Hey guys, Buddha here again, talking about the 10th company.
My first list I brought to 1250 point event. I was playing C:SM at the time, and I thought to myself; “Anyone can bring bike, or speeder. Hell, anyone can bring thunder bubble. But I need something no one will see coming!” I decided to run scouts.
In a 1250 list, I had the following
Librarian with Force Dome and Null Zone.
Tech-marine: nothing extra
Scout squad #1: 10 scouts with sniper rifles, 1 rocket
Scout squad #2: 10 scouts with sniper rifles, 1 rocket
Scout squad #3: 10 scouts with shotguns
Scout squad #4: 10 scouts with bolt pistol/ccw
Scout squad #5: 10 scouts with bolt pistol/ccw
Scout squad #6: 9 scouts with bolt pistol/ccw
Land raider: nothing extra.
Where we play there is a lot of ruins, so I took a chance on a tech-marine instead of camo cloaks, only to save some points.
The main theme of this army is that the snipers will draw a lot of fire until the other 4 squads come into play. Scouts are the same as marines - I know that sounds crazy, but let me point this out. 10 scouts with any normal weapon load out it 140 points. 10 space marines are 170. So, for 40 points less, you have 10 troops, that are just tough, just 1 point weaker armor. You can give them camo cloaks, plus sniper rifles, and you are paying the same amount of points for tactical marines.
The benefit of this is for around 850 points you can get 6 troop choices, that can infiltrate, get a scout move, outflank, and move through cover. Not to shabby if you think about it.
This list was really fun to play, and it worked a lot better then I thought it would. I've placed 2nd both times I've used it, but I could have come in dead last and still would have had a blast.
Once again I'll leave you with some parting words.
An open battlefield is nothing but a death trap - in war any visible target is a casualty no matter how well protected it may be.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Max Power's new project is Jawesome!
Hey all,
At the end of Cardin's post, I had hinted that I have a new project that is going to be my focus. As most of you know, I have a space marine army that's about 5,000 points. It's split pretty evenly down the middle, with one half being Deathwing, the other being my Codex Marines. It was professionally painted by Robin himself, in a scheme that was my own. Since I've had the army, I've been running it under the idea that it's a Relictors army - purely because the paint scheme was close. I'm really not in love with the Relictors, so I've been wracking my brain trying to think of something I can do in order to spark my interest in the fluff of my army.
Enter Imperial Armor 9 and 10, the Badab War books. If you guys haven't read these, and you're a fan of power armor, you are missing out. The story is amazing. They also go out of their way to flesh out some chapters that should be popular, but aren't. I read both of them in pdf form, and immediately fell in love with a chapter I hadn't known anything about before: Carcharodon Astra, or the Carcharodons as they're more commonly known.
I'll give you the basic overview of their fluff. The chapter was created from Raven Guard geneseed. Their primary purpose is to operate outside known space to the imperium, in the galactic void, to essentially wipe out threats to mankind before they enter imperial space. They occasionally come back in order to lend their strength to the imperium, the badab war being the one shining example of this. Very little is known about the chapter as a result. They have a fleet of ancient warships, old patterns of armor and weapons, and one known commander: Tyberos, the Red Wake. If you haven't seen Tyberos' model, go to the forgeworld site and check it out, it's mean looking. I'll be getting one at christmas time, courtesy of my awesome girlfriend.
While they follow the tenants of the codex astartes loosely, the chapter prefers the whirlwind of close combat over ranged combat. This is made abundantly clear in Tyberos' special rules. He grants tactical squads the ability to swap their bolters for close combat weapons, as well as making a single lightning claw terminator squad a troop choice. In addition to this, Tyberos' chapter tactics gives every unit in your army furious charge, with the caveat that once a unit wipes out another unit in close combat, they gain the rage universal special rule. With all of this in mind, I had to choose a codex to use for my Carcharodons. Most official events don't allow for Imperial Armor characters or rules, so when I'm forced to, I'll be using the Blood Angels codex. To me, it's the codex that matches the special rules Tyberos grants to the army. So, here is the list I'm going to be running at 2,000 points:
HQ:
Captain in Terminator Armor with Lightning Claws
Librarian in Terminator Armor with Unleash Rage and the Sanguine Sword
Elites:
Sanguinary Priest in Terminator Armor
Sanguinary Priest in Power Armor
5 Terminators with Lightning Claws
Troops:
3 10 man Assault squads with 2 Melta Guns, Power Fist, Rhino
5 Scouts with Sniper Rifles and Camo Cloaks
Heavy Support:
2 5 man Devastator squads with 4 Missile Launchers
Land Raider Crusader with Extra Armor and Multi-Melta
The nice part about this list is that I'm only going to have to paint the 30 assault marines and the terminators. With the forge world transfers my girlfriend is buying me, they army will be space sharking in no time. I also built this list with tactics in mind, and I think it will work well. The captain, librarian, and priest will be going with the terminators in the land raider crusader most of the time. I never make my land raiders dedicated transports if I have the heavy support slot, just in case I want another unit to start in the raider, or if I want my terminators to deepstrike. The assault squads will be sticking with the land raider in order to take advantage of the priest's bubble of awesome. The second priest will be staying back with the scouts and devastators. I'm expecting the life expectancy of both units to go up dramatically with the priest around.
That's it! This will be what will be consuming the next month or two of my life. I'm going to need help making sure I'm on task with getting all of this done. I'll be posting weekly updates on my progress, any comments or encouragement is appreciated!
Max
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tournament Organization – A mess on our hands
Hello there again, I’m going to get into the art of tournament organization and what you should and should not do in preparations.
1- Location
Whether at a local friendly gaming store(LFGS) or going out to a convention, as a Tournament Organizer(TO) make sure your people know where they can get food or accommodations if its a con.
2- Pre-Tournament
Make sure you (as the TO) and any Judges you have helping know what they are doing and assist you. If tables need terrain, missions need organizing, score sheets need to be made, make sure you're on top of it. You will never fully be prepared, but you can at least be mostly prepared.
3- Tournament Day
Talk to the your LFGS and see what deals they can offer the players that day. Also check with any food venues and see if they are willing to cut any deals or for really large events just give them a heads up business may pick up that weekend.
Make sure everything is set. No last minute running around, its your show to run and, well, its going to be a long day.
4 – After Tournament
Thank your players, and they will thank you for running this. It was probably a long day and people will be beat but thank them for their time and being considerate. If the event is at a LFGS you are either a guest or a representative for that store for that day. Make the people feel welcome and want to return for much more fun packed times.
Things you should do:
Be kind and respectful to anyone you talk to.
Settle rules disputes in a timely manner to not hinder game play.
Be knowledgeable, know your shit!
Build a Reputation – The more people know you are great at running these events, the more people will return.
Things you shouldn't do:
Do not go and show no interest or half ass the event, it will show!
Don't be a jackass, people will probably be a pain and will drive you nuts, but either ignore them or be reasonable.
Don't leave the place trashed, clean up after yourself and your people, make sure to tell them to respect the place and clean.
It's always an experience running an event and new things come up all the time. Take notes, write down what worked and what didn't and learn from your mistakes, the more events you run, the more you will learn troubleshooting for the inevitable.
Thanks for your time, and feel free to bounce your ideas and leave any tournament running experience you may have, or even if you have not run a tournament, things you have liked from places you have been to for a tournament.
Cardin Out.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
New Author: Cardin Corbit
Hello all, my name is Cardin Corbit and I have been asked to put up my thoughts, opinions, list building and game strategies on Max's site. Some background on myself:
I have been in this hobby since age 11. Being 23 now, I've been at this a long time and seeing the changes within the game and standards for most things is a real eye opener. I have taken on the challenges of playing a wide variety of armies and more so learning to fight against whatever comes across my path. I was originally a player at the Wizard's Tower and now reside at the much larger and better located Game Castle in Londonderry, both as an event coordinator and player.
I consider myself a competitive player and will try to find ways to make myself with every game - win or lose. I love the painting and converting aspect of the hobby as well.
The army I currently play the most and am most familiar with is Chaos Space Marines. I have also delved into other armies - playing Orks, Marines, Black Templars and Eldar.
I am on here to give my point of view to the many aspects of gaming and what you can do and can't do to make the game fun and enjoyable for all. We do this for fun, even though sometimes testosterone gets going and dice flying but at the end, sit back, relax and put down a nice cold one at the end of the day.
Cardin Out.
I'm pleased to have Cardin on board to give us his take on what is competitive, as well as his approach to the game. I will be posting his first article tomorrow. Buddha's Scout horde article will be up this week as well, in addition to an article debuting my newest army project.
Max
Sunday, November 20, 2011
CarnageCon: Round Three Report
Hey all,
Sorry for not getting this up sooner. I had an extremely busy week at work and at home. If you can recall, a couple weeks ago I went up with my crew to CarnageCon to play in a tournament. My third and final game was against my good friend Mike Begin. He was playing his Black Legion as Space Wolves. Now, before I get to his list, a little about the history between Mike and I. Since I've started playing competitively, Mike has been one of my hardest opponents. He plays just like I do - brutal, go for the throat, maximum bloodshed. It comes out worst when we play one another. In addition to that, we literally trade wins. Meaning that if I win a game, Mike is most definitely going to win the next one, 100%. Unfortunately, I won the last game between us. Mike's list looking like this:
Logan Grimnar
Rune Priest with Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane
5 Terminators with assorted weapons
5 Terminators with assorted weapons
2x10 Grey Hunters with 2 meltas, powerfist, rhino
10 Grey Hunters with 2 meltas, powerfist, drop pod
2x5 Longfangs with assorted heavy weapons
Land Raider Redeemer
I apologize for not having a more accurate count of what he had, it's been a while since the game. The deployment was Spearhead.
Primary Objective: Secretly choose three units in your opponent's army, you get a point for each one you kill. Dedicated transports can't be singled out.
Secondary Objective: Killpoints, I believe.
Tertiary Objective: Victory points.
This missions is sort of designed to mess with certain armies. Mike is obviously going to pick my three speeders. I picked his rune priest and two long fang squads. We roll to see who goes first, and I do. Mike doesn't seize.
Turn One - Max
Trying to capitalize on the success I had against Adam, I make the decision to deep strike my terminators against Mike. I start with the Land Raider on the table, and I keep my speeders in reserve to try and avoid the inevitable. So, I try to start the game off by putting terminators behind the long fangs in the corner, giving me a good position to get some points quickly. Mike's terminators are too far away from them to support them before I take them out. I place my first terminator squad about 9" from his long fangs, and roll for scatter. They scatter just enough to mishap on top of his long fangs, and get destroyed. Off to a good start. I'm sticking to my plan though, as I need to do damage to him in order to have a chance. I place the second squad in the same spot as the first, and they mishap on his long fangs as well. Mike places them in my corner behind my land raider. I'm sticking to my plan, there's no way I'll mishap three times in a row. I place Belial's squad in the same spot...and they mishap on the long fangs as well. Mike, seizing on my bad luck, puts them right in the middle, where he can bring his entire army to bear on them the next turn. I back up my land raider to pick up my other mishap squad next turn. My dice are in open rebellion.
Turn One - Mike
I'm reeling right now with such awful luck, but Mike knows better than to sit back and be complacent. Our games are won against each other by keeping the murder pedal to the floor at all times. His drop pod squad comes in to the left of Belial's unit, to make sure he can shoot. His walking terminator squad moves up to get into shooting/assault range, Logan and company move up in the raider and disembark, and a grey hunter squad disembarks and moves up to lend their fire as well. His shooting phase begins, and his army unleashes hell on Belial's squad. When the smoke clears, only Belial and the High Chaplain are left standing. Mike then assaults them, and removes them from existence.
End of turn one picture:
Turn Two - Max
I'm 800 points down at this point, and I need a miracle to pull off a victory. I roll for my reserves, and a single speeder comes in. I move it along the far table edge, to avoid being knocked out by Mike's long fangs. My terminators get in the crusader, and move towards the middle building. All of my shooting misses.
Turn Two - Mike
Unfortunately, with all of my stuff coming in piecemeal, the action slows down. Mike moves his walking terminator squad into the middle building, along with the drop pod hunters. Logan and company get back in the land raider, and the other grey hunters get back in their rhino. Mike doesn't have a whole lot of targets, or range. His lascannon and missile launcher long fangs manage to take the multi-melta off the land raider. His rune priest tries to cast living lightning on my speeder, and manages to get a perils of the warp. We have a good laugh, our shitty luck always goes both ways.
End of turn two picture:
Turn Three - Max
I roll for my reserves, and I get a terminator squad and speeder. I place my terminators a ridiculously safe distance from Mike's long fangs and roll my scatter...I roll box cars with an arrow right towards his long fangs. Another mishap, fortunately, these go back in reserve. At this point, the game has just become an exercise in trying to pull anything out of certain defeat. My other speeder moves up alongside the first, and my crusader moves up to do damage to the middle building. My shooting does nothing again. I assault his middle terminator squad with mine, and kill three. He kills one and return, and fails his morale check. I consolidate to keep his terminators running away.
Turn Three - Mike
Mike moves Logan and company into the building to take out my terminator squad. His grey hunters in the middle hold their ground. His rhinos shuffle to get in position to stop my crusader. Mike's shooting is nearly ineffective, he managed to immobilize one of my speeders with living lightning. He charges my terminators with Logan and his squad, only killing two. I kill one in return, and we stay locked in combat.
End of turn three picture:
Turn Four - Max
I roll for my reserves, and my final speeder comes in, along with a terminator squad. The terminators deep strike near his long fangs, and close enough to keep his broken terminators running. I roll a direct hit this time. My final speeder moves up to hang out with his counterparts. The land raider moves up to get shots on his long fangs. Shooting sees me take the weapon off his drop pod, and stun the rhino his rune priest is in. My crusader unloads on his long fangs, killing two. They pass their morale check. Logan finishes off the last of my terminators in assault.
Turn Four - Mike
Turn four starts for Mike with his redeemer immobilizing itself on the middle ruins. His rhino moves to block my crusader from rampaging on his long fangs. Logan's squad tries to move through terrain in order to get to my newly arrived terminators, and rolls low. I'll be safe for this turn. The shooting phase sees Mike shoot at my terminators, knocking down two. He also manages to destroy my crusader with melta guns.
End of turn four picture:
Turn Five - Max
My final terminator squad comes in on the other side of the long fangs, and scatters away from them. Damn. My speeders move forwards to try and get better shots. My three man terminators move towards the long fang squad nearest to them. My terminator squad that just arrived manages to explode Mike's rune priest rhino. My speeders frag six of the newly disembarked grey hunters to death. I'm trying to get the rune priest alone, in case it goes to turn 6. On to assault, I need to make it into assault with his long fangs in order to stay in this, and I roll snake eyes. We aren't surprised, that's how our games are.
Turn Five - Mike
Capitalizing on my gamble, Mike manages to blow up two of my speeders, kill three of the terminators that just came in, and assault the ones that failed the charge. A solid win for him.
End of game picture:
End of game thoughts:
What a rough game. Mike is already a player I can't afford to make mistakes against, and my luck was just awful. Had my deepstrikes gone as planned turn one, it would have been a very different game. Mike played it perfectly, he capitalized on my garbage luck, and had the game well in hand from turn two on. My plan now is to dodge any games with him until the next GT, just in case I have to play him. Overall, I was pretty happy with how my army did at CarnageCon, and I feel good shelving them for a bit now after a year of constant play. I've been messing around with my codex space marines for the last month or so, and they really aren't working out for me. I went ahead and bought a small Blood Angels army that I plan on building and painting before the next big event. More details in my next post. Comments are always welcome, except from Mike. Fuck you, Mike.
Max
Sorry for not getting this up sooner. I had an extremely busy week at work and at home. If you can recall, a couple weeks ago I went up with my crew to CarnageCon to play in a tournament. My third and final game was against my good friend Mike Begin. He was playing his Black Legion as Space Wolves. Now, before I get to his list, a little about the history between Mike and I. Since I've started playing competitively, Mike has been one of my hardest opponents. He plays just like I do - brutal, go for the throat, maximum bloodshed. It comes out worst when we play one another. In addition to that, we literally trade wins. Meaning that if I win a game, Mike is most definitely going to win the next one, 100%. Unfortunately, I won the last game between us. Mike's list looking like this:
Logan Grimnar
Rune Priest with Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane
5 Terminators with assorted weapons
5 Terminators with assorted weapons
2x10 Grey Hunters with 2 meltas, powerfist, rhino
10 Grey Hunters with 2 meltas, powerfist, drop pod
2x5 Longfangs with assorted heavy weapons
Land Raider Redeemer
I apologize for not having a more accurate count of what he had, it's been a while since the game. The deployment was Spearhead.
Primary Objective: Secretly choose three units in your opponent's army, you get a point for each one you kill. Dedicated transports can't be singled out.
Secondary Objective: Killpoints, I believe.
Tertiary Objective: Victory points.
This missions is sort of designed to mess with certain armies. Mike is obviously going to pick my three speeders. I picked his rune priest and two long fang squads. We roll to see who goes first, and I do. Mike doesn't seize.
Turn One - Max
Trying to capitalize on the success I had against Adam, I make the decision to deep strike my terminators against Mike. I start with the Land Raider on the table, and I keep my speeders in reserve to try and avoid the inevitable. So, I try to start the game off by putting terminators behind the long fangs in the corner, giving me a good position to get some points quickly. Mike's terminators are too far away from them to support them before I take them out. I place my first terminator squad about 9" from his long fangs, and roll for scatter. They scatter just enough to mishap on top of his long fangs, and get destroyed. Off to a good start. I'm sticking to my plan though, as I need to do damage to him in order to have a chance. I place the second squad in the same spot as the first, and they mishap on his long fangs as well. Mike places them in my corner behind my land raider. I'm sticking to my plan, there's no way I'll mishap three times in a row. I place Belial's squad in the same spot...and they mishap on the long fangs as well. Mike, seizing on my bad luck, puts them right in the middle, where he can bring his entire army to bear on them the next turn. I back up my land raider to pick up my other mishap squad next turn. My dice are in open rebellion.
Turn One - Mike
I'm reeling right now with such awful luck, but Mike knows better than to sit back and be complacent. Our games are won against each other by keeping the murder pedal to the floor at all times. His drop pod squad comes in to the left of Belial's unit, to make sure he can shoot. His walking terminator squad moves up to get into shooting/assault range, Logan and company move up in the raider and disembark, and a grey hunter squad disembarks and moves up to lend their fire as well. His shooting phase begins, and his army unleashes hell on Belial's squad. When the smoke clears, only Belial and the High Chaplain are left standing. Mike then assaults them, and removes them from existence.
End of turn one picture:
Turn Two - Max
I'm 800 points down at this point, and I need a miracle to pull off a victory. I roll for my reserves, and a single speeder comes in. I move it along the far table edge, to avoid being knocked out by Mike's long fangs. My terminators get in the crusader, and move towards the middle building. All of my shooting misses.
Turn Two - Mike
Unfortunately, with all of my stuff coming in piecemeal, the action slows down. Mike moves his walking terminator squad into the middle building, along with the drop pod hunters. Logan and company get back in the land raider, and the other grey hunters get back in their rhino. Mike doesn't have a whole lot of targets, or range. His lascannon and missile launcher long fangs manage to take the multi-melta off the land raider. His rune priest tries to cast living lightning on my speeder, and manages to get a perils of the warp. We have a good laugh, our shitty luck always goes both ways.
End of turn two picture:
Turn Three - Max
I roll for my reserves, and I get a terminator squad and speeder. I place my terminators a ridiculously safe distance from Mike's long fangs and roll my scatter...I roll box cars with an arrow right towards his long fangs. Another mishap, fortunately, these go back in reserve. At this point, the game has just become an exercise in trying to pull anything out of certain defeat. My other speeder moves up alongside the first, and my crusader moves up to do damage to the middle building. My shooting does nothing again. I assault his middle terminator squad with mine, and kill three. He kills one and return, and fails his morale check. I consolidate to keep his terminators running away.
Turn Three - Mike
Mike moves Logan and company into the building to take out my terminator squad. His grey hunters in the middle hold their ground. His rhinos shuffle to get in position to stop my crusader. Mike's shooting is nearly ineffective, he managed to immobilize one of my speeders with living lightning. He charges my terminators with Logan and his squad, only killing two. I kill one in return, and we stay locked in combat.
End of turn three picture:
Turn Four - Max
I roll for my reserves, and my final speeder comes in, along with a terminator squad. The terminators deep strike near his long fangs, and close enough to keep his broken terminators running. I roll a direct hit this time. My final speeder moves up to hang out with his counterparts. The land raider moves up to get shots on his long fangs. Shooting sees me take the weapon off his drop pod, and stun the rhino his rune priest is in. My crusader unloads on his long fangs, killing two. They pass their morale check. Logan finishes off the last of my terminators in assault.
Turn Four - Mike
Turn four starts for Mike with his redeemer immobilizing itself on the middle ruins. His rhino moves to block my crusader from rampaging on his long fangs. Logan's squad tries to move through terrain in order to get to my newly arrived terminators, and rolls low. I'll be safe for this turn. The shooting phase sees Mike shoot at my terminators, knocking down two. He also manages to destroy my crusader with melta guns.
End of turn four picture:
Turn Five - Max
My final terminator squad comes in on the other side of the long fangs, and scatters away from them. Damn. My speeders move forwards to try and get better shots. My three man terminators move towards the long fang squad nearest to them. My terminator squad that just arrived manages to explode Mike's rune priest rhino. My speeders frag six of the newly disembarked grey hunters to death. I'm trying to get the rune priest alone, in case it goes to turn 6. On to assault, I need to make it into assault with his long fangs in order to stay in this, and I roll snake eyes. We aren't surprised, that's how our games are.
Turn Five - Mike
Capitalizing on my gamble, Mike manages to blow up two of my speeders, kill three of the terminators that just came in, and assault the ones that failed the charge. A solid win for him.
End of game picture:
End of game thoughts:
What a rough game. Mike is already a player I can't afford to make mistakes against, and my luck was just awful. Had my deepstrikes gone as planned turn one, it would have been a very different game. Mike played it perfectly, he capitalized on my garbage luck, and had the game well in hand from turn two on. My plan now is to dodge any games with him until the next GT, just in case I have to play him. Overall, I was pretty happy with how my army did at CarnageCon, and I feel good shelving them for a bit now after a year of constant play. I've been messing around with my codex space marines for the last month or so, and they really aren't working out for me. I went ahead and bought a small Blood Angels army that I plan on building and painting before the next big event. More details in my next post. Comments are always welcome, except from Mike. Fuck you, Mike.
Max
Sunday, November 13, 2011
CarnageCon: Round Two Report
Hey all,
Busy week, finally getting around to round two. As a refresher, I went to a tournament at CarnageCon with my Deathwing. First round was against Deathwing - http://maxpowercsm.blogspot.com/2011/11/hey-everyone-so-yesterday-i-went-up-to.html - you can read the report at that link.
Round two was against Adam Morris' Tau. Adam is a good friend of mine, and the only Tau player that I'm ever worried about. He's notorious for putting the hurt on people that underestimate his army and playing ability. I have a basic idea of what his list was, perhaps he can comment if I got anything wrong.
Shas'el with plasma guns, missile pods, and shield generator, 2 bodyguard with the same loadout, two shield drones.
3 crisis suits with missile pods.
3 10 man Firewarrior teams, 2 with dedicated Devilfish.
20 Kroot with hounds.
8 Pathfinders with markerlights and railrifles, their Devilfish grabbed one of the Firewarrior squads.
2 Piranhas with fusion blasters, not in a squadron.
Hammerhead with Railgun.
2 squads of 2 Broadsides.
The mission was Dawn of War deployment.
Primary Mission Objective: Control more objectives, there was one in the center, and one in the center of each table quarter.
Secondary Mission Objective: Kill your opponent's most expensive troop unit.
Tertiary Mission Objective: Kill your opponent's most expensive HQ unit.
Tie Breaker: Killpoints.
We roll off to see who go first, and Adam wins. He chooses to deploy first. He deploys his kroot on one of the objectives, with his plasma HQ squad behind the hill. I opt to put two terminator squads out, and deepstrike the rest. Here's a picture of our deployment:
I attempt to seize the initiative, and fail. On to turn one.
Turn One - Adam
Adam brings his entire army on from the board edge, and moves to positions to get firing lanes on me. All the while, I'm confident he won't get the night fighting rolls he needs to do serious damage to me first turn. Adam then introduces me to Blacksun Filters. His army lights my two terminator squads up, killing three from one, and two from another. Not reading his list carefully enough has put me in a pretty bad spot turn one. Lesson learned.
Turn One - Max
Per the Deathwing assault rules, two of my terminator squads come in by deepstrike. I bring in the command squad, with Belial and High Chaplain Ragefuck attached. They scatter an inch away from Adam's devilfish wall. My other squad deepstrikes in the area of Adam's kroot, as I want to put pressure on his objective. Knowing I won't roll anything worthwhile for night fighting, I go flat out with my speeders to gain a cover save. My empty land raider goes twelve inches to try to get a shot on his Piranha. In the shooting phase I manage to shake a devilfish with missiles, and shake/immobilize his piranha with my land raider's assault cannon. I'm up in his face now, I just need to weather this next shooting phase, and I can start putting the hurt on him.
End of turn one picture:
Turn Two - Adam
I've presented Adam a serious problem, a giant terminator squad right in his lines. He resolves to make it disappear this turn. He moves his infantry to start taking shots on my command squad, and gets his rail guns in a good spot to take out my speeders. His plasma HQ squad moves up to take shots on my terminator squad that just came in. The shooting phase opens up with his HQ squad nuking 4 of my terminators. His hammerhead and broadsides lay into my speeders, with one exploding, the missile launchers being taken off another, and the last one being stunned. His firewarriors, devilfish, and missile pod suits pour fire into my command squad...and only succeed putting a wound on Belial.
Turn Two - Max
I roll for my final terminator squad, and it comes in. It scatters an inch from Adam's devilfish wall as well. I floor the land raider forward and pop smoke. My two man squad in the center moves up the hill onto the objective, the three man moves toward the kroot, and the lone terminator moves into assault range of the piranha. My command squad spreads out to try and get a multi-vehicle assault. Belial splits off to go play with the pathfinders. The shooting phase begins with my two center terminator squads killing both shield drones in the HQ crisis squad. My multi-melta speeder tries to take out his piranha counterpart, and misses. The newly arrived terminators have their missiles explode a devilfish. The High Chaplain takes aim with his combi-melta, and blows another devilfish sky-high. Unfortunately, the firewarriors in the devilfish lose four to the explosion, fail their morale check, and run away. No assault more my command squad. Belial charges the pathfinders, only killing two, and they stick in combat. The lone terminator charges the piranha, and wrecks it. Overall, a very productive turn.
End of turn two picture:
Turn Three - Adam
With terminator squads in his face, Adam needs to start eliminating some my ability to take objectives, and units that can contest. His broken firewarriors flee off the table. He moves the Hammerhead to take a shot on one of my speeders, his broadsides hold their position. The HQ crisis team jumps out to take shots on the three man squad, and the missile pod suits move to get shots on either my speeder or terminators. His shooting phase starts with his HQ crisis team annihilating the three man squad in front of them. His hammerhead puts a round through my immobilized speeder and wrecks it. His missile crisis suits and piranha do nothing to my speeder. His DRONES, however, immobilize it. Concentrated broadside fire takes out the two terminators on the center objective, and his DRONES kill one of my terminators. Seriously, drones? Turns out this would happen a couple more times during the game. They were by far his MVPs. His drones from the piranha assault my lone terminator, and they get croqueted of the table. Belial kills ONE pathfinder, and remains stuck in combat. What a sack of fail.
Turn Three - Max
I'm running out of terminators. I have three scoring units left, and Adam has two. I need to make sure I remain in the lead with that count. My lone terminator sprints to the objective near my table edge. I move my command squad into assault range of his missile pod suits, and my other squad to get shots on his HQ suits. My land raider then tank shocks his kroot, and they fail their morale. They don't fall back much, but my land raider is in a position to make sure they run off the table next turn. The only shooting I have sees my terminators take out one of the suits in his command squad. Assault phase begins with my command squad wiping out his missile pod suits, and consolidating near his broadsides. Belial only kills two pathfinders, and they manage to make their morale check again.
End of turn three picture:
Turn Four - Adam
The turn begins with his kroot running off the table, and Adam being down to one troop choice. He moves his remaining troops choice to the center objective, and disembarks them. I guess the memory of my Chaplain immolating 4 of his firewarriors in their transport is still fresh! He uses his drones to block any easy asault lanes to them. His piranha moves away from my now useless speeder. Adam starts the shooting phase by wrecking my land raider with one of his broadside teams. His hammerhead tries to snipe out the lone terminator on my right corner objective, and he blocks it with his shield. His broadsides put a round through one of my command squad terminators, while his drones kill another. The assault phase finally goes my way, with Belial shredding the remaining pathfinders.
Turn Four - Max
I can see the victory at the end of the tunnel, but Adam is still in a good position to take it away from me. I resolve to swing the game in my favor permanently this turn. My center terminators move towards his firewarriors, while the command squad break off to take out broadsides, Belial and the High Chaplain forming a squad and doing the same. Shooting was minimal, I managed to frag a single firewarrior. Assault sees the combined might of my terminators annihilate his broadside suits. I now have control of two objectives, and I'm threatening two. With the next turn potentially being the last, I'm supremely confident that the game is in hand.
End of turn four picture:
Turn Five - Adam
Adam knows he needs to work on taking objectives away from me. He moves the firewarriors up to secure the center objective, and uses the drones again to block any easy assault lanes I might have. His remaining devilfish and hammerhead move back to contest the objective my command squad is on, with the hammerhead being in range to do it. His HQ suits jump onto the hill, in order to get line of site on my lone terminator in the ruins. His piranha moves back to kill my immobilized speeder. Shoot phase starts with his suits raining missiles on my lone terminator, killing it. His piranha finally wrecks the remaining speeder. His HQ suits jump back to the back side of the hill, to contest the objective, and make it one hell of a difficult terrain check to get them.
Turn Five - Max
Potentially the last turn of the game, and Adam, true to form, has managed to take the victory away from me. I'm moving desperately to try and salvage the game. My remaining two terminators near the HQ squad try to move up the hill to assault, and roll too low to make it. Belial splits off from the High Chaplain to go to the center objective, in case there is another turn. The High Chaplain joins the command squad on the hill to take out the hammerhead. My center terminator squad moves to get assault on the drones. Shooting is completely ineffectual for me. The assault phase sees my hammers dismantle the hammerhead, destroying it. My center squad kills the drones and consolidates up onto the center objective, contesting it. As it stands now, I have the victory. Adam rolls to see if the game continues, and it does.
End of turn five/start of turn six picture: We were running out of time, so Adam had to start moving his stuff while I got the picture.
Turn Six - Adam
Adam has gotten a second chance to take the game away from me. His suits move up on the hill to remove my two terminators there. His Devilfish moves onto the command squad's objective, to once again contest it. His firewarriors hold their ground and pour fire into my center terminators, only killing two. His piranha puts a melta shot into Belial, and kills him. Should have seen that coming. His HQ crisis suits reduce one of my terminators to a puddle with plasma fire, and then charge it. I'm shocked that he assaulted me, but he had no choice. His gambit pays off, as the suits kill my lone terminator before it can swing. Very well played.
Turn Six - Max
Unfortunately, Adam's shooting didn't take care of my terminators in the center. My command squad with the High Chaplain smash their way through the devilfish, claiming that objective. The two center terminators do their job, and break his firewarriors in assault, with them fleeing off the objective. At this point, I roll to see if it ends, and it does. I win the game holding two objectives.
End of turn six picture:
After game thoughts - Wow, what a great game. Adam always puts up a wicked fight, again proving that the Tau can still do damage. I was reduced to 6 terminators at the end of the game. I thought I played the game pretty well, with the squads of terminators doing what they're supposed to. If I had a chance to play this game again, I think I would have moved my speeders put the right flank, to try to help handle those damn HQ crisis suits. As I played them in this battle, they were fairly useless. Adam played the mission well, with the real game changer being his kroot failing the tank shock roll. With their cover saves, and numerous bodies, I would have had to commit more resources than I wanted to in order to take them out. The tank shock was a lucky solution to my problem.
I hope you guys liked the report. Please feel free to comment! Round three against Mike Begin's Chaos Wolves will be up around the middle of the week.
Max
Busy week, finally getting around to round two. As a refresher, I went to a tournament at CarnageCon with my Deathwing. First round was against Deathwing - http://maxpowercsm.blogspot.com/2011/11/hey-everyone-so-yesterday-i-went-up-to.html - you can read the report at that link.
Round two was against Adam Morris' Tau. Adam is a good friend of mine, and the only Tau player that I'm ever worried about. He's notorious for putting the hurt on people that underestimate his army and playing ability. I have a basic idea of what his list was, perhaps he can comment if I got anything wrong.
Shas'el with plasma guns, missile pods, and shield generator, 2 bodyguard with the same loadout, two shield drones.
3 crisis suits with missile pods.
3 10 man Firewarrior teams, 2 with dedicated Devilfish.
20 Kroot with hounds.
8 Pathfinders with markerlights and railrifles, their Devilfish grabbed one of the Firewarrior squads.
2 Piranhas with fusion blasters, not in a squadron.
Hammerhead with Railgun.
2 squads of 2 Broadsides.
The mission was Dawn of War deployment.
Primary Mission Objective: Control more objectives, there was one in the center, and one in the center of each table quarter.
Secondary Mission Objective: Kill your opponent's most expensive troop unit.
Tertiary Mission Objective: Kill your opponent's most expensive HQ unit.
Tie Breaker: Killpoints.
We roll off to see who go first, and Adam wins. He chooses to deploy first. He deploys his kroot on one of the objectives, with his plasma HQ squad behind the hill. I opt to put two terminator squads out, and deepstrike the rest. Here's a picture of our deployment:
I attempt to seize the initiative, and fail. On to turn one.
Turn One - Adam
Adam brings his entire army on from the board edge, and moves to positions to get firing lanes on me. All the while, I'm confident he won't get the night fighting rolls he needs to do serious damage to me first turn. Adam then introduces me to Blacksun Filters. His army lights my two terminator squads up, killing three from one, and two from another. Not reading his list carefully enough has put me in a pretty bad spot turn one. Lesson learned.
Turn One - Max
Per the Deathwing assault rules, two of my terminator squads come in by deepstrike. I bring in the command squad, with Belial and High Chaplain Ragefuck attached. They scatter an inch away from Adam's devilfish wall. My other squad deepstrikes in the area of Adam's kroot, as I want to put pressure on his objective. Knowing I won't roll anything worthwhile for night fighting, I go flat out with my speeders to gain a cover save. My empty land raider goes twelve inches to try to get a shot on his Piranha. In the shooting phase I manage to shake a devilfish with missiles, and shake/immobilize his piranha with my land raider's assault cannon. I'm up in his face now, I just need to weather this next shooting phase, and I can start putting the hurt on him.
End of turn one picture:
Turn Two - Adam
I've presented Adam a serious problem, a giant terminator squad right in his lines. He resolves to make it disappear this turn. He moves his infantry to start taking shots on my command squad, and gets his rail guns in a good spot to take out my speeders. His plasma HQ squad moves up to take shots on my terminator squad that just came in. The shooting phase opens up with his HQ squad nuking 4 of my terminators. His hammerhead and broadsides lay into my speeders, with one exploding, the missile launchers being taken off another, and the last one being stunned. His firewarriors, devilfish, and missile pod suits pour fire into my command squad...and only succeed putting a wound on Belial.
Turn Two - Max
I roll for my final terminator squad, and it comes in. It scatters an inch from Adam's devilfish wall as well. I floor the land raider forward and pop smoke. My two man squad in the center moves up the hill onto the objective, the three man moves toward the kroot, and the lone terminator moves into assault range of the piranha. My command squad spreads out to try and get a multi-vehicle assault. Belial splits off to go play with the pathfinders. The shooting phase begins with my two center terminator squads killing both shield drones in the HQ crisis squad. My multi-melta speeder tries to take out his piranha counterpart, and misses. The newly arrived terminators have their missiles explode a devilfish. The High Chaplain takes aim with his combi-melta, and blows another devilfish sky-high. Unfortunately, the firewarriors in the devilfish lose four to the explosion, fail their morale check, and run away. No assault more my command squad. Belial charges the pathfinders, only killing two, and they stick in combat. The lone terminator charges the piranha, and wrecks it. Overall, a very productive turn.
End of turn two picture:
Turn Three - Adam
With terminator squads in his face, Adam needs to start eliminating some my ability to take objectives, and units that can contest. His broken firewarriors flee off the table. He moves the Hammerhead to take a shot on one of my speeders, his broadsides hold their position. The HQ crisis team jumps out to take shots on the three man squad, and the missile pod suits move to get shots on either my speeder or terminators. His shooting phase starts with his HQ crisis team annihilating the three man squad in front of them. His hammerhead puts a round through my immobilized speeder and wrecks it. His missile crisis suits and piranha do nothing to my speeder. His DRONES, however, immobilize it. Concentrated broadside fire takes out the two terminators on the center objective, and his DRONES kill one of my terminators. Seriously, drones? Turns out this would happen a couple more times during the game. They were by far his MVPs. His drones from the piranha assault my lone terminator, and they get croqueted of the table. Belial kills ONE pathfinder, and remains stuck in combat. What a sack of fail.
Turn Three - Max
I'm running out of terminators. I have three scoring units left, and Adam has two. I need to make sure I remain in the lead with that count. My lone terminator sprints to the objective near my table edge. I move my command squad into assault range of his missile pod suits, and my other squad to get shots on his HQ suits. My land raider then tank shocks his kroot, and they fail their morale. They don't fall back much, but my land raider is in a position to make sure they run off the table next turn. The only shooting I have sees my terminators take out one of the suits in his command squad. Assault phase begins with my command squad wiping out his missile pod suits, and consolidating near his broadsides. Belial only kills two pathfinders, and they manage to make their morale check again.
End of turn three picture:
Turn Four - Adam
The turn begins with his kroot running off the table, and Adam being down to one troop choice. He moves his remaining troops choice to the center objective, and disembarks them. I guess the memory of my Chaplain immolating 4 of his firewarriors in their transport is still fresh! He uses his drones to block any easy asault lanes to them. His piranha moves away from my now useless speeder. Adam starts the shooting phase by wrecking my land raider with one of his broadside teams. His hammerhead tries to snipe out the lone terminator on my right corner objective, and he blocks it with his shield. His broadsides put a round through one of my command squad terminators, while his drones kill another. The assault phase finally goes my way, with Belial shredding the remaining pathfinders.
Turn Four - Max
I can see the victory at the end of the tunnel, but Adam is still in a good position to take it away from me. I resolve to swing the game in my favor permanently this turn. My center terminators move towards his firewarriors, while the command squad break off to take out broadsides, Belial and the High Chaplain forming a squad and doing the same. Shooting was minimal, I managed to frag a single firewarrior. Assault sees the combined might of my terminators annihilate his broadside suits. I now have control of two objectives, and I'm threatening two. With the next turn potentially being the last, I'm supremely confident that the game is in hand.
End of turn four picture:
Turn Five - Adam
Adam knows he needs to work on taking objectives away from me. He moves the firewarriors up to secure the center objective, and uses the drones again to block any easy assault lanes I might have. His remaining devilfish and hammerhead move back to contest the objective my command squad is on, with the hammerhead being in range to do it. His HQ suits jump onto the hill, in order to get line of site on my lone terminator in the ruins. His piranha moves back to kill my immobilized speeder. Shoot phase starts with his suits raining missiles on my lone terminator, killing it. His piranha finally wrecks the remaining speeder. His HQ suits jump back to the back side of the hill, to contest the objective, and make it one hell of a difficult terrain check to get them.
Turn Five - Max
Potentially the last turn of the game, and Adam, true to form, has managed to take the victory away from me. I'm moving desperately to try and salvage the game. My remaining two terminators near the HQ squad try to move up the hill to assault, and roll too low to make it. Belial splits off from the High Chaplain to go to the center objective, in case there is another turn. The High Chaplain joins the command squad on the hill to take out the hammerhead. My center terminator squad moves to get assault on the drones. Shooting is completely ineffectual for me. The assault phase sees my hammers dismantle the hammerhead, destroying it. My center squad kills the drones and consolidates up onto the center objective, contesting it. As it stands now, I have the victory. Adam rolls to see if the game continues, and it does.
End of turn five/start of turn six picture: We were running out of time, so Adam had to start moving his stuff while I got the picture.
Turn Six - Adam
Adam has gotten a second chance to take the game away from me. His suits move up on the hill to remove my two terminators there. His Devilfish moves onto the command squad's objective, to once again contest it. His firewarriors hold their ground and pour fire into my center terminators, only killing two. His piranha puts a melta shot into Belial, and kills him. Should have seen that coming. His HQ crisis suits reduce one of my terminators to a puddle with plasma fire, and then charge it. I'm shocked that he assaulted me, but he had no choice. His gambit pays off, as the suits kill my lone terminator before it can swing. Very well played.
Turn Six - Max
Unfortunately, Adam's shooting didn't take care of my terminators in the center. My command squad with the High Chaplain smash their way through the devilfish, claiming that objective. The two center terminators do their job, and break his firewarriors in assault, with them fleeing off the objective. At this point, I roll to see if it ends, and it does. I win the game holding two objectives.
End of turn six picture:
After game thoughts - Wow, what a great game. Adam always puts up a wicked fight, again proving that the Tau can still do damage. I was reduced to 6 terminators at the end of the game. I thought I played the game pretty well, with the squads of terminators doing what they're supposed to. If I had a chance to play this game again, I think I would have moved my speeders put the right flank, to try to help handle those damn HQ crisis suits. As I played them in this battle, they were fairly useless. Adam played the mission well, with the real game changer being his kroot failing the tank shock roll. With their cover saves, and numerous bodies, I would have had to commit more resources than I wanted to in order to take them out. The tank shock was a lucky solution to my problem.
I hope you guys liked the report. Please feel free to comment! Round three against Mike Begin's Chaos Wolves will be up around the middle of the week.
Max
Sunday, November 6, 2011
CarnageCon: Round One Report
Hey everyone,
So, yesterday, I went up to carnagecon with eight other guys from the Game Castle. It was a great day of gaming, and even though I didn't do as well as I had hoped, I'm proud that the guys I game with did so well. Robin even managed to take third place! I brought my Deathwing for one last hurrah before I shelved them in favor of my Codex Marines army. The list looked like this:
Belial - Lightning Claws
Terminator Chaplain - Combi-Melta. This is High Chaplain Ragefuck. He earned many laurels at the tournament.
Upgraded Terminator Squad - 4x Thunderhammer/Stormshield, Cyclone Missile Launcher, Apothecary, Standard Bearer.
4x Terminator Squads - 4x Thunderhammer/Stormshield, Cyclone Missile Launcher.
3x Land Speeders - Multi-Melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Raider Crusader - Extra Armor
Due to the time restriction during the tournament, I only took pictures after whole turns. I didn't want to be responsible for running out of time. On to round one!
Round One - Deathwing vs. Deathwing
My first opponent was a fellow named Brian from a store called Triple Play. The guys from Triple Play regularly come down to the Game Castle and participate in tournaments. They're all incredibly nice guys and great players - Brian is no exception. I didn't have time to write down exact lists. Here's an approximation:
Belial - Thunderhammer/Stormshield
Venerable Dreadnought - Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod
6 Terminator Squads - all with varying wargear.
3 Land Speeders - Multi-Melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher.
Our lists are incredibly similar. The outcome of the game is going to come down to the generalship and luck of the dice.
Primary mission objective: kill 25% of your opponent's models.
Secondary mission objective: kill your opponent's most expensive HQ.
Tertiary mission objective: kill your opponent's most expensive elite unit. If you don't have an elite unit, you automatically give up this objective. Fuck.
Tie Breaker One - killpoints.
Tie Breaker Two - whoever got more victory points.
We roll to see who goes first, and Brian wins. He decides to go first, and we deploy. Deployment looked like this:
I attempt to seize the initiative, and fail. The game starts.
Turn One - Brian
Brian moves his terminators closer to the middle of the table, intending to pin me in the corner. His speeders come out from behind their cover to take shots at my units. His shooting is pretty sub-par, but he manages to shake and immobilize two of my speeders, taking the missile launcher off one. His frag missiles also kill one of my terminators.
Turn One - Max
I put the pedal to the floor on my land raider and move up. I move my functional speeder to a spot that gives me line of site to his speeder closest to me, while blocking line of site from his army to mine using the land raider. I advance my terminators cautiously towards him. At the time, I was concerned with him being able to charge me, so I played it safe the whole game. In hindsight, that was dumb of me. My units were more optimized for combat - I should have jammed them down his throat and put him on the back foot. Shooting sees me return fire on his speeders, stunning two, immobilizing one, and taking the multi-melta off the one closest to me. Being unable to kill vehicles with krak missiles would be the theme of my time at this tournament. Fortunately, I stopped the nearest threat to my land raider.
End of turn one picture:
Turn Two - Brian
Brian's dreadnought comes in from reserve, dropping in a spot to be a threat to my flank, and to take shots on my speeder. His army dumps missiles into my speeders and land raider, managing to explode the non-immobilized speeder. His dreadnought opens up on my speeder, not doing a single thing to it. I breathe a sigh of relief.
Turn Two - Max
I floor the land raider towards the mass of terminators in the middle of the table, I disembark my deathstar squad so that they're in a spot to assault two units of his terminators. My terminators shuffle forwards a bit, and open fire on his vehicles. My krak missiles bounce off his dreadnought, stun his non-immobilized speeder, and wreck the speeder closest to me. I had fully intended to assault two of his units in the assault phase, but I opted to go for one. My concern was that I wouldn't be able to wipe out both squads on the charge, leaving me open for his deathstar squad. This decision came back to hurt me. I wipe the squad I assault, and consolidate into the terrain next to my land raider. I was relying on poor difficult terrain rolls for him to avoid getting swamped. Stupid.
Picture after turn two:
Turn Three - Brian
Brian, seeing that I left my most powerful unit in a vulnerable position, moves to capitalize on my mistake. His fire is completely ineffectual, my terminators shrug off all the krak missiles, and his dreadnought fails to do any damage to my speeder again. Brian does exactly what I expected him to do in the assault phase, he throws four squads into my deathstar, intending to drown me in dice. It works, with my unit doing very little damage to him in return. Only the High Chaplain claims any kills. It has turned into an uphill battle for me now.
Turn Three - Max
I need to start pressuring him, now. I roll back my land raider, and embark a squad. I intend to use them as a counter assault unit. I move two more of my squads toward the middle ground, and the last squad out to meet his dreadnought. I manage to kill one of his speeders and the drop pod in the shooting phase. My terminator squad charges his on the hill, both of us losing two terminators.
End of turn three picture:
Turn Four - Brian
Brian moves his deathstar up to my land raider, looking to break it open. His other squads move further away from me, hoping to avoid further damage. His dreadnought moves away from my advancing terminators, but close enough to get shots on my speeder. His missiles finally start hitting home on my speeders, wrecking them both. Belial and friends do nothing to my land raider in assault, and he finishes off my squad that he's locked in combat with.
Turn Four - Max
Belial is mine. I move my land raider backwards and disembark the squad inside. I move up the other squad in the area to support the assault. My last squad moves through difficult terrain to try and get to grips with his dreadnought. I soften up his deathstar with a volley from the crusader. My krak missiles bounce off his dreadnought again. I finally make a good difficult terrain roll and get into assault with the dreadnought, and manage to rip off his close combat arm and immobilize it. Assault with his deathstar goes well, with his unit drowning in thunderhammers, and me not losing a single terminator in return.
End of turn four picture:
Turn Five - Brian
Brian moves his terminators again to avoid getting into assault with me. He opens fire on my terminators...and manages to kill four. My ability to roll ones at critical moments is unrivaled, haha. The assault phase sees me finish off his dreadnought. I breathe a sigh of relief.
Turn Five - Max
I jump my lone terminator into the land raider, and move the land raider forward. My other terminators maneuver to get better shots on his remaining speeder. My shooting fails miserably. My crusader kills one terminator, and my krak missiles blow off a weapon on the speeder. I desperately need the game to go another turn. Brian rolls for it, and I get my wish.
End of turn five picture:
Turn Six - Brian
Brian shuffles his terminators again, and his shooting does nothing to me.
Turn Six - Max
I need to get killpoints in order to win this mission. I need the speeder or the lone terminators from one of his squads. Again, my shooting lets me down. I manage to kill neither. We roll for the game to continue, and it ends. We shake hands and laugh about how frustrating that was for both of us.
I didn't take a picture for the last turn, as nothing had changed.
We tied the primary, secondary, tertiary, and first tiebreaker. He managed to squeak out 250 victory points on me, which was enough to get him the win.
After game thoughts - What a great game. Brian was a wonderful opponent, and we swapped tactics the whole game. I made several errors this game, but the biggest was committing my deathstar unit too early, and leaving them vulnerable. I should have tried to split his units up and take them apart piecemeal. The lack of mobility my army has had really become an annoyance during the game, with Brian and I dancing around each other, trying to get the other to commit first to combat. I resolved to be the aggressor for the rest of the tournament, looking to put my opponent's on the back foot as quickly as possible.
I hope you guys enjoyed the report. Please feel free to comment! I'll be posting my second report in the next couple days. I apologize for the lousy quality of the pictures again, I've discovered that I'm not a great photographer, haha.
Max
Here's a picture of the army together!
So, yesterday, I went up to carnagecon with eight other guys from the Game Castle. It was a great day of gaming, and even though I didn't do as well as I had hoped, I'm proud that the guys I game with did so well. Robin even managed to take third place! I brought my Deathwing for one last hurrah before I shelved them in favor of my Codex Marines army. The list looked like this:
Belial - Lightning Claws
Terminator Chaplain - Combi-Melta. This is High Chaplain Ragefuck. He earned many laurels at the tournament.
Upgraded Terminator Squad - 4x Thunderhammer/Stormshield, Cyclone Missile Launcher, Apothecary, Standard Bearer.
4x Terminator Squads - 4x Thunderhammer/Stormshield, Cyclone Missile Launcher.
3x Land Speeders - Multi-Melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Raider Crusader - Extra Armor
Due to the time restriction during the tournament, I only took pictures after whole turns. I didn't want to be responsible for running out of time. On to round one!
Round One - Deathwing vs. Deathwing
My first opponent was a fellow named Brian from a store called Triple Play. The guys from Triple Play regularly come down to the Game Castle and participate in tournaments. They're all incredibly nice guys and great players - Brian is no exception. I didn't have time to write down exact lists. Here's an approximation:
Belial - Thunderhammer/Stormshield
Venerable Dreadnought - Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod
6 Terminator Squads - all with varying wargear.
3 Land Speeders - Multi-Melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher.
Our lists are incredibly similar. The outcome of the game is going to come down to the generalship and luck of the dice.
Primary mission objective: kill 25% of your opponent's models.
Secondary mission objective: kill your opponent's most expensive HQ.
Tertiary mission objective: kill your opponent's most expensive elite unit. If you don't have an elite unit, you automatically give up this objective. Fuck.
Tie Breaker One - killpoints.
Tie Breaker Two - whoever got more victory points.
We roll to see who goes first, and Brian wins. He decides to go first, and we deploy. Deployment looked like this:
I attempt to seize the initiative, and fail. The game starts.
Turn One - Brian
Brian moves his terminators closer to the middle of the table, intending to pin me in the corner. His speeders come out from behind their cover to take shots at my units. His shooting is pretty sub-par, but he manages to shake and immobilize two of my speeders, taking the missile launcher off one. His frag missiles also kill one of my terminators.
Turn One - Max
I put the pedal to the floor on my land raider and move up. I move my functional speeder to a spot that gives me line of site to his speeder closest to me, while blocking line of site from his army to mine using the land raider. I advance my terminators cautiously towards him. At the time, I was concerned with him being able to charge me, so I played it safe the whole game. In hindsight, that was dumb of me. My units were more optimized for combat - I should have jammed them down his throat and put him on the back foot. Shooting sees me return fire on his speeders, stunning two, immobilizing one, and taking the multi-melta off the one closest to me. Being unable to kill vehicles with krak missiles would be the theme of my time at this tournament. Fortunately, I stopped the nearest threat to my land raider.
End of turn one picture:
Turn Two - Brian
Brian's dreadnought comes in from reserve, dropping in a spot to be a threat to my flank, and to take shots on my speeder. His army dumps missiles into my speeders and land raider, managing to explode the non-immobilized speeder. His dreadnought opens up on my speeder, not doing a single thing to it. I breathe a sigh of relief.
Turn Two - Max
I floor the land raider towards the mass of terminators in the middle of the table, I disembark my deathstar squad so that they're in a spot to assault two units of his terminators. My terminators shuffle forwards a bit, and open fire on his vehicles. My krak missiles bounce off his dreadnought, stun his non-immobilized speeder, and wreck the speeder closest to me. I had fully intended to assault two of his units in the assault phase, but I opted to go for one. My concern was that I wouldn't be able to wipe out both squads on the charge, leaving me open for his deathstar squad. This decision came back to hurt me. I wipe the squad I assault, and consolidate into the terrain next to my land raider. I was relying on poor difficult terrain rolls for him to avoid getting swamped. Stupid.
Picture after turn two:
Turn Three - Brian
Brian, seeing that I left my most powerful unit in a vulnerable position, moves to capitalize on my mistake. His fire is completely ineffectual, my terminators shrug off all the krak missiles, and his dreadnought fails to do any damage to my speeder again. Brian does exactly what I expected him to do in the assault phase, he throws four squads into my deathstar, intending to drown me in dice. It works, with my unit doing very little damage to him in return. Only the High Chaplain claims any kills. It has turned into an uphill battle for me now.
Turn Three - Max
I need to start pressuring him, now. I roll back my land raider, and embark a squad. I intend to use them as a counter assault unit. I move two more of my squads toward the middle ground, and the last squad out to meet his dreadnought. I manage to kill one of his speeders and the drop pod in the shooting phase. My terminator squad charges his on the hill, both of us losing two terminators.
End of turn three picture:
Turn Four - Brian
Brian moves his deathstar up to my land raider, looking to break it open. His other squads move further away from me, hoping to avoid further damage. His dreadnought moves away from my advancing terminators, but close enough to get shots on my speeder. His missiles finally start hitting home on my speeders, wrecking them both. Belial and friends do nothing to my land raider in assault, and he finishes off my squad that he's locked in combat with.
Turn Four - Max
Belial is mine. I move my land raider backwards and disembark the squad inside. I move up the other squad in the area to support the assault. My last squad moves through difficult terrain to try and get to grips with his dreadnought. I soften up his deathstar with a volley from the crusader. My krak missiles bounce off his dreadnought again. I finally make a good difficult terrain roll and get into assault with the dreadnought, and manage to rip off his close combat arm and immobilize it. Assault with his deathstar goes well, with his unit drowning in thunderhammers, and me not losing a single terminator in return.
End of turn four picture:
Turn Five - Brian
Brian moves his terminators again to avoid getting into assault with me. He opens fire on my terminators...and manages to kill four. My ability to roll ones at critical moments is unrivaled, haha. The assault phase sees me finish off his dreadnought. I breathe a sigh of relief.
Turn Five - Max
I jump my lone terminator into the land raider, and move the land raider forward. My other terminators maneuver to get better shots on his remaining speeder. My shooting fails miserably. My crusader kills one terminator, and my krak missiles blow off a weapon on the speeder. I desperately need the game to go another turn. Brian rolls for it, and I get my wish.
End of turn five picture:
Turn Six - Brian
Brian shuffles his terminators again, and his shooting does nothing to me.
Turn Six - Max
I need to get killpoints in order to win this mission. I need the speeder or the lone terminators from one of his squads. Again, my shooting lets me down. I manage to kill neither. We roll for the game to continue, and it ends. We shake hands and laugh about how frustrating that was for both of us.
I didn't take a picture for the last turn, as nothing had changed.
We tied the primary, secondary, tertiary, and first tiebreaker. He managed to squeak out 250 victory points on me, which was enough to get him the win.
After game thoughts - What a great game. Brian was a wonderful opponent, and we swapped tactics the whole game. I made several errors this game, but the biggest was committing my deathstar unit too early, and leaving them vulnerable. I should have tried to split his units up and take them apart piecemeal. The lack of mobility my army has had really become an annoyance during the game, with Brian and I dancing around each other, trying to get the other to commit first to combat. I resolved to be the aggressor for the rest of the tournament, looking to put my opponent's on the back foot as quickly as possible.
I hope you guys enjoyed the report. Please feel free to comment! I'll be posting my second report in the next couple days. I apologize for the lousy quality of the pictures again, I've discovered that I'm not a great photographer, haha.
Max
Here's a picture of the army together!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Max Power is going to Adepticon!
Hey all,
Tickets for the Adepticon Championships (www.adepticon.org) went on sale earlier this week. I was lucky enough to get the fourth to last ticket. I went to Adepticon last year, and the atmosphere is incredible - it's really a wonderfully run event. I played in the Gladiator, and got my rear handed to me. Lesson learned. The level of competition is much higher than normal game store tournaments. Two things need to happen before I head out there in April; I need to make sure my list is tweaked to be the best I can put on the table, and I need to get plenty of practice with the army. I don't want to be surprised by any limitations it might have.
The point level is 1850, which is a little smaller than what I've been running over the last few months. The NOVA Open and Carnage are both 2000. Deathwing have also been my primary tournament army for the last year, and I'll be changing that as well. I believe with the recent codex releases that the army is really showing it's age, even with the FAQ update. I'll be running Codex: Space Marines instead. Trying to choose which direction I would take with my marines was difficult - I'm a huge fan of Pedro Kantor, but I can't seem to make a list work with him as the HQ. Tried and true Vulkan He'stan will be leading my boys. Here is the list as it stands at the moment:
HQ:
Vulkan He'stan
Librarian in Power Armor with Nullzone and Gate of Infinity
Elite:
5 Assault Terminators with Thunderhammers/Stormshields
Troops:
10 Tactical Marines with Melta, Missile Launcher, Rhino, Sergeant with Powerfist and Combi-Melta
10 Tactical Marines with Melta, Missile Launcher, Rhino, Sergeant with Powerfist and Combi-Melta
10 Tactical Marines with Flamer, Missile Launcher, Rhino, Sergeant with Power Weapon and Combi-Flamer
5 Scouts with Bolt Pistols/Close Combat Weapons, Sergeant with Melta Bombs
Fast Attack:
Land Speeder Storm with Multi-Melta
Land Speeder with Multi-Melta
Land Speeder with Multi-Melta
Heavy Support:
Land Raider Crusader with Multi-Melta and Extra Armor
Thunderfire Cannon
1850 points total.
It seems like a solid list. The one glaring deficiency that codex marines have as compared to the newer codices is the lack of cheap long range firepower. There is no way I'm going to get in a long range slug-fest with Space Wolves, Grey Knights, Imperial Guard, or Dark Eldar and win. Necrons remain to be seen. My plan is to close with my enemy quickly where my meltas and flamers will do the most damage. The thunderfire cannon is an amazing unit for taking down hordes - it's the most underrated unit in the codex in my opinion. The only other burning question I need to find an answer to is whether or not taking drop pods would be more beneficial. I don't like the idea of playing the reserve game, or feeding two of my tactical squads to the enemy first turn. Not to mention the lack of mobility. On the other hand, having to whether a turn or two of bullets in my direction before I get to grips with my opponent is unpleasant as well. I will have to play test both.
What do you guys think?
Also, Robin and I will be attending Carnage this weekend. I'll be taking pictures and notes so I can write up battle reports!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
MORE SPAM HERE!
Spam; is it good or bad? Some people love it, others hate it. Some people fry it, others grill it or even eat it plain. Personally, I want to know what the heck is that gelatinous stuff?- Gamer Dictionary -
Spam [spam] noun, verb, spammed, spamming
to have multiples of the same unit/item in your army list.
Spamming is a term that we table top gamers use in reference to how a list has been created. Example: That Space Marine army is spamming melta guns or they are spamming scouts to go for a scout themed army. Spam is what makes us a hardcore gamer or fluffy gamer. If you want to be a competitive player you need to love spamming!
When list building you need to consider spamming units to maximize their effectiveness. By spamming a specific unit you are insuring that particular role is going to be completed. If you don't, you're leaving it to chance! Leave to chance on a game that relies on a d6? What are you crazy?! The more spam you have, the more insurance you have. Take a look at my Dark Eldar list that I posted:
http://maxpowercsm.blogspot.com/2011/10/if-youre-not-afraid-of-dark-now-you.html
As you can see I spammed dark lances, blasters, wych squads, etc. I have more spam in that list than a homeless thanksgiving dinner (No offense to the spamurkey). By spamming all those dark lances/blasters I made sure that my anti-tank and anti-armor wouldn't be a problem. Having multiple units that have the same threat gives your opponent issues with target priority. Even if one unit of wyches gets destroyed, I have two more to take their place.
So when they ask "do you like spam?" the answer is "YES! AND MORE OF IT!!"
-Robin
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