40K ETC 2013 – Game 3 vs Czech Republic

Friday night and Team Scotland did the unthinkable; we forgo staying out drinking all night and instead retired to our hotel for a jacuzzi, food, and an early night. With many a plan in place; including an idea of how to psych out our opponents during the pairings**, it was soon Saturday morning and Round 3 against the Czechs.

** the plan was drop both our reply to their put forward, and our own put forward, simultaneously "BANG! BANG!"

Rocking up to the tables I was greeted by a wave of hellos from the Czechs; this was to be the 3rd year in a row Scotland (and me) had faced them, with Scotland having won all the previous encounters and myself scoring no less than 16pts each time. So once again, as with Russia, I was probably jinxing the team by saying all this before hand...

The pairings started and our BANG! BANG! tactic certainly gave the Czechs some pause. Then to my amusement 2 of the Czech players; the 2 I know for certain played IG and SW/IG, started arguing with the Captain about who was going to get put forward first - this we thought was because they were worried about facing my Ravenwing... turns out it was Blacky's Daemons that were giving them cause for concern not my Bikes - they didn't even factor into the conversation...

So anyway the arguing stopped and up stepped Jiri* with his Space Wolves / Imperial Guard as their next put forward... to which we immediately responded BANG! BANG! with my Ravenwing. AT LAST! A match up that is favourable for me!!!

* Jiri btw was my opponent at last years ETC where he took a 19-1 beating with his Space Wolves at the hands of my Black Templars.

Without taking anything away from Jiri his army was fairly standard fayre; Rune Priest with Runic Armour, 5 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour (1 with Cyclone Missile Launcher), 3x 10 Grey Hunters with 2 Plasma, 2x 6 Long Fangs with 5 Missile Launchers, Primaris, 50 man Blob with Lascannons and Power Axes, Colossus Siege Mortar, and an Aegis with Quad Cannon. So like I said pretty much what you would expect from a Space Wolf & Imperial Guard army. The only 'surprise' was the Colossus; with its S6 AP3 Ignores Cover Barrage it was going to be the first on the list to take down and so avoid any nasty sniping.

Deployment and I won the roll to go first which saw me deploy the bulk of my army dead centre, spread out in case Jiri siezed, but far enough away from his army that they wouldn't be able to shoot due to Night Fight. I then aggressively placed 3 Multi Melta Attack Bikes on each flank and ensured that no part of Jiri's long board edge was more than 36" away from at least 2 Attack Bikes - thus making it impossible for this Colossus to not be within 12" of my Multi Meltas after I Scout 12" and move 12". Jiri did pretty much what I expected; there was a large ruin anchoring his right flank and into that went is Platoon Command, both Long Fang squads, a Grey Hunter unit, his home Objective, and the Colossus. The rest of his army went behind the Aegis defence line that was placed branching off the ruin and running along the front edge of his DZ. Jiri failed to sieze and the game was on!

My turn 1 and no surprises for what I did; the 3 Attack Bikes closest to the Colossus scouted and then moved up to get side shots on the Siege Mortar that were within double Melta range... BANG! BANG! BANG! and the Colossus was dead. The rest of my army then started to pull itself together into the fabled Ravenwing phallanx and 88 twin-linked Bolter shots later 1 unit of Long Fangs, the Quad Gun (thanks to Multi Meltas) and some Grey Hunters were dead.

So long Colossus!

Jiri looks a little bummed at his losses, especially the Siege Mortar. I explain that with regards to the Long Fangs; sure he had a Terminator at the front of the unit but when you do the Maths all those twin-linked Bolters will cause on average 7 wounds against T4 2+ models - which is more than enough to kill the Wolf Guard and then bring down the 3+ save Long Fangs behind. Anyway he gets on with his turn and shuffles a few units forward for some extreme range Plasma, Bolter and Lasgun shots; with the Blob squad having Prescience cast on it. However a combination of T5 and either a 3+ armour save or solid cover saves from lots of interveening terrain and it being Night Fight means that Jiri's shooting in large does very little expect kill 2 Black Knights. He then concludes his turn by combo charging a unit of Grey Hunters with attending Terminator Wolf Guard into the 3 Attack Bikes that took down his Colossus; the Bikes and Grey Hunters to nothing to each other, whilst the Wolf Guard smacks down 1 Attack Bike with his Power Fist. I loose combat but pass my moral and then manage to Hit and Run both Attack Bikes out of combat - much to Jiri's disbelief as he didn't know ALL Ravenwing have Hit and Run.

With that it was turn 2 and I was about to capitalise on a major mistake on Jiri's part; he had chosen to cast Prescience on the Blob squad with his Rune Priest instead of casting the 4+ Invulnerable save. So whilst he could easily get a 2+ cover save after going to ground behind the Aegis (though statistically I would still cause 10-11 wounds on them from Bolt Guns after dropping their toughness with a Rad Grenade from the Black Knights) I was more than close enough to get a lot of units charging in there, including my Black Knights, and cause SERIOUS carnage in assault. So that was the plan. First off I moved one of the 'heroic' Attack Bikes that had Hit and Ran from assault all the way back behind a massive wall to take my home objective (figured better to do it now than forget later in case something went wrong). I then moved the other 'hero' up to the extreme left edge of Jiri's blob squad, parking 1" away. Then the rest of my army moved up nice and close to the Blob squad with 3 Attack Bikes going into a blocking position ahead of the right hand Grey Hunters - so as to stop them combo charging too many of my units, with the mauled 3 man Black Knights taking up position against the left hand Grey Hunters.

I start my shooting phase with a Rad Grenade into the Blob Squad and a second into the Grey Hunters my 3 Black Knights are facing. I choose in both cases NOT to fire my Plasma Talons as the 2+ Cover saves his units could get behind the Aegis would render then worthless, whilst there was still a chance I could overheat my own models even with the re-roll to hit. I then let rip with 86 Twin-Linked Bolters and after the dust settles a good dozen Guardsmen are down (with a few Power Axe sergeants going down to 6 of my own sergeants precision shots). Then it is straight onto the assault phase; first my 3 Black Knights charge the Grey Hunters hoping merely to tie them up for a round or 2, but Jiri scores 6 out of 6 hits with his Plasma from Overwatch! 2 of my Black Knights get blatted and only a single one makes it into assault to be smashed by the Wolf Guard Power Fist (I had planned to challenge him out so to ensure he could only kill a single Black Knight).

Onto the main event and first declare a charge with my lone Attack Bike on the left of the Blob Squad to draw all the Overwatch fire; which does nothing I add. I then charge with everything else I manage to get 5 Black Knights and 9 regular Bikes and my Command Squad into assault with Jiri's blob squad. Jiri calls a challenge with his Rune Priest; which I accept with a lowly Sergeant (not Sammael) who actually survives the Rune Priests Force Weapon (go T5). I then swing with 50 WS4 attacks that wound on 2s (32 of which can rend) and Sammael; after the dice have stopped rolling Jiri has only 7 guardsmen and 2 Heavy Weapon teams left! Whilst I have only lost the lone Attack Bike (to a Power Axe). I win assault and importantly lock the Blob in combat with everything else (no running away and rallying for you!).

Jiri is gobsmacked! I can tell by his expression he never expected to take such a beating. And whilst my dice were a little above average (killing 5 more models than average), tbh in my mind that was all to be excepted given he didn't have the crucial 4++ on the Blob.

From here on in the game is pretty much over, Jiri tries to come back into the game by charging 2 Grey Hunter units into assault which firing his last Long Fang Squad at some bikes, but with my T5, Power Armour and solid cover saves from Jinx, or terrain, plus the Dark Shroud lurking around, the results are next to nothing.

My turn 3 I hit and run what few units where still in assault out of combat (I think I passed 4 out of 4 on 4+s), opened up with another brutal round of Salvo fire and Plasma Talons, then charged back into what little remained of his army. By the end of Assault Jiri had 2 Long Fangs and the Platoon Command alive, at which point he called it a game there and then giving me a maximum win of 20-0! Woooo!

Looking back over the game, and having had some feedback directly from the Czech's at the ETC and afterwards by email, they seriously underestimated just what this Ravenwing army can do against infantry hordes. That coupled with 1 mistake on Jiri's part (not casting 4++ on the blob turn 1) meant I steamrollered his army is short order. Jiri is no doubt a solid player to have made the ETC team at least twice that I know of; but as with the previous 2 years against the Czechs, if you underestimate and worse still don't full appreciate how an army works, odds on it will batter you - as I have done now 3 times in a row with slightly outside the box armies.

I wasn't the only player for Scotland that had smashed his opponents and overall once against Scotland gave the Czechs a bit of a tonking and won the round by a clear margin!

YAAAARRRR! GO SCOTLAND!

We were finally off to a start after 2 losses and surely the only way was up from here on in?

Stay tuned for Game 4 tomorrow or Monday....