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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Last Man Standing, Game #1

The following is (sorta) a batrep from the "Last Man Standing" event at Millennium Games.  I say sorta because the format was 4 players per table in a free-for-all brawl over killpoints and a single objective.

The list I took was (1250pts):
Tyrant + scytals x2, old adversary, armored shell, regen, implant attack, toxins, paroxysm, leech
Tyrant Guard x3 + lash whips
Tyranid Prime + boneswords, regen
Hive Guard x2
Genestealers x20
Rippers x3
Tyrannofex + rupture cannon, cluster spines, desiccator swarm



I won't go into the details of choosing deployment and first turn.  All you really need to know is there is one objective in the dead center that is worth 3 battlepoints at the end of each player turn starting turn 2, and each killpoint is worth 2 battlepoints (or 3 if its from the player who deployed opposite from you).

My Game #1 opponents were:
Smitty: Eldar - Eldrad, 10 wraithguard + lock, 4 jetbikes, and 3 wraith lords with a ton of str6 shooting

Gabe: Marines - chappy, 5 assault terminators, 10 assault marines, 10 tactical marines, 10 tactical marines, land raider redeemer (I may be off with the numbers and gear, but you get the idea)

Zack: CSM - lash sorc, greater daemon, Noise Marines, 10 marines, 15 raptors, predator, vindicator, rhino

The pre-game:  Well I made this list to take the center and kill whoever comes close, so that's the plan.  I'm really worried about Smitty's eldrad list with all those instant death shots and str10 CC, but I can't play a 4 person free-for-all defensively with Nids.  I get to deploy first.

I know Smitty is going to the left of me, so I deploy heavily on my right side away from his shooting.  Smitty deploys centrally in a big castle.

Zack goes to my right and decided he doesn't want to be near me and deploys closer to Gabe's dz, which will end up hurting him bad.
Gabe deploys last and takes advantage of Zack's decision by placing the land raider with assault terminators in first turn assault range.
I infiltrate my genestealers in fleet range of the objective, but try to stay out of eldar LoS.

Gabe also randomly draws the first turn and puts everything he has into Zack during turn 1.
Smitty takes the objective with the jetbikes, kills one hive guard, and zack brings in noise marines to tie up the terminators.  He actually ends up killing most of the terminators, but the survivor and chaplain finish off the sorceror and raptors for 4 battlepoints.
Gabe draws first turn again and brings in his assault marines to fight the noise marines.  Which he does gaining 2 more points while Smitty claims 3 points for the central objective.  Gabe had tried to shoot the bikes off the objective, but 3+ and fortune held him strong.

I set up a passive assault with the genestealers on the center, but my genestealers only get 2 rends, 1 of which is shrugged off as well sas the normal wounds with fortune and an invuln on the warlock.  We lock in the middle which saves me from shooting, but I was hoping to get a little closer to the killpoint.  At least Smitty lost the objective for now.

On my right flank, Gabe and Zack are comtinuing to wail on each other.
My genestealers do a little better in the middle, but still no killpoints and the avatar is leading the rest of Smitty's army into the fray.  I have little hope to hold off 4 MC's and all those wraithguard.

All throughout this melee, I'm scoring 3 points per player turn for the objective.  His warlock on the bike is just out of contesting range.  He sends in the avatar, but around the far side away from my tyrant.  It was a safer move, but also meant the avatar wasn't contesting and I continue to reap the objective points.  I also manage to land paroxysm on the eldrad/wraithguard unit despite his runes.  This was key.

Gabe and Zack beat each other down more.  Gabe was in the lead for most of this time via killpoints from Zack's army.

Zack pulls out his greater daemon and unloads the rhino for some revenge.

I kill the warlock for 2 more points and pile into the avatar, but fail to roll any rends for two combats.  Meanwhile, he's tearing me down with doom.
My tyrant watches in vain as my genestealers get mowed down.  He's nearly in striking distance now though.
At this point, I've also lost my other hive guard and my tfex is wiffing every turn.  On my right side, Zack is slowly turning the tide, but at great cost.  He finishes off the assault squad and starts whittling away at the terminator and chaplain.

Smitty sets up an assault on the genestealers, but makes two mistakes.
He moves into assault position, but opts to shoot at my tyrant.  He's still bs1 from paroxysm, so all those wraith cannons wiff and now he can't assault my genestealers.

During my next turn, I plow my deathstar into his and he counters with all 3 wraithguard.  I fail to land paroxysm on the big unit and we exchange blows for a few rounds.  In the end, he has more attacks than me and I lose to attrition.  I lose my tyrant and guard, but my prime remains alive to contest the objective.

Here's the picture at the end of the game as each round was a set limit of 5 turns.


So we tally up the points and end up with:
Me: 17 (15 from 5 player turns of holding the objective, 2 from the jetbike kills)
Smitty: 15
Gabe: 13
Zack: 6

I take first from my table and wander around to check other results.

The post-game:  I had mixed feelings over the next hour.  Yes, I took first from my table, but players from other tables were up to 29.  Looking back, Gabe's full on attack on Zack denied Smitty and I half of the action and killpoints.  Smitty's list is my kryptonite with psy defense, insane buffs, and nearly everything was t6-8.  However, I built mine for survival so we cancelled each other out a lot, leaving a bulk of my points from holding the objective.  Overall, it was a win, but a very weak one.

5 comments:

  1. Flawless victory!
    Could 2*20 genestealers do better?

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  2. Another victory for the hive!

    In retrospect a few questions:
    1# Was the difference in speed between the death-star and genestealers detrimental, or did it work out in your favor?(I know you touched on it in the rep, but any more specific thoughts?)
    2# Points: You held the center for the longest on your table -> most points. Looking at the other games (people getting 20+ points) was the 'hold the center' strategy the most effective or did the 'cross table annihilation' prove to be more points?
    3# Tyrannofex: 5 BS 3 S10 shots, for 265 pts. So were looking at 53 points per shot, with ~3 hits per game. Was it worth it?

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  3. There were 4 Nid players total, right? I think that each approached with different strategies, and it was cool to see what worked and what didn't.

    Erle - We had one player with 2*19 Stealers, and I think that they did reasonably well for him all of his games. I know that in the first game, it was his Stealers that ended up tabling me. Then again, I also threw myself at the 3 other guys. My bad.

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  4. Yes, there was 4 Nid players (16 players total) and each had a fully different list. I was the only one who brought ranged a/t. The tfex succeeded at surviving every round, grabbing a couple killpoints, and holding the objective once.

    I'll do a more complete review after the 3rd batrep.

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