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Rogue Trader Tournament at Discordia Games. 1913pts. There was a Rogue Trader Tournament at Discordia Games this past weekend. The point value was 1913. That's a strange number. Apparently the store manager that organized the tournament asked what value they could do for the tournament and the GW representative told him he could make it any number he wanted. I guess he just felt like being weird, so 1913 it was. There was quite a good turnout, even with 20 slots they still had to turn some people away. I brought my Godzilla shooty Tyranids. Since I knew that Armored Company (Hi Nick!) would be in attendance, I kept the twin-linked Venom Cannons on my Heavy Support Carnifi, and I kept one of my Tyrants as Venom Cannon/Twin-Linked Devourer, but I decided that having both of them like that cost me too much firepower. I was a little shy of 1913pts, but not by enough to really get me anything else. I didn't want to have an odd-numbered Genestealer brood, but there wasn't anything else I could add with the points, and there wasn't anything that I wanted to take away that would have been worth it to add a second Genestealer. (Even-numbered units don't give up points as easily as odd-numbered ones.) Game 1: Arch Rivals Opponent: Jeff with The Lost and the Damned. For those not familiar with this army list, it is Traitor Guard. They essentially have IG squads and tanks, plus Daemons and Mutant squads. He had 3 or 4 Guard Squads, a large squad of Big Mutants, and a large squad of Mutants on Horseback (Daemonic Speed) as well as a large squad of Rough Riders, 5 CSM Bikes, a unit of Daemonettes and a unit of Mounted Daemonettes. He also had a Leman Russ tank and a Basilisk. Jeff had a lot of Cavalry in this game. The Mutants on Horseback and the RoughRiders were deployed together on one flank, with the Big mutant squad on the other, backed up by a small squad of Guard and bolstered by the CSM Bikers. The center held several squads of Guard as well as both vehicles. Table: Semi-desert with a long, high ridge on one end and several smaller hills scattered about, plus a bunker-sized building near the center.
What happened: He attempted sort of a pincer, with the Cavalry coming in on one side and the bikes and Big Mutants on the other, while the Leman Russ, Basilisk and Guard squads shot to soften me up. Since there was a large ridge that blocked Line of Sight on the cavalry side, I put a Genestealer brood and my Ravs over there to handle them and I went mostly forward toward the tanks at the center of his deployment corner. I knew that once I got in range, my shooting would shred the lightly armored squads and the Psychic screams would make them run for the hills. While that did eventually happen, the Big Mutant squad kept making a nuisance of itself, taking damage and making their Morale checks and even getting in to charge one of my Elite Carnifi. I eventually drove them away, but it took an awful lot. The bikes on that side also made it into contact, but were countercharged by my Genestealers and went the way of all things. On my left, the cavalry started up the hill, but I managed to get my Genestealers and 2 of the 3 Raveners to charge them first. This took the charge away from them, but it left my Genestealers and the Raveners out to get countercharged and killed by the Rough Riders. Still and all, it kept them off of my flank for a couple of turns and took the punch out of his cavalry. Because they were delayed, they didn't get to coordinate their charges with the Mounted Daemonettes and the Daemonettes, which made those much easier to deal with. It also meant that the Rough Riders had to use their hunting lances (S5 Power Weapons on the first charge only) on my Raveners, rather than my Monstrous Creatures. In the center, my Venomfexes kept the Leman Russ stunned all game, but never really did anything else. The Basilisk got to shoot, but I spread out so it wasn't very effective. My shooting was concentrated here (not that there were that many targets) and I made a couple of Guard squads run away and gunned down the remnants of the cavalry, which included his General. On the final turn of the game, I sent my last Ravener up to engage the last Guard squad here, and he ate a couple for no damage in return, but they made their Morale check and hung around. It was a pretty bloody battle for both sides, and when we counted up the victory points, I was in the lead by 139. Unfortunately, the margin for a tie was 200pts, so we had a draw. Armchair General sez: I should have shifted everybody to my right toward the large squad of Big Mutants. They would have eaten more shots sooner, which would have kept them back a bit more. In addition, it would have given me slightly more space against the Cavalry side. They would have had to crest the big LOS-blocking ridge and had to weather a turn of Devourers before I got my charges in against them. While the Rough Riders behind would still have been okay for the counter-charge, I would have been in much better shape. For that matter, another 62pts was all I needed to pull out a win, so just minor adjustments would have taken care of this game. If I'd played slightly faster we would've gotten another turn in, which would also have gotten me the win. I was just too indecisive faced with mixed shooting and assault. Game 2: Suicide Squad. Opponent: Dave with Necrons. Lord with Destroyer Body, Orb, Phylactery. 4 Large squads of Warriors, 10 Immortals, 3 Heavy Destroyers, 9 Scarabs in 2 units. Table: City. (Not a full cityfight table, but a lot of large buildings and nothing else.)
What Happened: Dave's strategy was pretty much just sit back and shoot, though he did put one Warrior squad way out to each flank to ensure I didn't do a flank run around his firing line. I set up center and right, ignoring one of his flank squads (which consequently didn't effect the game until at least turn 3, since it had to reposition.) Pretty much all of my shooting was just to each side of the center, but I put my Raveners and a brood of Genestealers out on my right flank to handle his single flank squad. The setup made it difficult to form my usual wall of Monstrous Creatures, where I normally hide my Genestealers, so the Genestealers just stuck to the buildings for a turn or two, then made a dash across the table. While this did result in a couple of broods making it to his lines, it did cost me a lot of Genestealers. Armchair General sez: In retrospect, I probably would have done better if I had simply put my flank units in the center with everything else and overloaded it. That would have kept that squad out of the action for a few turns like the far flank squad, and it would have given the center more target saturation, which would get me more Genestealers into combat. For that matter, I think I mishandled my Genestealers in this game. Had I held them back for another turn, lurking in the buildings, I probably would have lost an extra Monstrous Creature, but I would have damaged his firing more and gotten more Genestealers across the board intact. That would mean that I would have lost fewer victory points. I was rather proud that my Venom Cannons eventually took down the Lord. I didn't have anything else for my Heavy Support Carnifi to shoot at, and throwing in one extra turn of shooting with my Venom Cannon/Twin-Linked Devourer Tyrant made the difference. That was a good use of those resources that would have otherwise mostly been a waste. There's another story here as well, but I'll save that for the end. Game 3: Battle in the Eye of Terror Opponent: Sal with Black Templars. Chaplain with large Assault Squad. Champ with large squad in a Rhino. Tactical squad in Rhino. Predator. Dreadnaught. Squad of Terminators. Table: Nearly open plains. (seriously, there was almost no cover at all here. Just a couple of low hills and a couple of forests that were barely bigger than two trees.) Sal set up roughly centrally, with the Predator and Dreadnaught and Terminators up on a hill and the Rhinos flanking them to either side. The squadron of Tornados set up on his right flank, and the Assault squad and Chaplain stayed in reserve to deepstrike. I too set up centrally, with my Monstrous Creatures forming a wall and my Genestealers in a couple of ranks behind them.
What Happened: His Predator and the Tornados combined their shooting to nail one of my Tyrants on the first turn, opening a hole in my lines. I shifted my Monstrous Creatures a little to fill the gap and moved forward, shooting at the Tornados with an Elite Carnifex. Although I got a number of results, and Sal started to spread them out on the squadron, I pointed out that only the lead Tornado was in range, and thus the others didn't have to be effected by the fire, unless he really wanted them to! He thanked me for pointing that out and removed the lead Tornado. On the second turn, he repeated the performance by taking down my second Tyrant, and his Assault squad and Chaplain Deep Struck on my left flank, the same side as the Tornados. Unfortunately for him, they scattered too close to my lines, since they wouldn't be able to assault this turn. They desperately shot at the nearest Genestealer brood, reducing them to 3, while the Tornados targeted the next nearest, reducing them to a single Genestealer. Well, 2 other Broods of Genestealers dashed over to take them out and my nearest Elite Carnifex nailed the Tornados. Meanwhile, I destroyed the Predator and was getting within firing distance. Armchair General sez: This one went pretty well. I might have done slightly better if I had moved the Elite Carnifex straight toward the Tornado squadron and taken most of them out on that first turn, rather than planning on him keeping the front line of the wall closed and hoping I had range, but that's not much. Aside from that, I probably could have kept my Monstrous Creatures slightly further from the Black Templar lines and saved another one or even two, but again, that's not much. I think I did everything pretty much right in this game. Sal did alright too. I don't think he really made any mistakes, with the possible exception of deepstriking the Assault Squad. It didn't gain him much, where they probably would have been able to do more damage if he kept them near his lines and got combined charges with a Tactical squad or the Terminators or something. Final Score: 79 overall (24 sports, 37 Battle, don't have the rest) which put me in 4th place. First place was 92pts. (He totally deserved it, he won all 3 games, got great sports scores and had a nicely painted/converted army.) 2nd place was 82, 3rd place was 81. Looking at it, I realize that I was too much of a nice guy. If I had asked Dave to play one more turn of the game, I would have ended up with a victory instead of a draw, which would have given me 5 more Battle points and put me in second place instead of fourth. While I still wouldn't have gotten any prizes, it's a very important lesson to remember. It was a tournament, and we are competing for points. I'm entitled to a full game to get my points, or I should ask for it to be considered a victory since he conceded. I'll remember that next time. If I had done the things in game 1 that, in hindsight, would have been better, I could have won that one as well, which would have put me within just a couple of points of first place. Of course, had I won my first game, I probably would have been playing a different person in game 2, and the same for game three. No way to know how that would have all come out, but it's a good point to realize how close I came. As a note, in the final game, I had a Genestealer brood reduced to a single model, and one reduced to 3 models. I realized that if that single model was killed, he'd get the rest of the points for that brood, and if one of the remaining three was killed, it would give him half points for that squad. When I realized this, I moved them behind all the others, trying to keep them safe. I also kept them out of combat except for the last turn, when I felt that the extra boost it would give me was worth the risk. This may seem like a fairly trivial thing, but it's a big breakthrough for me. Until now I have almost never thought of things that way, and certainly not during a game! If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |
