Warpstorm 40K Tournament Day 2

So after day 1 I was sitting on 2 wins and a loss with 2 games remaining.

Round 4 vs Will with Tyranids - Pitched Battle, Thunderhawk Down

In Thunderhawk Down a Thunderhawk enters play by reserve and moves 12D6" along the center line of the table before crashing and leaving a wreck the size of a large blast. Any infantry units it passes over take hits from debris and anything it ends up on takes a Str 10 AP2 hit. The wreckage then becomes the ojective.

Will had something like:
Alpha Warrior with Lash whip and boneswords
2 x 2 Hive Guard
3 Zoanthropes
4 Shooty Warriors
4 Close Combat Warriors (joined by Alpha)
2 x 30 Hormagaunts
22 Gargoyles
2 x 10 Genestealers with Broodlord

I won the roll off and opted to take first turn, selecting the table edge with some large freighter type containers which would provide my boats with some decent cover.

From Warpstorm 2010

Will Deployed his army stretching across the length of the table, using his Gargoyles as a shield.

From Warpstorm 2010

Will decided to try and seize the initiative...and succeeded! While I was all smiles on the outside and saying things like "wow, that's awesome" I was actually a sobbing wreck on the inside because I really wanted that turn of shooting before he started moving.

During Will's first turn he rushes his army forward with some good rolls for difficult terrain and running. Because of his short range he has little shooting. I manoeuvre to get some good firing lanes and unload on his Gargoyle screen, killing around half of them.

From Warpstorm 2010

Again Will rushes his army forward but is still too far away to assault. His shooting is still hindered by a combination of his short range and my Ravager's Nightshields. He does manage to stun a Raider though. During my turn I move around a little more to get some good firing lanes and jump the Warriors out of the stunned Raider so they can shoot the Hormagaunts breathing down their necks.

From Warpstorm 2010

Unfortunately due to us running out of time I didn't get any more photos of this game. Turn 3 and the Thunderhawk had still not shown up. Will managed to make combat on his 3rd turn with the Warrior unit on foot on my left and the Warriors who had jumped out of the Raider. He also took down the Raider containing my Archite and one of the Wych units with shooting. Unsurprisingly he made short work of the Warrior units in combat. After decimating the Gargoyles and collecting a bunch of Hormagaunts with my Ravagers in the previous turns I shifted their focus to the Alpha Warrior and the brood he was with. I did a crazy amount of damage leaving the Alpha with 1 wound and 2 warriors with 4 wounds between them.

Turn 4 and the Thunderhawk comes down on my right in a fairly good position for me but also certainly within his reach. He gets the remainder of his Alpha's unit in combat with my Warrior unit on foot in the center, and charges some of my Raiders and Ravagers. He takes down a Ravager in combat and wipes the Warriors out. I decide the time is right to release the Wyches, so assault a large unit of Hormagants with my Drachon's unit and the Alpha with my Archites unit. I win both combats but fearless keeps him around.

Turn 5 and the last turn since we've run out of time. It's obvious neither of us are going to make the objective and he is either stuck in combat or too far away to do anything. During my turn I switch in to clean-up mode and work to kill off the remainders of the Gargoyles and both Hormagaunt units to ensure I win on VPs (if it's a draw it goes to VPs). I easily have more than 500 required so take the game.

Win - 13 points

Round 5 vs Aaron with Space Marines - Spearhead, 5 objectives and 5 selected KPs.

Each objective is worth 1 plus you select 5 units from your opponents list to be 5 KPs. Aaron selects all my Raiders (as you do) and I select his 3 Tactical units and the 2 Rhinos.

Aaron had:

Commander - not sure what he had because he hid all game

5 shooty Terminators

5 close combat Terminators inside a Landraider

3 x Tactical Squads, 2 in Rhinos

Devastator Squad

It wasn't a tough list for the Dark Eldar and I was fairly confident I could pull out the win to give me 4-1 for the tournament.

I was back on the table I had just played on but it was Spearhead deployment so it would make things different at least. I won the roll and opted to go first (after having to use my Nightmare doll and taking wound on the Drachon!).

From Warpstorm 2010

After seeing his deployment and him failing to seize the initiative I felt even more confident. The Devastators would be my first priority since they posed the most threat to my boats, followed by the landraider.

From Warpstorm 2010

The turns leading up to turn 5 went very quick as I systematically worked my way through the threats as I had prioritised them in my head and he couldn't manage to kill anything due to lack of range and his Landraider being constantly shaken or stunned. Come turn 5 he had the remnants of one tactical squad in the centre (3 models) and the others hiding in cover, including his commander who never showed his face from behind some ruins.

From Warpstorm 2010

The game ends turn 5 with me only having lost a Raider and half a foot squad of Warriors. We shake hands and he's all smiles despite taking such a hammering as we look over what's left on the table. But BACK UP THE RHINO! Some thing is not quite right as we're looking at the table and we both realise this at the same time. We start adding up points. I sit on 2 objectives and actually only killed one of my KP, a Rhino. However everything that he has left is sitting on an objective plus he killed the one Raider. Unbelievably he has 4 points and I only have 3! We're both pretty stunned, he has won the game despite only killing a Raider and 5 Warriors.

This was a huge lesson for me as I essentially had thrown the game away. All I needed to do was rush 2 Raiders up to the centre and I would have won (on VPs at least) but I felt like I was hammering him so much I was completely blind to the mission criteria by that point in the game.

From Warpstorm 2010

So with all the games over and done with it was time to find out the the standings. I come in 15th after only managing to 3-2 for the weekend. Charlie, who I lost to in the second round, comes in first place. 2nd place goes to...Aaron, who i had just given the final game to on a silver platter, as if I wasn't gutted enough already!

All in all a really fun tournament and I feel like I've hit my stride with the Dark Eldar.