The low down:
- Scorched Earth [Chapter Approved mission]
- Vanguard Strike - Diagonal deployment
- I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Dan +1 to win first turn],
- Dan went first
Daniel had a Spartan that I wasn't looking forward to facing, along with the plethora of Noise Marines inside it!
The Tyranid Warrios manned the Skyshield. I actually dropped one of the Capillary Toweres before game 2, breaking off a chunk of DAS clay that will need to be repaired :(
Cultitsts and a Daemon Princefilled out Daniel's DZ.
And then moved to secure this objective.
Noise Marines disembarked from the Spartan, looking every which way to confuse me just as Alpha Legion are want to do.
Terminators arrived as a speed bump, backed up by two units of Obliterators in the trees and on top of the objective.
The Obliterators fired at my Tervigon.
Managing to take off 5 wounds even with a +1 cover save [you don't see that too often - a monster in cover and obscured!]
The rest of the shooting took out the Flyrant, again! First Blood and Slay the Warlord, see what I mean about lessons learned. Daniel's dice were on fire. He racked up 3VPs for objectives too.
My turn and the Trygon and Devgaunts arrived on the far edge of the board.
The other Trygon arrived with the Genestealers and together with the Broodlord they all made the charge into the Terminators.
Which could not stand against such overwhelming ferocity and I consolidated towards the objective, claiming it. The Tervigon and Termagants secured another, althogether I captured 4VPs worth of objectives this turn.
The Broodlord might have consolidated into the Cultists
And was subsequently killed, whether by the crazed individuals or the Daemon Prince I don't recall.
The remaining Cultists and Noise Marines took aim at the Genestealers.
Wiping them out. The Trygon appeared unscathed but was now revealed in it's entirety to the waiting Obliterators.
Who blasted it to smithereens!
The Daemon Prince secured another objective bringing Daniel another 4VPs this turn.
I moved the Trygon and Gaunts forward, heading for the centre objective.
The second Flyrant swooped on between the Obliterators and the Daemon Prince.
Shooting by the Flyrant brought the Prince down to just one wound, allowing me to send the Hive Guard forward to assault and secure the objective.
But it was not meant to be, the Hive Guard couldn't get just one wound on the Prince and he killed them all without blinking an eye!
The Trygon made the charge
as did the Termagants
Surrounding the objective bringing me 3VPs and drawing on primaries.
Turn 3, the Flyrant was whittled down to 5 wounds...
...and then none.
The Noise Marines blasted the Devagaunts apart -
wiping them all out and putting two wounds on the Trygon. Daniel held another 3VPs worth of objectives this turn. The Trygon then freedom to then move off the objective and head toward the Daemon Prince, killing him and securing that objective, but what about the centre objective.
Y conga...! It took me a re-roll of the first Advance move and Metabolic Overdrive, killing 8 Termagants in the process and a second advance of 10" or more and the Termagants managed to span three objectives so the Trygon could hunt the Daemon Prince.
He got into combat -
smashed him to pieces to secure the objective but Alpha Legion Warlord rules meant I didn't get Slay the Warlord as another character in Daniels army was in fact suddenly revealed as the Warlord all along! I scored 4VPs this turn to be ahead by one on primaries but Deniel had two secondaries.
Obliterators and cultists moved around toward the objectives and to get target lock on the Trygon.
Noise Marine moved to challenge for the centre objective.
Which proved no challenge whatsoever for their Sonic Blasters - wiping the entire brood of Devgaunts out
The Trygon was blown apart by the Obliterators, Daniel would score a further 3 VPs for turn four while I only scored 2 [even on primaries again].
Turn 5 and I was very much spent by this stage, my army was in tatters and Daniel had control of most of the board.
This would lead to 4VPs while I could only score the same 2VPs again but I did get the Rippers behind the wrecked Baneblade for Linebreaker, which Daniel kindly left alone.
Final score was 20 to 16 and I'd managed to kill 450pts worth of Alpha Legion
Absolutely great game and another genuinely nice player to close out the weekend. I may have only had one win out of five but all my games were really good ones. I was utterly exhausted though and nervous energy had completely drained me. I'll definitely have to look at a more easy to run army next time. I quite fancy running my Knights actually. I'll need another one, or perhaps the new Armigers might make the detachment up. Regardless just something less fussy to both play and move around, hopefully the new Armiger kit and rumours will throw up some new options for me to explore.
Anyway I think I might have a post tournament wrap up, although I might just have covered the crux of my experience in the previous paragraph. A great weekend nontheless!