Painlord Titan Princeps of Slaanesh
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Had a blast this past weekend at Wargamescon 2011. Brought my new counts-as Blood Angels using chaos models and lots of conversions. I had started a blog about this army but then found myself SO pressed for time trying to finish it that the blog went silent. I'll start it up again soon, because I'm a vain and slaanesh follower want everyone to give me praise and adore me. I mean because it helps me paint faster. Ahem....
Anyway because the rounds were SO SHORT (shameless internet attack) I didn't have time to really solidify what happened, so the turn-by-turns are a little sketchy. I'll do my best. There were also seven games, so I know you guys don't want to read TOOOOOO much about them ALL. Anyway here goes.
Tournament style: 3 objectives, Primary [13 points], Secondary [10 points], Tertiary [7 points]. I find myself in a love-hate relationship with this style of tournament as opposed to, say, 'Ard Boyz. I find the games incredibly frustrating as it's a lot to deal with - but that also means the best players are the ones that....er...played the best! So philosophically, I think it's a great idea. It also means I need to step up my game, and I like challenging myself [that's why I don't play Grey Knights - zing!]. All games were random game length - another thing that usually frustrates me to NO END, but I did finally [for the first time in months] have a random game that got past turn 5, so this tournament was a pretty monumentous occasion for me.
My army list, the Angels of Sin Counts-as BA:
HQ:
Sanguinor
Troops:
4x 10 man assault squads with 2x melta, powerfist sergeant
Fast:
2x Baal predators with flamestorm cannons
Heavy:
3x auto/las predators
Elites:
2x jump priests
The flamestorm baals really did very little for me. I mainly brought them as an anti-grey knight unit because it can cause a LOT of damage to power armor VERY quickly, because I know I can't stand up in assault against them and really have no shooting. Thus, the one time I really depended on them, they did nothing. Go figure.
Mission 1:
Dawn of War Deployment
Primary: Seize Ground [5 objectives]
Secondary: Kill points
Tertiary: Table Quarters, scoring units only.
Opponent: Michael Klaus, Grey Knights
HQ:
Librarian - Halberd, Quicksilver, Might of Titan, Sanctuary, Shrouding, Warp Rift
Elites:
techmarine with all grenades
Troops:
10 terminators, 2 psycannons, 2 hammers, 7 halberds, psybolt ammo, brotherhood banner
10 strikes, 2 psycannons, psybolt ammo, master-crafted hammer, rhino with searchlight
10 more of those
fast attack:
stormraven with multi-melta, lascannon, searchlight
heavy:
3x psyfle dreads, 2x with searchlights
I actually thought this list wouldn't be too much trouble for me. I'm mostly infantry and against this list in particular, wouldn't need much fire support from the predators. If he shot his psyfle dreads at my marines, I don't get FNP but still get armor, reducing their damage potential. His only REALLY scary unit in cc is the terminators, as the other units have 1 attack and didn't bring halberds, meaning I'll go at the same time or before if I charge. Not wanting to deal with warp quake, I decided to walk on instead of attempting DoA.
The result was a disaster. He bolstered a ruin, put the terminators partially in it and started spreading out between objectives. Between bolster and shrouding, that's a 2+ cover save for terminators. Ooooook avoid that. The librarian and the techmarine were both joined to that unit. The stormraven went towards me on the side hoping to kill tanks.
I moved on with my baal predators going a bit over 12", and my regular predators behind them between two large hills [all hills were area terrain]. Other predator went on the right side of that bit of terrain. This is where the real disaster was.
His first shooting phase that mattered in turn 2 [he went first] was devastating. He immobilized both baal predators, and the predator that came on the side of the hill. Great. Now my main infantry killers are useless and one of my tanks can't go anywhere or turn to face the stormraven coming down the side. Then on my turn I tried to move my predators out from behind the baal predators. One made it, the other rolled a 1, sticking himself behind the baals with no way to shoot the rest of the game.
The Sanguinor took to the task of killing the terminators. With only 5+ saves, the sanguinor could charge in at I7 and do some serious damage, needing only a 2+ to wound. I might even make them fail a morale test and fall back, taking his librarian with him. Best-case scenario! What I forgot about was quickening, and my dice failed me. I only succeeded in killing a single terminator between my bad dice rolls and his 2/3 passed saves, and I managed to roll better than average to take a singe wound [I failed to really take into account the 2x hammerhands making them S6 against me]. Next round, though, he put up quickening to be initiative 10, and the Sanguinor went down.
So I blitzed forward. I had to get to him. I tried staying out of range of him double-charging with his grey knights, but he began to pull back. Long-range fire and some meltas killed his stormraven and a dreadnought, and he had only immobilized tanks and was losing firepower fast. He started playing keep-away as his normal shooting couldn't put a significant dent in my FNP troopers. I finally moved in and got some shots. I failed to hurt one rhino but popped the other. I was ready for him to charge me. I had two squads in front and one in the back ready to counter-charge. We'd go at the same time on his turn, and my counter-charging squad would go first. This was it.
.....then the techmarine left the terminators and joined the unit. Then the librarian left the terminators and joined the unit because he could barely get within 2" of the techmarine. This was horrible. They got Quickening for the strike first, rad grenades made me T3 against a hammerhanded S5 for the 2+ to wound, and psychotroke grenades made me make initiative tests or attack my own unit. One squad was horribly murdered, the other reduced to a powerfist sergeant and a sanguinary priest. He couldn't combo-charge such that the grenade-bearing squad made it to the second unit, but the regular squad made it to both so that the combat results would apply across the board. His grenade squad was completely free of combat and consolidated back onto his objective.
This is where my real mistake was though. It was the bottom of 5, and I knew [because ALL my random games end on turn 5] that this would be the last turn. His terminators had tried to run to spread out between two objectives, but didn't get close enough to one close to me, and I had the squad that took out the stormraven there. I had that one. My other assault squad, with priest, could have flown and stood between two objectives. I would have had primary and tertiary. I was at the moment ahead one kill point, but I knew his squad would kill my sergeant and priest, giving him two more. What I did, though, was forget the priority of the objectives. I thought kill points was the primary. If I charged and killed his rather depleted grey knight squad before he could kill my two units, I could win the "primary", tie objectives, and win table quarters. I charged in, failed utterly, he killed the two models he needed to and ended up taking the primary [objectives, since I had to pile in away from the one I was holding], taking the secondary [kill points] and I took the table quarters.
Primary: Loss
Secondary: Loss
Tertiary: Win
I hated the parking lot of predators in the beginning. With those flamestorms I could have seriously messed him up, and wrecked those rhinos early on to kill his mobility. I HATE that, and yet I always put vehicles in behind vehicles when coming on from reserves. I was also hoping to deal with the terminators by tank shocking them with any surviving tanks, since I knew I couldn't handle them in assault and wouldn't get past a 2+ cover with lascannon fire. Plus having the predators in later turns could mean that when the librarian jumped ship and they spread out away from their bolstered ruin, I could have shot them with only their invuls to save them, and depleted/made the squad break. All in all a terrible second turn, being too conservative with my assault marines, throwing away the Sanguinor, forgetting what the main objective really was and not keeping in mind the positioning of the librarian cost me this game.
Mission 2:
Deployment: Spearhead
Primary: capture and control
Secondary: Seize Ground [3 objectives]
Tertiary: Kill opponent's least expensive unit
Opponent: Mikal Werre
HQ:
Swarmlord, 2 tyrant guard with scything talons and rending claws
Elite:
2x hive guard
Doom of Malan'tai in spore
2x zoanthropes
Troops:
Tervigon, Scything talons, termagaunt upgrades
20x hormagaunts, glands, sacs
20x termagaunts, sacs
12x genestealers, sacs
Fast Attack:
20x gargoyles, glands, sacs
Heavy Support:
2x carnifexes in a brood, regeneration, 2x scything talons
He outflanked his genestealers and deployed pretty far forward. I deployed everything and kept away from my side short table edge. I kept my baal predators back to deal with his genestealers, and everything else was full forward.
He went first and moved up. He tried to stay out of 18" threat range of my units, but I could see he failed to do so. On my turn I shot his carnifex unit with everything I had, bringing one down and wounding the other. I charged a squad of hormagaunts with one squad of marines that was intentionally hanging back so that I didn't get too many attacks in - I wanted them to pile in and prevent the carnifex from getting to me. I did keep the Sanguinor nearby for bonus attacks on the few models I got into combat, though. On the other side of the board I also got the charge on the gargoyles. I murdered all the gargoyles and consolidated away, and the hormagaunts were able to muster a surprising number of attacks with poison and me forgetting they were I5. The combat was closer than I'd have liked, and he removed models such that the carnifex would make it in. Uh-oh.
He went now and the genestealers came in. With even a 6" run move they were out of range to charge a predator, so they were sitting ducks. I can't remember if the Swarmlord failed his psychic test for Paroxysm or not, but nobody was affected by it so he either forgot to cast or rolled an 11. A zoanthrope periled but cast his spell and they killed some marines. The carnifex charged in to help the hormagaunts and my marines were pretty much butchered. They ran off the table.
On my turn, I charged his termagaunts with two squads, but was also able to charge his zoanthropes, and put a single marine in contact with his carnifex. The sanguinor charged the Swarmlord, thankful that the guards did not possess lash whips to make him I1. My third assault squad charged a unit of newly created termagaunts and the hormagaunt remnants. The termagaunts, zoanthropes, and carnifex were all wiped out, as were the hormagaunts and created termagaunts. The genestealers got toasted by flamestorm cannons, but held. The Sanguinor managed to butcher both tyrant guard and put two wounds on the Swarmlord in an impressive display of dice rolling, and took no wounds in return. The swarmlord then died to fearless wounds.
The doom arrived, killing an impressive number of marines. The squad with my final sanguinary priest fled from casualties, and another was in a bad position after consolidating from combat. Every single man was lost. The sanguinor took a wound, but was doing ok. The hive guard opened fire on the sanguinor and did another wound.
My squad that fell back [just a priest and a sergeant, that was a brutal doom of malan'tai attack!] regrouped and flew to grab an objective in my deployment zone. Another squad flew into his backfield to attack the tervigon. The other was going down the side, trying to get to his little squad of spawned gaunts that had hunkered down for that purpose. Predators shot at and killed the doom and the spore while baal predators finished off his genestealers. The Sanguinor charged and butchered his hive guard while my marines moved on the tervigon.
In the end he ended up killing the sanguinor with termagaunt fire [embarrassing!] and he made the marines run away with his tervigon. I managed to gun down the tervigon and charge/kill the termagaunts in the back, tabling him.
Primary: Win
Secondary: Win
Tertiary: Win
Pride: Loss - Sanguinor killed by termagaunts? Ugh.
Mission 3:
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Primary: Kill Points
Secondary: Seize Ground [3 objectives]
Tertiary: Control the most terrain features by having one model from a scoring unit completely within the feature - did this mean craters from annihilating vehicles counted? hmmm.
Opponent: Ashley Ellis
I had to play against my WIFE!! CRAP! Seriously? She was also competing in the tournament, and the software had us both on the same footing. Actually she had mis-calculated due to a misunderstanding in her second game, and should have won the tertiary objective instead of tieing it. This may have put her in another position but it was what it was.
And so with great lament I hunkered down to get ready to sleep on the couch. I also told her to hold nothing back - I'd be very disappointed in her if she did!
HQ:
Eldrad
Troops:
5x dire avengers in wave serpent with t/l scatter lasers
again
again
again....ugh.
Elites:
4x fire dragons and exarch in wave serpent with t/l scatter lasers
same thing
same thing without an exarch.....ugh.
Heavy support:
3x warwalkers with 2x scatter lasers
again
again, but with only 2 of them
My friends and I helped her build this army and then taught her how to play, and we've created a monster. This list is incredibly mobile and OH. MY. GOD. deadly. She was doing rather average in the tournament due to inexperience costing her objectives [not turbo-boosting in the final turn, etc] but she was having fun and was getting "great"s in all her sportsmanship scores. It was commented that anyone playing this list was a real douchebag - but since she was a girl, it was perfectly fine. Seriously guys? Man. But anyone expecting to "beat up on a girl gamer" was shocked as their armies were being destroyed and they had to scrape out victories.
Enough bragging about my awesome gamer wife, onto the report!
.....which I really don't remember much of. I know I had an assault squad get stuck fighting two warwalkers for the entire game [razzin fraggin muffabrugin'...], and in the end it was very close. The only reason I won tertiary was due to us siding with RAW on the objective and counting vehicle wrecks and craters created in the game as terrain features.
Primary: Win
Secondary: Loss
Tertiary: Win
I could see in my wife's eyes the hint of "I should give him the secondary, help my husband place higher] but she came through for me and went for the cutthroat competitive decision to take what she could get. She also got damn close to stealing the primary from me, and tertiary was only NOT a tie by one terrain piece. PHEW!
And I didn't have to sleep on the couch. Hooray!
Mission 4:
Deployment: Dawn of War
Primary: Capture and Control
Secondary: Annihilation
Tertiary: Kill the most expensive HQ
Opponent: Jon Feipel
HQ:
Company command squad, 3 plasmaguns, medic, astropath, chimera
company command squad, 3 plasmaguns, chimera
Troops:
Platoon command squad, 3 flamer, chimera
infantry squad, flamer, autocannon, chimera
infantry squad, flamer, autocannon, chimera
special weapon squad, 3 meltas
Platoon command squad, 3 flamer, chimera
infantry squad, flamer, autocannon, chimera
infantry squad, flamer, autocannon, chimera
special weapon squad, 3 meltas
Fast Attack:
Vendetta
Vendetta
Heavy Support:
2x Medusas in squadron
2x Hydras in squadron
Manticore
Well, ow! I knew this would be rough. Night fight wouldn't really help me much in this one, and would in fact rob me of a turn of shooting with my predators. He deployed two empty chimeras, spread out to force me back. I deployed the Sanguinor and a full assault squad on the extreme left flank where he left a gap, and a 5 man combat squad on my objective in my far corner. I made a snap decision to DoA the rest of my army - I pretty much never do that, as it's risky, forces me to lose veteran sergeants from half my squads then, makes it easier for torrent of fire to kill my priests, makes it harder for priests to extend their bubbles, and makes me vulnerable to blast weapons. But I did it today! I also outflanked the flamestorm baals.
He came on and used a searchlight to light up my squad, then filled them with as many bullets as able. I thought his special weapon teams would be in his vendettas and they'd go hunting after my predators as well as dropping off a special weapon team to kill my 5 man squad on my objective and take it themselves, but they just walked on.
He had put himself in range of my deployed units, so the Sanguinor charged his vendetta and my marines tried to combo-charge several chimeras, with limited success. My predators couldn't pop his lit-up tank that used a searchlight.
Turn 2, he shot everything he could at the Sanguinor and that tactical squad, killing all but two and killing the Sanguinor. Ouch! The manticore also managed to kill a predator.
On my turn, a baal predator arrived, relishing the chance to fire its flamestorm at the two bunched up squads of infantry on a hill that had participated in the murder of my assault squad and sanguinor. The two surviving assault squad members jumped back to try taking out the hydras. I failed all my DoA reserve rolls except one, for a ten-man squad with a priest. They went for the ballsy attack [or is that baalsy?], dropping behind his line of chimeras and vendetta, right in front of his manticore and right next to his medusas. I was hoping for a glance from a pistol to maybe shake one while the meltas bagged the other, but I only got a single glance that immobilized [and thus wrecked] one of the medusas. This.....was going to be messy. Please scatter? My flamestorm made both his squads run. I decided to try and keep my assault marines safe by charging one of the squads. They regrouped and fought valiantly, but they got destroyed. My troops were in the open again!
Turn 3, well....he didn't scatter. My squad went up in smoke save the priest and the sergeant, who then died to other shooting. Damn! His non-besieged chimera line started moving forward towards my objective. His cheaper company command squad, the one I didn't have to kill, plasma'ed the baal predator that toasted their friends, but between a plasma overheat and the exploding predator, suffered casualties and fell back, never to return. His other fleeing infantry squad had also fallen back off the table this turn.
My turn 3, the rest of my forces arrived. The other half of my combat squad holding my objective landed and finished off his other medusa, while the other 10-man with a priest landed and stunned a chimera. Predators shook his other vendetta and popped the chimera with a special weapon team. The other baal came on the other board edge and toasted one of his infantry squads hanging out in the trees there.
His 4th turn. Vendetta boosted over to be by the baal predator. The autocannon squad there in the woods that got toasted fired and shook said predator. The special weapon team by my big assault squad killed a couple of them, but did little else. He tried to shoot my assault squad with his hydras, but I had a bit of an issue with that, as they were all behind an approximately 2-inch thick hill. He had the forgeworld models with very long, very high-aimed barrels, and was looking down from the tip of the barrel. This was unacceptable, and I demanded he look "along" the barrel, from down where the barrel would actually swivel from. My argument was that despite my predator autocannons being able to elevate, I certainly never elevated them to gain a height advantage and neither did anyone else I knew. He rescinded and fired at my predator, doing little. The manticore fired one last time and managed to kill one of my backfield marines in the combat squad to try to get rid of them, but they made most of their armor saves and were fearless due to red thirst. He gunned down my other combat squad that had landed and killed his medusa.
My 4th turn, the last before time ran out.
I charged two chimeras and the special weapon team on the left, tried to tank shock the remnants of the infantry platoon on the right with my baal predator, and shot and destroyed his manticore and the chimera that held his more expensive platoon command squad. My hope was they'd fail morale and run, and it was my only shot at taking the tertiary. Combat went as expected but I couldn't kill all the empty chimeras by his objective. I murdered the special weapon team and consolidated onto his objective.
Primary: win
Secondary: win
Tertiary: loss
I wish we could have played to a 5th turn at the very least. Knowing I had my objective and there was little he could do about it, and an assault squad in his midst plus another round of fire from the baal predator at his exposed command squad plus any other fire from my predators could have seized the tertiary for me. He had nothing other than that company command squad and an out-of-position special weapon team that could harm my FNP assault squad, so I think I could have sealed it. Ah well.
So ended the first day. I found myself in the competition bracket, or the high bracket, and prepared myself for three more challenging games.
Day 2: Champion Bracket
Yup, ended in the top bracket from Day 1. I knew it would be rough, and hoped my dice would do me well.
....they didn't.
Mission 5:
Deployment: Spearhead
Primary: Seize Ground [3 objectives]
Secondary: Capture and Control
Tertiary: Have more total units [scoring and non-scoring] in opponent's deployment zone than they have in yours.
Opponent: Paul Murphy
HQ:
Mephiston
Sanguinor
Elites:
5x terminator assault squad, 2 lightning claws, 3 hammers
Chaplain
2x Sanguinary Priests on foot.
Troops:
10x assault marines, powerfist, 2x meltaguns, removed jump packs, rhino
9x assault marines, powerfist, meltagun, remove jump packs, rhino
10x assault marines, 2x meltaguns, powerfist
5x assault marines, powerfist, meltagun, remove jump packs, rhino
Heavy Support:
Stormraven, multi-melta and assault cannon.
Blood Angels on Blood Angels! He's got me outclassed in assault, I've got him with long-range fire. Unfortunately his assault elements are very efficient. A unit of assault terminators with a chaplain, mephiston, sanguinor.....those can take out a squad, each, and live to kill more. I've got to be extremely careful!
He puts his objective in his back corner, and I do the same. He's got the 5-man squad in a rhino, though, and I have....nobody, I need every man I can get fighting! I use my baal's scout moves to move into the neutral quarter "north" of me.
He opens the game with a gamble. He throws the stormraven out and disembarks his terminators and chaplain [but not the priest, who stays in the stormraven giving a huge fnp bubble - I'll need to remember that]. He is a FRACTION, but an obvious don't-need-a-judge fraction, of an inch away from assaulting. I felt bad, but also very VERY excited by the news. Mephiston fleets and assaults one of my baal predators. He only fleeted one inch and honestly I was pretty sure that kind of screwed him out of assaulting - but I just watched his big gamble fail, and it looked pretty darn close. He stunned it, and I knew it was toast.
I moved my baal predator that could move up near one of his rhinos - I really hate when I do this. I out-range most assault armies, yet vs marines I get this strong urge to throw my baal predators out there to start toasting marines. The plan is to use my predators to pop a rhino, then toast the models when they get out. I positioned it so I could get a decent shot even if I just wrecked it, and cover several if I annihilated it. I DID end up annihilating it, but a horrible wound roll and an awesome feel no pain roll meant I only killed one. The big problem with throwing my baals out there like this is that basically it gives enemy meltaguns something to shoot at first turn. I really need to hang back, pop tanks, and then try to drive around and toast those marines/units off objectives later. Meanwhile, the rest of my forces moved over to capitalize on the mistake. I stunned the gunship with melta fire from units that couldn't assault, then charged with two squads with fnp and the sanguinor, putting the sanguinor in btb with his chaplain. In hindsight this was probably a mistake as I should have used the sanguinor to kill the terminators, and I forgot how durable a 2+ with fnp was. In the end though while he passed all his lightning claw saves, I managed to kill the three thunderhammers before they could attack, and then powerfists took out the lightning claws. Mephiston killed the baal predator he had charged.
His next turn, he popped the other baal pred with meltas, and basically positioned for me to come at him. Mephiston flew down and charged one of my squads, killing about five of them. They broke, but he caught them, causing another casualty. The stormraven attempted to shoot me with its assault cannon, but did little. [another small LOS issue here, the assault cannon is mounted on top, and I had marines standing directly underneath the main hull part - how exactly does it point through the vehicle?]. I keep bringing this up when my troops are getting shot at, only to have my vehicles targeted - which satisfies the must-make-sense-within-rules OCD part of my personality, but honestly I should probably take these hits ON my troops that have feel no pain rather than risking my tanks. D'oh.
My turn the Sanguinor's chosen sergeant squad counter-charges mephiston while my Sanguinor flies up to assault the meat of his army. My other two squads of assault marines start flying around the stormraven, heading for his objective. I do some shooting and blow some guns off the stormraven, but do little else. Assault squad that's injured charges the stormraven and does some damage, immobilizing and stunning it. Sanguinor charges his squad and kills a few, taking a wound in the process. Mephiston kills a few marines from the squad he'd depleted, but despite it all could only kill them down to a sergeant. My charging marines do nothing to him but then it comes down to the two powerfist sergeants, and in an impressive [and rare] bit of not-sucking, bring him down. I consolidate the one lone sergeant back towards my objective - this guy could win me the game! Bigger squad consolidates towards him. I thought about pulling them back to be safe from his Sanguinor, but his tertiary objective was to kill MY Sanguinor, and he chose him as the "target" for his Sanguinor to get re-rolled hits and wounds on. If he didn't go for him and went after my squad, my Sanguinor could possibly tear through his entire central force of 2.5 remaining assault squads. I consolidated forward, figuring he'd do that.
.....whoops! Thought wrong! His Sanguinor got that murderous look in his eye and flew down to charge my full assault squad with priest. In combat he charged the Sanguinor with his jump pack troops and moved the other rhino so they'd get furious charge and FNP. He fired one last hurrah, a bloodstrike missle, at one of my predators to no avail. This thing had lost 5 out of 6 weapons now and been immobilized. It had to die! Luckily it did, in his assault phase. The priest got out of the wreck just fine. His Sanguinor butchered half of my squad and took no wounds in return, and they failed morale and ran. He consolidated about 3" away from my lone remaining sergeant from the squad Mephiston attacked, and was still within 6" of my squad that was falling back - damn! His assault squad and on-foot squad that was fighting the Sanguinor took several casualties and did nothing in return to the sanguinor. His jump squad failed morale and fell back, but his regular squad stayed put.
My squad the Sanguinor attacked couldn't regroup and fled off the board. My lone sergeant went off to grab my objective, running to try getting away from the sanguinor. My still full assault squad on the flank moved as fast as possible towards his backfield rhino. Their priest left them to join my depleted assault squad that downed his stormraven. His priest went to ground, but melta fire killed him anyway. A predator wasted its shots trying to kill the priest, and the other two wasted THEIR shots trying to kill his remaining rhino. I shook it. In assault my Sanguinor killed a few more marines and they broke. I consolidated to keep them from regrouping.
His 4th turn now, that squad fled off the board. He dismounted from his rhino, leaving the priest behind for the bubble. He moved his assault squad, which regrouped, back near the fight. The Sanguinor left to hunt down my veteran sergeant. It looked like he wouldn't make his assault move, since I ran on my previous turn. I think he was about 2-3" away from me when I flew 12 and then ran 3, and after the sanguinor moved his 12 he looked like he was over 6" to assault my guy. My opponent called me on what was probably a shady movement phase. It seemed to me that the math was right, and I could have gotten to just barely at the edge of his assault move so he'd need a 6. When we measured the current distance between us though, it seemed I'd moved too far - excited hand-drift-while-moving syndrome? We didn't know where the sergeant should actually be, so we just said that if the Sanguinor got at least a 4 on his difficult terrain check, he'd be in range. He was, and the sergeant was murdered. He shot the sanguinor with everything he had, doing a wound, then charged with the foot assault squad. The Sanguinor failed horribly with his attacks, and then was dragged down.
My turn, my assault squad that was somewhat depleted tried to charge his on-foot squad, and my 10-man squad flew to his backfield rhino, immobilizing and stunning it. The assault in the center was inconclusive. My predators moved flat-out to try to get in his deployment zone for the tertiary, and to tank shock if necessary. Combat in the center was again inconclusive.
His turn 5, the priest dismounted to join the assault and the rhino tried to tank shock my assault squad by his backfield objective. His 5-man squad got out and charged me. I thought this would be over quickly since I had twice the marines, but it would prove to be otherwise. I did very little to his 5-man squad, which put a serious dent in my 10-man. In the center his marines failed him, and the regular on-foot assault squad broke and ran.
My turn 5, I moved a predator to keep his assault squad moving off the board, and to sit on an objective, one of the seize ground objectives. My marines in the center lost combat and ran, and he consolidated to stay within 6".
At this point the time that was called was less than 2 minutes - I think even the 1 minute timer was announced, so we shouldn't start another turn since we can't finish it. I knew, though, that dice down was very explicitly stated in the tournament rules as non-negotiable. There would be no exceptions, dice down meant dice DOWN. Unable to really do anything conclusive in his turn, I was sure they would call dice down before anything important happened, so told him to go ahead after rolling and, of course, for the first time in MONTHS, I'd like to say at least six, a random game length goes beyond turn 5 for me. Swell.
He moved his assault squad a bit to make sure he could be in range of one of the objectives and to keep my squad running. He turned his mobile rhino around and rammed my predator, doing no damage - I realize now I forgot to do the return S7 hit, which could have been very significant.
He grabbed the dice to shoot meltaguns at my predator and dice down was called. Lifting my hands from the table, I reached for the record sheet. He went for a judge, who to my surprise told us to continue the turn. I was....a bit annoyed. No exceptions, eh? Except, you know, when you ask for it? What is a time limit, anyway?
His meltaguns blow up the tank, removing one of my units from his deployment zone and giving him the objective. In combat, my marines actually lose combat again, losing two to his 5-man squad's one. My sergeant can't seem to land a hit with his powerfist and my marines are inept.
My turn 6, I want to tank shock his assault marines, but am told his tank is preventing me from pivoting. Also unable to back up due to his assault squad, I can't get anywhere near that objective to contest. I think I'm in his deployment zone, so I don't bother moving. I shoot at his marines, hoping to maybe kill two to force a morale check. I don't. In combat my marines continue to fail me. His rhino back there was too far to contest, so if my TEN marines could have just managed to defeat FIVE I would have had that objective, but they just sucked too much to do it. To make matters worse, it turns out my tank was in the 12" bubble of no-deploy, with only a part of the front tread in his deployment zone. I could have moved it, even!
He had the Sanguinor in my deployment zone, controlled an objective, and contested his backfield objective. I still had my now below-half assault squad in his deployment zone.
Primary: Loss
Secondary: Draw
Tertiary: Draw
Should have been:
Primary: Draw
Secondary: Win [my squad doing what it should have] Or at the least Draw [my squad sucking like they did]
Tertiary: Win
Not a good way to start day 2. A horrible loss crippled me in points, so I knew I was dead in terms of running, but the inconsistent time ruling now put me in a bit of a bummed out mood. Plus the incredibly good luck when I got all hit all wound against Mephiston came back to bite me in the ass when I failed to get a single wound against his little tiny backfield squad with the other powerfist. Stupid sergeant!
Mission 6:
Deployment: Dawn of War
Primary: Kill Points
Secondary: Capture and Control
Tertiary: Have the most number of surviving troop units
Opponent: Steve Martino
HQ:
Hive Tyrant, 2x devourers w/ brainleech worms, armoured shell, Leech Essence, Paroxysm
2x Tyrant guard, lash whips
Elites:
3x Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard
Troops:
10 termagaunts
10 termagaunts
tervigon, termagaunt upgrades, crushing claws, scything talons
tervigon, termagaunt upgrades, crushing claws, scything talons
20 genestealers, Broodlord
19 Genestealers, Broodlord
Ohhhhhh hell. He went first and deployed the tyrant and guard front and center, as well as a tervigon next to him. He said his genestealers were going to infiltrate. I didn't want him lining my board edge and preventing my predators from arriving - which come to think of it with 20 he couldn't, so I shouldn't have worried. Plus if he deployed too close I could have gotten more in range to do damage. I think he probably wouldn't have changed a whole lot, though. I deployed the Sanguinor just to make sure I at least had a bubble my tanks could walk on with, and then he deployed his genestealers inside a large piece of woods in the center.
I knew this was going to be rough. I really just couldn't deal with all those genestealers. He spread them way out so my baal preds would be limited in effectiveness, and my marines couldn't handle those squads in close combat unless I could combo-charge and even then I'd need to be rather lucky. I'm used to dealing with smaller 10-man genestealer squads that most local players take, and I think they make grave errors when doing so. Plus I'm used to fighting them with my mechanized chaos, which can use lash to pull them away from feel no pain, use lots of tanks to tank shock them around, and just plain fill them with lots of bullets from bolters.
He went first and just moved forward. He knew he was in assault range of the Sanguinor, but he was in cover, so I'd need a difficult terrain check. Gave the stealers fnp and that was about it. Everything else of his came on and ran.....like 5 or 6 inches across the board for the whole army. I knew I was in trouble if he kept that up.
I flew my marines on in a line on the right of the board with one squad coming in sort of left. Baal predators came down the extreme right. I figured with lots of pistol shots I could at least get a few casualties. I got one, after a horrible set of dice rolls. Night fight screwed me, too. All my assault squads rolled 30 inches for their night fight, but my predators all got 9 or 12, and they scanned the darkness fruitlessly. I was hoping to weaken the tervigon to the point where the Sanguinor could kill it, then decided against it and shot the tyrant - I knew he'd get cover, but I figured if I could wound a couple of the guards or better yet kill them, their lash whips would go away. But alas, it was dark outside and we saw nothing. The Sanguinor tried to assault and rolled only a 3 for his distance, so was left in the cold.
His second turn, everything moved up, both genestealer squads got fnp again. He moved the forward genestealer brood up into charge range, getting a 6 for fleet which he didn't need to get to assault, but he needed to get out of the terrain after a poor difficult terrain check. Dammit! I was hoping I could at least get him to be Initiative 1, since he'd spread out so much through the terrain piece to avoid the flamestorms. Yay dice. The Tervigon forward spawned gaunts [he spawned 10-12 every time and never ran out], which moved to surround the sanguinor. The tyrant moved to point-blank with the Sanguinor. All his backfield stuff ran....5 or 6 inches. This was looking bad. Tyrant failed his psychic test for Paroxysm, and did no wounds shooting. He charged with the tervigon, all the new termagaunts, and the tyrant. Luckily, due to his placement the guards couldn't get into btb, so the Sanguinor got to strike. He killed a guard and wounded the tyrant, and took nothing in return. Fearless wounds did a little damage but not much. The genestealers annihilated the squad they charged.
....oh wait, no they didn't, they left one guy alive, who passed all his damn "got caught by the enemy" saves and stayed there, making sure my 2 baal predators couldn't roast the genestealers. Gee, thanks marine. What a great contribution to your army. I moved the left-most squad with the Sanguinor's chosen up to help the Sanguinor, a second squad flew into the woods to assault a unit of spawned gaunts so they couldn't jump in later, and the third assault squad.....I don't really remember what they did. Did they help out their friend in cc? Seems like I abandoned him, but I can't remember. Anyway, the squad that jumped into the woods lost both meltaguns, which landed 1" away from the enemy. Nobody else, just those guys. Thanks dudes. A flamestorm baal moved in and tried to roast the second genestealer squad, but between crappy wound rolls and feel no pain, only killed 3. My predators attempted to shoot his backfield tervigon and did nothing to it. All predators, nothing. 1's to hit, 1's to wound when I managed to get a hit. Absolutely ridiculous. Onto the combats I guess. Sanguinor's chosen charged into the ongoing combat, putting the chosen powerfist in contact with the tervigon, a marine against the tyrant guard to keep him from going after the Sanguinor, and the rest in btb with the gaunts. The squad in the middle had opted not to shoot the gaunts, because they didn't want to screw themselves out of an assault. My dice had other ideas though, and rolled a 2 for difficult terrain. They were 2.2 inches away. Thanks, meltagunners, for getting yourselves killed in the trees. Anyone but you would have been fine. Wonderful.
The marines butchered all of the termagaunts and the Sanguinor demolished the tyrant and his guard. Then in another impressive display of dice rolling, my Sanguinor's chosen managed to hit with all 5 and wound with all 5 attacks against the tervigon, gutting it in one swoop, but not before it wounded the Sanguinor. I forgot to check if any gaunts were within range of his explosion, but I don't think any were.
Well then! That was a good roll and I'd like to say it made up for the predator's shooting - not everything else like horrible difficult terrain checks and such, but at least the predators. He slaughtered my remaining marine down south and consolidated. My other marines consolidated in a semicircle around the Sanguinor - he could shoot him if he wished, but then he couldn't charge anything.
His turn he spawned more gaunts, and all four units converged. The rearmost unit of stealers went after my baal predator, while the first unit that had deployed went after my squad in the center. I really really don't know what happened to my 4th assault marine unit, but it didn't make it through the game that's for sure. The gaunts chose to shoot my marines, and between all forty-ish shots only dropped one. Way to go guys! I need that luck to keep up in assault! He fired hive guard at the baal preds and the Sanguinor, doing little. He charged all 40-ish gaunts into the marine squad and the stealers at the baals, the other stealers going for the marines in the woods. Initiative 1, yay! In combat his gaunts did a serious number on my marines. That hurt a lot, but I did barely enough wounds back to tie combat - he passed a ton of 6+ armor saves on those damn gaunts! My marines held, but they were getting severely butchered. Baal predator went up in smoke.
My turn....3 now, I believe. Sanguinor flies over the combat to go for the tervigon behind the termagaunt line. Predators shoot at the tervigon and again do absolutely nothing. Way to go guys, thanks. Sanguinor charges the tervigon and again shows me I don't really need the predators by doing 5 wounds to it, dropping it instantly. The explosion kills lots of gaunts, but still not as many as I'd hoped for due to lots of 6+ saves being passed. That severely hurt their close combat ability though, and my marines were able to win the combat......by only 1. Yes, thank you lots MORE 6+ armor saves. Three of the squads of gaunts, without synapse around, break and run. The other rolls a 4 and stays....one more damn gaunt killed and they'd be broken too. If they had, I could have consolidated out of charge range of the genestealers. Sanguinor consolidates. Marines in the center get killed. If terrain slows him down and he doesn't get to my marines, I can kill the gaunts and make a beeline for his objective, while using my predators to contest mine from his genestealers. The squad of stealers that went after the baal predators will need a few 6's on run rolls to get all the way down to my objective and will never reach my assault marines, so I really REALLY needed those gaunts to run. Yay armor saves.
His turn, all his gaunts continue falling back. They all shoot the Sanguinor, who takes one wound but refuses to be dragged down by termagaunts again [thank you, sanguinor]. He does, however, go down to Hive Guard fire. We had to check the rules to see if S8 will still allow feel no pain on a T4 model if it's eternal warrior. I remember this discussion coming up on Dakka related to Plaguebearers hit with missile launchers, and I thought we'd all decided they still get it. Well the rulebook specifically mentions you don't, even if you have eternal warrior, so I'm wondering why there was that debate in the first place. Anyway, he rolled a 2 for his feel no pain so we didn't need a judge to really check anything - we were going to only call one if he passed it. He got a 6 run roll for both units of genestealers, putting one in combat with my last assault squad and the other quite close to my predators on my objective. There was nothing on his, all gaunt squads were falling back. I could still tie the secondary. Marines got butchered in cc and genestealers consolidated 5". God this army is just flying all over the board.
My turn, I move my predators to contest my objective. He'll need to kill them all to keep me from contesting. I do a little shooting, but the predators do what my predators have done best and suck it up. I try to tank shock him too, to no avail.
His turn 5, gaunts fall back off the board, with one tiny squad moving towards his objective. His genestealers move towards my objective and run.....6". Jesus christ, it's all going against me. He charges the predators and immobilizes one , but destroys another.
My turn all I can do is try to tank shock again. I fail, and the game ends. My predator still contests my objective, but that's all I've got going for me.
Primary: Loss. He got more kill points. I actually killed very little, and one squad of gaunts was able to rally [and did. I can't pass Ld 10 checks, nid players pass that 5 all the time!]
Secondary: Draw
Tertiary: Loss. Yeah. any number of troop units on his side was way more than my, you know, zero.
Every tournament has to give you THAT GAME where your dice fail you. My characters made up for my predators in close combat, but between crappy difficult terrain checks, piss-poor assault rolls for pretty much anything BUT a character, horrible saves and a complete inability to hurt his stealers, and the fact that he got 5 or 6 for almost every run and consolidate roll plus all those damn 6+ saves was just demoralizing. I thought I might be spared some problems with slow-running units, or even some fast and some slow so I could take them apart, but it just all came on, all of it fast, and all of it incredibly durable - even the 6+ save gaunts. Absolutely horrible.
Mission 7:
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Primary: Seize Ground [5 objectives]
Secondary: Kill Points
Tertiary: Kill enemy's most expensive unit
Opponent: Brian Poole
Brian ran a counts-as Slaaneshi Blood Angels like me! It looked really gorgeous, and it was kind of funny that I was to face essentially myself in the final round, right down to the name.
HQ:
Librarian, shield of Sanguinius, Blood Lance
Librarian, Shield, Blood Lance
Honour guard, 2 with melta AND flamer, 2 with flamer in a razorback with t/l las and plas with dozer blade
Honour guard, 2 with melta AND flamer, 2 with flamer, Company Standard, in a razorback with t/l las and plas with dozer blade
Elites:
Furioso Librarian with Wings of Sanguinius and Fear of Darkness
Troops:
5 assault marines on foot with meltagun, infernus pistol, in a las/plas razorback with dozer
same
same
same
same
same
So he doesn't have the powerfists in cc like myself or my round 5 opponent, but has lots of shooting. I can't bring myself usually to pay for that infernus pistol, but I guess here it works. I'm terrified of all that las/plas running around, and I don't actually outnumber him. This will be a really rough fight.
.....then he deploys all reserves. I'm not entirely sure why, but he thought it prudent. I decided to try DoA again. Not wanting my predators sniped by his razorbacks that moved on turn 2, I put them in reserves as well and put my baal preds in outflank hoping they'd come on the right side - literally, the right side, as that's where most of his army came on.
His turn 2 the librarian and an honour guard, plus I think both librarians in troop squads and a third troop squad came on. Most drove pretty fast and popped smoke. Nothing else.
My turn I get 2 predators, 1 baal predator that came in on the left [dammit!], the Sanguinor and all my assault marines. Success! DoA worked much better with its reserve rerolls this time than vs the guard player in round 4. I combat squadded two of the units to spread melta shots out. Generally whenever I fire a single meltagun it fails me, but I had to try to do as much damage as possible. My 10-man unit dropped in front of his small rhino wall, and a combat squad dropped next to them. I forgot to fire with the big squad but ran them instead. At least it brought their priest into FNP range of my combat squad! Another combat squad dropped on the extreme right, right on the board edge while another tried to land off to the right of his army and scattered onto a terrain-covered hill, losing nobody. The last combat squad dropped next to his furioso, and the second 10-man squad dropped off the left out of danger, ready to come help out next turn. The two predators moved on and started shooting razorbacks.
I destroyed the furioso, wrecked a razorback with a librarian in it, and I think stunned two other razorbacks. Not bad!
His turn the rest of his army came on. Several got out of their rides while another tank shocked my combat squad that landed on the kill. They broke and ran, their sergeant dying in terrain. He shot and charged the combat squad that killed his furioso, shot and charged the rearmost combat squad, killing it, and shot and charged the combat squad near my large squad in the center. The furioso-hunters lost a few members but held on. With no powerfist over there, I didn't expect much. The librarian and friends killed all but 1 of that combat squad, which broke and got away. The guys in the backfield killed all but one of the members of that combat squad, too.
My turn 3. Ok, I'm down almost a whole combat squad, another is down to 2 and outnumbered in assault, 4 of 5 of another are falling back and have to fall back again thanks to his razorback still being close, and the last survivor of a 4th combat squad is running, and has to run again because the librarian and friends consolidated too close. Not.....terrible really, about what I expected. My heavy hitters were still in the fight. I rolled for reserves and got the other baal, on the right side [but it can't do much, as that combat squad there survived and is in hth] and the third predator. We're all in!
Big squad that dropped on the left flew over to assault his librarian unit. Big squad in the middle flew over to multi-assault the following:
Other librarian's razorback
razorback that had tank shocked my combat squad
another razorback in the backfield
another razorback on his board edge
the squad that charged my combat squad in his backfield.
Pretty ambitious, I know, but I had furious charge and the Sanguinor's blessing. The Sanguinor went after the other librarian's razorback as well. In assault I lost the rest of the combat squad in the back that was part of the multi-charge, and I got his squad down to only 1 model. I shook a couple razorbacks and blew up the one his librarian was in, but that was all. The 2 marines of the furioso-hunter combat squad held and survived, while the combat against the librarian went decently. I killed three marines and the librarian, but he held. My other big assault squad all piled in closer.
His turn 4, time for the counterattack. He gets out his expensive honor guard and moves to join the big combat. His now dismounted librarian unit dismounts and gets ready to charge. His tank-shocking razorback squad gets out and gets ready to charge, while the razorback moves 12" to keep my marines falling back. His other honour guard gets out and shoots the Sanguinor, reducing him to 1 wound with some razorback help. He charges everything in and with fnp, my unit does fairly well. I still can't kill that last surviving member of one of his squads, but we're holding our own. My other big assault squad finishes off the squad his librarian was with and consolidates. My two marines from furioso-hunters live on still, but they're down to 1 now, and he's down to 2. Drawn combat.
My turn 4, my left side baal moves closer to the fight. My right side baal pops smoke, as he has pretty much nothing to shoot at. My lone marine from one of my combat squads regroups and flies after an objective while my 4-man survivors flee again. Sanguinor flies over to kill his expensive honour guard and get the tertiary objective, and my now free large assault squad flies in to blow up a razorback and hopefully multi-charge the squad inside, another two razorbacks, and the ongoing combat with furioso-hunter to help him out. Predators drop the razorback keeping me from regrouping and one of the ones in his back to the right, by my baal pred. In cc, Sanguinor sucks it up and kills maybe 2, but he survives. Assault marines do a number on the squad they successfully got out of their razorback, but doesn't hurt the other razorbacks and doesn't hurt the squad fighting furioso hunter. Furioso hunter finally drops, but that squad fighting him fails morale and flees off the board. I pile in. Meanwhile in the big assault the Sanguinor joined, I believe I lost everything but the sanguinor. One squad and the honour guard pile around the sanguinor, but that makes his lone meltagunner from one of his assault squads that I could never kill free to go after my baal predator. His librarian and squad break away and go to help out their friends.
His turn 5, he jumps everything into the combat with the other big assault squad. His lone meltagunner takes a potshot at the baal pred on the right and stuns it - it did nothing this game due to ongoing assaults. Another squad I had yet to kill got out of a razorback and moved around a hill to take a potshot at my other baal, but it missed. In combat he does alright, killing a few of my guys. I'm trying to at least finish off one of his combat squads before I eat it. The Sanguinor butchers his honour guard, claiming tertiary. If I can just survive I can claim another kill point from the other squad and deny him his. Unfortunately they get a lucky thrust and the Sanguinor dies. At least he did his job.
My turn 5, My 4-man squad regroups and grabs an objective. The 1-man unit grabs an objective. The left side baal tries to flame his squad, but they're barely in [actually I'm positive they were out, but it didn't matter much] FNP range from his priest in the honour guard and only 1 dies. Was hoping for a morale check there. Predators down another two razorbacks. I was hoping the explosion of one would finish off his meltagunner, but it didn't. In cc I lost combat and I think I broke, but he caught me and we stayed there.
Game ends, resuming my streak of not going beyond 5 in random game length.
Primary: Win [I love ATSKNF... way better than playing chaos]
Secondary: Win [I knew I didn't have to worry about kill points, even combat squadding. It was rather refreshing being sure of that]
Tertiary: Win, thank you Sanguinor
All in all not bad. Well, obviously, I got all the objectives. But I was still occasionally frustrated by powerfist sergeants failing me. If I get a hit, it's a 1 to wound. If I get 2 hits, 1 of them is almost always a 1 to wound. They occasionally shine with a 3/3 death frenzy or better yet the 4/4 or even 5/5 from the Sanguinor's chosen plus Sanguinor's buff, but I'd like it to be more reliable. I think DoA was the right thing to do vs his razor spam army, and it worked out well.
I finished with 123 battle points, putting me I think at 24 just in battle points, but 27 overall because I had three "good" games instead of "great" for sportsmanship, and my army wasn't done being painted. I still got 25/30, so not bad considering what I DIDN'T finish. If game 5 had gone the way I think it should have gone, with dice down when it was supposed to, I would have finished 13th. Well, not quite. That 5-man assault squad that consistently defeated my 10-man wouldn't have made it go quite the way I wanted, but I still would have been top 15, and ranked 13 had I actually won the combat. Big change from 27, but neither is the winner so we're splitting hairs.
Thank you all for reading!
|
7K Points of Black Legion and Daemons 
5K Points of Grey Knights and Red Hunters 
5000+ pts. 
