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Games Day 2003 Battle Summaries <> Photos <> Scenery Games Day 2003
(Baltimore, Maryland): Battle Summaries
Lately, because of the Tooth and Claw Campaign, I’d been neglecting my Marines in favor of my Dark Eldar. In fact, I hadn’t used my Stripeypants in almost six months. Clearly, it was time to rectify that situation. I have about 7000 points of Tigers, with a wide variety of units, so I’m able to craft just about any sort of army list. For Games Day 2003, I planned to bring two 1500-point lists, each variations of a force I’ve used recently. I’ve had mixed results with two variations of my “Tigers Eternal” list, which features nothing but infantry and Dreadnoughts. I’ve won with against Tau and Ravenwing and been butchered by Tyranids and Iron Warriors. After some re-vamping, I came up with something that I hoped would win more consistently. I debuted my “Don’t Rush Me” list earlier this year at the Games Workshop Battle Bunker Open House. It’s designed to stop those nigh-ubiquitous “Rhino Rush” armies dead in their tracks, but I hadn’t had a chance to properly test it against those annoying Blood Angels, Black Templars, or Psycho Headcase World Eaters. I felt confident that I would find suitable targets at Games Day. Both lists are very “shooty;” my Dark Eldar army is assault-oriented, so I was ready for a change of pace. My hope is that you can use the concepts behind these lists for your own army. “Tigers
Eternal” Version 3
As I mentioned, I’ve used two other versions of this list before, with limited success. The old versions of this list really couldn’t move all that well, and they couldn’t dish out lots of firepower. As I found out the hard way, all they could really do was take punches. But that gets old quick. So if I wanted this list to be halfway worthwhile, I needed to address at least one of those two weaknesses. So long as I stuck with the “all-infantry” theme, there was no way that this army was going to be much more mobile. The two previous versions had two full squads of Assault Marines, but I doubted I would be able to keep both as I pared the list down to 1500 points. A 12" move with a 6" charge is nice, but nothing to give Dark Eldar or Speed Freeks anything to sweat. So making the army faster was out. What I could do, however, was up the firepower. I cut down all the Tactical Squads to 5-man units, each with a special or heavy weapon. Some players might insist that building squads that way is “cheesy” or “beardy,” or reeks of “mini-maxing.” To which I reply, “Sorry you feel that way.” I agree that the vision of six 10-man Tactical Squads, each lined up behind the other, marching in step, bolters at the ready to dispense the Emperor’s justice, is cool and inspiring and very, very “fluffy.” But I can tell you from personal experience that such armies usually get their tin butts kicked, especially against Eldar with starcannons, or Tau, or Necrons, or Imperial Guard, or Iron Warriors (the Flavor-of-the-Month-Army since Codex: Chaos came out). Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, took it home, tried it on, found out it was too small, and had to use it as a crying towel. No thank you. I did draw a line in that each Tactical Squad would have either a special weapon (plasma guns, this time around) or a heavy weapon (usually missile launchers), but not both. This not out of some slavish devotion to 2nd Edition-era “fluff,” but out of practicality. Putting two “good” weapons in a 5-man squad means one less guy to suck down a bullet (or a shuriken catapult, or a pulse rifle burst, or whatever). For more gits and shiggles, I brought along my Devastator Squads, mostly because I really like them. They’re older figures and I don’t often get a chance to use them. I installed another favorite character, Zaghnal Maratha, as the leader of this merry band, and included two Dreadnoughts with short-ranged firepower and good close-combat ability. Some players don’t like assault cannons or multi-meltas on Dreads, and I agree that they aren’t necessarily the most “effective,” but I happen to like Shiva and Vashtar. Shiva isn’t that much of a battlefield terror, as far as Dreads go, but I’ve found that he gets people’s attention just by how he looks. With the previous versions of this list, I had tried to march across the field, which didn’t always work out. This time, I went back to a strategy I used ad nauseum back in the Bad Old Days of 2nd Edition: counterattack. Meaning that I would stand back and fire heavy weapons, hopefully goading my opponent into moving his forces towards my lines, whereupon the Librarian, the Dreadnoughts, and the Assault Marines would intercept them. So how did this army do? Battle Results for the “Tigers Eternal”
Army, Version 3
Mission:
Patrol
(page 141 of the main rulebook)
What happened? True to form, Stan brought heaps of Scouts—60 of them, in fact, each squad armed for a different combat role. Some had bolt pistols and close combat weapons, some had bolters, some had shotguns, some had sniper rifles. He also brought along some Terminators, some Assault Marines, and a Space Marine Hero with a jump pack to lead the “newbies” in battle.
We spent the first four turns of the game bringing our forces onto the board, maneuvering for position, and taking the occasional potshot with long-ranged weapons. I did my best to stay out of hand-to-hand combat with the Terminators, gunning them down from afar. Finally, Stan sent his jump-pack Marines and some close-combat Scouts against my jump-pack Marines. I threw in both Dreadnoughts and a nearby Tactical Squad, and after four fierce Assault Phases, the Tigers had prevailed. Outcome: Tigers win (574 Victory Points to 359 Victory Points)
My pal Patrick Eibel is building a new Daemonhunter army that draws its inspiration from the Star Wars films, and we gave it a test-drive at Games Day. Because Pat only had about 1200 points available, I dropped the Assault Marines and set out to best Inquisitor Lord Vader.
Mission:
Patrol
(page 141 of the main rulebook)
What happened? Pat had an Inquisitor Lord and retinue (mounted in a Rhino), a Grey Knight Hero and accompanying squad of Knights (mounted in a Land Raider), and a Chimera full of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers. Hmmm…maybe I should have used the “Don’t Rush Me” list against these guys. No matter. I popped his transports ASAP and wound up with his Grey Knights (painted in the red robes of Emperor Palpatine’s bodyguard) in hand-to-hand combat with the Dreadnought Vashtar. I then asked myself the question I always regret learning the answer to: “Well, how tough could those guys be?”
Turns out, Grey Knights are pretty darn tough, even when fighting Dreadnoughts. I thought Vashtar would make mincemeat of them, but he and that squad were evenly matched. It didn’t help matters that Shiva got immobilized just inches from the fight. I could almost imagine the big white tiger-bot snarling in frustration as it uselessly pawed the air…. Meanwhile, the rest of my army carried on with its assignment, which was shooting the [excrement] out of whatever was in line of sight. The Stormtroopers went down, Vader and his retinue fell, and when Zaghnal arrived to back up Vashtar, the game was effectively over. Pat’s army is very cool, but needs some tweaking and more practice (which is only to be expected). Outcome: Tigers win.
“Don’t
Rush Me,” Version 2
The list features lots of heavy weapons just perfect for crippling and popping open Rhinos and Razorbacks. Because you can never have too much mobility, it also features some tanks of its own as well as three squadrons of Land Speeders. So how did it do this time? Battle Results for the “Don’t Rush Me”
Army, Version 2
Mission:
Cleanse (page 139 of the main rulebook)
What happened? Drew’s army isn’t exactly a “Rhino Rush” army, but it was as near as I would get that weekend. He had:
I left two Tactical Squads, my Predator and the Vindicator in my deployment zone to hold it. I sent my Speeders into the other deployment zone on my side of the board and followed them with the Razorbacks. The Razors stopped behind some cover, the troops inside dismounted, and all three squads started firing. Drew’s Devastators knocked out my Predator on Turn 1, so I threw all my heavy weapons fire on them until they were gone.
By that point, Drew’s Rhinos had cautiously advanced and his Veteran Squad and Tactical Squads had dismounted. I turned my attentions to them, using frag missiles, lascannons, multi-meltas, and Demolisher rounds to blow big holes in each squad. Soon, none of those squads were above half strength, so I took out the Dreadnought and the Whirlwind. Finally, I drove my Vindicator into one deployment zone and two of my Speeders into another, taking all four quarters. Outcome: Tigers win
I played three other games with the “Don’t Rush Me” list, none of them against a “Rhino Rush” army. I’ll briefly mention them…. Mission:
Recon (page 142 of the main rulebook)
What happened? This was my first battle against the Bots and I was pretty nervous, as I had seen what they can do in the right hands. Mike had:
Outcome: Tigers win.
Above and below: Fighting Tigers line up to outgun the Necrons
It’s become a tradition for me at Games Day that my pal Micah and I get together to slug it out. This year he left his French-inspired Les Fleurs de la Mort Space Marines at home and brought his Guardsmen. Mission:
Patrol
(page 141 of the main rulebook)
What happened? In addition to a the required two platoons and HQ, Micah had:
Outcome: Imperial Guard win.
One of the fringe benefits of running this site is that at any type of 40k get-together, I usually don’t have to go looking for opponents. It’s very flattering to have people recognize me and my army from the site and ask for a game. Such was the case with Cole, a young gamer there at Games Day with his older brother and his mom. Some gamers my age don’t like playing against kids, but being a parent myself, I think it’s always good to encourage younger gamers. So we went at it. Mission:
Cleanse (page 139 of the main rulebook)
What happened? Though a new player, Cole had a fairly solid army that included:
Cole may not have won this game, but he handles a difficult army pretty well, and I bet that if he stays with 40K, he’ll become an excellent player. Outcome: Tigers win. Games Day
2003
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Kilgore, July 2003
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