So I was at the X-Legion Tournament in Landford Wiltshire over the weekend, if any of you haven’t been to one of these I can highly recommend them. They are always competitive, hard fought but friendly events.
This was 6 games at 1500 points over the 2 days.
My List
Baron and 15 Hellions inc Helliarch with Agoniser
Heamonculus, Liquifier gun
3 Wracks
3 Blasterborn in twin cannon venom (x3)
5 Warriors with Blaster in twin cannon venom
5 Warriors with Blaster in Raider with FF
Ravager with 3 DL and FF (x3)
So a pretty standard Baron/hellion/blasterborn/venom spam list. It has 21 darklight weapons on 8 platforms, surely enough at 1500 points or is it.
I decided not to take any pics during my games as I feel it throws me off track a bit but I did take pics of each table I played on. The terrain at this event is always good, apart from a lack of BLOS, the TO acknowledges this and it's on his to do list to get some bigger pieces made. The low level hills in all the pics do not give any cover saves to a skimmer.
Game 1:
We are playing Annihilation and Dawn of War, happily enough I have been drawn against another DE army.
It has,
2 Haemonculi, one with WWP, other has Huskblade
5 trueborn, 4 blasters twin venom
4 wracks, acothyst, scissorhand, twin venom
10 wyches, 2 hydragauntlets, Hek with power weapon (x2)
3 reavers, cluster caltrop (x2)
2 beastmaster, 10 Khymerae
3 Ravagers, 1 with dissies all with FF
Looks like it’s a CC oriented list and I am mainly running around in transports, so I fancy my chances.
Heres the table, nice piece of BLOS in the middle but not much more. The rock piles are too low and the spires really don't block unless you get both of them at exactly the right angle, which can be easily countered.
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I win the dice off, elect to go 2nd, my opponent full reserves and I do the same, I want to see that portal before I commit and it also means some of his intended units may have to footslog from the back of the board.
This is what happens. He also brings the trueborn on in one corner, gets them out the venom, which effectively limits his AT to 3 platforms one of which is dissies.
We have long discussions about shooting over area terrain and what counts as area terrain. I concede cover saves on one incident and he kills 3 hellions. It’s tried again with the centre piece of terrain and I refuse to budge, this time it’s for 5 hellions being denied a cover save from dissies. Now at this point my opponent starts talking louder and louder, I am being browbeaten into conceding this. Ha Ha not a chance, I wait until he finishes his thought process, call the TO over and win the call.
After this it’s nit-picking and stern face time for him, but without enough AT it’s going to be tough for him to win, and I can be crap when pushed to it. I notice that he stops rolling reserves for his reavers after T3, but I don’t remind him. If he had been reasonable about losing the call then I would have, but a poor attitude gets you nowhere with me. Any way I avoid feeding anything to the portal and just shoot anything that comes out, the baron and venoms mop up the rest.
I win 8-3 having lost my Haemonculus and 2 Ravagers having used them to occupy his ravagers.
Game 2
It’s Spearhead and Seize Ground, Hmm not too bad. I rock on up to the table and my heart sinks. It’s got no BLOS and it’s IG. I’m playing a solid guy in Richard Grint, who I’ve played against a few times before always good fun games.
Richards List
Company Command Squad, 4 plasma, chimera with heavy flamer
Psker Battle squad, 6 in total
Vets, 3 melta, Chimera with heavy flamer
Platoon command, 3 melta, Chimera with heavy flamer
Infantry, commissar, PW
Infantry
Vendetta 3 twin las (x3)
2 Hydra Flak (x3)
Oh crud this is going to hurt……. A lot.
I lose the roll it’s going to hurt even more.
Heres the table and army.
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I lose the roll it’s going to hurt even more.
Richard sets up in his corner, hydras at the rear, chimeras in front but not blocking too much, vendettas spread out. I decide to full reserve as if I place anything, if he targets it, it will die.
Turn 2: I get 2 ravagers, 2 trueborn units and the baron and his gang on. I get all my Darklight weapons in range and let rip. I don’t even roll on the damage table. A combination of poor rolling, smoke and fast moves ensures the game is effectively over.
Turn3: The pskers are mid table occupying some nice cover now. I lose 2 ravagers, 2 venoms and 3 trueborn. He psykers the baron, kills 6 and they flee.
I concede, I have 1 ravager, 1 raider, 1 TB venom and 1 warrior venom to come on. Even if the all come on and I manage to damage 1 vehicle with each unit I have left that would be 5 tanks. Considering what he has left it’s a pointless exercise.
The game is over so quick we decide to roll up another mission and have a friendly game. We roll Annihilation and Spearhead. This time I try setting up a screen but inevitably the result is another tanking. I can’t outrange the army and anything that gets close just gets melta and plasma’d to death anyway.
Still good times, Richards a cool guy and the games were fun. We both have a laugh about the serious mis-match that this was, these things happen, take it on the chin and move on.
Game 3
Ok it’s Pitched Battle and Capture and Control. Another table with no BLOS, who have we got.
It’s a very nicely painted Ultramarines army, which got 2nd for best painted army.
The list
Libby, null zone and gate
5 Terminators
6 stern guard
Ven dread in drop pod
Couple of Tac squads, HB Razorback and Rhino
Land Raider redeemer.
Here the army and a pic of my deployment and some of the table.
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I win the roll and take 1st turn. I set up my screen in 1 corner. The ultras set up pretty much opposite me with the land raider being used as a mobile bunker.
This time the darklight is turned on, I blow the land raider up with the first ravager to shoot. Also in the first turn I kill the terminators, a combat squad, some sternguard and wreck the rhino.
Turn 2 the dred drops in on my objective and kills a couple of wracks. I continue to press the advantage and take out the lascannon combat squad the rest of the sternguard and the Libby.
The game ends T4 as they concede. I have his objective, he has his dred left but I still have 3 ravagers ready to shoot it down.
Darran, my opponent took it well and we had a chat about what he could have done differently. I suggested that he should probably have put his objective as far away from mine as possible and castled up round it using cover. Possibly using Gate late on to contest mine as I would have had to commit forces to travel across the board to ry and take his.
Day 1 ends with me 2-1 and feeling pretty good. The IG game was a total mis-match that I could do nothing about so I’m happy with my results so far.
Day 2 comes round after a few beers the night before, with one of my mates whos place I am staying at. It's not so bright and clear, more sort of hazy and thumping. However a couple of donuts, coffee and paracetamol sort everything out and we are ready to rock.
Game 4
Mission is Spearhead and Capture and Control.
My opponent has a 19 model Grey Knight army
Grand Master
5 Paladins
5 Terminators (x2)
Psyfleman Dread
Dreadknight
Callidus assassin.
So I feel pretty confident about this, I don’t think there is enough bodies in this list to soak up my firepower.
Heres the table
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I win the roll and set up everything in my quarter pretty far back with the usual screen of hellions at the front. I have the 2 warrior squads and the wracks around my objective.
The GK’s set up with the dread in cover getting Los to my army, the GM and a terminator unit on his objective which like mine is stuck in the corner of our deployment zones.
Turn 1 I move my raider and ravagers 12” to wards the dread. Only the raider is close enough to shoot but it bounces. The venoms move and start ripping the terminators apart. The baron starts to flank on the other side from the ravagers.
He shoots his dread and immobilises and takes the weapon off the raider. The ravagers were all getting cover saves from the raider and each other and the raider was closest to him, but definitely a bad choice there. Everything alse is out of range but stays in cover.
Turn 2 I take both weapons off the dread and immobilise it. It’s a box now. The venoms continue to pepper the terminators and the trueborn in them jump out into nearby cover. He fails a few 2+ saves and the terminators are thinning down.
His 2nd Terminator unit arrives from flanking in my deployment zone, the callidus also pops up around there as well. As expected the termies wipe the unit they assault but they are now open to fire at. The callidus does a few wounds but not as much as I thought she would. The dreadknight arrives and tries to flame down a couple of venoms, I survive due to poor rolling by him. The pallidins he holds back due to some psychic power. His terminators stay in cover out of range for his shooting,
Turn 3
My trueborn start hammering away at the dreadknight and take a few wounds off it. His terminator on his base fall to sustained splinter fire. The Ravagers turn round and clear his terminators from my deployment zone, the baron turns back to deal with the callidus assassin. Everything that can shoots at her but she survives.
Pallidins turn up on his objective, dreadknight takes down a venom and the callidus does a bit more damage
Turn 4
The dreadknight falls to more blaster and splinter fire. The remaining venoms start working on the pallidins and the callidus goes down under a hail of shots from the baron and ravagers.
He concedes. I have my objective secure, he has no troops and unless the pallidins step out of cover he can’t shoot me due to range. If they do step out I’ll hammer them with Dark lances as well as splinter fire.
So I am now 3-1 and in 3rd place. The top 3 places are all Dark Eldar armies, hey go us.
Game 5
I am on Table 2 facing Liam Royle and his Deathwing list. I quite fancy my chances here until the mission is announced as Annhilation and Pitched Battle.
He only has 9 KP’s in his army, I have 17.
Liam has
Bellial
5 Terminators, Cyclone launcher, 2 claws, hammer (x4)
Bike squad, fist and melta guns, attack bike, multi melta
Landspeeder, cyclone and heavy bolter (x2)
Heres the table
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I win the roll and decide to go 2nd as I expect him to deepstrike everything bar the bikes which I expect to outflank.
Instead he puts down everything bar the bikes and speeders, bikes outflanking, speeders in reserve.
I should go full reserve now but brainfart and set up with a screen and use the large hill as cover. I then decide to try and steal the initiative, even at this point I could have taken the army back off and reserved before rolling as it must be obvious that I am doing the wrong thing. No I roll and my fate is sealed.
Turn 1
It’s decided that my hellion screen is not close enough together and his cyclones can see enough of my venoms and raider to ignore cover. He takes down my raider and a couple of venoms. I lose a trueborn squad to explosions and take a few other casualties to warriors. Another TB squad is pinned.
I advance the baron and hellions and move the rest of my army pretty much around the hill to get out of los and set up for a next turn torrent on the nearest units of terminators. Meanwhile the baron and his boys pump 32 splinter shots into a terminator unit, only kill 1. The Baron is committed now and in they charge. Now I had +1 WS from my drugs so everything is hitting on 3’s, I am going first and I have 5 attacks from the Baron, 4 from the helliarch and another 11 boys with 33 attacks. 42 attacks later they all bounce. I lose 5 hellions in return as the baron soaks up a wound from a claw and then from the hammer. I stay in combat on a 4.
Turn 2 The bikes turn up and so does 1 speeder. Both the bike squad and the attack bike flank onto the side with my ravagers hiding behind the hill and the speeder comes on to that side of the board from his table edge.
So down goes a couple of ravagers and another venom from those 3 units and the cyclones advance further up onto hills to get a view of my troops still hiding in craters and behind hills from the first turn. It doesn’t go well. The baron takes another beating from the terminators but holds again and hit and runs.
I hit the attack bike with the heami’s liquifier, do a wound. 3 trueborn fire at the bike squad, but don't finish it off which means the ravager has to finish them off. Remaining splinter fire has little effect on the 4 man terminator unit and 3 blaster shots bounce off. Baron and his rather small gang really should no better but in they pile again to no effect and this time they run, never to come back.
I concede here as I have to wipe Liam off the board and just don’t have any firepower left.
We talk about why I decided to go 2nd and when I explain my reasoning it seems sound enough if I had gone full reserve. Liam at this stage says he would have deployed the same even if I was going first. I have played several deathwing lists before and always faced the deepstrike option. So I should have full reserved even if to get 1st strike with even part of my army. Poor decision there.
I am now 3-1-1, so no chance of winning with another Dark Eldar army on 5 wins and he will be playing Liam in the last game, which we know will be Dawn of War and Sieze Ground.
Game 6
I am playing an Eldar flying circus.
Eldrad
Yriel
3 bikes (x2)
Fireprism (x2)
Firedragons
Scorpions
Dire Avengers
3 Wave Serpents
I’m on the same table as in game 4, here it is again.
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I decide to go 2nd and my opponent decides to come on in turn 1 with some units and reserves others. I full reserve. We have rolled for 4 objectives.
Turn 2 arrives after he has done some moving and casting.
I roll reserves and get 2 ravagers 3 trueborn units and the baron and hellions.
I have got 15 dark matter shots available on his transports as they are within 18” range and 3 venoms and the barons shots as well as attacks on anything that is forced out the transports. Here we go, 15 shots bounce, oh crap.
Turn 3
1 Ravager is immobilised but still got 3 lances, the other one loses a lance and crucially can’t shoot. 1 venom is blown up. Still not to bad.
I get most of my army on and begin shooting again. My can’t shoot ravager bolts for cover. I destroy the firedragon wave serpent, and immobilise the scorpions serpent. I wipe the dragons but Yriel survives 3 blasters to the face. I take a few shots at other targets and do some minor damage.
Turn 4
My can’t shoot ravager is blown up after it fails a cover save. Scorpions get out and pile into 2 warrior units, Yriel marches towards a couple of trueborn units. Scorpions end up tied up and yriel assaults one TB unit who lose 2 men but stay.
My wracks arrive and move up beside Yriel The baron decides to move to try and claim objectives on turn 5. Somehow Eldrad is standing on his own and gets dark lanced out of there. I take a couple of guns off of his skimmers. I decide to assault Yriel with my wracks hoping to maybe tie him up in combat till the next turn then blaster him down. My opponent tells me about the template eye of doom and wipes out the wracks, the last TB in assault with him and a warrior from another squad. At the minute he has 1 objective with troops inside a serpent, contests 1 with an immobile serpent and the other 2 are open.
Turn 5
He speeds his last jet bike onto an open objective. Yriel spears or whatever he does a venom nearby, one of his prisms tankshocks my raider but only takes the lance off it. It is now 2-0 in objectives to him with still the immobile wave serpent contesting the other.
I always consider that the game will go to T6 it’s a 66% chance.
I have a ravager, an immobilised ravager, a raider, the baron and his gang and a 3 man TB unit left. I also have some warriors somehow tying up scorpions, go figure.
I plan to kill Yriel with the trueborn, destroy the immobile serpent with my immobile ravager. That leaves the raider to flatout and contest the bikes objective which the trueborn are near, the 2 lance ravager can shoot the other serpent which has no guns left, with some troops in it. The Baron will sit on the objective which hopefully the ravager has removed, and his unit will also start to string out towards the objective held by his troops in the other wave serpent.
So the raider contests after a bit of arguing about whether it can pivot or not before moving fast. The 2 lance ravager moves to shoot the serpent but bounces. Not too bad.
The immobile ravager fires 3 lances at the immobile serpent, takes a weapon off , but it’s still got 1 and is still there. This means the baron has to assault the thing to get rid of it. The charge in and thankfully glance it enough to remove the last weapon and further immobilise it to death.
Its 1 each with 1 contested and 1 open.
Game ends, it’s a draw.
AFTERMATH
In the end I placed 10th out of 30 with 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses.
I'm pretty happy with that, 1 of the losses, against the IG hydra list was just one of those mis-matches that you get every now and then. I don't think there was anything I could have done to change the outcome of the game.
The other loss I am a bit dissapointed about. Poor decision making cost me any chance of that game. I would still elect to go 2nd against any army that is completely capable of deepstriking and outflanking, my problem was that when the army then deployed I should have gone full reserve and isolated part of his army for a strike. Always a risk full reserve, but it would have been the better option in this case.
Hope you enjoyed or could even make sense of that.
Subject: Kenny3760 goes to X-Legion 
Mon Aug 22 2011, 12:05
