Sorry for the long delay between posts. I have admittedly been slacking, a lot. I've just finished my Hive Guard which should have otherwise been done weeks ago. Sort of in a painting slump at the moment.
I competed In a local tournament in Pensacola yesterday and had a lot of fun. I came in 4th out of 10 with 2 wins and 1 loss. The top 2 players were running Dark Eldar, and my loss to one of them. My list was as follows :
HQ : Tyrant : Old Adversary, LWhip/Bsword, Armored Shell, Regeneration, TL BL Worm Devourers
2x Tyrant Guard w/ Lwhips
Prime : 2x Bone swords, Devourer (Prime was attached to Tyrant and retinue)
Elites : 3x Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard
2x Zoanthropes
Troops : 15x Termagants
15x Termagants
Tervigon : Catalyst, AG,TS
Tervigon : Catalyst, AG,TS
Heavy Support : Trygon
Trygon
Redundancy, A lot of monstrous creatures, and a hell of a lot of toughness 6 models.
I snapped a few photos from each match, and I was keeping track of units lost each turn on my army list sheet...which magically disappeared during my last match. So I'll give a very rough description of what happened in each.
My first match was up against Space Marines. The army was very much geared towards a scout theme. It included Khan(?), Shrike, A lot of bikes, D.naught dropping in via pod. Some snipers. A thunderfire cannon hidden on a board edge, and two speeders with scouts in each.
This was an objective based game. We had 3. One was sitting in the middle ruins. One was inside of my forest on my deployment zone. The third was in his forest on his deployment zone.
I immediately took my right flank and set about securing the center ruins and objective. I left my left brood of hive guard and 15 gaunts within my terrain to secure and hold the objective on my end of the board.
The first two turns mostly included some posturing of my army. My left flank's Tervigon and produced Gaunts hoofed it over to the left table edge to tie up and take out his thunderfire cannon.
Shrike wasted no time taking wing across the board, seeking out my hive guard. He managed to kill one Hive guard and wound another. My Trygon split off from the rest of my forces to assist. Shrike was killed by the Trygon.
A large combat took place on and around the center terrain piece. My tervigon was killed, as well as a good number of gaunts. With an assist from my HQ unit his primary group of bikers including Khan were killed.
His dreadnought charged some gaunts, which kept it tied up long enough for my Trygon to come from the rear and tear it apart.
On the left side of the board, his outflanking speeder and scouts arrived. The speeder was quickly put down by the hive guard sitting on the objective.
My other Trygon turned around to deal with the scouts, ensuring they didn't contest my held objective. His other speeder came in on the more interesting side of the board. Combined fire managed to finish off my Trygon, which I was using in conjunction with the wasted dreadnought to form an impassable barrier, trying to keep his bikers and speeder from my objective.
My opponent had an opportunity to boost his bikes through the gap created, contesting the middle objective and drawing the game. He could have also just flown the speeder right onto it as well, but luckily for me he didn't see the opportunity.
This game ended 4 points to 1.
2 Points for winning the game. 2 points for killing more than 50% of the army.
My opponent earned 1 point for killing over 25% of my own.
My second game was against the new, sexy Dark Eldar. This game was straight up annihilation with dawn of war deployment. My ass got pretty kicked. First time I've ever been tabled. I didn't snap many pictures of the match, I kept forgetting to, the game had my full attention. :o
My opponent was running with 3 raiders and 1 ravager. Two units of kabalite warriors in 2 of the raiders. His HQ unit (Archon w/ incubi) in the other.
2 squads of wyches, one with Lelith Hespirax in it. A squad of Hellions and a squad of reavers (jetbikes).
This was the board at turn 3. He had a total of 3 raiders and a ravager. The template you see is the webway portal which was put down. His HQ unit was popped out of his ravager during turn 2.
On the left side of the board combined fire from a ravager and raider obliterated my Tervigon in one turn of shooting (This was also a first).
Two squads of Wyches leapt out of the webway portal. One unit which had Lelith in it assaulted and tore apart one squad of my poor gaunts. The other unit went for my HQ unit's throat.
My HQ unit took a good deal of damage from the wyches, but managed to inflict more wounds, seeing the Wyches break and flee (which they continued to do for the remainder of the game). My HQ then charged the unit of Hellions. Breaking them and running them down. My Trygon took out the other Raider, containing a squad of Warriors.
This is where my good times ended. Hespirax's unit arrived and tore the remainder of my HQ unit to shreds. My Trygon nommed up the warrior unit, taking a few wounds during the process. Initiative 5 is obnoxious :|
His HQ unit finished off my Trygon.
Over on the left side of the board my Trygon charged and popped the raider, destroying it. My unit of hive guard shot down the ravager. The Trygon went on to eat up the warriors. The jetbikes tore across the board, ripping a good number of my gaunts asunder in the process. My hive guard shot at the bikes then assaulted them, hoping to tie them up for a few turns.
This was the board at the end of the game. Lelith assaulted my two zoanthropes and did little to nothing in 3 rounds of combat. This had my opponent swearing up and down. Them big ol' brains served them well. I was making their 3+ invul saves over and over. My hive guard got shredded by the remaining squad of wyches, my Tervigon held out for a few rounds. His HQ unit joined the combat, which definitely ended the Tervigon's life. (The Archon also rolled a 6 to wound with some item he had, instakilling the MC and doubling his strength due to it)
The game was fast and intense. It was my first time playing against the DE and It was definitely a learning experience. The next time I face them I'll definitely be castling up, creating a barrier of gaunts to soak up initial assaults with my Trygons and HQ unit ready to counter-assault. I would've fared better if this game was NOT annihilation, also. This prevented me from pumping out any gaunts from my Tervigon (which, in retrospect probably would have prevented me from being tabled, but would have given my opponent A LOT more kill points). The final kill point tally was 10 (DE) to 8 (me)
Game ended with my opponent earning the maximum 6 points for winning the game and wiping out 100% of my army.
I earned 2 points for killing more than half of his. Was very near to 75% :(
The DE player had a few reaver jetbikes remaining. Lelith, some of her wyches, and the HQ unit with a few remaining incubi. Definitely a fun and fast paced game.
My third and final game was against an Imperial Guard army. Very mech heavy expectantly. I'm not very familiar with IG so I'll list what he had to the best of my ability.
He was running three chimeras. Two containing guardsmen, one containing veterans with his commissar(?).
Two squadrons on the right side of the board, with a leman russ in each, the other I don't know. :[
A squad of two basilisks, a small unit of ratlings, and a hellhound as well. He held a valkryie, sentinel and a squad of penal legionnaires in reserve.
This third game was another objective based game, with 3 objectives. Dawn of war deployment. Again I took very few pictures of this game. I'll get better about this in the future. D:
I initially deployed my HQ unit and both Tervigons basically front and center in the middle of the board. I planned to pump out gaunts and rush his tank-line. Tying him up and putting enough hurt on him so that the remainder of my army could take up good positions to pick off what remained. This plan went down pretty much as I expected.
One of my Trygons popped up on the left board edge, where his Basilisks were. This Trygon wrecked. Wrecked so much face (methinks it's the paint job). When my Trygon arrived his Valkryie and Sentinel did as well. My Trygon first took down the Valryie, then both Basilisks in one turn of combat, then the sentinel. He had a total of 3 wounds inflicted to him I believe.
In the center of the board my one of my Tervigons managed to rush and blow up the HQ unit's chimera before being taken down. My HQ unit followed up closely behind, taking out another chimera and a unit of guardsmen. My other Tervigon managed to take out another tank before going down himself. My other Trygon popped on the right side of the board, assaulting one squadron of Leman Russ'. He took one down and immobilized the other.
The remainder of the game basically saw my Hive Guard and zoanthropes taking shots at the remaining armor, killing most of it. My Gaunts held two objectives which were on my side of the board the whole game. His Legionnaires came onto the board, securing one. I won the game 2 objectives to 1.
Came out of that game with 4 points to his 2.
This left me with 10 points, putting me in fourth place. Didn't win anything, but I had a lot of fun. I was glad I got paired up against one of the DE players, mostly for the learning experience. If I had been paired up against a different army in the second game I probably would have placed, though. So whatever. I'm pretty confident that the DE armies were the only ones there that could have beaten me. If I had another shot at them I think I could give them a run for their money If not beat them now that I really know how to react to them.
Sorry again for the scarce number of posts. I'll hopefully be picking up steam again on the painting front. BAI!
