Yeeman goes to the Bugeater GT!

I will write up the lists of my opponents and give a brief rundown of the games. I will preface this by saying I think the Bugeater GT is the best tournament I have been to and I have been the last 3 years. It is a fundraising event for the TO's Debate Team and has awesome terrain, prize support, players, and rules.

So lets get to the games!

Here is the link to the list I brought to the GT: http://www.thedarkcity.net/t12312-1850pt-tournament-list?nid=20#138852

Game 1 vs Alex Hunt's Eldar

Alex's List

Farseer
x10 Guardians, Warlock
x10 Guardians, Warlock
x10 Guardians, Wave Serpent, Bright Lance
x5 D-Scythe Wraithguard, Wave Serpent, Lance
x5 D-Scythe Wraithguard, Wave Serpent, Lance
Crimson Hunter, Exarch, Lances
Fire Prism
Wraithknight

So off the bat I pull New Eldar and the Wraithknight! I believe I was theo nly player who had Eldar in his list and did not bring a Wraithknight! There were lots of them!

So this game started off bad for me Turn 1 when the Wraithknight, without Invisibility was assaulted by both Grotesque squads and got stomped out. However, Turn 2 the Spider, Flier, Bikes, and Hawks all came in and killed almost everything. He manages to kill my Warlord Turn 3 and concedes as all he had left was a wounded Wraithknight and a handful of Guardians.

Great opponent and would finish very high with his list! I win 18-1 (18= full points)

Game 2 vs. Clint Beaver's Legion of the Damned, Clan Rak

I am not 100% on the composition of Clint's List but it was something like:

x10 Legion, Melta, MultiMelta, Combi Melta, FnP wargear
x7 Legion, Melta, Multimelta
x7 Legion, Melta, Multimelta
x6 Legion, Melta, Multimelta
x6 Legion, Melta, Multimelta

Chapter Master, Gorgon's Chain, Bike, 2 other Relics
x10 Scouts, Snipers, Missile
x10 Scouts, Snipers, Missile
Ironclad Dread, Drop Pod

Aegis Line, Comms Relay

Clint had first turn and was hoping for a favoring scatter with his dread but it was left out of position and does nothing as does the Orbital Bombardment.

My first turn I position everything to assault and ready for his drops. I kill the Dread and pod Turn 1.

He comes in turn 2 with everything and fails to do anything other than killing a Grotesque Raider. He then assaults the contents with the Chapter Master who perishes under weight of attacks and ID of the Grots.

I kill all but 8 Scouts in my turn 2 and he concedes. I win 18-0

Clint was a great opponent who wore a robe all weekend and has an awesome Chuck Norris converted Chapter Master!

Game 3 vs. Troy's Necrons

Troy ran 3 Formations of Necrons. I am not 100% about what is in each formation, so if I get it wrong I apologize.

Reclamation League
Anrakir the Traveler
x5 Sniper guys (forgot their names)
x5 Lychguard, Swords and Shields
x10 Warriors
x10 Warriors
x10 Immortals, Gauss
x6 Jetbikes, 3+ Armor, Str.6 Blasts, Ignores Cover
x6 Jetbikes, 3+ Armor, Str.6 Blasts, Ignores Cover

Annihilation Nexus
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Doomsday Ark

Royal Court
Lord, Res Orb, Veil of Darkness
Obryon
Orikan the Diviner

I have fought the new Necrons before, but they never seemed to have as much stuff as Troy did so I was a little surprised. Knowing his guys all have 3+/4+ Armor saves and a 4+ rerolling 1's Reanimation, I knew it would be a drag out fight.

I have first turn ad deploy centrally and keep the Spiders and flier in Reserve. I get the Infiltrate Warlord Trait and Infiltrate the Wraithguard and the Fire Dragons.

Troy deploys all of the characters but the regular Lord with the Lychguard. The Lord goes with the Immortals. He then deploys his 3 vehicles in a corner by the Lychguard.

My first turn sees me infiltrate the Dragons and Wraithguard in the corner by his vehicles. I blow up both Barges and the rest of my shooting kills 4 bikes from one squads and a few warriors as the Grotesques shoot up the left side.

His shooting is very ineffective as he kills 4 of the 6 dragons and does a couple Hullpoints off of the Grotesque Raiders.

I will continue to roll Troy's units with the Grotesques and my superior shooting and he will kill those units I am willing to let him kill. By the 5th turn, Troy has only 3 Lychguard and all 3 characters with them left. But it is proving very difficult to get through their 3+/3++ rerolling armor saves of 1's and a 4+ Reanimation Protocols rerolling 1's.

I get super lazy as the game goes to 6 and allow Troy to use Obryon's special Veil to contest hold an objective to tie Secondaries and giving me a 14-4 win. Had he not I would have gotten a 17-2 win. But I did not surround my objective. Kudos to Troy for taking advantage of my blunder.

*Side Note* I know a lot of people on the forum have been having troubles with the Necrons and do not know how to defeat them. I have not lost to the new Crons and find them very underwhelming offensively. They last a long time and you will be playing a 5-7 turn game almost everytime.

When I have fought them I found that eliminating their mobility (Bikes, Wraiths, Scarabs) first is key. Allow them to walk to you and commit to the direction they are going early on. Pour everything into those fast units and use our superior CC units (Grotesques, Wracks, our characters) to hold up and win in CC. Then focus fire one squad at a time, preferably those squads with no characters or buffs. When they get down to 2-3 squads of Warriors, Immortals, Lychguard or whatever, they cannot win the game.

Our mobility also is key. Giving up a turn of fire to grab a Maelstorm point or position us on the side of board to disallow the Necron to fire is very good. They are very slow and will die... eventually. It can be very frustrating fighting them because it seems nothing ever dies, but keep your head up and mind clear and don't get down on yourself because you will make mistakes and it doesn't take much to fold our army over.

*End rant!*

Game 4 vs. Cory Spaith's White Scar Bikers!

Cory was here last year and is very good. He brought the best counter to me in the mission in White Scar Bikers because we were playing the Relic! So going first would be huge! Here is his list:

Khan
x5 Bikes, Vet Sarge w/ Melta Bombs, x2 Melta
x5 Bikes, Vet Sarge w/ Melta Bombs, x2 Melta
x5 Bikes, Vet Sarge w/ Melta Bombs, x2 Grav
x5 Bikes, Vet Sarge w/ Melta Bombs, x2 Grav
x5 Bikes, Vet Sarge w/ Melta Bombs, x2 Grav
Storm Talon, Skyhammer missiles, Assault Cannon
Storm Talon, Skyhammer missiles, Assault Cannon
x3 Grav Centurions, Land Raider Redeemer
Thunderfire Cannon
Thunderfire Cannon

Luckily for me I grab first turn and deploy all but the bikes, Spiders, Fighter, and Wraithguard. Cory tries as best he can to deploy out of LOS but my mobility will be too great. He does Outflank 1 squad of bikes and holds both Talons in Reserve. He elects not to Seize.

My first turn I grab the Relic with my Warlord and force 1 squad of bikes to flee off of the board and kill 3 from another squad. Cory immobilizes the Serpent and a Venom with the Centurions. Other shooting is ineffective. He then assaults with 10 bikes +Khan on the Relic Grotesques and Warlord. He does 2 Wounds and I kill 4 but he holds.

My turn 2 all hell breaks loose. Wraithguard kill Landraider. 1 Venom scores 8 wounds and kills a TFC and Techmarine. I finish off the 2 man squad with Swooping Hawks. Spiders kill the other TFC. Combined firepower from the other 2 Venoms, Serpent, and Bikes kill the Centurions. The other Grotesque squad has a 4 inch charge w/ Fleet (yay Grotesquerie) into Khan and the other bikes.

At this point Cory concedes with having both Talons, 5 bikes, and more than likely nothing else on the board.

I get 18-0 victory!

This game could have went very badly for me had I not had first turn. But I feel like Cory lost in deployment as he was out of position to do much fire in the first turn to me because he hid so much. Had I went second I feel I would have been able to beat back his bikes because he would have Scouted forwards to grab the bike and allowed me to assault with the Grotesques. And I could have survived his shooting enough I believe.

So after Day 1 I have 68/72 battle points and am in 2nd place behind someone with a perfect score!

Day 2 starts and I am paired against Trent Northington's Eldar.

His list:

Farseer, Bike, Stone
Farseer, Bike
Farseer, Bike
Warlock, Bike
x5 Scatter Bikes
x3 Scatter Bikes, Warlock, Bike
x3 Scatter Bikes
x3 Scatter Bikes
x3 Scatter Bikes
x3 Scatter Bikes
x3 Scatter Bikes
x3 Scatter Bikes
x3 Scatter Bikes
Vyper w/ x2 Cannons
Wraithknight
Wraithknight

Inquistor w/ 3 Servo Skulls

Trent ran the Windrider Host Formation and a CAD of Eldar to grab 2 Wraithknights. I know going in I can just get shot off of the board and have little to no way to stop it outside of null deploying. Luckily for me, I have first turn!

So in deployment I centrally locate everything and hold the Spiders, Wriathguard, Bikes, and flier in Reserve. Trent deploys everything... THEN takes all of his bikes off and leaves just the Wraithknights. He realizes his mistake and knows that would not have been good for him. He reserves everything else.

So my first turn I throw 3 woundso n 1 Knight but nothing else. He manages to D out my Serpent.

Turn 2 I get all of my Reserves save the flier in and I D out the full Wraithknight and he makes 4 Ruin saves and 6 saves from the Spiders! From the other poison and things I take 2 other wounds off leaving him with 1! Not good..

He gets majority of his bikes and things in. He systematically begins killing many things. When the dust clears... 2 Venoms, the Spiders, both Grotesque Raiders, and the Dragons are all gone. His Wraithknight assaults the Grotesques and kills them all on the charge.

WOW.. Nasty turn. But I will recover. My Fighter comes in and eliminates his Farseer and 5 bikes with blasts. I kill 6 bikes and cause 1 squad to flee off of the board. His Wraithknight will survive 5 more D-Cannon shot from my Wraithguard as I get 2 hits and roll double 1's on the result... He was in the open!

However he still has lots of bikes left. His turn 3 and his Wraithknight shoots and blows the last Venom and at the Grotesques. He kills them on the charge.

Turn 4 needs to be clutch for me and I do as much as I can. I kill 1 or 2 bikes from 5 different squads to cause morale. He proceeds to... Make. Every. Single. Morale. Check. I know I lose now. By turn 5 I have nothing but a raider and my Hawks. I grab Linebreaker but lose 18-1.

I know it was not a good matchup but I felt I had a shot had he either deployed all of those bikes so I could kill 1 or 2 out of each squad or eliminate entire squads of bikes and wait for the return fire. Alas, he did not make that mistake nor did he fail any of those 5 morale checks at the end. I am mad I lost, but I could not have played any better nor done any better, sometimes it is just meant to be.

So game 5 and I am paired against Ben Anderson's Eldar.

Well, if you thought Trent had a lot of Bikes, Ben had more!

Ben's List

Farseer
Farseer
x6 Scatter Bikes
x6 Scatter Bikes
x6 Scatter Bikes
x6 Scatter Bikes
x5 Scatter Bikes
x5 Scatter Bikes
x5 Wraithguard, Serpent
x4 Dark Reapers, Exarch
Wraithknight

Aegis Line, Lascannon

Wow, that's a lot of bikes! However, I would go first with Nightfighting! My opponent would also make the mistake my last opponent did not... he deployed everything in the corner!

I take first turn and have the Infiltrate Warlord trait and use the Wraithguard to shoot his Wraithknight but only grab 3 wounds off of him. (3 hits, 3D3 wounds all 2's rolled) I manage to kill the Reapers and both Farseers with Venoms and Serpents.

His first turn he manages to kill both Grot Raiders and the Wriathguard + Raider.

My turn 2 sees all of my Reserves come in. I eliminate the Knight with Spiders, and kill about 10 bikes with my flier. I kill the Serpent and 10 Bikes with a Multi-charge from the Autarch and Grotesque squad. I then kill off random bikes and cause 1 to flee off of the board and 2 others to stay on but very damaged. His Wraithguard remain unscathed.

At this point my opponent concedes (after killing my Warlord with his Wraithguard) and realizes he should have reserved his army. I win 18-1.

Overall I finish 4th out 40! My 5th round opponent finishes 3rd. 1st was a player with Eldar, Eldar, Dark Eldar. 2nd was a Space Marine/ Astra Militarum/ Tyranid War Veterans/ Cypher player.

I cannot be mad with how I played or how the army performed. It was great!

Any questions, comments, or criticisms let me know! I had a great time and encourage anyone who can to travel to the Bugeater GT in Omaha, NE next year!

Thanks for sharing I enjoyed reading it.

Appreciate it!

Looks like you had your hands full with tons of bikes at this event.

You did very well at this event. The amount of scatterbikes and wraithknights is crazy. Actually a little disappointed that people are taking basically just bikes and wraithknights. I was hoping people would be more creative with Eldar instead of just going the easy route. Eldar are great without all that stuff as you well proved at this tournament. I think this goes to show how skilled you are as a gamer and that you don't conform to boring net lists.

I really appreciate your posts and army lists on here as you seem to enjoy the same kind of play style that I do. and that you may have a deeper understanding of the game than most. Which definitely gives you an edge.

Thanks man! I am headed to Wargamescon in Austin, TX this coming weekend. I will post my list in the Army list section, check it out for me and let me know what you think!

Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed reading and congrats for doing so well!

You seem to be pretty confident when it come to reserves.
I'd like to ask, when do you reserve your units, what units do you reserve and why?

Apart from null-deploying when i'm going to get shot up turn 1 I don't know much.

My Reserves are very reliable with the Autarch.

I usually Reserve those units I need to kill something like Spiders, Wraithguard, and bikes.  What I mean is, for the Wraithguard and Spiders I generally will Reserve them if fighting a Wraithknight because I need those units to kill it.  If I leave them on the table, they are susceptible to being shot and generally do not get a first turn attack.  Plus, because both units can Deepstrike I can go where I am needed.  The bikes I will generally Reserve if going second because people will target them and cause LD checks on them, by Reserving I can come in and protect them.

Nightfighting really helps us with Jink and our skimmers.  People usually shoot at the Grotesques because they do not want them advancing forward. I will Jink everytime someone shoots their Raider because it is only a delivery platform and not worth the risk of not Jinking.

Let me know if you have other questions, I would be happy to help.

That makes sense, thanks!

I've noticed you sometimes reserve your bikes even when you get 1st turn. I thought with their range and firepower you might want them on to contribute to you first shooting phase?

Sometimes people do not deploy their armies or they do not have good targets initially so Reserving them is the best bet. In the 4th game, I Reserved them so I could have my choice of targets when he moved his first turn.

I would rather give up a turn of shooting for them to live and kill a unit of my choice instead of my opponents. I typically try dictating the ace of the game and force my opponent to deal with certain units therefore freeing up other units to grab objectives and maelstorms.

I'm genuinely surprised by the lack of Seer Councils. Were thry not represented?

Zero Seer Councils at the event. Lots of Farseers and Wraithknights however! I think the Seer Council lost a lot without being able to summon Daemons and their offensive ability is lackluster and with no way of getting out of combat outside of Baharroth now really hampered them.

I was glad that I didn't buy/convert a seer council like I planned on a few months ago. I did some stand in model play testing with summing. It was really fun, but only for me. And that makes it no fun.