3 for 3...What The Hell!?! - Cryx Cup XI Review

You know those lists which on paper look really bad and turn out to be really good...well on the flipside of that are lists which on paper look really bad but turn out to be really good. Cryx Cup XI was today (ie when I am typing this review) and my Herohammer Space Wolves turned out to fall into the latter category. On paper the weaknesses far outweigh the strengths and against some of the armies present such as any of the guard lists I would have been in serious trouble...but the three armies I faced - Shrike Vanilla Marines, Pedro Vanilla Marines and Tyranids - whilst having a great many elements to really mess me up and actually had me very nervous setting up against them, ended up getting quite brutalised by my army. We'll examine the games indepth below.

But first of all, how did I fair?

Well I won 3 out of 3 games.



Shrike Vanilla Marines was a draw on primary and a win on secondary objectives, the Pedro Vanilla Marines game was a Victorious Slaughter on Primary for me (Kill Points) with no secondary objectives achieved either side, and the Tyranids a draw on primary and a win on secondaries.

I'm still a bit overwhelmed by it all to be honest...

In the end I clocked in at 27th out of 30 (having 1 out of 25 for your painting score does that) with a decent slightly above average comp score, very high sports score and most importantly an equal 8th on battle points from a pool of 30 players. 8th in battle points has me quite surprised to be perfectly honest.

So...where to begin.

I had 3 hours sleep.

I was cleaning up and assembling models. I didn't have the army painted. There was some bluetack showing. Fortunately it wasn't a pre-requisite to have a painted army, but 1 on paint score shows this. Fun army though. :)

I had my special Golden Throne Forum Dice, the 6 is an Imperial Pidgeon and the 1 is a raised middle finger, which always brings laughs as the 1's hit your own models and you bridle in rage but are given the finger by your own dice to boot, heh.


GAME 1: JAY LATJER, SHRIKE VANILLA MARINES

The First Game was against Jay Latjer aka Good 'ol Shaky from wargamerau, and was a friendly grudge match between the two of us based on the fact neither of us had played each other before and had had some past disagreements but come to a recent understanding and mutual respect so bam, battlefield time for it. My List post above shows Jay's Shrike Vanilla Marines, but the mission was as follows:

[i]Mission 1 - Capture their flag!

Deployment - Players roll off with the highest player choosing to go first or second. The player who is going first gets to choose which long board edge to deploy in.

The first player then measures 6" on one short table edges from his long edge and 18" up on the other short table edge. Draw a line between these two points, any where between this line and their long table edge is their deployment area (see diagram).

The 2nd player's deployment area is anywhere between his long table edge and a line parallel and 24" away from the first players line.

Starting with the player who is going first they alternate placing an objective in their own deployment area and then one in their opponents deployment area. Note these objectives cannot be within 18" of each other.

Once this is done they again place alternate placing 3 objectives in the area between their deployment areas starting with the first player. These 3 objectives cannot be within 8" of any other existing objective.

The night fighting rules are in effect from turn 4 onwards.

Primary - Capture objectives. The player with the most points held is the winner. Each objective in your own deployment area is worth 1 point to you. Each objective in between the middle area are 2 points. Each objective in your opponents deployment area is 3 points to you.

Secondary - Kill Points

Victorious Slaughter (7+ higher than opponent) =15 battle pts
Major Triumph (3-6 pts higher than opponent) = 13 battle pts
Minor Victory (1-2 pts higher than opponent, or wipe out with 0-2 objective pts held) = 11 battle pts
Draw (same number of objective points scored - remember variable value) = 9 battle pts each
Minor Loss (1-2 pts fewer than opponent) = 8 battle pts
Major Loss (3-6 pts fewer than opponent) = 7 battle pts
Disastrous Defeat (7+ fewer than opponent) = 5 battle pts

Secondary: 2+ KPs clear, or have wiped out opponent. +5 battle pts[/i]

Basically, with 7 objectives to capture/contest and only 2 units able to capture and up to 4 conests in my army assuming nothing was killed...I was screwed from the get go. I won deployment but lost the first turn to a seize and things got under way. I recall stuffing up something in deployment but can't remember what - I deployed Njal and Logan with the bikers for the T5 verse shooting and wounds allocation fun/extra survivability, deployed the 2 TWL's together and the WG Termies on the other side of the line. Shrike and the Chaplain and the Assault terminators set up on my far left flank and didn't do much till turn 3 or 4 hen they got in close for an assault which ended with my 3 bikers (1 scoring unit of 2) being killed, but shrike, the chaplain, and the entire assault squad also wiped out when I attacked back.

There were three moments which for me saw the game change very positively for me. The first was the first turn drop pod landing in front of my twin TWL's and the WG in TDA and having a tactical squad combat squad out only to fail to wound with the twin melta shot into the TWL's with the return counter attack killing the 10 tactical marines and drop pod for the loss of the twin chainfist terminator (who blew the Drop Pod up and himself alongside it - lol). This allowed me to push forwards more aggressively and to wipe out 2 of the 6 scoring units on the board (Tacticaal squads and Scouts each combat squadded, I reference the DP Tactical suad here); the TWL's then hit the assault terminators and wiped them out for no wounds in return. If the DP hadn't dropped so close I wouldn't have been in assault range of the terminators with my twin thunderwolves. The Thunderwolves then assaulted the rhino and the disembarked tactical squad in it. This was a mistake for Shrikes side as if the Tacky marines had not disembarked to get extra shots into the TWL's, then I would not have wiped both them and their tranpsort out in one turn to consolidate into cover and out of sight of the telion sniper squad. This further allowed me to split my TWL's and go after Telion's squad and the speeder on that flank and to go for the Scouts and Tactical Squad/Speeder on the right flank with the twin frost weapon warrior born Wolf Lord. This was the most crucial part of the game as it saw the TWL's wipe out the remaining troops barring a unit of scouts which rushed arjac and finished him off and then moved on top of an objective in my deployment zone. If this disembarking move had not taken place I would have been subjected to an extra rough of firepower which could have ended more favourably for the Shrike Marines. Meanwhile, the Grimnar/Njal/WG Bikers vs Shrike, Chappy and Assault Marines combat was happening and blergh, game ended with the last 4 scouts being murderous hurricaned for 2 wounds and fleeing off the objective. At this point there were 2 scouts, and 2 Land Speeder Typhoons left on the board both speeders in base contact witha different thunderwolf model. It came down to the edge on whether it would draw or I would lose from lack of captured objectives.

Post-Game 1 Summary:

Shrike Marines had 2 Landspeeder Typhoons left, 1 immobilised in b-2-b with the TH+SS TWL, the other stunned in b-2-b with the twin frost weapon TWL, and 2 scouts fleeing outside of objectve holding range.

Herohammer Space Wolves had Njal on 1 wound, Logan on 2 wounds and both TWL's left on 2 wounds each.

I lost both my troops choices, a grand total of 6 Wolf Guard and 2 Kill points.

The Shrike Marines lost:
5 tactical Marines
5 tactical Marines
5 tactical Marines
5 tactical Marines
1 Scout Unit (dead Telion is Dead!)
1 Drop Pod
1 Rhino
1 Rifleman Dreadnought
5 Assault Terminators
10 Assault Marines
1 Chaplain
1 Shrike

48 of 52 models killed and 12 kill Points of models destroyed to 2 Kill Points against me.

I was quite stunned at this point, and had achieved Cryx Cup XI objective to win one game all day. Things just got better and better from here.


GAME 2: Shane Sofa - Pedro Vanilla Marines.

Shane is a bloke I've played against several times before and have known roughly a year now. he is a good bloke and we hadn't played for ages so it was gonna be a good game regardless.

Shane's list was roughly:

Pedro Kantor, 2xIronclad Dreadnoughts in drop Pods, 1 8 Sternguard in Drop Pod with some combi-meltas and a powerfist, 10 Tactical Marines in Rhino, 10 Tactical Marines in Razorback, 2 MM Attack bikes, 2 land Speeder Typhoons, Vindicator and a Thunderfire Cannon.

The mission was as follows:

[i]Mission 2 - Slow the Tide
Deployment - Spearhead (Quarters)
Random game length, 2 1/4 hr time limit

Destroy enemy fast moving units and characters while protecting your own!

Variation of Annihilation (Kill Points) with the following alteration to Kill Points:
Each and every unit capable of moving >6" in any one phase(excludes system wide abilities such as fleeing or sweeping advance) is worthFAST= 3 KPs
Every HQ Unit (unless has above ability which makes it FAST) or infiltrator/Scout HQ/Scout/infiltrate = 2 KPs
Every other unit is worth usual 1 KP

NB Drop Pods are not regarded as fast (immobile when they land), similarly all deep strike units do not count the deep strike ability as fast, it will depend on their other abilities.

Secondary: Hold 1 or more quarters than opponent, any unit (except empty dedicated transports) may secure a quarter if no enemy model is in that quarter. Determine which quarter the unit is holding by majority of models, if equally spread across 2 quarters, randomises. a unit across the centre point or 3 + quarters may not control or contest any quarter.

Score the total number of adjusted Kill Points held by each player and compare:


Victorious Slaughter (7+ higher than opponent, Or wipeout Opponent and 3-6pts ahead) =15 battle pts
Major Triumph (3-6 pts higher than opponent) =13 battle pts
Minor Victory (1-2 pts higher than opponent, or wipe out with 0-2 objective pts held) =11 battle pts
Draw (same number of objective points scored - remember variable value) = 9 battle pts each
Minor Loss (1-2 pts fewer than opponent) = 8 battle pts
Major Loss (3-6 pts fewer than opponent) = 7 battle pts
Disastrous Defeat (7+ fewer than opponent) = 5 battle pts

Secondary: Quarters: Control 1 more than opponent. +5 battle pts[/i]

I deployed Njal/Logan/Bikers in a unit behind a piece of area terrain out of LoS of the Vindicator, then eexposed Arjac and co on my edge near the centre line and plonked the two TWL's in a unit behind them. Shane deployed everything on the board in firing positions to just shoot me to death as I walked into his guns, dropping the pods down empty.

I lost the roll for first, some poor rolling to hit/wound saw nothing much happen in Shanes turn...he did however drop his two pods down on his left flank (my right) and a scatter pushed one within charge range of my TWL's. This is where the mistake for Shane came. If he had deployed the DP's in the corners of the board, one behind me in my quarter and one elsewhere, I'd have the issue of leaving them alone and thus ignoring them for KP purposes or rush them and waste time killing them as the rest of his army hacked into me. Dropping them on his flank and pushing the scatter into charge range gave me the leg up I needed with the Thunderwolf Lords to in my first turn charge the pod with them...I did nothing special just shook it (hooray for 6 str 10 TH attacks doing nothing!), whilst Njal unleashed Living Lightning boosted by The High King's Tank Hunters to glance the Vindicator to a shake. Useful as it meant I got out of cover next turn to brave the guns and started the long walk into Shanes army. My second turn saw the TWL's charge the vindicator/Ironclad Dreadnought with the TH+SS Saga of the Bear TWL, and because of no room into the vindicator to multi-assault into the Attack Bikes with the Warrior Born Choppy man. Vindi was stunned and the Dread lost the meltagun arm, meanwhile the Attack Bikers took 3 wounds and my TWL's were locked in combat for his turn 3.

This became a pattern this game - I'd kill stuff but not enough and thus get locked in combat and avoid shooty death torrenting the TWL's. The TWL's proceeded to kill over 1200pts of Shanes army with the Twin-Frost Weapon Warrior Born Thunderwolf Lord killing like this: My turn 2 - 1 Attack Bike, wound the 2nd once, His turn 3, kill the remaining attack bike (TH+SS TWL destroyed the dread), My turn 3, kill 5 Tacky Marines (TH+SS TWL Killed the Thunderfire Cannon multi charged into - Charged the TFire Cannon, couldn't get the SotWB into combat with him so was able to get the tactical marines in multi-assault here, heh), his turn 4, killed 5 more tacky marines, My Turn 4, charged Pedro's unit (good consolidation rolls also and positioning for the charge here) saw 7 of the 8 sternguard get killed by SotWB TWL, whilst pedro and the PF Sternguard got killed by the SotB TH+SS TWL, his turn 5, he shot me and I passed all my saves, My Turn 5 I multi-charged his rhino/tactical squad, rhino killed by TH+SS TWL, and 6 Tacky marines killed by SotWB TWL. Random game length gave us another turn, His Turn 6 saw the last 4 tacky marines killed. My turn 6 saw the Vindicator finally crushed by the twin-frost weapon TWL charging back into it (with a shiny 11 attacks at str 6) whilst the TH+SS TWL hit the speeder left over here to stun it. Njal and grimnar all this time had moved to position themselves at a shared quarter whilst unlimited range sniping at the last Typhoon ages away. This is where I made my mistake in turn 6 and turned a Victorious Slaughter with secondary objectives achieved and thus maximum battle points for the scenario attained, into just a Victorious Slaughter with no Secondaries. I wasn't sure if I would destroy the vindicator so I left Njal and Logan in the same unit. I should have split them off and contested the quarter with the far speeder with Logan and claimed the empty quarter I deployed in as my own whilst contesting the one he deployed in with the speeder there. Instead, I stuffed up.

Post-Game 2 Summary:

I lost all 6 WG again, which amounted to 4 Kill Points due to the scenario special rules.

Shane lost 17 Kill Points giving me a 13 Kill Point difference for the primary win of Victorious Slaughter.

He had lost at the end of it:

Pedro Kantor
2 Ironclad Dreadnoughts
8 Sternguard
20 tactical marines
1 Rhino
2 Attack Bikes
1 Vindicator
1 Thunderfire Cannon

36 models killed, 7 left on the table in his army (1 immobilised Land Speeder Typhoon, 1 stunned one in combat with the TH+SS TWL).

I believe I was quite ecstatic at this point, but I had massive amounts of good luck on the saves for the TWL's but also allocated nicely prioritising what needed to go where...Shane had a heck of alot of bad dice this game...we'll play again sometime and it shouldn't be as brutal.


GAME 3: DENNIS FUNG - TYRANIDS

Game 3 clocked around and I was up on table 2 against dennis Fung, the chap running

Event Horizon in May. Dennis, aka Loriness, is a chap i do respect based on some of his attitudes online and I knew I was in for a tough game, not just because it was Nids and they were one of the armies the Herohammer Space Wolves struggle against (massed numbers, huge MC count), but because he knows how to play really well and in a non-comp environment as well as comp. His list was along the lines of a choppy Hive Tyrant and Guard, a Prime, 2x10 termagants, 2 tervigons with Catalyst+TS's, 2 Harpies with Twin-Linked heavy Venom Cannons and 2 Tyrrannofexes with Rupture Cannons. No Hive Guard or Zoanthropes, indeed no elites...those Rupture Cannons had me worried for the Warrior Born Lord though, one failed save and he was dead.

The mission was as follows:

[i]Mission 3: Changing Tide

Deploy - Pitched battle (12" in on long board edge, 24" separation)
Random game length, 2 1/4 hr time limit

Before rolling dice, place small 3 objective markers (or use D6's) evenly spaced along the centreline, one on the exact centre of the table, other 2: 18" along the centerline in from short table edges.

Each objective is worth a random number of Objective points. The 1st time a non vehicle model moves into B2B contact with the objective, roll a D6, this is the value of the objective in points, and will remain in place at that value for the rest of the game. Hold by usual 5th ed rules - eg uncontested held by scoring unit with model within 3".
Add up number of "objective points" each player has at the end of the game and consult the following chart to determine the winner:

Victorious Slaughter (7+ higher than opponent; Or hold all 3 Objectives un-contested by the enemy) =15 battle pts
Major Triumph (3-6 pts higher than opponent) =13 battle pts
Minor Victory (1-2 pts higher than opponent, or wipe out with 0-2 objective pts held) =11 battle pts
Draw (same number of objective points scored - remember variable value) =9 battle pts each
Minor Loss (1-2 pts fewer than opponent) = 8 battle pts
Major Loss (3-6 pts fewer than opponent) = 7 battle pts
Disastrous Defeat (7+ fewer than opponent, or opponent holds all 3 objectives) = 5 battle pts

Secondary: KPs: must be 2 or more KPs clear, or have wiped out opponent. + 5 battle pts[/i]

The game started off with me deploying first then being seized against, a whole bunch of FnP and spawning of termagants happened and a move towards Arjac's squad. 2nd turn from memory saw arjacs squad annihilated in a single round of combat before it got to strike. This was finally how the army on paper looks. Swinging myf orces around the TWL's got stuck in whilst Njal sniped a Harpy to 1 wound with LL and some aid from Logan and Biker friends. The combat which swung the game was the Tyrant, Tyrant Guard, Prime, Harpy and a bunch of Termagants verse the two TWL's. Dennis thought the stat boosts from the TWL's were added on after doubling of strengths et al but FAQ and codex descriptors later and asking around and TO'ing saw that confirmed as the +1 str, A and T are added to the base profile of the TW himself so he is base str 5, thus, with the TH, he was strength 10...which instant deathed the Harpy (I committed 3 attacks on the harpy and 3 on the tyrant from the TH TWL to make sure I hit and wounded at least once on the harpy so as to instant death it, all 3 hit and 2 wounded killing it outright)...it won't happen in future games from now on, but it was a sucky way to find out as I managed to win that round of combat by 12 which saw the remaining termagant horde from 3 units wiped out and the Tyrant cut to one wound whilst the TWL's were still alive and still passing all their invulnerable saves (though were wounded at this stage).

The game basically got a bit interesting from there with Dennis adapting to surround the TWL's instead of charging to certain death meaning I had to shoot my way out or charge in my turn and fight my way out...Njal finished off the other harpy and the bikers moved in to support the TWL's with Njal and Grimnar moving to within 3" of the central objective for a contestation with the tervigon there, the TWL's and the Bikers cleaved through the remainig termagants and it got down to how far my guys consolidated whether I would contest the other tervigon held objective or not (all termagants were dead at this stage), and bam, a 5 and a 6 and the objective game was contested. I won on The Kill Point secondaries.

Post-Game 3 Summary:

Draw, won on secondary.

10 Kill Points destroyed verse 1 Kill Point Lossed.

I lost Arjacs squad of 3 WG Terminators. 1 Wounded Tervigon, 1 untouched Tervigon and 2 unwounded Tyrannofexes were left at the end.

I killed:

Hive Tyrant
Tyrant Guard
Tyranid Prime
2 Harpies
56 Termagants (2 units base 3 spawns).

The Herohammer Space Wolves killed 61 of 65 models, and had 7 men alive to 4 MC's at the end.

OVERALL KILL TOTALS AND LOSSES:

First Game:
Lost - 3 WG Bikers, 2 WG Terminators, Arjac Rockfist (4 models alive at end)
Killed - 48 models (4 models left alive at end)

Second Game:
Lost - 3 WG Bikers, 2 WG Terminators, Arjac Rockfist (4 models alive at end)
Killed - 36 models (7 left at end)

Third Game:
Lost - 2 WG Terminators, Arjac Rockfist (7 models left alive at end)
Killed - 61 models (4 left alive at end)

TOTALS: I Lost 15 models (15 models survived) across all 3 games
I Killed 145 models (15 models survived) across all 3 games

That's a very sweet 9.66666667 : 1 Ratio of Kills to Losses across the 3 games for the day.

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

The Herohammer Space Wolves worked far better then I had thought they would. I played very well and whilst I made some critical mistakes, considering I hadn't played the list before I did pretty well with all things said and done. Using the Bikers to suferficially boost Logan and Njal's Toughness to 5 against shooting also had the effect of increasing the bikers survivability by 3 TDA wounds before I started taking wounds on the bikers (Logan is eternal warrior and Njal has 2 wounds so losing 3 between them to still be alive is very useful), but it did change the way the bikers were used until the very end. Tank Hunting on Living Lightning is a handy trick and fairly accurate with a good positioned Chooser of the Slain which also damages/suppresses reliably. Wooftooth Necklaces are beyond golden in shininess value. :D Paired Thunderwolf Lords with TH+SS+RA+SotB and one with 2 FW's+BoR+RA+SotWB in the same unit can be used to not only survive a high amount of firepower/concentrated attacks, but also can take on anything solidly and effectively, able to position themselves for multi-charges against units and their transports and destroying both at the same time, saving time and increasing the damage potential the pair can churn out. Timing for when to split units apart is also very important as together they can survive a far vaster range of attacks then individually via wounds allocation and possibly superficial toughness as well. Keeping Objectives in mind is also key, troops were my number one priority and I worked towards killing them first and foremost and concentrated on them over other threats with the ability to best deal with my troops. Mech isn't required to play 40k competitively at 1,750pts. Indeed, you can get away with 10 models all on foot if you play well and think about what you do when you do it. It ain't easy but boy is it fun. Oh, and next time I'll remember to use the +1 to all friendlies within 18" for a round that Logan grants as I forgot to all tournament.

The day was great, I had 3 awesome games, somehow managed to win all 3 and kill horrendous amounts of enemy models of various sorts and mainly with 2 thunderwolf lords...I've now attended 3 tournaments - Cryx Cup last year with 1 win of 3 games, Leviathan last year with 4 wins and 1 loss, and Cryx Cup this year with 3 wins of 3 games. Each tourney thus far has been with a different army, which weren't power armies going into it and also that I hadn't played before the tournament not even in practice. 8 out of 11 games as wins in the tournament scene is a good record I think.

All the best everyone, any questions just post away below, I've more then likely missed all sorts of things. :)

Auretious Taak.

P.S. BoLS saw Bigred do a thread on so called Elite Armies recently, but he isn't thinking truely elite, 30 models at 1850pts includinga few vehicles? Man, what a noob, not thinking silly and stupid enough (though silly stupid 3 wins from 3 games on Herohammer Space Wolves well yeah). The link is here:

If someone can link BoLS people over to here and tell them elite is 14 models at 2,750pts, or 9 models at 1,500pts, then they can see that indeed elite armies do have a place and can compete well (my computer is screwed, I can do some things but mostly can't do anything that includes posting to BoLS as comments)...Anyways, I'm still stoked and shocked at how today went! Definitely looking forwards to outtings when the army is completed. Go Go Rainbow warriors! :D