ATC Doubles Game #3

After a draw in Game #1 and a win in Game #2 , Jay and I were in the top 33% and we needed a strong win in round #3.  The bad news is we paired off against brothers with some really nasty shooting armies.  The good news is we got some good terrain (no way, good terrain at a tournament?).  Actually, the terrain was nearly non-existent except 3 BLoS silos dead center that will play a huge part in our strategy.

Our opponent's approx lists:
Blood Angels
Librarian + lance, shield
Scouts + snipers rifles
Assault Squad + razorback, assault cannons
Assault Squad + razorback, assault cannons
Baal Predator + triple flamers
Vindicator
Vindicator

Dark Eldar
Baron Sathonix
Trueborn + splinter cannons, venom with 2 splinter cannons
Trueborn + splinter connons, venom with 2 splinter cannons
Warriors + splinter cannon, raider
Warriors + splinter cannon, raider
Warriors + splinter cannon, raider
Ravager + 3 lances

So we face off against dual shooty lists.  The DE alone has about 11 splinter cannons and 6 lances.  The mission was modified annihilation with bonus points for the most expensive HQ, killing all Elites, Heavies, Fasts, and Troops.  You basically have to table your opponents to score max battlepoints here.  Deployment was Pitched Battle and we won the roll (3 for 3 during the doubles event going first)!



Again, I didn't take pics of deployment.  Sorry again, heat, exhaustion, and time issues.  My biggest pet peeve at tournaments after proper terrain is time limits.  If you're going to run a 3 day event, please allow proper time to finish games in a natural manner and not interfere with the experience.  2 hours for 4 players to discuss strategy, deploy, and try to play 6-7 turns just doesn't work for a majority of armies.  All of our games in this doubles event were called due to time and not a natural finish.

Anyways, we deploy all 3 tervigons behind the LoS blocking silos with hive guard and zoans.  I screen my units and the left flank with my 19 genestealers infiltrated.  Jay puts his 14 genestealers up front screening his unit of 20 and outflanks his unit of 10.  Out opponents make a mistake here (IMO) by deploying directly across from us and put the Baron (their most expensive HQ) in reserve.  They have a lot more shooting and mobility so they probably should have set up a refused flank or used both corners.  Now they've blocked shots at most of our army and our hive guard don't need LoS.  They fail to seize and the game begins.

We move everything up and give the screening genestealer units FnP, while our main HQ takes a perils.  In shooting, we shake the baal and one razorback.  At this point, I have a pretty dismal expectation about this game facing off against all that shooting and mobility.  At least 2 vehicles can't shoot this turn...

 They move the baal flat-out since it can't shoot.  Due to terrain and the parking lot, they have to move several vehicles, losing firepower from the units inside.  The vindicators splatter a couple genestealers.  The dark eldar pour everything into zoanthropes, killing 2 after invuln saves.  They put a wound on the troop tervigon also.  They have a couple problems forming here.  Deploying directly across from us put them in range for a turn 2 assault, gave us best use of cover, and now they're splitting fire and not removing any KP's.

 We begin turn 2 with more FnP on genestealers and send the front units forward for any assaults that will present themselves.  Assaulting vehicles is not optimal, so we pour all hive guard shots into the lead razorback and finally wreck it.

 I assault the razorback on the left and wreck it.  Jay assaults the unit that was in the central razorback, both sides take casualties, and we lock.

 Our opponents now have a big dilemma.  Their units are all built to shoot and we've reached their lines in assault.  They don't have an answer to our genestealers in assault and the more they move, the less they can shoot.  The baal tank shocks and burns a few stealers.  Every single DE splinter unit fires on my big unit and removes it from the table.  I think it was about 66 splinter cannon shots and 52 rapid firing rifle shots.  Jay's genestealers finish off the assault marines.

 Our turn 3 brings on the outflanking genestealers on the right flank.  We're way ahead on KP's so we start pushing past the terrain to get shots on DE vehicles and increase our assault radius from spawning tervigons.  I spawn a big screening unit on my left and move the hive guard up behind them.  We explode the lead raider with shooting and pin the unit inside.  Jay's surviving genestealers assault the scouts in the woods and lock.  His big unit multi-assaults both vindicators scoring a weapon destroyed result on one and a stun on the other.  Now we're really building momentum.

The Baron arrives and they bring him on to join the genestealer brawl.  This was the nail in the coffin for them as he's a big objective being their most expensive HQ and will also be in hive guard range if the genestealers fail to kill him.  The weaponless vindicator tank shocks to block the middle.  All BA vehicles are destroyed or unable to fire this turn.  DE fire on the zoanthrope, killing it.  They put another wound on a tervigon.  The Baron assaults genestealers who are fighting scouts.  We wipe out the scouts, win combat, and the baron runs off the board!

 We're just playing clean-up at this point.  We're ahead by about 8-2 and have their HQ.  Between shooting and assaulting, we kill both vindicators and the pinned warrior squad.

The blood angels are off the table at this point.  The DE take their remaining shots as time is running out.

We end the game with a minor victory with 11/18 points.  Neither side was able to kill all elites or troops so we missed out there.  The game went a lot better than it should have.  This was a good example of how much impact deployment and first turn have on the game.  If they would have taken to the corners, they would have denied us the central terrain and been able to actually target our hive guard.  We finished tied for 3rd overall with Shaun and Chris, the other half of our ATC team.  Darkwynn (Nick) and Goatboy (Thomas) took 2nd and I believe Aldonis (Al) and his partner took 1st.