoies whiff on the Monolith, and his genestealers kill my scarab roadblock.

Kill Points – Necrons: 4, Tyranids: 2

Turn 4 – Necrons
I have not lost a single Necron model yet, so things are looking good. I portal my left warrior squad through the monolith to get them out of charge range of the Stealers and into Rapid Fire range of the Swarmlord. The Swarmlord has moved to within charge range of the Deceiver, so I move forward for the epic fight. I move my Destroyers out of charge range from the Genestealers, failing one DT test. They pop off some shots at one stealer squad, reducing it to just the Broodlord. Portalled warriors rapid fire the Swarmlord, taking off 2 wounds. Then the C’tan charges the Swarmlord taking off one wound while remaining fine himself.

Turn 4 – Tyranids
His Genestealers all move towards my army but nothing is in charge range. My opponent shoots his zoies at my ‘Lith and does no damage. I believe his shooting at the Monolith was a mistake because my warriors were all huddled up together after going through the portal and he could have blasted them with AP3. My deceiver leaves combat.

Kill Points – Necrons: 4, Tyranids: 2

Turn 5 – Necrons
My downed destroyer which had failed DT gets back up. Then, when I move to get in LOS of his swarmlord & zoies, I fail 3 out of 5 DT tests. I kill his Swarmlord and a spore from shooting and kill his Zoanthropes in CC with the deceiver. I had placed my Warriors so that his last spore and my one monolith were blocking his stealers from charging.

At this point he concedes, as none of his stealers are in charge range. Kill Point were 7-2 for the Necrons, and there was no way for him to phase me out as I had not lost a single “Necron” model aside from the 3 destroyers in WBB mode.

Post-game thoughts
This game has reinforced my opinion on the ‘nids: they are not very good. Doom of Malan’Tai is useless against Necrons, and I was prepared for his all-reserve strategy. The Swarmlord did not fit into his list. If you want to start in reserve with ‘Nids, you need to have everything deepstriking, not some deepstriking, some outflanking and some walking on. If you do the latter it will be easy for an experienced opponent to kill you in bite-sized chunks. The all-deepstriking ‘Nid army is powerful purely for the shock factor, and if you have never played against it before then it can be pretty tough. However I have played several games against drop ‘Nids so I knew what to expect and I was not surprised by anything so this game was a breeze.

So to sum things up, ‘Nids should be deployed on the table and run across. However, it is very difficult for them because they lack the speed to get into the assault quickly and they still lack long ranged anti-tank (tyrannofex is not points-efficient). Another thing that I think is quite important is that ‘Nids have no way to tank shock (or do anything similar). The tank shock move is so underrated and without the ability to tank shock troops off an objective the codex will struggle in objective games.

Thanks for reading.

I'm not a big fan of outflanking genes, esp. if you're relying on them heavily. First of all, it's easy to counter if the opponent is even halfway decent. Secondly, you're boned on objectives games. He would've given you a lot tougher fight if he had used tervigons and termagaunts. Your Deceiver wouldn't want to get anywhere near his poisoned gaunts in that case, and if the tervigon gives them FNP, they're a lot more resilient than they look. Anyways, good battle.

Nice report. Clear, concise and well formatted (Huzzah!)

Thanks for posting.

Sadly the only one on that list I'm likely to make it to is the mini tournament at Strategies on the 21st. Here's hoping we cross paths and my mediocre generalship makes it's way on to dakka

Solid tactics & well played for a strong win. Besides changes to his list can you think of anything the Nid player should have done differently? I agree the swarmlord is a huge waste of points in this type list. I would have liked to see two pairs of TL devourers with brain leech ammo on the flyrant... That seems like too good of an option to pass up.

G

Nice report. I guess it's rarely a good idea to target Monoliths when there are still Warriors left in range.

By the way, are you talking about the Kill Team day at Strategies, or the 1250 Battle Missions Tournament? I think the latter one is on the 27th - at least it was when I signed up for it.

In any case, I look forward to reading more of your reports - especially the one for the Salute, as I'll be there as well.

jy2 wrote:I'm not a big fan of outflanking genes, esp. if you're relying on them heavily. First of all, it's easy to counter if the opponent is even halfway decent. Secondly, you're boned on objectives games. He would've given you a lot tougher fight if he had used tervigons and termagaunts. Your Deceiver wouldn't want to get anywhere near his poisoned gaunts in that case, and if the tervigon gives them FNP, they're a lot more resilient than they look. Anyways, good battle.

Agreed.

If I were the 'Nid player aside from changing the list I would have deployed the Swarmlord, 2 stealer squads and the tyrant on the board. Of course, I would have blasted that off the table pretty quickly, but IMO it's better than being caught far away from my army. The zoanthropes probably would have been better off shooting at my Necrons too. I can't remember what the wargear on his Flyrant was because it was killed right after it landed. It tried to use Paroxysm on the turn it landed but was just barely out of range of my warriors.

Van Grothe wrote:By the way, are you talking about the Kill Team day at Strategies, or the 1250 Battle Missions Tournament? I think the latter one is on the 27th - at least it was when I signed up for it.

The Battle Missions tournament. I'm just about to go to the store and sign up. I'll probably be playing Tau at that tourney with blue and white paint scheme. I'll be playing this Necron list -1 destroyer at Trumpeter's salute; my Necrons are black and bronze.

MOM you have really huge belly for monkey.

G

I sure do!

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention in my battle report was that his Genestealers had toxin sacs, so I had to keep the Deceiver away from them.

Another battle report. This game was played about 4 days ago, so I don’t remember a lot of the details. I was Orks, my opponent was Imperial Guard. 1500 points.

Orks
- Big Mek w/ SAG, Ammo Runt
- Big Mek w/ SAG, Ammo Runt
- 15 Lootas
- 15 Lootas
- 20 Choppa Boyz w/ 2 Big Shootas; Nob w/ PK & BP
- 20 Choppa Boyz w/ 2 Big Shootas; Nob w/ PK & BP
- 13 Gretchin + Runtherd
- 13 Gretchin + Runtherd
- 3 Killa Kans w/ Grotzookas
- 3 Killa Kans w/ Grotzookas
- 3 Killa Kans w/ Grotzookas

Imperial Guard (as far as I remember)
- CCS w/ 4 Meltaguns; OotF, Astropath + Chimera w/ HHF
- full PBS + Chimera w/ HHF
- Flamer Vets + Chimera w/ HHF
- Melta Vets + Chimera w/ HHF
- Melta Vets + Chimera w/ HHF
- Vendetta
- Vendetta
- Sentinel w/ Autocannon
- Manticore
- 2 Hydra Flak Tanks

Setup
Mission was Capture & Control; deployment was Dawn of War. My opponent won the roll for first turn, but for some reason he gave it to me (I am still baffled why he did this). I placed my objective ~12” away from my left table edge, ~6” forward. He placed his about 24” away from the right table edge (from my perspective), also ~6” forward.

Deployment
I spread my boyz out as far forward as I could in my half of the board. One squad was on the left, one on the right with the power klaws near the centre of the table.

He decided to walk everything on, with the sentinel outflanking.

Turn 1 – Orks
Everything moved and ran forward. I spread my army out across the table. From left to right, I had: Gretchin + Mek, Gretchin + Mek, Kans, Lootas, Kans, Kans, Lootas. I later realized that spreading all the way across was a mistake, because it meant his sentinel could tie up my lootas or gretchin.

Turn 1 – Imperial Guard
All his stuff moved on, with his vendettas and flamer vets moving the full 12” while everything else clung to the board edge. From left to right (my perspective), he had: PBS, vendetta, Meltavets, 2 Hydras, Vendetta, Manticore, Meltavets, Flamer vets (out of their chimera, ready to flame my boyz). In total my left boyz squad took 3 casualties while my right squad took 7 or 8.

To be continued...

Lootas are missing from your Ork army roster...

Thanks, I edited them in.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Mech IG vs. Orks, continued...

Turn 2 – Orks
My boyz and kans moved and ran forward. My grots and Mek on the left moved away from the short table edge to be out of charge range from his outflanking sentinel. I declared the Waaagh! Everything else stayed still and shot, destroying the right Vendetta. The left Vendetta had 2 lascannons taken off and was immobilized. My boyz charged in. The left mob multi-charged the PBS chimera, the Vendetta and the left meltavet chimera, putting the power klaw on the PBS chimera. This resulted in 4 shaken results to the Vendetta, PBS chimera ‘sploded and the Meltavet chimera stunned. The right mob charged the flamer vets and their chimera, immobilizing the chimera and wiping out the squad.

Turn 2 – Imperial Guard
My boyz were now in his lines and he was in trouble. His sentinel came onto the table on my left, but it was out of charge range so it shot at my killa kans, ‘sploding one. He killed a few Orks in shooting, and he didn’t move much.

Turn 3 – Orks
Once again I moved my kans forward and ran because their ‘zookas were still out of range. My Lootas wrecked the left meltavet chimera, and immobilized his sentinel. My left boyz squad assaulted the PBS, meltavets and hydras (PK on hydras). My orks actually lost combat (he made some ridiculous 5+ saves), taking a fearless wound but the nob went to town on the hydras, destroying both. My right boyz squad took the heavy flamer off the meltavet chimera.

Turn 3 – Imperial Guard
He moved his CCS chimera and shot its heavy flamer combined with meltavet shotgunning, wiping out my right boyz squad. He killed a couple more kans, and now I had 5 left in the middle of the table. In the assault phase my left boyz wiped out his meltavets but remained locked with the PBS.

Turn 4 – Orks
Once again, I moved my kans forward. I focus-fired on his disembarked meltavets, wiping them out.

At this point, my opponent called GG, because he had no scoring units left and no way to contest my objective.

Post-game thoughts
Mech IG is one of the toughest matchups for my Orks, so I was wanting to get a game against them. I found out later that my opponent was a new player using a list that a friend made for him. The list itself was not that good either. This battle was pretty much GG from the beginning because my opponent’s list was tailored to fight mech, and did not have enough anti-horde to handle my orks.

What my opponent should have done was bring all of his tanks on the right side of the board near his objective, refusing my flank and then he could’ve focused fire on my boyz, wiping them out one at a time. Then he could go to work on my kans and hopefully be able to control his own objective. He also should have outflanked his Vendettas so they could contest my objective (though I would have placed my grots around the objective if he did that).

Okay, I have some pictures of the Trumpeter Salute tournament but I've got the flu right now so you'll have to wait (not as if anyone reads this anyway). Basically I got 18/20 point massacres in my first two games, and in the final game I faced the ultimate TFG, who cheated and the TO let him because they were friends, so I ended up with 6 points in that game. Battle reports and a rant to come.

Cant wait for the last battle report, Though it sucks that it had to be against TFG. Also cant wait to read the rant.