Battle Report: 6th Anniversary Gamer’s Haven RT

For those that don’t know, Gamer’s Haven (GH) is the home store for those of
us in Colorado Springs. It’s got a great reputation, is fun, friendly, and
clean. It also plays host to some of the best competitors in 40k. Lots of
good guys who are also really good generals.

I came up with a new army idea just a couple weeks prior to the tournament.
Thankfully, I had most of the models in hand. It was mostly a matter of
some last minute marathon painting sessions to get it all ready though. I
came with Pre-Plains World (ie Painted Black) Deathwing Drop pods.

Here’s the List:

164 - Librarian (Stubborn, fear, fury, termie armor, storm bolter)
250 - 4 man Deathwing terminator command squad with Assault cannons and drop
pod

295 - 5 man Deathwing terminator squad with Assault cannons and drop pod
295 - 5 man Deathwing terminator squad with Assault cannons and drop pod
295 - 5 man Deathwing terminator squad with Assault cannons and drop pod

150 - Dreadnought w/ heavy flamer, extra armor, drop pod
150 - Dreadnought w/ heavy flamer, extra armor, drop pod
150 - Dreadnought w/ heavy flamer, extra armor, drop pod

comes to 1749

I used pods based off the popular PVC conversion. They came out looking
pretty good, and really functional. Here’s a link to those wondering what
they looked like:

http://www.minivault.com/ModelingDropPods.htm

Game 1: vs. Iyanden Eldar.
Scenario was some kind of random objective, which for us turned out to be
victory points. Reserves and infiltrators were in effect.

He played:

Farseer
5 Wraithguard in Waveserpent with scatterlasers
10 wraithguard with conceal
10 Dire Avengers in Wave Serpent
2 Wraithlords
5 Dark Reapers
Merc Kroot squad

We started with only compulsory troops and infiltrators, which for him meant
Kroot, 10 wraithguard and the Dire avengers. He got to pick sides and I got
to pick turns, giving him first turn. Terrain was decent, made out of very
nice looking converted computer hardware. Most important were a silo in the
center and wood a little farther back to his side that the kroot set up in.

Turn 2 brought in his 5 wraithguard in serpent, the dire avengers, the
Farseer, and a wraithlord. He advanced forward, which is about all he could
do before my drop. He actually did a decent job of castling to try and keep
things safe as well. Unfortunately for him, I had been practicing with my
pods against castle armies in my head for the last couple weeks.

My first drop brought a dread, two termie squads and the Librarian. I built
my cornerstone pod up against the silo and his big wraithguard squad in
cover. Lesson one I learned from this game is make sure and discuss how
pods work before the game begins. You don’t want to have the conversation
after the game starts. I remembered this in my last game, and it helped
things go much more smoothly.

Unlike most pod players, I deployed behind my wall, keeping me safely behind
my pods blocking LOS. Most people come down, and open up. Problem with
that is your coming down piece meal and you’ve only got half your army vs
his whole army. Versus someone who has spread out, this works fine, as you
can divide his army and concentrate your forces. But against someone who has
castled, you got to play it different. I generate my own terrain, get the
first drop down and usually hold tight. I wait for the second drop and
whatever opportunities have presented themselves to bring my forces around
and make life hell for my opponent. From left to right, termie – termie –
HQ – Dread. There was a bit of gap between the dread and HQ.

Subsequently, the only shots I took were from the storm bolters, doing
exactly dick. However, the Librarian let his Fear of the Darkness go off,
sending the Kroot screaming from their own shadows. They never rallied and
spent the rest of the game running off the board, though it took them like 4
turns to finally make it there.

His turn 3 brought on the reapers, and the last wraith lord I think. To be
honest, they didn’t really have any effect on the game. He shot up two
pods, turning them into wrecks, and killing two termies in the explosion.
His wave serpent with wraithguard had swung around to the other side. He
deployed them, and took shots with them and the wave serpent at the reduced
squad killing two more. My turn three brought another dread on the left and
termie squad on the right. I deployed to have shots available, moved one
squad of termies to engage the deployed wraithguard, and hid my one
remaining term in the shot up squad behind a dread (be not 132 victory
points!).

I shot five assault cannons at the Dire Avenger wave serpent and didn’t do
anything. Last AC on a dread dropped it though, and I got like 5 dead in
the blast. My five man termie squad assaulted the wraithguard, wiping them
out.

Turn 4, his 10 man squad advances into the wreckage of the center pod, but
can only get like two or three guys in. this means only a few guys can see
through to shoot out, only killing like one guy. His difficult terrain
check gets flubbed, so he can’t assault either. My turn 4 the last dread
drops off to the side. I take some AC shots at the Wave serpent , blowing
off the scatter laser. A term squad and the hq squad engage the 10 man
wraithguard unit, working it over.

Turn 5, his Dire Avengers and Wraithguard get into as well. The terminators
prevail, taking out the last of the wraithguard and the Dire Avengers.

I might have mixed up the turns in there somewhere, but we called it after
this. I had over a 1000 VP to his 300 or so.

OK, that was a bit long. I’m keeping the next ones a bit briefer.

Game two, Gravity world, vs. Deathwing

Master with sword of the secrets, thunder hammer, and mantle
8 man Deathwing w/ ACs and 2 chainfists
8 man Deathwing w/ ACs and 2 chainfists
7 man Deathwing with Cyclone ML
Ven dread with Las Can
Dread with AC

He deploys in craters, spending the first two turns crawling around. One 8
man squad and two dreads kind of come to flank around.

I target the dreads for destruction. I get an average drop with a couple
terms and a Dread. I wall off the 15 terminators in craters, and blow up
the ven dread. His shooting next turn pretty much wipes out a squad. His
master starts to make his way around to help out the flank.

I drop with a couple more pods. I think I might have gotten another two
dreads and the hq squad. 9 assault cannons open up and proceed to wiff it
entirely only getting one dread. Uh oh.

His master assaults a dread; the squad goes after the same dread and a term
squad. Dread goes down to chainfists, and the rest make mince meat of the
terms. Ouch.

The master is out in the open, and gets nailed by my shooting. My HQ squad
engages the term battle, eventually taking them out. The Cyclone squad has
been reduced through exploding pods and random storm bolters to about 4
guys. They shoot up my last remaining five man squad forcing 7 armor saves.
3 ones drops the squad below half. Bummer. My last shooting against the
squad sees little to no rending, leaving just one guy keeping half the
points from the 7 man Deathwing with Cyclone ML.

We count up points, I win by like a 100 so it’s a tie. A good game, and
quite fun.

Ron and Kenny had been duking it out on the table next door. Ron got the
win, so by this time, I was fairly convinced he was going to get it. That
allowed the last game to be very relaxed and fun.

I played Lisa’s Infantry based Eldar.

From Memory:
Eldrad
Avatar
2 Dire Avengers squad
Fire Dragon Squad
Scorpions
Pathfinders
Warp spiders
Dark Reapers
Vibro Cannon
Fire prism

Quite a large army for just 1750 points.

She deploys and takes two turns of movement. We joke about using Eldrad’s
power to redeploy her troops vs an all Deep Striking army. Avatar is
central to provide fearlessness. Pathfinders infiltrated off to the side.
Everything else is castled up in the center of the board.

Unfortunately for me, I get a way below average drop. 2 dreads, and one
term squad. I consider making a wall, but decide to just plant the seeds,
and use the dreads to their full advantage. One drops next to the
pathfinders, heavy flamer and AC kill all but two. Dread two wipes out the
Vibro cannons since they were over by a flank. Termies pop down and reduce
a Dire Avenger squad to 2.

Her turn 3 basically brings the pain to my term squad since not much can see
the dreads. She dooms and guides with Eldrad. At some point she rolls the
dreaded powers of the warp. She makes the 4+ save though to save Eldrad.
This makes me wonder though. Usually a Farseer only has a 1/18 chance of
POTW. However, using the runes of rolling three dice actually makes these
odds worse. Given that Eldrad has a high likely hood of casting quite a few
spells, and given how risky POTW are (if you fail that 4+ he goes squish to
the str6 attack), I think you might be better off only rolling two dice for
his powers unless absolutely necessary. And come to think of it, I forgot
my psychic hood this whole game, d’oh.

My turn 3. I’m thinking this is my time to shine, my pods are all going to
come in, and I’m going to open up a can of woop ass. Nope, 1, 1, 2, 3 –
only get one term squad. They drop next to one pod, and take a few shots at
reapers through the gaps. One dread finishes off the first squad of Dire
Avengers, and the other kills the pathfinders.

Her turn 4 has the reapers shoot at me. Exarch has the guess weapon that
scatters off my terms and on to her own troops. Fire prism misses. Other
shots destroy two storm bolters from pods. The wall is saving my butt.

My turn 4 bring the last 3 pods. The dread drops and flames 7 fire dragons.
Terms drop, wall to block off all shots from the fire prism, shoot up the
last of the reapers, and the last squad of dire avengers.

Her turn 5 sees the flamer dread blown up by the exarch. And Eldrad moves
into assault a termie squad. I think he doomed them as well, and so like
two were left afterward. My turn five has my HQ bring the pain to Eldrad,
one unsaved powerfist and he went squish. I finished off the Fire Dragon
Exarch, and put a wound on the Avatar, who had been busy shooting melta
shots at termies through the gaps in the pods. We were close to time, so we
called it at that point.

Overall, I was very happy how my army played, 2 – 0- 1 is very respectable.
I was awarded best painted / best army as well. Each game brings new
lessons and new insights, and it was the same for this tourney. I can’t
wait for the next one in January at the good ole Air Force academy. I’ll
probably change things up a bit, but it will still be fun.

Thanks go out to the organizers and all the participants.

‘till next time.