Onslaught 2011 Day 1

As promised here is the first of my Onslaught 2011 posts, I apologise for the lack of photo’s but I forgot to take my camera and ended up getting so engrossed in my games that I didn’t take any pictures on my iPhone either. Doh!

I played 5 games over the two days and I have to say I had 5 great opponents. I ended up placing 19th with 3 wins and 2 losses which was a bit of a disappointment but as I sat and reviewed the games in my head I think it was down to pure luck that I lost those two games...

.... In a game of random dice rolling this shit does jump up and bit you in the ass every now and then.

Game 1 vs Vanilla Marines
Dawn of War, Kill Points
Army:-
Pedro +5 Honour Guard + Gubbinz
Riflemen Dread
5 Sternguard + Meltas, Razorback with Assault Cannons
5 Sternguard + Meltas, Razorback with Assault Cannons
10 Tactical Marines, Melta, Missile Launcher, Razorback with Assault Cannons
5 Sniper Scouts with Missile Launcher
2 x Speeders , MM+HF
Typhoon Speeder
Typhoon Speeder
I lost the roll off in this game and the Marines went took first turn he deployed a couple of Razorbacks and his scout squad in some ruins, he wanted to put them in a bastion But my Chooser blocked the move. I deployed Logan and the large Wolf Guard pack on foot in a rocky outcrop with excellent firing lanes and then the small Wolf Guard pack in some ruins.

His army rolled on and surprisingly he spread his army out across the board, I think he was trying to get as much cover as possible from my missiles. I decided tor effuse flank and go for half of his army that would not be supported by Pedro and the Honour Guard. It was then I made a noob mistake that could have cost me the game. I totally forgot about orbital bombardment and deployed my Long Fangs next to the small Wolf Guard unit in the ruins leaving the units nicely packed together, you see where this is going right?
Boom! Pedro jumps out of a Razorback and lands the big boy right in the middle of my packs and hardly scatters . The casualties aren’t so bad but my Wolf Guard turn tail and leg it right off the board! 3-0 in turn 1. The loss was hard but I was far from done, Logan whacked Tank hunting on his Wolf Guard and started to get to work on those speeders, 4 Krak and 6 Storm Bolter with Tank Hunters pretty much put down a speeder a turn. My Lone Wolves pushed forward and started to draw fire , one went down pretty easy but the other got stuck into a Sternguard and set about taking the unit to pieces with his Chainfist.

The game was pretty much set in stone by turn 3. My Grey Hunters mopped up one of his Sternguard units and then multi charged Tactical Marines and the Riflemen Dread. Pedro and his Honour Guard had been de-meched and were now desperately trying to get across the board to aid the other units but some poor terrain rolls put a stop to that meaning I could pick apart his army in isolated pockets.

It was a solid Victory in the end despite by noob-gasm in the first turn, my opponent Tom was a top lad and during conversation said he rarely played tournaments so hats off to him for playing on top of his game with Vanilla Marines.

Game 2 vs Grey Knights
Capture and Control, Pitched Battle
Army:-
Librarian + too many Psychic powers
Librarian + too many Psychic powers
5 Grey Knight Terminators, Halberds, hammer, Incinerator
5 Grey Knight Terminators, Halberds, Hammer, Incinerator
5 Grey Knight Terminators, Swords, Pyscannon
Land Raider Redeemer, Multi Melta, Extra Armour, Pysbolts
Land Raider Redeemer, Multi Melta, Extra Armour, Pysbolts
Land Raider, Multi Melta, Extra Armour, Pysbolts

If there is one unit I struggle against with this list its a land Raider never mind three of the fuckers. To make matters worse my opponent was a fellow Dudley Darklord Adam Ryland who knows his stuff and is a regular Land Raider user. The icing on the cake was the board. It was themed board and the organisers obviously wanted to make it like a ruined city block, this thing had like 70% of its surface area covered in city block style ruined buildings with two and three floors in most cases. My first thoughts were that this was bad for Land Raiders as we all know they bog down when you don’t want them to but this was a Grey Knight list and with all that cover and Sanctuary it was going to be piss easy for him to get constant 3+ cover saves. Against my long range AT this would be bad and if he was clever enough with facings and Sanctuary a 2+ cover save could be obtained without too much trouble.

I won first turn and castled up in one corner of the board which afforded me the best fire lanes. Logan and the Lascannons set up in the best firing position whilst the Missile Fangs took up position on the roof of one of the city blocks. I placed my Rhinos central planning to push my Rune Priest to the middle ground and get his Runic Staff into 24” and basically kite his Land Raiders with him and stay out of harms way yet still be near to counter attack.

I allocated a Cyclone to Logans Long Fang unit to increase the output to 5 Krak and 2 Lascannon shots per turn with Tank Hunting and stuck the remaining 4 dudes in cover out of the way on my objective. The big Wolf Guard unit was put in reserve in the Pod ready to deploy where I saw fit turn one.

Adam set up as expected using the cover to his advantage, his Godhammer sat on his objective with a Redeemer nearby whilst the third set up directly opposite me ready to push right down my throat. His options were pretty limited but that didn't help my cause.

Adam fails to seize the initiative and I start my turn by dropping my pod in. I played it risky and decided to drop my Wolf Guard in to put pressure on his objective but in doing so I would probably sacrifice the unit doing so. I move the Lone Wolves to intercept the Redeemer closest to me. A salvo of ineffective shooting see's the end of my turn.

As expected the closest Redeemer ploughs through terrain and heads straight for my lines. Adam takes the bait though and sends his second Redeemer after my Wolf Guard unit, chances are he will kill this unit off but it will really slow him down letting me deal with the other Redeemer alone. The shooting phase is again uneventful but the unit of Termi's in that Redeemer jump out and make short work of the Wolf Guard with some awesome dice rolling, I did expect my Wolf Guard to last at least one round longer lol.

By now we were both already pissed off with the board as it was proving to be a royal pain in arse to move mini's around. In turn 2 I pushed a Rhino forward containing the Rune Priest to bring his Runic Staff into range of both Librarians, the other Rhino I kept back a little to counter attack in a later turn. My Shooting did bugger all again thanks to the copious amounts of cover available, I was hoping to have either wrecked a Land Raider or at least one of them bogged down at this point.

The Land Raider advance continued with the closest crashing past my Lone Wolves and disgorging a Terminator Squad into the ruins next to Logans unit. The other Redeemer picked up its cargo of Terminators but for some reason held back, I think my aggressive move with the Rhino had caused some concern. The Redeemer Cannon opened up on my Long Fangs but thanks to some nifty placement and two 2+ saves in the unit I didn't lose anything. The Librarian and Terminators opened up on the same unit causing a couple of casualties but nothing drastic, they then charged into the unit. Luckily I had seen the move coming and gave Logan and his unit Preferred Enemy.

As the Grey Knights were initiative 4 I decided to use Logans Battle Cry and opted to use his Frost Blade to get some hits in before all those power weapons got stuck in. Logan was on top form and killed off 4 Terminators with his Frost Blade, I then piled what I could into the Librarian who passed all of his saves but his fellow Grey Knight was not so lucky and got battered by the Long Fangs I did however lose the rest of my Long Fangs except the Wolf Guard in retaliation. The Librarian Held his ground and the combat went on.

The battle went a bit uphill from this point on I had lost the Long Range advantage and had a second Redeemer closing in on me. My Rune Priests staff was glowing red hot as I was stopping powers left right and centre. My Grey Hunters wrecked the second Redeemer in the centre of the board but I still had to deal with the Grey Knights inside. Meanwhile I gambled on my Second pack killing off that Redeemer on my home objective. I was now playing for a draw and had to get rid of it to clear my home turf. I think I fired about 4 Melta shots at it over the space of 3 turns and guess what? All of them did bugger all.

Logan eventually killed off that Librarian but he positioned himself to stop that second unit of Termi's breaking through along with the Lone Wolves. The game ended turn 5 and I still had the Redeemer on my objective whilst Adam has claimed his own with the Godhammer Land Raider.

Grey Knight Victory.

Well I have to say the lack of Melta in my list showed trough here and hurt me. I really needed some more shots to try and punk that Redeemer but I will talk more about this later. The terrain was against me as well as it was piss easy for Adam to hide three Land Raiders and hop from cover to cover. Couple this with Shrouding and my long range AT was worthless.


Game 3 vs Dark Eldar
Seize Ground (5 Objectives) + Spearhead

Army List:

Shit Loads of Venoms with Wyches and Trueborns in them.
Shit Loads of Ravagers

I really can't remember what this guy had in his list but it looked like a pretty standard Mech DE list. The board was pretty open plan with lots of area terrain but nothing that could hide those skimmers. I lost the roll off so my opponent chose his quarter and set up is horde of skimmers. His opening salvo could potentially wipe me out so I had to be canny with deployment. I opted to pod the big Wolf Guard pack and held the small Wolf Guard pack and a Grey Hunter pack in reserve. I placed Logan with a Long Fang pack and placed them completely out of sight whilst the remaining Long Fang Pack took up cover in my corner as far back as I could with the Rune Priest and his Grey Hunters in a Rhino blocking line of sight to them.

His first turn he moves his skimmers forward and clumps them in the middle of the board near to two objectives. He then disembarks all of his Wyches and Trueborns and squeezes them where he can. His shooting knocks a storm bolter off my Rhino and kills a Long Fang!

Not believing my luck I Disembark the Grey Hunters and move them 8" towards the blob of Elves but leave the Rune Priest inside, I then move my Rhino 6" towards to allow the Long Fangs to see and then move Logans Relentless Fangs into a firing position. My Pod comes down on the left flank and the Wolf Guard set up in cover.

I then open up on the Venoms and cause three to explode, all three explode about 5 t 6" each and blow a huge hole in the mass of Dark Eldar. It was a very pretty fireworks show. My Grey Hunters then charge in and Multi Charge two Trueborn units and a unit of Wyches. With the Wolf banner active my casualties are minimal and I win combat but to fail to make the pointy fuckers run.

To be honest the game was over at this point, I had crippled his troops and there was very little left to threaten my army too much. The following turns were spent just mopping up his Ravagers and the odd Venom. My reserves came onto the board and finished off his Wyches and Trueborn totally clearing the centre of the board and claiming the two objectives, I think by the end of the game he had a Ravager and a depleted unit of Trueborn clinging on to existence.

This game was probably a text book taking apart of a Dark Eldar list, I shielded my units from Splinter Cannons and retaliated hard. Granted I got lucky when he clumped his units together and they suffered from explosions but to be honest he would he been on the sharp end of some Frag the next turn anyway. A big help this game was Logan making those Long Fangs relentless, this mean't I could shield them from Splinter Cannons and then move and fire the next turn. Against the Paper swarm every shot counts to drop those skimmers as you will see in my next game.