Longtime Dakkanaut
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All right, battle report arrives!
First off all, the tournament in general.
Murfreesboro was a fairly long drive from the Atlanta area, and we had decided to go the morning of. Not the greatest plan, but we did get there on time.
The Tables:
The tournament was a large one, 24 tables. The theme of the tournament was the Battle for Stones River, and consequently the boards all had a river running through them, which was treated as difficult terrain and gave a cover save of 5+ to anyone who was in it.
Since the river used up roughly half of the 25% terrain on each table, and didn't block LOS, the boards felt sparse. There was usually only one or two LOS blocking pieces of terrain on the table, plus some size 1 and two stuff and the river. This was a pleasant change to me, as Warfan's ridiculous stance that every piece of the 25% terrain must be size 3 always drives me nuts.
The Missions:
Straight from the books, the missions were Patrol (Gah!), recon, take and hold and seek and destroy, all gamma. I guess they thought the river was enough of a twist for one tourney, and I agreed with them. Nice to go through a tourney without having to accomplish ludicrous stuff. (battle in the eye of terrror, that's eavy doc, etc.) One flaw was that while they added extra battle points to each mission the announcements of these conditions were haphazard at best. The TO simply said them once, and in a room with 24 players + hangers on, that's not always enough.
The games were also capped at 2.0 hours. I was able to get 6 round games in each time, but I know some folks who could have used another half hour. I'll admit, though, that in a 4 round tournament this is probably a necessity.
The Field:
Counting the ATL folks the tournament field was composed of the following codexes:
3 Space Marine
1 Blood Angel
3 Space Wolve
3 Dark Angel
2 Witch Hunter
4 Daemon Hunter (WTF?)
4 Imperial Guard
8 Eldar (WTF?)
1 Ork
1 Tau
2 Dark Eldar
6 Chaos Space Marine
3 Tyranid
3 Necron
I completed this census in the second round, so there may have been more in the first who left thereafter, I noticed them packing up a few tables. The armies spanned the field, from completely unpainted to awesome. My particular favorites were an IG army that was like 90% resin and looked incredible, and the Nids who went on to win best painted. Secondary grats to the pink Nid hive tyrant on the pillar, which was a really cool conversion.
The scoring:
I'm not going to talk about soft scores, as I don't believe in them, but you could earn up to 20 battle points in each game. 20 for a VS, 18 for a crushing, 16 for a major, 14 for a solid, ten for a draw, 5 for a loss. On top of that, there were a few additional points available in each mission.
The Lists:
I brought:
Deceiver,
Ten warriors
Ten warriors
6 Immortals
6 Immortals
6 Immortals
3 Destroyers
3 Destroyers
4 Destroyers
1 Heavy Destroyer
1 Heavy Destroyer
1 Heavy Destroyer
A brought:
Deceiver
ROVOD Lord
10 Warriors
10 Warriors
X Immortals
X Immortals
3 Destroyers
3 Destroyers
Monolith
B brought:
Prince Yriel
Farseer on jetbike w/fortune
jetbike squad
jetbike squad
6 harlies
6 harlies
5 harlies
3 warlocks on jetbikes
holo-falcon
holo-falcon
holo-falcon
B and I weren't going to win any soft scores, but A's crons had a pretty striking color scheme and a display board, plus he'd painted them himself, so he might do alright in that.
Round 1:
Mission: Patrol (modified, you start with BOTH your mandatory troop choices on the level, and at the end of the battle you receive an extra battle point for each one which is alive.)
Opponent: B! (We begged not to have to play each other, as we play every week and we'd driven 3.5 hours for games with strangers, but to no avail. Doh)
My Game report:
I won the roll to go first, and I simply castled up on my side of the board. As each falcon came on he'd load harlequins on it, and I'd shake it. He never dared to venture within the range of my infantry, so it was just destroyers and heavy D's shooting at his skimmers, which would each fire back once on the round they arrived, for the first few rounds. On round 4 he had finally gotten all his falcons in and mounted with harlequins (although Yriel wasn't able to get onboard) and he'd lost a warlock squad (no fortune on the turn they arrive) and a warp spider squad (can't hide behind size 2 when the enemy gets up on size 3). On that round he lost his first falcon, it was immobilized. He lined up one of the remaining for a tank shock through my whole army, and then on round 5 it was promptly destroyed, as was the immobilized Falcon. Yriel had been hiding behind them, so he was suddenly exposed and wounded. He went into full VP conservation mode from then on, but I still managed to scope out and drop his last holo falcon on turn 8 (random game length).
The only model I'd lost was a heavy D who had gotten back up and joined another Heavy D to create a pair unit. Mech Eldar can be challenging, but going first in a patrol against a variant that puts all its long ranged weaponry on falcons on a table with little terrain was a target shoot. I got a solid victory with both bonus points, he got a loss with both bonus points. So, 16 points for this round.
A's game report:
You can guess how this game went from the matchup. He was up against terminator heavy DA, a deathwing/ravenwing combo.
Other player: Hey, cool, I've never played Necrons before.
Bystander: Deceiver in melee with Terminators huh...never pretty.
So A managed a massacre with both bonus points, but apparently his opponent was good natured and learned a lot about Necrons, so I don't feel as bad as I might.
B's game report:
He played me, reported above. Not a happy camper.
Game 2:
The mission: Recon, gamma, with a bonus point if no enemy is in your deployment zone at game's end.
The field: I was actually on a pretty high table after the first round, guess patrol held down the massacre count and let me do alright with a solid. There were several fierce armies nearby. Warzonekos, who beat me last tourney, was to my right. A was to his right. To my left was a fierce Nidzilla list. Definitely need to suit up for a rough fight next round, presuming I do well this time.
The enemy list:
Farseer w/doom
war walkers
wraithlord
ten wraithguard w/conceal
2 guardian units w/scatter lasers and conceal
2 6 man jetbike units with 2 catapults each
10 man Dire Avenger unit
Avatar
It's odd, sort of the Eldar equivalent of my list, a shooting line galvanized by the presence of a monstrous creature. Still, only catastrophic dice rolling could cause me not to win this one. We walk towards each other, firing, and t5 s3+ beat t3 s 5+. My opponent is a good player and knows the limits and strengths of his list, he puts up the best fight one can ask for. Maybe he could have won a mission that allowed him to avoid engaging the Necron infantry bricks. As he put it, he just drew a bad matchup. At the last, he tried to rush ahead and change the battle a melee fight, where he still would have had a disadvantage but morale checks could have produced a miracle. It was a valiant strategy, but if mobile Eldar can't bring about melee static Eldar sure as heck can't. The Deceiver brought down the curtain.
Result: Massacre and got the bonus battle point, so 21 for this round.
A's result: A got a tough game this time around against Dark Eldar, but the DE player was a bit unfamiliar with Codex: Necron, and the Monolith and Deceiver proved effective. Still, he was only able to get a major victory, due to the DE's keeping him on the defensive all game. VS elduded him.
B's result: He got an IG gunline as his opponent. He was able to blitz him with his harlies and that was that, although he had an unpleasant surprise at the hands of Rough Riders, who he hadn't encountered before. I believe he got a VS with bonus.
Game 3:
The mission: Take and Hold, gamma, +1 bp if your general is within 12" of the center at the end of it.
The field: Warzonekos and A had drawn each other this game, and the Nidzilla player hadn't managed a VS last game, so he was a ways down from me, engaged with a SM gunline.
The enemy list:
Wolf Priest
Wolf Lord
10 blood claws w/rhino
10 blood claws w/rhino
10 grey hunters w/rhino
10 grey hunters w/rhino
Venerable dreadnaught
Venerable dreadnaught
Land Raider
4 Space Wolf Scouts
So, functionally, he was presenting a front of 7 vehicles to a Necron army, on a map where his Rhinos have to drive across a river. He won first turn and zipped gamely forward, but even smoking the Rhinos weren't going to persist. This game was about the fact that he couldn't get into melee combat with anything except the Deceiver, which he couldn't beat in melee combat. He got mowed down. I felt sort of bad about this game. Even more than the last one, this was a mismatch. I play Rhino Rush myself, and the smoking rhinos normally provide more protection. Against a Necron, though, glance only is meaningless, and the fact that they have to take tests to cross the river is the last straw. I think there was a retreating Space Wolf alive at game's end, along with his long range dreadnaught. I got 21.
A and Warzonekos played, and if you want a summary of that game you can check out Warzonekos's battle report. A won by VS.
B played a Chaos army and lost, hard. I'm impressed by that Chaos player, because I've played B's Mech Eldar numerous times with my Chaos (who resemble this guy's profoundly) and never managed that. Bravo sir.
Round 4:
The mission: Seek and Destroy, gamma. +1 Bp if you kill the enemy general, +3 if you do so with your general. I like the tradition of the last mission of a tourney being a straight up fight.
The field: In a moment of colossal irony, A had to play Nidzilla (A's a big time Nidzilla player himself). I got to play a guy I knew from internet forums, who had been contemplating bringing my list himself. Instead he had brought the shooty marine gunline army which played the Nidzilla force last round.
The enemy:
Inquisitor w/gun retinue (3 Hbolters and a Psycannon)
2 5 man las/plas squads
2 5 man plasma cannon squads
2 Dev squads w/3 missile launchers each
1 Dev squad w/4 heavy bolters
1 Evissar assassin
1 Librarian on Jpack for counterassault
2 whirlwinds firing castellans
2 Landspeeders with assault cannons
2 scout squads with heavy bolters
We lined up and shot at each other. His army couldn't really switch up and do anything else, so he just stood and fired. He went for phaseout by targeting my warrior squads, which meant that my firepower was never diminishing. I used the redeploy to put all my firepower on the left flank, while Deceiver rushed the right. He just spent the game shooting at whatever presented itself. He eventually gave up on phaseout and switched to sniping the Heavy D's and Destroyers, but it was too late. He rushed the Deceiver with his HQ to try for the bonus points, after I vowed I wouldn't misdirect, but then discovered s4 doesn't wound s8 and got chomped. Everything got shot down, with 2 exceptions. On the first round I'd tried to torrent of fire a plasma cannon guy and put the heavy d's on a whirlwind, but neither had gone down. Throughout the game I kept devoting one squad to each of those tasks. The whirlwind ended the game with no weapons and immobilized, but alive, while the plasma cannon guy was the last marine alive. Still, I got 23 BP's out of this game, and it was an entertaining one.
A got the experience I've had a million times, of frantically backpedalling while Nidzilla stomps towards you. Ultimately he was able to win the game by crushing victory, but the next round would have been dicy indeed, as the MC's had finally reached his line. Deceiver made all the difference, as he is wont to do. I'm happy for him and all, but I can't help wishing the mission had been something like Take and Hold, so he'd have had to actually kill all those t6 2+ save bugs, instead of just shooting a few down and winning through Seek and Destroyer VP doubling.
B faced an Eldar army in the last round. He said he had a good time, and I think he won. Bravo for hot Eldar on Eldar action.
I won best General, with 74 out of 80 BPs and all 7 extra points. A won best army, as he does.
In closing, the only thing that really irked me in this tourney was not seperating club members on the first round. I understand you may need to take on your buddies in the later rounds, as the score mandates, but I just feel like if you play someone every week they shouldn't be your first foe at a tourney. Then again, I didn't have to play A in the last round, so that sorta makes up for it.
Other than that this was a fantastic tournament. You got half a pizza for your lunch, the room was large enough and the players friendly. The 'river runs through it' motif worked all right, and the missions from the book meant that no one felt cheated by mission. The staff were organized and cordial, and I didn't have a single bad experience with them. Bravo Murfreesboro!
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