You can read my other battle reports for this tournament here:
Pictures of some of the armies in attendance
Round One
Round Two
Hey folks! This is the third battle report for the second Atlanta Circuit Event. They are
GT in scale, although not on the official circuit this year; the organizer says that he's thinking about making one or more official
GTs next year.
Coming into the third round, I have 40/40 points and am in the lead of the tournament. At 38 points are tied a Space Wolf and a Mech
IG player. I don't care what the
SW list is...I *KNOW* I don't want to face mech
IG. Pairings go up and.....WOOOT! Space Wolf! =p Against Mech
IG it largely boils down to who goes first. I linked up with the Mech
IG player and we rolled it off really quick to see if I actually dodged a bullet.
Emperor's Tarot: We both roll a 2, so I get +1 to my roll off. He rolls a 6, I roll a 5; we're tied. We reroll and I beat him, so I would have gone first. Not an autowin by ANY stretch, but it would put me solidly into the game for a good fight.
Instead, I face off against Space Wolves!
Mission: Capture and Control
Deployment: Pitched Battle
*Note on Mission*
The mission structure is set up for a tie-fest (much like the last mission, where you needed double killpoints for a massacre)
If you own both objectives: 17 points, 3 for opponent.
If you own one and opponent contests one: 13 points, 7 for opponent.
If you both own one: 10 points each.
Purple People Eaters
HQ: Lelith Hesperax
Troop1: 5x Wyches, Succubus+Agonzier, Haywire Grenades, Wych Weapons, Blasters x2 // Raider+Dark Lance+Horrorfex
Troop2: 5x Wyches, Succubus+Agonzier, Haywire Grenades, Wych Weapons, Blasters x2 // Raider+Dark Lance+Horrorfex
Troop3: 5x Wyches, Succubus+Agonzier, Haywire Grenades, Wych Weapons // Raider+Dark Lance+Horrorfex
Troop4: 5x Wyches, Succubus+Agonzier, Haywire Grenades, Wych Weapons // Raider+Dark Lance+Horrorfex
Troop5: 5x Wyches, Succubus+Agonzier, Haywire Grenades, Wych Weapons // Raider+Dark Lance+Horrorfex
Troop6: 5x Wyches, Succubus+Agonzier, Haywire Grenades, Wych Weapons // Raider+Dark Lance+Horrorfex
Elite1: 5x Raiders, Dark Lance // Raider+Dark Lance
Elite2: 5x Raiders, Dark Lance, Sybarite+Crucible of Malediction // Raider+Trophy Rack
Heavy1: Ravager + 3x Disintegrators
Heavy2: Ravager + 3x Disintegrators
Heavy3: Ravager + 3x Disintegrators
A note on my list: This is my 2k list that I won a Golden Ticket with last month; I scaled it back to 1750 by removing an elite and Lelith's retinue. There's also no Nightmare Doll - their rules don't allow it. I added a Trophy Rack to the raider with the Crucible on the chance that an opportunity would present itself to flat out into an enemy deployment zone, survive, and cause their psychers -2 leadership tests. With the spare points from losing the Nightmare Doll, I added Horrorfexes as a last minute expense. In hindsight, wish I had spent them on something else, but 25 points to spare in a
DE list....I would have bought more blaster wyches, but I don't HAVE enough wych models toting blasters to kit out my units
WYSIWYG. Horrorfexes seem like a great idea, but you can't fire a lance and the 'fex at the same time....and in a wych cult I already have few lances. If I did it again, I think I'd look for a way to get in a squad of warp beasts, or a unit of reaver jetbikes.
Also worth noting is that Lelith is by herself. She can be targeted now, but she *is* WS7 with a 2+ invulnerable save. My plan is to stick her with whatever squad has the wych powers I want her to have (typically a 12" assault). I'm hedging that statistically I should get one per turn. Its a risk, but its a new idea and I decide to run with it.
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My opponent's list:
Mike White's Space Wolves
HQ1: Wolf Lord+Thunderwolf Mount+Storm Shield+Wolf Claw+Saga of the Warrior Born+Runic Armor, +2 Fenrisian Wolves,
HQ2: Rune Priest+
JotWW+Murderous Hurricane
Troop1: 10x Grey Hunters, 2x Meltaguns
Troop2: 5x Grey Hunters, Meltagun // Rhino+Dozer
Troop3: 5x Grey Hunters, Meltagun // Rhino +Dozer
Troop4: 5x Grey Hunters, Meltagun // Rhino + Dozer
Elite1: 3x Wolf Guard Pack; 1x Power First, 1x Combi-Melta
Fast1: 4x Thunderwolf Cavalry; 1x Power Fist, 1x Storm Shield, 1x Melta Bombs (so that all 4 are equipped differently)
Heavy1: Land Raider Redeemer
Heavy2: 5x Long Fangs with Lascannons, 1x Squad Leader
Pre-Game tactical assessment:
1. First thing I ask: How many missile launchers in your list? He has none. Lascannons are also naughty, but this isn't missile launcher spam, so I'm happy.
2. I'm feeling somewhat confident. I realize that my shooting is balls, but he doesn't have a whole lot that can really threaten me at range: A land raider and his longfangs, and the land raider is only a 24" threat with the multi melta and assault cannon; flamestorms are close range. I'll try neutralizing the longfangs and shaking/stunning/anything the land raider.
3. This game *is* asking for a tie, and I've only got a two point lead over the nearest couple contenders, and 3-4 point lead on the folks next down the line....I need to play for a solid win.
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We roll off and I'm feeling like I used all my luck in my test roll against the Mech
IG player. He rolls a one. I roll a two. Ha! I choose to deploy and go first.
The traditional bottle of Captain! I shared a bit with my opponent; you can see it in his bottle there during the pictures.
Here's a picture of our table pre-deployment. Lots of 5+ cover, things to make me immobilize myself, no real
LOS blocking terrain. I put my objective in my rear left corner behind the building. My opponent puts his in the rear right corner behind his respective building.
I also realized that we're at game 3 and aside from the margarita at lunch and cracking the bottle to share some with my opponent, I'm pretty sober. Time elapsed between first picture and this one.....less than five minutes? *hiccup*
Dark Eldar Deployment:
The other Dark Eldar player actually lost his first game to Tau. He won the roll to go first, deployed for turn1 nasties, and had the initiative stolen from him. I'm paranoid of doing the same in all my games, so I typically never put everything on the line. Here I've got a ravager behind cover as best as possible, two empty warrior raiders on either end of a screening line, and two wych raiders in the front. The one on the right has Lelith (one squad got 12", so she attached to them); I want to press onto that objective if I can. The tournament declared that there were no bunkers; that's a ruin for all intents and purposes; I have a warrior squad in it and a warrior squad on top of the building to the right of my deployment zone. Stationary lances.
Here's a top view of that vehicle deployment; doing so to try granting cover to rear vehicles.
Space Wolf Deployment:
His long fangs go 2" apart from each other over by his objective, with a rhino behind them with a grey hunter pack embarked.
On the other side of the table he puts out his land raider (with grey hunters embarked) and his thunderwolf cavalry (plus
IC). After some deliberation, he spaces them out 2" and drops them into cover.
That bottlecap is his objective. Here's a picture of his deployment facing me. He kept two rhinos in reserve.
He attempts to seize and fails.
Dark Eldar Turn One:
First things first - the raider with Lelith rotates forward and scoots 12" towards his long fangs, and the squad disembarks 2". Not a guaranteed assault, but I have to try.
The rest of my army does some careful shifting. I want to shoot his land raider, but I don't want to be in range of his thunderwolf cavalry. Those are seriously nasty dudes.
An array of lances open up and I score a weapon destroyed result on his raider; I take away the assault cannon.
On the other side of the table, I explode his rhino; his grey hunters spill out.
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Two ravagers later, both wolves are dead and his stormshield cavalry model takes a wound.
The third ravager bites into the grey hunters that came out of the rhino and kill two.
Lelith and her wych squad fleet towards the long fangs and only get 2"! I'm left 8" away or so. I roll for assault with crossed fingers and get a six! Lelith jumps into the Long Fangs.
Its 5 vs 6 and I'm only T3....he swings and I make my 4+ invulnerable saves...DENIED!
When the dust settles, the agonizers have done their work and his longfangs (and the only real credible threat to my army) are gone.
Space Wolf Turn One:
His land raider moves up 12" and pops smoke - he wants to get to my objective. His thunderwolf cavalry move up as well.
The three models in the back corner retreat away from the wyches and open up rapid fire on them. One dies.
His thunderwolf cavalry move in and assault the nearest raider (intentionally an empty warrior raider) and explode it.
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At this point, the
TO announces 30 minutes left. Out of 2 hours. Was the first time call I heard. I don't play super fast, but I don't play slow either...my opponent was a bit slow, but not the "intentional slow play" kind of slow. I freaked out a bit, only 30 minutes left and we're about to start turn two...
WTF.
Dark Eldar Turn Two:
My wyches all circle up around his thunderwolf cavalry and get out. Time is running out, time to make something happen.
The amount of firepower lined up here to take out 5 models is staggering.
I open up with lances into his land raider, and I believe it took four lances to get a penetrate, which wrecks it.
His grey hunters disembark.
My closest ravager opens up on the disembarked grey hunters. STR7 AP2 and he's in 5+ cover - he chooses to go to ground and only loses half of them.
I open up on the thunderwolf cavalry with the rest; sustained burst ravagers, dark lances, wych pistols and blasters, the whole 9 yards. He loses the stormshield mount, takes a wound on the lord and also on the melta bomb model.
I assault! My awesome invulnerable saves work their magic again; while I lose a wych or two, he loses combat by one....and fails leadership!!!!!!!!!!! AND gets away. *cheers* I consolidate a wych squad towards him to make sure he keeps going.
On the other side of the board, Lelith and friends assault into the grey hunters, and now have sole control over his objective.
Space Wolf Turn Two:
He rolls for reserve and gets his non rune priest rhino. It deploys in the corner by his objective, the grey hunters get out and rapid fire into Lelith. His thunderwolf cavalry run, but not off the board.
His other grey hunter pack is pinned and not moving.
I choose not to go to ground with Lelith's squad. She passes leadership and stays put. I was urging my opponent to go faster, he took quite some time to do...that. Like 15 minutes for a turn that involved a single rhino and its contents.
Dark Eldar Turn Three:
My escorting wych squad chases his thunderwolf cavalry and get back inside the 6" mark when they fleet. The rest of my wyches embark. One jumps onto my objective, the rest head towards his.
A ravager on the left side finishes off his grey hunters from the destroyed land raider. On the right side, I risk a couple shots with a ravager to thin out his grey hunters before assaulting and thankfully don't scatter onto myself. I follow up with an assault....victory! Lelith's squad is disappearing, but doing their job. The empty rhino gets stunned from a lance.
Space Wolves Turn Three:
His last rhino (with the rune priest) comes out of reserve. I'm playing fast, begging him to go faster...he's taking his time and contemplating his moves. Not "OMG stop f***** slow playing" but just a careful consideration of how he can try pulling off anything. Rune priest gets out with friends, drops murderous hurricane on Lelith's unit and everyone but her dies. She passes leadership, and still has her shadowfield.
Dark Eldar Turn Four:
At the time, I swore we only got through three turns, but the pictures don't lie.
Two of my raiders with wyches move flat out onto his objective, one risking a
DT test.
Lances wreck the rhino on the right, and he smoked the other one....nothing I shoot at it can get through. Lelith assaults into the rune priest squad; she takes no wounds on her 2+ invulnerable, kills several, they fail leadership and she catches them (obviously); last one dies to
ATSKNF (not sure if I shot at them with anything or not) and she's left alone with the rune priest.
Space Wolf Turn Four:
His rhino moves a couple inches to contest the objective. The rune priest attempts round 2 with Lelith and bites it. Time is up.
Final score 13-7. At this point, I've lost one raider and one wych squad, with a couple wyches lost from the cavalry assault, but no units. The Space Wolf player has an empty rhino left on the table contesting his objective.
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Post Game Assessment:
1. Frustrating that we ran out of time when I was one model away from tabling (and getting +7 points). I can't blame my opponent for playing....methodically. Those 7 points ended up putting him at 2nd best overall instead of nothing at all.
2. I'm not sure what I think about him reserving his rhinos. *shrugs* Then again, they kept him from a massacre.
3. He acknowledged that his long fangs that far up the table was a mistake. I don't think it would have made a huge difference; if I couldn't turn1 assault them, I would have shifted my whole army that way and poured 1750 worth of my firepower into that one squad since that was still his only credible long range threat. Three ravagers would have done good work with dark lances cleaning up the leftovers. Two long fang squads would have obviously been troublesome.
I ended the tournament with 56/60 possible Battle Points. Painting was 7/10, Sportsmanship was 30/30, and I won Best Overall and a $100 gift certificate that expired that day. =p I ended up selling the gift certificate for $80 to someone else who wanted to buy some stuff....I have Orks and Dark Eldar, and everything I would ever need for either army, and no real interest in starting another army. If I could, I would save store credit and spend it when the new
DE codex comes out this fall, but that was out of the question, and with a "use it or lose it" it was sell it or give it away. I don't need more loot. I still have a 5th battlewagon, three stompas, boxes and boxes of boyz, some Lootas, nob parts, stormboyz to put together...yeah.
Doubly awesome was that the OTHER Dark Eldar player won Best General.
I think Primarch told me over the phone that there was a miscalculation of 1 point that would have made someone else best general and he gave up his prize, but I'm going to choose to ignore that part and remember where
DE won Best Overall and Best General at the same tournament. 2nd Best and $60 went to
SW or Mech
IG, and 3rd Best went to the other of the two. I think nob bikers might have won a prize too, and I didn't keep track of best painted or sportsmanship or any of that.
I also met some cool folks from Dakka. I wish I lived in Atlanta since I have no local community where I live - I'm moving soon, but the community where I'm moving to (Jacksonville, FL) is where I left, and its fragmented and there's some real idiots there, and a couple of them apparently have butt-buddies all the way up to NC and all the way down to southern FL; I get stalked on Dakka, Stelek's blog and elsewhere by them. Even my own hatemail segment on
Stelek's Ranting.
The Atlanta Circuit is a total of five events; whomever has the highest golf like score after a combination of any three of them wins. At this point, I have two points (for having come in first twice) and if I can do it one more time I'll win! =) I brought Orks the first time. I brought
DE the second time and noticed some anti-ork preparation. My wife has been begging me to give the Tyranids the light of day, so the tervigon spam is going to give it a go next time.
3000
3000 
2000 
