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2015/07/19 03:38:24
Subject: 1850 Hive Fleet Pandora Goes to the BAO GT 2015 (Game #1 completed on p.1)
Panzer1944 wrote: Its games like these that just make me weep at how bad mech armies have it in this edition. These giant vehicles of death just being glanced to death like no ones business. Very lucky that you guys rolled up the mysterious objectives and he got skyfire or else this game might have been even more one-sided. I’m pretty sure I didn’t roll for any mysterious the entire tournament. Already too much paper work to remember (what objectives I have to grab and my opponent needs to get) without worrying about random objectives giving bonuses as well.
Mech isn't terrible, its just that certain things can be wiped out rather painfully when you have certain conditions. To be fair, that knight army was probably good, it's just that they can't do much verses highly mobile haywire platforms that just drown them in it.
"There is a cancer eating at the Imperium. With each decade it advances deeper, leaving drained, dead worlds in its wake. This horror, this abomination, has thought and purpose that functions on an unimaginable, galactic scale and all we can do is try to stop the swarms of bioengineered monsters it unleashes upon us by instinct. We have given the horror a name to salve our fears; we call it the Tyranid race, but if is aware of us at all it must know us only as Prey."
Hive Fleet Grootslang 15000+
Servants of the Void 2000+
2015/07/19 04:11:00
Subject: 1850 Hive Fleet Pandora Goes to the BAO GT 2015 (Game #1 completed on p.1)
Good to know about the mysterious objectives -- I guess the ITC events all use them then? Definitely thought it was the other way around..
Yeah, the ITC uses them. Though both parties can opt not to use them consensually or if they both just happen to forget.
Unyielding Hunger wrote: I cannot wait to see that game on page 2. Odd though, my phone handles it well.
The newer phones are better able to handle them due to their larger memory and better/faster reception. It is the slightly older phones that will be slower to download the images or have enough space to store them in cache memory.
Panzer1944 wrote: Its games like these that just make me weep at how bad mech armies have it in this edition. These giant vehicles of death just being glanced to death like no ones business. Very lucky that you guys rolled up the mysterious objectives and he got skyfire or else this game might have been even more one-sided. I’m pretty sure I didn’t roll for any mysterious the entire tournament. Already too much paper work to remember (what objectives I have to grab and my opponent needs to get) without worrying about random objectives giving bonuses as well.
Mech got better in this edition. However, the newer armies are getting better and more abundant anti-tank as well. Tyranids are especially good at dealing with mech due to their superior mobility and their ability to shoot haywire templates. Oh, and massed S6 shooting can be good AT versus lighter armor.
Panzer1944 wrote: Its games like these that just make me weep at how bad mech armies have it in this edition. These giant vehicles of death just being glanced to death like no ones business. Very lucky that you guys rolled up the mysterious objectives and he got skyfire or else this game might have been even more one-sided. I’m pretty sure I didn’t roll for any mysterious the entire tournament. Already too much paper work to remember (what objectives I have to grab and my opponent needs to get) without worrying about random objectives giving bonuses as well.
Mech isn't terrible, its just that certain things can be wiped out rather painfully when you have certain conditions. To be fair, that knight army was probably good, it's just that they can't do much verses highly mobile haywire platforms that just drown them in it.
The knights actually gave me a harder time to kill than I thought. Through good movement/positioning, they can make it hard for flyrants to get into good shooting positions. The first turn, flyrants can maneuver very easily to kill a knight. But after that, the knight can maneuver behind the flyrants to force them to either fly away or to land on the ground.
That army is a nightmare to play against for most ground armies. However, its main counter is a flyer army, especially one that can very easily kill 1 knight a turn. My army just happened to be the paper to his rock army.
1. Hold Maelstrom Objective 1.
2. Hold Maelstrom Objective 2.
3. Hold Maelstrom Objective 3.
4. Have more scoring units at least partially further than 12" from your deployment table edge than your opponent.
5. Have a scoring unit at least partially within the enemy deployment zone.
6. Have at least 3 of your and none of your opponent's scoring units within 12" of your deployment edge.
Tertiary Objectives: Ground Control, Linebreaker, Table Quarters, 1-pt each
This game could go either ways. My flying tyrants have a slight advantage over his units. However, there is so many LOS-blocking terrain (BLOS) on this map that he can easily hide his units. Then all he has to do is to turbo-boost them behind my flyrants and I will either have to fly off the table or land my flyrants in order to deal with them. Also, hornets won't have a problem going flat-out. That is because they can move flat-out (for a total of 36" movement each) and still be able to snap-fire. They are actually pretty good against my flyrants in that regards. Overall, with Eldar going 2nd, they have a huge advantage over my bugs in the Maelstrom Secondary mission. However, since we are playing Purge the Alien and a large portion of my army is in the air, Eldar is going to be a large underdog in the Primary mission. So I take Primary. My opponent might take Secondary. It's going to be a game of who has the most Tertiary objectives will probably take the game if I am not able to table my opponent.
One thing to note is that on this table, there were basically 5 large 12"x12" BLOS terrain which were also ruins. I felt the terrain somewhat unfair in favor of my army and so I offered to make the game more "fair". We basically turned 2 of the large blocks of terrain upside down (now they're BLOS tunnels only!) so that now there were only 3 pieces of ruins (but still 5 pieces of BLOS terrain).
Psychic powers include a couple of Horrors, a couple of Screams, 1 Onslaught, 1 Paroxysm and 4 Warp Blasts. However, no Catalyst.
Tyranid deployment. This is one of the ruins flipped upside down to become a tunnel. My flyrants are actually underneath the tunnel, not on top of it.
Christian deploys his Inquisition inside the bunker. He decides to reserve everything else, even though there was enough BLOS terrain to hide a considerable portion of his army.
Flyrants fly forwards. Right-most flyrant is on the ground to capture one of the Maelstrom objectives (a unit within 12" of the enemy deployment edge).
I am setting up this turn for the next.
Eldar 1
Spoiler:
The Inquisition shoots at my right-most flyrant and takes 2W off of him.
I get 1 Maelstrom point this turn (unit within 12" of my opponent's deployment edge). My opponent, none.
Tyranids 2
Spoiler:
2 mawlocs and 2 mucolids come in.
Flyrants go after the bunker and all those inside.
When the dust is settled, I've taken out the bunker, Coteaz and all of his henchmen.
VP's - Eldar: 0, Tyranids: 3
My Warlord then "runs" off the table and into Ongoing Reserves.
Eldar 2
Spoiler:
Almost all of his reserves come in. 2 units of hornets come in onto the right flank (my right).
1 unit comes in from the left flank and moves flat-out.
All but 1 unit of scatterbikes come in and they go after my mawloc in the right corner (from my perspective).
Without Catalyst, my mawloc easily goes down.
VP's - Eldar: 1, Tyranids: 3
Actually, he is able to take down both mawlocs, though it takes most of his armies' firepower in order to do so.
VP's - Eldar: 2, Tyranids: 3
Bikers then make their assault jump moves.
Tyranids 3
Spoiler:
Warlord comes back in. He is actually facing the hornets but because of his wings, I turn him 90 degrees to be able to fit him there. Mawloc goes after the hornets.
Flyrants go after the bikers.
1 flyrant goes after the hornets on the other flank.
The last flyrant flies off the table.
Not much happens in the psychic phase as I either fail to cast Warp Blast, fail to hit or he makes his cover saves.
It takes 2 flyrants to take down 1 unit of bikers (the first flyrant killed 4 and I didn't want the last biker there to live).
VP's - Eldar: 2, Tyranids: 4
Shooting by my Warlord is only takes out 1 hornet as my opponent jink away most of my shots.
Same thing here. He only loses 1 hornet.
Mawloc then makes the charge, though the spore mines fail.
I kill another 1 hornet.
Overall, not a great shooting turn. I was hoping to have done more damage to his hornets.
Eldar 3
Spoiler:
Eldar movement.
His last unit of bikers come in.
He manages to take out 1 of the flyrants in the air (stupid me...I opted not to jink and a unit of 2 hornets, needing 6's to hit, hit and wounded me 2-3 times).
VP's - Eldar: 3, Tyranids: 4
The rest of the army takes out my 3rd mawloc but fails to harm my Warlord.
VP's - Eldar: 4, Tyranids: 4
I do not get any Maelstrom objectives this turn. My Eldar opponent gets both of his (I believe it is 1 unit within 12" of my deployment edge and one of the objectives). Currently, Eldar is leading 2-1 on the Maelstrom Secondary.
Tyranids 4
Spoiler:
Warlord and flyrant coming in from Ongoing Reserves go after the hornets.
Other flyrant continues to work on the bikes.
Last turn prepares to turn around.
I take out the unit of 3 hornets.
VP's - Eldar: 4, Tyranids: 5
Other flyrant takes out the solitary hornet.
VP's - Eldar: 4, Tyranids: 6
Eldar 4
Spoiler:
Eldar movement.
Both units of 5 scatterbikes shoot at my Warlord and only manage to take 1W off of him.
Ok, that helps to offset his great saves by his bikers last turn against my flyrant.
The rest of his shooting does 1W to a flyrant and grounds him as well.
As far as Maelstrom goes, I am behind. I do not get any this turn due to my flyrants being in the air while my opponents gets 1 or maybe even both of his.
Tyranids 5
Spoiler:
It's crunch time! My Warlord lands on an objective, both for Ground Control and the Table Quarter tertiary objectives (it might have been one of my Maelstrom objectives as well).
Mawloc mishaps. My opponent puts him in the Eldar corner. Thanks for Linebreaker.
My other flyrant lands as well. What I'm really hoping to do is to cause enough wounds to force Morale tests.
My grounded flyrant prepares to assault his Warlord Autarch's unit.
Shooting here is abysmal as I only take out 1 biker from each unit.
And to make matters worse, both of my flyrants, including my Warlord, are on the ground.
However, I do take out his last hornet.
VP's - Eldar: 4, Tyranids: 7
Flyrant shoots down 4 bikers and then assault the Autarch's unit. We stay stuck in combat with no kills each.
Eldar 5
Spoiler:
Bikers move away. But instead of shooting....
....they turbo-boost to grab the Maelstrom objective as well as for the Ground Control bonus point.
All 8 bikers go after my Warlord on the ground.....gulp!
This time, it is time for me to make my saves! My Warlord makes all but 1 save.
However, his bikers then use their assault jump move to wrestle Objective #3 as well as Ground Control away from my Warlord.
In combat, his Autarch keeps on making his Invulnerable saves. His Warlord Autarch then puts 1W on my flyrant.
So far, I am winning the Primary. Eldar is winning the Secondary. We both have Linebreaker. We are both tied on Table Quarters. However, Christian just took Ground Control with his ObSec troops over my Warlord.
If the game ends now, I lose by 1-point (Eldar 6, Tyranids 5).
We roll to see if the game continues.....
Tyranids 6
Spoiler:
Fortunately for me, the game goes on.
My opponent gets really unlucky here. He fails more saves than he should and I wipe out both units of 4 bikers. (But to be fair I did Warp Blast both units with the S5 AP3 blast while they were clumped together and both blasts hit directly.)
Flyrant lands on the central Objective #1. Warp Blast and shooting wipes out the unit of 5 bikers there as well.
Finally, my flyrant finishes off his Warlord and lone scatterbike in assault.
That game was a little too close for comfort. Despite an Eldar tabling, I almost and would have lost the game had it ended on 5. I was fortunate that it didn't. After the game, Christian and I were talking about his deployment. I felt that he had 2 choices - 1) to hide his units behind BLOS terrain Turn 1 and then come out firing or 2) to reserve his army like he did. Initially, I was thinking that it would have been better for him to deploy everything on the table and to just try to down my flyrants through sheer Volume of Fire (VoF). After all, I did not have any Catalyst in my army. However, after reflecting on our game, I agree with his strategy to reserve the majority of his army. His strategy to try to survive until Turn 5 was the right choice, especially since he was going 2nd and he had more ObSec units than I had.
I do have to admit that I got lucky on Turn 6 also. Throughout the first five turns, both of our dice were about average. Then on Turn 6, Christian's dice just took a nose dive. I really wasn't expecting to table him. I was hoping for maybe a 6-4 or 6-5 win but his dice just did not want to cooperate with him. Overall, Christian played his army very well despite the bad matchup for him.
So I am at 21 out of a total of 22 Battle Points currently. Next round should be a pretty tough matchup. As a matter of fact, it turns out that my next round opponent will be GT-winner, BLOG/BOLS/FLG contributing writer and fellow Team0Comp teammate, Abusepuppy, running Space Marines Battle Company with Eldar allies! Stay tuned....
This message was edited 12 times. Last update was at 2015/07/20 23:22:51
2nd edition: Blood Angels
3rd edition: Imperial Guard
4th edition: Iron Warriors
5th edition: Death Guard
6th & 7th edition: taking a break - power creeep (lethality of game) became too hot to handle
2015/07/20 17:36:59
Subject: Re:1850 Hive Fleet Pandora Goes to the BAO GT 2015 (Game #1 completed on p.1)
sumi808 wrote: Wow thats sportsmanship at the highest level. Willing to do that even at a high level tournament like this one. I tip my hat to you good sir
Thanks.
Despite it being a competition, it is still just a game for fun. Also, I'd feel bad about my win if the terrain was too much in my favor.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2015/07/20 17:38:56
Just wanted to say that your reports are fun to read and the tactics are interesting to read. However at times it seems that you are the king of getting that extra turn that you need to win the game. I know luck is important part of the game (dice being dice), but still, you always seem to get that last turn you need to win.
"Hi, I'am Cthulu. I tried to call, but I kept getting your stupid answering machine."
Love's Eldritch Ichor
Blood is best stirred before battle, and nothing does that better than the bagpipes.
2015/07/20 21:31:54
Subject: 1850 Hive Fleet Pandora Goes to the BAO GT 2015 (Game #2 Completed on p.2)
guardpiper wrote: Just wanted to say that your reports are fun to read and the tactics are interesting to read. However at times it seems that you are the king of getting that extra turn that you need to win the game. I know luck is important part of the game (dice being dice), but still, you always seem to get that last turn you need to win.
Actually, the opposite has been happening to me lately. This game is an exception, but there are more games where I needed for the game to end on 5 (thus, giving me the win) but it went on and I lose. This has happened a few times in some of the smaller tourneys that I've been to. Ironically, overall, I feel that luck has been going against me insofar as games going on or ending on 5 when I need them to. I've been losing more games like this than I've been winning.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/20 21:35:23
Yeah, that is why I wouldn't land my flyrants to try to grab Maelstrom objectives, especially without Catalyst in the army. A grounded flyrant is a dead flyrant, but I got lucky on Turn 5 with my Warlord not dying. His army's firepower is downright scary. I was willing to give up the Maelstrom Secondary in order to try to win the game.
The terrain on that table was pretty bad for the Eldar (and just bad in general) but if you take a one-dimensional army you're going to encounter that sort of problem from time to time. Not that you were wrong to rearrange things, just that that's part of the risk and the challenge of taking a spam army.
Madness is however an affliction which in war carries with it the advantage of surprise - Winston Churchill
2015/07/21 00:14:55
Subject: 1850 Hive Fleet Pandora Goes to the BAO GT 2015 (Game #2 Completed on p.2)
Saber wrote: The terrain on that table was pretty bad for the Eldar (and just bad in general) but if you take a one-dimensional army you're going to encounter that sort of problem from time to time. Not that you were wrong to rearrange things, just that that's part of the risk and the challenge of taking a spam army.
Actually, it isn't as bad as you think. He's got 2 things going for him:
1. Mobile firepower. That has always been a strength of Eldar. He's got the ability to quickly bypass terrain in his way to get his shots off, especially the hornets.
2. Jump Shoot Jump. Such an army works really well the more BLOS terrain you have. He didn't really take advantage of it here (because my army can easily get to his no matter where he tries to hide them and because he chose to reserve them), but his army would have been a nightmare to play against by almost any other army besides my flyrant-spam Tyranids.
Also, I don't believe his army is really one-dimensional. It's got excellent firepower, excellent mobility and a mix of both high-strength and low-AP shooting. It's only got 1 main weakness and that is against flyer-spam armies. Otherwise, it is a very solid army. Actually, both of our armies are very much alike. Both of our armies are very strong, but each has 1 major weakness. His weakness is his lack of AA. My weakness is my lack of a ground game. But I supposed that when he built his army, he was going to accept his weakness, just like I was going to accept the fact that my army will have problems against ObSec-spam armies.
If that's not a one-dimensional spam army then nothing is. I'm not saying it's a bad army, as it can shoot and move very well, but it only has two kinds of unit in it and they do almost exactly the same thing and are vulnerable to almost exactly the same sorts of tactics and weapons. It's no more diverse than the Knights in game 1.
Madness is however an affliction which in war carries with it the advantage of surprise - Winston Churchill
2015/07/21 04:37:01
Subject: 1850 Hive Fleet Pandora Goes to the BAO GT 2015 (Game #2 Completed on p.2)
Game #2 vs Sean's Battle Company Space Marines + Eldar
Let me tell you a little about my opponent in this game. Sean Morgan, aka Abusepuppy, is a writer who has contributed articles to the likes of 3++, Frontline Gaming, Bell of Lost Souls and other BLOG's. He writes a lot of Tactical pieces as well as some reviews. Some of his more current articles include:
So right off the bat, I knew that Sean was a very tactical person with a great understanding of how the game works. The first time I met Sean, it was at TSHFT GT 2015. There, he went through 3 of my Team0Comp members - Ben Schimoller aka Mr.MoreTanks, Ben Cromwell (who was once a member of Team USA at the ETC) and finally the man himself, Mr. Reece "Reecius" Robbins. Not only did Sean make it onto Team0Comp that day, but he ended up winning the entire GT as well.
Win, lose or draw, I am happy to have been matched up against Sean. Even though my army has problems against ObSec-spam armies, I am really looking forwards to this game, even if it means putting my tournament hopes in jeopardy.
1. Hold Maelstrom Objective 1.
2. Hold Maelstrom Objective 2.
3. Destroy an Enemy Unit.
4. Destroy an Enemy Unit.
5. Have a scoring unit at least partially within the enemy deployment zone.
6. Have at least 3 of your and none of your opponent's scoring units within your deployment edge.
Tertiary Objectives: First Strike, Slay the Warlord, Table Quarters, 1-pt each
First of all, I know I can decimate Sean's army. At least I have the potential to do so. I designed my army with Battle Company, Scatterbike Eldar, Ravenwing and massed infantry armies in mind. I've got enough killing power, or so I hope. The million dollar question is, does my opponent have the resiliency to outlast my offense?
In Battle Company, Sean is essentially playing with 530-pts of free transports. That's a 2380-pt army against everyone else's 1850. Now is that broken? Hardly. His units are killable and his army can be dominated. However, with the abundance of Objective Secured, or ObSec, units in his army, he will usually outlast most armies and win by amassing more points than his opponent, even though his army is devastated by the time the game ends. While he doesn't have the hitting power of an alpha-strike army, he's usually got the staying power to have many of his units survive to claim objectives by the end of the game.
His army has got 30 units, of which 26 are ObSec! He's got a lot of low-AP shooting with meltas/multi-meltas in 8 out of his 10 marines squads (12 meltas/multi-meltas in total) and 9 las/plas transports. He's got decent mid-strength shooting with 48 S6 shots from his Eldar detachment. He's actually got good mobility with fast Eldar jetbikes and scouting Marine units. Thanks to Khan, all of his units (and their dedicated transports) have the Scout USR. A strategy of theirs is to just scout up onto Objectives and then to just try to survive, potentially scoring points every turn for Maelstrom objectives. You can't really tarpit his units as the entire White Scars Chapter has Hit-&-Run. This army truly is a problem matchup for most armies.
Fortunately for me, I have some experience with Battle Company. As a matter of fact, I myself run White Scars Battle Company (though instead of Eldar allies, I run Centurions in drop pods). More importantly, I've played Battle Company against Pentyrant Tyranids before and so I have an idea of how this game may end. Usually, in such a matchup, I will have to give up on the Maelstrom Secondary. There is almost no way for me to beat ObSec-spam in the Secondaries. I mainly need to focus on 1) winning the Primary and getting more Tertiary bonus points or 2) focus on trying to table my opponent....which is something that I actually have the potential to do. Going 2nd will help me with trying to win the objective game, but if I want to try to table my opponent, then going 1st would be better. I'll decide after I see how Sean deploys.
I get a good Warlord Trait this turn - Conqueror of Cities.
My psychic powers are ok - 2 Catalysts, 3 Horrors, 2 Onslaughts, 2 Psychic Screams and 1 Blast. Psychic Scream could potentially be very good in this matchup.
Space Marine depoyment. Scouts to infiltrate and Assault squad in Drop Pod to come in on Turn 1.
I hide all of my flyrants behind the ruins (the flyrant on the top is actually on the ground floor). Fortunately for me, the only thing Sean can see behind the ruins are my wings....which does not count for targeting reasons.
I hide the spore mines in the other ruins. He then infiltrates 1 unit of scouts in my corner.
Mawlocs and mucolids to come in from Deep Strike reserves.
My opponent infiltrates his other unit of scouts onto the Relic and then does his Scout moves to spread out his vehicles.
You didn't think he was going to make it easy for me to haywire multiple vehicles with my egrubs, did you?
I didn't keep track of the Maelstrom objectives (actually, I did....but I turned it into the TO's). I will go over briefly with them with what I remember.
Assault squad comes in.
Space Marines move.
No shooting at my flyrants because his guys cannot see them.
He does flame my spores to death, but they don't count towards anything.
Jetbikes turbo-boost away from me and towards the back of his deployment zone.
Tyranids 1
Spoiler:
This is going to hurt....for Marines.
Psychic Scream kills 4 scouts on the Relic. Shooting by 1 flyrant finishes the job.
My shooting also takes out 1 razorback, 2 HP's off from another (I believe I immobilize it) and 1 HP from a 3rd.
I'm actually leading on Maelstrom objectives! My opponent rolled 2 Kill-a-Unit objectives, which he was not able to do. I had 1 Kill-a-Unit objective, which I achieved, and another ground objective, which I did not.
Space Marines 2
Spoiler:
Sorry, but I didn't take any photos for this turn.
Razors shuffle around. He then focuses his entire army onto the flyrant without FNP - all his las/plas razors and all of his jetbikes - only to do a total of 1W on him. Ouch!
Tyranids 2
Spoiler:
3 of my mawlocs come in. All 3 scatters off (I put them right in the center of 4 transports!). However, the left mawloc still manages to blow up a razorback (with the other Assault squad in it).
Flyrants then go after the jetbikes. Now you see them....
....now you don't.
3 units of jetbikes and the Farseer as well....gone, just like that. Only 1 unit of jetbikes survive because they were hiding behind the ruins.
Brutal turn for Marines this turn as I manage to take out 5 units - 3 windrider jetbike squads, the Farseer and a razorback.
We both get 1 Maelstrom Objective this turn (he had 1 Kill-a-Unit which he was not able to achieve and I had 1 Kill-a-Unit which I was able to). So far, I am actually ahead on the Maelstroms!
Space Marines 3
Spoiler:
Marines move towards the Relic.
He focuses on and kills a mawloc. I think he might have put 1-2 wounds on the other.
Tyranids 3
Spoiler:
Flyrants move onto the ruins (except my Warlord).
This turn, I de-mech almost his entire army with my shooting.
I also take out his last unit of jetbikes, tabling his Eldar counter-part.
Mawloc assaults his Assault squad. He kills 1 or 2 guys and then Hit-&-Runs out of combat (we both opted to Hit-&-Run out).
The other mawloc charges a razor and do 2 HP's of damage to it.
Finally, the mucolid charges his marines, blows up and takes with him all but 1 marine.
Not bad for the little guy. 15-pts take out 56-pts of models.
This turn, Marines achieve both of their Maelstrom objectives while I fail to achieve either of mine. Marines take a 3-2 lead on the Maelstroms.
Space Marines 4
Spoiler:
Marines scramble. Khan and his unit of devastators prepare for assault.
Mawloc actually dies to rending snipers.
The rest of his shooting does 2 things....jack and squat.
Khan actually gets lucky and roll a to wound, thus insta-gibbing my mawloc.
Come to think of it, I don't think Khan could have made that charge because he was just de-meched the previous turn. Then again, my memory is a little fuzzy. Maybe he got out a turn earlier? Oh well, doesn't matter.
Tyranids 4
Spoiler:
I go in for the kill, grounding all of my flyrants.
There's a slight point of contention here. I put my 2 left flyrants "slightly" in the ruins (I actually announced it on my turn). But when he goes to shoot at them later, his point of contention was how could they be slightly in the ruins when you can't physically fit them there? In any case, I offered to have the one he shot at jink instead, but he says that it doesn't really matter at that point.
This turn, I shoot down a lot of Marines as well as his Warlord, Khan. I also finish off the rest of his transports.
At the end of the turn, I believe that I am still down by 1 on the Maelstroms.
Space Marines 5
Spoiler:
Though battered, my opponent still has a shot at winning. He moves all of his guys to protect the Relic. He is also up by 1 on Maelstroms. If I cannot wipe out all of his guys by the Relic (and if the game ends after this game turn), then he will win the Primary and possibly maybe even the Secondary.
Shooting puts 1W on a flyrant.
Here is also where we have the discussion about my flyrant in the ruins.
Now, it's time for his Marines to hold on for their dear lives.
Tyranids 5
Spoiler:
I expect to take the Relic. I refuse to lose, especially after completely annihilating his army.
By the ways, my mawloc scatters completely off of his marines in the middle.
And I do take it!
This turn, I score 1 more Maelstrom than my opponent, thus tying the Secondary.
We roll to see if the game continues....and it does.
At this point, I will surpass him in the Secondary and can easily grab all 3 Tertiary bonus points. With that, we stop the game and I get full points, 11-0.
That game went much better than I had expected. A combination of factors led to my victory.
1. The huge BLOS terrain allowed me to hide my flyrants from his potential alpha-strike. In the 1st 2 turns of the game, he only managed to kill the spore mines and cause 1-2W on my flyrants. Ouch!
2. Actually winning the Maelstroms took me by surprise. I was willing to concede the Maelstroms from the get-go. However, the luck of draw (or roll, in this case) gave me very achievable objectives (Kill-a-Unit) while at the same time, gave my opponent very hard to achieve objectives (also Kill-a-Unit objectives). I believe 4 out of 5 turns, he rolled at least a Kill objective, thus allowing me to compete with his army in the Secondary.
3. He had no answers to my flyers and my strategy of Denial gave him no targets to kill....other than the flyers that he had no answers to.
4. I went 2nd.
I knew my army had the firepower/offense to ravage his army. That much I found out from my test game with my Battle Company against Tyranids. However, despite his losses, Sean still had a chance to win on Turn 5. This just goes to show how resilient and good the Battle Company is/can be. Alas, I knew from my practice game that flyrant-spam Tyranids is a potential matchup problem for Battle Company Space Marines and it proved to be true, at least in this game.
After Day #1, I am at 32 out of a possible 33-pts. Alan "Pajamapants" Bajramovic is in the top spot currently with a maximum 33-pts. 2 other players - Brett "Tomb King" Perkins and my Team0Comp teammate, James Carmona - round out the Top 4 with 32-pts each as well.
Coming up next....I am on Table #1 against Pajamapants!
This message was edited 8 times. Last update was at 2015/07/23 16:39:12
First of all, I know I can decimate Sean's army. At least I have the potential to do so. I designed my army with Battle Company, Scatterbike Eldar, Ravenwing and massed infantry armies in mind. I've got enough killing power, or so I hope. The million dollar question is, does my opponent have the resiliency to outlast my offense?
In Battle Company, Sean is essentially playing with 530-pts of free transports. That's a 2380-pt army against everyone else's 1850. Now is that broken? Hardly. His units are killable and his army can be dominated. However, with the abundance of Objective Secured, or ObSec, units in his army, he will usually outlast most armies and win by amassing more points than his opponent, even though his army is devastated by the time the game ends. While he doesn't have the hitting power of an alpha-strike army, he's usually got the staying power to have many of his units survive to claim objectives by the end of the game.
His army has got 30 units, of which 26 are ObSec! He's got a lot of low-AP shooting with meltas/multi-meltas in 8 out of his 10 marines squads (12 meltas/multi-meltas in total) and 9 las/plas transports. He's got decent mid-strength shooting with 48 S6 shots from his Eldar detachment. He's actually got good mobility with fast Eldar jetbikes and scouting Marine units. Thanks to Khan, all of his units (and their dedicated transports) have the Scout USR. A strategy of theirs is to just scout up onto Objectives and then to just try to survive, potentially scoring points every turn for Maelstrom objectives. You can't really tarpit his units as the entire White Scars Chapter has Hit-&-Run. This army truly is a problem matchup for most armies.
Fortunately for me, I have some experience with Battle Company. As a matter of fact, I myself run White Scars Battle Company (though instead of Eldar allies, I run Centurions in drop pods). More importantly, I've played Battle Company against Pentyrant Tyranids before and so I have an idea of how this game may end. Usually, in such a matchup, I will have to give up on the Maelstrom Secondary. There is almost no way for me to beat ObSec-spam in the Secondaries. I mainly need to focus on 1) winning the Primary and getting more Tertiary bonus points or 2) focus on trying to table my opponent....which is something that I actually have the potential to do. Going 2nd will help me with trying to win the objective game, but if I want to try to table my opponent, then going 1st would be better. I'll decide after I see how Sean deploys.
The Shrike wrote: I learn more about 40k from reading battle reports between guys like Jim and Sean than I do actually playing games of 40k.
This should be an epic one
Thanks!
This battle will be a good litmus test of how my bugs will fare in the current meta. If I can do alright here, then I think my bugs will be good in the current meta.
Love your battle reports, Jy2. You are my favorite by far. You make each game interesting and break things down at a tactical level that someone who doesn't play in tourneys can easily understand without dumbing things down.
You're probably the most popular battle reporter on Dakka, and for a good reason! Love the pictures, tactical insights, the right amount of detail etc.
2015/07/23 11:59:31
Subject: Re:1850 Hive Fleet Pandora Goes to the BAO GT 2015 (Game #3 vs Battle Company on p.2)
He was all good to charge with Khan. You can't charge if you left your transport that turn (unless its an assault vehicle). However, he didn't leave his transport that turn, but rather you blew up the Razorback he was in on your Turn 3. This means that he started his turn not in a transport, and so was all good to declare a charge and kill your Mawloc!
These battle reports have been great! Thanks for posting them!
Galef wrote: If you refuse to use rock, you will never beat scissors.
2015/07/23 12:18:41
Subject: 1850 Hive Fleet Pandora Goes to the BAO GT 2015 (Game #3 vs Battle Company on p.2)
He was all good to charge with Khan. You can't charge if you left your transport that turn (unless its an assault vehicle). However, he didn't leave his transport that turn, but rather you blew up the Razorback he was in on your Turn 3. This means that he started his turn not in a transport, and so was all good to declare a charge and kill your Mawloc!
This is incorrect; the rules are very clear:
If a unit disembarks from a destroyed vehicle during the enemy turn, it cannot charge in the Assault phase of its own turn unless the destroyed vehicle had the Assault Vehicle special rule.
This was to correct the rather absurd and counter-intuitive situation that occurred in early 6th (before it was FAQ'd to match the above) where you'd sometimes have to actively avoid killing enemy transports, since doing so would let the contents charge you.
Hive Fleet Grootslang 
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
= 131 
to wound, thus insta-gibbing my mawloc.
HH Imperial Militia/Cults - 1000 points Check out my P&M blog! (
