24 April 2010 FrAG (Frederick Area Gamers) Tournament (Intro)

The fine gentlemen of the Frederick Area Gamers were putting together another small-scale tournament in Glen Burnie, Maryland, and having had a long series of very positive tournament experiences with the Maryland crews, I was looking forward to another geat series of games.  Based on feedback from their tournament the previous month (in March), the FrAG guys chose to lower the points value for this tournament slightly, to 1850 points, to keep games moving a little faster.  Although I had done remarkably little work on my Slann (Tau Empire proxy) army in the months since I had used it last, I decided this was a fine time to debut the Slightly Modified And Updated (with Kroot!) army list.

The most significant changes this list sees at 1850 points are as follows: I have traded out 44 Fire Warriors (and several upgrades), for a Hammerhead, for Missile-Pod/Plasma-Rifle combinations on the Crisis Suits, and for two mid-sized units of Kroot with Hounds.  In other words, this means a moderate downgrade in S5 firepower (albeit from very static units), in exchange for more high-strength firepower and more effective screen/sacrificial units.  It also meant that I would be using the converted Chronopia Lizardmen models that got me interested in creating a 40K Slann army in the first place – but I just hadn’t found a good use for Kroot in 4th edition, and hadn’t gotten around to trying them in a 5th edition game yet.  Now was the chance to see what they could do!

What did I bring?

• Third Servant (Shas’el) with Missile Pod, Plasma, Multi, Target-Lock, Blacksun Filter, and Target Array.
• 2x 3-suit Rangers (Crisis Suits) with Missile Pod, Plasma, and Multi-tracker.
  
• 2x 8-model Braves (Fire Warriors), with Ld8 upgrade
• 2x 10-model Slann Warrior-Philosophers (Kroot), plus 4 Hounds each unit
• 2x 8-model Scouts (Pathfinders), with Ld8 upgrade, in Transports with D-Pod, Flechette, and Multi
  
• 2x 2-model Hornsuits (Broadsides) with Target Array, plus one model with Blacksun and 2 Shield Drones
• Quasar-class Stonecruiser (Hammerhead) with Railgun, Smart Missiles, D-Pod, Target Lock, and Multi

24 April 2010 FrAG (Frederick Area Gamers) Tournament (Game 1)

Opponent: Dave (Blood Angels).  Earnest, soft-spoken, and pretty talented with the strategery, Dave was one of the younger gamers in attendance, and a good friend of Tien, my Tyranid opponent from the previous tournament.  He was fielding a dual Land Raider assault army, which had the additional intriguing (terrifying!) twist of being Blood Angel flavored – meaning who knows what, as I still didn’t have a copy of the codex.  But I was sure there would be any number of nasty surprises for me in the game, and I also knew that should either Land Raider get to my lines, the game was going to be over for my guys.  I sure hoped my Railguns wouldn’t let me down!

Army: (1850 pts)

• Furioso Librarian with Assault and Jumping powers
• 2x Vindicators
• 5 Terminators & Librarian inside Standard Land Raider
• 5 Death Company inside Redeemer Land Raider
• 1x10 Tactical Marines with Lascannon & Flamer
• 1x7 Tactical Marines with Plasma Cannon

Mission: “Storm of Annihilation” special mission.  Pitched Battle set-up (12” deployment), with night-fight rules in the first turn.  Primary objective is kill points.  Secondary objective is to capture (any unit may capture) the sole objective (the ‘vortex’), which moves 1d6” in a random direction at the start of each player’s turn.  Tertiary objective is to get a scoring unit into your opponent’s deployment zone at any point in the game.

Terrain: Some high hills scattered around the table blocked LOS to smaller (standard infantry-sized) units, but between those hills and some blocks of trees, there was plenty of cover but very little place to actually hide out of LOS if you were larger than an infantry marine or Fire Warrior model.

24 April 2010 FrAG (Frederick Area Gamers) Tournament (Game 2)

Opponent: Vaden “Hobbybreaker” (Space Marines).  Winner of the last tournament, the intense and deliciously sarcastic Vaden had earned his “Hobbybreaker” nickname due to some unusual circumstances that led to one of his (very unbalanced) opponents from that last tournament stomping out of the store mid-game in a huff, and subsequently place his (fully painted and converted!) army up for bid on e-bay, along with the rant about how he would never be playing Warhammer again.  “Hobbybreaker” indeed!  I had never played against Vaden previously, but he came with quality recommendations for being a good sport, and also a very good gamer.  He was fielding a fast and highly mobile Ravenwing-proxy army, using the Marine codex, led by none other than Khan (or at least, a proxy on a bike), a very different kind of list from his usual mechanized Imperial Guard.

Army: (1850 pts)

• Khan Special Character, on bike
• 5-man Command Squad with Storm Shields, Apothecary, and misc close combat gear
• 3x 5-man Troop Bikers with twin meltaguns, and attached (6th-man) multimelta Attack bikes
• 3x Rifleman (two twin-linked Autocannon) dreadnoughts
• 3x Typhoon Landspeeders with Heavy Bolters

Mission: “Rogue Trader” special mission.  Pitched Battle set-up (12” deployment), with five objectives placed before deployment.  Primary mission is to capture the most objectives.  Secondary objective is most victory points, and tertiary mission is to kill your opponent’s most expensive HQ choice.

Terrain: One sewage treatment pool (and attached building) created both cover and some LOS-blocking in Vaden’s far-right (my far left) corner.  Otherwise, a moderate amount of trees and craters, and one low hill, provided plenty of cover, but no real way to hide out of LOS, throughout the table.  My side of the table had a crater, the sole hill, and some trees; Vaden’s side had the sewage treatment plant, some craters, and some trees, with some more trees and craters in the middle.  The objectives were mostly on ‘my’ half of the table, with only one on Vaden’s half of the board.

24 April 2010 FrAG (Frederick Area Gamers) Tournament (Game 3)

Opponent: Bobby (Orks).  One of the FrAG club’s long-time core members, I’d known Bobby for a number of years but don’t believe I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing him.  A cheerful and avid gamer, he was fielding a classic Ork horde list, and I felt particularly lucky to have the chance to face off against such a fluffy and characterful Warhammer army. 

Army: (1850 pts)

• 2x Big Meks with Kustom Force Fields
• 3x 30-ork Slugga/Choppa mobs, including 2 Rokkits, and Bosspole Nob with Powerklaw
• 1x 30-ork Shoota mob, including 3 Big Shootas, and Bosspole Nob with Big Choppa
• 1x Deff Dread with 2 Skorchas
• 2x 2-ork Deffkopta squads, with twin Rokkits each
• 3x 3-kan Killa Kan mobs, two mobs with Grotzookas, one mob with Rokkits

Mission: “Domination” special mission.  Spearhead deployment (corners, with 12” radius from the center-point a no-deploy zone), with night-fight rules in effect for turns 6 and 7 (if the game lasted that long).  Primary objective was to control the most board corners at the game’s end.  Secondary was to kill all of your opponent’s Troops choices, and tertiary was to kill your opponent’s most expensive non-Troop choice, not including dedicated transports.

Terrain: Four very tall hills blocked LOS, but only one was positioned between two catercorners; the other three were well off to the sides, providing great vantage points to shoot from, but basically not going to play much of a role otherwise.  Several large clusters of trees provided additional cover to units, but there was plenty of open “killing ground” between all the terrain.

27 March 2010 FrAG (Frederick Area Gamers) Tournament (Game 2)

Opponent: Tim (Tau Empire), a.k.a. “Old Shatter Hands” from the Tau of War gaming blog.  A soft-spoken, thoughtful fellow with a beautifully painted Tau army, I discovered after the battle that Tim had intentionally reworked his army list in order to do something a bit less predictable with the Tau.  Fully aware of what the Tau were capable of, I was a bit nervous about facing them with the Imperial Guard, but at least I knew that neither of us would be making much use of the Assault Phase of the game.

Army: (2000 pts)

• Commander (BS5) and two Bodyguards (BS4) with Plas/Missile, plus two Gun Drones and gear
• Shas’el (solo, BS5) with Fusion/Missile
• 1x3 Crisis Suits (BS3) with twin-Missile and Flamer
• 1x3 Broadsides (BS4) with Smart Missiles and two Shield Drones
• 2x8 Fire Warriors, in Devilfish with D-Pod and Multi-tracker
• 1x5 Pathfinders, in Devilfish with D-Pod and Multi-tracker
• 1x10 Kroot, plus 5 Kroot Hounds
• x3 Piranha (BS4) with Fusion and D-Pods
• x1 Hammerhead (BS4) with Railgun, Smart Missiles, D-Pod, Multitracker, Target Lock
• x1 Skyray (BS4) with Smart Missiles, D-Pod, Multitracker, Target Lock

Mission: “Total Annihilation” – 12 inch deployment from long table edge.  Primary objective: kill points.  Secondary/Tertiary bonuses: get at least one Troops choice into the enemy deployment zone at any point in the game, and kill the most expensive enemy unit.

Terrain: Cityfight.  The table had several large pieces of area terrain ruins spread through the center of the table, three two-story ruins scattered about the table, a very solid bunker (on Tim’s side of the table), and a four-story ruin on the left side of my deployment zone.

Retrospective: 1 August 2009 Counteroffensive VI (Intro)

After having missed the previous two of the Millenium Gate forum’s Counteroffensive events at Dream Wizards in Maryland, I was really looking forward to making it to the 2009 event. Unlike previous years, I brought only one army list, but in an astounding change-of-pace, that army was (mostly!) painted – my “Slann” themed Tau Empire list.

In this retrospective, I look at some of the opponents I faced, and some of the lessons I learned, playing with the Tau Empire rules in 5th edition.

What did I bring?
I played several 1500 point games, and one 2000-point game. My 2000-point army list can be found here, but for 1500 points I simply removed one Hammerhead, one unit of Fire Warriors, and one unit of Broadsides. I also made room for Flechette Dischargers on the Devilfish for my first game against Kenton, by removing several Leadership upgrades to my Troops choices.

• HQ: “Fourth Servant” Shas’el with Missile, Airburst, Flamer, Target Lock, Multi
• Elite: 3x “Ranger” Crisis Suits with Twin-Missile and Flamer
• Elite: same
  
  
• Troop: 12x “Brave” Fire Warriors with Shas’ui (Ld8) upgrade
• Troop: same
• Troop: same
• Troop: same
  
  
• Fast: 8x “Scout” Pathfinders with Shas’ui (Ld8) and Bonding upgrades, in Devilfish transport with D-Pods
• Fast: same
  
  
• Heavy: 2x “Hornsuit” Broadsides with Target Arrays, 1x T-lock, and 2 Shield Drones

Retrospective: 1 Aug ’09 Counteroffensive VI (Game 1)

Opponent: Kenton “Tigger” Kilgore with his Dvergar Steeljacks “Space Dwarf” army (an Ork codex proxy). Kenton is of course the author and proprietor of the Jungle , one of the longest-running 40K fansites on the internet, and a friend of many years. He had been putting together his “Space Dwarf” army for a while now, and was testing out the list that weekend.

Army: 1500 points

• 1x 30 Sluggas
• 1x 30 Shootas
• 1x 24 Grots, plus Herders
• 1x 9 Nobs, led by Painboy
• 1x 15 Burnas
• 1x 5 Meganobs, led by Warlord
• 1x Battlewagon

Mission: “Seize Ground” (objectives) and Pitched Battle (12” deployment)

Terrain: A circle of low hills around three edges of the board, with one long trenchline along my long board edge. Several smaller hills and rocky features offering scant cover in the middle of the table, which was otherwise a wide-open killing field. The four objectives were: on either end of the trenchline in my set-up area, on a hill on Kenton’s far right flank (my far left), and on a small hillock in the center-left area of the tabletop.

What happened?
Also read Kenton’s take on the game at the Jungle.

I set up first, placing my single unit of Hornsuits (B-Sides) on a rocky hill on my far left flank, supported by Scouts (Pathfinders), Ranger (Crisis) Suits, and one unit of the Brave (Fire Warriors). I had a similar setup, only without Hornsuits (B-sides), on the far right flank, and two units of the Brave (FW) and the HQ suit in the trenches in the center – thus starting the game with 2 objectives. Kenton responded by setting up most everything BEHIND the hill on his far right (my far left) with one objective marker, with Sluggas screened by Grots in the open, ready to rush across the open field.

I retained initiative, and with very little visible to my firepower, shot up a few Grots and Sluggas, and moved the Scout transports (Devilfish), now filled with Brave (Fire Warriors) up each flank. Kenton rammed his Battlewagon across the table, and I failed to kill it on the top of the second turn – but his MegaNobs fell short on their assault on my Hornsuits (B-sides) because they shot up their target unit…and I removed the models within their assault range.

I rewarded Kenton by blowing up his Battlewagon at point-blank range with the Hornsuits (accepting the inevitable beat-down from Meganobs that was sure to follow), and then spent the rest of Turn 3 doing a driveby of his other units, wiping out his Shootas and Sluggas. The fact that his Shootas had lost 1/3 of their number by assaulting a Flechette-enabled transport in the previous turn helped a lot. The following turn saw the Nobz and Painboy eat a mouthful of pulse-rifles rapid-firing from close range, while my Ranger (Crisis) suits chased after Grots with flamers.

The Meganobs screamed in frustration, but by Turn 5 were whittled down to just a badly wounded Warboss, who assaulted into the trenchline in my center, only to be beat down by my Mighty Slann-Fu. Fear me, for my Slann-Fu is mighty! The game ended there, with the surviving Painboyz, and the completely untouched (and totally out of position the whole game) Burnaboyz slinking off to lick their wounds. I had lost a grand total of one unit of Hornsuits (B-Sides), and one unit of the Brave (Fire Warriors).

Turning the Tables.
This was a pretty clear example of why everyone in 5e has mechanized their army lists. Foot-slogging armies, particularly assault foot-sloggers, get shredded and/or outmaneuvered. Kenton would have done a good deal better with more Battlewagons, and/or more shootas. At least then, he would have been able to throw a mass of firepower downfield as he advanced…and with a second Battlewagon, either the Painboy’s Nobs, or the Burnaz, would have been able to make it into my lines. Once he gets to me, of course, my units evaporate – but until then, I was able to isolate individual units and wipe them out one at a time.

Retrospective: 1 Aug ’09 Counteroffensive VI (Game 2)

Opponent: Mike “St. Omerville” (Wraith-heavy “Iyanden” Eldar) My long-time whipping boy, Mike had managed to convince himself over many years that I was unbeatable. Just because he’d never yet managed to beat me was no reason to think such a silly thing, but you know how some people are. I figure at least part of the reason is that Mike has a fondness for using wildly wacky lists, and so far as I can remember, will test the latest iteration against me to see how effective they are. So far the answer has been: not so much. At any rate, he had been trying for a while to make his foot-slogging, Wraith-heavy Iyanden list work, and so we gave it a go at Counteroffensive.

Army: (1500 points)

• 1x Farseer with Fortune and some other fiddly bits
• 1x Yriel (special character)
• 1x 10 Wraithguard, led by Warlock with Conceal
• 2x Wraithlords with Missile Launcher and Scatter Laser (each)
• 2x 10 Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents

Mission: “Seize Ground” (objectives) and Pitched Battle (12” deployment). Two objectives were on Mike’s side of the table, near the center, and two objectives were on my side of the table, one on either flank.

Terrain: Loads of low-level jungle terrain everywhere on the table. Essentially, there’s no terrain that completely blocks LOS anywhere, but pretty much everything getting shot at, or assaulting, will be faced with doing so through cover.

What happened?
I set up first, and split my army into two halves: 2 units of the Brave (Fire Warriors), one of Scouts (Pathfinders) and unit of suits on each flank, and my third unit of suits (in this case, Ranger/Crisis Suits, with the HQ) in the center. Mike set up his Wraithguard as far forward as possible, in the middle of his deployment zone, with Farseer and Yriel joined to the unit, and two Wraithlords standing behind. Both units of Dire Avengers began off the table, in reserve.

My firepower was decent in the first turn, and with the markerlights taking away cover saves, I was able to kill 3 Wraithguard and wound a Wraithlord. Mike did no damage, and simply moved up. In turn two, I killed the wounded Wraithlord, but with Fortune now up, only took out one Wraithguard. Mike promptly tanked his Fortune psychic test, leaving his Wraithguard unit without Fortune in turn 3, and reserved in one Dire Avenger unit.

I unloaded both transports of the Brave (FW) at rapid-fire range, and between them and the support fire from further back, wiped out all the Wraithguard, and left both HQs badly wounded – doing the Happy Dance all the while. Mike gritted his teeth, brought his second unit of Dire Avengers in, and promptly wiped out three of my four units of the Brave (Dire Avengers) – Yriel and the Seer shredded one, one unit of Dire Avengers blew away a second, and the last Wraithlord waded in with flamers and close combat and shattered the third. I was down to one scoring unit!

I spent the fourth turn trying to drop Yriel and the Seer with firepower, but Yriel managed to survive the torrent of remaining firepower, wiping my last scoring unit in close combat, then diving into cover to avoid being shot by my suits. In the last two turns (5 and 6) I managed to kill both Wave Serpents, and kill 16 of 20 Dire Avengers with my suits, even as the surviving Wraithlord hung back and took pot-shots at my Scouts (Pathfinders), but I simply could not wipe out the gone-to-ground Dire Avengers – I simply didn’t have the firepower, and as they were gone-to-ground near an objective, they didn’t need to move, and wouldn’t flee. Mike was left with Yriel, four Dire Avengers, and a Wraithlord – but also the victory.

Turning the Tables.
I thoroughly underestimated the combat prowess of Yriel, and what I should have been doing from the start was very simple: concentrating fire on Wraithguard until they dropped. My army is designed to suck up return fire and essentially ignore it, and ignoring the Wraithlords is something I should have been doing from the start. In all, the one surviving Wraithlord killed a grand total of 12 models over 6 turns, an average of 2 per turn. Yriel was wiping out 12 models per assault phase, and needed to be put down – and I didn’t realize until much too late that the Wraithguard were simply a Yriel-delivery-system.

Too, I completely ignored the mission objectives, to my detriment, and sacrificed too many of my scoring units in order to get rid of enemy units. I should have been using the transports to block counter-assaults, keeping other scoring units further back (keeping in mind that Eldar can fleet-of-foot!), etc.

Third, I thoroughly flubbed the order in which I was firing weapons at the ablative-wounds-Wraithguard unit. I should have been whittling them away with Pulse Rifle fire FIRST, and then following up with insta-kill weapons that would have to be allocated to HQ models LATER. The fact that I was doing things in reverse simply meant that Mike was taking all the nasty shots on expendable Wraithguard, and taking armor saves on the less destructive S5 hits.

In the end, with a Tau army list, it’s all about Target Priority. Kudos to Mike for reminding me of that.

Retrospective: 1 Aug ’09 Counteroffensive VI (Game 3)

Opponent: Bryan “Justiciar”, a.k.a. “Lawman” (Infantry Imperial Guard). Another long-time Millenium Gate resident, Bryan was testing out his new Imperial Guard army, and it was substantially large. Although fielding three Heavy Support choices as support vehicles, the majority was dudes with guns, and a ton of heavy weapon support, too. As a long-time Guard player myself (dating back to 2nd edition), I knew what kind of hurt such a list could put out, and wasn’t sure my Slann could handle it. But heck, it’s just a game – why not give it the old one-two and see how it turns out?

Army: (1500 points)

• 1x HQ Command with Meltas, including Kell and a Fleet Officer (-1 to reserve rolls)
• 2x Lt Junior Command squads with Grenade Launchers and Power weapons
• 3x IG squads with meltas
• 1x IG squad with plasma
• 1x Specialist squad with demo charges
• 2x IG squads with Autocannon & Plasma
• 2x IG squads with Missile & Grenade Launcher
• 2x Heavy weapons squads with 3 Lascannons
• 2x Leman Russ tanks
• 1x Griffon

Mission: “Annihilation” (Kill points) and Dawn of War (18” apart and Nightfight rules in the first turn)

Terrain: High wall with ramparts near a large hill on the far left side, an intact building on the far right flank, scattered ruins in an arc around the other edges of the table, with two small copses of trees in the very center of the table.

What happened?
For some odd reason, I chose to go second – I think my thinking was that I wanted to respond to Bryan’s deployment. I also chose to split up my 6 Ranger (Crisis) suits into three teams of two, instead of the two teams of three models I usually use. Bryan chose to set-up nearly all of his infantry-heavy army on the wall with ramparts, and on the hill nearby, in a castle set-up, as follows:

• Rear: Command Squad (out of LOS behind the big wall)
  
  
• Center Left (hill on left): IG+Plasma & Lt Squad in rear, IG+AC, IG+ML in front
• Center Right (wall/rampart): 2x3 Lascannon, IG+AC
  
  
• Front of both: 3xIG+Melta, IG+ML, Demo Charges, Lt Squad
  

I deployed two units of the Brave (Fire Warriors) in heavy cover on my right flank, with the HQ suit out of LOS behind them. I used their Scout move to put both units of Scouts (Pathfinders) into the empty building on Bryan’s left flank (my right), instantly giving them a great LOS and amazing protection in the process! (note that I’ve since realized that the “scouts” rule does not allow units to set-up, irregardless, in a Dawn of War mission)

Bryan’s opening round was non-existent due to the Nightfight rules, and in response I markerlit and wiped out a Lascannon heavy weapons team, and shredded his AC squad on the wall, who went to ground so as not to risk fleeing.

None of Bryan’s tanks came onto the table from Reserve, but my Hornsuits (B-sides) clambered in to help. His firepower continued to be ineffectual (much of it was aimed at the building my Scouts (Pathfinders) were hiding in, to no effect), but I wiped out his second Lascannon heavy weapons team, and hurt the Missile/Grenade squad at the front of his castle set-up.

Bryan had been moving several of his foot-infantry units (the five in the front of his castle setup) forward toward my deployment zone this whole time, and in turn three, all three of my two-man Ranger (Crisis) suit teams dropped in, bracketing three clusters of his infantry units and flaming them to kingdom come. Two units of the Brave (Fire Warriors) also walked on from reserve, within rapid-fire range of two other IG squads, and backed up by other units already in position, Bryan lost seven units in a single turn. They had been delayed by the Fleet Officer, but arrived at just the perfect time! At the top of the fourth turn, Bryan had just four infantry units remaining, two of them badly hurt.

At just this time, all three of his Heavy Supports rumbled onto the table, and between them blew away three Ranger (Crisis) Suits. I responded by blowing up two vehicles (the Griffon and one Leman Russ), and turning the other into an immobilized, weaponless hulk. I also wiped out or forced to fall back every last infantry model on the table, save the (mostly hidden) Command Squad. One fleeing plasma-gunner killed a fourth Ranger (Crisis) suits as he fled, but with only a Colonel (and squad) and a Leman Russ hulk, Bryan conceded in Turn 5. In all, I had racked up 17 kill points, and Bryan had racked up 2 – the two pairs of Ranger (Crisis) suits.

Turning the Tables.
As a pointed out to Bryan, one of the first things he could have done in a Kill Point mission was to merge his 8 infantry squads into two big squads of 40 models. That would have increased the resilience of the squads as a whole, while reducing the kill points they gave up (to 2 total).

There was also the inexplicable decision to leave a perfectly good building in his own deployment zone…unoccupied! All this did was to allow my shooty units to occupy it and close the doors – turning the building into an immobile transport with far too many fire points for his comfort.

Finally, there was the very strange decision to keep all his infantry units bunched up when he KNEW that I had flamers on all my deep-strike capable suits. It’s not like this is an army list that Bryan is unfamiliar with, because he has a Tau army.

Then again, this was one of the very first games (if not the very first) that Bryan was playing with Imperial Guard. I’m given to understand that he did much better in the next few games he played.

Retrospective: 1-2 Aug ’09 Counteroffensive VI (Special Scenario)

Set-up: Pat “Sho-T Bighed” Eibel and Mike “Ryjak” (Tyranid Bug Swarm). Bringing back an oldie-but-goodie, Pat had organized a “Bug Hunt” scenario for a number of Millenium Gaters. We were invited to his fancy digs, and after much munching and schmoozing and telling of tall tales, we moved down to his spacious Gaming Room where a massive city-fight table had been laid out, chock-full of terrain…and slimy bug entry points. Each of the four allies-by-circumstance fielded 900 points of models (troops and HQ only, max 2 HQ choices and 6 Troops), and tried to kill as many bugs as possible before being overwhelmed.

What happened?
For Pat’s writeup, and the scenario rules, check out his write-up at the Jungle:

I ended up fielding:

• 1x Shas’el with Flamer and Airburst, Multi and Target-lock
• 2x Bodyguard with Flamer, Missile, and Multi
• 5x 12 Fire Warriors

I took great pleasure in not placing dead last – basically, I found spots near (and behind) Kenton’s Space Dwarf models, held my finger down on the trigger, and sprayed until the Bugs ate me. I ended up with just over 100 “points”, but Kenton’s Ork-proxy army was the clear winner: he simply set up his models in cover and tore apart the Bugs as they assaulted (because as he was in cover, he got to throw loads of dice FIRST).

By the time we knocked off at some ungodly hour in the morning, Mel “Cambyses” and his DIY marine chapter “Emperor’s Wolfhounds” had gotten swarmed and munched, and the Plaguemarines fielded by Bryan “Justiciar” were being slowly ground down. My clever plan of keeping near to the Orks meant that I had one last unit of Fire Warriors still alive, but the Space Dwarves were still going strong, having still about 1/3 of their original number, and racking up more points than the rest of us combined.

With a ton of models still on the table, however, an Apocalypse-scale model still to come on, and the hour getting late, it was decided that the Space Dwarves had given one heck of an accounting before being turned into recyclable biomass.

Retrospective: 2 Aug ’09 Counteroffensive VI (Game 4)

Opponent: Eric (Necrons). A Dream Wizards store local, Eric and his buddy were there to pick up a few weekend games during the Counteroffensive event. Eric was a brand-new 40K player, and had with him a very sizable Necron army that he was still working on. He was interested in fielding almost everything he had, so we threw down 2000 points of models, with me adding a few extra units to my 1500 point list to bump it up to points. A very upbeat and sporting fellow, we played a happily slow-paced Sunday morning game so that we could talk out his options, and I could introduce him to the Tau rules and special equipment.

Army: (2000 points)

• 1x Lord with Resurrection Orb, and 19 Necron Warriors
• 1x Destroyer Lord with Resurrection Orb, and 4 Destroyers
• 2x 14 Necron Warriors
• 2x 5 Scarabs
• 1x 4 Heavy Destroyers
• 1x Monolith

Mission: “Seize Ground” (objectives) and Pitched Battle (12” deployment)

Terrain: Two large terrain pieces on each of our deployment flanks, providing both elevation and blocking LOS – I had a stone tower (on my left flank) and a two-building multi-story complex (on my right flank), whereas Eric had a tall hills on his right flank (my left), and a chunky bunker on his left flank (my right). My side of the table was otherwise empty, save for a (very) small, (very) low wall in my middle. Eric had a mess of craters and small groves of trees providing cover all along his table edge.

With five objectives rolled for, we placed the four objectives on each of the large LOS-blocking terrain pieces in the table corners, and one right in the middle.

What happened?
Eric deployed one of the x14 Necron Warrior units behind the hill on his right, placed the x19 Necron Warrior (with Lord) unit in/around the terrain in his middle, and put both his units of Destroyers on his right flank, hidden behind the chunky bunker (it was quite substantial and very LOS-blocking). His other unit of Warriors were in reserve with the Monolith, and his two Scarab units were also held in reserve.

I spread my forces across the entire open middle of my deployment zone, with Scouts (Pathfinders) hunkering down in the terrain pieces on either flank, the Stoneship (Hammerhead) deployed on the roof (!!) of the building complex on my right with one of the Scouts units, and mixing Suit unit, Brave (FW), Suit unit, Brave (FW), etc in between.

To start the game, Eric stole the initiative, moved up his units, and I responded by doing basically nothing. Things got more interesting in Turn 2, when his Monolith and one unit of Scarabs deep-struck into the game; his Monolith landed right in front of the middle of my lines, shredded one unit of the Brave (FW), and took down a transport (Devilfish). A unit of Scarabs also dropped behind my lines, and looked menacing.

I responded by dropping all 14 Warriors (who promptly vanished, as no other Warrior units were nearby), and blew away the Monolith with massed Railgun fire. However, I had only enough firepower remaining to kill three of the five Scarabs, who promptly assaulted one of my units of Hornsuits (B-sides), taking them out of the game for a few turns.

In turn 3, I wiped out the Heavy Destroyers and pinned the large 20-man Necron Warrior (plus Lord) unit. Yes, every so often Ld10 critters DO fail a pin check. Freed of having to worry about that large unit, I then moved up the following turn and rapid-fired that large unit into oblivion, Tank-shocking his Destroyers out of the way with my last transport (Devilfish) in order to get a unit of the Brave (Fire Warriors) into position. To my great surprise, the Destroyers failed their Leadership test and promptly fled right off the table. To add insult to injury, my Hornsuits finally beat down the last of the Scarabs that had assaulted them, and were now ready and available to continue shooting.

By this point, Eric had only one x14 Necron unit, and a unit of Scarabs still in Reserve. The Warriors were in hiding (and he was one Necron model away from phase-out, anyway), and because I was going second, the Scarabs weren’t likely to contest anything. After talking this out, he conceded the game. I had lost a grand total of: one transport (Devilfish), and had scoring units on 4 objectives. Eric had one.

Turning the Tables.
Although Necrons are a hard list to play in the 5th edition, anyway, there were a few things that could have improved Eric’s odds a little. First, his decision to deep-strike his Monolith in the MIDDLE of my lines simply meant that all my army could see and shoot back the following turn. He might have wanted instead to deepstrike on a flank, using the bulk of the Monolith to block off LOS, and isolate one or two of my units in the process. Also, he chose to deepstrike with just a x14 unit, instead of the x19+Lord unit, which would have been more resilient.

Further, given that I had setup first, Eric would have been better off concentrating on moving everything up one side of the table, and flanking me, instead of trying to move up the middle (as he did with his walking unit of x19+Lord), and getting shot, once again, by my whole army.

Second, fielding two small units of DIFFERENT unit types simply meant that, once the unit had all dropped, they weren’t making We’ll Be Back rolls. Eric would have been better off using all Destroyers (or conversely, all Heavy Destroyers) instead of fielding a small unit of each, and just keeping the models all near each other (which he did).

Finally, splitting his units of Necrons Warriors and placing them in three very different places on the board simply meant that it was easy for me to isolate and destroy each unit piecemeal. His strategy of keeping his phase-out number of models “safe” just meant that I wasn’t worrying about them for the whole game; and the strategy would have worked better if he had a Tomb Spider back there with them, so that isolated and fully wiped-out Necron units could STILL get WBB rolls due to the Tomb Spider’s rules.

The pinning and tank-shock leadership failure were just bad luck, but that happens sometimes.

7 November 2009 Woodbridge NJ Tournament (Intro)

What did I bring?
I brought 1850 points of my “Slann”-themed Tau Empire army again – lots of little Tau models and suits, with lizard heads and other modest conversions here and there.

• HQ: “Fourth Servant” Shas’el with Missile, Airburst, Flamer, Target Lock, Multi
  
  
• Elite: 3x “Ranger” Crisis Suits with Twin-Missile and Flamer
• Elite: same
  
  
• Troop: 12x “Brave” Fire Warriors with Shas’ui (Ld8) upgrade and Bonding
• Troop: same
• Troop: same
• Troop: same
• Troop: same
  
  
• Fast: 8x “Scout” Pathfinders with Shas’ui (Ld8) and Bonding upgrades, in Devilfish transport with D-Pods
• Fast: same
  
  
• Heavy: 2x “Hornsuit” Broadsides with Target Arrays, 1x T-lock, and 2 Shield Drones
• Heavy: same

For this tournament, I had pretty much finished painting the army list I had been putting together for some years now. I’ve a few ideas (and models) to further expand my list, but what is here works pretty well in most games – enough firepower to stop (and clean up against) most opponents. The Pathfinders not only make the heavier units more accurate, but provide transports to give some of the scoring Troops choices more mobility. That said, this is probably the last time I field the Slann in this particular configuration, as it’s clear that there are certain inefficiencies in the force above that can’t be fixed without a rather significant redesign of the army list.

5 November 2009 Woodbridge NJ Tournament (Preview Game)

Opponent: Steve Coyne (“Deadhead” Dark Angels). Steve has been a long-time member of the Warmonger Club in New York City, and his “Grateful Dead” motif has been a consistent theme in all the armies he has done. I had the day off from work, and so visited the Warmonger Club two days before the tournament to do a last-minute ‘fine-tune’ of my army, and Steve was also looking to try out a new Ravenwing/Deathwing mix. As he informed me, the trick was that he not only had flexible unit sizes (with the Ravenwing), but that the bikes AND the terminators were all scoring units. Wow.

Army: (1850 pts)

• 1x Ravenwing Special Character
• 1x Deathwing Special Character
• 12x Ravenwing Bikes (fielded in 3 squads of: 3, 3, and 6)
• 2x Attack Bikes, one with MMelta, one with HBolter
• 2x 5-man Deathwing squads (one with HFlamer, one with AssCannon)
• 4x Speeders (HB, 2xHB+AC, MM+HFlam)

Mission: Seize Ground (3 objectives) and Dawn of War (12” deployment and initial Nightfight)

Terrain: Ruined cityscape, with huge three-story LOS-blocking complex on the right side of the table between our deployment zones, and scattered smaller ruins (half of them also large enough to block LOS to vehicles) throughout the middle of the table. Both Steve and I also had two smaller ruins in our deployment zones. Two objectives were on the ground just outside a building in each of our deployment zones; the last was next to the massive LOS-blocking complex on the right side of the table.

What happened?
Steve won the roll-off for deployment, but chose to set up and move second. I set up two Troops choices – one on top of a tower next to the objective on my side of the table, and one on my side of the large complex on the right flank, a move away from claiming that second objective. I placed my HQ with the unit on the right. Steve placed his units second, and deployed his large (6-man) unit of Bikes on my left flank, making a Scout move forward toward the objective I had a unit of Troops sitting on -- and placed a unit of Deathwing (backed by the Deathwing HQ) in the center, near the third objective – the one nearest his deployment zone.

At the start of my first turn, I walked the rest of my army onto the table: both units of Rangers (Crisis Suits) on the left, backed by the three remaining Troops choices, and the two Transports (Devilfish). The Scouts (Pathfinders) and Hornsuits (B-Sides) rolled up the middle, taking a run move to get into position in a low two-story ruin near my table edge. Then I opened fire, and even with the Nightfighting rules in effect, I was able to see the unit of Bikes that had just made the Scout Move up to within 6” of the objective on the left. With so much firepower (48 Pulse rifles, 2 Burst Cannons, 6 Missile Pods, and 4 Pulse Carbines), the bikes simply evaporated.

Steve shook his head in disbelief, but gamely moved his five Landspeeders (including the Ravenwing HQ, of course) onto his board edge, keeping them behind the large behemoth of a terrain feature on the right-hand side. He also deep-struck his second unit of Terminators INTO the building, near the Troops+HQ that I had lurking in there. Although he lost three (!!!) Terminators to the dangerous terrain test, the surviving Heavy Flamer was more than sufficient to kill nine of my thirteen models. D’oh.

I responded by shooting down all four of his non-HQ Landspeeders as the sun rose on Turn 2. The combination of Markerlights and LOS was deadly, denying the vehicles any chance of a cover save for hiding in and around ruins. Realizing that the two remaining Bike units (and both Attack Bikes) were outflanking, I hurriedly moved units away from the flanks, and settled in to see what Steven’s response would be. Steve reserved his bikes in (all four units came in on Turn 2) from both flanks, but apart from killing one of my Transports, and sniping at my Scouts (Pathfinders), not much happened.

I cheerfully killed all but 3 of his bikes (leaving a unit of 2 on the right flank, with a Heavy Bolter Attack Bike behind them), and most of his Terminators, leaving just three (including the HQ) hiding in the ruins next to an objective by the bottom of Turn 3.

The next three turns were a bit of a dance. I still had nearly all of my army left -- I had lost three units by this point, and ultimately would lose just three more, finishing the game with 9 surviving units at nearly full strength! But Steve still had his very nasty Master of the Ravenwing zipping about, I only controlled one objective, and he could still win (or draw) the game unless I dug his final three Terminators off that objective on his side of the board!

So I carefully moved up units, got a little careless with some suits and lost three to the Bikes in turn 4, but finally pulled the surviving Deadhead Bikes and Terminators into assault, and surrounded them (but importantly, did not assault) with enough separate units (four) to make it impossible for the Deadheads to kill all of them in a single turn of combat. Although one Bike and one Terminator survived to the end of the game, they were very neatly bottled up contesting one objective with me, leaving me able to hold one, contest the third with the Master of the Ravenwing, and win the game 1-0.

Turning the Tables
Steve’s biggest mistake at the start of the game was probably that Scout move that basically threw away his largest unit of bikes. Going second was a good decision given his superior mobility, but leaving units exposed to my firepower was not. Similarly, he wasn’t careful enough with how he moved his Landspeeders onto the table, and left them visible. Even without Markerlights and with a cover save, a visible vehicle can be killed, and the best defense for them probably would have been to keep them entirely out of LOS in the first place.

Steve also spent several turns whittling away at a unit of my Pathfinders – by the end of the game, between his Master of the Ravenwing, and an Assault Cannon Terminator, he had wiped one of my two units out. But by that point in the game, the Markerlights weren’t having much of an effect, as I was basically only shooting at Terminators in cover – and I still had a second unit with LOS to nearly everything the first unit did! The Dark Angels would have been far better served using that firepower instead to (a) kill my limited mobility, and/or (b) kill my heavy hitters. Going after my Crisis Suits, for example, would have accomplished both.

Finally, I’m not certain what outflanking his bikes accomplished in this game. It simply meant that two of his units came onto the table almost fully exposed (on the left flank) to quite a few of my units that had excellent LOS (due to height above the table), excellent cover, and nothing else to shoot at. The Deadhead Marines would have been better off coming onto the table on Turn 1, and choosing which flank to overwhelm me on. After all, they had superior mobility, and given that I had unbalanced to the left during my first turn, Steve could easily have unbalanced to his left (my right) and hurt me badly while I was still scrambling to get my slower-moving models on the left flank into range to support the rest of my forces.

7 November 2009 Woodbridge NJ Tournament (Game 1)

Opponent: Jim B. (Mechanized Witch-hunters). Fielding a mounted Sisters of Battle force with a solid core of troops choices, and a number of specialized support units, Jim’s army was fairly mobile, and also came with a fairly nasty (if somewhat fragile) punch in the form of the Penitent Engines. As a side-note, Jim had converted his Inquisitor’s ride into a beautiful Sisters-of-Battle Land Raider, complete with custom side-turrets in place of sponsons, etc. Combined with his fantastic paint-job, and it was the centerpiece to an amazing-looking 40K army.

Army: (1850 pts)

• 1x Canoness with Sword, Cloak, Book, and Mantle, with 5 Celestians in a Rhino
• 1x Priest (tagging along)
• 1x Canoness with Book
• 1x Junior Inquisitor with Tarot, 2 Mystics and a Multimelta Gun-servitor, in a Land Raider
• 3x Sisters squads with Veteran + Book, H-Flamer, Melta, and Rhino
• 2x Exorcists
• 3x Penitent Engines (in squadron)

Mission: “The Citadel” Tournament Scenario: defender sets up first in middle of table (in 5 pieces of AV-12 cover), attacker chooses two adjacent board edges (long + short) of their choice to deploy 6” in on. Defender goes first and must defend their 5 pieces of cover. Attacker must destroy as many of those objectives as possible – the “secondary objective” was basically just the fifth of the five objectives.

Terrain: Five pieces of AV-12 cover in the center of the table, and some (very very sparse) bits of trees and low walls around the table edge.

What happened?
Jim won the roll-off to determine attacker, and chose to attack – the sensible choice, given the mission objectives, and his load of melta and other firepowery goodness. I castled-up nearly all my units in/around the largest piece of cover, on one corner of the “Citadel”, in layers. Jim chose to set up on the long table-edge nearest to my set-up (no dummy, he!), with Penitent Engines in the center, two Rhinos on each side, the Land Raider behind some cover in one corner, and Exorcists and Inquisitor (and spare Canoness) behind some cover in the other.

I moved up all five units of the Brave (Fire Warriors), blocking up all easy access to my heavier guns, and opened fire – destroying all three Penitent Engines, killing three Rhinos, stunning the fourth (no extra armor on these Rhinos!), and killing a handful of Sisters as well. Jim was aghast at the damage I had done, but moved up with his units of (now foot-slogging) Sisters, killing 2 of my five units of Troops (and my ‘sacrificial’ HQ suit) between his Heavy Flamers and assaults, and destroying two objectives with long-range fire.

In turn two, my guns burped again, and I wiped out three of the four units of Sisters (including the uber-Canoness), leaving just one unit of Sisters on the table, and killed one of the two Exorcists (stunning the second). Jim’s shooting from his Land Raider was ineffectual, and I followed up in the next turn by wiping out the last of the Sisters (as well as the Inquisitor and his retinue in the far corner). But with an Exorcist and Land Raider still operational, Jim managed to kill a third objective, meaning that my only chance of winning the game was to table him.

I figured I would need the fourth and fifth turn to manage that, but I had lost only three units (two Troops choices and my HQ suit), and after one-shot-killing his Land Raider with my first Railgun shot in Turn 4, that left plenty of firepower for the Exorcist and last Rhino. I had a four-turn table, and still head nearly all my forces on the table.

Turning the Tables
This particular scenario was very favorable to the attacker, and only two defenders managed to win it in this tournament – myself, and an assault-happy Chaos player (John, who I played in game #2). In both cases, we did so by tabling our opponents, and not worrying about trying to protect the very fragile objectives.

In Jim’s case, however, there were several things he could have done to make his forces a bit more durable, and rack up a few more points for his own tournament score. First, he chose to start with all of his Rhinos, and all of his Penitent Engines, out in the open. He could have instead chosen to start with his entire army in Reserve, thus denying me the opportunity to get ANY shots off before jumping on me from anywhere along the two table-edges he chose.

Even if he wanted to start with his models on the table (bad idea as it was), he could still have arranged them a bit differently. For example, even though there wasn’t a whole lot of cover on the table, 6 inches deployment is still enough to create a Rhino screen for, say, a squadron of Penitent Engines. Or for another Rhino.

Second, Jim spent an entire turn (basically, his ONLY turn) shredding two of my infantry units with four of his. Though probably quite satisfying, this was (shall we say) an inefficient use of resources. With three meltas in his units, and four powerful long-range support units, he should have been doing everything possible to go after mission objectives. Even after the first turn, it was pretty clear that he simply didn’t have the firepower to match what I could put out – that in a straight up fight between 27 Sisters and 90 Slann/Tau, with his mobility gone, odds were against him. Going for mission objectives was the far better bet – there was a good chance that, had he done so, he could have racked up all five objectives and the maximum mission points by the end of the second turn, regardless of what I did to him then or later.

7 November 2009 Woodbridge NJ Tournament (Game 2)

Opponent: John (Mechanized Chaos Marines). John and I had been the only two players to be in the “defensive” role in the first scenario, and win the game by tabling the attacker. As a reward for such outside-the-box thinking, we ended up facing each other in the next round. With a very nasty 5e Chaos army that didn’t include very much extra fat or fluff at all, John’s force was going to be a real challenge to face.

Army: (1850 pts)

• 1x Nurgle Demon Prince with Wings and Warptime
• 1x Greater Daemon
• 1x Chaos Lord with Daemon Weapon, + 9 Chaos Marines (including Fist and Melta), in Daemonically Possessed Land Raider
• 1x 10 Plague Marines, including Fist, Melta, and Plasma, in Rhino with Extra Armor
• 1x 10 Khorne Berzerkers, including Fist, in Rhino with Extra Armor and Dozer Blade
• 1x 3 Obliterators
• 1x Daemonically Possessed Vindicator

Mission: “The Fortress” Tournament Scenario: “Dawn of War” setup, with defender setting up first with up to 1 HQ, 2 troops, and all Heavies. The Attacker must start with all units on the table, and the defender has the first turn. The side that controls the objective (= “the Fortress”) at the end of the game wins. The “fortress” (a reinforced gate, with towers on each side, and a crenellated 6” wall on each side beyond that) is a terrain piece that is all within 9” of the defender’s board edge. As a secondary objective, if you slaughtered any one of your opponent’s HQ choices (including full retinue if it had one), you received bonus mission points.

Terrain: Apart from the monstrous Fortress on my table edge, there were a few small copses of trees on the far edge, and two low hills that really didn’t block much LOS at all in the middle of the table.

What happened?
John won the roll-off, and chose to be the Attacker, setting up under the cover of night. Being the idiot that I am (see “Turning the Tables, below), I set up my HQ and Heavies (all of them suits) in the Fortress, then used two units of Troops to “push back” John’s deployment as far as possible. The Troops essentially set up as sacrificial units midway across the table, giving John only 6” to deploy on his table edge. He “hid” his two units on foot (Demon Prince, Obliterators) behind vehicles to start the game, but had everything ready to drive full-speed across the table from the get-go.

That said, I immediately flubbed one of the biggest Dawn of War mission rules – although, in my defense, this mission was so badly written that nearly everyone in the tournament messed it up one way or another. I left the rest of my army in Reserves, instead of immediately bringing them onto the table on Turn 1. That could have made a big, big difference, but instead, I faced John’s entire (very assaulty) army with far less than half of mine.

I couldn’t see anything in the first turn, while John’s searchlights lit up one unit of Hornsuits (Broadsides) and lascannon fire from Obliterators killed some shield drones. At daybreak on Turn 2, I killed a Rhino (the Plaguemarines’ ride), and he ran down my two units of sacrificial Troops, who died ignominiously. My Reserves didn’t start to arrive until Turn 3, and only in drips and drabs – outflanking Scouts (Pathfinders) managed to immobilize the Chaos Vindicator, but it wasn’t going to shoot anyway, and risk killing his units busy chopping away at mine.

By the bottom of Turn 3, it was clear that I was playing for a draw, at best. All of John’s assault units were on or near the Fortress, all my firepower was dead, and what I had left were the units still in reserve, as well as a unit of Scouts (Pathfinders) well out of position that he’d been ignoring thus far. By careful use of reserves, and a few lucky breaks, I managed to slaughter one of his three Troops choices (the Berserkers), send one of them fleeing toward his table edge (the Chaos Marines and Lord), carefully herded by some drones, and tie up the Plaguemarines much too far away from the Fortress for them to claim it by the end of the game.

But no matter, because the game ended up going six turns, not five, and in that last turn, John rather decisively slaughtered the last of my units; he couldn’t claim any objectives, but he’d tabled me and gotten the automatic victory. At game’s end, I had killed one unit (the Berserkers), three vehicles (the Vindicator, and both Rhinos), munched through most of the Plaguemarines…and not much else.

Turning the Tables
There were two glaring mistakes I made in this game, which ended up being far closer than it really ought to have been given how foolishly I had screwed up. My first big mistake was choosing to deploy my starting Heavies and HQ on the objective – the one place on the board that was *guaranteed* to attract John’s units. I’d have been far better off deploying my forces into one or two firebases to either flank, well away from the Fortress, but with clear LOS to nearly everything within. That at least would have forced John to make some decisions about what he was and was not going to do with his vehicle rush.

Second, I completely flubbed the Reserve rules for the scenario. Instead of having ALL my firepower set-up and available in Turn 2 (moving in on Turn 1 as per standard Dawn of War rules), with John’s army out in the open after his first turn movement and ready to be slaughtered well outside assault range, I misunderstood the scenario rules and kept units in traditional Reserve. As it was, only the fact that I rolled so badly on my Reserve rolls gave me any shot at a draw at all – it meant that I was able to keep moving units onto the table and frustrating John’s attempts to secure an objective right next to my entry-point.

Perhaps if I had a more aggressive, assaulty army, a traditional Reserve would have been in my favor. But with a shooting-dependent list like the Tau, I desperately needed to have as much firepower as possible from the earliest possible moment, and my inability to do basic eighth-grade level reading comprehension led to some Epic Fail on my part.

7 November 2009 Woodbridge NJ Tournament (Game 3)

Opponent: Chris (Tyranid Horde). Although Chris knew that a Tyranid Horde list wasn’t terribly optimal under the 5e rules, he was a die-hard Buglover and wanted to field a ton of bugs. I admit that I was somewhat curious to see if I had the firepower to stop a Tyranid bug-wave, and this game gave us the chance to test things out.

Army: (1850 pts)

• Hive Tyrant with 2+ armor, wings and Scything Talons
• 1x 10 Genestealers with BROODLORD and Feeder Tendrils
• 3x 10 Genestealers with Scuttlers and Feeder tendrils
• 2x 20 spinegaunts
• 1x 14 hormagaunts with toxin and adrenal glands
• 1x 5 Tyranid Warriors with +WS+I, leaping and the kitchen sink
• 1x 4 Tyranid Warriors with the same
• 2x Zoanthropes with Warp Blast

Mission: “Onslaught” Tournament Scenario with Pitched Battle (12” in) deployment. Each ‘corner’ of the table had to have one objective in it, with no objective closer than 8” to any table edge or other corner (basically, each of four objectives was in the center of each corner of the 4’x6’ table). As a secondary objective, one Troops choice in your opponent’s army (nominated by him) was worth bonus mission points if killed.

Terrain: A pair of tall (12” high) towers with a reinforced gantry/cat-walk between them on my right flank was the perfect location for me to set-up some units – and one objective. The height would make it even harder for the Tyranids to assault me. Some industrial piping and low ruins completed the terrain on my table edge. Chris’ table edge had some large, LOS-blocking hills (each with an objective), and some industrial tanks. A few sparse bits of jungle terrain did nothing to block LOS in the middle of the table, but one such bit of jungle scrub on my left flank included the fourth and last objective.

What happened?
Chris won the roll-off to set-up and move first (the third time in a row in this tournament that I lost that roll-off). He dropped a unit of Spinegaunts behind each massive rocky hill, effectively capturing two objectives for the Tyranids unless I went over to his board-edge to dig them out. He also placed Warriors, Tyrant, Zoanthropes, and Hormagaunts, but kept all his Genestealers off the table, intending to outflank with them. I responded by putting a unit of Hornsuits (B-Sides) and Scouts (Pathfinders) on the 12”-high-off-the-table gantry/catwalk, and spreading out the rest of my forces in/around cover in the middle of my deployment zone, well away from either table-edge.

In the first turn, Chris moved up with everything he had deployed, save the Spinegaunts (who lurked on objectives), and I responded by Markerlighting and wiping out his brood of Hormagaunts and one of the Tyranid Warrior broods. I also created a “Transport Wall” on my right flank in case of possible Genestealer outflanking, and fired the rest of my heavy guns into a Zoanthrope…doing nothing, as it made every cover save. Oh, well.

Chris picked his jaw off the floor, and reserved one of his four units of Genestealers onto the table, right up against the Transport Wall I had created on my right flank. In my turn, I dropped the Hive Tyrant, cleaned off all the Genestealers on the right flank, and reduced the Tyranid Warriors to a mere two, thinking I still had another turn of shooting to deal with them. Foolish me for not having read my opponent’s army list more carefully, as the LEAPING Tyranid Warriors made it into the safety of close combat with one of my Troops units…and the silly beggars refused to run. Two more units of Genestealers also flanked onto the table, well out of assault range on my left flank.

I shredded the fire-support (Zoanthropes), and loaded up two units of the Brave (Fire Warriors) on Transports (Devilfish) to go evict some Spineguants from objectives on the far side of the table. With very little else to shoot at, I spent the next three turns (4-6) killing Genestealers (and Broodlord, when he finally appeared) at my leisure, dropping the last two Tyranid Warriors, and tank-shocking Ld5 Spinegaunts off their objectives. The final score after six turns was 3 objectives to none, with Chris having only two Genestealers left on the table; by contrast, I had lost just two Troops units and my (perhaps suicidally brave?) HQ in total.

Turning the Tables
With almost no cover on the table, and with his huge advantage in close combat Chris would have been far better off rushing me with everything, instead of the piece-meal approach he took. Had he set up and moved with three units of Scout-Moving Genestealers, plus infiltrating Genestealers, plus Hormagaunts, plus two units of Leaping Tyranid Warriors, plus a winged Hive Tyrant, PLUS two units of Spinegaunts, he would have very handily swamped me with targets in the first few turns and eaten me for lunch. Instead, four units were placed into Reserve, and two were given objective-holding-duty, thus nullifying them all as a real threat, and I dealt with them at my leisure after shredding the mobile threats in the first few turns.

17 October 2009 FRAGtoberfest Tournament (Intro)

Mike (aka St. Omerville) of the Frederick Area Gamers had invited a bunch of the denizens of the Millenium Gate forums down to Maryland for the weekend, for a 4-game, 2000 point 40K tournament at the Glen Burnie Battle Bunker. What follows is a short series of entries about the games that I played.

What did I bring?
I brought my “Slann”-themed Tau Empire army – lots of little Tau models and suits, with lizard heads and other modest conversions here and there. The fluff itself comes from the original Rogue Trader (40K v1.0) book, way back in the day, and the army was inspired by a conversation I had years ago with Wandering1 (aka The Tactical Parrot) from the forums.

• HQ: “Fourth Servant” Shas’el with Missile, Airburst, Flamer, Target Lock, Multi
  
  
• Elite: 3x “Ranger” Crisis Suits with Twin-Missile and Flamer
• Elite: same
  
  
• Troop: 12x “Brave” Fire Warriors with Shas’ui (Ld8) upgrade
• Troop: same
• Troop: same
• Troop: same
• Troop: same
  
  
• Fast: 8x “Scout” Pathfinders with Shas’ui (Ld8) and Bonding upgrades
  In Devilfish transport with D-Pods
• Fast: same
  
  
• Heavy: 2x “Hornsuit” Broadsides with Target Arrays, 1x T-lock, and 2 Shield Drones
• Heavy: same
• Heavy: “Stoneship” Hammerhead with Railgun, D-Pod, Multitracker, and Target lock

This is essentially the finished version of my list, at 2000 points (the addition of the Hammerhead is the main difference between this and the 1850 point list). There will undoubtedly be some more tweaking and refitting of units, but the overall dimensions of the army are pretty much established, as are the core models and corresponding conversions. I’ve enough models (and points) to field an Apocalypse list of 3000 points if necessary, but some of the units (Stealthsuits, for example) are currently “in storage”, as the 5th edition rules are not very kind to them.

17 October 2009 FRAGtoberfest Tournament (Game 1)

Opponent: Chris M (Witch-hunter Arbites) I’m a big fan of the Adeptus Arbites fluff, and love the “Judge Dredd” color scheme, even if the original source material is a bit too gratuitously violent for my taste. I’ve a number of Arbites models from way back in the day, and have always wondered how well they would work as a 40K army. Facing Chris was an opportunity to see just such an army in action!

Army: (2000 pts)

• 3x Arbites squads (double meltaguns) in Chimeras
• 2x Guard squads (grenade launchers) in Chimeras
• 1x Inquisitor squad (Lord with Crusaders and Acolytes) in Chimera
• 2x Command Squads with Sniper Rifles (on foot)
• 2x Guard Squads with Missile Launchers (on foot)
• 2x Units of 3 Scout Sentinels (with Multilasers)
  
• 1x Leman Russ (+3 heavy bolters)
  

Mission: “Bloodbath” Tournament Scenario: 4th edition alternating set-up in 12” deployment zone, combined with 4th edition Victory Points. Secondary objective: kill the most expensive enemy unit.

Terrain: Hills in all four corners, a line of woods on Chris’ side of the table, and a giant LOS-blocking skull in the middle of my table edge.

What happened?
I set up my army in three ‘commands’ – a unit of Hornsuits (B-Sides) and Brave (Fire Warriors) on each corner hill on my side, and all my Ranger (Crisis) Suits hid behind the giant skull in the middle of the table. I backed up my right wing with the Stoneship (H-Head), and backed up my left wing with a second unit of Brave and both units of Pathfinders, including their vehicles. My last two units of Brave started off the field.

Chris spread his Chimera through the treeline, with Infantry hiding behind the wall of AV12, anchored his right flank (my left) with his Inquisitor and Leman Russ, and backed them up with one unit of Scout Sentinels. The second unit of Scout Sentinels started in reserve, ready to outflank me.

My plan was to deploy both units of Pathfinders with their Scout move, then mount up Fire Warriors and cause some problems, but Chris stole initiative, and shredded my Pathfinder units, greatly reducing their effectiveness for the rest of the game. I compounded things by foolishly wasting firepower on his Leman Russ in the first turn, instead of more wisely blowing away Chimeras when I had the chance.

Fortunately for me, Chris was relatively cautious with his advance, and after two more turns, I had killed all his Chimeras, save for the Inquisitor’s (which was still hull-down in the treeline next to his Leman Russ). I also shredded virtually all his infantry, although a lone Stormtrooper sergeant survived to make it to my right flank, and hacked apart a unit of my Brave (Fire Warriors) before being pummeled by the nearby Hornsuits (B-sides). The last few turns of the game were fairly fast, as I tried to maneuver units into position to hurt his last few remaining units – in the end, all that was left were the Inquisitor and his ride, and two of the foot-slogging Guard units that had spent the entirety of the game lobbing (and often missing with) rockets at me from long range.

Turning the Tables.
The Arbites were far too cautious with their approach – instead of gunning their Chimeras and rushing at me full-speed, they chose to advance cautiously and use their firepower to whittle down some of my numbers first. Against most opponents, this is a solid move – but not against Tau. Even with my colossal blunder of not shooting at his Chimera transports as soon as I could (instead wasting fire on his Leman Russ), I still had sufficient firepower – and time – to wipe out the transports before really being threatened by anything. Had the Chimeras jumped me straight-away, things would have been more touch-and-go in the middle part of the game. Even a single Storm Trooper Sergeant was more than enough to Put Paid to a unit of my Fire Warriors – imagine if a more ‘fearsome’ opponent like an Inquisitor Lord had shown up!

However, Chris’s decision to devote much of his first-turn fire at my Pathfinders was the right move – it dramatically reduced the effectiveness of my shooting for the rest of the game, and was something he could have taken serious advantage of, combined with a more dedicated transport rush.

17 October 2009 FRAGtoberfest Tournament (Game 2)

Opponent: Pete/Pierre (Mechanized Eldar) Mechanization is the way to go in 5th edition, and Eldar vehicles remain just as difficult to knock down as before. Pete’s mechanized Eldar list was designed to sit back and sting people to death, with occasional swooping disembarks (courtesy of Fire Dragons or Dire Avengers) to shred exposed units, and a late-game rush to grab objectives. This was going to be a serious challenge for me, and no mistake.

Army: (2000 pts)

• 1x Farseer with Spear, 2x runes, and DOOM
• 1x Autarch with fusion gun
• 1x10, and 1x9 Fire Dragons, with Crackshot Exarch w/Flamer
  Both in Wave Serpents with twin Shuricannons and Spirit Stones
• 2x10 Dire Avengers, with Bladestorm Exarchs with twin Shuricats
  Both in Wave Serpents with twin Shuricannons and Spirit Stones
• 1x10 Eldar Pathfinders
• 3x Fire Prisms with Holofields and Spirit Stones

Mission: “King of the Hill” Tournament Scenario: modified Dawn of War set-up (most of army automatically in reserve, and reserve rolls starting on Turn1), with a single objective in the middle of the table. Secondary objective: get at least one unit into the enemy deployment zone.

Terrain: Large elevated rocky ridge in the middle of my table edge, extending toward objective; and a half-dozen scattered ice crystal formations providing cover but virtually no LOS-blocking around the table. Otherwise a completely open killing field…gleep.

What happened?
Pete won the roll-off to set up, so I chose to start with two “sacrificial” Troops choices on the table, near the objective, and nothing else. After Pete infiltrated his Eldar Pathfinders into a nearby crystal formation, I stole the initiative (!) and the game began.

My first turn saw most of my army show up right away: both units of Hornsuits (B-Sides), two more units of Brave (Fire Warriors), and a unit of Ranger (Crisis) Suits. I had been hoping to Deep-strike them behind Eldar vehicles, but straight up the middle works fine, too, I suppose. This proved excellent for me, and less so for Pete – he had to come onto the board into the teeth of my formidable firepower.

I made the second turn even more exciting by flanking with two units of Scouts (Pathfinders), right into the rear arcs of two of his Fire Prisms. Pete did a lot of swearing, as this bit of good luck on my part rather badly crippled his firepower right from the very start. Deep-striking Ranger (Crisis) suits also blocked up the door to his Autarch’s ride very nicely, forcing the Autarch and his bodyguard of Dire Avengers to perform an Emergency Disembarkation when their Wave Serpent was downed, where they would sit quite uselessly for a turn or two.

My exuberant willingness to sacrifice my Troops choices, however, began to swing the tide toward the Eldar. By the end of the third turn, Pete had lost both his Fire Dragon squads, as well as nearly all of the unit of Autarch and Dire Avengers, but I had lost three of my Troops choices (with a fourth still off the table in Reserve), as well as a unit of Scouts (Pathfinders) and Rangers (Crisis Suits). I was badly hurting the Eldar, but having difficulty crippling his transports – and after a lucky Fire Prism shot forced a unit of my Hornsuits (Broadsides) to test Morale, and fail and run off the board, it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to drop his vehicles fast enough.

In the end, despite the carnage inflicted, Pete simply had more mobility left – with five units clustered on the objective (not including three still entirely-alive transports), while I had just two near enough to contest, and not nearly enough firepower left to drop those darn Eldar tanks. Mechanized Eldar for the (very) decisive win!

Turning the Tables.
There were three things I did in this game that were problematic, and which done differently may have had an effect on how things turned out. First, I essentially sacrificed a unit of Crisis Suits (and their mobility AND vehicle-killing firepower!), in exchange for the chance of auto-pinning (via Emergency Disembarkation) several of Pete’s units in Wave Serpents. In previous editions, the auto-kill of a unit (or two) from blocking the hatch would have made the trade worth it, I think, but in this case, there was no point. I would have been better served Deep Striking my Crisis Suits into the rear arc of those Wave Serpents – but much further back.

Secondly, I chose to use my Pathfinders as flankers, instead of moving them on from my table edge from Reserve. True, they were able to hurt Pete’s Fire Prisms when they came on from the flank, but that was a combination of Pete forgetting that I was flanking them, and good luck on their part. They would have been better off being relatively safe on my table edge, making it easier for me to kill Pete’s tanks (by negating his vehicles’ cover saves), instead of being isolated on his lines and getting munched by his reserving units.

Finally, I simply did not pay attention to the mission objectives until very late in the game – playing instead as if it was a straightforward “sweep the table of enemy units” kind of mission. As a result, I sacrificed too many units, and particularly some of my mobile units, for what was undoubtedly insufficient return on investment.

17 October 2009 FRAGtoberfest Tournament (Game 3)

Opponent: Mike (Thunderwolf Cavalry Space Wolves). Not the same Mike as my host “St. Omerville”, this was a fellow from another local Maryland gaming club “Inner Circle”. Mike’s army was a no-nonsense, run-up-the-middle-and-SMACK-you kind of army. Two chunky units of Thunderwolves each led by a hero, a swarm of ablative wolves, some distracting Lone Wolves, three units of Rhino Rush support, and four Lascannons with lots of protection. It’s not the nastiest of Thunderwolf bum-rush armies (he could have brought more ablative wolves for his cavalry, for example), but it was still going to hurt if it hit you.

Army: (2000 pts)

• 2x Wolf Guard Battle Leader on Thunderwolf, with 2+ save, Storm Shield, and nasty killy bits, each leading 3 Thunderwolves with Storm Shields and nasty killy bits, plus 2 ablative doggies.
• 1x8 Doggies by themselves
• 3x5 Grey Hunters with meltas and powerfists, in Rhino
• 2x Lone Wolf in Termie Armor, with Storm Shield and 2 ablative doggies
• 2x3 Long Fangs with lascannons, in Rhino

Mission: “Annihilation/Pitched Battle” (Kill Points and 12” Deployment). Two secondary objective “beacon” markers near the center of the table.

Terrain: Hills in the both my corners, a row of trees on my side of the table. Mike’s side of the table had a heavily wooded ridge protruding toward the center of the battlefield, and a large, heavy bunker on his left flank (my right flank), but out of his deployment zone. He placed his objective in that bunker, and I placed mine in the trees on my left flank.

What happened?
Mike won the roll-off, and after choosing table edge, deployed his Long Fangs, still in their protective Rhino transports, on and within that heavily wooded ridge. He also deployed both units of Thunderwolves – one on his right flank, along one side of the wooded ridge, and the other on his left flank (my right), partially in cover behind the heavy bunker. For some reason, he left his six (!) other units in Reserve.

I responded by deploying everything in a castle formation on the hill on my left flank, packed in tight because Mike’s army had no area-effect weapons. Then I lucked out, and stole initiative, and the game was basically over.

In Turn 1, I destroyed one unit of Thunderwolf cavalry. In turn two, I killed all but one body (the uber-killy Wolf Guard Battle Leader) in the second unit of Thunderwolf cavalry. Mike then blew his reserve rolls at the bottom of the second AND third turns, and a total of just one Lone Wolf came wandering on (in Turn 2). I spent the start of Turn 3 blowing the Long Fang Rhinos away – and the Long Fangs, being no dummies, promptly hid behind the wreckage. That meant that given the lack of ANY other targets in range, Mike’s lucky Lone Wolf got to suck down 70 Tau weapon HITS (in other words, I hit that bad boy 70 times), but a combination of lousy to-wound rolls and amazing save rolls kept him alive for two turns of punishment before that resilient doggy bastard finally gave up the ghost in Turn 4.

By the time the three Grey Hunters units and the unit of Wolves finally reserved onto the table in turn 4, the Long Fangs had crept around to a well-hidden shooting position, the last Thunderwolf was prowling about in cover over 24” from my lines, and everything else was a corpse. Mike tried a late-game Rhino rush, but had his Rhinos blown out from under him in turn 5 just as the game ended. Ultimately, I lost one transport (Devilfish) and accompanying squad of Brave (Fire Warriors) when it moved a little too close to that uber-killy T-Wolf hero, and lost a unit of Hornsuits (B-Sides) to several more turns of sustained lascannon fire from 4 Long Fangs. Mike, on the other hand, had lost 8 or 9 units worth of stuff, and never really threatened my forces.

Turning the Tables
Granted I won initiative and shot the Space Puppies up before they could move, but even then it made very little sense for Mike not to begin the game with all of his mobile assault units on the table, itching to jump all over me. Facing just two units of Thunderwolves, one of which was a turn further away from my lines than the other (remember, I got to set up second), my target priority was very easy. Had I been facing SIX fast-moving assault units – because even a unit of 5 Grey Hunters would have totally pwned everything in my army – I would have had a much bigger headache. Particularly if the Space Wolves had gone first, as they were very likely to do.