So, I've been feeling sorry for myself because I get to spend the whole weekend (Friday + Saturday) in class, because people with jobs who want their Masters "get" to take weekend classes :) It's depressing.
BUT
After being in class for a good long (late) time, I finally got out and had the chance to play my slowly developing BeastStar against my friend Donald, who is getting better and better at 40k. Last time we played it was close, but I pulled off a squeaker. This time, his list was much more optimized, and his overall experience as a player had increased.
The thing that made me want to play him before the LVO (besides being a fun guy to play) is that he has a killer Tau + Tau army ("Triptide"), which is a list I dread to face at LVO. This game was further made interesting by me not rolling Fortune with either of my Jetseers, and having to play the dreaded Hammer and Anvil against an army I am extremely outclassed by when it comes to shooting.
The Essentials:
1750 BeastStar
Eldar (Allies):
Farseer w/ Jetbike, Spirit Stones of Anthalan, Warlord (went with Guardians)
Farseer w/ Jetbike, Shard of Anaris (went with Beasts)
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 Warriors w/ Splinter Cannon
Beast Pack w/ 5x Masters, 9x Khymerae, 6x Razorwings
Don's Tau + Tau 1750
Tau Empire (Primary):
Buff Commander w/ Command and Control Node, Puretide Engram Chip, Irridium Armor, Multi-spectrum sensor suite, 4+ Invulnerable, Feel No Pain, Warlord
10x Fire Warriors
6x Fire Warriors
6x Fire Warriors
Riptide w/ Ion Accelerator, SMS, Early Warning Override
Riptide w/ Ion Accelerator, Fusion Gun, Early Warning Override
Tetra (2x TL Marker Lights, 1x Pulse Rifle, Scout)
Tetra
Tetra
Skyray w/ Blacksun Filter
Skyray w/ Blacksun Filter
Farsight Enclave (Allies):
Cadre Fireblade
3x Crisis Suits w/ 2x Plasma Guns (each)
3x Crisis Suits w/ 2x Missile Pods (each)
Riptide w/ Ion Accelerator, SMS, Early Warning Override, Earth Caste Pilot
Tetra
Mission:
Primary: Scouring (worth 4 points)
Secondary: Kill Points (worth 3 points)
Tertiary: Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker (each worth 1 point)
Deployment:
Hammer and Anvil
Night Fight:
NO!
Powers:
StoneSeer: Guide, Executioner, Eldrich Storm, (Move through cover/stealth in Ruins for army)
ShardSeer: Guide, Doom, Eldrich Storm
Tau Commander: Re-roll all to-hit rolls of a 1 for a single phase to all Tau Empire models within 12" of the Warlord
Initiative:
He won the roll, and opted to take first turn.
He scouted a couple of his Tetras up.
I then attempted to seize the initiative and NAILED IT, giving me first turn.
Pre-game Thoughts:
I was kind of out of position to seize the initiative. I really don't know why I chose to try - I almost never try to seize in practice games, but decided to try for fun this time. Not 100% this was a wise move by myself, as I had deployed in a way which would deny the majority of his army from shooting/harming my BeastStar on his own first turn, which was the priority for me.
That said, I had a couple of goals this game. Because it was scouring and I got lucky and had the two "3" objective markers near my own deployment zone, I needed to distract Don. That meant getting the Beasts into combat and making a nuisance of themselves for as many turns as Don allowed them to. While the Beasts were worth an extra point in this mission (FA choices are an extra point in scouring), I was more concerned with Don ignoring my scoring units than anything.
While the Scouring was certainly worth keeping track of, I was happy to see that Kill Points were the secondary. My army, while enormous model-wise, is only 13 KP, and Don has roughly 579 KP. I figured that unless he nearly tabled me, I'd win at KP. This was my real focus - win at KP and draw (or win) on Scouring. If I got First Blood, I would have a good chance to win the game regardless of how the Scouring went.
One other thing of note which made me okay with semi-ignoring the Scouring: Don had 4 Tetras. Tetras are amazing for their points - it's like 35 points for a Fast, Scouting vehicle with 2x TL Marker Lights and for some reason, a Pulse Rifle as well. Just amazing.
However.
Tetras are also AV10, 2HP, and open-topped. They die SO EASY. That means both 4 quick kill-points and 4 nearly automatic "Scouring Points" for me unless he plays really conservatively with them. The problem is that Don's army relies on Marker Lights in order to destroy opponents. He can't play *too* conservatively with them....
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| Here's a picture of the deployment. Most of my Beasts are behind the bunker (which we used as LOS-blocking terrain), the DE Warriors are in the top corner ruin, and the guardians are spread out in the bottom right corner. His Warlord decided to join the large unit of Fire Warriors + Fireblade. The two objectives closest to the bunker (behind the tree and on the other side of the tree) are both worth "3". Woot. |
I cast some buffs on guys and moved/ran the Beasts forward. The Warp Spiders moved up to force Don to erase them along with the Beasts. Everything else just kind of meandered around and ensured they had LOS to the units they wanted to shoot.
I started off with the Wave Serpents each shooting their shields at Tetras. I downed two of them, grabbing me First Blood and two "Scouring Bonus Points". I then tried my luck with the Wraithknight, shooting at his Earth Caste Riptide, but only did a wound. Bright Lances shot and did another wound, and the Spiders caused another wound, bringing him down to 2 left. Not 100% sure that was the wisest course of action - it did not reduce Don's effectiveness for his next turn at all. Still, probably better to shoot a Riptide than Fire Warriors with Bright Lances...
Kill Point Count:
BeastStar: 2 (Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 0
Scouring "Extra Points":
BeastStar: 2 (Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 0
 |
| Green blurs in the center are my Derp Snakes (counts-as Warp Spiders). FYI, pictures are kind of sparse the rest of the game, though there are a few more at least! |
Don mostly kept his models where they were, the only exception being that at the end of the turn he jumped his Riptides back out of charge range from the Beasts. He also moved one of his Skyrays, who was just short of 36" from my Wraithknight, who would otherwise get 4+ cover from his missiles.
Don shot primarily at my Beasts, who (without Fortune) lost a large number of their um, number. The majority of the Razorwings survived though, which was key.
He also evaporated my Warp Spiders, getting his Plasma Suits within 12" and throwing a few markerlights on them. 12x BS5 shots ignoring cover FTW lol. Tau cheating :)
When the smoke cleared, about half of my Beasts had survived, and only the Warp Spiders had been annihilated. He had also shot some Skyray Missiles at the Wraithknight, putting 4 wounds on the poor bastard.
Kill Point Count:
BeastStar: 2 (Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 1 (Warp Spiders)
Scouring "Extra Points":
BeastStar: 2 (Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 1 (Warp Spiders)
BeastStar Turn 2:
I rolled for reserves and the Bikes came in. I hid them behind stuff the whole game.
After casting some buffs (and Doom on the Warlord's unit), I moved up the Beasts, who would need 7" to charge his Warlord unit. Guardians shuffled up, trying to get a bead on Don's Plasma Suits near them, and the Wave Serpents drew LOS on Don's remaining two Tetras. Wraithknight decided to jump up and threaten Don's flank.
Shooting put two Pens on the rightmost Skyray, which immobilized/stunned it (Riptides all had a 3++ from their Nova). Serpents blew up the remaining Tetras. Guardians got a "1" for Battle Focus, followed by a "1", and could only shoot their Lances at the Plasma Suits, who passed both 5+ cover saves. Doh!
Beasts initially got sad when they rolled a "1" and "2" for their charge, but Fleet let them roll again, and gave them an 11" charge. Don had given his squad counter-attack with his PenChip (when was the last time that was even used?) and we made a slight mistake: Don used ALL of his weapons systems to shoot overwatch from the Riptides, which is ruled differently at LVO (only 1 system may be used).
I still got into combat and put a TON of wounds on his unit. He tanked them all with his Commander, only taking a (really lucky) 3 wounds. Keep in mind that all of my models were hitting on 3's, rerolling wounds from Doom, with 33 Rending attacks. Don's Commander should have died pretty quick, but survived. Don then did like 13 wounds on the Beasts with counter-attack, and because I was Fearless, we stuck in combat.
Not what I expected at all!
 |
| Beasts are locked in combat, but being stared down by a bunch of Riptides. Note that I positioned my Khymerae and the Baron on either side of the combat, so that if he *did* choose to charge in with the Riptides, I'd have invulnerable saves instead of having him insta-death the T3 Razorwings. |
Kill Point Count:
BeastStar: 4 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 1 (Warp Spiders)
Scouring "Extra Points":
BeastStar: 4 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 1 (Warp Spiders)
Tau Turn 2:
Don was wise and opted not to kill off his Riptides in a futile attempt to out-assault a still-strong combat Deathstar. He DID however choose Stubborn on his Warlord, making it nearly impossible for me to wipe that unit out in combat this turn.
His shooting mostly went into finishing off my Wraithknight, which had a 4+ cover save and the Tau at this point only had two dependable marker lights (one of his Skyrays was stunned). He did finally manage to kill it, and also managed to kill a few of my Guardians, who were out of position.
In combat, Don put all of my wounds on his Fire Warriors and then proceeded to roll like 10 4+ saves in a row. I managed to kill all but one of his Fire Warriors in the end, but we stuck in combat. I opted to hit-and-run away and succeeded, getting the Beasts deeper into his lines.
Kill Point Count:
BeastStar: 4 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 2 (Warp Spiders, Wraithknight)
Scouring "Extra Points":
BeastStar: 4 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 1 (Warp Spiders)
 |
| Beasts are staring down Don's 3-model unit, which consists of his Warlord, 1 Fire Warrior, and Cadre Fireblade. So far my plan has been working - distract Don's army and keep him in his own deployment zone. How much mayhem can the Beasts cause without being overwatched to death? |
It may not seem like it, but I had a conundrum: I wanted to multi-assault Don's whole force, but his overwatch was withering, and he played correctly by keeping all of his units within 6" of his other units. I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew. As such, I opted for the relatively mild goal of his Warlord unit, a Skyray, and another squad of Fire Warriors.
With this goal in mind, I cast Doom on his 1HP-remaining Skyray on the top of the board, and moved the Beasts into position.
Shooting from the Serpents killed off the Doomed Skyray, and all my other shots bounced off his models.
In combat, the Beasts managed to kill his Commander (finally!), wrecked the Skyray, and ran down the rest. They then got a 2" consolidate, and were in the open and exposed.
Great turn for me, as I claimed 6 KP and Slay the Warlord! Beasts would likely die very soon, however, and I would no longer have a unit to distract Don's ridiculous firepower...
Kill Point Count:
BeastStar: 10 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Commander, Fireblade, Fire Warriors, Fire Warriors, Skyray, Skyray)
Tau + Tau: 2 (Warp Spiders, Wraithknight)
Scouring "Extra Points":
BeastStar: 4 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 1 (Warp Spiders)
 |
| Sorry to say, this is the final picture. Things got intense :) |
Tau Turn 3:
Don decided to start moving up the field to deal with my scoring units and control/contest my objectives.
First, Don managed to kill off the Baron, who failed his 2nd 2++. He also insta-gibbed a Razorwing.
His other shooting removed my poorly-placed Bright Lances and a number of other Guardians, who were down to around 8 models at that point.
In assault, his Earthcaste Pilot charged into the Beasts and immediately used an impact hit to kill a Razorwing. I caused two rends to him, and he passed both 5++ saves and put a 2nd wound on my ShardSeer. At that point, I had my ShardSeer and one full-health Razorwing left in my BeastStar. Haha!
Don decided to start moving up the field to deal with my scoring units and control/contest my objectives.
First, Don managed to kill off the Baron, who failed his 2nd 2++. He also insta-gibbed a Razorwing.
His other shooting removed my poorly-placed Bright Lances and a number of other Guardians, who were down to around 8 models at that point.
In assault, his Earthcaste Pilot charged into the Beasts and immediately used an impact hit to kill a Razorwing. I caused two rends to him, and he passed both 5++ saves and put a 2nd wound on my ShardSeer. At that point, I had my ShardSeer and one full-health Razorwing left in my BeastStar. Haha!
Kill Point Count:
BeastStar: 10 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Commander, Fireblade, Fire Warriors, Fire Warriors, Skyray, Skyray)
Tau + Tau: 3 (Warp Spiders, Wraithknight, Baron)
Scouring "Extra Points":
BeastStar: 4 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 1 (Warp Spiders)
BeastStar Turn 4:
Don had moved his topmost Riptide up toward my little bunker, and I was finally in range with my Warriors to do something!
I cast doom on his Earth Caste Riptide (which I was in combat with) and then shuffled models around to shoot at the approaching Riptide. I hunkered my Guardians backward, not willing to lose them to Don's seemingly invincible Plasma Suits. I also got my Dire Avengers out of their Serpent to shoot at the Riptide.
A flurry of shots from 2x Wave Serpents, Pseudo-rending Dire Avengers, and DE Warriors ended up bringing the Riptide down to a single wound remaining, as he had already hurt himself once with his Nova charge.
In combat, my Farseer + Razorwing (both with Doom) managed to cause 3 Rends to the Riptide, who failed 2 of them and died! BeastStar FTW, woo, haha!
Kill Point Count:
BeastStar: 11 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Commander, Fireblade, Fire Warriors, Fire Warriors, Skyray, Skyray, Riptide)
Tau + Tau: 3 (Warp Spiders, Wraithknight, Baron)
Scouring "Extra Points":
BeastStar: 4 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 1 (Warp Spiders)
Don had moved his topmost Riptide up toward my little bunker, and I was finally in range with my Warriors to do something!
I cast doom on his Earth Caste Riptide (which I was in combat with) and then shuffled models around to shoot at the approaching Riptide. I hunkered my Guardians backward, not willing to lose them to Don's seemingly invincible Plasma Suits. I also got my Dire Avengers out of their Serpent to shoot at the Riptide.
A flurry of shots from 2x Wave Serpents, Pseudo-rending Dire Avengers, and DE Warriors ended up bringing the Riptide down to a single wound remaining, as he had already hurt himself once with his Nova charge.
In combat, my Farseer + Razorwing (both with Doom) managed to cause 3 Rends to the Riptide, who failed 2 of them and died! BeastStar FTW, woo, haha!
Kill Point Count:
BeastStar: 11 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Commander, Fireblade, Fire Warriors, Fire Warriors, Skyray, Skyray, Riptide)
Tau + Tau: 3 (Warp Spiders, Wraithknight, Baron)
Scouring "Extra Points":
BeastStar: 4 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 1 (Warp Spiders)
Tau Turn 4:
Don still had a lot of scoring - he had both Suit units, who were deadly, mobile, and resilient. He also had a single 6-man Fire Warrior squad. He moved his Riptides and suits forward, and the Suits drew a bead on my 2-model "BeastStar".
Farseer and Razorwing died immediately, and he had enough firepower to also cause a couple more wounds to my Guardians, which the Farseer tanked (took 1 wound). Don also managed to kill off a Bike from each squad, both of which passed their leadership checks.
Kill Point Count:
BeastStar: 11 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Commander, Fireblade, Fire Warriors, Fire Warriors, Skyray, Skyray, Riptide)
Tau + Tau: 5 (Warp Spiders, Wraithknight, Baron, ShardSeer, Beast Pack)
Scouring "Extra Points":
BeastStar: 4 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 2 (Warp Spiders, Beast Pack)
BeastStar Turn 5:
Despite the disparity in the Kill-Point count, Don's army still had a lot of shooting and potential to score - he still has two Riptides and two Suit squads, along with some Fire Warriors. I still have all 5 of my scoring units, but the Dire Avengers were forced to go to ground the turn before, and the Bikes have only 2 models remaining in each unit.
He was also in range to hold/contest two scouring objectives worth a total of 5 each, which would be enough to win the game for him if he could kill my remaining Guardians and a couple Bikes.
While I would still win if the game ended Turn 5 (I had the Secondary + First Blood + Warlord), I couldn't allow the chance that he would kill my Warlord/get Linebreaker with his Suits and pull off the unlikely win, which was possible on any of his remaining turns.
My goal was simple: I needed to force two separate leaderships on both of his Suit squads (pinning then actual leadership), and finish off his 1-wound Riptide.
The Bikes jumped within 12" of the Riptide, while my Wave Serpents positioned themselves to shoot at Don's Suits.
Shooting went well - the Dire Avengers got extremely lucky and snap-fired the Riptide to death with Pseudo-rending. The Wave Serpents then killed two Suits from both squads, pinning the Plasma Suits and making the Missile Suits run away. My Warlord assault-jumped over and contested the 3-point objective the Plasma Suits held.
Kill Point Count:
BeastStar: 12 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Commander, Fireblade, Fire Warriors, Fire Warriors, Skyray, Skyray, Riptide, Riptide)
Tau + Tau: 5 (Warp Spiders, Wraithknight, Baron, ShardSeer, Beast Pack)
Scouring "Extra Points":
BeastStar: 4 (Tetra, Tetra, Tetra, Tetra)
Tau + Tau: 2 (Warp Spiders, Beast Pack)
Tau Turn 5:
Don needed to make something happen, but was unable to do so. His Suit failed to rally, his Fire Warriors failed their needed 6" run to a stronger objective, and his Plasma Suit whiffed his shots. The remaining Riptide killed a couple Guardians with his SMS, but the it wasn't enough.
We rolled to see if the game would end, and it did.
Results: 9-0 Win for the BeastStar!!
Primary: 8-4 (I held a "3" and "1" with 4 "bonus" points, he held a "2" with 2 "bonus" points)
Secondary: 13-5 Kill Points (his fleeing Suits counted as a KP)
Tertiary: 2-0 (I had First Blood and Slay the Warlord)
Post-game Thoughts:
Wow... what a game! The Beasts managed to wreck enough face that Kill Points were no longer an issue, but I think the larger story was that I managed to take his Markerlights out early on. Don struggled to hit with his shooting, which would not have been an issue if he had had more Markerlight support. This also played directly into me not needing to worry about the Scouring as much, and also helped with my KP tally.
Don's list is a pain in the neck for my list in Hammer and Anvil. He has a huge backfield and enormous range. His shooting is difficult to remove (killing a Riptide at range is always more difficult than I expect), and his ability to "cheat" (i.e. increase BS and ignore cover) as well as move his models around in two phases makes the list tricky to outmaneuver in a scenario like this one.
He also played it well, keeping his models within 6" of each other for the awesome Tau overwatch ability, which really did a number on me. Had he been careless, the Beasts could have multi-assaulted his line and won on Turn 3. The Commander and his squad gave me an enormous amount of problems - they lasted for lots of rounds of combat, and Don used the best PenChip abilities available to him for the situation.
Please note that he only put the Commander with the Fire Warriors this game because he wanted to tie up my Beasts - he often just attaches the amazing asshole to a Riptide or Suits - he made the right call in this game, in my opinion.
I made a number of mistakes this game, including stealing the initiative. I hate going first, and while it probably saved a few Beasts, the main issue at hand was that I needed to really hurt his army in order to win the Scouring. My play with the Guardians was awkward as well - the stupid things couldn't get into range of his Suits, and they kind of just marched forward and died for no real reason. There was no point in exposing them the way I did, and Don did what a good player does - made me pay for it.
I'm also unsure as to what I should have done regarding my Warp Spiders. Deep-striking would have potentially made his Riptides just evaporate them before they could do anything, though the Spiders also got evaporated after causing a single wound to Don's Riptide. Not really worth it, IMO. I'll have to devote some thought to that.
Overall a great game against a great list, wielded by a skilled opponent. I was extremely pleased with my result, given the ridiculous scenario I faced.
It will probably end up being my final game before LVO. I've played (and defeated) solid Tau and Eldar lists, as well as a strong Marines + Tau list. The Beasts are eager to see how they can do when the games actually matter.
I'm really excited. What are your thoughts? Corrections? Snarky comments about how I played poorly or got lucky?
See you on the other end of the LVO, I leave on Thursday night!
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