Round two of Saturday's RTT, and I'm drawn against the GK player, with a smattering of IG allies. This guy is one of the better players I've seen, and beat me in our first game two weeks ago in the last round of an RTT. Although a smaller game, we're both running similar lists to last time. Here's his:
Coteaz
10 Purifiers with 4 Psycannons (5 in a Psyback)
5 man Strike Squad (in reserves)
3 melta henchmen in a chimera
3 plasma henchmen in a chimera
2 Psyflenaughts
Dreadknight with Doomfists and Heavy Incinerator
Primaris Psyker
10 Plasmavets in a Chimera
Manticore
10 Plasmavets in a Vendetta (with Primaris)
The Mission: 5 Objectives, we each have one that is in the center of our Deployment Zone, but 12" up. Deployment is Dawn of War (the old Pitched Battle) The objectives end up being placed in a "C" shape. We each have two that are along the front of our deployment zone (12" from the edge) opposite eachother, and then there is one that is in the middle of the board but to my left, and to the left of the other Objectives. Secondary are Linebreaker and First Blood.
The Board: In the middle of the C of objectives is a large ruin, other than that there is little terrain scattered around. There is NO LoS blocking terrain sadly, but I'll live.
Warlord Traits: His is useless, mine is Stealth for Ruins. There's only one, but it may be useful!
Psychic Powers: Coteaz has a heavy Flamer from Pyro and the Divination that re rolls to hit. He's attached to the 5 Purifiers with 4 Psycannons. Yay. His Primaris gets Psychic Shriek from Telepathy.
Tyrant: Endurance, Smite
Flyrant: Enfeeble, Warp Speed
Tervigon 1: Endurance, Iron Arm, Life Leech
Tervigon 2: Endurance, Smite, Warp Speed
Pre Game thoughts: Well Objectives is a LOT better for me than Kill Points was in our last game, so hopefully I can pull this out. He's still a really good player though, with a lot of shooting. My plan is to move my army up as a whole into the large ruin, while Hgaunts sweep up the sides, and I'll try to use the Stealth Ruins for a 3+ cover. Late Game I'll go spawn onto his objectives for contesting, while my gaunt squads hide in the back on my two. I have more shooting with two Dakka Tyrants than last time, hopefully with my Hive Guard I can cull his Vehicle horde enough to beat him in attrition.
Deployment GK: His psyflenaughts and Manticore are in the far back, while everything else is deploying upwards. His psyback is in the center, flanked by the GK chimeras on each side. The meltahenchmen stay out of their chimera, and are behind the psyback. The Psycannon purifiers are ready to get in the Chimera. On the far left are the plasma vets. Still everything is very central, as are the objectives.
Tyranid Deployment: I deploy to meet him. My 4 MCs are grouped around the Venomthropes, (blocking LoS) with Hive Guard next to them, in Venomthrope Range. I deploy them as far forward as I can. I know they'll get shot, but they have cover and if I leave them back they'll still get shot by his higher range weapons, and I won't be able to retaliate. Hormagaunts are on each flank, (in venom range thanks to a small string) and my 2 gant squads are on the two objectives in my DZ.
GK turn 1: The Purifiers embark and move up 6". No other moving, as he fires away. The Manticore wounds a Tervi, the Tyrant Guard and kills a Venomthrope. Other shooting, after some spectacularly bad saves, whipes out both Hive Guard Broods! Yikes!
Tyranids turn 1: Nothing much to do, besides charge! Everything advances and runs, the Flyrant gets up and Immobilises the Plasmavet Chimera. Other shooting glances the psyback twice thanks to the Dakkatyrant.
GK turn 2: Again, he opens fire. Now he's concentrating on the Flyrant (who has FnP) and downs him first shot, but otherwise he manages to leave him alive and with one wound remaining! The Dreadknight flames some Hormagaunts, but will be in charge range. The Strike Squad comes in and does nothing.
Tyranid turn 2: The Flyrant glides up, shoots the Chimera and assaults the Plasmavets. However, moving through Terrain he strikes last, and a random veteran rolls a 6 to wound. I fail my save in a very anti-climatic fashion. The Hormagaunts on my left advance and hit the Dreadknight. He passes a lot of saves and kills 4 between overwatch and his swings. The DakkaTyrant advances right up through the ruins, as do the two Tervigons and the Venomthrope. Shooting there is ineffective. Hormagaunts on the right continue there charge at the Purifiers in the Chimera, but are out of range to do anything for a bit.
GK turn 3: His shooting whipes the Tyrant Guard off and after everything in his army shoots, he finally finishes off the walking Tyrant. Even his two 3 man henchmen squads step up to take their shots. As I pull him off, he asks me what the Red counter is where my Tyrant was. It was my Feel no Pain marker! D'oh! At this point I roll my Fnp for the last wound he'd taken, as we hadn't moved onto anything else yet, and it comes up a 5. Although I'd taken more wounds than I should have, I survive to fight on!
Tyranids turn 3: I spawn 13 gants out of my left Tervigon, no doubles, and they shoot and assault the Plasmavets, whiping them out. The Tervigon itself uses her Stinger Salvo to down the three plasma henchmen, and the other Tervigon kills the 3 meltahenchmen. My DakkaTyrant shoots the Strike Squad, and kills 3. He prepares to assault, only for them to fall back!
At this point, the only scoring units my opponent has left on the board are 2 fleeing strike squad members, but there are 10 meltavets in reserve.
GK turn 4: His Vendetta comes in automatically, and blasts the DakkaTyrant. I pass all three cover saves! Sadly, he doesn't survive the attentions of 16 psycannon shots... His other shooting mulches the 13 termagants Id spawned, 5 survive and fall back, after he targets and murders my wounded Tervigon, who had failed her Endurance check and was awkwardly lacking in FnP.
Tyranid turn 4: The Hormagaunts and my last Tervigon assault and kill the Purifiers chimera. I was just short of blocking off the rear hatch, but he managed to place a model 1" away and touching the hatch, so they all got out. The tervigon gets up to a mighty Toughness 9! The other gants rally and move up, shooting his two strike marines. One dies, and the other falls off the table! His last scoring unit is now the vets in the Vendetta. His dreadknight finally kills the last Hormagaunts, and is unwounded despite the massive amount of Poisoned attacks I had thrown at him.
GK turn 5: His vendetta goes to hover and drops the vets on the top right objective of the "C", they rapid fire into the hormagaunts and kill a few, but not enough. Shooting at the T9 Tervigon is highly, highly ineffective considering how much fire I took, I believe I have 2 wounds left? Other shooting, one of my two gant squads on my objectives falls back, the other holds at two models.
Tyranid turn 5: This could be the last game turn, I currently have a Tervigon, Venomthrope, and some Hormagaunts, plus two depleted gaunt squads in the back. My gants fail to rally and drop off the board, my Hormagaunts kill the Veterans, his last scoring unit. The Tervigon spawns 13 gants, who move and run to claim an objective. I only get T7 for Iron Arm sadly. The Tervi assaults and kills the Psyback. The Venom assaults the dreadknight but dies in a failed attempt to hold it up.
As it stands, Im holding three objectives uncontested. Both of his, and one of mine. If it ends, I have the game.
It doesnt. With 10 minutes left he insists on one more turn, I agree.
GK turn 6: With no scoring units left, he has to table me to win. First, one dreadnaught blows up the two gants on my objective. Next, the dreadknight flames the gants on his objectives and kills 6. His other dread and a chimera kill the Tervigon, whos death kills a few more gants. His purifiers open up and kill the last gants. His other Purifiers kill all the Hormagaunts in LoS, but I have 7 left. At this point, he one unit left to try and kill my Hormagaunts. His Primaris Psyker casts Psychic Scream, which as it's worded, you roll 3d6 and subtract the targets leadership. We got into a bit of an arguement as I wanted to roll the 3d6, as I thought it was a Ld. check, thinking of the Doom of malant'tai. We check the wording and it turns out he gets to roll it. He passes his check, hits at Bs. 3 and rolls a 15 on three dice, causing 9 wounds with no cover saves allowed on the Ld. 6 Hormagaunts, completing a tabling.
Victory: Grey Knights! Final Score: 1-0. He had scored first blood, netting the only point earned in the game by either of us.
Thoughts on the game: Wow, that was close. Brutally, obscenely close. In his last turn, I was highly surpriesed that he carried out a tabling. I didnt think he had enough firepower left to kill 4 units. He got really lucky with killing the Hive Guard early, and rolling so well on the Primaris late, but I had some luck in the middle with saves on my Tyrant. The fact is, this game went down to every single dice roll on turn 6. It was actually really fun for a loss, and I thought I had him once I killed every scoring unit he had. I think I made a few mistakes, one was assaulting with the Venomthrope.If he had just run up, Id have had a unit left my turn 6 and then I could have gotten Linebreaker for a draw on my turn 6. Also, when The Tervigon assaulted the Psyback turn 5, I positioned him poorly and got him within 6" of the gants, who I had purposely moved out of that range. I could have easily assaulted the Psyback without needing to get that close to my own guys. Overall though, there's not really much different I would have done. I killed a crap load of models in his army, including all 5 troops choices, plus 4 of his transports I believe. The game never really seems to end when ou need it to!
Ironically, I still have the most points! Despit getting 0, I had a total of 12, while my GK opponent now had 11. While we were laughing, the TO walked by, and informed us that final placings would use W/L record first, points second. Bummer. Still, amusing!
Who was the TO ?
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