Battle Report 007 on the way!

I recorded another 1850 Battle Report last night and should be able to edit it and post it to the YouTube page tonight.

I ran my stock Space Wolves list, the list I am play-testing for the Legions tournament at the end of this month. This was a bad game for me overall. First, we had Dawn of War deployment, which screws me always. For starters it basically eliminates one round of shooting for my Long Fangs because they have to run on to the board and lose that round of shooting. Second, my dice hated my guts last night! I hate saying this because I am a firm believer that you can almost always, with good tactics, eliminate dice rolls from determining the outcome of the game. That being said, Sean played a great game, his tactics were sound and despite having some god-awful dice rolls I was still in the game int he end.

It was a good game and I learned how much I hate Dawn of War!

I'll let you know when it posts!

Ed

40K Battle Report: Tyranid Swarm vs. Space Marines 1000 Points

First I wanted to let everyone know that we had a slight medical emergency in our family that has kept me away for a bit. But things are good now, everyone is healthy, and I am back to the blog!

Well, the final game of my local gaming store's mini-tournament was held tonight, which pitted myself and the swarm versus David and his Lysander lead Imperial Fists. We played a Seize Ground Mission with four objective and a Spearhead deployment. David did exactly what I thought he would do and bottled up his entire army into one corner, holding one objective, and was going to make me run across the board to get him. I had a rather different strategy in mind however. His army was Lysander with a 10 man TAC squad, Las-Plas-Fist, two other evidential ten man TAC squads, a Devastator squad with four missile launchers, and a landspeader. I ran my stock list. I deployed so that I was hold an objective at the beginning of the game and was within striking distance of the other two rather quickly. My strategy for this mission was to not play his game and run across the board to be murdered. I would sit and hold three objectives for as long as I could, spitting out gaunts to double up on the number of units holding them.

I stole the first turn and in retrospect I probably should have left him go first. It would have been better for me in the end to have had the last turn. The Tervigon pooped like a champ all game, never rolling doubles and running me fresh out of 120 gaunts. Turns 1 - 3 basically involved me ducking into and out of cover and charging forward slowly and carefully with a 15 man unit of gargoyles and the 30 man squad of hormagaunts. These were distractions to draw fire away from the mass of gaunts holding three objectives. David moved the landspeader around to try and keep it out of range of the Hive Guard but basically sat there for three turns taking pot shots with missiles and lascannons. doing little to no damage. As it came to his turn 4 it became blatantly obvious to him that I was not falling into his trap and he would have to move out to at least contest objective if he hope to not lose. So he moved the two TAC squads out to try to move towards the nearest objective as Lysander and his TAC squad were being eating alive by the hormagaunts.

Turn 5 should have been the end. I held three objectives and contested the fourth. His TAC marines were taking shots at my gaunts but not doing enough damage to matter. He also managed to take out my gargoyles, which means that they did their job and drew fire. A HUGE disappointment for me were the Hive Guard this game, as they pummeled the landspeeder turn after turn and the best I could do was keep it from shooting. I needed it dead because I knew what he planed to do with it. Lysander died turn 5 and there were four remaining marines in his squad. If the game ended on turn 5, I win holding three and contesting one. It does not.

Turn 6 is about the same story. His four marines on his objective do enough wounds to finally break and kill the homagaunts, and were now holding an objective for him. His marines moved forward some more, failed charges and were sitting out in the open for me to kill. He moves the landsppeder flat out to contest an objective. So, if the game ended on turn 6, I hold 2, he holds 1 with one contested. I still win. The game goes to turn 7. I hate when this happenes.

In the end I charged one of his two TAC squads with a 30 man gaunt squad, killing 8, but could not do what I wanted to do which was wipe the squad. His final ten man squad, now 6 due to some shooting on my part, charge my tervigon produced gaunt squad holding an objective and he contested now two objectives, held one, with me holding the last. A TIE, A DARN TIE!

I will take my hat off to David, he took a situation that I thought was hopeless and managed to pull out a draw. Good play on his part. His tie, however, took him out of contention for placing, as he finished 3-0-2. Mike won his game, finishing 4-0-1, and another player I was not aware, another Mike, also finished 4-0-1. So in the end there were three players at the end with a 4-0-1 record. It went to Battle points, needing a 500 point different to pull ahead. Mike finished third with something like 3500 VP. Mike and I were each over 4000 with less then 200 points in difference in VPs. The owner gave us the option for a playoff game next week, but Mike was going to be out of country the next few weeks. We decided to call it a tie and split 1st place.

So, in the end, a free $25 gift card for the 'ol EvilEd209 which I turned into some paint and a Broodlord for the 'Nids. It was lots of fun and I am very happy with my performance. I do wish I had rolled better to blow up that darn landspeeded as the game would have been mine and sole possession of 1st would have been nice. I am not sure what comes next, a full tournament I would think, but I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks guys!

40K Battle Report: 1000 Point Tyranid Swarm vs. Blood Angels

So here we are at week four of the five week mini-tournament at my FLGS. This week I played one of the top players on the leader board, Greg, who was running a real nasty Blood Angels list. I have to admit that this list concerned me a bit, as he was running a 7 man Death Company Squad with a Chaplin, a Furioso Dreadnought with Blood Talons in a drop pod, a 10 man assault squad with 2 meltas and a power fist accompanied by a Captain on a jump pack with power weapon, and a second 10 man assault squad, two meltas and a fist. While the list only consisted on 31 models vs my 120 or so after the Tervigon pooped out gaunts, his units were hard! They were geared for close combat and had a real good chance of wiping squads off of the board.

I ran my stock list (1 Tervigon HQ with TS, AG, Catalyst, 2 30 man gaunt squads, a 30 man hormagaunt squad with with TS & AG, 2 Zoeys, and 2 Two man Hive Guard Squads for the Dread) and we played Seize Ground with 4 objective and a Spearhead deployment. I desperately wanted Greg to go first to ensure that I would get the charge on turn one, however he won the roll and let me setup first. Very smart. I genuinely believe that my deployment and target priority were the key to the game. I positioned the Hive guard for maximum coverage of the board to make sure I could hit that Dread when it landed, that thing can eat gaunt squads for breakfast. I also put the Zoey up front for needed synapse support, and the Warp Lance/Warp Blast powers to hit Death Company with. I intertwined all of my units of gaunts to ensure that cover saves were a plenty on the board, and I set the Tervigon back, in cover to boost the gaunts holding two objectives.

My turn one I held back, I could have charged the hormagaunts forward, but they would have been charged by the Death Company, so I made sure I was out of his assault range and dug into cover for the saves. The Hive Guard took some pot shots at the Death Company, killing one, and the Zoeys rocked them with Warp Blast, killing two more. The Tervigon hit the hormagaunts with Catalyst and pooped out an 11 man unit that I position in cover to hold an object I already held. His turn one he moved the Death Company up and took some shoots at the homagaunt squad doing 6 wounds, all of which the cover saves/feel no pain took off of the board. He drop that dread right near an objective and hit may Hive Guard with the heavy flamer and the melta, doing a wound. He held an objective with one assault squad and moved the other up.

Turn two are glorious for the 'Nids, the Hive Guard Immobilized the Dread, the Zoeys finished him off, and the second unit of Hive guard took pot shots at Death Company, doing nothing. I charged forward with the hormagaunts, taking down all but the Chaplin and one Death Company out before they could strike. They killed off four gaunts but my two major threats on the board were all but neutralized. On his Turn two his Death Company and Chaplin bought it and he moved his second assault squad up and spread them out to hold one objective and contest another.

My Turn three the remaining homagaunts slammed in his full assault squad with the Captain in it and took out five grunts. The Zoeys and Hive Guard peppered the assault squad hold/contesting two objective and knocked them down to a 5 man squad and pushed them off of an objective. It was down hill for Greg from here. My gaunt squads, the normal Termagants, never saw combat and the homagaunts and elite choices did most of the work. Greg conceded the game by turn four.

In low point tournaments such as this, say 1250 and under, hoard armies do very well and I am very impressed with their performance over the last four games. There are simply just too many wounds out there to do for low model count armies to shoot. I have been lucky with the folks I have played as most of them are running 30 model armies or under. I usually out number them 3 or even 4 to 1. And for every model they loss, it is a much larger percentage of their army coming off of the board.

So, David my friendly rival, won his game against a noob (good job!), and Mike won his as well. So here I am, one week left in the tournament sitting all alone at 4 - 0 with 4000 Victory Points. David and Mike are both sitting a 3-0-1. Everyone else has 2 wins or less and are pretty much mathematically out of this tournament. So, even if I were to lose next week, I am still guaranteed at least third place. David, as I expected, challenged me for the final week and of course I accepted. His list and tactics do not scare me. He runs a Vanilla Marine list with Lysander as his HQ. He usually has three TAC squads with heavy weapons, which, aside from the Tervigon will do close to nothing verses my hoard, and a 10 man squad with Lysander. I think that there is a Rhino or Whirlwind in my future as well, but spreading out will cure that. Like the coward that he is, he will more then likely corner himself up and make me come to him, gunning me down in a hail of bullets as I cross the battlefield. I just hope it is a 5 objective game and if forces him out into the open.

I'll more then likely drop the Hive Guard and add in two units of Gargoyles, bolstering my numbers to over 120+ at the games start. I am taking a gamble but I just do not see him being able to do enough wounds before I get there and eat his whole army.

I'll let you know how it all ends!

40K Battle Report - 1000 Points Tyranid Swarm vs. Space Marines

So we moved on to week three of my local games stores mini tournament this week, with my 5-year old professional dice roller in tow. First, I learned a few things last night about the tournament itself, largest piece of news being that this would be a five week tournament and not four. Also, that there is enough money in the pot to place three players, with first still having a hefty prize (well, hefty enough for a $5 entry fee loosely run tournament). This is good because I think it will help spread out some of the winners some and hopefully will have a clear cut winner in the end. And, after last night's results, I am really happy to hear that I'll have the chance to furthr increase my lead.

Now, on to the game. The way this tournament is being run is as a challenge league, in that you must accept any challenge that comes to you or suffer the loss. Weaker players (those with lower records and victory Point counts) call the challenges, to prevent stronger players from praying on the weak to win. So this week, as soon as my son and I walked into the door, Sam sees me and yells out, "I challenge EvilEd209!" There is a bit of a giggle that runs through the room, but I smiled and humbly accepted.

You see Sam is relatively new to the game, in fact I think that I was his 10th or 11th game total last night. And I do not like to brag, I really don't, but I am considered to be one of the top players in my area. So for Sam to call me out in front of my kid was pretty brave. Stupid, but brave.

The game wasn't really much of a game at all, as it was more a teaching session then anything else. Now, normally I would throw a game like this as to build the confidence of the new guy and keep him interested in the game. However, this was tournament play, with money involved and prizes. And my kid was there watching Daddy and you don't want to seem like a loser in front of your kids, now do you?

I still helped him out, I basically countered my own deployment by helping him with his. I gave him a basic strategy to go with, told him what units were his biggest threats and the best ways to handle them. I did almost everything but tell him turn by turn, shoot this, move here, do that. But once turn one began, the teaching stopped.

I am not going to give you a blow-by-blow of this game here today because, well it was a comedy of tactical errors on his part that lead to him being wiped off the board by turn 4. I did, in the interest of sportsmanship and being a nice guy, feed him a few units to murder and feel good about, but this game was never in any question.

The real news here is that the other top players in the tournament (the 2-0 players) all tied in their games. Two of the guys, Mike and Greg, Played each other and it ended in a tie and David, my friendly rival, managed to tie a game to one of the new guys. So at the end of the day, your good 'ol friend EvilEd209 was sitting on the top of the pile at 3-0 with 3000 Victory Points. Next week I got challenged by Greg, on of our better players, so I will not be newbie bashing next week. But, if I did the math right, if I manage to beat Greg and finish week 4 at 4-0, there is no way I can not place in the week 5 finale.

Thanks to Sam for a fun game that was mostly just for laughs. Sam said that he wanted to see how good I really was and why everyone up there speaks my name with fear. Why does everyone call me Evil in the first place. Well Sam, now you know. In a couple of weeks the tournament will be over and I will let Sam beat up on me and maybe earn some of that back. As long as no money is involved, I don't care about losing.

40K Battle Report - 1000 Points Tyranid Swarm vs. Space Wolves

So, on to week two of the 4 week mini-tournament at my local game store. This week the swarm met with a rather broken Space Wolves army. My opponent, Andrew, had some rather bad luck in the previous week and lost one of his two Vindicators for the game which he subbed in a Grey Hunters squad for, one unit of Grey Hunters did not come on the table until turn 2 and one did not come on until turn 3. His army consisted of three units of Grey Hunters with two meltas and a Powerfist, a Dreadnought with Autocannons and heavy bolter, one Vindicator, and his HQ with the Grey Hunter Squad on the table, which was a named character I can not remember at his time, and means very little to this report. I ran my stock list, A Tervigon HQ, two, 30-man termagant squads, a 30-man Hormagaunt squad, a unit of Hive Guard, a Unit of Zoanthropes, and sitting n for the second Hive Guard squad, I went to the side bar and pulled a Gargoyle squad. We rolled Seize Ground with 5 objective with a Pitch Battle Deployment. We did a good job of scattering the objective all over the board (a mistake from my opponent) and I set up first.

With so many models I really was able to setup so that every unit in my army would get a cover save as they advanced, which turned out to be a key to the game, and was holding 3 objective to start the game to his one. He boxed up the units he deployed and put the Vindy, Dread, Grey Hunters and HQ in cover in one corner of the board, the furthest away from most of the objectives I might add. He stole first turn and his tactics went right out the window. I thought he was going to run a Marine gun-line on me and make me come to him through a hail of bullets. However on turn one he moved the Vindicator out of cover to take a pot shot at some gaunts (allowing it to be in charge range of my Gargoyles who had adrenal glands) which only manged to kill two thanks to cover, moved his HQ squad out of cover to move toward the closest objective, and moved and shot with the dread, killing a handful of Gargoyles.

My turn one consisted of a lot of maneuvering to control objectives, as I knew I'd have an easier time holding objective with that many scoring units on the table and his three total. I also moved the hormagaunts into cover but within charge range for turn two on his HQ squad, Tervigon spitting out more gaunts, and charging the naked vindicator with Gargoyles and blowing off the main gun. A huge victory for me. I figured the gargoyle for dead anyway, so to take out one of the two major threats on the board to my army on turn one was sweet.

His turn two was alright, he walked on the other Grey Hunter squad but was too far out of range to do anything with them. He moved the Vindicator in order to wipe out the gargoyle and had some really bad dice rolls that managed to leave three of them still alive. His HQ Squad hunkered down on the objective and rapid fired into the Hormagaunts, killing only 4 thanks to cover saves and Feel No Pain from the Tervigon. 75% save ratio is awesome! And the dreadnaught moved closer to my gaunts which were on an objective and backed up by the Zoanthropes. Huh? My thoughts exactly!

My turn two was brutal. Zoeys stunned the dread, Trevigon pooped more which were left behind to hold an objective, and used Catalyst on the hormagaunts, 30-man squad was left behind to hold another in cover, and the gargoyles turned to shoot and assault the HQ squad. Hive Guard were still out of position to do anything and just ran. On the assault, I cleared out all but the HQ and a melta from the squad holding his lone objective by charging with two dozen angry hormagaunts. By the end of turn two I was holding four objectives and contesting one, his HQ squad was on the verge of dying, and he was pretty much out of the game.

There was some clean up on turn three, his HQ squad bit the dust, his last Grey Hunter squad in reserve moved in too close to the hormagaunts (foolish), his out of range Hunters moved and shot the termagants holding an objective in cover to no avail, and dread just sat there drooling. My turn three the horagaunts assaulted the new Hunters and won combat, Hive Guard cleared out the dread, Zoeys dropped AP3 small blast templates on ten marines, killing 7, they broke, and my now 4 gaunt squads were holding 4 objectives soundly.

At this point, Andrew had gone through enough and wanted to forfeit the game. However, by the rules of the tournament, if he chose to do so he would yield to me all 1000 victory points and have to roll to see if all of his units would come back in for the next game. He figured the game for a total loss anyway and gave it up. His dice were kind and only one unit of Grey Hunter will not be back next week, which he would have switch out for the now repaired vindicator anyway.

So, in review, again I could not be happier with my performance. I took my 5-year old son along with me this week as these are short games and we are limited to one per week. All I can say is watch out Vegas! This kid can roll some dice, and did a good job for Daddy rolling to wound.

Standings: 2 - 0 with 2000 VP, sitting in first. Now, three other people are at 2 - 0 right now so I suspect I'll be playing one of them next week. I'll keep you posted!

40K Battle Report: 1000 Points - Tyranid Swarm vs. Jetbike Seer Coulcil

So I just got back from my Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) where they run regular 'small' tournaments or campaigns over the course of a few weeks, with a small but respectable prize at the end for the winner (I have won this twice since he started doing it). This week started their 1000 point Side Bar Tournament. Basically you come with your favorite 1000 point list with a 250 point side bar. If you want to use a unit in your side bar, you need to swap it out for equal or lesser point value from your base list, making sure not to go over 1000 points. Your side bar can change from week to week over the 4 Weeks of the tournament, but you base list must remain the same. If a unit is wiped out during the course of the game you roll a d6. On a 6 that unit is fine for next game. 4-5 means the unit will start in reserve, 2-3 and the unit is in reserve until at least turn 3. On a 1 the unit can not be played in the following game. A really neat idea and something different for a change.

I decided that with such low points, my Tyranid Swarm list of almost 100 model at the start of the game would be just too many wound for most lists to handle and would score me a big win in the 4th week (Usually $50 of in-store credit for a $4 entry fee, not bad). The list is pretty simple, a Tervigon for an HQ, 2 huge units of Termagants, a 30 man Hormagaunt Squad with Toxic Sacs and Glands (my hammer unit), with some Hive guard an Zoanthropes to deal with light mech. My side bar is two big units of Gargoyles and another hive guard.

My first opponent this week was a good friend of my Anthony who, in his infinite wisdom, thought that a 10 man Jetbike Seer Council list would mop up the competition. His whole army consisted of 20 models, the 10 man seer council and 2 5 man Jetbike Guardian squads. Total!

I personally do not believe in 'death star' units like the Seer Council for the simple math of their Average Points Per Model, or APPM Rating. I believe I can credit Neil and the crew over at the 11th Company for this little tactical gem. Take this game for example. Antony's APPM was 50 Pints per model, 50! So for every model I killed in this game, on average, 50 points was coming off of the table. Where as mine with the termagants the Tervigon produce was in the neighborhood of 8. 8 v 50... it was no contest.

We rolled up capture and control with Dawn of War deployment. He rolled first turn and placed his Seer council right on the 24" line. His two JetBike Guardian Squads took up positions behind the Death Star.

I set up about 19" away from the council with my hormagaunt, and placed the Tervigon and the massive gaunt squad on the objective in my deployment zone (in cover of course), to insure that I would not get charged turn one. Here my guess range was a bit better then that and it turned out to be 20". So, turn one he charges forth with the Council 12", fires into my hormagaunt squad and kills 11 of them. His guardians both fail night fight rolls and can not hit the Gaunt squad they move 12" to shoot. In the assault phase he jumps back 6" with the council and guardians, placing both at minimum of 15" away. Perfect charge range for Hormagaunts! MY TURN!

My Turn one just plain brutal. I moved forward with the hormagaunt squad, move my Hive Guard and Zoanthropes in position for them to take pot shots at the council to soften them up a bit, and the Tervigon pooped out 12 more gaunts that got placed on the objective. The second gaunt squad move forward to threaten the guardians, but were just out of range to shoot, and the one from reserves made a run at the second objective. The Hormagaunts rolled 5 on the bounding leap and were clearly in assault range, and the Hive Guard/ Zoanthropes managed to Kill 2 Warlocks with shooting. ASSAULT! I charged the Council with 19 Hormagaunts at I6 and STR4 thanks to Adrenal Glands, so I went first in combat with 57 attacks, hitting on 4s and re-rolling ones thanks to Scything talons, wounding on 4s and re-rolling wounds thanks to Toxic Sacs. All-in-all, 26 wounds were done to the Seer Council. I killed 3 more Warlocks! In their attacks back poor, Anthony rolled 6 or 7 ones to hit and only managed to do 2 wounds, which, I saved! Hell yeah! So, the council lost combat by 3, rolls their Leadership and fails, re-rolls thanks to embolden and... wait for it... FAILS! In the ensuing sweeping advance I roll a 6, he rolls a 1, bye-bye 780 point Seer Council! Turn ONE Baby! The Hormagaunts are eating raw hamburger meat as we speak for a reward.

The rest of the game was mope up. In a rage Anthony deiced to charge the hormagaunts with one guardian squad and the gaunts with another. The first squad lost three models, did three wound and remained locked. Same for the second. By his half of turn three, the guardians fighting the hornagaunts lost another and did nothing back, the gaunts killed one more, broken them and they went 17" toward the table edge with no hope of coming back. My turn three killed off the remaining guardians, and that was game.

Overall, hell, I couldn't be more pleased with my performance. I never lost a unit, tabled my opponent, and had some laughs during the game.

So, moral of the story kids, death star units may look good on paper, but never really earn their points back. And when they die, the bulk of your army goes with them. So look in to that APPM ratting of your army and see where you stack up!

1-0 with 1000 Victory points for good 'ol Edvil209 and sitting pretty in 1st place. More to come on this mini-tournament.