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Last round of the tournament was Capture and Control with Spearhead deployment and a secondary objective called “Spy” or “Secret Messenger” or something. We wrote down one model from our army to carry a message and they had to survive the game. I chose my Jetbike Shuri Cannon and he won the roll to do first. My opponent was one of the Guard players. This guy I’ve known for a few years and he played at my old LGS before I went to University and it closed. A great opponent and I’m glad I got to face him on the final table. His list was a fairly brutal Mech Guard with 4 Chimeras filled with 2 Melta-Vets, 1 Flamer-vets, and 1 command squads. There was another Melta-vet squad in a Vendetta, empty Vendetta (both had 3 TL Lascannons), a Leman Russ with Battle cannon/Lascannon, and an Executioner with 5 Plasma Cannon Shots and Lumbering Behemoth. It didn’t look good for my poor Eldar. The table was the same Bastion one from last game and he placed his objective on a ruin behind the Bastion forcing me to deploy in a corner with tons of open space. I made a complete Serpent screen in front of my Prisms and prayed. My prayers were not answered…
Turn 1
I fail to cease initiative and he moves a little up to light me up. He deployed with the Bastion guarding his flank, Vendettas behind Russ’ and 2 Chimeras with melta-vets closer to his table edge. The command squad was behind the bastion and back and flamer-vets guarded the objective. His shooting is brutal but the Serpents are godly and only one Dragon Serpent is pen’ed and explodes. They suffer a casualty but aren’t pinned. Another Serpent is shaken and its my turn.
I’ve got a few choices, all of which suck. A head-on rush is unlikely to survive and so I move left towards the Bastion at top speed with the remaining Dragon Serpent and a shaken DA Serpent with Farseer. I now have a good chance to cripple with shooting and mobility. I’ve got two side shots at Chimeras and the Vendettas are huge and AV12. What could go wrong? All my shots fail to damage. All. Of. Them. TL EMLs miss and three Fire Prisms fail to penetrate a vendetta’s armour…
Turn 2
His Chimeras move up and so do the Vendettas. The Leman Russ’ move up a little to stay in range. Shots are fired and 2 Prisms and a Serpent are shaken. I each of my 6 obscured saves here but he couldn’t damage much. I’m still in this thing.
The Dragon Serpent moves up and drops its load near the Executioner Russ huggin the Bastion. The DA’s Serpents keep moving towards the other side of the board with the shaken serpent choosing to move fast as opposed to screening my Prisms. Again I fire a Prism shot at the carrier Vendetta and 2 Missles at the sides of Chimeras (AV10). I fail penetrate or miss. The Dragons fire and hit three times. I then roll 4, 5, 5 or 2D6 when I needed a 6. My opponent apologizes.
Turn 3
He moves his Chimeras only a little and the Vendettas less. His fire base is still safe so he sees no need to rush in. The Executioner crew laugh as they fry the Fire Dragons bunched un around them and the rest of his shooting wrecks one Prism, shakes one and stuns another. The Serpent that delivered the Dragons is also shaken. I forgot to mention that the Fire Dragons that were pinned Turn 1 move back to try and protect the objective. Not so bad…
I now make it to the other end of the Bastion with one DA Serpent and the Jetbikes come in and hide behind the Bastion as well. It looks like I’m going to have to risk them soon. The shaken Prism moves back behind the objective at full speed and the other sits there. Shooting at the guarding chimera on his objective misses and the Vendetta loses a Lascannon. Great.
Turn 4
More shooting more shaking more dieing. The Prisms are shaken, the Dragon Serpent near him is shaken as well.
The DA Serpents are now close to the objective or hiding with the Jetbikes near the objective. I shoot his chimeras to no avail. The Dragon Serpent rams another chimera at strength 6 and also fails to penetrate.
Turn 5
His Vendetta moves up and attempts to stay more then 12” from the Dragons. The chimeras move behind. The rest fires on stuff. One Prism is stunned and the Dragon Serpent bites the dust after its pathetic ram.
My time to risk everything for a draw. Once DA serpent and the Jetbikes are close enough to contest and I decide to move both at the objective. Splitting target will hopefully leave something alive if the game doesn’t end here. The other DA’s are now behind the bastion and ready for “Plan B: Minor Victory” He forgot it was bottom of 5 despite the large pink turn dice so I could get a draw from this s***show of a game. I’m staying positive and it pays off as I pop a Chimera with a Fire Prism. First casualty of the game!! The DA’s near the objective have disembarked in anticipation of the Chimera’s death so guess what happens?? The TL EML misses that what. They’re dead if the game isn’t over so I Bladestorm the side of the Chimera. I roll 4 6’s to pen and this is just enough. I roll very well and destroy 3 weapons. I needed 1 more 5 to destroy the damn thing but it came up a 1.
The dice of fate is rolled and comes up a 4. No draw for me.
Turn 6
He moves onto my objective and kills the Dragons. The Prism loses its weapon but is still contesting!! In the opposite corner the two Russ’ have turned and flamer-vets and Cammand squad with plasma are near. Flamers kill all the DA’s leaving the Seer alive. 5 Plasma Cannons, 3 Plasma guns rapid-fire, a Battlecannon, and 4 Lascannons later the Shuri Cannon Jetbike is still alive thanks to 3++ turbo saves. I can still get a draw!
My movement is just the other DA serpent jumping into capture range and I get 3 S6 and 2 TL EML’s at the damn Chimera. No cigar. The damn thing lives!
My opponent rolls the fate dice and guess what happens
Turn 7
I see one way to not lose completely and look as resigned as possible to try and keep him ignorant. The contesting Prism explodes and so I can’t get a Draw any more. The last Jetbike dies guaranteeing him the secondary objective. The Serpents are fine though.
Here is where my plan kicks in. Despite everything I think I can still take 1st overall if I keep him from getting the major objective. I keep my DA serpents still and disembark with the last DA’s. These move to surround the blessed Chimera of you can’t kill me in the hopes of denying the objective on the disembark. I can be in contact with the Chimera but if its destroyed the Guardsmen must be 1” away from my models. The first Serpent fires its EML and misses. My heart races as I roll the last EML and pray. It hits! The pen comes up a 5! Now for the last dice. A 5! The chimera dies and Guardsmen disembark 3.5” from the objective.
Result: Minor Victory for Imperial Guard
Final Result: The points are tabulated and I win the tournament with 9 points from 3 Total Victories. I really came down to the way points were awarded for minor victories. If I had lost completely I would still have been tied for first with my opponent but denying him those 2 points for major objective left him tied for 3rd. In retrospect I could have saved us both some time since, because of the way the prizes were awarded, the prizes for 1st and 2nd devided by 2 ended up being $5 less then taking first. I don’t know if this was a mistake since the entrance fee was $25 and Prizes were 60/50/50 leaving $115 unaccounted for.
Either way I was thrilled to win 1st, especially after such a ridiculously hard last game. I’ve never played a 7th turn until that day. Shouts out to everybody at the event and thanks to Heroes World Markham for a fun time.
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Nice one on the earlier victories and the overall win. It's the worst when your rediculous dakka does nothing isn't it.
