Here is what turned out to be my favorite game of the tournament. I played against Tim, who had heard of me from my youtube videos and blog. He is the big goofy looking kid in the picture, the shorter one is Brad from my necrons game.
Me vs 1850 Salamanders:
2 LR Redeemer
Vulkan
2 five man TH/SS termies
2 10 man tacticals with Multi Melta and rhinos split into combat squads
1 3 man bike squad with MM
1 speeder with mm
librarian
Tim's army was pretty straight forward. A hard hitting, in your face army.
Mission was control table quarters
Deployment was table corners
Tim won the roll and passed me 1st turn. I deployed with my preds lined up 12" from center, with bikes lined up ready to support. I reserved 1 pred and a bike squad and a Rhino with Corbs. Oh, and I bought my scenic resin bases from www.jawaballsproductions.com go there for great resin bases at great prices. Also, I bought How to paint space marines from Jawaballs.
Turn One:
He left his bike squad poking out from behind his LR so I shot lascannons at it and killed one model. That aughta teach him. I attempted to shoot his LRs with assault cannon fire but could not reach. That wrapped up my turn.
On his turn, Tim decided to dip deep into the Kracker Barrel for some supreme cheeze. He had deployed his LRs sideways on the edge of his deployment zone, roughly 24" from my tanks. He then looked at me with a rye smile saying how he was surprised I did not notice this... He Then proceeded to rotate his LR with Vulkan towards my tank, then measured from the front of it, gaining about 4" in the rotation before moving at all. This would have him getting 4" from the rotation, 12" from the movement, 2" from the deployment, and you guessed it, 24" from the charge, assaulting my tanks turn 1.
I called cheeze, and told him that yes, I have seen that before but had expected better of him. (Laying on the shame hard here... but he deserved it.) He claimed it was legal because he can rotate the vehicle for "free" any number of times. More on this later.
So I shamed him, but let him do it. I rarely bust out the rulebook mid game and rely on my opponents honor. Besides, I thought I would let the Emperor decide if he was right through force of action, not words.
I told him to go ahead and move it as he sees fit, but remember, that would cause a terrain test for his vehicle, and the Emperor would grant me a 1. He rolls the die... and of course, a 1 is the result. Immobilized Land Raider. After that, he either felt too much shame, or was afraid to chance the terrain, so he did not try to move his other LR into it. He moved his bikes around to my left flank to try to get in on my tanks, and kept his tacticals in rhinos hiding behind land raiders. His shooting would hurt me though. He killed two of my bike squads. I stupidly left them exposed.
Turn Two:
Angered by his afrontery, and inspired by my faith in the Emperor, I told him that fate was not done with him yet. That cheeze would cost him in blood. I then pointed at his second Land Raider and dubbed it heretic, and condemned it to death by assault cannon. Death by assault cannon? Thats right. My preds could have fired on his bikers instead, but I decided that a show of strength was in order. I lined up my first predator to shoot its assault cannon at his other LR. 4 hits. Then I roll the dice to wound. Ass Cannons rend on a 6. That means I can roll an extra d3 and add it to my pen roll. I roll the 4 hits, and the Emperor granted me a 6. I pick up the rend, and hold it in front of Tim. He squirmed as I sang him some terrible 80s song, I forget which. I was using my Blood Dice. The die rolled around the palm of my hand and he eyeballed it like the rate from Ice Age after his acorn. Not looking at the table, only looking at his eyes, I rolled the die, letting the look on his face tell me the result. Yes, another 6. That was a penetration. 6Str, plus 6 on the pen, plus 3 for rending. 15 penetrates the armor. Without looking down, I pick up the die again, and proclaim his Land Raider exploded. Continuing my 80s song, I roll the die again... his eyes follow it around the palm of my hand, then down to the table... then they glaze over as the result is yet another Blood Drop. (a six). Yes. I not only exploded his Land Raider with an Assault Cannon, but I called the shot.
Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer: 60.00
Package of Blood Drop from Army Dice: 24.00
Look on Tim's face when I destroy his Land Raider with an Ass Cannon: Priceless
After scraping his jaw off the floor, and my resulting seizure from hysterical laughing, we carried on.
So the rest of my shooting would do nothing. One of my pods came down and it failed to hurt his other LR.
On his turn, he bailed out of his two LRs. His librarian led one squad of terminators into my gun fire. Vulkan would lead the other after Corbulo and my Pred that came in from the side.
Turn Three:
My shooting would devestate. I killed the last of his bikes, his Librarian and most of the terminators from the squad. My dread ignored his LR that was immobilized, knowing he could come back for it later, and went after a rhino and speeder that I did not want to escape. He layed the flamer over the speeder and back of the rhino, and shot the rhino. Destroying the speeder, and weapon destroying the rhino. Then I assaulted the rhino... hit it 7 times, and only immobilized it! Jeez. This sucked because I wanted to get that rhino away from the LR and its Multi melta.
On his turn, he would turn things around. With lucky ass cannon shooting of his own, and his LRs melta, he killed both of my dreads. But here is another thing that did not occur to me until just now. He had the Ass cannon on this Land Raider mounted on top. The legal mounting point for a LR Redeemer's Ass Cannon is on the front, giving it only a front arc. It is not Turret Mounted, so cannot shoot behind the tank. He shot my dread with it, that was standing behind the tank. Next time I see him, I will have to point that out. Regardless, my dreads were dead and this game was now back in action, because he also took out Corbulos Rhino and my pred that came in from the side.
Turn Four:
All he had left on the table were 4 combat squads, an imob LR, Vulkan and a few terminators. I had 2 preds, a bike squad, corbs and squad, 3 combat squads and a rhino.
I charge corbs into Vulkan and company. It is a tough fight and I kill a terminator but he wins over all. I take the opportunity to cut down his other terminator squad and get into position to contest table corners. I shoot up some of his tactical marines and we move on.
On his turn, he finished corbs and massacred on. He had to take corners of his own, and still had to knock out my pods. He focused fire on them and took them down, again, rending from behind with a front mounted Land Raider assault cannon.
Turn Five:
It was time for the chess match. First of all, I finished off Vulkan and the terminators with gun fire. A lucky Lascannon shot ending Vulkan. Then I shot up some tacticals with what I could, after moving my bikes and my rhino onto his table corners. Now I was contesting or owning all of them.
On his turn, he assaulted my bikes with a combat squad, but that was all he could do.
At the bottom of five, I contested three objectives, and owned one. He had none. I would roll the die, and of course, rolled a 2. Game over. Minor Victory Jawaballs.
Tim was a likable guy, and very apologetic about his cheeze. There were a couple of other points of contention during the game as well. For example. A terminator squad dual assaulted two vehicles. As I understand the rules, the units must declare their target before assault. 3 terminators declared the Pred, 2 terms and Vulkan declared the Rhino. Vulkan destroyed the rhino on his initiative, but then Tim insisted that the other two, who had moved in to take on the Rhino, could attack the pred. They were legally in range to do so, but had he clearly had them after the rhino. He also said that he technicly never declared they were attacking the rhino... Cheeze.
I wont get into any more because I dont want to blemish a good game and a fun guy. But he needs to seriously rethink some of his tactics.
The LR Rotation trick. As I understand the rules of movement, it is completely a cheat. It is the same as picking up a model, then placing it down 4 inches closer to the direction he wants to move, then measuring with the tape.
What he is supposed to do is measure from the tank BEFORE he moves it in any way. That means if he wishes to move towards my tanks, but the side is pointing that way, yes, he has to measure from the side. The rules say "As you move" you may rotate it any number of times. So sure, as he moved the LR he was free to then pivot it and move with the front towards my tanks. But the tank must stop 12" away from where it was, measured from the original position of the side. You cannot rotate a vehicle, then measure from the new position of its front. Even if rotating is considered "Free" it is still moving, which you cannot do until you measure.
Tim pointed out the "Free" rotation. That refers to a tank that intends to remain stationary. The rules says that it may rotate for free and still count as staying stationary for purposes of shooting.
At any rate, I will get a judgment from an offical on this ruling before any games with Land Raiders in Tournaments. I can deal with trying to assault my predator after declaring assault on a rhino, but cheating out an extra 4" of movement is just wrong.
Am I wrong? Was Tim's bonus 4" rotation move legal? Are you allowed to move a tank before measuring its distance? I will put up vid on this tomorrow.
Jawaballs
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