Wednesday, December 29, 2010

ICGL Footdar Games (Part 2)

Opponent week 5: Dave
Mission: Annihilation, Pitched Battle
List: Space Wolves (from memory)
-Wolf Lord w/Thunderwulf, Runic Armor, Wolf Amulet and Talisman, Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, Saga of the Warrior Born
-Wolf Lord w/Thunderwulf, Runic Armor, Wolf Amulet and Talisman, Thunderhammer, Storm Shield, Saga of the Bear
-Rune Priest w/Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane
-9 Grey Hunters w/Melta, Fist, Standard, Rhino
-9 Grey Hunters w/Melta, Fist, Standard, Rhino
-5 Grey Hunters w/Melta, Razorback, Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasma Gun
-5 Grey Hunters w/Melta, Razorback, Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasma Gun
-15 Fenrisian Wolves
-6 Long fangs w/5 Missile Launchers
-6 Long fangs w/5 Missile Launchers

Battle: I won the roll to set up first and deployed in a bubble formation, but also covered most of my board edge to try to think out Daves forces across his deployment zone. He didn't bite and deployed mostly on his left side. I used Eldrad to redeploy across from him. Dave seized the Initiative and moved most everything forward. The Long fangs shot my avatar, doing 3 wounds to him and some frag missiles, killing about 4 Dire Avengers.
I responded by pinning one long fangs squad and killing 3 of another, which ran off the board.
I was able to start putting D-Cannon hits on Rhinos and such, damaging them.
The Wolf lords w/wolves hit my lines turn 2. They roll poorly and coupled with defend on the Avengers keep most of my side alive (I only lost by 1). A rhino tank shocked a unit of my guardians off the board...
The game devolved into 2 parts, a main melee featuring 2 wolf lords and the fenrisian wolves and a short ranged shooting contest where my guardians, D-cannons, Rangers, and Reapers killed 2 Rhinos, 2 Grey Hunter Squads, a Razorback and the Rune Priest taking no casualties in return. In the LONG combat, I was able to kill the Thunderhammer wolf lord (under weight of Dice and Doom) and all the fenrisian wolves. In return, the Warrior Born Wolf Lord killed the guardian Storm Squad, Both Dire Avenger squads, Harlequins, and Striking Scorpions. (HOLY SHIT) Thankfully, I had already done enough damage, the game ended turn 5.
Outcome: I win 9-7

Opponent week 8: Tim Horvath (Gramps) (Editors note: "Gramps" is younger than me)
Mission: Seize Ground (5 Objectives), Pitched Battle
List: Space Marines
-Shrike
-Librarian w/Null Zone, Avenger
-10 Tactical Marines w/Lascannon, Flamer, Rhino
-10 Tactical Marines w/Multi-melta, Melta, Combi-Melta, Rhino
-10 Assault Marines w/Powerfist
-10 Assault Terminators w/1 Lightning Claw, 9 Thunderhammer & Storm Shield
-10 Assault Terminators w/1 Lightning Claw, 9 Thunderhammer & Storm Shield
-Predator w/Heavy Bolter Sponsons
-Predator w/Heavy Bolter Sponsons
-Predator w/Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Battle: I deployed first, centrally to about 3 objectives. (they were laid out one each quarter, one in center) Standard blob formation, Dark reapers on right, Storm Guardians on left, Scorpions outflanking. Dire Avengers Bubblewrapping a right board outflank.
In my first turn, I move some things forward and fortune the D-Cannons. The reaper exarch goes to work and kills a combat squad w/Lascannon and a terminator.
In gramps first turn, the dakka preds open up on the Storm guardians who go to ground and only a few die. Everything else rushes forward. The Terminators assault the harlequins. The harlequins kill 3, lose 4 and stay. In turn 2 my scorpions arrive and attempt to assault the left most dakka pred, but are just out. The Fire dragons destroy a rhino. The other rhino is destroyed by D cannon fire. The avatar joins the harlequin assault and wipes the terminators.
The other termies charge and destroy the rangers, Shrike and Friends arrive, outflank and kill all of the dire avengers, who break off the table. Terminators charge the D-Cannons, the dakka preds kill 2 non-exarch dark reapers.
Eldrad dooms the Librarian (who keeps null zoning) and he is killed by the storm guardians.
The Avatar and Eldrad charge + beat down Thunderhammer and Storm shield terminators.
At the End of turn 5, gramps only has an immobilized predator left.

Outcome: Victory for footdar

ICGL Footdar Games (Part 1)

5 ICGL Footdar Games, without further ado.

Opponent week 2: Lincoln Tidwell
Mission: Annihilation, Spearhead.
List: Reserve Oriented Tyranids
-Hive Tyrant w/Dual Twin-linked Devourers, Wings
-10 Genestealers w/Toxin Sacs, Scything Talons
-10 Genestealers w/Toxin Sacs, Scything Talons
-10 Genestealers w/Toxin Sacs, Scything Talons
-10 Genestealers w/Toxin Sacs, Scything Talons
-10 Genestealers w/Toxin Sacs, Scything Talons
-10 Genestealers w/Toxin Sacs, Scything Talons
-3 Hive Guard
-3 Hive Guard
-3 Hive Guard
-Mawloc

Battle: Lincoln chooses to go second. I deploy the D-cannons, the Avatar, the Dark Reapers, and Eldrad in a ruin about 18 inches from the right table edge, the guardians and avengers flank them. The Fire Dragons are out in front. The harlequins are deployed to bubblewrap the ruin from an outflank on my right. The Striking Scorpions outflank, the storm guardians are in reserve, I infiltrate the rangers into my left table quarter, about 24 from the right table edge. Lincoln reserves everything, outflanking the 60 Genestealers. He then seizes the initiative. His turn ends. I fortune both support weapon teams and shuffle some things to spread out left and forward. Lincoln gets the following reserves in: Hive Tyrant, 3 Genestealer squads, a Hive Guard unit, and the Mawloc. 2 Genestealers come in on my right and assault the Harlequins, slaughtering them. The other outflanks on the left (away from everything). The Hive guard move on from my opponents right corner (my right) the Tyrant flies into midfield behind some cover. The Mawloc deepstrikes on top of the Fire Dragons, not the artillery. 6 of 7 dragons die, the Tyrant finishes off the Exarch. The Hive Guard take come shots at some nearby Dire Avengers, killing about 4. Yikes. On my turn, I doom the Mawloc and a squad of Genestealers, and fortune the avatar. My Scorpions arrive via outflank on my right, behind the genestealers.
My shooting sees me kill the Mawloc, do a wound on a Hive guard, and kill all but 2 Genestealers on my right, which the Avatar promptly assaults and kills.
Lincoln then gets 2 stealer squads and the Last 2 Hive Guard units in. The Genestealers roll poorly and both show up on the left side (away from the action) the Hive Guard roll on behind the other Hive guard unit, which advances through the trees. The Tyrant flies towards the wounded Dire Avenger squad (the one w/Bladestorm) The Tyrant and Hive guard finish off the Dire Avengers. The Hive guard fire at the D-Cannons, but succeed in killing a crew member only. In my turn, I kill the Hive Tyrant and start mauling the Hive Guard (now out of synapse range). Lincolns final Genestealer unit arrives on the left (40 Genestealers are out of the game). Because of synapse being gone, some Hive guard are pinned. In my turn I kill the remaining Hive Guard with D-Cannons, Dark Reapers, Rangers, and Striking Scorpions. I move my units away from the 40 Genestealers hugging the left board edge.
Outcome: I win 7-2

Opponent Week 3: Kaleb Walters
Mission: Seize Ground (3 Objectives), Dawn of War
List: Space Wolves
-Wolf Lord w/runic armor, thunderwulf, claw, shield, Warrior Born
-Njal Stormcaller
-3 Wolf guard w/combi-melta, Storm Shield
-9 Grey hunters w/melta, wulfen, standard in a drop pod
-9 Grey hunters w/melta, wulfen, standard in a drop pod
-7 Grey hunters w/melta, wulfen, standard in a drop pod
-5 Wolf Scouts
-5 Wolf Scouts
-10 Fenrisian Wolves
-6 Long fangs w/3 Lascannons, 2 Missile Launchers, Drop Pod
-6 Long fangs w/3 Lascannons, 2 Missile Launchers, Drop Pod

Battle: Kaleb decides to go first, he deploys nothing. I deploy my Storm Guardians on an Objective and Infiltrate my Rangers onto another, both in my right board quarter.
Kaleb in turn 1, walks his wolf lord and wolves and long fangs onto the board. He drops 2 empty drop pods near the objective by the rangers. He drops in Njal and his Grey Hunters in front of my Storm Guardians , he kills 3 and they break.
On my turn, I walk on everything save the Scorpions, which are outflanking. The Harlequins go first, to bubblewrap (mainly against long fangs, but also against the approaching wolf lord) The Avatar, Fire Dragons, Eldrad and D-cannons are behind them. The Storm guardians become fearless and move back towards their position. The Avengers flank the blob. The guardians spread out on my board edge, covering all but 18 inches on the left. Where the Dark Reapers also walk. Eldrad attempts to mind war Njal but fails. The Dire Avengers kill all but 3 of Njals escort. They hold. The storm guardians assault them, kill a marine, do a wound to Njal, lose 5 of their number to wounds and combat resolution.
Kaleb then gets ALL of his reserves, turn 2. The wolf scouts enter on opposite edges. The two drop pods come in about 15 inches from my blob. The grey hunters fire, killing 5 Dire Avengers plus Bladestorm Exarch and 5 Harlequins. The long fangs put 3 wounds on the Avatar. The wolf scouts on the right assault the guardians and kill them all. The other squad assaults the Dark reapers, who kill 2 scouts and suffer no casualties, the scouts fail, are caught and lose another to combat resolution. Njal and friends smoke the Storm guardians, and lose none of their own squad.
In my turn, I try to Fortune the D-cannons, but get snuffed by Njal, I do manage to get a Guide through on one of them. My scorpions arrive on the right.
My shooting, combined kills all but two grey hunter models and Njal. The harlequins charge Njal and kill him. At this point, kaleb has 2 scoring models left.
Outcome: Kaleb Concedes.

Opponent week 4: Dameon Green
Mission: Seize Ground, Spearhead
List: Chaos-zilla
-Daemon Prince w/Wings, Mark of Tzeentch
-Daemon Prince w/Wings, Mark of Tzeentch
-Greater Daemon
-5 Chaos Space Marines w/Flamer, Icon, Champion, Rhino
-5 Chaos Space Marines w/Flamer, Icon, Champion, Rhino
-18 Thousand Sons w/Gift of Chaos
-Dreadnought w/2 DCCW's
-Dreadnought w/2 DCCW's
-Dreadnought w/2 DCCW's
-Defiler w/Autocannon, Battlecannon, 3 DCCW's
-Defiler w/Autocannon, Battlecannon, 3 DCCW's
-3 Obliterators

Battle: I win the roll off and deploy everything I have on my objective in my Deployment Zone.
Standard Blob Formation, Scorpions in reserve. Dameon deploys the Dreadnoughts, Princes, and Rhinos in a semi circle in his zone. The oblits are to his left. The thousand sons hang back by his objective. There is a objective in roughly the center of the table.
On my turn, I fortune the D-Cannons, I destroy his right-most Rhino and kill 3 dudes with the reaper exarch. I do a wound to a Daemon prince and shake all the dreadnoughts, some more than once.
Dameon basically advances everything forward as fast as possible. There are some prolonged assaults with harlequins tarpitting a dreadnought, the Avatar tears through two of them. I manage to kill all of his Aspiring Champions so the Greater Daemon never arrives.
Dameon relentlessly targets my D-Cannons, even though they are fortuned, they begin to die.
In the end, Dameon has one Thousand son left standing on his objective. I have 2 scoring units on mine and 3 scoring units plus eldrad on the other. Sadly, Dameons bum rush paid off, there was an immobilized dreadnought and an immobilized defiler contesting that I could not kill. Even with Eldrad.
Outcome: Draw

ICGL Mechdar Games

Two of my opponents are playing Guard (I surmised a likely Mech list). Both of the games feature a "Dawn of War" deployment, which is not suited for Footdar. I bought the Mechdar against these individuals.

Opponent week 1: Spencer Wilkins (you may have seen him in the back of older copies of "White Dwarf" magazine)
Mission: Capture and Control, Dawn of War
List: Mechanized Imperial Guard (from memory)
-CCS, 4 melta, Chimera
-Veterans, 3 melta, Chimera
-Veterans, 3 melta, Chimera
-Veterans, 3 melta, Chimera
-Veterans, 3 melta, Chimera
-5 Ogryns, Chimera
-5 Ogryns, Chimera
-Manticore
-2 Medusae
-3 Hydra Flak Tanks

Battle: Neither of us deployed anything, Spencer gave me 2nd turn.
So, his line of Metal moves on, I rock a refused flank to the left (where his objective his), and ignore mine (midfield-ish) because I can return to it whenever I like.
Fire Prisms in front, real units in the rear.

His ordnance was basically useless to him the entire game (due to Wave Serpents having the awesome energy shield, which made them all very tough to fire missile launchers)
I had no choice but to get semi-close, to try and hit him with the ol beltway jam. (Immobilizing/stunning/wrecking vehicles in front to "jam" the opponent on his edge, named, by me after I-495 in MD/DC/VA)
He wisely moved his Chimeras that weren't in the fight towards my objective, forcing me to divide my forces. His meltas did great work in taking out the Fire Prisms and some of the Wave Serpents. My Fire Dragons and marginal anti-tank did well, destroying Chimeras and such. I was able to get the infantry around his objective out of their tanks, then off of the table. (via tank shock). He did the same to me when I sent units to protect/contest my objective.
The game really came down to, I was able to Destroy his objective contester (a medusa) and he was unable to destroy mine (a Wave Serpent).
Outcome: I won 1-0.

Opponent week 6: Brian Sayman
Mission: Annihilation, Dawn of War
List: Imperial Guard Air Cavalry
-CCS, 4 meltas
-10 Veterans, 3 Meltas
-10 Veterans, 3 Meltas
-10 Veterans, 3 Meltas
-10 Veterans, 3 Meltas
-10 Veterans, 3 Meltas
-10 Veterans, 3 Meltas
-10 Psyker Battle Squad, Chimera
-10 Psyker Battle Squad, Chimera
-3 Vendettas
-2 Valkyries
-2 Valkyries

Battle: Brian decides to go first. He moves everything onto the Table, I do likewise, but slowly, as I am not afraid of his 1 unit of ranged firepower (The Vendettas). Due to Nightfight and the Eldars lack of light, I do nothing.
Brian, in turn 2, fires the vendettas at a Fire Prism, (That is 9 Lascannons) He removes the gun, and Immobilizes it.
In my turn I unload Fire Dragons at the Valkyries on his flanks. I stun one and remove the multi-laser from another, twice, with 10 meltaguns...ugh. I stun/shake 2 of 3 Vendettas.
Brians vendetta whiffs in his turn, he kills 2 Fire Dragons with Multiple Rocket Pods and then attempts a "Weaken Resolve" with the Psyker Battle squad. He perils (due to Runes of Warding) and loses 2 models.
In my turn, I destroy every Valkyrie and 2 of 3 Vendettas, and both Chimeras.
Outcome: Brian concedes defeat after he is left with no ranged firepower and 8 squads walking. While I am ahead in kill points.

The Mechdar go 2-0 against Mech Guard.

-Mike

The Inner Circle Gaming League (ICGL) and Foot Eldar

One thing I did not mention in my previous post was that I am currently involved in a league with the Inner Circle Gaming Club LINK.
So, each person will play 8 games using rulebook missions. (There are 9 permutations of mission/deployment in the rulebook, the only one we aren't using is Capture and Control Spearhead)
So, there are 14 people, each person plays 8 games. All games are 2000 points. The top 3 people and 1 random (wildcard) make it to the playoffs (think in NFL terms). You can play the games in any order, at any time, in any place. In December, I have played 7 of my eight games, and am on track to play the 8th this afternoon.
When the league began, I decided that I was going to use Foot Eldar (Footdar) for the majority of my games. I own so many models I have never used and really wanted to break some of them out. I brought two lists, one Mechanized Eldar (Mechdar) and one Footdar. Every player knows the mission, deployment, and opposing codex choice before the game starts. I will attempt to re-cap what went down in the 7 games I have played so far.

First, the lists.
Mechdar
Farseer w/Runes of Warding, Doom, Mind War
Autarch w/Fusion Gun
10 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent w/Twin-linked Bright Lance
10 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent w/Twin-linked Bright Lance
10 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent w/Twin-linked Bright Lance
5 Fire Dragons
Wave Serpent w/Twin-linked Scatter Laser
5 Fire Dragons
Wave Serpent w/Twin-linked Scatter Laser
5 Fire Dragons
Wave Serpent w/Twin-linked Scatter Laser
Fire Prism w/Holo-Field
Fire Prism w/Holo-Field
Fire Prism w/Holo-Field

Footdar
Avatar
Eldrad
10 Dire Avengers w/Exarch, Dual Catapults, Bladestorm
10 Dire Avengers w/Exarch, Powerweapon & Shimmershield, Defend
10 Storm Guardians w/2 Flamers
10 Guardian Defenders w/Scatter Laser
10 Guardian Defenders w/Scatter Laser
5 Rangers (not pathfinders)
7 Fire Dragons w/Exarch, Firepike, Crack Shot
7 Harlequins w/6 Kisses, Shadowseer
8 Striking Scorpions w/Exarch, Scorpions Claw, Stalker, Shadowstrike
3 Dark Reapers w/Exarch, Tempest Launcher, Crack Shot
3 D-Cannons
3 D-Cannons

I will divide the "Batreps" into 2 sections, Mechdar (2 games) , and Footdar (5 games)

-Mike

Holy Procrastination Batman!

So, it has been about 3 months without a post from me (rejoice?).
Anyways, I been working on a lot of things.
(40k related)
-Daemons: build 6 Fiends, some infantry, working on Herald conversions ( a club-mate and I are building a joint army)
-Built 6-ish Blood Angels Razorbacks with various weapons (3 asscan, 2 lasplas, twinlas)
-Eldar: Built a nice-looking squad of Storm Guardians using Dark Elf Corsair weapons. Trying to paint Eldrad, assembled some Harlequins, built 6 support weapons (what?).
-Built and mostly painted a ton of Blood Angel Infantry.
(Fantasy)
So, for YEARS I have had a Dark Elf army. I bought the rulebook and army books for the past 3 editions. I did not play a game of seventh edition. So, I grabbed the book for 8th and found that I kind of liked it. So, I played (and have been playing) roughly 11 games of Fantasy. I found that I liked the new ruleset. I will only be playing Fantasy for fun, not competitively, as I do for 40k.

As an aside to Fantasy, the models from avatars of war are very nice looking. I bought some of their Dark Elf models to be used as characters.

Anyways, as the year of 2010 comes to an end, I hope to make more time next year to paint and finish projects. I also have the summer tournament season coming up, which I am quite excited about.

-Mike