GT Reports Part 1.

Just back from the GT. Had a fun weekend, and learned a lot. Same as usual. Brief Bat Reps and a summary.

Game One

Hammer and Anvil, Seize Ground 5 objectives. Against a drop podding Space Marine list. Vulcan, Lysander, 1 full tac squad, 1 half tac squad, a scout squad, 2 Iron Clads, 1 normal Dread, 2 MM Attack Bikes, 2 Auto Laz Preds and a Thunder Fire Cannon. My opponents was somebody I have played before (at the gaming day report a while back). In that game he was playing Dark Eldar and had appalling luck. Things didn’t go very well this game either!

My Opponent had first turn. I spread out all my squads and pretty much filled up my deployment zone in an attempt to push his pods back as far as possible. However, I made a mistake. I left a gap over on my left flank. It was tight, and the risk was he might scatter off the board…you can see where this is going?

First turn my opponent decides to pod Lysander and a Tac squad into the gap, he scatters of the board and rolls a “1” on the mishap table…..! This is a huge blow 400pts of his army destroyed first turn. I offer to let him have a “misplaced” result instead, but nobly he declines. His luck did not improve. It included Vulcan being killed by Orks, all his Twin Linked melta guns missing repeatedly, and his Iron Clads being one shotted by Rail Guns.

I think I’m a jinx! Win to me.

Learning points – you can really spread a big unit of boys out a long way, but it makes them really cumbersome. They spent a lot of time getting in the way! I need to be more careful with my deep strike defence. While it worked out for me (!) I should not have left the gap. Ironclads do not like Railguns.

Oh and Thunder Fire Cannons are pretty good now!

Game 2

But of course, winning your first game pushes you up the tables….!

Next game was against Necrons. Stormlord, big blob of warriors, some cryptecs, 3 night scythes with 5 guys inside and 9 (9!) spiders.

Long story short…. I just could not kill enough scarabs. I tried to hold them up with the Boyz, but he just kept spawning more and more. At one point he was rolling 108 dice to hit in a combat with my Broadsides. It did not end well!

However, I also made a huge mistake. I moved my hammerheads too far forward, which allowed him to zoom on with the night scythes, get out the guys and Gauss them to death. While the Dpods on my Hammerheads make them great at range (3+ cover), flyers can close that distance really quickly if you don’t block them with something to keep the flyer more that 12” away. If I had saved the Hammerheads I might have had a chance at killing the spyders and slowing down the scarab production. But then again….with 9 of them I doubt I could have done much about it.

Learning points – scarabs are horrible. I thought my Boyz squads were tar pits…they are nothing compared to scarabs. I really need something to deal with this sort of horde army. Maybe burna boyz as bubble wrap… Overwatch from that would hurt the swarm.

Still it was a good game against a fun opponent.

Game 3

Guard. Blob squad, with Librarian, manticore, psykers, 6 Hydra Defence Platforms, and 3 Vendettas. Big guns never tire, Vanguard Strike.

Hmmm… I can’t make my mind up about this game. I’ll say up front, I really didn’t enjoy it. It was nothing to do with my opponent, he was a nice guy, but his list was just so brutal that after turn one (and we will get to why!) I felt I never had a chance. He just had a counter to everything, and I had a counter to nothing….!

So, anyway, he got first turn. He set up in the corner, hiding his manticore and spreading out the Hydra Platforms. My warlord trait was the one that lets me re-roll reserves. With that trait, and all those auto cannons, not to mention the manticore, I decided to keep all my vehicles off the table. The plan was to come in off the table edge with the Hammerheads, opposite his set up, and use the Plasma Cannons to kill the platforms. With AV13, and a 3+ cover save I thought I had a good chance of taking out the platforms. I also planned to get the Firewarrior out and rapid fire the platforms (they re only AV10). I reckoned my Broadsides could stay on the table behind the Aegis, and weather the fire with their 2+ and 4 shield drones, and havea good chance of poping the manticore.

So first shot of the game he lands 3 Manticore pie plates on the Broadsides. One scatters onto the Big Mek. He kills the Bik Mek and I proceed to roll four ones in a row for the Broadside saves, killing 2 Broadsides the Commander and a Shield Drone. The last guy runs off the board…..! Next turn when my Hammerheads and devilfish come on, he explains the Auto targeting rule, which allows him to ignore jink saves, and that the interceptor rule, which lets him fire at anything coming in from reserve (I thought it was just things that deep struck). He proceeds to autocannon my Hammerheads and Devilfish to death (admittedly over a few turns, but the outcome was never in doubt). And that was before he even started with his Vendettas. I think i destroyed 2 Hydra Platforms all game! To be fair, he did offer me the chance to redeploy the Devilfish and the Hammerheads once he explained Interceptor and Auto targetting, but I didn't think that was right, I should know the rules. 

These are the games I find the most Frustrating – where you lose and you just can’t see how you could have won. Maybe if my Broadsides had survived, I would have had a chance, but I doubt it. Once his Vendettas came on the board the Broadsides would have been toast. The only thing I can think of is if I had taken 2 squads of Broadsides. I might have been able to take down the Hydras before the skimmers came on, and then simply gone to ground behind the Aegis and snap fired the Railguns hoping for a 6.

What I wont do is complain about him taking a “broken” list. It’s a GT – that’s what you should expect, and what he had was within the codex, and within the rules.

So that's the first three games. End of day one. If I had any chance of qualifying, I would have to win at least 2 of my games tomorrow, perhaps all three.

More reports tomorrow.

EYIG