Monday, February 11, 2013

Minsk winter - 2013. Game 1 vs Daemon (Eldar+Tau)



I took part in a 1500 pts local tourney “Minsk Winter – 2013”. We had 16 players at the tourney, so only 8 tables with a lot of terrain – Ymgarls were pleased with that.

Here is my army list:

Hive Tyrant – 2 x TL Devourer, Wings, Paroxysm, Leech Essence, Hive Commander = 285 pts.
Hive Tyrant - 2 x TL Devourer, Wings, Paroxysm, Leech Essence, Old Adversary = 285 pts.
Ymgarl Genestealer Brood (8) = 184 pts.
Tervigon - Stinger Salvo, AG, Toxin Sacs, Cat, Onslaught = 210 pts.
Tervigon - Stinger Salvo, Toxin Sacs, Cat = 185 pts.
Termagant (20) with Devourers in Mycetic Spore with TL Deathspitter = 250 pts.
Termagant Brood (10) with Devourers = 100 pts.
Total = 1499 pts.



Mission 1 – The Scouring on Vanguard Strike deployment.

Primary mission worth 8 points, Secondary missions  (linebreaker, First blood, Slay the Warlord) – 6 points. Another 6 pts is divided according to the losses comparison.

The tourney organizer Nevik (aka “d2”) rolled the dices and paired me with Daemon – my old battle brother, the veteran of the ETC team Belarus who brought a Eldar/Tau army with a touch hammer unit:

Dmitry "Daemon" Kabanov



Codex: Eldar / Tau

Primary Detachment
HQ 1: farseer (55), runes of warding (15), runes of witnessing (10), spirit stones (20), eldar jetbike (30), doom (25), fortune (30) [185]
HQ 2: farseer (55), singing spear (3), runes of witnessing (10), spirit stones (20), eldar jetbike (30), eldritch storm (20), guide (20), mind war (20) [178]
HQ 3: 8*warlock (8*25), 3*destructor (3*10), embolden (5), enhance (15), 3*singing spear (3*3), 8*eldar jetbike (8*20) [419]

Troops 1: 3*guardian jetbike (3*22), shuriken cannon (10) [76]
Troops 2: 3*guardian jetbike (3*22), shuriken cannon (10) [76]
Troops 3: 3*guardian jetbike (3*22), shuriken cannon (10) [76]

Heavy 1: 2*war walker (2*30), 4*shuriken cannon (4*5) [80]
Heavy 2: 2*war walker (2*30), 4*shuriken cannon (4*5) [80]
Heavy 3: 2*war walker (2*30), 4*shuriken cannon (4*5) [80]

Allied Detachment

HQ 1: commander shas'el (50), twin-linked missile pod (18), vectored retro-thrusters (10), hard-wired target lock (5) [83]

Troops 1: 8*firewarrior shas'la (8*10) in Transport 1 [80]

Transport 1: devilfish troop carrier (80), disruption pod (5) carries Troops 1 [85]

Total: 1498 pts

Before game analysis:
Dmitry is a very experienced player, but he sold his SW army to try something new. He decided to test a jetbike council eldars with Tau commander for hit&run option. Nice combo. He saved some points from walkers and left them with shuriken cannons only. Devilfish now has 2+ cover after it boosts, so if’s a hard nut to wreck.
Neither he nor I have any Fast Attack units, so we play straight for objectives. I have a good opportunity to take the First Blood and if I will screen carefully with gants and tarpit his jetbikes – I will save my tervigons and win on objectives. Tyrants will go for fast scoring units. Let’s try to do that!

I lost the roll to choose side, but got the good one, cause there is a large ruin in opponents deploy zone for Ymgarls:)
Objectives are all near board edges – no one is in the middle (my fail, actually).

Traits. I get the nightfight, while farseer get a +1VP for killing a character.

Psychic powers:
Flyrant-Warlord – Iron Arm, Endurance
Flyrant – Endurance, Haemorrhage
Tervigon with 3 powers – Endurance, Enfeeble, Haemorrhage
Tervigon 2 – Catalyst + Dominion.

Warlord-farseer – Doom+Fortune
Farseer – Prescience, Misfortune, scrier’s gaze

We’ve rolled the nightfight for the first turn.

I lost the roll-off and got the first turn as a result.

Deployment.
Tyranids. I place both tervigons and flyrants as close as possible to enemy lines. 10 gants outflank, 20 gants deepstrike in a spore. Ymgarls lay dormant.



Eldar+Tau. 3 jetbikes hold the very corner, devilfish is close to them. Warlocks with both farseers is near them in the corner, near the ruin. 2 jetbike packs, 1 walker squad and Tau commander are in reserve. 2 walker squads are outflanking.
 
I place Ymgarls in the central ruin, as I’m afraid that Daemon will jump his jetbikes into the ruin first turn.

  

No attempt to seize and I start.

Turn 1. Tyranids
We open up the markers and I find 1,2,3 on my side, while 2,3,4 is on enemy side. I decide to play “take opponent markers” game!

No psychic powers…
I rush forward with tervgons and glide 12 with tyrants.



Turn 1. Eldar+Tau
Fortune and Prescience are cast on warlocks. Council jump 12 toward my left flank.



Shooting. 3 jetbikes boost a bit, devilfish do the same. Council jump 30 inches toward my monsters


(I guess, Daemon decided to bring down my tervs with his Warlord to kill my scoring units first and to get some additional VP’s for Character killing!)

Turn 2. Tyranids
Everything comes in with 2+! I get my Ymgarl near council, 10 gants in the opponent corner and 20 gants between enemy forces (behind the council).
I try to enfeeble the council but fail with perils on Terv. I give FnP to Ymgarls successfully.
Spawning brings to life 7 and 9 gants, who move towards council (no doubles!).
Tyrants fly across the council, one with preferred – close to 20 gants, Warlord stay at the middle of the board to deny his outflanking walkers shooting at him.



Shooting. 30 shots at 3 jetbikes bring me first blood! 60 shots with Preferred enemy at council bring down 3 jetbikes!
Flyrant wipe out one more jetbike, while Warlord is gross and able to drop 2 more bikes!!
Spawned gants and tervies do nothing to the council with their shooting.



Assault. I loose 1 gant to overwatch from council and get 2 spawned gant broods and Ymgarls into close combat!



Opponent is hot on saves, so I do only 1 wound to the Farseer.



So, I managed to tarpit his hammer unit with no chances to get free. I brought SiTW to his casters so I have good chances to win this game!

Turn 2. Eldar+Tau
He casts on 4 dices, nevertheless, he fails none. Doom on Flyrant, Fortune on council, Misfortune on Flyrant and scrier’s gaze are all in, I fail all my Deny The Witch.
With Scrier’s gaze in effect all three walker units arrive as well as 2 jetbike units. All walkers show up on the left, near his deployment zone.
Drones jump off the Devilfish and target my tyrant. Firewarriors line up to shoot at 20 gants.



Shooting.
Drones hit Flyrant twice, but I pass test.
Jetbikes hit flyrant, but I pass test again!
Second jetbike squad ground my Flyrant – it takes 1 wound from shooting and 1 more wound for being grounded.
One walker squad is enough to kill my Flyrant with Doom and Misfortune on.
Two walker squads target 10 gants, but I go to ground and 2 survive! Firewarriors and devilfish kill about 8 of my devilgants from the 20-man brood.

Assault. I go for +1S with Ymgarls and as a result kill 1 biker and do 1 more wound to the Farseer (1 left)!



Turn 3. Tyranids
I Endurance my Warlord, Warlord try to Endurance my Ymgarls but perils (I Feel No Perils though!)
I spawn 8 and 9 gants (no doubles!!!) who rush into combat!
Warlord Swoops out of the Farseer’s casting range and target his jetbikes.
12 gants move to shoot at firewarriors, followed by second tervigon.

Shooting. I kill all but 2 firewarriors, who pass moral. I kill 2 jetbikes with my warlord, the last one pass moral. Second terv run for the 4-point objective, to score it later.
Two remaining gants from a 10-man squad stand up becoming fearless and gun down both drones!

Assault. I charge 17 spawned gants into combat and bring a lot of Furious poisoned Attacks, while Ymgarls go +1A and add a little more pain but… warlocks pass all the saves!

Turn 3. Eldar+Tau
I Deny The Witch twice on the attempts to Doom and Misfortune my Tervigon, but Fortune and Prescience is ok.
Tau commander stays in reserve.
Firewarriors jump into the transport.
End of move…



It usually happens in the very first game of the tourney. It happened twice with me. This time it happens in the third time: the judge stated that we are running out of time and there will be no fourth turn ever in this game! It means automatic loss on primary mission for me, cause I have no scoring units on objectives!

Shooting. Single jetbike boosts toward a 4-point objective and claim it. Warwalkers shoot at my gants from a 20-strong unit and kill all but four.



Assault. In assault I loose 1 Ymgarl and do nothing in return.



The game ends. I control no objectives, Eldars control 4-point objective with a jetbike. I win secondary with both First Blood and Linebreaker. We calculate losses and found it to be a draw, so the resulting score is 9-11 in favor of Eldar+Tau!

As a side note and as an idea for organizers: make first round 30-minutes longer than others, cause it usually start later then planned due to minis unpacking and a lot of chatting in the first game.

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