Game 3: Will's CSM/Daemons
Lord- Terminator Armor, Claws, Mark of Nurgle
Sorcerer- Mark of Slaanesh, Lash
10 Chaos Termies, Mark Of Tzeenth, lots of upgrades
5 Chaos Space Marines
7 Chaos Space Marines- Rhino
2 Oblits
Fateweaver
5x Plaguebearers
Vanguard Strike
Big Guns Never Tire (3 Objectives)
Will is another Zero Comp/Frontline guy I've met over the years yet we've never played a game. He's going into the game thinking there is no way to win, and all I can think about is how am I going to get rid of Fateweaver.
This is the only time where I really make the biggest 'D'OH' rookie mistake of the game. I win roll off and make him go first. Then he asks if I want to steal the Init and I'm like 'eh sure not like it is going to happen.' Literally the dice is leaving my hands and I'm wondering why the hell I've decided to do this. Of course the 6 pops. This is the stupidest thing I did all tournament by a long shot.
So the only thing I have going for me is the objectives give sky fire (and tournament rules meant all were the same result) so I had a shot in hell at getting to fateweaver. The downside is I've now given Will the chance to take the side with two objective and he's going 2nd for last turn objective grabs. T-riffic.
So turn one and I advance up a little bit and take some shots. I think I maybe killed two termies because I'm trying to stay out of range of the sorcerer lash. I mostly kept my troops spread out to avoid letting him drop fateweaver in to flame a bunch of guys or worse spawn my farseer. I know he wants to kill him so he can lash my ass.
Will's trun one and he get's fateweaver. While he's tempted to drop him
a little into my guys he knows that utility is what counts and makes a
safe deploy behind his lines. His Oblits shoot my bikes waaaay back on my objective and kill a guy.
My turn 2 and I make a wall of attack bikes to shoot at termies as now is my best chance I figure. I keep two troops on my back objective. I send one other off to the flank. I send my farseer behind some LOS terrain and use another troop to block off a portion of his table edge if his CSMs come in from reserves. I manage to pop off 1 terminator as now they are getting fateweaver rerolls, hooray!
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Will's turn 2 and I think he gets both CSMs but not the plaguebearers. His 5 man squad he walks behind his wall of terminators. He really wants to kill the farseer so he decides to tank shock my non plasma biker. I figure 'hey I've got a krak grenade and ATSKNF so why not.' I hit, I pen, I stun. Rhino and guys are still off the board and are destroyed and that also gives me first blood. We're both laughing our asses off now.
He goes for a Lash and brings up an attack bike squad. I think he kills it, he might not. Things at this point get fuzzy.
Pretty much the rest of the game I'm trying to shoot fateweaver and largely failing. I do get my captains squad to charge the oblits and kill them outright as Fateweaver is too far away for rerolls. The captain dies to his Lord and he had the +1 for challenges which is poo. My attack bikes get a lane to charge I think 4 CSMs on the objective and are routed. His plaguebearers drop on toward my objective and tie up my squad. I've got them doomed but it takes about 6 rounds of combat to kill 6 guys. Fateweaver only ever takes one wound and pass LD. Will makes two more lash attempts, one fails and I think one goes off with double 1s.
In the end he runs fateweaver toward my objective on the bottom of 6 hoping it will go on a turn. It does not. He says 'you win' and I say 'no I don't I lose'. We go through all the points and he didn't think Fateweaver could get linebreaker because he is flying, but no he's still a denial unit.
So we've both got an objective, he's got my warlord +1 due his trait, and linebreaker for 6 points.
I've got one objective, plus first blood, plus linebreaker for 5 points.
We sign off on our sheet and turn it in to the judge.
5 minutes later the Zero Comp guys are asking why I sent my Captain so deep into his territory knowing he was going to die like that. I say 'well I needed to kill those oblits because...' and then my voice trails off... BECAUSE THEY ARE SCORING UNITS AND GIVE UP A VICTORY POINT.
Thankfully Will is cool and we go up to the judge and explain it was a tie. The judge also let it change since it there was still probably 40 minutes on the clock and it wasn't like we were past the round or anything.
So I manage a tie. Looking back through this I actually made more mistakes than I should have. Beyond the afore mentioned stealing the intitiative I should have just sat back and shot him. I should have made him come at me and tried to pick him off more. I should not have sent my Captain in there to get the oblits only to surrender two points to him. If I could have limited him to one objective and held one I could have one just on first blood.
So lessons learned for me!
Game 4: Paul's Tau w/ Spacewolves
Shash'El MP/Plasma, BSF, 2 Shield Drones
3 Crisis MP/Plasma, BSF
3 Crisis MP/Plasma, BSF
3 Crisis Twin MP, BSF
10 Firewarriors in Devilfish
6 Firewarriors
6 Firewarriors
Broadside w/ Advanced Stabalization (S&P), BSF
Broadside w/ Advanced Stabalization, BSF
Broadside w/ Advanced Stabalization, BSF
Rune Priest
9 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Wolf Standard
Drop Pod
Dawn of War
The Scouring
So I'd never met Paul before and I'm 'playing up' as I think he is 3-0 now. This was the only game I had an opponent use book powers instead of the codec powers. I don't even remember what they were now but it didn't play up big in the game.
This was also the only table I played on that had mysterious terrain with two water features. We both avoided them like the plague.
We placed the objectives around and I did my best to make sure they were very far apart and way out in the open. I play Tau too and I know where they fall down (holding objectives).
I don't recall who won the roll off but I ended up deploying and going first. I kept the farseer squad behind some LOS terrain in the corner. Everything else I put on the line but in a few different groups (far left, central, far right).
He set up one Broadisde behind the LOS Bastion, one on the far back line next two one of his MP/Plas crisis teams, and one behind this big LOS hill with his other two crisis teams and commander. He kept his troops in reserve and of course the Wolves would drop in turn one.
His warlord trait let him make it Nightfight turn one. Handy since his whole army had Black Sun Filters to avoid night fight!
However my army is hard to avoid. My left flank moved up to get an angle on one broadside. I gave him 4+ cover but he still failed eventually. My right flank and middle moved up. Only one squad of bikes could make range on his back crisis suits in the open. Three bolter shots, 2 plasma, and one multi melta later was enough to kill one suit. I don't remember what combo did it. To add insult to injury they failed their LD and were already right on the back edge. So already he's down a bit in turn one and I've gotten first blood.
His turn one and the drop pod comes down and he's looking for the farseer. However it scatters a bit so he shoots at an attack bike squad. I think he kills one bike. I think the rest of his shooting ended up not doing much. As with most of this game my saves were pretty on fire (my shooting was otherwise meh) but I remember his Broadsides just rolling horribly.
My turn two and I sent one bike squad back to help with the wolves. I tried dooming but he denied it with his fancy power. I opened up on them and killed off nearly half the squad including the banner. I charged him with the three squad I had (yes even the eldar) and HoW managed to knock another two guys down (his 5 guys were in a line and it was 10 bikes charging so just enough for everyone to squeeze in to base to base). In combat he challenged and I fed him the sarge. I won combat (as it looks like HoW counts toward resolution) but he stuck around.
On the left flank my bike advanced but I think I failed to land any wounds on his now backing away Broadside.
His turn 2 and I think the devilfish and one squad came on the board. He put them near that 30" mark so they could shoot (6 guys in front of 10 guys in front of a devilfish). He shot with his whole army and killed a couple of bikes. As I mentioned I made a lot of great saves. His rune priest goes to make some powers go off but takes a wound to double ones. He challenges again but I only have my farseer so I decline. He goes after my single attack bike and kills it and I think his last wolves kill one other bike. I think I kill one wolf. He's picked up a point for killing one of my fast attacks AND he's won combat. Failing any LD would certainly see guys flying off the board... but I make them all.
My turn 3 and I doom the wolves and it goes off and he fails to deny it. On the left flank advances and starts working down the firewarriors but I'm not in rapid fire range and my shooting is still kinda bleh. I think they make their LD to stick around. In combat he challenges again and I decide I might as well send the farseer in as at least he's got an invul. I fail to wound him or he makes saves, but he does the same. I think I kill the last troop and he kills one more bike so we push combat.
His turn 3 and I think his last firewarriors fail to come in now. Again he shoots at bikes and kills some, but it is looking like I am going to weather this storm. He doesn't want to get close with his HQ squad for good reason, but it means he can't double tap his plasma. Plus Tau plas is only str 6 so it is failing a few hits also. I think he also popped off his drones this turn to start heading off to do some objective contesting/bait.
He again challenges and I step up with the farseer. Again I think we just whiff at each other end that ends combat since that is all there is.
My turn 4 I doom and I think it goes. I advance the flank and kill lots of firewarriors. What is left all runs off the board. This time my farseer accepts the challenge and kills the rune priest at last.
Hist turn 4 and firewarriors come on the board. They go back by the hill close enough to scoot to objective next turn and still pop off some shots. Not surpringly he shoots at the wall of bikes and a few die. I think this turn I actually failed a LD so one squad falls back.
My turn 5 and the jetbikes haul across the table for one objective. The last unit that was in combat moves to an objective and blows up his drop pod. One attack bike squad hops down to another objective and if I recall immobilize the devilfish. My other attack bikes fall a little behind to grab an objective and shoot a drone. My last two squads move up and they shoot the firewarriors who then run off the table.
At this point I've left my Captain up front to suck up shots. He goes to town with his double tap plasma and I think I've got 5 regular saves and 2 plasma saves. I fail two regular saves and they jump back.
I think his other units killed off the other troop unit I had moving toward the objective.
At this point he's got no troops and I think has one drone contesting an objective. I'm sitting on three other objectives, have linebreaker and first blood. It doesn't even matter how many points each objective is, he's only got the one bonus point for killing one fast attack slot.
The game mercifully ends on a 5.
This was the only game that I played that really felt like a route. Paul was a good sport as one can be about it but there was some bad luck on his side and my saves were hot even if my shooting was average. Combined with having a fast army where everything could score and I don't know what else he could have done differently to net a different result. This was also the one game where the lack of terrain really impacted the game as I think it would have helped him. His suits were just pinned in that corner or else they were going to be shot to bits with no cover.
So I end the day at my surprise at 3-0-1. There are only 3 players at this point that are 4-0 so I know I'm going to table 2 the next day and I feel good about that.
Then I see who the players are: Christian's mech GK, Sirus's mech Blood Angels, and Jim's Flying Necrons (two wraith squads and 4 fliers). All of these players are way out of my league as far as practice and GT experience. So I leave day one happy but even with a great record knowing the next day is going to be brutal!
