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Growing Pains I have been running a series of small 40k tournaments, and I recently handed over the reins to someone else, so that I could actually play once in a while. Since Discordia Games (the hosting store) is having a Rogue Trader Tournament next month, he upped the point value a bit to encourage everyone to build up and paint their armies for the larger tournament. With that end in mind, he used the Combat Patrol mission parameters in the new rulebook, but brought the points up to 750 and added 1pt of Armor Value allowance for vehicles (among other things, allowing Dreadnaughts.) After a bit of thinking, I decided to go with two large broods of Genestealers (Alpha Brood gets 12 Genestealers and Beta gets 11) and a huge brood of 31 Slashers (Leaping Gaunts with Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands(Initiative) ) with a Hive Node Mutant. With 54 models, I outnumbered just about everybody and I thought I had a pretty solid force. Game 1 Mission: Seize the Counter There are 3 counters on the table, you don't know which one is the target until you pick it up by moving onto it. Start with only Troop choices on the board, others come in as Reserves. No Infiltration this time. Opponent: Necrons This was the army that won Best )Painted. It used sort of a White/Black StarWars StormTrooper theme and did look very nice. He had a unit of 10-12 Warriors, 3 Wraiths, several Destroyers and some Scarabs, as well as a Lord with Destroyer Body. Setup and Turn 1: With all my army on the board, I started with a big advantage. Although there were some large buildings on the board, they were arrayed around a fairly large gap in the middle of the board. I started the Gaunts in the gap, planning on losing a few to shooting, then charging in and causing havoc. Both broods of Genestealers hid behind buildings to the left and right of the Gaunts. All my forces moved forward, with the Genestealers trying to stay in cover. The Necron Warriors moved up slightly and seized the first counter, but it was a false reading. Turn 2:The Gaunts suddenly revert to instinctive behavior and charge forward, but are well out of range of the Warriors. They do, however, find the true objective! My Genestealers move up to cover the Gaunts. The Warriors move up, bolstered by most of the Necron army as it joins them. The Wraiths charge the Gaunts while the Destroyers gun down most of the Beta brood of Genestealers, who promptly have an outbreak of common sense and start running off the board. The Wraiths are ground down and Genestealer Brood Alpha moves up to counterattack enemies that go after the Gaunts and the objective. The Destroyers and Warriors obliterate the Gaunts in a hail of magnetic pulses and the Scarabs flit forward and pin the Genestealers in place. Time is called and the enemy is closer to the objective than me by about one inch. Lessons Learned: Well, this was a loss, but it wasn't by much, and I don't think my tactics totally failed me here. If I had been more careful about lines of sight, I wouldn't have lost 6 Genestealers to a Destroyer volley. That's really the only mistake that I think I made. If the Gaunts hadn't gone instinctive, I think I could have tied up the Warriors with them, then let the Genestealers grab the objective and dart off the board. Game 2 Mission: Cleanse The old standard mission, but we could infiltrate. This was played on a board with a fair number of medium size buildings, but large lanes of fire. Opponent: Imperial Guard Most of this army was very nicely painted, and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest get painted up as well. I'm a little fuzzy on what he had, but it was two platoons of grunts with a squad of Storm Troopers in a Chimera and a squad of Hardened Veterans, I think. Setup and Turn 1:I set up fairly centrally, with no real useful place to start my Infiltrating Genestealers. He fired a lot of laser into my Gaunt squad. Genestealer Brood Alpha moves toward the unsuspecting Veterans as they pump more shots into the Gaunts. The Gaunts fail their charge to climb up the building. Turn 2: The Gaunts are brought down to 5 models left, and 2nd Platoon decimates Genestealer Brood Beta. Genestealer Brood Alpha begins to climb up toward the Veterans. The Gaunt brood finally charges into combat against 1st Platoon, but after several kills, the platoon gathers around them. Turn 3: The Veterans are limited in what can fire at Genestealer Brood Alpha, but they take down a few Genestealers. 15 Guardsmen then beat down the last 3 Gaunts. Brood Alpha charges the Veterans, sweeping the squad from the rooftop. Turn 4: Not much has line of sight or range to brood Alpha at the moment, so the Guard take up new positions to threaten them. With all those guns arrayed against them and realizing they are out of charge range, Brood Alpha begins climbing down the back of the building. Turn 5: The Chimera rolls around the corner and sprays the remaining Genestealers with Heavy Bolter fire, killing a few more. Other squads make a sprint for holding quarters. The Genestealers, realizing that their time has come, charge the Chimera, hoping to take it with them. Sadly, it is not to be and they merely put a few dents and scratches on it. Turn 6: The Chimera puts down the final Genestealers and the game is over. 3 Quarters to none and full points for my army. Lessons Learned: That's a lotta dakka! Move and fire double-tapped weapons are pretty amazing, and Guard have lots and lots of guns. With a little better placement, I could have saved one Brood of Genestealers if I'd simply set them up differently. I probably also could have charged the Veterans with the Gaunts, giving myself more protection from all that fire coming downrange. One thing to remember is that, especially against Imperial Guard, my Gaunts may be the best thing to use, since they have a lot of attacks to couple with their good strength, meaning they mow though light enemies pretty easily, while the Genestealers don't have enough bodies or attacks to work with. Game 3 Mission: Night Fight1 Troop Choice starts on board, everything else starts in Reserves. Opponent: Space Marines This army featured a Chaplain, a Tactical Squad, a squad of Veterans and a Devestator squad, along with a Dreadnaught. Setup and Turn 1: I decided to let the Alpha Brood of genestealers start on the board, with the faster Gaunts and the Beta Brood of Genestealers in Reserve. With Night Fight rules in effect, I didn't really need to hide much at this range, but I hugged cover anyway, mostly to keep a clear path for my Gaunts. At this range, there was little for the Marines to do. Turn 2-3: Alpha Brood continued to advance while the Gaunts ran up the middle and Beta Brood advanced up the opposite side from Alpha. The Veteran's weapons were starting to find the range and picked off 5 Gaunts, while the Tacticals and Devestators took chunks out of each of the Genestealer broods. Turn 4: The Gaunts surge forward and catch the Veteran squad. 78(!!) attacks later, 6 Vets go down. The Tactical squad and the Devestator squad each take chunks out of the Genestealer broods approaching them. The Dreadnaught and Chaplain move up to support the Veteran squad. Turn 5: Brood Alpha engages the Tactical squad and wipes them out, advancing towards the Veterans. The Gaunts kill a few more veterans, but Brood Beta is less than an inch out of charge range of the Devastator squad and is quickly shredded. The Dreadnaught and Chaplain move into combat with the Gaunts and the Chaplain is taken down by the swarming creatures. Turn 6: The remnants of Brood Alpha engage the Dreadnaught, but cause no damage to it as the game ends. Final Victory Points: 500 to 463, so I didn't have quite enough of a margin for a win. Lessons Learned: This one was about as close as it gets. I think that I forgot about the Night Fight rules about halfway through the game, but I had fun anyway. If I had spread my gaunts a little bit more, I could probably have used the combat to screen Brood Beta, letting them get closer and do more damage. That probably would have gotten me either the Dreadnaught or the Devastator squad, either one of which would have gotten me the win. Well, I had a great time, despite my poor win record, and I got to play against 3 great opponents. I also got to try out 4th edition rules a bit more and get more used to how my Tyranids work now. I can't wait for the 1100pt tournament in about a month. That should let me test out most of my army, since the organizer is waiving the Combat Patrol restrictions for that event (so I can bring my Lictors and Tyrant and a Carnifex or two.) One nice thing about playing lower point value games is that it allows you to get more games in during a given amount of time. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |