1750 Tournie Wrapup

We had our 1750 Tournie today, had a great turn out of i believe 16 people.  We played the 40k Championship scenario's you can find on Adepticon's website if your interested in the full details of each, ill sum each battle up below though.

http://www.adepticon.org/wpfiles/2010/201040KChampPrimer.pdf

My List, so you dont have to go back to other posts...



-Command Squad W/Straken, medic, 2 grenade launchers, astropath, bodyguard, Chimera

-Vet Squad W/ 2Melta, grenade launcher(in Vendetta)
-Vet Squad W/ 2Melta, grenade launcher(in Vendetta)
-Vet Squad W/ 3Melta, Chimera
-Penal Legion Squad

-Marbo

-Vendetta W/ Heavy Bolter sides
-Vendetta
-3x Armored Sentinels, W/ Plasma Cannons

-Manticore
-Leman Russ battle tank, W/ Lascannon front
-Leman Russ Demolisher



Battle 1:  VS Dan's Mech Guard

Dan had a mech guard list as well, he had something akin to 3 2Sentinel squads, 4 or so Chimera's with Vets, Chimera with HQ, triple Hydra squadron, Leman Russ Punisher W/ Pask, 2 Gryphon heavy mortar squadron and for the cherry a Rhino carrying an Inquisitor and Mystics.

I rolled first turn and deployed in a long spread across my board.  Penal legion went psychopath as usual and outflanked with marbo somewhere out there.  Dan spread his setup as well in response, with all sentinels on the left, hydras in the middle, and mortors plus russ on the right.

The first two turns had a lot of bloodshed, i poped his command out and destroyed 2 of the hydras.  Dan immobilized both vendetta's, then killed one.

After that i managed to deal with each chimera Vet squad that raced into my lines within a single turns shooting, but other then that the rest of the board more or less shot each others bits off with little actually dieing.  The Penal legion came in and tied up 2 squads of sentinels for 3 turns before finally dieing to a sweeping advance.  Marbo showed up and threw Pask a Demo charge, sadly Pask caught it and chucked it back....Marbo ducked in time, but Pask used that time to back up and pour 23 Strength 5 shots into em....Marbo Almost survived and failed a mere 3 saves before continuing his uselessness in the box.

The end result was a hard fought slug fest, in the end i came out on top of KP's and managed to scrape together a 303 victory point lead, securing me the primary and Tertiary objectives.


Battle 2: VS Jeff's Tau

Jeff brought a Hammerhead, Skyray, two devilfish, a squadron of Paranah, 2 squads of stealth suits, a squad of crisis suits,a commander in crisis suit, and some pathfinders.

Jeff rolled first turn, but as it was a Dawn of war style battle had me take first turn instead.  I deployed a Chimera and Vets eighteen inches out in the middle in the hope i could have it searchlight whatever the tau would have out.

 Jeff deployed a Devilfish nearish the middle behind a wall, but close enough with a little luck i was able to race my chimera forward six inches and tag it with the multi laser and thus searchlight.  My 2 vendetta's that skim'd on were then able to light it up from afar and managed to stun and immobilize it through their tau cover saves.

Jeff didnt manage much with night fight going on, but did shake the chimera with its bright light shining.  I feel bad for Jeff though because our battles seem to be similar each time and i think the Tau just really need a new codex or something because Jeff is a good and thoughtful player.  By that i mean on turn two i wiped out nearly all of his ranged serious anti tank, the skyray, the hammerhead and one pirahana went down hard.  From there it was a sorta mop up operation from the left to right, though his stealth suits did an amazing job when they dropped in felling both Vendetta's, the Demolisher, and the Manticore which amounted to i believe the only things that i lost.

In the end Jeff controlled no terrain elements and i controlled many, i stomped his commander in close combat with Sentinels, and had vastly greater VP's in pocket.  I also managed all of the bonus points, with a Vet squad holding the center point bunker, Straken still alive and beating ass in his deployment zone, and a 4 to 1 troop choice ratio.


Battle 3: VS Ron's Aerial Assault Guard

Another guard army >.<, though at least this one was pretty vastly different.  Ron used a simple list on paper, a command squad and 7 vet squads with flamers and demolitions, mounted in a squadron of 3 Valkryie, and 2 squads of 2 Vendetta's.

Ron rolled first turn, but gave it to me.  We had table quarters and i assumed he gave me first turn so he could deepstrike or outflank on me, so as the terrain was a ruined city with large multilevel ruins i choose to castle in my corner near the objectives which were out in what amounts to a sort of long large courtyard in the middle.

However Ron decided to deploy everything, he decided he could out range me i believe was his plan.  So he deployed a vendetta squad and valkryie squad behind a couple buildings large enough to shield much of it from my castle, and the other vendetta squad went way in the back.  We scout moved, i brought my Vendetta's out to get good fields of fire on his closest squadron, and he moved the far away squadron farther away and more to my side.

 By the end of my turn 2's shooting, 1 valkryie was wrecked, and all 4 Vendetta's were as well.  I wouldn't call it all luck(but luck helped im sure), Manticore's and Leman Russ blasts rarely miss when fired at huge models like the Valkryie...but then when you've got this many of them clumped up out there it gets nasty.  The Squadron rules were definitely to blame as well, at least 2 of them wrecked from Immobilize results.  Even Marbo managed to do something (shocking i know), in a somewhat climactic looking kill he appeared on a floor the same height as a vendetta and chucked his demo pack with all the fury of the rage quitter he is.  Of course after this shining achievement he charged the FOUR remained guardsmen, killed one, and died to the other 3's attacks ........

It was another mop up operation from here, his other Valkryies made "death or glory" moves to the center of the map even attempting Grav-Chute insertions along the way, of which 1 squad went splat on the side of a russ after watching their command squad land beautifully.  Eventually the guardsmen who had all been dismounted made their way to the center to die, i was grateful Ron wasn't one of those players that holds their stuff back in bunkers doing nothing more then denying their opponents the ability to kill them as i needed to win by 750+ VP's for my Tertiary and needed to kill off all but 3 units for a bonus point.

In the end i captured all the points, managed to kill all but the 3 guardsmen that killed marbo, and had a unit in every table quarter.  Scoring me every point except the bonus for having a scoring unit in every table quarter, which i could have had too if my stupid prisoners didn't take nearly 5 turns to kill the vet squad they jumped.


End Result was a 1st place win for me overall, which is my first major Tournie win so i was very proud it was the last Brimfrost (and sad....)  All of my opponents were great to play against, and even though my battle report might make them sound like sweeps at times every commander put up a great fight and things could easily have not gone my way.

Things i learned from this Tournie:

1. There is a significant amount of confusion amongst players about how vehicle squadron cover works.  (edit)Check out a new post for a nice pictoral view on how it works if you think your shaky about it.
2. There is also a large issue with just determining cover for vehicles, i tend to play very conservatively and dont usually push for saves on my units unless i feel it is obvious.  Most of the time if i feel i "might" have it, ill simply ask my opponent and if he believes (after checking from his units perspective of course) it does not get cover i go with it.  However more and more i play players who take an aggressive cover stand and constantly argue covers that are borderline at best.  As great as True Line of Sight is on paper, i believe it adds a dimension of opinion into the game more then maybe it should...i'm not a pushy player and i never want my opponent to feel im jerking the rules to my favor, but im also not gonna let bits that i see as obvious fly when they could be potentially game changing.
3. Im addicted to Marbo, and i need to quit because he's not worth it..
4. The Astropath could go, most of the time my units didn't need to come in ASAP, and i rerolled only 1 outflank, which promptly rolled the same result.
5. Grenade Launchers are awsome, i always discounted them as inferior in so many ways but their range firstly is fantastic for my infantry on the move and their krak grenades did very well overall.
6. I dislike playing two of the same army in one tournament, even more that they're my army >.< but oh well.