Again, sorry for no pics and full battle reports but I'm sure people would rather read about 6th by now, yes? Anyway, enjoy the Team picture. Go team! So last 5th edition games I shall ever play and we'll see how the oddyetsomehowdoingwell Blood Angel list goes!
Bolded details give game number, army opponent and state opponent and mission along with whether or not I was matched (our team choose the game) or put-up (opponent choose the game) and what type of match-up the game was (Red = bad; Yellow = neutral; Green = good).
Game 1 vs Dark Eldar, South Australia, Capture & Control, Pitched Battle
Put-up, Yellow
Opponent won roll-off and elected to go first. He was using a Venomspam list and deployed his objective centrally with all his Wracks sitting on top of it - mine was in the back left corner. Ravagers deployed opposite from my objective and his Venoms in between the Ravagers and his objective. I have fire support on objectives and RBacks + Bikes pushing up through midfield with Mephy in tow. The game went like this - I stopped the Ravagers from shooting and would engage infantry units behind my Razorbacks so Venoms couldn't shoot them. When they did get shot they had 3+/FNP so didn't fall over from mass poison. The end result was my opponent having two Venoms & a Ravager left with a couple small units engaging my ASM near his objective with Mephy coming over. Time was called on Turn 4 so there was another shooting phase for me to try to down the two Venoms and push my ASM onto his objective, which contrary to what I just posted, was unfortunate for the team as we drew by one point -could have used that extra turn but nothing to say I still would have won the game!
This will be a theme for most Dark Eldar players at the ATC, particularly since they wanted to play against me, but three Ravagers + blasters is not enough to drop even medium mech armies.
Game 2 vs Necrons, Queensland, Kill Points, Dawn of War
Put-up, Green
Re-match with Pat from last year. Different armies though with Pat using AV13 Cronwall. Opponent won roll-off and gave me first so I didn't deploy, he deployed two Immortal + Crypteks. I moved everything on to what I thought was just outside of his 24" shooting range for Barges and the like and didn't bother with smoke because of this. Preds led in the middle for AV13 against Crypteks, Attack Bikes + Mephy behind with the Dread offering fire support and the Scouts in reserve. Crons come on and I'm just inside 24" against a few targets - woops. Luckily no significant damage is endured - the Bargelords are flanking on my left. Next turn I push up again - that's over 30" movement towards the Necrons, and pop some smokes. My shooting fails to do anything significant. Bargelords continue to move around my flank and the Necron firepower attritions down some of my vehicles giving Pat a 2-0 KP edge. I continue to move forward however and now have assault units _ melta in range. Although the Necron firepower continues to pip things here and there and the Bargelords wreck my backline, there's more KP for me available from the Necron army (my backfield was, at worst, four KP to him - he only got two). Game ended Turn 5 with a 7-6 KP advantage to me though there were two Immortal units + two Barges against melta for me to take with only really one easy KP left for Pat.
All in all a great game and one I was glad wasn't 6th! I think Pat should have kept a Bargelord with his army though as it gave him little to really smack my main army with once his Stalkers went down in terms of actually dropping my vehicles and as I said above, I was happy to leave them be and trade my backfield KP for the rest of his army (10 KP).
Game 3 vs Dark Eldar, New Zealand, 5 Objectives, Spearhead
Put-up, Yellow
Another Dark Eldar list with Venoms though this time there is a large Hellion blob and more Blasters. I win roll-off and to my opponent's surprise, give him first turn. This allows me the most options in terms of holding objectives on last turn and since he has minimal Dark Lances, he's not likely to explode my army Turn 1. He chooses the corner with four objectives in it which is, IMO, a poor choice. It allows me to push towards him and when I get there, have his army and four objectives to be nearby. If he had picked the opposite corner, to push towards my opponent's army would have moved away from objectives.
Opening shooting doesn't see much damage done and once again the Blood Angels move forward and start dropping DE vehicles. My mech column gets stalled in midfield - right between three objectives, from shooting but suffers no lasting damage and Mephiston engages the Hellions...who survive! Some nice rolling and they leave him all alone (he later dies) with Hit & Run and start making havoc in the middle of the field. I'm able to keep pushing DE squads and vehicles off though and the Hellions attempt to clear me out of midfield at the end of Turn 5 but don't which allows me to drop two flame templates on them and kill over half the unit. Game ends there though 2-0 my way as I move up to contest any objectives he still has - though there is little firepower left for the DE to actually drop my vehicles - mostly splinter fire left.
Again, we see the lack of Darklight weaponry outside of Blasters/Ravagers being very hurtful and although the Hellions continued through the game, only needing a Ld test on 7 kept them alive helped that a lot which allowed Haydn to claw back some Victory Points and make the game closer. Good game overall and the best one against DE all weekend.
Game 4 vs Tyranids, Western Australia, Capture & Control, Dawn of War
Matched, Yellow
This was my only chosen match on behalf of the team and it was based on the other match-ups available for the team. Workable though, particularly in this mission as the Tyranids would have a tough time holding their objective and grabbing mine depending upon placement. He knew this and thus put his in a far off corner where he could protect it and force a draw. I put mine centrally in ruins to protect from Genestealers and plopped my Scouts on top. Everything else moved on and pointed itself towards the Tyranid objective (he won roll-off btw and gave me first). Tyranids all came on around the objective except one Hive Guard unit so I blasted it off the table and continued moving onto their objective.
This then began a dogpile around the Tyranid objective with the Genestealers coming on there as well. Although ASM were being attritioned away they weren't disappearing quickly whilst lots of Termagants, Genestealers and some MCs had been dropped. Importantly, I was bringing up my Predators to tank shock onto objective. Mephiston was also carving up a line through the back and ended up landing on top of the objective and time was called despite having a Turn 6.
The game was called a draw despite the Scouts on the objective due to tournament rulings and some back & forth. Doesn't take away from a good and enjoyable game with my opponent however and kudos to him for trying to hold off the BA + Mephiston for so long. With hindsight of the tournament rulings and objectives, the placement of his objective on top of a three story building was good - I would have otherwise suggested putting it in the corner and layering up as many squads there whilst looking to stop my vehicles. As it was though, good placement as my vehicles could never contest.
Game 5 vs Dark Eldar, Tasmania, Kill Points, Spearhead
Put-up, Yellow
Final Dark Eldar for the day thankfully, this one with a lot of Night Shields and more Dark Lances, so probably the best list of the bunch to take me on. He wins roll-off and deploys rather aggressively with Ravagers on the flanks for side shots. There is barely any terrain for me to take advantage of with vehicles so I leave a couple RBacks out to snuff it and layer up behind them. I fail to seize and he does some fairly decent damage to me Turn 1 - but importantly, no kills. He also moved towards me with Ravagers rather than laterally which means I can get meltaguns in range despite his Night Shields. I do so and drop two Ravagers. This is basically the way the entire game goes - he does superficial damage to me whilst I continue to wreck him thanks to +1/+2 on damge rolls. My opponent really needed to move backwards and not bring his Blasters into range and use all his Dark Lances (14 of them iirc) until my Predators + Dread + Attack Bikes were out of action. And then played keep away all game and stayed ahead in Kill Points.
In the end I nearly tabled him (one large squad left) whilst he only had a handful of Kill Points. Unfortunate his dice were poor overall but this was compounded by the wrong strategic choice by not maximising his Night Shields against me and engaging in a shooting war. Great opponent though who smiled through all the pain!
Game 6 vs Space Wolves, Australian Capital Territory, 3 Objectives, Pitched Battle
Champion, Green
I was put up as Champion here which meant my match was determined before the process began - but our opponents didn't know this and we didn't know who I was playing. Ended up against Space Wolves which I had as a Green army since he only had three Grey Hunter units in Pods. Three objectives were placed more towards one side and I won roll-off and kept it for this game and choose that side. This allows me to move up with my guys and sit on objectives and force him to Pod around the objectives rather than upon them. Even if he seizes, he still has to Pod away from the objectives or have my whole army turn around and smack him in the face. This is what happened... he seized and dropped two Grey Hunter units with plasma + Priests right in front of me. This + Fang & RBack support did a number on my Razorbacks but my ASM, Mephy & Dread turned around and creamed the Grey Hunters + Priests with the Attack Bikes taking care of the Pods.
The game was basically over at this point unfortunately as there was very little the Wolves could now do. Mephy ran around and killed two of the Fang units and the other Pod with Grey Hunters tried to knock over my Scouts but only killed three. All my shooting + two ASMs in assault later and the Wolves were left with only a Fang squad left. He kept shooting at Mephy to try and kill him until the game ended Turn 7.
By podding right in front of me, and me being in transports, there wasn't much damage to my actual army going on and I was able to walk up and smack the Grey Hunters in the face. And that's without my twin-linked heavy flamers being operational. Using supporting squads also allowed Mephy to just go nuts. At least dropping them in the centre would have drawn out the game and allowed all three Grey Hunter units to work together rather than me dealing with the first two right off the bat. Either way, enjoyable game with some good banter and a nice way to finish 5th ed and the ATC.
Conclusion
Some good games overall though having three Dark Eldar players try to take me on was amusing :P. I did have these as yellows though as lots of Darklight weaponry + Splinter is enough to cut through the 3+/FNP armor I was relying upon and I had minimal shooting vehicles to make the lack of Dark Lances in the armies pay. I.e. if I was running a Assback list, these would have been greens. I think the best list for it was the Tasmania list which had more Dark Lances and Night Shields but movement nullified these advantages.
Either way, consistently winning against yellows was good for the team though I was in the position where the team required me to to get wins and not draws and as we saw, when I got draws, we drew as a team. Anyway, good last hurrah for this list in 5th edition and perhaps I have learned my lesson with Blood Angel Razorbacks - keep moving forward. Anyway, onwards to 5th!
