Thursday, August 30, 2012

Upcoming Tournament

1250 Tournament coming up on Saturday.

I'm bringing the Greater Good.  What a surprise!

It's a lot like the last list, only no dual ethereal, no markerlights and no Kroot.

Really wish I had an Aegis Defence Line to go with it.

Apparently one can fit 22 Terminators in at 1250 so it's going to be tough,

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Tau 40K: Why I Won

Here's why I won (aside from the cover in Ruins) with the lessons to learn from it.

1) It was a 2000 point tourney.  Everyone else brought 1999+1 lists.  I showed up with 12 troops and double force org.  Build your list to the tournament.

2) No one had ever seen Tau and had no idea about what an Ethereal did.  Because really, who plays Tau?  It's a suck-ass Codex right?  Everyone not Bill focused on my troop not my HQs, Broadsides or Pathfinders.  They know troops equal victory with so many objectives.  However, when I have 100 troops, that's a lot of fire to devote to them to try to take them out.  Also, everyone fell for the Suicide Ethereal.  When the comments of "Whoa, he must be good in melee if you're charging with him."  I'm not giving away my battle plan, my answers were an honest,"He's one of my best melee units in the codex."  Which is a true statement.  You don't know the rules for something ask to see the Codex.

3) In the 3rd match I won primary by 1 point.  I read the mission and was happy to grab the 2 objectives that were worth more points.  I definitely attacked the one in the center which my opponent went for, but that was worth one point.  By his latching on to it and not focusing on the nearer higher points one, he obviously hadn't read it completely.  Always read the missions carefully.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Game On: Game 3 Grey Knight-Crons

Game 3 Vs Dan
Vanguard Strike
This would get repetitive so I’ll summarize this one.
I have 58 points, he has 54 by this point
Primary: Objectives
Secondary: Kill points
Grey Knights With Necrons.

It’s a Draigo Paladin death star with Corteaz.
3 Dreadnoughts.
3 Transports with 3, 3 and 4 guys in them.
The Necron Flyer with some Deathmarks and the HQ.


Deployment:
It's a sparse terrain table.  I have a crater to stick Shadowsun & Ethereal in.

On my side I have a tiny crater, a mini farm house and a fallen pillar for cover.  The center of the table has a house as does my front left.  He's got a grave yard on his side.  The objectives are 1 in the center 1 in each deployment zone and 2 diagonally from the center.  There is a forest next to the house on my right.

I string out my gunline to cover the objectives as best I can.  The HQ takes cover and my broadsides have a decent fire arc.  It's Grey Knights, he has a 24 inch fire reach.  I have 72 to 30.  He's got to come to me if he wants to win.

I seize, Corteaz makes me reroll.  I do not seize twice.

Turn 1.  
He pops my empty transports and focuses on shooting my troops, Kroot are murdered.
I don’t think he understood how many Troops I had.  Corteaz perils twice and takes 2 wounds.

I get my Ethereal to charge the Draigo-star and he gets overwatched into Oblivion.  The army supercharges!

Summary
I shoot the death star, about 1000 shots into it.  Dan-Draigo's Paladins only takes a wound on a “1” from Firewarriors and can FNP most of that away and “Look out Sir!” them around.
For 3 turns I pile on wounds that get parceled around and FNP.  Everything is going into this! 

If I can break Draigo’s Paladins I will win.  If Draigo closes to assault he wins.  It’s that simple.
I ignore the Dreadnoughts who start taking out my troops strung out on the on the right.

Markerlights on the Paladins, broadsides open up first rail and missiles, rapid fire next, single shot Firewarriors after that.  The railguns and missile eventually finish off all the Paladins on the 4 turn.

*Having fought Bill’s army way vital to this match as I refined the cracking of a deathstar.  And Bikerz aren’t as bad as Draigo.

Turn 3
His Necron flyer showed up (unless it was turn 2, it’d been a long day.)  I ignore because it’s annoying with the Tesla, not deadly to my entire army like the Paladins.

The Necrons pop up and he assaults.  Overwatch drops some punks.

Interesting thing, the Leadership manipulation was vital for this as I’d use the Squad’s leadership and they have a better Initiative than the ‘Cron so I could run away and regroup off Shadowsun.

Shadowsun also melta’d the Cron HQ down three times, but the Cron got up twice making me melta it over and over again.

Turn 4
Finish off the Apothecary and Corteaz.  It also saw me start running Firewarriors towards the objectives.

Turn 5
The Cron are down, Draigo’s Paladins are vapor and my broadsides start hitting the transports and Dreads.  Also it’s night fighting.  Bad for him and his dreads, good for the Blacksun filters on the Broadside and the markerlights!

Turn 6
We go into 6.  He’s got 2 troops on the objective in the back field, 1 in the center and 3 more near the building in the center.  I blow up his transport and take out 1 more guy.  Broadsides lay into the troops who go to ground for a 2 up.  My Firewarriors run and make it to the two on my side of the board.

I can’t take out his last Dread nor can I finish off his last 1 guy in the central building nor the 2 outside of it.

It ends.  I would have tabled him in 7.

However, the center objective was worth 1, the others worth 2.  I knew that.  Dan didn’t.  It was in the packet and in the rules but it’d been a long day.

I win primary.  He gets secondary by 2 units.  I get all but 1 bonus point.

Victory: For the Greater GOOD!

Game On- Game 2: Ork-Guard

At lunch Bill and I chat, the only match we don’t want is each other.
Thus of course:

Game 2 vs Bill
Dawn of War
Primary: Area Control
Secondary:  Objectives
Ork+Guard
BikerNobz
Colossus, Manticore, 3x Chimera

On the Strategic Chart I roll “Gain Stealth in Ruins” the entire table is made of ruins.  This wins me the game.

The terrain is: a big tower in the center, two towers on my side with one in the middle back.
Cathedral-ruins in all 4 quarters.   A very symmetrical ruin laden table.


I put one of the Kroot squads as close to his parking lot of Tanks as I can to keep his switching fire, he knows if he focuses the wrong way it’s 30 attacks on rear armor.

Bill has the Bikerz on my left and the parking lot of tanks on the right.
(I forgot to take pictures at this point)

I set up ShadowSun and the Ethereal behind a tower out of LOS.

It’s 2 squads of 9 firewarriors on either side of them them with a pathfinder team on the left.
A Broadside team is in the cathedral ruins to the left, right and center.  Firewarriors are in the left and rightside ruins with a devilfish on either side so 2 of the 6 man teams can embark after the shooting stops.

Turn 1
Bill unleashes hell as templates rain from the sky and the Bikers get closer ready for turn 2 assault.  Kroot die as does a shield drone.

I start peppering the Bikers with fire. “Look out Sir!” and FNP mean the few wounds are passed around.  I move my Firewarriors to screen the HQ Combo and limit assault ability.
My Ethereal charges the Bikerz, dies and the Army Super Charges.

Turn 2
More templates, some FW are lost, and another drone gets popped.  Again the Stealth Ruins are amazing.  The Bikers move in and fall 2 inches short of the assault after killing most of a squad.
A vendetta arrives and takes out some more Firewarriors.

The Boss with a 6 toughness is incredibly hard to take out as I can’t one shot him with a Railgun.
I unleash everything on the Bikerz.  If I get multiassaulted which is likely as I’m clumped up, he wins that turn.  

As he moved in between ruins towards my Firewarriors with the Boss & Bikerz he presents the side bikers to clear close shots from the broadsides.  The Pathfinders light the Biker up so I can open up with all the BS weapons.  ShadowSun leaps out and inflicts 2 wounds.  The broadsides open up with Rails and Missile from both sides thinning down the numbers.  I put in a seeker missile for good measure. The horde of Firewarriors finish them off.

Turn 3
More Pie Plates OF DOOM! from Bill and some back and forth with troops.  The other vendetta and Ork fighter show up at this point.  He thins out some of troops by a couple of heads.
The firewarriors start advancing on the objectives as my Broadsides, freed up from the Death-Star get Markerlight support from the pathfinders to start taking out tanks.  

I spackled most of the tanks except the Manticore which only has 1 shot left at this point.  My firewarriors begin to drop his IG Troops and the left and right flank devilfish fill with FW and start moving up

Turn 4
The vendettas/Ork jet lower squad size for the Firewarriors and the Broadsides are still fine.  The manticore is empty.
My Firewarriors march towards the objectives and the Devilfish moves to quarters.  Then I pop the remaining tank with Broadsides and take out the 2 flyers.  The Firewarriors finish off the Guard Troops and with only a Colussus left on the board Bill surrenders.

Max Points.

Game On Bat Rep 1: Tau vs Blood Guard

2000 points 
We’re running the Feast of Blades Missions
The big thing is I brought a 2000 point double force org chart.  Everyone else brought a 1999+1 list even though it was a 2000 point official event.  12 Troops choices?  Hell yeah!

Game 1 vs Mike
Scenario: Vanguard Strike
Primary: Kill Points
Secondary: Table Quarters

Blood Guard (ie Blood Angels with Guard Allies)
2x Land Raiders with Tact Squads
Multiple Guard Squads with a pile of Auto cannons and a librarian for the reroll
Storm Raven with 5x Terminators
Aegis Defense Line


Deployment
I put my Tau back far enough to tap his gunlines and my broadsides are in cover with good overlapping arcs of fire.  My HQs are safely nestled in cover for a 2+ and I've a Kroot screen out front with the remaining units behind him.


He’s pressed forward against the diagonal line so his auto cannons can reach.
The Tau have a longer range than the Guard so I deploy as shown.
In fact he’s so far forward I can put my Kroot squad behind him!



Mike goes first
Turn 1
He starts moving his guard squads forward and moves the Land Raider out of cover to deal with the Kroot who otherwise would cripple the mortar squads.  The other land raider moves forward towards my gun lines.

The landraider kills 5 Kroot and the guard line kills a few more.

Move the Ethereal up, and I start the 5 remaining back field Kroot towards the Autocannons.

I lay into the Landraider with broadsides and kill it popping out a Termy Librarian with SS/Th and his squad.  The back row FW pop off everyone but the Libby.  I plink down some more of the advancing Guard.

I charge my Ethereal at the Guard Squad who gun him down and make all my saves super charging the army.  Lasgun shot to the head for the greater good!

Turn 2
Mike finishes off the Kroot and his Storm Raven comes in and takes some shots killing a BS Team Shield drone.  His guard units continue to walk into a hail of fire taking heavy casualties.
His Termy-Libby declares assault and dies spectacularly.

Now all I've done, aside from murder my HQ in cold blood and lose some Kroot is stand there an shoot.  It works well with all those markerlights and rerollable "1's."

The land raider comes out of cover again and the Broadsides pop it pinning the Squad inside as the explosion kills 2 of them.  The Stormraven gets immobilized and locked speed.  Most of his units have gone to ground for a better save.

Turn 3
The termies exit the Stormraven before it leaves the board and scatter 7 inches away towards the board edge and no where near my army.
The broadsides tear through the 2 SS/TH upfront and the FW take out 2 of the Claws before returning to picking off the guard.  All the guard squads that had been heading towards me are dead.  His landraiders are toast.  The termies are well out of assault distance and all I’ve lost are some Kroot.

He surrenders.

Max points.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Game On RI Tournament

With a quick note, I'll get the Bat Rep written soon.

The Greater Good placed first!

I won a tournament!

2000 points, double force org!

Saturday, August 4, 2012

6e learnings

Thing #1 to Remember: Firewarriors can move and shoot!

Tau Vs Chaos: 1500 Point Rumble

Thursday I played Frosty's Chaos Marines @ 1500 points with my Blind-Folded Ethereal List.

He's packing a Land Raider, a Demon Prince, Beserkers, Defiler and Troops.

It's 12 inch deployment and 5 objectives.

I deploy first but he steals the initiative.

I've a gun line centered out from ShadowSun with FW wraps around my Broadside teams and the Kroot as close forward as I can put them.

Here's the interesting part:
Frosty knows I want the Ethereal dead to bolster my army and he's doing everything he can to avoid it.
This is actually better than killing the Ethereal as it creates a 12 in bubble around him.

At one point I moved the Ethereal to get in the way of the Landraider Tiamen Square Style.  Instead of Tank Shocking which would be awesome, Frosty run the LR into difficult terrain causing some deployment issues.  At lot of time was spent in avoidance.  The Ethereal lasted till turn 3.

Turn 1, The Defiler unloads on the Kroot as does everything else killing 10 and they fall back.
It's solid plan to take out my only Close Combat Capable Troops to get the beserkers into melee with the squishy fire warriors.

Broadside take out the Defiler, I Marker light the Prince and Dakka it down.

Turn 2+ it's shooting vs advancing Beserkers.

Summary, he got a great assault in with his Termies vs my left wing of Broadsides and was able to hide his troops on a rear objective but the shear volume of fire whittled down his forces.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

You Killed Kenny!


Here's the scaled down version of what I was running last week and will run tomorrow hopefully.

How to play it?  Step 1, put the Ethereal upfront and alone.
Step 2 deploy the gun nest within 18 of Shadowsun.
Use the legion of FW to shield the Broadside teams.

Toss the Kroot upfront to screen and distract.

Murder the Ethereal by any means necessary and then you're rerolling 1's like a BOSS SON! 

Blind-folded Ethereal List 1500

HQ 1 
ShadowSun

HQ 2 
Ethereal
Troop 1
9 Firewarriors
Troop 2
9 Firewarriors
Troop 3
9 Firewarriors
Troop 4
9 Firewarriors
Troop 5
9 Firewarriors
Troop 5
17 Kroot
Heavy 1
Broadside 1 + MultiTracker
Broadside 2 + MultiTracke
Broadside 3 +5 MultiTracker
+5 Serg +3 HWBSF
Heavy 2
Broadside 1 + MultiTracker
Broadside 2 + MultiTracke
Broadside 3 +5 MultiTracker
+5 Serg +3 HWBSF
Fast Attack 1
Pathfinders x8 Devilfish with Disruption Pod
+TL +BSF