Inepticon 4 Round Tournament Battle Report: Round 1
This was a local tourny held in conjunction with the yearly instore convention called Inepticon consisting of a 4 round tourny celebrating inept commanders in the grimdark future. Basically, each round had some kind of a wild card random roll for a certain unit to make them do things both against you but also in some cases for your benefit. 1500pts with battle points based on the individual mission parameters determining the best and worst general awards (hey, it is called Inept-icon!).
I brought my proxy converted 1500pt Space Wolves list (actually painted up and modelled except for the thunderwolves as my circa 1988 Blood Angel successors). As you can see below, i went for quantity over upgrades and quality. out of the approximately 16 participants, only 3 that i saw didn't bring a marine of one flavor or another. on a personal note, i've attached the pics i *remembered* to take. as my first batrep, i was constantly forgetting to take pics once the games started. apparently in my grimdark future, there is no short term memory!
also, in case i make any mistakes in my recounting of the details (4 games in one day is alot!) and my opponents frequent dakka, feel free to post and correct my account.
my Blood Wolves (Blood Angel models with Space Wolf rules)
Rune Priest with Jet Pack and meltabombs
Wolf Priest with Jet Pack and meltabombs
Grey Hunters x 10 with 2x plasmagun and wolf standard, in stock rhino
Grey Hunters x 10 with 2x plasmagun and wolf standard, in stock rhino
Grey Hunters x 10 with 2x meltagun and wolf standard, in stock rhino
Grey Hunters x 5 with flamer
Thunderwolves x 3
Thunderwolves x 3
Long Fangs x 4 with Heavy Bolter, 2x Plasma Cannon
Long Fangs x 4 with Heavy Bolter, 2x Lascannon
John's Blood Guard (my name for them as they were
BA painted models with Ravenguard characters/rules and blood ravens is already taken!)
Shrike
Legion of the Damned with
PW Sergeant, Multimelta, Meltabombs
Scouts x 6 with
PW Sergeant, Meltabombs,
CCW
Scouts x 6 with Heavy bolter, bolters
Scouts x 6 with Missle Launcher, bolters
Tact Squad x 10 with Multimelta, Plasmagun
Scout Bikers x 3 with cluster mines, meltabombs
Scout Bikers x 3 with cluster mines, meltabombs
Devs x 5 with 2 Heavy Bolters
Devs x 6 with 2 Lascannons
Predator with Autocannon, Lascannon sponsons, and
HK missle
The special mission parameter gave you a
VP points for every one of your fast attack that got into closecombat and 2 points for every one of YOUR fast attack choices that was destroyed. destorying ENEMY heavy support gave you 1 point and claiming the objectives (two total) was worth three. all unengaged fast attack units had to roll at the start of your turn to see if they moved and RAN randomly (4+ they move max distance and run in direction of scatter die). if they went off the board, they continued IMMEDIATELY on the exact opposite side of the table in the same direction as the scatter die.
John won the initial roll off and picked the side with more terrain and got first turn. as defender per the scenario, i set up first including the only two objectives (which had to be 18" from the table edge). Since i didn't have much terrain IN my deployment zone (
lol, all of it was 1" outside it), i concentrated my scoring forces on the side i placed the objectives (they didn't have any rules for how far apart they had to be so i put my two space hulk chalice objectives on one side 12" apart close to my deployment). I had my two shooty units (long fangs) behind cover and the thunderwolves in between the troops guarding the objective and the long fangs as well as protecting/denying the flank. The two
HQs sucked fumes from the back of the rhinos. With an army of almost all infiltrators and fleet of foot, i wasn't sure where the attack was going to come from. John set up his scout troops as close as possible to the objective (due to infiltrate) with the heavy support in the middle to provide covering fire and the scout bikers on the opposite flank turboboost scouting pregame to 1st turn charge my long fangs. shrike deployed middle forward with a now infiltrating tact squad. unfortunately for john, i stole the initiative (a theme for the night in any game i was in, not necessarily to my advantage).
Turn 1:
With the initiative stolen, it was time for the funky Fast Attack random rolling to begin. The unit of thunderwolves now threatened by two squads of scout bikers remained under control but the squad that was closer to the objective lost control and scattered straight back 11" off the table edge and right in between john's predator and devastator squad! normally this would be a bad thing but the thunderwolves had just saved themselves 3 turns of slogging across the battlefield under fire and were in a position for a 1st turn assault due to their fleet rules. the squad of
TWC under my control moved right to charge the foremost biker squad while the rhino grey hunters gunned it over the cover
to block off the objective (and immobilizing one rhino in the process) and to set off any cluster mines present before the infantry did. the 5 man
GH footsloggers moved up to claim the objective closest to the table edge. finally, the
HQs left the safetly of no
LOS with the rune priest joining the lascannon longfangs under scout threat and the wolf priest joining the disembarked trench grey hunters.
The shooting phase proved just how deadly plasma can be... to the firer. i lost 2 of my 6 plasma armed models on the table due to my own shooting and horrendous rolling. The plasma cannon long fangs lost one of their number but the other rolled a hit over 7! scouts killing a remarkable ONE in conjunction with the heavy bolter. the foremost rhino popped smoke while the second in line disembarked and fired the front scout squad killing another 1 or 2 at the cost of yet another plasma armed marine. the immobilized rhino (which was unscathed after setting off 9 cluster mines but immobilized itself on a pothole) disembarked it's troops and popped smoke. the lascannon longfangs and the living lightning rune priest failed to penetrate the predator armor and the deadly (for my troops) shooting phase was over. during the assault, thunderwolves (who apparently double as wolf scouts as they came on from the opponent's table edge) multicharged a devastator squad and the predator that were deployed close
together, exploding the predator without any further damage and killing off one
dev marine. the other
TWC charged a scout biker squad, annihilated them and consolidated to deny passage towards the long fangs outside of difficult (and therefore dangerous) terrain for the remaining biker squad.
With my
TWC running amok in his backfield, john pulled back two of the scout squads to charge my now locked in combat
TWC. the mobility of the scouts along with shrike's fleet REALLY suprised me as both of them made it out of the trenches (
3d6 for difficult terrain) and ran for 5-6" in addition to the 6" charge. the
CCW/
BP scout squad moved and fleeted towards my 5 man grey hunters, poised for a charge. john's roll for his remaining scout biker squad had them careening through the nearby forest towards my long fangs (really his only choice even if they were under control as i block off the clear area). unfortunately for him, his second deployed snare mines killed off a biker and so did a tree due to dangerous terrain. the remaining unoccupied
dev squad fired at my tact squad killing two as did the tactical squad that shrike had just left while charging towards my longfangs. with shrike, the second biker squad, and all the scouts running/fleeting, the shooting phase was over and the charges were about to begin. shrike made his difficult terrain test and was in range to charge the long fangs behind the trenches as was the remaining scout biker. the rune priest died without attacking due to the 5th edition initiative 4 for marine non-named characters. the rest of the squad made their countercharge
Ld check and killed off the remaining scout biker, losing the assault but
succeeding on their morale check. the two scout squads took their toll on the backfield
TWC, killing one and wounding another, at the cost of several devastator marines who failed their leadership and ran off the table. the
BP/
CCW scout squad in combat with the 5 grey hunters lost combat by one and ran while i consolidated forward (denying them the ability to autoregroup).
Turn 2
Despite how things sound, john was actually in the lead at the moment. both of his
FA units had gotten into close combat and were destroyed, garnering him 6
VP while i only had 4 (two for my
TWC close combats and 2 for the heavy support squads destroyed). i continued to move forward with my troops in order to continue preventing the scouts from regrouping. my unoccupied
TWC lost control and apparently followed the scent of the biker fumes into the forest, denied them any chance of being useful that phase. the shooting phase had all of my rhinos shooting the unengaged devastator squad to no effect. with the rhinos blocking off
LOS to the
devs, my plasma longfangs shot at the tactical squad in the middle ruins but only the heavy bolter was in range but failed to wound. the three grey hunter squads shot up the remaining routing scouts, killing them all and effectively securing both objectives for the time being. the assault phase had the
TWC winning the assault against the scouts (just barely!) and another scout squad ran off the table. shrike continued killing longfangs until only one was left; this crafty fellow failed his morale check and ran while shrike consolidated in preparation for a charge against the meandering
TWC in the nearby forest. With no remaining Fast Attack, john didn't have to worry about any out of control units but unfortunately his Legion of the Damned failed to materialize in his time of need. At the bottom of two, the
devs and tactical squad (learning from the mistakes of my out of range shooting attempt), continued shooting up the closest greyhunters, bringing them down to 5 but failing to make them run. Shrike passed his dangerous terrain check and lined up for an assault against the
TWC. In the following assault, shrike decimated the thunderwolves with his mastercrafter rerolling wounds lightning claws while his armor and iron halo prevented any return damage. Failing their
Ld check, the
TWC promptly ran right off the battlefield (and not in the good way that the first squad did at the top of turn 1!) while shrike consolidated closer to the remaining
SW lines. Back in john's deployment zone, the
TWC finally finished off the remaining scouts with one unwounded model remaining.
Turn 3
At this point for me, the game was all about claiming the objectives for the end of the game as we were both at 6
VP "thanks" to the routing
TWC scared off by shrike. the only two units that could contest the objectives late game were shrike and the
LOTD if they made their reserve and deepstriking rolls. My movement phase had my remaining
TWC model moving up in prep for an assault against the remaining
dev squad for a win win situation. if i rolled well and destroyed them, i recieved a
VP; if i failed the rolls and was destroyed, i got two! the rhinos and grey hunters (only about 1/3 of the models were in range though) fired at the devastators, as did the in-control
TWC (the only shots they
fired the entire game), killing two. The plasma longfangs only fired the heavy bolter with no effect at the in
LOS tact squad. Finally, the last remaining lascannon long fang finally regained his composure, regrouped, aimed, and instant killed shrike! i knew i took them for a reason!
in the remaining assault phase, the single
TWC munched through the remnants of the final
dev squad and consolidated closer to the tactical squad in the hopes that they would fire at him (gaining me an addition 2
VP).
At this point for john, everything pretty much depended on the legion of the damned (which is how the fluff for them generally describes it with them coming in to save the day when all seems lost). they did make it onto the table and he placed them within contesting distance of one of the objectives and running distance of contesting both. even with their deepstriking reroll, they deviated back and away from the objectives but still within possible running/contesting range of one of them (they needed a 5 or 6 from the look of it).
IIRC, john chose to rapid fire instead (slow and purposeful) killing 1-2 marines but not having done enough to force a morale check off of the objectives. the remaining tact squad also failed to do enough damage to force a check on the other squad holding the objective and the game was effectively over.
VP: myself: 13
john: 6
While i'd like to take the credit for winning due to my almost Creed-like tactical genius, the real credit goes to the luck of being able to steal the initiative and have one of my premiere close combat units randomly outflank off the opponent's table edge in preparation for a first turn assault. as i said before, appearing with my fleet fast attack unit next to
VP giving heavy support and possibly giving me an addition 2
VP when dead was a win-win situation. john took it alot better than i probably would have (i tend to mope,
lol) and he won my vote for best sportsman early on. definitely a fun game with a few first for me (i've never faced shrike or a mostly scout/infiltrating army) and some very quirky scenario rules.
the final thing the game taught me is that blood angels need new rules!
not necessarily before other armies but just as a general statement. both of us were using blood angel models/paint schemes but neither of us would touch the PDF with a 10ft pole and decided to proxy other armies with our models. luckily,
gw apparently heard my silent mental plea because the announcement regarding the upcoming codex was made within 24 hours. the emperor provides!
