So here we are at week four of the five week mini-tournament at my FLGS. This week I played one of the top players on the leader board, Greg, who was running a real nasty Blood Angels list. I have to admit that this list concerned me a bit, as he was running a 7 man Death Company Squad with a Chaplin, a Furioso Dreadnought with Blood Talons in a drop pod, a 10 man assault squad with 2 meltas and a power fist accompanied by a Captain on a jump pack with power weapon, and a second 10 man assault squad, two meltas and a fist. While the list only consisted on 31 models vs my 120 or so after the Tervigon pooped out gaunts, his units were hard! They were geared for close combat and had a real good chance of wiping squads off of the board.
I ran my stock list (1 Tervigon HQ with TS, AG, Catalyst, 2 30 man gaunt squads, a 30 man hormagaunt squad with with TS & AG, 2 Zoeys, and 2 Two man Hive Guard Squads for the Dread) and we played Seize Ground with 4 objective and a Spearhead deployment. I desperately wanted Greg to go first to ensure that I would get the charge on turn one, however he won the roll and let me setup first. Very smart. I genuinely believe that my deployment and target priority were the key to the game. I positioned the Hive guard for maximum coverage of the board to make sure I could hit that Dread when it landed, that thing can eat gaunt squads for breakfast. I also put the Zoey up front for needed synapse support, and the Warp Lance/Warp Blast powers to hit Death Company with. I intertwined all of my units of gaunts to ensure that cover saves were a plenty on the board, and I set the Tervigon back, in cover to boost the gaunts holding two objectives.
My turn one I held back, I could have charged the hormagaunts forward, but they would have been charged by the Death Company, so I made sure I was out of his assault range and dug into cover for the saves. The Hive Guard took some pot shots at the Death Company, killing one, and the Zoeys rocked them with Warp Blast, killing two more. The Tervigon hit the hormagaunts with Catalyst and pooped out an 11 man unit that I position in cover to hold an object I already held. His turn one he moved the Death Company up and took some shoots at the homagaunt squad doing 6 wounds, all of which the cover saves/feel no pain took off of the board. He drop that dread right near an objective and hit may Hive Guard with the heavy flamer and the melta, doing a wound. He held an objective with one assault squad and moved the other up.
Turn two are glorious for the 'Nids, the Hive Guard Immobilized the Dread, the Zoeys finished him off, and the second unit of Hive guard took pot shots at Death Company, doing nothing. I charged forward with the hormagaunts, taking down all but the Chaplin and one Death Company out before they could strike. They killed off four gaunts but my two major threats on the board were all but neutralized. On his Turn two his Death Company and Chaplin bought it and he moved his second assault squad up and spread them out to hold one objective and contest another.
My Turn three the remaining homagaunts slammed in his full assault squad with the Captain in it and took out five grunts. The Zoeys and Hive Guard peppered the assault squad hold/contesting two objective and knocked them down to a 5 man squad and pushed them off of an objective. It was down hill for Greg from here. My gaunt squads, the normal Termagants, never saw combat and the homagaunts and elite choices did most of the work. Greg conceded the game by turn four.
In low point tournaments such as this, say 1250 and under, hoard armies do very well and I am very impressed with their performance over the last four games. There are simply just too many wounds out there to do for low model count armies to shoot. I have been lucky with the folks I have played as most of them are running 30 model armies or under. I usually out number them 3 or even 4 to 1. And for every model they loss, it is a much larger percentage of their army coming off of the board.
So, David my friendly rival, won his game against a noob (good job!), and Mike won his as well. So here I am, one week left in the tournament sitting all alone at 4 - 0 with 4000 Victory Points. David and Mike are both sitting a 3-0-1. Everyone else has 2 wins or less and are pretty much mathematically out of this tournament. So, even if I were to lose next week, I am still guaranteed at least third place. David, as I expected, challenged me for the final week and of course I accepted. His list and tactics do not scare me. He runs a Vanilla Marine list with Lysander as his HQ. He usually has three TAC squads with heavy weapons, which, aside from the Tervigon will do close to nothing verses my hoard, and a 10 man squad with Lysander. I think that there is a Rhino or Whirlwind in my future as well, but spreading out will cure that. Like the coward that he is, he will more then likely corner himself up and make me come to him, gunning me down in a hail of bullets as I cross the battlefield. I just hope it is a 5 objective game and if forces him out into the open.
I'll more then likely drop the Hive Guard and add in two units of Gargoyles, bolstering my numbers to over 120+ at the games start. I am taking a gamble but I just do not see him being able to do enough wounds before I get there and eat his whole army.
I'll let you know how it all ends!
No comments:
Post a Comment