Sinewy Scourge
Murfreesboro, TN
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So 3 of my club mates from the GA regulars out of Murfreesboro, TN get up early on Saturday, pile into my van, and make the 2 hour drive to Dicehead for the 2k 40k tournament. We get there a bit early and are immediately surprised to find that there where 28-30 other people signed up for the tournament. In the past my group has, on occasion, made up as much as 30% of one of these tournaments. Every army but witchhunters is represented, though I am happy to note that no other Dark Eldar are present. It takes the tournament organizers about half an hour to adjust to the extra dozen players (and they did an excellent job, they produced the needed tables and had them covered in good terrain.) He also announce that if it could be helped no one would be playing anyone from the same club until the finals, and that’s always great to hear!
Ok so here was the list I brought (no longer have a copy so I might miss one or two things)
HQ
Archon with punisher, shadowfield, combat drugs, plasma grenades, tormentor helm, trophy rack
Dracite with agonizer, trophy rack, plasma grenades
6 wyche retinue with wyche weapons, plasma grenades and succubus with agonizer
Raider with nightshields and horrofex
Elites
X2 7 wyches with plasma grenades, wyche weapons and succubus with agonizer, trophy rack
X2 Raider with nightshields, horrofex
Troops
X4 7 warriors with splinter cannon, blaster and sybarite with agonizer, plasma grenades
X4 raider with horrorfex
10 warriors with 2 dark lances and sybarite with nightmare doll
Heavy support
X3 Ravagers with x3 disintegrators, nightshields
Lots of paper airplanes with dangerous weapons!
First Round – Pitched battle annihilation
Opponents Chaos Space Marines
List
HQ
Lash Prince wings
Elites
10 terminators 2 reaper autocannons and an assortment of weapons
Troops
10 CSM chaos glory, 2 flamers, champ with power fist
Rhino
10 CSM chaos glory, 2 melta guns, champ with power fist
Rhino
8 Bezerkers champ with powerfist
Rhino
10 CSM plasma gun and missile launcher
Hvy
X3 2 obliterators
Ugh, not only was this a list with only 12 KPs to my 20 but the person playing the list was the same opponent whose rhino’s I had found indestructible in the previous dicehead tournament, really nice guy though.
He wins the roll to chose sides and go first…ugh
He deploys most of his units in the center building, terminators on the bottom, 4 oblits on top, rhinos behind building and 1 unit of oblits to the far right and the footslogging CSM on the far left.
I load everthing on the left flank with my wyche and HQ raiders and my ravagers behind my warrior raiders.
Turn 1
His first turn is a lot of missing. YAY his only movement is to shuffle some oblits around and move all his rhinos forward. The only casualties is one wyche raider (2 wyches die) and the weapons of a troop raider. Hey not so bad.
Alright time to unleash HELL! I cause over 13 ap 2 wounds on his terminator squad and 6 such wounds (3 str 8) on an oblit squad, and He makes every single cover save….. uh oh…. I do manage to kill 1 rhino and stun the bezerker rhino…. In assault I send my HQ wyche squad after the terminators, in a hope to hold them up (was hoping to finish them up….) and avoid all those autocannon shots, I kill 1…..and lose 2 but hold. My other assault is against the chaos warriors that got shot out of their rhino with my wyches that got shot out of their raider, we tie that assault.
Turn 2
Ok this will hurt. His other rhino is shaken and he keeps his csm in there. His bezerkers come out to play. And his demon prince moves forward. His oblits and footslogger CSM squad account for troop raider and they also immobilize a ravager (yay new skimmer rules) made a few obscured saves this turn. He lashes the displaced raider squad forward and then the bezerkers charge both an empty wyche HQ raider and the warriors (but only 1 bezerker hits the warrior squad.) My HQ wyche squad kills 1 termintor before being smaked down hard….the other wyche combat ends in a tie again and the bezerkers kill the raider but the warrior squad manages to down 2 bezerkers for the lose of only 1 or 2, they manage to hold.
At this point I have some hard choices to make. I disembark my Archon and send him over to help with the zerkers and my other wych squad moves forward to help the other wyches and maybe double charge to go against the zerkers as well. In shooting, I manage to kill 3 CSM and blow the gun of a rhino and stun it, but I do manage to kill 8 out of the 10 terminators w00t. On to assault, my lord and wyches charge in and kill everyone..oops. Everyone tryes to get into cover but the big wych squad can only squat behind a dead rhino.
Turn 3
Now it gets bad. Shooting sees another 2 raidesr and a ravager get killed, the csm still in the rhino disembark and kill all but one of the wyches in the open (from their angle) but yay going to ground in the open as the 6+ saved the last wyche. The prince tries to lash my archon, but fails! He then assaults the archon and gets 1 wound for his trouble while wiffing himself.
Ok time to get even, shooting is much more productive with 1 ravager accounting for all 10 of the CSM that just rapid fired the wyches and lances accounting for one squad of oblits and a rhino as well as finishing off the terminators. I manage to knock the CSM in the build down to 2 marines. In assault my archon and the DP both no unsaved wounds.
Turn 4 (time is only 20 minutes left so this will be the last turn)
He manages to kill the immonilized ravager. On the bright side I do manage to kill the DP with my archon, though at this point I have taken 2 wounds from combat drugs.
Ok I am down by 1 KP at this point (he has 8 I have 7). If I can kill the 2 csm in the building and either 2 oblits or the zerkers rhino (who went into hiding last round) I can win this. I unleash hell on the 2 CSM and surprise surprise he only fails 1 cover save after going to ground, grr.. Shooting has no results on the obliterators as I either miss or he makes his saves and I hit the rhino, and glance. Crap, the only chance I have at this point for a draw is if my archon makes a 12” assault on 2 oblits in the open and kills them both… I take 3 combat drugs, 12” assault, +1 str, and re-roll misses, and promptly OD….
So I lose 9 to 7 KP But it was an absolute blast and a nail biter to the end against a truly great opponent. I did however manage to get all 3 bonus VPs to get a mighty 8 point win…
At this point the pressure is off and I can continue to have fun.
We break for lunch and after talking to one of my Teammates (Ken), we find out that his draw was actually a win (he forgot that Independent characters + retinue = 2kps).
Come back for game 2
Originally my opponent was to be one of my club mates but Shane the tournament organizer was kind enough to repair us and I ended up playing Shane himself (we had some drop outs after the first round)
Shane’s Crusading Space Marine List
HQ
Librarian (don’t know what powers, where never used)
Commander with command Squad (apothecary, banner, other badness)
Rhino
Elite
Vangaurd Vets on foot
Dreadnaught assault cannon
Troops
10 Space marine with heavy bolter and melta
10 Space marines with missile launcher
X2 10 scouts with sniper rifle and missile launcher
Fast Attack
3 Scout bikers
Heavy Support
6 devastators with 3 lascannons
Land raider redeemer (librarian and vanguard vets in here)
Vindicator
This is an absolutely gorgeously painted and modeled army. And Shane is always great to play against
The mission is Secure and Control with dawn of war. Additional mission specs was that 1 unit, chosen before deployement had night vision and could see as normal first turn. He chose his tac squad with missile launcher I chose 1 of my ravagers.
He starts with his tac squad with missile launcher in some trenches (with his objective in front of it) and the other tac squad in a building on my right flank (opposite my objective). He has 1 unit of scouts and the scout bikers outflanking.
I deploy just my 10 man warrior squad in a building on my right flank on the 2nd floor next to my objective.
Turn 1
His army comes on with everything coming up behind the center trench line, save for his commanders rhino and the redeemer which drive towards my objective right center and the dev squad which comes in on the left flank just left of center. His shooting does nothing, yay!
I bring in everything towards the center, turbo boosting everthing but the ravagers. My shooting sees 6 hits on the 6 man dev squad from disentgrators, followed by 3 ones, so still 3 lascannons to deal with. I also manage to stun the redeemer, woopeee!
Turn 2
Both flanking units show up, the scouts on the far left and the bikers right behind my objective (yay 2nd floor). His redeemer and command rhino move forward as does the dread and vindi. Shooting sees the Dev squad immobilze the ravager that shot them, and both my hq raiders get ganked, 1 by a glancing 6, ug. His scout bikers kill one warrior with shooting.
I move both wyche raiders forward and dump their cargo, the troop raiders move around to get blaster shots at the dread, vindi and redeemer and the ravagers move to eliminate the outflanking units. I manage to eliminate the devs and scout bikers with the ravagers while the other kills all but 3 of the flanking scout squad and they fall back. My lances see the HQ rhinos weapon destroyed. And the redemmers assault cannon destroyed. In assault I manage to kill 8 of the 10 man tac squad but I was unable to double charge into the scout squad behind them as the wyches on that flank rolled a 1 for both their fleet move and their difficult terrain. The last 2 marines hold.
Turn 3
His redeemer rolls up and disembarks the librarian and vanguard squad in front of the big wych combat. The HQ rhino rumbles further forward and the vindicator (shaken from last turn) hides behind some buildings. Shooting sees both remaining wyche raiders brought down (again one to a glancing 6). The vanguard and librarian charge into the massive melee in the center. All of my wyches and my archon combined manage to slaughter……1 marine. In return 1 wyche dies and my lord is wounded twice and rolls a save and a 1…..yay shadow field, so I lose combat by 1. Both wyche squads hold but my archon, high tails it off the table…..great…
Ok my turn. Top 3 priorities for this turn are to 1. win that damned giant combat in the center. 2 kill that dread before he gets to said combat, and 3 kill the hq rhino before it gets to my objective. During my shooting phase I manage to immobilize the hq rhino and stun it. I don’t do jack to the redeemer, and everything bounces off the dread, until some desperation shots from a ravager manages to wreck it, yay. As far as my first priority goes I manage to get my downed dracite and retinue over to the big furball in the middle (the dracite’s squad consists of the dracite, succubus, and 1 regular wyche). In assault I manage to kill several marines and keep the vanguard from running away, though the last man from the 10 man tac squad gets away (after making over a dozen armor save….)
Turn 4
His HQ moves out of their rhino and towards my objective their pistols will kill a few warriors. The vindicator moves out to get some shots on some raiders. Shooting sees 2 of the 3 remaining troop raiders go down with the squad next to his objective being pinned (their raider was wrecked with a glancing 6!). In assault I manage to kill a few more vanguard and importantly, the librarian.
Ok got to kill the HQ out in the open. I think I immbolized the redeemer at this point. Shooting doesn’t do much as my ravagers shots all scatter off save 2 and one of those is a 1 to wound… I kill another of the HQ with a blaster shot, and the apothecary prevents a splinter rifle wound. They will make it to my objective next round. In the big fight in the middle. 4 agonizers finally do to marines what they are supposed to and finish off the vanguard and then move towards the objective hugging cover.
Turn 5 last turn due to time.
His HQ moves up to assault my squad on my objective and his other tac squad moves to shoot my wyches near his. His scouts also move to control his objective. Shooting sees 2 wyches die. In the assault his HQ clobbers my warriors who roll insane courage arg! Now I can’t shoot him off the objective…
My last turn, my previously pinned warriors hotfoot it over to his objective, fleeting 6” and my last mobile troop raider moves over to contest mine for when my warriors die. My wyches all assault the scouts and the last member from the other tac squad and finally roll well and wipe them out.
So a win to me, but had this been KP….. I also manage to grab 2 extra VP for a 17 point win.
Turns out none of the other GA regulars had good 2nd rounds and 1 would turn out to be a very suspect game…
Game 3
Gimli from the Blade and Bolter Boys (practically down the road from Murfreesboro) and his Anatomically correct (even the dread..shudder) all female CSM slaaneshi army. It made me feel better to find out that he had won both his games and I was playing him because I was the best of the worst, so to speak. All 5 objectives are somewhat central
Mission Take and Hold with Corners deployement
We rolled 5 objectives and I won the roll (first time yay didn’t even need the nightmare doll)
His army
HQ
X2 Lash princesses
Elite
Chaos Dread x2 close combat weapons combi-bolter and flamer
Troops
X3 10-12 Noise Marines all with sonic blasters with champ with power weapon and doom siren. Icon
20 lesser demons
Heavy
X2 defilers
X2 obliterators
I deploy everthing but 1 troop raider as far up as I can, save for the 10 man darklance squad that sits on an objective in a forest.
He holds everything but 1 noise marine squad in reserve.
Turn 1
I zip around a lot and killed all the noise marines..
His turn…nadda
Turn 2
I turbo boost everyone to get cover
His reserve come in, 1 noise marine squad, defiler, dread and both pricesses come in. The defiler and dread come in centrally, while the noise marines come out to my center right, spread way out in single file, behind cover. His shooting downed my archons raider.
Turn 3
Shuffle raiders and ravagers around, Archons unit moves out of lash range (hopefully). Shooting kills the defiler and shakes and immobilizes the dread. Fire from ravagers and raiders kills 3-4 noise marines.
Reserves have the other defiler and noise marine squad come in, as well as the 20 strong demon unit. No oblits yet. The Defiler comes in besides the immobile dread, while the noise marines come in between the wrecked defiler and dread in cover. The demons come in off the icon on the other noise marine squad, a few have to take terrain tests. The demons run 6” so spread way out and are on an objective and within 15-16” of my darklance squad. Shooting sees noise marine squad that summoned the demons shoot down a troop raider in front of the demons (about 9” away). Defiler stuns another troop raider. The demon princesses continue to hide behind/on top of a bunker.
Turn 4
I move my Archon towards the lash princesses on his own, the raiders move around some and the ravagers move to get LOS on the big demon unit. I manage to wreck the defiler and destroy the dreadnaught. I manage to kill about 10-12 demons and a few marines from each unit.
His oblits finally show, he drops them next to an objective just left of center, between 2 raiders and a ravager. He moves the last 2 surviving noise marines that summoned the demons out of LOS from my ravagers. His demons move towards my warriors that came out of the downed raider. Both demon princess’ move forward, but not far due to bad terrain rolls. He manages to down another troop raider with the oblits, and then lashes them towards the demons, they don’t go far enough but are pinned. The demons assault the warriors from a downed raider and kill 3, leaving 2 who stay.
Turn 5
My Archon moves into 12” charge range of one of the Lash Princesses, a wyche squad and dracite/retinue move to assault the demons while the other squad moves to assault the larger noise marine squad (while their raider contests 2 objectives. I send a Ravager to contest the objective that the demons had been on, making sure to move over 6 inches. My other troops, on foot or in raider, move to contest/claim objectives. Shooting sees my ravager on the objective fail to kill the 2 remaining noise marines on that side, while another ravager kills the oblits, the third puts a wound on the lash princess farthest from my archon while my few remaining raiders take a wound of the other. In the assault my wyches all make their charges as does my archon. The wyches wiff killing only 2 demons, but the 2 remaining warriors kill 1 apiece. The demons then only manage to kill 1 of the warriors and now only a few demons remain. The other wyche combat is a tie while my archon puts two wounds on the demoness.
His final moves are to move his last Lash princess forward who lashes on unit off an objective, and the 2 noise marines doom siren and then charge the ravager but fail to hurt it. The demons are finished off as is the Lash princess. The game ends. I have 2 objectives and he has none.
I manage to get all 3 points for an 18pt victory.
I ended the tournament 6th out of 32-35 people. Considering that I had lost my first round (barely arg!) I was VERY happy with this result. I had a great time and played against some great opponents. Unfortunately none of us finished in the top 3, but Will won a random drawing for $25. So our club got out more then we put in, so I think that counts as a victory overall!
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