Game 3, and my final tournament game. There was some discussion about who was going to play who, as the general consensus was that top two should play, then next two and so on, Al la the Swiss system. However, that meant that my would be opponent was still playing (a long running 5 hour epic of a match!). There was the added complexity that some people were playing in the AoS tournament the next day, so it was not really possible to role the games over until tomorrow. This lead me to play a different player, a fellow from my own club, who id played my one and only practice match against! Although this time he was playing a slightly different list.
Deployment
I deployed first and yes, I deployed in standard fashion. Wyverns behind the main blob squad, with pcs on the left flank and command squad in the building. The other blob squad and priest outflanked due to my warlord trait again. I also gained draconian discipline, which want great as most units are fearless due to the priests.
The guard lines, pretty much as usual.
My opponent, having faced my Wyverns in the past, spread out. All his armour, something my Wyverns can't harm, was on his left,my right, facing my Wyverns and his bikes went to the opposite corner. They spread out as far forward as possible ready to advance on my troops. His scouts pushed forward,snipers in the tower in front of the bikes and the other squad hid behind the building on the other side, ready to take the objective in the building.
Marine deployment. Vehicles on his left.....
.....Bikes on his right. Oh and snipers in the tower and scouts just visible behind the far building.
The battle field, wayward marines on the left, loyal guardsmen of the emperor on the right
Now, I can't quite figure out what's happening as I've got it down that I deployed first, but my opponent moved first. I don't remember him stealing the initiative but unless my notes are wrong, which is possible, he must have. Anyway, on to turn 1.
Turn 1
My opponent went full advance with his turn, no shooting apart from the scouts, who did little. The Land raider and rhino went full pelt across the board, driving to within inches of my lines. The bikes also moved up, ready to pounce on the left flank of my lines.
For once, I got some good psychic powers and actually got them off! Most of the games I had poor luck with the dice, failing to get off most of my powers or only generating 3 or 4 dice in total, making it hard to generate powers. This game however, I had misfortune, rending is a great power to have, as the bikes found out to there disadvantage. Being able to place rending on a target unit, rather then a shooting unit is very good and they Wyverns took full advantage, with ignores cover removing the jink save and shred maximizing my wounds, the unit suffered. A full squad including attack bike plus captain were reduced to an attack bike on one wound. The captain tanked a couple on his invun, but with 6 rending hits plus twice as many normal hits, the squad was doomed. A number of scouts also fell to autocannon fire, but the vehicles remained unharmed.
The remnants of the bikers
Raider and rhino up close and personal.
Turn 2
Things took a turn for the worse here. The raider got as close as it could before disembarking its cargo, as did the rhino. This meant I had a squad of 10 marines and a 5 man squad with librarian terminator on my doorstep. The Libby and squad tried to assault the command squad in the tower, but had to go around another unit and didn't quite make it. The other squad, raider and rhino opened up on my blob squad in the middle. There want much left by the end of it!
A big hole where some guardsmen use to be
I was quite happy with my reply. The command squad, pcs and blob all replied, along side the newly arrived Valkyrie. As a result, both squads were down to half strength, although this want quite enough as it turned out. The last of the snipers were dispatched by the Wyverns, I thought it was to much of a risk to try for the marines in front of me.
Smaller holes where some marines use to be.
Turn 3
There were some fun end games this time. To start with the land raider tried to move off of its perch, and managed to get itself stuck! The rhino disappeared off somewhere, still got no idea where it was going. The marines on the other hand carried on forward and were joined by the reminding scouts. As a result of all the fire power and some assaults, the centre squad was destroyed along with the majority of the command squad. Only the pcs survived the onslaught. At some point during this a Wyverns disappeared, not quite sure where or when, but it went somewhere. I suspect it might have fallen to the raiders assault cannon or the whirlwind.
During my turn, the vendetta turned up and did have an impact, destroying the rhino. The Valkyrie engaged the whirlwind, destroying the rockets, not that they had much to fire at any more. The pcs ran for there lives, straight in to the central building to take the objective there and the wyvern decided it was time to leave as well and headed for the left objective. There was little point in hanging around to get destroyed by the raider or the marines. The slap fest between the Libby and his squad and the command squad continued, I say marines and command squad, but by this point we were down to just the Libby and my warlord, not quite sure how the rest of the marines were dead by this point, alongside the command squad, as I would have thought at least 1 marine should have survived. The other marine squad also made quick work of the last of the central blob squad.
Vendetta arrives to support the valkyrie
Guardsmen? What guardsmen?
Slap fest, unfortunately people wearing TDA tend to slap harder than those without.
End of turn 3 and there's a slight lack of models!
Turn 4
By this point in the game my opposition had little remaining on the board. With just one scout squad, a 5 man marine squad, an immobilized land raider and a Libby on 1 wound.oh and I think the whirlwind was still alive at this point, hiding at the back after having lost its missiles some point. I think it might have been the Valkyrie that did the damage. There was little damage done from my opponent at this point. The marines mostly manoeuvred to claim objectives.
In turn, my last squad decided to turn up, thankfully came in on a useful side. With this squad turning up and moving claim an objective, at the same time trying to eliminate the last scout squad. They managed to remove 7 models and force a moral test, which was failed! Although they only ran a couple of inches, not quite enough. My Valkyrie also dropped off the to take the objective in my opponents half, and removed the whirlwind for a added bonus. The vendetta moved to drop off the plasma command squad next turn. The pcs ran hid in the centre building and claimed that objective, while the last Wyverns went full pelt for the other objective, not quite making it this turn but within easy reach next turn.
The major talking point was the slap fest between the Libby and my warlord. in my opponents turn, the Libby fluffed all his attacks and I failed wound, in turn the Libby got just one attack through, but it was all that was required. After 3 battles my warlord had finally fallen. His consolidation put him at bottom of the tower, ready to strike at my blob squad.
Better late than never, the second squad arrives.
The battlefield, not much remains.
The Libby triumphant at last!
Turn 5
At this stage in the game two things were very clear, I was winning and there was nothing my opponent could about it, and I couldn't table my opponent. I could possibly take out all his foot troops but with raider parked in the middle, a tabling was out of the question.
My opponent tried as last gamble to keep the objective on the right, moving his scouts back in the building and pushing the Libby before using smite to remove a large portion of the squad. By the time the shooting was done, the squad down to just over half strength. Things went from bad to worse for the squad in my turn, as decided to try and assault to ensure I removed that squad. I lost a man to overwatch but made the charge, loosing a further couple of guys in assault, being reduced to just 7 guardsmen and a priest. To make matters even worse, my attacks, even with zealot, were a disaster. As a result only 2 scouts died, leaving one to contest the objective!
In other news, the command squad jumped out the now hovering vendetta and attempted to plasma the marines to death, something they managed but not before 2 of them fried themselves with gets hot rolls! This resulted in a failed moral test and running off the board! At least they killed the marines.
Elsewhere on the table, the the pcs went firm on the centre objective and the Wyverns parked up on the left one. The vets consolidated on my opponents objective and the two flyers ganged up and killed the Libby for some payback. Thus the game ended.
The flyers removing the libby.
The last stand
Still standing! All that remains of the marines
At the end of a good game there was little on the table. Both sides had taken heavy losses though out the game. My opponent had very little, a scout and an immobilized raider, I had a Wyvern, vet squad, pcs, 7 guardsmen with priest and the two flyers. While it sounds a lot, only the vets and the vendetta could do anything against the raider, and the vets were over a turn away from being able to do anything. The fact is though that I still had only 24 of 76 guardsmen left, and half my ground vehicles were destroyed. A war of attrition, one the guard are quite good at!
Points wise, my opponent scored slay the warlord and line breaker plus 6 kill points for a total of 8 and I scored first blood, slay the warlord and line breaker, 8 kill points and 7 objective points, for a total of 18. If the plasma command hadn't been such rubbish soldiers and looked after their weapons properly and the others had sharpen their knives properly (there Catachans! Their knives should be razor sharp already!) it could have been even higher. But that's just greedy really, as an 18 to 8 win is pretty good really.
End game
end game - win - 18 (FB, StW, LB, 7 obj, 8 KP) - 8 (LB, StW, 6 KP)
So, at this pointy tournament should have been over and I was sitting on 43 points, a good strong position, with my nearest rival (another club mate) sitting on 23, 21 points behind and game to play. There are at least 16 points on every table, 10 objective, 3 for warlord, first blood and line breaker, plus 3 for the CAD (1 HQ and 2 troops). that meant that 21 points was not unachievable depending upon the opposition. As it turnout i was the only available player, the two other players having already played my next opponent. So with 21 points needed, I was offering 27 points, with 14 kill points on offer. It was going to be a very different game for me.
