40K Battle Brothers Sept 2013 - Day Two Battle Reports

After a hugely frustrating end to day one we were keen to set things straight with our performance in the final two games. If we could put in a strong performance and snag a couple of favourite game votes we'd still be in with a chance of a podium place.

Game Four - Ghostly Tides vs. Tau/IG
After a Sunday morning cock up by the ever reliable GW tournament staff which saw three teams on several tables across the hall. Attempts to point out the problem were initially met with the usual hostility from the event staff but eventually they sorted it out. Anyway, we were facing another opponent with some Tau. Seriously there were more Tau at this event than I've ever seen before, as a long time Tau player I'm saddened by this but more on that later. Anyway, this game would be Crusade with three objectives and Dawn of War deployment. Our opponents had two riptides (VTs but no EWOs for some reason?), a hammerhead, devilfish with ethereal and fire warriors, two more fire warriors squads, a leman russ, commissar and veterans in a vendetta.

Once again we won the roll off! The wraithknight got a side armour shot on the leman russ but could only strip a hull point. One riptide hit the hammerhead but failed to do any damage. The other riptide killed a handful of fire warriors. The wave serpents added a few more dead fire warriors and shook the devilfish. In response the commander was wounded along with the wraithknight and the hammerhead could only stun a waveserpent despite penetrating.

The kroot arrived and finished off the fire warriors on our left. The wave serpent that was still free to shoot managed to wreck the devilfish. The wraithknight charged one of the riptides but couldn't finish it off. In response the leman russ killed 4 kroot but the rest held their nerve. The other riptide acted totally out of Tau character and charged into the combat with the wraithknight after both he and his partner had overcharged their nova reactors for a 3++ save but the combat stayed a stalemate with the riptides clinging on and reducing the wraithknight to two wounds. My other squad of kroot clung on to one of our objectives on the right flank and pretty much sat there for the game.

Eventually, with one riptide on two wounds and the other with a single wound remaining, our opponents failed both attempts to nova for a 3++ save which killed one and left the other as easy prey for the wraithknight. The wraithknight then made himself the star of the game by taking out hammerhead which was acting as cover for the ethereal's squad.

With the game coming to a close it was looking decidedly one-sided at it was only the end of our third turn. The vendetta arrived and despite interception from both riptides it survived with a single hull point. It then failed to kill off the commander with its lascannons in an attempt to claim Slay the Warlord even though I failed both Look Out Sir rolls. We dropped some dire avengers off on their objective whilst the wave serpent moved off to kill off the Ethereal and his unit. The tree hugging kroot on our right finished off the last fire warriors. Finally one of the riptides blew up the flyer with his fusion gun at half range which killed all but 3-4 of the occupants. The dire avengers on their objective took the commissar down to one wound and left him with a single friend. Our opponent's faces dropped when they realised we'd still got the kroot left to fire whose shots were enough to complete the tabling by turn 4.

Again a bit of a mismatch given results in previous games but just what we need as we took all 12 of the available VPs plus a bonus one from the Ethereal giving us 13-0 and more points than any other team in round 4.

Game Five - Ghostly Tides vs. Tau/Orks

Even more Tau! At least these guys had been playing their armies for years and as the eventual winners of the painting competition (they got our votes) it was a joy to play against such a beautiful army controlled by some great guys. Anyway, enough gushing. We'd be playing Emperor's Will on Vanguard. Our opponents had an ethereal, fire warriors, devilfish, skyray, pathfinders, krooot, battlewagon full of lootas, Ghazghkull and boyz in a trukk and a riptide of course!

We sealed our 100% record with roll-offs but our opponents had been able to position everything behind a single large ruin. This took our wave serpents out of the game for the first turn. The wraithknight managed to score a 6 to wound on the riptide but it made it's invulnerable save to survive instant death! The riptides both nova'd for the ordnance blast. Thanks to the close proximity of the enemy vehicles one riptide was able to stun the devilfish and blow up the battlewagon killing 5 lootas. Their riptide proved lethally accurate and downed one of the wave serpents with help from the lootas but the commander surivived the full salvo from the skyray.

The next shot from the riptide was able to wreck but sadly not explode the devilfish allowing the Ethereal to disembark into the ruin and safety. The kroot came up on the left flank and killed off a couple more lootas. The wraithknight attempted to charge the riptide but failed. Their kroot arrived and were intercepted by our riptide killing enough to make them run. Their pathfinders boosted them back up to full BS though and they were able to wound the wraithknight with their sniper shells. The other riptide failed to intercept Ghazghkull's trukk as it failed to penetrate armour 10 with S7. My kroot managed to make their kroot flee the board and survived a tank shock from the skyray. Their riptide missed with its pieplate on my newly arrived kroot on our right flank. The wraithknight managed to get into combat with the riptide now but it had been able to turn on its 3++ save and passed the required saves in the combat.

At this point we were pretty sure that this one piece of terrain was going to cost us the game! The riptide finished the job on the trukk which blew up on the spot although only a single ork died in the blast I think. The farseer attempted to Mind War Ghazghkull forcing him to Waaagh! for a 2++ save to prevent 2 wounds. The combination of markerlight and riptide pie plate killed off the ethereal and some fire warriors. Ghaz then tried to advance towards our objective but heavy casualties prevented him from getting close enough to charge. The clock was ticking down pretty rapidly though and it was turn 4 with one objective each! Our opponents had some fire warriors, pathfinders and a riptide guarding their objective whilst we had ours controlled by dire avengers but with Ghaz closing in fast.

The 5th turn proved totally decisive though. The kroot, dire avengers and wave serpent were able to finish off Ghaz before he could contest our objective. The commander split from his unit and lined up to charge the pathfinders. The farseer gunned down a couple of fire warriors with help from dire avengers before charging in to finish of the last. We'd taken their objective off them but our dire avengers/kroot couldn't claim it without us clearing away the riptide and pathfinders. The commander and kroot combined to finish the pathfinders though and I charged my riptide into the combat ready to assist the wraithknight if need be. Fortunately the wraithknight was able to kill the riptide this time and clear the objective. This left only the skyray alive. Once again we'd gained maximum points plus an extra one for the Ethereal giving us 10pts and more than any other team in round 5 too!

Conclusion

At the end of day one we were pretty gutted about losing our third game. We only had our poor rolling to blame. However, at the end of the tournament, having scored two extra points thanks to Ethereals, we'd compensated for half of the points we dropped in game three. The random favourite game voting system would decide where we'd place now but theoretically we should've been in the top three.

As they were reading out the results we convinced of two things. Firstly that third was about as good as we could hope for and secondly that we'd be pissed off if our game 3 opponents were outright winners. Sure enough they were having secured 4 favourite game votes (and 12 bonus VPs as a result) which we can't honestly understand how when they must've tabled a couple of armies.

Once again we'd scored enough VPs from our games for second place but with a single favourite game vote (presumably from game two) we found ourselves 5th. Really makes it worth the effort to turn up on the second day!! What really grates is had we taken 6 VPs in game three we'd have won the tournament inspite of favourite game votes!

This brings me onto riptide reliability. My riptides throughout the weekend were equal parts awesome and awful. They failed their nova attempts more than they should've for starters. Game three was just daft though. For a weapon to get hot that many times is unbelievable. Couple that with their saving throws and we can only conclude we must've severely pissed off the dice gods.

Ultimately the problem was the pairings. Whilst we can't pretend we didn't benefit from it three of our games, it must've helped the eventual winners a lot. Anyway, enough bitching for now. I'm going to put up the painting competition pictures over the next couple of days and then I'll discuss the stupid system GW run on Friday.

I'd like to point out that I still really enjoy these doubles events for the social aspect. We met some great guys once again who I hope can make it to Blog Wars. Sadly our enjoyment is in spite of the events team rather than because of them, more Friday!