If you've read the tournament reports that I've posted over the last few months, you'll know that Adeptus Windy City has been running a tournament series over the last seven months. On the Friday night of Adepticon, we held the season championships, an eight-person invite tournament, based on series points earned during the seven prior events.
Holding it on Friday night unfortunately meant that two of the invitees couldn't attend, as they opted to play in the gladiator instead. And, at the last minute, DarthDiggler didn't show up, so one of the other guys from the series stepped in to play as the ringer.
In order of series point total, going into the championship, the armies played in the Championships follow:
Greg, with Biker Marines:
Alex (Me), with Orks:
Hans, with his Adepticrons:
Sam, with Thunderwolf-based Space Wolves:
Ed, with Nurgle Chaos Space Marines:
Robert, with "Desert" Wolves:
Phil, with Light Eldar:
The ringer, Rob, didn't step in until the last minute, so unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of his army (and, I didn't play him, so I'm not even really sure what he was running).
My List
At the previous events, I had run (in order) mono-Tzeentch Daemons, (could not attend), Mono-Nurgle Daemons, Mixed Daemons, Eldar, Mixed Daemons, and Emperor's Children, so in order to continue my practice of running something different each time (and to appease my wife, who wanted me to play orks, and bribed me with a green laser pointer), I ran orks, and because the new super-stompy-kans are super-stompy, I had painted up a couple of units the week before Adepticon. Of course, I've never played a kan list before this event, but how hard can it be...
HQ: Big Mek w/ Forcefield, and Oil Grot
Elite: 12 Lootas
Elite: 12 Lootas
Troops: 30 Slugga Boyz, 3 rokkits,
PK nob
Troops: 30 Slugga Boyz, 3 rokkits,
PK nob
Troops: 30 Shoota Boyz, 3 big shootas,
PK nob
Troops: 30 Shoota Boyz, 3 big shootas,
PK nob
Troops: 10 Grots, Runtherd
Fast Attack: 2 Deathkoptas (
TL-Rokkits, 1 buzzsaw)
Heavy: 3 grotzooka kans
Heavy: 2 Rokkit Kans and 1 skorcha Kan
Game One
With a random draw, I get matched up with Sam's Thunderwolves. I played them last month, when I was running my Emperor's Children, and he has two units of them this month, while I don't have the six obliterators and two blastmasters that I used to kill them last month.
His list runs:
HQ: Njal the Stormbringer (Like the Deep Purple Album, I'm sure)
Elite: 2 combi-flamer/
PW wolf guard who join scout units, and 2 nekkid wolf guard who join troop squads
Elite: Scouts w/ meltabomb, meltagun, power weapon
Troops: Grey Hunters in a Rhino (Njal goes here), with a flamer
Troops: Grey Hunters in a
TL-
HB Razorback, w/ a flamer
Troops: Grey Hunters in a
TL-
HB Razorback, w/ a flamer
Fast: Land Speeder w/
MM/
HF
Fast: 5 Thunderwolves w/ Wolfkin and Thunderhammer
Fast: 5 Thunderwolves w/ Wolfkin and Powerfist
Heavy: Pred w/
TL-Las,
HB Sponsons
Heavy: Pred w/
TL-Las,
HB Sponsons
The mission is kill points, with a secondary of scoring 250 more
VP, and a tertiary of killing all troops, including transports. Deployment is Pitched Battle.
My initial thoughts are that those wolves will be murder on my boyz. They have the greater charge range, and they can take a whole unit of 30 boyz on the charge. I figure that I might be able to shoot one unit down before they get there, but they're going to hit me and hit hard. I also figure that, once the thunderwolves are dead, My superior numbers can handle whatever is left.
He wins the roll-off for first turn and takes it. He deploys with a unit of thunderwolves to either side of center, and the rest of his forces kind of spread out, with the scouts in reserve.
I opt to handle the wolves by refusing the right flank. I deploy a unit of shoota-boyz out front, in a wood. They're the sacrificial unit to draw the assault. Behind them, I've got a unit of sluggas, and all the kans, and the lootas near the table edge, behind them (they've got the range advantage by a lot). I reserve two 30-boy units, the grots, and my koptas. This means I can concentrate on the left-most unit of wolves on the first turn, and hopefully get a turn to shoot the right-most unit the following turn.
Turn 1
He pushes stuff forwards. Most of his firing is concentrated on my kans, and he kills two yellow kans (the grotzooka ones). I edge my shoota boyz forward, and everything unloads on the closer thunderwolf unit. Between all the lootas (who I think rolled poorly for shots), the remaining grotzooka, the rokkits from the other kans and slugga boyz, and the shoota boyz, I kill 2 wolves, and wound the
PF guy and one other. With two down, they fail their morale test and go backwards, a definite reprieve for me!
Turn 2
The running wolves rally, but are clearly not doing anything this turn. His scouts didn't show up, and his shooting is largely ineffectual - he killed the last yellow kan, and may have killed a blue one (it was a long weekend). His unharmed thunderwolf unit, however, gets sixes on terrain rolls in both his move and assault phases, and for their fleet move, and hit the shoota-boy screen. Many boyz die, and one wolf takes one wound. Many more boyz die to combat res, but they were fearless and held the wolves in place, contacting all of them.
On my turn, the counter assault with the slugga boys and blue kans takes place, but not before my shooting phase leaves him with only one wolf (non-
PF) in the other squad. My grots and koptas showed up, and the grots cowered, while the koptas tried for shook his landspeeder that was closing in. In retrospect, I should have used the grots to screen the lootas against the scouts, but it was my first time running grots too, so oooops. On the plus side, my counter assault killed all of the wolves, while his guys were only able to shake one kan (most of them had to direct their attacks at the shoota boyz), and I'm left with about 8 shootas, including the nob and big shootas.
Turn 3
One scout unit arrives and flamers one of my loota units away. Njal advanced and got out of his rhino, but I think he was further away than he wanted to be to do something. The remaining thunderwolf goes for the shootaboyz, and kills a few but dies to the powerklaw. A predator killed off a kopta and the other one ran for it too.
On my turn, the kopta rallied, my kans assaulted Njal's Powerfistless unit, killing Njal, lootas killed something, my newly arrived shoota-boy unit killed the speeder, and the slugga boyz killed off the scout unit that was in my backfield. The grots looked on in amazement.
Turn 4
His last scout unit shows up and trades for my last loota unit. At this point, the writing is pretty much on the wall, and it's a matter of how much I can kill before we're done - he's lost any ability to take care of the 100ish orks I still have on the table. I spend the remaining turns trying to kill as many transports and small wolf squads as I can.
At the end, I've got the primary (kill points), and secondary (victory points), but I didn't kill all the transports, so we draw on the tertiary. A good start to a tournament I reckon.
Round Two
And I get matched up against the one army I figure I've got no hope of beating. Phil's Eldar:
HQ: Eldrad the Omnipresent
HQ: Avatar
Troops: 10 guardians w/ scatter laser
Troops: 10 guardians w/ scatter laser
Troops: 10 guardians w/ scatter laser
Fast Attack: 3 vypers w/ scatter laser & shuriken cannon
Fast Attack: 3 vypers w/ scatter laser & shuriken cannon
Fast Attack: 3 vypers w/ scatter laser & shuriken cannon
Heavy Support: 3 warwalkers w/ dual scatter lasers
Heavy Support: 3 warwalkers w/ dual scatter lasers
Heavy Support: 3 warwalkers w/ dual eldar missile launchers
I look at this and wonder why I left my battlewagons behind... For those of you keeping track at home, that's 123 S6 shots he can fire every turn... plus six blast templates, if he needs them. Add dooms and guides...
The mission may help me a little, it's a Dawn of War deployment, with random victory condition (roll on turn 4, 1-2 = table quarters, 3-4 = capture terrrain, 5-6 = have most units near the center of the field). The secondary is for Victory Points (500 more this time), and tertiary is killing all opponent
HQ choices. Even still, Dawn of War means he can roll-on guns blazing, while my lootas are heavy weapons, and my other guns are short-ranged.
And he wins the roll for first turn, taking it. He deploys eldrad near two units of guardians in the center of the table. I do the same with my shoota boyz, hoping I can maybe kill his scoring units before all my boyz die, and force a draw in the primary at least. He then splits his force with Eldrad's tricks, for reasons that I don't understand (couldn't Eldrad guide both units if he was near both units??)
Turn 1
He casts some spells and starts shooting. Okay, cool, he's reserving his guys, maybe I do have a chance. He moved his unit of guided guardians within 12" too, dooming my unit of shoota boyz, and kills some.
On my turn, I walk on everything but the grots and koptas (which outflank). But the kans are on the wrong side of the boyz to give them cover. I have to decide whether to shoot or assault his guardian squad, and I think I make the wrong choice in shooting them - I kill all but three, but they pass their morale check. An assault would have ensured their death, but would have moved my unit out of forcefield range, and I think I was holding out hope (for some reason) that my "doomed" squad would survive his shooting phase with the forcefield save alone - I don't know why I thought that, it might have been the beer talking.
Anyhow, My lootas are central, so that I can cover almost all the table with at least one unit, and anything directly in the center of the table can be hit by both.
Turn 2
Where it gets interesting... His reserve rolls get him a unit of vypers and three units of walkers, plus his last guardian squad. And he brings them all in his right corner, hiding as much as he can out of loota range. His shooting absolutely dismantles my shoota boy unit, I think I have a nob and one big shoota left after all is said and done, and they actually pass their break test. But I've got the initiative now, especially if my koptas can get into his corner and lock up a unit of walkers in combat.
But they don't show up. My one loota unit goes after the vypers, figuring that although they've got slightly less damage potential, they're much easier to kill, being open topped. On the other (left) side of the field, my shoota boys go after his guardians that didn't redeploy with Eldrad, but they're in cover and not many die.
Turn 3
He gets both remaining vyper units onto the table. One unit goes far-left, to support the guardians, the other goes in his corner. His shooting picks mostly on a slugga boy unit, though he hurts a kan or two, and I think one loota gets in an explosion.
My kopta still hides. Kans push up both table sides, and slugga boyz position themselves near terrain elements and the table-edge in expectation of the mission requirements. They also make sure that the lootas will get 4+ cover, serving as a meat shield. I think the lootas killed some vypers this turn. My shoota boys learn from last time, and charge his guardians in the woods, killing them easily.
Turn 4
We learn the mission will be to hold terrain elements. I've got four at this point (shootas who just charged in a wood, an untouched slugga mob spread between two pieces of area terrain, and grots who will move on to a third wood. He's got two scoring units left. I've probably got primary locked up. He figures maybe he should move up a bit this turn, but he's still really worried about the lootas. His shooting kills off most the meatshield in front of the lootas, but they're mostly okay, and I've got kans in charge-range of his walker corner.
My shoota boyz wreck havok on the left-side vypers, killing some. The koptas finally show, shooting rokkits at his walkers, then engaging both the tiny guardian remnant squad and the walkers they shot. My kans come to grips with scatterlaser walkers too, and everyone else braces to defend their terrain elements.
That's pretty much all she wrote. If we got a fifth turn (again, it was a long time and a lot of beer ago, and I can't remember if we played it or not), it wasn't going to change the game outcome, as neither of us had enough
VP to win the secondary, he couldn't contest or hold enough terrain, and neither of us were at risk of losing our
HQs. I scored the primary objective, and draw on the secondary, with a bonus point for having more scoring units left at the end of the game.
I'm now sitting with the most points, with Greg one back and Robert two back, in position to leapfrog if Greg and I destroy each other. Robert's wolves (with Njal) play Sam's wolves (with Njal), while Greg and I face off in...
Round Three
Greg's running the marine biker army, consisting of:
HQ: KHAAAAAAAAN (say it in your best Shatner voice)
Command Squad, including apothecary and champion, and some stuff I can't remember.
HQ: Librarian with Null Zone and something else. He tells me that he'd rather be playing against my daemons...
Troops: Full Bike unit, Plasma guns,
MM attack Bike
Troops: Full Bike unit, Meltaguns,
MM attack Bike
Troops:
Tac squad w/ Missile & something in
HB razorback
Fast: Typhoon w/
HB
Fast: Typhoon w/
MM
Fast: 3
HB attack bikes
Heavy: Pred w/ Autocannon &
HBs
We're playing for 4 objectives, each worth 5 Battle points. I have to drop one first, so I put it dead center. He puts one in a quarter, I counter with the opposite quarter, and he opts to overload one table-side, rather than go for a more-neutral location.
Secondary is a 750 Victory Point margin, and tertiary is table quarters. It's a spearhead deployment, and I win the roll for first turn.
I take the quarter with more objectives, and deploy so that the kans are up-front, lootas are in a good shooting spot, and it's easy to get where I want to go. I drop the koptas so that they can go for an alpha-strike on anything he deploys, and keep both shoota boy units in reserve (with the grots). He deploys his predator and razorback, and I scout my koptas to within charge range. He doesn't steal the initiative, and it's on...
Turn One
I realize that all his stuff outflanks, and take a unit of lootas and boyz to get them away from my left table-edge. Kans move up, koptas shoot and then assault the predator, exploding it I think. I think I stun the razorback too. His marines then kill the koptas.
Turn Two
I keep moving away from my left table edge, and a unit of shoota boyz shows up on the right edge, to claim the counter there. We all shoot at one of the marine combat squads, and kill some of them.
Greg gets a bike squad, his typhoons and his attack bikes to show up, all on the right side (where my guys have been vacating). He mostly shoots my yellow loota squad, killing 10 of them. They don't break, but I pulled the wrong model (it's like midnight by now), worried about coherency for his typhoon missiles, but end up out of coherency, so they won't get to shoot on my turn. His troop bikes shoot, and then assault, my slugga unit, doing some damage, but I hold just fine. He lost a couple models going through the woods to get there, and my powerklaw killed a few others.
Turn Three
I turn my blue kans around to go help the slugga boyz, and I think I might have even thrown my lootas into the fight just to have some furiously-charging guys in the fight. The untied-up unit of lootas killed a typhoon, and I move other stuff around... grots showed up to hold an objective in cover...
He gets his command squad and last bike squad on, and goes on the right-flank this time, to flame, shoot and assault my shoota boyz in the woods. That whole squad pretty much melts that turn, although my nob did kill his librarian. On the plus side, I kill off the bikes in combat on the left, and so my sluggas and lootas over there are free to do stuff again.
Turn Four
I can't remember if my last shoota boy unit shows up or not... I think they may have and took care of one of the combat squadded bikes, but I really can't remember. In other news, my yellow kans plan to go tie up those pesky bikes, my blue kans go after the heavy-bolter bikes, and my lootas kill the last typhoon, so he's down to four mobile assets.
He opts to redeploy his command squad away, with a turbo-boost, hoping to contest something on the last turn. I think the
HB bikes killed the last of the yellow lootas, but I could be wrong.
Turn Five
It's pretty much over here, I still have a ton of orks alive. I kill the attack bikes, and settle in to the objectives. He contests one, and realizing that he can't get to the one held by the beat-up sluggas, has his command unit explode my yellow kans.
I have three objectives, and one is contests, for 15 battle points off the primary, and we draw on the secondary. Neither of us get tertiary points, but I pick up a tactical point.
Final results
And that's it, the season is over. I don't know exactly what happened in Robert & Sam's game, but with hot Njal-on-Njal action, it must have been somewhat interesting and mutually destructive, because I came out on top and captured the giant trophy as season champion.
Interestingly, in talking to the Dakka Detachment One guys, they ran a very similar kans+lootas list in the team tournament and finished pretty well with it (but that's their story to tell). It's a fun army and has answers to most of what you'll run into, lots of synergy, and the new kan models are super-stompy and ooze orkiness! Waaaaagh!!!!
