October 15th Tournament at Armada

Took a trip over to Armada to try another tournament at their store. This round was a simple 1k point tournament. I always tend to favor smaller tournaments as the games tend to play faster and are more strategic as you have to manage your elements as well a there is no room for waste in a list.

Game 1 vs Lee (Dark Eldar)

As it always happens without fail I always end up playing either Lee or Chris if I am at a tournament with one or the other. The TO said it was all up to a D20 as we had 10 players, guess it didn’t like me much! HAH! This happens often during first round in many cases. Once at one GT we was matched not once, but twice in our first two games out of 5!

Lee’s: Homunculus, 2 small units of Wracks with the Liquifier, 2 small unit of wytches and 1 unit of Trueborn in Venoms with the extra venom cannon. Toss in three Ravangers (may have been two). Some of the Venoms may have been Raiders.

Deployment: Table Quarters

Objectives: Kill Points, Table Quarters, Get an HQ to the Center Table Objective.

This was a tough game all the way around. I only have numbers on my side, Lee has speed on his and range, so we can see where this game is going. I won the dice off, deployed my army. I hoped to move up and get lucky with some rocket shots and intimidate him back enough that Snikrot and the Trukk could slip in and inflict some damage on turn 2 or 3.

I move up, nothing happens (he has the fields that reduces my range by 6”), so I have 18” rockets now! Ugh! Let’s see, that puts me in charge range now. *sigh* I had tried split my forces to try to grab some quarters and that is when disaster struck.

He swooped in with most of his army and plowed down one unit of 30 Orks to nothing between shooting and assult. Poof! Already down a unit just like that.

Turn 2 reserve rolls brings in a Trukk but no Snikrot. They drive where he had a Raider or Venom sitting and a unit of Wracks hanging out inside. I manage to make the transport immobile and stunned, he jumps the Wracks out, hits me with a template and charges me. Poof! The Truck takes some shots and is shaken. A few orks die in the shooting phase.

Then the game kept going downhill. I made a bad decision to try to shoot his Ravangers instead of one of his small units for a kill. The scenery intimidated my choice against his infantry units as I felt I would not get the best benefit if I could down one of the big guns. In retrospect it was a totally stupid thing to do and I should have went after something closer and easier.

Turn 3 Snikrot and the Warboss slipped in. They plowed into the Wracks and Raider and made a few kills, then it was over again in the blink of an eye as we moved to turn 4. Lee shot down Snikrot and his boyz along with the Warboss as well as the Trukk exploding to a lance strike.

It was easy to call the game as time was slipping to a close. I could only hold one table quarter with a single scoring unit, he could very easy zoom over contest mine or at least claim more than I could take, without a HQ choice the center objective was impossible and he had kill points in the bag. So, I slapped a big zero on my sheet.

Meet Lee the Evil Dark Eldar

The Dark Eldar consolidate their position.

The Orks swarm the center to block the center objective.

The dead pile so far.

Game 2 vs Ken (Ringer  List: Deathwing)

He had: Crusader, Belial, Chaplain in Terminator armor, 2 squads with one cyclone and one heavy flamer in the other. He also had the usual banner and apothecary in the command unit.

Deployment: Pitched Battle

Objectives: Kill Points, Tactical Markers (objectives) x3 and get more scoring units into your opponent's deployment zone.

I won the roll, deployed. Both ork units piled into cover. I held the Trukk and Snikrot in reserve. He deployed the Land Raider with the characters and command terminator unit inside.

First turn was nothing, I moved up, ran. He zooms the Crusader forward after he deep strikes his Terminators off to the side. He pops smoke.

My turn two, I move up, shoot and kill a terminator. I got neither of my reserves in.

His turn, the Crusader moves slightly and lights up my boyz, cover helps. The terminators shoot the other unit. I take a few losses.

Turn 3 brings Snikrot in near the Crusader and the Trukk in full tilt towards it as well. I the Trukk Boyz jump out, made a good fleet roll and plowed into the Land Raider. The warboss was able to pop the Land Raider on a 5. I was near enough to all the doors and thus forced an emergency disembark to the back side. I managed to kill 3 terminators this time in shooting as more guns was in range in the other squad.

His Turn 3 was fairly quick and shot the Trukk with the cyclone squad (and blew the trukk up) and the other squad was pinned and the Crusader a smoking wreck.

My turn 4 was to charge the Terminators by the Crusader after shooting them with the Trukk Boyz and Snikrot. I take a loss in combat and run, he consolidates.  I manage to remove his last terminator on the other side. I did manage to kill the Chaplain with the Nob from the Trukk crew and took another terminator (may have been two) in the exchange.

He charges me on turn 4, I rally. The Warboss, Snikrot and a few Kommandos fight a desperate battle all are wiped out but they manage to wipe out everyone but Belial.

As the last turn is up and time is about up, the orks slip up and claim another objective. The Trukk Boyz continue to run as they are below half. Belial hit and retreated.

Meet Ken, the Dark Angel Chapter Master

Ken's Deployment

Ork Deployment

Orks swarm the building for cover.

Game 3 vs  Matt (Blood Angels)

He had a Storm Raven, Dread with Blood Talons, Assult Squad with two flamers and a power weapon, Tactical squad with missile launcher and some other assult weapon. A Librarian led the assult squad and he had a Baal Predator with heavy bolters on the side.

Deployment: Pitched Battle

Objectives: Kill Points, 5 Objectives and One Marked Unit for Termination (must destroy to acheive goal)

I won the dice off, deployed the two boyz mobz and held everything else in reserve. He put everything out and he tried to seize.

First turn, I move up into cover and run. Quick first turn for me. He advances, shoots a few orks down.

Second turn, negative on any reserves! I advance up, shoot down a few assult marines in the open. He moves up, the assult squad piles into the Ork Mob after he shoots down several and the flamer eats a few. Orks take a few more losses due to fearless. His Dread disembarks from the Raven and kills a few Orks, he fails a terrain check to assult. Those Talons made me VERY nervous!

Third turn, Trukk arrives and Snikrot shows in the rear. The Kommandos setup to go after the Baal, the boyz near the Dread fall back deeper inside the building and up a level. The Trukk boyz manage to pull the remaining marines off the boyz and slipped back into cover. Baal gets wacked by the Kommandos.

His third turn blew up the truck, another set of bad terrain checks with the Dread. The Raven blew up the Trukk and shot a few more boyz.. He dumped the Tatical squad out and ran towards the objective in the center.

The last turn, the tactical squad was shot up and assaulted by the Trukk Boyz and the  remaining mob. The Dread had taken a missile shot the turn prior and was immobile. At this point we decided to call the game, even if he took the center objective I had two objectives, killed his targeted HQ choice and had more scoring on the table than he did.

Meet Matt Blood Angel Commander

Blood Angel Deployment

Snikrot and company took out the Baal.

Fight for the Center objective at the end.

Some bad terrain checks saved these orks from those deadly Blood Talons!

I took 4^th place, not bad placing out of the entire tournament.  Oddly, all three armies I played today two had Dark in the title and two had Angels in the title. Hah!