Open War 14 has been and gone and I've got to say it was a roller-coaster ride of a tournament for me. Actually it very closely mirrored the events of Open War 13 but with just a touch more drama. So here's the overview of the first game of the day:Like most other tournaments I was up until gone 1am on the night before finishing up some painting and re-drilling the magnet holes on my Land Speeders, it just doesn't feel like a tournament unless you turn up a little short on sleep! This time however, my wife would be driving Gav and I to the venue and picking us up afterwards so beer was go! Awesome :)
First game was against Harry and his four Battle Wagon Ork List, I've played Harry and this list before and although I knew I was in for a tough game I did think I had a decent chance to at least run him close. The mission was table quarters with pitched battle deployment, 2 points for each troop in either of your opponents table quarters, 1 point for troops in your own table quarters, no points for contested quarters.
My List
Harry's Orks:
HQ
Warboss
Mega Armour, Boss Pole, Cybork Body
Big Mek
KFF, Heavy Armour
TROOPS
Meganobz
(5) 4x combi-shoota/skorcha; Battlewagon (RPJ, Armour Plates, Deff Rolla, Big Shoota, Riggers)
Boyz
(18) Nob, PK, Heavy Armour
Boyz
(18) Nob, PK, Heavy Armour
Boyz
(18) Nob, PK, Heavy Armour
Grotz
(10) Runtheard
FAST ATTACK
Warbuggies
(3) Twin Linked Rokkit Launchas
Warbuggies
(3) Twin Linked Rokkit Launchas
Warbuggies
(3) Twin Linked Rokkit Launchas
HEAVY SUPPORT
Battlewagon
RPJ, Armour Plates, Deff Rolla, Big Shoota, Riggers
Battlewagon
RPJ, Armour Plates, Deff Rolla, Big Shoota, Riggers
I went first and deployed fairly tightly in the centre of my zone and outflanked my Scouts, Harry set up his Battle Wagons on my right flank and his buggies on my left. My plan was to make a big mess in the middle of the board (the terrain lay out meant that this would slow his advance to my left flank), force him to get out of his wagons so I could get stuck into his troops with some TFC and Typhoon goodness.
It didn't exactly go down like that and early doors we both wiped out our opposing left flanks, I took out his buggies and he took out my Tac Termies and Dread. But while this was going on I did manage to get him to focus some of his attention towards the centre of the board and my TFC did manage to pay for itself routing a squad of boys and taking out 2 units of the buggies on its own. In the end it was destroyed by a magical Battle Wagon that could apparently tank shock and Deffrolla units on the 1st floor of a ruin.
At the time I couldn't be bothered to argue the point, even though I thought it a bit dubious, so I deferred to my opponent's apparent greater knowledge, but looking back over the rules I don't believe this is possible as I'm sure vehicles cannot go above ground floor in ruins. Fortunately this did not turn out to be particularly key to the result and Harry took the game 23-12: he had both of my table quarters and I only contested his but he managed to take 10 Kill points off me and I only managed 5 of his.
Key points in the game were my inability to blow up any of his Battle Wagons particularly when I had managed to clog up two large units of boys in the middle of the table, the resulting explosions could have swung the game. I also had some trouble making 2+ saves and my Termies (tactical and assault) went down without much of a fight. The TFC and the Scouts were the two units that kept me in the game, the Scouts were able to contest a table quarter thanks to a good outflanking roll and the TFC accounted for 3 of my 5 kill points, don't leave home without one!
One last incident of note was a bold attempt by my Librarian to ID his Warboss, I charged him out of my immobilised Land Raider, managed to hit twice and luck seemed to be with me as I rolled a five, sadly he made his 5+ invulnerable and I didn't have to take my leadership check for Force |Weapon him out. My Libby was no match for his Power Klaw on the return swings.
Anyway, it was a good game and not a bad start to the day given the callibre of my opponent, I figured things would probably get better from here on in.
Just wanted to say I love the tag line in your banner. Aim high...ish!
ReplyDeleteSon, I am dissapoint :P
ReplyDeleteFirst of all you opted to go first. As I've said many times before, when facing battlewagon spam you should opt to go second. This way you can deploy very far away from his Battlewagon (I bet he was keeping them close together for the KFF). It works very well in pitched battle since you can deploy all the way to the other side (althought it doesn't work too well in spearhead since it doesn't make much of a difference). Anyway you gave your oppoment the information of where your juicy units were going to be so he could deploy on that side. I don't know how you handled your tacticals but I would have combat squaded the seargeant and meltagunner on both squads and would sacrifice them in order to take out the battlewagons.
Now, could he tank shock you if you were on the first floor?
1)Page 83 of rulebook it basically says that vehicles (except walkers) can't go onto floors.
2)Page 68 of rulebook :"Once the vehicle has been 'aimed' and the speed declared, move the vehicle straight forward until it comes into contanct with an enemy unit...If no enemy unit is reached just move the vehicle straight ahead..."
Ok, so we have the words "contact" and "reached" here. Since your unit is in a place that the Battlewagon cannot go so I don't think the the vehicle can either come in contact with them or reach them. The battlewagon should just have moved forward until it finished it's full movement passing from beneath your unit.
Funny thing is that probably at the same time you were playing your game, I was using my 3 BW list against another marine player :D
So, how did the rest of your games go? looking forward to the next battle report!
Great comments, thanks. In my defence on the first turn thing though, he won the roll off and chose second so my tactical accumen (or lack there-of) never came into it ;)
ReplyDeleteHaha okay sorry, the way you wrote it down I thought you won the roll. Seems the guy knows how to play (although I am a bit puzzled why he didn't use Thraka in this kind of list). I think with a bit of luck you could have won the game, your list has the tools to kill orks. And yeah he couldn't tank shocked you on a floor. So how did the rest of the games go? Or should I wait for the other 2 battle reports? :)
ReplyDeleteSpecial characters were not allowed at this tournament, he usually does have Ghaz in the list!
ReplyDeleteOverall I managed 19th place out of 66 which I was very pleased with. I'll fill on the details over the next couple of posts though.
Ok, makes sense now :)
ReplyDeleteYou did pretty good overall, I am want to read the rest of the reports now :P Ok, I 'll wait, I ll be home all day anyways :P
Well, it was going to be top 100 but then my raging ego took over! Although I did add the caveats "possibly" and "based in the UK" to avoid any possible litigation from other Space Wolf blogs :-)
ReplyDeleteThere should be an option to "unsteal the initiative" so on a 6 you could give the first turn away.
ReplyDelete