December 14, 2012

Hobby Store Mini-Tournament 01.12.2012.

Welcome to Giga's first 40k battle report and blog post. What follows is three battles from a 1850 point tourney held at Hobby Store, Belgrade's finest gaming club, on 1st December 2012. The three scenarios being played were some that (I think) were used previously on ETC.

Since I've been away from 40k for well over a year and had no experience with 6th whatsoever, I decided to avoid fielding anything overly complex or tactically demanding. So I opted for a fun straightforward list, something I could play on autopilot while I got used to the new rules. This is what I came up with:

STEEL SLAYERS STRIKEFORCE:
Captain Dolf Hummerdgern (Lysander counts-as)
Tactical Squad "Red" - flamer, combiflamer, missile, rhino
Tactical Squad "Yellow - flamer, plasma cannon, chainsword
Tactical Squad "Green" - flamer, combiflamer, missile, rhino
6x Assault Terminators - 1x claws, 4x th/ss, sarge with claws
Brother Hanz, Dreadnought - 2x tl-autocannon
9x Sternguard - combimelta x3, melta x2, drop pod
Land Raider Godhammer - extra armor, multimelta
Predator - lascannon sponsons
TOTAL: 1850 pts


The plan was simplicity itself: Lysander & sternies kamikaze into the enemy's face on first turn, destroy something important, then absorb all sorts of punishment, enabling the LR with termies and tac squads red & green to rush forward for some serious turn 2 assault & rapid fire love. Tac squad yellow takes objectives, while the rifleman and the predator blow up transports or put wounds in MCs. I would've prefered to replace the dread & the pred with a pair of vindicators just to give everyone heart attacks, but sadly I don't have the models yet. My anti-air was weak, but since nobody in the local meta owns more than 1-2 flyers I wasn't worried. Either way, I knew I was in for a jolly ol' time when my army was designed to be in an opponent's face on turn 1.

FIRST BATTLE – DORIAN'S NURGLE MARINES & ALLIED DAEMONS


Setup: Dawn of War
Duration: 6 turns, 7th on 5+
Primary objective: each player places three markers 6 "from the edge, 12" from each other worth 1, 2 and 3vp (point values noted in secret by the player deploying them​​). Then before rolling to take the initiative you need to give your opponent the value of individual markers.
Secondary objective: first blood, slay the warlord, linebreaker (at 1VP), each unit killed FA is worth 1Vp
Special rule: fast attack are scoring units

Dorian's whole army had mark of nurgle. It was something like this:
lord on bike, 4++ save and some sort of uber flamer thingie, warlord
epidemus
3 units of 7 plague marines with 2x meltagun, fist, & rhino
chaos marine bikers with 2x plasmagun & fist/lc serge
plaguebearers
6 obliterators (three units of two)


Dorian's lord got the outflank warlord trait, so he outflanked him together with the bikes and also placed one oblit unit into deep strike reserve. Lysander got furious charge in enemy deployment zone. He got first turn. I placed one of my combat squads in reserve.

TURN 1:
Epidemus & the plaguebearers deepstrike on first turn and take an objective and stay there for the entire game. Plague marine rhinos turbo 18” forward. Oblits shoot, but their lascannons are no match for the land raider's mighty hull.


The drop pod lands behind the rhinos, disgorging Lysander & sternguardies. Land raider moves 6” and the assault terminators leave the LR and move into charge range of the two rhinos. A flamer/combiflamer combat squad leaves their rhino and moves into rapid fire range. Dreadnought brother Hanz wrecks the leftmost rhino, getting first blood the first ever time he shoots, hell of a good start! LR and the missile launcher tac squads shoot and blow up the black rhino. The terminators multiple-assault the plague marines and the last rhino, exploding it and stomping some traitors. Terminator LC serge and the plague serge murder each other in a challenge.


TURN 2:
Lord, bikers, and oblits fail to arrive. The plague marines to the left move around their wrecked rhino and shoot their meltas at the LR, but once more, its armor endures. Two oblits move out of cover and vaporize 8 out of 9 sternguard with two well-aimed plasma cannon shots. Lysander & the last remaining sternie decide they aren't being paid enough for this and run for their lives, only to be shot at again by the plague marines. The last veteran dies and the plague marines charge Lysander, which results in a dead plague sergeant and a happy Lysander. The assault terminators finish off the other plague marine unit.


At this point I was expecting the lord & the bikers to come from my right, so I made a tank wall to stop them from getting good shots off. The combined firepower of Hanz, three combat squads, and the predator kills all but two of the leftmost plague marines. The terminators charge in to help Lysander out. In the ensuing combat, Lysander takes two wounds from those pesky poisoned daggers and the second plague marine unit is wiped out.


TURN 3:
Lord, bikers, and oblits arrive at last. The lord & bikes come in from the left, which I didn't expect, and catch Hanz with some surprise plasma buttsex, which immobilizes him and overheat-kills one of the bikers. Predator is shaken. The oblits plasma cannon one of the combat squads, get all direct hits all day, and wipe it out.


The Lysander & the termies try to embark the LR, but fighting all those plague marines must've worn them out because they roll snake eyes on their difficult terrain move and then a 2 when they try to run. Here I make the huge mistake of not moving my predator to block biker movement and force them to stay cornered (I thought Hanz would do that, but it turned out they had enough space to slip past him). I claim the two objectives on the right.


TURN 4:
Bikers ride past Hanz and the lord unleashes some sort of ranged armor-ignoring flamer that roasts my combat squad, at which point I get jealous because the only flamer vanilla captains can get has only one shot and isn't even heavy. The oblits charge and kill the last tactical there.

At this point we ran out of time and had to finish. Seeing as this has totally screwed up both of our strategies, we decided to call it a draw.

AFTERTHOUGHTS:
If Dorian had been more conservative with his plague marines, or if his bikers had arrived on turn 2, I think he would've been able to overpower me through sheer cost-effectiveness. Even with his bikers being late and most of his plague marines dying in first 2 turns, it still would've been a close battle.

Also, the codex creep is scary. T5 and even T6 everywhere, with 3+ armor save (or 5+ cover) and FNP, is extremely hard to deal with when you have to rely on bolters & flamers for anti-infantry. T5 obliterators are insanely good and I can't see a reason to put anything else in heavy support slots.

SECOND BATTLE – IGOR'S DAEMONS


Deployment: Hammer and anvil
Duration: 6 turns
Primary objective: 2 markers in the middle of deployment areas (worth 2VP in your area, 4 in the enemy's), 2 markers 36 "from the short edge and 12" from the long edge (worth the 3vp)
Secondary objective: slay the warlord, linebreaker (at 1VP), each HS unit killed is worth 1VP
Special rule: heavy support units are scoring

Sadly, I have totally forgotten to take photos, so I decided not to make a detailed report of this one. Igor's army consisted of two units of 6 flamers, two big units of bloodletters, kugath, bloodcrushers, khorne bloodcrusher herald, two units of screamers, and a unit of plaguebearers. His entire army arrived in the first two turns and from then on it was one big messy fight. I managed to take out the flamers, plaguebearers, and the screamers, while he took out all but two of my combat squads (I also had another one in reserve, but totally forgot about it and didn't roll for its arrival, heh). I won by driving a rhino with a combat squad all the way across the table and claiming the objective in his deployment zone, while at the same time contesting the one in my deployment zone with my land raider. Fun times.
Oh and, the new flamers of tzeench are a joke and an insult to game design. Whichever idiot designed that crap should never be allowed to touch 40k again.

THIRD BATTLE – NIKOLA'S DAEMONS & ALLIED IG


Deployment: vanguard strike
Duration: 6 turns, 7th on 5+
Primary objective: a relic in the middle of the table worth 8vp,
Secondary objective: slay the warlord, linebreaker (at 1VP), each killed unit is worth 1vp

Nikola's army was as follows:
flying bloodthirster
fateweaver
flying daemon prince
two units of plaguebearers
two units of flamers
soulgrinder
lord comissar
manticore
veterans with meltaguns
vendetta

Nikola got outflank on his warlord, an incredibly useful trait on a deepstriking daemon. I got a trait that made Lysander scoring, which was awesome as it allowed him to carry the relic. I knew I couldn't do anything against that amount of fliers, so my plan was to move into the middle on first turn, grab the relic, then move back into my deployment zone and turtle until the end. He had first turn. I forgot this scenario was about kill points as well as the relic, and ended up combat squadding one of my tactical squads. Oh well.


TURN 1:
The wrong half of Nikola's army arrives and one of his flamer units mishaps, but gets safely returned to reserve. Daemon prince, the bloodthirster, and the plaguebearers arrive normally. Manticore immobilizes the LR.


Terminators disembark and make their way towards the relic. Tactical rhinos move forward and pop smoke. Lysander & the sternguard land at the other side of the middle building. I pour most of my firepower into the 9 plaguebearers and kill all but one.

TURN 2:
Vendetta arrives and so do the soulgrinder and both units of flamers. Both flamers scatter far into their deployment zone and are unable to shoot the sternguard. The soulgrinder shoots and kills four sternguard with its battle cannon. The DP and the bloodthirster do some vector strikes.


Lysander splits from the sternguard and goes to get the relic, while sternguard take out the last plaguebearer. Aside from that, my shooting doesn't kill anything.

TURN 3:
Vendetta blows dreadnought brother Hanz up. The flamers jump forward and destroy the sternguard and the droppod. The manticore wrecks one of the rhinos, and the soulgrinder kills quite a few of the disembarked tacticals.


Lysander gets the relic and joins the terminators. Things look grim indeed.

TURN 4:
Fateweaver & the plaguebearers arrive. Some terminators die. Veterans disembark from the vendetta and blow up the land raider with their meltas.


The two combat squads try to blast the plaguebearers, but plasma cannon overheats and the marine fails his armor save. Bolters & flamer kill only one plaguebearer. The other tacticals try to redeploy, but it's a doomed cause as both the DP and the soulgrinder are in assault range.

TURN 5:
Fateweaver & the flamers move in for the kill. Their shooting kills all terminators and wounds Lysander. Soul grinder and the daemon prince charge the tacticals and kill all but one, who fights to the end rather than try to run. The bloodthirster assaults Lysander. The plaguebearers assault a combat squad, with predictable results.


The four remaining marines in the other combat squad move to the lower floor and rapid fire the traitor guardsmen, killing a few and forcing a leadership test, which they fail. The Lysander vs Bloodthirster duel ends with Lysander's death. The last tactical squad leaves their rhino so they could die fighting rather than running. Their bolters fail to put a single wound on the daemon prince.

TURN 6:
The rest of my army is destroyed completely.


AFTERTHOUGHTS:
I can't remember the last time I felt my plastic dudesmen were so inadequate compared to another guy's plastic monstermen. Between all those flying MCs, str 8-10 pieplates, and armor-ignoring templates, it was pretty much a hopeless battle. I don't even want to imagine what it would've been like if fateweaver had arrived on turn 1 or if both units of flamers hadn't scattered out of template range on turn 2.

OVERALL AFTERTHOUGHTS:

Holy crap batman daemons! They sure got popular while I was away! I'm going to really keep them in mind when I make my future lists. Speaking of which, I knew my list would be outdated (truth to be told, it wouldn't be such a great list in 5th edition, either) and boy oh boy was that an understatement. It's going to need a lot of work and a lot of $$$, but I think I got a pretty good idea where I'm going to go with it.

I'm very happy to see rhinos are as good as ever, since the online whinefest about them has had me kinda worried. While they're easier to wreck, turbo boosting, ability to transport two combat squads, and the fact they rarely go boom nowadays are all huge buffs. Proper target saturation still adds a lot to their survivability, and I can only imagine how nice it's going to be once I can field some vindicators and allied IG.

These three battles make me worry about GW design philosophy, namely the huge amount of high-strength armor-ignoring templates and pieplates that seem to be everywhere nowadays. With the nerf to cover and transport survivability, I really can't see how they intend to keep armor saves useful. If they continue adding stuff like tzeench flamers, baleflamers, etc. into the game, I think it's only a matter of time before they're forced to make 4++ and 3++ saves widely available, or effectively render MEQ no more resistant to shooting than your average ork boy. Oh well, it is what it is.