Friday 29 July 2011

Battle Report: Toy Soldier 2011



Well my weeks of painting finally paid off and I got my army painted up in time for toy soldier. Was well chuffed with how it all looked on the table, seven drop pods just looks ace.

Here is  the final list:
Rune Priest - Chooser of the slain, Living Lightning, Jaws of the World Wolf, Melta Bombs, Wolf Tail Necklace
-125

Rune Priest - Murderous Hurricane, Jaws of the World Wolf, Wolf Tail Talisman, Melta bombs, Wolf Tail Necklace
-120

Wolf Guard Squad
Wolf Guard - Power Fist, Combi Melta (43)
Wolf Guard - Power Fist, Combi Melta (43)
Wolf Guard - Power Fist, Combi Melta (43)
-129


Dreadnought - 2 Twin-linked Autocannons (125)
Drop Pod (35)
-160

Dreadnought - 2 Twin-linked Autocannons (125)
Drop Pod (35)
-160

8 Grey Hunters - Melta gun, Wolf Standard, Wulfen (150)
Drop Pod (35)
-185

8 Grey Hunters - Melta gun, Wolf Standard, Wulfen (150)
Drop Pod (35)
-185

9 Grey Hunters - Melta gun, Wolf Standard, Wulfen (150)
Drop Pod (35)
-200

10 Grey Hunters - 2 Melta gun's, Wolf Standard, Wulfen, Power Fist (205)
Drop Pod (35)
-240


10 Grey Hunters - 2 Plasma gun' s, Wolf Standard, Wulfen, Power Fist (210)
Drop Pod (35)
-245

Total 1749


Game 1: Paul Burk, Space Wolves, Kill Points, Spear Head

I had played Paul a few times before and never managed to beat him so I knew I was in for a tough game and when I saw his list I knew I was in trouble.

Rune priest - Living lightning

3 Lone wolves in terminator armour with chain fist and storm shield

5 Grey hunter squads in Las/Plas razor backs

3 Packs of 5 Long fangs with missile launchers

3 Land speeder Typhoons with Multi meltas

I won the roll off and let Paul go first, he deployed tucked in the corner I put two dreadnoughts down tucked in my corner. Paul's first move was to spread out and take some pot shots at the dreads.



Now I was presented with a big problem, the three lone wolves, I knew how nasty they where but currently alive they where worth three kill points to me I decided one had to die and dropped the plasma squad next to it they managed to take it out. Another two squads dropped near the building in the middle and took out one of the speeders and dinged the other. The dreads managed to take out a razor back. Alas it did not all go so well I tried dropping one of the squads in near the long fangs as is fate it scatter off the table and died. 2 of the easiest kill points lost ever :(


After this we started trading blows but the loss of that squad was noticeable, especially in the later turns. I tried reinforcing my center and managed to take out another lone wolf in close combat and shoot up a land speeder and one of the grey hunter squads with the dreads blowing up another razor back.






By this point the momentum had really swung in favour of Paul I threw my army in where ever I could to try and scrape back some kill points but once the grey hunters where all committed to combat all his firepower turned on the drop pods taking him well clear of my ability to catch up.




In the end all I had left where the dreds and a couple of drop pods but I had managed to take a chunk out his army so I clawed back a few tournament points.

Finally score was a 17-3 loss with me loosing 1545 VPs but killing 888 VPs.


Conclusion

This was always going to be a hard match up but the loss of that grey hunter  squad really lost me the momentum, Paul's first turn of firing wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared so having another squad right in the middle of his army would have allowed me to make much more of a fight of it.

That 3-0 to Paul, I will get him next time.


Game 2: Jamie Seddon, Dark Elder, Capture and Control, Pitched Battle

Was looking forward to this , never played the dark elder yet and and MSU list at that. I had thought a lot about how I would take on a list like that as it could out manoeuvre me very easily.

Plus Jamie was up for a good scrap, always a good sign :)



So onto the list:

Vect

Heamoculius

3 x 5 man true borne squads with blasters in dual cannon venom's

3 x 5 man wytch squads with agonisers in dual cannon venom's

2 Ravager's - Dark lances

Razor wing - 2 of the missile that wound on a 2+

For combat drugs he got +1 strength.

I won the roll and let Jamie go first he reserved everything so down came my first wave.

The squad with the living lightning rune priest and one of the dreads landed on my objective that was hidden behind a large rock. Another grey hunter squad and dreadnought landed in and behind a building that was near his objective in the corner.




On the second turn, vect and two of the wytch squads along with one of the true born squads arrived at his objective. The two ravager's came on in the middle and shot an arm off the dreadnought in the middle.



Next turn all three of my reserve squads arrived so I decided or death or cake at his objective, I dropped all three down but one of the squads scattered in front blocking a lot of line of site for the other.


A lot of shots later and two of the venom's where dead with one of the wych squads gutted.




In the middle the dreads managed to take out one of the ravengers. The remaining one started making it's way towards my objective.





Back on his objective vect and the wyches went to play with one of the grey hunter squads.





The results where predictable. I threw what attacks I had left on the wytchs and managed to take quite a few out.





Vect and co finished off that squad and launched straight into another, this was fast shaping up for a draw. In the combat with vect I had made all my attacks bar one little grey hunter with a powerfist I decided he may as well take a swing and vect since there was no way what was left of the squad would survive to hit again, needless to say he hit, wounded and vect failed his power field save that one little roll swung the gave hevily in my favour, without vect I could easily clean up what Jamie had on his objective.

He made a heroic charge against my objective with the remaining ravenger, razor wing and a unit of wytches.





He managed to blow up the dread and lat some serious hurt on the grey hunters but in the end they won through.





After that I was just on mop up operations and managed to take out the rest of his army.


After a very bloody game I managed to get a 17-3 win taking 1750 VPs but losing 969 VPs

Conclusion

Vect is a best I got lucky stopping him when I did also getting all three reserves at the same time helped quite a bit as well.

All though I knew in theory DE where a glass hammer I didn't quite appreciate just how much, those wytch squads with an agoniser hit hard but have not staying power.

Jamie was a great opponent and took loosing vect better than I probably would have.

Game 3: Mike Newman, Tau, Dawn of War, Kill Points

Yay Tau in  kill point, brilliant I thought he gets one turn to stop me then I am in at him and victory is mine...as I discovered no one had explained this to mike.

So his Army:

Commander in a battle suit

Ethereal

3 Crisis squads with missile, plasma and drones

2 Units of fire warriors in devil fish

Unit of kroot

2 units of broadsides with missiles and drones

So I got to deploy first, Mike had his battle suits walk on first turn, the kroot outflank and everything else in reserve.

Not knowing where he would come on I dropped the two dreads between the buildings at the center of the table for some cover, with one grey hunter squad in the ruins on either side.

Mike walked on and managed to take out one of the dreads straight away and shoot up some grey hunters.






After this it was pretty much Zulu Dawn, Initially I was probably too timid but it wasn't long before I was throwing everything I could at him.




I started to roll up the flank but mike just fed me units and pulled back.





I tried cutting him off but I just couldn't get to grips with his army,  when ever I started to get close he would just blow up a couple of drop pods.





I got him back in a corner but in the end it was just too little too late. It ended with a 15-5 loss for me with me getting 880 VPS and losing 1109 VP's.

Conclusion

Ah over confidence is the mother of all sin. I went into this expecting an easy win, though the deployment put me on the back foot mikes target priority and manoeuvre kept me there. From my second turn I should have been running right at him rather than wasting time on ineffectual bolter shots.

On a side note the ethereal  did him well, more than once it saved a squad from running off the table.


Game 4: Sean Homan, Space Marines, Seize Ground, Spear head

At first glance I was rubbing my hands at the prospect of an easy victory but as I started to think about it I realised Sean had a really good marine list for dealing with my list.

Vulkan

Chaplin Cassius

Dreadnought with plasma cannon

5 TH/SS Terminators in a landraider redeemer

Tech priest with a thunderfire cannon

3 x 5 Scouts with a powerfist in a Landspeeder Storm's with multi meltas

10 Man Tac Squad - Melta Gun, Multi Melta in a drop pod

The dread and termies where in reserve so the scout speeders where my primary targets, I like to drop my pods on objectives, the last thing I need is one of them sitting near it making me scatter 4D6.

Sean went first and drop the pod aggressivly in the middle of the board with vulkan. The rest of his force hung back a bit.


I dropped in just nicely for shooting at the speeders, just as I am about to roll the dice to shoot Sean reminds me it's night fighting on the first turn, talk about a facepalm moment, I can't believe I forgot, needless to say I managed to do next to nothing bar shoot up a couple of tac marines.





Things went down hill very quickly from there, I managed to blow up 2 on the speeders but couldn't make a dent in the tactical squad.

His terminators with cassisus rocked on I really needed to neuter them fast so I sent in a unit of grey hunters not expecting to take them out but just kill a few to reduce there effectiveness, 11 normal and a rending wound later none of them died :(





I couldn't scratch the land raider either, on the whole nothing was proving effective. Vulkan then proceeded to run rampage through my lines.





I was surprised just how effective he is in close combat.





I eventually managed to kill him but he did more than enough damage. All over it was the same story, in the center my grey hunters got wiped out to a man.





I managed to secure one objective to the left but lost the dreadnought to a scout powerfist.





Despite my best efforts to kill the five remaining scouts to pull it back to a draw I just couldn't manage it.


In the end I lost 17-3 scoring 852 VP's to 1409 VP's.

Conclusion


Firstly apologies to Sean, Most of the pictures I took didn't turn out, for the second day I hadn't noticed the camera was on a strange setting.

Really shot myself in the foot at that start forgetting about night fight, soon as that happened I should have went all out to kill his troops but I got caught up trying to kill the land raider and the terminators, very silly of me.

Very enjoyable game though, shows me I am going to need a lot more practice with this list to make it work.

Game 5 Luke Dobson, Space Marines, Take and hold, Pitch battle

Luke is actually a warmachine player with out much 40k experience using an army he didn't pick...but after my last few games I decided to take nothing for granted.

Luke's list:

Librarian

5TH/SS terminators

10 Sternguard with power weapons
2x10 man tactical squad
5 man scout squad
2 Godhammer Landraiders
1 Landraider Crusader

Lot of AV14 there thankfully no redeemers

He set up in a building over looking the central objective with his tac squad and libby on the top floor and the sternguard on the second. he put the rest in reserve





I decided to turn the middle objective into a parking lot and block off the routs to it with drop pods. Since he didn't have a powerfist in the building I decided to drop the dreadnoughts upfront and see how they did.





We exchanged some fire, I lost a dread and the sternguard killed quite a few grey hunters, then all his reserves rolled on.





The termies ate most of a squad and the dreadnought but lost a few in the effort, I continued to parking lot up and try to take out the landraiders.


He tried to knock a hole through but the stormbolters on the drop pods finished off the terminators, the land raider on the left got taken out and the squad inside pinned.





After that I took out the tac squad on the left hand side and the game ended.





The game ended 15-5 win to me I got 810 VPs and lost 593 VP's

Conclusion



On the whole I was quite lucky here, if Luke had just driven his landraiders on the middle objective first turn I would have had a hell of a time shifting them, once they where in reserve I knew I could use the pods to block most of his routes out his deployment zone.



So over all how do I feel about the list, it's good and I think it can do well about mid table but it will need a lot of practise. I finished 21st out of 32,my goal was to try and get two wins, anymore I would view as a bonus overall I got 5180 VP's on the whole a respectable amount, much better than I would get with my last list.


Look at the amount of Grey knights on the top table I know it's got no chance up there so I have started work on my next list already. This one is good fun and I plan on using it for a long time but I want a bit more filth as well :)