I will then eventually combine all of the reports into one "large" report for your later reading convenience :)
I'll give a little background first. My initial goal for tournament season of 2014 was to get a Marine list up and working, which I would be able to unabashedly take to big tournaments and not entirely embarrass myself.
However, there was an RTT at my LGS which I could actually attend, and I had nothing approaching the required models for the current iteration of my Marines, so I decided to be silly and take my old Dark Eldar with a couple Eldar units as allies. I had so much fun, I decided to try to make Dark Eldar work. 5 or 6 games later, my list had morphed drastically, from an old-style MSU Dark Eldar list to a ridiculous BeastStar, taking Eldar as primary.
I felt as if I had betrayed the Dark Eldar. Depression had set in. But I had a list, and after a ton of effort painting, and playtesting about 5 games total (which is a TON of practice for me), I was packed up and ready for the LVO.
A few things before we start:
The tournament was set to play at around Noon on Friday, three games Friday, two games Saturday. The field was set to be somewhere approaching the 'ideal' 256 for a W/L/D 8-round tournament, with the top 8 players 'qualifying' for the third and final day of play on Sunday in single-elimination.
My goal was to (of course) win, but given my lack of experience with the list, I would just be happy with a top-8 finish. There were a lot of top players there, and I hoped I wouldn't have to play against any of them until the top 8.
Those hopes would be entirely unfounded.
Here's my list:
Adam Tricola's BeastStar - 1750 Points
Eldar (Primary):
Farseer w/ Jetbike, Stones of Anthalan, Warlord
Farseer w/ Jetbike, Shard of Anaris
20x Guardians w/ 2x Bright Lances // Wave Serpent w/ TL Scatter Laser
5x Dire Avengers // Wave Serpent w/ TL Scatter Laser
3x Jetbikes
3x Jetbikes
7x Warp Spiders
Wraithknight (stock)
Dark Eldar (Allies):
Baron Sathonyx
10x Dark Eldar Warriors w/ Splinter Cannon
Beast Pack w/ 5x Masters, 9x Khymerae, 6x Razorwings
Note: The main way I ran the BeastStar was with the Baron and the Farseer w/ Shard of Anaris (ShardSeer). My warlord would typically stay with the Guardians and stay in range of the Beasts should I desire to cast Fortune or other buffs on them.
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| Shout out to Jy2 from Dakka, who took this picture and posted it, unaware that I had somehow forgotten to take a picture of my army and would need to steal one from somewhere. :) |
Game 1: BeastStar vs. Donald Anderson's Triptide Tau
When I first saw this pairing, I initially thought it was an elaborate joke - Don is one of the only people I play against, and the first round wasn't supposed to allow us to be paired at all. What made this all the more bizarre was the fact that earlier that day, Don had expressed concern about being paired against me in the first round, my response being something to the tune of "well, it's never happened to me and my friends in our first round at any GT of any size, so it won't happen here. Odds are like 1 in 200 that it happens."
So, of course it happened.
After a little bit of talking to Reece and Chip up front, we were informed that since we hadn't entered the same 'club', we had been eligible to play in the first round. As it so happened, there were a few people from another club paired up next to us, and Reece got us all switched up.
It was a good indication of how the tournament would prove to be run - Reece did a good job handling what issues/qualms I had throughout the tournament. While other tournaments have been similar in that regard, I will just take the time now to say that Reece did a good/professional job handling what issues came up on my end, even when he ruled against me (only once the whole tournament!)
Game 1: BeastStar vs. Mikko Carranza's OLD Nids
His List:
Swarmlord (Warlord)
1x Tyrant Guard
8x Ymgarl Genestealers
Doom of Malan'tai // Mycetic Spore
Tervigon
Tervigon
10x Termagants
10x Termagants
29x Gargoyles
Trygon
Trygon
The Mission:
Primary (4 Points): Crusade
Secondary (3 Points): Emperor's Will
Tertiary (1 Point Each): First Blood, Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker
Deployment:
Dawn of War
Nightfight:
NO!
Initiative:
Mikko won the roll, electing to go first.
Powers:
StoneSeer (Warlord): Fortune, Prescience, Guide
ShardSeer: Forewarning, Prescience, Perfect Timing
Swarmlord: Invisibility, Puppet Master, other inconsequential powers
Tervigons: Feel No Pain
...I'm not sure if we even rolled for Warlord Traits. Heh.
Pre-game Thoughts:
I was both a little happy and a little frustrated to be playing against the old bugs. While it was cool to get one last 'hurrah' in against the old book, I hadn't really game-planned about how to beat it. It would also fail to give me experience against the new book, which I would have really liked to get. That said, Mikko seemed like a cool guy, and I was relieved not to have to play my friend Don in the first round.
His gameplan seemed obvious enough to me - get his guys into combat. Swarmlord had gotten Invisibility, which would really put a damper on things for me trying to shoot his units up. In addition, Swarmlord would be really tricky for my BeastStar to kill, as he had T6, a 4++ invulnerable save, WS9, and shadows in the warp to make my casting really tricky.
My gameplan was this: tie his big guys up with the Beasts and kill the Tervigons with my other support units. I got lucky and spiked both Fortune and Forewarning fairly early on, and this allowed me the luxury of my Masters and Razorwings being fairly safe in combat, even with the big S6 guys. Hit and Run would be vital for me to be able to tie up his units and 'release' them one at a time while my backfield cleaned them up.
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| Here's our deployment. I wanted the Warp Spiders (the models are snakes) on the table to help with rending/clearing out the little bugs as I saw fit. He decided to deepstrike his Trigons and Doom, and also had the Ymargls doing their thing, picking a piece of terrain that they would come in from, able to charge the turn they came in. |
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| Mikko's deployment. Gargoyles had the cotton swabs on their base to give a cloud effect for them. Pretty cool :) |
Mikko cast Invisibility and FNP on the Gargoyles, and then jetted forward. The Gargs would get a 6" run, putting them 6" from my lines. Swarmy hid behind the massive ruins in the center.
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| Gosh, I hate feeling so intimidated by fast armies. I would need to kill those Gargs as quickly as possible before they caused too much mayhem. |
I gave Prescience/Fortune/Forewarning to the Beasts, who moved within 1" of the Gargs. Guide went to the Spiders, and Prescience to the Guardians.
Guardians moved up within 12" of the Gargs, but used the cool sign to block their view from the closest Gargs to the Beasts so that they could kill models farther away and the Beasts could still get an easy charge. Warp Spiders jumped up to shoot at some Gants his Tervigon had pooped out the turn before.
Shooting went alright, killing a bunch of Gargoyles despite Invisibility, and the Warp Spiders killed all the Gants, netting me First Blood. Wraithknight shot at a Tervigon, got a "6" (to cause insta-death), but the Tervigon got its 5+ cover save and lived.
In assault, the Beasts charged and did just enough damage to wipe the Gargoyles out entirely.
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| Now we wonder - when will his reserves arrive? Will I be able to survive vs. the Doom? |
Bugs Turn 2:
His Trygons both arrived, and landed next to my Beasts. Doom arrived and scattered slightly but still in 6" range of my Guardians and Beasts. Ymargls also came in from the red hill in my own deployment zone, ready to charge the Guardians.
He cast FNP and Invisibility on the Tervigon closest to Swarmy.
Tervigons pooped out Gants, again failing to 'run dry'. Swarmlord approached the Beasts, needing a 6" charge through terrain.
I rolled under my 10 leadership for the Beasts and Guardians both vs. the Doom. Whew, he would be killable next turn!
His shooting failed to hurt the Beasts, and the Swarmlord rolled a "5", which was not enough to get into combat. Ymargls got overwatched by the Guardians, who (with Prescience) ended up killing 4 or 5 of the hapless creatures, despite T5. In combat, Mikko rolled poorly against the Guardians, and put a single wound on them, which the Farseer tanked. The Guardians mostly whiffed, but the Farseer's witchblade (with Prescience) felled another two, and I won combat, though he was still within synapse and thus fearless.
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| Here's his reserves. Everything came in, which is both good and bad for me! At least now I would not need to keep track of his reserves! Note that because he failed to charge with the Swarmlord, he abstained from charging in with the Gants, as he (rightly) assumed I would just kill them all for no gain on his part. Wise move :) |
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| Guardians apparently love killing Ymgargls. Who knew? |
I managed to cast Fortune and Forewarning, though I got perils on both. I also got Prescience off on my Beasts, but got an "11" on my Guardians, despite being outside the Shadow in the Warp.
Beasts decided to go pick on his Tervigon and Swarmlord. My aim was to challenge the Swarmlord and rend the Tervigon to death with Razorwings, while multi-assaulting into his Gants as well.
Wraithknight took another potshot at his far-right Tervigon, spiked another "6", and this time the Tervigon exploded, killing another unit of Gants. I then shot at and finished off his top-right corner Gants, freeing up the right flank entirely. Wave Serpents combined to kill off the Doom, who failed more than his share of saves.
In assault, I managed to kill the final Ymgarl with the Farseer. The Beasts slaughtered the gants and caused a single wound to the Guard, but failed to do anything at all (despite a 3+ re-roll to hit) with the Razorwings vs. his Tervigon. Of note is Swarmlord hitting/wounding my challenging Master 4 times and me passing all four 4++ re-rollable saves :)
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| Overview of the board - no more Ymgarls, Doom, or Tervigon on the right, and also 3 fewer Gant squads. |
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| Wraithknight, Spiders, and DE Warriors all staring at the cleared-up right flank. |
Bugs Turn 3:
Mikko knew he needed to kill the BeastStar as quickly as possible, so he charged in with the Trygons.
He caused a bunch of wounds, I saved against most of them, and the Razorwings caused four wounds to his Tervigon. They then Hit and Ran away so that the Guardians + Spiders + Serpents + Warriors + Wraithknight could shoot down one of his Trygons. This would be my plan for the remainder of the game.
As it happened, Mikko saw this coming, and decided to call it.
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| At this point, Mikko still has 2 Trygons, a Tervigon, and the Swarmlord. Not much else. |
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| Close-up of what Mikko still had - those Gants on the left are dead. |
Results: 10-1 Win for the BeastStar!
Post-game Thoughts:
Well, the BeastStar delivered when needed - I was fortunate to get Forewarning in this battle, as his Trygons could have done a lot of damage to my Razorwings. As it happened, Fortune worked well for me, and Mikko only managed to kill a couple of Beasts despite good hit/wound rolls on his end. Sometimes Fortune is just awesome, and I rolled extremely well on saves.
In the end, we decided I likely would have been able to kill the Swarm Lord, due to my firepower and ability to hit and run with the Beasts, so we called it 10-1, because I would 'forget' to kill his Mycetic Spore in my deployment zone, giving him Linebreaker :)
Fun opponent - Mikko had a great attitude, and is really excited to see what he can do with the new Nids! I'm excited to see what he will come up with!
The pairings were apparently 'swiss', which means that people with 10 points got to play other people with 10 points. This would mean that I had a great chance to play someone really good. As it turned out, that possibility would turn into a reality.
Next up: Necrons w/ Chaos Allies... (hint: 4 flyers)
1 comment:
Very awesome battle report. I need to learn how to do that many pictures when I play.
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