Brian's Tyranids
Hive Tyrant, Stranglethorn Cannon, Armored Shell
Tervigon, 1 extra power
Tervigon, 1 extra power
30 Termagants
20 Termagants
Doom in Spore
3 Hiveguard
Tyrannofex
Tyrannofex
3 Biovores

Primary: Crusade (4 objectives)
Secondary: Purge the Alien
Tertiary: First Blood, Warlord, Linebreaker
Initiative: Tyranids

Overall a very interesting list. He has 34 T6 wounds (16 of which have a 2+ armor save) and a good horde of gribblies to support them. We rolled night fight for turn one which helps protect his big bugs as well. The tyrannofexs actually make an OK counter to my centurions because any wound they slip through will instant kill a model. The big bonus for me is that my list is incredibly mobile. If I can force his bugs to spread out, I'll be able to deal with them piecemeal. Each of us deployed two objectives in our deployment zones. I think this is a mistake for a tyranid player. Brian should have commited his objectives midfield and then rushed a massed nid army at me. By keeping two back, it made it easier for me to divide his army into manageable pieces.

Brian deployed with one tervigon on the far left, then both tyrannofexs and the last tervigon in the central ruins that housed his deployment zone objectives. The biovores lurked in the ruins along with the 30 gant squad. The hiveguard and tyrant went on his far right. I counter deployed by stacking my entire army on the left flank, with only one razorback in a bolstered ruin in the center (touching the wall so it would have 3+ cover against the hive guard).

Turn one was uneventful. Tyrannofex fire killed one centurion and everything else was out of night fight range. I illuminated the left tervigon with a search light but she was out of grav gun range from most firepower and toke a couple of wounds from razorback lascannons, centurion krak missiles and multimelta attack bikes. The 20 gant squad supporting her was shredded badly by the TFC.

Turn two saw doom drop next to the centurions and leech three wounds off them. His shooting killed a stray bike or two. I ended up killing the left tervigon and the 20 gant squad for First Blood and doom died this phase as well. The wounded centurion and a razorback combined to attrite some of the hive guard as well who were trying to get into the fight with the tyrant.

Over the next three turns, the wall of bikes assaulted into the tyranid positions. Between combat and shooting, I was able to kill both tyrannofexs and his tyrant as well as the hiveguard. At the end of 5, I had the attack bikes contesting one of his objectives and my chapter master plus one surviving biker staring down about 45 gaunts post spawnings plus the last tervigon. The game ended up going to seven and he killed my chapter master, the attack bikes, and the surviving biker on six with the wall of gaunts and the TFC was unable to shoot him out of three of an objective over two turns. We ended up tied on crusade with two objectives each, I won kill points 10-7, we both had warlord, I had First Blood and neither had line breaker. Final score was a 22-11 win for the Marines.

The big lesson of this game from my perspective was in terms of positional dominance. Even though I had only 10 tactical marines, two razorbacks and the TFC left at the end of the game, by forcing the fight on to Brian's side of the board I knew by the end of turn three that he wouldn't be able to get anything close enough to contest the objectives on my side. I should have played the attack bikes a little more conservatively and I could have probably pulled a win on six but with the game going to seven I doubt they would have survived long enough. Not a bad start to a GT though.

John T's Dark Eldar/Eldar

Archon, Venom Blade, Shadowfield
5 Warriors, Venom
5 Warriors, Venom
9 Warriors, Raider
3 Trueborn, 2 cannons, Venom
Ravager, 3 Lances
Ravager, 3 Lanches
Razorwing
Spiritseer
5 Wraithguard, Wave Serpent
5 Wraithguard, Wave Serpent
Fire Prism

Primary: Relic
Secondary: Emperor's Will
Tertiary: First Blood, Line Breaker, Warlord
Initiative: Marines
Nightfight: Yes

This match is actually a tough draw for me. The massed amount of poison does a good job ignoring my T5 and the volume of fire makes it easy to down models despite 3+ armor. I choose to go first, with the assumption that if I can kill some of his transports I can greatly reduce his firepower and start to get a mobility advantage because my mobility isn't transport centric. I also rolled Invisibility for my librarian, which will let me have continous 2+ cover on a bike squad which will help alot. The Emperor's Will objectives ended up right off the table edges along the centerline with the Relic, each Will objective in a forest.

I deployed very aggressively, with everything on the edge of my deployment zone except the TFC. The bikes were all arrayed on my right flank and the Centurions were center with the two Razorbacks. John counter deployed deep in his own corner, premeasuring to deny me any kind of fire off the bikes. All his vehicles ended up clumped extremely close, which would prove to be vital for me.

Turn 1, everything moved forward. The plasma bike squad with Chapter Master attached became Invisible. The grav bikes had nothing in range and turbo boosted. The attack bikes turbo boosted. The Razorbacks moved 12 to get inside 36 inches of two venoms. Razorbacks fired first, both snap shots missed but their search lights illuminated two venoms. The Chapter Master then dropped his orbital bombardment on an illuminated venom and after scatter, it caught both waveserpents, the illuminated venom and an unilluminated venom in its blast. The illuminated venom exploded, both wave serpents converted the pens to glances after failed cover saves (only a 5+ from shrouding since he hadn't moved yet) and the shrouded venom made its cover save. The other illuminated venom was destroyed by the TFCs S6 shooting and the third venom (the shrouded one) was destroyed by the centurions krak missile courtesy of the omniscope. Excellent turn with First Blood and all venoms destroyed.

The Eldar response was underwhelming. The fireprism shoot at the grav bikers, but failed to bust their 2+ cover save (turbo boost + night fight). The wave serpents managed to glance both Razorbacks to death, but no damage was done to the bikes squads or the centurions.

Turn two, the disembarked tactical marines grabbed the relic while the other tac squad started running back towards my objective. The plasma bikes became invisible again and the grav gun bikes moved up to support them. Both wave serpents were glanced to death in shooting (one from the melta bikes, one from centurion grav cannons) and the bikes succeeded at a huge disrupted charge, catching both wraithguard squads and a group of warriors. Between the two bike squads, each wraithguard squad was reduced to 2 or 3 models and the warriors were annihilated completely. Since he was fearless, we stayed locked. The Eldar turn two, his shooting killed my marines on the relic and his raider moved up to make a grab on the relic next turn. I killed one of the wraithguard squads in assault and then hit and ran out of combat with both bike squads.

Turn three, the invisible plasma bikers grabbed the relic while the chapter master and the surviving bikers started hunting down his surviving vehicles. The fireprism died this turn along with the raider. John was in a tough position now. The relic was held by 2+ cover save bikers and he had both of my HQs and a second bike squad in between his remaining scoring units and the relic. His archon would have to run a long field to try and get into combat (about a 10 inch charge through terrain). His razorwing did come in and kill my marines on my home objective, but it would be glanced out by the storm raven on my turn four.

The last four turns of the (yes, it went seven AGAIN) consisted of me moping up his units and ensuring I had scoring bikers on his emperor's will objective and protecting the relic. At the end of the game, he had his Archon and some warriors tucked away in the left corner and I had about 6 bikers, the chapter master, librarian, centurions and storm raven. Big win by the Marines, 32-0, holding the Relic, Emperor's Will, First Blood and Line Breaker.

The big lesson from this game is the reinforcement of missiles on the centurions and the need for ranged firepower in a balanced bike army. The centurions ability to shoot 48 and ignore night fight kept them in the game from turn one and the Razorback's search lights allowed the chapter master to influence the game from the beginning.

David K's IG+Grey Knights
Company Command Squad, powerfist, 2x melta guns, astropath, Chimera
Primaris Psyker
Platoon Command Squad, 4x flamers
Infantry Squad, autocannon, sniper, melta bomb, power axe
Infantry Squad, autocannon, sniper, melta bomb, power axe
Infantry Squad, autocannon, sniper, melta bomb, power axe + commisar w/ power axe
Infantry Squad, flamer, melta bomb, power axe
Infantry Squad, flamer, melta bomb, power axe + commisar w/ power axe
Veterans, 3 snipers, autocannon
Veterans, 3 flamers, demolitions
Valkerie
Vendetta
3 Sentinels, 2x lascannon, heavy flamer

Inquistor Corteaz
7x Henchmen, 2x crusaders, jokaero, 3x HB servitors, banisher + Chimera
Nemisis Dreadknight

Primary: Big Guns (6 Objectives)
Secondary: Scouring (the same 6 objectives)
Tertiary: First Blood, Line Breaker, Warlord
Initiative: IG/Grey Knights
Nightfight: No

First, Dave had a great painted army with a rogue trader/conquistador theme going. It looked great on the table and is a fairly unique IG build (or at least one I haven't played against before). The mission was interesting. Each of the six objective counted as 3 for Big Guns and had a variable point number (from 3 to 1) for Scouring. My initial goal going in was to play for the win on both by taking the right objectives (a 3-3-2 or a 3-2-2) and denying a fourth. I was willing to concede two to Dave as the right objective could led me win both. There was a big LOS blocking ruin in the center that would led me hid units from some of his firepower. The other big thing that stuck out in my initial analysis was my mobility advantage over Dave. If I could kill both Chimeras early, I could isolate and try to destroy his foot blobs one at a time to take out the core his fighting force.

Dave choose to go first and deployed one blob squad on the right (the double flamer one), then both chimeras, the second blob squad in the central ruins, and then the dreadknight. A squad of veterans would infiltrate to the left of the dreadknight on an objective in his deployment zone. The Valkerie was in reserves with the PCS, the Vendetta had the Veterans in it, and the sentinels opted to outflank. I counterdeployed by stacking against the dreadknight, using my centurions to make shunting at me extremely dangerous and the big LOS blocking ruin to hid as much as possible. I tried to seize (as moving my centurions forward would let me alpha strike the dreadknight and take away his best counter assault) but failed epically.

Dave's first turn was ok. The dreadknight moved behind the chimeras to reposition itself and his shooting managed to destroy one Razorback for First Blood and kill a bike or two (but not enough to force a break check on any squad). In response, my gravgun bikers + libby boosted straight towards his sniper scouts and the melta bikes managed to get in range of a chimera. One Chimera had also strayed far enough forward that my centurions were able to just finnagle two grav cannons into range of it. Gravcannon + missile fire from the centurions killed the CCS Chimera and the melta bikes plus an orbital bombardment managed to explode the second chimera. The TFC got a dead hit on the CCS squad with the S6 round and managed to kill them all with an atrocious number of hits and also netting me Warlord. It also killed his astropath before he could influence the game.

Dave's reserve came in this turn. The sentinels popped up on the right flank and used a huge LOS blocking terrain to avoid any fire for the next turn and also potshot some bikers. Both IG flyers flew on to support the center and the dreadknight shunted to ruins in my deployment area to threaten my centurions with a turn 3 assault. My last Razorback died this turn to something and combined fire from all his units killed 5 of the 7 bikers running with the chapter master. I responded by sending the two surviving bikers after the sentinels and they managed to kill the HF sentinal while losing a plasma gunner to overheat. The chaptermaster positioned himself to assault the dreadknight and my gravgun bikers positioned themselves to assault his veterans in his deployment zone. The melta bikes shuffled a little to shoot at the dreadknight or the valkerie. My stormraven failed to come on. The centurions made short work of the dreadknight and the meltas missed some skyfire shots. The TFC tried to snipe the commisar out of the larger blob and instead just killed some of his cronies. The gravgun bikers assault and destroy his veterans. My last plasma biker assaults the sentinels to tie them up.

On turn three, Coteaz would die to perils. I think he periled turn one or two as well but he took the last wound at the top of three. Both of Dave's flyers went to hover mode and the veterans hopped out to flame one of my tactical squads sitting on an objective. His primaris psyker joined the large blob squad. His shooting was ok, killing a couple of tactical marines and the TFC (but not the gunner). On my turn, I used the large LOS blocking ruin to set up a game changing assault. The librarian split off and used the terrain to obscure himself entirely from the blob except for the primaris psyker and one sergeant. The attack bikes and the grav gun bike squad (both still full strength) swept around the far side of the ruins and stacked towards the commisar. My attack bikes and grav gun bikes would only need 1" charges. The librarian about a 7". My librarian choose not to shoot, but the grav gun bikes and attack bikes fired into the ruins and managed to take down a couple of guardsmen but nowhere near enough to reduce the charge distance signficiantly (about 3" charges post shooting). The rest of my army focused on his support elements and killed both flyers this turn. In the assault phase, the librarian charged first, Dave choose not to shoot overwatch with only two guys, and I rolled a 9 for the charge. With the blob now engaged, both the bikes and the attack bikes charged in uncontested. The librarian challenged, a single sergeant stepped up and was promptly cut down. Hammer of wrath hits from the other 11 bikes killed 7 or 8 and regular attacks at I4 killed another 5 or 6, including the commisar because Dave ran out of regulars in base to base and had to start rolling Look out Sirs! The power axes killed one or two bikers, but not enough to make a difference. The blob broke and was swept down.

The remainder of the game became a mopping up operation at this point. The Coteaz-less henchmen were assaulted and swept down by the attack bikes and the other blob squad died to a similiar maneuver the next turn. The sentinels were in the back corner, far away from an objective and unable to influence the game so we called it after turn four. A 32-1 win for the White Scars.

Joel D's Nurgle CSM/Demons
Chaos Lord on Bike, Mark of Nurgle, Murder Sword, Power Halberd, Sigil of Corruption, Gift of Mutation, Blight Grenades, Melta Bombs
Huron Blackheart
Great Unclean One, 2 gifts, ML3
13 Plague Marines, 2 melta guns, VoLW, Champion with gift and melta bombs
10 Plague Marines, 2 plasma guns, VoLW, Champion with gift and melta bombs
20 Plague Bearers, Plague Banner, Greater Gift for Sergeant
6 Nurgling Bases
3 Obliterators, VoLW, Mark of Nurgle

Primary: Scouring
Secondary: Relic
Tertiary: First Blood, Warlord, Line Breaker
Deployment: Vanguard
Nightfight: Yes
Initiative: Marines

Joel was a great opponent with a beautiful looking Nurgle army. I considered this matchup to be heavily in my favor though. I won the roll for first turn and I can outmaneuver his slow foot units consistently. I spread objectives liberally around the board, including dropping two in his deployment zone to try and get him to camp a unit back there and thus take it effectively out of play. I choose to go first and deployed with an empty Razorback on the left, then the TFC and the centurions. All the bikes went center and the last Razorback was on the far right. One melta squad went into the Stormraven so I could grab his back objectives late game if he left them open. I did a good counter infilitrate deployment and between the 18" buffers and where LOS ended, Joel couldn't really go anywhere except right outside his deployment zone. He bought Huron, the Nurgle Lord and the big squad of marines on the left opposite the centurions and used the nurglings to screen them. The plague bearers and great unclean one went center and the small plague marine squad and obliterators went on the right. He tried to seize and failed.

I shuffled the bikes to get everyone into LOS of his obliterators. The centurions moved up to get as many plague marines from the big squad into 24 as possible. The empy Razorback shot first, plasma fire slipped through the nurglings 3+ cover and killed a base. I then spotlit them. The TFC plopped its strength 6 shot onto the nurglings and killed 3 more bases after invulnerables, leaving the plgue marines with no screening squad. The centurions then shot into the squad. Having only FNP left, the shooting was devestating and killed 7 or 8 of the plague marines. On the right, everything shot into the obilterators and after the smoke cleared, only a single wounded obliterator was left standing.

Joel moved the wounded squad with the HQs back and tried to run the surviving nurglings into the forest by an objective. The other squads shuffled forward. He might have killed a single bike in shooting and then tried a succession of long range charges which failed.

On turn two, I moved everything out of assault range. The centurions stepped into range of the other plague marine squad. Shooting killed all 10 plague marines and the last obliterator. The TFC's ignore cover round attrited the plague bearers a little. Joel moved the plague bearers next to the relic.

Turn three, I shot everything else except the grav bikers and the TFC into the great unclean one and succeeded in killing him. The grav bikers charged the plague bearers and did some damage, but not enough to really cripple them. It also left them exposed to a long charge by his other plague marine squad. In hindsight, I should have hit and run them out to keep them fighting the plague bearers one on one. Joel did counter charge the grav bikers with his plague marines and HQs, wiping them out brutually.

Turn four saw the empty Razorback polish off the nurglings with some plasma fire, leaving nothing on that objective. The wounded plague bearers squatted on the relic. I choose to ignore them in favor of shooting my army into his plague marines and following up with a charge by chapter master, librarian and plasma bikers. The chapter master and nurgle lord fought to a draw over two rounds of combat. The librarian turned on his force sword and succeeded in killing the last two plague marines who surived shooting. I hit and ran out on the bottom of four, leaving huron and the nurgle lord stranded.

The plasma bikers and chapter master shot and charged the surviving plague bearers, killing them off. I also killed both his CSM HQs with shooting (centurions doing the most damage, including the instant death krak missile shot to Huron). At this point, I held enough objectives to win primary and all three tertiary but neither of us held the relic. Per the GT rules, we rolled off and the game went on to six allowing the plasma bikers to pick up the relic and complete a 33-0 win for the marines.

Joel was a fun and entertaining opponent, but the match up was really tough for him. I had more firepower and more mobility and the mission and deployment allowed me to skirt around him shooting. Can't wait for a chance to rematch him in different circumstances where his army can play to its strengths better.

Brandon V's White Scars/Iron Hands
Kor'sarro Khan
Command Squad, 5x Grav Gun, Apothecary
5 Bikes, 2x Grav, Combi-Grav
5 Bikes, 2x Grav, Combi-Grav
4 Bikes, Attack Bike, 2x Melta, Multi-melta
4 Bikes, Attack Bike, 2x Melta, Multi-melta
Storm Talon
5 Scout Bikes, 3x Grenade Launchers
TFC

Chaptermaster, Shield Eternal, Powerfist, Bike, Artificer Armor
5 Scouts, 5x Sniper Rifle
Storm Talon
TFC

Primary: Purge the Alien
Secondary: Big Guns
Tertiary: First Blood, Linebreaker, Warlord
Nightfight: No
Initiative: Void Eagles

Brandon was an incredibly tough opponent and he would end up winning best general. This is essentially a mirror match and will come heavily down to dice in my mind. Since the primary is kill points, I elected to go first. Each of us ends up with two objectives inside our deployment zone. I deploy very aggressively, with everything on the 24 inch line except for one Razorback and the TFC to guard home objectives. One tactical squad goes into the storm raven. Brandon starts with both grav bike squads, the scouts, the scout bikers and the TFCs on the table. Everything else goes into reserves with all his reserve units that can outflanking.

I go super aggressive. The grav bikes with librarian, plasma bikes with chaptermaster, and attack bikes all move and turbo boost directly at him. The TFC, Razorbacks, and centurions have an abysmal shooting round and manage to kill only a single biker. I pass the turn. Brandon responds in kind. One bike squad moves up and shoots the attack bikes, causing 5 wounds after saves. I pass morale and they subsequently fail a 5" charge. His other grav bikers and scout bikers combine to kill all 8 bikes in my grav gun squad between shooting and assault, but the libby hit and runs out of combat directly at a TFC. First blood to Brandon and he is now up 1-0 on kill points.

I continue to press forward. The storm raven comes in and lines up on the bikers who just decimated my grav gun squad. The chapter master and company line up on the scout snipers and a TFC. The centurions move into range of the other grav bike squad and the librarian moves towards his other TFC. The centurions obliterate one grav bike squad and the librarian shrieks a TFC out of existence. The plasma bikes use only bolters and kill just enough scouts to open a hole to the TFC. Scouts pass morale. Shooting from my TFC and the surviving attack bike combine to kill off the scout bikers. The storm raven and razorbacks kill everything in the last grav bike squad except for one regular biker. The plasma bikes and chapter master do a disrupted charge on the TFC and scouts and kill all of them. At the end of my two, I'm now back up 5-1.

Brandon's command squad, chapter master, khan and one melta squad come in along with both storm talons. All the bikes outflank behind my TFC and grav gun shooting from the command squad kills it. The melta bikes kill the razorback in my home corner. The storm talons both wiff epically on the last razorback and the surviving attack bike. Score at the end of two is 5-3 in my favor.

My storm raven moves closer to his side and the centurions shuffle to position themselves out of command squad grav gun range. My librarian kills the surviving grav gun biker with shriek, my plasma bikes and centurions combine to kill one Talon and my storm raven kills another. My chapter master tried a long range bombardment and wiffed. I go up 8-3.

Brandon roars back with a venegance in his three. Shooting polishes off my last attack bike, my last razorback, and I flubbed the spacing on my centurions and despite being in area terrain, all three die to a perfectly placed bombardment from his chapter master. My tactical squad in his zone somehow survives a charge from Khan and melta bikes and hit and run away to make him chase them. Score at the end of three is 8-6.

Starting on four, I would try to run everything as deep into his zone as possible and play cat and mouse to try and chase me. He killed the tactical marines in my zone on either four or five. My shooting went ice cold and I wouldn't gain another KP over the last four full turns of the game. Here is how the end game looked:

Turn 5: If it ended here, I win KP 8-7 and we push big guns. I can walk away with a respectable 26-7. The game goes on.
Turn 6: If it ends here, we tie KP 8-8 after Brandon kills my other small squad and Brandon wins big guns. I can walk away with an 11-22. The game goes on.
Turn 7: Brandon kills my storm raven with a multi-melta shot. I lose KP 8-9 and big guns. Neither of us got warlord and both had line breaker. Brandon wins 32-1.

This was a tough matchup for me but I liked my chances overall. My dice went cold towards the end, and more importantly, I stopped playing aggressively. I tried hiding KPs in the last few turns and gambling for the game to end. I should have pushed into him and focused on the command squad. I could have stolen a few more KPs over the end game and possibly stayed ahead on KPs. My list is built to be aggressive and it doesn't work as well when I don't play it that way. Tough lesson learned and the result is a swift move from table 2 down to table 10.

Aaron S's (hyv3mynd) Eldar/Dark Eldar

Eldar Primary
Farseer, Spirit Stone of Anath'lan, Shard of Anaris
Spiritseer
5 Wraithguard, Waveserpent
5 Dire Avengers, Waveserpent
3x Jetbikes
3x Jetbikes
Wraithknight
Warwalkers
3x Shadowweavers

Dark Eldar Allies
Baron Sathonyx
5 Warriors, Venom
Beastpack w/ 4 beast masters, 12 khymeras, 2 razorwings

This mission had 4 total objectives, 1 in each deployment zone and 2 outside the deployment zones in no man's land.
Primary: Emperors Will with a "Twist" (Use objectives in no man's land to determine Emperor's Will rather than the owns in deployment zone)
Secondary: Crusade (all 4 objectives)
Tertiary: First Blood, Warlord, Line Breaker
Deployment: Dawn of War
Initiative: Marines
Night Fight: Yes

Aaron won the roll for first turn and made me go first, determined no doubt to use his awesome speed on the jetbikes to get final say on objectives. The big catch in this mission is that if you control just one outside objective and deny the other, you can easily win both missions as that lone objective will count towards both missions. This will dictacte alot of the action moving towards the center objectives. One objective was in the far right corner of Aaron's deployment zone, the two in the middle were clustered on opposite sides of a large LOS blocking piece and the last one was in the center of my deployment zone in a forest the minimum distance from the table edge.

I deployed my TFC in the center forest with both the plasma bikes and grav bikes covering the center. My centurions went on the right to be able to deny the two center objectives (they could see one and would be able to see the wraithknight over the building if he wandered too close). My attack bikes stacked to the right as well along with one empty razorback. The other razorback went on the left. My base plan was to spread the searchlights and long range firepower where it could see down the various openings around LOS blocking terrain and leave my mobile core central to respond to his deployment. One tac squad went into walk on reserves and the other went into the storm raven.

Aaron counter deployed with his Shadow weavers on the far right on his objective and then put the beastpack (with all three HQs attached), wraithknight, both wave serpents and the venom on the far left. He did a good job premeasuring to prevent any kind of alpha strike via bike weapons on the wraithknight. His center was empty. Both jetbike squads went into regular reserves and the warwalkers went into outflank.

On my turn one, I didn't see any good first blood prospects (the venom was hidden by terrain and wave serpents), so I decided to focus on attriting the beast pack a little. Both bike squads moved up and kept the bolters right on the 24 inch line to the edge of the pack. This left me about 5 or 6 shots per squad and I should have been a little more aggressive with them, but it also kept me out of 24 of the wraithknight to deny him a charge. With hit and run, I should have accepted the risk of a 9/10 inch charge for the big guy. My main idea here was to set myself up to kill his transports on turn two/three and pin his scoring units in the corner away from objectives with one squad of bikes + chaptermaster screening him out. The razorback on the far right moved 12 to get within 36 of a single beast. The centurions shuffled up to see as well. The attack bikes moved and then turbo boosted straight at the shadow weavers. The razorback who moved twelve shot first, missed with his snapshot but illuminated the beast pack. Between bolters from the bikes, the TFC, and centurion frag missiles and the lost cover save bonuses from the searchlight, I managed to kill all four beast handlers and 6 or 7 khymeras.

Aaron's turn one was fairly conservative. He moved all three transports up to see my bike squads and shuffled the beasts out of sight to be a counterassault unit. His shooting killed 3 or 4 grav bikers as I made some hot saves.

Turn two, my attack bikes swung around the corner and would shoot/assault the shadow weavers, netting me first blood. All my reserves come in. My grav bike squad had the shooting phase of the decade at this point. They target the wave serpent with the wraithguard. The librarian used puppet master, turned the scatterlaser turret on the venom and exploded the weapon. The bike's grav rifles then wrecked wave serpent, forcing the wraithguard to disembark. Shooting from the rest of the army bounced off the last wave serpent as Aaron rolled some great saves off his own. I choose not to assault the wraithguard with a long charge through the rubble.

Aaron's counterattack swings into action. He kills two of my plasma bikers, I fail morale, roll a 15 for the distance and my bikes and chapter master run off the board!! His beast pack charges my grav bikers, killing the librarian and all but one biker. The last biker hit and runs out of combat. His warwalkers come in by the centurions and shoot most of a tactical squad off the board. Aaron is starting to target my scoring units. One unit of jet bikes comes in and tries to hide behind some terrain.

My turn three, I move into slight panic overdrive. My last scoring biker moves and turboboosts to get out of LOS behind the central piece of terrain from Aaron's army. The centurions shoot and assault the war walkers, killing one and tieing them up. The storm raven flies up a little and I use skies of fury to drop the tactical squad behind his serpent. I'm gambling that I can kill his transport and leave the Dire Avengers exposed and stranded. The meltagun and krak grenade both miss. My rightside Razorback and attack bikes line up on his newly arrived jetbikes and kill them.

Aaron shoots and assaults my tactical squad by his wave serpent with his wraithguard. The meltagunner survives and uses hit and run to chase behind Aaron's waveserpent and get one last crack at downing it. His waveserpent fails to damage the raven. His wraithknight kills the TFC but not the gunner. Baron splits off the beast pack and kills the left Razorback. His warwalkers beat the centurions in combat but I pass morale. His last jet bike squad is still in reserve.

My turn four, I decide to commit to killing his scoring units as well. The last meltagunner moves up to the rear of the waveserpent and successfully explodes it. One avenger dies to the explosion and the techmarines harness weapons kill one or two more. They go to ground for better cover as well. The centurions remain tied up with the walkers. My last scoring biker moves/turbo boosts on to the objective in Aaron's deployment zone and out of LOS from the remainder of his army. The attack bikes move to screen him off. The stormraven only had the beast pack in arc and attritted them this turn.

Aaron's main force killed my last tactical marines, leaving me only the storm raven and the techmarine gunner on the right. His last jetbikes come in and shoot my last scoring biker, killing him. My centurions finally break out of assault by wrecking the last walker.

On turn five, I have no scoring models left. I decide to return the favor. My attack bikes shoot/assault his last jet bikes and have no problem disposing of three T4 models. My centurions have 3 krak missiles and successfully shoot the last three wraithguard off the board from 42 inches away. This frees up the raven to shoot its hurricane bolters into the last warrior (it had been positioned to put its AT weapons into the wraithguard if needed). The techmarine gunner kills two dire avengers and the razorback kills the last one with a long range lascannon shot.

Going into the bottom of five, there isn't a scoring model on the table. We'll split both primary and secondary at this point. Aaron has Linebreaker and Warlord. I have linebreaker and First Blood. Neither one of us can influence linebreaker (I can theoretically table him, but it doesn't benefit me on the primary or secondary) so we keep playing just to see if I can get warlord. Bottom line, the game goes seven and the farseer is out of ablative wounds. The final score is 18-17 in my favor because of first blood.

Aaron was a great opponent and this was the most fun game of the weekend. I took a huge blow turn two and was somehow able to fight back for the draw. Aaron toke some blows as well but his "kill my troops" strategy worked well and didn't really ever let me recover from losing the chapter master so early.