40k Team Event - Game 2

... or how I learned to hate space marine bikes and Grav-guns. Last week I typed up a battle report on our first game at the Millennium 40k Team Event. If you missed it, you can read it here. In the second game we would be paired up against Smitty and Evan, of Beef n' Wing, a gaming club out of Buffalo NY. Both of them are participating in the Adepticon Team Event and used this event to practice their armies. If you attended Adepticon last year you probably saw their army in the team event. Beef n' wing has been building up a large 30k army over the past couple of years painted up in the Emperor's Children theme and this year they are continuing that theme.


I did not grab a copy of their list but they had roughly the following in their list.

Warlord: Pedro Kantor
10 Marines in a Drop pod with lots of meltas and grav-guns (combat squad)
9 marines in a Drop Pod with Kantor
10 Marines in a Drop pod with meltas and flamers
7 bikers with grav guns
5 bikers
5 devastators with missile launchers

We rolled for night fight and it would be dark for the first turn but they won the roll to go first.

Primary Mission: Objectives
(Two objectives would go near our deployment zone. They would place near their zone and then the last one went in the ruins in the center of the board)
Secondary: First Blood, Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker

Deployment:
We deployed everything on the board along our center and left flank while they deployed two bike squads flanking some ruins in their zone and the devastators  dig into the ruins for cover.

Our Deployment

Their deployment

Table-wide shot of both deployment zones.

Turn 1: Beef n' Wing
Movement:
The drop pod with the grav-guns and meltas comes down in front of my commander and broadsides. The second drop pod with Kantor and the marines come in next to the first. I had anticipated this and tried to bubble wrap the broadsides with my kroot. Little did I realize that the grav-guns have an 18" range. The two biker squads gun forward towards our side of the board.
Shooting: The Grav-guns and melta make short work of my commander and broadsides despite my invulnerable saves from my commander. The marines from the second drop pod shoot at my pathfinders in the ruins and kills 4, causing them to panic and fall back.
They call in an orbital bombardment and it destroys one of the fire prisms in the back corner.

Grav-gun and melta wall of death

Turn 1: Grubnards/Sinistermind
Movement:
Sinistermind moves his serpent up and disembarks the d-scythes near the drop pods. I jump my crisis suits to harass the incoming bikes. The pathfinders fail to regroup and flee off the board.
Shooting: The d-scythes flame 8 of the marines from the first drop pod. Between the kroot, fire warriors and the riptide they kill all of the marines from the second pod except for Kantor. The second wave serpent strips off 2 wounds from Kantor. My crisis suits fail to wound the bikers.

Our troops after movement

 

Not many marines left after all of that shooting.

Turn 2: Beef n Wing
Movement: The third drop pod comes in near our center ruins to capture the objective in there. All of the bikes move forward towards the same ruins.
Shooting: Between the drop pods, devastators, bikers, and the newly arrived marines they kill all of the wraith guard and 10 kroot. The bikers near our table edge kill off my crisis suits.

Everything moves up and kills the wraithguard and kroot.

Turn 2: Grubnards/Sinistermind
Movement:  I pull my fire warriors and riptide back and sinistermind shuffles his serpents and prism.
Shooting: The serpents and prism take out two bikers in the center group and the riptide kills one from the group near our table edge.

Our return fire.

Things look bleak at the end of turn 2.

Turn 3: Beef n' Wing
Movement: The bikes continue to move forward. The marines in the ruins push through towards the two drop pods.
Shooting: The bikers in the center strip 3 wounds off of the riptide with their grav-guns. The smaller bike squad takes some hull points off of a wave serpent.

Turn 3: Grubnards/Sinistermind
Movement: The riptide pulls back towards the center of the board. A squad of fire warriors moves towards the ruins in the center for cover and to potentially grab the objective.
Shooting: The riptide, fire prism, and fire warriors kill all of the remaining bikers in the center unit. The wave serpents kill 2 bikers from the smaller group.

Center biker squad are gone.

Turn 4: Beef n' Wing
Movement: Marines in ruins move towards my fire warriors. Bikers circle around firewarriors
Shooting: Marines and bikers kill the kroot and fire warriors near the drop pods. The devastators kill 2 fire warriors near the center objective. The lone fire warrior flees.

Turn 4: Grubnards/Sinistermind
Movement: Lone fire warrior regroups due to his bonding knife.
The dire avengers jump out of the serpent to head towards the objective near the drop pods and Kantor.
Shooting: The wave serpent kills 2 marines in the ruins and forces them to fall back.

Turn 5: Beef n' Wing
Movement: The marines regroup back on the objective in the ruins.
Shooting: The bikers finish off the riptide. The marines kill the 5 dire avengers and Kantor kills the lone fire warrior, effectively finishing the game. Full win to Beef n' Wing.

Ah... We should have really deployed more conservatively. With that many drop pods we should have walked in most of our army in from reserves. We figured that with night fighting and the commander with the invulnerable save would have stormed the initial fire from the drop pod marines.

X-Wing Tournament Practice

This  weekend I tested out the list I plan on running at this upcoming x-wing event. Here is what I brought:
1 X-Wing - Biggs
2 B-Wings (Dagger Squadron) with Fire Control Systems
1 Y-Wing - Gold Squadron, Ion Cannon Turret

Game 1 I played against a list very similar to mine.
He brought Biggs, 2 B-Wings with Ion Cannons, and 1 X-Wing rookie pilot.
I ended up destroying all of his ships while only losing Biggs in return.

Game 2 I faced an Imperial Aces List. He brought:
Kar Kanos - TIE Interceptor, Swarm Tactics
Howlrunner - TIE Fighter, Swarm Tactics
3 TIE Interceptors - Alpha Squadron Pilots

This game was much closer but in the end he destroyed all of my ships while I killed everything but Kanos.

Running Biggs with the B-Wings is pretty solid. For the most part he soaks up all of the fire power in the first round of shooting, leaving the b-wings pretty much at full health. The Fire Control system is pretty helpful but I need to remember to place the target locks after shooting. There were a couple of turns that I forgot to do that, which could have helped. The Y-Wing runs along the outside of the main cluster and ions the threats like Howlrunner and Kanos. Must players ignore the Y-Wing due to the B-Wings.

I feel pretty confident with the list but I am not sure how it will fair against large ships like the falcon. I hope that I don't have to face too many of them this weekend.

Next week I will recap the X-Wing event and provide an update on the swamp board.