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!