Went along to Stirling Wargamers Rapid Fire tournament this weekend. This was 5 games at 1750 points over 2 days with a mix of standard and custom missions with a bit of a twist to the scoring in each of them. 34 players (I think) attended.
The event was well run, the tables in general had a good amount of terrain on them, good atmosphere and with pizza thrown in for lunch on both days it was happy times.
I took a slight variation on my Baron/Hellions list to try and get a bit more ranged AT in it. The list was:
Baron Sathonyx: HQ
Baron Sathonyx
Haemonculus: HQ
Haemonculus, Liquifier Gun
Kabalite Trueborn: Elite
3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters
Venom, Splinter Cannon
Kabalite Trueborn: Elite
3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters
Venom, Splinter Cannon
Kabalite Trueborn: Elite
3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters
Venom, Splinter Cannon
Hellions: Troops
16 Hellions
Wracks: Troops
3 Wracks
Raider, Dark Lance
Wyches: Troops
7 Wyches,
Inc Hekatrix, Agoniser
Raider, Dark Lance
Warriors: Troops
5 Warriors, 1 Blaster
Raider, Dark Lance
Beastmasters: Fast Attack
3 Beastmasters, 4 Razorwing Flocks, 5 Khymera
Ravager: Heavy Support
Ravager, 3 Dark Lances, Flickerfield
Ravager: Heavy Support
Ravager, 3 Dark Lances, Flickerfield
Razorwing Jetfighter: Heavy Support
Razorwing Jetfighter, 2 Dark Lances, Twin-linked Splinter Rifles, 4 Monoscythe Missiles, Flickerfield (10)
So I had a total of 21 lance and blaster weapons in there, that would surely be enough to deal with any army, or would it. Also just noticed here that I gave my Ravagers flickerfields, I never used them all weekend as normally I don’t have them, Doh!
Game 1
Annihilation, pitched battle. The twist here was in the way KP’s were worked out. HQ and heavy support gave up 3 each, troops 1 ea and fast attack and elites 2 each. This gives this list a total of 36 KP’s OUCH
I am playing a Space Marine list with Kantor, Command Squad, 2 Tactical squads in Rhinos, Venerable dred and 2 Land Raiders. 18 Kp’s by my reckoning. So the mission is clear for me, wipeout or lose.
Starts well enough for me by wrecking 1 land raider and immobilising the other. However Kantor and his squad are safely tucked up behind these. I take the plasma cannon off the dred but it takes until turn 3 before I’ve wrecked the other land raider. I am taking a few casualties here and there but I’m on target to clear the table so not to worried. I take down the rhino’s and a tactical squad and part of Kantors unit as we roll into turn 5.
At this point my opponent starts asking what we will do if we don’t complete both our turn 5’s will we roll back to turn 4. We have 20 minutes left and I assure him we will both get our turn 5 in and I intend to get turn 6 if needs be.
I fly through turn 5 and all he has left by the end of it is that one armed dred. With 5 minutes to go I am ready to go for turn 6 and roll the die for it. We get it but my opponent doesn’t think well both get to play. I explain I have 4 lance weapons left to fire at his dred and if it goes pop I win, if it doesn’t he has won anyway. I roll 4 lance shots and do nothing, 2 misses and 2 bounces so I lose.
All he had left was that dred. In VP it is 1550 to 890 to me but KP’s wrecks this army.
Game 2
5 Objectives, 1 of which is placed dead centre of the board, pitched battle. This time the objectives are scored as 100VP’s if in your half of the table, 200 for the centre and 300 in your opponents. I end up with 1 in my half and 3 in the enemys.
I am facing Orks. Biker Warboss, Big Mek, 9 Nob Bikers all individual, Kommandos with Snikrot, 2 Battle wagons with boys, unit of grots and perhaps another unit of boys. This is on a cityfight board with narrow roads between 6 large wrecked buidings. It allows very little space for my skimmers or his BW’s to move freely.
I win the roll again, thanks Baron. I start by immobilising 2 venoms on terrain right away. But at least they are pointing in the right direction. I target the bikers and his front BW first. Take down a few bikers due to blaster and lance fire and manage to immobilise a BW which blocks the one behind it, meaning it’ll have to take DT’ tests to get near me. Turn 1 I pretty much survive unscathed.
Turn 2 I continue to pound away at the bikers and take them down to 4 and the boss. I wreck the first BW and this allows the Baron and his gang wipe out the boys from it. He drives his 2nd BW straight at my lines, jumps out and pops a few shots at the Hellions.
His bikers break off from the boss to try and get over to assist where the baron is. The boss tries to assault a Ravager but it survives.
Turn 3 and the baron ploughs into the newly arrived boys, my beasts move to intercept the bikes and the boss goes down in a hail of lance fire. The beasts take 1 biker down and stay in combat. The Baron hits the Boys unit but doesn’t break it to stay in combat.
His Kommandos come in and try to smash down a Ravager and the wych raider but don’t scratch them, the beast/biker scrap continues with the flocks taking a toll on the bikers. The Baron holds in combat, then hit and runs to an objective in the ork half of the table.
Turn 4. The remaining boys are gunned down ruthlessly, The bikers are beaten by the beasts and the kommandos get liquefied, lanced and splintered off the table. We call it there as all he has left are the grots sitting on 1 objective in his half. I hold 1 in mine, 1 in his and the centre. All that can change is I wipe him out and claim more objectives but the game is won anyway.
So 1 win and 1 lose so far, on to game 3.
Game 3, Cleanse and burn, spearhead. Basically table quarters. You get 50 vp for your quarter, 150 for neutral and 300 for your opponents. You need a scoring unit in the quarter with no enemy units in it.
We have Space wolves this time. Rune priest, 3 wolf guard, 3 grey hunters 2 in rhinos, 2 thunderwolve cavalry, 2 auto-cannon dreds, 2 long fang units with 4 missiles and finally a land raider.
This table has no BLOS terrain on it but a few trenches and bunkers scattered about. I win first turn, thanks Baron, and set up for the alpha strike. He sets up and steals the initiative, oh Bollocks this could hurt. He immobilises and takes the lance off the Wyches raider, immobilises a ravager and I take some casualties in the beast unit, not to bad.
I strike back and take 1 long fang unit down to 1 missile with splinter fire. I target the dreds with lances and blasters but do nothing and finally I line up the razorwing missiles on the 2nd long fang unit. I deliberate on how many to fire, but as I want them gone I unload all 4. 13 hits, as they were strung out in a line, but surely that’s enough. Nope, only 1 dies.
Turn 2 and my beasts take a few more hits, I get another ravager immobilised and lose a couple of lances off them. It’s not too bad but I now have a range issue with both ravagers grounded, the trueborn are going to have to get in there. I drop my 3 trueborn units off in cover in front of his army and move the wracks raider to concentrate fire on his dreds and land raider, with help from the ravagers. I move the razorwing and warriors back into my corner to save for quarter grabbing late on. The Hellions are moving into a neutral quarter in some cover to hold that, there are no infantry on the ground yet, and the wracks are holding my quarter.
My plan here is to hold my quarter, contest the neutrals with beasts, hellions, Wyches whatever and then throw everything else into his late on and contest it.
So I fire 14 darklight shots into his armour and I stun a dred, that’s it.
Turn 3 and his cavalry arrive with his last unit of grey hunters which he had reserved. The Cavalry make for the middle to charge some trueborn, but his grey hunters stay in the rhinos as he fears the hellions. I lose a couple of venoms this turn and a couple of trueborn to fire. His cavalry finish off a unit of trueborn.
I move my last weaponless venom into a space to block his landraider in. It now has to go over difficult terrain to reach my quarter. Again my shooting is totally ineffective other then finishing his cavalry. The beasts are still trudging forward. In 3 run moves they have managed 5 inches.
Turn 4 and he immobilises his land raider on the terrain, out jump the grey hunters from the landraider. The unit in the rhino near the hellions stay in and pop smoke. The other unit moves towards the hellions quarter but don’t get out. My beasts finally get hammered off the table and I now have nothing in that neutral quarter. My trueborn on foot, in cover, survive some shooting and I lose some more lances on the ravagers.
Now the Wyches run for a crater in the neutral quarter as do the warriors. I ineffectively let loose some darklight which once again does nothing.
Turn 5. Again his grey hunters don’t get out due to the barons gang. He shoots at the Wyches but they stay well hidden in the crater and take no casualties. The warriors lose a few and the trueborn get taken down to 1 guy, he passes Ld and is out of assault range.
Ok, I always reckon on 6 turns, so I need to be in a position to win this if it finishes on 5 but also have a back up for turn 6. At this point he holds his quarter and I hold mine. Both neutrals are contested. The baron and the hellions are in cover and with stealth and FnP they are not going to be shifted. The wracks hold mine in cover, out of sight so we are good there. The Wyches contest the other neutral, in cover so good contesting with a single long fang, a dred and the land raider grey hunters. I have a single trueborn, 3 warriors, a raider and a razorwing that I can throw at his quarter if need be.
So I move the trueborn just into his quarter to contest, the raider moves up to be able to jump in there next turn if required and so does the razorwing. I shoot what I can but again nothing happens. Lets see if theres another turn. I roll and it comes up 1, game ends. At this point my opponent thinks that it’s a draw. He reckons he holds his quarter but I say it’s contested due to the trueborn. It’s close but I know its in. We measure and its in by a couple of inches. So I win be contesting 3 and holding my own.
The most telling stat here is his armour. He had 2 dreds, 2 rhinos and a land raider, which I shot at as much as I could for 5 turns. I did nothing but stun and shake a couple of things all game, the only damage that he suffered was when he immobilised his own land raider.
End of day 1 and I have 2 wins and 1 loss. The loss I’m pretty gutted about as all I had to do was finish off that dred with 4 dark light shots and I couldn’t.
Game 4 It’s a custom mission. Again it’s table quarters but you have to split your army into 2 halves and deploy them diagonally opposite each other. HQ’s don’t count towards the total. Each table quarter is worth 200 VP.
It’s Orks. Biker boss, Big Mek, 2 boys units in truck, 3 foot boys units, 9 kans, grots, kommandos.
I win the roll again, thanks Baron. I decide to set up the Baron, hellions, wracks and heami in one section along with the Ravagers and razorwing. The true born, Wyches and warriors all go in the other section. I reckon there is nowhere I can’t at least get some fire into on turn 1.
He sets up with all his Kans clumped around the Big Mek along with one of the boys mobs and kommandos opposite my ravagers. He puts his boss, grots, 2 trukk mobs and 2 foot mob in his other section. These are nearest the trueborn which are just on the other side of some terrain. At this stage I reckon he has made my decisions for me.
Turn 1 I jump the trueborn over the terrain and they jump out, The Baron and hellions grab their pain tokens and head for his section with all his troops. The razorwing lines up on this section as well. My beasts start to wards his section with the kans while the wych and warrior raider lines them up as well. The Ravagers move to get line of sight on some kans and the wracks raider moves to block another unit off.
I manage to blow up both trucks forcing the boys out of both. There is now 64 boys, a unit of grots and the boss in this quarter. It’s killing time. The razorwing wipes a unit off the board and takes a couple off a trukk unit. The venoms shred 1 trukk unit and take casualties out the other. They also take a wound off the boss. The Baron fleets and slams into the remaining mob and clears them out as well. I have taken over 50 boys and 2 trukks out in this section. Meanwhile the ravagers and raiders take down 1 kan and blow a couple of limbs off.
His boss and 4 strong mob that’s left assault into a couple of trueborn units. The kans and Big mek shuffle forward to line up some shots on my vehicles, the kommandos run forward and the boys turn to face down the beasts. He targets the Razorwing and immobilises it. He shoots at the wracks raider and wrecks it right in front of his kans. His boss kills a unit of trueborn and is now standing in the open. His small mob gets beaten up by the other unit of trueborn and get caught in the chase.
Turn 2 I shuffle my ravagers a bit further away from his Kans, the wracks and heami hide. The beasts move towards his kans, baiting them. The Wyches and warriors raiders move to line up more kan shots. The baron prepares to charge the grots and everything else there line up the boss. The boss goes down. The Baron charges and wipes the grots and breaks out the teapot, he’s done for the day.
The ravagers do some more damage to the kans taking down another 1 and blowing a weapon off. The 2 raiders take a weapon off another Kan.
At this stage his full unit of kans decide to move towards the beasts, his boys decide to shoot the Wyches raider. The remaining kans shuffle and line up the ravagers and the kommandos continue to advance towards the wracks and heami.
He takes down 1 ravager, and that’s it. The Kans duly charge the beasts. I destroy one before he swings and take an arm off another. He fights back and I end up losing by 1 but hold.
Turn 3 The venoms move to line up the kommandos and remaining boys unit. The wyches and warriors raiders advance on these boys and the troops jump out. My ravager shuffles again. Dark lance fire doesn’t do anything this turn. The heami jumps out and liquefies a couple of kommandos. The venoms take off a few kommandos and boys. The warriors take down a few more boys and then the wyches charge them.
The beasts and Kans continue to slug it out, I wreck another and suffer no losses. The wyches beat down the remaining boys for no losses. The heami doesn’t charge the Kommandos as they would just beat him and then gain some extra distance.
Again his remaining Kans shuffle about and his kommandos continue to advance on my wracks who are right at the back of the table. His Big Mek assaults the heami, but they just slap each other. His kans fail to do anything, his kommandos fail to reach my wracks and the beasts finally beat down the last Kan they are in combat with.
Turn 4 My venoms move to line up the kommandos, who they completely wipe out.
I take a few pot shots at Kans and kill another 2. The only assault is the heami and Big Mek who again slap each other.
In his turn his remaining 2 kans join the heami/mek slap fest and crush the hemi.
We call it there, I have 3 quarters and my quarter is contested by his last 2 Kans and mek. I still have enough blasters available to probably finish him off and he can’t contest enough quarters t o stop me winning.
3 wins and 1 loss as we head to the final game. I’m on table 2 now.
Game 5, Annihilation and pitched battle. Again it’s the special rules for KP’s so I’m in for a tough time. I am drawn against Kev Low, I know from a few tournaments and know we are going to have a good fun game. He’s got a Bangles Mephiston Delivery system, with a twist. It s got 4, yes 4 land raiders in it.
Mephiston, Jump pack Priest, 4 5 man assault squads in land raiders and perhaps anoth priest hiding inside 1 giving the parking lot a 5+ save. Theres only 17 KP’s in that and 4 of them are the raiders.
I win the roll again, thanks Baron. This table has lots of partial building on it, most of which I can get cover save from. I set up in a corner, getting everything a save of some kind. My opponent sets up in the opposite corner and doesn’t try to steal.
Turn 1 I realise that I am going to have to hit him hard with everything at the same time to do anything here, so I move my flying circus flat out to one end of the table behind bits of scenery. The wyches, warriors, wracks and heami are now hiding out of sight at this far end of the table from him.
His turn he kind of shuffles his parking lot to get cover for what is going to happen.
Turn 2 I make another leap with my flying circus towards his parking lot. I have managed to get most of it out of sight and have used to raiders as screens on the front and sides to allow the ravagers and venoms to be in the center out of sight. Next turn I reckon on getting 17 lance blaster shots into range. The Baron and the beats meanwhile are sneaking up through terrain on the other side of the table. We are effectively playing along the table instead of across it now.
In his turn Kev again moves his parking lot slightly and manages to get off a few lascannon shots. I think he takes down a raider at this stage but it’s not a significant amount of damage.
Turn 3 I make my final leap over terrain to face his wall of raiders. I have managed to get into range without losing too much, only 1 raider so far. My trueborn are in range so I have 19 lance/blaster shots to let rip. I think I get 1 weapon off and immobilise 1 land raider. I know I am now going to suffer. I get a ravager immobilised and lose a weapon off it. I lose a raider and a venom. An assault squad jumps out of the immobilised land raider and guns down I trueborn squad. But it’s not too bad.
Meanwhile my beasts have reached Mephiston and take a couple of wounds off him. We hold in combat.
Turn 4 I shuffle my circus about and try to line up shots on all the land raiders again.
I use the razorwing on the immobile landraider. I target it with the lances and aim the monoscythe missiles on the corner of it, where I can catch 3 of the assault squad.
I kill a couple of the assault squad and then gun down the remainder with splinter fire.
I think at this stage I still had about 10 or 11 lances and blasters left, so again I fire at the land raiders to little effect. I think I took another weapon off, but not much more.
In combat the beasts fail to do anything to mephiston but hold in combat.
In his turn, Kev gets an assault squad out a raider to help out mephiston. The raiders continue to fire at my circus. I lose more, razorwing is immobilised, my raiders are blown up. In the assault I lose my khymeras but the flocks have a chance to rip mephiston before the assault squad finish them off, but they fail. And die.
Turn 5 The Baron has been waiting for a chance to assault something and heads towards mephiston. My last few blasters and lances again fail to do anything. The baron is out of range.
Kev shoots the last of my AT capability off the board, including a heroic trueborn who had dodged 5 or 6 melta heavy bolter shots previously.
Mephiston assaults into the baron but fries his mind doing some psychic nonsense and blows himself up.
The game ends on a roll of 1 here, but it was pointless going on as I had only 1 blaster left and it was back in the warrior squad at the other end of the table.
Analysis
In the end up I finished 9th out of 34 so not to shabby. I ended up 3 wins and 2 losses, 1 of which came down to not being able to finish off a 1 armed dreadnaught with 4 darklight shots. Overall I’m pretty pleased with how I played. I don’t think in the last game I could have done anything differently to change the outcome. I managed to get the majority of my lance shots into range at the same time but just could not get onto the damage tables sufficiently to shut the raiders down. If you can’t roll 4, 5, or 6 then your always going to struggle. Same in the loss in the first game. After an initial success, getting 1 land raider wrecked it took far too many shots to finally finish the other one off. This meant the dred wasn’t getting hit as often as he should have been earlier in the game.
The space wolves game showed up the same issues. I did no damage to his armour through out the game. Apart from his land raider immobilising itself there was no other damage done. All the rest were still fully functional and even the raider still had all it’s guns.
It looks like AT is the issue for the list, and I would like to find a way of getting more in to it. I suspect that will inevitably mean the removal of the Hellions which would be a pity. Every opponent I played commented on them and how intimidating a unit they looked. All of them were scared of the unit and tried to avoid it fearing what it could do. Issue here is, that if their troops are tucked up in transports then there is very little that the unit can do, so it needs better AT support to work.
Subject: Rapid Fire 1750 Tournament 
Mon Oct 31 2011, 15:31
st 5 (possibly st 6) hellions on rear armour and st 7 baron. If you are having AT trouble give this a try!
