This past weekend, I played in a 2,000 point, double FOC tournament in my FLGS. Stupidly, I left my camera on my desk, so I won't be doing my usual full battle reports. I do want to provide a quick rundown of each battle along with some lessons learned.
Since it was double FOC, I wanted to take advantage of that, but at 2,000 points, I could only afford to overload one slot. I chose heavy support since it was on the only slot in which I could field 6 choices. Here's my list, including the first time I've taken fortifications or allies, modest though they are. I'm slow to change, I know. As I've discussed in previous posts, I used Imperial Fist Chapter Tactics.
First Company Captain Amra (aka Lysander)
Librarian Amon Yara, Mastery Level 2
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Eli Damaskinos w/ force sword, bolt pistol, Mastery Level 2, 3 servo skulls, Liber Heresius
10 Tactical Marines w/ flamer, heavy bolter, Rhino
10 Tactical Marines w/ flamer, heavy bolter, Rhino
10 Tactical Marines w/ flamer, heavy bolter, Rhino
5 Scouts w/ camo cloaks, 4 sniper rifles, missile launcher
Predator w/ twin-linked lascannon, lascannon sponsons
Predator w/ twin-linked lascannon, lascannon sponsons
Thunderfire Cannon
10 Devastators w/ 4 lascannons
5 Devastators w/ 4 missile launchers w/ flakk missiles
Stormraven w/ twin-linked multi-melta, twin-linked assault cannon, hurricane bolter sponsons
Stormtalon w/ twin-linked lascannon, twin-linked assault cannon
Aegis Defense Line w/ quadgun
I had a few ideas with this list. The first was to specialize my squads. The Devastators and Predators would deal with enemy vehicles and hard targets while the Troops and Thunderfire would deal with infantry. Amra would provide counter-assault while keeping my LD 8 squads from running away. The Stormraven and Stormtalon were armed to be able to deal with any targets as necessary. My other goal was air superiority. In past games, I've been badly beaten by flying monstrous creatures, Heldrakes, and Necron flyers. I wanted to take out enemy flyers immediately and leave my flyers free to attack the enemy.
Game 1:
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
Mission: Emperor's Will
Opponent: Orks w/ Imperial Guard Allies
My opponent's army was pretty simple. The Orks were a Warboss on a bike leading a pack of Nob Bikers, with a Mekboy with a Shokk Attack Gun and Dakkajets as fire support and 30 Gretchin to hold objectives. The Imperial Guard was a Company Command Squad, 3 squads of Veterans, and a Leman Russ, all bunkering behind the Aegis Defense Line with a Quadgun. Honestly, it was great to see Orks on the table.
It was kind of a weird game. We both had lots of static shooting in our armies, most of which was out of range due to the deployment. He sent his Nob Bikers and Dakkajets after me, while I sent the Tactical squads in Rhinos and Stormraven and Talon after his objective. I was able to shoot down both his flyers immediately, but two of my Rhinos immobilized themselves in my first turn. I was confident that I had enough firepower to kill the Nob Bikers, plus I had Terrify on my Librarian to force them back. However, his Shokk Attack Gun rolled a 12 for strength, meaning it automatically removed all models it hi. In this case, that my Devastator combat squad with 4 lascannons, my Librarian, Inquisitor, and a Predator. One shot had pretty much cut my firepower in half.
Amra led a valiant counter-charge, but he wasn't able to take out the Nobs all by himself. The remainder rampaged through my firebase and took my objective. Amusingly, the Mekboy teleported himself into my Devastators with his second shot, and they quickly killed him. My offensive stalled, as my flyers and Tactical squad weren't enough to deal with all of the enemy infantry and Leman Russ. I killed most of the Imperial Guardsmen, but didn't have enough time to wipe out all the Grots in cover.
It ended up as a loss for me, but it was a closer game than the outcome demonstrated. My opponent certainly played well, but wiping out so much of my firepower really allowed his Nobs to approach me unhurt. My Rhinos immobilizing themselves didn't help either. I'm sure I would have been able to clear his objective with 20 more marines.In the end, it was a fun game against a unique army and a great opponent.
Game 2
Deployment: Dawn of War
Mission: Purge the Alien
Opponent: Space Wolves w/ Blood Angel Allies
My opponent was running an all Drop Pod list. Logan and a squad of Wolf Guard Terminators led 3 squads of 10 Grey Hunters in pods, 2 with Rune Priests. A Blood Angel Librarian led 2 Assault squads in Drop Pods with Priests attached. My opponent used Descent of Angels to reduce the scatter of his Drop Pods, which was ruled out by the FAQ but I didn't have it with me and I didn't feel like challenging it. It didn't make any difference anyway.
I deployed in what I think was a good castle, and I weathered the enemy drop pretty well. Amra counter-charged and wiped out a squad of Grey Hunters and a Rune Priest before finally going down to plasma gun fire. On the other flank, I gunned down the Terminators and reduced Logan to a single wound, but I couldn't take that final wound off him and and some Grey Hunters finished off most of my infantry.
I was actually ahead most of the game, with my opponent tying victory points in the bottom of Turn 5 and pulling ahead in Turn 6, when the game ended. The Grey Hunters were just extremely tough, and even severely reduced squads were able take out my Tactical squads in assault. Also, my flyers were really hindered because his units were on my board edge. Finally, I was careless with my Rhinos and they gave him easy kill points. I could have easily run them away, which might have saved me the game.
Such a close game is always a blast, and my opponent was a pleasure to play. He was fair and friendly, and other than the minor misuse of DoA, was very knowledgeable about the rules.
Game 3
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
Mission: Big Guns Never Tire (5 objectives)
Opponent: Chaos Space Marines
My opponent was running a mostly infantry army, with 3 squads of 10 Chaos Marines on foot, a large squad of Khorne Berzerkers on foot, and a Khorne Lord on Juggernaut with a large group of Chaos Spawn. Backing this up were a Defiler, Forgefiend, and 2 Heldrakes. While I know from experience that marines of any type don't work well on foot, 2 Heldrakes have taken apart my army before.
In this case, my Tank Hunter Devastators made all the difference. I destroyed the Defiler on the first turn and the Forgefiend on the second. Both of the Heldrakes were destroyed as soon as I targeted them. This left me just shooting at the infantry, which couldn't reach me through the hail of heavy weapon fire. I was able to kill all of the Spawn pretty quickly, but the Lord tore through two Tactical squads I sent out to take an enemy objective. My shooting, including overwatch, had reduced the Lord to his last wound, and he was finally killed by a snap firing Scout with a rending sniper shot.
With that, my opponent conceded the game. He had two squads left on objectives, but I still had most of my army and was holding 3 objectives anyway. I hope I was a pleasant opponent (we had both lost two games in a row, so I was trying to make sure we had a fun game to finish out the day). Even so, my opponent's list really didn't have much of a chance against the amount of firepower I could bring.
Conclusion:
This ended up being a long post, so I'll save the lessons learned for the next post. I'll just end by saying that this may be the most fun I've ever had at a tournament. It certainly has a lot to do with it being a well-run tournament and my opponents being fair and pleasant, but that's been the case for previous tournaments. I think the difference is that I'm slowly getting better at the game. Even though I lost twice, they were both pretty close and I can see what I did wrong.
Finally, I'd like to thank Dale, the TO for this tournament as well as every tournament I've been to locally. This is his last tournament as TO, as next year he'll be stepping down so he can actually play in some. I can only hope they'll continue to be as well put together as they were under his reign.