Two and a Half Games (Fantasy, 40K, 40K)

Today’s post is a rundown of some casual games I played and then a quick summary of round one of the Pasadena 40K RTT I played in.

Last Wednesday I found out that Santa Barbara does in fact have a gamer community (they were well hidden in warseer whereas I am a DakkaDakka user). On Thursday I hobbyed with them, finishing the red and purple basecoats for my monstrous creatures and started the yellow base layer. On Friday I ventured into their manden, a garage converted to hold 4 gaming tables and many other awesome things, for a game of Fantasy. I played a Dark Elf list with 2 hydras and a dragon and was thoroughly trounced by a Tomb Kings army that included 8 construct monstrous cavalry who could reroll their saves. Between my two sorceresses I had three cataclysmic detonations, only taking a wound from one of them, and lost my Dragon to a purple sun. It was a lolworthy game in which my Hydras did not even see combat. Lots of laughs.

Saturday was the aforementioned tournament that will be reported on this week. Sunday I played a team 40K game with 1500 points per player. My standard Nidzilla list teamed with Eldar (farseer, fire dragons in a wave serpent, warp spiders, striking scorpions, two pathfinder units, guardian jetbikes, two wraith lords, and three war walkers) against Chaos Space Marines (tzeentch daemon prince with wings, slaanesh daemon prince with wings, thousand sons, berserkers in a rhino, small unit of plague marines, two units of oblits) teaming with Blood Angels (Mephiston, sanguinary priest, 30 ASM, 20 tactical marines, 2 dev squads with missiles). We played the scouring mission. Overall the game was great fun. The blood angel player seemed the happiest commenting that it was nice to not play a game of two parking lots facing off. The turning point of the game was when Mephiston charged a Trygon, failed to get his force weapon to work (runes of warding is quite good as many have noted) and then promptly was killed. We ended the game turn four when a combat that included the last daemon prince, the hive tyrant, and a tervigon swung in the Tyranids favor and it became clear Tyranids were the favorite to hold more objectives while having first blood and kill the warlord. One of the things that came up in this game which was really annoying was the inability to assault when coming out of reserve. In this case, my Hive Tyrant flew onto the table in glide mode right new to where a daemon prince was fighting a trygon, but despite being right next to the combat the tyrant could not strike a blow and save his ally. That is one mechanism I do not like in sixth.

Round One of the Pasadena RTT after the jump!

On 7/14 I brought my 17 model Nidzilla list to Game Empire Pasadena for a 1500 point 6^th edition 40K tournament. There was a great turnout of 26, including both Yakface and Blackmoor. The TO wanted the event to be as close to the rulebook as logistically possible meaning rulebook missions, random objectives, allies, and fortifications were all in play. Naturally I didn’t face anyone with allies or a fortification and forgot to roll for random objectives in every game.

In round one I faced off against a young guy named Ethan and his Orks. Ethan only had one copy of his list, so this is approximate.

Warboss (Mega Armor)

Wierdboy (Warphead upgrade)

10ish Tankbustas (a few tank hammers mixed in)

3 Meganobz (With Boss)

20 Slugga boyz (No Nob, 2 big shootas)

20 Slugga boyz (No Nob, 2 big shootas)

10? Slugga boyz (With Warphead)

20 Grotz

5 Stormboyz (Boss Zagstruk)

Looted Wagon (Big Cannon?)

Big Guns (2 Kannons)

Deffdread

2 Killa Kanz

I realize now that there was one too many heavies in this list. The mission was The Scouring with Vanguard deployment. Ethan won the roll to go first. We both deployed evenly with me matching my shooting units to their prime targets. I reserved the gants. I did not seize.

Initial deployment.

Ethan correctly labeled my tervigons his biggest target, putting two wound on my troop tervigon in his first turn. He moved his combat elements forward. Unfortunately for him my list packs a punch shooting. I got all three hull points off of the looted wagon with the swooping tyrant’s shooting, and between one cluster spine shot and the carnifex unit took out a whole mob of boyz. The other tervigon killed half of the tankbustas and a few from the weirdboy’s squad.

One thing to note that came up only in this game was that the tournament was using closed lists as per page 118. this meant that I had no idea about the storm boyz in reserve and was totally taken surprise by them deep striking behind my lines. Ethan continued targeting my troop tervigon bringing it down to two wounds. I passed my tyrant’s grounding test and thus the kanz couldn’t assault him. He made a long charge with the deffdread against a Trygon, but I wrecked it before he could swing. On my turn the carnifex unit wrecked both kanz, the Tyrant took some grots off the big gunz, the Tervigon killed 10 grtoz shooting, and I charged the Trygons into a boyz mob running them down as they fled from casualties. I shot all my spawned gants at the storm boyz, killing three and then charged in a fearless unit to hold them in place.

Ethan charges the tankbustas and warphead squad into one Trygon, getting run down after combat, and the meganobz into the other, taking five wounds and dealing four. They hold. In shooting he did ground the Tyrant and brings it down to one wound. He charges the remaining grots into it hoping to wound me with the poisoned grot prod for the kill the warlord bonus point. I wiff my rolls and they are able to pass leadership and hold. I bring the stormboy squad down to just Zagstruk. By the end of round 4 Ethan has no units on the table earning me 20 battle points.

Mid turn 3.

After the game I talked tactics with Ethan. Some of the things that would have helped him out include; putting the tankbustaz in the looted wagon (giving them mobility and the ability to better choose where they charged), making the boyz squads bigger so that he could remain fearless longer, as well as how he could have placed the objectives differently to have more scoring opportunities in case the game became an attrition battle.

Coming up next: In round two I face a mechanized Necron army that includes fliers! A full (detailed) battle report will be up Thursday!