Wednesday 25 July 2012

BatReps in Brief: Day 1 1850 Tournament

Wolf on Wolf action - Game 3 Deployment
Report time for the 1850 tournament I just won down at the Brighton Warlords. This was a solid performance for me, I did make a couple of small tactical errors, but killed and maimed beautifully across the weekend.
These are not full blown reports, but they are blow by blow accounts as accurately as I can remember, but concise enough to not bore you to death (hopefully). If some things come across as simple.. just remember...it's not easy being this good lol! But seriously, I may come across as simple or that each victory was straightforward, but there is more going on behind the scenes...from Game 1 onwards it's all about 3 key things that I really think provide an edge:
Target priority, deployment and knowing your enemy.

For what it's worth - I was pressured going into this tournament, I only have 4 tournaments on Rankings UK, one of which was last years July Brighton. That dropped off and therefore I needed to perform at this one if I wanted to maintain my Top 16 position.
Which I have.. 13th currently.
 If I want to get higher, I need to go to bigger tournaments where there are more points available. I did this at Caledonian and Jolly Toys, but it's gonna be Brighton again in October and then maybe Northern Warlords GT in September, but it is a long way.. But I have til November to replace the final 4th tournie that could be used for points.. I think I will aim for 2 more tournies this year. The ones I talk about above.. that'll give me a good shot of being part of the Masters.

Anyway, onto the games.


Game 1: Space Marines - Scouring (WIN), Dawn Of War (old Pitched Battle)

Calgar
5 TH/SS Termies
Spartan Assault Carrier
2 x 10 Tac Marines
5 Assault Marines
Chaplain
2 x Mortis Contemptor Dreads




The Spartan - 5 HPs, Immune to Melta, 4 Lascannons TL! 
I won the roll off and went second - I like to see where people set up, gives indications about their confidence and battle plan as well as granting me the advantage in setting up and early moves. Normally against a Land Raider borne Deathstar I like to throw in my Suicide Melta Drop Pod, but against a 5 Hull Point, Immune to Melta Assault Carrier..yeah, I'll employ the other Death Star tactic - avoid it.
Turn One, I deployed covered and kept everything alive against the smattering of missiles at range and the Quadruple TL Lascannon.
My turn one, I drop in my Drop Pod trying to achieve 2 things, block the forward motion of the Assault Carrier and blow up a Contemptor. I did not know they had Skyfire and Interceptor though, so the dudes got blown away at the end of my movement phase before I even got to fire a meltagun...d'oh! First blood to Rich. I moved up and generally just put masses of fire into the troops in the open.
Turn 2, the Carrier moved away from the Drop Pod, actually dropping itself further back into his deployment zone, avoiding the 2 Lone Wolves with Chainfists..but also keeping almost 500 points of assault troops out of the action. He pops a rhino and a couple of men. I kill more troops. Not many bodies about now on his side.
I assault the Carrier. Fail to penetrate it with a Chainfist... :(
Turn 3 it backs away from the Lone Wolf and his assault troops and Chaplain move up the left flank to kill one of my ten man Plasma Packs, of course Overwatch is on top form and the already reduced Assault Marines are killed. The Chaplain makes combat and fails to kill anyone, he then dies to a Rune Priest's power weapon. Mauls = fail for chaplains (note: for chaplains, very good in other contexts). My turn 3 I kill one Contemptor and reduce the other to 1 HP and snap shoot only. I kill more troops. I fail to stop the Carrier in combat with the Lone Wolf.
Turn 4 the Carrier finally bombs forward, but at this point in time I am so spread out across the board, mainly in his own deployment zone on the right, that the Carrier on the left is only really gonna get a 10 man Grey Hunter pack, the one that is holding my home objective. I lose the drop pod and the second Lone Wolf (that may have happened in turn 2/3 I am not sure..hence why he hasn't done much..in case you were wondering lol), theTermies finally get out and assault/kill the home objective holders.
My 4, flow around the field, keeping well out of assault range in turn 5, I kill any remaining Space Marines. It is now just Calgar, Termies and Carrier.
Turn 5, he tries to strike out at 3 targets,but fails assaults - they were big ones, speculative ones. I kill 2 termies and fail to wound Calgar.
No six. I win on Primary.
I get around 1100 tournament points (old VPs) as I failed to get Termies, Calgar and only got half of the Carrier.
Could have been a tough game, was a good game though..made easier by the timid use of a 320 point mega-Land Raider and 500 points of contents! 

Game 2: Space Marines -Multiple Objectives, New Spearhead (WIN) (Table 6)

Calgar
10 Assault Termies
Land Raider Godhammer
Dread - Lascannon
2 x 10 Tac Marines(1 Drop Pod)
5 Scouts - HBolter
Storm Talon Gunship - Skyhammer Missiles, Ass Cannon
5 Devs - 3 Missiles, 1 Plasma Cannon

So this one looked relatively straight forward except for the LR/Termie/Calgar death star. I was also worried about the flier - despite it being a 'Diet-Flier' I had no real way of dealing with fliers - Divination was to be put to the test. I always find that a note of caution should be exercised  when facing what appears to be a 'Battleforce' army - it often means the player is well skilled and should not be underestimated.
I went second, not by choice.
I deployed a few inches back and centrally to my deployment zone. From where I was I could deal with the random Scout squad and combat squad out on the far right of the table as well as cover the field with missiles. The rhinos were deployed along the back edge about 6" in in cover, one >25% covered from terrain, then others in off that to self generate. These were going to push to the right to take objectives and clear out the push from Scouts and combat squad. This wouldn't require a lot of work and they could then bomb pack to support fire against the 10 Termies n Calgar. The bulk of my troops - the 2 10 man Plasma Packs were on the centre left, one deployed out of sight behind the base level of a ruin.
His turn 1, his drop pod with 10 men in drops in front of my lines, it scatters a few inches but the Tacs are still in rapid fire range of one of my Long Fang packs. The Raider shifted up and left 6" to begin to get in position - the TL Lascannons have a few shots lined up on the Rhinos. The Devs target their opposite numbers, the Dread moves up to the right to support the Scouts and combat squads.
The Hammernators are  combat squadded and in reserve - in the meantime, Calgar (on his own) legs it upfield.. you get where that is going right? Armour of Antilochus has a homing beacon.
The shooting phase sees 2 Fangs go down from heavy weapons fire and one squad of Fangs removed from the Rapid Fire of the full tactical squad. The Rhino's are protected by cover - sweet. Ruins & Cover are still just as good.. self generated cover less so, put the loss of a couple of a HP on a couple of rhino's is nothing.
In response, my hidden Grey Hunters burst through the ruins using Dust of a Thousand Worlds, took control of the mysterious objective that gave them reroll 1's and plasmagunned/rapid fired/Murderous Hurricaned the 10 men to death.
My drop pod came in in front of the Raider and blew it open.
The Lone Wolves both ran straight at the Drop Pod which gave them a perfect position to stretch out and tie up the Assault Termies next turn.
The rhinos moved in a convoy to the right of the battlefield, in cover and towards the scoring enemy units on the right.
The Long Fangs targeted the Dread, immobilising it and removing the lascannon. The other Fangs (smaller) targeted their opposite number, killing one or two.
In combat the Lone Wolves wrecked out the Drop Pod and were ready to tie up the all Claw Ass Termies.
His Turn 2, no flier arrival. Termies came in, but in a defensive position, protecting the combat squad that was holding his objective. An error - they could have caused some excellent distraction/mayhem, but they were a nil impact unit from the get go. The LC Ass Termies moved up towards the left hand side - Turn 3 long charge on my troops (if the Lone Wolves didn't tie them up) The Scouts/Combat Squad move up and grab the objective out there. It's too early though and this leaves them in position but immobile for the rest of the game (if they wanted to claim it!). Calgar moves up a bit more. Meh. He's either committed or he's fawning about doing fuck all.
Not a lot of shooting left for him now.
My Turn 2, the Lone Wolves bomb in and one reaches combat with the LC Termies. The Grey Hunters on foot all move up and get into 24" of the Devs and Hammernators. The rhinos move up and disembark.
Shooting results in death for the combat squad marines supporting the scouts. Devs are killed, 2 Hammernators gunned down, Calgar takes 2 wounds from Missiles.
In CC, the Lone Wolf survives superbly against the AP3 Lol Claws and causes 1 wound. Termies stay and the beautiful deadlock continues.
Turn 3. It's closing stages now. Calgar moves up but I've been dancing with him and he's out of realistic range. No Flier arrival. Hammernators move up to try and get engaged. Scouts shoot some of the Grey Hunters.. trouble is, 3 packs vs 5 scouts...never going to end well. Lone Wolf kills another Termie. He takes a wound. Other lone wolf joins in on my turn 3 and that's game,set,match for the Lol Claw Termies. Shooting in my 3 sees the death of Calgar after he survived 2 Jaws attempts. Devs are dead, Dread's dead to Melta fire, Scouts die. Only a few Hammernators and a 5 man combat squad left.
Turn 4, flier comes in and blows away a few Grey Hunters. Hammernators are solidly in mid field. Shame there is no one there. Combat squad on his home objective cowers. My 4, time to test out divination. I cast it  up and the proceed to roll 3 6's anyway on the first volley from Long Fangs, I don't reroll the 4th dice.. they penetrate, he jinks 1, but it blows.
That pretty much wound it up for me, another solid win, fliers dealt with straightforwardly.. Whilst the list had flaws, it was play that really boned the list here. The Hammernators should have been in the Land Raider, the LC's should have run up behind. Rather than spread out, they all should have been together and they should have come for me as a distraction and to cause real damage. Problem with the Godhammer, people want to use it to shoot! Fair enough if it houses 5 BA Assault Marines for a cheap solid scoring.. but if it has Termies..use them not it! 


Game 3: Space Wolves - Emperor's Will, End to End (DRAW) (Table 3)

Bran Redmaw
Rune Priest - Meltabombs (took Divination and Prescience)
Wolf Guard - a mix of termies for outflanking/OBEL'ing Grey Hunters and melta/fist for rhino GH packs)
Lone Wolf - TDA/CF/SS/2 Wolves
2 x 10 Grey Hunters - 2 Meltas, Wulfen, Banner
2 x 7 Grey Hunters - Melta, Wulfen, Banner, Rhino
2 x 6 Long Fangs - 5 Missiles
1 x 6 Long Fangs - 5 MM

This was going to be tough. Essentially, this game was Draw Bore and both objectives were deep in the opposing deployment zones. He outflanked and OBEL'd with 20 Grey Hunters, 2 Termie Wolf Guard and Bran Redmaw.. scary and it'd definitely get him a tough pair of units in my deployment zone for secondary Breakthrough.. It'd also mean Slay the Warlord would be tough for me.
Turn 1: He went first. He had deployed right up to his line behind his Aegis Defence Line and Icarus Lascannon. Night Fight was in. I lost a couple of Grey Hunters to missiles, but at least I had cover saves from being over 24". I had deployed aggressively and moved up fast. I heavily punished the Missile Fangs, they went to ground.. Rhino's in the back end of his deployment zone moved about to get some shots on my rather annoying drop pod of suicide melta that had podded in and melta'd his Long Fangs from the rear. S8 up the ass, lol.
I lost the Suicide Squad to MM Long Fangs and Grey Hunter's out of the top hatch. Ah well, job done. First blood to him. My Lone Wolf and his Lone Wolf mix it up after I've wounded his guy once in the shooting phase. Gives me the edge bar dice. The other Lone Wolf doesn't make it in. Everything is in a great position and midfield.
Lone Wolves kill one of the Pups each.
Turn 2: His dudes don't show up T2, he has very little on table, but is in no danger of a tabling. The troop unit on the enemy Wolf objective sits tight contributing bugger all, the other moves up into the middle of his deployment zone, popping shots at the drop pod, which although strips a hull point, doesn't kill it. It's glanced.
The Rune Priest cast Prescience from the ground and the MM blows one rhino, the Missiles fail to kill a second.
The Lone Wolf combat continues at an impasse.
My Two, I bomb the remaining 2 rhino's down his left flank, as fast as possible. They are breaking through his DZ now and I'm going to try and keep one of the outflanking units back there, this distraction hopefully means I can deal with the other if it comes on in my back zone. I move my 2, 12 man Plasma Packs (Rune Priest and WG in each) into the middle of the board, blasting Rapid Fire into the central Long Fangs pack with Rune Priest and Icarus Lascannon. I kill all bar the Rune Priest and one Fang. My second Lone Wolf burst though the central ruins and assaults the remaining Long Fang and Rune Priest.
I kill his RP and Fang. The other Lone Wolf combat sees both wounded, but I make my FNP, he dies.
Turn 3, both reserves come in and as I had hoped, he keeps Bran Redmaw's GH pack in his DZ to deal with the 2 GH packs of my own. The other comes in in my DZ, on my right hand flank, and he guns down a long fang pack to one man. His Grey Hunters in rhinos pop one Rhino that had burst through and Bran Redmaws unit toasts another rhino. Luckily, the can't assault this turn. The MM fangs split fire and kill one of two lone wolves. My 3 I target the outflanking pack in my DZ with 2 Fang packs, one of the central Plasma Packs and the 5 man objective holder unit. Plus the random one missile left from the last turns shooting. I kill all bar 3. Sweet! I move and assault the GH packs in his DZ, one going for one of his rhinos, the other going for the MM Fangs.  This moves me a considerable distance from the Bran Redmaw pack that has just come on, hopefully reducing their impact on the game to just one rhino :)
I kill the Rhino and a couple of MM Fangs. They stay in combat.
Turn 4, he doesn't move his GH in the rhino on his objective. Technically, he is now not claiming. He runs away with his 3 survivors in my DZ to keep Breakthrough Secondary point. Bran's pack move in field to try and get somewhere. They gun down most of the GH pack that killed the rhino and it is finished by the pack that got out of the immobilised rhino. Ah well, my Linebreaker is just the GH pack in combat with the MM Fangs. Speaking of which, each side loses a couple and its a tie, only 1 MM Fang left though.
In my turn, soon as Will is not claiming his objective, I move my guys away from my objective and load up a lot of fire into 3 marines. I kill them in shooting. I move up my Plasma Packs, but I simply cannot reach his objective, which is literally 6" on. So they put fire into Bran Redmaw's pack. Do some damage. They are not really important.
At this point, we realise that we will not get a 5th turn, generally due to some pretty slow playing from the opponent - he is 6 months into the hobby and just got hit with a new edition..fair enough. Will realises he is not claiming his objective. I allow him to go back and take the marines out. Due to time, he just plonks them down behind a ruin, mainly out of sight but claiming his objective.
He then points out that I am now not claiming my objective, so I string back the 5 man pack to a point where they can not only claim, but also still get the same shots on the 3 men they helped kill earlier in my turn.
In CC, I kill the remaining MM Fang and my troops consolidate 5". They break through the ruin in front of his objective and contest.
Game right?
Well, Will states he would have thought of that and spaced out his marines if he had more time. I point out that I cannot possibly know what he would have done, and frankly, he had the time to place them properly..if he had done that I could have shot the crap out of them with the 2, 12 man Plasma Packs, easily removing 6/7 marines..
In the end, after maybe 1 minute of back and forth between us, I concede and just call it a draw. I'd rather be a decent 'sportsman' than a 'winner'. 
I have to admit, I was a but pissed not to win..I'd killed almost everything, had a lot intact and had the game gone on to full term, I'd have finished them off. Will was kind enough to say he'd been outplayed, but I still would have liked the result to reflect that. He was a good sport, a god player and what looked like a tough game, kinda came out a bit one sided. 


Ended an enjoyable Day 1 with the standard first day performance of 2W/1D.. knew I was in a good position but needed to keep it up. It was looking like Deathwing, Space Marines or Necrons for the next 3 games, any of which I knew I was in a good position tactically to deal with them. 
It's nice going in to the second day of a tournament knowing that the top end lists can be dealt with with a number of tactical options. 
More tomorrow or Friday - final 3 games and my third 1st place at a tournament.. :) 

3 comments:

  1. Cringing a little bit at most of those lists, no idea if they are good in 6th, but they look like kitchen table messes lol.

    Good reports though, need more pictures tbh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Couldn't take more pics, bit busy winning..lol

    First/Second were a bit 'battleforce' yeah, but that's what you get sometimes..a good first match up, then someone else who's got a win in...the first two games can be straightforward.. still 'lists' are not the be all and end all.. you'll see that with games 4-6..
    Third list had the potential, but he reacted to my feint and spread himself too much as a result.. actual tactics n everytin'

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete