I had a great time at the first Battle for Stones River, (Link:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/208154.page) and have been looking forward to the return match. We attended the second one and it was much like the first.
The Venue:
Once again it was located in a fairly small room, and once again it was on a bitterly cold day. The room warmed up swiftly, and smelled of gamer funk by mid-day, but that's probably inevitable in a room of that size.
The pre-reg had covered lunch, and we all got pizza and soda after round 2, which was pretty cool. They also sold refreshments throughout the day, which is always very convenient.
The Tables:
There was a river running through all the tables, which was the theme of the tournament, and there was ample terrain. Much of it was 5th edition built, and hence was made to actually block
LOS. It reminded me of Fourth edition, when I was actually able to hide guys behind hills and not get them shot. Useful.
The Missions:
They had custom written missions for each round, but there was a few commonalities. One was that the armies were both attempting to cross the river. Another was the Pitched Battle deployment. There was never a mission which allowed infiltration or outflank, to the despair of my poor Kroot. We were World War One-ing it up all day long.
The Field:
Basically the only army I didn't see was witch hunters, but the vast majority was Space Marines of some kind. Every flavor of Space marine was represented, with the most common seeming to be Chaos Space marine. There was also at least 4 armies of Daemons, with both Player A's Tzeentch Daemons and some Nurgle Daemons looking really good.
Our lists:
I brought Tau Empire:
Shas'o w/plasma rifle, missile pod, reserve controller thingy, thing that lets you shoot both.
6 Fire Warriors
20 Kroot 9 Hounds
20 Kroot 9 Hounds
20 Kroot 8 Hounds
20 Kroot 8 Hounds
20 Kroot 8 Hounds
3 Broadsides w/shoot both weapons, boss has
bs 4
3 Broadsides w/shoot both weapons, boss has
bs 4
3 Broadsides w/shoot both weapons, boss has
bs 4
Assessment:
Well, I've kicked the devilfish and a few Kroot out to get down to 1863, and that's a big loss. The Fish was a good way to zip out and claim objectives as the game comes to its end, without it I'm at a loss for driving melee units off of terrain (Kroot rarely are able to get to + kick off such units). That will probably really hurt me. I'm also in trouble from the missions. I rely a lot on infiltrate and outflank to get my Kroot in different places, and to get around their # making deployment difficult. Without them its trouble. Guess I should have thought that this might happen, given that starting the battle across the river sort of defeats the purpose.
Still, this is a pretty solid 5th edition list. The Kroot don't stick in combats, due to their low leadership, so the enemy are always exposed to my broadside's blasting. Those broadsides pop open enemy vehicles like its still 4th edition. I'm strong on
KP missions, but it's going to be hard to go get enemy objectives.
Player-A's army:
Kairos
Tzeentch Herald w/chariot, gaze, bolt, Icon
Tzeentch Herald w/chariot, gaze, bolt, Icon
5 Pink Horrors w/Bolt, changling
5 Pink Horrors w/Bolt
5 Pink Horrors w/Bolt
5 Pink Horrors w/Bolt
5 Pink Horrors w/Bolt
5 pink Horrors w/Bolt
6 Flamers
4 Flamers
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, gaze, bolt
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, gaze, bolt
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, gaze, bolt
(He also has some musicians, and I may be off as to the # of horror units)
My Assessment: Tzeentch Daemons are really strong. I think that they are almost as strong as Khorne Daemons, with their only weakness being not getting Kairos in on time. Player-A also has them looking pretty good. I'd be unsurprised if they won this tournament.
Player-X's Daemonhunters:
Grand Master-Psycannon, Holocaust and Ungets of Warding
-Retinue of 4x w/ Psycannon
3x Grey Knights Squads of 9x models ea.
-2x Psycannons and Justicar w/ Melta Bombs, Ungets of Warding and Frag Grenades (Had 3 pts left over)
2x Dreads w/ Multimeltas &
DCCW w/ Smoke
1x Land Radier Crusader
My assessment:
It's a Grey Knight list, how hard can you assess it? He's got very few boots on the table, if he comes up against something that specializes in killing space marines, they are going to be able to wipe him out. He does have a lot of psycannon fire, but against a good
CSM army or Daemon/Ork army I think he's going to be in trouble.
Player-Y's army:
I don't know the details of his army, but its
CSM's w/2 lashers, thousand sons for the rhino-borne troops and 5 Oblits.
My assessment: Good, hard army. I don't think his play is quite optimal yet, but rhino-borne lash
CSM is one of the top tier lists, and he's got a solid implementation of that. I think he ought to vary the cultists to account for every exigency, but you can go a long way on Thousand Sons and rhinos, supported by Oblits and lashers.
Round 1:
Mission:
There are 4 objectives, scattered along the river. They are worth a variable number of points, from 1 to 3, and you flip them over to see what that # is when someone gets to them for the first time. There are 2 bonus points for killing the enemy's most expensive unit.
Assessment: Rough mission if I'm up against a very assaulty list, but as long as they are vaguely shooty I don't mind a tussle over the center. Missing the Devilfish.
The enemy:
Red Corsairs:
Huron Blackheart
Chaos Lord w/Bike + Daemon weapon
10 Chaos Space marines w/ rhino
10 Khorne berserkers w/rhino
8 Plague Marines
10 Lesser Daemons
6 Chaos Terminators + Land Raider
3 Chaos Terminators
4 Bikers w/fist champ
My assessment:
He's got 2 fast moving assault threats, but there's no nightfight and I've got 3 broadside units. I can probably destroy his assaulters even if his Land Raider gets to move and smoke and his bikes get to turbo boost, but I hope I get first turn. If he blitzes he could make a game of this, but if he hesitates at all the broadsides will chew him up.
The game:
I get the first turn and open fire, killing the bikers (though the Lord lives) and the Land Raider and the Chaos Space marine's rhino. My Kroot move forward.
On his turn he seems a little stunned by the broadside's firepower, apparently normally his land raider lives longer than that, but he gamely mounts an advance to the south. He does some shooting from the
CSM squad and kills a few Kroot. His Biker Lord, knowing his # is up, turbo boosts to the Kroot's position.
On my turn I fire on his remaining rhinos, popping them. He didn't even smoke. He's got no mobility, but his Berserkers are in range to charge, and his
HQ is getting close. I use my assault move to jump my commander right up into his terminator squad's face after rapid firing his plasma. I take the left objective and discover it's worth 2. My Kroot also swarm his biker lord, who's Daemon weapon malfunctions, and take him out.
He assaults a Kroot squad with his berserkers, wiping them out and taking 5 casualties in return (go Kroot, a lucky round for them) He Deep Strikes a Chaos Terminator squad daringly in my backfield, landing between the broadsides and taking one out with a melta shot. He sends Huron, his Terminators and his Daemons into my Commander, obliterating him.
My Kroot swarm over his berserkers, my Broadside shoot down the terminators, and my other Kroot swarm Huron (who fails his warptime test). After this the game is basically over.
Over the course of the rest of the game we shoot down his
CSM squad, who are on the 3 point objective. I get the bonus points for killing his most expensive squad and I get the win.
He was a fun opponent and had a fair list. I was happy while playing him that I didn't have my Khorne Daemons, which would have simply steam-rollered him. He got to kill a lot of Kroot and drop my commander, which made the game look a little less lopsided.
Round 2:
Mission #2: cross the river. You start on one side of the river. You have to get your troop squads a cross the river. You get a bonus point for killing up to two of their heavy support choices.
My assessment: Once again, my lack of infiltrait kicks me in the face. Normally outflank would make this a cakewalk. Now I've got to ford this stupid river. It's like I'm battling for stones...oh wait. Anyway, this will just be a scrum in the river's center, unless I get an odd enemy. I hope for something mechy I can paste with broadsides.
The enemy:
Deathwing!
Belial
5 Terminators
5 Terminators
5 Terminators
5 Terminators
5 Terminators
Land Raider Crusader
Land Raider
My assessment: Wow, this is the perfect prey for my list. His terminators can't outshoot or outfight my kroot, while my Broadsides will lay waste to his land Raiders. I've got this.
The game:
I get the deployment, and set up my Kroot spread out over the line, right up by the river and ready to cross, with my broadsides in the middle. I've got the fire warriors up on the left to hopefully dash into his space and hide.
He elects to keep everything in reserve. I figure that's game. He's got 2 squads in land raiders and 3 teleporting in. With good luck I'll only have to deal with 2 units, with bad luck 3, in the second round. Shouldn't be tough.
On my round I move forward, then again on my second turn. I get the guys in the middle over the river, and put a squad in position to take a land raider charge in order to bait his crusader into driving twelve and not shooting. My only real fear is that he uses his greater ability to concentrate firepower and races down one side, firing as he goes.
On his turn all 5 units come in. Doh! That was shockingly unlikely.
Now things are tough. He scatters into terrain with all his teleporters, but only loses one terminator to
DT tests. The
LR moves in 6", while the crusader dumps Belial + the terminators into my Kroot as I planned. Since the terminators can't run down my guys they only kill a few, and since they can't fire w/out changing losing a charge they are unable to shoot beforehand (though those termies didn't have any guns anyway). They beat me and break me, I think I put a wound on Belial and killed one Terminator. Maybe not though.
On my turn I have some tough choices. He's got one unit on each flank, and 3 in the middle, backed up by his land raiders, which are smoking this round (old school glance only smoke, don't like those odds). I decide to use the Broadsides on his Terminators, and kill a few with broadsides, and a few with shooting. I'm starting to break through on the right, while the left still has 4 and the center has a unit of 5, and a unit of 2, and Belial's unit is whittled down to just belial.
Belial chases the routing Kroot and punches out a broadside unit, while his other units shoot down one of my central Kroot squads. Also the last survivor of Belial's unit hopped back into the
LRC, which is gonna be trouble. He pushes on the left, destroying the last Fire Warriors.
On my turn I bust the right and center with charges, and lock us up on the left. I have to make a snap decision about the right hand squad, and I elect to send it running into the center. I get an extremely fortunate shot where I pop the
LRC, his guy comes out, and my routing kroot squad which has one man in range kills the terminator in a 2 shot rapid fire. Huzzah.
There are a few rounds of extremely tense touch and go with the Kroot dealing many wounds and the termies dealing few, but the terminators having good saves, and so the battles were close. I was fortunate enough to make the several 6 and 5 morale tests I needed though, and that won me the game. I only got the
LRC, so I got 19 for this round.
Game #3:
Not going to describe this one, as it would just cause drama. Fundamental question is whether or not to inform your opponent if he is playing in such a way as to lose the game, and it is clear he has not read the mission and does not realize this.
Ultimately, I score 18, despite being blasted basically off the board.
Game #4:
Mission:
KP, w/3 for
HQ and 2 for Elite. Bonus points for tabling your enemy
Opponent:
Space Marines:
Lysander
Assault Terminator squad w/storm shield/thunder hammer
LR Redeemer
Ironclad in a drop pod
2 Landspeeders with 2 multi meltas each (didn't realize that could happen)
4 Rhinos with
tac squads in them.
My assessment: Shouldn't be too bad, I'll get easy
KP from all those vehicles and just hang back.
Round 1: My army comes on (its Dawn of War). Then, on his turn, his guy's come on, and the one rhino he had forward already zips up.
Round 2: I open fire on his stuff. My broadsides firing both submunitions and railguns can't touch his landspeeder (7 jink saves, none below a 5, Doh!), but the other two destroy the Ironclad (phew). On his turn his
LRR gets very close, and his first unit of guys jump out and rapid fire the same unit the Ironclad flamed.
Round 3: I open up on the Termies + Lysander, this guy allocates wounds to each terminator like they are Nob bikers with seperate armament, weird but I don't lose any failed saves to it because he doesn't fail saves. Rats. I have to charge to get the dudes off of Lysander. My Broadsides destroy one of the no longer jinking Land Speeders, but its trouble, as he's already destroyed a broadside unit.
He rapid fires some more Kroot, basically finishing off a second unit. Lysander then strides alone into a third unit (despite having 2 wounds) saves 17 times in a row to get to swing and opens up my Lord. Great, there goes 3
KP. He also breaks the unit, which runs off the board. Sob.
It then takes my entire shooting phase to destroy Lysander at one wound. He makes like another 10, with several rail gun shots through in there. He isn't happy about it though, because he's spending the game texting on his phone. Argh!
With my army essentially having stood in place for a turn he moves up and does more rapid firing. he spreads it out and leaves all the remaining Kroot squads at enough size to charge and destroy his units, but they all break and run off the table, so no problems. I spend the rest of the game fleeing with broadsides and fire warriors to deny him the massacre.
He mentions that he thinks the role to end the game is cocked, though it was fine when it was his saves landing that way, but says he'll "let me have it". Thanks.
I think the Kroot would have done better if they could infiltrait/outflank, and (to quote kroot players everywhere) if we had more forests. It was still a grand old time though. Great tourney guys!
EDIT:
Player A's Tzeentch Daemons went 3 and 1, only losing in the last round.
The Thousand sons went 2 wins, 2 losses, while the Daemonhunters went 2 wins, one loss, one tie.
