Here is my battle report for the Toys for Tots event in Atlanta hosted by the Warfan group. I feel that I need to take the time to make this report so that everyone can see what a great job the group down there did and what you missed if you thought about going but didnt. I was worth my 10 hours of driving and would do it again tomorrow if I had the chance. These guys run a top notch event unmatched by anything I have seen in the SE. They did the Exterminatus and that was a great event, this was even better.
Granted I havent been to Necro yet but maybe next year.
The venue.
It was a big gym on a college university so I thought immediately that I was at another fencing event. So we had a lot of room which is always nice. They had 42 players and we easily could have fit another 50!
The missions.
They were great except that I got the worst match up for the second mission (more in battle report). They were in a nice printed booklet that reminded me of an event brochure that you get for really well organized functions. This was one of them I was soon to discover.
The staff.
Everyone was very friendly and professional, they were there to answer any question that you had and were there to help. They had one guy in charge and a lot of people in the process to make sure nothing funny was going on. This was a big relief for me but not surprising seeing most of the same people were the ones that were running the Exterminatus.
The battles.
Blood Angels vs.Witchhunters
Mission: P:
VP S: keep half of your troops scoring T: keep general alive
Special Rules: Inf,
DS, Reserves, S&C
Now usually when I get paired with someone I have to explain my whole army because it is made up of three codexes and a white dwarf. However, I got Aaron again. We played each other at the Exterminatus in turn one also. I had a minor victory in the battle because of Mephiston killing about half of my armys ass. We both joked that we knew each others armies but had some differences since the last time. I told him after the last time I played him I rethought the Throne and the Callidus. Now I had three more speeders and the Eversor, where as he now had no bikes and a land raider instead.
We had four markers that were worth 250 victory points apiece at the end of the game. The beginning was interesting because it was 1
HQ and two troops. He brought the Lemartes and his death company retinue with one regular foot slogging infantry guys and another jump pack troop squad while I had the
Inq and retinue with the two space marine troops. I forgot to deploy the assassin which was a bone head mistake. He forgot to deploy his scouts so I was a fair trade in turn one. I mistake that we both corrected in turn two.
He won first turn and took it I was glad because I wanted to go last for the markers in turn six. The one troop unit came their 6 while the jump infantry and death company with Lemartes came their twelve. Turn one for me was rushing a rhino out of the cover and to one of the objective and to slow the death company, shooting a couple lascannons at the
DC to both hit and roll ones to wound. This I thought was going to be a very bad game.
Second turn saw the dread with
AC, predator and his famed Mephiston come onto the board which cause my entire army to shudder at the thought of him ripping across the board again. Maybe I would get lucky and some of my stuff would come in. His one troop choice took over one objective out in the open, the scouts took out the Rhino and everyone disembarked. The D/C and the jump infantry moved forward again and now with within about 8 inches of my
HQ and about 7 inched from my two space marine squad hiding in the bunker. This was about to get very messy.
My turn to saw my Eversor, both elite
inq and the retinues, one dread, four speeders, the penitent engines, one storm trooper with
plas and the zealots (they continue to be the best unit in my army for so many different reasons). The speeders, Eversor both elite
inq and the penitent engines came to deal with the
DC and the jump infantry while the zealots came around the bunker to try and stay out of the fire that the scouts were going to be able lay down in turn three. Needless to say that D/C and the jump infantry were in one hell of a las/
plas fire sack. After 10 plasma guns, two assault cannons, one lascannon, three meltaguns, three bolters, three heavy bolters and scourging there was one jump infantry for the Eversor to assault and kill. Now much front line would be held intact and he would have to come and get me.
Turn three saw his terminators and land raider come in instead moving the full 12 and disembarking the termies into my front line he moved only 6 so he could fire everything into my main line. Big mistake. After he killed the a few marines in the bunker and choose to have his scouts fire at a unit of speeders that were about to take out his dread next turn instead of the P/E his turn was over. He stunned the speeders but that was it.
Turn three for me saw the rest of my army come in that last dread and two move speeders. His predator died to a lascannon shot for the space marines the two speeder squadrons ate the squad on the objective in the open and the dread immobilized the land raider and now the termies would have to get out and walk into the fire sack that just at the D/C and be assaulted by the zealots which he thought was no big deal with thunder hammer carrying termies. The P/E came up to the bunker that the scouts and Mephiston was in but were not close enough to flame or assault so they were in the open for one more turn. One unit of speeders took out other dread. Now two objectives were mine, two were in the open for the speeders and he had only two scoring units on the board with the whirlwind still waiting to get into the mix of things. This was now becoming a rout which was totally unexpected.
Turn four for him saw the whirlwind finally come in, and scatter onto some storm troopers that died valiantly for the Emperor. The termies came forward to hit the second storm trooper squad to which had moved up to sacrifice themselves so that the zealots could get the counter charge. Mephiston was now going to do his thing. All he needed to do was jump over the bunker that his scouts were in to then charge the penitent engines so he could then leap frog through my army. He passed his psychic test and then failed to defeat my psychic hood. This would probably cost him the game. So he moved him around the bunker into the open to be able to get the P/E if they failed to kill the scouts. The termies assaulted the storm troopers and they would die a horrible but honorable death. In the end they would be the only unit to die in the battle surprisingly.
Turn four for me saw the termies die to the fire sack and the counter charge of the zealots (I think he respects them now a lot more). The whirlwind went down to a lascannon from a dread. The scouts were burned to death from the P/E (he forgot there were no cover saves from flame template weapons ouch) and my favorite Mephiston died to three unit of speeders wiping him off the battlefield.
So after some bonehead deployment mistakes, I achieved a 22 in the first round. I was very tired and if you heard of the hotel events from the night before you would understand. Aaron was a great sport about the game and we talked a lot about how to use the termie and land raider more effectively.
Turn two
Nidzilla and Witchhunters
P:
VP + take and hold points S: eliminate all heavy support from your opponent T: put a unit into your opponents deployment zone.
Special rules: take and hold, deep strike and infantry rush (all infantry without vehicle or special moves gets a scout move)
Now I now that everyone says that this is an unbeatable army and you should pack up your dice and shake hands, if you are one of those people you are a Pu$$Y and need to go find your balls somewhere. That being said I did lose the battle (barely, he got a 10) and we had the worst mission for this battle. Have you ever figured out how many wounds are needed to kill the heavies in this list and they are in cover for the entire game!
I was happy because once again the zealots did what they needed to by winning combat with a unit of genestealers and I killed that God D@MN flying hive tyrant before he could hit my front lines. The P/E could have probably turned the game if they had not rolled a 6 on the difficult terrain check (and if my uncle had boobs he would be my aunt). In all it was a great game and was great to play Brian who also won the event at Robs that I couldnt go to so I was glad to roll dice against him and once again dispel the rumors that the Nidzilla army is unbeatable. I didnt win but it wasnt the rout that people make them out to be.
In the end 10 for him 5 for me (should have been a 7 if I left the speeder in the deployment zone instead of going after the carnifex.
Turn three
Blood angels vs. Witchhunters
Control the field P: table quarters S: kill highest point unit T: kill opponents general.
Special Rules: infiltrate
Yes, blood angel again. This time though there was what I would consider a blood angels fluff army and this scared the gak out of my army. Three Baal predators, three razorbacks mounted 5 main troop units, jump troop unit, Lemartes and d/c and three attack bike units. We were on a ruined city board that said my life when he won first turn and took it! Table quarters and I was going to last turn yea!!!!
First turn for him brought everything at me and with table quarter deployment zones this was not going to be very pretty for me. He moves everything forward at a rush that only blood angel know how to do. Everything blew smoke for the next turn of my firing. The other attack bikes on the other flank took out one of the P/E (bad deployment)
First turn for me saw one of the Baal predators get blown up from dread las and the other two get stunned for a turn. My rhino charged up and blocked off the street from the razorbacks so the would now have to get out and the march up the road and the heavy bolters on top of them would not be able to kill my zealots before they got into
CC. My Eversor assaulted one of the attack bikes did one would out of 9 attacks (he sucked all day as a matter of fact). The attack bikes that took out the P/E died to storm troopers with plasma and the remaining P/E took out a razorback and entangled the veteran troop unit inside.
Turn two had his d/c assaulting on of my
inq elite units which was in the middle of a fire sack. He even asked if that was bait and said yes it was. He had an attack bike come forward and blow up one of my dreads with a multimelta. His assault phase was watching him wipe out my elite
inq and his retinue however his massacre roll was only a 3 so his was stuck for my next turn in the open of the firing sack. This time the d/c still had 5 and the Lemartes left after the firing. His feel no pain was amazing. The zealots charged and the eviscerators took out the unit.
Turn three six were pretty uneventful as the number of scoring unit that he had made it almost a mute point but we were having a lot of fun and he army was the best painted of the four that I played and the jokes we making made it one of the best games of the day next to the one that I played with one of our old students Walter.
In the end a 22 for me.
Turn 4
Necrons vs. Witchhunters.
P:
VP with hunted unit being worth double S: all troops none scoring T: control at least as many table quarters as your opponent.
This would be the first time that this army played Necrons. It would also be the first time that I faced a deceiver in
40k. The worst part to this mission was that we were going to both be in cover shooting at each other and trying to kill Necrons that are in 4+ cover is just not fun at all. In the end, I squeaked a solid victory because of the deceiver counting for double. I also made the mistake of not realizing the neurogauntlet on the Eversor makes him wound on a 4+ which would have made a huge difference in the
cc with the immortals but I dont think that it would have change the outcome that much.
In the end 12 for me and 7 for Walter
At the end of the tournament I was informed that lost the best general by 5 points. In reviewing the battles that I played I know that I could have gotten 2 more points in the 2 game and if I had sat back just shot lascannons and the nids throughout the games I probably could have kept the game to a draw but I really hate draws. I want to get out there and mixed it up and see who the Emperor favors that day.
Brian with the nids won for the day. He slaughtered Chucks dark Eldar 22 5 in the fourth game that I find absolutely brilliant! I feel really luck to know that I killed enough in our mission to hold him only to solid victory and no second or tertiary objectives. It must have been an amazing battle to watch the Nidzilla army catch and wipe out the dark eldar witch army to the man without taking 250 points of losses.
So next year come out for a great cause, donate a toy to a child who really wants to believe in the spirit of the holidays. I know that I will be there, how about you?
