Monday, November 8, 2010

Hive Fleet November 6th tournament. Games 1 and 2

Mission 1: Seize Ground/Dawn of War with 4 objectives centered in the 4 table quarters and 1 in the center of the board. Secondary objective: Table Quarters. Third objective Victory Points.

I played against the guard army pictured below.


I am not sure 100% what his list was but he had
2 Platoons with 1 Company Command Squad and a Lord Commissar

He had 3 heavy weapons squads. 2 with lascannons and 1 with autocannons. He had a special weapons squad with plasma and melta, and one with 2 flamers, a squadron of scout sentinels with Lascannons. He also had a penal legion squad which rolled the gunslinger ability, a ratling squad. He brought 2 Lemun Russ Battle Tanks with Heavy Bolter sponsons and hull lascannons. Overall not a bad list.

I rolled to go first and deployed my Wolf Lord, with 1 Grey hunter squad in a Rhino half way up the board in the center of the table. I was planning on getting in close combat with whatever he placed on the board on my turn 2.

Let me make sure you all understand. DAWN OF WAR is the worst table set up for me as I loose 1 turn of shooting with my longfangs and my Thunderwolf Calvary loose 12" of deployment and take and extra 1 to 2 turns to get to the enemy. Dawn of war was also bad for him as he had to bring on most of his stuff from the table edge and couldn't shoot much.

Turn 1: I elected to only move 6" and spotlight his command squad to wipe them off the board with my heavy bolter razorback, living lightning, Storm bolters etc. The problem is I spotlighted them but he made every cover save. (If I would have just moved 12" and popped smoke it would have been a different story)

He came on and shot alot at the Rhino but finally wrecked it with his battlecannon.

Turn 2:
I disembarked on the left side of the Rhino and on my turn 2 was able to get to the company command squad on my turn 2 wiping them out.
I shot with both longfangs, living living lighting, the psycannon, heavy bolters, the wolf guard dropped, drifted 9 inches away from anything good and shot and killed 1 guardsman. The wolves moved forward and ran a whopping 1" inch. I ended up killing 1 command squad, 1 sentinel, 1 platoon squad (With Frag missles), and the company command squad.

His Turn 2. He moved in and shot all everything at my Wolf Lord and Grey hunters and killed everything except, the Wolf Lord, Wolfguard with Thunderhammer and Combi-Melta, 1 GH with Power weapon. The Battle cannon fired at the Thunderwolves and missed. He killed 1 Wolfguard with shooting and ran a lot of his foot troops to get close enough to shoot next turn. The other lemun russ fired at the Wolf Lord but misseed badly. His Sentinels fired at the razorback and immobilized it. He also assaulted with the Penal Legion and I killed the whole squad.

My turn 3.
My Wolf Scouts came in and I came in from his table edge and triple assaulted his lascannon heavy weapons team, the special weapons squad, and a platoon command squad. I killed enough of all to destroy all 3 units with my 5 wolf scouts and WG with a powerfist. :). My Thunderwolves ran 4" and charged the Lemun Russ on the right side exploding it. The 2 WG that dropped on the right of the Lemun Russ moved in and assaulted the platoon squad killing 3, but the Lord Commissar had run within 6" and they became stubborn. The frag missles continued to take out lots of units. The wolf priest poured living lightning among another special weapons team and make them run off the board. My Wolf Lord and 2 remaing members of the GH pack assaulted another platoon and the lemun russ left. I missed all 3 hits on the thunderhammer but killed the platoon. I consolidated into the woods and waited for the incoming fire from both sides.

His Turn 3. He shot his ratlings at my scouts but only wounded 1 time which I made my 4+ save. He shot everything from the Lemun Russ electing not to move to kill my Wolf Lord and GH, a special weapons squad with 2 flamers, the autocannon heavy weapon squad. Both the GH and the WG died leaving the Wolf Lord alone. His Lord Commissar got into combat with the two WG and killed them with his power weapon. He shot at the Thunderwolves and did two wounds killing no models. Things were looking very bad for him at this time.

My turn 4. The Wolf Lord charged the special weapons squad and killed them all, the Scouts shot and assaulted the Lemun Russ and wrecked it. The Scouts all died even with 3+ saves to frag missles and living lightning, the Thunderwolves asaaulted the last heavy weapons squad, the Wolf Lord split off and assualted the platoon and Commissar. I killed the platoon but the Commissary was stubborn and would die on his turn. There wasn't much left.

His turn 4. Nothing really. I didn't assualt his last platoon command squad, didn't shoot anything and let him end the game with 1 unit available.

What I learned:

Dawn of war sucks for me, but using the Wolf Lord with a GH squad in a Rhino as putting them half way up the board really make the difference.

Using the inquisitor to sit with the Longfangs enabled me to premeasure to a unit before choosing to fire helped in all three games.

My Wolf Scouts Did great with the WG and Powerfist. The Combi-Melta didn't do anything but the powerfist was huge.

The combination of a Power punch with the Thunderwolves, the two GH squads with heavy close combat potential, the drop pod with Combi-meltas, and Scouts, all supported with coverfire from the longfangs was a lethal combination.

What he should have done differently:
He should have put his low AP weapons such as plasma, melta, lascannons on the side with the thunderwolves and concentrated fire more on the longfangs instead. He was too spread out to concentrate fire on two or three units. I only moved the Thunderwolves and Wolf Lord in Rhino towards his line, out gunning him from a far. This shouldn't happen with Guard.

Game 2:
Capture and Control/Pitched Battle with 1 objective in the middle.

I couldn't find a picture of John's Chaos Sister's. He had:

Chaos Sorcere with Lash in Terminator Armor
Slannesh Daemon Prince with Lash
4 termintors with 1 reaper autocannon
2 x 6 Slannesh Chaos Sisters with Meltagun and powerweapon in Rhino
2 x 7 Slannesh Chaos Sisters with Flamer and powerweapon in Rhino
3 x Vindicators

I was deathly affraid of this list with the lash and vindicators. I won the roll to go first and took the opportunity. I deployed with my TWolves at the 12" line to move and hopefully assault the first or second turn. I actually put them out as bait for him to deploy to close to my wolves for a lash. I was planning on running them back a bit out of range of his lash or at least to get my runic weapon 4+ save against lash. I put a longfang unit on each corner of the board to get side shots at the vindicators wherever he placed them. I spread out my rune priest and GH pack in the middle, my Wolf Lord and GH on the Right, and my Razorback, and Storm troopers with Inquisitor also on the left. I was betting he would deploy on the right blocking half of my army from line of sight for a turn. I purposefully put my Wolf Lord on the right because they could take the most damage and put out the most pain of the GH units. He ended up deploying everything on the left side right up to the 12" line, putting all 3 vindicators in the woods. He lined up all his rhino's in a line except for 1 in the back. He put his terminators behind his rhino's I began to lick my fangs as my missles had clear shots to pop alot of his rhino's turn 1. BUT!!! HE STOLE THE INIATIVE AND I ALMOST CRAPPED MY PANTS RIGHT THERE!

Turn 1:
My worst nightmare came true when he flew his daemon prince and lashed my wolfs 7" towards his side. The THunderwolves weren't close enough for the vindicators, so his Sorcerer lashed them again and fortunately only moved them 6" more. He couldn't bunch them up as his range was only 24" and he had to get as many as possible. His 1 vindicator got imobilyzed moving through the woods! (Thank Russ) He moved his Rhino's forward 12" and popped smoke. He shot his vindicator and hit two wolves but only wounded 1. I elected to roll my 3+ invol on my Storm Shield TW making it on a 4. His imobilyzed Vind Shot and missed badly. He assualted my TW with my Lord not being able to make it into combat and did 1 wound to my 0. He made all his invol saves and armor saves. I LOST COMBAT BY ONE AND FAILED MY LEADERSHIP. Fortuantely I ran 14" where he couldn't consolidate towards me. So I felt good my 450 point unit didn't get run off the table. My turn 1 I dropped in front of 1 vindicator, and shot 3 combi meltas and blew the gun off the far left vindicator. My wolves moved forward to assualt the Daemon Prince. My Longfangs blew up 1 rhino, blew the gun off the far right vindicator. I moved my runepriest in the rhino to get a good Jaws line and the earth swalled two terminators including the one with the reaper autocanon!!!!!! In the assualt phase I lost in combat again to the Daemon Prince but stayed. I did 1 wound to him and he did 2 to my Thunderwolves.

His turn 2. He moved toward me with the other Rhino's, shot melta's out the rhino's with no luck. He killed the wolfguard pack and tried to shoot the drop pod with zero results. He moved the terminators towards the Thunderwolves but decided to shoot the longfangs instead. He killed 1 missle launcher. His Daemon Prince died in close combat.

My Turn 2. I moved my wolf lord pack 12" around the center piece of terrain and my longfangs blew up his vindicator on the right that was trying to block me. My thunderwolves assaulted the sorcerer and terminators and wiped them to the man. I blew up anther rhino and shot some chaos marines on foot.

His Turn 3. He moved his other Rhino and blew up my Rhino with a melta. I lost 4 Grey Hunters in the explosion! Really? He tried to shoot my Thunerwolves through my drop pod with his imobilyzed drop pod. I was really thinking of calling the TO to disagree when he just rolled to would before I could finish what I was saying. He rolled 3 1's. That's what he gets. There was no way his vindicator could have seen my Thunderwolves that were lower than the drop pod that was on a 3" wooded hill. But anyways. He moved his other Rhino towards my longfangs and shot them killing 1. He moved his Chaos sisters into the woods to hide from the THunderwolves.

My Turn 3. The beginning of the end for John and his ladies. My wolf scouts came in behind his vindicator and blew off the gun with a melta and combi-melta but forgot to assualt. I assaulted his sisters with the Thundewolves and killed them to the woman. My longfangs wrecked the Rhino that popped my WLord's Ride. The Wolf Lord and WG with Thunderhammer, and melta gun assualted the unit of 8 killing 4 of his sisters and he killed my WG and GH. He lost combat but stayed in combat. My other GH squad assaulted and killed his other Sister squad. I shot 4 missles, 2 melta guns, 2 lighting shots, a psycannon at his last rhino but couldn't pop it.

His turn 4. He got out of his last Rhino and assaulted my Longfangs who only lost 1 and killed 1 tying combat. My Wolf Lord killed the remaining 4 Sisters. His Vindicator Tank Shocked my Thunderwolves who moved out of the way.

My turn 4: My thunderwolf lord left the unit and charged into the last Sisters squad killing all but 2 marines, He failed his leadership and I failed to catch him. He killed all the Longfangs but the Pack Leader. I assualted the both vindicators destroying the imobilyzed one and doing nothing to the tank shocking vindicator. I blew up the other Rhino and ended my turn.

His 5: He ran and shot at my Pack Leader without any results. He forgot to move his vindicator.

My turn 5: I did nothing leaving his Last 2 models running and a vindicator on the board.

What I learned.

Vindicators are bad against me, but the double longfang missle launchers and scouts can counter balance them.

Ensure I put my Rune Priest close to my wolves against any potential lash powers. Even if I am going first.

What he did wrong:
He should have put his vindicators closer together.

he should have deployed on the right side of the board making my army 1/2 way useless for 1 turn.

He should have charged the Terminators and Chaos Lord into combat with my Thunderwolves instead of shooting at my longfangs.

His Rhino's were also too close together as he came close together making it easier to assault him which is what I wanted to do anyways.

After game 2 I am tied for 1st place with almost 3400 victory points. I feel bad for damaging both players that way but at least I didn't kill everything. :)

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