Thursday 7 November 2013

Steve's Octoberfest - Game 1

The weekend saw the DoG guys favorite tournament of the year - Mayhem (Octoberfest) which was 1750 points, 5 game, and no Forgeworld.

The missions are very custom and so is the scoring - I will go into that in more detail during the reports. What I want to do here is outline what army i took and talk about my first 2 games.

I've been going to Mayhem tournaments twice year now for around 10 years so I am pretty familiar with the custom scenario setup and it's importance around troops. On the other hand I had 0 hour playtime with the list I submitted and was using Adepta Sororitas allies which are a completely new codex. My expectations going in to this were practically zero.



I played 5 games against 5 really great opponents and did not have 1 incident that was remotely confrontational and for me, this was the real winner. I'd rather go to a tournament and have a good time and meet some really nice people than win. Thanks again Scott, Sean, Al, Ben and Sam once again.

The Scoring System:

Mayhem use a sliding scale of scoring which compares the difference of yours and your opponents VP's then awards a score ranging from 20-0 and 10-10. Each objective will be worth an amount of VP's along with Linebreaker, Warlord and First Blood awarding 1 each. Things like Ethereal's and Bjorn the Fellhanded counted towards this too.

Difference in VP's Winners TP's Losers TP's
0 10 10
1 – 2 11 9
3 – 4 12 8
5 – 6 13 7
7 – 8 14 6
9 – 10 15 5
11 – 12 16 4
13 – 14 17 3
15 – 16 18 2
17 – 18 19 1
19+ 20 0

With normal rulebook missions/tournaments all you need to do is win by 1 objective, here you have to be troop heavy to stand a chance of winning the tournament.



Here's my list again:

------------
Imperial Guard Primary Detachment
HQ - Company Command Squad [Warlord] - Vox
TR - Platoon Command Squad - 2 Flamers
TR - Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Vox
TR - Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Meltabomb
TR - Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Power Axe
TR - Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Power Axe
TR - Platoon Command Squad - 2 Flamers
TR - Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Vox
TR - Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Meltabomb
TR - Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Power Axe
TR - Infantry Platoon - Autocannon, Power Axe
FA - Vendetta - Heavy Bolters
FA - Vendetta - Heavy Bolters
FA - Vendetta
HS - Manticore

Adepta Sororitas Allies
HQ - Saint Celestine
HQ - 2 Priests
TR - 5 Sisters - 2 Meltaguns
DT - Rhino - Dozer Blade
HS - Exorcist

Fortification
Aegis Defence Line - Comms Relay
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The army is based around 2 solid blobs that thanks to the Priests (and Saint) are fearless.

I actually started one priest in the battle sisters each game just to spread the fearless bubble out a bit more.

Saint also gives the front unit Hit and Run which is nice if I get myself into trouble or go second and want to claim a nearby objective. She's got a bit better in combat now, slightly more reliable where she's moved to Str 5 rather than always wounding on a 4+.

The PCS's go in the Heavy Bolter Vendettas and aim to put pressure on flyers and the opponents objectives.

The Manticore is there to counter any backfield objective takers like Rangers, Jetbikes, other Blobs etc.

The Exorcist was really just an inclusion to go up against any Wraithknights and Riptides/Battlesuits before the Vendettas got in.

Game 1 - Scott Wigmore - Grey Knights
Crusade (4 Obj) - 5 points each
Dawn of War
Night Fight Turn 1

Scott was a very pleasant opponent and during the game found out he works for a formula 1 team!!!! Many man points to him. 


HQ - Castellan Crowe
HQ - Coteaz (Prescience, Ignore Cover)
TR - 10 Purifiers - 2 Psycannons, Psybolt - Rhino
TR - 10 Purifiers - 2 Psycannons, Psybolt - Rhino
TR - 5 Terminators - Pyscannon, Hammer, SwordTR - 5 Terminators - Pyscannon, Hammer, Sword
TR - 5 Terminators - Pyscannon, Hammer, SwordTR - 5 Terminators - Pyscannon, Hammer, Sword
FA - Stormraven
Aegis Defence Line - Quadgun




Annoyingly I'd lost the copy of Scott's army list that I took after our game for this exact reason! I reckon this was pretty accurate as to what Scott was using. Sorry Scott!

The 4 objectives were pretty evenly spread, with 2 on each side fairly centrally. We both rolled -1 reserves for warlord traits.

The board was fairly even with 2 small ruins in each deployment zone and some area terrain spread out covering the rest. To no-ones surprise we set up our defense lines facing off against each other covering the objectives. I put mine in about 20 inches and Scott's around 15.

I won the deployment rolls and opted to go second. I knew I wanted my PCS's to come out of those Vendettas and face as little shooting as possible. It's also a benefit to my Saint who can Hit and Run if in combat, the unit can then take an objective and she can run off and contest one if necessary.

Scott set up his 2 units of purifiers behind the aegis on each objective.  Coteaz went into the right side squad. The rhinos set up on both flanks. Scott opted to deepstrike his 2 Termiantor Squads and the Stormraven was coming in from reserve. Crowe manned the quad gun behind the line with intent to protect the 2 home objectives.

Coteaz's unit with ignore cover was going to be a nasty one. My Blobs also can't go to ground if they're fearless so those str 5 stormbolters were going to hurt too if prescience was up.

I set up pretty much just on the board edge out-ranging the Purifiers until the Terminators came down so I could get a better idea of my target priorities. The Exorcist and Rhino sat behind ruins to my right ready to face the Stormraven's charge and push for Scott's deployment late game.

Turn 1
Scott cast his powers and edged up to his defense line, the Rhino's moved forward hugging cover. Crowe shot into the Sororitas Rhino but bounced. Coteaz and his unit were in range of around 4-5 Guardsmen which they dispatched of quickly.

My turn saw me not do much! I moved my 2 SoB tanks to try and get cover from most angles from the air awaiting the Raven, the Exorcist shot into the right side Rhino and did a hull point. The Autocannons from the Blobs shot into Coteaz's squad and killed 4 including a Psycannon! Very unlucky saves from Scott.

Turn 2
Reserve rolls resulted in Scott's Stormraven coming down but the 2 terminators staying put. The Raven boosted pretty much the full 36" to get a Multimelta shot into my Exorcist which penetrated but rolled a 1! Always the way! Crowe didn't do much better with his shots killing a single Guardsman. The Rhino's edged forward and put some Stormbolters into a Blob killing a couple.

All 3 of my Vendettas came on (even with Scott's Trait!). They killed a Rhino and a couple more marines from Coteaz's squad. The Manticore shot at Coteaz's head which hit dead on doing 6 wounds. Coteaz tried to tank these but managed to roll a 1! The Sisters tanks coward in the corner not doing much and the Blob shot into the Purifiers removing a couple more. I ignored the Raven for now as I knew it would have to move off next turn or hover.

Turn 3
Scott rolled for reserves and both of his Terminator units came down. It was crunch time! Scott is a good lad and wanted to make a fun game of it - where I was putting pressure on his objectives with my Vendetta's/Platoon commands he decided he'd deepstrike both units onto my objectives! The first squad came down bang on and fired into the blog killing around 8. The second unit came down behind my second Blob that were on the other objective. There wasn't much room for movement here but Scott managed to roll a miss. They scattered backwards towards my board edge with literally 1/16 of an inch to spare! Being only 5 models he managed to fit the other 4 around the original without mishaping - Phew! They proceeded to kill another 7.

My turn saw me edge vendettas 18 forward and put more fire down on Scott's home objectives, wiping out the left hand squad and the last Rhino. I moved my Sisters in the Rhino forward and disembarked them towards the right hand Terminator squad that landed safely. I also shuffled my Exorcist around so that it could add its firepower.

Both blob squads moved into position to charge their respective Terminator threats. The left hand one was slightly more in tact so would go against the squad that was not going to receive any AP1 firepower.

The Sisters passed their faith test and took 2 down with their shooting. The exorcist took 3 more. The left hand blob shot its assault weapons and charged into the terminators. The Saint went first with her AP3 sword and managed to take one down with a save of a 1. The retaliation saw 5 of my guard bite the dust. The Priest hymmd reroll to wound as I wasn't getting saves from the Termiantors weapons. The blob rerolling to hit and wound managed to put 24 wounds on the Terminators which saw them all go down (to the last save).

Turn 4

At this point the game was pretty done for. Scott fired Crowe into a Flyer doing zilch. He then brought on his Raven and targeted the encroaching Vendettas killing one. 2 of the PCS survived the drop, passed their leadership but were pinned.

Turn 4 saw me move my sisters up ready to capture the objective if I lost one of my PCS. The Vendettas targeted Crowe and took him out rather than fire on the Raven. I moved troop units on to all of the objectives and held them for the win.

I managed First Blood, Line breaker and Slay the Warlord too.

Result: Win (23-0)

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