May Tournament: Game #1

This month's tournament at Millennium Games was a team event, but partners would be randomly paired each round.  The first game would be a true random pairing, then one random player from the winner pool and one from the loosing pool for following games.  Each player could bring 1,000pts with a smaller force org.  Special characters were banned and non troop units were 0-1 to prevent spam and encourage some different unit selections.


For my first game, I was lucky enough to be paired with the infamous "Courtney" .  If you didnt' make it to adepticon this year, Courtney was also on DaBoyz team which took 3rd overall out of ~100 teams in the team event.  He also took out Darkwynn himself in the championship event with his eldar.  We were paired against orks and dark eldar for this game, which would be triangle deployment and kill points.  Bonus points are awarded each game for wiping out one FO slot from both players.  Our opponents won the roll and elected to take the first turn.

My list:
Tyranid Prime + boneswords, regen
Hive Guard x3
Warriors x3 + boneswords, toxin sacs, barbed strangler
Warriors x3 + deathspitters (2), barbed strangler
Warriors x3 + deathspitters (2), barbed strangler
Carnifex x2 + devourers (2 each) (prime joins here)

Courtney's list (approx):
Inquisitor + rad, psyko grenades, psyker
Henchmen - 5 assassins, 2 crusaders, 1 servitor, 2 melta acolytes, rhino
Purifiers x7 + incinerators x2, halberds x3, hammer, rhino
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, halberds x3, rhino + hunter killer
Terminators x5 + psycannon, halberds x3, hammer
Rifleman Dread

vs

Ork's list (approx):
Warboss + eavy armor, klaw, pole
Tankbusters x10 + 2 tankhammers
Boyz x30 + big shootas, nob, klaw, pole
Boyz x20 + rokkits (warboss here)
Boyz x20 + big shootas, nob, klaw, pole
Warbuggies x3 + rokkits
Battlewagon + kannon

Dark Eldar's list (approx):
Haemonculi (2) + luqifiers (2), scissorhands (2), webway portal (1)
Grotesques x3 (non-webway haemi here)
Wracks x9 + acothyst, liquifier, scissorhand, raider (webway haemi here)
Wracks x10 + raider
Beastmasters x5 + razorwings x6, khymera x10
Ravager

Our opponents deploy pretty evenly spread along their triangle.  Beats, grotesques, and wracks are in reserve to use the portal.

After considering our options, we decide to go full reserve.  All those lances and rokkits are bad news for my warrior squads so we figured it would be best to try and turn the tables when our reserves arrive.  Our opponents move up for turn 1 and the dark eldar drop their webway portal in the middle.

Only wracks arrive from their reserves (picture above is the end of their turn 2).  Tankbusters are in the battlewagon off screen left.  That's the ravager in the backfield.

Our turn 2 begins and we both roll under 50% of our reserves.  I get one unit of warriors and Courtney gets purifiers and strikes who are both in rhinos so we won't get to assault.  With such a small reserve force arriving, we pretty much have to pick a flank.  After much debate, we decide to go right and use the rhinos and an impassible rock to castle up.

Hive guard wreck 2 buggies and take the rokkits off the 3rd.  Purifiers (w/ 2 incinerators), strikes, and warriors kill all 20 boyz and wound the warboss.

End of turn 1: Orks/DE 0kp, Nids/GK 1kp

Turn 3 sees the beasts and grotesques come in through the portal.  Lack of space and our castle formation forces them towards our table edge.  Empty raiders move up to screen infantry.  Orks move forward.

The warboss moves in for revenge.

Raiders explode the lead rhino through smoke. The ravager kills 1 warrior.  The warboss assaults hive guard, kills 1, and we lock.

Our reserve rolls are hot at the start of our turn 3, and we get everything except the henchmen.  We've lured them close enough to our table edge to assault, so Courtney sends his dread towards the beasts (best they can do is glance) and terminators towards grotesques.  I line my fexes up with the raiders and two units of warriors behind as firing squads.

In the right corner, purifiers head for the unit of 30 boyz and strikes line up on the ravager.  Warriors will try and save the hive guard from the warboss.

In shooting, the strikes immobilize the ravager and blow one lance off.  We move right into assaults with the dread tarpitting the beasts.  Terminators get a multi-assault off on the grotesques and wracks.  They land a few wounds, but fail their force weapon activation.  One termie goes down and both dark eldar units flee.  Purifiers assault the 30 boyz, take down 14 with cleansing flame, and regular attacks and a sweep finish that unit.  My fexes multi-assault both raiders, but they moved 12" and I'm only able to immobilize one.  My warriors and hive guard are able to drop the warboss before he can swing.

End of turn 3: Orks/DE 1kp, Nids/GK 3kp

Turn 4 begins with grotesques and wracks continuing to flee as out consolidate moves got us within 6" of both.  The undamaged raider gathers up a unit of wracks and moves up behind the beasts.

Tankbusters off to the left line up on the fexes but all miss.  The ravager and raider manage to immobilize and weapon destroy the strike's rhino.  Shoota boyz knock down a couple purifiers.  Dread and beasts continue to bang on each other.  Carnifexes put 8 auto-hit/pens on the raider and blow it to smithereens, taking out a few beasts.

The inquisitor's unit arrives at the top of our turn 4, and shoots up the right flank in case the psycannon can't handle the ravager.  Purifiers move and run close enough to keep both broken units fleeing.  Fexes, warriors, and hive guard all advance and bring guns to bare.

Our devourers and barbed stranglers decimate the last unit of shoota boyz, knocking them down to 6 or so.  The psycannon and hive guard both wiff against the skimmers.  Terminators assault the beasts and lose one more, but finish off the beasts.

End of turn 4: Orks/DE 1kp, Nids/GK 5kp

At this point, our opponents feel the game is over and just try to deny us bonus points by hiding kill points.  The surviving shoota boyz, buggy, and battlewagon with tankbusters head for a corner.  Grotesques and wracks continue to flee.

The raider pulls up behind the purifiers and unloads the wracks to assault.

The wracks try to liquify the purifiers and get ap1, knocking a couple purifiers down.  Shoota boyz put a couple wounds on warriors.  Wracks assault purifiers and take a couple casualties, but wipe out the purifiers.

We move up our forces.

Dakkafexes knock down 1 grotesque, forcing another test which they must auto-fail and they run off.  Warriors and rifleman knock out enough wracks to force them to run off as well.  Melta henchmen explode the ravager.  Hive guard wreck the last raider.  Terminators assault the wracks in the middle and wipe them out.

End of turn 5: Orks/DE 2kp, Nids/GK 10kp

We roll for the end and the game goes on.

No pics here.  The dark eldar portion is tabled.  The 4 remaining ork unitshide in a corner.

The rifleman is able to snipe the last buggy in cover.

The game ends.  We're up 11-2kp and get a couple bonus points for collecting FO's.  This game was pretty much defined by our opponents moving so much of their army about 10-11" from our table edge before our reserves arrived.  The dice thrown on both sides were pretty average without any major statistical anomalies to speak of.  We took a risk to avoid their first shooting phases and it paid off, that's about it. 

Stay tuned for game 2 which would be Nids and Guard vs Orks and Guard.

If you're interested in other games from the same event on Calypso's blog Purple Reign:

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3