ETC 2013 Game Overviews

ETC Serbia 2013 

Game 1 - Spain 

I played against "Shadowblade" and his CSM/Necron list. 

I've left this game until last to write up. It's the hardest one as I still don't really understand how I lost it. 

I've looked back through the photos' but the last one is at the bottom of T2 and the Doom has dropped and killed 4/6 Oblits and the DLord is on his own in combat with Garoyles, Biovores have started putting a real dent in his cultists and there are no fliers on the board. 

I have three Iron Arm Tervigons, two of which are still spawning...the first did Triple 1 it for his turn 1 spawn roll mind... But the two that are are in perfect position to launch support Gaunts into the front field to protect both board density and keep the enemy miles from the objectives. 

I am in total control. 

Then... I lose all objectives, lose my biovores, don't kill his oblits or anibarge and end up with almost no models on the board. 

I know this is not useful.

I know this. 

But I can't feedback accurately and this is hugely frustrating for me...as a guy that wants to improve in any way I can, I cannot identify obvious errors in play or even remember what happened! 

I think, genuinely, that I was just so fucked over by 18+ hours of travelling and just a few hours sleep that I cannot have had my mind right. 

Result 1-19. Didn't get 20-0'd at least right? 

Game 2 - Malta 

FMC Demons mid way in pairings. I preyed on her.

She (so lovely playing a "she" not a he-she as usual) made a single, critical error in her game plan. Se felt she needed to fly close in and then smash me with powers like shriek and then turn 2 vector strike/fly off the board to avoid retaliation. She didn't feel that I could cause enough damage to FMC as her Captain had told her, and I quote, that I "had no shooting at all" ... After 10 separate units had grounded 2 FMCs on turn 1 and promptly poison slaughtered them, she realised I had some...

She also forgot about Shadow and failed to cast ANY powers for critical two turns (1&2) and I slaughtered her. 

At the end of the game she just had a Lord of Change left, desperately flying around in circles avoiding 24" gargoyle shooting/moving. Quite hard to do with 84 of them. 

Win 20-0 

Game 3 - USA 

Champion 

This is quite a simple one and believe it or not it came down to 2 rolls. Ahriman getting Terrify and a Lvl 3 sorc getting Terrify.

 I hate Terrify and I get fucked by it. 

Without lubrication. 

Hard. 

Friction and everything. 

Get the point? Haha, I would have gotten more and reversed the points at least if I didn't have Gargoyles run off the board turn 2 to one Terrify (and give up first blood) and flee from combat then disappear when charged due to Ld6 and gaining no benefit from Fearless/Synapse. 

This result really was as simple as that, the last gargoyles pushed through the Nurgle Spawn and Sorceror and eventually spread themselves out across the board to contest objectives, but in his last turn he was able to kill, with directional fire, the appropriate Gargs to claim himself. 

Doom was strong vs Oblits and Cultists.

Invisible Spawn are cool (obviously I just thought they were wankers in-game)

Very solid play from USA/Ben, but frankly I could have smashed him. Needless to say I didn't, and with the benefit of hindsight I feel reassured that my play was tight. 

I didn't Deny the Terrify's? Fuck that. I killed both Ahriman and Sorc promptly turn 3, but there was no way to kill them on t2 (not with the tools at my disposal) so I identified instantly the threat to the game and rolled well with the punches and blows landed. 

Drew 8-12

Game 4 - Greece 

Champion

Triple Dettas and a Heldrake combined with two manticores and mech vets, 2PBS and a mech platoon. Game was over when he gave away first turn, confident that I couldn't hurt him. I proceed to flood the board (standard) and he has to use comms relay to keep fliers and walking chaos goons and platoon squad off the board. When he is forced to bring on a couple of fliers he can as I moved to get side armour on both manticores with s4 gargoyle shooting. The drake attempts to burn gargoyles, kills two strips two hull points from his own manticore. Vendetta puts a single wound on Iron Arm, FNP HQ Tervigon. 

Game continues in this fashion with Zoanthropes, S4 side arcs and general board flooding resulting in a 16-4 to me. 

I'd have gotten more if I had stuff in my army that kills fliers and or vehicles. 

Win 16-4

Game 5 vs Wales 

Second put forward 

preyed on by Nids. 

Filipo had just tabled another Nid player and I guess he thought he would do the same. I don't like playing other Nids as so much of it comes down to psychic powers. Mine are good as are his. Objective placement was important here and I place densely so that whichever side I am on, I can sweep forward turn 2 and cover them with gargoyles and Gaunts. I don't want to sweep forward turn 1 as his army could get the assault and get more guns in range, I also need to keep a dense board coverage to keep flyrants and Doom away from anything juicy. 

I selected board edge and I think I picked the wrong one. I selected the edge near to 2*3pts so I could control the main points flow in the game, but actually, I should have gone for the 2*2pts "zone" as the outlying 1pts objectives were readily accessible for Filipo. As it was, the central 3pt objective was easy to contest which Filipo did in the end. I could have easily controlled the 4 points in his zone without incident. 

This was a poor decision by me, I was tempted by a huge LoS blocking 4+ piece of terrain which I fancied to keep my Synase alive. 

It was an error in judgement and in hindsight changed the game (in which I was 2nd? Put forward and preyed on) from a decent draw in my favour to a draw in Filipo's. 

Drew 9-11 

Game 6 - Finland 

I preyed on Necrons and fucked up on at least two accounts.

I tried to engage the entire Cron shock assault elements when due to positioning end of turn one I had the mobility to redeploy the army to the top left (his board edge) and just engage 2 units of 6 wraiths, ignoring the destroyer lord and scarab farm. Instead, I got cocky and tried to engage all of it. 

I had 5 enfeebles and again messed up by not throwing 2 onto a 14 strong unit of Scarabs with a Dlord. Instead I put 2 onto both units of Wraiths and just one on the Scarabs, hoping to double out the scarabs with s4 pistol shots and double out the Wraiths with pistol shots, followed by crazy volumes of poison wounds with rerolls..I didn't kill anything at all from shooting (3+ on fire) and ended up in combat with massed gargoyles and poison Gaunts but was still locked in the same combats until turn 5!!!! 

That's the way dice go I suppose sometimes. 

I genuinely thought, without overstatement, that the 3 units of 28 gargoyles and about 30 Gaunts that I threw into those assaults (equally distributed) would blow through T2 opponents, especially with me going first in the combats and following a round of 100% instant death shooting. 

My second major error came during this prolonged combat when I moved down a Troop Tervigon to provide synaptic support and to move in and insta kill Scarabs. However, in my overestimation, i left this guy open to being assaulted by a destroyer lord. I'd assumed that I would kill the Scarabs, but the truth is...I overestimated the gargoyles and Gaunts.

This fucked the game for me and swing to him hugely. I didn't have the board control I wanted, nor the coverage to stop fliers - these were free to kill Synapse and biovores etc for easy KPs and strong VPs. It was the VPs that made the difference here and it was a 8-12 on missions points but VPs were 780+ to him. This changed it to a 6-14 instead and I believe lost us the round. 

Whilst I did make a strategic error attempting to engage both flanks of his shock troops, I had the tools to MORE than smash them...the Multi wound Necrons are not so hot when they are T2 across the board - I simply can't say that 3++ saves and 5+ saves weren't crazy good for him and that I think I suffered from a genuine statistical anomaly. 

I lost 6-14

.... In a game where I thought I would get the 14!

60/120 points. I regard this as awful personally. Game 1&6 should have reaped ..... 9,6.... 15 more points for me at least. 75/80 points I'd have been happy with but as it is, 60 wasn't great. 

The Nids took a champion role twice and an early put forward once. Twice I got a match up that I felt I could get points from and twice I failed to do so. 

But as Alex demonstrated, being a put forward doesn't preclude you from getting points. 

My play was solid enough, very strong in a couple of rounds, but weak in at least one game (6), if not 2 (1). 

I think the Nid list lacked proper balance and in many ways was a gimmick. Sure hindsight is 20/20 but reflection allows us to move forward. It needed the Swarmlord to bring better synapse and midfield control through sheer combat excellence and psychic dominance. He would also have given Furious Charge at least to one unit which would have radically increased my ability to impact tanks. 

Whilst I can see the benefit of the Flyrants namely to provide mobile shock tactics, I hold by the opinion that they are simply too easy to ground and kill. 

The biovores were brought in as a nod to removing Tau and they perform that role excellently, however... I didn't get matched with Tau and I don't think I would have, so whilst they have a place in a regular singles Nids army, here they were a stretch too far in the name of balance. Those 180 points were relatively ineffectual. 

Overall I loved the experience and will apply next year... :) 

Ven