I check my pairings and at first I misread them and think I am up against Nick Rose (he Massacred me round 1 last year at this event when I played SoB). I move to the table and am relieved at first to see someone else there until I realize it is Greg Sparks.
On a side note, what an awesome last name is Sparks? I mean, seriously, when they were handing out last names at the beginning of time his great-great grandfather must have won the lottery to pick first.
I have never met Greg before but his reputation precedes him in Rochester, I know he is not going to make mistakes. I also know that this is probably the worst mission possible for me to draw against him, before we get into the, the mission.
Round 2 - Ear Collectors
Opponent: Eldar
Deployment: Spearhead
Primary: Ear Collecting (KP with a twist)
Secondary: Kill Points
Scenario Rules
Ear Collectors
When a unit kills the last model in another unit, transfer the deceased units ear markers to the killing unit and award one additional ear marker. Ear markers can never be destroyed, they are always transferred.
Unfortunately I do not have a picture of Greg's army, it did not come out well due to the poor lighting in some parts of the venue. I do have his complete army list, for those of you that want to be him, here is what you need you need to buy....
HQ
Farseer - Doom, Fortune, Guide, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing
Avatar
Elite
9x Harlequin Troupe w/ Shadowseer, 8x Kisses
10x Wraithguard w/ Spirit Seer, Conceal
Troops
10x Dire Avengers w/ Shimmershield and Defend
5x Guardian Jetbike w/ Destructor, Shuriken Cannon
Fast Attack
10x Warp Spiders w/ Withdraw
Heavy
Wraithlord w/ Brightlance, Wraithsword
3x War Walkers w/ 5x Scatter Lasers and 1x Shuriken Cannon
Pregame Thoughts
This is a very rough matchup for me overall. He does not have a strong long range answer to the Soul Grinders, but until I get those Wraithguard tied up in close combat I cannot start to make my approach with them. The Avatar is another issue completely and I need to swamp it with Rending attacks in order to take it down. Overall everything is going to be typical Daemons and depend on weather the first turn of shooting and getting some lucky scatters. The other option I entertain is to punt on the Secondary mission and go straight for the draw. I can DS everything at max range and go to ground in the corner. If I do this I do not think he can possibly get across the board in time to kill 6 units and get his ears. I elect not to do this, because I know Greg will be a contender in the tournament and I do not want to screw him over and because I hate playing for a draw on principle.
I get the first turn and take it to avoid him taking a deployment zone with a ton of cover and clear sight lines, I make my first mistake here and put him in the corner with...decent sight lines and good cover. I know that it is convention to take Turn 2 against a shooty army but I took turn 1 for two reasons, other than dictating deployment.
First I knew that if I was going to win, an extra shooting phase would not matter since I would be in CC with most of his army. Second, I wanted to have a chance to tie up his units before his reserves came in. This way if I scatter too close to his board edge his Harlequins will not immediately smash open that unit.
Deployment
Greg does the standard foot Eldar castle with a ring of Wraithguard joined by the Farseer protecting Dire Avengers in the center. The War Walkers hide behind terrain, along with the Warp Spiders. The Wraithlord and Avatar stand proud in the middle, knowing there is little I can do to shoot at them. In reserves are the Harlequins and Jetbikes. Greg was also very mindful to spread out appropriately to prevent me from doing too much damage with the Flamers or Soul Grinders.
Turn 1
I choose my preferred wave to be 2x Soul Grinders, Tzeetch Herald, 2x Fiends, Seekers and a unit of Horrors. My plan is to use the SG to charge in and finish the Wraithguard, banking on the fact that they can only take down 1 SG and his other abilities that can hurt AV 13 are limited (Wailing Doom, Brightlance and CC).
I get the wave and drop the bottom SG in first and scatter back a bit into terrain but pass my test. Next I drop the other SG and scatter into terrain, promptly immobilizing the SG and ruining my dual SG assault plan. Next the Seekers come in and hit on the ramp, which should be in range for a charge next turn. The tzeetch Herald hits and the two Fiends scatter a minimal amount. My deployment after Turn 1 is below. My shooting for the entire game is abysmal and I do nothing.
Greg responds to my deployment by shooting at my seekers with his War Walkers/Dire Avengers and moving back to stretch out the charge range. I lose 3 models and feel pretty good about how things are going so far.
Turn 2
I only get the Flamers and Screamers in from reserves. The Flamers promptly mishap after an aggressive deepstrike attempt while the Screamers I DS far away since they are miserable in CC. Greg puts them in front of the wall, shown below, and I think I might be able to save them with a good run roll (more than 2). I get some terrible terrain rolls for my Fiends who mostly just hang out and I slip through his Wraithguard to hit his Dire Avengers. This is a mistake, I should have hit the Warithguard. I originally was going to multi-assault both, but decide too many attacks are going to come back on me from that.
In assault he gets in 10 dire avengers and I get in 6 Seekers. After 30 attacks, I cause 1 wound which is saved by armor...this seems bad but at least I have the Avengers tied up so they cannot shoot for a turn. They then go crazy, smash down 5 Seekers and I fail all my fearless saves wiping the unit!
What is missing? Right my CC specialist Seekers! This changes everything, also notice that I got a 2 on my Flamers run so they are going to be just in range of his shooting and they are predictably gunned down. I also lose 4 of my Fiends by the ramp and 2 to the Jet bikes that came in from reserve. He uses his jetbike move to create a wall so my remaining fiends cannot get to his other units The coup d'etat is the Soul Grinder is exploded (seen in next picture) putting a wound on the chariot....
Turn 3
I get my Horrors in from reserve and mishap them into the back of the Soul Grinder again, the SG is wracking up fratricide kills for me at this point! I also get the Slaanesh Chariot and conservatively drop it in the back so it is not instantly gibbed. I move up with the rest of my Fiends and hope for some lucky shots with the Tzeetch Herald (bad decision I threw him away to the Warp Spiders, you can see Greg measuring up their move in the picture, ironically they do 4 wounds to him and the SG explosion was the fifth!). For the charge I have to hit the jetbikes, hoping to wipe them and get back into cover but I fail big time and he makes his morale check. Near the front the Fiends fall out of charge range by about a quarter inch and I curse my 1" run roll, even though it was likely a charge fated for disaster.
I also Turbo boost my Screamers up realizing what a bad place I DS'ed them into. Predictably, the Harlequins come in and eat some doomed Fiends at I7 while the Spiders finish terminating the
Turn 4
The game is over and we both know it at this point. the rest of my army comes down and I DS them near my icon. He falls back with his army and lets me know he has no intention on going near my CC units hiding behind the SG and the wall. We shake hands and here is how the board ends...
Result: 0 points (35 for Greg) Massacre!
Mistakes/Reflections
I made a huge mistake in my wave selection and deployment. I did a poor job accounting for how many shots his army can generate and I am going to benefit from a ton of cover. My first wave should have put as many bodies in the field as possible. Slaanesh Chariot, 2x Fiends, Seekers, 2x Daemonettes, Screamers.
For deployment, the Daemonettes DS within 8" of his lines on the right hand side. The second squad shoots for the second ramp near terrain while the seekers come in where they did before. The Fiends DS in the center crater and just behind the Daemonette wall near his board edge. This would have put a ton of pressure on and given the placement of his spiders, he would not have been able to shoot their guns and with the amount of cover I would have had 4+ saves on most my army. It also forces him to shoot the 5 wound icon (who will go to ground) to prevent 2 SG from coming in and dropping their flamer template on him or the Flamers from getting an idea DS into his lines.
I also made a mistake not assaulting his Wraithguard with my Seekers, getting all 9 in to put 45 attacks on the unit (23 hits, 4 Rends) would have freed my SG up to move in and provided the chance to slip in with some Fiends on the Avengers next turn.
Overall I played a terrible game here and after speaking with Greg realized I was much too conservative and took the wrong approach to this game. I resolved to be much more aggressive next game.
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