ROUND FOUR
Some Chaos Space Marines against Ultramarines:
Some more shots of Noel's gorgeously converted chaos space marines:
My Game
So this was the dreaded match up of me versus Mal and his Eldar, which I've failed to beat within the last 12 months with the exception of a small handful of beginner games we played when we didn't know the rules.
Round four was kill points on a pitched battle set up. I scored a table with a reasonably good amount of terrain and a bisecting river which would prove to be deeply problematic. Mal got to go first. Knowing about Eldarad's sneaky redeploy I set up in the dead centre knowing that any alternative would either split my force into two halves (bad) or on the opposite quarter (worse than bad) and I couldn't reserve everything without losing a few turns of shooting which would be bad in a game like this. I probably should've deep struck the terminators, and - as Mal said afterwards - I could probably have got away with splitting them into two units of five.
He was going first, so I couldn't pop smoke on the first turn. I set up with the 10 man squad weaving in front of the vehicles to give them a cover save with five of them weaved behind one razorback so my termie squad received a cover save themselves.
And here's a shot of my foe's forces:
He was going first. He wrecked a Dreadrifleman, and immobilised the razorback. This was actually quite bad as it meant that my weaving pattern stopped my terminators advancing effectively.
I had intended to move the razorback covering them forward, then move the men out of the way of the remaining Chimera and the remaining razorback. With the first part of that plan screwed, I either had to turn the remaining Razorback and Chimera to the right and advance in a line I wasn't intending, or waste a move rearranging my termies so the vehicles could advance forwards which - when I was desperate to get them within 24" - would've been a bad idea (at least, that's what I thought at the time. Given what the termies ended up doing, I shoulve' re-evaluated that bit.) In retrospect I should've just stuck them at the front and if Mal shot them instead of my vehicles, all the better. I moved the vehicles right and advanced the termies.
I did manage a lucky blast at the Dragon Serpent, immobilising it. As it was moving flat out for that cover save, it smashed into the ground.
The rest of the game went slowly for me. The 10 man terminator squad got caught crossing the river. I wasn't willing to send them through the stream itself in case I lost them to dangerous terrain tests and in an effort to get my Psycannons into range as fast as possible (so I wasn't willing to take the difficult terrain tests.) Also probably a mistake. The Chimera I decided to smash through the central ruin in an effort to get my psychic hood within 24" of Eldarad as fast as possible. Having made every vehicle-difficult terrain test in the tournament so far, Mal was overjoyed when I reduced my Chimera to a steaming pile of junk. I deposited the inquisitorial henchmen squad on the other side of the wall, at least.
Getting close, and with little differential on kill points, things started getting hairy. Eldard hopped out, and ran to Mind War my Librarian for the easy kill point. I hooded the bastard.
I then weighed up how hard he'd be to kill with his rerollable invulnerable save. I started trying to do a mathshammer on it in my head. I needed to know his wounds. 3. That's a lot. I needed to know his toughness. When Mal said 4 I remembered that ole instant kill rule... Blasting Eldard with everything I had, the meltas from the Inquisitorial unit I just dropped off blew him away. You've got no idea how happy I was. The end of the game was a selection of nail biting moments and game end rolls, and a tricky rules discussion about whether the Avatar had Eternal Warrior on the grounds that all demons have it. (Answer: apparently not for apparently not all demons have Eternal Warrior.) So I forced sworded him to death. One unit of PAGK got Bladestormed to death. The Howling Banshees charged another. I sent out my Librarian and Inquisitor to help, fighting them back. But this left them out on their own, not as part of a unit. So they were single models that could conceivably be instant killed and turn into kill points. By AMAZING fluke they survived a round of incoming fire and then I wiped out the fleeing Howling Banshee.
The game ended on turn 7 as a win for me (we didn't bother playing through the end of the turn, settling for a win when that lone Banshee pictured above got melta'd to death.) Never been so lucky.
ROUND FIVE
Seriously, these chaos space marines are just beautiful:
My Game
5 objectives with a spearhead deployment. I was against the Tau. I got the first go, so steamed my tanks forward and popped smoke for my Shrouded 3+ cover save. I then managed to finish off his big tank with autocannon fire, taking out the railgun. Unfortunately, I only took a single picture:
Here I am, mid game, with a unit of PAGK charging towards the objective. They'd later hide in a hut and pop their heads out on the final turn to be blown away by plasma fire. I tried charging the Crysis suits with my termies. BAD IDEA! The combined autocannon and plasma fire blew one unit away, took out the Chimera and churned by henchmen squad to death. And it took me the entire game to take out his Broadsides. I knew throughout that it was going badly: it was objectives, and I needed to be shooting his vehicles. But they were in reserve and so I couldn't target them. I also tried charging the Kroot, which turned out to also be a bad idea. They wiped out my PAGK. Defending five objectives proved too difficult with only one squad of men remaining... And even at that stage I nearly forgot to shoot a gun drone that was about to zoom in and contest the final objective. That'd have been embarrassing.
In short, it was a harsh learning experience. But, heh, that was why I decided to field my Grey Knights, to see how they worked against a variety of armies and get a chance of play some Codexes I'd never seen before. Next time, I'll have to be more cunning and probably find a way to avoid, rather than kill, his Crysis suits and Broadsides. And, basically, play more objective games so I get used to planning ahead.
THE RESULT
4 wins and one loss. Leo, with his Tau, had the same run (Mal was third with his Eldar.) The rules dictated that a tie was resolved by a painting contest where everyone just openly voted on the figures. I came away with 5 to 3.
So here I am with my cup (that'd be Leo with the Tau in the background):
WHAT I LEARNT
I was very lucky throughout. I continually, and throughout, made errors in deployment. And I could've done with placing my objectives in a better place - in that final game I needed three objectives right next to one another so I could easily defend them, and I could've made it that way. But, basically, deployment was the main issue, and I need to bear in mind how far my troops can actually move. Especially once their vehicles have been blown up. I think I might be Deep Striking my termies in basically every game. With the mystic it's not so dangerous, and it opens up possibilities if the game is going poorly for me on turn 3 or 4 and I need to hurl a unit ahead to claim an objective. Alternatively, having not used Quicksilver I might swap it for Summoning so I can teleport my units to where my Chimera is (as my Librarian will be in it, and the mystic can guide the termies!) I also didn't use psychotroke grenades much (when the Inquisitor was on his tod, it made sense having him do some assault support, but as is he won't leave the servitors as they'll seize up and take out my melta, and he's a 3 wound independent character with no invulnerable save so whenever he fights the power weapon targets him, kills him, and then I often lose morale tests having lost at least 3 wounds from the fight. The guy's a tire around my neck in an assault, so the grenades have to go.) I did, however, roll through terrain all the time with my vehicles, so I'll be swapping the grenades for more dozer blades and a warp stabilisation field so I can summon the razorbacks from the back. I'm also thinking of dropping a PAGK to give me 20 points to buy master crafted demon hammers for my librarian, and that kinda thing. I think those extra add ons might make a difference, whereas it'll never make a difference that I have 6 men in a squad rather than 5...
A good time was had. Shame we didn't take a shot of everyone (or of people in the pub! D'oh!) Probably do another tournament at Christmas.
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