Tournament Recap - 1850 Points - Wolves/Guard

[Arguleon-veq]

I went to a very stacked little tournament this weekend, there were only 18 players but 3 of the top 5 ranked UK players, 5 of the top 10 were there and almost every other player there was in or around the top 30.

With that in mind and the fact my list is getting a little dated thanks to all the new books meant I wasnt holding out much hope for a good result, I just wanted to get a couple of wins and not get tabled. Old Eldar rules were in use as they hadnt been out for over a month so I couldnt take my Eldar list.

Here is what I took;

Primaris;
Platoon Command;
50 Guard; 4 Autocannon, 4 Axes, 3 Melta Bombs
Manticore;
2x Vendettas; HB's
5 Long Fangs; 4 Missiles
5 Long Fangs; 4 Missiles
5 Long Fangs; 4 Missiles
9 Grey Hunters; Melta
Drop Pod;
5 Grey Hunters; Plasma
Rune Priest; Master of the Runes
Rune Priest; Chooser of the Slain

There were 5 games using an ETC style mission pack based on a 20 point scoring system, most missions had primary and secondary objectives worth a certain amount of battle points along with the usual firstblood/warlord and linebreaker. You could gain up to 17 points with this and then upto 3 points were up for grabs with old style victory points so if you dominate the battle points and victory points you would end up with a 20-0 result.

[Arguleon-veq]

Game 1 vs Nids:

Andy is currently the No.2 ranked player in the UK, he goes the local club but ive only had 1 game against him before, getting a draw against his Daemons. He hasnt got his new Daemon list finished though so he was running Nids for this. A very tough first opponent but hes a really nice guy so I was glad I would be having a nice friendly game to ease me into day 1.

Flying Dakka Tyrant;
Flying Dakka Tyrant;
10 Gaunts;
10 Gaunts;
Tervigon; [the usual set up]
Tervigon; [the usual set up]
8 Raveners; Rending
8 Raveners; Rending
8 Raveners;
Defense Line;

There were 4 objectives and the deployment type was quarters a lot like last edition which they used for this tournament rather than hammer and anvil.

Recap:

I was going first but night fighting was on which meant it would really limit my first turn firepower. I did my jaws drop in his lines and got a bead with it through both tervigons but he denied the witch, meaning he would now get first blood. To make matters worse I got a double 6 for prescience on my horde so lost a wound on my warlord. The manticore did kill a couple of raveners though.

He spawned gaunts and moved up although one tervigon ran out of gaunts. The none rending raveners charged my pod squad whilst a tervigon charged my pod. The pod died and I lost most of the pod squad for about 2 ravener kills with some terrible armour saves.

All my reserves arrived, I killed a lot of raveners with my missiles and autocannons whilst my vendettas did 3 wounds on the tervigon who could still spawn. I lost my pod squad and priest though for one more ravener kill.

He got his reserve gaunts and his warlord tyrant in. His tyrant scatters a little so doesnt manage much damage on the vendettas thanks to being in the side arc. His raveners keep moving up although his ones that had killed my pod squad move towards my 5 other grey hunters who had arrived from reserve and were heading for an objective in an empty table quarter.

My missiles finish off the wounded tervigon whilst my horde down the tyrant and put a wound on him, I get the ravenors down to 2 in the none rending unit, 1 in another unit and 4 in the final unit. My vendettas try to wipe out a gaunt squad now he cant make any more but they kill a whole 1 with 6 twin linked lascannons and 2 heavy bolters...

His next tyrant comes in and blows my vendettas away with shots in the rear. His units of 4 raveners and 1 ravener charge my horde whilst the other two charge into my 5 grey hunters, his warlord tyrant takes back to the skies and shoots a couple of long fangs down. I figure my 5 grey hunters can deal with a pair of wounded raveners without rending claws but I roll a fistful of 1's and 2's for my saves again and lose the unit. The lone ravener dies to my hordes overwatch and the other 4 make it in, they do a bit of damage but then my priest puts 4 wounds on them, I power up my force weapon to instant kill them all.....and perils again! killing my priest[warlord] and thus losing Know No Fear on my blob. At least I hold.

I start moving my blob towards the closest objective whilst my shooting downs and kills his warlord tyrant.

In the closing stages I get charged by his other tyrant, I almost kill it with my overwatch, getting it down to 1 wound, but he just makes it in and gets quite a few kills thanks to warp speed, I lose the combat and thanks to no longer having a marine in the unit I am ran down, costing me the centre obejctive.

The game ends so he beats me in battle points but not by too many thanks to him only having 2 objectives but I have a lot of regular VP's off him and his warlord which leaves the result at;

14-6 Loss

Thoughts: I had a lot of bad luck this game which I think really cost me, it started with jaws doing nothing, and losing almost all my marines to some very bad saving throws, I started pulling it back but losing my warlord priest to double perils was huge and cost me an objective, the ability to blow him off one of his, a tyrant kill and preserving my own warlord point. With that in mind I was pretty happy to get 6 points out of it and it was a fun game.

[Arguleon-veq]

Game 2 vs Nids:

The guy I played next is currently 4th in the UK and the top ranked Nid player so I knew I would be in for another tough game, he was trying out a new list though, so that could help.

Flying Dakka Tyrant:
Flying Dakka Tyrant;
Tervigon [Usual];
15 Gaunts;
Stealers with Broodlord;
Stealers with Broodlord;
Stealers with Broodlord;
Ymargl Stealers;
Ymargl Stealers;
Doom in a Pod;
Trygon;

He was running the Ymargl Stealers to take out small enemy scoring units taking objectives in cover whilst the normal Stealers he was taking in small units for cheap scoring that could reach objectives thanks to infiltrate/outflank and just hold them whilst his broodlords were to make those units more durable and to give him 3 more biomancy rolls.

Recap:

It was a bit of a niggly game with him questioning almost all my shooting in terms of LOS and at first trying to say my autocannons couldnt shoot at all past my own defense line because my guys were kneeling down on the model. There were 2 objectives worth 3 each and also kill points. It was mainly a case of giving up on one of the objectives as it was too far away and there were too many gaunts on it whilst trying to take/contest the other with my horde and winning on kill points. That was pretty much the case in the end. I beat him in kill points, also claiming first blood and warlord but he had one objective, annoyingly as he tied my horde up for a while I struggled to reach the other objective in time which he had gotten genestealers onto late game and then thanks to time constraints we only got to play 5 turns with my horde still pretty much fully intact, a few inches from claiming that objective which only had 2 stealers left on it. In the end I had my whole horde left with the characters and all of my long fang units still over half strength facing off against some gaunts, his tyrant and tervigon. He did have 1 stealer left in one unit and 2 in another which cost me a few kill points.

Thanks to the enforced early end I sneaked it in battle points and victory points were about even.

12-8 to the Nids

Thoughts: A shame about having to end it early as with another turn I would have gotten a 6 battlepoint swing by taking him off that objective and claiming it myself which would have gotten me something like a 13-7 or a 14-6 win. 12-8 is considered a draw in the etc style pack we were using so I was pretty happy to get that with the early end. His Ymargl stealers did a good job in charging the edges of my horde which reduced the amount of guys I could attack with meaning the stealers could tie me up for a little longer than usual, they got past my overwatch by having the trygon soak up the overwatch. His normal stealers actually ended up getting him a lot of points thanks to broodlords surviving to hold up kill points and getting them onto objectives so I guess the new units he was trying out worked pretty well for him in the end. One of his Ymragl units also got my two little 5 man units.

[Arguleon-veq]

Game 3 vs Marines:

Nat and her husband were some of the few players that werent hardcore tournament gamers although Nat and Rob do attend all of the local clubs tournaments and they hold a few a year so they were still tourny vets and they usually do ok at even the bigger events. She had also just blown away my mates Grey Knights.

Captain; Thunder Hammer
Tac Squad; Missile/Melta/Fist
Tac Squad; Missile/Plasma/Fist
Tac Squad; Missile/Flamer
Thunderfire Cannon;
Thunderfire Cannon;
Land Raider; Multi Melta
Razorback; Twin Linked Lascannon
Razorback; Twin Linked Heavy Bolter
Razorback; Twin Linked Heavy Bolter
Dread; Multi Melta
Dread; Twin Linked Las/Missile Launcher
Ven Dread; Assault Cannon
Defenseline with Quadgun;

The mission was 1 objective each with another in the centre of the table with each worth 4 points. I was a little worried as she had enough firepower to blow me away and she also had good enough combat punch to worry my pod squad and horde thanks to those dreads alongside some good solid scoring.

Recap:

I went first and despite night fight my manticore did a number on her shooty dread, also catching marines in the blast and killing a fair few of the two combat squads she had around it. I then pumped all of my missiles into the remnants of the combat squad with the captain in [who was manning the quad with his good BS] and despite 2+ cover [defenseline+nightfight] the missiles finished the last 2 marines and the captain.

My pod squad dropped out on the right flank to try and meltagun the land raider but it missed. In her turn she put a lot of fire onto my pod squad and reduced them to just the priest whilst the rest of her fire killed a few from my horde. Her lascannon razor immobalised itself on the defense line.

Through the early turns her thunderfire cannon just could not miss and started to seriously reduce my horde who were pushing on the centre objective and my pod priest died to a melta overwatch when he charged a combat squad making it 3 games in a row that my whole pod squad have done nothing at all!. Once my missiles take out both of her thunderfire cannons things turn my way as I blow away most of her firepower and scoring. I know I wont be able to make enough of a push on her objective but I take the centre one, hold my own and have a decent VP lead which gives me a fairly big win.

14-6 Win

Thoughts: It all went pretty well as my shooting started to take over hers, I think a lot of it comes from my long fangs and hordes firepower being more durable than something like a tank or thunderfire cannon, for example a thunderfire cannon isnt mucg more durable than 2 guys against my missiles were as my long fangs you have to put something like 15 missiles into to kill a unit.

Day 1 Thoughts: I was fairly happy with day 1, id picked up decent points against two top opponents running Nis which are doing very well at the minute despite some poor luck first game an an early end game 2 and I won the game I really should be winning in game 3. It left me around mid table but still easily in reach of a top 3 finish. 

[Arguleon-veq]

Game 4 vs Grey Knights/Eldar:

Game 4 was against one of my mates who I travelled there with and who like me was just using a list based on what he owns and had painted. He was doing pretty badly in day 1 with a 19-1 loss and a 15-5 loss but he pulled it around by getting a 20-0 against Nob Bikers in game 3.

Coteaz;
10 Purifiers; 4 Psyacannons
3 Acolytes;
3 Acolytes;
3 Acolytes;
3 Acolytes;
3 Acolytes;
3 Acolytes;
Psyback;
Psyback;
Psyback;
Psyback;
Psyback;
Psyback;
Psyback;
Psyrifleman Dread;
Psyrifleman Dread;
Psyrifleman Dread;
Storm Raven; Multi Melta, Assault Cannon, Psybolts
Farseer; Stones, Bike, Spear, Witnessing, Every Power
7 Eldar Bikes;

21 S6 twin linked, 12 S8 twin linked and then the psycannons too was a scary amount of firepower and I knew a lot would be on first turn although it wouldnt help me too much if night fighting was in play because all of his razorbacks have searchlights. His Farseer is to get him misfortune almost every game and the bikes are there for some scoring that is actually durable. As this mission was dawn of war, 2 objectives and then the relic he stuck with normal eldar powers so he could fortune his bikes and have them as relic takers.

Recap:

I went first but annoyingly night fighting was on so most of my missiles were saved my cover, my manticore shots scattered right off the table. Thankfully he had combat squaded his purifiers and put them in a psyback to get them to close with my horde, this let my drop my pod squad in so i was pretty confident of getting first blood with them, 16 bolt shots and melta shot and living lightnig into the rear of a razorback.....get me 1 glance.

His bikes fortune up and he puts a lot of fire into my pod squad, mind war then kills off my priest! after his firepower ive got 4 marines left in my pod squad so his fortuned bikes charge them to tie them down untill his purifiers can reach them as he doesnt want them running his back lines. The charge kills 1 of my marines for no losses thanks to fortune.

I start advancing on the relic with my blob, relieved that those fortuned bikers didnt just jump on it turn one. My missiles take down a couple of razorbacks then in the combat with the bikes I lose no marines and sneak a wound past the fortuned saves, he then fails his LD9 test and runs straight off the table.

Thats a huge turning point as his acolytes have no way to really hold the relic, we trade fire as my horde take the relic and start to haul it back to my lines. He knows he cant really gun them down with his remaining firepower as I have conquerer of cities and there are a lot of ruins on the table. With that in mind he makes sure he claims one of the normal objectives whilst I get the other and he just tries to get as many VP's as he can, in the end neither of us have much left but I have far more battle points.

13-7 Win

Thoughts: Losing his farseer and bikes was a big problem for him and despite him probably having more firepower than me the fact he had to react to my pod squad meant that my fangs lasted long enough to start to take his firepower out and my horde were taking down one of his units a turn.

[Arguleon-veq]

Game 5 vs Farsight Tau

I went into the last game in around 7th place and was up against a lovely looking Tau army with lots of great conversions and a nice paint job. My opponent was a nice guy and a former England ETC player so it should be a nice last game.

Farsight:
Commander: Loads of stuff
Big Bodyguard Team: Loads of stuff
8 Pathfinders:
3 Broadsides: 6 Missile Drones, Skyfire
Riptide: Intercept, Ion
10 Fire Warriors:
10 Fire Warriors:
10 Fire Warriors:
6 Fire Warriors:
Skyray:

Recap:

I went first again but again night fighting really cost me and limited what I could do, I dropped my pod besides his riptide but into cover to not die to his intercept although it did kill the pod for first blood, I get jaws off.....but it passes his initiative test, I do put a melta wound on it though whilst my fire kills a broadside and some drones.

His skyray wrecks my manticore with seekers and his riptide charge the remnants of my squad once the broadsids shoot them up a bit more but he only kills 1 guy in combat for 1 wound leaving 3 and my priest.

I dont have many targets as his bomb and fire warriors are all in reserve, my venettas come on and finish off the broadsides, my missiles down his skyray whilst I make his pathfinders go to ground, my pod squad are then reduced to just the priest who kills the riptide with his force axe.

Some fire warrior reserves come on and kill my priest.

The rest of the game is all about his farsight bomb who drop in and wipe out two full long fang squads, I do seriously shoot them up thanks to misfortune and make them panic but I could have finished most of his suits but my vendettas put 6 twin linked lascannons into them and got 0 wounds. Then thanks to loads of snapfire hits with his last 4 pathfinders when they rally they gun down both vendettas. He then gets a massive 11'' jump pack putting them right across the table, out of misfortune and lasgun range and into range of an objective I was taking with 2 5 man squads.

This is huge as it keeps his bomb alive [although I had killed the commander] on just a few wounds and they kill my command squad and tie up my grey hunters in combat, contesting the objective. To make matters worse, in turn 5 his pathfinders who had gone to ground again get 4 hits again on my horde so his 18 fire warriors on that flank who were contesting an objective with my horde are hitting easily and ignoring my cover an easily blow me out of conest range.

At the end of the game Ive got a lot of victory points but he is edging me on kill points and has 1 objective to my 0, giving him the win.

14-6 Loss

Thoughts: Those pathfinders and that farsight bomb really won him the game, I put soooo many wounds on those pathfinders but they kept going to ground, passing a load of saves and then hitting with snapshots, that 11'' jet move for his farsight bomb was the big thing though, if they had gone a few inches less I would have wiped them out which would have netted me 2 more kill points and an objective which probably would have reversed the score. Still it was a fun game but it would really push me down in the final standings.

Final Standing: 12th/18

That loss at the end really pegged me back but I was fairly happy with my results, I took at least 6 points off everybody despite some poor luck with some units, for example my vendettas 5 times during the course of the tournaments got 1 or less wounds with 6 twin linked lascannons and jaws failed to kill a single thing all tournament despite playing nids twice and tau. I also got at least 1000Vps in every game and I was in every game. I think my biggest problem was a lack of durable scoring, my horde could take objectives but if they got held up it made things really light on the scoring side for me.

I wasnt too fussed at finishing so low despite it being my worst finish as the guys who went who were ranked 1st,2nd and 4th ended up finishing 9th, 13th, 14th as it was that competative and I took a fairly weak list in comparison.

1st Tau
2nd Tau/Eldar
3rd Crons/Chaos
4th Crons/Chaos

In terms of army breakdown there were 6 Tau [1 was Tau/Eldar], 3 Crons [2 were Cron/Chaos] and 3 Nids. Everything else was only repped once; Dark Eldar/Eldar, GK/Eldar, Dark Angels, Orks, Marines, Wolves/Guard. Tau dominated, I dont think they finished outside the top 10 at all.

My regular Cron/Chaos opponent who a lot of my batreps are against managed 4th place but my GK using mate finished down in 15th.