Librarium Online Forums banner

Exterminatus GT - 2,000 Points, 5 Rounds - Chaos Space Marines

2K views 18 replies 8 participants last post by  justiceisrelative 
#1 ·
Exterminatus GT - 2,000 Points, 5 Rounds - Chaos Space Marines


Wow, long weekend. Drove up to Cleveland, TN for a 5-round two day games workshop circuit event this past weekend, The Exterminatus. It was a lot of fun. I had 4 very fun games - there were some... issues with one of my opponents, but I'm not going into it here as I don't really care to discuss it, and it didn't take away from the good time I had at the event.


I brought my Chaos Space Marines. I had been toying with the idea of bringing my Daemons, but settled back on CSM as they are more reliable and in a GT situation, that's what I was looking for. So, onto the list...


HQ:
Daemon Prince - Wings, Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission
Chaos Sorceror - Wings, Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission

Troops:
9xBerzerkers - Champ w/ PF
-- Rhino - combi-melta
9xBerzerkers - Champ w/ PF
-- Rhino - combi-melta
9xBerzerkers - Champ w/ PF
-- Rhino - combi-melta
7xPlague Marines - Champ w/ PF, 2 plasma guns
-- Rhino - combi-melta

Heavy Support:
3xObliterators
3xObliterators
Defiler - Extra DCCW (replaced reaper auto cannon)


I'll freely admit - it's a power list. I, personally, don't believe in the concept of a "cheesy" list in tournament play. Tournaments are about bringing your best possible game, which to me means both skill at playing *and* list composition. You pit the best you can come up with against the best that others can and see who comes out on top through match-ups and player skill. No whining about cheese if you lose, someone either had a better list or out-played you. That's just the way it's supposed to be in a GT level event, IMO. So I have no qualms about double-lash supported by only the best I can come up with in the CSM 'dex.

That said, I'm actually hoping to have tough games that it takes all I have to win. I don't like running over weak lists repeatedly. I figure I'll get an easy round 1 opponent, since it's a random draw, get high battle points, then have to fight for real the rest of the tournament.


Going into the tournament, I believe I have one of the top lists out there at the moment. There are a couple of lists that I am at a disadvantage against... Namely, raider spam dark eldar (ones that are built around shooting and not wyches assaulting me), certain ork builds (KFF in BW, Kans, Lootas).. and Soul Grinder+Blood Crusher heavy khornate daemons that pass their daemonic assault roll. Other than that, I believe that I have a great list against most other lists out there. So I'm hoping for a high finish, if not an overall win.




Some of the other regulars that normally go to tournaments with me aren't able to make it, and the others from my gaming club are playing in the WHFB this time around. That means I'll be playing against 5 people I don't play against regularly for 100% sure - awesome. Half of the fun in tournaments is running into new players.

Looking around the event, there were tons of marines. Some blood angels, some dark angels & templars, but mostly the new marine lists. Understandable, it's a good book. There were a few other CSM lists, a couple of daemons, but none of the ones that are of the variety that I struggle against. There are a decent number of orks, and one raider spam DE list. Two of the orks are being played by people I know to be strong opponents, too. Looks to be a good field.



The terrain on all of the tables are pretty balanced. They're spread out, there's the proper amount, and they look great. No pictures, though.. I forgot to take them of the terrain and such. I'd feel weird taking pictures of a game in play, too, even if my opponent didn't mind. So nothing of the game, just descriptions of how they went.



Missions had 3 objectives that you could achieve, a Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.
Primary: 13/0 for a win/loss, 6/6 for a draw
Secondary: 7/0 for a win/loss, 3/3 for a draw
Tertiary: 2/0 for a win/loss, 1/1 for a draw

So a range of 0-22 was possible, with an exact draw being a 10/10. I prefer these types of scoring systems than the just straight Win/Loss/Draw, as it really starts to separate out levels of victory. Plus, if you're losing the main objective, you can still shoot for points by going for the other ones.




On to the games!





Round 1 - CSM vs. Blood Angels

Pre-deployment: Nominate one of your own HQ models as an "information carrier".

Deployment Type: Dawn of War

Primary: Seize Ground
Secondary: Kill the enemy information carrier
Tertiary: Retrieve the information

You could achieve the tertiary by either killing the enemy information carrier in assault, or by shooting him down and moving to the location where he died. Once you did this, the model/unit that retrieved the information does *not* have to survive the game. They are considered to immediately achieve the tertiary.




[terrain was a non-factor in this game, the center of the board was open and that's where 95% of the game took place]



I got to the table and found out that I was playing against a Blood Angels player. Pretty good for me, I typically run over blood angels pretty fierce in most games. Immediate thought was that it was going to be a good game. We exchange lists, and I realize that no, this is not the normal BA list I see running around. It's actually quite fierce.


Blood Angels

HQ:
Dante
Corbulo

Elites:
10 Death Company

Troops:
5xAssault Marines - Srg w/Power Weapon
5xAssault Marines - Srg w/Power Weapon
5xAssault Marines - Srg w/Power Weapon (no jump packs)
-- Rhino
5xAssault Marines - Srg w/Power Weapon (no jump packs)
-- Rhino
5xAssault Marines - Srg w/Power Weapon (no jump packs)
-- Rhino
5xAssault Marines - Srg w/Power Weapon (no jump packs)
-- Rhino


Heavy Support:
Venerable Furiouso Death Company Dread - Melta, Hvy Flamer, 2xDCCW, Extra Armor
-- Drop Pod
Venerable Furiouso Dread - Melta, Hvy Flamer, 2xDCCW, Extra Armor
-- Drop Pod
Venerable Furiouso Dread - Melta, Hvy Flamer, 2xDCCW, Extra Armor
-- Drop Pod

Fast Attack:
Attack Bike - Multi-melta
Attack Bike - Multi-melta
Attack Bike - Multi-melta



Assessment: A very strong assault element with the death company & lost of assault marines supported by Corbulo's furious charge and Dante's preferred enemy. Then add in the drop podding venerable furiouso dreads (one of which is a death company dread, ugly!), and he fights very hard - as hard if not harder than mine. Add into that the rhino wall to protect the DC & jump pack marines from most shooting, and his attack bikes + meltas on the DP dreads to get people out of rhinos, and it's a strong list.

We both were at the table a little before the starting time of the event, so we got to talking. I commented on the banners he had on his dreads, which looked amazing. He commented that his GF helped paint those, as she's an artist (keeper!).. that he only recently has been working hard on his paint jobs.. that he is "a player first", he could put enough paint to be legal in several weeks on an army, but has been taking his time to do a better job because it's required for tournament soft scores.

When he says this, I have two thoughts:
1) A kindred f'ing spirit is standing across the table from me.
2) This is going to be a tough first game.



We nominate characters: I pick my Lash Sorceror, since he tends to hide out in rhinos most of the game. He picks Corbulo, who tends to do the same.

We roll up 4 objectives and end up placing them in a diamond shape around the center of the board.



I win the roll and defer the first turn to my opponent. He holds everything in the Dawn of War reserve to come in on turn 1. I figure he's going to zoom on his rhinos 12" up and rush me right off the bat. He doesn't have enough shooting to wait, and he'll also strand his dreads if he does. I also figure it'll be up the center of the board, since that's where the objectives are.

So in response, I do deploy a unit: The plague marines in their rhino, with the lash sorceror inside. Basically, I wanted a rhino on the board to try and spotlight one of his rhinos when it comes on so I can pop one in the backfield. I put mine in the relative center about 8" off the board edge.

I decline the Seize Initiative roll and we start the game.



Turn 1
Blood Angels
As expected, he zooms his rhinos up, bringing the jump packers behind them. One attack bike is also behind the rhino wall, while the others turbo boost up the left and right flank.


CSM
I enter the board with my zerker rhinos basically opposite his rhinos, defiler, oblits, and lash prince on their immediate left. Plague rhino moves up 6" (about 20" away from his rhino wall) and attempts to spotlight the rhino holding Corbulo but fails to see it, rolling a 4. The lash prince then tries to see the attack bike on the left, to pull that close to the oblits for some las cannon death, makes the night fight roll, then box cars the psychic attempt and takes a wound from perils. One oblit squad tries to shoot them but fails night fight. Other oblits follow suit, while the defiler doesn't have sight and attempts to hit the night fight roll but fails to see. Zerker rhino on the right smokes.

Overall, a turn where your only wound was against your own model is not a great first turn to a 5 round tournament. :p




Turn 2
Blood Angels
Two dreads drop on the left - they, bike on left, and the two pods attempt to kill the DP but only get one wound through the saves (down to 2 remaining after perils). Rhinos jump to halfway point and smoke. One bike stays back, other moves up and kills the rhino on the right.


CSM
Zerkers go to repay the attack bike on the right. Plagues & sorc disembark and back up while the rhino moves forward to shoot a dread in the back with combi-melta. Other zerker rhino protects the third with itself, then smokes for concealment. Lash sorc moves to assault second dread. Shooting sees left bike killed by oblits, one rhino immobilized, and the first dread lose the DCCW/Melta arm from the back shot penetrate of the AP combi-melta. Defiler (who is taller than a rhino) manages to snipe out two death company.

Prince gets 3 pens on his attacks, rolls 3 5+ results, but they get reduced to two shaken/stun & an immobilized by venerable status. He takes no wounds back.




Turn 3
Blood Angels
Last dread comes in near the plagues. Two rhinos get right up next to me, one hangs back a bit still screening the DC from the sorc lash. Nobody disembarks yet. Attack bike moves up and shoots the dread, gets a glancing 6 and destroys it with AP1. Other shooting is negligable, the melta-less dread is 0.25" short of a charge on oblits. He had popped smoke.

My lash prince kills the other dread in combat.


CSM
Lash prince moves to lash the DC into a zerker charge, stringing them out so that as few DC will get to fight back as possible, with Dante definitely not in the combat. Left oblits shoot three twin-linked meltas from within 6" at the dread staring at them but both pens are negated by smoke. They assault and amazingly nobody does any lasting damage (he missed twice, I got 4 penetrating hits, but with rerolls they all ended as 1 or 2, which are ignored with extra armor in combat). Right oblits fail to kill DC dread. Combi-melta from a rhino misses. Plagues fail to kill a rhino.

Zerkers charge DC, kill 4, lose 2 in return. Other zerkers on the left side charge the DC dread and combi-charge a rhino. I lose two to the dread, but manage to destroy both it and the rhino (that had Corbulo inside), who fails his pinning check.

Oddly enough this turn, the lash prince rolled double 1's for his lash attempt, which succeeded but also was a perils... he then passed his 5+ invul, and then again on the reroll to avoid his third wound.




Turn 4
Blood Angels
He counter charges the zerkers near Corbulo with the other rhino squad that was nearby and one of the jump pack squads. The third rhino squad and the second jump pack squads move to assault prince who has one wound left. The last rhino squad (from the immobilized one) disembarks and goes to counter charge the zerkers fighting dante & DC.

The jump pack marines and rhino squad shoot prince with 10 pistols and finish off his last two wounds. No other significant shooting. The combat between dread and three oblits again results in no damage. The rhino squad counter charge plus DC & Dante finish off the zerkers on the right, but not before the PFist gets to swing and kill 2 more DC (he died to no retreat saves). The zerkers hold off the rhino squad counter charge, taking 3 wounds and killing 2 back.


CSM
Plagues move to charge Corbulo with help from lash. Third zerker squad moves to the left to counter charge the troop squad near the DC. They'll probably get counter charged by the DC, but it will take them some time to clear them out completely so it will give me the time to handle the center mass. Oblits don't have much to do, they pop a rhino. Lash pulls Corbulo 4", which isn't enough to get him ahead of the squad while still having a decent chance to make it (will need a terrain roll).. so will need to break them instead. He does fail the pinning check again... not that it will matter much, since I'll be charging. Plagues combi-charge corbulo and the guys that hit the zerkers.

Dice were weird, I didn't even finish off the squad fighting the zerkers, but did win combat by 2. He held on both sides.



Turn 5
Blood Angels
Here's where he made the two mistakes that cost him the primary objective. He took Dante + 4 DC and left the zerkers alone on their objective (it's now mine) to help in the center. He'll now be able to get out of that combat there, but probably not before I kill his troop squads first. So the center is going to be a wash now. He's got two troop squads left, the ones that shot the daemon prince. He can take the rhino squad, embark, and zoom onto an objective. I wouldn't have a great shot to get them out and then off the objective, since my remaining oblits didn't have much sight to where he'd be. Instead, he took that squad plus jump packers to counter charge the center even harder.

He charges everything in, and two plague marines survive the combat.


CSM
It's turn 5, I have one objective, and all his troops are involved in a single combat. He's only fighting two models, so he'll get out of it... unless I lock them in place even longer, by assaulting them with my free oblits. I do so, so now he'll be there on his turn 6 so that I'll still have the win on objectives there, too. As expected, the oblits survive the combat (all three in fact, though they took a wound).

Game ends on 5.


Corbulo and Lash prince survived, so the secondary was a draw (and tertiary, since both guys were still alive). I won primary 1 objectives to 0.

17-4. Not a bad start.



As I expected from talking to him, it was a rough game. Khorne was happy that game, with how much slaughter there was on both sides. Other than the one mistake at the end of 5 where he left the objectives, he played great. He was a fun opponent, too. I'd gladly play him again (he was my vote for favorite opponent).


Also, something interesting... that combat between the venerable dread and oblits was still going on when the game ended. Three oblits charged in on the bottom of 3 and by the bottom of 5 (five rounds of combat), the dread was still fighting one oblit. That was 10 DCCW attacks on the oblits, and 27 PFist attacks on the dread - which caused no damage whatsoever. It was funny, because every penetrating hit would ALWAYS be a 5+ destroyed... and then become a 1-2 on the reroll. :p






Round 2 - CSM vs. Space Marines

Deployment Type: Pitched Battle

Primary: Modified Capture & Control - you only got credit for taking your opponents, not for controlling yours
Secondary: Victory Points
Tertiary: Kill an enemy HQ



I get to the table and find I'm up against more marines. This time a new marine codex army.


Shrike Space Marines

HQ:
Kaayven Shrike

Elites:
Tech Marine - Thunderfire Cannon, servo thing, plasma pistol
10xTerminators - All TH/SS (ugh)
5xTerminators - Cyclone Missile Launcher

Troops:
10xScouts - 4xSniper Rifles, 1xMissile Launcher, Srg w/ PF
10xScouts - 4xSniper Rifles, 1xMissile Launcher, Srg w/ PF
10xTactical Marines - Plasma Cannon, Srg w/ PF (?? Not sure if he had one or two marine squads)

Heavy Support:
Whirlwind

Fast Attack:
3xScout Bikers - Srg w/ PF
Land Speeder Typhoon - Heavy Bolter, the Missile launcher thing
7xAssault Marines - Srg w/ TH



Assessment: 10 TH/SS terminators will be a problem. A big one with fleet... and thunderfire cannons can put out a stupid amount of wounds, but other than that, nothing in the list is that scary. I think if I can get off a good lash or two to distract one of them (they'll most likely combat squad), I can deal with or at least tie up the other long enough to take his objective.



He wins the roll for first turn and defers. I'm actually pretty happy about this, since I want a chance to move and smoke my rhinos before he can shoot them down and start to advance on my objectives.


We each have a ruined building in the center of our DZ, there's a small piece of terrain in the center, then some off to the sides. We each place our objectives in the buildings. Mine on the top (third) floor, his on the bottom. I put my zerker rhinos directly across from his objective on the starting line, the zerkers to the left of them. One oblit squad is in the building, the other to the right of the rhinos. Defiler is on the left, prince on the right.

He combat squads everything. Shooting parts of the scouts & tactical marines go in his building, along with the thunderfire cannon. Assault marines go to the left behind a building with shrike. Speeder on the left. Whirlwind on the right. Terminators front & center, with the fighting section of his combat squads behind them.

Scouts went on the left and turbo-boosted up the left flank.



After seeing the deployment, he decided he did indeed want the first turn and stole the initiative.


Turn 1
Marines
He moves & runs his assault squad into a building on the left. Terminators shuffle forward a bit, with the combat guys behind them doing the same. Scout bikers advance to shoot grenades at the plague rhino. He has a bad round of shooting, only wounding one oblit, shaking one zerker rhino, and stunning the plague rhino.


CSM
I figure to lash shrike's unit into the open and plasma-death that into oblivion. Defiler move, fleet, and crush the bikers in combat. And the zerkers push forward, the second oblit squad shooting some terminators. Plan decided, I started the moves. Now the sorc couldn't lash out of a stunned vehicle, so he had to disembark to do so. Plagues joined him outside. Defiler moved to hit bikes. Zerkers went forward, lash prince moved behind them.

Sorc lashed shrike into the open. Prince lashed regular terminators into a clump. First oblit squad shot at shrike with plasma cannons, but over heated twice, taking a wound in the process. The one that shot scattered 6" off target. Hmm. The other squad was out of range of those guys, shot at terminators, and again over heated twice and scattered off target with the third.. but did kill two marines that were behind them. Defiler made it into combat with bikers after a fleet roll. He then promptly lost combat by hitting three times and rolling triple ones, the scout fist getting a glance but it was ignored due to possession.

Less than stellar first turn.



Turn 2
Marines
Shrike said "Ah hah!" and jumped at the plagues, and was able to assault with a 4" fleet. I misjudged the distance that fleeting terminators could reach when one TH/SS squad rolled a 5 and *just* made it around a rhino to charge the prince (it was very questionable as to whether he could have actually made it staying 1" away during the fleet move, but I didn't want to argue something that was so difficult to measure precisely). His shooting then immobilized one of the smoking rhino with zerkers inside.

In combat, prince took three wounds, he made his 3+ invul from the storm shields. Plagues took Shrike's charge okay, winning by one but they held. Sorc piled into Shrike. Time for some IC-on-IC combat.

Defiler hits the scout squad twice but again rolls only 1's to wound and does nothing. He fails to hurt me.


CSM
Lash prince is gonna die, no doubt there. The sorc should be okay, though. I advance my two remaining zerker rhinos up, now no longer protected by smoke.. but at this distance, they can get out and charge his building next turn. There is a SS/TH squad kinda in the way, though.. so I try to have the immobilized rhino zerkers move over and assault them, but I have to roll difficult for that center terrain piece and only get a 2. They look so close to being 6" away after that, but I'm not positive that they are.

Shooting sees me kill off the regular terminators (they failed their pin check and were still in pie plate formation). It also knocks down the 5 man combat squad that took 2 from the scatter last turn down to 1.

Lash prince dies in combat. Sorc misses Shrike completely (not even a hit). Shrike attacks plagues. After all is said and done, it's the sorc vs. shrike + the TH assault marine.

The defiler finally kills a single scout in combat, they fail to hurt me but don't break.



Turn 3
Marines
The terminators that finished off the prince move to assault the stranded zerkers. The other move to assault the zerker rhinos (they moved over 6", at least). His two fighty scout squads also move to charge zerkers. He shoots at the zerkers and kills off 3 of them. The zerkers manage beyond all odds to stick around - He had 20 or so PF/TH attacks and only killed 5, leaving just the champ. The zerkers themselves managed to kill off 4 scouts, and the last guy passed his no retreat save.

Defiler finally finishes off his scout buddies and massacres towards the center fight. The other terminators immobilize one rhino and shake the other.

Sorc puts one attack at the assault marine and kills him, failing to wound shrike. Shrike causes 2 wounds, I save one.


CSM
One zerker squad disembarks to start assaulting the building occupants. Their rhino then tries to tank shock the terminators, but they pass their check. The other zerkers then are stuck dealing with those guys. Defiler moves, fleets, and joins the center battle. Oblit shooting finishes off the remaining tact marine and drops the speeder.

Zerkers crush the 5-man marines (other combat squad half from the guys who were shot down), and spread out a bit with their massacre. Zerkers charging the terminators kill only 1 total. Ugh. They kill 3, I pass no retreat saves. In the center, I'm hoping the defiler can get lucky and kill 3-4, the PFist zerker champ kill another 2 scouts, and win big because all the terminators are stuck killing just the one PFist zerker... but the defiler only kills 1, PFist kills 2, and I only win by 2. Terminators stick (aww!), one scout squad does break.

Sorc fails to wound shrike, takes three wounds but rolls three invul's and survives.



Turn 4
Marines
Scouts keep running - they didn't run far enough to rally. He shoots everything left at the zerkers. Scouts and whirlwind kill off 3, leaving 6 of 9. The thunderfire cannon then shoots from almost point blank and causes 6 wounds... just enough to force a save on the PFist srg who dies, all the rest pass their saves. Ouch, that hurt... especially since the techmarine then charged in with a 2+ save. I wasn't sure if he could actually charge in on the turn the thunderfire cannon shot or not. I didn't know for sure, just didn't feel right. But since I didn't know he couldn't, I didn't really question it.

Defiler finishes off remaining scouts, but dies to terminators. The zerkers fighting terminators get killed down to 3, killing none in return. Techmarine locks up zerkers by his building.

Sorc fails to wound shrike, takes a wound, breaks, and gets run down.

CSM
Oblits shoot lots of ap2 shots at terminators that finished off the zerkers and kill off 2. Rhino moves to escort broken scout squad. Zerkers can't get free of the techmarine. Shrike eats a combi-melta to the face.



Rest of Game Summary
Zerkers never get free of the tech marine. Others are wiped out by terminators. I manage to get one of the two TH/SS squads and the other below half. I blow off the weapon from a whirlwind, too. He gets an oblit squad below half.


I couldn't get to his objective, and he never made an attempt for mine.. so primary was a draw.

At the end of the game, he has:
- 1/2 of a combat squad terminator unit
- Tech Marine
- Damaged whirlwind
- 2 combat squads of scouts

He had somewhere around 380-390 or so.

I had:
- 1/2 of an oblit unit
- Full oblit unit
- Full rhino
- 3x damaged rhinos

I had right around 450 left to claim the secondary. Both of us killed an HQ unit, so tertiary was a draw, too.


14-7.

Not a great round, I really needed that power fist to survive to run through the building.. since if I got that tech marine, there was nothing that could have gotten to the building to save the scouts. His terminators would have been rhino blocked. Oh well, it happens sometimes. Definitely starting to fall away from the leaders of the tournament.






Round 3 - CSM vs. Space Marines

My opponent here was a complete tool and I'd rather just skip this game.

End result: 17-4.




So after day 1, I had a total of 48 of 66 battle points. 18 points down, ouch.. that's far. I'll have to really pick it up tomorrow if I want a chance to win.








Round 4 - CSM vs. Nob Bikers

Deployment Type: Old-school 18" diagonal

Primary: Victory Points
Secondary: Take and Hold (more scoring units within 12" of center than opponent)
Tertiary: Have >=50% troops survive [both could acheive this]



Nob Bikers

HQ:
Warboss - Bike, PK, Cybork, etc. etc.
Warboss - Bike, PK, Cybork, etc. etc.

Elites:
8xKommandos - Snikrot, 2 burnas

Troops:
10 Nob Bikers - Cybork bodies, painboy, 2xPK, 2xBig Choppa, Waaggh Banner, Boss Pole, etc etc. (all different layouts)
10 Nob Bikers - Cybork bodies, painboy, 2xPK, 2xBig Choppa, Waaggh Banner, Boss Pole, etc etc. (all different layouts)

Fast Attack:
12 Stormboyz - Zagstruk




Assessment: Hah, wouldn't you know it, that practice game I had last week is going to come in very handy now. I learned how to beat these guys with my list, so I'm confident I can pull it off here. Now this person has a few difference from what I practiced against. Notably:
- Only 2 PK's per squad instead of 4 (better for me)
- Snikrot & Zagstruk instead of more troops (worse for me)

In general, I think it would be better to have more troops instead of the Zagstruk & snikrot.. especially snikrot. But Zagstruk can be a real danger to me if I get stuck and he then lands to try and turn the tide of a close fight. Could be a problem. Anyway, I'm confident going into the game that I can do this.



He wins the roll to go first and elects to take it. I definitely would have preferred a turn of shooting before having to deal with the bikers, but not much can be done about that now. Maybe I can seize. He chooses the top right diagonal, I get the bottom left.


He's puts one biker squad on the top left of his DZ and then the second in the middle. His squads are flanking a terrain piece half in his DZ near the top section there. It looks like he believes I'm going as far back as possible. I do consider it, but decide to try and take a more direct approach to the game. I want to try and kill an entire squad before he has a chance for reserves to come in.

I line up across from him, though along my long board edge. I end up, going from right to left starting at the very bottom right of my DZ: both oblits, then all three zerkers in their rhinos. Then on the left of that formation is the plague rhino with sorc, DP, and defiler.


I fail to seize.

Turn 1
Orks
He turbo boosts across the board pretty much as far as he can go. The left squad is about 6" from the defiler with the warboss right up front. The right squad is about 10-11" from most of my guys there.


CSM
Here's my choice to try and take the game on turn 1. I can charge my defiler into the left ork squad and try to snip the head of the warboss. I'll have 5 attacks needing 4's followed by 2's. I should get 2 wounds, where he would have a 5+ invul to stop from being insta-killed. On average, I should kill him. If I do kill him, he's only really got two klaws that can hurt me back (other than glancing results I'm not concerned about). If I kill the warboss, I should stick. If I fail, I'll most likely get exploded and have the squad free. The only other option is to try and lash it backwards into terrain and then use the defiler to body block them from hitting something important. I guess I'll have to see how the first lash goes.

Both oblits move forward, but roll poorly on their terrain rolls (3 for one, 4 for the other). They'll need lash to even make a charge. Zerkers take turns getting out and moving forward, then having their rhinos move out of the way of the next squad so they can do the same. The rhinos end up moving behind where the oblits are.

Plagues stay inside. Sorc lashes the right squad to move them closer to the big charge. It goes off, but only 3". If I roll well, I can get everyone into the combat - but I don't want to risk not having the oblits charge in with everyone else. Failing that would be bad. I decide to risk the defiler alone against the nobs and use the prince to lash the first squad again. I get 7" this time, which sets me up perfectly. I'm able to push the warboss backwards so that his counter assault won't get him in contact while the closest nobs are now 1" away from the oblits.

Everyone charges. Defiler alone on the left, 3xzerker squads and 2xoblit squads on the right.

Defiler snips the warboss and survives. This may be game right there.

In the massive combat, I have 96 zerker attacks at S5 I5, and cause 20 wounds. 4 get past the armor/FnP (avg should be 24 wounds with 6 getting past saves, but these aren't ones that I'm counting on). He attacks back, and after all his attacks are done he kills 6 zerkers and wounds an oblit. This includes his two PFists. It's my turn to do the real damage with my assault. I have 18 PFist attacks from the two oblit squads and 12 from the zerkers. That's 30 insta-killing power fists.. I end up only causing 9 wounds through some bad rolling. He saves 3 of the 9, the three that survived were unwounded ones. So I've got 12 combat res, he has 7. Should have killed another 2 or 3 bikers, but winning by 5 isn't too bad... he's only got a rerolling 4.

Unfortunately, he passes the rerolling 4 with the boss pole. Bah. Hopefully Zagstruk doesn't come in on turn 2. If he doesn't, it won't matter.



Turn 2
Orks
Snikrot comes in and walks on to assault oblits (rhinos are blocking him from charging zerkers). Zagstruk sees there's trouble and decides to come in right away, too. Damn. If he rolls a direct hit and charges into zerkers, I may be screwed. How does this game hinge on a scatter roll when it should have been already over? Thankfully, I get a break and Zagstruk scatters 11" away - unable to assault.

Despite Snikrot's assistance and the warboss engaging from the pile in, I'm still able to win combat by 3. Snikrot holds, but the warboss fails... and since I finished off the remaining bikers, there's nobody for him to hit with the boss pole and he runs. Because I still have 2 oblits, 3 oblits, 8 zerkers, and 7 zerkers, I'm able to pile into snikrot's squad (6 left) in such a way that the last 7 man zerker squad who was the furthest out cannot make base contact... so they're now unengaged and head towards zagstruk.

Defiler clips two bikers and survives (he's now immobilized and a weapon destroyed, though).


CSM
A rhino chases after the warboss, trying to get within 6" to escort him off the board. Unengaged zerkers charge zagstruk. Sorc lashes warboss towards the rhino 2" to make sure he's within 6". Defiler clips another biker (down to 8), but gets blown up in the process.

Snikrot squad is wiped out. Zagstrukk squad is brought down to him and one boy. Zerkers lose one from that combat.



Turn 3
Orks
Bikers move to try and kill the prince and the rhino escorting the warboss off the board simultaneously. Shoot prince with dakka guns then dual charge. Kill the prince, but fail to kill the 12" moving rhino. He consolidates in front of it. Zagstruk squad is killed.


CSM
I tank shock through the orks, they pass morale and combi-rokkit death or glory, but fail and lose another boy (down to 6). I get the rhino near the warboss. I lash the squad into terrain with sorc so they can't turbo-boost, and they fail their pinning check...! So they can't do anything next turn as it happens. I shoot las cannons from the 4 oblits that survived snikrot's charge, kill one (down to 5).


Turn 4
Orks
Warboss runs off the board. Remaining bikers are pinned


CSM
I tank shock them with two rhinos, but they pass tests. I shoot with a combi-melta and four las cannons, kill 2 (down to 3). They pass morale, but don't have a boss pole in the remaining guys... just painboy, waaggh banner, PK.


Turn 5
Orks
The bikers move out of cover and charge the rhino with sorc & plagues. Kill it with a pen 6, sorc and only 1 zerker can be placed due to the placement of the bikers.

CSM
I tank shock with a rhino, they fail morale and run. They're below half and can't rally.



I tabled the bikers again, so full VP's there. For VP purposes, I had 2 full zerkers, 1/2 plagues, 1 full oblits, 1/2 oblits, sorc, 3 rhinos.. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,300 - 1,400 points.

There were a few critical events, though..
- The 30 power fist attacks not killing all the initial nob bikers, then them holding on a rerolling 4.
- The defiler holding up the second squad that first charge.
- Zagstruk & Snikrot not both making it into combat on turn 2.

All huge game impacting moments.

As it turned out, though, I got the full 22. I was up on VP's, I had half my troops alive, and had some in the center of the board.

22-0.







Round 5 - CSM vs. Ork Horde

Deployment Type: Pitched Battle

Primary: Table Quarters (only scoring units could control *OR* contest)
Secondary: Recon (more units in enemy DZ - any units count for this, not just scoring)
Tertiary: Kill more non-scoring enemy units than your opponent does of yours

Scenario special rule: You pick one unit from your army (can't be a vehicle) to start in reserves / Outflank. It can't be a unit that normally has to enter via reserves (such as a unit with a drop pod).



Ork Horde

HQ:
Thraka
Grotsnik

Elites:
9?xMega Armor Nobz - Cybork bodies (allowed because of Grotsnik), several weapon upgrades (flamers and such)

Troops:
20 Shoota Boyz - PK Nob, Boss Pole
30 Shoota Boyz - 3xBig Shootas, PK Nob, Boss Pole
30 Shoota Boyz - 3xBig Shootas, PK Nob, Boss Pole
30 Shoota Boyz - 3xBig Shootas, PK Nob, Boss Pole
30 Shoota Boyz - 3xBig Shootas, PK Nob, Boss Pole

Heavy Support:
3xGretchin Lobba Battery
3xGretchin Lobba Battery



Assessment: I don't think you can get that much different with Orks from the last list as this one did. The bikers were all about two super fast in your face death squads on bikes while these are very horde oriented mega sized squads. Now they do still have the death squad in the mega nobz with thraka and grotsnik, but they're not turbo boosting bikers. Just gotta watch out for thraka's 6" waaaggh. The big thing is - no lootas to shoot down princes / get me out of rhinos. I should be able to control the flow of this game from start to finish.


He wins the roll for first turn and defers. I don't really like going second in an objective mission, especially one where he'll be able to walk his squad on behind my plagues and immediately assault them if they come in on the same turn, but against *SO* many orks, I'm not sure I wouldn't have chosen to go first anyway.



I deploy my forces just left of center. I have:
Zerker rhino, zerker rhino, sorc in plague rhino (plagues in outflank), zerker rhino.. then the two oblit squads in center, with the defiler on the right. DP is behind the defiler, too.

He deploys pretty much across from me, but taking up a lot more room! :p He has one 30 man boyz squad in outflank. Strings out the 20 man boyz squad in the front, with everything else behind it for cover saves. The meganobz are behind his main line, so I can't just zoom a rhino out and drag them along as he can use his boyz squads' placement to prevent them from going off course. Interesting - hadn't thought of someone doing that before. The lobba squads are on the far left and one on the right.


Turn 1
CSM
Plague rhino, which will from now on be called the sorc rhino, moves up slightly to get within 24" of the screening squad. The DP jumps forward to also see them. Defiler advances slightly. Everything else remains relatively in the same place.

Sorc lashes the front cover squad towards the center point, balling up the middle guys. Oblits shoot and kill some.. Then prince does it again with the second squad repeating. I kill 18 boyz. Defiler doesn't have good sight to the remaining two (I would like to finish them off, since they're scoring til the end, but have to shoot elsewhere). It shoots at the newly exposed boyz behind and kills a few from one of the big squads. Sorc rhino shoots but fails to hurt the small squad. It passes morale.


Orks
He advances with his squads but doesn't run. He shoots with big shootas and the lobbas. He targets oblits, ends up killing one and leaving each squad with a wounded oblit.


Turn 2
CSM
Plagues show up from outflank. I'd like for them to come in on the left, as there's a gap in which they can sneak on behind his forces. That certainly will drag the meganobz backwards and leave me free to run amok with the regular boyz, but they roll a 4 and walk in on the left. They come in on the very top right and move to go after lobbas. They will be out of assault range, though, so I run them.

Otherwise, I now circle up another squad twice and shoot at it. I kill another ~15-20 orks as there's a piece of woods in the center that I can't avoid shooting them through so they get cover. Morale is passed on the boss pole.


Orks
His outflankers don't come in, so the plagues are safe this turn. He advances again, shooting and not running. This time he targets the DP, trying to get rid of one of the lashers and puts 3 wounds on it.



Turn 3
CSM
Hm. I'm going to lose the prince next turn to shooting. It's time to start lashing orks into charges before I only have one left. The right-most zerker squad (who is in the center of the board) disembarks and moves up 6". They're about ~10" from the closest 30 man squad. Their rhino starts zooming forward to try and pull the meganobz away in later turns. Plagues move forward to get lobbas.

I lash the squad near the zerkers and pull them forward. I conga-line them so that the closest is around 4.5" away, then the next several are at max coherency with the mob in the back. This way when I assault, his counter charge will only get a few orks into the fight. [Lame, I know, but the FAQ is quite clear on what can be done. My opponent is a tournament player, he understands this fully and doesn't make any kind of comment/complaint. He was even complimenting me on the use of the lash after the game - good guy, I'd definitely enjoy playing him again. Anyway, back to the game!]

With the first lash solid, it left the sorc free to lash another squad up for more templates. Oblits and defiler took their shots, leaving the squad with 3. Gah, another small squad to hide in his quarters. Oh well, he's down to two tiny squads and two big squads on the board - one about to be assaulted. It leaves just one more still off the board somewhere.

Plagues charge the lobbas and kill them, massacring forward. I'm now >12" away from the board edge, so if the ork squad comes in from outflank, he'll need the waaggh to catch me. Then the other charge is the zerkers. I kill 11 orks with the regular guys (very average), then get a little lucky roll and all 4 PF attacks hit and kill. So a total of 15 orks dead. He does nothing in return and loses by 15. He then fails all of his no retreat saves, leaving him with just a wounded nob.

Pile-in's, though, take me close to the mega nob squad.


Orks
His unit arrives from outflank and comes on where the plagues did. I can feel the Waaggh coming. Meganobz go after the zerkers who piled in closer to them. His other 30 man squad advances slightly to shoot oblits again. The two man squad from the first turn come out from hiding to charge the empty rhino. Good and bad for me. Good that he came out, bad if he kills the rhino since I won't be able to drag the meganobz away. Shooting kills off an oblit from the two man squad - 4 left. Waaaggh happens, mega nobz run up next to the zerkers, the boyz on the top left go next to plagues.

Assault sees the charges happen. Zerkers manage to kill off the wounded nob before getting decimated by the meganobz. The meganobz massacre 5" closer to me. The two man squad does manage to kill off the rhino, too, unfortunately - that's a problem as I no longer can drag the squad backwards. Additionally, I need to still be on the offensive with the lash. Next turn, I need to pull that remaining boyz squad on the left into a zerker charge, so now I just need to start sacrificing units to that behemoth instead of dragging it around.

Plagues absorb the boyz charge pretty well. They only lose two (to PF attacks), taking no damage from the regular attacks. Blight grenades and T5 work well against the orks. Also, only around ~18 were in the combat zone even after counter charges. I kill some back, they're fearless still.



Turn 4
CSM
Defiler moves and fleets to try and chase down the two man squad, but fleet is just a 2 and he's still a bit away. Zerkers on the left disembark and move to charge the next boyz squad. Last zerkers stay in their rhino and move away from the mega nobz. Rhino that was just vacated zooms 12" up next to the meganobz and prepares to take one for the team. Oblits start moving to try and get line of sight on the two small squads. Not much shooting this turn, but I do kill 2 of the 4 man squad.

Lash works again, I get the required 5" (actually got 8) and do the same as before. This time I only kill 7 with regular boyz, but apparently my champs really know their stuff and the PFist kills another 4. He fails all his no retreat saves yet again and is down to 8 guys including the nob.

Plagues win combat again, losing another to PFist (4 left).


Orks
Thraka tries to go save the boyz on the left, leaving the meganobz.. but his terrain roll is insufficent to get out of coherency with the meganobz after they move to the rhino and he rejoins them. Unfortunately, the meganobz did get a 6" and get close enough so that a high terrain roll will let them dual charge the rhino and an oblit squad. Wow, I messed that one up.

Not much shooting. Combat sees the zerkers finish off the orks on the left and massacre to the small 4 man squad hiding over there. Plagues win again, losing 2 to PFist (2 left).


Turn 5
CSM
Okay, so this is potentially the final turn of the game. I have 3 troop squads left in three different quarters.. zerkers in a rhino hiding from the meganobz. The zerkers that just massacred towards his edge, and the plagues. The plagues I don't expect to live the turn, though. The others are safe. Additionally, the zerkers that moved to his side are in charge range of his small squads. This means that if I can get the other with the defiler / remaining oblit, I will win the game as he won't be able to kill the others regardless of how long we keep playing.

So I zoom the zerker rhino 12" and pop smoke to keep it safe from any freak occurrence. The others move to kill the small boyz squad. The lasher can't get range on the last small boyz squad without disembarking and flying 12"... right into the maw of the meganobz, but I figure it is a good cause as I won't need him if this works. So I do so, and end up next to the oblit so they join together.

Defiler moves onto the rhino wreckage and fleets closer. I pass the dangerous tests since it's a wreck and not a crater.

I shoot plasma cannon and lash the squad. I scatter a small amount, but am still on the nob - cause 1 wound and he assigns it to said nob to avoid losing a model / taking a morale check. Lash goes off again and pushes it right next to the defiler. I'm 1" away, so I can't fail the terrain check.

The only thing that can prevent me from making that charge and crushing the squad is a failed dangerous terrain roll. I roll: 1. Doh, immobilized.

Plagues hold on, though. I lose one more to the fist, there's just my fist remaining.


Orks
He moves and runs the two man squad out of sight of the defiler. Meganobz eat the sorc & oblit. Plague marine, against all odds, survives and even wins combat.. his power fist completely missed. He's now down to 10 models, but makes his morale check.


Roll for game end: 2.


I'm in 3 quarters, he's in 1 or 2 (not sure if the hiding squad was in a different corner or not - it was close to the division between two of them).. either way, I had primary. I also had more units in his DZ. He was way up on the tertiary, though. I only killed one non-scoring unit (one lobba squad), he killed two rhinos, both oblits, both HQ's.


End result: 20-2.



So a strong finish, and against two tough armies played by strong players. I wound up with 90 battle points. I tied for best general, but the other person had one higher sportsmanship than me to break the tie, doh! Ah well, it was a good showing I think. I ended up in third overall (the guy who took best general 1 point ahead, and the overall winner 7 points up).


What was a bit strange and I never saw coming... the top table that determined the winner was a battle between Sisters and Grey Knights with sister allies. Weird!





Great time, though. Definitely plan on going back again next year. I had 4 great games against 3 new opponents. There was one sour game, but it didn't ruin the overall experience. Fun times, no silly missions, great terrain, plenty of space.

Plus, it's a GT only a few hours away. Double bonus.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Well done and cool report (as usual) Good showing against the two Ork armies. Talk about diverse lists though. Just as well you got the game against the Nob Biker list in earlier.

That Marine list looked unusual- seemed to be a mix of everything. Looking at the lists Id would have been the most wary of that one-at least the other ones you know what to expect.
 
#3 ·
Your opponent with the Thunderfire Cannon, he shouldn't have been able to assault as the TC is an artillery.

So how was your 3rd marine opponent a tool? What he complain about?
 
#7 ·
Hey guys, thanks for the comments.


@Memnoch - Yeah, practice game definitely helped me know what to expect... and to realize that throwing the oblits in on the initial charge with the zerkers was the way to go.

And normally mix-lists aren't as fierce as dedicated ones.. just a few things led to an almost draw. The unexpectedly bad shooting on shrike's unit, combined with the defiler not getting free to go help out. That, with me misjudging how far fleeting terminators can charge, meant I lost both lashers very quickly. Then the PFist getting sniped added up to nobody getting an opponent's objective.



@jy2 - I thought as much (about the thunderfire cannon). A shame, since I would have been furiously charging him instead of getting charged. Oh well, I'll know better next time!


@Gardeth - my thoughts exactly.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Very good report as usual. I enjoy reading your stuff and I also completely agree with your statments on what to bring to tourneys. I understand why people like fluff armies but at the end of the day it is a tourney.

Reading your reports just reminds me why I enjoy our games. Could not make that tourney but I should see you in Chicago. Maybe we may play each other again :)

The last singles tourney I played in cleveland I had an opponent that was a marine player. He had these red orange dice and than a group of smaller dice. Probably 8 or so of the orange ones. You can see how much fire power I can throw out with my army. I noticed when he used the orange dice he would throw nothing below a 3. I was having problems killing even 1 marine. But when I caused more wounds than he had orange dice than he would lose 1 or 2 marines. Finally i just charged my banshees in and starting killing things with power weapons that allowed no saves and started blowing up his vehicles with Prisms which he was not able to make cover saves. I was able to win on kill points.

Never called the guy on it but I watched him make 58 saves of 3 or better with those dice over the course of the game because I just started counting. I figured if someone else complained than I would say something but no one ever did. Never found out if he was just really lucky or if they were loaded. I know I have a habit of rolling really High 5 and 6 and really low 1s. So I figured it was something in between for him....

Gardeth- yeah you should be happy I roll high!!!.. err dang moral checks on those bikes!!!:)
 
#13 ·
Gardeth- yeah you should be happy I roll high!!!.. err dang moral checks on those bikes!!!:)
From what I've seen Sabote is one of those people that always tends to roll high, luckily for me in our last game that remained true for morale checks, sending 2 big guardian jetbike units running off the field and turning a loss for me into a draw.

That, for me anyway, is one of the easiest ways to check for funny dice. If they keep rolling the same high rollers for morale checks your usually ok, but if they make a big deal about rolling different dice for those then its time to really pay attention.
 
#9 ·
wait, if you learned they were loaded, and you know, asked them to roll them yourself and saw that you never rolled below a #, then how did he get away with it? how was a judge not informed and this player booted outright?
 
#10 ·
@sabote - Definitely would like a rematch after the stomping you gave me in our last game! :p I'll be playing in the gladiator (though I don't think I'll have a top tier list for that format), the 40k team tourney, and the 40k invitational. And that certainly sounds like the same person I played.

@AlbinoAlien - He did not get away with it. Judges took his dice, rolled them, and confirmed they were loaded.
 
#12 ·
@sabote - Definitely would like a rematch after the stomping you gave me in our last game! :p I'll be playing in the gladiator (though I don't think I'll have a top tier list for that format), the 40k team tourney, and the 40k invitational. And that certainly sounds like the same person I played.

@AlbinoAlien - He did not get away with it. Judges took his dice, rolled them, and confirmed they were loaded.
Ahh maybe we will meet in the Team. I am playing the Team and the 40k RTT on Sunday. People trying to talk me into the Gladiator but that is to much gaming for me :) Good luck in the invitational.

By the way. Loved your tactics against the bikes!!! great read.
 
#14 ·
@sabote: Thanks - the bikes as it turns out are a lot like a white scars list on crack. Pay a lot for mobility, controlling charges, and extra resilience. They really don't like it when you can control the charges with lash, and negate their resiliency by throwing tons of PFist attacks at them.

And heh, yeah, it is a lot of gaming in a short time.. but I figure if I'm gonna make the trip, might as well go all the way. And it'd be fun to meet in the team. Our last meeting in a team battle was a draw, IIRC, though you certainly had us on the ropes threatening our objective with the last land raider after obliterating 40kenthusiast's crushers & heralds. Definitely good luck in your games there, unless you play us - in which case I'm totally going to be trying to send bad mojo your way :p


@gardeth: Heh, he actually did use different dice for pinning checks from lash, then got mad when he still failed.
 
#17 ·
I've played them several times with my CSM, and in most games, lash is just an extra thing that is great if it goes off but is not needed against them in general. Now I haven't played a list that's been tooled to 5th edition yet, most of my experience was 4th and then early 5th before everyone updated their army comp.. but the core units are still the same.
 
#18 ·
Lash wouldn't probably do too much to the sisters because 1) like you said, 5+, 2) each unit is inexpensive...lashing 1 unit wouldn't make much of a difference as there are plenty more units, and 3) most sisters are mechanized and thus not affected.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top