Darkside Tournament, Nov 12th

Went to Darkside games to play in the monthly 40k event they host at their store. My friend Chris and I ate at Yoders (Amish food) and headed over to the store. The turnout was a bit lower this time with only 8 players in total. Another guy showed up late and didn’t want to have an odd man out as we didn’t have a ringer army to fill in the gaps. He did manage to play in the last round to keep the numbers even after one player left.

I brought the usual Ork Horde list:

Warboss with Klaw, Bosspole, Cybork, Extra Armor and Twin Linked Shoota

Big Mek with KFF, Klaw and Cybork

Snikrot and 14 Kommandos with 2 burnas

15 Lootas

3 mobs of 30 boyz with 3 rocket launchers with a Nob with Klaw and Bosspole

1 Mob of Gretchin with Slaver

1 Kannon with extra crew and ammo runt with slaver

Zagstruk with 19 Stormboyz

Game 1 vs. Space Marines (Salamanders)

This was my first game ever against George and overall we had a great game and his list was solid. We did have a few rules discussions but nothing we could not look up or have a judge give thumbs  up or down on. He took great advantage for the most part of Vulcan’s special ability and it hurt me a few times in the game in casualties.

He had:

Vulcan He’stan

Assault Terminators (2 lighting claws and 3 Thunder Hammers/Shields)

Land Raider Redeemer with storm bolter and multi melta

Dreadnought in Drop Pod, Ironclad with melta and heavy flamer.

Full squad of Marines in Drop pod, flamer and sgt with combi-flamer/power fist.

Two other squads with Razorbacks with twin linked plasma and lascannon

Two squads (razorbacks above) with multi melta/plasma and mutli-melta/melta gun, each sgt had a power weapon and combi-melta.

3 Bikes with multi-meltas

The mission was pitched battle with three objectives.

1)     Kill Points

2)     Score more than 250 VPs

3)     Eliminate all Troop Choices

We had a desert table that had a fair amount of scenery. I deployed everything except the Stormboyz, Kommandos with the Warboss and Gretchin after winning the toss. The Lootas went to my right, Kannon to the left. The Boyz spread around with the KFF to cover most of them.

His deployment split his combat squads, two hid in Razorbacks, the heavy weapon squads deployed into cover. The Redeemer deployed to one side facing my Lootas. The Bikes was spread out. One to my left that could threaten the Kannon and the other two near the Redeemer.

He managed to seize and the game started on a bad foot for me. The Ironclad came down and landed dead on in front of my Lootas, they was on the short list to die. He rolled the Land Raider up full speed and shot the assault cannon, multi meltas, melta guns and a heavy flamer. I passed a majority of the cover saves and lost a few Lootas.

My turn wasn’t that great, I managed to take all three bikes out quickly. His Drop Pod was solid and the doors didn’t open which creates some pains for LOS as he said it blocks LOS, but once a pod lands the doors open. It would give cover and could still cause problems for LOS but it was a moot point as I used the Lootas to target the last bike. The rockets were all duds except for the one on a bike. I threw one mob of boyz into the Ironclad in hopes of taking him down with a klaw. I missed with all 4 attacks! Ugh!

His turn two was a fairly quick one. His second pod failed to arrive from reserves. He shot the lascannons again killing a boy or so, just like before the KFF and general cover was keeping them alive.  His Redeemer moves up after the Terminators deploy out. He kills a few boyz from another unit as they move close to support the other Mob squad in combat. He assaults with the Terminators and slaughters tons of orks, they barely hold and I end up taking losses down to the Nob. Again the klaw whiffs and I think I killed a terminator. The Nob was on the far side of the dread so the Terminators ended up out of combat as they could not consolidate and the Nob was already locked in base to base on the far side.

My turn sees none of my reserves! The Boyz shoot and kill a few terminators and charge in. The Mek left the squad and ran to hide behind a rock to join the other boyz mob. He’s a Mek not a fighter after all! I lost a few more Lootas to the Redeemer but the boyz hold strong and helped in killing a few terminators as well. After the assaults the boyz was torn apart and it looked bad for turn 3. They may be able to hold for another turn at best.

The last two turns saw the Stormboyz arrive on turn 3, they assaulted and wiped out one squad, then blew up a Razorback forcing one unit to do an emergency disembark. His last two turns chewed up the remaining boyz and they killed all but two of the one Loota that held his nerve and didn’t run! My last mob of boyz rolled over his drop pod with the Mek cracking it open with a nice explosion and the marines killed to a few men. They broke on the last round we played and was falling back with the orks on their heels.

The final results were a win for me on kill points with 7 for me and him with 5. I only lost the two boyz squads and my two units that were still in reserves! I had some seriously bad reserve rolls. If I had rolled better the loss would not have been bad and could have been worse for him.

VPs totaled within 250 so nobody got that award. It was a nickel and dime game between us. Both of us had troops on the board.  I scored a 29 in the end with two bonus points as he had no heavy choices (Redeemer was dedicated) and I took out his fast attack choices.

Meet George, Master of the Salamanders

My Deployment and Reserves on the cart.

Turn 1, Salamanders Advance, Orks react.

Later on, the first suad of boyz wiped  to the Nob.

Zagstruk attacks the marines in the ruins of an crash aquila.

The Lootas look for their next target....hrm, Terminators!

Stormboyz corral the Razorbacks.

Game 2 vs. Grey Knights (Inquisition)

I usually end up playing Zach about every other tournament and he brings a variety of armies. This time he was playing the Henchmen/Raven army led by Cotaez loaded with every dirty trick that the Grey Knights book has.

He had:

Cotaez

Grey Knight Librarian with shrouding (cover bonus), the rift and some other power.

Techmarine with grenades loaded out

Three units of henchmen with crusaders and assassins in mix.

3 Storm Ravens with a Variety of weapon loads.

We had Dawn of War for a Deployment Zone with these objectives:

1) Unplanned Assault (random roll on turn 4) either table quarters/capture terrain or more scoring in the center of the board.

2) VP, more than 500

3) Eliminate all HQs

I got the choice to deploy and go first. I took the side with the best cover. As we had Dawn of War and he was fast, I held everything for fist turn except the Kommandos with the boss and Stormboyz.

My first turn was quick, move on, run, take cover. His was turbo boost on 36” for the cover saves.

The next turn was me shooting at his flyers clustered to one side. The Gretchin arrived on turn 2 and hid on the other side of the table. He throws out the shroud power and they all pull off every 3+ cover save required. Ugh, what frustration….

He dumps a dread out and he waddles towards the Lootas. They end up locked all the way until the end of the game where they broke finally after keeping the Dread tied up for several turns.

The last few turns up until 5 from 3 on were the usual. The Ravens shot, he avoided sending his squads out unless the Raven was destroyed or he was in a good spot to get into a fight he could win.

In the end my Kommandos showed up the last round and the Stormboyz arrived on turn 3 causing some damage before they was wiped out to Zag that held a dread up for another turn before he was plastered. We had rolled on turn 4 to hold scenery as objectives. At the end I had more than Zach he did manage to deprive me of many of them including assaulting with the dread to pull some men away. I was able to still keep some on objectives as my orks was spread out in that unit to grab some objectives to ensure the win. I think the difference was 1 after contesting and his last henchman group grabbing one terrain bit.

I took a solid 29 points again. A win for the primary, the secondary was a draw and his Librarian was still alive. Two of those was bonus points from my most expensive HQ was alive and I had more scoring units left.

A few people including Chris had pulled out wins with higher scores so it would come down to how the last round fell for placement at the tournament. It was a tough and solid game, the Grey Knights are a major pain with all those powers and I feel is the reason why I never pushed to play them as they are just over powered draining some of the fun from the game and you’re limited to specific builds to win.

Zack, Ordos Commander (Grey Knights)

My deployment.

The boys line up to take on trouble.

Stormraven closes in and the boyz charge!

The brave Lootas holding off the dreadnought.

I can only hear them saying, "DAT MUH GUNA"

Last round was a laugh as I was matched up against Chris. We had the desert table and I had the opposite side to deploy on as he won the roll. We placed objectives 2 each on the table as the primary.

This game was again spearhead deployment with the following objectives:

1) 4 objectives, each worth 5 points.

2) VPs, must score more than 750

3) Table quarters, must have one unit in each quarter. Does not have to be a scoring unit.

I setup my army after the Wolves spread out on his quarter. The game went as I predicted. 3 objectives were closer to me and 1 in his quarter. I was too slow and there was too much firepower to take that one so I was content to stay near the other three and take them if possible.

Snikrot and the Warboss did a great job causing havoc in the back field towards the end of the game and the Stormboyz had a bad scatter that Chris got to place. He put them where he could hope to shoot them apart and he did for the most part. They was shot up to half and managed to plow into the Grey Hunters on the last round holding his objective.

Another objective in the lower center in a building was contested by the Orks and Grey Hunters fight it out. The Gretchin grabbed the food bag objective and the other orks held the last one for 10 out of 20 points. I took a draw on VPs again and with one bonus point  for a total of 18. The bonus points were due to the Space Wolves not controlling any objectives at the end. Both that he could capture was contested.

Chris, Space Wolf Commander (no he isn't asleep, he is deploying)

Ork Deployment

Lootas duke it out against Scouts.

Warboss with Snikrot wreck havok with the Kommandos.

I didn’t place high enough to win in battle points, painting and sportsman was very high and I had three great games in any event. Chris was knocked from first to third with some cool prizes to boot.

Unit Breakdown:

Warboss: Other than the fact he didn’t die in the first two games due to being stuck in reserves longer than he should and the last game he managed to claim a nice amount of heads before taking a massive loss in combat and running away only to be caught by the marines in his attempt to flee the battle.

Big Mek: Game 1 he blew up a Drop Pod, Games 2 and 3 he was just around to provide a KFF shield.

Kommandos with Snikrot: Had a disappointing turnout this event. Two games they either showed up late or never (in the first) and the last round they took out a Rhino and Long Fangs before they was beaten soundly.

Lootas: They drew more attention than they did anything of notable damage. First game they were the prize for the Redeemer and Dreadnought with a single guy living to tell the tale. The second game they tied up a Dreadnought most of the game after he assaulted. The last game the Space Wolf Scouts diced them apart after a rough fight.

Boyz: They lived, they died and krumped a few heads. They did their job well.

Gretchin: Never showed in game 1. Game 2 they hid and took a terrain objective. The only one of two that I could claim. Game 3 they grabbed an objective and hid on the last turn. Overall they did their job, a cheap objective grabber.

Kannon: Here is another unit that didn’t do much but drew much attention in every game. Game 1 they shot a few times but didn’t do much damage to any unit, Game 2 they took some losses but the slaver hung around, Game 3  Chris blew them up after one turn of shooting with Frag and a lucky 6 took out the gun and some gretchin. They hung around another turn before they were pasted again and the Slaver ran like hell.

Stormboyz: First two games were dead on drops and they did their damage before they died. During the second game the struggled to earn their points back but did a great job of drawing attention. Game 3 with the mishap they were able to take action to get back into the game for a winning move to contest an objective.