Game 4 Golden Throne - It's a knockout!

I am trying to remember every army that made it through to the knockout stages I think it was

SpaceMarines/Spacewolves  Reece
6 ravager DE Frankie
Fateweaver Demons Liz
Eldar with tau allies Adam
Suit heavy Tau  Paul
Chaos Mike

I'm missing one so apologies to that player but I think it was another Tau player with a beautiful green army.


I was looking forward to the mission as it was the scouring with DOW which my army is great at and was also hoping to finally play something that didn't have loads of AP3 or ignore cover or both.

So bad news in the draw on both fronts!!
The mission was changed for a long table edge 3 objectives mission (can't remember exactly why) . My list does not like long table edge missions so I was pretty disappointed by this especially as the game the previous day while very tactical was very much a stand off at range.
and I draw Tau again Boo. But Paul was another absoloute gentleman to play... so how did the game go? Read on....

Army
1 Ion riptide Intercept
3 Tetras
3* 8 firewarriors
2* 10 Kroot + hound
Commander helpful in a 3 man crisis bodyguard+ drones
Shadowsun with 2 man plasma unit
2 plasma unit
2 plasma unit
2*2 broadsides with 4 missile drones Intercept
Skyray

So tons of range, good outflankers / deepstrikers a very solid list ... gonna be tough!

Setup
firstly I am an idiot and forget that this is short table edge setup D'oh
I win the role for objectives and put one in an LOS building on the far right side   A
Paul puts his diagonally opposite in a building (near left side) B
I put my last one on the near right side behind a big high hill C

Powers: Pauls warlord gets no scatter deepstrike (great for this mission), my warlord gets nothing good again (redeploy)...he needs to get with the programme and roll well for once! Unfortunately my Spiritseer also flubs again enervate and conceal - both pretty useless against tau.

I win the turn to go first the baron saving me once again.
I take the near end of the table and my view is something like the image below red squares show where the objectives were.

I set up my Wraithguard and Wraithseer behind terrain out of range of  pretty much all guns. Statement being this objective is MINE :)
The warriors take the top level of the building with objective B and the Wraithknight backs them up.
The Hornets and walkers outflank and the spiders deepstrike.

Paul sets up all his broadsides out of LOS with some firewarrior buddies, the riptide and Skyray hangout around the LOS terrain as well.

Turn 1
First turn I shuffle around but nothing much. Paul steps his Riptide forward a little and boosts his tetras down the right flank. End of turn. ooh exciting

Turn 2
All of my reserves show up (this is bad this early) . My bikes all hide / stay back on my baseline the hornets, warwalkers outflank to shoot at the Tetras. The Warpspiders however have an awful time finding anywhere that is even moderately useful and moderately safe. In the end I have to deepstrike them in high risk locations . Fortunately for me the Broadsides SMS's only kill a handful and the riptides large blast scattered off. Whew.

It took the combined fire of the Warpspiders / Warwalkers and Hornets to kill the 3 tetras. Awful rolling but got there in the end (48 S6 Bs4 shots) So first blood for me. The other warp spiders scattered a bit too far and had a few pot shots at the side armour of the Skyray 1 pen, rolled a 1 damn would have been nice to destroy those missiles oh well! They do manage to jump away but only 2 make it behind a hill for safety

As expected Tau guns are pointed at the only unit in the Tau half of the table and blast all but the 2 hidey warpspiders away. A small squad of firewarriors comes on the board edge to try and kill the warpspiders but they have a charmed life.
Down my end of the table the Tau's reserve rolls are poor but the 2 kroot units and the 2 man crisis suit team turn up (shadowsun & the commander stay off) I'm not sure if that is good for me or not. Pauls kroot come on the left flank between the warriors, spiders , warwalkers and hornets.
The first kroot squad fluff killing warp spiders - revenge will be sweet! The plasma crisis do 4 pens on the warwalker squad killing 2 of them). the second kroot squad crowd around the crisis squad to prevent the charge of an angry nearby wraithknight.

Turn 3
With no reserves and little movement I am all of a sudden I am faced with a wall of kroot. The remaining war walker, kills a bunch of the first squad who break and run, this opens up the charge lane for the Wraithknight who looks pissed that his little buddies got blasted he subsequently flings them around like the little suits they are one of them does get off a double 6 to put a wound on him though git! The warpspiders showed the second squad how dakka works, then charged the remnants of both squads and wiped them out. This was actually a bit of a tough call as I was in charge range of both broadsides and I could have taken both of them out with some luck as they were very strung out. The kroot were scoring though so I went for them, but I regreted not taking the chance.  The warpspiders in the top corner also charge the little firewarrior squad (I forgot to shoot them) 1 dies from overwatch and the other falls over to a single wound.

The broadsides start to make the long walk into range of targets.
The skyray takes a few shots at the Wraithknight and does nothing. The crisis team drop in and shadowsun and her crisis team do the same... Shadowsun and crisis manage to kill both hornets and the warwalker (ouch). The commander and his squad do one better and kill the Wraithknight. Which he was anticipating and I certainly wasn't 12 shots needing 6's to wound, he did have monster hunter but he hit with everything and rolled 5 6's on his first batch of shooting. Damn it I had great plans for him!! The warpspiders are reduced to just a few models too by broadside fire.

Turn 4
As my left flank starts to collapse I start the wraithseer over to that side (should have done it last turn) with FNP up. My remaining warriors, and 2 bike squads prepare for the charge.. tau are crap in combat right??

I have no ranged shooting now aside from the wraithseer who puts his D cannon on the commanders head, it scatters away hugely though.

In the charge I lose 2 of 4 warriors in Overwatch. The bikes have chosen their angles well and can't really be overwatched with more than a handful of shots and they all make it into combat . The bikes /warriors who charge shadowsun do almost nothing. The Warriors are picked on and die but the bikes holdfast. In the other combat The bikes have chosen a great charge angle a crisis suit dies . I pass my saves.... the commander passes his leadership test on an 8.... oh that would have been awesome oh well.  He hits and runs out of combat.
The last unit of crisis suits lands in front of the wraithguard realising there really is nothing else for them to do.

The Tau commanders unit takes down the bikes and the last of the warpspiders with some help from the broadsides. The other broadside unit fires at the wraithseer  with snapshots does 2 wounds, I fail both and then fail both 4+ FNP. Colour me unimpressed with my dice!
In the combat shadowsun and the bikes fluff at each either with no wounds (hold fast my friends the wraithseer is coming!!

At the end of this turn Paul has one objective safely, I have one objective safely and neither of us have a chance of getting the last one unless my bike squad gets saved by the wraithseer. I have first blood, he has linebreaker and I have no chance of getting line breaker. So I think that makes for a tight game. The

Turn 5
My Wraithseer realises that the commander is closer than shadowsun and much more likely to make the charge as its 8 inches open versus 9 inches through cover . I dither a bit about whether to give him fleet or FNP(it would have been a no brainer if he had 4 wounds!!) I go with the latter. First though the DCannon gets another go , and scatters 6 inches (at least it kills a drone). I then face overwatch from the unit (1 crisis, commander and 3 drones. He does 2 wounds with the plasma (double double 6 -GRR) I then fail both of my 5 up invulns and fail both my FNP. Wow Epic fail. He had such a great chance of getting me warlord there via challenge or via killing everything else. I am disappoint.
The Wraithguard put a full volley of 10 wraithcannon into the 2 man crisis team (in cover) and kill...1.
WTF??? seriously annoying.  So I charge them, kill them and consolidate back to the objective.

Shadowsun and the bikes hold out for another turn of combat.

The Tau are now faced with the daunting task of closing in on the wraithguard unit. The commander, riptide (who has been very quiet in this game without markerlights) and broadsides start heading for them. Fire from the whole lot kills one Wraithguard. Shadowsun and the bikes beat on each other again ineffectually.

Its 1 objective each and 1 BP each so a Draw (not supposed to happen in a knockout!!)  roll for the game to go on and it does.

Turn 6
with nothing to lose I try a long shot... the baron leaves the wraithguard and gets himself in easy charge range of a strung out broadside unit. if I can hit and run or win combat it leaves me with a chance of linebreaker or even contesting his primary objective. Unfortunately he fails his 2+ rerollable shadowfield save at the second attempt from 4 overwatch hits. Boo bad Baron. The wraithguard kill the nearby riptide easily this time.

The rest of the tau army close in. My saving even with fortune up is pretty abysmal and I lose about 5 wraithguard and the spiritseer.
The Bikes and shadowsun combat finally breaks with my bikes getting run down and destroyed.

End of turn 6 and it's still a draw (even if I am getting pummeled) those who play me often know I have won games with 3 models on the table!! We roll the dice and the game ends.

Hmm a conundrum.

Someone needs to win but there are no rules for same. Now I know I am not going to be able to play the last round anyway (were I to win the next game) so I said to Paul that should it come down to a decision between the two of us that I'll let him go on. I'll say here again that he was an absolute pleasure to play, one of those games where we both know exactly what the other is doing so reminded each other of the odd thing the other person was forgetting.
So we go to the head ref Rob.

Rob makes the call to play another turn, apologizing profusely but it's really ok with me, he has to do something.

Turn 7
Last roll of the dice.
My last jetbike unit turboboosts once again around the objective. Nothing can really threaten it without alot of luck (big jetpack moves) and they are well hidden. Assuming I can slow down shadowsun and the commander.

Up steps Bel Ananth and his few remaining Wraithguard. The Wraithguard go to shoot and charge the commanders unit and Bel Ananth turns on his magic flamer and follows up with the charge.

The wraithguard hit and fail to wound. They then fail their 4" charge woo hoo.
Bel Ananth takes out his AP2 flamer and bathes shadowsun and co in corruscating flames and fail to wound (wounding on 3's).  He then charges gets hit by one plasma cannon and fails his 4+ reroll. even more awesome. I really don't know what I did to deserve this!!

So that gives Paul warlord and the win.

To wind it up shadowsun shoots at the bikes does a few hits, one fails the 3+ save. And knowing the battle is lost the unit breaks and runs off the board leaving the objective behind.

So at the end of tense game where the Tau hammer certainly met the wraithguard anvil I end up being wiped out with the last roll of the dice. Paul progresses to the next round. Where he faces Adams Eldar and Tau combo.

Rob comes down to me after the game and apologises again and gives me a few extra mini prizes like cutout (DE, Tau, Space marines, Chaos, Dark angels) objectives, an oval eldar microart base and  a 20 euro microart voucher. Which was very gentlemanly of him. I just missed out on a titan (2,3,4 place prize was a dreamforge titan) but that was a nice consolation prize.

For the obectives I gave the marines one to Jacek (game 2) and the Tau one to Paul (game 4). Alan from DGG got the DA objective and Peter the conquering ETC general gets the chaos one. Happy homes for all :)

So with that I got out the tissue paper and wrapped up my models. I spent a good while watching the semi finals and wandering the floors for photos.
Reece (marines / Space wolves) v Frankie (DE - 6 ravagers)  turned out to be very one sided. Reece played well but Frankie's dice were abysmal.

Paul (Tau) v Adam (Eldar Tau) looked to be a very balanced game and I watched alot of it before having to head for my flight. Adam took the game in the end but man did it look touch and go. The matchup with Adam would have been better for me as he had little to deal with the T8 monsters/ wraithguard so was a little bit disappointed I didn't get the shot !! But I have to say I was pretty happy with my I guess 5th to 8th place finish (given I drew technically I guess that gives me 5th :P )


Anyway next and final post on the tourney will just be a set of photos of some of the beautiful armies and display boards.

Ciao for now!

Golden Throne Game 3

Roll up Adam and his mighty Tau!

Adam and I have played twice - once when my tyranids thrashed his space marines and once when his new tau thrashed my old eldar. So this is the big decider... who will take the top spot in group 6 with 3 wins and progress to the knockout stages and who will be duking it out in the Repechage one day event on Sunday! This is 2 weekends ago now so Adam if you are watching... excuse the slight haziness  :)


Mission
Dawn of War, 5 objectives big guns never tire

Adam's list
Iridium Commander with plasma / melta warlord
2 bodyguards with plasma
Ethereal
3 Fire warrior squads
3 pathfinder squads
3 Riptides (burst cannon SMS, intercept, skyfire)
2 hammerheads with SMS and Ionheads.
Eldar Farseer (guide, presience and ignores cover)
2* 3 jetbikes
Aegis defense line

Warlord got, I think, no scatter deepstrike

(my warlord trait was stealth I think so woo hoo. stealth against 18 pathfinders... that'll be useful!! I also got no useful powers on the spiritseer - again!)


Setup
Good terrain with 1 building either side, lots of rubble and big manufactorum that blocks LOS in the middle.
Objectives were deployed as follows...
Objective A  far deployment zone left of center in rubble
Objective B Mid table left of center field beside manufactorum in open
Objective C Mid table near side of manufactorum in open
Objective D Near deployment zone far right side in rubble
Objective E Near deployment zone left side in a buidling

First turn is won for me by the Baron.. thanks mate and I choose to go first and setup first.
Adam deploys his Aegis on the far left corner
My warriors deploy on objective E on various levels of the building
My wraithknight, Hornets and a squad of  Warp spiders deploy on right side near objective D with good firelines
The Wraithguard, Wraithseer and walkers deploy in line with the Manufactorum. The walkers scout up so that they are just about touching the manufactorum walls. A squad of warp spiders follows up.
three squads of bikes go into reserve.

Adam castles his forces behind the Aegis 3 firewarriors and 3 pathfinders accompany the ethereal and farseer immediately behind it with objective A just in front of them. The Riptides / Hammerheads stay behind the building.

I have to say I was delighted with his setup as it meant I had only to look after 2 major fire lanes, either side of the manufactorum which meant a big blind spot too. I also had more easy to reach objectives than he did. That said the Seize roll comes up... and he rolls a 1 thankfully as I would have been annihaliated if I didn't make that blind spot

Turn 1
The wraithguard and wraithseer move into the blind spot with good run moves. Warp spider A jump past the manufactorum and snipe a few pathfinders who go to ground. they then fleet out of LOS behind a wall.
Warp spider B and the wraithknight jump over into the blind spot as well
The Warwalkers replicate their buddies and unload dakka into the pathfinders beside that first squad and kill 5 of them (then dance back behind cover), the one hornet in range fluffs it and fails to kill the last few so no first blood!

Adams forces shuffle forward with the riptides and hammerheads unloading SMS's on the "hidden" warp spiders A. I lose about 5 of them with solid saving. They also stay put which is useful. With some jumps 1 riptide jumps forward down the left flank and the others shuffle back the forward one has 1 wound as his novacharge failed him (it would be the last fail for a while)

Turn 2
The wraithguard close the gap to the Tau firewarrior lines one more and the wraithseer stays close enough to keep them covered with FNP. 1 bike squad turns up and hugs the right table edge where they are safe!
The wraithknight jumps onto objective C and puts a wound on the nearby Riptide. The Warwalkers jump out again hoping to finish him off and cause just 1 wound which Adam at least has the good grace to fail - I think their days are numbered!
The Hornets finish off the pathfinder unit for first blood (woo hoo the hornets achieve
The warpspider A unit lose 1 of their number to dangerous terrain and kill a couple of firewarriors before jumping back into terrain.

Adams riptides jump clear of their lines and the wounded one boosts to spin up his Cannon. He kills 2 of the Warwalkers with ease but the last one makes a save to stay in the game. The first Hammerhead kill one of the spiders but the last guy makes 2 saves.
The other hammerhead at BS 5 courtesy of  friendly pathfinders blasts a hornet to bits and one riptides take  a hull point off the other with their SMS (out of LOS). The other riptide with some firewarrior support and help from adams deepstriking warlord/ bodyguard obliterate the warriors in the ruined building.
The Ethereal calls for some extra shooting while backing away slightly to avoid the charge (clustering up a bit though) and the entire gunline open up on the wraithguard with many shots with boosted BS but fortuned Wraithguard are TOUGH . so they just weather the storm.

Turn 3
The baron and wraithguard think they can make the 6 inch charge this turn  but they fail and are left twisting in the breeze. Gah!! They are at least now contesting objective A... and the firewarriors look worried
The Warwalker decides to devote more power to his weapon systems and takes 2 wounds from the damaged Riptide. The Wraithknight finishes him off. 1 down 2 to go!! The 2 are closing though.
warpspider B hustles up behind the wraithseer by the manufactorum. 2 more bike squads roll on and they hustle over to the right flank out of trouble again. The wraithseer goes for a glory shot with the D cannon and adams hit dice means 6 wounds on the ethereal but he lucks out and passes all of his Look out sir rolls still 5 warriors and pathfinder isn't a bad result!

The 2 Riptides wreak revenge for their fallen brother. Taking 4 wounds from the wraithknight. The last man standing in Warp spider squad A hits the dirt. The wraithseer decides that Hammerhead SMS missiles are very dangerous and takes 2 wounds, fails 2 saves and then fails both FNP rolls..Grrr! one hammerhead is ploughing towards objective E as he is scoring.
The commanders plasma immobilise the annoying war walker.
The firewarriors hustle back a little more and volley fire on the wraithguard again this time managing to mangle one of the constructs with pulse fire and one small squad sees off the 2nd hornet. Both of his bike squads come on in the corner behind the Aegis.

Mid game and the game is in the balance. I feel I have a slight edge in positioning but the tau are getting an upper hand in the firepower stakes for sure. Quite a bloody game so far and looking to get worse!

Turn 4
Ok so time for the baron and co to get to work. They do an admirable job and smash the remnants of a firewarrior squad and a pathfinder unit aside. The aegis is starting to look a little unmanned! They also get to watch as Adams hit dice helps out the wraithseer once again this time sucking the ethereal to his doom and taking more of the squad with him.
The Wraithseer blasts one of the commanders bodyguards aside but the warwalker fluffs his shooting aside from 1 wound on a Riptide. The warpspiders bide their time as a free safety should anything come to tackle the blind spot. My bikes move into position to threaten Objectives B C and D

1 hammerhead moves onto the objective and takes a wound off the Wraithknight. the second hammerhead moves towards midfield.
The commander tries again to blast the warwalker apart but this time the invuln save does it's work and he survives

Turn 5 
Squeaky bum time as always with bikes on the board in objective games!
The Wraithknight takes 2 wounds off the nearest riptide leaving him on just one. The Warpspiders jump out between a hammerhead and a Riptide.The Wraithseer opens up with his Dcannon which hits again but only glances. The warpspider choose to finish it off and then jump back onto objective C.
The wraithguard smash aside the last defense at the aegis they then move onto objective A with the consolidation move. The Baron goes off hunting the last pathfinder squad and associated farseer nearby kills a couple but they stay put.
The 3* 3 bikes decide that objective D is the key so cluster around it to make it impossible for Adam's bikes to take it.
At the end of my turn I hold objective A (wraithguard), D(bikes) and C(Wraithknight). The warpspiders surround objective B and Adam has objective E due to the surviving Hammerhead.
But it's adams time to shine now...

The commander and co finally kill the remaining immobilised warwalker
The Riptides lay into the warpspiders and Nova charge to super jump.
One riptide jumps up to contest objective C
The bikes split up and one manages to contest D ... apparently I didn't protect that properly!
The other lands on objective A to contest.

End of turn and Adam has contested 3 objectives, one is neutral and he is holding 1..... I have Line breaker as does he and First blood to me... So Adam in winning position.


The dice rolls high and bounces.....


bringing up a 5.

I live to fight turn 6...




Turn 6
The wraithguard take vengence on the bike squad for their temerity of denying them their target. The Baron recharges the pathfinder squad again (he hit and run last time) killing 2 again but they pass leadership again
A bike squad flies towards the heavily damaged Riptide and puts a shuriken blade right in the eye socket so it crumples to the ground. The remaining warpspiders put some dakka into the undamaged riptide who takes 3 wounds. (good rending).
The wraithknight and other bikes kill the 3 bikes defending objective E
No bikes to contest this turn Adam!! what now?? I am holding A D and C again

Adams riptide powers up his nova but damages himself for the first time in lots of turns... ready for another big jump, to try even up the objectives again The commander kills the wraithknight, the riptide kills two bikes  and then super jumps to contest but only rolls 6"  1,1, 2, 2.  so falls way short ( he would have needed about an 18" jump so it was a big ask but disappointing result.  The bikes also pass their test to add insult to injury. The baron kills 2 more pathfinders but they pass again.

With that the game ends.

The undamaged hammerhead takes objective E and Linebreaker
The wraithguard take A, The bikes take D and C and the warpspiders hang out at B
The Baron takes linebreaker for me and I get first blood

Final result 11 - 4 to me but it felt a hell of a lot closer than that.


Thanks to Adam for an awesome game which was just cracking fun all the way through!
With that I moved on to the knock out rounds and up next was another Tau list... but more on that Anon.

happy hunting :)

Golden throne Game 2

With the first fun game behind me I got to meet Jacek another fine gentleman. Jacek likes AP3 alot....

His list was an angels of death list with Blood angels and dark Angels It was something like this...

Drop pod 5 man squad meltagun
Drop pod 5 man squad meltagun

Drop pod 10 man squad 2 meltaguns

Drop pod 10 man squad 2 meltaguns
Drop pod 5 sang guard

4* Helios platform missiles
4* Helios platform

2* devestator squads missile launchers

1* plasma cannon devestators

2 librarians with presience.

Landing pad

Setup Long table edge, Kill points

First big roll of the game I get protect on the shadowseer . I get exited and forget to change out enervate for conceal Doh... forgetting about those plasma cannons who care less for a 2+ save.

Turn 1 

I win first turn and give it to Jacek this leaves  me with the table end with the big LOS blocking building. He gets 2 buildings and the landing pad at his end. He sets the landing pad up about 12 inches into his deployment zone and the BA devs/DA devs and all 3 helios setup around it with his warlord and other librarian nearby to cause annoyance with their prescience! 

I setup very deep myself leaving Jacek's army out of range turn 1 and hiding a good portion of my army.

the warwalkers, hornets, bikes and 1 warp spider unit go in reserve.  

Jacek takes a long look at the board and says hmm you are a good player aren't you? Smiling. He then decides that his drop pods have to drop deep in his own zone as putting them into my forces will just mean they will be eliminated.  I respond by telling him I now know I'm playing a good player too as dropping in would have been suicide.

Protect fails to go off which is very disappointing as I was planning on walking up the middle... instead I have to retrench to stay out of range of that ferocious amount of AP3

Turn 2 

With still few units to fire at no real damage is done. One dev squad rumbles forward and plinks at the wraithknight to no effect and the plasma devs run forward to try getting into range (but bring an LOS unit into play). the remaining droppods arrive and cluster together on the right flank... one scatters quite a long way forward.

Realising that this game is going to be cagey and that first blood may even win it I roll my reserves.

The hornets and bike squads hide and  the  warwalkers go for broke at the limit of their range to try and kill a drop pod. Warpspiders dropping in my own zone scatter 11 inches and are left fractionally off the board.... they then roll a 2 and are placed right in front of my opponents army.

the Helios open up with a thunderous fury and kill 7 of the 8 (about average but could easily have gone the wrong way). Whew!!!

The wraithguard move forward with Protect up and stay out of line of sight of the plasma cannons.

The Warwalkers wreck the Drop pod as expected and then scoot back behind the building (bar one who promptly gets a scatter laser blown off by the devestators) . This is pretty game defining and means that in his next turn Jacek is going to have to come for me.

Turn 3

Jacek's marines start hoofing it up the board and everything he has unloads at the wraithguard killing a solitary one (2+ rerolls are awesome) He then charges them and although I was expecting a win it turns into a slap fight as the Blood angels make 4 FNP rolls. 

In my turn the slap fight continues with no deaths. The wraithknight and warwalkers (dancing once again) kill a few marines from the 2 10 man squads.

Turn 4

Again with most of my army  out of range and 2 other squad of marines joins the fight in the center. 

Again this is a slap fight with no deaths. this time however I am in a position to hit and run. leaving his units in the open. 

In my turn I kill the sang guard so no more feel no pain for nearby units which subsequently get gunned down / reduced to a handful of models. The Wraithknight does fail a 5 inch charge to finish them off.

Turn 5

In a last ditch effort Jacek fires everything at the wraithguard unit and does eventually manage to kill the baron (1 for look out sir, 1 for save and 1 for reroll save -nice work dumbass!!) He then follows up with a charge but loses the combat as there are so few marines left. 

At this point with my end of the table secure and with my Wraithguard ready to run rampant in his lines + a decent lead in kill points Jacek decides to shake on it.

Summary:

Very cagey game which just about went my way, one of those games where getting ahead early gave you a huge advantage, further emphasised by the point from first blood. Jacek was a smart player and made the right calls but the dice fell my way. Also playing long table edge with tons of intercept with a foot and deepstriking list is a royal pain in the ass. 

MVP's this game would have to be the warwalkers again as they got me that early lead. The Spiritseer and his 2+ generated save was pretty awesome too though as it allowed me to threaten the angels lines.

So 2 games and 2 wins - pretty happy with that as again this was a tough matchup. Next round I get to play Trip Riptide Tau against Adam, who I trounced once with Nids on marines and he trounced me once with eldar on new tau.... how will the decider roll 

Golden throne GT: a test run

I am currently visiting the bay area in california and as I am here next weekend two I decided I would sign up for the Golden Throne tournament. So I brought my toys with me transatlantic once again (I don't know if there is many armies out there with more airmiles than mine).  I dropped up to my good friends at Frontline gaming to see if I could get a game in with anyone who was about.

So first a few things about the tournament. It is 2000 points double force org and allows forgeworld 40k approved. So writing a list is a litle convoluted as you just have sooooo many options to choose from.
I am also expecting some horrendous cheese at this but given I will unlikely be able to play through all 7 games (I have to hop on a flight to San Diego on Sunday evening) it doesn't really matter to me.

I'll bring a good list and just hope to have some fun.

So after rocking up to frontline gaming Frankie said he would fancy a game himself.

Being a proud cheesemonger of chaos he decided to bring just about my worst match up and most peoples worst nightmares.... 6  helldrakes in one list!! supported by 4 cultists, Abbaddon (warlord) 3 oblits and a chaos lord on a bike (for abaddon slingshot) and a comms relay.

My list is
Bel Ananth (mymeara farseer who is expensive but comes with fortune as a default)
Wraithseer with D-cannon (forgeworld also)
Spiritseer
9 Wraithguard
3* 3 bike squads
3 warwalkers (scatterlaser / starcannon mix)
2 Hornets with shurikens)
Wraithknight
2* 8 warpspiders
Baron sathonyx
10 DE warriors with splinter cannon
Ravager with disintegrators

so a list that can generally deal with either ignore cover or mass ap 3... however both together is not cool. baleflamers and vector strikes are not my friend!! It is also quite a mixed bag of units but heh that means lots of tools.


Pregame:
I win sides and first turn and it is not night fight.
Spiritseer powers are a bit lame so switch to conceal  and keep enervate (-1S)
My warlord trait was deepstrike in 6 is no scatter ... don't remember Frankies but is abaddons standard one.
Mision is 3 objectives Vanguard strike.
I set up my wraithguard unit and IC's in the middle - wraithseer and wraithknight on left flank, ravager in building in the corner and warriors in a 3 layered building. - spread out my little friends!

frankie sets up with 1 unit of cultists and the oblits/ abaddon / bike lord in the center.

First turn
Ravager, wraithknight and wraithseer target abaddon and co. Good saving from Frankie means only 1 oblit dies (to the D-cannon), 1 wound to abaddon. Hmm not so good.
I also move up in the center. Putting abaddon in charge range at about 16 inches (he has the bike lord so this isn't far) I am hoping that he either fails the charge or I challenge out either the lord / abaddon and lose a few wraithguard but then slingshot onto the comms relay.

Frankie does indeed charge with Abaddon and co.
I put another wound on an obliterator on the way in and frankie rolls just 4" which is just enough to both keep him in and enough to keep my spiritseer out of combat BOOOO. So the baron has to accept the challenge of the lord (putting 1 wound on him) and abaddon gets to go all smashy on the wraithguard killing 5  and the spiritseer (first blood) eek!.
On the plus side the tactic isn't a complete fail as I hit and run to beside the comms relay as planned and abaddon and co. are in the open in front of my army.

Turn 2
reserves 1 warpsider comes in (the other came in too but had a mishap back to reserves), The hornets and 2 bike squads.

Warpspider 1 deepstrikes in beside bel ananth and they open up on abaddon... killing 1 wounded oblit, the hornets add their fire and do 1 wound to the other oblit. The wraithcannon hits and wounds abaddon but he makes his invuln, the Dcannon scatters off .
The dissie ravager then steps up.. does 8 hits and then rolls....1 wound...  BAH!
At least abaddon has the good grace to take that 1 wound to the face. So after all that shooting I did 3 wounds - nice work guys! I'm sure Abaddon is bemused by the woefully arranged fire power!

Bel ananth, the baron and the remaining 4 wraithguard charge the cultists killing them... so at least no rerolls for the 6 helldrakes.

In the chaos turn 4 helldrakes turn up and 2 cultist units (who head for the comms relay area). 3 of the drakes vector strike the wraithguard killing the troops but the 2 characters survive. 13 wounds rolled up so good saving by the baron / bel ananth. Frankies vector strikes were hot the entire game as well.
The helldrakes then flame the warpspiders 3 times killing them all ( 1 uses demon forge and takes a wound) and the final flamer is put on bel ananth and the baron doing 2 wounds.  Unfortunately the baron fails his rerollable 2+ but heh he made about 10 saves this turn so not terrible.

Abaddon and his bike lord buddy decide they can take on the wraithseer who flames them on the way in putting another wound on the lord. The wraithseer challenges out abaddon and proceeds to cleave him in two with his wraithspear.  Warlord earned. The lord on a bike stays in combat but looks very nervous...

Turn 3.
Warpspiders 2 show up and deep strike in beside bel ananth who joins them. They do 1 hull point to the nearest helldrake in the rear. The last bike squad and the warwalkers also show up. The warwalkers do a few hits but no hull points and the hornets fail to hit at all.
In other shooting the wraithknight penetrates a helldrake but rolls a 1 for a stun (at least he failed his ignore stun roll)
The ravager hides behind a building as he has no targets.
In combat the wraithseer rips the chaos lord in half easily and moves off towards the comms relay.

Chaos turn - the 2 remaining helldrakes and last cultist unit turn up and vector / flame warpspider 2 to death.
The stunned heldrake vector strikes the warriors and kills 3. The remaining heldrakes each head for a bike squad. all 3 demon forge and kill all 9 bikes... uh oh looking light on troops now.
Bel ananth is still alive after all the warpspiders get killed around him.. charmed life! he then gets charged by the cultists and in the ensuing challenge nothing happens. Fortunately Bel Ananth is surrounded so the other 2 units can't charge him as well.


Turn 4.
The wraithknight and wraithseer head for the cultists  (getting behind the helldrakes) . the Ravager gets rear arc on another helldrake as do the Hornets. Both Hornets, the 3 warwalkers and the ravager put 1 hull point on the heldrakes between them. The wraithknight also gets another pen. but once again rolls a 1.
The Wraithseer carries on down the middle and kills a few cultists with his d cannon. Bel ananth and the cultists slug it out again this time bel ananth kills him so an open space allows for another charge.
The wraithseer also makes a charge and kills a unit of culitsts.

Chaos turn 4.

The warriors get vector striked into oblivion - I am now officially troopless.
The  warwalkers  are also killed off as 4 of the helldrakes leave the table.
A second squad charges bel ananth but he challenges again killing that champion.


Turn 5
Wraithseer kills off another cultist squad and  Bel Ananth survives another round of combat with the last remaining unit of cultists. The

2 remaining heldrakes leave the table and all 4 returning ones vector strike and flame the wraithknight... they do just 5 wounds so he stays alive. Chaos only have 6 troop models left at this point and all of them are in combat away from objectives.


The turn ends and the dice roll throws up a 1!!

The eldar actually manage to claim a victory as I have Warlord and linebreaker versus first blood for Frankie.

Good fun game against a fun player in the end but I really have no great desire to play 6 heldrakes again next weekend!