2k 40k RTT at Showcase Comics Jan 19

Hey All!

So yesterday I attended an RTT at Showcase Comics which is about 2 hours and 40minutes from my area. It turned out to be well worth the drive. I attended this after being told repeatedly that the level of competition at this game store is quite high, so if I wanted good practice as it were, I should show up! As it turns out this was fairly accurate.

I was joined by Eric from the NOVA crew.

Ok, so my list is basically a re-iteration of what I've been posting here lately.

HQ
Khorne Lord on a Juggy w/ Axe + Meltabomb + Sigil + Boon
Chaos Sorceror on a Bike (unmarked) + Burning Brand + psyker level 3 + meltabomb w/ force axe

Troops
3x 10 cultists

Fast
1x5 Spawn
1x5 Nurgle Spawn
Bale flamer dragon

Heavy
Maulerfiend w/ lasher tendrils
2x 1 nurgle oblit

Ally

HQ
The Masque

Troops
2x 5 Plaguebearers

Fast
1x 9 Screamers

Elite
1x 9 Flamers

That comes to 1999.

I played in order -
 Dark Eldar/ Eldar allies (Venom Spam w/ eldrad and lots of shooty elements)
 Chaos SM (Typhus + 40 plague marines + 6 oblits + bale flamer dragon)
 Necron (Cron air w/ 5 night scythes, 15 wraiths, Destroyer Lord, 3 Annihilation Barges, Deathmarks)

All were good games and required a lot of thought on my part, especially the first game after I got my non prefered wave (2 plaguebearers), and then proceeded to lose the maulerfiend, both spawn squads and both of my HQ's within two turns (before they could assault any infantry). The bale flamer died almost immediately after came in to some fire dragons on a quad gun and some super lucky melta shots.

Underneath the photos below, are some game photos and small battle reports of the games themselves.

So without further discourse, some photos!



Eric showing he has what it takes to be one of the emperors finest

Spaceee hulkkk. SQUEEEE



Badassery

The store

Gaming section

Cool models and titans



Way to cool

As with any battle reports. my memory can be foggy or wrong. Lots of stuff is going on in a game and its hard to remember all 2 1/2 hours multiple times. Please forgive any mistakes!

Game 1 - Vs. Dark Eldar / Eldar: Hammer and anvil, 4 Objectives, Night Fight. My opponent went first.


The Deployment

 Turn 1
My opponent used Eldrad to give ignores cover and other various buffs to the nice guys surrounding him. They promptly blew up the mauler fiend. His ravager barge in the bottom right moves forward to shoot at spawn. On my turn I roll my non-preferred wave and end up deep striking two plaguebearers into his backfield. One mishaps and enters ongoing reserves. I move forward and manage to charge the barge with spawn (making it into the middle piece of terrain with a tree).

Turn 2:

More of the deployment.

I get shot to pieces losing all my spawn and both HQ's, and take wound on one oblit. (thanks ignore cover and re-roll successful saves!).
My dragon, flamers and screamers all arrive from reserve. The dragon takes a hullpoint lost from quad gun. I march everything forward in a steady fashion aiming to contest his objectives and keep him from going to mine. The dragons flame thrower goes for the fire dragons and only manages to kill 1 (despite having 5 hits). My screamers + flamers combined kill about half the dark eldar squad. Plaguebearer in reserve deepstrikes next to his objective.

Turn 3: His dark eldar shoot my flamers and all but 1 screamer to death. My dragon dies to fire dragon melta guns. The lone screamer goes suicidal and takes out one venom in assault. Plaguebearers now charge into combat. one squad charges what's left of the blob (10 warriors, eldrad and a hemocouli (spelling?)), and the other charges a 5 man pathfinder squad camping the other objective. Shockingly the plaguebearers unleash carnage and do very well in combat. At this point i have two ten man cultist squads on one objective, and one ten man on the other. My oblits continue to plod forward firing at venoms to disable them.

Turn 4: The last screamer dies, his venoms + 2 fliers go on a rampage to kill all my cultists. Killing about 5 each from the two ten mans that were hanging out together. (Aiming for a leadership check). One squad runs off the board. One hangs in tenaciously. The plaguebears continue to chop through dark eldar methodically. At the bottom of 4 the large blob now just consists of the dark eldar HQ nad I think a warrior. The pathfinders have expired, but have been replaced by a true born squad who are also being chopped down (and break and run at some point). Oblits continue to plod forward.

Turn 5: I continue to get sprayed with shots on the 5 man squad, the ten man squad  takes a few wounds but luckily is mostly out of LOS so can't take the full brunt of the damage they could receive. The fire dragons are charged into close combat to rescue the Dark Eldar HQ and whiff miserably. The other plaguebears squad now has two trueborn squads in CC with them and holding their own quite well. My opponent spreads one squad of warriors out on one objective(to touch the quad gun) but is unable to reach his second one. On my turn the oblits continue to plod forward shooting, the plaguebears win combat against the fire dragons + DE HQ, breaking free and moving towards the held DE objective but not close enough to contest. At this point if the game ends, I win 2-1 w/ linebreaker + slay the warlord. We roll, the madness continues!

Turn 6: Plague bearers in the open die. The other plaguebearer squad continues to hold on. My last ten man cultist squad passes about 8 3+'s which was amazing. The other squad dies a terrible terrible death On my turn, oblits continue to plod forward. One is now close enough to flame thrower the DE squad holding an objective, he proceeds to do so, requiring a leadership on them, and they break, running off the board! Game is called. 1-0 for a 12 point win. My opponent played very well and took 1799 VP's from me.


Game 2:  vs. CSM Plague Marine Horde!! 2 Objectives, Vanguard


Deployment

I made my opponent deploy first, attempted to seize and failed. My Maulerfiend had come disconnected from his base in the previous game, so that's why just his base is on the table. As it turns out (as with all three games) that was largely irrelevant because he never moved past wherever he was at the end of turn 1. In this game, an oblit immobilized him with a lascannon shot, and he stood there as a silent guardian the rest of the game.. and no one payed him any attention!


Turn 1: He moved all his plague marines forward, shot with the oblits. Ran the marines even further forward. I take the bait, and turn 1 charged Typhus and ten marines with my spawn squad and khorne lord.... and that started my first huge underestimation of plague marines. My bike sorcerer sat in the middle with his spawn and shot a torrent flamer at some marines, killing one.  I got my preferred wave so flamers, screamers, and the masque all came in. Flamers roast 1 & 1/2 oblits, (so not quite first blood!) and screamers kill a few marines. Khorne lord and Typhus get in a challenge. Khorne lord rolls a mighty 8 hits, and proceeds to wiff, like a boss... Typhus deals 2 wounds back and fails his force weapon..

Turn 2:  One plague squad turns to join typhus & company in combat, the other one moves forward to get ready to assault the Masque. The fourth hangs back to shoot at flamers. Oblits shoot and kill a few things. One oblit assaults the flamers and dies(first blood). His dragon comes in and flames my nurgle spawn. Plague marines assault the masque, and join the combat vs. spawn / khorne lord.  The masque accepts a challenge from the plague marine sarge, and they both wiff. Khorne lord dies like a wuss after whiffing again. Spawn are holding up with 1 model left! On my turn, Sorcerer + nurgle spawn charge into combat with the masque + plague marines. Screamers, rather than doing the smart thing and killing some oblits, charge into combat with the spawn + typhus + plague marines (i expected to kill one squad outright and then lose the screamers, it did not happen). Flamers move forward and start chasing the plague marines in the back, managing to dakka 2 down. Plaguebearers come in and stand near his back objective. Cultists come in, one squad onto my objective, one races towards his. My dragon comes on and vector strikes his dragon taking off a hull point. At the end of the turn, typhus and company clear combat, the masque hits and runs away from the plague marine combat after killing the plague marine sarg, and two squads of cultists and an oblit now stand proudly near my objective.

Turn 3: Nugle spawn + sorc hang out in combat with plague marines, his dragon ends up next to my cultists and kills 5 of them, making them break (but not off the board!) Typhus and company come towards my objective. My 10 man block of cultists run towards his objective. Flamers finish off all of the marines on his objective. My dragon harasses typhus and company and kills a few marines. My oblit on my objective tries to kill his dragon unsuccessfully. My other oblit joins the combat with the nurgle spawns + sorc. My cultists who were running regroup successfully. The Masque Pavanes typhus and company backwards away from my objective.


Top of turn 5

Turn 4: Typhus and company advance towards my objective. His oblits go to his objective to remove my flamers / troops, with minimal results thanks to a large ruin blocking LOS and giving cover.  On his turn the plague marines in combat win, and consolidate towards his objective. His dragon goes into hover mode and kills even more cultists on my objective, but they pass leaderships. On my turn the flamers try to wipe out an oblit squad but whiff horrifically. My dragon finishes off the last of typhus's escorting plague marines. My second plaguebearer squad comes in on his objective making a wall between his oblits and my guys. My oblit shoots at the now hovering dragon and blows it up. My cultists run and are now pretty close to his objective, setting up three troops to hold it (perhaps unnecessarily to many). The Masque again pavanes Typhus away from my objective.

Turn 5: His plague marines advance and are now about 12 to 15 inches away from my troop choices on his objective. Typhus advances alone but is to far away to charge my cultists effectively. His plague marines advance and shoot.  My dragon flies across vector striking the only remaining plague marine squad killing a few. My flamers roast them killing some more, and the bale flamer finishes the rest. Game End 2-0, with bonuses for first blood and line breaker. More pavane = more win!

Game 3. VS. Necron (Airforce + wraithwall w/ barges). 5 Objectives, Nightfight, Dawn of War.

Middle of Turn 1, right after movement phase ended.

Almost all of the "action" as it were took place in the first three turns, so I'll walk through those. I rolled the warlord trait for infiltrate, and got two infiltrating units, I chose the oblits
He rolled higher and gave me first turn. I set up dead center with one squad to each side so I could hit any direction. He set up directly opposite me. We were both at the exact 12" line. The oblits then infilitrataed 12 inches away from his line out of LOS. My preferred wave was the masque, flamers, screamers, which I rolled successfully.

I move everything 12 inches forward and had three very successful deepstrikes close range to his line. The masque pavanes two of the wraith squads closer to my guys. I shoot the flamers at one, and overpass the other. The sorc for basically the only time I remembered to use his powers cast shriek which either killed or wounded a wraith. After this I successfully assaulted one of the two wraith squads with the khorne lord + his spawn. The sorc lord + maulerfiend was out of range. On his turn 1 he breaks the destroyer lord off from escorting wraiths and assaults the maulerfiend which thanks to lasher tendrils reduce him to only 2 attacks, one of which gets through and immobilizes it. The full squad of wraiths assault the sorc and company, and the other squad goes to help out the wraiths already in combat.


Turn 3 I think.

For turn 2/3, I think all the combats either cleared or were close to clearing. There was a lot going on so its hard to remember what happened when. The take away is that the khorne lord's squad lost a spawn and had one wounded, the sorc squad loses two spawn eventually, and the maulerfiend ends up immobilized with two hullpoints gone. The destroyer lord + all the wraiths end up dead and the lord does not get back up. All the barges are dead by the end of turn 3. Now just the air force! The rest of the game consisted of me spreading out onto all 5 objectives to either hold or contest as he worked on killing off my cultist squads (and the masque for revenge!).

FIN
Overall Results
1 - 12/13 pts
2 - 12/13 pts
3 - 15/16 pts

**Post Script**
A couple of people have texted asking how I placed overall. I am pleased to say I managed to pull out first.
**END