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2013/07/02 20:28:42
Subject: Hive Fleet Paradox @ UK Throne of Skulls One Day-er
There were about 70 people at the event taking place at the home of 40k, Warhammer World in Nottingham. ToS uses a little bit of a strange tournament system in that you are really competing against other people with the same army. Dependent on how they do and how much better you can do than the average by codex will dictate if you win the event or not. Also there is a big weighting, especially for a one day event, on whether you we're voted people's 'favourite army' or rather favourite opponent. Also every round you are randomly drawn against your opponent, so if you keep winning you aren't necessarily playing against other people with the same win-loss ratio.
I haven't been to any ToS events but I used to go to the old GWGT events and I can see why they adapted their system; more emphasis on the hobby elements, encourages greater diversity of armies at events and encourages people not to be idjits in game. I prefer more traditional scoring personally but I really just wanted to meet some new people, play some games and look at some cool fully painted armies. My aim was a 2-1 win/loss as I knew Tau would be popular and my list would really struggle against them. This was my first 6th ed tournament!
I was a bit burnt out from a pretty intensive week of painting, trying to get my army to a reasonable tabletop standard;
Pretty standard 6th ed Nid army with maybe a couple of odd bits;
Skyshield - I heard terrain was sparse at WHW and checking the blogosphere for pics that definitely seemed to be the case. So I thought this was a good addition especially as the new big boys Tau can't strip my invulnerable with marker lights.
Single zoan - a couple of extra bio rolls for endurance ideally or enfeeble. I can hide him behind a skyshield leg or Los blocking terrain and get a hard to shift synapse node which is on a low priority target and pretty cheap.
Game 1 vs Yan's vanilla marines
Mission: Vanguard, scouring
Pre game
Spoiler:
Poor Yan. He'd turned up thinking it was the kill team event so all he had was a handful of lovely painted dark angel minis he'd been slaving away to get finished. Fortunately he works at GW so they leant him a studio army which looked awesome and quite fluffy;
One of the DA kill team
Captain [power sword]
venerable dread [lascannon, CCW]
venerable dread [plasma cannon, CCW]
6 stern guard/DA kill team [stormbolters, plasma cannon] in razor back [lascannon]
The mission really suited me here as I had a minimum 7 scoring units to his max of 4. When we revealed objectives I also had the advantage with an extra point in my deployment zone
I got iron arm on one Tervigon only (that was a theme for the tournament) and a few endurances scattered about.
Turn 1
I got first turn and set up centrally with the iron arm Tervigon to the left, supported by the gargs and 15 gants on the deployment line. Second Tervigon behind Los blocking to the right and the skyshield was pushed up onto the half way line, then the flyrants hanging out in some ruins at the back of my deployment zone, ready to fly forward and dakka.
Yan counter deployed with the raider and las dread on his right, marines central on objectives then the stern guard with razorback and plasma dread to his left.
He didn't seize and I pushed forward with my T7 Tervigon and the spawned gants, moved and ran the gargs in front of the raider and dread and towards one of his objectives. The two tyrants went onto the skyshield just behind the halfway line and lit up the razorback netting me first blood and a six inch explosion which the surrounding marines shrugged off but which did pin the stern guard.
He then charged the enduranced gargoyles with his dreadnought and captain killing five or so. I think my warlord and the T7 Tervigon took a wound or two but that was about it. The empty raider pushed up into midfield too.
Turn 2
No doom. I vectored over the previously pinned stern guard with both flyrants killing the unit and then shot a marine squad down to a single man. Gribblies pushed forward to control the board and restrict his movement. A few gargs die in combat but take a wound off his captain.
I lost my warlord this turn as almost always which was a nice morale victory for Yan! Tervigon was at T9 so didn't take any wounds.
Turn 3
The doom arrives and explodes four marines heads. I get some gants into the dread/captain combat and they manage to swarm the captain devouring his biomass and getting me warlord too. I try to assault the Landraider with my Tervigon but fail the charge through terrain. My last flyrant foregoes shooting to assault a marine squad hoping to be in combat when the talon arrives, I smash and kill two and he fails morale doh! I don't catch him either.
His storm talon still doesn't arrive kind of fortunately for me. He immobilises the Landraider in terrain...he doesn't have much left now but takes some pot shots and takes a wound off my flyrant and iron arm Tervigon. Doom gets assaulted and loses a couple wounds but kills a couple of marines!
Turn 4
I fail to assault the raider yet again, it's about four inches away! My flyrant dakkas the lone marine on an objective and hits and wounds only three times! He passes all saves. Doom finishes the few marines left in combat.
His talon comes in and hits the flyrant with everything, I make all my grounding checks! He does no wounds...
We have to call it there as we did a lot of rules checking and I was a little rusty with the nids (not played for about 5 weeks).
It was a decisive victory for the nids, he only had four marines, the immobilised raider and two dreads stuck in combat left. I was on my three objectives and he only had a two pointer. I had line breaker, warlord and first blood to his warlord.
Post Game
Spoiler:
I think the lists were a complete mismatch, the mission always favoured me and I had really hot dice for my saves in general. Tactically I think I played it right and wouldn't have done anything different. Yan was a nice guy to play and even though his lovely painted kill team got their heads removed by over flying monstrous creatures he enjoyed the cinematics of that comparing it to Starship troopers.
Game 2 vs Chris' IG
Hammer and anvil, kill points
Pre game
Spoiler:
Oh dear AV14 heavy gun line guard in hammer and anvil. This is not good was my initial assessment. Especially as I knew the doom plus spore would give away 2 VPs and I might struggle to reclaim those points through the two units.
CCS [medic]
PCS [lascannon, powerfist]
3x infantry platoon [flamers/missile launchers]
Heavy weapons team [3 bolters]
Veterans [3 meltas, shotguns] in chimera
Hellhound
Leman russ punisher
Leman russ vanquisher
Leman russ [lots of sponson weapons on all of these tanks]
Aegis and quad gun
Fortunately I got to choose sides and there was a fair amount of Los blocking so I knew I could avoid a lot of his firepower probably most of the game if I wanted. However I still had the issue with the doom so I had to get some VPs in the bank. The easy-ish targets are the AV12 which the combined fire from the tyrants stand a chance of taking down along with the 5/6 man command squads/heavy weapon teams.
I deployed defensively with a Tervigon (not enough Los blocking), both gants plus the doom in reserve. I then strung my gargs out behind the skyshield in midefield with a handful deep in my deployment behind Los blocking with the flyrants so there was no way they would give up first blood. My iron arm Tervigon was nearer mid, again behind Los blocking on the left.
He reserved his veterans and put both command squads deep in his deployment zone. Man I really wished I had my biovores and hive commander in this list...he put the short ranged punisher and hellhound on my left opposite the Tervigon and gargs. He blobbed up central behind the aegis with the heavy wepons team and remaining two russes on my right board edge.
I only get a single iron arm on a Tervigon and a few endurance.
Turn 1
I move a number of gargs onto the skyshield to try and bait his short range tanks forward so that the iron arm Tervigon and flyrants can jump on them. That's it, I just hide.
0-0
He takes the bait and hammers the gargs with everything including the hellhound which he moves into my flyrants threat range and fires (I would have smoked). Bingo! He kills a good number of gargoyles, nine maybe.
0-0
Turn 2
My tervigon and big gants come in and move forward mostly out of los. Doom drops into his backfield and scatters ten inches back towards midfield nearly a mishap into his blob, my iron arm Tervigon moves and runs through some ruins towards the punisher. The flyrants jump onto the skyshield and my warlord gets 5 glances on the hound! Smoking probably wouldn't have saved it after all...more hot dice. My other flyrant has no other target now. The doom only kills three of the CCS thanks to cover and FNP which I didn't realise he had because I didn't pay enough attention to his list (doh).
2-0 nids
Now I have to brave the storm of fire from his gun line, he first ranks his blob at the doom who is killed by a missile launcher. The punisher moves back and fluffs against the T7/FNP tervigon doing no wounds. I think my non-warlord flyrant gets grounded and survives on two wounds. The PCS lascannon the spore to death.
2-2
Turn 3
Very lucky to only give away two kill points, I push forward aggressively but make a mistake here because I decide to precision shot the missile launchers out of the blob in the hope of forcing a morale check so that the quad gun is out of action. I kill all the missile launchers and a load of guard shooting over the aegis, but I should have gone after the small squads with hindsight. He passes morale anyway and both flyrants are sat in front of the gun line again. Tervigon chases the punisher but fails a 9 inch charge through cover as expected.
2-2
His veterans in chimera come in on my left behind the punisher to support against the tervigon. I get lucky again as his gun line only puts a wound on my non-warlord Flyrant and my warlord is grounded but takes no wounds. I think the Tervigon takes a couple of wounds this turn.
2-2
Turn 4
My warlord moves 12 inches over to the chimera's exposed side armour. Explodes and charges the contents wiping them out, then consolidates behind Los blocking terrain. The wounded flyrant stays central and moves towards the depleted CCS, taking them out for another 2 KPs.
6-2 nids
My non-warlord tyrant goes down and my iron armed/enduranced Tervigon is down to one wound.
6-3
Turn 5
I stupidly decide to spawn from my one wound tervigon, I thought the gants could shoot and charge the PCS but I only get 7 gribblies, needed more really. I keep one out of Los behind the hound wreck. They string out towards the PCS in a ruin. I now have a choice. Put the Tervigon and warlord on the punisher and the gants on the PCS and hope for an 8 inch charge through cover...unlikely. I put my warlord and gants into the PCS wiping it whilst the Tervigon without iron arm now as I don't want to risk perils smashes gets lucky with two hits, then immobilises and stuns the punisher. He still has a single hull point left. Two of the seven gants are currently in his deployment zone, no line breaker for me.
7-3
This is close, if he can take out the Tervigon, gants and warlord it's a draw. I shouldn't have spawned the gants, but I was greedy. I might lose if it goes to turn 6 or 7 as my second Tervigon is now exposed.
But his gun line fails him again as I make a load of cover and FNP saves, everything lives and the game ends. Phew!
7-3 win to the nids
Post Game
Spoiler:
That was again very lucky for me. The combination of FNP and cover really saved me, I think my game plan worked well; hold back and only expose the minimum of tough units. I really enjoyed the game it was really tactical and challenging as I was completely out ranged and gunned. I think Chris should have been using his quad then punisher to pick off my flyrants, instead he focused the punisher on the Tervigon which was needing 6s to wound a lot of the time although again I get only one iron arm and can't seem to get anything but S/T 7.
Game 3 vs Adam's Pre-heresy Thousand Sons (Grey Knights)
Dawn of war, relic
Pre game
Spoiler:
Hoping for lots of iron arms here to avoid all the nemesis force weapons, lets see how that goes...Adam's army was amazing looking I clocked it as a soon as I walked into WHW and really hoped I'd get to play it. It includes a bunch of psychic familiars and was up for awards in every painting category;
3x big henchmen squads (3x plasmas and 3x plasma cannons including space monkey, not sure what was in the third squad, it was on the quad gun)
5 terminators
10 interceptors
2 psydreads
Dreadknight [incinerator, NO teleporter]
Aegis and quad
That's a lot of shooting, backed up by instant killing combat. The plan was to swamp the objective and midfield with gribblies to protect the big stuff, using the doom and flyrants to push forward and hold his units back as much as possible.
I get iron arm on a single Tervigon yet again but thankfully get a load of endurance and enfeebles. His space monkey rolls extra range so he has potentially 3 twin linked 18 inch rapid firing plasma guns, pretty nice.
Turn 1
Adam lets me go first and I deploy the iron arm Tervigon 12 inches back from the relic, the other just behind the skyshield centre right with the two flyrants. Gargs and big gant squad to the left. He deploys his aegis central on his 12 inch line. All his henchmen behind it along with the inquisitor, psydreads at either end of the line, left and right. Terminators, coteaz and dreadknight on my right flank opposite the Tervigon and flyrants. Interceptors far left opposite the gargs.
I get T7 on the tervigon as usual. I push the gargs forward, spawn good size gants and push for the relic, but my spawned squad just fall short. My flyrants get behind Los blocking on the far right ready to jump out on the terminators and dreadknight.
He butchers most of the gargoyles, maybe 9 with the interceptors. I have some out of Los so he cant get first blood unless he takes down a Tervigon. He takes a couple of wounds off the iron arm Tervigon with the quad and dreads.
Turn 2
I forget to roll reserves doh! I realise I'm relying on my flyrants as usual for first blood and they are facing off against a bunch of 2+ save elite units. I daren't risk combat yet so I decide to go after coteaz with the terminators. I fly them behind the dreadknight and terminators.
Yet again Lady Luck smiles on me as I put 3 precision shots from my warlord on coteaz. He look out sirs two no problem and the terminators make the saves, then he fails a Los and rolls another one for his armour save...he isn't amused. That was incredibly lucky of me as I secure first blood and slay the warlord. My other tyrant takes out a terminator with shooting too.
I pick up the relic and have a good number of gribblies about. Including two 12+ strong squads making there way down the right towards the dreadknight and terminators to help out the flyrants. The left isn't looking too hot as the gargs are about to go down and the 15 strong gants will follow shortly no doubt. I really need the doom to reinforce my left.
He downs both flyers between the quad, dreads and terminators. The gargs are removed, along with most of the gants on my left. My warlord gets assaulted by the terminators who secure revenge for coteaz with the help of hammerhand which goes off past shadows. The dreadknight goes into my other flyrant but he chooses not to force weapon and does a wound I think, I take two off in return. I think that's a mistake as he could have taken both flyrants out if he'd managed to activate the dreadknight's force weapon. However they have had to go back on themselves to do this and are barely out of his deployment zone now.
Turn 3
I roll a one for the doom, not good. I put some shots into the interceptors and take one off. Right Tervigon spawns out and sends a few gants to reinforce the left. I get lucky and my iron arm Tervigon goes up to T9 and spawns 17 gants! The Tervigon gets the relic passed to her.
I kill his dreadknight in combat and shoot some terminators with gants which does nothing, they fail the charge, about 8 inches no cover.
He moves his interceptors from the left central using their shunt, picking off some more gants. His terminators charge and kill the last flyrant but will get swarmed by two gant squads next turn. I think the relic Tervigon takes a single wound.
Turn 4
T7 iron arm yet again but the Doom comes in and takes six interceptors off, exactly what I needed to happen. Just 3 left now and they go down to a Tervigon blast and a bunch of gant shooting. My gants swarm the terminators losing a handful to overwatch and combat.
My Tervigon goes down after the dreads and quad are done, killing a lot pf gants and ropping the relic. Terminators kill some gants.
Turn 5
A 12 strong group of gants picks up the relic. Doom moves towards his lines and blows up henchmen heads and then charges and kills a couple more.
All adam's shooting kills 10 gants but not the one with the relic plus his mate.
We roll for turn 6 and would have continued but there was no way for me to lose, the terminators were too far away to get line breaker, doom was rampaging in his lines, though likely to die to a dread if he got out of combat. I had some gants likely to get line breaker but I probably would have dropped the relic.
I take it on the flukey coteaz kill vs slay the warlord...
Post Game
Spoiler:
Such a close game where again I got more then my fair share of luck but I think it balanced out by the fact I only got one iron arm/game and rolled T7 all but one turn! We did have one rules debate which was a big faux pas by me, I thought old adversary granted re rolls to ALL to hit rolls not just ones. Idjit! It didn't impact this game or the one before but it would have made a difference in my first game as I re-rolled two unsuccessful smashes which hit and killed two marines, I was intending to stay in combat so it worked against me! My bad, now I know you only re roll ones to hit, I was always playing reroll 1s to wound.
Tournament Summary
Spoiler:
So I ended up with three wins which really surprised me, I didn't do too bad with match ups as there were a number of armies I really didn't like the look of. A few flyer spam; 4 night scythe/3 dakka jet; 5 night scythe; triple riptide; mech heavy armies including serpent spam.
It was a really well run event and was pretty relaxed, everyone was really friendly so I'd highly recommend the one dayer as a good way to get into tournaments if you've never been to one before. The terrain was brilliant, loads of it and plenty of Los blocking ruins which really helped my army.
Unfortunately I didn't win best in race or the tournament as a whole, there were a few Nid players on 3 wins!
Army Review
Spoiler:
Everything performed really well, I feel like I'm getting to grips with my nids. I'm about a dozen games in now, most of them against my mate's ravenwing. I did miss the biovores I've used in the past and given old adversary isn't as good as I thought I'll drop those upgrades.
I'm reticent to drop the skyshield as you never know what the terrain quantity will be like when you play so its good insurance and guarantees me an invulnerable, cover and Los blocking.
