1500pt July Tournament - hyv3mynd's Game #2

The July tournament at Millennium Games was a 1500pt format with judged painting and player ranked sportsmanship & comp.  The breakdown was 15/7/3 battle points for win/draw/loss with up to 15pts for painting and 15pts for sportsmanship/comp.  The new Eldar codex (and wraithknight in particular) was calling to me so I put together this list.  My goal was to use as many painted models as possible with no special characters or duplicates (cept 2 rhinos) to max my soft scores.  Game #1 can be found here.

Farseer + spirit stone of anath'lan (game #2 warlord - acute senses, prescience, guide, terrify)
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor + terminator armor, psycannon
Henchmen - acolytes x4 w/ melta x2, jokaero
Chimera + searchlight
Guardians x10 + bright lance platform (DE warriors proxy)
Rangers x5
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, hammer
Rhino + searchlight
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, halberds x2
Rhino + searchlight
War Walkers x3 + scatter lasers x6
Wraightknight (stock)
Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator



Game #2 was against Craig's CSM.  The mission was The Crusade with 4 objectives and Vanguard Strike deployment.  Our table consisted of 2 rows of city ruins with a huge river running down the center.

Craig's list:
Typhus (gift of contagion, weapon virus)
Zombies x20
Zombies x10
Cultists x29 + 2 flamers
Plague Marines x5 + plasma x2
Rhino
Plague Marines x5 + plasma x2
Rhino
Obliterators x3 + MoN, VoTLW
Obliterators x3 + MoN, VoTLW
Havocs x5 + missile launchers x4

Well then, not exactly the list I was hoping to face in a "comp" tournament, but there's always a couple in the crowd ;-)  I don't remember who won the roll but Craig would deploy first, and there would be night fighting turn 1.

Craig's deployment.  One of his objectives is under the cultists (red bases) with Typhus attached and the other is in the ruin on the far right.  3 oblits are up front screening a rhino.  Havocs are on the top level of the central ruin.  10 zombies are in the right ruin on the second objective.  20 zombies, 3 more oblits, and the second plague marine rhino are on the left.

 Here's my walkers after their scout move.  The bottom level of that ruin has no windows so they're out of sight of everything except the havocs in the high ruin.  One of my objectives is just in front of the left walker.

I deploy very defensively.  My opponent has way more scoring power so I'm betting on an objective draw, and I don't want to give up first blood.  My second objective is just in front of that ruin.  My 2 rhino squads are reserved and rangers are outflanking.

Turn 1:

The cultists move and run across the bridge.  His lead rhino immobilizes itself in the water!  Oblits also start crossing the bridge.  His missile havocs fire on my walkers and score a glance despite my ruins and night fight.

It's right about here that I noticed some deployment errors I've made.  My farseer cannot buff grey knights and my walkers are out of range of guide.  I move the chimera 12" and flat out another 6".   Guardians move and run towards the walkers.  I keep my NDK back for now.  Wraithknight jumps over the ruin.  War walkers pull back and gun down all 4 missile launcher havocs despite night fight and the sole survivor passes morale.  They then battle focus back into their safe spot.

Turn 2:

Cultists move and run again.  Oblits advance followed by plague marines who disembark from the immobilized rhino.  The second oblit unit climbs the tall black ruin while the unit of 20 zombies move up.  The oblits closest to my wraithknight open up with lascannons and score 3 wounds.  The second unit fails to wound, yay for t8!

My hammer strike squad arrives right behind my walkers.  I continue bringing backup over with the chimera, NDK, and guardians moving and running.  I realize now I may be in trouble as he has half his army very close to the objective the walkers are guarding.  Wraithknight gets prescience and continues his flanking move.  My rangers also arrive on the far left flank and jump into a ruin where they will sit all game.  The wraithknight targets the oblits on the bridge who go to ground and kills 1.  My inquisitor also claims a wound on an oblit.  War walkers pop out to shoot the oblits trying for first blood, but they only fail 1 save.  To top that, their battle focus with reroll for fleet fails to get them back into safety and they're stuck out in the open.

Turn 3:

Cultists with Typhus make the final push up to my walkers.  Plague marines, rhino, and zombies advance.  The oblits in the big black ruin cannot use lascannons again, so opt for assault cannons against the wraithknight but they fail to rend.  Cultists assault my walkers, but Typhus only destroys 1.

My second rhino arrives and moves up 12" next to my objective.  My farseer tries to terrify the cultists, but Typhus passes his DTW roll.  The hammer squad disembarks.  The chimera moves up and drops off the inquisitor and henchmen.  Guardians move over and NDK jumps into assault range.  I put most of my available shooting into the wounded oblits on the bridge and finally get first blood!  The bright lance platform immobilizes Craig's second rhino.  My NDK assaults the cultist blob and smashes their champion.  Typhus explodes the remaining walkers and takes out about 8 cultists... man I really with that terrify would have stuck!

Turn 4:

Plague marines exit their immobilized ride.  Plague marines on the bridge move up to the NDK.  Oblits in the black ruin opt to fire plasma cannons into my hammer squad and kill 3, the survivors pass morale.  My wraithknight proves too tough to wound again.  My opponent successfully repairs both rhinos...  Plague marines assault my NDK and feed him another champion buying Typhus one more turn.

 My halberd squad disembarks from their rhino which drives across the river.  Inquisitor and henchmen jump out of the ruins to join the giant melee. 

On the other side of the table, my farseer hits the 20 zombies with terrify and they fail morale and fall back, but remain on the table.  My wraithknight skirts the ruins to shoot oblits and drops one.  The two remaining models from the hammer squad join the cultist brawl along with inquisitor and henchmen.  My NDK issues a challenge which Typhus must now accept, I hit once and wound, and he fails his invuln giving me slay the warlord.  I lose one marine and 4 henchmen but still win combat.  Cultists flee while I remain locked with plague marines.

Turn 5:

20 zombies fail to rally and flee off the table.  Plague marines in the river move and run onto the closest objective.  My wraithknight takes another wound from oblits.  I kill a few plague marines but my NDK remains locked in combat.

We're nearly out of time so I jump my wraithknight but he fails his assault into the plague marines holding the back objective.

We call the game at the end of turn 5 due to time.

Both of us hold 2 objectives while I claim first blood, slay the warlord, and linebreaker for a 9-6 victory.  If the game would have continued, I would have broken free with my NDK and shunted onto one objective with my wraithknight potentially contesting the other.  This was a really tough game that I nearly lost due to poor objective placement and deployment.  I wanted to use my NDK to steal an objective late in the game, but needed him to take out Typhus and secure my objective which I placed too close to the bridge.  The wraithknight proved invaluable being able to ID oblits and drawing tons of fire.  I decided at the beginning to roll once on telepathy and that paid off with terrify.  The war walkers were also key players as they took out 4 missile launchers turn 1, and their invulns prevented Typhus from getting first blood.  My two victories send me to table #1 for the final round for the first time this year!