I've been falling behind on battle reports and tournament results due to the amount of 40k content flooding into my life. Some of the authors have a big (4k per team, 2v2) game this weekend and our monthly tournament the week after so I've got to unload the content I've been sitting on or else I'll never catch up.
First up is game #3 from March's Adepticon Team Primer. If you missed it, game #1 can be found here (with our lists) and game #2 is here. We were at 1 major victory and 1 minor loss going into game #3. Our opponents were Trevor and Ben with Orks. The mission was The Relic and deployment was Dawn of War.
Our opponent's combined lists were:
Warboss + bike, klaw, squig
Big Mek + kff
Lootas x10
Meganobz x5 + various combis, dedicated battlewagon
Boyz x30 + nob, klaw, pole, 3 big shootas, shootas
Boyz x30 + nob, klaw, pole, 3 big shootas, shootas
Boyz x30 + nob, klaw, pole, 3 big shootas, sluggas
Grotz x10 + runtherd
Stormboyz x10 + boss zagstruk
Dakkajet + extra gun
Dakkajet + extra gun
Aegis Defense Line + Comms Relay
The Relic is a really tough mission against some armies, Orks being one of them. The daunting task threw off our game and we made some critical mistakes in deployment. Plus, I only rolled a "1" for the grand strategy so I was able to make the purifiers scoring but not the dread.
So we talked ourselves out of going second (which is good with flyers vs flyers) and somehow decided to put the 10 purifiers with GM on foot instead of in the stormraven. I think our opponents were using some sort of jedi mind tricks forcing us to make bad decisions.
We made a strong push and pared a rhino on top of the relic, but it was immediately apparent we wouldn't have the numbers or power to win a fight for the center. The dakajets arrived, they called their waagh, and our marines were dropping like flies.
My flyer arrived late and the missing firepower hurt also. We made a game out of it with my GM tanking wounds like a pro. We were able to drop both of their jets and chew through a bunch of boyz with the 19 shots per turn from my flyer and 5 incinerators from my GM and purifiers, but the TFC was scattering to beat the odds.
By hovering our flyers and combining fire with the TFC and rifleman, we were able to kill all scoring models close enough to grab the relic. The game ended in a primary draw, but our opponents had won the secondary (VP kills) for a 10-17 loss.
Team Tournament result: Best Painted. Nearly every team had an unpainted half or large blocks of unpainted units so this was almost a win by default. Either way, it was greatly appreciated and the credit will go into either CSM or Daemons depending on how the May tournament goes.
Comp Tournament at PTGRTS in Syracuse, NY
Calypso2ts, Crispy, Grubnards, and myself decided to try something new in April and ventured out to Syracuse to try out a shop that also runs monthly events. You can click their names for the articles they've written on the event and the comp matrix.
Here's the list I took (1500pts):
Typhus
Lord + MoK, juggernaut, axe of blind fury, sigil of corruption, melta bombs, vet.
Possessed x5 + MoN
Rhino + dirge caster
Zombies x30
Plague Marines x6 + plasma x2
Rhino + havoc launcher, warpflame gargoyles
CSM x10 + autocannon
Spawn x5
Predator + lascannon sponsons
Maulerfiend
By my calculations, there is only a single -0.5 penalty on their comp matrix. Nobody scored perfect comp so makes my list tied for "best comp".
My first game was against Jared (or Jarrod sorry!) and his daemons. The first mission was The Scoring with Vanguard Strike deployment. His list was:
Bloodthirster + greater reward x2
Herald of Tzeench + ml3, exalted reward (portalglyph), loci of conjuration
Herald of Nurgle + ml3, etherblade
Herald of Khorne + etherblade
Bloodletters x20
Horrors x20
Plague Bearers x10
Plague Drones x3 + death heads
Soul Grinder + phlegm
I won the roll and opted to go second. Here's his deployment.
From left to right are drones, letters, horrors, thirster, soulgrinder, bearers, and grinder.
Here's my deployment. Closest to furthest are as follows: zombies, 10 csm with typhus, spawn with jugger lord, predator, possessed on foot, empty rhino with dirge caster, maulerfiend, plague marines in rhino. Night fight is in effect and I get the 4pt objective directly under my jugger lord. Turn 1 is uneventful due to night fight saves but I lose several zombies to str6 flickering fire.
I lead my push with the empty rhino which the bloodletters assault and explode, killing 8 of their own. During the second turn, I lose 8 of the 10 CSM on foot from horrors and the soul grinder.
I push up the spawn and possessed to assault the remaining bloodletters. The maulerfiend plows through the drones. Typhus joins zombies and they start stringing out. I win both assaults and don't ya know, my possessed champion wins his challenge and turns into a daemon prince!
He pulls his thirster back to handle the maulerfiend and amazingly, I make 4 out of 5 invulns (he had the armorbane reward) and hold him in combat. My jugger lord breaks off and assaults the horrors. Spawn pull back to score the 4pt objective. My zombies eventually string out far enough to contest the right objective held by plague bearers.
The game ends due to time on t5. I've got enough points for a minor victory, just shy of major. This would not have changed had the game gone longer as his thirster would have contested my 4pt objective, but I would have held one with plague marines and my zombies with typhus would have eventually beaten down the bearers. Jared was a cheerful chap, but this game was decided by lists I feel. He had a huge chunk of his 1500 invested in HQ's and 3 plague drones won't do much by themselves. The horrors are an ungodly shooting unit and I failed every DTW roll, but my jugger lord got them on turn 3 or 4 and that was that.
My second game was against Zack, who carpooled with us, and his CSM. It was a really well painted and themed Violators mono-slaanesh CSM army.
Sorceror + jump pack
CSM x10 + MoS, missile, plasma, banner of excess
CSM x10 + MoS, plasma, plasma
Rhino
Cultists x20 + flamers x2
Raptors x10 + MoS, melta x2
Heldrake + flamer
Predator + lascannon sponsons
Vindicator
Mission #2 was TO designed with a "black hole" in the middle that you could sacrifice one model per unit for a VP. Deployment was Dawn of War. I won the roll and opted to go first due to my speed and mission objectives favoring the player who goes first.
I deploy everything centrally. I have more non-vehicle units to sacrifice to the maw so I'm just going to rush the middle.
Zack does the same except for his predator which is off screen left. His formation is a little more cautious since he's going second.
I rush the middle and sacrifice a plague marine. I keep the maulerfiend back so the melta raptors don't get an easy shot. I claim a couple hull points from his rhino but fail to get first blood.
He makes a valiant push of his own, but by now it's become evident that the mission was poorly written. I have more non-vehicle units to sacrifice and with the maw itself being impassible and between us, he can't get around to stop me from scoring. Nothing in the mission scoring actually rewards fighting each other except a bonus point for no remaining troops. My spawn and lord cause havoc in his backfield.
My spawn go down to a 1-2 punch from the heldrake, infantry fire, and the raptor assault. I eventually lose the lord also but one of my plague marines with a plasma gun takes down the drake with a 6,6,6.
Once the raptors commit to the spawn, my possessed and maulerfiend are able to collapse the other flank. They eventually break through, the vindicator takes a 4" shot at the fiend and scatters off 8". The possessed kill the vindicator and the fiend goes into the raptors. I do some quick math and jump Typhus into the maw (each model is worth 3vp). The game ends naturally on 6. Zack only has his lord locked in combat with my maulerfiend and his predator left. I have enough for a major victory and full bonus points.
My third and final game was against Curtis and his Nids. Keep in mind this is a comp event.
Tyrant + wings, devourers x2, hive commander (enfeeble, hemo.)
Tyrant + wings, devourers x2 (enfeeble, warp speed)
Hive Guard x3
Zoans x2 (telepathy - terrify, puppet master) + mycetic spore
DoM + mycetic spore
Termagants x10 + devourers
Termagants x10 + devourers
Tervigon + 3 powers, scytals (only uses endurance)
Tervigon + 3 powers (only uses endurance)
The mission was Purge the Alien and hammer/anvil deployment. This is a really bad combo for nids, plus I know the army better than any, but his list is pretty tough. Curtis won the roll and took first turn.
He deploys a predictable blob with both flyrants, both tervigons, hive guard, and one unit of devilgaunts. The other is outflanking while both pods are deep striking.
Here's my counter-deployment. Plague marines in their ride go behind the big wall to eventually jump out and double tap a tyrant. Zombies bubble wrap the spawn and possessed. The predator is on the right and CSM on foot on the left. The empty rhino is reserved to protect that VP. I've pre-measured everything to be out of range of his tyrants except zombies turn 1.
He comes at me and spawns gaunts with one tervigon burning out. One tyrant fires and I only lose a single zombie (my dice were hot!). I advance forming a solid block to limit the DoM's potential to hit multiple units. The lead flyrant passes all grounding tests.
All of his reserves arrive. Gaunts on the left flank, doom left of center, zoans right of center, and the tyrants swoop around. First blood in this mission is so key when trading kills and a combination of factors here really cost him. He went for my infantry instead of my rhino, my dice were hot, and he split fire. My CSM on foot only failed a single save against the devilgaunts. I only lost a single model to the DoM. I lost 2 plague marines to one flyrant. The second flyrant shot spawn. My survival this turn basically decided the game as he spent his alpha strike and fed me several potential points.
On the left, my CSM pistol and assault the gaunts down to 3. Maulerfiend assaults and 1-shots the DoM. Zombies and spawn multi-assault zoans and their spore. I end up getting 3 VP that turn, 1 next turn when the gaunts fold, and start a multi-assault that would tie up the middle for an age. The climax would be spawned gaunts swarming into the melee and Typhus unleashing the destroyer hive. In other news, my Maulerfiend was assaulted by a max warp speed smashing flyrant, passed 4 of 6 invulns, and 1-shotted the tyrant (t5 with gift of contagion from Typhus).
We actually get shut down at the bottom of turn 3 due to time. This was literally the slowest tournament game I've ever taken part of. Not because we were moving slow, I was literally running around the table due to the deployment type and having to move and fight on both flanks. The tyranid army had 14 psychic powers to roll and track, and 4 to use at the beginning of each turn. Turns 2-3 we had well over 100 models on the table, most of which were locked in the central melee with initiative steps from 5 to 1, armor and FnP saves. It was one hell of a mess that left me wishing I played an elite shooting army.
We tallied it up. I had first blood, DoM, both spores, flyrant, and 3 units of gaunts thanks to the destroyer hive and two daemon weapons in the mix. My opponent had killed my predator, got a free point because my rhino was in reserve at the end, and had linebreaker. 8-3 victory for me which met the requirement for a major victory.
The game was quite a rollercoaster because of my knowledge of how it works, trepidation during deployment, and anticipation of the alpha strike turn when the pods arrive and the flyrants pass into kill zone. When the dice fell, mine proved luckier as I ended up with better than average armor and cover saves. Despite that, I my units still would have held with average rolls due to how he split fire. As a tyranid player I know our ap- torrent fire isn't reliable against marines. If the game had continued, the last tyrant may have claimed a point but it he landed I would have swamped him costing him warlord and linebreaker. The dice gave me a huge lead early which is nearly impossible for nids to come back from in Purge the Alien. It's just a shame we ran out of time to see the true result. I think it would have gone quickly as he had less than 10 gaunts left, the tervigons, hive guard, and 1 tyrant. For him to continue chasing kills, he'd have to be in my face against Typhus, jugger lord, zombies, possessed, maulerfiend, and a few plagues and CSM I had left.
Syracuse results: 2nd Overall (of 13, comp+battle points)
I put the prize credit towards plague drones as I really want a nurgle daemon allied contingent. The tournament was fun being in a new venue to us, playing a bunch of new faces that were all really nice, cool, and social guys. We felt welcome and at home so thanks for the hospitality guys! It was a fun event personally seeing an army I've been hobbying away at for months. It was slow for me as I've never even practiced with the army, but the bright side is it only gets quicker from here as I gain experience. It's actually surprisingly easy with so little shooting and so much speed. I'm pretty excited to take this collection a more competitive route and add a ton of zombies. I also plan on a daemon allied contingent and a small tau detachment as prize support allows.
Stay tuned for a 4,000pt per side 2v2 game we'll be playing as a sequel to this game. Then next week is the monthly local event and I think two of us will be playing. I'll probably be testing out an unholy DE list with GK allies for that as painting will be scored.
My geek in training has approved these reports. 15 months old already!
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