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Games Day 2002 Battle Summaries, Part 1 <> Battle Summaries, Part 2 <> Photos <> Scenery Games Day 2002
(Baltimore, Maryland): Battle Summaries, Part 2
A shameful admission, I know, but there it is, and perhaps one day I will write a typically long-winded monologue entitled "Winning Can Be Okay So Long As You're Not an Ass About It." Anyway, I went to Games Day wanting to show that there's more to my army than just snazzy paint jobs. So I pulled out the list I had used to win the Best Overall trophy at a Rogue Trader Tournament in January of this year. Which meant, of course, that some folks were going to dance with my favorite figure, "The Redhead," Raja Khandar Madu. Fighting
Tiger "Rogue Trader Tourney" Army
Again, nothing too flashy here, just lots and lots of Tactical Marines backed up by some serious firepower and some hand-to-hand might in the form of Khandar Madu. Ordinarily, I use her in games of 2000+ points as a Force Commander, complete with all kinds of wargear and accompanying Command Squad. But this list represents her before she rose to rule half the Chapter: in this list, she is an up-and-coming Captain.
So how did this army do? Battle Results for the "Rogue Trader
Tourney" Army
What happened? Greg's Star Samurai (painted in a very nice deep purple, by the way) consisted of:
I then spent the rest of the game digging myself out of a hole. I was sorely missing the Pred's lascannons as those Assault Marines and the Force Commander hopped across the board. And what kind of a 40K game would it be without some really terrible dice rolls, too? Example #1: Man-eater V got a lucky opportunity to blast the Force Commander with its twin-linked lascannons. I roll, I hit--but I don't wound. Arrrgh!Fortunately, Greg had some bad rolls too, and I remembered the objective. Sure, the Star Samurai kicked lots of stripey tail, but in the end, I managed to get lots of units into his deployment zone for those bonus Victory Points. Outcome: Tigers win (2070 Victory Points to 1593 Victory Points).
Mission:
Cleanse (page 139 of the main rulebook)
What happened? Drew (better known on The Bolter and Chainsword forum as Orkdung) wanted to try his Zulu-inspired Space Marines against my Hindu-inspired Space Marines. Hey, I'm all for "culture clashes." We lined up and went to it.
Drew was a little startled when my Speeders flew straight at his guys and began firing on his Scouts. One turn later, one of my Tactical Squads charged them (and Drew's Devastators) while the rest of my Marines engaged his in a huge scrum in the center of the board. The Redhead and his Chaplain fell, killing each other in hand-to-hand combat. The Tigers' weight of numbers won the scrum, but Drew managed to get one squad into my table quarter, only to find them facing the quadruple lascannons of Tyger Tyger, my predator Annihilator.
Tyger Tyger opened fire, three Amabutho Marines dropped, the rest failed their Morale check, fell back, and were destroyed in a crossfire by Tiger Tactical Marines. Unfortunately, our time on that table ran out shortly thereafter (you're allowed two hours for each game during Open Gaming), so we stopped and figured out who had what. Had Drew's squad not broken, he could have contested my quarter, but a bad dice roll swung the game in my favor. The Tigers had two quarters, Amabutho had one quarter, and one quarter was contested. Outcome: Tigers win.
Mission:
Recon
(page 142 of the main rulebook)
What happened? The nice part about Open Gaming is that you don't have to already have someone to play: you can just show up and the GW staff will assign you an opponent. I had the great pleasure of meeting Joe Marx and his "salty" Eldar (yes, the pun in the name is intentional). Joe had a nicely-painted army using the Biel-Tan rules from Codex: Craftworld Eldar. They consisted of:
My Rhinos went right, rumbling towards the Dark Reapers while my Speeders softened them up with heavy bolter fire. My Razorbacks crippled the Eldar's mobility by nailing their Wave Serpent, then my Predator Annihilator ate Joe's Wraithlords for lunch. One dropped on Turn 1, the second dropped on Turn 3. Lots of Marine players whine about how Wraithlords have Toughness 8, but lascannons are an easy answer. My Tactical Marines dealt with Joe's Dark Reapers, then took their show on the road against the Fire Dragons and Howling Banshees. The Dragons fell easily, but the Banshees were a bit tougher: at one point, my squad was forced to fall back--and was then assaulted by the Avatar! The squad stubbornly refused to fail any of its Morale checks as the Avatar slowly hacked them up, giving me time to get lots of units into Joe's deployment zone. Indeed, I never had to take Khandar Madu out of her ride, as she just drove to the other side of the board. Though Joe got some of his Dire Avengers into my deployment zone, it was really no contest, as I had all my transports, three of my five Tactical Squads, and my Predator in Joe's deployment zone. Outcome: Tigers win (3083 Victory Points to 437 Victory Points).
Fighting
Tiger "Master and Apprentice" Army
Because each Librarian has a jump pack, I thought it would be cool to
give each one a squad of Assault Marines to command.
An odd point total, I admit. But it came about based on how I wanted to theme the army (the Librarians and the Assault Marines), plus compulsory elements (the two Troop units) and some anti-armor elements (the Speeders and the Predator) that I thought the list needed to be competitive. So how did it do? Mission:
Planetfall
(page 42 of Codex: Space Marines)
What happened? My pal Pat had written up a drop pod army (nicknamed "Big Jumbo") that he wanted to play. Although I was convinced I had exactly the wrong sort of army to tangle with Space Wolves, we had hours to kill before Games Day opened. I set up, Pat's guys "dropped in" (as you can see below), and the bloodbath began.
You would think that a Space Wolf army that may not move nor assault on Turn 1 would do little damage at first, but Pat is a wily Space Wolf Lord. By the time my turn came around:
Well, with only one heavy weapon left and no hope of defeating the Wolves in hand-to-hand combat, I did the only thing I could: remembered the mission objective and relied on my advantage in mobility. To win, Pat had to kill both my HQ units and score more Victory Points. The Librarians linked up with the surviving Assault Squad and they all used their jump packs to hop away from the Space Wolf infantry. Meanwhile, my Tactical Marines ran interference, blocking lines of sight, firing on anyone that got too close, and generally being pests. Pat's only hope was for his Speeders to gun down my leaders, but the plasma pistols of my Assault Squad vaporized the one Speeder that came near. The mission has a random game length, and time expired after Turn 5, with no Wolves anywhere near my Librarians. Outcome: Tigers win. Well, it was a smart victory, but not exactly glorious. I didn't really like my Marines running like rabbits instead of fighting, but I had no choice, hobbled as I was by Pat's awesome first turn. I'll have to play this "Master and Apprentice" list again some time. Games Day
2002
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