Thunderdome Battle Recap and our last 5th Ed Tournament

Well I will try to make this short and sweet in regards to the Thunderdome fight. I could not roll anything other then 1s and 2s to save my life. In the first 10 rolls I had like 7 1s and that was the trend most of the game. TL-Lascannons from the Land Raider rolls to hit were 2s then the re-rolls were 1s. On my turn 1 my drop pod scattered 2" (snake eyes) I did manage to pen the Psyfleman 3 times, but the results were 1,1,2... and it was like that all game... not much else I can really say. If the dice aren't with you, or even average your not going to win. And in this case all my major shooting with Twin-Linked and built to counter bad rolls, but I had no such luck...

On the plus side, my opponent bought me custom dice to match my army (gold/blue)! Yay for new dice and a cool guy Biffomatic!

Now for our last 5th ed. tournament.....



I was not expecting a large turnout because one of our buddies had his bachelor party the day before and I figured most people would be hungover or could not get out of the house for a 2nd day in a row. And I was right!

We had 3 people show up for the tournament, so I decided to throw my hat in the ring and play too. For my buy in I picked up a Terminator Libby, my first "Finecast" model. I had brought a list just in case I had to play so I did not have to make something up from the top of my head. I did bring the Celestial Lions so that I could give the Mortis Contemptors a good workout and I could use my new dice and see how they do.

My list was pretty simple.
HQ:
Vulkan

Elite:
8x TH/SS Terminators w/LRC w/M-Melta

Troops:
5x Tac Squad w/Power Fist, Combi-Melta, TL-Las Razorback
10x Tac Squad w/Flamer, Missile Launcher

Fast Attack:
Land Speeder w/M-Melta

Heavy Support:
Predator w/Auto, Las Sponsons
Mortis Contemptor w/2x Kheres Assault Cannons, CML
Mortis Contemptor w/2x Kheres Assault Cannons, CML

The idea was simple, Vulkan with the 5-Man, the 10-man sits at home and shoots the missile and help protect the Pred from assaults. The Pred, Razorback and missile open transport for the Dreads to shoot the insides and Terminators smash face. The Dreads could also help with vehicles if needed.

We only played 2 games for the General and a 3rd game was optional, but no one stayed for a 3rd game.

We used missions from Adepticon 2011.

Game 1- I went against an IG Leaf Blower list. 3 Vendettas, LRBT, LRDemo, Manticore, 2 Plasma Vets w/Chimera, 3 Melta Vets (2 Chimera, 1 in a vendetta), Company Command w/Melta & Chimera.

I won first turn and he did not steal. He left the Vendetta with Vets in reserve along with his Company Command, the other 2 Vendettas did their pregame scout move 24".

I was able to get him on this back foot turn 1. Taking out his 2 Vendettas and making all my cover saves on my vehicles from his return fire. From that point on it was a cake walk. The Terminators took care of the 2 Leman Russ tanks and some Chimeras, everything else took care of the Vets. He was unable to get out of his deployment zone the entire game. He called it after turn 4.

One funny moment during the game was after he blew apart my Terminator squad with Rapid Fire Plasma and Melta shots, I attempted to move my last Terminator though a wreaked chimera to assault his vets. I roll a 1 on my dangerous terrain and a 2 on the invul save... goodbye Mr.Terminator! I called it before I even rolled the difficult terrain roll too.

Game 2 - Death Guard CSM. 6 Squads of 5 PMs (4 with 2 Plasmaguns, 2 with 2 Meltaguns), 2 Daemon Princes w/MoN & Wings, Summoned Greater Daemon, and 2 squads of 2x Oblitz.

This time my opponent won first turn and I failed to steal. Simple enough he moved everything up 12" and popped smoke, keeping 1 Plasma Rhino in the back on an objective. With some careful movement and shooting priorities I was able to destroy 2 rhinos, stun another and take a PM squad down to the Champion.

On turn 2 His Greater Daemon came out and both squads of Oblitz deep struck. Now how he did this really bugged me and I would have called him on it if the results were different, but he just said "rolling for reserve" rolled 3 dice and said "they all come in"... he did not bother to declare what dice was for the SGD and what ones for the Oblitz. I also had to call him on how he was moving his rhinos. He was wanting to measure from the front 12" and place his side at that distance claiming that they turned/pivoted to that location. I had to correct him that they can't be that close as you turn/pivot from the center, and as a Rhino is not square that the side would be further back then the front could be...

Anyway, On turn 2 he blows up one of my Contemptors with his Oblitz and my Land Speeder with Rapid Fire Plasma shots, and attempts to charge my other Contemptor with his D. Prince and the SGD. I make him roll difficult for moving over a low wall and he rolled too low on both with 1 being out of range by a hair (I used a TAC Template to make sure it was fair and accurate). In my turn I returned the favor by having my Contemptor blow the Hell out of the D. Prince and have the Terminators Multi-Assault the Greater Daemon and PM Plasma Squad. The rest of the army works on wrecking more rhinos and the LRCrusader focuses on the Oblitz that failed to damage it earlier in the turn.

To make a long story short the Terminators won me the game hands down. They wracked up a kill count of 4 PM squads 3 rhinos and a SGD. The game was a tie on objective and with the Tie Breaker being VPs I won handsomely. The Death Guard only had the 1 PM squad with Rhino on the table that sat on his objective the entire game, while I had 7x Terminators, Land Raider, Predator, Razorback, and Contemptor left. Vulkan, his squad and the 10-man tac squad all ran off the table after losing combats with a Daemon Prince and a squad of PMs.

In all honesty I am not sure how I pulled this one out. I had all but given up hope after just seeing 5 rhinos and 2 D. Princes roll up in my face on turn 1. I got lucky with getting stuck in combats till the end of his turn to minimize shooting at the Terminators. Then having the Terminators just crush everything in their path was an awesome feeling I don't often get as they tend to die horribly to the most mundane attacks.


So it was a nice end to the day after taking that ass beating from Biff a couple weeks ago. I also was able to get some prize support to help me get a copy of the 6th ed rulebook, and the IG Player did the same as he won Sportsman.

It did feel a little "off" taking 1st in a tournament I was running... but any rules issue that came up I just showed them the answer in the book and it was resolved clear as day.
Some of these issues were:
-Dreadnoughts moving and firing 3 weapons (they can move and fire all weapons, still have a restriction on Ord Weapons like with the Defiler)
-The Multi-Melta on the LRCrusader being Twin-Linked from Vulkans special rule. (It clearly states that models/units with Combat Tactics lose the rule in exchange for ALL flamers, Heavy Flamers, Melta and Multi-Meltas IN THE ARMY being Twin-Linked)

Well I for one am looking forward to 6th Ed. as it sounds like it will change the game in a way that it will feel "new" again. The down side is learning to forget the old rules.... again, it's hard when this is going to be my 4th edition of rules to learn and mixing it up with older rule sets.

Till next time, Happy Wargaming!