Grumpy Daemion Tournament
18-19 September 2010
Auckland - Super City of the South Seas
Introduction
This is a small tournament organised by hard core 40k player Damian Reid. It provides for the small number of gamers who don’t want to participate in the much larger Warhammer Fantasy event held over the same weekend. It’s a pairs event with each player bringing 1250 points with no named characters. 2500 points per side. 2 ½ or so hours per game.
Damian, herein after referred to as Daemion, is a keen Chaos player. His preferred gaming style is to charge across the board. He puts a lot of planning in place and runs a fun event.
He was ably assisted by his mate Paul, aka Monkey, who ran things, so Daemion could play. Paul is a fantastic painter and Daemion’s and Nobbsy’s armies had a couple of fantastic Daemions painted by him. He also painted all the scenery for the 4 tables. Paul administered and judged the tournament whilst Daemion played.
We had an eclectic mix of the local regulars, 16 in all. All entrants received a Gale Force Nine measuring template.
The tournament used missions from the Battle Missions rule book and a couple of Daemion’s making. Great for getting stuck into each other as 5 of the six missions chosen allow for the sides to start much closer to each other than in the MRB. Not necessarily good for long range shooters but great for medium range and assault based armies.
5 points for a win, 3 for a draw, 1 for a loss. Sportsmanship was scored 5,4,1 by opponents. I am sure everyone would have given each other 5’s but we also had to vote for favourite opponents at the end and this probably determined the category.
Apologies for errors of fact and omission and for the photos being mainly of my troops. Lists and key events are recorded as I recall them. History is written by the victor! Way to spoil the ending!
Our Team
My partner was Craig Dewes. He used to run one of the local GW stores and is an extremely nice guy and a very canny gamer having 20 years of play behind his youthful good looks.
My Wolves
HQ
Rune Priest w Living Lightning and Jaws of the World Wolf w Chooser of the Slain 110
Elite
2 Lone Wolves w Terminator Armour, Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield (One with Melta Bombs) 175 I had suggested Chainfists here but Andrew was unable tochange the models IIRC
3 Wolf Guard w Power Fist and Combi Flamer (go with Grey Hunters) 129
Troops
9 Grey Hunters with Melta Gun and Mark of the Wolfen and Wolf Standard and Rhino 200
8 Grey Hunters with Melta Gun and Mark of the Wolfen and Wolf Standard and Rhino 185
8 Grey Hunters with Melta Gun and Wolf Standard and Rhino 170 Power weapons would of been great in these squads. 3 special weapons in combat is awesome.
Heavy Support
6 Long Fangs w 5 Missile Launchers 140
6 Long Fangs w 5 Missile Launchers 140
Total 1249 A good list overall. I'd of tried to fit in the extra power weapons on the GH (drop a couple squad members perhaps and wolf Guard babysitters for the Long Fangs but would prob have had to drop a LF missile guy for that.
Craig’s Ultramarines
HQ
Librarian w Terminator armour (null zone, might of the ancients) 125 Null Zone with GH squads with 3 specials would of been evil
Chaplain w jump pack 115 Not really needed, without even looking at the rest of the list. When you're backed up by Space Wolves with a combat orientation, you don't need re-rolls for your list in combat.
Troops
Tactical squad: 10 marines w powerfist, missile launcher, flamer 195
Tactical squad: 10 marines w powerfist, missile launcher, plasma gun 205
Scout squad: 10 scouts w combat blades and shotguns 140
Scout squad: 5 scouts w sniper rifles and camo cloaks 90
Rhino w extra armour 50 for flamer tactical squad Foot SM are meh, especially with PFists. Scouts will give some decent disruption but could of been done better with Wolf Scouts.
Fast attack
Assault squad: 10 assault marines w thunder hammer, flamer, plasma pistol 245 Plasma pistoL!?
Heavy Support
Whrilwind 85
The SM list is the weak link, especially since the missions favor close assault. A bunch of Rhinos for blocking or TH/SS termies would of rocked face.
D1: Game One: The Black Crusade
Wade’s Orks
Warboss w Mega Armour etc
Mek with Kustom Force Field
12 Burna boys
Heaps of Mega Armoured Nobs
12 Hard Boyz in a Trukk
2 Battlewagons w Deffrollas (Home made large and imposing! Much like their creator who is well over 6’, of imposing physique, and demeanour. Not surprisingly his other army is Space Wolves which suits his red hair.)
Nate’s Ultramarines
Terminator Librarian w Gate and Something Null Zone we hope.
10 Terminators
2 Speeders with Multi Meltas and Heavy Flamers
2 MM Attack bikes
2 Whirlwinds
2 Small Squads of Sniper Scouts
This army combination as very minimal ranged firepower so Andrew's team has the early advantage though if the Meganobs or Terminators make it to combat, they could be devastating without a hammer unit of their own.
In this mission you take opposite table edges and win on kill points. Dead units except vehicles come back on again from reserve from your board edge. Old fashioned meat grinder! e to go first. We deployed Long Fangs high up in a ruin on the left and the Rhinos with Grey Hunters behind the small central hill with the Assault Marines behind them and the Librarian and Tactical squad off to the right hand side.
Our opponents faced us in the centre with 2 Battle Wagons full of angry green men. The Trukk, Speeders and Bikes were hiding behind them. The Whirlwinds were on the far right and Terminators in reserve to Deep Strike. The enemy scouts played little part in the battle.
Our forward deployment meant we were close enough after a slight advance to pile into the inevitable Ork advance on turn two without being charged out of Battlewagons on their first turn. This gave us the initiative which we never relinquished. Good deployment then and bad movement on opponent's half. They couldn't hold back because of their lack of ranged firepower compared to Andrew's team so should of sent in some units which could of damaged Andrew's team but weren't going to be easily wiped out (i.e. the Terminators via Gate). Andrew's team then has to focus on them and the rest of the force can advance or start feeding them units to keep them from romping through their battle-lines.
Fire support deployed.
Key points were:
• The Long Fangs getting side shots on the Meganobz Battle Wagon and wrecking it first turn. A failing of Battlewagons. From the pic, the battlewagons should of angled out to create better AV14 fronting, especially since Long Fangs were in corners.
• The Warboss killing the Lone Wolf but dying in return with help from Null Zone. The Meganobz then lost combat to some Grey Hunters and Assault Marines. How'd Meganobs lose that? lol Null Zone does rock though.
• The Burnas put 45 wounds on a squad of Grey Hunters one of whom survived the 5 wounds put on him to help wipe out the Hardboyz. They of course returned and chopped him up in a second combat the next turn! The
Burnas also got the Assault Marines.
• Burnas died to Grey Hunters in photo below.
• Terminators arrived too late to do much. We only got to turn three. We sniped the Speeders and the other Lone Wolf killed the Attack Bikes. Did he gate them? 24" move makes you move quickly.
• Game only made it to turn 3 so Terminators couldn’t do more than kill a Rhino. I don’t think either side was used to so many points on the table.
Victory to Russ and Guilliaman despite losing 2 points for a live Lone Wolf.
D1: Game Two: Slave Raid
Tristan’s Great Looking Thousand Sons
Sorcerer
2 Squads of Sons w Aspiring Sorcerer
Multi Las Predator Ew.
Havocs w 3 Lascannons and 2 ML
Dreadnought
James’s Tyranids
Hive Tyrant and 3 Guard
4 Warriors w Fighting stuff
15 Hormagaunts
15 Stealers
Zoanthrope
Trygon Prime
Another couple of lists which don't mesh too well. Not much fire support and a lot of expensive stuff though some decent cc ability. Again, Terminators would come inhandy :P.
In this mission you get a point for wining assaults, D6 for HQs destroyed, and a point for each unit fully destroyed. We lost the roll off and went second. A good choice.
They deployed spread across the board from near the middle to the far right. The Hive Tyrant and Guard with the Predator were on the far right. We deployed on the left keeping the Hive Tyrant out of the game. We managed to focus all our fighting power on this side and destroy all of the opponent’s forces except for the Predator and Hive Tyrant with retinue, the Havocs who had defective targeters, and maybe an armless Dreadnought. Deployment error for opponent's team. A huge amount of points in a Tyranid combat unit which isn't exactly mobile which can be taken out of the game by a refused flank...bad.
Key points were:
• The stealers struggling to kill the Lone Wolves but eventually prevailing and taking out another unit before dying. I think they got 4 points themselves.
• Long Fangs shooting the Assault Marines into the Trygon Prime who had deepstriked nearby. They got the monster!
• Warriors arriving on our left flank with the benefit of the Hive Commander rule to kill the Scouts then dying to Long Fang fire.
• Gaunts arriving from reserve took out the infiltrating Scout squad but were then lost to Grey Hunters from a Rhino.
• One Aspiring Sorcerer fighting off 6 Grey Hunters long enough for the Genestealers to come in and finish them off.
Shot below shows the fight from last bullet point above. Our forces were concentrated out of shot in the bottom table quarter. Havocs were having trouble hitting the Rhino below which was blocking the AP3 bolters on the Thousand Sons behind the building.
We drew this as the Lone Wolves were counted as lost units after some debate. We felt that as we’d lost points for one surviving the first game we shouldn’t lose points for them dying in this one. We conceded on this as Tristan had had a nightmare with his dice. First turn his Havocs and Predator all missed. Turn two he got 3 hits from one unit after the other missed and then rolled three ones for armour penetration on a Rhino. They continued in this vain for the rest of the game. This is a fun tournament and I think the result was fair. Considering what was left I think this is a problem of the missions but since it was a doubles and fun oriented and both parties seemed happy, all good.
D1: GameThree: Reconnaissance in Force
James’s Imperial Guard
Coy Command Squad w Medic and power weapon commander
2 Carapace Veteran squads w 2 Meltas, one w Chimera
1 Carapace Veteran w 2 Flamers and Chimera
Devil Dog
2 Scout Sentinels w Lascannons
Manticore
Edmund’s Ultramarines
Chapter Master
10 Marines w Twin Linked Las RB
10 Marines in Rhino
5 Scouts w 4 Sniper Rifles and a ML
Venerable Dread w Assault Cannon
Dread w TL Las and ML
5 Assault Marines
Decent list here but some tweaks could of been made. Double manticore for example, autocannons/HKM on the sents, no Ven dread or TLLC/ML, no ASM, etc.
We won the roll to be Necrons and chose the long table edge on which we had put two objectives closest to. They deployed with the guard holding one flank with some Dreadnoughts and the Rhino and Razorback on the right well back. The Guard Chimeras were all lined up just 13” away from the table edge we had secretly decided to come on from. Not sure what the mission was here.
We arrived with everything on that edge on turn one well weighted to the left. The Scout units, one unit of Long Fangs, and the Whirlwind were on the right.
The game requires a leadership test to shoot or assault on turn one. We failed 4 out of 7 tests and were lucky to damage a couple of Chimeras, who were right next to us, and stunning the Manticore. In their turn one they killed a couple of assault marines and Craig must have made about 6 cover saves on his Rhino. So despite being with in 12” of each other we had done virtually nothing to each other after one turn. Gotta love those games =D.
Key points were:
• Manticore didn’t fire all game due to being stunned, then weapon destroyed, then finally assaulted by 26 Grey Hunters after crashing onto an objective to try and contest. Hence why two are needed. Stun-locking FTW.
• Having to rely on Craig’s Assault Marines to open vehicles on turn one give we failed so many Leadership tests. This did draw their small squad of Assault Marines in though and we finished them off.
• Grey Hunters took advantage of damage inflicted on Guard Chimeras on turns one and two to follow up and sweep the left had side of the board. A prime example of suppression fire.
• Rhino tank shocking a Sentinel and driving over it.
• Whirlwind tank shocking a tactical squad and then have the supporting Scout combat squad escort them towards their table edge.
• Craig’s smart capturing and contesting 3 objectives. In particular his use of his 3 combat squads of scouts to draw some key Ultramarine opposition away to the right.
Photo below shows view near end of game with our forces having cleared Guard and Marines off near objective on Skull Mountain, holding bottom right objective with our Ultras, fighting for central left crater objective and Whirlwind getting ready for charge on the top right!
End of Day One
While I don’t like to charge across the board like Daemion I tend to focus on killing the opposition’s forces. This game and the others emphasised the benefit of playing with a cool head like Craig. He focused on the objectives here and on racking up kill points in the other games. This made a significant difference to our results on day one.
At this point we had 2 wins and a draw.
Will post up Day 2 sometime tomorrow but some good examples of solid tatics here, although more pictures would of been good! I'm sure Andrew and Craig would love to hear your thoughts as well.
