Gamefest 2013: By rorykost

Rory Kost. Gamefest 2013, March 2, 2013

1500
MY ARMY:
HQ: Reclusiarch (attached to Death Company)

Troops:
Tactical Squad Alpha. Q(10) Lascannon and Flamer, in rhino
Death Company. Q(9), 3 PowerSwords, 1 Thunder Hammer, in rhino (with Reclusiarch)
Scout Squad: 4 Sniper Rifles, 1 Missile Launcher

Fast Attack: 
Landspeeder 1: dual Multi-Meltas (deep striking)
Landspeeder 2 & 3: Heavy Bolter and Typhoon Missiles (starting on board)
Attack Bike squad: Q(3) Heavy Bolter and TL Bolter

Heavy Support:
Devastator Squad: 3 Missile Launchers (manning the Quad Gun)
DreadNought: 1 TL Lascannon, 1 TL Autocannon (behind the Aegis line)

Fortification:
Aegis defense line with Quad-Gun

This is very similar to the army I ran at the Nova Tourney in January. I removed one of my two shooty dreadnoughts, and exchanged one Q (10) tactical squad in rhino for a Q(9) Death Company squad in rhino. I swapped the Librarian in Termie armor for a Reclusiarch, embedded with the Death Company. I kept my Landspeeder "sidebar" and eliminated the Drop pod Meltagun suicide squad. 
The objectives were to increase my close combat capability, and get my HQ *into the fight* instead of babysitting the quad-gun.

BATTLE ONE: vs Deathwing Termies + Plasma Cannon Devastators and Tact. squads.
Post-Mortem: I deployed with about 60% of my forces on the left side, and 40% on the right. My opponent dropped in his 3 squads of termies onto the left side, using their TL cyclones and SPLIT FIRE to good effect. I lost both Landspeeder Typhoons in the opening round to Cyclone fire. Plasma cannon fire from his Devastators and tactical squads was effective.
My Death Company moved up on the left to tarpit the termies. Its not a great matchup for them, but I had one Thunder Hammer, so if I could charge, he had a chance to kill several Termies by himself. The rest would make due with their high # of attacks forcing mass 2+ saves.
I will take this moment to rail uselessly against the fact that RHINOs, the most common Armored Personnel Carrier of the Adeptus Asartes, is NOT an assault vehicle. Really? Who thought that up? 
I hoped for (and got) my opponent blowing UP my rhino in his turn, allowing me to charge in my turn. I got into CC with my Death Company in turn 4 and they did OK. His Termie Powerfists are especially hard on Death Company, ignoring armor saves and Feel No Pain. Still, I managed to kill out a 5man squad of termies from sheer volume of saves and the Reclusiarch's "Liturgies of Blood".
I lost most of my devastators to enemy fire, my dreadnought to enemy fire (despite the Aegis line). My Tactical squad in RHINO were pretty useless, staying inside the rhino til the end of the fight (lack of useful targets or a hope vs Termies in CC). My attack bikes and scouts killed most of his tactical marines on my right flank but didn't manage to KILL OUT a single squad.
At the end, he was in solid control of the left mid-board, with 2 squads of termies and his HQ, vs what was left of my Death Company. The right flank was contested but nothing was really happening.

THOUGHTS: As soon as his Termies ported in on round 1, I should have moved everything I could, FLAT OUT, over to the right flank. At least in this way, his termies would have been limited to their Cyclone missile launchers at best, and I could have cleaned the right flank off easily, looping around to finish his devastators. That would have left him with TERMIES with little or nothing to shoot at. Once again, I tried to defend my entire deployment zone, and once again, I lost. It wasn't even close on points. I have since come up with some plans for dealing with "DeathWing" or "RavenWing" armies that should come as a brutal shock to the Dark Angel player who fields them.

BATTLE TWO: vs. Chaos Marines.

The opponent had a Nurgle Demon Price LVL 3 psyker, two squad of Chaos Marines, 3 Obliterators, a mauler fiend (the shooty one) and two Heldrakes.

This was a "long board" deployment. I lost my dreadnought on the first lascannon shot of the game from the Obliterators, despite the Aegis Line. He hit, penetrated and I missed my cover save. He rolled a 6 and my best long-range firepower for killing Termies and Demon Princes was dead. He cursed my Devastators with "GETS HOT". In round two, both his Heldrakes came in, moved 36" (rules check???) and vector striked my attack bikes to death. They also altered FACING at the end of the move (rules check???). I attempted to INTERCEPT the Heldrake, rolled for GETS HOT and killed 3 Devastators (another rules check, can you kill more than just the guy firing who GETS HOT?).
At this point, it was turn two and I had lost my dreadnought, most of my devastators and my attack bikes.
I *could* have charged one of his groups of chaos marines in turn3 with my Death Company but I was fretting about that Demon Prince joining in. I instead snuck out of the ruins and put my Death Company inside the Aegis line next door. In retrospect, I probably would have been better to just engage with the Death Company where I would have been mostly immune to ranged fire.
That Death Company ate at least 10 Plasma Cannon shots over the next 2 rounds from the Mauler and the Obliterators. (yet another rules check: can Obliterators fire the same weapon two rounds in a row, or are they forced to rotate?)
With the Demon Prince casting Prescience on either the Obliterators or the Mauler, they weren't missing much. Additionally, the Mauler's EctoPlasma Cannon is STR8, so unlike normal Plasma Cannons, there is no FnP. 
I did manage to kill the Demon Prince using my two Typhoon Landspeeders. Heavy bolters and Krak Missiles forced saves that he eventually missed (Hurray!!).
Meanwhile, one of the Heldrakes vector-striked my Death company and then BALEFIRE template'd my Typhoon Landspeeders, killing one of the speeders. The other Heldrake went into hover mode and BALEFIRE'd my scouts who were up in a ruined building. Killing all five of them.
At this point, I was trying to figure out how to avoid getting TABLED before the end of turn 5, thought of winning far removed. I FINALLY got my multi-melta landspeeder in from reserve on AUTOMATIC. I got stupid here and attacked his MAULER from behind, instead of landing across the table to claim a table quarter out of range. I did ONE HP to his MAULER, who regen'd the HP at the end of his turn anyway.
I moved my tact squad rhino flat out in an attempt to contest a far table corner. The Heldrake in hover mode returned to high flying, vector striked and BALEFIRE'd my rhino, wrecking it on hull points. The other Heldrake made a very questionable 90 degree turn and vector striked my remaining Typhoon landspeeder as it attempted to FLAT OUT to a remote table corner. I didn't argue the amount of pivot because it wouldn't have earned me a win, but it was definitely more like 120 degrees.
In the last turn, the other heldrake BALEFIRED the tactical squad that was now on the ground killing 7 or so of them in a single gout.
At the end, I had my Reclusiarch and one Death Company hiding behind a building, a multi-melta landspeeder, 3 tactical marine sitting ducks and an unmanned quad-gun. If it had gone to Turn6, I would have been tabled.
I got the impression that THIS opponent was.... less than 100% honest in his rules interpretations. He was also demanding cover saves that were arguable, which I gave him.
There just isn't time in a tourney like this to call the ref over every 10 minutes, to demand to read your opponents codex due to unfamiliarity, etc. 

THOUGHTS: I was *out* of this fight almost as soon as it started. I may have kept more troops alive had I rushed out into CC with his Chaos Marines. His Fiend and Obliterators were lethally accurate due to Prescience. His Demon Prince didn't fail to cast a single ability. No failed Leadership. No Perils of the Warp, nada. 12 casts, 12 successful rolls. His two Heldrakes both came in on TURN2. My single Landspeeder in reserve didn't come in until "automatic". My Death Company got shot to hell by Plasma cannons when I decided to fall back instead of charge forward into combat. Overall, my army was poorly suited to combat his army. I made some mistakes, and his dice were significantly hotter than mine. Nothing seemed to go right for me the entire fight.

Battle Three: ORKS

This was a short board battle. The opponent had jump troops, lootas, boys and THREE battle wagons. This was an objectives and Kill points battle. I hid my rhinos throughout most of the fight, allowing the ORKS to move up under fire. My dreadnought tried in vain to shoot his battlewagons but never managed to knock one out. The quad gun was only useful against troops, and the missile launchers attached to the quad gun were only barely capable of damaging the wagons making them a poor combo. My long-range shooting was definitely not of the STR required to knock out 3 battle-wagons from the front. 
The Aegis line worked well this game, making a lot of cover saves. The attack bikes slaughtered his jump troops, and the quad-gun/devastators cleaned his boyz off a far objective easily. He pressed forward with his wagons, but needlessly left one sitting on top of an objective that I *couldn't* take due to lack of troops in that area. I managed to wreck a wagon from side-armor shots from the Typhoon, unleashing Gazskull and his troops.
His troops kept doing "shoot someone in the head and re-roll your failed morale" I was unfamiliar with this (rules check???). I remember that IG can do this with a Commissar, but not that ORKS could. I've played a few games against ORKS and never seen this before (LIZ?).
My opponent RAMMED and destroyed TWO of my landspeeders. The Multi-melta speeder which failed to destroy anything, and one of the Typhoon speeders. My shooty stuff killed a third of Ghazskull's boyz before they got into the trees (chasing after my scouts, of all things, instead of covering the objective nearby.
My scouts FLED out of the trees and got the objective before being rundown from behind by Ghazskull and company. My tact squad on the left flank moved forward slightly, safe behind their rhino and covering the objective.
At this point, only 4 of the boys were left. My Death Company had gotten out of their ride in turn 4 (again, rhinos aren't assault vehicles). Time in the match was extremely short in the top of turn 5. I took the brief opportunity to shoot his troops with my attack bikes, killing a couple more. I then abandoned the rest of my shooting and charged into CC with my Death Company. 
Ghazskull challenged my reclusiarch (which I wanted). The two didn't inflict any wounds on each other that turn. The NINE death company annihilated his few remaining boys with 36 chainsword attacks, 12 PowerSword attacks and 3 Thunder Hammer attacks, all re-rolling misses and failed wounds.
At that point, the match time was OVER. Had we gone into the bottom of turn5, it is possible that Ghazskull may have killed my Reclusiarch, or maybe not. He wasn't going to kill an entire Death Company and its Reclusiarch in the bottom of turn 5, for sure.
I held one objective, contested one objective. The opponent contested one objective but held none. I won on OBJECTIVES, and would have easily won on KILL POINTS as well, having only lost two LandSpeeders and a group of SCOUTS.

THOUGHTS: In this case, *I* had the right army to deal with my foe. The wagons were pretty much immune to me, but only ONE of them had any troops in it. His jumppack troops were slaughtered by mid-board and his 5 LOOTAS on the left flank were shot out of the trees without much trouble. If I had been running his army, I would have SPRINTED those wagons across the board, jump troops following safely behind, and LOOTAS in the wagon. By turn 3, he should have emptied the wagons into my front line and then spent a few rounds of Ghazskull slaughtering my Devastators and Shooty Dreadnoughts. Instead, he held his wagons back, had very little to shoot me with, and suffered for it.

Per Unit Breakdown:
Reclusiarch: Got into combat in two of the three battles. Was still alive at the end of all three battles. Not a super-duper CC character, but the LITURGIES OF BLOOD makes his attached Death Company extremely nasty on the charge. 

Tactical Squad Alpha: In the first two battles, highly ineffective. They either "survived" due to being hidden or were massacred when they broke cover, even in the rhino. In the 3rd battle, they stayed hidden in their rhino, behind the Aegis line until the end, when they moved up and captured an objective late. The Lascannon in the squad was also ineffective, either missing (usually) or failing to penetrate. I could have achieved the same with 5 scouts in a rhino.

Death Company: In battles one and three, they got to charge into combat. In battle one, this pretty well wiped out a termie 5man squad, despite the saves. In battle three, they wiped out some boyz, threatened Ghazskull and contested an objective late after hiding in their rhino behind trees. In battle two, they chose not to attack and instead got plasma cannoned and vector striked to death. MORALE of the story: If you're going to buy Death Company and put a Reclusiarch in with them, buying Powerswords and Thunder Hammers, by all means, CHARGE, CHARGE, CHARGE. If they hit something and bounce, at least they aren't getting shot at.

Scout squad: In all three battles, pretty ineffective. A couple of times, I forgot to shoot them because they were in trees and I didn't SEE them. They did manage to kill some boyz in battle three, and tried to contest an objective before being rundown by Ghazskull. Cheap troop choice but not that effective.

LandSpeeder ONE: Multi-Melta Usually, I have better luck with this one. I came in late, missed with one of the meltas ALL THREE TIMES I came in. I believe the best I managed was to knock a hull point off a FIEND with it. In battle two, I could have held ONE table quarter had I been smarter.

Landspeeder 2&3: Typhoons. In battle one, I lost both of them in the bottom of turn one to TL cyclone missile fire. In battle two, they did manage to kill the Demon Prince, which was the only bright spot in an otherwise complete massacre. They were destroyed by Heldrakes. In turn 3, one of them was RAMMED by a battlewagon, but the other one managed to wreck that same battlewagon with side-armor shots. I hoped to use them to contest objectives and table quarters late, but they were usually either dead or out of position. 
Attack bikes: Battle One, they were on the right flank, shot through most of the fight but weren't that effective. Battle Two, they fired into some Chaos Marines one round before being utterly destroyed by twin Vector Striking HelDrakes. Battle Three, they punished LOOTAS on the left flank, punished jump troops in the middle and then boyz on the right side. All three survived the entire fight and they worked well. The ORKS lack of long range shooting kept my bikes alive.

Devastators: Battle One, they were pretty ineffective. Quad-guns don't kill termies and neither do Missile Launchers. They stayed alive but didn't do much to help. Battle Two: they were cursed on round 2, and pretty well died in turn 2/3 from GETS HOTS and Plasma Cannon shots. Very ineffective. Useless even. They managed to kill some ORKS in battle three, but had no real chance to knock out the battle wagons.
Shooty Dread: Battle One, destroyed by Cyclone launchers in turn 2-3. Unable to kill termies with Lascannon and Autocannon (shot into the Storm Shield Termies. dumn) Battle two, dead in the first shot of opponent's first turn. Battle three, stayed alive, unable to kill wagons from the front, benefitted from lack of ORK long range shots. Average effectiveness.

MY effectiveness:
Battle One: when it was over, I recognized that I should have abandoned the left flank, leaving his termies alone and out of range. It might have made a difference in the outcome. I forgot to shoot my scouts one turn.
Battle Two: I guess I should have charged my DC. Other than that, I don't think ANYTHING I did would have helped. I had no way to counter his Heldrakes (even with a quad-gun) and his Plasma cannons were lethally accurate. Nothing went right the entire fight. I barely escaped being tabled. 
Battle Three: I lost a Typhoon Landspeeder due to my own stupidity (allowing it to be rammed by a battlewagon). The Multi-Melta speeder is a suicide unit, so losing him was a given. Other than that, there wasn't much to complain about. I lost about 250 pts of my 1500 during the fight.

Opponents: The first guy was pretty nice. I never felt like he was "pulling one over on me". Never felt the need to call for a Ref, even when I was getting beat down.

The second guy was gruff and distracted by one of his kids about 20 times during the fight. He gave the impression that he was playing fast and loose with his own rules. I challenged a few of them, but ultimately, time was against me. Some of the things happened later in the game when I had already lost the game and was just trying to survive til Turn5, so I let them go without challenging him on them.

The third person was a 13-year old kid (son of guy#2) I had to call a ref over several times to settle disputes over things his troops can/can't do. Mostly, I think that this was honest "not understanding the rules correctly", instead of intent. However, he did attempt to CLAIM an objective with his battlewagon at the end, despite me telling him in turn4 that he couldn't. When I called him on it AGAIN at the end, he said "Yeah, I Know". In that case, I think he would have happily claimed the objective with his empty wagon had I not called him on it as we scored the match.

ME, from their viewpoint: I don't think I abused anything rulewise. I allowed things to fly instead of calling a ref on several occasions. Some of it was TIME related. Some of it was ignorance of other Codex, and some of it was friendly "that's close enough". I'd guess that my "sportsmanship" rating was AVERAGE. I did mention a couple of times to both the Dark Angel and Chaos Marine player that "it sure is nice to have a brand new codex with all those new goodies". Its probably not fair to automatically assume that people are jumping on the Flavor of the MONTH army, but those two opponents both had multiple other armies available to them, and chose THOSE armies for the tourney. That doesn't happen without knowing that currently, those two armies have some advantages over 5th (or worse, 4th) edition codices. 
I don't see how some armies really have a chance against the new books. Unless the DA or Chaos player is an idiot, a general purpose Eldar and TAU (or my own Blood Angels) army is at a disadvantage.

Written By Rorykost posted by basementmini Mike