June 20, Games by Gamers 1850 RTT

I need to get a link for Games by Gamers to plug 'em; they're some locals that are throwing up an interweb storefront and this is one of their tournies. I'm a big fan of the local Hobbytown USA; Greg's an awesome guy but the HT store just doesn't have a lot of room inside. We can cram two tables in the back, and that's just not always enough.

Thus, the guys at Games by Gamers threw together an 1850 for us at the local UAH Bevil Center.

I ran Mech Eldar v1.something-or-other.

Autarch w/ Fusion Blaster, Banshee Mask, Power Weapon

Farseer w/ Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Guide, Doom, Jetbike
Seer Council; 6 warlocks. 4 Destructor, 1 Enhance, 1 Embolden

2x 5-man Fire Dragon squads in Lance/Shurikannon Wave Serpent

3x 8-man Dire Avenger squads in Bright Lance/Shuricannon Serpents

Fire Prism w/ Shurikcannon

1846 totalish.

Round 1

This was round one's opponent; daemons.
Bloodthirster
Keeper of Secrets
2x Bloodletter units w/ Icons
2x Horrors w/ Icons, one w/ changeling
Daemonettes
Plaguebearers w/ Icons
2x Phlegm-Grinders

Mission One: "ONE MAN GETS ZE RIFLE, THE OTHER GETS ZE BULLETS"
Primary: Meat Grinder. One objective in the middle. (8 BP)
Secondary: Head of the Snake (kill highest leadership/most expensive HQ in a tie)
Tertiary: Table Quarters (4 BP)
Fourth: 'Vast Resources, not Endless' (2BP) Kill Points

I opt to hold all in reserve but the Seer Council. Naturally, I get to go first. I fortune the council and move it to the left. He gets 'letters, a Grinder, plaguebearers, and horrors. He forgets the Seer Council has the Destructor spam, and I knock out a Bloodletter squad. However, we've also got Meat Grinder special rules on, which means any dead non-vehicle Troops choice moves in from the table edge next turn.

Seeing that, I figure I'll have a tough time getting the middle, but I figure I have enough lances and melta to take out his two grinders and his MCs.

Nooooot so much.


So, just WTH happened? Well, see that blue soul grinder? He laughed off a crap-ton of Bright Lances. I glanced it a lot, and then penned it about 3-4 times and never got better than a '2' on the pens, and Soul Grinders eat lower-level hits for breakfast. I also slammed the Fire Dragons, Autarch, and several Bright Lances into the Bloodthirster; it ate 8 invulnerable saves and passed 7.

From there, Soul Grinder blue tears down TWO grav tanks, and ends the game eating an Avenger squad. Oh, and the Seer Council? Flubs Fortuned armor saves, gets cut down to two folks, then fails to shoot three horrors to death, then can't consolidate away from them far enough to avoid an assault from Bloodletters nearby in cover.

The opponent was a great guy to play, and ultimately took first.

The dice? ARRRRGH. One of them dice games. I never disembarked by choice (other than the Fire dragons, which DID manage to kill a Soul Grinder) as there'd be a Soul Grinder feeding me pie, or I'd be looking at a charge soon.

End result? See that Wave Serpent in the middle? That's me denying him the primary objective, and not getting anything else for myself. Minor moral victory, and while the game was fun? I could've done without the dice...

Round 2: The Serious Mission...sort of
Deployment: Table Quarters
Primary: Operation Greased Pig (objective markers in each DZ that randomly move d6" each turn, off the table = other guy gets it)
Secondary: Set Weapons to 'War Crimes' (Kill Points)
Third: 'Operation: Kill that man' (kill most expensive HQ)
Fourth: 'Dine 'n' dash' Table Quarters

This opponent? Tyranids.
Hive Tyrant w/ some melee upgrades, Scything talons, venom cannon
2 Warrior Squads (leaping, talons, couple guns he didn't use much)
Rippers (x4, leaping)
8 Genestealers w/ Scuttlers, 4+ saves
6 Stealers w/ Scuttlers, 4+ saves, and scything talons? Dunno.
16 Gaunts w/o Number
16ish Hormagaunts (lots of upgrades; +WS, +I, +S)
2 Melee-fex (T7, extra wound, melee kit, regeneration)
3 Zoanthropes (Synapse critter, warp blast)

He rolls to go first, sets up near the middle. His shooting is largely ineffectual. I have to stop him a couple times to get him to actually measure his runs instead of just hopping the guy forward a few inches on a 2" run. He's also overly confident in his melee-fexes, and confident in general while not being wholly knowledgeable of the rules. He also forgets about his genestealers 'til turn four, which is kind of strange to me, but oh well. No big deal in the long run.


So, what do I do? Backpedal and fire. By turn three, I've nuked one carnifex by shooting, nuked his hive tyrant with Fire Dragons, and the Seer Council just ate the other beat-up fex. They put something like 17 wounds on the guy when he had two left.

You see one genestealer squad having trouble with Avengers, and the other? Epic Fail on the outflank roll. I'm sorry, did you want to participate in the match? Too bad. Note that the Serpents had been moving 12" each; one actually ate a partial charge from Warriors and they did nothing.

It looks about like this at the end, 'cept I beat his warriors down. He had the gaunts left, pretty much, and the stealers that got whittled down. He said I was making a mistake when I got out to shoot the stealers, but it kept 'em off my objective.

...then I had a brain fart and moved the loaded Dire Avengers OFF it in the last turn, though I had the presence of mind to slap a beat-up Serpent on his objective.

End result? Neither of us on primary; I have secondary and third, he gets fourth barely.

Not a difficult match, but the opponent was a bit 'eh' with having to explain crap left and right to him.

Round 3: Space Wolves

Deployment: Pitched Battle

Primary Objective: Hold Objectives (3 in either drop zone)

Secondary: Kill Most Expensive HQ

Third: Control the most terrain features

Fourth: KP

Space Wolves:

Ven Dread (Assault Cannon/Heavy Flamer)

Rune Priest

double-autocannon Dread

Wolf Scouts (x5)

Grey Hunters in Razorback

Grey Hunters in Rhino w/ Battle Leader

Grey Hunters

Land Speeder Squad (2 Speeders; Heavy Bolter/assault cannon)

Land Raider (with Hunters, Rune Priest)
Long Fangs; 2x Missile, 2x Lascannon

He got first.

I'll let the picture do the talking for how the dice luck went. Two Wave Serpents, down on turn one.

Turn 2: move up, lance the raider for nothing. Note the avengers moving for cover. Note the Fire Dragons and Autarch without a ride.

Note the FIRE DRAGONS OF FAIL, whereupon getting 5 melta shots at point blank, they hit 3 times and do no damage.

I'd kind of hoped to assault something else with the Seer Council, but by Khaine, THAT LAND RAIDER WILL DIE. At least it hadn't moved, and we explode it, lose no one in the fireball, and kill two marines. Who promptly stay to fight. At least the Rune Priest blew his brains out trying to keep a 5+ save up against lances, which did save it from a pen.

This is about the final. His scouts come in on the last turn in time to pull me off an objective; I get avengers on to one, and we tie objectives. He kind of gets the rest.

Thus ends a terrible dice day. You also see the Seer Council's last stand over there, but once the 5 Fire Dragons had failed to kill the Raider? Eh. Between that, the first turn, and the way my Grav Tanks dropped to a single pen each? (other than the Fire Dragons of Fail; their ride survived-ish).

Nasty dice day.

Good opponent, though, and enjoyable game.

Overall

Oh dear lord the dice hated me today. I mean, I honestly feel like my dice were pretty frigid in games one and three, and the other guy's dice were rolling well. Lost grav tanks rapidly in games one and three; he made good saves in one and three....

In part, it's been a couple months since the Seer Council has come out to play. I think I need to be a bit more aggressive, and not roll lots of 1's and 2's.

Still, I'd do it again and for a $15 entry fee? Not bad at all.

Overall, despite craptastic battle score, I was 6th out of 12, I think. Might've cinched 5th if I'd not fallen off an objective by stupidity in game two. I feel like I should've won game 1 if I'd been able to pass saves worth a damn and get better than a 1 or 2 on a penetrating hit. Game 3? Ugh. When grav tanks drop like that, it's just a bad day.