Monday, May 14, 2012

April Assault: The Final Battle

The day grew dark and it was about time for the final battle to be fought. I was going to be against one of my good friends and rival Amberclad and his space puppies. There were only 3 Space Wolf lists in the tourney and  Ghaz got to fight all of them. I picked up my tray and moved to my now randomized table. We typically randomize the tables in later rounds to try to get players on NEW tables especially the ones near the top of the rankings so that players don't play on the same ones all day.

The table I got moved onto was my 2nd least favorite table. A massive 8 inch wide river ran clear across the center with high cliffs and a pond on one side. My massive ork horde would once again be slowed by terrain. I was ready for an epic battle to break out for the victory. I had made it to where I wanted and I was sitting currently in first place with a comfy lead over 3rd and 4th.

The mission was:
Primary: 5 objectives one in the center of each quarter and one in the center of the board
            (once captured early in your movement phase, you can move away from them and still control them)
Secondary: Victory Points
3rd: Table Quarters (i think)
4th: (i dont remember)

The Space Wolves have 1 Rhino, 1 Drop Pod, 1 Landraider, 3 grey hunter 10 man squads, 1 rune priest with jaws and murderous hurricane, Land Speeder Typhoon Squadron 3x speeders, Long Fangs /w MLs. My general strategy would probably not work for this game because of my mobility being cut down by the river. I had to formulate a new plan and quick. I thought about zerging his back field with the trukk and storm boyz but I realized that both would just get blown up in torrents of fire and the boyz would get stuck in the center river choke point. I knew I could not play this game they way I normally would so Instead I decided to go for the primary and let him come to me and make the mistake.

The first Turn his pod squad dropped in and took an objective quickly and he took one in his back field with the land raider squad. I lost my lootas to all of his fire even being in 4+ cover.

I retaliated by jumping my storm boyz onto his objective in attempt to assassinate his squad like I failed to do in the last game. I came very close where I killed 7 of the 10 guys and I lost quite a few. This was all done in a large pond in the corner. I was banking on his other squad not being able to make it over but if they did I would be in the clear to take and hold the center. Ghaz and my nobs took one of my objectives on the flank and a large boyz squad took my home objective.

CRAP he rolled well and made it into combat with my storm boyz on turn 2! I lost them all and he narrowly escaped with his squad. My large squads were not the main focus of his fire and boy did they take a lot. I got some cover and only lost a few boyz. I keep them spread out so that I don't get crushed by templates.  He moved his empty rhino onto the center to be my play toy for the kans.

The rest of the game was a boring tea party. Ghaz rolled a 6 irl for his kunnin ability and sat around on the center objective. I used his rhino that was contesting for cover for the kans. I moved the bulk of both 30 man squads into area cover and let him shoot and do everything he could to me. I slowly lost guys to his fire and by turn 4 I blew up his transport and took the objective. I was now winning the primary by holding 3 out of 5 objectives. Ghaz sat waiting to pop his Wahhhhgh and counter charge the space puppies for the victory point win. However they just never came and we rolled on turn 5 and the game ended. I lost on victory points but I won by getting the primary. Apparently my opponent had planned to get the center on turn 6 with a massive charge. Knowing ghaz and what he does I would have killed both squads in 4 rounds of CC with ghaz alone for the most part.

We shook hands after a great game of chess and waited for awards. I ended up where I had tactically planned... In first place based on battle points. Amberclad had also won best overall because he did not get crushed the final round and he had high points in sport, comp, and painting.

Tough day but I feel that round 2 and 3 were more a factor based on the table rather then the opponent. My orks did exactly as they were designed to. I was very happy to pilot them to another 3 wins in 5th edition. My goal is to hit 100 wins before 6th drops and I want to do it without a single loss.

Thanks for reading as always

RIPPED

Friday, May 11, 2012

Sorry...Tourney Batreps

College has been crazy and I have not been able to really play or do anything 40k related after the tourney last month. Here are the last 2 battle reports from rounds 2 and 3 of our April Assault.

Game 2 I found myself across from another space wolf player. I was ok with that but I was put onto the damn LAVA BOARD. At the beginning of the day it was ruled by the judges that the lava was going to be difficult and dangerous terrain for everyone. This board was covered in it and for me I knew I was always going to be going through part of it somewhere every turn with almost every mob.

The game was king of the hill with an objective directly in the center of the board. This objective was surrounded by over 3 inches of lava in all directions. It was chosen to be table quarters and I got put in the one that would funnel me through a small center opening and moving constantly through lava.

I set up my storm boys and ghaz in his trukk so that they could easily sweep up his flank and push through his lines. The storm boyz made it into combat on turn 1 like planned. However, between the good rolls and his banner being popped I only managed to kill 5 marines while losing a lot and then fleeing off the board. Ghaz was in position for turn two with his nobz. The trukk was exposed and I was hoping that I wont ramshakle backwards. I also shot up his speeders turn 1 with my lootas after they had already taken heavy fire from his long fangs.

His turn two he blew up the trukk as I thought he would. I got a ramshakle and closed my eyes and rolled the scatter result. A hit would have been fine but instead I moved 14 inches shooting a gap between terrain and his unit that the storm boyz assaulted the turn before. I was now in the heart of his army with ghaz and 5 nobz standing in a crater. You could almost see his whole army turn in fear and start blasting away hoping to wipe them out. I lost one nob to shooting and then was charged by his closest squad with his HQ in it. I lost all my nobz but Ghaz stood still in a drawn combat.

I moved my army forward and did some shooting but not much really happened on my next turn. I took more casualties to lava and slowly got closer to striking distance. His venerable dread shook off an immobilized result and was forced to not shoot the following turn. Ghaz won combat vs his grey hunters and they fled from the mighty warboss. Ghaz advanced to keep them fleeing and moved toward the rest of his army. I was ready to make my move.

He predictably shot at ghaz and then charged him. I popped my 2+ invuln and took 3 wounds for the whole turn with his army focused on him. Ghaz slayed 4 grey hunters in return laughing in their faces as he knew his friends would be there soon.

The rest of my army was now enraged and pushed into his lines. I slaughtered his grey hunter squad and kept his other one fleeing after my combat and made them run off the board. His lone wolf and dread smashed into a boyz squad.

The rest of the game did not take long at all. Ghaz marched over to the long fangs and tore them a new one. His dread killed the boyz squad but was taken down in a flurry of loota fire. His last rhino with grey hunters found out what kans do in close combat and were mauled to death. My grots came in on turn 5 and marched to the center of the board. He had a small terminator squad also marching toward the center but they were also ripped down by loota fire and kans. At the end of the game he had only one immobilized rhino left on the board and my grots were sitting on the objective surrounded by lava.

Ghaz was again by far the MVP of the game because he took out 2 grey hunter squads, long fangs, and his HQ ran off the board with some grey hunters. I will always argue that he is the best HQ in the game bar none.

Look for the next bat rep in a few days

Thanks for reading,

RIPPEDDRAGON