Hey all:
Emperor's Legion Delayed (~2 weeks) Write Up :P
EL was pretty pretty go http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifod. I ran my Bloodhammer list vs 5 cool opponents and was fairly happy with it. The Devs certainly added much needed firepower that the pure jumpers incarnation sorely lacks. Big props to Bails for running a good event, but the missions need a bit of a tune up I thought.
So game 1 vs Jeremy running Draigowing (Draigooo!!, Libby, 5 paladins, 10 paladins). I failed quite hard when I panicked and charged big unit when I should've avoided it all game and alpha'ed the 5 man paladin squad. The mission was a problem too, he could've just stay in the middle and the best I could get would've been a draw :( That's part of the reason I panicked and thought I had to act but what I should've done was just jump around away from them, since he could only really kill a 2 5 man squads per turn and I had 11 of those all up, I could've even detached the priests to make them solo targets as well and make him have to shoot a single guy with whole paladin units to take him out. Alas, I didn't do any of that at the time :P I learnt from my fail though...
Game 2 vs Shane who was running BA (Dante, 4 Sang Squads, 2 typhoons, Stormraven, Furioso). I was able to grab the upper hand by charging 2 squads and Dante with about 15 marines and the VVets, getting furious charge up and killing everything but Dante, who the VVets later took out. The armour he had was cautiously kept away from the Devs (>48" away) which meant he hesitated a bit and I was able to capitalise on the area advantage and numerical advantage I had to win by throwing a few ASM squads into his deployment whereas his lone sang squad was still on his half of the table.
Game 3 vs Scott with old SoB (His last hurrah with SoB - 2 Cannonesseses, 4x10 SoB in rhinos, 2 exorcists, retribs with HBs). This was perhaps the best game I've had at a tourney in some time. (I should've deployed all 30 ASMs but decided to drop 10 and the VVets, probably cost me a win) I jumped up into midfield and he drove up and got out with all the sisters and blew away 2 5 man squads. I was then able to kill all of his troops, he killed all of mine, we each killed a HQ, we each killed the highest point unit but he still had 3 moving rhinos in my DZ so we drew on something like 14-13 in his favour. Great game but I can't help thinking I should've deployed everything except the VVets and overwhelmed midfield. As it was, my 2 5 man squads were forced to drop back and one mishapped into my corner. If I was able to gain control of midfield earlier in the game, I could've eeked out a win (maybe? :P)
Day 1 wraps up and I get like 4 hours sleep :O and Kirbs gets like 3! :O:O before we go trekking to Penrith all over again. Kirby was sick with the flu and worked until 1am. WTF is your excuse?
Game 4 vs Tim (another Draigooowing but with a bit more stuff - Draigooo!, 10 paladins, 5 paladins, solodin, 2 psyflemen). I decided to jump everything and deployed the devs in the corner forest. He decided to outflank with the 10 paladins which was costly for him. I was able to down the dreads, solodin and draigooo! who was all alone in his DZ, presumably waiting for the 5 paladins to deep strike in. As it happened, dice weren't with Tim in this game. Big D perilsed (sp?) and the VVets made short work of him. The 5 paladins scattered off the board and died and the 10 man unit only killed the devs and I was able to avoid it. Still, a minor win since I couldn't kill that ~9000 point unit. I think the game might have gone differently if Tim had started everything and protected his dreads so I couldn't jump in to melta them and scouting the 10 man paladins would've been much better than outflanking them since I was able to avoid them. Tim's a reader of 3++ so if you read this, good game buddy but your luck was :( and outflanking is never really an option, save for maybe a 5 man squad into a castling cornered deployment like tau or IG.
Game 5 vs Yuri who won best painted [congrats mate - beautiful ultramarine army] (SM - Sicarius, rifleman, asscan,dccw dread, tacs in rhinos and rbs, LS storm, scouts, autolas pred, dakka pred, thunderfail). Not an optimal army, but I lost to it :P I would've won on t5 but it went to t6 which I had not accounted for and my ASM on the central objective were too close so he charged them and wiped them out and I couldn't missile all of them down. I should've jumped further away, which would've given me the certain win with the central objective and a secondary one too. Sicarius was quite a star in this game, his global LD 10 was quite nice and he was able to do some damage in combat. I probably overcommitted to combat too much but my VVets failed quite hard this game (they were ok in all the others). They dropped down and had a prime target: a 10 man tac squad with fist. So I was going to take a casualty or 2 from the fist but was hoping to wipe them out in 2 combats max. I misjudged the priest distance from them (he was engaged in another combat) and they ended up being 8" away and without FNP or FC, killed like 2 marines over 2 rounds and failed their saves and died :( That same marine squad was the one killing my ASM from the middle objective and taking it themselves on t6. Fucking VVet fail :(
Anywho, finished 2-1-2 (w/d/l) and felt like I could've won the games I lost and the game I drew. Oh well :D We always have these moments after a tourney, analysing our mistakes and what we should've done differently but this analysing after our losses is good and means that we are thinking about how we should've played differently and becoming better players in the process.
I just hope that next time, if I face a Draigooowing list, I don't panic and charge it. This goes for most lists, sure they will be able to outshoot me but I shouldn't panic and throw a duck, I should remain composed and play to the mission. 30 FNP ASMs with 15 FNP devs should be enough to weather quite a beastly storm of fire so I shouldn't just rush them after I've lost 1 or 2 5 man squads. I have gotten a fair few games with the BA's now, perhaps 15 or so, and am slowly feeling more confident with my gameplay. The devs were a good idea, the bloodhammer is much easier than playing a pure jumpers list and means you can start everything on the board if need be. The fire support they give means that I can krak tanks or paladins from afar as well as frag infantry which the pure jumpers had trouble dealing with (tanks at range and massed infantry or paladins!).
I'm a bit sick of playing GK in general tbh, I get there have been bandwagons before but this has been the biggest one in some time. It's just a tough match up for BAs with little to no mech. The rock armies, i.e. - can I kill the rock or avoid it, also get a bit boring. Sure, they're ok to play with and easy and quick to paint but I'd much rather just play against a balanced list which will be a much more tactical game as opposed to a rock avoiding game. I wish I had IG ready for EL, 3 medusas and 2 ddogs would've spelt doom for those fucking paladins before they got to move :P
Anywho, that just about wraps it up for me regarding EL, good tables, good opponents, okay missions, some great armies there! Thanks Bails for running it and Kirbs and I will no doubt be back next year - Kirby driving all weekend this time of course (:
