And to that, I respond... yes. Just barely. Don't get used to it.
(note: I started writing this shortly after Adepticon, but I'm busy enough that I only got about one report done each day. Hope it was worth the wait - took me a lot of hours!)
I recently got home from Adepticon, having played both the 40k and Fantasy Championships with very little experience in either of the respective games' editions. There was quite a bit learned, and I ended up doing pretty decent in both, though I'll make you either wait to the end or just impatiently scroll downward to find my results.
To clarify, this post will only cover the 40k battle reports. I will hopefully get around to the fantasy ones as well, though I took far fewer pictures on those, as my battery went dead at the end of my 40k championships.
Grey Knights with Necron Allies
Grey Knight Inquisitor w/ Termie Armor, Psycannon, Psyker (Divination/Prescience), 3x Servo-skulls
Grey Knight Inquisitor w/ Termie Armor, Psycannon, Psyker (Divination/Prescience), 2x Servo-skulls
10x Strike Marines w/ Psybolt Ammo, 2x Psycannons, Hammer
10x Strike Marines w/ Psybolt Ammo, 2x Psycannons, Hammer
Dreadknight w/ Heavy Incinerator
Dreadknight w/ Heavy Incinerator
Dreadknight w/ Heavy Incinerator
Overlord w/ Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, 2+ save (whatever it's called, something about weave?)
Royal Court w/ 2x Storm Crypteks (Voltaic Staff FTW)
8x Immortals (one Cryptek goes here) w/ Nightscythe
7x Immortals (one Cryptek goes here) w/ Nightscythe
This was my attempt at a balanced list in 6th edition. It deals well with most threats out there, and in general scares people with three dreadknights. Honestly one of my most enjoyable lists I've ever played. Hopefully you'll see that in this batrep, heh.
Game 1: GreyCrons vs. Chris Hanes' Zero-shooting Chaos!!
His list:
Daemon Prince w/ MoT, Wings, Black Mace (standard loadout) (Warlord)
Daemon Prince w/ MoT, Wings, maybe other stuff you have to pay for, but unremarkable in this game
5x Chaos Space Marines w/ Melta, Veterans of the Long War, Combi-Melta
5x Chaos Space Marines w/ Melta, Veterans of the Long War
5x Chaos Space Marines w/ Plasma, Veterans of the Long War
5x Chaos Space Marines w/ Plasma, Veterans of the Long War
5x Chaos Spawn w/ Mark of Nurgle
5x Chaos Spawn w/ Mark of Nurgle
5x Chaos Spawn w/ Mark of Nurgle
Maulerfiend
Maulerfiend
Maulerfiend
The Mission:
Objectives and ... something else. Sorry, forgot to bring a copy of the missions packet :-/
A Note:
Every game we got to take turns placing terrain. I had originally been against this, but after having done it a couple times, it became a good tactical exercise, trying to figure out terrain pieces that would best aid my goal in each game.
-->We rolled the dice to see who went first, and he ended up taking first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
Chris had an extremely aggressive list - playing the 'long' game of objective shenanigans wasn't going to do much for me - I was going to need to table him or be tabled, though if I got desperate, I'd have the option of making a final stand with my Necrons in their fliers.
The end goal: kill the daemon princes as quick as possible, and maximize use of my force weapons.
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| Here's our deployment. Notice how I'm keeping my Strikers in cover so when his I79 princes charge, I'll still strike first. |
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| A better picture of his deployment. Look at his cool spawn - they're Necron Wraiths flipped over to be scorpions. Really cool idea :) |
He moved up, and got some really good run rolls. Immediately in my face turn 1, and it was already go time.
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| Sorry it's blurry, but get used to it. |
I had forgotten that the Mauler fiends were so fast (12" move rather than the 6" I had been expecting), and therefore didn't have the luxury of waiting for my necrons to come in and deal with them. As such, I moved my rightmost Dreadknights up so as to be out of range of the Princes, but ready to charge in/receive a charge next turn. The leftmost one decided to take advantage of Chris' great run rolls, and moved up.
Shooting phase saw me put a few random wounds on spawn, and kill a maulerfiend with psycannons.
In the assault phase, I charged a maulerfiend with my dreadknight on the left, and butchered him mercilessly. Two maulerfiends dead turn 1 is good enough for me.
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| You'll note that maulerfiends will mess up my Strikers pretty bad, and thus needed to be dealt with immediately. Strikes can hold their own against his other stuff. |
He needed to get in, and jumped his Daemon Princes right next to my strikes. The Spawn moved up, and only one group of them would not likely be able to get into combat.
No shooting, and he therefore was able to charge his Daemon Prince and one squad of spawn into a single strike squad, while charging his maulerfiend and 5 other spawn into my dreadknight who had killed the maulerfiend earlier.
Dreadknight managed to kill three spawn and take a single wound in response, while the Strikes managed to avoid most of the damage done by his spawn and Prince and killed a couple spawn. I should also note that his Black Mace Prince rolled a "3" for his charge distance and barely failed to charge.
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| I got lucky that his Black Mace didn't get in. Still, this turn I need to make something happen against him. |
Only one Scythe managed to fly in, and unloaded the small necron squad inside (without the Lord). Other movement included my attempt to get all my strikes into combat against his Daemon Prince (using their grenades to negate his high initiative) and using the DKs to support the combats.
In shooting, I managed to forget that the Black Mace prince had Mark of Tz, and therefore rerolled half his failed save rolls (reroll 1's) and did zero damage to him, while being out of range to actually charge him. Whoops lol.
The other combats went well though, and I managed to kill the Daemon Prince and all but one spawn in the "hill" combat. In the Dreadknight vs. Maulerfiend/spawn, I managed to get another DK into combat, and wiped the Maulerfiend and all remaining spawn out for no loss.
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| Black Mace Prince is ready to kill something. :-/ |
He wisely charged his remaining spawn squad into the hapless necrons, and the Black Mace Prince jumped up ready to kill some Strikers.
He managed to wipe out all the necrons, and the Black Mace Prince ran over 9 Strike Marines. Ouch. Still, the marines were able to finally overpower all of his spawn in the "hill" combat.
GKN turn 3:
I sent one Dreadknight over to finish off the spawn, and another to attack the Black Mace, while my reserves flew on and got ready to tackle his entrenched marines holding objectives.
In shooting I killed a few marines with the Nightscythe.
Combat went well for me, as I killed the Black Mace Prince along with 4 of his spawn, leaving him with 1 spawn and a few very worried chaos marines.
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| You can see the depleted strike marines, and the nervous chaos marines. The game is in mop-up mode at this point. |
He shot a few potshots at my DKs, and I shot other shots into his marines, eventually charging in and murdering them with a DK on the right, and shooting them down to a man on the left.
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| His final two guys on the left there. You can see the third DK over on the right behind the building, making Chaos Marines have sads. |
Chris was a great opponent, and handled his licks with class. His list was fighting an uphill battle against guys who could forceweapon them to death, and punch his guys hard enough that they often didn't get return attacks.
Oh, he's actually part of the Canadian podcast group Canhammer. Go check his stuffs out!
Game 2: GKN vs. Andrew Tiegs' Tyranids!
His list:
Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, Old Adversary, Brainleech worms, 2x TL Devourers
Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, Old Adversary, Brainleech worms, 2x TL Devourers
Tervigon w/ Catalyst, Dominion, Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs, Cluster Spines
Tervigon w/ Catalyst, Dominion, Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs, Cluster Spines
15x Termagants w/ Devourers, Mycetic Spore
15x Termagants w/ Devourers, Mycetic Spore
25x Gargoyles
3x Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard
The Mission:
Randomly determined objective values (6), and the "home base" one, which is basically like 5th edition's capture and control. Hammer and Anvil deployment.
--> We rolled off, and he got first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
I was pretty much at a loss as to how to deal with his army, to be honest. I'd only once played against nids in 6th edition, and knew that his Flyrants were going to be tough to get rid of. The basic goal for me was to knock his Flyrants out of the sky and charge them with psykout grenades and a dreadknight and try to punch them to death. Otherwise, use the necron troops to mess around with his objectives in the far back.
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| Our deployments. Note that my Overlord is with the Dreadknights, kind of a mini-dreadknight in a way. |
His Flyrants did the somewhat predictable thing and jumped into "fly" mode and into my lines, while the rest of his dudes did a general advance.
His shooting killed a bunch of Strike Marines and one double-one's sequence that killed my Warlord and got him first-blood, though I'd stayed out of range of his Hive Guard. Bad saves was the order of this game for me.
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| You can see my whittled strike squad in the craters. I'm somehow always surprised at how much shooting Tyranids can produce. |
I rolled a "2" for difficult terrain for both strike squads (which I had foolishly forgotten to combat squad) and so wasn't going to be able to charge his Flyrants, even if I knocked them down. Still, one DK and the Overlord moved into position, just in case.
Shooting knocked his warlord out of the sky, though he passed all his saves. Heavy Incinerators whittled down his gargoyles.
I managed to charge in with my single DK, and put a couple wounds on the Flyrant, for a couple wounds in return. Overlord also attempted the charge, but rolled something sad. Also, his Flyrant warlord had Ironarm, something I forgot to mention.
Bugs Turn 2:
One Mycetic Sprore came on, and got ready to shoot my mostly-intact strike squad. His unfettered Flyrant jumped in to support them, and to cause general chaos. He remained in Zoom mode, or whatever it's called. Man, I need to learn the rules better heh. His Gargoyles flew in to support his Warlord fighting my DK.
His shooting put a couple wounds on my remaining inquisitor, who was the closest model to his gaunts, but mostly failed to do anything else but plink away a few more wounds on unengaged DKs. Bad saves :-p
In combat, his Gargoyles charged my Overlord (good decision, that), and the Overlord (who was my only model who couldn't fail a save) killed a few back. The DK/Flyrant battle raged on, bringing both models to a single wound remaining after sub-par rolling on both our parts.
GreyCrons Turn 2:
A single flier came in for me, and I knew I needed to deal with the 15 gaunts in my backfield before more showed up, as well as deal with his Flyrants.
So, the Flier came in ready to shoot his Flyrant and disembarked necrons to help either knock him out of the sky or to try finishing off his gaunts. The mostly-gone strike marines moved toward his "flying" Flyrant, as did a DK, while the other unengaged DK decided to try something stupid and remove a bunch of gaunts + the mycetic spore. The mostly unharmed Strikers got out of their building ready to assault the Warlord Flyrant.
In shooting, it took everything I had to "down" the unengaged Flyrant, who took 3 wounds in the process. The middle dreadknight was able to kill 11 gaunts and cause a wound on his spore with the incinerator.
In combat, I managed to get everyone into combat that I wanted - the decimated Strikes went into his flying Flyrant, as did the DK, and the robust Strikes got into his warlord/Iron Arm Flyrant. I managed to kill his warlord, but somehow whiffed spectacularly on his other Flyrant (who only had one wound remaining) and lost that combat. The middle DK charged and killed his Spore, but forgot that the stupid thing was an MC with whip coils and took two wounds to accomplish the task. Very dumb of me...
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| You can see here that all my DKs are pretty hurt, and the Overlord is still flailing away at damn gargoyles, forgetting to use Mindshackle on them the whole time... |
His second pod came in at roughly the same place as the first, and got ready to try killing one of my many wounded DKs with the gaunts' good shooting attacks. I should note that his Tervigons got about four total squads of gaunts before pooping themselves out.
His shooting managed to down one of my DKs, and one of them only had one wound left. Yikes.
In combat, against all odds, his remaining Flyrant butchered my mostly healthy DK before he could strike, and stayed in combat with the two remaining Strikes. Didn't see that coming at all. Without synapse in range, the Overlord contentedly won combat with the Gargs and made them flee.
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| With only two Strikes fighting his Flyrant in my own phase, his Flyrant will likely be able to cause yet more mayhem in the next phase. Things are looking... difficult. |
My second Flier came on, and flew up 24" on the far side toward his objective, while my "already on" flier picked up its cargo and flew off the board. I needed them for the endgame, as my opponent had been moving steadily up toward my lines and neglecting his two small gaunt squads holding his objectives back there.
Other movement included the Strikes advancing, and the Overlord moving up to attack more gaunts/gargoyles.
Shooting brought down most of the "new" gaunt squad with a flamer, though my DK stayed in his crater to avoid being punched by the Flyrant. The Strikes were able to get Prescience off due to lack of Shadow in the Warp, and along with the Nightscythe, torrented the Tervigon behind the center building to death. This had the nice side effect of obliterating a couple nearby gaunt squads.
The Overlord continued to kill gaunts, and his Flyrant butchered his way free of the two Strikes. Woo, so good right now...
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| Well, he's got a bunch of units still, but depending on how he uses his Flyrant, I'm actually still in a position to win... |
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| This is where the Tervigon was hiding. You can see his Guard just chillin out of line of sight. Good, advantageous terrain placement by my opponent. |
He had this turn to mostly destroy my army. His Flyrant moved into range of my remaining Strikes, and the Gaunts moved to mess with my DK. The Tervigon moved up to assault my DK.
His Hive Guard shooting went mostly at my Flier, and it survived, just barely. He failed to bring my final DK down with shooting, and killed a few Strikes with his Flyrant.
His Flyrant charged in, killed most of my Strikes, but got chopped down by Prescient-ed Hammers, and the DK butchered the poor Tervigon, who in turn killed off most of the gaunts in the area. Good round for me, in all honesty. The Overlord however, was finally brought down by the sheer weight of gaunt poison attacks, never once remembering to have used Mindshackle. :-/
GreyCrons Turn 4:
The Fliers zoomed into his deployment zone, and dropped off some Immortals, the better to take what I thought was his "special" objective. Strikes hobbled toward their own "special" objective.
Shooting killed off a few more gaunts and made the gaunts on his objective in the back go to ground.
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| Not much left for him, but still lots of shooting from the Hive Guard. |
I managed to kill his Mycetic Spore and all the gaunts in my deployment zone, as well as assault his gaunts guarding his objective in the back.
In return, he gifted me with the knowledge that I'd taken the wrong objective, and his "special" objective was still held by gaunts. He wasn't trying to cheat me, as he'd even flipped that objective over. Turns out I need to pay more attention.
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| My other flier wasn't needed to for backfield duty, and thus landed its load in the middle and blowing away more gaunts, giving me more 'objective points' for the objective there. |
Results: Crushing win for the GreyCrons!
Post-game thoughts:
Man, I'm not used to being pushed to the very brink by a Tyranid player (5th edition was rough on them), but it was a pretty close match! Coupled with my complete failure at times to roll what I thought I'd easily get made this game very interesting until the very end. Dreadknights once again did their part, though I was admittedly dumb to charge that Mycetic spore and take two unneeded wounds.
Great opponent, he was quite fair, though it was clear he didn't expect to lose the game given my strange list.
Other things I might have done better:
- Combat squad the Strikes
- Have the 'crons start on the table - more shots to bring his fliers down or kill gaunts, and my fliers could have come in and picked them up at their own leisure.
- Use the overlord better. He kind of mostly failed to do more than kill a slew of gaunts.
Game 3: GreyCrons vs. Mech IG!!
His list: (from memory)
Company Command Squad w/ 4x Melta, Astropath, Officer of the Fleet // Chimera
Company Command Squad w/ 4x Plasma // Chimera
Marbo the Badass
8-10x Psykers // Chimera
10x Veterans w/ 3x Melta // Chimera
10x Veterans w/ 3x Melta // Chimera
10x Veterans w/ 3x Plasma, Grenadiers // Chimera
10x Vetearns w/ 3x Plasma, Grenadiers // Chimera
Vendetta
Vendetta
Vendetta
Manticore
The Mission:
Diagonal deployment with Objectives and THE RELIC!!
--> We rolled off, and he got first turn.
Pregame Thoughts:
He had the sort of list that makes it really difficult to deal with something of his. Like, whereas vehicles die easier in 6th, most people can't kill 11 of them, especially when 3 of them are AV12 fliers. Also, he had a ton of AP1-2, which many lists can't deal with.
My list happily kills his vehicles quite easily, but the DKs get sad vs. his AP2. As such, I decided to try to bait him forward to deal with my DKs quickly, or simply stagnate in his corner while my reserves dropped in. Accordingly, I split one Strike squad into combat squads and deepstruck them. I also split the other Strike squad into combat squads, so as to make a difficult target in cover for his large blasts. I wanted to guard against a turn 1-2 tabling if he got super aggressive.
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| You can see our deployments, where I was trying to lure him into side shots from my Strikers. |
IG Turn 1:
He decided to play the "long" game with me, and just shifted his chimeras to be in range of some of my strikes, and went to town shooting. His shots were well-rolled, and he killed most of one of my Strike combat squads.
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| Yay, the always-riveting "I outrange you so I'll just shoot you a bunch" scenario. Last picture for a bit, sorry to say. |
I just kind of sat there and waited for my reserves to arrive. Marbo and his Vendettas would be showing up next turn, and I needed to be on guard for that.
IG Turn 2:
His 3 Vendettas showed up, as well as Marbo, who went (somewhat obviously) for my Strike marines. The Vendettas moved in to shoot my DKs, while the Chimera wall moved up just a very small amount.
Shooting commenced, and when the smoke settled, Marbo had nearly killed himself with his own Demo charge (but passed his cover save), one Strike combat squad was all the way dead, and one DK had taken 3 wounds, but passed an excellent number of invulnerable saves.
I desperately needed average reserve rolls, or the game would turn ugly really fast.
GreyCrons Turn 2:
I rolled my -1 reserve rolls, and got a single nightscythe and a single combat squad.
They both went to the right section of the field, the necrons disembarking so as to get their tank-killing on. The combat squad drew a bead on some nice side armor. The Inquisitor on the left meandered over to Marbo. The Dreadknights all fully advanced toward the bulk of the Chimeras, expecting to have some guys to burninate.
Shooting commenced, and the Nightscythe exploded a Chimera, killing a few Guardsmen. The Cryptek and Immortals destroyed another Chimera, and the Strikes shot at, and killed, most of the unprotected Veterans inside the second one. Marbo passed all his cover saves and braced for a S6 Inquisitor hammer. DKs mostly just ran forward faster.
In combat, Marbo died a (hopefully) excruciating death.
IG Turn 3:
His Vendettas moved forward another 18", and blocked my DKs from being able to directly assist in the fight for another turn or two. A squad of Plasma vets got out of their Chimera and got ready to Demo-charge my deep-struck Strikes. Otherwise, he mostly just advanced on me quite slowly.
In shooting, he again failed to kill my stubborn DK, though most of his AP2 was focused on my Flier, which he destroyed quite easily. The Plasma vets threw a demo charge, but it scattered a bit and killed most of his Melta vet squad who had been forcibly disembarked previously. He also managed to kill all the Immortals except for the Cryptek, as well as the Overlord, who rolled poorly for his look-out-sirs and ate some plasma early on.
Not enough damage from him. I needed to take advantage of it.
GreyCrons Turn 3:
To my consternation, none of my allies arrived. Ah, well. It's never easy.
The lone Cryptek moved up to kill another vehicle, and the Strikes moved forward in order to be aggressive. My opponent had been wise and moved his Vendettas so as to block my flamers from being relevant to his increasingly disembarked army. The Strikes on the far left joined up with the Inquisitor and shuffled forward, toward his weak side, while the DKs moved up as well as they could with the Vendettas blocking them.
The shooting phase was once again kind to me, with the Cryptek killing another Chimera, and the Strikes killing another, while the incinerators killed yet another, along with the full squad of Plasma Vets who had already expended their demo charge. The Strikes/Inquisitor on the left got lucky and killed another Chimera holding Melta vets.
At this point, his only remaining transports contained his two command squads, one on the left side, and the other behind the hill on the right. In addition, I'd killed two full squads of Veterans (one Melta, one Plasma), and pinned the other Plasma squad by killing their ride.
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| Finally, a picture! You can see the DKs are kind of trapped by his Vendettas. Bloody shame, but good idea on his part. I hadn't previously considered such tactics. |
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| You can see his Psyker Battle Squad on the right, behind their transport, the pinned plasma Veterans, and just imagine one dead chimera I expoded in the area. In total, 4 dead Chimeras in this photo. |
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| A close-up of his DK-foiling maneuver. Damn him forever :) |
IG Turn 4:
He needed something good to happen this turn. His Vendettas went into Hover mode, and pivoted toward my DKs. The rest of his army mostly just sat there, ready to shoot me as well they could.
Shooting finally downed one of my DKs, and damaged another. He was also able to kill off my lone Cryptek and most of the Strike squad on the far right.
But it wasn't enough. He was mostly frustrated at my DK invulnerable saves, which I must admit, were pretty good for a couple rounds.
GreyCrons Turn 4:
My reserves finally showed up, with the Inquisitor/Strikes landing on the left/middle section of the board close to the Relic (though they scattered 11" to the left), while my final Flier delivered the Immortals to the objective on my far right quarter, ready to shoot Vendettas.
I managed to down two vendettas, and forced his Plasma Vets to run off the table. Inquisitor + Strikes killed the Plasma Command Squad's chimera, pinning them.
My dreadknights attempted to assault the final Vendetta and all failed their charge rolls spectacularly!
An overview, in case you're lost at this point:
He'd managed to kill one Immortal squad and their ride, along with a full Strike combat squad, and the Overlord, and 4 of another deepstruck Strike squad, along with a DK. He was mostly out of position of being capable of claiming the relic, and had only a single troop squad (melta vets) hugging the top left corner objective. 6 of his 7 chimeras were dead, along with 2 vendettas.
IG Turn 5:
His lone Vendetta stayed in Hover mode, and drew sights on an injured DK, while his Manticore ventured out to shoot his Heavy Bolter, since his other rounds had been expended. The Melta CCS rolled up in their Chimera as well.
His shooting removed my final Striker on the right side, and also finished off another Dreadknight. Would it be enough if the game ended Turn 5?
GreyCrons Turn 5:
My "middle" strike squad who had scattered 11" attempted to make up ground toward the Relic. The Necrons mostly just hunkered backward to hold on to their objective no matter what, while their Scythe moved up 18" and got ready to shoot the Psykers.
On the left, my shooting from one objective removed the remaining Veterans from their own objective, and other shooting finally ended the last vendetta. The remaining DK killed all but a single Plasma gunner in the CCS in the middle.
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| At this point, if the game ends, I win, 2 objectives to 0, with a draw on the Relic. You can see the finger pointing at the lone plasma gunner in the CCS near the DK, lol. Note that the middle objectives there are servo-skulls, and the actual objectives are in the center of each table quarter. |
IG Turn 6:
He did what he could, but his army was crippled enough that his only real potent threat was his Melta Vets on the far right, who shot up the shoddily concealed Cryptek, and attempted to make me run off the objective.
When that failed, he gave me my turn.
GreyCrons Turn 6:
I mostly moved toward objectives, and hunkered down. Inquisitor squad failed at getting into difficult terrain to claim the Relic, but would be able to get it on Turn 7, if we rolled it.
Other shooting was mostly pointless.
We rolled, and the game ended.
Results: Crushing Victory for the GreyCrons!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, I expected to kill his vehicles easily, but enough things went wrong for him that might have gone right (i.e. unfortunate pinning rolls, leadership fails, demo charge scatters) that the game quickly turned lopsided. My DK invulnerable saves were off the chart turns 2 and 3, causing my opponent to repeat the phrase "I don't even..." about 20 times or more. Heh.
In the end, I felt I put myself in a good position to win by being aggressive. While lots of my stuff died at close range, I ensured that I had enough troops to hold the vital objectives, and killed his troop units near his own as a priority, holding them in place in order to deal with my own troops. As such, I'm confident that even had my rolling been less hot, I still would have won, as he was nowhere near the Relic or my own two objectives, while his troop squads were out of position the entire game.
One more Crushing Victory, and I'd qualify for Day 2, in the Top 16.
Game 4: GreyCrons vs. Jason Endres' Necrons with Chaos Allies!
His List:
Trazyn the Infinite
Royal Court w/ 1x Despair Cryptek (flame template), 2x Storm Crypteks
5x Warriors // Nightscythe
5x Warriors // Nightscythe
5x Deathmarks // Nightscythe
6x Canoptek Wraiths
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Chaos Lord w/ Terminator Armor, Combi-Melta, Power Fist
10x Cultists
Heldrake with Flamer :(
3x Obliterators w/ Mark of Nurgle (T5 FTW)
The Mission:
Victory Points, Heavy were scoring/worth 2 Victory Points, 4 objectives
--> We rolled off, and I won the roll, and very quickly handed him first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
Man, I was so happy when I met Jason and saw he wanted to have a good competitive game but was going to be laid back about it. After a stressful 3 games and a long day, he was just the kind of guy I wanted to play, win or lose. This was probably my favorite game the entire weekend (awesome fantasy opponents included).
His list had 4 fliers, lots (and lots) of S7 shooting, and the always-frustrating Baal-Flamer. My approach (since I got second turn) was to kill the Helldrake on Turn 2 with deepstriking GKs and my own Fliers. Since he didn't have enough models who could easily kill my DKs, they would try to control the right flank as I reacted to his own reserves.
Our deployment:
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| I deployed only my three Dreadknights, well away from his out-of-position A-barges on the far left. There's an objective in front of the DK building, and one in front of the middle building on my own side, as well as one in the central building on his side, and one behind the barrels on the top left side. Also, the gold one on the far left, middle. |
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| Here's his deployment a little better. The Wraiths and Oblits are sharing the middle building, with one A-barge, while the other A-barges are behind the Barrels. Cultists are in reserve. |
He moved his wraiths into a vaguely flanking position on the right. Oblits shot at a DK, caused a random wound (I had 2+ cover due to night fight).
VP Count:
Him: 0
Me: 0
GreyCrons Turn 1:
My DKs shuffled around the building, and put a few flamer wounds on the wraiths. Time to get nervous about his reserves. Please, Helldrake, Please come on this turn.
VP Count:
Him: 0
Me: 0
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| Ready for the action to start. |
His reserves came on... EVERYONE except for the frickin' Helldrake. Damnit.
They came on, shot my DKs some, I failed a few random wounds, and his Wraiths got flamered out of range to charge my DK. Hm.
VP Count:
Him: 0
Me: 0
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| Well, he's all on, except for the one I wanted... |
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| Wraiths fail their charge. Woot? I'm honestly not sure... think I prefer otherwise, actually - gives me an extra "free" turn to punch them. |
GreyCrons Turn 2:
I rolled for reserves, hoping that the strikes at least stay in reserve. NOPE, everyone came on, all combat squadded and ready to kill his fliers.
It was then that I learned that Prescience, despite the FAQ that would lead you to believe otherwise, cannot be cast the turn you arrive from deepstrike. At least, that's how the judges ruled it. /wrist (hehe)
So, my shooting nowhere as deadly as I was originally hoping, I continued to pursue the death of his fliers.
I landed two combat squads up by the craters on the far top right, and the others down toward the middle of the table. Wild scatters happened, but none of my squads mishapped. Immortals all jumped out, so as to avoid getting sent back to their board edge.
Shooting went mostly sadly, with myself only killing two of his 'Scythes, and putting damage on the third. One of the Scythes had Trazyn in it though, so that was nice. Otherwise, the DKs ran in and fought the Wraiths, who saved a bunch of their wounds.
VP Count:
Him: 0
Me: 2 (Nightscythe, Nightscythe)
Necrons Turn 3:
Luckily, the Helldrake decided to stay in reserves one more turn. His oblits advanced and got ready to shoot up a combat squad. A-barges got ready to shoot Strike marines and fliers. His own remaining Scythe went back into reserve.
His shooting was um, amazing. One A-Barge killed a 'Scythe, and another put two HP of damage on the other. The Oblits shot and killed 3 Strikes, and I failed 2 other saves out of 2 on my leftmost Strike squad. Yikes...
In combat, the DKs vs. Wraiths brought the Wraiths down to a single model...
VP Count:
Him: 1 (Nightscythe)
Me: 2 (Nightscythe, Nightscythe)
 |
| Painful turn for me... |
The Scythe picked up its Immortals and flew them into reserves. Other Strikes shuffled around, drawing beads on his A-Barges. Necron Overlord broke off from his squad to go bother the Oblits, who only had 8 leadership (3d6 Mindshackle Scarabs FTW?)
Shooting netted me an A-Barge kill, and several cover saves on the other A-Barges. :-/
In combat, the Overlord charged in, and WHIFFED all his attacks. The Mindshackle worked, but only put a single wound on a model. I luckily dodged return damage that turn. The Wraiths finally ate it, and my DKs consolidated all of 1" each.
VP Count:
Him: 1 (Nightscythe)
Me: 5 (Nightscythe, Nightscythe, A-Barge (heavy counts as 2), Wraiths)
 |
| It's looking promising right now. Let's get some failed saves to start happening. |
Necrons Turn 4:
Helldrake came on, and wasted no time in vector-striking a Strike squad dead. His last Scythe also came on, and got ready to shoot another Strike squad.
In shooting, I failed most of my saves, and one Strike squad on the far left evaporated, as did the entire center one, due to the Helldrake's breath + a little shooting. Not much shooting at me, but my models were being picked up rather quickly...
In combat things got worse, as his Oblits passed their Ld. 8 mindshackle, lost a single model, and proceeded to pound the Overlord into the ground.
VP Count:
Him: 5 (Nightscythe, Strikes, Strikes, Strikes, Overlord)
Me: 5 (Nightscythe, Nightscythe, A-Barge (heavy counts as 2), Wraiths)
GreyCrons Turn 4:
Nightscythe (foolishly?) disembarked Immortals in the Ruins to contest an objective and rapid-fire at the Helldrake. The Dreadknights hoplessly slogged through terrain, grossly out of position to affect the game the way I needed them to, while the (suddenly) alone Inquisitor on the left sprinted toward an A-Barge. The other lone Inquisitor rolled poorly in terrain and mostly just sat there.
Shooting put two hullpoints on the Helldrake, and killed a single Deathmark. Lots of misses, failing to hurt much.
In combat, the Inquisitor provided the single ray of light in the turn, killing another A-Barge.
VP Count:
Him: 5 (Nightscythe, Strikes, Strikes, Strikes, Overlord)
Me: 7 (Nightscythe, Nightscythe, A-Barge (heavy counts as 2), Wraiths, A-Barge)
 |
| My Dreadknights want to charge the Oblits, but he wisely put his Drake between the two. |
With the game possibly ending this turn, he ran his cultists to control the far left middle objective (a 5-man warrior squad held the ones behind the barrels), while Trazyn prepared to shoot and charge my unsuspecting Immortals. Helldrake flew over Immortals, killing a few with Vector strike. His flier came on and landed warriors on the far right objective.
In shooting, the Drake killed a few of the Immortals. Trazyn's squad killed a few Immortals. The Chaos Lord, who I had completely forgot about, shot his combi-melta at my lone Inquisitor and ended his short, miserable life. Oblits shot more Immortals, and prepared to charge in. His remaining A-Barge ruined my Scythe, almost as an afterthought.
In combat, the Oblits killed the Immortals, but the Cryptek stood up again. Heh, silly Cryptek. Trazyn charged in and somehow murdered all my Immortals in combat. Honestly not sure how that happened, other than I failed 6 3+ saves in a row - I expected it to be a stalemate the rest of the game. My Cryptek from that combat fled, never to regroup. Rough turn for me.
VP Count:
Him: 8 (Nightscythe, Strikes, Strikes, Strikes, Overlord, Nightscythe, Inquisitor, Immortals)
Me: 7 (Nightscythe, Nightscythe, A-Barge (heavy counts as 2), Wraiths, A-Barge)
 |
| Looking grim for me, as he's got the advantage on objectives held. If I can get a couple killpoints, I'll at least be able to draw on primary objectives, and probably win through tiebreakers (first blood, linebreaker) Still, very close game. |
At this point, I was getting desperate. None of my units were in position to contest or control any but two objectives, and since there were 5 (and he controlled 3 of them), I was in a bad place with Objectives. Victory points were more within my reach. Just had to hope for a Turn 6.
So, my remaining Inquisitor moved toward his final A-Barge, hoping to wreck it. DKs converged on the Oblits, and one DK ran up to flame/charge the warrior squad in the open on the far right.
A shooting phase later, I'd managed to down a single Deathmark, a couple warriors, and not much else. Yikes.
In combat, I did better, killing the Oblits, A-Barge, and Warriors. Whew!
VP Count:
Him: 8 (Nightscythe, Strikes, Strikes, Strikes, Overlord, Nightscythe, Inquisitor, Immortals)
Me: 12 (Nightscythe, Nightscythe, A-Barge (heavy counts as 2), Wraiths, A-Barge, A-Barge, Oblits,Warriors)
We rolled to see if the game went on. If it ended here, we would draw on primary objectives, and I'd win on secondary.
The game continued.
Necrons Turn 6:
His Helldrake vector-struck my last Inquisitor to death, forestalling my hopes of charging and somehow gloriously besting the Chaos Lord in close combat.
VP Count:
Him: 9 (Nightscythe, Strikes, Strikes, Strikes, Overlord, Nightscythe, Inquisitor, Immortals, Inquisitor)
Me: 12 (Nightscythe, Nightscythe, A-Barge (heavy counts as 2), Wraiths, A-Barge, A-Barge, Oblits,Warriors)
GreyCrons Turn 6:
If I wanted to contest/control the objective in the top center ruins, I'd need Turn 7 for my lone fully-functional DK to get there. My only hope to win on Primaries was to kill a Deathmark and make Trazyn flee off the table.
So, I shot and killed a single Deathmark, and we almost rolled to see if the game ended before he rolled leadership.
He rolled it: 11!! Trazyn fled off their objective, and...
... we checked to see if the game ended and...
... it did!!
Results: Crushing Victory for the GreyCrons!!
Final VP Count:
Him: 9 (Nightscythe, Strikes, Strikes, Strikes, Overlord, Nightscythe, Inquisitor, Immortals, Inquisitor)
Me: 14 (Nightscythe, Nightscythe, A-Barge (heavy counts as 2), Wraiths, A-Barge, A-Barge, Oblits,Warriors, Deathmarks, Trazyn)
Post-game thoughts:
Wow, this game had its ups and downs, that's for sure. When I failed the majority of my saves on power armor in the middle there, I thought it might be time to pack it up. But even when my dice failed me so hard throughout the game, karma came back and failed Trazyn's leadership! Wow, just madness...
I thought that I might have used the Dreadknights better this game. While they killed stuff pretty well, they mostly just ran around and did nothing, getting in their own ways a bunch. In the end, not losing them (as 2 VP each) and having them score was life-saving for me, as they controlled an objective for me at the end of the game. I should have stacked them on the side of the table where the majority of the objectives were, and just endured the A-Barge fire at them for a turn or two.
Jason was a great opponent, and I can't tell you how much it meant to be able to have a good, competitive game on Game 4, and stay laid back and relaxed. My absolute definition of a perfect game :)
 |
| Trazyn, the butcher of Immortals, flees the battlefield. |
And so...
I qualified for Day 2. Whew! I ended up as the 8th seed, and would play Necrons the next day...
Game 5: GreyCrons vs. Werner Born's Necrons!!
His list:
Destroyer Lord w/ Mindshackle Scarabs, Sempriternal Weave, Warscythe
Nemesor Zahndrekh
5x Warriors // Nightscythe
5x Warriors // Nightscythe
5x Warriors // Nightscythe
5x Warriors // Nightscythe
7x Canoptek Scarabs
6x Canoptek Wraiths w/ Whip Coil
5x Canoptek Wraiths w/ Whip Coil
3x Canoptek Spiders
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
The Mission:
Same as Game 1, objectives and victory points
--> We rolled off, and he won it, and quickly handed me first turn. shite
Pre-game thoughts:
Well, first off, he's good enough to make it to Day 2, as well as recognize the enormous advantage having second turn would afford him in a game like this. Second, his list is pretty good - wraiths and scarabs can do some nasty stuff if they're used well, and he had 6 anti-fliers (4 Nightscythes and 2 Annihilation Barges), which would wipe my own fliers out pretty quick and easy on Turn 2.
My sole advantage was that I still out-combated him, and had three models he couldn't easily deal with - my Dread Knights. My goal then was to control the table, and force him into making risky moves with his Wraiths. If his A-Barges or Wraiths were in range of my Strikes, they would likely go away pretty quick, which would force him to either be extremely aggressive and take a full turn of shooting, or remain passive and hope he could sneak onto objectives on Turn 5.
As such, I'd keep my DKs somewhat central, and stay as close to 24" away from his Wraiths as possible, making him come to me. You'll see how it panned out...
 |
| Our deployment. You can see that my DKs are in the middle, ready to support the rest of the Strikes. |
I moved the DKs up, daring his scarabs or wraiths to try the 12" charge. One Strike squad did 13 wounds to his wraith squad, but he saved them all with his Destroyer Lord. :-/
 |
| I'm shuffling up, something I do daily. |
He moved his A-Barges up and killed a few of my Strikes. His Wraiths just sat behind the hill, staying further out of range.
GreyCrons Turn 2:
Both my fliers came on the table, unfortunately. I decided he would likely kill them both next turn if all his own fliers came on, and thus disembarked the Overlord and his squad in the top right corner, 36" on. Strikes and DKs shifted further up and to the right, maintaining a healthy distance from his Wraiths.
One Strike squad shot at and destroyed an A-Barge, giving me First Blood.
Necrons Turn 2:
All 4 of his fliers came on (of course) and lined up to shoot my own fliers. His other stuff just moved around a little in his back line. So far, I was still winning the board control battle, the DKs too strong for the Wraiths to really handle very easily (if at all).
His shooting made me chuckle, as his first Scythe shot 4 times and got 6 PENS. Both of my fliers died, and he was 'forced' to snap-fire down at my Immortals with the other two fliers. Not a great turn for me, but kind of expected.
 |
| Well, maybe I can kill some of his fliers this turn? |
 |
| For some reason, I felt this needed another picture. His army was very well painted, BTW. :) |
GreyCrons Turn 3:
I shifted my guys further to the right toward his deployment zone. One of my DKs was in range to incinerate a Scarab.
I managed to incinerate the scarab, but with two strike squads being presciented with 24 total psycannon shots as well as the necron unit, I managed to put 2 hull points of damage on one of his fliers, where I really needed at least one dead, if not two, to limit his endgame moves.
Also learned that templates can't kill what their model can't see (otherwise DK would have killed three), and further don't lose a second base if a flamer insta-deaths one. Not a wonderful turn for me - sounds like I'm saying that a lot this game, haha.
 |
| Well, I still think I have pretty good board control at this point. His Wraiths are going to need some pretty insane charge distances to get to me. |
He moved his scarabs up in order to charge my GKs on the hill, which I was prepared for - with prescience and power weapons, I figured I'd most likely kill most (if not all) the scarabs in a single turn of combat. His 5-man wraith squad also moved up 12" to that side, intent on trying their 10" charge on the Strikes on the hill.
His shooting did little to me, with a couple of his fliers leaving the table.
Then the combat phase came, and I was confident.
He declared a charge with the wraiths, hoping to draw my overwatch from the Scarabs, and I declined. He needed a 10" charge, and I couldn't spare shots on guys who I wasn't even going to be fighting.
...He rolled an 11. The Scarabs got in as well, and suddenly, I was in a lot of trouble.
I killed a bunch of scarabs, failed 3 of 4 2+ saves on my inquisitor, and barely stayed in combat, which was what I didn't want. Yikes.
GreyCrons Turn 4:
Well, I honestly wasn't sure what to do - he had gotten an insane charge distance, and not only had I not gotten to wipe out his Scarabs, I hadn't even gotten overwatch. Further, he was going to win the Victory Points portion, unless I somehow got pretty lucky soon. I needed to control more objectives, and therefore force a tiebreaker, where I would hold the advantage, as I had First Blood.
I decided to try and fix things with the DKs, though they were pretty grossly out of position. I moved up, trying to bait his wraiths and scarabs (when they were done with the remainders of my other Strikes) to charge my final Strike squad, and be countercharged by DKs.
Shooting accomplished very little. I think I managed to down a Nightscythe with my still (surprisingly) fully intact Strike squad.
In combat, my Strikes got butchered, as I had figured would happen.
 |
| See the Wraiths and Scarabs gloating on their hill? Sigh. The Immortals are apparently already anticipating next turn... |
He moved up with his Scarabs, threatening my Immortals, and jumped his Destroyer Lord over to join the 5-man squad who had gotten the excellent charge, all taking my bait to charge my remaining Strikes.
Shooting didn't accomplish much, as his fliers were at this point all off the table save for one, who would shortly get onto an objective.
In combat, he charged my Strikes and a DK. I challenged with my DK, and he declined, and I passed my Mindshackle save. Causing 6 wounds that would insta-death his Wraiths if I activated my Force Weapons, and another 3 from the DK, He managed to save all of them, and we stuck in combat. His 3 remaining scarabs managed to butcher my full Immortal squad, after the Immortals failed all of their saves and missed all their overwatch.
Looking grim.
GreyCrons Turn 5:
Well, things just hadn't been going well this game for me, but I still had a chance - if I could charge in with my DKs and wipe out the rest of his wraiths this turn, I'd be able to threaten/control all the objectives I needed to win the game on Turn 6 (if we rolled it of course).
So, having no other units surviving, I charged in with my DKs, hoping to kill his 5 wraiths, which (I felt) was not an unreasonable hope.
Instead, with all the Strike's attacks and 14 DK attacks, I managed to kill 3 wraiths, and they in turn killed a full DK. Now things are looking grim. Good invulnerable saves on wraiths this game :-p
 |
| Yikes. |
He moved his 2nd wraiths squad in to screen against my DKs converging on his hill objective, and landed Warriors on all the other objectives. If the game ended on Turn 5, he would win by a landslide.
To show you the quality of my opponent as a player, he debated sending in his scarabs to charge into the big combat, but decided (quite wisely) to just sprint them into my deployment zone behind a hill, outside my reach, so he'd get Linebreaker, one of the three tiebreaker (slay the warlord and first blood being the other two). Very wise move on his part, especially because if I managed to break free this next combat, I'd have some great opportunities to even the tally on Victory Points (Warrior squads would all die, etc)
We then commenced combat, and he at the last minute decided to charge his remaining Wraiths into the big combat, which was a good move on his part, I thought.
I managed to down his lord, and kill the "stragglers" in his other squad, as well as two other Wraiths from the new squad, but we got stuck in.
At this point, I would realistically need a Turn 7, though if it went that far, I was confident that I'd win the game handily.
-->We rolled to see if the game ended, and he uncharacteristically rolled a "1", ending the game on Turn 5.
Results: Crushing loss for the GreyCrons!!
Post-game thoughts:
Man, he was a really good player. I don't want to blame dice - they were pretty crappy, but he did what it took to win the game and take advantage of my misfortunes, which is often what I pride myself on doing to my own opponents. So, just want to say that disappointing loss aside, he was an excellent player and probably deserved to win.
Also want to point out that this is another excellent example of a "perfect" competitive game - he was courteous (letting me roll Prescience after I had moved some models, etc), and I hope I was the same to him. Competitive play at this level is a lot of fun if both players play in the spirit of how the game should be played, without sketchy movement and giving your opponent the benefit of the doubt. Werner exemplified this, and even though the game wasn't as "jolly" as previous rounds might have been, I really appreciated him as an opponent.
Werner is apparently friends with Nick Nanavati, who ended up winning the whole thing. No wonder both were in the running to win Adepticon, if they get to 'sharpen' their play on each other!
Game 6: GreyCrons vs. Jesse Newton's Tyranids!
**A note: this game was not a very well-played game by myself, feeling somewhat dejected after having lost my first game of Day 2, and thus wasn't much of a battle. I think in different circumstances, I'd have given a much better accounting of myself, but as it was, I allowed things to happen that I simply shouldn't have, and basically played like I didn't deserve to be in the top 16.
Jesse was a great opponent, but just kind of ran me over, after rolling 6 consecutive "drop" checks on his Flyrant, and the Doom of Malanti killed all of my Dreadknights in a single turn of "how the hell does that even happen??"
As such, I won't be giving a battle report, but will happily supply you with his (excellent) list and basic gameplay strategies.
Also note that about halfway through this game, my camera battery went out, and there will (after our deployment picture) be no more pictures in this report :-/
His List:
Hive Tyrant w/ The Horror, Leech Essence, 2x Twin-linked Devourers, Wings, Old Adversary
Hive Tyrant w/ The Horror, Leech Essence, 2x Twin-linked Devourers, Wings, Old Adversary
Tervigon w/ Dominion, Onslaught, Catalyst, Stinger Salvo, Adrenal Glands, Poison Sacks
Tervigon w/ Dominion, Onslaught, Catalyst, Stinger Salvo, Adrenal Glands, Poison Sacks
28x Termagants
27x Termagants
Doom of Malanti // Mycetic Spore
2x Canifex(en?) w/ 2x Twin-linked Devourers each
Skyshield Landing Pad
Mission: Hammer and Anvil Deployment, 6 random-value objectives w/ one "capture and control" objective each
 |
| Here is our deployment. See how he crowds his gants around the objectives in his own deployment zone, and keeps his skyray within 3" of all 3 objectives? That way, he can control them with gants, tervigons, or more gants, while threatening me with 'Fexes, Flyrants, and the Doom. Good ideas on his part - it also protected against the use of fliers jumping on objectives. |
At this point, I wanted to drop, as I was no longer in the running for anything and was going to play Fantasy early the next morning, but the TO asked if I would stay if there was an odd number of players, and since there was, I agreed to play a Game 7.
Game 7: GreyCrons vs. David Arimond's Grey Knights!
His List: (from memory)
Grey Knight Inquisitor w/ Terminator Armor, Psycannon, Psyker (w/ Prescience)
7x Terminators w/ Psycannon, various weapons including a Warding Stave, Psybolt Ammo
10x Strike Marines w/ 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo // Razorback w/ Heavy Bolter, Psybolt Ammo
10x Strike Marines w/ 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo // Razorback w/ Heavy Bolter, Psybolt Ammo
10x Strike Marines w/ 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo // Razorback w/ Heavy Bolter, Psybolt Ammo
Dreadnought w/ 2x TL Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo
Stormraven w/ Hurricane Bolters too
The Mission: Diagonal deployment, objectives in the center of each quarter, and THE RELIC!!
--> We rolled to see who went first, and he took first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
Ah, a mirror-match game for my final. David and I had played in both of the two previous Adepticons, with myself taking a win in both instances. He's a pretty laid back guy, and his list was quite balanced. Good combo for my final game of 40k at Adepticon :)
He deployed his Strikes evenly dispersed through his deployment, with the Dreads taking up the center and the Razorbacks behind in a supporting role. His Terminators w/ Inquisitor chose to deepstrike.
I deployed 31" away from his strikes, so as to prevent them from shooting on Turn 1, and hunkered down behind a building that entirely blocked line of sight from him, but which we determined was in fact ruins.
Grey Knights Turn 1:
He moved up, and tried to do some damage to my DKs, and succeeded in taking a wound off one.
GreyCrons Turn 1:
I moved farther back, waiting for his Terminators to come in. I decided not to cast Warp Quake, as I wanted his Terminators as close to me as possible when they arrived so I could remove them as quickly as possible.
Shooting did very little to him - indeed, nothing at all.
Grey Knights Turn 2:
His Terminators arrived, but the Raven stayed in reserves. The Terminators tried a risky deepstrike directly behind my lines, and didn't scatter at all. His Strikes moved up again, and some would be in range to fire at me, though most weren't.
Shooting took a couple wounds from Strike marines, and another on a DK. Not a good turn of shooting for him.
GreyCrons Turn 2:
One Flier arrived (without my overlord) and flew into the center, the better to kill Dreadnoughts with my Immortals with. The other Strikes behind the building popped out, ready to barrage another strike squad. The DKs and hurt Strike squad converged on the Terminators, ready to shoot at, then charge, his Terminators to death.
Shooting went fantastically for me. Immortals killed their Dreadnought, the ruins Strike squad killed 6 other Strikes in the center (one of their Psycannons), and the DKs and other Strikes managed (through lots of failed saves on David's part) to kill all of the Terminators through shooting. Incinerators vs. deep struck units FTW.
Grey Knights Turn 3:
His Strikes moved forward as best they could, drawing a bead on the now-exposed Strike squad outside the ruins. Oh, his Raven still failed to come in :-/ His remaining Dreadnought moved forward to shoot at, then charge my poor Immortals.
His shooting managed to kill most of my exposed Strike squad, but didn't quite do it.
The Dreadnought attempted a charge, but was 1" short and didn't make it.
GreyCrons Turn 3:
The other flier came on, and I focused on the bottom left objective, dropping the Immortals in front of a full Strike squad. The other severely depleted Strikes hunkered behind their ruins, drawing a bead on his decimated Strikes. Dreadknights sprinted upward toward his upper right objective, and other full Strike squad.
In shooting, the Immortals in the center managed to kill his 2nd Dreadnought and claim the Relic. The Overlord's Immortal squad got lucky and killed about 5 Strike marines, and the other Strikes of mine managed to drop the rest of his center Strike squad.
At this point, only one of his Strike squads (the one on the top right corner objective) was fully intact, and he was kind of beset on all sides. He needed something excellent to happen.
Grey Knights Turn 4:
His Raven finally came in and prepared to shoot some DKs. His other units shuffled, readying to shoot their best.
He managed to kill about half of my center Immortals squad, making me drop the Relic. His Raven came on and caused a perils to two DKs, and put another wound on another, making none of my DKs at full health, and one of them holding a single remaining wound. The Strikes on the left failed to kill my Overlord (who was in front to soak the wounds).
GreyCrons Turn 4:
I moved forward yet again with my DKs, this time in range to torrent flamer his remaining intact Strike squad, while my own Strikes and fliers prepared to down his Stormraven. The overlord broke off from his squad, ready to assault the remaining Strikes, while the squad targeted their Razorback.
Shooting went well again, wiping out two of the Razorbacks (with two of the immortal squads) and killing about half of the remaining Strikes. His Stormraven took two HP of damage, but didn't go down. Damn.
In assault, the Overlord butchered some Strikes, the remainder of which held.
Grey Knights Turn 5:
At this point, he had 5 Strikes on the top right objective, a Razorback, and a single Strike in combat with my Overlord. He refused to give up though.
His shooting knocked my Immortal squad off the relic again. Cheeky bastards.
Overlord killed the remaining threats in combat.
GreyCrons Turn 5:
I shot the Raven, killed a few more Strikes, claimed the Relic, and the game ended.
Results: Crushing win for the GreyCrons!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, I didn't want to play this game really, but I have a very hard time not playing my best when I'm capable of it, and this game exemplified that. It seemed he was expecting me to fold due to my desire to drop, but I brought my A-game, and won the mirror match, somehow.
He was (again) a good opponent, and his dice really did kind of fail him. I'm confident that I could have wiped out his Terminators in the assault phase anyways, but the fact that he rolled so many 1's (two straight in the case of his Inquisitor vs. an incinerator) was indicative of his rolls throughout.
Fun game though, and I happily packed up my models and went to a Mexican place, in which I consumed all too many $10 marguritas, and prepared for my epic day of Fantasy early the next morning.
Overall Adepticon Thoughts:
I thought it was great! I loved that they actually let us use the missions in the book, and even played Hammer and Anvil a couple times! I'm not huge fan of the random-value objectives or mysterious terrain/objectives, but otherwise, I even enjoyed placing terrain each time!
They ran it as best they could - weather forced them to delay the start about an hour or two on Day 1, but I actually appreciated that they had done that, as lots of locals got caught up in a Flash Flood and were severely delayed.
Judges were readily at hand to answer rules questions, and though they ruled against me more than in my favor (which I'm not generally used to - need to learn the rules better), they seemed to make an honest attempt at getting them right (and I think in the end, mostly did).
I made it to Day 2, which is pretty cool for a guy who really hasn't played much this edition. Next time my list will be better, and I'll know how to play better.
I should now note - I've made it to the "top" round of every major tournament I've gone to at least once - Wargamescon, Nova Open, Feast of Blades, and now Adepticon. Seems that I'm doing something right, though I've yet to win more than my single "major" event (Feast). Guess we'll see what 6th holds for me :)
Bugeater is in a month, expect more reports and stuff. Hope you enjoyed this stupidly long post. Let me know what I did wrong - nicely. Thanks for reading :)
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