Sundays games
sunday game 1 Nids TIE (I won by 46
VPs)
his list was like...
flyrant double
devs scream
tyrant venom cannon and
devs scream
2x dakkafex
30 spinegaunts
3x10 scuttling genestealers
1 ravener
3 screaming zoes
2x gun fex venom cannon
devs
by far the most educational and most fun game of the week. i wouldn't have pulled it of without the guidance of you dakka-ites in the tactics section. This game was all about guard close combat. Yes thats right. Some of you guys already know about guard close combat, but some of you will probably be in total disbelief when I say that i killed 2.5 of the 3 genestealers units in hand to hand. there was so much learning going on my head was hurting. But I had a huge grin on my face after I downed the first stealer unit. My opponent was a good friend and testing partner and we walked each other through the combats so he could learn more about his nids (which aren't his main army) while I learned how to 'counter-assault'. Anyway, here is the game...
Omega secure and control... I got a break on escalation, but secure and control? I would call that a disadvantage versus nids
He won first turn and despite concealment, opted to go first, which I think is the right call. The downside to scuttling is its far easier to spot your guy on turn 1 if its dawn or concealment. Turn one he charges my conscripts with a genestealer unit, and gets some good fleets on the gaunts and other stealers. My turn 1 I whittle down one of the stealer units, kill a Zoe and then fix bayonets. I had moved a heavy bolter squad out as close as I could get to the full sized stealer unit, and spread them as far as I could in 'red-rover' formation. If I did it right, it would be game over.
turn 2. Well he had enough movement with his genestealer unit to slip just past my screening guardsmen unit, got another good fleet and was able to charge another heavy bolter squad, one that was too close to my support squads to sacrifice. his flyrant showed up and annihilated a lascannon squad, some dakkafexes also showed up but were out of range.
my turn 2, this is where I used to give up as a guard player, and where many guard lists just completely fall apart. As the old saying goes, quantity has a quality all of its own. I have enough bodies in this list to actually win this game. I plugged 2 10 man squads into the stealer unit that charged the 3rd heavy bolter unit, and moved another one in position to assist the conscripts next turn. And i STILL had 2 10 man heavy bolter squads holding the line, and all but the one lost lascannon units ready to fire and with good
LOS to large targets.
Stelek has referred to what happens next as the "heave ho" and I was using that phrase all night. i won't give you a turn by turn analysis of those close combats, but if we just fast forward to the game end, I lost a little over half of what what he lost in points in those combats. A good leadership bubble, with rerolls and mass bodies can just CRUSH enemy assaulters. Nothing strange happened with the dice. They seemed to fall in the normal range of expectation. having a large supply of 10 LD9 rerollable woundbags for 80 points a pop was an awesome advantage.
Turn 3 I started putting wounds on his
MCs, and he started whittling away at the support squads. It seemed like we were both going to just grind each other down. Unfortunately we hit the 2 hour mark maybe 5 minutes after we began turn 3 so we agreed to make turn 3 the final turn. Had we decided to just play an untimed game, it would have continued to be close, but all of his non-
MCs were tied up in unwinnable
CCs or dead, and I had 2x10 man squads ready to charge any dakkafexes that weren't dying fast enough. Both tyrants had only a single wound left. And I had 5 lascannons still. I was however in scream range, but it wasn't a full scream, probably a -1 by the time i charged.
Thanks guys for helping me understand that you don't need a dedicated counter assault unit. Gaunt, some conscripts and some bodies can do that job nicely.
sunday game 2.. this is the one I was waiting for... eldar WIN
My friend knew I was testing, and i think he may have purposely dialed back on his list a bit. I wish he hadn't. It was no contest and i would have liked to see a couple units that are still intimidating me with this list
he ran
bike autarch
bike farseer
bike warlocks (would have been infinitely scarier as shining spears)
2x pathfinders
2x guardians in wave serpents (blatantly soft!!!)
warp spiders
2x falcon
Bike warlocks are very good in many matchups. Having a destructor + bs4
TL shurikat unit that literally cannot die is good. Unless your opponent has gaunt + 30 conscripts. Hit and run would have owned me pretty bad, but he brought it for all comers.
gamma take and hold... My deployment was pretty spot on. I stayed far away from any
LOS feature on the table. Kept all my support squads close together. The more valuable lascannons in the furthest back and thus safest place.
I got first turn which made it 10x worse. bassy penned and blew up a falcon, and my lascannons got both waveserpents. Moved out my conscripts keeping in mind all of the different places he would want to move his warlocks, and where he may deep strike his warp spiders. My spread was really good. he could move his bikes up and shoot the conscripts and then jump back, but if he boosted over me or went around terrain, he would still be in charge range of either the conscripts or some other brave infantry unit ready to latch on to their ankles and hold them in place. Dumped all my anti infantry into the pathfinder units, killing one off and halving another. Brought a guardian unit to below half. In an effort to shake the other falcon, I blew it up. The warlocks just couldn't take it anymore and charged the much smaller conscript unit which had been whittled down a lot by the warlocks and by the guardian scatter lasers. I charged with two 10 man squads up to back them up, and got a leadership bubble over to them to support them. managed to kill a single warlock, which was a miracle in and of itself. Warp spiders could not find a remotely useful place to deepstrike, so they had to pick one quite far from my bassy, they scattered away from me and were summarily earthshaken.
He conceded defeat to me which I graciously accepted instead of tabling everything but the warlocks. it was very cathartic to take a crap on eldar. They had been completely ruling any guard list I made. I know there are eldar lists out there that can rock my world, but any one of these lists that are made to deny
VPs or tailored to kill marines is going to be undermatched versus this guard list.
Thanks for reading, I have a lot more learning to do with this list. And also, don't get me wrong, I don't somehow think its a top-tier list that will smoke people in a no-comp tourney. I was just looking for something to play in guard that performed better than tanks with last chancers and dropping veterans which I feel only beats people who haven't seen it before. I'm just glad i can play something that looks good on the table is unique (kinda) and performs adequately. Even against people that know your "trick".
When i get better with it, i will be able to more clearly see this lists limitations, but until then, Im just happy for the guard