1850 - RTT - G2 - 10-14-12

Game 2

I am in good shape after the first game - scoring max points against my opponent which means I was at the 'top table' and expected a good matchup.  I drew Doug, whom I had played in the last tournament (written up here) when he brought Grey Knights.

This time he brought a guard army with him that had a lot of anti-Daemon firepower.

Mission: The Relic
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
Opponent: Imperial Guard



HQ
Commissar

Elite
Guardsman Marbo
10x Psyker Battle Squad in Chimera

Troops
Infantry Platoon
5x Platoon Commmand Squad w/ 2x Flamers
20x Guardsmen
10x Guardsmen
10x Veteran Squad w/ 3x Plasma

Fast Attack
Valkyrie w/ Lascannon and Multiple Missile Pods
Hellhound w/ Hull Flamer

Heavy Support
2x Leman Russ Punisher w/ Hull Heavy Bolters
2x Medusa (I believe this is the S10, AP 2 Blast)
1x Manticore

Fortifications
Aegis Defense Line w/ Quad Gun

We decided to treat the central bastion as a building that you could only embark the top battlement of with Deep Strikes counting the top as dangerous terrain

Warlord Traits I get Move Through Cover in ruins (useless) and he gets to redeploy d3 units (useless)

Deployment
We play this a bit wrong - Doug wins the deployment roll and chooses his deployment zone, but I then win the first turn roll that does not exist.  Either way, he deploys packed in behind his Aegis and I think my templates are going to have a field day.  You can see his deployment in my Turn 1 picture.

We roll for Night Fight and get it for Turn 1.

Turn 1 - Daemons
I choose Flamers, Crushers, Screamers, Fate and 2x Grinders for my wave and I get it.  The grinders are Deep Struck over 36" from the Manticore and just at 36" from the Medusas if they move towards my units.  The Screamers land close to do their flyby, as do the Crushers.  Fate makes it in as well, while the flamers scatter away from the infantry squad I was going to BBQ and out of Fateweaver range.

I take out 14 guardsmen with my sweep attacks and 1 HP from the Punishers - that is on 9 total glance opportunities - I thought I might get them both.  I do kill a few guardsmen as a bonus.  This is bad since they are going to unload big time on my units.  Both my Soul Grinders miss terribly with scatters.  At least Fate flys forward enough to keep the Screamers in range, along with the crushers.

Turn 1 - Guard
The Hellhound moves forward to fry the flamers while the tanks simply pivot and move back slightly.

Only 3 flamers are left after the Hellhound hits them.  The PBS then tries to template them and I Deny The Witch (below) on a 6!

The Screamers take some fire but make all of their 4+ rerollable saves and in the end the Punishers finish off the flamers for First Blood! with a ridiculous number of wounds.  He then assaults the Screamers to try to pin them on my turn and I wiff terribly so it works!  This is also terrible as I wanted to assault those Russes next turn.

Turn 2 - Daemons
I get in two units of Plaguebearers and a unit of Horrors plus some Fiends. The Plagues and Horrors are not picture but the Plagues drop near the relic while the Horrors try to distract the Hellhound by dropping a bolt in its back armor.  They scatter back just in bolt range but cannot warpfire anymore and miss their bolt.  In the meantime fate takes a pait of hullpoints from the Medusa while the crushers multiassault the command squad and the Chimera - blowing the chimera and killing the entire squad.

The screamers predictably slaighter the guardsmen, I try to put as many as I can into the comissar and hope the guardsmen make morale but I end up killing them all.

Turn 2 - Guard
The Valk comes in and shoots its rockets and lascannon at the plagues but only kills 1.  Marbo also drops a Demo charge on them, but only kills 1 as well.

The hellhound takes down 3 Horrors with its flamers while the Punishers and Medusa only manage to kill 5 Screamers with the Aegis there.  I made a mistake here and I should have rolled one of the models outside of cover as a 5++ instead of a 4+ cover but it does not end up mattering.  The Fiends also lose 2 models from the Manticore.

Turn 3 - Daemons

At this point I filled up my memory card and did not realize it - so I lost these pictures - my apologies.  I do remember the events pretty well though,  plus the board gets pretty sparse at this point.

I assault the punishers with the Screamers and Fiends - wiping them with just the fiends - and kill the PBS with the Blood Crushers.  My Horrors come in, and I make a mistake in the positioning so I do not get all them in rear armor of the Hellhound.  I get lucky though and glance the Hellhound to death.  The remaining two Horrors Bolt the Manticore and explode it with a lucky hit and failed 4+ cover from ruins.  The plagues run from Marbo to get the relic while the other unit boxes him in.

Finally, Fate Smash attacks the two Medusa's and wrecks both.

Turn 3 - IG
The Guard make a brave move and fly off the board with the Valk to come in the next turn.  Marbo assaults the plagues and wins - but stays locked and safe.

Turn 4 - 5
I wall in the relic to prevent the IG from taking it and put it on some Horrors near fate with the relic in the middle.  The Valk flys around and I cannot kill it due to its Juke save when Fate Skyfired it - I made a mistake here, I should have used Fateweaver to man the Quad gun and take interceptor shots when the Valk arrived.

The cost to me is I do not table my opponent as the game ends on Turn 5 - with the valk in hover mode and his last unit hiding for a linebreaker point.  I think one more turn would have let me finish the rest of his army off.  For the first time in 6th edition I did not table my opponent.  Luckily, I managed to get all but 1 point and score a 5 for the mission.

At 2-0 I should be playing for first place at this point.