Blog Wars 6 - result

Saturday was great at Blog Wars 6, Alex put on a great event, probably one of the friendliest and relaxed tournament atmosphere I've been to. That didn't stop me getting my usual nerves or clumsiness but it did mean a lot of fun was had. Ultimately I came 4th out of 32 which wasn't bad considering I lost my first game quite foolishly. I also won best painted army, as you can see from the poor scan of my framed (!) winning certificate, I also came runner up in the best painted character.

With my winnings I treated my Dark Angels to one of these as it was only 30p more:

Big question is how do I paint it:

1. Dark Angels Green
2. Ferron Proxima red
3. Matt Black Honored Imperium Verdigris Copper
4. Combination of 2 for the walls and 3 for the metal reinforcements

Anyway, I'll post some [less than comprehensive] battle reports when I get chance but first game was against Tyranids, which was a similar list to my own but in the hands of Adam who had only 10 games under his belt. I threw that one away somehow - too many conservative approaches to current games when I should have gone uber aggresive, he did and won.

Second game was against, erm, 'nids and Phil from Armoured Sentinel. This was the most fun I've had gaming in a long time. There were some absolutely hilarious moments and Phil was a real sport even when things started going comically wrong for him. It may not have been as much fun for him on the receiving end, the 25:1 score line implies he was practically tabled but there was a lot of give and take, I just ended up in objective scoring positions.

Last game was against 'nid... killers - Dark Eldar with Eldar allies. Daniel's army was heavy on the Reavers and light on poisoned weapons but again I made a tactical error in the first turn and spent a lot of time trying to catch up. Somehow I was able to be in objective scoring positions as the time ran out, we were 15 minutes shorter to try and get finished on time. I didn't get my full turn but if we'd have had the extra 15 minutes I may well have lost in turn 5, swings and roundabouts.

I'll get the reports done asap, thanks to everyone I played. Incidentally PeteB managed to fill in for a 'no show' and came 26th. He was hoping for the wooden spoon at one stage but managed win one, fortunately/unfortunately depending on how much he wanted the wooden spoon and £5 booby voucher!

Scythe & Teacup 1850pt battle report - nids vs Dark Eldar and Chaos Allies - game1

Given the extra points than I'm used to using I went with 2 Hive Tyrants and then gave my Warlord Hive Commander just to have some fun outflanking a Tervigon, that way I could have 6 things turning up on turn 2 [if he survived] - Mawloc, 5 Ymgarls, Doom, 10 Devgaunts in Pod, Tervigon and the 2nd Hive Tyrant. Lets see someone resolve that target priority.

I took less photographs than usual so hopefully it'll be quicker to do the reports sbut maybe more sketchy in what went on.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Winged Tyrant Tervigon CC TR Tervigon Plain Tr Endurance Smite Endurance Enfeeble Warp Speed Enfeeble Iron Arm Warp Speed Doom of Malan'tai  Psychic Shriek

The low down:

• 6 objectives, equally spaced
• Dawn of War
• Line breaker and Slay the Warlord, no First Blood
• I won deployment and went first.
• Warlord Trait - Night Fighting - of no use against Dark Eldar.

Will, was my opponent, he had plenty of Dark Eldar [which I forget their names] including 7 Venoms and 3 Ravagers with some Chaos allies of Obliterators, cultists and a Heldrake. I moved forwards cautiously, maybe stupidly. Tervigon spawned out on 9. 

The flyrant was open to the Venoms and the Ravager on the right so I flew him towards the trees just out of shot.

More Venoms than you can shake a stick at. Having been tabled last time I played Dark Eldar I felt slightly more confident in that my six turn 2 'beta strikers' should do some serious damage.

My Ymgarls were asleep in the shrine area, waiting for victims.

My Flyrant on the right flank.

I think the Tervigon took a couple of wounds but most of Will's shooting was ineffective. Although I don't think that unit of gaunts in the crater survived as they don't appear in any further pictures.

With my Warlord still alive I got my +1 to reserves, but the Ymgarls failed to turn up as did the Devgaunts in their pod! So much for beta strike. The Doom pod deviated but I got within range of the Oblits and sucked the 3 wounds out of them. The Flyrant managed to get a Hull Point on the Ravager, meh!

With only two wounds remaining I send the Tervigon forwards, it was either that our skulk back, which may have been the better option.

Hive Guard enter the Iceblood River, one takes a wound.

Flyrant manages a Hull point vector striking the Venom bu fails Devourers on something else. Mawloc misses and the outflanking Tervigon doesn't do much. My 'beta-strike' sucked the big one.

Heldrake arrives and flames the spawned gaunts. Tervigon implodes.

The Doom sucked another wound, I should have insisted the already wounded Oblit take it but didn't want to be an a$$ so he got two shots on the Doom and he was insta-killed - the price of kindness ;)

The Flyrants on 3 wounds bu manages to chase down the Heldrake and tears it a new one. It blows up and crashes backwards into the iceblood river where it can do no harm. The Mawloc just in view in the top right smashes the Venom, disgorging the Homunculus and his retinue. He would later kill him getting me Slay the Warlord.

Having secured the Bastion with my Biovores Will manages to target it with Dark lances which blows the thing sky high, killing the Biovores and a nearby Hive Guard.

The second Flyrant [with 3 wounds remaining] Vector Strikes a venom with 4 hits, manages to wreck it and then with it's Brainleech worms pins the cultists. I later reposition him to contest the objective and Enfeeble the cultists so they will struggle to reclaim the objective.

The Devgaunts arrive to hold my objective but are quickly removed from play by the Dark Eldar.

Warriors on the far side of the river target the last Hive Guard, wounding 5 times but his armour is impenetrable and does not lose his last wound.

The game ends and somehow I've won 5 VPs to 4 VPs. I'm assuming the outflanking Tervigon captured an objective as I had Line Breaker and Slay the Warlord and Will had Line Breaker and 1 objective. However, there were victory points too for the units you killed, but to get them you had to kill a unit and it's transport. Just taking out one element was not enough. So although I had won my FOC points were quite low and Will, although losing, had made quite a few points, with 1130 points in tatters.

I have to admit I was physically drained after this game. It was such a close thing at the end. Splinter rifles are relentless, Will did say it was one of the most tactical games he'd played. It felt to me like game three on a Throne of Skulls not game 1 at a local tournie. I was shattered and still two games to go!

Throne of Skulls Mar '13 - Battle 3, Tyranids Vs Dark Eldar

Game 3 and I'm hoping for my first win...

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Tervigon CC troop Tervigon Plain troop Broodlord [Adrenal] Iron Arm Iron Arm Warp Speed Iron Arm Haemorrhage Haemorrhage Enfeeble Endurance Doom of Malan'tai Cataclysm

The low down:

• Purge the Alien.
• Hammer and Anvil :(
• I lost deployment.
• Warlord Trait - Outflank.

Phil Clee - Dark Eldar. I think that win is going to elude me here. Having faced my Mate Liams Dark Eldar before I know I'm already at a disadvantage. With a Dark Eldar force filled with Raiders, Venoms and Ravagers with those shields that reduce my shooting range by 6" not to mention Hammer and Anvil setup and kill points, although Phil does start with 14 kill points on the table to my 11, I'm reduced to hiding everything behind this building about half way into my Deployment Zone with my defence line just in front of it.

Phil positions half way into his deployment zone so there's nearly four feet of killing fields between both forces, of which I have a maximum range of 18" with the Hive Guard, 12" with Devourers and 6" with Fleshborers!

Raiders, Ravagers and Venoms move out first. I didn't bother trying to steal but suddenly though that was a mistake as I could have Iron Armed the Tervigon and Broodlord.

Except it wouldn't have mattered if they'd ended up St10 as his poisonous weapons put wounds on Hive Guard and Broodlord with ease. I also had a moment where I tried to get extra cover saves from Night Fighting only to be pointed out that Dark Eldar can see in the dark, so no bonus.

I snuck the Broodlord in the back so I could keep from losing First Blood. I don't spawn for fear of losing my VP advantage and lack of spacebehind the building. I'm not entirely sure what my plan is at the moment. I think I was hoping to not get shot until the Winged Tyrant, Doom and Trygon Deep Struck and that would allow me to come forward. However I was still being shot with impunity so Phil could have sat there each turn and eventually my force would have succombed. At some point I would have to bring it to him. The defence line though was really helping with saving throws.

My Turn 2 and all my reserves arrive. Sadly not in time for the Doom to suck life but luckily any deviations didn't result in wounds to creatures.

The Raider get's pummelled but I think Phil had already made First Blood at this stage.

Given the mech arrayed against me I had opted to keep Cataclysm on the Doom and fired it at the now exposed Dark Eldar only for it to miss, deviate onto the Trygon who wa scompletely unaffected and then typically the drain on the Doom was 3 wounds! The Spore Pod attempts to lash the Venom with its Ripper Tentacles but a quick discussion regarding the 6" reduction in range of weapons and it's decided it can't hit the Venom 1" away. Post match discussion would reveal it never renders weapons with a 6" range down to 0, not that it would have change the games outcome but I may have managed to glance the Venom to death.

The Crushing Claws Tervigon was despatched, the other Tervigon has taken 4 wounds, a Hive Guard is gone and I've 6 remaining Termagants and no Devgaunts!

The Doom gets shot by the Warriors and he fails two saves and dies. The Trygon also gets targetted and suffers 4 wounds.

Then gets shot again and I have to make 4 saves, but only pass 2 so another Monstrous Creature falls for not much gain.

With no other choice I Vector Strike the Venom with my Winged Tyrant and he spanks it royally.

With the Archon and his retinue exposed I shoot with my remaining Twin-linked Devourers... 

and get 5 Precision shots on the Archon!

But he manages to Look Out Sir! or save them all with only a single loss to his unit, damn!

The Archon heads for my defence line.

The Winged Tyrant lands and fires point blank into the Raider, exploding it and killing four of the Warriors embarked, another VP at least.

I spawn 10 termagants to give me some firepower at least. They may have overcome the Archon and his retinue for 2 more VPs but I was still way behind.

And this is the Winged Hive Tyrant's armour saves, having taken two wounds he was unsurprisingly deaded.

Having made the decision to advance instead of hide the inevitable happened and I was tabled, the first time ever I believe. Phil ended up with 14VPs, just failing to get Linebreaker to complete the whitewash. I managed to get 6.

In fairness to Phil he was apologetic at the end for trouncing me so royally, he was actually cheering me on when his Archon was killed. But I always knew this was going to be tough and despite Phil's graciousness and my renewed attitude to enjoy gaming, whatever the trials and tibulations, there's no way to describe this other than unpleasant. We made the best of it and I'd love to play Phil again, I'm just cottoning on to the widely known fact that Dark Eldar are the absolute nemesis to 'nids. Even if I could get in range of his vehicles they can easily move out of range again. I think I'd rather face Necrons, they may have all the tricks and outmatch me in every way but in most games I've played there've been moments where I could swing it.

Finally my Winged Hive Tyrant did some good but the star of the show is the only thing left on the board - my Defence Line. Seriously it must have paid for itself ten times over, sadly it wasn't enough for the numerous bugs seeking cover behind it. And that's a point I kept hearing, apparently folks don't think 'nids should hide behind walls. Well having a copy of the Codex I can inform them that in particular the likes of Hive Guard and Tervigons are bio-constructs that's specific purposes are defensive. Hive Guard, erm, guard the hive and Tervigons roam the inside of Tyranid space craft spawning Termagants as and when a threat is detected. Defence Lines, Bastions and other fortifications can be very much a part of the Tyranid battle force, either as Imperial architecture that has been infested with Tyranid biology or Tyranid biological constructs themselves, similar to Spore Chimneys. Just because on the face of it they should run head first into contact doesn't stop them being tactical, afterall there is an alien intelligence controlling them.

Gaming with my mate Liam

My mate Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame dropped me a line the other day asking if I wanted a game. He'd only just got 6th edition so how could I refuse the opportunity to 'pop his cherry'. If  you look back in the history of my gaming crew you may get a feel for how long it's been since I gamed with Liam and also the all night parties he used to hold in his house were legendary and I owe a certain amount to them that has resulted in my continued relationship with my then girlfriend and now wife, but I digress.

Liam now lives near Bolton, about 40 minutes away and so I pootled up there to have our first game in about 20 years. Before I get to the game here's a little treat, if you look back at all the ebay sales he's done you should know he can paint like a fiend and you can see that in these giant eagles he made out of war griffons.

The full swoop of three eagles for his high elf army. So well painted it's frightening.

OK, so here's the battle 1,500 pts, Dawn of War setup, Purge the Alien-  Eternal War Mission. I had the 'nids, obviously and Liam was using his Dark Eldar, my first time fighting the naughty space pixies. Liam won the roll to setup and first turn. From many discussions I've had with Liam he has a firm belief he is cursed with bad luck, I therfore was hesitant to attempt stealing the initiative and confirm his belief, luckily I failed. Most of my force was lined up as you see, with the adrenal stealers in the crater top left and the Ymgarls in the Shrine of the Aquila, which is where most of his Grotesques were hiding.

You can just about make out the Grotesques and two Ravagers in the ruin. A couple of Webway portals appeared either side of the Shrine.

The Ravagers moved of cover and targeted the Tyranid Warriors, their high strength weapons insta-killing the entire unit. First Blood to Liam and one kill point. Everything of mine moved up, some shooting happened but the Hive Guard could only reach the Grotesques and managed a couple of wounds.

Liam's next turn and a squad of jetbikes came screaming out of the portal. [you've got a love his bases!]

The entire unit blasted across the battlefield and deftly pirouetted to face the direction they'd come just in time to see the mass detonation of the cluster caltrops they'd scattered as they overflew the genestealers.

Despite casting Endurance [the ymgarl marker was my reminder for this] on the unit only one stealer survived and the Broodlord took one wound courtesy of the cluster caltrops.

Meanwhile a unit of  Helions, including his Warlord Baron Sathonyx flew into the ruined shrine, one inexperienced Helion flying straight into a girder.

The Hive Tyrant/Hive Guard managed to put a hull point or two on one of the Ravagers, their chameleon like armour coating making them very difficult to hit. The Tervigon had spawned 10 termagants and pooped out.

Inside the grim facade of the Shrine Baron Sathonyx urged the Grotesques to hold fast and let the Tyranid horde come to them.

The Mycetic Spore landed just shy of being sucked into the webway portal. The Devgaunts swarmed forth and fired point blank into the Helions, doing serious damage to the flyboys and girls. Everything else converged on the ruins, ripping through the weakened walls to get at the Grotesques inside.

The Trygon reached the Ravager and smashed it to pieces, I'd forgotten to test for instinctive behaviour but he passed retrospectively.

The Reavers blasted across the battlefield, their cluster caltrops annihilating the Devgaunts this time. Meanwhile the Helions moved to assault the Trygon and a unit of Wyches scrambled onto the wreckage of the Ravager to take potshots at it too,

The Hormagaunts continued to assault the Grotesques but another unit of Wyches came out of the webway portal, they moved to get a decent position to assault next turn. The Termagants were down to two at this stage but were eventually wiped out as was the Broodlord and stealers. The Mycetic Spore got blasted too, if I recall and I'm guessing the Hive Tyrant given how many VPs Liam was racking up.

Eventually the last chance I had was the Trygon to assault baron Sythorax and take out his unit, getting points for killing the Warlord and the Unit. Everything was going to plan until I remembered yet again I'd forgotten to test for Instinctive behaviour and this time it failed so all the damge the Helions received would now be on the Wyches in the wreckage of the Ravager as they were the nearest target. Unfortunately this would be AFTER they got their strikes due to me assaulting through cover. Thus the Trygon was slaughtered before it could even get into combat with them. In the end I was pretty hammered. We were playing into the early hours of the morning and with the Trygon going postal on the Wyches I had little chance of salvaging any respect. I think I'd scored one VP and had another for Linebreaker but Liam was up to about 7,8 or 9 VPs before I called it.

So what's to learn from this? I setup really wrong, I'm always of a mind to close the distance, maybe once in a while I need to hang back and draw the enemy forwards, get them to commit and then steam roll in. Dark Eldar were a whole new prospect for me so I should be better prepared next time. I dunno how to counter the jetbikes, their cluster caltrops were awesome, who needs assaulting from reserve when you can drop those babies on a fly-past. I also positioned the stealers wrong and the Ymgarls got toasted by the Helions by assaulting in cover - a total waste. Not my finest hour and I have to agree Liam does roll an awful lot of 1's and I did manage a lot of 6's so I did have some advantages. Statistically there seemed a lot of anomalies but I look forward to a rematch soon and maybe making some better tactical decisions.