...even having one of the best "netlists" ever built won't save you from bad decisions and dice that just won't go your way.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present my helping of humble pie.
...which is entertaining in that I thought I was actually doing pretty go with the ol' Leafblower after coming in third in a local tournament a couple of weeks ago.
So I ask you: when was the last time you had a nice, steamin' slice of humble pie? Was it tasty? What did you learn?
I played a game with CrazyRedPraetorian and we made a video battle report from it. It's up on BoLS if you'd like to see proof that I actually do play the game. :)
...I finally got my first game in playing Ultramarines under the new codex.
Oh I can just hear the consternation now! "But Joe, damn it, your blog is entitled 'Ultramarine Blues'. You went nuts trying to track down the new marine codex before it was released! You love Ultras...how can it have taken you MONTHS to play under the new codex?"
Well, two things contributed to this, actually. First thing is real life. Between my job, moving to a new place, and getting everything done for my upcoming wedding (Jan. 31 is the big day!) I've had precious little time to get much playing in, especially with the painting/modeling projects I've been working on. The second thing that happened is the Macharian Crusade. I got a chance to play in a BoLS campaign and you bet your sweet ass I took it, even re-arranging my work and personal schedules to play one a week. It was an absolute blast playing in and I definitely don't regret the time and effort I had to put in arranging things to be able to participate in it. The problem with playing in it, though, is that I was playing Chaos Space Marines (as Ultramarines weren't involved in the Macharian Crusade). That meant pretty much since the release of the new marine codex, I've been focused on playing a different army.
...an army that I've grown to love, actually. So much so that I stripped the models (or am in the process of stripping them) to repaint them with my "Army of The Crowing" scheme. Making this happen has certainly taken up the majority of my available "hobby time" lately.
So, now you know the why. I'll get on with it, then. :)
I was going to post up a battle report but truth be known, the game itself was a little skewed. There was a local player that posted up a request to "learn not to suck" and I thought I'd try and give a little back to the community which has been so very good to me over the last year and a half, and help this person out.
We threw down a 1,500 point game, she playing Tau against my Boys in Blue. The final result was a solid victory for me, because I set up some last-turn objective-grabbing "traps" that would ensure I would be at least contesting 2 objectives and controlling 1 (there were 4 total).
During the game, I did a little light coaching the player on what to do, and why. This led to some things that made it harder on me -- such as losing my Land Raider on turn 2 to Hammerhead railgun fire. Keep in mind, though, that this wasn't supposed to be a "real" game so much as a learning experience, and I think in those terms it worked out well. I covered the concepts of prioritizing your targets, and why. Movement and "staying focused on the big picture" were the other two concepts I tried to cover (this is why I laid the last-turn objective-grab "traps"...even though I'd lost over half my army, I still won because I planned on controlling/contesting objectives, even though it meant some of my units didn't see any action once I got them into place).
Finally, I did want to mention that the only "new" unit I used were Vanguard. I took a squad of 8 of them with minimal kitting out (no jump packs, only a couple of power weapons), stuck my captain with them and loaded them up in the Land Raider. Y'know, the one that got destroyed in turn 2? Yeah, that one. So, when the smoke cleared, they were between a rock and a hard place...or, more truthfully: between a big unit of Fire Warriors, a 3-model Crisis Suit team, and nowhere productive for them to hide. It was at this point that I made a very hard decision: I needed to get the heat off a pair of tac squads and a unit of terminators that were busily making their way to objectives on the other side of the board. The Vanguard were on their way to assault the Fire Warriors, but I knew they wouldn't survive the remaining 14" or so on foot, not with so many Tau guns pointed at them. So, I sacrificed them. Ran 'em right out into the open and forced my opponent to deal with them or quickly lose her two FW units. It worked -- The unit drew the fire of eveything she had that could shoot at them. Did they die? Oh my yes, to the man. At the end of it, only the captain was still alive...but that was one less turn of shooting inflicted on my tac squads -- one of which, BTW, claimed an objective for me in the end. Sure, not the most noble and heroic of deaths for my Vannies, but ultimately they served the purpose I tasked them with (even though it wasn't what I had orginally planned on doing with them) and in doing so, helped contribute to the overall success of my army/strategy/plan. I call that success in any book.
Afterward, we had a detailed discussion on what was done right, what was done wrong, and how to do things differently. I thought it was important to do as the final part of my "coaching" gig. All in all, I think it went pretty well. I also pointed out some of the better players that happened to be in the store that night and advised her that she'd do well by herself to seek out their tuteledge. :)
Have you every done any coaching for another player to help them better understand the game? What did you do? Do you think you really helped? Would you do it again?
Mike and I got to play our Macharian Crusade game, and I thought I'd follow up with the results.
I decided to take a modified version of the list I originally posted, dropping the raptors, vindicator and daemon prince to allow me to add another unit of Chosen, a Chaos Lord and greater daemon plus giving all the terminators chain fists and Icon of Khorne. I also split up the Havoks into 2 units of 5, each with two las cannons. A few other twiddles and I wound up with two mounted CSM squads, two Chosen squads (one mounted, the other infiltrating/outflanking), one footslogging CSM squad, the terminators and Land Raider. Every squad was packing melta guns and power fists. I felt ready to rumble!
Basically, it went like this:
Mission and deployment: capture & control, pitched battle.
Mike won the roll, and elected for me to set up first.
We both placed our home objectives in the middle of the board, against the back edge.
I parked the Land Raider on top of my objective, and put the footsloggers right next to it (to embark into it during first turn movement), put the the Havoks in hard cover to the left and right of the LR (the best place I could find for them) and put the Rhinos on my left flank. The Chaos Lord joined the mounted Chosen unit in their Rhino. In reserve I kept the terminators (to deep strike) and one unit of Chosen (to outflank), while the greater daemon lurked in the warp, awaiting the summoning that would bring him forth to wreak destruction and death.
Mike deployed a wall of tanks on his board edge. His list was changed, too: he fielded one Exterminator, two Demolishers, and way too many Leman Russes. Three of them (or was it four?) were command tanks, and also had BS4.
Mike tried to seize the initiative, failed, and we began.
Turn one: Rhinos moved forward 12", the CSMs embarked into the LR, and the Havoks and LR fire las cannons. I have a love/hate relationship with my las cannons, be they loyalist or traitor: I love them, they hate me. I swear, I usually hit about every other roll with them, sometimes worse. And then when it comes for the all-important penetration roll, that single pip shows up for often than the five or six. It's my own little dice curse. This game it was no different -- the two Havok units might as well have been two units firing a twin-linked las cannon each. Out of the six (two of them twin-linked), I managed to pop one -- count them, one tank. Yay, go me.
Before I go any further, I'd like to confess that during deployment or turn one I usually say, "I like to make at least one huge tactical mistake early and go ahead and get that out of the way." It's meant to be funny, but more often than I'd like to admit, it's true.
So I'll man up and admit my huge, glaring tactical blunder that probably influenced the game's outcome. Ready for this? I forgot my Rhinos have smoke launchers. To be fair, I've been playing 4E loyalist marines exclusively for a year, and those Rhinos didn't come stock with smoke launchers. Plus, this army is the "acquired" one, the one I didn't model, and the Rhinos don't have smoke launchers on them. (Which is something else I'd like to comment on: they say WYSIWYG is for your opponent. I say it's mainly for me -- I prefer looking at my models and knowing what weapons/wargear they have without having to refer back to my army list.)
Mike moved his Demolishers up, repositioned a tank or two and then got crankin' with the battle cannons. My poor, not-protected-by-a-smoke-screen-like-they-should-have-been Rhinos. One of CSM carrying Rhinos got destroyed and suddenly the spiky boys were standing in the smoking hole where a transport used to be. They got to look around for a few seconds before more templates dropped and when the smoke cleared, the aspiring champ was the only survivor. The other CSM Rhino took it on the chin and was shaken, and the CL/Chosen Rhino lost its bolter. OK, it could have been a lot worse.
Turn two, termies and greater daemon decide now would be a good time to show up, but the Chosen couldn't break away from the Slaaneshi peep show (or whatever it was that was keeping them entertained) declined to enter the battle. This was exactly the opposite of what I preferred, but that's how it goes. I put the termies next to some hard cover and brought the GD in next to the CL/Chosen Rhino, thinking he'd need some cover to survive Mike's turn. My crack las cannon marksmen managed to shake a demolisher and the termies ran into cover.
Mike shuffled more tanks around and then started his template two-step. Casualties: the now-footsloggin' AC, a couple of Havok ablative wounds, the CL/Chosen Rhino (nuts!) and a couple of Chosen. Double nuts.
Turn three: The Chaos Lord, finding himself footsloggin' it with the boys decided that simply wouldn't do for a man of his stature and he ordered the CSMs in the remaining Rhino out so he and his attached Chosen could get in. The termies hiked through the covering terrain and fired their one combi-melta, hit, and rolled a smokin' three for penetration. Awesome! The las cannon specialists mid-field fired (I think) and maybe blew up a tank. Man, those guys just couldn't get their act together! They should be popping at least two tanks a turn! (ok, I know they shouldn't, but in my mind they should!).
Oh, almost forgot the outflanking Chosen. Whatever movie they were watching must have ended and they decided to show up. You know how cool outflanking is? Showing up on the short board edge and all? It's awe-some, right?
Right!
Well, when you get to show up on the short board edge you want, anyway. I guess someone back at spiky-boy barracks decided to prank it up and replaced the Chosen AC's battlefield map with a copy of Tentacle Weekly or something, and these clowns show up on the right side of the board. Did I mention that I really, really needed them on the left? No? Well guess what, I really needed them on the left side of the board -- you know, the side with all the tanks on it. Anyway, they lolligag onto the right side of the board, a good 16" or so from a target. Oh well, at least there was some decent cover between them on closest tanks, and they had to run to get into it.
I'll summarize the remainder of the game:
The GD lumbered forward, and had to pass through some difficult terrain on the charge. Monstrous creatures never have problems with that, do they? Mine did. Rolled a good two inches short. When he got there next turn, though, he committed a very unholy act on that tank.
When the termies finally got out of cover and into charge range, there were only three of them left. However, I split the assault against two tanks, two on a Leman Russ and one on the Exterminator -- neither of which had moved. I'll put it this way: Bigred was right. Khornate chain fist wavin' terminators are Leman Russ can-openers. Three termies, two tanks, one round. Result: two dead tanks. Chaos Lord and Chosen hosed another tank with melta and then got vapped by heavy bolter fire.
Demolisher fire exploded the Land Raider, but the CSMs survived. The outflanking Chosen finally made it through cover and popped a Demolisher. Mike had moved his lone remaining scoring command tank and parked it on his objective. At the bottom of turn five, we each held our home objectives, and my GD, terminators and outflanking Chosen had closed the distance to be in assault range on turn six.
I rolled the die for turn six.
I rolled a one.
Final result: tie.
Epilogue: My opponent for Week 4 is Jay, a.k.a. Bushido Red Panda, and guess what army he's playing in the Macharian Crusade?
Yep, you guessed it. Armored Company.
...and while I haven't seen his army, I've seen a picture or two. Unless I'm totally mistaken, he has a Destroyer Tank Hunter -- armed with a Laser Destroyer (72" range, S10 AP2, Heavy 1 Blast that does not scatter) -- in his list.
Good times! *facepalms*
...before I continue, a detail I left out from Turn Two: Jim moved his Wave Serpent near the center objective, and dumped out a squad of Storm Guardians. His Autarch also marched towards the middle, and the Fire Dragons began to spill out from behind the wall. This set the stage for the coming bloodbath.
Turn Three:
Behind the tower, I dropped out my melta squad and attempted to do a little rapid fire loving on the Striking Scorpions...but the melta missed, and the relatively low volume of fire took down maybe one, and I got mentally prepared to receive the charge. The assault marines bounced over to the war walkers, did some shooting and then assaulted. This created a quagmire that would keep both units tied up until the last turn. Opened up on the Warp Spiders, leaving three alive, they bounced around the termies and to take more shooting, break and flee. I pivoted the LRC, moved it through the terrain, and unloaded the Command Squad o' Doom. Shooting damaged the Wave Serpent and caused a wound on the Autarch. I was planning on charging into both the Autarch and the Storm Guardians, but wanted to even the odds a little, and had the CSoD take a round of shooting at the Autarch...and accidently killed him, leaving my squad sitting high and dry with no one to assault. Oops. Both the Storm Guardians and Fire Dragons took turns pumping flamer and fusion guns into the CSoD, and when the smoke cleared, the only survivor was the chaplain. He was promptly charged but made some dramatic saves and barely lived through the round with one wound remaining. The Striking Scorpions made quick work of my melta squad and dodged around to the door of the tower, but a quick rules check revealed they couldn't enter the building as my squad occupied it.
Turn Four:
Top of Turn Four, chappy dispatches a couple of foes before being dragged under. Termies jockeyed for LOS on the Striking Scorpions but couldn't get it and ran, hoping for a better position. The Fire Dragons got into magic melta range on my LRC and despite several hits, only managed to destroy the TLAC. The Fire Prism was up next, but missed. The second squad of war walkers laid down a serious torrent of fire on my middle LC squad, leaving one survivor.
Turn Five:
My assault squad finally dispatched the war walkers, but really didn't have an opportune target.Termies and Striking Scorpions clashed, casualties were taken on both sides, but there was no winner. At the end of the turn, things were pretty deadlocked, with my tower and wall still firmly under my control, and his tower and wall in the same shape. The LRC, still parked almost on top of the center objective prevented Jim from claiming it (amazing just how big a Land Raider is) and so we didn't even roll for Turn Six (at this point, it was getting late).
Final Outcome: A draw.
Next post: What did we learn?
What do you guys think? Do you have any suggestions for either of us? What would you have done differently?
Thanks to my friend Jim, I present part one of a photo-enriched battle report. Jim and I have been itching to play against each other for a while -- on our local forum, my post header is, "If holofields cost 1000 pts I'd stop complaining," -- and Jim has been wanting to give me something to complain about. :) Finally, we got a chance to square off! We met at Battleforge Games Thursday evening and got down to business.
He was trying out a new list, and I played the same one from BFG's last Hobby Tournament. We rolled the multi-objective mission with long table edge deployment. We wound up with a total of 3 objectives, which after placement was one in my castle, one in his, and one in the center of the board.
The pictures start with deployment and go through the end at the bottom of turn 5. Unfortunately, Jim didn't send me all the pictures that really starred his units, so this is going to be a little one-sided. I'll have to ask him for the rest of the Eldar-specific ones so you can see the whole thing. Anyway, on to it...
Deployment:
Basically, I set up the majority of my forces in the "castle": the LRC with the "Command Squad o' Doom" (Jim's name for it), my termies, one 5-man lascannon squad, the 4 missile launcher dev squad and the 2 HB 1 PC dev squad. The objective is actually in the corner behind the wall and the tower. What you can't see is the TLHB razorback behind the base of the tower. I knew Jim was either deep striking or outflanking pretty much everything, so I wanted both board edges covered. I put my libby on the other side of the board in the ruins, with the assault squad touching the ruins (to get that cover save!) and the remaining 5 man LC squad in the middle, hunkered down in cover and waiting for targets of opportunity.Jim's deployment was far simpler: one unit of pathfinders (rangers?) in cover, with sniper rifles. Everything else in reserves...
Turn One:
LRC and termies moved up on the objective. Both dev squads, LC squads fired on the pathfinders, with the libby tossing in a Fury of the Ancients at them (it was all I had to shoot at...). That left two of them, which fired at my HB/PC dev squad on top of the tower, rending one and wounding another, enough to cause a morale check, which they proceeded to fail, and fall back to the bottom of the tower. They wouldn't be useful again for 2 more turns.
Turn Two:
LRC and termies closed on the objective. Mass missile launcher fire took out the remaining pathfinders. The rest of the Eldar host arrived from reserves. Two squadrons of three war walkers arrived on my right flank. The first squad (proxied by Tau battlesuits, agreed upon before the game) fired everything at my libby, sending him to be with the Emperor. The other squadron opened up on my assault squad, killing two or three (in the picture, I'm placing dice for wound allocation). A unit of fire dragons took position behind the wall by his tower and a unit of (I think) dire avengers moved into the tower itself to protect his objective. I never saw them, as they remained in the tower the entire game. A wave serpent carrying a unit of storm guardians and a fire prism glided onto the battlefield from Jim's edge, and a squad of striking scorpions outflanked deep in my deployment zone, even with the tower. The warp spiders and their exarch suffered a deep strike mishap, and I got to place them in the difficult terrain of the woods previously occupied by the pathfinders. Some very unlucky 1's took out the exarch and a few warp spiders, who them bounced out, unfortunately in range of my termie's assault cannons and storm bolters...
Coming up next post: Part Two!
During this past weekend, I got a chance to play in my first 5E tournament, hosted by FLGS extraordinaire Battleforge Games here in Austin. BFG's "Hobby Tournaments" (which emphasize fun army lists as opposed to kill-em-all WAAC lists) are somewhat legendary -- this one had 28 players, and a free catered lunch (not bad for a free tournament, eh? Is it any wonder BFG has earned a large and loyal fan/customer base? It probably doesn't hurt that BFG is the venue-of-choice for the Bell of Lost Souls guys, too).
How'd I do? Well...1 loss, 2 draws. I wasn't in the top ten, but I consider this improvement, as in my first tournament, I lost every match, in my second, I had one loss and one tie (and a bye).
The picture is was taken by Jay, aka Bushido in the 41st Millennium during our match in round 2. If you'd like to read more about that match (and good match-by-match batreps by Bushido for the whole tournament including pictures from each), you should check out this act of bloggery he committed.
You may notice his gorgeous Eldar army in the photo. It looks fantastic, every unit has been lovingly given attention, and his vehicles are as beautiful and elegant as they are deadly. :) You'll also notice my Ultras are outnumbered. This was taken during the next-to-last turn. That loss I mentioned earlier? Yep, this was it.
You may be curious about the top five in this tournament, being is that it is one of the first 5E tournaments ever:
1. Eldar
2. Chaos Space Marines (Nurgle)
3. Imperial Guard
4. (tie) Black Templars
4. (tie) Tyranids
Hmm...looks like even with the new edition, some things have changed all that much. :) Although I should point out that most of the players in the top five consistently win tournaments using different armies (which lets you know they're good generals in any case).
There were a lot of marine armies in this tournament, which led Frank (aka Capt Tyranus on B&C) to comment that he thinks more people are picking marines up again due to the rumors about the upcoming codex, and it's supposed power. Interesting.
Does this mean we are entering into a Marines Ascendant era?
Which leads somewhat to this question: do you think the new marine codex will change the overall "power level" of the army?
Lastly, I'd like to say that having played 2 tournaments under 4E and now one under 5E, I greatly prefer the 5E ruleset. The games seem to have a more even ebb and flow, give and take...dare I say it: balance. I'm really looking forward to the bright times ahead in this hobby.
