by Anonymous Foodie
There are those times when you walk away from the table, and despite having lost the game you have won something else. Some new insight into the game mechanics, perhaps a footnote to add to your own tactics or army list.
And then sometimes you walk away without having a clue as to what the bloody just happened, other than maybe a bad breakout of the dice herpes.
There's no denying that in a game based so largely on luck, there are going to be times where the dice are simply against you, either in terms of terrible rolling on your part, or stupendous rolling from the other side of the board.
I had such a game the other night. Note that this is not to take away from the victory of The Other Guy, who despite being one of the youngest regulars at the north store is turning into someone who can really hold his own. Rather, it's a case of looking back and just not being sure of what I could have done to prevent it (other than loading some choice dice, of course).
Kindly note that while I am doing my best to look back on the game in question, I am doing so through a drug-induced haze thanks to one of my wisdom teeth taking this oh-so-grand opportunity to start moving.
That said, I have to wonder if my overall strategy was perhaps... *ahem*... compromised more than I can recall. But I can't think of any specific instances of "Well, that was stupid".
Point is, sometimes things just don't work like they should.
Example: Full squad of Wyches (plus Agoniser-totin' Hekatrix) charge into combat with a Librarian and a few of his Terminator buddies. With a drug-induced WS 5 (oh fickle chemicals), this should yield one dead terminator from the squad leader, and another 1.5 dropped from the workings of the squad.
Right? Right.
So what do I do? Absolutely nothing. Aside from manage to pass the leadership test after losing two of my own.
But it's cool, I can still wear them down. Unless of course I fail a test on an 8, fall back, and get flamed into oblivion the next turn.
And have two other squads fail the same (Ld 9) test to shooting and fall off of another objective a turn later.
At least my Archon survived.
Ah well, what can we do? Hats off to those who have the smile of fate upon them. Maybe next game all of my lances will hit.
Yup. Just got to dust your self (a 50 man blob squad) off and try again the next day (against the single emperor's champion), and do better (not lose combat (with 42 regular attacks and 18 PW attacks) and fail 2 stubborn LD 9 tests and get swept)...
ReplyDeleteYpu8, sometimes you have those days...
Lol you think your game was bad, I have been on hiatus to buy more painting time, returned to the tables for the first time in a month or so on Monday, both games I played were horrific , VS IG any time I cold actually get something out of a chimera it died in seconds, my anti infantry was working amazingly,
ReplyDeleteHis vehicles though ..... he had a giant pile of turrets and weapons but I think in the entire game my 20+ darkmatter weapons probably accounted for maybe 3 tank kills total , and were talking lots of side/rear shots from mid game onwards, first turn was an omen, my reavers lost 2 models due to craptacular cover saves on my part rolled a ten for leadership then 14 for fleeing straight off the table. my incubi and Archon proved to be more effective tank killers than the Damn poxy lances.....
Game two, I get first turn, set up cautiously just in case but I at least bare minimum have cover to what I put on the table, he seizes the initiative all of the AT he has set up works first time , I fail all my cover saves , loose the wyches raider stranding them (only one thing could even see it and I had a 3+ cover because of the angle. while my dice were being shite I was once more being completely ineffectual with darkmatter his dice were polar opposite hot. I bring in my Razorwing , dish out 28 wounds on a squad , he passes all but three saves, the following two turns I shoot almost my entire army into his termies , I think he passed over 30 normal armour saves and maybe 20 invuns over the course of two turns , I killed one termy and put one wound on lamesander, I had set up my Archon and Incubi to mop up what I thought would be (and usually is) scraps , archon rolled 5 2's and a 3 t hit , flubbed the wounds , Incubi killed one termy as I rolled terribly and only did three wounds total which he prompty saved , again.
I actually won both games with objective shenanigans ,but hopefully you will understand that I was miserable and deeply pissed off by the end turn after turn of enduring failure in almost every way whilst my opponent had appeared to be unable to roll below a 4+, at one point he made a point of showing me ther were indeed ones on the dice .... they were not weighted, they rolled just as badly as mine in my hands....
I'm going to put it down to first game back syndrome.
Fekking lances *grumble*
I play Tau, sometimes I feel just playing them makes your dice roll shitty.
ReplyDeleteExample; Entire 2k point Tau army spends 5 turns failing to do any damage at all to a Tyranid 'Doom in a Pod'. DoM single handedly kills every single model on the table.
#2 21 TL Railgun shots into 3 Ork Trucks on objectives, I weapon destroy and immobilize each, then fail to even hit.
As i stated under another post...Ard boty semi finals opening shot of game 1:...I fired off a huge alpha strike on rhinos (Hunter Killers, multiple lascannon, Missile launchers and Predator Auto-cannons at 3 Rhinos and a Storm Raven that had not moved or popped smoke. Eleven hits of STR 7/8/9 weapons...NOT ONE GLANCE. Not fekking ONE.
ReplyDeleteI had mephiston perils 6 times in a row. that is Snake eyes or box cars over two games each time I used a power. I also had his plasma pistol over heat and wound him. That is right, 7 of the 10 wounds (over two games) were dealt by the dice.
ReplyDeleteI lost a game because of 5 dice rolls.
ReplyDeleteTop of five. It was his last unit of shooting before my turn and a win. His 10 sternguard unload on the remainder of my Paladin squad. He scores 10 wounds and so the allocation began. 2 on Draego(2 wounds left), 2 on my Librarian(1 wound left), 2 on my techmarine, 2 on my Paladin with Falchions(1 wound left) and 2 on my paladin with halberd (1 wound left). All of these saves by the way are 2+ just for clarification. Each model rolled their two saves and every model rolled a "1" on one of the two dice. Like that my Paladin sqaud which had never been destroyed was dead and Draego found himself all alone. This was game 1 of semi's so the mission was VP. I don't usually like to say a game was won or lost on dice rolls but I think for this I will make an exception. The rest of the game before that was not much better for rolls. As an example 4 purifiers charge a lone devastator with missile launcher and Pedro. I fail to wound either of them and then lose the combat along with all my purifiers. The other bad rolls I had I will admit they happen and wouldn't have complained about them alone it's just those last five that get the blame. The guy I played against had a good list and played smart so getting a draw isn't so bad. However had any one model besides Dreago made both of their saves it would have been a minor and had either the Librarian or Tecch along with eiter of the two Paladins lived it would have been a Major. So yeah not only failed 50% of my 2+ saves but managed to do it on every model in the unit and went from a major to a draw. I think that took the wind out of my sails for the day and as it turns out even with 2 massacres and all the bonus points in the last two I still wouldn't have placed. Oh well I had a pretty good time and with that finished my next two games with draws as well. Turned out Semi's was to be just a casual day of gaming and meeting new people and that's ok too.
I dunno about that example Foodie...seems to me that the Wyches weren't really going to win that fight either way.
ReplyDeleteObviously, you clearly had a really unlucky game, and everyone hates when that happens - so much so, in fact, that it stays with us much longer than more instructive experiences - but losing the combat I think was reasonably expectable.
@ T K E
ReplyDeleteEh, not quite so... if I remember correctly, by the time I charged it was the Libby and 4 of his pals. Giving me the 2 kills I should have easily had (I positioned as to be able to go fully against the squad), by the time he's swinging it's the Libby and 2 friends.
That's... what... 7 attacks? Half hit (3.5), and say all wound. After my 4++, I'm down to 1.75 wounds. Even rounding up for good measure, it should have been tied (although the numbers were still in my favor).
A tie *should* have been the minimum expected result. Losing by 2 that round was a facepalm moment.
hmm, problem with wyches is they need 4's for the agoniser and 5's to wound anything else usually, I NEVER expect them to win as they have spent entire games bogged down with Tac marines. It's just nice when they do do something other than tarpit or shake vehicles.
ReplyDeleteEven when they do vend out a few wounds if your opponent has a decent armour save its possible to still bounce off, the main weakness of he DE is that everything across the entire army needs 4's or 5's (or equivalent to) to do anything to anything, thats why they are so hit-and-miss in my experience.
@ Sorrowshard
ReplyDeleteWyches are definitely more of an attrition unit - but they do tend to be pretty good at it.
I was about to go into more detail about what to expect from them in combat, but I think that's a post in and of itself... so stay tuned :)
Well, fair enough - but I don't understand how you could've positioned in such a way that didn't loose one guy's attacks to the Libby. lol
ReplyDeleteEither way, I still think that 7 total enemy Wounds with a 2+ would be more than I'd entrust Wyches to go for.
I charged in a manner that everyone was scrunched toward the squad at the far end from the Libby. When said Libby moved in, he couldn't base a model that wasn't already touching another termy, so I was still able to go fully against the squad.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you look at it that way, sure, it's a little risky...
But if you focus on the squad and drop the 2 that you should, you're still only looking at a handful of attacks back (probably just enough to tie combat).
You keep focusing on the squad til they're dead, since each single wound negates nearly 30% of the incoming attacks coming at you... don't even worry about the Libby until he's alone. Then weight of numbers will drag him down.