Pre-game Thoughts
This will be a quick and succint battle report of a game I played yesterday on Vassal. It was my second test game with the 2000 points Necron list. The first game was against Space Wolves where I got pretty lucky and tabled him. My opponent this game was running an odd but powerful Space Marines list. He had:
Vulkan
Pedro
5 scouts w/ cloaks and sniper rifles
5 scouts w/ cloaks and sniper rifles
10 sternguard, all with combi-meltas in a pod w/ locator beacon
10 sternguard, all with combi-meltas in a pod w/ locator beacon
10 sternguard, all with combi-meltas in a pod w/ locator beacon
2 speeders vulkan-style MM/HF
2 speeders MM/HF
2 speeders MM/HF
Mission was sieze ground (5 objectives); deployment was Dawn of War. The objectives were crammed together in the centre of the table.
One look and it's pretty clear to an experienced player how the list works. I suppose it could catch someone off guard if they hadn't played against this style of list. It's pretty tough and it can dish out a strong alpha strike with 36 twin-linked melta shots. I knew I couldn't let those hit my warriors.
Deployment
With this in mind I won the roll for first turn and gave it to my opponent. It meant he would get the side with more objectives but it was worth it because denying him the drop melta alpha strike was critical. He placed his scouts in cover on an objective on the left side of the board (from my perspective) with the speeders rolling on turn 1.
I deployed nothing. Scarabs would zip on turn 1 (as a bait), monoliths deep strike. Everything else in reserve.
Turn 1
He drops 2 pods, one with Vulkan + sternguard and one with Pedro + sternguard in the centre of the table, on the objectives. Notably, he didn't combat squad them. I meant to ask him why after the game but forgot. Speeders zoom in behind them.
I put my scarabs behind a hill on my right as a bait. Everything else is in reserve.
Turn 2
He plays it smart and doesn't take the bait. He drops his third pod in the middle. Vulkan's squad is on the left, pedro's is on the right and the regular sternguard are behind them. He zooms one speeder squadron down my left flank while the others stay with his vanguard.
I get both monoliths, both warrior squads, both tomb spyders, one destroyer and one immortal squad. My Monoliths deepstriked onto 2 objectives, pushing his guys out of the way. I put the destroyers and spyders in the middle of my deployment zone, and immortals on the left. Scarabs turbo-boosted forward with warriors behind them on the right. Everything had cover. Destroyers killed a speeder on the left after he passes 11 out of 12 cover saves.
Turn 3
He blasts my monoliths with melta fire, destroying one and putting 4 weapon destroyed results on the other (which hardly make a difference) and stunning it.
I get the rest of my reserves. My shooty Necrons (immortals and destroyers) are all on my left flank. My assault units (monstrous creatures) go up the middle straight for the objectives but they're still out of charge range. Scarabs move in for the assault while the warriors remain on my right flank (I'm waiting to teleport them onto the objectives). In shooting I reduce Vulkan's squad to 4 models and the Deceiver makes the regular sternguard squad run away. I also immobilize his lone speeder on the left. Scarabs assault Vulkan's squad.
Turn 4
His Sternguard squad can't regroup because my Monolith is within 6" so they keep running but not off the board. His units are out of range of my Necrons so he kills a Tomb Spyder.
I turbo-boost one Destroyer squadron towards his scouts to contest the objective next turn. I shoot Pedro's squad down to two models and they flee. The Tomb Spyder joins the Vulkan vs Scarabs assault (scarabs are almost wiped out by now). One Warrior squad on the right moves forward to capture an objective while the other moves closer to the Monolith.
Turn 5
All of his dudes regroup. One speeder squadron moves in to contest my objective, while Pedro and a Sternguard vet capture another. He shoots at the turbo-boosting destroyers, killing them. In the assault he wipes out both the Scarab squad and the Tomb Spyder.
It's the bottom of five and he has 2 objectives while I have zero. I move my Monolith towards Pedro's objective, contesting it. One Warrior squad portals through the Monolith and captures another objective. Destroyers move forward to contest the scouts' objective next turn. I shoot everything at the Speeder squadron contesting my right objective, killing both. In the assault the Deceiver wipes out Vulkan's squad but Vulkan stays alive.
I have 2 objectives and he has 1. The game continues.
Turn 6
He zooms another speeder squadron to contest my objective on the right. He has very few units left at this point. In the assault the Deceiver whiffs and misses Vulkan with all four attacks.
In shooting I kill one of his speeders but he makes tons of cover saves so the other one survives. I assault his scouts with my destroyers and tie them up.
I have 1 objective, he has 0. Game ends.
Postgame
There are several ways to defeat a Deep Striking army and reserving a large portion of your army is one method. It takes their best strength away from them (alpha strike). Going second really helps as well. In the case of sternguard, they are slow and vulnerable after they've been dropped.
My opponent played well, dropping in the middle of the board. It meant he would be out of range of my Necrons, but that's better than being slaughtered on the turn I rolled onto the board. There really wasn't much he could do without transports for his Sternguard. Drop Pod armies are not flexible so they can't adapt if faced with someone who knows how to beat them. Podding Sternguard is great on paper but doesn't hold up that well in real games.
At the end of the game I had lost:
-Scarabs
-Tomb Spyders
- Monolith
-3 Destroyers
He had lost:
-4 speeders + 1 immobilized
-about 25 Sternguard
-Vulkan
Showing posts with label Space Marines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space Marines. Show all posts
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Battle Missions Tournament Game 3
At this point, there were three people who had won all three games. One Lash Chaos, one Orks, and me with Necrons. The Chaos and Orks were paired up against each other while I was paired up with Nathan, who had one draw vs. Cory's Daemons who I played in game 2, and a win against the Chaos player I played against in round one. Now Nathan and I are good friends, and we play each other all the time. In fact, I had played him the day before and beat him in capture and control. We didn't need to exchange lists because we already knew them.
Nathan's list was:
Librarian w/ Bike, Null Zone and Vortex of Doom
Rifleman Dreadnought (2x TL autocannon)
10-man Tactical Squad w/ Flamer, Multi-melta, Power Fist + Rhino w/ Extra Armor
10-man Tactical Squad w/ Flamer, Multi-melta, Power Fist + Rhino w/ Extra Armor
2 Attack Bikes w/ Multi-meltas
2 Attack Bikes w/ Multi-meltas
2 Attack Bikes w/ Multi-meltas
Vindicator
Predator w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Setup
So in this round we roll on the Battle Missions random chart to see what mission we get. We got the Tau Mission "Counter Attack" which is where the player who goes first can only deploy his HS and Troops choices, but they gain the Stealth USR. Deployment is Spearhead, and everything else must enter from the board edges that are not part of either players' deployment zone. The player who goes second can deploy anything. Objective is kill points.
Deployment
He deploys his Vindicator and pred in forests, the vindy was quite far forward. His tactical marines were in their rhinos near his table edge.
I placed my monolith and C'tan forward. I had a crazy plan for this mission. My idea was to line up my guys along his entry point to my left so he had to come in on the opposite side of the board. With this in mind, I packed my scarabs, destroyers and one warrior squad as far to the left as I could. The other warrior squad was behind the C'tan and monolith.
Turn 1
He doesn't move anything. First shot of the game: his vindicator blows up my monolith. His predator downs a destroyer or two but they get back up.
I turbo-boost my scarabs to line up on the table edge to my left. The destroyers and warriors fill in the remaining gaps. Deceiver moves forward. My destroyers get side armor shots on his vindicator, which did not have cover, and they blow it up.
Turn 2
His dreadnought, librarian and one attack bike squad come in from reserves. The libby attaches to the attack bikes. In total his shooting reduces the deceiver to two wounds, and downs 3 destroyers.
One of my destroyers get back up, so there's 3 alive total. I move my deceiver forward and my shooting is useless : (
Turn 3
The rest of his reserves come onto the table, and he focus-fires on the deceiver, killing it.
Now that all of his reserves are on the table, I turbo-boost my scarabs forward so that next turn I can tie up his attack bikes. In shooting, my destroyers pop one of his rhinos.
Kill Points: 2-2
Turn 4
He repositions his stuff, and focus-fires on the scarabs, killing a couple but for the most part their 2+ cover save protects them.
My shooting fails and I charge my scarabs into his bikes.
Turn 5
He charges his tactical squad into the scarabs and one scarab lives through the fight.
My destroyers kill the other rhino, then the last scarab is killed in the assault. Nathan has killed way more stuff than I have, but we're tied in Kill Points at 3 each.
The game continues.
Turn 6
He moves his attack bikes forward and focus-fires my destroyers, killing them.
I move my warriors forward (I've also been moving them forward in the past couple turns). One of his attack bikes took a wound during the CC so I choose them as my target. The first squad of warriors fire at them, reducing it to one two-wound attack bike. Now, my other warrior squad rapid-fires, doing 6 wounds. Nathan makes 5 out of his 6 rolls, meaning the bike survives and the Kill Points score is 4-3.
The game ends.
Postgame
Another close, exciting game. The monolith going down before I could even move was unfortunate, but that's what happens sometimes, and you have to work with what you've got.
In the other game, the Orks stomped the Lash Chaos army. This meant Alex, the Ork player, was the only one with three wins, so he got first place. Nathan, my last round opponent, got second place with 2 wins and a draw. I tied for third with Amin, the Chaos player. Muskie won Best Painted with his Death Guard which has beautiful free-hand on the Land Raider.
One conclusion that I have come to in my experience is that smaller tournaments actually have the potential to be more competitive. Not competitive as in WAAC but rather that the tournament can be run very well and find who the best player is much easier. There were no soft scores at all in this tourney and nobody had any problems with sportsmanship or anything like that. Then again this may have been because most of us were friends. The Best Painted award didn't factor into overall scores but there was a fully painted requirement to enter the tourney. Everyone had nicely painted armies.
The only thing I would have changed is that you should only be allowed to have one list, but I can see the reasoning behind two because some of the Battle Missions are very oddball so it prevents you from getting totally screwed. Also at 1250 you don't really have enough to make a full army so parts will be lacking and having two lists partially solves this problem.
Nathan's list was:
Librarian w/ Bike, Null Zone and Vortex of Doom
Rifleman Dreadnought (2x TL autocannon)
10-man Tactical Squad w/ Flamer, Multi-melta, Power Fist + Rhino w/ Extra Armor
10-man Tactical Squad w/ Flamer, Multi-melta, Power Fist + Rhino w/ Extra Armor
2 Attack Bikes w/ Multi-meltas
2 Attack Bikes w/ Multi-meltas
2 Attack Bikes w/ Multi-meltas
Vindicator
Predator w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Setup
So in this round we roll on the Battle Missions random chart to see what mission we get. We got the Tau Mission "Counter Attack" which is where the player who goes first can only deploy his HS and Troops choices, but they gain the Stealth USR. Deployment is Spearhead, and everything else must enter from the board edges that are not part of either players' deployment zone. The player who goes second can deploy anything. Objective is kill points.
Deployment
He deploys his Vindicator and pred in forests, the vindy was quite far forward. His tactical marines were in their rhinos near his table edge.
I placed my monolith and C'tan forward. I had a crazy plan for this mission. My idea was to line up my guys along his entry point to my left so he had to come in on the opposite side of the board. With this in mind, I packed my scarabs, destroyers and one warrior squad as far to the left as I could. The other warrior squad was behind the C'tan and monolith.
Turn 1
He doesn't move anything. First shot of the game: his vindicator blows up my monolith. His predator downs a destroyer or two but they get back up.
I turbo-boost my scarabs to line up on the table edge to my left. The destroyers and warriors fill in the remaining gaps. Deceiver moves forward. My destroyers get side armor shots on his vindicator, which did not have cover, and they blow it up.
Turn 2
His dreadnought, librarian and one attack bike squad come in from reserves. The libby attaches to the attack bikes. In total his shooting reduces the deceiver to two wounds, and downs 3 destroyers.
One of my destroyers get back up, so there's 3 alive total. I move my deceiver forward and my shooting is useless : (
Turn 3
The rest of his reserves come onto the table, and he focus-fires on the deceiver, killing it.
Now that all of his reserves are on the table, I turbo-boost my scarabs forward so that next turn I can tie up his attack bikes. In shooting, my destroyers pop one of his rhinos.
Kill Points: 2-2
Turn 4
He repositions his stuff, and focus-fires on the scarabs, killing a couple but for the most part their 2+ cover save protects them.
My shooting fails and I charge my scarabs into his bikes.
Turn 5
He charges his tactical squad into the scarabs and one scarab lives through the fight.
My destroyers kill the other rhino, then the last scarab is killed in the assault. Nathan has killed way more stuff than I have, but we're tied in Kill Points at 3 each.
The game continues.
Turn 6
He moves his attack bikes forward and focus-fires my destroyers, killing them.
I move my warriors forward (I've also been moving them forward in the past couple turns). One of his attack bikes took a wound during the CC so I choose them as my target. The first squad of warriors fire at them, reducing it to one two-wound attack bike. Now, my other warrior squad rapid-fires, doing 6 wounds. Nathan makes 5 out of his 6 rolls, meaning the bike survives and the Kill Points score is 4-3.
The game ends.
Postgame
Another close, exciting game. The monolith going down before I could even move was unfortunate, but that's what happens sometimes, and you have to work with what you've got.
In the other game, the Orks stomped the Lash Chaos army. This meant Alex, the Ork player, was the only one with three wins, so he got first place. Nathan, my last round opponent, got second place with 2 wins and a draw. I tied for third with Amin, the Chaos player. Muskie won Best Painted with his Death Guard which has beautiful free-hand on the Land Raider.
One conclusion that I have come to in my experience is that smaller tournaments actually have the potential to be more competitive. Not competitive as in WAAC but rather that the tournament can be run very well and find who the best player is much easier. There were no soft scores at all in this tourney and nobody had any problems with sportsmanship or anything like that. Then again this may have been because most of us were friends. The Best Painted award didn't factor into overall scores but there was a fully painted requirement to enter the tourney. Everyone had nicely painted armies.
The only thing I would have changed is that you should only be allowed to have one list, but I can see the reasoning behind two because some of the Battle Missions are very oddball so it prevents you from getting totally screwed. Also at 1250 you don't really have enough to make a full army so parts will be lacking and having two lists partially solves this problem.
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