<-- Not Nathan's army.
We all know Nathan. He thinks Orks are good or something :P (no I didn't lose to them, shut up!). Here are his battle reports from TSHFT he has kindly allowed to be put up on 3++. Enjoy. I'll post some quick comments on opponent lists in general and then referring directly to Nathan's list =D.
Time for March TSHFT! YAY!
Once again, I trotted out my tried and true 2k Ork list.
Big Mek: 85
KFF
14 lootas: 210
10 Kommandos: 215
2 burnas, +Snikrot
30 Boyz: 245
Shootas, 3 Rokkits, Nob: PK
30 Boyz: 245
Shootas, 3 Rokkits, Nob: PK
12 Boyz: 152
Choppas, Nob: PK, BP
Trukk: Ram, Red Paint
12 Boyz: 152
Choppas, Nob: PK, BP
Trukk: Ram
10 Gretchin: 40
Runtherd
15 Stormboyz: 220
Nob: PK, BP
2 Rokkit Buggies: 70
BattleWagon: 135
Kannon, 'Ard case, 3 big shootas, ram
3 Killa Kans: 150
Rokkits
3 Lobbas: 81
2 ammo runts
2000
This time though, I had the distinct pleasure of having Abuse Puppy (and Max!) stay at my house and come to the tournament. I'm sure he'll be regaling us with bat reps at some point or another (maybe in a year or so... :P ) to enlighten you with his 'Nid perspective. As for me, I'll let you know what it looked like for the Orks!
Game 1
Max: Tyranids
Max is Abuse Puppy's buddy who came up with him from Oregon to attend. Max had a 'Nid list that looked something like this.
Hive Tyrant with hive commander, venom cannon, paroxysm
6 units of 10 genestealers with toxin sacs
2 units of 7(8?) Ymgarls
2 Trygons with adrenal glands and regeneration
Not a fan. Tyrant sticks out without Guard and one ranged shooty attack...eh. Lots of attacks though and but with the amount of PKs and attacks back Nathan has (with no FNP on the Genes), combat is simply going to be a white wash of blood. Smart use of terrain and movement from Nathan should see an easy win due to the lack of flexibility in Max's list though.
The mission/deployment was as follows. It was an objective mission ala sieze ground, except that there were three objectives automatically. The deployment was an echelon style deployment (diagonal lines drawn from 18" up and 12" up) that also had night fight effects starting on turn 5.
We placed the objectives more or less in the center-right (my perspective) and I won the roll to go first or second. I decided that even though it was objectives and he was obviously going with an all-reserve style strategy, I wanted to go first to pick the section of the board with the most objectives.
I deployed all spread out and with my fast vehicles blocking off most of the right edge. I made sure I was filling in all the major terrain with guys so that the Ymgarls would have no place to go.
Bottom of 2, Max gets the Hive Tyrant and 3 units of Genestealers to come in, as well as an Ymgarl unit which is destroyed because it has no place to deploy. Unfortunately for Max, 2 of the 3 Genestealers outflank on the wrong side and now have to cross virtually the whole board, under fire, to get to the objectives. The other unit moves up and assaults one of my 30 strong mobz. They do a bunch of damage to them, but not enough.
My next go, I counter assault the stealers with Snikrot and company, who straigth murderize the genestealers. (only one genestealer could put attacks into the kommandos) I also shoot up the other genestealers a bit with lobbas.
Now Max gets both his Trygons in, and the rest of his army (the other ymgarl unit also dies because it couldn't get placed). Again though, 2 of the 3 genestealers go to the wrong edge and are now way far out. His other genestealer unit assaults the kommandos and wipes them out, but take damage back.
Now that he's out of outflankers, I pull my trukks up to assault the genestealers with one, while racing the other towards the middle to help out eventually. My shooting tears up genestealers throughout and puts 5 wounds on a Trygon. I finish it off with a massive double assault with the stormboyz and the full 30 man boyz squad. Unfortunately I couldn't assault the remaining 3 genestealers on the right because he removed enough models.
Max moves the genestealers at me, and assaults the paroxysmed stormboyz with his hive tyrant and the buggies with his remaining trygon. Both assaults fail utterly.
I block off the trygon with buggies, kill the right side genestealers, move into cover to await the left side genestealers, shoot the genestealers some more with lobbas and other stuff. The Trygon dies to lootas and I kill the tyrant in melee.
At this point, its pure desperation for Max who throws 6 genestealers at 30 orks in cover. Predictably, the orks absorb the assault and kill the stealers.
In my last turn I move up the stormboyz and the trukk boyz and finish off the last two units of genestealers.
Result: Win!
18 of 20 Battle Points
The perils of relying on dice rolls for your deployment. Outflanking armies are bad! With more mobility it looked like Nathan simply controlled when and where things happened. It would of been interesting to see if Max had gotten most of his things in on the right side as well as more in on T1 (not much came in considering a 3+).
Game 2
Joel: Space Wolves
Joel and his buds from Team Bio in the Vancouver/Portland area have been coming to TSHFT and OFCC for a while (and other tourneys I don't go to!). Joel has always represented, to me, what every tournament player should be; he's fun to play against, he plays well, he makes cool lists, and he paints really well. If you ever have a chance to play anyone from Team Bio, do it, don't hesitate. :)
Joel brought a new army (to me at least, I'm used to his Chaos force) of Space Wolves. More or less like this.
Rune Priest with jaws and living lightning
Wolf Priest on bike
1 unit of 9 wolf guard in a Rhino (rune priest joins)
2 units of 10 Grey Hunters in Rhinos with banner and 2 meltaguns.
2 units of 5 grey hunters in las/plas Razorbacks
1 unit of 8 Swiftclaw bikers (two meltas and a multimelta attack bike), wolf priest goes here.
3 units of long fangs with 4 missiles and 2 lascannons each.
I really dislike Grey Hunters in Razorbacks. Go figure. That being said a decent army outside of the Biker squad though that Biker squad should be rather annoying to the Orks. The firepower is there to drop the vehicles and the combat ability to deal with the Orks as well. Shame the Priest doesn't have hurricane or tempest like a good Priest though :P.
The mission was a modified kill points where MCs and vehicle squadrons were worth more KPs, but that was inconsequential for the most part as the only unit that it effected was my killa kans. Deployment was spearhead.
Joel won the roll to go first and did so. Our board was a city fight type board with lots of LOS blocking terrain. Joel took the side I wanted to use to hide my stuff. He deployed some long fangs high in a building, some in a crater, and some behind some mesh fence. He used his bikes and razors to bubblewrap to protect from Snikrot.
I deployed all but my fast stuff and made sure to spread out to avoid getting ripped to pieces by frag missiles. I tried to sieze, and failed.
Turn one, Joel knocked out two of my kans and shook the other. Beyond that, nothing else. My turn, I moved the kan up to hide it from his shooting some more. I also shot at his Rhino with the wolf guard in it and failed to kill it when he made 4 5+ cover saves on 4 pens! >:( My lobbas hurt the unit of long fangs in the building.
Joel's next turn, he tried desperately to kill my last kan, and succeeded in knocking off both weapons and immobilizing it. But it was still alive. He shuffled some of his units around, especially his one rhino with grey hunters to threaten an assault on my mobz.
My turn, I get one trukk in and the gretchin. I hid the gretchin in the far corner in some terrain, they wouldn't come into play during the game, but that was fine by me! The trukk went behind a building in order to threaten his long fangs. My lobbas pinned the long fangs in the building and I blew up the rhino the wolf guard was in.
Turn 3, Joel moves his Grey Hunters up to assault me, and breaks the wolf priest from the bikes to help out. He succeeded in wrecking my battlewagon despite the AV14 and KFF! GRRR! He also explodes the trukk and the boyz inside are pinned! The grey hunters jump me and pop their banner. They munch up the boyz, but don't kill them off.
My turn, I get the other trukk and the buggies in. I move up the other boyz squad to counter into the grey hunters. The lootas kill the remaining long fangs in the building, everything else fails to do damage. My assault on the grey hunters is a catastrophe. 7 wounds done out of 60 attacks! Fortunately, my nob doubles out his wolf priest, but, its looking bad as he can assault with his wolf guard and his bikes and wipe my two squads. :(
Turn 4, Joel springs forth with his bikes to set up a counter charge, but the wolf guard get a bad dt roll and are stuck in the terrain about 5 inches away. His shooting does nothing as he moves up his one long fangs towards me (no targets visible) and the other gets two lascannon and two missile hits on the last kan, but rolls 3 1s! The wolf guard fail to assault, and the bikes go it alone. His assault goes decently, finishing off the original Nob (all that's left of the first mob), but that's it. Now we're locked in a big fight with WS3 models!
My turn 4, Snikrot shows up, but the stormboyz roll a 1! UGH! Snikrot and co move to assault the long fangs and a razorback. The trukk crashes through the ruins to help out the assault on the bikes. The lobbas shoot up long fangs as do the lootas, but Joel makes a ton of saves. In the assault I do a good amount of damage to the bikes and finish off the grey hunters, but I'm still stuck in combat, and the wolf guard are about to bat clean up. Snikrot fails to killt he razorback and a single long fang is still alive at the end of the fight. Its looking hairy right now.
Joel's 5. He moves up his other grey hunter unit to melta the trukk. He also moves his two 5-strong GH units up to counter attack Sniky. He shoots the remaining buggy, but only immobilizes it. The trukk dies. The wolf guard charge in and wipe me out, but I finish off the bikes. His grey hunters crash into the kommandos, but whiff hilariously. Snikrot kills the last long fang, and the unit holds after only losing two models.
MY 5. I try and take out the wolf guard with my lootas and fail. It all comes down to the fight with Snikrot and the grey hunters. Miraculously, I win the fight and one unit breaks, and I don't catch it. We roll to end the game, and its over!
Result: Win!
14 of 20 BP
Seemed like this game could of gone either way but not sure why Joel didn't leave some sac units at the back to accept Snikrot. Other than that I just have issues with the Bike squad really. Turning this into 2-3 TWC squads would of given a lot more options (i.e. counter-attack on Snikrot) and combat potential and I think help swing the battle more in Joel's favor. Regardless, pewpew go Orks :P.
