So, yea, I fell out with 40k for a bit and fell in love with X Wing.
But with 6th on the way out and 7th incoming I thought id give the old bird one more spin on the dance floor. I have a bit more time now anyway and fancied seeing all the guys. (Love you guys :P)
This was made easier due to the "Highlander" side competition (where every troop is slightly different and you cant duplicate anything else, and no allies. Plus all the non beardy lists could only play each other.) "Perfect" I thought and signed up; figuring id get all the fun of going without the pressure or bs of playing O'vesa's or Pasks or Deathstars ETC,....
......so, yea they cancelled the highlander......
So off I went with my slightly tweeked highlander list (I swapped a few bits of war gear around on the tacticals so they were not all unique and changed some models to be Iron hands to get the IWND and fnp buffs....but that's IT!!) to face the gunfight:
Khan on Bike
Bike Command Squad with 4 grav guns and an apothecary.
10 Tactical Marines, melta, combi melta, rhino and ram
10 Tactical Marines, melta, combi melta, rhino and ram
10 Tactical Marines, melta, combi melta, rhino
5 Ccw Scouts with melta bomb
5 Bikes with 2 melta
5 Bikes with 2 grav guns
Thunderfire Cannon
Aegis with Quad Gun
Iron Hand Bikesander (hammer, shield eternal etc)
Iron Hand (5) Sniper Scout Squad
Iron Hand Hunter
Which in various guises is pretty much what ive been using for the, say 8, games ive had since the marine book came out, I figured id want something I was comfortable with rather than some new cheesy hotness...cos frankly im a little rusty (more on that later >:( )
GAME 1:
Vs a buddy of mine, Myles. He also had pretty much brought his highlander list to as couldnt get anything else done in time, he had:
Grand master with lots of grenades and ting
Coteaz
10 Terminators 2 psycannons
5 purifiers with 2 psycannons
5 strike squad dudes with one psycannon
5 acolytes with a few plasmas and flamers in a psy razorback
Storm Raven with extra bolters on
PsyDread
Dreadknight with personal teleporter heavy psycannon and incinerator.
We were playing kill points and dawn of war. It should be noted that as an msu troop heavy list I consider kill points to be my weakest mission. He had a total of 10 kill points to my 15 - as i didnt combat squad my tactical squads.
I got the first turn, scouted up behind my aegis on the half way line (standard procedure in case I get seized on). I had stacked my left flank to go after the majority of his army on that side. The terminator squad with the characters was on the opposite side (my right) as well as the acolytes; I figured with my speed I overload a flank, overwhelm and then pull round to hammer the terminators with everything I have left. I've got the sniper scouts manning the quad on the back lines and the thunder fire and hunter in some ruins centrally to make sure I can add their shots to anything on the table. Plan sorted.
It should be noted its also night fight. Coteaz cant steal and so I go for the patented White Scar Alpha strike. All the rhinos move up and 30 tacs jump out. The command squad gets a bead on the Dread Knight and the grav bikes squad move up to threaten the dread next turn and throw shots around the place after everything else has unloaded to help finish anything off. The melta bikes actually pull a little back behind some los so they cant get shot at by the Terminators as they cant really get close enough to the action cos there is too many bloody models all bunched up trying to butcher grey knights!!
I shot storm bolters from the rhinos to searchlight the purifier squad the terminator squad (a sneaky plan came to mind) and the DreadKnight. Because of night fight I couldn't shoot my thunderfire unless I used a search light which is why I plonked a shot into them. Lit up like Christmas I promptly dropped 4 S6 templates on Coteaz's head. 2 failed los rolls and a failed save and I had my first blood, warlord and a first kill point!! It felt good being back :)
Meanwhile the left flank unloaded on to the purifiers, annihilating them and mauling the strikes. The command bikes and the average joe bikes nailed the Dreadknight for good measure. So not a bad turn one.
Myles counter lacked punch shall we say. After a few psycannon shots bounced of tanksander (the command squad really being the only unit id left in range) and a few storm bolter shots killing the odd tactical marine the dread managed the hull point a rhino out and then that was in. I like Myles but I smelled blood so went for the throat.
The 2 tac squads and rhinos plus aegis managed to kill the dread and the 3 remaining strike squad dudes easy enough (love melta guns), while everything gunned for the terminators this turn. Which is a lot of grav and a lot of forced saves and a Chapter Master Orbital Bombardment in a pear tree. I think he had his GM and 2 or three terminators left when id finished.
Myles got his storm raven on which went for the hunter while the acolytes got out and everything he had left tried to kill the melta gun bikes, of which a handful died. The Raven bounced off the hunters Av12 (a very very underrated vehicle in my opinion)
The next 2 turns what mop up really with the command squad charging the Terminators and Khan splitting off and joining a bike squad to stomp the Acolytes and the skyfire weapons hammering the Raven till it dropped out of the sky (I think it got off a shot at Khan's squad before it died but he lived)
So game over and I get max points; and I mentally prepared myself for a fall as I went to one of the top tables.....
Game 2 "Croggy":
Note : The first thing this nice guy said to me was "I have no idea how your army works"....well me old mucka....watch and learn :)....**rubs hands menacingly**
We was playing crusade with Hammer and Anvil, 5 objectives. Croggys list was something like:
Pask in a Punisher with 2 Vanquisher bodyguards and melta/las sponsons
1 Priest
Command with flamers
1 big blob with no heavy weapons
10 Veterans with some stuff
Special Weapon squad with flamers
2x1 Vendettas
2x1 Wyverns
Auarch on bike in his pants
2 x 3 jet bikes
Wraithknight.
So the new Astra Militarum. With some of the new hotness- Pask, Priests etc - but with none of the real Bullshit orders (more on that later). The inclusion on a Wraithknight didn't overly worry me to be fair (yay gravs). What did worry me however was The Hammer and Anvil deployment. Its a lot of ground to cover and careful deployment would mean me getting very little shots off early doors.
Luckily I got first turn. Everything deployed centrally and as far forward as possible bar the snipers on the quad at the back, ccw scouts on outflank to grab an objective (id placed 2 very close to each edge for this very reason) and the hunter in normal reserve (figured it might stay off and then come on to pop a detta)
He deployed with the blob surrounding Pask and a wyvern on his right and on the left the other Wyvern and Wraithknight; everything was pretty much hugging the back edge so everything of mine would be out of range turn one. Everything else was in reserve with the flamer squads in the Dettas.
After some measuring I came to the conclusion that I was going to get jack shit turn one so went for broke and made him sweat instead. I scouted ( he failed to seize) and then I moved and turbo'd EVERYTHING that had set up centrally. The snipers continued to scan the skys and the thunderfire moved up to get some shots next turn instead. Meanwhile 30 tacs in 3 rhinos and 17 bikes parked 12 ish inches in front of the enemy and dared 'em to deal with them in one turn.....
..and he tried, he really did, but the dice gods were fickle (or about average maybe, not sure, I had tried to give the rhinos cover and all the bikes had their silly cover save and Tanksander doesn't give a fuck. In the end I lost a rhino to a charging Wraithknight and and a few marines here and there. The grav gun bike squad that was on my left lost a bike and so did the command squad.
So what im saying basically is BUNDLE!!!!!!! The tacs all jumped out and all hammered into the Wraithknight as well as the melta bikes, it was left reeling on 2 wounds, so the bikes charged it ! Thinking to take a few hits, then hit and run out in 2 turns and finish it off; I didn't want it marching through my tactical squads with impunity. My reserves had stayed off and the Thunderfire softened up the blob. It was at this point I noticed a tiny break in the bubble wrap and was able to slam the chapter master in to a Lemun Russ too as part of a multi charge, while the rest of the squad thinned the blob down. They held due to under-costed priests :P
In my opponents turn all his reserves turned up. The Eldar bike contingent boosted waaaaaay down field, past where all the action was and the Dettas followed suit. His veterans moved on and tried to hide from the marauding bikes. My intercepting caused one Detta to take 2 hull points and only snap shoot this turn. His return fire managed to maul a few tac combat squads (those Wyverns are nasty) and bounce lascannons off the Thunderfire cannon. Though Pask deleted a five man unit on his own. The Wraithknight killed a few bikes in combat, but then I hit and ran out with the 2 melta guns that remained and the other bikes kicked the blob a bit more and then hit and ran out too. I wont lie it looked ok at the moment.
My turn and I really tried to put the boot in this turn. My ccw scouts came on and claimed the right hand objective while the other tactical squads started moved to the four winds to collect their objectives mid table and the 3 bike squads circled like sharks looking to kill the remains of the backline.
The melta bikes shot and killed a Wyvern while the other bikes pumped shots into the blob and other Wyvern. When the command squad charged they got a multi charge off in to the 2 remaining ruses too. Elsewhere I couldn't down the Dettas, missing with the hunter and failing to hit with any other kind of snap shot leveled at them. The thunder fire however did ruin quiet a few jetbikes. The charges however finished off the final Wyvern and Pask and Co....so not a total wasted turn :P
I think Croggy was getting a little flustered at this point and played his next turn without really thinking it through. He moved the Dettas up and tried to remove the snipers plus quad in the reinforced building (by my rear objective) he killed 2 and they ran off a little bit. He then charged them with 2 jetbikes and an Autarch (who had zero upgrades bar his bike) and decided to multicharge the Techmarine at the same time; I raised a surprised eyebrow and slapped things silly with his 2 powerfists..... On the opposite side of the table I killed more blob dudes and hit and ran out again. The scouts hit and ran out of the Autarch combat and left the Techmarine to it.
At this point it was my turn and the hunter missed missile from the other turn finally caught up with its target and blew up the wounded Detta, the survivors all bundled out. Everything else on his table edge this turn was wiped out and the Autarch took a fist to his pretty little face. The scouts punked some shots iN to flamer dudes that had got out the wrecked Detta. All the tac squads just hugged objectives like they were internet kittens.
Croggys final bit of spitefulness was to flame the sniper scouts and then flame the other ccw scouts off of the 2 objectives they had. My retaliation was to murder every last infantry on the board. The game ended with me chasing a Detta round the table Benny Hill style-e with various bikes.
Game 2 down and id only dropped one tourney point...I couldn't, could I?, I mean...noooo.... Id be on table 2 in a minute...wtf....
....more tomorrow to see how I did :)
The Voice
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