Had a blast this past weekend in San Antonio at the Alamo
GT with my Emperor's Children. Here goes!
My army:
2x flying lash princes
greater daemon
2x squads of 5 noisemarines with doomsiren champion in rhinos with combi-meltas
2x squads of 10 marines with icon of chaos glory, 2 meltaguns. One with Aspiring Champion, both in combi-melta rhinos
1x squad of 10 marines with icon of chaos glory, 2 PLASMAguns, aspiring champion, combi-melta rhino
2x defilers with t/l heavy flamers and extra
ccw
3x Obliterators
2000 on the dot.
Game 1: Secure and Control, Pitched Battle
Secondary Objective: Table quarters
Opponent: Tyranids.
Tyranid Prime, bonesword/lashwhip
9x tyranid warriors with devourers, one with barbed strangler, in a mycetic spore
5x warriors with talons and rending claws, adrenal glands and toxin sacs
30x Hormagaunts with toxin sacs
20x termagaunts in a mycetic spore
1x carnifex with bio-plasma in a mycetic spore
3x zoanthropes in a mycetic spore
3x hive guard
20x genestealers
He set up with kind of a half-refused flank, hormagaunts spread over half the board with hive guard behind them in the center, 5x tyranid warriors way off to the side. Genestealers infiltrated behind a tree-covered hill. I deployed centrally, everything in the center.
The game was swift. My opponent did not know what Lash of Submission was, and I don't think he liked it one bit. There were some nice tense moments. He went first, and moved everything forward cautiously. My turn 1 I lashed the genestealers into a clump on the wooded hill and fired my battle cannon at them, wounding 14. He passed 13 4+ cover saves. I lashed them again and criss-crossed doomsirens, eventually bringing the whole squad down with the help of my entire army's firepower.
His carnifex landed, as did his zoanthropes. He put the zoanthropes WAY off on the side, and immobilized a noisemarine rhino. On the right was the carnifex, who appeared and failed to damage a tank. He got lashed out of cover and killed by 4x meltaguns and 2x plasmaguns from inside tanks and 2x combi-meltaguns from the tanks themselves. His pod was instant-killed by the third combi-meltagun. In the center of the board he sought to silence my obliterators and defiler by double-charging both of them. He killed an obliterator, but his quick advance quickly brought him out of synapse range a couple rounds later, sending them running. The prime and his warriors came down, did 2 wounds to a daemon prince, then were pulled forward and assaulted by a defiler, which they couldn't hurt. He spent the game crushing them with his claws. His termagaunts came down in their pod on an objective near his table edge, but they were out of synapse. Obliterators and a battle cannon killed 25% and their morale check sent them off the board. A tank shock sent the hive guard running when they too failed a leadership check. At the end of turn 5 he had his zoanthropes and 2 pods left, and I'd lost 4 models and a rhino. He called it.
Result: Win, Secondary achieved
Game 2: Capture and Control, Spearhead
Secondary Objective: have more units in the quarters that don't belong to either player
Opponent: Chaos Space Marines
Abaddon
Lash prince
8x berserkers in rhino with havoc launcher
8x berserkers in rhino with havoc launcher
4x terminators, 2x lightning claws 2x chainfists, 2x combi-meltaguns, icon of khorne
2x defilers
2x 8-man squads of lesser daemons
Chaos Landraider
We both deployed right at the front of our deployment zones. This opponent was used to counting only the body of the defiler as its profile, thus making them MUCH smaller. It was such a freeing experience, as my store demands the whole expanse of the legs count! I was squeezing into spaces I never could before, without even needing difficult terrain checks, and it felt like I was cheating deploying such that my claws hung out over my deployment zone. But that's how we agreed to play it, and it caused no problems at all.
He ran forward in all of his tanks, popping smoke. Defilers tried to pop shots, and he managed to pop a noisemarine rhino. My turn, all my tanks ran up into his face, boxing in his landraider and one of his rhinos, then popped smoke. His other rhino was shot at by obliterators, but it took a defiler charging it to wreck it. His turn, a squad of daemons arrived. His now on-foot squad of berserkers charged a defiler, while the lesser daemons charged the obliterators to silence them. The landraider backed up and dumped out Abaddon and his terminators, which multi-charged the rhino line, but only wrecked one. The other squad of berserkers stayed in their rhino and backed up, popping shots at rhinos with plasma pistols, but doing no damage. One of his defilers charged my defiler, but flubbed his rolls to hit, and was destroyed by mine.
My second turn was brutal. It was supposed to be more so, but it was good enough. The footbound noisemarines charged the lesser daemons to help out the obliterators, killing them all. The defiler killed off all the berserkers he was fighting. Combi-melta glanced his landraider, and the other two squads of chaos marines dumped out to gun down abaddon and his terminators. Combi-meltas popped his other rhino, and after a lash, a doomsiren killed all but the champion, who was then charged by a daemon prince and killed.
All the shooting in the middle amounted to only ONE terminator dying, despite 16 bolters 2 meltaguns 2 combi-meltaguns with their bolters and 2 plasmaguns being unloaded. His next turn his daemons decided to stay put, and abaddon split off from the 3 remaining terminators. They each charged different squads, doing lots of damage and sending them running. Both were above half strength though, and since terminators can't advance, were able to eventually regroup and get back in the fight - I hoped. His prince flew over to re-charge the obliterators, eventually killing them all off. His defiler blew up my other 2x melta squad's rhino and charged them, doing some damage. They stayed and fought.
My third turn, the greater daemon shows up, appearing next to his defiler and joining that combat. Both my defilers charge his 3 terminators, and my two falling back squads keep running due to enemy presence. I dump more melta and plasma shots into abaddon as I run back along with lots of bolter shots, but do only one wound. Both daemon princes fly back to help deal with the invincible lord of chaos. My defilers miss all but one attack on the terminators and kill none. They do some damage in return. The greater daemon cripples his defiler while his prince finishes off my obliterators. Both princes charge abaddon, doing one wound and taking 2 in return.
His 4th turn, his other squad of lesser daemons appears. They try to assault one of my falling back squads, which immediately fails to regroup and vanishes from the board. Combat rages across the board, my greater daemon blowing up his defiler and my defilers downing two terminators. Unfortunately since one of my defilers was immobilized, he's now out of the fight as there was nobody in base to base anymore. His prince charges my princes, who continue to try to bring down Abaddon.
My 4th, noisemarines and regrouped chaos marines charge his prince that's helping Abaddon. Bolter fire from rhinos and the still-mounted noisemarines brings his lesser daemons down to 1 model. The greater daemon charges the last khorne terminator to help the defiler while my other melta squad goes to take his objective. Finally Abaddon is brought down but not before killing one of my daemon princes. A few wounds from my marines on his daemon prince seals the deal. He loses combat, fails an armour save and dies. He calls the game, as he has one lesser daemon still alive.
Result: Win, Secondary achieved
Game 3: Annihilation, Dawn of War
Secondary Objective: Reduce every enemy unit to half strength, or damage it if it's a vehicle
Opponent: Space Marines
Lysander
Librarian, Null Zone
5x assault terminators
Landraider Redeemer
10 marines, lascannon/meltagun, combi-meltagun/powerfist, rhino
10 marines, plasma cannon/plasmagun, combi-meltagun/powerfist, rhino
10 marines, multi-melta/meltagun, combi-meltagun/power weapon, drop pod
10 scouts, missle launcher, sniper rifles
3x thunderfire cannons
My opponent goes first again! This was a repeated theme over the course of the tournament. I didn't mind so much until game 4, which you will see why.
He deploys his scouts and Lysander at the edge of his zone to push me back. I deploy 2 empty rhinos and that's it. Everything else is walking on except the oblits. He drops the drop pod right next to my rhino and blows it apart. I walk on the board with doomsiren noisemarines, angry that their ride's been blown up, and 2 defilers. I searchlight Lysander and lash him backwards, and lash the central scout unit behind the hill they were standing on. His marine squad and drop pod are both murdered mercilessly by the defilers and noisemarines while my rhinos push forward.
The next couple turns consist of a drawn out combat between Lysander and a defiler, which the greater daemon and some noisemarines joined. Lysander eventually went down, but took the defiler with him. His terminators dropped out and murdered my daemon prince. Two of my remaining rhinos were immobilized. I had nothing on that side of the board that could hurt his landraider, so it drove around murdering marines while my prince and guns eventually killed his terminators. My left flank force of the 2 meltagun squads wasn't able to get where they needed to be fast enough. The other defiler spent the game uselessly trying to shoot its battlecannon. I usually go whole games without firing them, preferring to be in combat. This game again proved why I do that. His 20 marines met my 20 marines and we were unable to do much to each other. I did manage to kill two of his thunderfire cannons and both scout units. His rhinos drove off to the corners of the board, and then we ran out of time.
With another turn, I'm certain I could kill another thunderfire cannon, possibly another squad of marines. I had noisemarines and the greater daemon, and obliterators approachig fast, and the daemon prince could join either combat he wanted. I had immobilized his landraider with my defiler, which was still in base contact. That could have been a kill too. With REALLY good luck I could have tabled him on turn 6, but we ran out of time. We had about 8 minutes left and I was hoping we could rush through another turn, but he wanted time to contemplate what to do - which to be honest we both spent a lot of time doing this game, as it was very bloody. In the end I had 8 kill points to his 7, thanks to him combat squadding his scouts.
Result: Win, Failed Secondary
Game 4: Capture and Control, Pitched Battle
Secondary: Have more scoring units in their deployment zone than they do in yours.
Opponent: Leafblower
IG
Company command, 4x plasma, chimera
Company command, 4x plasma, chimera
infantry command, 4x flamer, chimera
10 infantry, flamer
10 infantry, flamer
10 veterans, 3x melta, chimera
10 veterans, 3x melta, chimera
vendetta
vendetta
valkyrie w/ missle pods
Psyker Battle Squad, chimera
Manticore
Demolisher w/ plasma sponsons
Executioner w/ plasma sponsons
The table had no cover other than 4 very tall, nice
LOS blocking hills......in the 4 corners of the board. They were further forward so I could be behind them if I wanted, but it would set me about 7" back, would split my forces, and wouldn't really do a whole lot. In hindsight with how fortunate he was with his damage rolls this would have still been a better alternative, but ah well.
He scouted his 2 centrally-deployed vendettas to the flanks, and was of course going first. I basically deployed as far forward as I could and hoped for the best.
I got the worst.
I had predicted that the manticore would go for a heavier target like a defiler, which it did. But that's a 1/3 chance of blowing it up, it can't be stunned or shaken. If he got weapon destroyed he'd take the battle cannon for sure, and if he immobilized it I could still attempt to shoot - but of course be blew it up. Oh well.
I also expected to lose a rhino between the two vendettas. I've seen more firepower do less damage before, so it's not unreasonable to expect one might not roll a 5+ and blow it up. But they both did, so 2 rhinos down. What I didn't expect was the Executioner to get as lucky as it did and the one chimera that had range and
LOS [he deployed 3 in reserves] to also get lucky enough to penetrate and wreck. 1 Defiler and 4 rhinos down, things didn't look good.
I'll make this one short, I was tabled in the end. I actually managed to destroy 2 chimeras, a squad of guardsmen, and most of a command squad with only 2 units that made it to him. Had I only gone first, gotten the 12" lurch forward with everything and gotten to pop smoke, I think I'd have had a VERY fine time of it. It took everything he had to bring down the 2 daemon princes that flew forward and ran a few inches to get right in his face. Had they been up there along with 2 defilers and 5 rhinos of marines, then it would have been all over but the crying the turn after if he had done the same and spent all that firepower trying to kill the princes.
Alas, I went second and was blasted apart. I was envious of the very grand canyon-esque table behind me with LOTS of 5" tall hills all over the place creating narrow lanes and valleys between them, rather than the 3 ork barricades and 2 craters that were in the center of my board. Oh well.
Result: Loss, Failed Secondary
Game 5: Secure and Control, Dawn of War
Secondary: Pick 4 units from elites, heavy support and fast attack. Each of them is worth a battle point, together making the 4 secondary objective points. If there aren't enough units, then some will count as double, chosen by the opponent, to equal the 4 points.
Opponent: Chaos Space Marines
Abaddon
Nurgle Warp Time prince
Greater daemon
8x berserkers, powerfist, rhino [did not use]
chaos landraider
7-8 plaguemarines, 2 meltas, rhino
4 squads of lesser daemons
5x raptors, 2 meltaguns
2x pairs of obliterators
I really thought this was going to be a very, very easy fight. Not to doubt my opponent, but small elite armies are what my army is made for, especially if they're in power armour. Doomsirens really make a mess of things when combined with lash, and he only had three tanks to speak of, one of which I knew wouldn't be used, as the berserkers would ride in the raider. He deployed the prince and rhino up front [I believe I actually made him go first this time], and moved them forward slightly. Obliterators walked on, one taking up position in a building and the other heading for a crater.
I walked almost everything on, noisemarines zooming off to the flank [a mistake, in the end. I was lured by objectives on that side!] and my other marines driving 6" forward in the center. I lashed his prince forward twice and pumped him full of gunfire, bringing him down. I thought it was an excellent start.
He deepstriked his raptors next to my defiler and drove his plaguemarines forward. Daemons were summoned, which appeared and ran towards objectives. His landraider approached cautiously. His shooting was ineffective, and I will admit I had incredibly lucky vehicle cover saves. One of my princes moved forward to try to take out the plaguemarines's rhino and to lure out abaddon and the berserkers.
My greater daemon and obliterators stayed in the warp, which I really wished they hadn't. I shot at his landraider and missed with my meltaguns. Other rhinos moved forward and popped smoke, unable to do much this turn. Noisemarines shot at lesser daemons, killing them down to 1 member, and the defiler charged it, missing all his attacks. My other defiler popped smoke and charged the defilers, murdering them all.
His third turn the landraider moved forward, dumping out Abaddon and his friends. His greater daemon took the life of his plaguemarine champion, and the rhino drove off to the flank to unload the plaguemarines to shoot at the smoked defiler, but it passed another cover save. He blew up one of my rhinos that was near his greater daemon, and it charged the squad inside. Other shooting immobilized a noisemarine rhino. Abaddon and friends charged my prince, murdering him and consolidating back. His greater daemon killed all but two of my marines - the champion and the icon bearer. I knew exactly what they'd be used for!
The other defiler managed 1 hit and 1 wound on the lesser daemon, which passed its save, keeping us in combat.
On my turn the greater daemon didn't arrive, which was unfortunate as I could have used the help either against Abaddon or against his greater daemon. The obliterators arrived though and came down in front of abaddon's unit. The noisemarines in the immobilized rhino came out and ran over, and a quick lash from my daemon prince hanging out in the back lined the berserkers up in a nice teardrop shape for the doomsiren. Unfortunately I was foolish and also fired my bolters, causing two wounds from those, which meant he could allocate two doomsiren wounds to abaddon. Abaddon was unscathed and the aspiring champion of the berserkers remained standing. Desperate, I fired all my rhino combi-bolters at the unit trying to kill the champion so I could shoot massed plasma fire at Abaddon himself. None of it got him, and so I had to use plasmaguns to cause wounds to bring down the champion. The obliterators unloaded their twin-linked plasmaguns into abaddon and did 2 wounds, but I knew it was going to go from bad to worse since I didn't kill him. My defiler charged the plaguemarines, killing several but not enough. His greater daemon finished off my squad
His landraider was shaken, so there wasn't much to do. He charged my defiler with his greater daemon, and Abaddon charged the obliterators. With some bad rolling on his part and good invulnerable saves, he only killed one obliterator. The other two rolled very well, getting all hits and all wounds! But unfortunately Abaddon did what he did in game 2, and passed all his saves. His other shooting was largely ineffective, but the greater daemon did succeed in blowing up the defiler.
Needing that greater daemon dead, I unloaded my plasmagun squad after my own greater daemon appeared. I figured between some solid wounds from the plasmaguns, a few 6's from bolters would be able to finish the job, since its save is only a 4+. My rhinos contributed to the effort as did my noisemarines, whose only other option was to charge abaddon [not happening]. My other meltagun squad followed his landraider and blew it up, but all of my shooting amounted to not a single wound on the greater daemon. I lashed his plaguemarines forward and charged them with the greater daemon and my prince - and in hindsight should have probably charged his greater daemon instead, or Abaddon instead. I'm not sure what I was thinking. My other noisemarines piled back in their rhino and drove off towards his obliterators and an objective, aiming to kill a squad of lesser daemons that was going for it. Abaddon finished off the obliterators, and I succeeded in killing all the plaguemarines.
He charged abaddon at the plasmagun squad that foolishly thought they could hurt a greater daemon, and the greater daemon charged the noisemarines. Both squads were annihilated. He destroyed my noisemarines's rhino with obliterators and charged them with lesser daemons - which all died, the noisemarines besting them in combat. His other obliterators shot both guns off my other meltagun marines's rhino.
The melta marines drove up to try to shoot their meltaguns at the obliterators, but both missed. That hurt, because they were one of the secondary objective points and I needed them dead. The prince flew off to charge lesser daemons so they couldn't take an objective, and my greater daemon went with him. Again I'm not sure why I didn't just go after his greater daemon at this point, as it would have been crucial later. Although there was nothing else to kill this particular squad of daemons on this side [I'd ensured that by not charging either of them the turn BEFORE...], so I guess it wasn't a horrible decision.....given that a horrible decision had already been made.
The REAL horrible decision came elsewhere during this turn. I had moved one of my rhinos ON an objective on turn 2, and forgot about it completely. My noisemarines on the far right flank, since I'd forgotten about it, were toe to toe with two obliterators - opponents they were NOT prepared to face. I could have backed up, run, and with another turn [this was only turn 4 I believe] been easily in range of an objective he could NEVER get to. I could even get back in the rhino if I wanted! Instead I forgot about it, and tried to stay within 3" of the objective. My remaining defiler moved up to charge the obliterators and save my noisemarines, but rolls a 1 to run and didn't make it in. My daemonic pair killed the lesser daemons and consolidated away.
His turn, Abaddon moves forward and is barely in charge range of my greater daemon. His greater daemon moves closer. The more central squad of obliterators pops my last mobile rhino, spilling the marines. He charges them with the obliterators and the greater daemon - the lesser daemons less than 2" away decide not to join, knowing to do so could lose his last troops choice and also swing the combat in my favor by resolution. Smart move. His other obliterators charge and kill the noisemarines on the right flank, ending my chances at grabbing an objective there. Abaddon does 3 wounds to the greater daemon, who actually manages to bring him down in return.
My turn 5, the defiler runs up to the obliterators that just slew the noisemarines, intent on revenge. If I can't win I can try to scrounge battle points! My greater daemon moves towards the final combat where my last 2 marines face off against 2 obliterators and a greater daemon. Given layout, if I charge both of my monsters in I could win the combat, but it was likely that the marines would be killed anyway. I probably wouldn't wipe out his greater daemon, meaning I wouldn't get a consolidation roll, and the objective was on the opposite side of the combat by his lesser daemons. Not willing to take the risk, I let the greater daemon charge into the obliterators alone and lashed the lesser daemons away from the objective. I also pulled them into range of some of my immobilized rhinos, and they opened up with bolters, bringing them down to 2. My defiler had to go through difficult terrain to get to the obliterators. He rolled very well and got 4 wounds! But he passed 3 of his invulnerable saves, meaning one lived. They both swung back, since the terrain made the defiler I1, and only got 1 hit. It wrecked the defiler though, giving him a secondary point for none in return. If only I hadn't had to go through terrain!
The greater daemon performed admirably, doing 3 wounds to the obliterators. His greater daemon killed the marines, and his obliterator with 1 wound killed my greater daemon.
The game ended here, with no troops on my side at all and 2 models too far from objectives for him.
Result: Draw, 2/4 Secondary for me, 4/4 secondary for him.
Thoughts:
Abaddon - the great equalizer! At our store Abaddon is the running joke, the emo-riffic lord of chaos that cuts himself at every opportunity. In tournaments though, he seems to slay a squad a turn while shrugging off ridiculous amounts of melta and plasma fire. I really wish I knew the secret to getting him to attack the enemy and not himself.
There wasn't much I could do in game 4. Deploying behind the hills would give me a chance to drive out forward and pop smoke - but the net gain in distance would have been only a few inches, and there would have been fewer targets for him to concentrate fire on, meaning the smoke launchers would be effectively useless unless I got lucky. The Psyker battle squad is annoying as hell to me. Any particular unit that's not a cult troop [even terminators, if I'd taken those. Even terminators led by Abaddon, if I'd taken that!] can just have 3 models killed and then be sent running as their
LD is reduced to 2. Kill 6 and they're never coming back, which really hurts an elite army like
CSM because when they're down to 4 models, they are still very deadly to a lot of units in the game. It makes me cringe to think that if I'd ever used the 20-man squad maximum, a guard player could just kill 11 and then the other 9 would run away, never to return - 1 shy of a FULL STRENGTH squad in terms of mechanized lists, yet they'd be running away scared. That kind of irks me, and makes me long for an
HQ that could actually LEAD, demanding his troops to stop running or granting fearlessness to a squad.
Summing up round 4, I think I could have won if I'd gone first. I also should have deployed my obliterators instead of deepstriking them, though. While he may have shot them with a vendetta [my fear, and the reason I put them in reserves], that would be one less rhino destroyed turn 1, and with a 4+ cover save it's unlikely he'd kill them all. Heck I could go to ground for a 3+ cover save, making it unlikely he'd kill any really, and I'd still be in the same spot - losing one turn of fire [like they were in reserves], and forcing him to deal with them. If I was lucky he might have even tried to fire both vendettas at them and/or the executioner, and I could have soaked a lot of shots. Lesson learned - deploy everything, and saturate the field with targets.
Game 5 was my head-hanger. I played so poorly. Once down to 2 wounds, Abaddon is within reasonable handling range for a daemon prince or a greater daemon. Even if he gets a whopping 10 attacks by rolling a 6, he's hitting on a 4+ with no re-rolls, and even wounding with all of them I should still be standing with just a couple passed invulnerable saves. After that I get my own attacks, which stand a good shot at killing him. Had I done that, I could have killed the plaguemarines at my leisure - their 2 meltaguns and spattering of bolters wouldn't really do much to my larger
CSM squads, and I'd still have the monstrous creatures to handle them afterwards. Not backing the noisemarines up to the very well-protected objective and going forward instead was suicide. I knew what I was getting into, I just didn't know what I was missing. I sighed and hoped he'd roll badly, neglecting to notice the better choice. Also, using the daemon prince as bait was only a good idea at the time. If I'd waited, I could keep both of my lashes, helping to move obliterators into range of more guns for more chances to kill them, double-lash abaddon and his unit away into uselessness, or lash them into range of both of my doomsirens rather than just 1, improving the odds of killing all the berserkers and giving all my plasmaguns a chance to shoot abaddon directly. Bad playing on my part, and I think I could have gotten third if I'd gotten the win and the secondaries.
Speaking of 3rd place, that award went to my first opponent. I was beyond surprised to hear that, given that I feel his list was not very competitive, and he seemed inexperienced in the metagame, if not the game itself, when he did not know what the Lash of Submission was.
Thank you for reading! If you made it this far, congrats!
