hyv3mynd at DaBoyz GT 2012 - Game #1

My first opponent of DaBoyz GT 2012 was Marcus with his beautiful Blood Angels.  The GT format had 3 mission objectives each worth 10 battle points with a 3 point bonus each game for first blood.  Mission #1 was Hammer/Anvil deployment.  Mission objectives were d3+2 objectives (elites score), kill points, and linebreaker.



Marcus's list:
Librarian (divination - prescience, 4+ invuln)
Sanguinary Priest
5 Terminators - 3 claws, 2 th/ss
Furioso Dread + frag cannon
Tactical Squad x10 - missile, flamer, rhino
Assault Squad x5 + fist, melta, razorback las/plas
Assault Squad x5 + fist, melta, land raider redeemer
Assault Squad x5 + fist, melta, land raider
Stormraven + lascannon, multi-melta

My List:
Lady Malys (warlord - reroll reserves)
Baron Sathonyx
Maugan Ra
Grotesques x8 + liquifier gun, aberration, venom blade
Kabalite Warriors x10 + splinter cannon, shredder
Kabalite Warriors x5 + blaster
Wyches x5 + haywire grenades, hekatrix, agonizer, venom + extra splinter cannon
Rangers x5
Beastmasters x5 + khymerae x12, clawed fiend x1, razorwing flocks x2
Razorwing Jetfighter
War Walkers x3 + scatter lasers x6
Aegis Defense Line + icarus lascannon

We rolled up 4 objectives and spread them out.  Marcus won the roll for first turn.

The libby and priest joined the terminators and stood behind the empty redeemer.  The tac squad is in the middle rhino.  The godhammer is up top and the laserback by his table edge.  The redeemer's assault squad is in the stormraven with the furioso.  The terminators also succumb to the red thirst.

Sorry for the blurry pic.  At this point I realize I've place my ADL up too far and those terminators with furious charge, FnP, and rerolled misses will be in my face very fast.  I deploy everything back a bit.  That item in front of the grotesques is an objective.  Maugan and the Baron join the grotesques for fearless and hit-and-run in case the terminators make it in.  Malys is with the beasts.  10 warriors occupy the area/ruin by my table edge and the 5 with a blaster are behind the big smoke stacks.  Walkers and rangers are outflanking.  The venom and jetfighter will fly on.  I opt not to seize as I have very little to stop those land raiders from tank shocking me off last turn.

The redeemer and razorback advance a bit.  I take a couple wounds on grotesques after cover and FnP.

I pull away from the advancing redeemer.  I should have just stepped up with the grotesques and taken the assault on the chin hoping that defensive grenades, FnP, fearless, and hit-and-run would have saved me.  I start sending the beasts up the far side.  Maugan tries to tag the rhino for first blood but fails to cause any damage.

The redeemer advances and razorback pulls back from the advancing beasts.  The rhino heads for the objective on my table edge.  I take a couple more wounds on grotesques and lose a khymerae or two.

Despite my warlord trait to reroll reserves, the walkers fail to arrive so I reroll for failures on the rangers and wyches also.  The jetfighter arrives up top.  My plan was to take out the transport with the razorwing and roll up that flank with the beasts, but the jetfighter only causes a single hull point.  The beasts would need an 11" assault so they run.  Maugan fails to damage the rhino again.

Marcus advances the redeemer and unloads the terminators.  His stormraven has failed to arrive.

His backfield tanks shift for firing lanes.  The redeemer takes a wound off the icarus and I lose a couple beasts to shooting.  My flyer doesn't take any hits.

Terminators assault the beasts.  I lose combat by 4 or so and fall back, but only 6".

My walkers and rangers arrive on my table edge.  I use the pipes to block LoS and try to keep them alive for linebreaker.

I expected him to come right for my objective and the grotesques, not the beasts so I'm out of position.  I want to send the grotesques in to help, but a poor terrain roll keeps them in place.  My venom arrives behind the beasts to torrent the terminators.

The beasts rally but may not assault.  The flyer advances to fire on the razorback again, only to strip a single hull point yet again.  The Baron jumps over and joins the beasts for defensive grenades and hit-and-run.

The war walkers wreck the rhino for first blood.  All of the marines survive and they combat squad out.  I believe my shooting takes down 1 terminator.

The redeemer rushes my line but gets immobilized.  It then burns down the icarus.

The missile squad stays near their objective.  The flamer squad advances towards the walkers and rangers.  After the dust settles, I've lost 2 walkers and 2 rangers.

The stormraven arrives and blows my flyer out of the sky.  The terminators assault the beasts again.  This time, I kill one and only lose by 2 thanks to the Baron's defensive grenades.  I then hit-and-run with a big result going behind the redeemer and heading into the BA backfield.

I attach Malys to the grotesques, but they didn't roll high enough to get into a safe assault range of the terminators.  I bring up the venom and some warriors to torrent the terminators.  I think I was able to kill 1 more.

The beasts move for the flamer squad.  My last walker, rangers, warriors, and Maugan combine fire on the missile team near the objective and kill 3.  The beasts are able to kill 4 marines and lock with the last one.

At the top of turn 5, we only have 15 minutes or so left so we decide this will be the last turn.  The terminators move on the small warrior squad for an easy kill point.  The stormraven pivots and zooms.

The last 2 marines from the missile team dive into cover next to the objective.  On the far side, the razorback squad disembarks to score their objective.  In the backfield, the godhammer's unit disembarks to score.  combined shooting explodes the venom.  The terminators multi-assault 5 warriors and 2 wyches and wipe out both units.  My beasts finish the last marine from the flamer squad and consolidate towards the godhammer unit.

At this point, I'm down objectives 3-1 and down kill points 5-3.  This is my last turn but it's not all lost.  I must kill 1 of his characters in the terminator squad, shoot down the 2 tac marines on the central objective, and kill the godhammer's unit with the beasts.

The walker and snipers succeed in finishing the 2 tac marines giving me another kp and removing one of Marcus's objectives.  Maugan shoots the terminators but fails to get any precision shots.  The grotesques will also fail their assault move.  The beasts shoot down 1 assault marine and then assault.  The Baron gets stuck in a challenge with the power fist sarge.  I was hoping his 5 attacks at init6/str6 would do the trick, but the sarge makes every save.  His marines also make every save.  The sarge hits and wounds the Baron once, I fail my shadowfield save, lose combat by 2, fail morale, and run away.  That one shadowfield save cost me 2 kill points and 1 objective!

And with that, the game ends 25-8 in favor of Marcus.

Well, it was a bummer to start off the GT with a loss, but Marcus was a great opponent and ended up placing above me so he definitely worked for that win.  I made a few mistakes of note by placing my ADL too far forward, getting the Baron into a challenge, and allowing my beasts to get assaulted by the terminators.  FnP terminators are a real problem for this army, not to mention I don't have many tools to deal with 2 land raiders.  Looking back, I should have kept the grotesques forward to take the terminator assault, hit-and-run afterwards, and hit the unit with everything in my backfield.  I was trying to preserve them since elites were scoring this mission and it ended up putting me out of position.  It costs my beasts a turn also since they can't assault the same turn they rally.  My dice were shockingly bad this game also as I failed my key reserve rolls in the beginning even with the warlord rerolls.  The trend continued when my jetfighter shot a razorback for 2 turns with lances and missiles and only claimed 2 hull points.  The icing on the cake was the Baron failing to kill the sarge, then failing his shadow field save and the unit failing morale.  My lack of practice with this army really showed this game also since I had been painting instead of playing.  The good news is this was my biggest loss of the GT so stay tuned for better games!