40K in 40 minutes @ Heroes World #2

Today was the second 40k in 40 minutes tournament at Heroes. World. I was there early enough to play a couple of testing games, in one I had an easy time killing off Matts 'nids, but got thoroughly smoked by Mike and his IG (2 vet squads in chimeras + a hydra), so I swapped a couple heavy bolters for a melta & ml. I ended up going with 5 scouts (no cloaks), snipers & missile launcher, 7 sternguard with a meltagun and heavy bolter, a razorback and landspeeder typhoon with heavy bolter.

Game 1: Unfortunate a bit I think, but I was paired against Matt again - Pitched Battle/Annihilation. He'd swapped a unit of hormagaunts for the new "reveal" genestealers. Some more unlucky dice and I was able to again focus on his hq/elites and wipe them out before his reserves had arrived. Win 1.

Game 2: Was against Andrew with his Tau - Spearhead/C&C. Some luck was on my side as Andrew couldn't get more than a crew stunned result on my vehicles all game. Still I think he forgot my razorback could contest his objective, as he blasted the rest of my army apart except for my scouts sitting on my objective - if he had focused on the rhino it would've been the draw he was playing for. Win 2.

Game3: Was against Kyle and his Space Wolves, Pitched Battle/King of the Hill. This was a tight game, but I made the crucial mistake of going for a melta shot on his razorback (and missing), putting my sternguard in the range of his flamers. We ran out of time, I had an immobilized/weapon razorback closer to the middle than his guys but it was obvious with only 2 scouts all the rest another turn would've seen him win. Loss 1

Game 4: Against Josh and his 'nids - Dawn of War/3 objectives. Quite similar army to Matt's, I began focusing on his hq/elite again. His hormagaunts charged my retreating scouts, about 5 of them got into combat. 4 wounds caused and I saved them all. Caused a few wounds in return and he failed them all. When his "reveal" genestealers finally arrived (turn 4!) it was too little too late, then did manage to kill most of the sternguard, but the rest of my army shot them to bits. Win 3.

Much better than last time. My fortunes reversed (from 1-3 to 3-1), I placed third, with the same record as Kyle & Rahul, but Kyle beat me and Rahul beat Kyle.

Another really great fun night hosted at Heroes World. I don't think there were any pics taken this time - though some people have some really nice looking armies.

40K in 40 minutes @ Heroes World.

Heroes World had it's first 40K in 40 minutes tournament last night. Basically it's Combat Patrol, 400 points, no 2+ saves, no models >2 wounds (except 1 hq could have 3W), vehicles armour (front + side + rear) <=33, no special characters.

It was a total blast, we had 14 players, everyone played 4 games. I fielded 5 tactical marines, 6 sternguard w fist and heavy bolter, razorback w tl heavy bolters and a landspeeder typhoon with heavy bolter.

1st game: Was against Cameron and his wolves; pack of grey hunters (2 x meltagun), rhino, pack of 3 long fangs (2 x ml), razorback w tl heavy bolters and a landspeeder typhoon with heavy bolter. A tight fun game, won by Cam with his field repaired rhino (immobilized from dangerous terrain). "Start dammit!!"

2nd game: Against Raoul with daemons; His two horrors squads deepstriked, I blew one squad to pieces, his hounds came in, I blew them to pieces, his bloodcrushers came in, I left them with 1 wound. He was cagey and shot up my sternguard the whole time, really missed those hellfire rounds. Conceded at his turn with my lone sternguard heavy bolter left.

3rd game: Was against Sean, a newcomer (bought the box last week!), with Orks. Pretty merciless and let him spread out/over extend while I blasted a unit a turn. Pretty sad for my only win of the day.

4th game: Against the accursed Simon and his 'stealer swarm. I blasted his army to bits but couldn't take down his broodlord if my life depended on it (needed that heavy flamer!) and it single-handedly destroyed my entire army! But, but, everything was going so well!

A great night of fun, I think one of the guys took some pics. I haven't yet found out who won, but I suspect Cam or Mike. I had to book out early to finish up my other task for Wednesday evening that kept me up to 2am. Stay tuned... (a two post day?!?)

Vet's night @ Heroe's World

Managed to squeeze a game in yesterday at Heroe's World before catching Transformers 2. Played against Ivan with his Tau again. I tried taking two dreads with extra armour and a techmarine to keep them moving. Also included a whirlwind, landspeeder, assault squad and 3 tactical squads (one in rhino, one in dp with libby). Ivan had a couple squads of firewarriors in devilfish, 2 stealth suit squads, 2 battlesuit squads? (one with heavy weapons, another with mid-range) a Hammerhead with rail gun and his HQ. We played a standard pitched battle/annihilation battle.

I setup first and basically secured the middle of my deployment zone with both dreads and the whirlwind, tactical squads next and the assault squad/landspeeder on far right. I kept my entire army deployed on my right hand side of the board, as I'm quite used to getting blown away when I spread out. Ivan did spread out his units to take advantage of cover since I had first turn (he failed to steal the initiative).

First turn I dropped my DP with tactical + libby in his deployment zone, very close to his HQ and one devilfish with firewarriors embarked. I brought both the landspeeder and assault squads as far forward as possible on the right, supported by the tactical squad in the rhino. My third tactical squad was broken into combat squads to take advantage of cover (though I forgot to bolster defences!). The dreadnoughts/whirlwind advanced just enough to use some cover to block line of sight from Ivan's troops on the left hand side of the board. The DP tactical squad caused some damage to his HQ, and most of my heavy weapons focused on his battlesuits with heavy weapons, though didn't do much. This scared Ivan and he pulled his HQ away in his turn and moved his devilfish to allow his firewarriors to deploy. On the other side of the board he blasted away at my dreads and wrecked one - first KP to Ivan.

Second turn I moved my assault squad/landspeeder up to deal with his firewarriors and devilfish. Brought my tactical squad in the rhino up to support and used Gate of Infinity to bring my libby + tactical squad to bear on his HQ squad again (I had great luck with my GoI - deep strike rolls). Dreads just barely moved forward to keep out of line of sight. I shot up his firewarriors with my assault squad, taking out 8 of 12 (love those flamers!) and blasted his devilfish to bits with my landspeeders multi-melta. For whatever stupid reason I thought I couldn't assault with my marines (we were chatting about fleet and somehow I thought I had both ran & shot?!?! stupid) but I wasn't worried as I had about 3 good strength squads in that corner. Ivan shot up my other dread and immobilized my whirlwind and killed a couple tactical marines from the DP squad. Also a stealth squad came in, but scattered off the board and I got to place them :). I thought about throwing them in the middle of my marines but decided to just tuck them in the opposite corner of his deployment zone.

In turn 3 I assaulted his HQ with my libby + tactical squad, the assault marines/landspeeder took off looking for someone else to hurt and I used the tactical squad in the rhino to gun down his remaining 4 firewarriors in his table corner. By this time I had evened up the KP, and it all went downhill for Ivan from here. Landspeeder took out the hammerheads rail gun, libby + tactical wiped out his HQ through sweeping advance, assault squad attacked the hammerhead as well and immobilized it.

Turn 4 my assault squad destroyed his stealth suits that I placed, libby + tactical blasted his battlesuits with heavy weapons to bits. Landspeeder missed his hammerhead from close range. Packed up the other tactical squad back into the rhino and brought them back towards the middle of the table. He destroyed my whirlwind on his turn, but had miserable luck with his other shooting. His other stealth suit squad came in and he placed them in between the combat squads of my third tactical squad.

Turn 5 my assault marines blew up his hammerhead, landspeeder and missile launcher from a combat squad got a weapon destroyed and immobilized result on his second devilfish. I brought my libby + tactical into the middle along with my tactical squad in the rhino. Together they blasted away most of his final firewarriors squad. My techmarine ran to join a combat squad of tactical marines in cover near the middle of the board. The two combat squads combined to destroy his second stealth squad. When Ivan shot at the combat squad with techmarine I went to ground which saved the combat squad and techmarine from being destroyed.

Turn 6, after this turn every unit except for his last squad of battlesuits (who had barely seen any action all game from being deployed) were destroyed. The game ended a convincing 10-3 win for me. :)

Vets Night @ Heroes World

I've been going to another LGS called Heroes World on Wednesday nights for their veterans night for the past month or so. There's a good turnout but is split a bit between 40K and WHFB. I usually just bring my 40K so some nights I get only a single game, however this week I was in for a treat as several folks brought 40K stuff and I got 3 good games in.

Game 1 vs Mike (Guard): Capture & Control / Pitched Battle
This game ended as a draw. He'd managed to pull a draw out of his ass in an earlier match against Phil and here I managed the same. I decided to place my objective on the same side of the table as he did, it let me focus all my units on that half of the board and his forces were more spread out. At first he couldn't hit anything with his template weapons, and I was causing some decent damage, however after trashing my landspeeder his vendettas/squads swooped in and destroyed my terminators and eventually delivered the squads to gain control of my objective. Managed to get a tac squad up to assault his massive squad holding his objective, however he blasted my supporting tac squad to smithereens with his leman russ - leaving 4 marines stranded in front of their smoking rhino, surrounded by his units on his objective. They were obviously the emperor's finest, as the final marine refused to die, twice making five 3+ cover saves. This allowed my scouts (the only unit positioned away from the rest of my army) to scamper all the way across the board and run onto his objective. Went to ground with them and the 2+ cover save saw them through and the game ended.

Game 2 vs Mike (Dark Eldar - different Mike): Capture & Control / Spearhead
I held on and won this game. Started very well with my dreadnought dropping next to his objective and decimating most of his warriors, a rhino/rapid fire rush reducing his second squad to 3 warriors. I managed to immobilize and destroy his raiders, but didn't get it to explode - even with the landspeeders multi-melta. terminators and a tac squad consolidated my hold on his objective, however once he finally managed some reserve rolls he paid me back. His wyches won an assault against my tactical squad and captain on my objective who promptly failed their break test and fled off the table!! It was only his fear of my devastators that gave me the chance to grab the win, as his archon and retinue and jetbikes had ravaged my units fighting for his objective. I pulled my last tac squad back in a rhino and jumped on my objective while gunning down most of his wyches. Deciding to reinforce my objective won me the game as he had no scoring units near his objective and the game ended.

Game 3 vs Ivan (Tau): Annihilation / Dawn of War
Screwed up slightly here. We deployed and moved on first turn ok, but I completely forgot about the night fighting rules. I decided to deploy my scouts in his deployment zone as my scout move would let me get within cover near his devilfish? with fire warriors unfortunately I failed a huge number of saves and was reduced to a single scout. I dropped in my dread behind his rail gun tank and the fire warriors squad who had destroyed the scouts. He tore the fire warriors to pieces before helping demolish his rail gun tank (who failed to pen the dread with a 1!). I'd managed to immobilise his other devilfish so I swooped in with a tac squad hoping to keep it locked there. Ivan again had poor luck with his reserve rolls so I got to fight his army fairly piecemeal. He did destroy my landspeeder and most of my terminators with his crisis suits but otherwise my units remained fairly unharmed. In the end his vehicles were weaponless and immobilized and I'd wiped out both fire warriors squads and his stealth suits, leaving his crisis suits and commander + bodyguard.

The one thing playing Wednesdays at Heroes World has got me doing is planning my deployments somewhat. For this I created a template to print out for each deployment type, and I think I'm going to use this to record some battles and post some batreps - so look for those in the future.