RTT Report: My CSM Make Their Debut (1.19.13)

Last Saturday I brought my Chaos Space Marines out to their first tournament, which took place at Legion Games in Burnsville, Minnesota. There were eleven players, which is more than they had at some events last fall, but still below how many they used to draw. While I don’t plan to do full battle reports until this army is painted, I will be providing a synopsis of each game. This provides a record for me as well as a point of perspective for other players when looking at match ups. My list was;

Typhus

25 Plague Zombies

10 Plague Zombies

10 Plague Zombies

10 Plague Zombies

Heldrake (Baleflamer)

Heldrake (Baleflamer)

6 Havocs (4 Lascannon)

The Masque

9 Flamers of Tzeentch

5 Horrors of Tzeentch

9 Screamers of Tzeentch

Soul Grinder (Phlegm)

Aegis Defense Line (Comms Relay)

Game one is after the jump!

My first opponent of the day was Michael. This was the second time we had faced off, with the first being in a league game last November.

 

St. Celestine
Uriah Jacobus

20 Sisters (Power Sword Sergeant/2 Flamers)
10 Sisters (Rhino/2 Meltagun/Combi-Flamer)
10 Sisters (Rhino/2 Meltagun/Combi-Flamer)

5 Retributors (4 Heavy Bolters)
Exorcist
Exorcist

Lord Commissar (2 Powerfist)
Marbo

10 Veterans (Auto-Cannon/3 Grenade Launchers/Forward Sentry Doctrine)

Vendetta

Basilisk

Aegis (Quad-Gun)

We had three missions with the winner being the won who scored the most. They were slay the warlord, big guns never tire (objectives are the two poker chips you can see with the other two behind his aegis and in the building on the left), and a third which I won, but don't remember. There was mysterious objectives in this game, with both on my side halving charge ranges, the one on top right did nothing, and the one by the exorcists giving skyfire. Think about that....skyfiring exorcists!

We actually played the lava as dangerous.

It was night and I went first. I got my non-preferred wave and dropped both the horrors and  Masque in center terrain out of line of sight. Michael spent much of the game, and all of first turn, trying to kill zombies in Typhus' squad. On turn two I killed nearly all of the big sister squad, including killing Celestine for the first of three times (she was alive at the end of the game). 

On my second turn I dropped the screamers on the far left, where they could take out his scoring tanks, as well as the sister squad over there, without any harassment. The rest of my army functioned as needed, killing off his squads and securing me the victory. He was able to take down both Heldrakes, but despite his work Typhus survived (including killing Marbo in a challenge).

In game two I played against Puck, a longtime Imperial Guard player. We had played only a few weeks before, but before the addition of the Soul Grinder. Puck says he learned a lot last time we played, and thought he was prepared to answer my daemons. His list was;

Company Command Squad (Astropath/Chimera)
Lord Commissar

6 Storm Troopers (2 Plasma Gun)

Platoon Command Squad (2 Flamers)

-Infantry Squad (Auto-Cannon)

-Infantry Squad (Auto-Cannon)

-Infantry Squad (Auto-Cannon)

-Infantry Squad (Auto-Cannon)

Veteran Squad (3 Meltaguns)

Vendetta
Vendetta 

2 Basilisks
Manticore

Leman Russ Exterminator (3 Heavy Bolters/Pask)

Aegis Defense Line (Quad Gun)

 

Our mission was the crusade with five objectives (each opponent set the values of the opponents objectives, which was kept secret until game end), slay the warlord, and linebreaker.

Turn 5

I rolled to go first, and got my preferred wave, but night fight kept things uneventful. Turn two saw the heldrakes take out the commissar and most the blob (even with perfect spacing of his guys to avoid my template), the flamers getting rid of Pask, screamers exploding the manticore, and the souls grinder beating both basilisks in the squadron, effectively reducing his offensive output. Puck could have tried to kill Typhus and then grav shoot inserted for line breaker, but the writing was on the wall. At the end of turn five he only had one empty vendetta, and the sentinels.




Going into the last round there were two other 2-0 players, a Space Wolf TWC list and Hulksmash and his Dark Angels with IG, while the top 1-1 was a wraith/nob biker list that would be a hard counter to me. I was lucky and drew the Space Wolves. I had played Max several other times, but had never won against any of his armies. Today though I felt confident in my list. He brought;

Wolf Lord (Thunderwolf/TH+SS/Runic Armor/Saga of the Bear)
Rune Priest (Warlord/Runic Armor/Chooser/Meltabombs)

10 Grey Hunters (2 Plasma Guns/Wolf Standard/Rhino)
10 Grey Hunters (2 Plasma Guns/Wolf Standard/Rhino)
10 Grey Hunters (2 Meltagun/Wolf Standard/Rhino)

5 Thunderwolf Calvary (3 SS/Powerfist)

6 Long Fangs (5 Missile Launchers)
6 Long Fangs (5 Missile Launchers) 
5 Long Fangs (4 Missile Launchers) 

Aegis Defense Line (Icarus Lascannon)

The missions were the relic (with the additional rule that is deep strikes on turn three), linebreaker, and first blood. I feel good going into this game, as MEQ bodies are the best thing for my list to face. All I need to do is kill the TWC. Max rolls to go first and I deploy mostly behind LOS blocking terrain, not reserving any zombies. I end up seizing the initiative which allows me to set my 'trap'. I throw the screamers on the left flank an inch away from the long fangs (doing a wound on the Rune Priest with sweep attacks). the soul grinder drops in between them and the LOS blocking hill in the center, directing any wolf charge toward all my zombies. I then deep strike my flamers in front of this formation and run them to wrap the zombies so that they re out of line of sight from his shooting, but force him to face my wall of death to charge my troops. Max sees this and comments, "Nothing but bad choices." 

Somewhere during turn two.

He ends up charging the flamers with the wolves, losing one on the charge but killing all but three flamers. He also disembarks his grey hunters knowing he needs all of his bolters to down the screamers, but I only lose three. Come my turn I clear out a grey hunter squad with the dragons and charge Typhus, 45 zombies, and the soul grinder into the wolf combat, using a zombie champion to soak up the wolf lord. I realize later that I forgot 29 attacks from the zombies (I forgot to roll my second batch, but Max realizes he had forewarning on the grey hunters I killed. I firmly believe both were inconsequential as the zombies would have done one wound only and I even if more hunters would have lived through the first dragon, that only means more hits for the second, which when added to the vector strikes which could have been done on the same flight path as I took the next turn they would have been dead anyways. Also worth noting, the Masque had a huge scatter and due tot he mishap was put in the corner where she no longer mattered for the game.

I believe this is turn three.

As the game continues he adds a grey hunter unit into the big combat, and puts a long fang squad in a rhino to go for linebreaker after they finish killing the screamers. He quickly kills my horrors with frag missiles to prevent them from getting out of LOS and scoring linebreaker. leaving my just the ten unengaged zombies to go for the relic, which is now hidden under an empty rhino. 

And this is somewhere in turn four.

As the meat grinder continues I give up three zombie champions to his hammer wielding lord. I was pumped to get Typhus into combat, but after doing lots of wounds, they were all saved on a SS and he died to a single wound from a S10 fist after failing his invo.

The game is really close. I have first blood, but as time looks to be running out (we acknowledge turn six would be out last turn) we are both in position to win. I need a difficult terrain roll of at least 3" to get the relic. He needs to A) be able to kill enough of the zombies in the relic squad and B) either kill the soul grinder (the only model of mine left in the big combat, he has his lord and four three or so hunters) which only has two hull points left and consolidate into linebreaker or have his long fangs survive two dragons.


As it happens I kill the long fangs but the grinder dies getting him line breaker. His other long fangs get a change on the zombies, but kill two short of stopping me from getting the relic, meaning I win 2-1. It was the most enjoyable game I have had with chaos so far, as Max is a great opponent who really challenged me.

It turns out that Hulksmash and his opponent tied, meaning I was the only 3-0 player. I ended up winning best general, but due to my lack of painting I placed in 4th overall. Max took best overall due to his complete army and solid battle points score, while Puck took best painting. All in all it was great to play in my first RTT in four months, and I look forward to the next two within the next month. Here's to hoping to have some sort of painting score by the time they come around!