Tournament Report

Well…that went probably about as well as could be expected! To cut to the chase, I ended up placing third…the same as last time! The winner was Greg, with his nigh-on unstoppable Tau force, with Pete coming second with the Dark Eldar and after my Ultramarines, Mark with the Tyranids. I can honestly say that all of the battles were very close this time – and in an unplanned yet truly proper fashion, the final two battles were two contesting first place and two contesting third.

Think we have enough cover?

My first battle was against the Tau; I actually was fairly confident here going in, thinking I had a decent chance. I had won the roll and elected to deploy and move first; my plan was to race ahead and grab the two objectives on Greg’s end of the table with my Tactical Squads, picking off his Warlord and troop units and using my Command Squad to go after his heavier stuff. This plan collapsed when Greg stole the initiative…and all of a sudden my Rhinos looked extremely vulnerable. With three resounding pops, not only did Greg have first blood, but more importantly, my forces were stuck on the wrong side of the battlefield. 

Get 'em!

From that point I was really playing catch-up; the Tau had their range advantage, and I struggled to get to grips with the enemy. Where one squad did get into action it did very well – one of my Tactical Squads on consecutive turns routed a unit of Stealth Suits, routed the Warlord and wiped out a squad of flanking Kroot, but none of my other units did anything significant. My Storm deep-striked into enemy territory and got blown away in a round of shooting. Didn’t even get a shot. Game ended on Turn 4 – which prevented me from actually being tabled. (To make sure we got the three games in, we were playing games of 4-6 turns length instead of 5-7.)

The Thin Orange Line

The second battle was against the Dark Eldar, and this was a lot closer. My forces got across the table and managed to deploy, though one of the Rhinos – containing my Melta Tactical Squad – was blown up during the first turn. As I expected, Pete’s Jetbikes proved decisive, and I was never really able to do much damage to them. By about Turn 2, we’d swapped sides of the battlefield, which was highly amusing, and confusing! I evolved the plan of grabbing the objective on the far side of the battlefield, and preventing Pete from taking the other objective my using all my mobile forces to deny it. That would have given me a 3-2 win…but it wasn’t to be. By Turn 5 both my Tactical Squads were on the verge of death, one Sergeant fighting a heroic last stand while a couple of bolter marines were standing off against the jet bikes…but those jet bikes really denied me a win. I needed to break them, get them off the table…and I failed to do so. I managed to avoid tabling again – we ended on Turn 6. (Technically Pete still had his Turn 6 to go, but we collectively decided that there was no chance of a tabling, and we wanted to proceed to the next game.

Mobile Tin-Openers of Doom

Then came my win! Albeit a slightly controversial one. I was playing against the Tyranids on this one, and Mark decided to simply go for the Kill Points. He whacked my Rhinos first, getting three easy points, but I was taking out his forces about as quickly. His Genestealers were wiped out by a single Tactical Squad, no problem, and I managed to take out his Trygons and Zoanthrope in quick succession. Mistake one – I erroneously thought that Krak grenades were AP 3, where of course they are AP 4. That did make a difference, obviously…but we did agree that realistically, I’d probably done enough overspill that they would likely have died anyway. Mistake two was Mark’s. He’d made his Hive Tyrant flying, and opted to fly him off the table back into reserves. The idea was that I wouldn’t be able to kill him; by his calculations, that gave him the game 5-4 in VPs when it ended on Turn 4. I then pointed out that any figures off the board counted as destroyed for the purposes of the mission…and thereforce a fifth unit was dead – so 5-5 – and the Warlord was dead…so 6-5, giving me the game. Fifteen minutes of flicking through the rulebook later, and this interpretation was deemed quite correct…so I got the win, 6-5. Interestingly – Mark had very, very close games in the first two battles, though the third was a steamroller for me. All he killed were three Rhinos and a Servitor – not a single Marine died. (Another reason why the ‘Super Krak’ anomaly wasn’t that bad. He wasn’t getting my units anyway; I had a whole Tactical Squad doing very little in Turns 3 and 4 I could easily have employed in support.) Ironic that the game he came closest to winning was the game he did worst in!

Little bit of overkill...

I think that the first battle went sour when the initiative was stolen. Had I managed to get closer in, my Rhinos would still have died, but my Marines would all have been well in range, maybe even in rapid fire range…which would have made all the difference. The second battle I really needed to get those jetbikes! The third…well, I don’t think I’d do anything differently, but I suspect Mark will next time!

Ratings on my army to follow tomorrow, then I’m going to do some reviews of old White Dwarves, I think…

Army Lists

Dark Eldar Army

1 x Archon (Shadow field, blaster, venom blade)

7 x Wyches Hekatrix w/Venom Blade and Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Raider)

2 x 10 Warriors (Splinter Cannon, Blaster, Raider)

9 x Reaver Jetbikes (3 Blasters, Arena Champion w/Arena Blade)

1 x Ravager w/ Retro Jets

Tau Army

Shasel

6 x Stealth Suits

3 x Battle Crisis Suits (Flamer, Missile Pods)

12 x Fire Warriors

2 x Broadside including leader (3 shield drones)

10 x Kroot

Tyranid Army

1 x Hive Tyrant

1 x Zoanthrope

4 x Tyranid Warrior Brood

10 x Genestealer Brood

2 x Trygons

Ultramarines Army

1 x Captain

1 x Command Squad (Flamer, Flamer, Flamer, Apothecary, Champion, Rhino)

1 x Techmarine (Servo-Harness, Servitor)

2 x Tactical Squad w/Rhino (1 x Heavy Bolter/Flamer, 1 x Multi-Melta/Melta)

1 x Scout Squad (Combat Knife, Bolt Pistol, Land Speeder Storm)

1 x Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

Well, that didn't work!

Well, yesterday's battle was in one way a complete disaster, but in another way extremely useful. My friend Pete arrived with an army of Dark Eldar – the first time he'd played the army, so naively I thought that might give me a little advantage – but I was totally annihilated not once, but twice. Tabled twice. First battle was 6-1, the second 5-2 – though those scores aren't really true, as both games ended on Turn 5 with the destruction of all of my forces, so likely Pete would have had time to secure the remainder of the objectives.

My army for the day consisted of the following, at 1,000 points:

Captain (Power Sword, Artificer Armour, Plasma Pistol)

Librarian (Force Sword, Power Armour)

Techmarine (Power Axe, Servitor)

Tactical Squad (Multi-Melta, Melta)

Tactical Squad (Missile Launcher, Flamer)

Scout Squad (Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks, Missile Launcher)

Scout Squad (Combat Knives, Bolt Pistols)

Dreadnought (Plasma Cannon, Close Combat Weapon)

Where is everybody? 

The first battle was 'Big Guns Never Tire'. Pete deployed first, with his three Raiders and a Ravager starting in the upper left corner of the table; he also had nine jetbikes held in reserve. I placed my units to cover the objectives on my side of the board. My plan was to, essentially, hold and shoot! Most of my forces were in range, and I knew that even bolters would have a chance of doing some damage against the AV10 forces...not that this happened. First turn was fought under 'night fighting' conditions. His first turn shooting was not that great, neither was mine; I lost a couple of marines and the Techmarine, giving him First Blood, he lost one of his Raiders. The second turn was the breaking point; I got slaughted! One tactical squad wiped out, leaving the Captain standing alone by himself...and the jetbikes came on and started to Bladestorm everything that moved!

The rest of the battle essentially followed the same pattern; I had deployed my forces too far apart, attempting to cover too many flanks, and he was able to use the superior manoeuvrability of his forces to knock me out piecemeal. The Multi-Melta Tactical Squad was the last to fall; it was the best performer of the battle, but by Turn 5, it was all over.

The second battle had the same forces, but this time we were playing 'The Scouring'. This time I deployed on a much narrower front, but critically we were playing the long way across the table, which turned out to be something of a problem, as almost none of my units were in range! I ended up running forces across the table, as Pete elected to allow me to come to him, while plonking me with his 36” weapons, and once again – I got taken out piecemeal, though at least this time the Techmarine got into hand-to-hand combat and demonstrated some of his usefulness.

C'mon lads, let's go get them! 

To rate my forces, then:

• Captain – Never even got into combat, unleashed a couple of ineffective shots with his pistol.
• Librarian – In the first battle 'Endurance' proved a very useful adjunct to the Multi-Melta Squad, in the second he did almost nothing, as his powers were too short-ranged to be effective.
• Techmarine – First battle died on the first turn, second battle was one of the last units to fall, and managed to get into combat...effective. I like Techmarines, they are a surprisingly low-cost close combat monster...
• Tactical Squads – The Multi-Melta was one of the few things Pete was afraid of, and it really influenced his deployment. The Missile Launcher, less so. As for the rest – they died gloriously, which is about what you can expect.
• Scout Snipers – Not really their battle. By the time anything emerged they could shoot, they were dead.
• Combat Scouts – Rather better. In the first and second battles they had opportunities for hand-to-hand combat, and actually took down a Raider in the second battle.
• Dreadnought – Ker-plonk. Did nothing. Plasma Cannon proved extremely disappointing.

The main thing I am missing is mobility. Even in a small battle-environment, the stand-back-and-let-them-come-to-me proved totally ineffective. Going full circle, I have decided to go with the following list for the tournament:

Rhino One

Captain (Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Artificer Armour)

Command Squad (Champion, Apothecary, Flamer, Flamer, Flamer)

Techmarine (Servo-Harness, Servitor)

Rhino Two

Tactical Squad (Flamer, Heavy Bolter)

Rhino Three

Tactical Squad (Meltagun, Multi-Melta)

Land Speeder Storm
Scout Squad (Combat Knives, Bolt Pistols, Melta Bombs)

Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

Last stand at Skull Rock

I've now gone completely full-circle; everything is now to be carried on transports, to provide both maneuverability and protection. Obviously Rhino One and the Storm are the major close-combat elements here; the idea is that they engage anything particularly tough (with the option of detaching the Techmarine if necessary) while Rhinos Two and Three provide close-quarters fire support - though they should also be pretty good in a fight. The Attack Bike follows on as a tank-plonker...hopefully. Originally this list had a Predator instead of the Storm/Scouts combination, but I changed my mind at the last minute, if I'm going to make this charge hit home, then I need the strongest selection of models I can deploy. I'll decide whether to put the Storm and the Bike in reserve when I see the battlefield, but my inclination is to get everything into the fray as quickly as possible.

I'll be fighting three battles with this list on Sunday - against Dark Eldar (Pete) again, Tau (Greg) and Tyranids (Mark). It will be interesting to see how the re-match with Pete goes; at this point I am probably most confident about the Tyranids and least confident about the Tau.

For reference...the first time we did one of these tournaments I placed third out of four, playing my Ork horde - one win and two losses. (The win was against Grey Knights; the best moment was when a reduced mob of Boyz sent a Grey Knight Strike Squad running off the table, simply by shooting at them! They weren't even Shootas, just a mob of Sluggas making their 'might as well make some bangs before charging' rolls!) I'd like to beat this if possible, of course...but that would mean three out of three wins, most likely! Let's see what happens.

Tomorrow - I'm going to take a look at where it all began, with a look at the first 40k-verse game I ever played: Space Crusade!