Loose Ends: Mechanicon GT Game 5 Batrep

Hey guys, I hate to post old news but I wanted to wrap up this loose end cause guys have been asking for it.

Mechanicon Game Five for the win?

As most of you know, I took 3rd at Mechanicon. But in game five I was playing for the win! Stressful indeed.

Game Five:
Modified Victory Points Objectives.
Kill all troops for major victory
Kill Commander for victory

Opponent:
Nidzilla. 3 shooty carnifexs, 3 killy carnifexs, 2 shooty hive tyrants and 4 squads of Genestealers. Not a list most guys want to face... ever.

He knew I had to kill his two hard to kill tyrants and then mow down 4 squads of stealers for the win. To take me down, he had to kill my 20 marines and corbs. But to get to them he had to get through my armor! This was going to be a great game from the start.

He gave me first turn.

I deployed with all of my forces bunched up in the center of the table on my edge. I wanted to keep them away from the edge incase he outflanked his stealers. Corbs was in a rhino with a combat squad behind and the rest of the boys were set up with their weapons ready and the predators off to the side a bit to keep them out of terrain. He set up a wall of bug flesh. His carnifexs were in front with the shooty fexs behind and the tyrants behind them. I had to blast through a wall of death to get to the tyrants. My plan was simple. Blow a hole in the wall and then dump all my fire power into his tyrants until they were dead. Get the minor victory then run the hell away with my combat squad and corbs in a rhino and keep them alive. I had no delusions about killing his stealers. They were in reserve and if I did manage to kill three of the squads, he would just run the last one away. But I had the advantage when it came to commanders, him being unable to hide his, so I took it.

Turn One:

I advance my preds and attack bikes, I had 6, and opened up on carnifex one. With notihng to block LoS, he did not last long. That opened up a hole and angle where I was able to start blasting away at his Tyrants. So I took the shots. Killed one!

On his turn, he saw my strategy and adjusted. He only had to cover about 18" to get to me, so he would be on me no later then turn 3. He just had to weather the storm and get those carnifexs moving. He opened up on my bikes, killing a couple and hurting my shooty love.

Turn Two:

I had to take down a shooty fex this time to get at his second tyrant. One of my pods came in and I took the melta shot at the tyrant, as well as laying down more Asscannon and Melta law. It died. My plan was working almost to well? I think he was ill prepared for the fire power that I threw down. Taking down his tyrants was shocking to him for sure. He probably doesnt see that often. But that would be the end of my free shots. Next turn his Carnifexs would be in my lines.

On his turn, he advanced his big bugs again and brought on two squads of stealers. His shooting killed more bikes and stunned a predator. The stealers attacked my dread, landing something like 48 hits. When it was all said and done from that charge, and I frustrated the crap out of him by making him reroll about 10 rending wounds to my benefit, it came down to one last rend. It was a pen and he rolled a weapon destroy. High from all the luck, I decided to press it and made him reroll it. He rolled a destroy. I learned a valuable lesson that I would then carry over to the Battle for Salvation tournament. Always take the weapon destroyed against a Pen result on my ven dread. That is the best option.

So he destroyed my dread.

Turn 3:

My other pod came down. I got out and flamed a stealer squad and killed most of them. My tanks and bikes opened up on the nearest Big Bug and reduced it to one wound. I also layed down some fire on a shooty fex because it had the gun that could hurt my tanks and reach me as I retreated. He had two carnifex that would assault this turn and three shooty fex that would pepper my tanks and troops. Next turn, I would pull my move and fast move my rhino away. I just wanted to keep his attention away from it, plus I had to move my tactical squad out of the way without drawing attention.

He assaulted my second dread with three stealers squads. This one was a Death Co. dread and it actually won combat!!! Two of the squads fell back, but one managed to stay in so I could not sweeping advance. They would regroup and come back next turn.

He assaulted my last bike squad with a shooty fex, and the tough buggers would hold it up for two assault turns. He moved and assaulted one of my predators and killed it.

Turn 4:
At this point things are breaking down fast. Those two carnifexs are tearing me up. My dread lasted another turn against the stealers, tieing them up and but the rest of them were on the table and it would die soon. I layed down more fire on his carnifexs but was running out of options. I killed the fex that destroyed my tank, but there was another right there, and I was out of shots. My escape route was ready and on turn 5 I would get the hell out. I used my other rhino to block the carnifexs assault route on my escape rhino.

He assaulted my las cannon combat squad and killed it, and was sizing me up for a way to keep me from getting away, my plan now obvious.

Turn 5:
Time to go! I roll OCE on my rhino and score a 4, so It will get well away from trouble. But then travesty. My cursed ability to roll 1s rears its ugly head and I immobilize the rhino on terrain. For the love of god! Knowing that the best he could do would be to assault Corbs rhino and kill it forcing him to bail out, I panicked and disembarked him any way. I made a line of armor with the rest of my tanks and ran corbs to what I hoped would be safety behind a tank and out of assault range. My other dread goes down to stealer rends after killing his share and his shooty fex kills my bike squad. I assaulted his carnifex with another combat squad trying to slow it down, but he wiped them out.

On his turn it came down to his last shot. His assaulty fex was almost dead and would not last turn 6 if the game went on. (I should have kept corbs in the rhino...) He placed his big template, a str 8 ap 4 or 5 shot, I dont know what it was called... after the scatter, it clipped corbs. I had to make a 3+ save and have the game end. Die roll? A 2. Corbs is instant killed and a draw is born. The game ended turn 5.

It was a fun game! I killed a lot of giant bugs. He certainly felt the sting of the Baal Predator and it was this game where I learned the true value of the Venerable Furioso. Had I not taken that reroll which killed my first dread, he would not have had so many squads on my second the next turn. They likely would have both lived, and killed all the stealers! The second would have finished off the ones that assaulted it while the first tied up the majority of them, then the second would have jumped in to help. Instead he killed the first and piled onto the second. With all those rending shots, it is tough to survive.

I made my biggest mistake in my 40k experience so far though by disembarking Corbs. All I really had to do was keep him in that rhino. But I feared that he would kill the rhino and the game would go on, leaving corbs in the hands of a fex that he could not out run if I didnt get him some distance. I suppose it was more of him defying the odds then me making a mistake. He got a perfect scatter after all and I failed a 3+, but still. The game was mine to lose.

As it turned out, it was costly. I ended the game tied with Rob Baer who won best overall. He finished with 10 more points then I did. 8 of them he gained from a fluff quiz which I forgot to turn in, and two he gained from his painting score. I lost 2 points for now having a painted display board. (His army was exceptional though.) So would I have lost even if I won game 5? I think so. I would have had to kill his stealers I think. I would have needed a massacre to make up the 8 point difference Rob got from the quiz.

So there you have it! Interesting point here. Should fluffy 40k quizes be part of GT scoring? This particular one was very difficult, but they gave us about 3 hours of down time to do it. Rob only knew a couple answers and I had a few guesses, but as I found out, looking up the answers was ok. We were allowed to use rule books and codexs. Rob used his iphone! I could have used my laptop. Knowing that now, I don't see much value in the quiz above giving out door prizes. For the quiz to have a major affect on overall scoring, it should be a true measurement of 40k knowledge. We should have 5 minutes before game 3 to answer the quiz. In that case, you either knew the answers, or you did not. Regardless, he would have topped me any way because of the painting score which I could do nothing about. You want to bet that next year I am going to Mechanicon with every codex loaded up in my travel bag and my army will indeed be ready to earn max painting! Lessons learned. :)

Jawaballs