Kirby's Event Horizon Quick Re-cap

Just to spice things up as 5th edition fades, I decide to win an actual two-day event, yay. First things first - I didn't take 45 minutes for one turn in the final game, thank you Denis and David for that over-exaggeration :P. However, I did take 23 minutes for one turn, twice as long as it should take and I apologised to my opponent for it. So, to the Event proper...

I took the modified Flamestorm list at 1850 with some Attack Bikes, Mephiston and ACLC Pred support with all their LoS issues (list below). The Event Horizon missions were NOVA based with two major changes. First, marginal KP was changed from three to two. As we found out based on 3++con statistics, marginal KP at three was signifcantly different compares to the other two in terms of providing a winner/loser or drawing. It'll be interesting to see if this change brings them all closer together in that department (i.e. KP back into line). It felt good, this coming from an MSU based army which was always bringing at least 5-6 more KP per game (and most of them easy). The second change was the number of tiers - NOVA is normally three main tiers with a fourth tier always being Victory Points. Event Horizon was two tiers + Victory Points. This put more focus on BOTH of the tiers without always having the option of say five objectives for an MSU army (nor were all objective games always five objectives).


It was a well run Event with good terrain on all the tables I played upon and it was nice to have two cameras set up for video. Venue was same as last  year and very spacious so plenty of room to move around in. Only disappointing thing is only around 40 players as a turnout - support the NOVA tourneys guys! Onto the games then... I will do full battle reports probably all this week as we wait for 6th edition. Three of mine were on the video tables so I'll be looking to edit them (i.e. speed up the time when people are just moving things or thinking and add a voice over as there were no mics) and add those to the bat reps.

List:

Mephiston
2x Sanguinary Priests
4x5x ASM w/meltagun, infernous pistol, power weapon, Flamerback w/Dozer
5x ASM w/meltagun, infernous pistol, Flamerback w/Dozer
5x Scouts w/Missile, Cloaks, Snipers
2x2x Attack Bikes w/MM
Rifledread
2x ACLC Preds

Game 1 v Tau (Lee Connor)

8 Broadsides, lots of Kroot, lots of suits. Minimal plasma, no Piranhas. Same army I drew to, different player. I gave him first turn - yes he'd blast my RBacks to bits but I'd get to reactionary deploy (two nice LoS blockers) and even if he kills them, minimal AP2 means my FNP ASM just laugh in the middle as Meph solos is army. Happened about that win as Broadsides blew things up left and right Turn 1 and the ASM just stuck around most of the game.

Win primary (objectives), draw secondary (KP).

Game 2 v Grey Knights (Gary Morris)

Big squad of Purifiers + Strikes, Grandmaster, Dreadknight and token GKT with some vehicles - Raider, Raven, Dread, 2 Rhinos. Dawn of War with KP primary, 5 objective secondary - so I gave him first turn once again to react. He didn't move Stormraven flat out and I got a lucky lascannon shot in and took it down (we rolled his cover for fun, he passed and nothing else of mine could see). From there it was managing what he could kill (I forgot to move my Scouts so they coughed up a KP) and mass firing on anything that came close (Rhino, Dread, Dreadknight) and then playing run away from the 20 Grey Knights (Purifiers + Strikes) and sitting on objectives. Win primary & secondary.

Game 3 v Space Wolves (Grant O'Dwyer)

Lots of Grey Hunters with Thunderwol and Long Fang support. Not a lot of shooting from range but a lot of power in the middle - wiping out squads before they could hit would be important and not throwing Mephiston away on the TWC squad + Lord. Game was Table Quarters primary and Kill Points secondary wheremy opponent again had an advantage. It was a very bloody affair in the middle of the board but because Grant didn't bring all his Hunters to smack me around, I was able to focus down squads and force the TWC to split from Lord which allowed Meph free reign. In the end he had 1.5 GH squads left which never really joined the fight and I was able to use my mobility to claim for TQ. Win primary, loss secondary.

Game 4 v Space Marines (Rohnan Browne)

I  had a brief look at what I knew of the armies and missions going into Day 2 - I knew if I made it to Game 6 undefeated my opponent would have an advantage as I had the highest KP left, particularly compared to the better list/general combinations. Rohnans list was one in particular I didn't want to face then...and I got him in the best possible mission for me - Table Quarters and then Objectives. He had 15 TH/SS, token Tacticals + Rhino & Libby and three Land Raiders so it wasn't a terrible game for him either, but that KP difference wasn't going to come into play. I was unable to hurt the Land Raiders all game but he had a hard time dropping my tanks and ended up assaulting and bouncing off them with Terminators. Although I ended up killing all the Terminators, my retaliation bounced back off him and we had a game on our hands. The threat of my melta however kept the land Raiders out of midfield where they could take any quarter and we ended up tying on TQ and I won on secondary after a silly move each (I moved into combat in no-man's land rather than b ack to an objective, Rohnan didn't contest what objective I did had). Close game throughout!

Game 5 v Necrons (Rupert Pupkin)

The Scarabfarm from 3++con is back and doing well again. Stormlord was going to do a number on my mech but the Scarabs didn't concern my infantry in the slightest except for their ability to tie me up forever. Only the Dreadnought and Mephistion would cause mass wounds there and Mephiston was needed to smash other things - namely Troops as it was a two objective Primary, TQ secondary. Scarabs + Lightning doa number of my vehicles and I'm not able to bring enough to bear on one Scarab squad which ends up holding some Troops for along while. Mephiston rampages around but in the WRONG ORDER - I let Stormlord + squad live when I could have nailed them Turn 2 which hurt - lots more lightning hit me. In the end it was a game of attrition which due to my failure to cap Stormlord early meant the Necrons were winning as Spyders and Wraiths caught up to ASM. Unfortunately we ran out of time where the game ended in my advantage but if it had gone on (we didn't roll), it would have more likely favored Rupert. One Scout Sarge held out for me and thusly inhereted a new company of the Ice Claws!

Game 6 v Daemons (Jimmy Wynen)

Best mission possible for Jimmy against my list - most of my firepower was short-range and my army was an aggressive one. This means he's not going to get shot off the board and to do most of my damage, I have to get up to where Daemons want you to be. Unfortunately, I completely forget everything you need to know about Daemons and rather than look to control the board, I'm afraid of getting caught in a corner, don't look at terrain and deploy centrally. Aka where LoS is a pain in the rear to get. The result is my whole army being very close together to try and shoot the Daemons which come down T1 and because of this, even with things being outside of Fateweaver's bubble, nothing dies and I'm up a nasty creek without a paddle. The Dread at least gets into combat with the Crushers to stop them from mauling me but my army is exposed. It gets hammered next turn but I get lucky when I bring all my melta + firepower to bear on the now central Fateweaver and kill him on the first shot. That's a 1/54 chance - I would have likely killed him over the entire turn but with the first salvo? Lucky indeed and it allows me to drop the other three MCs (four total) in the same turn and it's basically mop up from that point on unfortunately (especially when Fiends mishap again and don't force me to deal with two Fiend squads).

It was an unforunate turn of events for Jimmy - if it had at least taken half my firepower it would have been an interestingly closer game but if I had deployed properly (you'll see when we get the bat rep :P), well I wouldn't have needed that luck to come through to me. It was really all or nothing at that point. Regardless, great game with lots of laughs and my only full 30-0 victory! GG Jimmy.

Conclusion

All in all some really good games and it was nice to be filmed three times (though my bald spot is unappealling I must say, nor are some of the other antics we got up to =D). I had a much better handle on the list compared to Leviathon (you'd expect this 40-50 games on) despite a handful of mistakes still cropping in. The MM Attack Bikes were a real help giving me that extra firepower outside of the Razorbacks and Mephiston wasn't used as a wrecking ball but a wrecking scalpel this time around - he still had his fail moments (he either owned or lost four wounds at once and eventually died) but a much better overall use of him I think.

Full reports to come so keep your eyes peeled!