Sunday, April 10, 2011

1850pt RTT with Hard Comp - Game 1


I've been dying for some games so I called in some favors, got the day off work, and threw together a list.  To recap, the format was:
- No special characters or named upgrades
- No modifying the force org
- No more than one av14 vehicle per army
- No more than 2 dedicated transports
- HQ, Elite, Fast, and Heavy units are 0-1 so no dupes

My list:
Prime + bs/bs, devourer, regen, ts
Tervigon (HQ) + ag, cat, claws, cluster spines, ts
Hive Guard x3
Genestealers x20
Genestealers x20 + broodlord/st, toxins
Termagants x15 + devourers
Warriors x8 + deathspitters, strangler
Tfex + cannon, cluster spines, desiccator larvae



My first opponent was Chris from Buffalo and his guard army.  I've never actually picked up and read the guard codex and I didn't keep his list, so here's what I remember:
Command squad with some stuff, officer of the fleet
Inquisitor (store hasn't legalized the GK codex yet so DH allies are still ok) + some guys
Chimera + 10 guys and some weapons
Chimera + 10 guys and some weapons
1-2 units of guys on foot
Vets + 3 melta, plasma pistol, demo charge (go in the vendetta)
Ratling snipers
Sentinel w/ lascannon
Banewolf
Vendetta
Leman russ exterminator I think, the one with 5 plasma cannon shots
Medusa

The pre-game:  This game is spearhead, seize ground.  I asked Chris for a quick run-down of the units I'm not familiar with.  I haven't lost to guard yet and I want to keep that record hehe.  So the only things I'm worried about are the medusa as it can ID everything in my warrior squad, the russ for all those high str low ap shots, and the vendetta full of melta vets and demo charge.  I feel I have the advantage in a multiple objective game, but only if I can prevent him from tank shocking me off my objectives.  My plan is to hold the center, hamstring his mobility, and hope he doesn't smear my warriors with his vendetta + vets.

Chris wins the roll off and deploys his tanks in a string.  Left to right are his sentinel, medusa, chimera, chimera, russ, banewolf.
I put my hive guard close to center of my long edge screened by gants strung into cover.  Tervigon is in the ruin.  Tfex is behind the big hill.  Warriors are shielded on the right, far away form the medusa and max coherency in case the russ goes for them.

I also lose the roll for infiltrators.  Chris puts his ratlings on the far left on an objective.  I infiltrate my genestealers to within 18" of his ratlings and his vehicles.  The less painted squad with white rocks on the bases are the naked genestealers.  They're screening the poisoned unit and I tried to maximize cover by stinging back into the ruins.
My swarm is hungry and ready to go!  I fail to seize the initiative.


Chris's turn 1...  He shuffles slightly, but doesn't move much to maximize shooting.

He hits me with everything and when the dust settles, I've lost 6 genestealers and a hive guard.  Not bad, but his scatter dice were failing on the medusa and russ.

My turn 1...  I throw FnP on the naked genestealers and advance everything.

My tfex wiffs and hive guard blow the turret off a chimera and stun it.  Genestealers run.

Chris's turn 2...  The vendetta stays off, which I realize is a good thing as my warriors are in the open if he comes in on that flank.  The damaged chimera has extra armor so it runs away from my genestealers.  He shifts the medusa and sentinel away from my advancing hive guard.
He shoots me up again and I lose a ton of genestealers and a wound off my tervigon.  I've lost count and stopped taking notes at this point.  I took a good 10 minutes deploying and his shooting phases are taking a good amount of time between all those vehicles and soldiers so we're falling behind.

My turn 2...  I put FnP on the toxic stealers and advance everything again.  I shuffle the warrior into the ruins on the right in anticipation of the vendetta.  At this point, I'm happy with my position as 3 of the 5 objectives are in my grasp.

My tfex wiff again.  Hive guard immobilize and blow the turret off the banewolf.  Warriors run into cover.  Naked genestealers get a good fleet roll and tear into the ratlings.  The ratlings disappear and I consolidate into cover with one model grabbing the objective.

My toxic stealers get a good fleet roll and assault the lead chimera, exploding it and taking out a bunch of guardsmen in the explosion.

Chris's turn 3...  His vendetta arrives and to my fear, he gets the side by my objectives and warriors.  Luckily I got a majority of the squad in cover.  Also, he had to move on 12" to get a good shot with the demo charge so that's a couple less lascannons this turn.
He opens up with the demo charge, meltas, plasma pistol, and lasguns.  After allocation silliness and cover saves, I lose 2 wounds on the prime and 2 warriors.  He lights up my toxic stealers and I lose around 8.


My turn 3...  I spawn 11 gants and bring the warriors in firing position.  5 deathspitters, a devourer, and barbed strangler make short work of the vets.  My tfex gets two hits on the russ's side armor, but I still fail to pen.

My gants assault the vendetta and despite it moving 12", I hit, glance, and shake it.  My surviving genestealers assault an infantry squad, we exchange casualties and lock.

At this point, I'm scoring 4 objectives.  We have time for another turn or two, but decide to call it as he isn't in position to contest or kill enough units to pull a draw.

So game 1 was a solid win for me.

Post-game:  Everything pretty much went according to plan.  Not much to say really.  At this point though, I know I'm going to have a rough day as many players gamed the comp system and fit in as many vehicles as possible.  I tailored the army to kill infantry and have a bad feeling in my gut about possible pairings.  My dice are still on vacation too with 6 tfex shots and no damage results.  I walked a couple laps around the room and most the local vets are winning their first matches also.  Next round should be interesting...

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this - as usual, the pics are great as they clearly show how you place your models, one of the most critical skills for a tyranid player. On turn 3, I would have been jonesing to get that big warrior squad into combat and assaulted the Vendetta with them as the first option, and maybe added in the gants as insurance.

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  2. True, but look at this picture (4th from the last in the batrep)

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SpZ9WhCiFiY/TaHLgPHI2pI/AAAAAAAAAfE/1cWUBgm6J74/s1600/b20.jpg

    I took this after the vendetta came on and the melta vets disembarked. I lost two warriors from the ensuing fire. These were the other factors at play:

    1. The tfex has a side shot on the russ
    2. The hive guard are just out of the shot in the dead center of the table for best firing arcs. Since I know the vendetta came on 12", I know I will be able to move them into range.
    3. The devilgaunts are in position to start shooting Chris's scoring units

    I spawned 11 gants so I've got them and the warriors to solve the problem at hand. The warriors were in terrain and the vets are wrapped pretty much around the portions of the vendetta base that they might be able to reach. There's a chance with bad terrain rolls or not enough shooting casualties that the warriors may not make it to the vendetta.

    An assault on the vendetta would also have pulled the warriors out of cover and off the upper objective. The spawned gants would hold the lower objective safely.

    In the end, I probably gave up some damage output, but retained survivability and more potential objectives.

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  3. That's the pic I was looking at, but should have looked at the 2nd from last after you'd pulled the two casualties - you would have needed to move towards it to assault and would have had to worry more about scatter on the strangler; I also wasn't sure if they were holding an objective up there that you couldn't have moved back up to afterwards. Thanks!

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  4. Taking the day off from work to play 40k?
    Pure....Win.....

    (I mean that! Even if I lost every game I played that day, it's still 'win.'
    There's an expression that can be applied here- "A bad day of 40k is still better than a good day at work!"
    ...Or something like that...)

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