Monday, August 13, 2012

August Tournament Recap


Well, sometimes things just don't work out.  This month's event was a disaster for me mostly due to the dice.  I normally write up full reports but this month will be one quick recap.  There just wasn't much worth reporting tactically.  I will add some final thoughts on 6th ed in general at the end based on what I learned this time out.
 
Here's the list I took (1500pts):
Inquisitor + psyker upgrade (1 divination), force sword
Illuminor Szeras
Strike Squad x10 + psycannons x2, psybolt ammo (inquisitor here)
Terminators x5 + psycannon, banner, halberd, hammer, stave, psybolt ammo
Immortals x5 + tesla carbines, night scythe (szeras here)
Wraiths x6 + whip coils x2
Nemesis Dreadknight + hvy incinerator
Rifleman Dread + psybolts
Aegis Defense Line + quad gun

My first game was Purge the Alien with Hammer/Anvil deployment against Mike's SoB:
Confessor + eviscerator
Confessor
Sisters x19 + flamer, hvy flamer, immolator w/ multimeltas (confessor here)
Sisters x19 + flamer, hvy flamer (confessor here)
Dominions x10 + melta x4, rhino
Retributors x10 + hvy bolters x4
Exorcist
Exorcist

The game started well with me seizing the initiative, but the rifleman and quad gun together could not tag the immolator for first blood as Mike passed all but 1 cover save.


I focus fired and multi-assaulted the closest unit of 19 sisters with his warlord.


And he actually killed my NDK for first blood and my wraiths lost every combat thereafter.  Since you can't single out IC's anymore and I had no characters in combat to challenge, his ws5 eviscerator slowly picked me apart while he made several of his 6+ invulns.


His outflanking dominions got the wrong side and I was able to kill the transport.  My scythe didn't arrive until turn 4 and my rifleman got immobilized facing sideways.


I made a last ditch attempt at linebreaker, but all the ap- tesla couldn't save me from his overwhelming rapid fire and hvy bolters.


The game ended in a 7-4 loss.

My 2nd game was Emperor's Will with Vanguard Strike deployment against Walter's necrons:
Overlord + shifter, scarabs, scythe, command barge
Destroyer Lord + weave, scarabs
Warriors x5
Warriors x5
Warriors x5
Warriors x5
Warriors x6
Scarabs x10
Wraiths x6 + whips x6
Wraiths x6 + whips x6


I took an early lead by taking out many wraiths with focused shooting and my wraiths took out his scarab unit.


My NDK also punched out his overlord.


 That's about where my luck ended.  My terminators got killed by his last 3 wraiths which then headed into my backfield.  My NDK failed his mindchackle test against the destroyer lord and went down like a chump.


Walter started throwing warriors at my wraiths 5 at a time.  It took me 4 assault phases to kill 1 unit which took enough time to prevent me from contesting his objective.


My scythe didn't arrive until turn 4 again and by then his wraiths and destroyer lord were all over my backfield.  I threw the rifleman into the wraiths but he exploded it easily and chewed through my immortals.  The game went 7 turns but with 4 units of warriors he was able to keep me of his objective.

My last game was against Trevor's space wolves in Dawn of War/Crusade:
Rune Priest + master (2 divination)
Wolf Guard x4 + fists x3, combi-melta x3, 1 naked with long fangs
Lone Wolf + TDA, shield, chainfist
Lone Wolf + TDA, shield, chainfist 
Grey Hunters x9 + mark, standard, melta, rhino
Grey Hunters x9 + mark, standard, melta, rhino
Grey Hunters x9 + mark, standard, melta, rhino
Land Speeder + multimelta, flamer
Long Fangs x6 + missiles x5 + razorback w/las/plas
Long Fangs x6 + lascannons x2, missiles x3

I had to go second but weathered the first shooting phase with minimal casualties.


I got first blood by taking out one rhino and the speeder.


He shot down my NDK and I shot down one lone wolf.
 

We trade more casualties.  My wraiths fight his other lone wolf for 6 assault phases.


He breaches my lines and my scythe doesn't arrive until turn 4 again (for the record, I failed every single reserve roll in all 3 games).  Luckily, the survivors beat down the grey hunters.


My wraiths finally killed the lone wolf and made it to his backfield.


 He tank shocks me several times and I break once, but thanks to going second I regroup and pull out the win.

I still can't believe I failed every reserve roll over 3 games for my flyer.  It seems that elite armies (not talking about deathstars) took a hit also with the new allocation and I'll need to add more scoring units to my GK lists.  Characters of all types a really beneficial and units with 2 or more are especially good in assault.  The ability to challenge or accept with a throwaway is really important.  Beware assaulting without characters as you'll never be able to take out their character; that's how my wraiths and NDK lost against sisters.  Flyers are good, but not as good as I thought they would be due to reserves and the movement restrictions.  I'm liking FMC's a lot more at this point.

Thanks for reading and sorry I couldn't perform, but sometimes the dice just shut you down.  I've decided to finish the dark eldar for DaBoyz GT since I've put so much work into them already it's killing me that they're shelved thanks to the WWP nerf.  The next 3 months will be dedicated to finishing that army, hobby articles, and playtesting them.




18 comments:

  1. Nice recaps! Sorry about your bad dice; it's a bummer when they don't average out, especially over 3 games. Maybe try the Comms relay and see if that does the trick.
    But selfishly, I'm glad you'll be focusing on your Dark Eldar again -- they look awesome and I'm very interested to see what you think of them now given the 6th edition changes. Are you still going to try and make WWPs work?

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    1. Absolutely not lol. My last build was reliant on units assaulting out of the portal so now my talos are fully invalidated. It will still be foot based, but no portals.

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  2. I believe a healthy dose of Tyranids would improve your dice... Also for the record, I think that Dreadknights are characters.

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    1. Thanks for pointing that out. Being able to challenge would have greatly changed the way the first game ended. Killing or removing his eviscerator before it swung would have left the NDK alive which was also first blood.

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  3. Yeah page 410 of the BRB says the DK is a character and can challenge. I like the list. Don't give up on it yet. The termies are a little points heavy to be a firebase unit. Make them another 10 man strike squad or use them to deep strike into the enemy firebase most games. That might have helped in game 1&2 to have the termies show up behind the enemy assault forces and into their weaker troops. You can also think about changing Szeras for an Overlord with Warscythe. Same cost and the OL is more of a threat. Szeras boosting is nice on large units, but seems wasted on just a 5 man unit. I use him myself to boost a 10 man immortal squad with Obyron that teleports all over, but I would think twice about using him on a smaller unit, especially one that seems to be a late turn objective grabber.

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    1. All good points.

      I'll admit the ally portion was slapped together in the 40k isle of the store. I originally went to get DE flyers and eldar allies with some store credit from previous tournaments and they were sold out of both. It's an hour round trip and I don't get out much thanks to the baby so I didn't want to leave empty handed so Szeras was the only HQ choice available at the time. It was an impulse buy and not competitively driven.

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  4. You failed to win.

    /unsubscribe

    Heh, just kidding. I've had some miserable outcomes myself, and some of them I can't even say are my dice's fault... just stupidity often. :D

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    1. Yup, still learning the new rules also. It wasn't all the dice's fault, I made many mistakes.

      But man, every game I was hoping for that tesla destructor on turn 2.

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  5. I agree with Darth - don't give up on the list yet. I'd go with a DLord for your allied HQ - they work so well with thevWraiths

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    1. Yeah, D-lord is by far the best hq for this particular allied contingent, but just too expensive to properly equip at 1500pts. He's definitely on top of my short list for necron models.

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  6. Oh well. Sounds like is was a rough day. That will happen sometimes. Looking forward to seeing more DE.

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  7. I hope you post some more Nid articles too instead of just DE stuff. Afterall, the blog is called "Synaps3". :P

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    1. All in good time young sir :P I enjoy the variety of all the armies that Hyvemynd has ^^

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    2. Yeah bad choice for a blog name since I made it when Nids were my only army. You can only roll tournament prizes into the same army so much before you branch out so in May of last year I had to choose either blogging less and only on tyranid content or continuing to write but including my other armies.

      A while back, someone thanked me because my articles on WWP DE helped him to defeat them in a tournament. It may not be tyranid content, but look at it as a way to see the playbook for other armies you may face.

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  8. I’m disappointed not to see battlereports actually, cause I think that most interesting are the games you lose. And here we see two of the kind. I’m really interested in discussing different tactics for the games played. But… at the other hand, as I said before, you show off with tyranids much better:) I think that you still have not much experience with Necrons and GK to tailor a gamewinning list. So, more practice required:)
    And, please, don’t spoil out your losses. It’s so useful to do a postgame analysis with someone else, not just your own brain worms:)

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  9. Unlucky about the losses dude but if that means more dark eldar... well thats not all bad.

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  10. Neat recap; and I always enjoy the pics. You have almost unique gift to capture the right perspective to best communicate a point that most batrep pictures simply fail to achieve.

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