I went to a one-day doubles tournament with a friend. The tournament used combat patrol rules:
Max armour 33
No 2+ saves
Not more than 2W's
+ some more
It was 1000pts per side, 500 per player. Three games, using standard missions and deployments.
I believe there were somewhere between 28-32 players (14-16 teams), at least it seemed that all 8 tables were occupied, so can't be far off.
Even though this was not a very ''serious'' tournament, there were many really hard lists there. I saw a 9 Killa Kan + Armoured sentinel spam list, there were horde orks, chimera spam (8 + 2 sentinels) etc.
I had just gotten some
SW's from a friend, so I went with them. My friend played Eldar.
Our list:
Rune Priest, living lightning, murderous hurricane
8 Grey hunters, flamer, MoW, rhino, dozer
2x Lone Wolf, MoW
5 Long Fangs, 4x missile launcher, razorback
5 Pathfinders
3 jetbikes, shurikan
2x warwalker, 2xscatter laser
warwalker, 2x shurikan
6x warp spiders, exarch, powerblades, dual
DS
Quick note about terrain: It has become standard in tournaments here that woods count as being as high as the highest tree, and that they provide cover for everything behind (depending on height). This has been done to make woods more important again, as 5th ed terrain rules + 4th ed woods = useless woods.
There was a lot of terrain on the tables, probably close to 50% on most, and more on some. While this is really cool, and way better than too little terrain, I would advice organizers to think about the consequenses of taking too much terrain too. Some armies benefit very much from tons of terrain, while others suffer. I am all for plenty of terrain, but there must be a limit somewhere. Organizers did a good job in this tournament, making sure there where some firelanes open, but it is a thin line, and too easy coversaves might actually damage the game somewhat too.
Game 1 vs Space Wolves & Tau
Opponents:
2x10 Grey hunters, MoW, melta, flamer?
6 Long Fangs, 2x missile launcher, 2x plasma cannon, heavy bolter
3x Crisis suits, 2x plasma,
CIB, 3x missile pod
2x1 XV8, twin-flamer, missile pod
5 Pathfinders
Devilfish
6 Firewarriors
Mission:
KP's
Dawn of war
We won roll-off and took 1st turn. We knew we had to play this mission smart, as we had so many
KP's. We sat up the pathfinders and walked everything else onto the board in the first turn. They sat up firewarriors in a wood, and
GH's on a flank.
We set up a firebase in heavy cover with the long fangs, pathfinders and laser-walkers. One lone wolf ran straight for the
GH's, ready to die. My
GH's, the warp spiders and the other lone wolf got into a supporting position on the flank, where they could either go for the opponent firebase, or support ours.
We hit the longfangs hard, and managed to pin them. The next turn we wiped them and the firewarriors out. We also got the shuri-walker in on the right side, and it promptly charged straight into the 3 long ranged suits, tying them up until the end of the game.
As we had neutralised all their long range firepower, they just had to slog towards us. The exeption was one XV8 that dropped next to the spiders, flamed them and ran them off the table.
In the third turn, my lone wolf killed the offending XV8, my other lone wolf charged and got killed by the
GH's on the left flank. I think he took one with him or something.
As our opponents were now coming at us with one unit at the time, we could calmly focus our firepower and wipe first the left
GH's and the other flamer suit, then next turn, we took out the other
GH squad and my runepriest blew up the devilfish.
Our opponents got a final redemption in the last turn, when the XV8's blew up the outflanking warwalker.
Final score: 7-3
Very nice opponents, we got a bit lucky with the draw here, as they had quite a lot of
KP's too, and they had some
cc units that we could throw the lone wolfs into. I feel they did two mistakes that probably cost them the game. 1: They deployed the large XV8 squad on a flank, allowing the warwalker to charge them and tie them up for the game. 2: They should have kept the
GH's together, as it was, we could focus on one at the time, wiping it without reprecussions.
Round 2 vs Orks & Marines
Opponents:
25 slugga boys, powerklaw + bosspole nob
25 shoota boys, powerklaw + bosspole nob, 2x bigshoota
7 Lootas
4 Bikers, attackbike, meltagun, multimelta
9 assault marines
5 sniper scouts
5
ccw scouts
Mission:
Seize ground (3 objectives)
Corner deployment
We got to place two objectives, and we quickly figured out that we needed the battle to be fought along the open avenue, not directly across the two huge buildings, so we placed one in each of the more open corners, hoping that our opponents would choose one of those quarters if they won the roll-off.
We won roll-off, so we choose the corner with a small building that could provide the war-walkers with cover. Pathfinders sat on the objective, laser-walkers in cover in the building, long fangs in a crater with a good view down the alley, and again
GH's, spiders and 2x lone wolf as a reaction force (and to grab the last objective, that was inside the red building.)
In deployment, they split their forces. Sluggas + bikes + assault marines go near the red building, while lootas and shootas go in the other. For some reason, they place the sniper scouts inside the red building, instead of on the objective in their quarter.
We quickly formulated a plan. Lootas had to go, so we could preserve our transports and walkers. We would not try too hard for their objective, just using the outflanking walker and the jetbikes to try a feeble contest. We would wait outside the red building for the sluggas, and when they entered, we would hit them with flamer + rune priest from rhino-hatch + warp spiders. The sluggas would then charge the rhino, and we would get to do it again after the hunters fall out of the rhino, and then charge, cleaning them up.
Shoota boys would be left alone until they could become a threat (like 4 turns of walking through the building)
We try to take down the lootas first, but roll horribly, and 4 survive. We do kill 4 shoota boys too, but overall, a bad first round.
They move pretty much as we anticipated, bikers move over the street to the grey building though.
We continue to shoot the lootas, using two more turns to finally take them all down. The bikers suffer from bad positioning, as the pathfinders and long fangs get cover-free shots. Only the attack bike is left with one wound.
The outflanking walker charges the lone biker. Our opponents throw
ccw scouts and in the end even the shoota boys into that brawl, so that lone walker actually made that flank totally safe
Our plan is shook up a bit by the arrival of the assault marines. They get a charge on the rhino, blowing it up. We retaliate, killing all but the sarge, who is beaten to death by the spider exarch.
Another thing that messed with the plan, was that I had charged a lone wolf into the sniper scouts earlier. It was in turn charged by the sluggas, and somehow, he managed to survive alone without taking a single wound
This meant that we could not flame before the charge.
We went in anyways, 2x lone wolfs, a rune priest and 8
GH's against 4 scouts and 20ish orks. We ended up killing lots of orks for only a few
GH's and a lone wolf. The orks lost with 6, so the sniper scouts ran and the orks crumbled a bit, leaving only 7.
We were now out of time, so we just did the deciding combat. (their objective was held by shoota boys, ours by pathfinders, and the last was in the middle of the large combat)
Unfortunatly, I totally fluffed this round. I believe I only took down one ork, while I lost two
GH's. The
GH's then ran, fortunatly, the lone wolf is fearless, so he was still standing there, contesting the objective.
If we had a 5th turn, we would have cleaned up between the lone wolf, the warp spiders and
GH's, but that's life. An awesome game anyways, we stuck to our plan, and it worked out pretty well despite bad luck. It was only the lack of time that killed it.
Final score: 1-1
Again very nice opponents, and probably the coolest game because of the huge close combat that happened with 6 units over several floors inside a huge ruined building, on top of an objective.
Round 3 vs Dark Eldar & Space Marines
Opponents:
4x raider, plasma cannons
4x6-7 warriors, blaster, splinter cannon
5 assault marines
5 sniper scouts,
HB
5 shotgun scouts
Land speeder storm
10 tacticals, flamer
Mission:
Capture and control
Pitched battle
Once again we won the roll-off. We choose the side with a forest because of the special rules for them. Pathfinders, long fangs and laser-walkers once again went into base defence. We placed a lone wolf in the firebase too, as they had lots of fast moving units that could assault our pathfinders.
Our expedition team was the same as before.
They decided to sieze initiative, and they rolled a 6. So on they went with the firing. Here, I feel our opponents made a fatal mistake. They concentrated on the walkers, just stunning both. If they had gone for the transports, we would pretty much have to give up our assault on their objective, and that would put us on the defensive from the very start.
In our turn, we retalite hard, knocking out two raiders and taking the weapon of a third.
They try to launch a flanking attack on our left, but with only one raider, 10 scouts and a storm, it isn't enough. The outflank walker comes in, blows up the raider, the fangs take out the storm and shotgun scouts. The last raider is also blown up by the spiders, so they are now on the defensive.
Our expeditionary team start the charge up the field in turn 3, getting an assault on the assault marines and some stranded
DE. The assault marines are wiped by the
GH's, while the spiders are stuck against the
DE. At the same time, the razorback drives full speed towards their objective, ready to contest next turn. (it is not actually held yet though
)
On the other flank, the warwalker wipes out the sniper scouts (but gets blown up by them too), while the lone wolf takes out a squad of
DE and quickly closes in on another.
At this point, we are way over the time limit, and we are just in turn 3, but it is pretty clear who will win. 10 marines are all that's in the way for us to capture theirs, and they have nothing to threaten ours, so we finish here with a win for us.
Final score: 1-0
Once again, a highly enjoyable game with great opponents. Both teams played slow, but I feel that has more to do with the allotted time we got each game. It is natural that things go slower when you discuss pretty much everything you do instead of just keeping it in your head, something the organizer failed to take into account. I feel the team system makes for more tactical games, as you get to discuss and get input on whats happening, but it is at the cost of time.
With two wins and a draw, we got second place, with a deserved first to the only team that got three wins. (
CSM +
SW –
CSM player is the same guy that took 2nd in the Invasion tournament)
Army breakdown (from my view, and of course of very limited general value because of all the special circumstances in this tournament):
Rune Priest –
Good, living lightning is very good, hurricane not so much. Totally worth his pts
Lone wolfs –
Good, annoying in
KP matches, but not that hard to find some
cc unit to kill them on. Does well as counter-attacker and as support for the hunters. Dirt cheap, high survivability (too good sometimes
)
Grey hunters –
Very good. I like these much better than regular marines and
CSM. They act like
CSM, but in addition, they bring
ATSKNF and MoW. Had an impressive killcounts through the tournament: Pretty much wiped two
GH squads alone by shooting in game 1, killed a bunch of orks in game 2 (then failed
), and ripped apart 5 assault marines in game 3. Good, solid unit that fomed the backbone of our expeditionary force
Long Fangs –
Good. Didn't get to split fire too much. Used it a bit in the last match, where it was effective in silencing several raiders a turn. Very effective firepower for their low pts cost.
Scatter laser warwalkers –
Very good. These guys benefit a lot from the easier coversaves from woods. They throw out a lot of wounds, and the enemy feels really threatened by them. 16 S6 shots at 36'' is rightfully something to fear.
Shurican warwalker –
Awesome. Although it hardly killed anything, it was a big help in all three games. In game 1, it tied up the guys that could rip our armour to shreds for the entire game. In game 2, it managed to tie up an entire flank by itself, letting us ignore 1/3 of the enemy army. In game 3, it actually killed stuff, as it blew up a raider and killed 5 sniper scouts. It died in every match, so hats off for the little fella. MVP of the tournament.
Warp spiders –
Good They are fragile, but they are super mobile, and they hit hard. They are pretty much eldar in a nutshell. Total failure 1st match, very good 2nd match (pretty much taking on the assault marines alone) and decent 3rd match.
Pathfinders –
Very good. Super effective objective holders.
AP 1 helps putting some wounds on guys, and pinning is a nice bonus.
Jetbikes –
Decent -. They are just so fragile. They hit ok, and they have nice speed, but with poor
Ld and only 3 guys, they have to be played extremly safe. Didn't do much in any game. Least valuable player award.
Our lists worked very well together, and at least I felt that we worked very well as a team too. We mainly think the same, but also compliment eachother and our lists make up for eachothers weaknesses. Not much I would have changed in hindsight. Only time-limits, which were way to short.
Thanks to organizer and all opponents for a really fun tournament, just remember that team games takes about twice as long as normal games
