Today was the Hive Fleet Indy Tourney at Games 2D4 on the west side. In all, we had 16 players competing over $300 in various prizes. Here's how my games went down:
SandWyrm's List
This is basically my 1000 pt. list with a Hellhound, Plasmas for the 3rd Vet squad, and the Primaris Psyker upgraded to a full CCS.
HQ
145 Company Command Squad w/4 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
Elites
65 Guardsman Marbo
Troops
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
170 Veteran Squad w/3 x Plasma, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
Fast Attack
120 3 Scout Sentinels w/Autocannons
145 Hellhound w/Hull Multi-Melta
145 Hellhound w/Hull Multi-Melta
Heavy Support
150 Leman Russ Battle Tank w/Hull Heavy Flamer
Total: 1250
Game 1: Vulkan Drop Pods
My first game was against Scott Kennedy, who went to the 'Ard Boyz finals in Chicago this year. He was running a nasty little Vulkan Drop Pod force.
Scott's List:
HQThe mission was a version of Stelek's kill point scenario, where you pick 5 of your units to be assassination targets and your opponent picks the 6th. Deployment was Dawn of War.
190 Vulkan
180 Librarian w/Terminator Armor, Gate of Infinity, Vortex of Doom
Elite
200 Terminator Assault Squad w/Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields
Troops
245 Tactical Squad w/Melta, Multi-Melta, Combi-Melta, Power Fist, Drop Pod
225 Tactical Squad w/Melta, Multi-Melta, Power Weapon, Drop Pod
210 Tactical Squad w/Melta, Multi-Melta, Drop Pod
Total: 1250
Scott won the roll-off, but chose to let me go first. I rolled everything but the Plasma Vets and Marbo on first turn.
This game went very well for me. Scott's first pod scattered off the table, letting me deploy it across the table. That left the troops + librarian in the second pod to face the full fury of my army. I shot them down to a single man. Wash, rinse, repeat next turn. The Termies teleported down on turn 3 and lasted a bit longer, but I did finally manage to kill them all.
Turn 2 Pic:
I'm a bad blogger. This is the only pic I took all day.
Besides the bad landing, Scott's dice rolled HORRIBLY for the first 3 turns of the game. Even with Vulkan's re-rolls he was missing with his meltas. Around about turn 4 Scott also wanted to kick himself for not running the Termies on and using Gate of Infinity to get up in my face on turn 2 when his Tac Squads needed their support the most.
Still, he played very well all things considered. I won the game 5-4
Game 2: Mixed IG
I'll dub my opponent "Punchy". The opening pic is in his honor.
Punchy's List:
HQ
135 Company Command Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (ML/HB)
Troops
45 Platoon Command Squad w/3 x Sniper Rifles
75 Infantry Squad w/Plasma Gun, Autocannon
75 Infantry Squad w/Plasma Gun, Autocannon
105 Heavy Weapons Squad w/3 x Lascannon
105 Heavy Weapons Squad w/3 x Lascannon
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (ML/HB)
130 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Demolitions
170 Veteran Squad w/3 x Plasma, Chimera
Fast Attack
130 Valkyrie w/Multiple Rocket Pods
Heavy Support
125 Basilisk
Total: 1250
To be honest, it's not a great IG list. But it had one little detail I missed in the midst of the (always horrible) Army Builder printout: The Demolitions doctrine on his Vets.
So, I got sucker-punched.
The mission was 3 objectives, with a short table edge deployment. We were allowed to deploy 24" in. Punchy rolled first turn.
The short story is that I bunched up a Hellhound and 2 Chimeras in the middle of my line. Punchy gleefully took out all 3 with a melta-bomb alpha strike before I ever got to move. And... Because they were so close together, I couldn't get the disembarked Vets around the wrecks in time to shoot up the demo squad. So I lost another Chimera to a multi-charge before I won that combat and ran the squad down.
I fought as hard as I could after that, killing his Bassie and a Lascannon HWS with Marbo, and the other HWS with an Inferno cannon hit that auto-killed all 3 guns. I also popped the Valk, and a couple of Chimeras. Leaving just his blob, the snipers, and 2 Chimeras (1 immobilized) with troops.
But in the end I was running one surviving squad into 2 of his fresh squads that had the center pretty well locked down. I'd have had a chance if the Russ had survived to run interference, but a lucky melta shot killed it. So... I lost.
In my defense, while I knew about the Demo-Vet rush concept, I've never actually seen it done. Neither had Punchy, this was his first time. Having done a similar rush with Stormtroopers in the first round of 'Ard Boyz, I've got no reason to complain about the tactic. I just feel like I lost because I missed a small, but important detail that was buried within the 3000 useless things that Army Builder enumerates.
I'll be more vigilant next time.
Game 3: Footdar
Despite my loss, I still ended up on table 3 due to my high paint score. My opponent was Protem, whose Marines (both Chaos and Loyalist) I've fought quite a few times before. But he didn't bring his Marines this time.
Protem's List:
HQThe scenario was Sieze ground, with a Pitched Battle deployment. Protem went first.
120 Farseer w/Guide, Spirit Stones, Doom
138 Farseer w/Singing Spear, Runes of Warding, Guide, Spirit Stones, Doom
Troops
162 Dire Avengers (12) w/Exarch, Bladestorm, Defend
162 Dire Avengers (12) w/Exarch, Bladestorm, Defend
162 Dire Avengers (12) w/Exarch, Bladestorm, Defend
Heavy Support
225 3 War Walkers w/Scatter Lasers, Bright Lances
140 Wraithlord w/Bright Lance
140 Wraithlord w/Bright Lance
I'd never played Footdar before, so I lost this one based on poor target priority. In retrospect, I should have shot the Farseers and the War Walkers first, but I poured shots into the Wraithlords instead. I also lost the Hellhounds and the Russ early, which made it hard to kill his infantry.
The only bright spot was when my lone retreating melta gunner killed a Farseer on the last shot of the game.
With this victory, Protem took first place. We had a tie for 2nd, Scott took 4th, and I ended up right behind Farmpunk in 7th or 8th place.
Conclusions
It was a well run tourney, and I had a good time, so Kudos to Aaron. All of my opponents were good sports and fun to play against. My only quibbles are with the paint scores being added to the win/lose/draw scores. I feel that you should be penalized a point or two per game if you don't have 3 colors on everything. But anything beyond that should really be a separate contest.
I was also impressed with the Assassination mission. I hadn't expected to like it at all, but it really added a more tactical feel to things and made it easier to keep track of how you were doing during the game. Thumbs up!
On an army level, I was afraid that I might have too little/too weak long-range anti-tank, and I was right. But I also see that I'm going to have increasing problems keeping my force a pure-mech one. The need for bubblewrap troops is becoming acute. I really don't want to use platoons at all, but I don't see any other way to give my armor the melta/assault protection it needs.
Always great to see an after-battle report like this - good to learn from.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I think the game is swinging back to Hybrid Arms again, where the odd infantry units provide support to the mech.
I've been kicking lists back and forth across the internet all week - trying to decide on next's years army - and it's interesting to see that concept play out among so many people.
Anyway, thanks for the report - Brent
FOOTDAR!
ReplyDeleteI was whining a bit too much about the results after the game, but the top three players all had the same record of 2-0-1. It's was a subjective opinion on the paint scores that that determined first place. That kind of left a bad taste in my mouth, but that could have just been from having my wisdom teeth pulled the day before;)
ReplyDeleteEh, it wouldn't have mattered if I had just won my last game anyway.
Good tournament overall.
Hey "Punchy" here I would like to say that Sandwyrm played a better game than I did and if it weren't for my Demovets doing so much damage I would have lost. Also, what recommendations would you make to change my list?
ReplyDeletei agree that this was a pretty well run tourney, and i think the point size made for a fun and quick day. the 2000+ events tend to bore me pretty quickly, and 1250 made for a nice change to the current trend.
ReplyDeletethat, and 1250 is about the only point level where my foot eldar can actually perform well.
aaron and the g2d4 guys did a great job putting this together and keeping in running smoothly. i only heard a couple of harsh words the whole day outside of my incessant smack. all of my opponents were cool, especially my second game where the table and mission totally boned him and let me gun line take him apart at will.
my biggest complaint was my last opponent with his ugly guard army. in addition to his rampant cheating, he was smelly and rude. at least his mom is easy.
Yeah, Mom said you were kinda whiny, but virgins can be like that. She did say your parents' basement was nice though. She liked the blacklights you hung over all the Prince and Michael Jackson posters.
ReplyDeleteO.o
ReplyDeleteWish I could have made it.
I had planned on it, but things kinda fell through for me.
Glad you all had a good time. Bring those retarded foot eldar around here when I'm playing and we will show everyone how you snap twigs I mean Eldar with your bare fingers!! Haha! Just Kidding. Join us in a few months like November for the next tournament. We will provide information when it get's closer.
ReplyDeleteI've got more pics. I'll get them up in my tourney post.
ReplyDelete@Punchy/Pshutte
ReplyDeleteHere's a better version of your list:
HQ
135 Company Command Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
Troops
125 Platoon Command Squad w/4 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
100 Infantry Squad w/Grenade Launcher, Autocannon, Commissar
65 Infantry Squad w/Grenade Launcher, Autocannon
105 Heavy Weapons Squad w/3 x Lascannon
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
115 Veteran Squad w/3 x Flamer, Demolitions
Fast Attack
130 Valkyrie w/Multiple Rocket Pods
Heavy Support
165 Leman Russ Demolisher