Day Two
D2: Game One: Clash of TitansYour HQ, or your selection if you have more than one, is the only part of your army that can score victory points. It can only be killed by another players HQ choice as the “Titan”. Of course others can score wounds against it but the last wound stays until taken by another “Titan”. o.O Very odd.
Craig chose his Librarian and I had to use my Rune Priest.
We rolled off for choice of quarters and won. We got to go first and had to deploy one army in each of our quarters. Deployment was 9” from the centre.
Dave and Matt’s Tyranids (Fantastically painted armies, Matt’s Genestealers all from Space Hulk. Unfortunately I got to engrossed in figuring out how to play the mission and forgot to take photos!) The mission does seem overly complex.
Dave (Big Bugs!)
Hive Tyrant (“Titan”)
Tervigon
3 Hive Guard
Venomthrope
2 Carnifexes
Some Gaunts
Matt (Fast Bugs!)
Tyranid Prime (his “Titan”)
2 units of Stealers
2 small units of Ymgarl
30 Gaunts of some kind (millions of dice and rerolls)
6 Raveners
Trygon
Not much in terms of shooting for both of these lists so once again Andrew's team should have the edge there. More Hive Guard from both sides would of been plain evil ^^.
I wasn’t sure how to play this but noted Daemion and Nobbsy were ganging up on one quarter so we did too although Craig put his HQ 3 levels up in a building.
Key Points:
• Hive Tyrant got into combat with Craig’s Assault Marines and over 3 or 4 assault phases killed 6 or 7 and then advanced towards the Librarian taking out a few more marines on the way.
• I got stuck in combat with Genestealers and killed 3 after they finished off the attached squad. Had to throw in another squad to get Rune Priest out of combat.
• I figured out the best way for me to score points was to keep my Rune Priest out of combat and cast Jaws. Pity I hadn’t realised it earlier.
• I got Jaws of the World Wolf off about 3 or 4 times to kill one Hive Guard and the other 3 then fled off the board and I claimed them as points. Dave made 4 to 6 saves on his low initiative monsters! A fair result given the damage the Rune Priest has done to them in previous games.
• Matt deployed his Prime with 30 Gaunts of some kind but at the back of the unit. They charged my Lone Wolf on his first turn and by the end of the game hadn’t killed him, maybe 6 to 8 rounds of assault! I killed about 6 to 8 of them. Prime couldn’t get in base to base and scored no points even after leaving the unit.
We had run out of time and the Hive Tyrant hadn’t got to the Librarian. I was keen to get another Jaws off having lined up 2 Carnifexes and something else. I ignored Craig’s pleas to leave it and let the game finish. I wanted to get stuck in. Of course the Venomthrope was nearby and I had to roll less than 10 on 3 D6 and didn’t. Venomthrope doesn't have SitW so I hope you meant something else! Hive Tyrant then climbed the building and killed Librarian for the win. Of course we had more points before my rashness. Should have listened to Craig as I had in previous games when he restrained my impetuousness!
We lost that one!
D2: Game Two: Bouncing Objectives
This mission started with 3 objectives in the centre of the board. These scattered 3 D6 at the end of each sides turn. Daemion throwing some Chaos chaos onto the more calculating players, like me. 3-18" moving objectives!?!? Oh my...
Daemion’s Chaos
2 Daemion Princes
Greater Daemion
Landraider
10 Bezerkers
5 Chaos Marines
2 Defilers
Nobbsy’s Nurgle
2 Possessed Vindicators
Daemion Prince
3 Squads of Plague Marines (2 Flamer, 2 Plasma, 2 Melta) in Rhinos.
A lot of tough targets but not much in terms of saturation or killing power, especially ranged shooting.
We won roll off and went second because they had no long range shooting and we could then see their deployment and respond. Might of been better to dictate where he has to deploy but most of your firepower isn't mobile so fair enough. They went first deploying 6”in along their long table edge (the deployment area) spread around a central Landraider (Bezerkers inside). On each flank of the Landraider were a Vindicator, Defiler, and 2 Daemion Princes (well one but the Greater Daemion came out of the small Chaos squads champion) on each side. 2 squads of Plague Marines were on the left flank and one squad and the 5 Chaos marines hiding on the left.
We deployed with a bias to the right leaving a squad of scouts in a building with a Rhino of marines and the Whirlwind hiding behind. Long Fangs to the left of centre with good fields of fire. Null Zone Librarian and combat squad central. Craig combat squadded his forces creating 7 scoring units to add to my 3. He then spread these out. We had 10 scoring units to their 5. This would count later.
Key Points:
• We seized! Nobbsy was out the back having a smoke so I rolled one of his dice just to brass him off (Daemion was watching). Much laughter and trash talk followed.
• Early shooting by both sides achieved little.
• Craig’s Sniper Scouts took some wounds off the left hand Daemions. He then finished one off with Shotgun Scouts and the other with his Librarians Tactical Squad after it had eaten some Long Fangs. The Librarian then finished off another squad of Plague Marines.
Big melee develops on the right hand side.
• My Grey Hunters lost the Rune Priest but took out a Rhino, a Daemion Prince, a Greater Daemion, a squad of Plague Marines, and the small Chaos Squad.
• Lone Wolf tied up the Defiler for around 4 rounds of combat as I saved on 3++ and whiffed my penetrations.
• Craig’s Assault Marines got a charge off against the Bezerkers and wiped them out. The next photo is the same stage in the battle from another angle showing the Assault Marines jumping off point.
At the end we had at least 6 scoring units spread out around the board and they had one. The objectives moved one last time and we had 3! Victory, and the game we wanted to win. Fantastic game with lots of action. MSU scoring is good or something :P.
D2: Game Three: Daemion’s Version of Warp Rift
Warp Rift, 6” circle, in the centre of the table. All models arriving from reserve had to come from there. No infiltrators or any special deployment rules. Win if you had a scoring unit within 12” and no enemy were within 12”. If you were within 6” at the end of your movement you were pulled into the warp. It's a mini WWP! Is pulled into the warp = dead? Mass tank shocking pls lol.
Ruling was that Kyle’s Daemions had to enter from there and then run to get out of it. This meant his shooters couldn’t shoot on the turn they arrived. Another reason why odd scenarios like this are...well odd.
Kyle’s Daemions
Daemion
Daemion but nastier (Lord of Change?)
10 or so Pink Horses
10 or so Pink shooters
10 Daemionettes
2 Soul Grinders
Stan’s Daemionhunters
GKGM
6 GK Terminators
2 Dreadnoughts
Landraider
2 units of 5 Stormtroopers w 2 Melta Guns
Vindicare Assassin (Illegal without an Inquisitor – but they didn’t know so it doesn’t matter and we weren’t concerned.)
DH & Daemons...lol. Nothing of any significance in either army. Some minor anti-tank and decent cc ability and that's about it really.
They chose the quarters with the big buildings so I couldn’t put my Fangs high up in them. Grey Knights deployed and Craig and I took a quarter each. Key deployments were Lone Wolves forward to block the Grey Knights and Null Zone Librarian deployed to cast Null Zone on Daemions coming from the Warp. <3 Null Zone.
Key points were:
• Lord of Change(?) didn’t arrive by the time we had to finish. Seems to be a recurring theme of games over-running; time issues?
• Kyle didn’t get the Daemions he wanted on turn 1.
• Those that did arrive (Pink Horses and Daemionettes) couldn’t get out of Null Zone range and were wiped out in our shooting. Lots of small templates from 10 missile launchers lays on the wounds. Photo shows Space Wolves lining up emerging Daemons in the distance. Null Zone Librarian was off to right of central building out of sight.
• Vindicare assassin kept hitting Librarian with special issue ammunition. Librarian managed to save with his 5+ invulnerable or 5+ cover. Combat squad of assault marines got him for his trouble. Must make sure I take the opportunity to use my Vindicare soon. Vindicare is only allowed to shoot each special ammunition once.
• Craig’s smart wound allocation that saw the combat squad with the Librarian survive 5 Battlecannon wounds and a heap of other wounds.
• Grey Knights Land Raider throws a heap of Hurricane Bolter shots at Lone Wolves and kills one.
• Landraider then immobilises itself on terrain. Being worried about the terminators inside I surrounded all the exits with Grey Hunters so they couldn’t get out, cruel. And another negative against Land Raiders.
Photo shows field cleared of emerging Daemions and about a turn before the Landraider Crusader immobilised itself and I surrounded it as Lone Wolf hammers Stormtroopers.
Still we couldn’t pull of a win as they had a Soul Grinder (we managed to blow one up - it couldn’t survive 24 missile launchers and 2 Melta Guns over 2 turns) and a Dreadnought (with no arms or legs – the Black Knight from Monty Python) still within 12” of the centre.
Conclusion
Absolutely brilliant games all weekend. Had a fantastic time. Missions sometimes required a bit of new thinking and mixed things up. Glad you had fun but some of those missions were very, very strange. Did you know them beforehand?
As a doubles partner Craig was extremely astute and a great foil for my focus on killing the opponent with shoot and countercharge. I think my aggressive Wolves may have killed more than his marines and perhaps as a result got more attention from our opponents in most games. However, I reckon Craig scored more kill points and captured more objectives.
And of course if I’d listened we’d have won the Tyranid game! Of course that I didn’t, and we lost, is what makes this type of event and experience better.
In addition to being an wiley commander Craig has a great manner and was a pleasure to play with.
We won 3 games, drew 2, and lost 1.
• Best painted went to Dave’s Tyranids. (Prize was a template set from GF9 and some of their scenery.)
• Best sports to Daemion and Nobbsy (Prize as above for each player.)
• Overall winners were Craig and I. (Prize as above plus a large soft foam canvas carry case each.) woot!
Yeehaa and high fives all round!
So congrats to Andrew and Craig. Whilst some of the missions were very odd and I think there lists were some of the better ones, Andrew clearly had a good weekend and there was lots of fun all-round. I still can't get over that last mission though...my units die because they are in midfield? *sadface*
