So unfortunately I'm having some issues with the video feed for Games 3 & 5 - unless you want to watch the full two hours at least... Because the frame rate is so slow (8 FPS), whenever I re-render them with an improved frame rate they start jumping and skipping. I've got game 6 to work though at a sped up pace (around a 28 min video) so Game 6 comes up before the other games and, well it's the tournament final so what's not to love! I've added commentary as well and you can see both Part 1 and Part 2 below. The normal text & picture based battle report can be seen below as well - you can use the video alone, not at all or in conjunction with the text/pictures! I think looking at both gives you the most complete picture but that's me.
Anyway, to the game! It was Pitched Battle, KP Primary, Table Quarters secondary. A good mission for Jimmy's Daemons when I have nearly double the KP count and my most effective ways of killing his guys mean I have to expose myself - I can't hide in my tanks and top-hatch or turret away the army, I really need to get out to damage him. If I fail to kill my target, well hello easy KP - only Mephiston is really going to stand toe-to-toe with anything and even then, with high strength/attacks/ignores armor/rending, he doesn't want long combats because he will die. I do have mobility though and ranged firepower which Jimmy has very little of. Winning the game will be taking advantage of this and then alpha-striking targets whilst protecting them from reprisal.
So I won the roll-off (that's five out of six games! Lucky me) and give Jimmy first turn so I can maximise my shooting. He gives me the top of the board where there is some LoS blocking terrain if I am foolish enough to deploy in it. My list can been here, his list is below:
Chaos Daemons:
Fateweaver
Bloodthrister
5x Crushers w/Instrument, Fury, Icon
2x6x Fiends w/Might
10x Daemonettes
2x5x Plaguebearers
2x Daemon Princes - 1 Nurgle, 1 Slanneshi
VIDEO PART 1
VIDEO PART 2
Deployment
Jimmy doesn't deploy being Daemons so I deploy first. I've been given the top where there is terrain to restrict my shooting or no terrain to not. I choose the area with terrain... I cannot really explain why, I blame tiredness :P but what was running through my mind was to not get bottled up by the Daemons. I had superior mobility and he had no shooting so if I could play keep away, stretch his army out away from Fatey and use what shooting I h ad to slowly pick off units, I'd be sweet. Unfortunately where I deployed gave Jimmy more options than me and even though I deployed centrally, I didn't really have mobility as to effectively get away from his army, I'd have to split up and leave parts of it undeployed. Either way, VERY bad move on my part and it gives Jimmy a perfect location to deepstrike without being seen by much of my army.
If I had deployed in the corner with no terrain on the other hand, I would have been able to use my mobility and metal bawks to protect cheap KP (i.e. forcing Daemons to assault into moving tanks whilst my ASM still shot through tank gaps) and allow me to counter-assault. Even if Jimmy deep-struck aggressively rather than back in terrain, I'd have been able to access a lot more of my army's advantages rather than playing into Jimmy's lap.
Daemons Turn 1
Jimmy gets his preferred wave which is Fateweaver, 5x Crushers, Bloodthirster, Fiends & Slaaneshi prince. Fateweaver deepstrikes right where the majority of my left flank cannot see him (btw, the left and right flanks are mixed up between the written and video feed because of the different perspectives, don't get confused!). Bloodcrushers come in next ahead of Fatey but scatter towards my line - several inches short of a mishap and don't get hit with any dangerous terrain rolls. Bloodthrister next also straight into my lines but still in a very hard to see positin because of the terrain I deployed around. Fiends mishap onto Crushers and are delayed with the Prince landing on target out of LoS. Fatey and Crushers run closer together with Thirster getting a paltry 1" and moving closer to the terrain to make shooting him even harder.
Blood Angels Turn 1
Oops. Ya I'm in a pickle. I can't bring all my firepower to bear and I'm lucky the BT is out of Fatey's range so I can take him down with my firepower. I move everything to get LoS to him as much as possible with the Dreadnought moving over towards the Crushers to engage them in combat for as long as possible (at S5 they cannot damage it except with one guy who has Rending - i.e. highly unlikely to destroy). Even here I make a mistake since I don't block the BT's movement into the Dread if it survives. Always have a back-up plan!
Because of my poor deployment I cannot set my vehicles up in such a way to stop the Daemons from assaulting the ASM if I want them to actually be able to get out. This means I need to make sure only one ASM unit can be hit by such, particularly if the Thirster survives. In the end I line up two autocannons, three lascannons and 10 meltas on the Thirster - enough to kill it statistically with room to spare. I miss half my shots and he only takes two wounds. Where's my paddle?
The Dreadnought assaults the Crushers, doesn't do any damage (ever) and the Crushers manage to shake it (that'd would have sucked to have seen it wrecked!).
Daemons Turn 2
Only a Fiends and the Nurgle Daemon Prince come in for Jimmy who both use the Crusher icon to land on target around Fateweaver who moves up to support the whole army. The Slaaneshi prince advances through cover to run into a RBack whilst the Bloodthrister opts to munch on some ASM rather than going for the Dreadnought.
Fatey throws all his shooting at an RBack and manages to Wreck it whilst the Fiends and Nurgle DP run. Bloodthrister and Slaaneshi DP each kill something in combat (ASM & Flamerback respetively) and Crushers again manage to shake Dreadnought.
KP 3-0 to Daemons.
Blood Angels Turn 2
This was my supposed 45 minute turn *eyeroll*. Anyway, I'm in a huge predicament currently - my army is unable to use many of its advantages because I deployed poorly. Daemons are right in my face which is where they want to be and I cannot handle multiple MCs in combat - even Mephiston can only take down one a turn. So I have two options - run away and try to do what I should have done Turn 1 but down several KP or go all in. All in is really the only choice - it's risky but if I want to turn this game around, that's what needs to happen.
I therefore move everything to shoot at Fatey, setting up secondary shots at the other MCs if he falls. I make sure to get some bolt pistols in there as well - he's only T5 so they could do it. Mephy flies over as well in between all 4 MCs to make sure he has the choice in what to try and kill during the assault phase.
With as much melta, auto, las and bolt fire pointing at Fatey, I start the rolls. He only has three wounds and Ld9 so I should be able to do this. First squad, one wound, failed save, failed re-roll, boxcars. One shot, one kill. >.< This flips the game on its head - not only did I kill Fateweaver (no guarantee) but with my first shot - i.e. the rest of my army can now shoot at everything else. My melta and heavy weapons open up on the Bloodthrister, dropping it, the Nurgle Prince, dropping it and some Fiends, reducing them by a couple. Mephy fleets and then charges the remaining Prince but he lives on one wound and does a wound back to Mephy. Combat continues and the Dread gets shaken again.
3-3 KP to BA.
Daemons Turn 3
That was very unlucky for Jimmy. Even if Fatey had died midway through my turn or not until the end, he'd have had a lot more options and ability to hurt me this turn. As it was, 4 MC died in one fell swoop and the game turned on its head. If the Bloodthirster had freed up those Crushers though or if the Fiends unit on Turn 1 didn't mishap, well I'd still be in a world of grief due to the proximity of his army and the clumped nature of my force.
Anyway, the remaining reserves come in. Fiends, Daemonettes + 2x Plaguebearers. Plaguebearers DS in opposite back corners to hide KP and grab TQ. Daemonettes in bottom left using Crusher Icon to put more bottling pressure on me and Fiends behind my lines where I deployed. Unfortunately they scatter straight towards the block of my army and are once again delayed - another break for me.
Plaguebearers and Daemonettes all run - Damonettes spread out to avoid template death and Plaguebearers move further away from Angels. Fiends move up to engage Mephy and some RBacks and charge. They manage to drop a wound off Mephy who drops the Daemon Prince but fail to hurt the RBack - the Fiends should really have tried to get into combat with the ASM on the RBack as well - would have been a relatively easy KP and some more combat resolution points for them. They also knocked off the RBacks weapon mount.
3-4 KP to BA.
Blood Angels Turn 3
I move my Pred on the left to engage the Plaguebearers there with Scouts. The weaponless RBack runs around for no real reason and puts him in a position where the Plaguebearers could damage it...not thinking currently. Predator & Flamerback on right setup attacks on the Daemonettes - ASM jump out before RBack moves to assault if necessary. Two ASM unitsin the centre move to help out Mephy whilst the final RBack with the 2nd Priest rolls around the side of the building a bit too far (one ASM squad doesn't get FNP because of this). Attack Bikes swing down south to shoot at the Daemonettes as well.
Shooting kills all but five of the Damonettes with no damage to the Plaguebeaers. Combat sees the Damonettes cleared off the table and the Fiends fall as well but not before they reduce the non ASM squad to one man.
3-6 KP to BA.
Daemons Turn 4
Final Fiends drop in and don't mishap on the right flank. Plaguebearers in top right move towards RBack and assault during the assault phase. They do no damage. Fiends run and spread out to avoid template damage. Crushers get another pen and managed to immobilise the Dreadnought who has yet to do any damage to the Crushers.
Blood Angels Turn 4
Lone ASM in the centre of the board runs away - damaged RBack moves away from the Plaguebearers and everything else converges on the Fiends on the right flank. That's three ASM squads, Mephy and two Flamerbacks with the Attack Bikes zooming across the board into the top right quarter. A bunch of flame templates, melta and follow up combat by Mephy later and the Fiends are all dead. The Pred + Scouts again do no damage to the Plaguebearers and the Crushers cannot drop the Dreadnought.
3-7 KP to BA.
Daemons Turn 5
Plaguebearers in top right move up to assault one ASM squad and manage to win combat by killing two - they hold however without killing any in return.
Blood Angels Turn 5
Another ASM unit + Mephy moves towards the Plagues to finish them off whilst everything else abandons area near the Crushers - don't care if I lose a TQ, don't want to and don't need to be around there if Crushers win combat. I move my attack bikes poorly but Jimmy allows me to move them properly in the shooting phase to make sure they can see the Plaguebearers in the top left. Fire from them + Scouts + Pred drops all but one.
Mephy & ASM finish off Plaguebearers and Crushers destroy Dreadnought! eek.
However game ends on a one and BA win primary (4-8 KP) and secondary (3-1).
Conclusion
I got lucky. I played poorly in Deployment and this limited my options during the next turn. I put myself in a position to take advantage of such luck Turn 2 but without Fateweaver dying, particularly as early as he did in my shooting phase, the game would have been completely different. I probably could have still drawn on KP primary if I had been able to take down Bloodthrister and Fateweaver but being able to effectively drop all four of those MCs really, really helped me out and broke the game open. Which is a shame because Jimmy did put me in that spot to where if I made a poor decision (which I did), I was going to be in a world of strife. As Jimmy said, he had me "by the balls."
Since I managed to climb out of that hole we didn't break the Internets unfortunately but hopefully we have a prime example of a couple of things. First, deployment is huge - don't rush it and make sure you think it through. I had the mission sheets with scribblings all over them and I didn't once take a look at them for Game 6 (I did for the rest). I had thought about what I would need to do if I played Jimmy's army because I knew he was Top 8 the night before. I didn't draw on those thoughts. If you're reacting on the spot to an entire army and phase, you're more likely to make a mistake and I did. Secondly, never give up. Whilst certain armies, i.e. Fateweaver, are prone to collapse, the dice can allow nearly anything and games can see-saw very suddenly. You need to always be prepared for this, always have a back-up plan and if you play your best but it doesn't work out, you reach across the table, shake your opponnet's hand and learn. Every experience is something you can draw upon later if you use it that way!
Anyway, was a great game. Lots of laughs, no 45 minute turns and we had fun with the camera (as you can see). Was nice to win a NOVA event before 5th editin closed - slate is now clean for 6th lol. GG Jimmy and sorry! But you got the drinking trophy so whom really won?
