Monday, November 22, 2010

1850 tournament battle reports:

To Arms!


So here is the rundown of a local 1850 tournament I participated in. Feel free to post any comments, questions or feedback you may have about my list, gameplay and also remember you can click on the pictures to make them bigger!

The army list I decided upon was the following:


HQ: 310

Autarch: Mandiblaster, Laser Lance, Reaper Launcher, Jetbike=155
Autarch: Mandiblaster, Laser Lance, Reaper Launcher, Jetbike=155

Elites: 410

Fire Dragons: 5 man squad=80
Wave Serpent: Twin-Linked Shiruken Cannon, Spirit Stones, Star Engines=125
Fire Dragons: 5 man squad=80
Wave Serpent: Twin-Linked Shiruken Cannon, Spirit Stones, Star Engines=125


Troops: 304
Guardian Jetbikes: 6 Jetbikes, 2 Shiruken Cannons=152
Guardian Jetbikes: 6 Jetbikes, 2 Shiruken Cannons=152


Fast Attack: 420
Vyper Squadron: 2 Vypers with Scatter Laser turret, Shiruken Cannon upgrade=140
Vyper Squadron: 2 Vypers with Scatter Laser turret, Shiruken Cannon upgrade=140
Vyper Squadron: 2 Vypers with Scatter Laser turret, Shiruken Cannon upgrade=140


Heavy Support:405
Night Spinner: Spirit stones=125
Fire Prism: Spirit Stones, Star Engines=140
Fire Prism: Spirit Stones, Star Engines=140


1849 points total.


Game 1: lol


-This was a standard 3 round RTT and while I would love to post a battlereport for all three of my game, I can't because I got a bye for my first game =(. Stupid odd number tournaments!


Game 2: Not the face!


So coming into the second round with 17/20 possible battlepoints (because of my bye) was pretty good as it put me into a position to play some of the top finishers from round 1 and since there were 3 people with a score of 20, I got to play one of them, so that was nice-I like a good challenge!


Mission:
Modified KP:  MCs, Vehicles, HQ are worth 3 KP each, Troops and Heavy are worth 2 KP each and Elites are worth 1 KP each. 


I played against the friend I carpooled with and I was actually dreading this matchup but it turned out ok for me in the end. This was not the best mission for either of us but it was far worse for him since he had so many easy to pop tanks! =( I had 34 KP this mission and my opponent had 44!! He played DE with the following list:


HQ:
Asdrubael Vect = 240
Succubus (Agonizer, Haywire) = 90

TROOP:
9x Wyches (Raider FF, Hekatrix/Agnoizer/BP) = 205
9x Wyches (Raider FF, Hekatrix/Agnoizer/BP) = 205
10x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster, SC) = 185
10x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster, SC) = 185
10x Warriors (Raider NS, Blaster, SC) = 185

ELITE:
4x Trueborn (Raider NS, 4x Blaster) = 178

HEAVY:
Ravager (NS/FF) = 125
Ravager (NS/FF) = 125
Ravager (NS/FF) = 125



Deployment:

He won the option of going first or second and knowing full well the nature of my army and tactics, he graciously let me go first! So below is a picture of the deployment, I just put a Nightspinner kinda hidden behind a hill so I could hopefully pop some of his tanks or slow them down at the very least and give him something to draw close to/focus on his first turn. It was mainly just bait to get him into the open more and into better shooting positions for my second turn as he probably wanted to deal with the nightspinner pretty bad and had to move up to get some good shooting on it.


My Turn 1:
I placed the Nightspinner template over the Trueborn's Raider hoping to pop it or slow it and the surrounding tanks down but instead it scattered left over the warrior squads and entangled 3 tanks while taking the weapon off of one of them (random half strength (3)+6(rending)+d3 roll punched the armor huzzah!). Overall, it was a shot, it had potential and so now I just wait for his first turn!


My Opponent's Turn 1:
3 tanks entangled with the Nightspinner's webbing means no turbo (unless he wants to risk losing everything in the tank) so he just moves those up 12" and the ravagers move up 12" to try to get some LOS on my Nightspinner. Rest of his army also moves up 12" to get some LOS at my Nightspinner and out of all of his shooting that got through my Hull Down coversave, one manages to pen and blow off the Nightspinner gun, darn!!!


My Turn 2:


Everything comes on with guns blazing except my Autarchs with Jetbikes (rolled 1 for their reserves).


-I blow a gun off of a ravager with the Firedragon Wave Serpent on my extreme left flank, the other Firedragon Wave Serpent turbo-boosts and uses Star Engines to get in a good position to be able to take out anything next turn as well as being in a great position to draw a lot of fire off of the rest of my army. 
-My Nightspinner rams one of his tanks, he fails the skimmer dodge roll, I pen it, he passes his Flickershield save! 
-The Fire Prism on my extreme right pops a raider, the explosion kills enough for a break test and the warrior squad falls back, my other Fire Prism blows off a Brightlance from a Raider.
-The Vypers kill both Vect's Raider and a Warrior's Raider, both squads are fine when they get out.


My Opponent's Turn 2:
He took a big hit from my shooting phase and gets into position to do as much damage in return as possible.
-His truborn zoom up, get out and destroy a Vyper squad and their Raider pens and destroys my Fire Prism mid field!
-His Warrior squad that was falling back, fail to regroup fall back off the board (poop on dice!).
-His Wych squad with the Succubus zoom up, get out and try to shoot my Fire Dragon Wave Serpent midfield but I pass all of my cover saves with what hits and gets through my armor!
-His Ravagers all fire at my Fire Dragon Wave Serpent mid field as well and what hits and gets through my armor is saved from my turbo-boost cover save! 
-His warrior squads and the Raiders in range all shoot at my Fire Dragon Wave Serpent mid field and I again pass all of my cover saves.


He really wanted that Fire Dragon Wave Serpent in mid field DEAD! Would have been a setback but that's what distractions/bait is for!


We both scratch our heads at the odds of not only my Fire Dragon Wave Serpent mid field being still alive, but my passing every cover save. We both agree I should buy a Lotto ticket.


My Turn 3:
The rest of my army comes on (2 jetbike squads /w Autarchs) and one squad blasts the Trueborn's Raider while the Autarch split off and enganged the Trueborn squad killing 2 with the Reaper Launcher and the rest from the charge, the other jetbike squad just shoots at Vect's Wych squad doing some damage.
-My Vypers, with my remaining Fire Prism wipe out Vect's Wych squad and only he lives on to engage my army
-My Fire Dragon Wave Serpent on the extreme left zooms up, unloads the firedragons and the Fire Dragons wipe out a Ravager while the Wave Serpent takes out another Ravager. My midfield Fire Dragon Wave Serpent unloads the Fire dragons (which kill his remaining Ravager) and tank shocks and breaks the Wych squad /w Succubus that tried to kill my midfield Fire Dragon Wave Serpent and also tank shocks a Warrior squad sitting in the wreckage of their downed Raider. Death or Glory downs my Wave Serpent with a Blaster  shot, that was way overdue!!
-My Night Spinner tank shocks a warrior squad and dies to its blaster shot, DOH!

My Opponent's Turn 3:
At this point, he wipes out a Fire Dragon squad, shoots up another one (it survives) and Vect charges one of my Autarchs left alone, my Autarch passes 4/5 invul saves, does 2 wounds in return, Vect's shadowfield fizzles and he takes 2 NORMAL wounds. He loses combat by 1, fails it and is run down by my Autarch who rolled a 6 to Pursue. 

We kind of called it at that point since my having an army list that naturally counters his, a mission that feels like you've been kicked where no man should be kicked and crazy dice rolls kind of ruined this game for him =(. Sorry Larry!!

Game 3: DOH!

The third game was a modified objective mission with 3 objectives and spearhead deployment where you had to control all objectives to get a massacre or control more than your opponent to get a major victory. Bonus points were for having scoring units in table quarters where there were no objectives. We were to place 1 objective in the center and each place 1 objective in a non-deployment zone quarter.

My oponent's list:

HQ:
Mephiston

Elites:
2 Furioso Dreads in drop pods

Troops:
2 Assault marines with sanguinary priests with jump packs
1 5 man assault marine squad in a rhino with a flamer

Fast Attack:
2 Baal preds

Heavy Support:
2 Autocannon/Lascannon sponson preds

*disclaimer: Maps not drawn to scale*

Opponent's Turn 1/2:

I won the roll to decide who goes first so I let my opponent go first and the picture above is a combination of his deployment and movements for his first 2 turns (I kept everything in reserves). 
-Turn 1: he moved up, anticipating my coming on from my board edge, and tried to get good lanes of fire. He also dropped a Furioso Dread by an objective on the left side of the board
-Turn 2: he moved around some more and his Baal came in via outlfank from the right side of the board, moving up to support the assault marines in the Rhino already on an objective.

My Turn 1/2
Everything in my army moved on in the bottom right corner of the table. 
-My Fire Dragon squads turbo boosted midfield and let their Star Engines kick in to get into a good position to take out his tanks next turn as well as to anticipate the remaining Furioso drop and other outflanking Baal. With my shooting (the most exciting part of my turn), I targeted his tanks going from right to left:
-Starting with the Baal closest to me, my jetbike squad  on the extreme left blew it up with some nice side-armor shots.
-My Vyper squads immobilized and stunned his Assault Marine Rhino, destroyed the closer Autocannon/Lascannon Predator with side armor shots and Stunned the remaining Autocannon/Lascannon Predator in the middle with more side armor goodness.
-My Fire Prisms blew the turret off of the remaining Autocannon/Lascannon Predator in the middle and failed to do anything to the Furioso on the left.
-My remaining Jetbike squad, along with the Night Spinner, shot at the Assault Marine squad in the middle putting a few wounds on it and even managed to pin them from the Night Spinner.
The carnage of my turn 2
Oponent's Turn 3:


Having all of his long-ranged shooting disabled he just shuffles around the objectives and starts to play a cat and mouse game with my jetbikes. 
-His Furioso moves up towards my army and Mephiston jumps behind the Furioso on the left side of the board while Assault Marines hunker down on the objectives. His Baal and Furioso fail to come in.


My Turn 3


At this point I mess up in 2 ways: 
1) my Jetbike squad on the left moves towards the left side of the table while taking shots at the assault marine squad in the center of the board; I thought the 12" move and 6" assault move  would be enough to avoid Mephiston but next turn I find out that I thought wrong!
2) My other Jetbike squad (along with half of my army) shot at his Assault Marine Rhino and failed to do anything to it. Then I charged the Rhino with my Autarch and Jetbike squad and failed to hurt it again (I should have moved the Jetbike squad back and let the Autarch do his thing alone). This left both squads vulnerable and my opponent capitalized on my mistake.


-The rest of my army moved up and took out the rest of his tanks and put some wounds on the center assault marine squad. 
-I fail to do anything to the Furioso with my Fire Prisms and the only wound of the game Mephiston takes comes from a Fire Prism shot scattering off of his Furioso.
-My Fire Dragons move into position anticipating the arrival of the  remaining Furioso and Baal.


Opponent's Turn 4:



This was the turn my massacre potential turned into a fight for a minor victory: 

-Mephiston jumped 12" towards my left Jetbike squad, fleeted 6" and was in range for the charge, which wiped out the Autarch and Guardian Jetbikes =(.
-The Baal came in on the extreme left, was out of range of everything so did nothing.
-The second Furioso dropped near my Fire Prism on the right side of the board and shook it while the other Furioso imobolized my Fire Prism in the middle.
-The 5 man Assault Marine squad decided to get out of their impregnable fortress to bring the pain in proportion to my fail. They flamed my Jetbike squad, killing 2 and then charged, cutting down one poor Guardian and putting a wound on my Autarch. Doing no wounds in return, I broke and got away only to be stuck an inch or so too close to that Rhino I could not kill so I would be forced to fall back again at the begining of my turn. A glorious slaughter for the Blood Angels!


My Turn 4:


My remaining jetbike squad falls off the board, rolling just enough to get there, OUCH! What a rough turn, losing my only 2 troop choices; the one on the left due to poor play (I should have turbo boosted to the extreme left instead of just moving 12+6 back but who saw a 6" fleet coming from Mephiston?) and the other because I could not kill a Rhino with 3 Vyper squadrons and other shooting!


-I disembarked my Fire Dragon squad by the 5 man Assault Marine squad and teach thier Rhino a lesson that my Shiruken Cannons couldn't.
-My Vypers eliminate the Assault Marines eliminating his chance of controlling the right objective.
-My other Fire Dragon squad misses with all 5 shots against the Furioso that just dropped down.
-A Fire Prism blows up the Furioso that my Fire Dragons missed. The explosion kills some Fire Dragons which subsequently fail their test and run....*facpalm*
- I move my other tanks around ready to contest all of his objectives while taking out some more of those Assault Marines in the middle.


My Opponent's turn 5:


He is trying to hold onto objectives at this point and wants to prevent me from being able to contest them so he moves back to a farther objective with his nearly depleted Assault Marine squad (only 2 were left) and his full Assault Marine squad comes to the middle bearing 2 Melta guns and a Powerfist intent on destroying my Fire Prism that is contesting the middle objective, which he fails to do. 
-His Baal on the left moves  up and tries to take some pot shots at a Wave Serpent while the living Furioso destroys the Imobolized Fire Prism's Prism Cannon. 
-Mephiston assaults the Fire Prism putting it out of my misery. 


My Turn 5:


At this point I embark my intact Fire Dragon squad back into its Wave Serpent and zoom up 12" towards the objective with the 2 remaining Assault Marines (not close enough to contest sadly),  then shoot them with the Cannon/Catapult doing no damage.
-My remaining Fire Prism shoots at but scatters completely off of the bunched up Assault Marines in the middle. 
-The rest of my army takes shots at the middle Assault Marine squad putting a few wounds on them.
-The Fire Dragons falling back take out the remaining Furioso Dread out of spite.
- My shaken Wave Serpent moves to contest the middle objective. 


Opponent rolls to see if game goes on and...GAME GOES ON!


My Opponent's Turn 6:


At this point he needs to hold onto his objectives and get me off of them to be able to pull out the win. 
-He tries once more to melta/powerfist a tank on the middle objective but only stuns it. 
-The remaining Baal fails to do anything to my Prism.
-Mephiston cuts down the Fire Dragon squad that is falling back.


My Turn 6:

-The Wave Serpent that the Assault Marine squad failed to kill tankshocks and breaks them, forcing them to fall back and off the middle objective. Having gotten my hopes up, my Wave Serpent continues to try to tankshock Mephiston only to destroy itself in the difficult terrain Mephiston was cowering in!
-At this point, all he has left is that 2 man Assault Marine squad that can contest or claim an objective so my 5 man Fire Dragon squad disembarks and kills them dead.
Ensuring that my opponent can't claim any objectives, I then try to take out the rest of his Drop Pods/ Baal for some extra VP since if the game ends now, I win by VP for a minor victory.


Dice is rolled for the game to end and... It ends! 


Thoughts on the game:
-If the game went on another turn, all that would have happed was me getting more VP trying to kill his drop pods, Baal and Mephiston. 


-Overall, I played my Jetbike squads VERY poorly as I should have been more defensive and held them back more. I did not get as much use out of my Autarchs as I could have either and I should have held them back more or separated them from the Jetbike squads. 
-I should have been more aggressive with my Fire Dragons, getting them out to pop that Rhino would have saved me a huge headache and also I could have sent them both over to try and take out Mephiston, both good targets. 
-I was amazed how effective the reserves/alpha strike army can be, especially against certain armies. I took away his ability to fight back completely the turn I came on and once the Furiosos were on the board and dealt with I had total fire power supremacy-in hindsight I should have capitalized on this more and not gotten so close with my army.
-It is easy to get careless and give needless kills to your enemy when your army is as fragile as mine so cautious and careful play is key. 
-Throwing out clever feints and distractions with Wave Serpents or moving your army in a certain patterns are great ways for keeping your enemy busy, distracted or confused which keeps the heat off of the rest of your army.
-Vypers add an amazing amount of firepower to the army and I am sold on them!


Tournament Results:
I placed second in the tournament, 1 point shy from first (and only because the first place player had a painted army, I didn't). Go Eldar!

1 comment:

  1. The Kabal of Endless Rage will be back! The biggest wtf was when Vect got ran down by that Autarch. That's just embarrassing.

    ReplyDelete