Game 3
After I played Hulksmash I got paired up with the man known as....
Known as Alex Fennel! So I went from 1 terminator army to an entire deathwing army with 26 terminators! Fortunately for me the game was spearhead and table quarters. I knew right away I would have to play a game that I don't like to, but to win I would have to play keep away and play for the table quarters.
Alex's List Approximately:
Belial, TH and Storm Shield
5x5 Deathwing with cyclone and 4 x Th/SS
1 Ravenwing bike squad with Meltas and Pfist Sgt and MM attack bike with Mmelta.
I went first and deployed with the Thunderwolves right at the 12" line, my Longfangs on top of the large hill terrain, My Battle leader Rhino ready to move into one quarter and my Rune Priest and other GH Rhino to move into the other. I kept my Razorback and GH pack,, scouts, and my Cyclone GH on foot in Reserve to move into my side quarter in a later turn. He deployed with his bikes in reserve, and his 5 man blocks on the board. I was surprised he didn't deepstrike anything, but that was better for me anyways.
My turn 1. Instead of dropping my GH to die to easily I dropped in the quarter across from me to get a 2nd GH pack in that quarter to add to my Rune Priest/GH quarter. I had a great drop and hid my GH behind terrain for 3 turns. :) I shot missiles, and plasma cannons, moved my Thunderwolves behind the LOS blocking terrain in the middle out of sight of the majority of his cyclones. I moved my Rhino's into the opposite corners, moved my Cyclone termie for a better view. I killed 2 termies and it went to his turn.
His turn 1. He moved shot missiles, blew up my Runepriest Rhino and put a wound on 1 TWC. Pretty uneventful Turn 1 for both. He moved his termies which were spaced very well towards my other quarter.
My turn 2 no reserves came in for either of us. I moved my priest and Gh pack into the opposite quarter to have 2 scoring units, the Runepriest, and the pod into it. I moved the TWC towards his closest termie pack to assault. I moved the battle leader and rhino 12" and popped smoke along the back table edge. I shot some termies killed a few and assaulted his closest Termies. I killed 4 out of 5 and he did no wounds. If my TWC could hold on for 2 turns I felt I would win.
His turn 2 he moved 3 squads including Belial towards them, and 1 towards the quarter opposite of mine with the pod. He ran the squad by himself to get closer to me. He shot some things and didn't really do anything. He could only get in 2 of the termies in this turn. during the assault I ended up winning or tyeing combat and by killing the 1 left and a few of the other 2. He killed 2 and put a wound on another.
My turn 3 brought on my Scouts, GH, and Cyclone/GH Pack. I brought on the scouts on his table edge directly on the line to split the table quarters into terrain. I moved my Rune Priest in line to Jaws 2 termies. I also moved my other GH pack to shoot meltas to try and kill the 4 he had left. I moved the Razorback 12" along the far side table edge towards his table quarter. I move the Battle Leader Rhino towards the same quarter. Jaws worked wonderfully as I took out the cyclone and the Sgt in one shot. I was able to draw line of sight to with my plasma cannons and took out the other 2 because he failed his cover saves. I ended up running the Drop Pod GH back towards the center line. The cyclone didn't do much. My thunderwolves killed a few more, he killed a few more and we were locked.
His turn 3. (Which won the game) He brought everything else into combat with my remaining 2 TW and Lord. His Bikes came on my right flank to hit my longfangs and GH pack. We had to call the judges here because of the Dark Angels codex. Units cannot come from reserve and combat squad as has been posted on other blogs. He claimed that because of the codex he was allowed. After a few minutes his codex was, "one to rule them all" and he was allowed to.Ugh!!! But it was fair. He multi assaulted one longfang pack and my Runepriest pack. He killed a few and I did as well. We were locked. I also survived the mass assault with my TWC and stayed locked again.
My turn 4, with him being locked everywhere I moved my Razorback and BL Rhino more towards the center line of the far table quarters. I moved my drop pod GH, and my 2nd pack of Longfangs to get into combat with the bikes. There was nothing to shoot so we went to combat. I killed all the bikes, and managed to survive another round with my thunderwolves and lord. I only had the Lord and 1 storm shield TW left.
His turn 4 we went to assault and my TWC finally died. I shuffled around to ensure I had 2 GH packs into the quarter opposite, longfangs x 2 in mine, and the cyclone GH pack on the border of both on my table edge. I also had my scouts on the line of his table edge prepared to go into whatever quarter I needed. I also moved my Rhino and Razor on the line on the far side to go wherever they needed. He consolidated and had belial with 3 termies, 1 termie with cyclone, and 3 termies. He started to move to try and contest while he shot at my Razor and Rhino. He immobilized my Razor and ran some guys.
My turn 5 and 6. We jockeyed back and forth and I won on table quarters. I could have moved to any quarter.
My thunderwolves lasting 2 extra turns won the game for me. Alex was an amazing player and I was barely able to pull out the win.
Game 4
Vs. Leafblower-Rick Puig
Objectives was the primary.
He had the leafblower list. I didn't realize it was the actual leafblower until the next day. He got first and deployed in gun line fashion with Manticores in back corner, hydras in the middle, Psyker battle squad near the manticores, and chimera's filling in the holes. With the Vendettas on my left flank where they could see my TWC. I deployed my Rhino's and Razors in the middle behind terrain along with the TWC being blocked from the Psyker battle squad. I put my longfangs in areas where I was in cover and could get shots from my left flank. I also put my plasma longfangs and multi melta fangs in cover on the right as a decoy to shoot at so I could get my GH and TWC to his gun line.
His turn 1 he shot and destroyed the Rune Priests Rhino, killed some longfangs, made them run but not far enough, did nothing with his manticores. Decent turn for me considering all his firepower. I made some great cover saves and was happy he didn't target my thunderwolves with the manticores.
My turn 1 I dropped my pod to pop a manticore but scattered to far. I tried to move my Rhino with the battle leader but immobilized it on a 1. I then tried to move my TWC and rolled a 1 and 2. I tried to move my runepriest and gh and rolled a 1 and 3. Not good! I consolidated back with the longfangs and prepared to fire. I popped the psyker battle squad but rolled horribly on wounding and he made too many saves. He only lost 2. I dropped a vendetta, a chimera, ran the TWC a run of 3 inches. WOW! Not a good turn.
His turn 2 he moved a forward barely any and fired a lot. He killed my drop pack, a twc with the manticore, finished off the multi melta longfangs, made my cyclone run, but not far enough.
My turn 2 I didn't get the scout. I went to move my TWC and rolled a 1 and 3, my rune priest rolled a 1 and 2. SERIOUSLY!!!!!! I moved them into the center piece of terrain. I kept the Runepriest in the back piece to move towards the far right objective if my Cyclone pack died. I got out my Battle leader and moved them into the center of the LOS terrain. I shot down the other vendetta, popped some chimeras and tried to run move with the TWC a 2. OMG!
His turn 3 he shot some more at the missle and plasma longfangs killing them outright, he then killed 2 more thunderwolves with two manticore shots! Ugh! He moved his plasma vets on from reserve onto the far left objective.
My turn 3 I got my scouts on and brought them behind the far left chimera. I moved the the thunderwolves and actually got some movement. I moved my Battle Leader to hide to take the center objective. I blew up the chimera with the plasma vets, stunned some chimeras, popped another chimera, and moved in to assault with the TWC and my TH/SS TWC. The scouts assaulted the plasma vets wiping them out and consolidated towards his objective in cover.Things started going down hill for him. At this point he had 0 objectives and I had 3. The TW lord and TWC consolidated into terrain and waited for the onslaught of firepower. I have seen this many times with Sandwyrm. My Lord shouldn't die with everything he shoots at me. I figure out I should have 1 wound left after his shooting phase.
His turn 4 he tried to shoot almost everything at the TWC and Lord and did 1 wound to each!! :) Thank you 3++/ He also tried to blow up my drop pod since it was contesting his objective but his dice really failed him. It was still standing.
My turn 4 was the straw. I shot and assaulted his other squad with my scouts and made them run, blew up some rhino's, split off the TWC and Lord, assaulted into a squad, moved the TWC to assault and blow up both Hydras, moved to keep 3objectives to his 0.
His turn 5. Time was getting close and he only had a few moves. He moved a Chimera to contest the center and tried to blow up the drop pod this time and wrecked it. He shot at my GH to try and clear the objectives to no avail.
We basically called it but I went ahead and shot at some things, blowing up the chimera in the middle, killed the command squad, etc.
The game was intense and I was worried when I couldn't get across the middle of the table. I feel like I should have had some dozer blades. I will remember next year.
Game 5
It was an awful game for me. I wasn't worried because I have played a list similar to this with my grey knights. Nick was a great player and tabled every opponent. He won the roll to go first and deployed very well. Nick made no tactical mistakes and I was too aggressive with my TWC. That being said, my army was beaten pretty badly to the point I celebrated twice that I didn't fail an armor save. I wasn't tabled and he was the better man of the day. I tried to find the game online and couldn't find it. If anyone does please let me know and I will post it. Great Job Nick and I am proud to have played you.
In Conclusion, The event was awesome! I am by far indebted to Sandwyrm, Farmpunk, Chad, and Mike Brandt for allowing me to be in this event. I look forward to defending my title next year!
Aaron Aleong
You're misunderstanding what the Dark Angels FAQ says in regard to Combat Squads, which we've already gone over once here, and the "other blogs" you mention are probably when one guy posted it on BoLS and then got shredded in the comments by people who actually know the rules.
ReplyDeleteWhat it says is that "units placed in reserve may not break down into combat squads," in response to a question asking if it's legal to put 5 guys in a Drop Pod and deploy the other 5.
You can't do that, because you don't Combat Squad until the models are deployed, and the proper way to phrase that response is "because units in reserve may not break down into combat squads." As in, you can never place a Combat Squad in Reserve, because it's impossible for a unit in Reserves to perform Combat Squads as they haven't been deployed yet.
It is not saying that units in Reserve are not free to perform Combat Squads once they arrive on the table, but it's definitely one of the most common mis-readings of the rules.
I understand, but 3 bikes and an attack bike cannot combat squad. In the Nova FAQ it states specifically that units that can combat squad roll as 1 unit and then come in together not seperate units. This would normally not be allowed but since the DA codex states they are deployed as 1 unit and 'must' seperate.
ReplyDeleteWow, is this "v3 draft" document the final copy they used at NOVA?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/NOVA-FAQ-v3-prenova-draft.pdf
That ruling, based on a common misreading of an ancient FAQ answer, actually made it into their final FAQ.
Paradoxically, they then allow units to Combat Squad separately as deploy/walk-on in Dawn of War, which is exactly the sort of thing the actual FAQ was trying to prevent.
Never actually read through the whole NOVA FAQ, but I really hope it isn't full of rulings like this.
Anyhow, it's all irrelevant, because the Dark Angels example isn't really Combat Squads anyway--the Attack Bike (and/or Land Speeder) HAS to split off, they have no option. The Codex describes it as "like Combat Squads" but other than that has no connection to the actual Combat Squad rules, as it's a forced separation, doesn't require the unit to be at full strength, etc. Even the actual description of Combat Squads for the bikes says they break down into from six models to two units of three models; because there's six bikes. The Attack Bike is never included in the unit, ever.
Which is why I want you to look at it for our open. :)
ReplyDeleteDodger3 is entirely correct, I also am disappointed NOVA got this wrong.
ReplyDelete