Freebootaz Open - Vulkan's Retrospective pt 3

Sorry it's been a while since part 2 but life has been a bit hectic over the last couple of weeks. With Christmas on the horizon things seem to be slowing down a bit so here is the concluding part of my experience at the Freebootaz Open.

Part 1
Part 2

My List

Game 3

Chaos Space Marines

HQ
Daemon Prince
Wings, Mark of Nurgle, Warptime
Daemon Prince
Wings, Mark of Nurgle, Warptime

TROOPS
Plague Marines
(7)2x Meltagun, Personal Icon, Aspiring Champion w. Powerfist; Rhino
Plague Marines
(7) 2x Meltagun, Personal Icon, Aspiring Champion w. Powerfist; Rhino
Plague Marines
(7) 2x Flamer, Personal Icon, Aspiring Champion w. Powerfist; Rhino
Summoned Lesser Daemons
(8)
Summoned Lesser Daemons
(7)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Obliterators
(2)
Obliterators
(2)
Vindicator

Mission: Race for the Loot

I felt that apart from possibly the Daemon Princes and the Vindicator he didn't have a lot in this list that could do a huge amount of damage to me so I committed to playing the mission for the first couple of turns while dedicating my static firepower to taking out those key targets. To this end I split my Tac squads up as I'd need 5 troops to move a loot counter and the counter itself would take up 5 spaces in a Rhino, I also decided to deep strike my Termies so the Scouts could board their Land Raider on turn one and go off after another Loot counter. So I had 3 transports which could go out to get counters and bring them back to my zone.

There were 5 counters on the board, one in each quarter and one on the second floor of a building in the centre of the table. Deployment was Spearhead so we both started with a counter in our deployment zones. I won the roll off for first turn and figured that going first would be the smart thing to do, first person to the counters would have the easiest time. I split my force in two with Vulkan and the two combat squads in Rhinos going for the counter to my right and the Scouts, Land Raider and Sternguard going for the counter to my left. I had the two heavy weapon combat squads set up protecting the counter in my zone and the Dread was slightly over to the right of my Zone which gave it a good view into his deployment zone.

My opponent deployed heavily to my left with all of his troops and a Prince, the other Prince and the Vindicator were deployed to defend his left and the Oblits were towards the back of his zone in the middle on his loot counter. I figured he was going to fight of the loot counter to my left and have a go at the one in the centre. Given the centre objective was on the second floor I figured I would have time to stop him making off with it and I felt I could hold off his massed troops on my left so I stuck with the original plan.

Turns one and two were focussed on getting to the Loot counters as quickly as possible and pouring firepower into the Daemon Princes. Left over shooting was directed at his Rhinos to slow or stop them as the Vindi was out of LoS for anything that could hurt it. By the end of turn two my scouts and combat squad had their respective loot counters and the Vindi and a Daemon Prince were dead, the other was wounded. Two of his Rhinos were out of commission and the third was blocked in by them. So all in all it was going very well!

Turn three was mostly spent returning the captured counters to my deployment zone. The other combat squad on my right started to advance towards the counter in the centre to oppose the Plague Marines who were heading that way. My Termies arrived, deep striking into position to take out the Oblits and Vulkan headed off to join them. On the left my Sternies took the last few wounds off the lone Daemon Prince. My opponent's Summoned Daemons arrived on Turn three suddenly making the middle of the board look rather crowded and far from easily defensible!

The rest of the game turned into a drawn out slug-fest in the middle of the table which neither of us able to make a serious play for the loot counter. I managed to wipe out his Oblits by the end of turn 5 but other than that the carnage was squarely focussed in the centre.

The game finished 3-1 in my favour and I had a decent margin in the victory points stakes as well so all in all it was a good result at last for Vulkan's finest! I perhaps should have used my Termies to support the middle of the table rather than go after the Oblits but I don't think I would have had time to move the Loot counter back to my deployment zone anyway.

Game 4

Eldar
(apologies I cannot find a copy of my opponents list so this is as close as I can remember)
HQ
Eldrad
Seer Council
(5) Embolden, Enhance, 2x Destructor
Avatar

ELITES
Harlequins
(10) 9x Kisses, Shadowseer

TROOPS
Guardian Squad
(10) Scatter Laser Platform
Guardian Squad
(10) Scatter Laser Platform
Storm Guardians (SPY)
(10) 2x Fusion Gun
Pathfinders
(5)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Warwalker Squadron
(2) Scatter Lasers, Missile Launchers
Wraithlord
Brightlance, Missile Launcher
Wraithlord
Brightlance, Missile Launcher

Mission: Retrieve the Spy

We each chose the unit our spy would be hidden in in secret before the game. I thought it was between the Harlies or the Storm Guardians and in the end I chose the Storm Guardians as I would be more likely to run those down in a successful combat the Harlies would most likely be able to get away. My opponent won the roll to go first and picked the board edge with a house on it into which he deployed both Guardian Squads and the Pathfinders, they were going to be problematic to shift! Everything else was deployed fairly centrally in front of the house except this War Walkers (outflanking) and his Storm Guardians which were held in reserve, bummer!

I kept my Tac squads together to make the a tougher prospect to kill and deployed them centrally in support of the Land Raider containing Vulkan and my Termies. I placed the TFC in cover on my right flank supported by the Sternies and the Dread. With the Storm Guardians off the table I thought I needed to cover a decent portion of the table to ensure I could hit them when they did arrive. The Speeders were kept in reserve to keep them out of harm's way until they could lend some firepower, I reserved my Scouts as well as they had to be a candidate for containing the spy.

Eldrad redeployed the Wraithlords, himself and the Seer Council over to challenge my right flank before the first turn.

My memories of this game are somewhat vague I'm afraid, it was very up and down for me. My opponent had placed his spy in my Sternguard unit which should have been obvious to me after turn one given the amount of attention they were getting but my mind was elsewhere. Unfortunately this meant I left them relatively unprotected and by the time I realised what he was doing it was too late and Battle Points had been claimed by revealing his Spy. At least I managed to kill the Spy with my nearby Dreadnought but the damage was done as, unfortunately, the Storm Guardians were not in a position to be taken on by any of my army. Thanks to a very effective outflanking manoeuvre by the Warwalkers who took out my Thunderfire Cannon, the only unit which could have had a chance of taking out the Storm Guardians.

My central assault force consisting of the Terminators, Vulkan, the Land Raider and the two Tactical squads were being very effectively held up by the Wraithlords and the Avatar. This combat was my little moral victory of the game as after three turns of fighting Vulkan and a single Terminator emerged victorious. They were cut down in the next turn by the Seer Council who had moved up in support but a good showing none-the-less!

This combat had effectively cut the board in half so the the best I could hope to achieve from here was to wipe out the Harlies and capture the objective on my side of the table. The Scouts saw to the objective while a couple of turns of shooting from my one remaining Tactical Squad saw the Harlies routed and then destroyed a turn later.

Other than that there was not a lot of action left in the game I had no hope of getting anything threatening anywhere near to the Storm Guardians so by turn 5 it was all over but the shouting. A pretty disappointing result, a 5-2 loss, but a very enjoyable game against a good opponent,

And that was it for the Freebootaz Open, one win one tie and two losses. Not my best showing I'm afraid but I made a number of cardinal errors in my preparation for the tournament (or lack of preparation). I had no experience with the list I was playing and I had not play-tested any of the missions which were a clear departure from the norm. I've said it before but for the next Toruney I will not be making the same mistakes! None the less I enjoyed the Tournament thanks to four very good opponents and the fact that Graham and Gav were both there to ruminate on our results after each game! Can't beat having an on-site support group to pick you back up after a loss.

Next up the Caledonian Uprising in January, watch this space for more info.