Random Team Tournament - Round 3 - 1000 Points

My army and the tournament rules can be found here.


Round 3:
Mission - Seize Ground (5 Objectives)
Deployment - Pitched Battle

Allied Army - Imperial Guard

HQ
Primaris Psyker w/ "Lighting" (2d6 shots?)


Elite
6x Ratling Snipers


Troops
10x Veterans w/ Demolitions, 3x Melta (in Valk)


Fast Attack
Valkyrie w/ Multiple Missile Pods


Heavy Support
2x Basilisk
2x Leman Russ Demolisher w/ 1 Lascannon

Opposing Coalition - Necrons/Necrons

HQ
Necron Lord w/ Mindshackle Scarabs, Warscythe, Tachyon Arrow
Command Barge
Court- Necron Lord w/ Warscythe and MSS


Primaris Psyker w/ "Lightning" (2d6 shots?)


Elite
C'Tan w/ Writhing Worldscape, Lord of Fire


Troops
5x Gauss Immortals
5x Tesla Immortals
10x  Guardsmen  w/ 3x Grenade Launcher, in Chimera
10x  Veterans w/ 3x Flamers, Demolitions (in Valk)


Fast Attack
5x Triarch Praetorians (yep that is right!)
Valkyrie
Hellhound


Heavy Support
2x Leman Russ Punisher w/ 2x Lascannon

Pre-Game Thoughts

This is a 5 objective game, which means we need to preserve our relatively fragile troop choices - all T3 units with no better than a 4+ save.  The Punishers should be, in my opinion, our number 1 target with the huge number of shots they can put out in a single turn.  Most of the objectives are bunched up on the right hand side of the board, which I did deliberately to shrink the board size so my Daemons could bounce around in assault more easily.  With that in mind...

We win the shot at first turn and my partner takes it without asking my opinion...this might be a tough one...

Deployment

We drop the Basilisks in the far right corner since any unit going after them is going to be far away from the objectives to do so.  The Leman Russes are deployed at 12" dead center and the Valk has the Primaris Psyker and Vets embarked.

Our opponents elect to reserve most of their army and deploy both Punishers, the Overlord's command barge and their C'tan to the table.  The Praetorians are Depp Striking, the Valk is outflanking with the Melta Vets and the Scarabs and Immortals will walk onto the board.  Their deployment can be seen in our turn 1 picture.

We infiltrate the Ratlings into the center terrain to take shots at the C'tan and my ally Scout moves his Valk within 12" of the Hell hound for a first turn Demolitions hit on the Hellhound - I am a little hesitant about dropping one of our three scoring units into harms way...

Turn 1

Blue Team

I want my troops in Reserve, so I bring in the Keeper of Secrets, the Fiends and the Crushers - getting my preferred wave with authority on a 6!  The Crushers scatter back several inches to be stuck in no man's land - a magical place where the Punishers can be 23.5" away and wreck them while they pray for good run rolls.  The Fiends drop on the far side of the board ready to exploit their speed and I put the Keeper on the right flank - in range of the Punishers, but I need to overload that area if I can with threats.

What you do not see in this picture is the Scouted Valk, who is shown below moving up to assault the Hellhound before moving away with the Primaris Psyker in tow.  The squad wrecks it with Melta Bombs, takes 8 wounds, fails 8 saves, fails morale and is running off the board.  We now have 2 scoring units left - at least they are tucked safely in reserve.

In other news my runs are mediocre and we mange to pull 2 wounds off the C'tan with Ratlings.  The Demolishers are out of range and the Basilisk scatters into oblivion.

Red Team

This picture is from the top of Turn 2, but shows the enemy movement.  The Punishers move up and put a ton of wounds on the Crushers - taking down the Icon which I really wanted to have - and putting 1 wound on each remaining crusher.  The C'Tan moves up and then moves up even further with a good run roll.  The Command Barge goes 12" and the Lord hops out to hit the Valk with his Tachyon Arrow - it is Stunned.

Turn 2

Blue Team

I roll for reserves and thankfully fail to get the Horrors or Daemonettes in.  The Daemon Princess does not have a good place to go, so I throw her down near the keeper as an auxiliary target and she Pavanes the C'Tan into range of the Fiends/Crushers who assault.  I really do not want to kill it this turn, I need it to protect my punchy units - so I pull some punches on the Fiends by stringing them out.   What I did not expect was to fail to hurt it at all and I lose combat by two, lose a Fiend and I make my saves on the last remaining crusher.

Our shooting remains completely ineffective.

Red Team

They get in their Scarabs, Veteran Squad, Praetorians and both units of Immortals.  The Veteran squad hides behind a small hill by the objective on the far left while the scarabs and Gauss Immortals come in behind area terrain near the board edge.  The last unit of Tesla Immortals advance behind the Leman Russ formation.  The Praetorians arrive near the Ratlings with options to take down artillery or contest our objective.

In shooting the Punishers Ace the Daemon Princess while the Lord hops back in his ride to move up.  He is totally bummed he cannot go flatout this turn.  In assault the C'tan beats down the last crusher (should have gone for the Fiends in my opinion) and the Fiends Hit and Run their way out of there toward the closely packed Scarabs and Immortals.  The C'Tan consolidated towards the punishers.

Turn 3

Blue Team

I get in a unit of Horrors who have no good place to Deep Strike - I drop them near our center home objective and hope we can shoot down the Praetorians.  Our shooting finally accomplishes something as the Hull mounted Lascannon managed to knock the command barge out of the sky.  The Fiends tear apart just enough scarabs to minimize return damage (there are 4 left now) and cause the Immortals to run off the board.  You can see the Chimera on the left that they are eyeing up for next turn and where the Praetorians get into it with the Horrors next turn (Spoiler alert!)

If you look closely in front of the Demolishers you can also see..

Round 2 of the C'tan Keeper of Secrets slap fight.  The C'tan does one wound and I inflict 0 back but make my fearless save.

Red Team

The outflanking Valk arrives and moves Flat Out! next to the objective on our side of the board.  The Necron Lord advances toward the C'tan combat.  The Punishers have no good targets at this point and take some lascannon shots at the Demolishers, but neither does anything.

The Chimera moves 6" to take shots at the Horrors but are just out of range.

Praetorians take down all the Horrors and consolidate near the Ratlings.

The slap fight continues, but I take another wound on the Keeper of Secrets.  The Fiends Predictably finish off the Scarabs and consolidate 6" towards the Chimera.

Turn 4

Blue Team

I apologize that pictures are scarce this turn as things were getting a bit intense.   Daemonettes arrive and Deep Strike near the Praetorian Objective.  The Ratlings take some shots at the Praetorians, as does the Primaris Psyker and a fleeing Meltagun (yeah those guys had a ways to go, but are not really worth mentioning) to take down 2 Praetorians with 1 getting back up.  The Primaris Psyker assaults into the Praetorians, actually kills one and makes his save so they stick in combat.

In important news we down the Valk with Leman Russ shot that scatters just onto the wing.  Those really are large models. The Fiends hit the Chimera but only manage to Shake and Weapon Destroy it - the worst possible results, I really wanted to at least Stun or immobilize it!

Slap Fight continues, with the C'tan putting another wound on my Keeper.  The Keeper again fails to do anything but makes his fearless save.

Red Team

It starts to get real and the Chimera drives away 12" to sit on an objective.  The Tesla Immortals who have yet to shoot are now in range of the objective while the Demo Vets assault into the Demolishers and wreck one of the tanks.  The Praetorians kill all the Horrors and consolidate towards the Ratlings while the Punishers immobilize and weapon destroy the Valk with their Lascannons - I wish it was wrecked because now we have a giant dangerous DS area.

Praetorians predictably wreck the Primaris.

The real news is the Slap Fight ends when the Necron Lord assaults into combat with the C'Tan and Keeper.  I say forget the C'Tan after I dramatically roll the mindshackle dice one at a time to get a perfect 10 - and pulp the Lord.  The C'tan misses his attacks and fails all 3 Fearless save from the Lord - what huh! The explosion does not wound the Keeper, the Lord stays down and I get a 6" consolidate straight towards the enemy objective!

Turn 5

Blue Team

We might be able to pull off a draw or even a win with some luck here.  The Daemonettes make short work of the Praetorians and take our home objective.  The Fiends make it into assault with the Chimera and force an Emergency Disembarkation away from the objective - unfortunately those rules are worded so terribly that it has no impact on the squad.  The Keeper of Secrets makes it into combat with the Immortals and I dramatically roll the MSS one at a time again - passing on another 10 (for those who say this effects the odds, 1 it does not, 2 I am using Vegas dice so the rolls are close to statistically perfect and 3, I was asked to roll them all at once after the game and they came up 1, 1, 1 :P for some extra spite).

We get extremely lucky near our home objective and the Leman Russ and Basilisk manage to put 10 wounds on the Vets who have to go to ground in the open or be wiped - four survive who make their morale.

Red Team

The two Punishers move to unload on the Fiends contesting the objective, but one immobilizes itself on terrain and goes poof.  The other puts six wounds on my Fiends, but I go to ground in cover and take two wounds.  The Guardsmen unload and I take one more wound.  They are forced to assault the Fiends, who take down 6 Guardsmen and in return the Guard inflict 5 wounds, I make one save and a single Fiend with 1 wound is left.  The guardsmen fail their Morale check and are swept by the Fiend, leaving us in sole possession of one objective.

We call the game there as the only unit left is the single Punisher pictured above (taken after some cleanup has started).  We then recall the bonus objective for killing Heavy Support and check to see if the game would go on - the Keeper wrecks the Leman Russ netting us an extra point.

Our scoring this round is:
Victory: 12 Points
Diversity in Destruction: 5 Points

Tournament Results Wrap Up

We manage to finish our game ahead of the table next to us and get to watch their game (I am sure hyv3mynd will write that one up at http://synaps3.blogspot.com/) - Necrons/Tyranids vs GK/CSM

My total score over the three rounds is 38 with an 8 of 12 for painting (I did not have all these guys based so this is fair) for a total of 46.

I will not ruin the result for those who want to read it on the Blog above, but I finished in 3rd by 3 points (I was ahead by a battle points, but lost 4 to painting which is fair given how much better the army looked) and qualified for the end of the year championship tournament in December (top 2 in this had previously qualified).  Overall it was a great time, although the format has some kinks to work out and I will talk about modifying the it (along with Army lists changes I would make) in a Tournament Wrap Up post.