1850 Tournament

MJSwasey is back from another local tournament! I took an all footslogging GK army for the fun of it, and got a kick out of the amused look when people asked "so what do you do against vehicles?" and I responded to them "these two models can be s8 in cc, and these 4 have metlabombs". Overall I didn't do too bad though. If you don't have time to read it all, skip down to the bottom where i talk about two cool new things i tried and liked.

GM - icon, relic, master crafting, hood
Stern

5GKT (1 incinerator)
5GKT (1 incinerator)

8GK (one incinerator) meltabomb and frag
8GK (one incinerator) meltabomb and frag
6GK (two psycannons) meltabomb and targeter
6GK (two psycannons) meltabomb and Targeter

As you can see, i would've been flame-happy against orks, Nids, dark eldar, etc, but i didn't face them.

First round was a scenario where no terrain was placed. the board was split the long way (3 2x4 sections) and you got to place one av13 building, two 3+ walls, and two 'area' terrain wherever you wanted, taking turns. I placed my building dead center in my deployment zone, then a wall on each side straight out, and the two terrain on the left side to totally block any paths in from there. He placed his building similarly, a big area terrain piece dead center on the board to block los, and some random stuff in the back. Mission was annihilation, bonuses for killing/surviving buildings/hq.

He had BA: One large jump squad, a predator, a few guys in rhinos, and deeptriking termies/sternguard in pod/BA dread in pod.

I put my psycannon squads in the building and on one side. The two IC both joined the building squad, and the GKT were deep striking, the flamers in reserve. My plan was to let his drop pod land, let him get close to my board edge, and then assault from off the board, meaning his much more mobile troops wouldn't get the charge.
[b]Turn one:[/b] dread landed and blew up my building, so i charged into CC with the scary, extra attack BA dread. I counter charged with my two hammerhanded models and a squad of GK with one meltabomb guy, while immobiliing the closest rhino. We all wiffed and laughed.
Turn 2:He brought his guys closer, got the sternguard and destroyed my building, i immobilised the dread he killed one guy. I got no reserves shots bounced off some sternguard, and I took out one CC weapon and he bounced off sterns invuln (after a reroll!).
Turn 3 He assualted with the jump sqaud into the dread combat but only got a few guys in, got a rhino close enough to get out and shoot the other psy squad, and he homed in the termies right near the dread combat (half storm sheilds half claws), and assualted the sternguad into GK. I turned all my IC power and the remaining justicar onto the squad, using the relic, and got 9 wounds for the three of them, pretty much obliterating the squad after fearless saves (black thirst). I got my first termie and GK squad, termies scattered off the board 11 inches (10 woulda been ok) and GK assualted the sterguard+drop pod. I took off the Dreads other arm and killed the last of the jump troops, loosing the justicar in return.
Rest of game: I end up killind the dread as the termies assualt me. I survive one turn then loose the two IC to insta death from hammers. My termies come in too late to do anything, He assualts my squad in cc with sternguard, giving all his guys near there FNP, i charge in with my last GK squad and mop it up.

Win by one KP.

Game two was standard nightfight, except every unit gained outflank and you get 1 extra point for every flanking/deep striking unit, up to 5. Catch is, you opponent chooses where you come in if you outflank or deep strike (if you mishap it doesn't hurt, you get to place your guys wherever you want and scatter as normal from there). 4 objectives. needless to say i was boned. I mirrored my opponents objectives just so i could get some on whatever side he put me on, and started the game with a psycannon squad on either side, everything else flanking. His massive IG list rolled all his artillery, and lemon flavored russes on first turn, leaving a marbo, few chimera squads, and valkery to outflank. He got everything but 1 thing second turn, i got everything third turn. Needless to say he put me all on one side and only shot at troops. I ran as fast as i could and missed contesting his second objective by 1.5 inches at the end of the game, giving him a 1-2 win.

Loss by 1 objective and 1.5 inches

Game three was against Tau, which i normally have in the bag with a normal list. It was a 3 BS, 2 Hammerhead, 9 crisis suit, 2 kroot squad, 2 priahna, min troops in DF list, which is pretty good too. However, the scenario sucked for us both - place a flag 6" from the table edge. You score a point for every turn you have your opponents and every turn they don't have yours. Needless to say, he wasn't getting any troops past my wall of GK (I started everything but One GKT squad on the board in layers., as close as can be to him. He layed out kroot squads with suits behind them and ran a pirhana screening shield, but my awesome control of assualting the right things and flamers meant i was moving pretty far each turn. However, footslogging 51 inches is tough to do in 6 turns, and by moving vehicles in front of me to slow me down i just didn't get there, though i had eaten most of his army. Tie Game.


All and all i got 4th. BA got first, DE second, and Guard third. Fun to see DE and GK in the top 4! Everyone complained about the missions, the store owner doesn't really play 40k but knows the basics and likes to make up missions. This is the second time he's tried this and it hasn't worked out fair either time, so we're compiling some 'suggestions' for the next tournament on how to keep things fair.

Heres some things i really liked: Putting stern and the GM with 8 man PAGK squads. I could allocate ap3 wounds or low strength-high ap wounds to the multiwound, invlun save models and save quite a few GK. Also, If anyone plays warmachine, I made 3"x4" stat cards for each unit, complete with name, picture, stats, gear, special powers, and wound makers, and put them in plastic bags. The looked AWESOME and were much better than die for keeping track of who had how many wounds, and seeing the details of everything a unit had at a glance. If anyones interested and has microsoft office (its in publisher format, i could probably send it in pdf but then you couldn't change it to your squads stats) give me a PM and I'll e-mail it to you.

That is all.

Good games and great batreps!

Don't know if you still have my email but pls send me the file. I'd like to see it

Yea nice battle report, although as you said the setup of some of those missions is kind of stupid. Especially the second one....
Should tell the store manager to use the standard missions if he is too retarded to figure out something balanced.

I'm interested in a footslogging GK army tbh, but I think I would go Psycannon heavy instead of Incin since there are always too many marines around!

i've never been very successful with foot slogging GK armies
Aubec

Nicely done considering you had no Dreads or Raiders. Those were some pretty lame scenarios though if you ask me. If your'e going to run a tournie the organizer should at least put some thought into it.

He tries, but i'm afraid he doesn't know enough about the fringe armies to make it fair, and doesn't know he doesn't know enough. We're suggesting mostly regular missions with one special thrown in sometimes.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, guys! The footslogging is tough, but i find it does really well if your willing to put the thought into your tactics. All three games used different tactics to face that specific enemy, such as reserve until needed while staying back for the assualt, the sit back and send non troops forward, and the charge everything. It made for a very interesting time!

IMO dreads and raiders are great additions, but raiders especially and to some extent dreads focus alot of your list into a specific tactic, so while strong, they aren't as flexible.

I think the mostly psycannon list is, in general, stronger, but i love the flavor and use of incinerators, and most of the game is having fun! Plus i generally favor painted models over non painted, and my flamers look better painted so i have more of em.

Rivan I don't believe i ever got your e-mail address. If you still want to see please PM me. 3x4 is a little wonky size, but if you like the plastic bag/dry erase marker route like i did, i find a regular sandwich bag cut in half (down the middle of the ziploc) and stapled works almost perfectly