Battlefortress Driver with Krusha Wheel
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So I had my first tournament with my skitarii this weekend. The points limit was 1500. I wanted to keep it pure skitarii and also try out a few of the units I
hadent yet, like my dunecrawlers and infiltrators/ruststalkers. My list was as follows.
5x rangers
Alpha, 2x aquebus
5x rangers
Alpha, 2x aquebus
10x Vanguard
Alpha (warlord) conversion field, 3x plasma calivers
10x vanguard
Alpha, 3x arc rifles
10x vanguard
Alpha, 3x arc rifles
5x infiltrators
princepts, refractor field
5x ruststalkers
princepts, refractor field
3x onegar dunecrawlers
3x neutron blasters, 3x extra cognis stubbers, 3x cognis manipulators
A few notes about some of the choices I made. First, the warlord with plasma. It is already a high priority target, so you might think to not put him with them. BUT its very important to their survival. He grants preferred enemy. And I think anyone can see the benefit of preferred enemey rerolling 1s in a squad with 9 plasma shots...
cognis manipulators. Yes they are expensive. And yes, I forgot every single round to roll for IWND, but my area is very drop pod heavy, so I figured if they get tied up by a marine squad, they could at least fight their way out and not be tarpitted all game. And I dident want to leave a babysitter unit for them.
third, no walkers. Not because I dont think they are good. Personally I think their rules are fantastic, but I cannot bring myself to pay that much for that many points. Its just dumb.
So the tournament was pretty straightforward. 3 rounds with 14 people. every game would use a different deployment, and a different mission. So no special rules or anything fancy.
My first game was against a grey knights player. And by grey knights, I really mean a thunderhawk player, since that made up alot of his points. His list was:
2x dreadknights, heavy incinerators, the gatling gun I forget the name atm, and the sword
A grey knight librarian in termie armor, and 5 marines with halbreds/storm bolters.
A GD thunderhawk.
Right away I knew I was in trouble. There was not much I could do against a thunderhawk. He won first turn, and we set up cross corners. Terrain was really sparse. He only started on the board with his 2 dreadknights. I set up everything as close as I could, except the infiltrators hid behind the only LOS blocking terrain I could find. I scout up, and manage to steal the innitiative! Now with everything in range, I have a good feeling I can take out at least one dreadknight. Long story short, after everyone but the plasma squad being in range (poor setup on my part, was trying to preserve my warlord, which I have now come to the conclusion for skitarii is pointless) I shot everything I had at one dreadknight....and got it to one wound left. Massive saves, coupled with T6, and FNP even my tanks couldnt get a single wound thru the invulns. So it was a pretty poor start.
He moved up with both, flamered 2 of my squads, and shot them. He then charged, and brought both units to 2 men (these were the vanguard squads btw, the rangers were sitting on objectives shooting). Unfortunatley both units of vanguard dident seem to mind, and I could technically hurt it due to minus 1 toughness from them...so no our weapons are useless. That meant no shooting for me. Which is bad.
So I decide to pop my 3 WS, -2 to BS order, and charge one knight with the infiltrators and ruststalkers and manage to win combat with 3 infiltrators left and all my ruststalkers alive. The other combat I had nothing in range to charge. So he wiped the other 2 guys and moved closer to my tanks.
His turn comes around, and here comes the reserves roll....and the thunderhawk dosent come in! PHEW! His grey knight squad sadly does, lands near my warlord squad, and with flamer and shots (and invis cast on the dreadknight) manages to kill everyont but my warlord and one rad carbine troop. Oh well, I dident want to kill that dreadknight anyway aparently. The dread moves up, shoots at my tanks, does nothing, and charges in. I manage zero wounds, he gets one pen, immobalized.
At this point, I have lost alot of stuff. I am moving up toward to get my tanks out of the funk with my ruststalkers and infiltrators. My rangers move up to block the movement of the grey knights, and through crappy saves, he loses 4 guys. Well that was good for me. The rest of my army charges in, warlord and goon give the -1 toughness to the knight, the infiltrators take -1 to his ws, bs, innish, and LD, and between everyones attacks, on the last str 10 attack from the
onegar manage to kill him. I then roll poorly for consolidate...with a thunderhawk coming in.
Next turn the thunderhawk predictably comes in. It for some reason decides my tanks are the biggest threat, and targets one with the D shot. It scatters a bit and only gets one. My tank is blown to pieces on a D 6. No 4+ for me this turn. His leader and goon shoot up my rangers, charge them, and wipe them out. Consolidate towards my tanks.
Top of 3, I position my tanks at the only targets left to them, and use the +2 BS doctrine. My ruststalkers and infiltrators move up toward the thunderhawk. My rangers died last turn to heavy bolter shots from the thunderhawk. My 2 tanks hit both shots, but the warlord look out sirs one, and makes his invun for the 2nd. Dang. The stubbers bounce harmlessly. My warlord and infiltrators fail to wound him with shooting, and charge in. I get no attacks thru his 2+, and he kills the warlord and goon, so the taser goads dont double him out. I stay in combat.
Next turn for him, thunderhawk goes into hover, targets 2 tanks, but even with an 11 inch scatter, still manages to hit one. Another hit, but it only loses 2 HP luckily. It bolters the ruststalkers, leaving 2. His warlord kills one more infiltrator, leaving me with one. I do jack to 2+
My turn, having no other targets I put my templates on the flyer, even with the -1 shooting from my doctrine I manage both hits since its freaking huge and hard to scatter off. I manage 3 hull points between a pen and one failing to even glance. Then I charge with the 2 ruststalkers, using the haywire grenades, and the dataspike. I get 2 more hull points from the monster. His leader kills my infiltrator and moves toward the tanks.
Bottom of 4. Thunderhawk moves, bolters down the ruststalkers, D cannon takes another tank out, and the lascannons, finish the last hull point on the other. Tabled.
Wish i could say it was a good game, but honestly from poor turn one performance, and fighting a freaking thunderhawk in 1500 points, it wasen't. It ended pretty much like I predicted, and those are the most boring matches.
Round 2. Had a nice guy who also brought skitarii, but he brought 2 knights as well. I won the first turn roll and set up agressivley, with the infiltrators being held for now. He had:
2x knights, melta cannons
2x 5 vanguard with no weapons, hiding behind a hill.
A single dunecrawler, set up for AA., hiding behind some ruins.
A unit of infiltrators he later set up near it and a knight
A single autocannon strider.
And a single taser lance strider, set up near the hill with the ruststalkers and vanguard.
After scouting up my infiltrators near his ruststalkers and vanguard, and everyone else moving toward the knights, I started my turn. I moved everything but the tanks up 6 inches, and the ruststalkers and infiltrators moved toward his troop hill along with my warlord and plasma unit. My infiltrators opened up with the pistols, and killed 4 vanguard, couldnt see the other one. The plasma unit was out of range. Between my 2 units of arc rifle vanguard, and tanks getting 3 no scatter pens on it, I explode a knight turn one. The explosion kills 2 ruststalkers near it, and the dunecrawler takes nothing. Cant charge since I scouted, so I
pass the turn.
He moves up his ruststalkers and taser lance strider to within one inch of my infiltrators. His knight moves up, targets my warlords unit, and manages to kill 7 with its melta gun alone. The stubbers target a vanguard unit with arc rifles as close as possible and kill one. The strider with the auto cannon kills another two. But now the knight is looking at a 10 inch charge, as long as I dont run. The vanguard left to him shoot my infiltrators, and manage one wound thru my saves/feel no pain. He charges the strider in first to eat my str 2 overwatch, and then the ruststalkers. Being we are the same WS as we both used the +3 BS order this turn, my infiltrators take advantage of their +1 higher innish thanks to their aura, target the stalkers, and double them out with 5 unsaved wounds at str 6. The strider manages to kill 2, one of wich was already wounded. I win, he is a vehicle so stays. The knight misses his charge, and the autocannon strider charges my 8 man squad, killing 1. I think long and hard about using our weapons are useless, but decide against it, since next turn the ruststalkers are in a position to dig them out.
Next turn, I position my stalkers for a charge, move up my last arc squad toward the knight, same with the tanks. My warlord moves toward the vanguard he has hideing. +2 BS order is used, and the warlord squad kills 3 from the other vanguard squad he had. The arc rifle squad manages 2 hull points thru his invun saves. The tanks line up again, 3 direct hits accounting for scatter....3 pens. He rolls poorly and all 3 get thru the shield. It again explodes in a fireball of death. And at this point he concedes. He does not have any real offense left, and we have 3 more turns before the game ends.
Game three, there are 4 people undefeated so far, one of which is andamantium lance who is facing off against the thunderhawk. So my game is pretty much for fun at this point. Which is good because it was.
My opponent brought:
5x thunderwolf calvary, 5x storm shields, 2 characters with thunder hammer and lightning claw.
2x sets of min scouts, one with sniper rifles, others with bolt pistols/chainswords.
a single deep striking lone wolf.
blood angels allies.
2x stormtalons (or ravens, the transport one with lots o dakka)
a sanguine priest on a bike to give his thunderwolves FNP
a chaplain to give zealot
So its long table edges, which is bad for me with so many flyers on the board. 4 objectives pretty evenly spaced. He reserves the lone wolf, and 2 flyers, with the scouts with snipers eventually starting my board edge behind some hills. I start front line with everything, and the infiltrators pop up 18 to his bikes left.
I got first turn again, scouted everything, except a squad of rangers I scouted backward toward his scouts. After movement, including the tanks, pretty much everything was in range of the bikes. I started with the short range infiltrators, whom with 25 BS 7 shred str 2 pistol shots actually managed to kill a wolf rider by themselves, even thru feel no pain. The entire rest of the army however couldnt manage to match the feat. And all 3 tank shots, which all only hit one model because they are huge, dident get thru a single storm shield. He made something like 40 saves, and 5 FNP. It was both amazing and sad at the same time. The rangers managed to kill the only scout they could see.
his turn one. Both characters break off. One goes for an arc squad, the calvary goes for my warlord squad, and the other character goes for my infiltrators. The scouts shoot at my rangers, who pass 2 saves. The bikes hold off firing, since they have to charge thru trees and its going to be a 7 inch charge thru them. The leader shoots and kills 2 vanguard with his bolter. The other character shoots and wounds an infiltrator. The bolt scouts keep hideing on the very edge of his terrain behind LOS blocking terrain. His warlord charges the arc squad, kills like 6, they fail LD, run, and are ran down. now he is out in the open. The thunderwolf squad rolls to charge...and gets a 5! He knows with them exposed, its gonna hurt next turn. The other character charges in, and doubles out 3 infiltrators due to thunderhammer, while only taking one wound, due to me needing 5s to hit.
Turn 2. I move everything up, and use my +2 BS order. My warlord group, who missed being charged, turn their 21 rad carbine shots and 9 plasma shots on his leader, and wipe him off the planet. Ruststalkers had moved up to support the infiltrators. Everything else shoots at the now 4 strong unit of thunderwolves, and again only manage one kill total. The rangers move closer to the scouts, killing 2 more. would be an 11 inch charge so I dont bother. Ruststalkers rush in to help the infiltrators, and between them manage to kill the character, but the infiltrators die due to him using lightning claw this turn.
Turn 2 for him. He gets his lone wolf, but only one flyer in. The flyer comes in, and with hurricane bolters, assault cannons, and missles, kills one vanguard unit down to 4 guys. The lone wolf lands on my guys with 11 inch scatter, and goes back into reserves. The wolf calvary shoot and charge the ruststalkers, but its a bad roll and only 2 can participate. They kill 2, and they run, and magage to escape somehow. Which leaves him in the open again. 2 scouts shoot my rangers, and do nothing.
Turn 3. I have everything in my army in a good spot, rangers move toward scouts everyone else toward the wolves. This time the tanks go first. 3 direct hits. 3 failed invun shields, and they are doubled out from str 10, and no FNP allowed. My warlord plasma unit with rangers and cognis stubbers kill the priest and chaplain. the arc rifles shoot at the flyer, he chooses to jink, I get a hit, and....a 5. Dang, oh well one glance.
Turn 3 for him. His lone wolf lands 12 inches from my tanks, runs 2. Other flyer comes in, and shoots 5 guys from my warlord squad dead with virtually the same loadout as the other flyer. The first flyer flys over and kills the rangers threatening his scouts. Now I have no way to stop linebreaker, which is going to come back to haunt me. His scouts continue to hide.
Turn 4. I try and move the 4 arc vanguard toward his scouts, but it will take 2 turns to reach if I run one of them. The tanks shoot everything at the lone wolf, who sadly shrugs everything off. The rangers take up home on an objective, and fail to do anything to the lone wolf too.
His turn 4. Now I am in trouble. The jinking flyer shoots at my warlord squad, and because of stap shots only kills one. The other shoots at my tanks, and doesnt do any damage with melta or assault cannons. Scouts continue to hide. His lone wolf charges in. And with my 3 attacks I dont get any thru his storm shield. He does a hull point to a tank.
Turn 5. warlord squad moves toward scouts, runs. 4 arc squad shoots causing a jink, rangers fail to hit the other flyer who dident jink. Tanks continue to fail to kill lone wolf. No damage done to them.
His turn 5. His hideing scouts come out, and run to sit on an objective. I have 2 now, he has 1. His undamaged flyer kills the arc squad on one, so now we are tied. His other flyer tries to shoot warlord, but due to jink only kills one. I fail LD for the second time this game, and begin running toward my board.
Game ends. We both have an objective, he has first blood, I have slay the warlord, and he has linebreaker. Lost by 1. Still close game. So he one by one sniper scout basically. Still really close and fun.
Oh and the thunderhawk player? He went into hover mode, then the knights either shot or managed a charge and wiped it. Not sure which.
Anyway lessons for me. The tanks are awesome. Being able to kill wraiths was important to me, as they always seem to dominate. they really shined the 2nd and 3rd games, killing generally unkillable things.
I NEED anti air. So next tournament I will probably have to run them as anti air, or ally in some things for it. I dident even fight the regular nid player, who always shows up with 4+ nasty flyers. Flying is just an entrenched thing in the game. It sucks when you bring anti air, and its worthless against say all ground, but I lost to flyers both of my losses. bottom line.
wargear for my troops besides guns is largely useless. I learned this earlier. 5 man suqads in the future may be the way to go, despite the alpha tax. Then I wouldnt lose 10 guys to one meelee beatstick, or 7 guys to 2 heavy dreadknight flamers in the future. And mabye pay for the extra alphas by only giving the front tank the cognis minipulator, since IWND isnt as impressive when the invun save drops down to 5+ or 6+.
I am looking forward to the new admech codex. I am hopeing for some kind of thranatar like monstrous creature or just something that looks awesome, but I guess we will find out.
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8k points
3k points
3k points
