This time the tournament was 2000 points. As discussed previously, I took the mean Daemons. Nothing held back, unabashed cheese spam. Here's what I had:
Fateweaver
The Masque
9 Flamers
9 Flamers
8 Flamers
5 Horrors (including The Changeling)
5 Plaguebearers
5 Plaguebearers
5 Plaguebearers
9 Screamers
9 Screamers
8 Screamers
Yeah, I felt a little dirty...but only a little, as there was plenty of strong competition using very competitive armies. Many of the Battle For Salvation folks came over from White Plains, and those guys have game! I brought many Ordo Ineptus friends too: Sean Nayden was there with his indescribable Dark Eldar army (it looks like a mess of junk until it eats your face!); Tim Wright with his beautiful Blood Angels; Bobby Gavlik with his evil-from-the-sea themed Chaos Marines; and Grady with his Eldar/Dark Eldar at his first 40k tournament ever!
I was very proud of myself that morning. I'm typically a late person, perpetually 10 minutes late to everything. This time I got out the door 5 minutes early on the way to pick up Grady and Bobby....and ended up 30 minutes late due to two accidents (one of them looked really severe!) causing massive traffic. Why were there so many people out and about at 8am on a Saturday! Go sleep in, weirdos! Anyway, I got us to the tourney at 9:45, it was supposed to start at 10, and I'm the delay in getting the terrain I brought on the tables put us behind schedule. Sorry Brendan!
First round I was paired against an amazing modeller named Rod (or Rob, I couldn't quite tell!) who had a really amazing-looking Chaos Marine army:
Typhus
Khorne Lord (Jugger, Axe of Blind Fury, Sigil)
10 Zombies
10 Zombies
~20 Cultists
~20 Cultists
~10 Plague Marines
4 Spawn
Maulerfiend - Tendrils
2 Obliterators - Nurgle
2 Obliterators - Nurgle
Allies
The Masque
Herald of Slaanesh - Pavane
5 Daemonettes
Daemon Prince - Tzeentch, Wings, Hide, Bolt
Aegis Defensive Line with Quadgun
The deployment was Hammer and Anvil. The Mission was a combination of Big Guns Never Tire with 5 Objectives, and the Relic, with one of the 5 total objectives being the Relic worth 5 points (the others worth 3). He won the roll and had me go first.
He put the Oblits in reserve to Deep Strike, the Khorne Lord with the Spawn and Maulerfiend in reserve as well. This left him the Cultists, Plagues, and Typhus on the table to start. He inexplicably put the AGL close to mid-table, so nobody was manning the Quadgun when I came in...
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| Cultists as far as the eye can see! |
So I got my preferred wave, 2 Plaguebearers, Fateweaver, and all the Screamers. I tried to get Fate out of LOS of the quadgun, and despite some scatter he was safe...though there was nobody manning it anyway. The Screamers all were dropped in spots then Turbo'd to enjoy Fateweaver's love and be ready to get in to some fights on turn 2!
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| Hide from the Quadgun! Oh, wait...it's unmanned! |
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| Screamers sneak around the tanks to threaten everything while staying in Fateweaver range... |
He got his Daemon Prince on, landing safely on the right (my perspective) of the table, and The Masque went on the left. He had no shooting of note, but some Zombies assaulted a unit of Screamers, losing but keeping me tied up for my turn.
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| Screamers get tied up tieing up the Zombies! |
I got in only one unit of Flamers, Horrors, and Plaguebearers...The Masque and other 2 Flamer units sitting it out. The Horrors went down near the Relic, scattering dangerously close to the Screamer fight. Plagues went on an objective in his deployment zone, while the Flamers landed on target to torch down some Plague Marines. The Screamers on my right and Fateweaver jumped up to push in to his hordes of guys, and also threatened his Prince is he should be grounded. Last Screamers moved up to support the Flamers. Flamer shooting took out half the Plaguemarines, and put something like 5 wounds on Typhus...who passed all saves taking no damage, starting a trend that would last throughout the game! Horrors and Pink Screamer Slash Attacks combined to kill his Masque, precluding the dance-off I'd envisioned as our Masques went at each other!
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| Here comes his Daemon Prince! |
He got both Oblits, Maulerfiend, and the Lord with Spawn in. One Oblit dropped back in my deployment zone threatening a Plaguebearer held Objective, while the other dropped in to try to beat down the Flamers and Screamers pushing in to his deployment area, supported by the Khorne Lord and his pets. The Maulerfiend went after the Plagues I'd dropped in his deployment zone.
His Prince flew on top of the Relic. The Plagues and Typhus changed their mind a few times moving first this way then that then not at all then that way again...I gave him bad choices...finally settling on moving to assault the Screamers near Fateweaver.
Oblits shooting at Plagues killed one, Quadgun and Plaguemarines shot at and did a little to some Screamers. Those screamers were assaulted by Typhus and Plagues and Cultists, started a protracted combat that would last the rest of the game. He chose not to use Typhus' big disease bomb, as he'd do far more damage to his own cultists than to me.
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| Flamers lay down the hurt, while Screamers get ready to eat Spawn faces! |
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| Two stupid Obliterators tied up 300 points of my army... |
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| The Maulerfiend was very intimidating! |
My blue Screamers moved in to help their purple brethren. Fateweaver Glided over and manned the Quadgun. Pink Screamers assaulted the Khorne Lord and his pets. Flamers from reserve dropped in to my backfield to deal with the obliterators back there (initial thought was that it was a waste of a unit of flamers, but they had no good landing spots and the Oblits were worth an extra point due to Big Guns).
Those Flamers left one Oblit with 1 wound...the Plaguebearers charged him and killed him, earning 2 points and saving the objective. Other flamers only killed one Oblit. Screamers suffered mightily to the Khorne Lord who rolled a 6 for the Daemon Weapon. I lost 7 wounds but did 5 wounds to Spawn. Purple and Blue Screamers did a ton of wounds to Plaguemarines, killing them off but Typhus refused to fail any saves. Cultists were sucked in to that fight too, and I killed several of them as well. Purple Screamers were taking small damgage, Fateweaver's rerolls helped a bit here keeping them swinging. Blue Screamers were unable to pile-in, so had to consolidate.
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| Overkill on the Obliterators? Zeal is its own excuse!! |
His turn 3 and he got the Daemonettes in, dropping them near my backfield to try to deal get Linebreaker and take an objective. The Daemon Prince swooped back there as well. The Maulerfiend went in to the Plaguebearers, but he has so few attacks he only killed one.
His Prince shot dead a Plaguebearer. Not much shooting otherwise. The Pink Screamers killed the Khorne Lord (not sure why he didn't put the wounds on Spawn...), while Purple Screamers continued to put wounds on Typhus and he continued to pass saves.
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| The Daemon Prince tries to push me off the objective...too late, though! |
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| Fateweaver mans the Quadgun as battle rages around him! |
My turn 4 and the last flamers came in, killing off his last cultists. I honestly don't remember exactly how all this ended...I think The Masque moved his Daemonettes enough that Horrors (who had claimed The Relic) and Flamers spat Warpfire at them until they died. Screamers at the last of the Spawn. Flamers killed his last Oblit. Maulerfiend stayed tied up with Bearers. The game ended here on 5, as all he had left was a Daemon Prince, Typhus tied up with Screamers around him, and Maulerfiend stuck on Plaguebearers. I'd lost pretty much nothing. Very brutal...took awhile for my forces to get rolling, but they were very effective. I ended with something like 14 points to my opponents 1. Go Daemons!
Our game ran very late, so I had only 20 minutes to eat. I only got half a burger in me and barely touched my fries and had to run back to find myself paired against a list-type that I typically fare poorly against...Ryan Sinnot's Ork Horde!
He had something like this:
Warboss on Bike with Klaw, Squig, Cybork;
Big Mek with KFF and Klaw
3 units of 10 Lootas
30 Shoota Boyz
3 units of 30 Slugga Boyz
10 Gretchin
Dakkajet
2 units of 3 Lobbas with some extra bodies and ammo runts
and an Aegis Defensive Line
This was Dawn of War deployment, with a combination of Scourging (pre-placed and pre-valued) and Kill Points. Ryan won the roll and had me go first.
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| Holy shit that's a lot of orks! |
The middle of the table was dominated by a large 'line' of terrain that blocked LOS. I wanted to drop in Fateweaver and the screamers behind that, avoiding Loota barrage, then move over it to roll a flank with Flamers and Masque on turn 2.
So of course I got the wrong wave, so had to go in with Masque and Flamers. I was in a pickle...if I tried to land close and get a good strong first attack on some boyz and failed, I'd get plowed over and not be able to recover. I considered very strongly putting the Flamers behind the wall, jumping over for turn 2 flaming.
But, I'm just not that reserved a player, so I went for the big first strike! I tried to drop near his right-most boy unit. Two units scattered (safely), while the third landed right where I wanted. The Masque scattered a bit, too, but was safe and right in range of Pavane.
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| One Flamer unit landed on target...the rest well in Warpfire range! |
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| The Masque shot a Dance at the Orks, and got them in a mosh pit ready to get flamed down! |
She use her dance cannon on the right-most unit 3 times...it was the only unit in range, and I needed it to hit...and I rolled for the distance to dance them...Ryan tried to curse the die, but it came up a 6! I clumped them all up nicely, and began the barbeque! I got something like 65 hits, which only killed 22 of them...but the Warpfire from the other Flamer squads wiped out the unit. Yes, I got First Blood off a full unit of Ork Boyz. Ha!
Ryan was not pleased. :)
He moved the stuff on my left forward (I had some Plaguebearers on an objective in my back left corner, all alone), while the Shoota boyz moved towards table middle, and the last mob moved towards my Flamers. Some shooting from the Lobbas and Lootas killed 3 whole Flamers. He tried to assault the remaining 6, and lost 9 to overwatch, leaving him unable to get in to assault. The hits keep on coming!
I got two units of Screamers in, and the Horrors. One unit of Screamers dropped close to the Sluggas that had just tried to assault, while the other hid behind the big central fence. Flamers bounced towards his lines as best they could, The Masque dancing along amongst them. She shot her dance Cannon at some lootas and the Slugga boyz, moving them together near the 6-man uint of Flamers, which barbequed them killing all the Lootas and most of the Boyz. Warpfire and Sweep Attacks finished them off (despite their ADL cover save). Two turns, and almost half the army dead.
Ryan was not pleased. :)
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| Flamers and screamers killed off a second Boy unit and some Lootas too! |
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| I again tried unsuccessfully to hide behind one of those fences...you'd think I'd learn! |
Regular readers may remember a game at this store last month against Sean Nayden where I tried to avoid assault by hiding behind this big fence, thinking it was impassable...but it's not. Ryan did the same thing, he walked a few guys right up top, and got ready to assault my Screamer unit with the Shoota mob. His other mob continued it's trek towards my Plaguebearers. He got his Dakkajet on.
He shot up some Horrors a bit, wanting to get rid of the Changeling, but only getting 2 of the Horrors. He did a lot of damage to the Screamers that were amongst his units. His Shoota boys with Warboss jumped on my unprepared Screamers...he lost only a handful of guys and wiped the Screamers out in one go. Ouch!
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| The Dakkajet's brief appearance...maybe if it were painted it would do better? |
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| Things on my left aren't so good, but the Flamers on my right are making up for it! |
Top of 3, I got on Fateweaver and last Screamer. One unit of Plaguebearers still in reserve. Fatey scattered a bit (I tried to hide behind the wall), but ended up in a nice offensive spot. Screamers landed safe then Turbo'd over to be in front of Fateweaver. Flamers jumped forward, finding themselves low on targets!
The Masque shot the dance cannon at some Lobbas, clustering them up a bit for Flamers, which killed them. The rest of the Flamers Warpfired at some Lootas, including a little Swoop Attack action. The Lootas had only 4 remaining, and they fled off the table. Fateweaver got a pen and 2 glances on the Dakkajet, which took evasive action but failed to save any of them. It crashed and landed on the last Loota unit, killing a few of them too!
Ryan was not pleased! :)
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| Fateweaver finally arrives! |
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| Shoota boyz and Screamers face off! |
Ryan moved the Shootas back the way they'd come, ready to assault the freshly arrived Screamer unit. Lootas took a few shots at Fateweaver, who took no wounds. Shootas and Lobbas went after Screamers, but their Cover and Fateweaver kept them alive and well. The Shootas assaulted them, but these Screamers were made of sterner stuff than their easily killed brethren...they killed many Boyz and took only a few losses. The Warboss had struck out on his own...I believe Ryan was trying to pull out a miracle with the Warlord's Scoring Unit trait. Also, the last Slugga boy unit finally assaulted the Plaguebearers. The dice-rolling was quite the spectacle, and resulted in 1 dead Ork and 5 dead Plaguebearers!
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| An entire unit of Choppa boyz requires a giant pile of dice!! |
My last Plaguebearer unit came down on target near the objective in my bottom right. Some Flamers shifted over to help contain the Warboss, while another unit moved to assault the Boys fighting the Screamers. The Flamers dish out a reasonable number of S4 attacks, and I needed those Screamers freed up.
Flamers roasted the last Lobba unit a bit, while the last of the Pink Screamers assaulted them, beating them and wiping them out. Screamers and Flamers combined to leave only a handful of Shoota boyz alive, and they were beaten but got away! They did not rally by end of the game.
Bottom of 4, the Warlord moved to assault the Plaguebearers on the 4-point objective...my sloppy movement left him a charge lane! Lucky for me he rolled a 4, needing something like a 7. The Lootas and Lobbas put shots on Screamers, doing a few more wounds. Pink Screamers had one model left alive with one Wound. His last mob of Boyz bubble-wrapped a 3-point objective, while Gretchin dug in on a 2-pointer. I had a 2, a 3, and a 4 at this point.
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| Note the sloppy movement that left the Warlord a chance to contest that objective...only bad luck kept him away! |
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| Flamers assault to rescue the Screamers...wtf?! |
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| Lootas barely stay on the table! |
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| Commence Operation Pointless Bubblewrap! |
Last turn, Flamers shot up the Grots with Warpfire, Blue Screamers Turbo-boosted to try to bubble-wrap that 3-point objective of his. Other Flamers roasted the Warboss. Pink Screamer ran away to not die
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| In response to Operation Pointless Bubblewrap...Operation Sloppy and Stupid Bubblewrap! |
His last turn, he simply tried to run the Lootas to get close enough to contest, he needed a 4 or higher, and got a 3.
Ryan was not pleased!
It was a fun game, we both agreed whole-heartedly that my list was mean and nasty and not fun at all to play against. Ryan took the drubbing very well, all things considered. Definitely a good sport! Both those Sinnot guys are great!
And the last game...much to my surprise...was not against Sean, but against James Mahood from BFS with his bug list!
I was not pleased!
Maybe it's just a mental block on my part, but I feel like my list really struggles against the big bugs. I consistently feel like I don't have enough Ooomph to both get thru all the chaff and kill the big bugs. James' list compounded that problem by including two units of Devilgants in Spores, guaranteeing that he'd get to shoot the every loving shit out of something before I could do something about it! He had, to best of memory:
2 Flying Hive Tyrants with the TL-Devourers
2 Mawlocs
2 Tervigons
2 units of 15 Devilgants in Spores
3 units of 2 Hive Guard
He and I both rolled a 4 for our Warlord power, allowing us to reroll our reserve rolls. Good for both of us! He spent an hour rolling up a hundred psy powers while I drank a Mt. Dew. I won the roll and had him go first. He deployed, and I started doing my Deep Strikes...I wanted Masque and Flamers...his Tervigons were very close together, I hoped to Dance them closer and Flame them both down before he could shit out any bugs, but I rolled the wrong wave again, so started dropping in Fateweaver...and James stopped me, because he was supposed to go first!
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| The bugs deploy! |
So go he did, making lots of little bugs (neither Tervigon crapped-out) and Swooping the Tyrants to mid-field. The Mawlocs burrowed.
I thought I still had a decent chance to Dance the Tervigons close together and flame them, so tried that wave again, and again got the other wave. Tzeentch has spoken. So, Fateweaver dropped in, just under 12" from his Warlord Tyrant. The Screamers all dropped in close to, getting a little scatter but landing near where I wanted them. I intended to do some Sweep Attacks and be in position to attack the Tervigons on turn 2...but another interesting opportunity opened up, so I took it!
Fateweaver fired his barrage at the Swooping Tyrant. I did 3 wounds, he saved 2 (feel no pain from Endurance), but was grounded! This made it possible for Slash Attacks...yeah, they need 6s to wound, but it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. So I turbo'd forward enough to be "over" him, then back to be in Fateweaver range. Anyone that knows James knows that this had to result in a rules argument. Brendan handled him well, and it didn't get heated as things with James often do (I love you James, but you make things hard sometimes!). First unit got 19 hits, 4 wounds, and one got through! One left!! Second unit also got 19 hits, 6 wounds, and he died! First Blood and Warlord! Yeah!! The last Screamer unit I probably should have drove over his Gaunts and threatened the Tervigons, but I was giddy from that unexpected event there...
His second turn, and he got two Hive Guard units on, and one Devilgant. He forgot his Warlord trait. I did too. The Spore landed safely near my blob of Screamers, the Hive Guard walked in happily, guns ablazing. And now another fun bit of luck...his first Mawloc comes on right on target, under my Pink Screamers, pushing them all away so he was surrounded, but only doing 1 wound (thanks to cover and Fateweaver!). His second Mawloc, though, scattered right on top of the first! Since it had no where to move to make room for the second without being within 1" of me, it was destroyed. I'm not really sure this is how that should be handled, as that seems a bit extreme to me, but James was sure that's what happened and we pressed on.
The other Flyrant unloaded on Fateweaver, doing 4 wounds, I failed 2, and failed them again, but passed both Ld tests. Gaunts shot at him, hoping to get that last wound in, doing no wounds but grounding him. Uhoh! Devilgants then went to work, doing a handful of wounds, and one...just one...got thru, and it was enough to kill the giant emaciated two-headed man-parrot with a book on a stick with a fish on top! Oh no!
Hive Guard shot up some Screamers a bit, killing a few.
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| One Mawloc survived...for a short while, anyway... |
Well, tit for tat, I still felt ahead of the curve a bit. I got in another unit of Plaguebearers and only one Flamer unit...the Plagues landed fine, but the Flamers scattered and went back to reserve. Sigh. I forgot my Warlord trait. James did too. Sure would have been handy here!
I really wanted the Mawloc dead...perhaps I give it too much credit, but I threw two units of Screamers at it. Similarly I wanted the devilgants dead...those things will wipe out handfuls of models at a time, so need to go. I assaulted them with Plaguebearers to take the overwatch, losing 3, and a full unit of Screamers to do the heavy-lifting. The Mawloc died (turns out one unit would have done the trick there, but average is 6 wounds, and I wanted to be sure!), and I did exactly 15 wounds total to the devilgants to wipe them out. I had hot dice there, was hoping to stay tied up for a turn, but oh well!
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| Mawlocs and Devilgants dead...Flyrant angry! |
Top of 3, and his last Hive Guard came in, Spore did not. He moved to assault two Screamer units with spawned gaunts, while other spawned gaunts started heading for objectives. Flyrant flew over my screamers. Flyrant and Hiveguard...and even a Tervigon large blast!...focused on one unit of Screamers, weakening it quite a bit. The Gants jumped in, one unit of Screamers killing all their opponents and being free, while the weakened one took some licks but beat down the Gaunts severely!
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| Gaunts should probably all have assaulted the same unit to get it dead, instead were taken out piecemeal... |
Bottom of 3 to me. I got in Masque, 2 Flamers, and the Horrors. I put the Horrors and Flamers in position to warpfire down the gaunts coming for objectives, and the Masque dropped in to try to move a Tervigon out of terrain to make an easier charge for Blue Screamers. Pink Screamers moved over Gaunts to assault the Tervigon that hadn't crapped out.
Masque got her Dance off on the Tervigon, but only moved him an inch. Flamers and Horrors combined to kill about 20 Gaunts with Warpfire, leaving only 1 alive from the 2 units he had back there, and it ran away (was out of Synapse). Blue Screamers failed their charge, Pink Screamers went in to the Tervigon and left it with 1 wound.
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| The Tervigon can't feel the beat, so the Blue Screamers' assault fails...sadface |
Top of 4, his final Pod came in...right on an objective and near my Blue Screamers. Flyrant Glided and turned around toward middle table. Unengaged Tervigon moved to assault the Blue Screamers. The engaged Tervigon got off Iron Arm, bumping up to T9...6s to wound! And it shit out a bunch of Gaunts...two units of Gaunts moved to engage the Screamers fighting the Tervigon.
Shooting left the Blue Screamers with just 3 models left. Flyrant gunned down The Masque. Tervigon went in to Blue Screamers, doing a wound or two, taking a few back. I think it was down to two Screamers at this point. The other Tervigon died despite the Iron Arm...I think moving all those Gaunt in to help was a mistake, as they then took a ton of damage from the Tervigon dieing. They dished out some hurt, though, leaving about 5 screamers alive.
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| Blue Screamers say, "We have them right where we want them!" |
Bottom of 4, Flamers jumped up for late-game killing and contestations. Plagues and Horrors moved to get on objectives...I only had one Plague able to get in range of the central objective. Flamers shot down the solo Tervigon lurking around. Screamers finished off the last of the Gaunts from the dead Tervigon. The last Tervigon and the Screamers fluffed each other.
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| Plaguebearers hoping to hold the middle objective! |
Top of 5, and time was called. James moved his Flyrant to contest one of my objectives, while the Hive Guard...which I'd forgotten don't need LOS, shot up the Plagues, only killing 2, but got me off the objective.
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| Devilgants watch the Tervigon struggle to do anything constructive in melee... |
After we turned in our sheet, I reminded James. We talked thing thru and did the Tervigon fight, and it looks like I would have been able to cap that middle objective bumping things up to 9-5. We told Brendan, who said he wouldn't change the score but if needed would consider it in a tie-breaking event. Very reasonable, in my opinion.
So, I had 3 wins, but my score for the final game was a bit on the low side. I had to hope that the other undefeated guys didn't have massive blow-outs to have a chance at first...
...and it looks like the other folks had narrow wins too! I ended up with First Place; Sean got second; a CSM + Ork player got Third, and James Mahood got 4th! Tim from Ordo won Best Painted, and Ed Miller of BFS got Favorite Opponent...well deserved, as he's a super nice guy!
Yes, I feel a bit dirty for taking such an obnoxious list, but that was my intent...to shed my 'self-restrictions' and come up with the meanest and nastiest thing I could. I feel like that last game with James might have gone against me if it weren't for the luck grounding the Flyrant and the Mawloc Event. It's not unbeatable, but damn it sure is mean!
Next step is to get the painting more done (I feel like the whole army is in varying states of almost done, but nothing is actually done-done!) and get ready for Templecon!
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