ARMY OF THE WEEK: 7/30 Battle Report for Armada Games

Took up arms this past weekend to attend a local tournament at one of the LGS. It was a straight up event with 14 players with many people I knew attending. I towed along the Space Wolves with a hope of bringing a balanced army to give some stiff competition.

The store had a wide range of armies there: 2 Space Wolves, 1 IG, 3 Tau, 1 Ork, 2 Grey Knights, 1 Vanilla Marine, 1 Blood Angel and 1 Eldar. Forgot 2 but they was more than likely MEQs. Oddly, I don't recall Dark Eldar, Necrons or Templars among the mix.

My list was:

2 Rune Priests (Living Lighting x2, 1 with Storm and 1 with Murderous Hurricane)

3 Rhinos

2 Razorbacks (Heavy Bolters)

3 Long Fang squads with 5 Missiles each.

2 Grey Hunter packs of 5, with melta and power weapon

1 Grey Hunter pack of 9 with melta, power weapon and banner

2 Grey Hunter packs with 8 with melta, power weapon and banner

1 Scout unit of 6 with melta and power weapon.

6 Wolf Guard with Combi Meltas and Power fists (attached to each Grey Hunter squad and Scouts)

Game 1 vs Orks

I let out a sigh as my first game was against Lee. Oddly, at any store I go, if I know others there I seem to be bound to play them more than new faces. Not that I minded this, Lee is a great guy, a good friend and player. He had a list that told me I had my work cut out for me.

Warboss on bike

Mek with KFF

4 Large 30 blocks of orks with rockets, Nob with Klaw and Bosspole

2 Cannons (separate)

1 Unit of Gretchin

1 Large unit of Kommandos with Snikrot and 2 burnas

1 Large Unit of Lootas

We was assigned to a city table with lots of cover. Between that and the KFF it was going to be tough. The mission was from Adepticon where there are three objectives all worth the same value. A basic free form format that allows each army to adapt to the mission objectives that are reasonable for their army to achieve. Our deployment zone was spearhead! Oh what I would give for ordance!

This mission was:

1. Take the Center of the Table with an HQ

2. Kill Points

3. Table Quarters

Lee won first turn, deployed in a heavy cover side of the table with a tall building. He held his gretchin, one unit of boyz and Snikrot with the Warboss in reserve. I deployed in a cluster using the skyshield building to block much of his LOS and give me as much cover as possible.

We had a game of cat and mouse, though I was the mouse this time. A little grey one being chased by a green cat! Once I started to make a few mistakes Lee was able to take advantage and push to his objectives. He just would not fail a cover save and his shooting for Orks was dead on.

The only two highlights for me was:

Scouts entered on turn 2, shot a few Lootas, then assaulted them in 2 other turns. Also, they drew tons of fire from 2 kannons and a unit of Orks that Lee had to dispatch to deal with them. They died but well earned their own Saga.

Snikrot with the Warboss was a bust for Lee. He was clever and swung in on two of my Long Fang squads. The fight went poorly for Snikrots boyz and was beaten soundly. They broke and ran with the Long Fangs showing they could handle their own in a scrap.

Took a major loss for the game with 1 point only. Lee claimed 2 table quarters uncontested, 1 contested and I had one. Then, he had me on kill points, almost double. He also just barely had the mek just inside the 6” to claim the center.

What went wrong:

Not aggressive enough. I think if I pushed forward this would have pushed him back.
Bad Dice Luck
Thinking I had artificer armor on my Rune Priest. Ugh! When I took two missiles among other shots.
Lee passed cover saves in his sleep and is ugly when he shoots with his Orks, weight of fire works.

Game 2 vs Space Wolves

Again my luck would have it out of 14 players, I end up playing the second round against the only other person that I tend to get matched against other tournaments at various LGS in the area Adam! ARG! Again, he is a great guy and player. He also had a unique list of Loganwing he was toying around with.

He had:
Logan
Rune Priest
5 Pods
1 Razorback with TL Lascannon
1 Long Fang squad with 5 missiles
1 Long Fang squad with 2 meltas, 3 missiles, flamer on the pack leader.
4 Squads of Wolf Guard with assorted weapons, storm bolters, power weapons and shields, some fists, chainfists, etc…

Again we had a long empty street down the middle with two sides full of buildings. This time we had pitched battle deployment.

Objectives:

1. Kill Points (kill at least 50% of the enemy army)

2. Get more units into the enemy deployment zone.

3. 3 Objectives.

I won the dice off and gave him first turn. It was my hope to throw off his game by giving him first turn. This was an epic fail.

Adam put 3 squads on the table, with the Long Fangs and Razorback. I deployed the Long Fangs only. His first turn was Logan, a Wolf Guard, Rune Priest and Long Fangs in one pod. The second pod held the last terminator squad and an empty one.

At this point it was a duck shoot for Adam. He pounded the Long Fangs with shooting on two squads, another was charged on turn two and mauled by Logan and his boys. Along with poor reserves on turn 2 and getting one unit every turn wasn’t good for me. By the end of turn 2 I had one Long Fang left that was running away. He rallied and died promptly on turn 3.

At this point it was a downhill fight for me. He had the weight, the luck, the superior armor and characters. My best effort was to make as many goals as I could despite the arse beating I was taking.

My reserve breakdown was this:
Turn 2: Rhino with Rune Priest and Grey Hunters, Razorback with GH and scouts.
Turn 3: Another Rhino with Grey Hunters
Turn 4: Another Razorback with Grey Hunters
Turn 5: The last Rhino with Grey Hunters

Another bad loss for me with 11 KP for him and 9 for me. He didn’t get in my deployment zone. I had one objective and he had 2. I only got points for the 50% in kill points.

What went wrong:

Should have deployed instead of holding most in reserves. I gave him one turn to punish my Long Fangs and when I had weak reserve rolls he was able to remove their threat quickly.
Leaving my scouts bundled together, didn’t think his Fangs could see them. They took over a dozen wounds from frag.
Bad dice luck. There was a point Logan should have died, but he didn’t.
Adam would not fail some dice rolls for me despite me asking nicely!

Game 3 vs Chaos

This time I drew Theo, one of the guys that came up with Lee and I know from Necronomicon as he played on our team last year. While I knew him, we had never played so no complains. He didn’t bring the Ultra smurfs in favor of trying out Chaos this go round.

He had:
Land Raider
Lord with Undivided Demon Weapon in Terminator Armor
4 Terminators with mixed weapons, lighting claws, fists, power weapons, combi meltas and heavy flamer.
3 Rhinos with full squads with icon of glory, 2 melta guns, and champion with fists or power weapons
1 unit of 2 Obliterators
2 units of 5 Lesser Demons
1 Greater Demon (Lesser)
Dreadnought

Mixed woods, hills and ruins was our scenery for this round. Another game with pitched battle deployment.

Objectives:

1. VPs with “destroy the targeted unit”. In my case I picked one of his small lesser demons. He picked one of my Long Fangs. VP was doubled for the target unit.

2. 5 Objectives

3. Head of the Snake: kill the highest point HQ.

Theo won the roll off and picked his table edge. Deployed for the most part in the center with the Obliterators in the trees and the Dreadnought to his right. The Demons was put in reserves.

He races up the middle full speed, blows smoke. Misses two plasma shots and the Dreadnought runs forward bezerk. I blow up one rhino, two more are immobile.

Then next turn the Land Raider rips forward another 12”, tosses out the Termiantors and Lord. Dread freaks and runs forward again. Squads get out of rhinos, move to my line.

From turn 3 and onward Theo and I was just bashing the hell out of one another either in shooting matches or assults. Almost 90% of our fights was resolved by close combat. The dreadnought takes a missile hit and blows up on 3. By the end of the last turn it was a mop up for me as Theo saw how the game was going to end. He was bogged down in combats, I was winning slowly by attrition and a bit more luck.

A full sweep for me on this game. I was able to kill his demon unit, he was trying to run it behind a tall bit of scenery away from my Long Fangs but he was sniped by a krak missile. I had 3 objectives at the end. VPs went to me for the final objective.

Theo was too aggressive and I was able to wait him out and took advantage of the opening.

Two beatings and one win, three good games despite some bad moves on my part and luck from the dice as well as the players I ended up with for opponents.

It is amusing this was a "swiss style" like other events and I seem to get matched always to certain people no matter the store or number of players. For later games I can buy into this as if I am doing well and they are, this is an honest match usually. The first round was just amusing with Lee. Second round my points and Adams points was both low but he had a few more than I there must have been a gap in the points for us to get matched that way. The Fates had a good laugh at my expense.

Oh well, all eyes towards Ard Boyz in two weeks and a Team Tourney in September!