Last weekend Black Knight hosted its monthly 40K tournament, and this time there was a twist. The tournament was 1500 doubles, with the partners decided randomly for the first round, then randomly within their score-bracket in the subsequent rounds. As if that weren't enough, the missions this time wouldn't be the standard BRB missions, or even from Battle Missions, but inventions of the organizer himself. Given that I quite enjoyed Battle Missions for their novelty, even with their slightly imbalanced natures, this was really something of a selling point to me. And how did it all go? Well, read on and find out!
1500 Doubles Shining Long Strike Cadre:
Shas'el w/AFP, missile pod, fusion blaster, hard-wired multi-tracker, hard-wired blacksun filter
3 x XV8 w/3 x twin-linked missile pod, 3 x flamer
3 x XV8 w/missile pod, plasma rifle, multi-tracker
3 x XV8 w/missile pod, plasma rifle, multi-tracker
6 x Fire Warriors
9 x Fire Warriors w/Devilfish, disruption pod
9 x Fire Warriors w/Devilfish, disruption pod
Piranha w/fusion blaster, disruption pod, targeting arrayPiranha w/fusion blaster, disruption pod, targeting array
XV88 w/advanced stabilization system
XV88 w/advanced stabilization systemHammerhead w/railgun, 2 x burst cannon, multi-tracker, disruption podRound 1:
Partner: Mike Fleet (Eldar)
Eldrad
5 x Fire Dragons
5 x Dire Avengers w/Wave Serpent, scatter laser, shuriken cannon, spirit stones
5 x Dire Avengers w/Wave Serpent, scatter laser, shuriken cannon, spirit stones
5 x Dire Avengers w/Wave Serpent, scatter laser, shuriken cannon, spirit stones
5 x Dire Avengers w/Wave Serpent, scatter laser, shuriken cannon, spirit stones
Falcon w/scatter laster, shuriken cannon, holofield, spirit stones
Wraithlord w/shuriken cannon, scatter laser, 2 x flamers
Wraithlord w/shuriken cannon, scatter laser, 2 x flamers
Opponents:
Brent Grice (Eldar)
Farseer w/singing spear, runes of warding, Guide
Autarch w/Swooping Hawk wings, Avenger catapult, power weapon
10 x Dire Avengers, Exarch w/Wave Serpent, twin-linked missile launchers, shuriken catapults
10 x Dire Avengers, Exarch w/Wave Serpent, twin-linked missile launchers, shuriken catapults
5 x Pathfinders
Wraithlord w/missile launcher, bright lance
5 x Dark Reaper w/Exarch, Tempest launcher, Crack Shot
D-Cannon
5 x Fire Dragons, Exarch w/Fire Pike, Tank Hunters, Wave Serpent w/2 x missile launcher
Shane (Necrons)
Anrakyr w/Command Barge
Royal Court w/3 x Harbingers, Solar Pulse
5 x Warriors w/Ghost Ark
5 x Warriors w/Ghost Ark
5 x Warriors w/Ghost Ark
6 x Wraiths w/3 x lash whips
5 x Scarabs
4 x Scarabs
Primary Objective: Retreat!! (points for each unit in the enemy's deployment area at the end of the game; 4 for HQs, 3 for Troops, 1 for Transports, 2 for Fast Attack/Heavy Support)
Secondary Objectives: Resource Denial (one objective per player, inside the team's deployment zone)
Secondary Objectives: Resource Denial (one objective per player, inside the team's deployment zone)
Deployment: Pitch Battle
With the first of the three rounds, I had a solid partner (Mike routinely tops the lists at BKG events) who claimed to have a solid plan. Unfortunately, that plan relied on my army to take one absolute monster of a beating.
I deployed everything on the table, with Devilfish screening my battlesuits, XV88s hiding in terrain, Fire Warriors sitting on objectives, my Hammerhead set out with a nice field of fire and my Piranhas ready to race out and try to accomplish something before their inevitable destruction. Across the table, an Eldar and a Necron army, with little in the way of heavy weapons but with Anrakykr to threaten possession of my Hammerhead's railgun and plenty of extremely survivable walls of AV13 side armour. And at my back? Nothing. The table edge. Mike left his entire army in reserve, trusting me and my cadre to hold off two full armies for at least two turns before any reinforcements could reach me. With no other option, my Tau dug in and did their best.
Unfortunately, their best left something to be desired, and that something was 'better dice'. I could not make a cover save, and my railguns seemed to be out of alignment, either refusing to hit or rolling 1s and 2s to penetrate. Worse, a squad of Wraiths came ghosting through the large building I was sheltering two of my Fire Warrior squads behind, and unsurprisingly ate both of them alive for no damage in return. Those Wraiths would continue to be the primary threat to my army, eating most of a Fireknife squad and killing a Wave Serpent and its Dire Avenger squad when they came in to assist. Anrakyr, meanwhile, managed to take control of my Hammerhead and put a round into the back of one of my Devilfish, exploding it spectacularly, and then directing some of his supporting Warriors-in-Arks to glance the railgun clean off the tank. Both Piranhas went down without firing a shot, and one of my XV88's succumbed to some nasty S8 fire from the Eldar; that inability to make any of my cover saves really hurt.
Thankfully, Mike's dice seemed to like him a little better, and my Eldar allies weren't too tardy about taking to the field. Pretty much everything arrived second turn, and aside from the Wave Serpent that tried to help hold off the Wraiths and was destroyed for its troubles, and a Wraithlord who refused to hide behind my Devilfish and was Reaper Launcher'ed out of existence for his troubles, they managed to contribute fairly well. The Wave Serpent containing Eldrad and the Fire Dragons raced up to the enemy's left flank to contest an objective, kill an Autarch and a Pathfinder squad (who hadn't really done anything) and force them to shift their attentions outwards, while the others went up the middle, trying with mixed success to blast a hole through the Necron's AV13 blockade. Worse, those Scarabs are just as troublesome as I'd heard they were, tearing armour points off Devilfishes and Wave Serpents and surviving a truly ludicrous amount of firepower. Mike lost his Wraithlords to Dark Reaper fire and had the Eldrad Wave Serpent and one other shot down, but managed to push forwards hard enough to get into the enemy's deployment zone. With most of my army either dead or busy, I could only contribute my Shas'el to the breakthrough, but at 4 points alone he was still a worthwhile addition to the score. Meanwhile, the enemy had their Wraiths (below half strength, and therefore not counted), Anrakyr in his Command Barge, two Wave Serpents and two units of Dire Avengers in our side, with one unit still in their Serpent claiming the objective the Wraiths had slaughtered my Fire Warriors around and the other trying, and mercifully failing, to shoot my last squad off their objective. With a last-minute objective contestation from my railgun-less Hammerhead, the game ended with one objective for us, two objectives unclaimed and one objective contested; a Major Win.
Initially I was inclined to chalk it up to Mike Fleet's strategy, but the more I think about it, the less comfortable I am with that. Yes, I left two of my three Fire Warrior squads to be eaten by Wraiths, but I also held the only objective and contested one of theirs, while also managing to shoot down a Ghost Ark and kill most of the survivors (a Warrior and a Cryptek survived, and nearly succumbed to the drones off one of my Piranhas) and battered down the Wraiths to the point that they didn't count for the secondary objectives. While I still made some bad calls (putting the Devilfish in front of the Hammerhead while Anrakyr was around, leaving those two Fire Warriors squads in multi-assault range of each other, not blasting Anrakyr's command barge with my railguns every chance I got), I also managed to anchor our team's entire strategy, not a bad trick for an expensive and fragile army. I'm not saying Mike Fleet wasn't a good partner, of course, I'm just saying that the more I look at this mission, the more comfortable I am taking equal credit. I really helped earn that victory.
Result: Major Win (15 points)
Round 2:
Partner: Matt Bucci
Hive Tyrant w/armoured shell, Old Adversary, 2 x twin linked devourers
Tyrant Guard
3 x Hive Guard
3 x Hive Guard
Doom of Malantai w/Mycetic Spore
3 x Tervigons w/cluster spines
10 x Termagants
10 x Termagants
10 x Termagants
Opponents:
Mike Fleet
(see above)
Andrew Bucci
Imotekh
Royal Court w/cryptek, eldritch lance, solar pulse, lord w/ressurection orb, MSS, 2 x warscythe
10 x Warriors
10 x Immortals
6 x Lychguard w/dispersion shields, hyperphase sword
8 x Canoptek Scarabs
Doomsday Ark
Doomsday Ark
Primary Objective: Open Season (modified kill points; 1 point for a unit at any time, but 2 points for any Heavy Support units in Turn 2, Fast Attack units in Turn 3, Troops units in Turn 4, Elites units in Turn 5, HQ units in Turn 6, and all units in Turn 7)
Secondary Objectives: Key Tactical Advantage (one point each player turn for each table quarter with a unit above 50% from both team members in it; quarters are contested by a single enemy unit in them)
Secondary Objectives: Key Tactical Advantage (one point each player turn for each table quarter with a unit above 50% from both team members in it; quarters are contested by a single enemy unit in them)
Deployment: Dawn of War
Ah, the perfidious Eldar. One minute they're your best friends, the next, your worst enemies.
So yes, Matt and I went up again Mike and Matt's little brother, Andrew. With Night Fight in effect and the Stormlord on the table it was always obvious this was going to be a tough fight; even more so after they won the roll-off and opted to take first turn. Aggressive deployment of Andrew's Immortals squad left Matt and I completely shut out of most of the middle of our deployment area, and Mike's lone Wave Serpent with Dire Avengers was effectively invulnerable given what little we had to work with early on. Matt put down two Tervigons, one in each corner, and I deployed a Devilfish full of Fire Warriors and my Shas'el, one unit with each Tervigon.
I don't think the secondary objectives for this mission were quite play-tested out. Mike used the star engines on his Wave Serpent to race up into our left table quarter, while Andrew's Immortals moved forwards to the very edge of our right table quarter, and the rest of their armies came on their edge. This meant that, at the end of their first turn, they were up two-nothing, and with Night Fighting in effect and no way to get close combat units into the Immortals it was just impossible to shift both those units before the end of our turn, meaning that at the end of Turn 1 it was 4-0 for them. Sort of tough to come back from, particularly for a reason I'll get into in a minute.
Anyway, the Stormlord managed to keep Night Fighting in effect on Turn 2, giving Matt and I some serious trouble with his shooting, while using a Cryptek's Solar Pulse to clear the way for his own. One of the Doomsday Ark's managed to blast an XV88 to smithereens, while the other clipped my Deathrains and killed two of them, along with a handful of termagants. Mike's shooting wasn't particularly impressive, especially since I'd apparently been saving all my luck for this game and simply could not fail a saving throw. In return, Matt and I took down the Wave Serpent contesting our left quarter, shot up the Dire Avengers inside and sent them running, under half strength, towards their table quarter, while my Piranhas manoeuvred into position and thankfully survived nearly everything thrown at them, with the worst damage being one of them getting immobilized. We even managed to get close enough to the Immortals to break them with our shooting, and a detached pair of gun drones from a Piranha meant they couldn't check to rally next turn. But even with a tank destroyed and two units broken, we were still losing on the secondary objectives, with the end of Turn 2 having them up 6-1; we were contesting both of their quarters now, with Matt's Doom having left its spore pod neatly in the centre of the table, but they'd had them in their own player turn, and we only had one for ourselves. Third turn Night Fighting finally ended, allowing my Hammerhead and surviving Piranha to blow both Doomsday Arks to smithereens with some very satisfying strings of 6's and letting my XV88 take down another Wave Serpent, but otherwise things did not go well. The Doom's pod was destroyed, my Immortal-harassing Gun Drones were shot to pieces, Andrew's Cryptek squad charged and destroyed a Devilfish and his Scarabs scuttled in to contest both our table quarters. Try as we might we couldn't finish off those Scarabs, and an attempt to overwhelm the Crypteks with a unit of Termagants failed when they had to cross difficult turn, ended up I1 for their troubles, and were wiped out to the last before getting a single hit in. A disappointing end to the game, indeed.
That's right, I said the game ended on Turn 3. It turns out, and this was largely confirmed by everyone else who played on a table with even a single horde army, playing a 4-player 3000 point game in two and a half hours is pretty much impossible. It was particularly annoying here because, while we were starting to get the upper hand in terms of power on the field, we didn't have time to capitalize on it; both Doomsday Arks were gone, the Crypteks and Scarabs were nearly wiped out, two Wave Serpents were dead and the Wraithlords were so badly positioned nearly the entire game they accomplished almost nothing. With Night Fighting done superior Tau shooting could start to tilt the game for us again, and with the Tervigons still pumping out Termagant squads we could've pushed forwards and made it impossible for them to catch points on table quarters. Alas, however, it was not to be.
Result: Major Loss (3 points)
Round 3:
Partner: Harry (Orks)
Big Mek w/KFF
25 x Boyz, Nob w/power klaw
30 x Boyz, Nob w/power klaw
30 x Boyz, Nob w/power klaw
11 x Tank Bustas
15 x Kommandos, 2 x Burnas, Snikrot
20 x Storm Boyz, Boss Zagstruk
Trukk w/rokkit
Opponents:
Matt Bucci
(see above)
Tim (Blood Angels)
Librarian w/jump pack, stormbolter, Fear of the Darkness, Sanguine Sword
10 x Assault Marines w/2 x meltagun
10 x Assault Marines w/2 x meltagun
5 x Sanguinary Guard w/powerfist, chapter banner
Baal Predator w/search light, assault cannon
Baal Predator w/search light, assault cannon
5 x Devastators w/4 x missile launcher
5 x Devastators w/4 x plasma gun
Stormraven w/plasma cannon
Primary Objective:Getz Dem Bombz Boyz (5 objective 'bombs' that need to be defused by controlling them at the end of the turn; all non-defused objective 'bombs' will explode (S10, AP1, large blast causing 2D6 hits on an affected unit, striking vehicles on rear armour and ignoring cover saves) on a D6 roll of [8 – Turn Number])
Secondary Objectives: Kill 'Em All, Let Mork Klean 'Em Up (1 point for each unit above half strength at the end of the game; MCs and ICs count if they have more than half their original wounds, vehicles if they are not immobilized)
Secondary Objectives: Kill 'Em All, Let Mork Klean 'Em Up (1 point for each unit above half strength at the end of the game; MCs and ICs count if they have more than half their original wounds, vehicles if they are not immobilized)
Deployment: Spearhead
If having one horde army on the field was tough, having two was almost impossible. We had two and a half hours for this game, and do you know how many turns we got through? Two. And that's with most of the Marine army and half the Orks in reserve the whole time!
So, with two turns obviously not much really happened. First turn I managed to kill the sergeant in the plasma gun Devastator squad with an XV88 and a couple of Termagants with the Hammerhead's large blast, but my Fire Warriors were out of range, there were no vehicles for my Piranhas to go after and most of my XV8 squads were badly positioned. Tim, meanwhile, sent his Trukk full of Tank Bustas into the middle of the board, while one of his mobs snaked around a ruin to get better room to manoeuvre next turn. In our opponents' turn, the missile Devastators killed one of my XV88s, while the plasma gun Devastators threw blast templates into a packed knot of Fire Warriors and Boyz clustered on an objective; my partner lost one or two, while I lost five out of six Fire Warriors. The leadership roll came up snake eyes, however; clearly, this sole survivor wasn't about to show fear while surrounded by eight full tall killing machines. Smart fellow. Matt managed some impressive shooting of his own, wrecking the Trukk with his Hive Guard's shooting and then killing off all but a few of the Tank Bustas.
Turn 2, the Kommandos came in from reserve, and landed nice and close to the Termagants defending the ground floor of the ruins the two Devastator squads were holed up in. There was some more manoeuvring on our side, with me disembarking a unit of Fire Warriors to rapid fire some Termagants that were getting a little too close for comfort, and Tim sending his Boyz down into the valley along the centre of the table to face the Tyranids. And this right here? This is where most of the time went. With bad targets my shooting remained unimpressive; I killed part of a Hive Guard squad and a few Termagants (though only one of the save covers saves the squad getting rapid fired had to take failed), and put some wounds here and there, but I just couldn't make it come together for me. Tim, meanwhile, was readying his attack, and when the assault phase came his Boyz multi-assaulted two units of Termagants, while the Kommandos went up against the unit in the ruins. The Kommandos, owing to going last, took some damage before they slaughtered their targets, while the Boyz, reinforced by the surviving Tank Bustas, tore through the Termagants in the centre of the table. In their turn the Tyranids counter-charged, while the Stormraven with its embarked Sanguinary Guard and Librarian, two squads of Assault Space Marines and one of the Predators, came on from reserve. The Predator put down one of my Piranhas, and one of the Assault squads melta'd my Devilfish to slag, but the other squad managed to roll snake eyes for armour penetration on the side of my Hammerhead; survival! Not, of course, that I would get to do anything with it.
The Tyranids counter-attacked in their turn, after dropping the Doom of Malantai close enough to our objective to contest. And close enough to start making those hated 3D6 leadership tests, though at least this time I knew I could take cover saves against them. That did us in, since the Fire Warriors in the melta'd Devilfish hadn't gotten far enough to claim the second objective on our long table edge, and the enemy still held one of their objectives quite firmly. While the Doom was getting them the primary objectives, the other team set about securing the secondary. The plasma gun Devastators laid down a withering hail of blast templates that decimated the Kommandos, while the missile Devastators failed to so much as scratch the paint on my surviving Piranha, and the Tyranids continued to be surprisingly decent shots, picking away at Fire Warriors, Boyz and XV8s. In the assault phase the Tyranids and the Orks went at it again, taking up most of the second hour of the game with the swirling madness of close combat happening in the centre of the table. In the end it didn't matter, really; the secondary objective was based on units above half strength surviving, and while we hadn't lost many, with three Tervigons on the field the Tyranids had actually managed to gain units over the two turns. The Tervigons all managed to breed themselves out over those two turns, but that hardly mattered at that point.
Result: Major Loss (3 points)
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