Feel No Pain

[majorspeirs]

Today I played in a four game, 1000 point tournament called Feel No Pain. The event was comped, but it used an interesting system: each list was assessed prior, with “too hard” and “too soft” lists being rejected for resubmission. The theory here was to create a relatively even playing field so comp modifiers/scores wouldn’t be needed in the results. I think the system worked, as nothing stood out as particularly OP. Given that I normally rely heavily on comp scores to place well, I’m pleased to report that I placed 7/18, with two wins and two losses. This is the list I took to the event:

CCS w/ 4x Plasmagun
Veterans w/ Lasguns, 2x Plasmagun
Veterans w/ Lasguns, 2x Plasmagun, Autocannon
Veterans w/ Shotguns, 1x Flamer, Demolitions, Chimera
Veterans w/ Shotguns, 3x Meltagun, Demolitions, Chimera
Marbo
Vendetta
Colossus w/ Heavy Bolter

[majorspeirs]

Game 1
My first opponent was Joel with his Vyndakh Dynasty Necrons:

Vargard Obyron
7x Immortals (Gauss)
6x Warriors
6x Warriors
5x Death Marks
3x Heavy Destroyers
Monolith
Annihilation Barge

The game was Big Guns Never Tire, with five objectives distributed evenly around the board. I positioned myself centrally to move on three objectives as the game progressed. The first two turns preceded well, with me killing off some warriors on a distant objective with the Colossus and not suffering too much damage.


At the start of turn 3 the game was looking in control, but from here it all fell apart. In my opponent’s turn the Colossus was blown to hell, gimping my long range firepower. The Blimp flew forward in my turn and dropped the CCS to Plasma the Destroyers in the face, but they scattered 10 inches and landed on one of the Destroyer’s faces, therefore mishapping and dying. Similarly Marbo decided to pop up this turn and after some deliberation he decided to throw his demo charge and kill a couple of Immortals. His throwing arm hasn’t been brilliant of late, and he landed the charge 1.5 inches in front of himself. Two Immortals were caught in the blast, but I rolled snake eyes to wound them. Marbo however was not so lucky, failing his cover save and dying. The remainder of my shooting phase was one big whiff.


My opponent took control of the game from here, and despite fighting valiantly the Kriegsmen were unable to carry the day.


In the end I had a handful of Engineers contesting an objective in the centre of the field with some Warriors, whilst the damaged Annihilation Barge held another. The Immortals and Vargard (who had planned to land next to another objective but scattered a full 12 inches away) were only a turn away from grabbing another. Despite being technically close in the end, I was convincingly beaten.

[majorspeirs]

Game 2
My second game of the day was against Mitch’s beautifully painted Eldar army (he won the Best Painted award). This was his list:

Farseer w/ Singing Spear
10x Dire Avengers w/ Exarch, Shimmershield, Disarming Strike
Wave Serpent w/ TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon
10x Dire Avengers w/ Exarch
Wave Serpent w/ TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon
Crimson Hunter (Exarch)
Falcon w/ Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon

I apologise to Mitch for the horrible photo, but it was the best of the three I took.


The mission was Emperor’s Will on a Vanguard deployment. I won the roll and gave the Eldar first turn, thinking that if my Blimp came on before the Crimson Hunter it would be dead meat. The Eldar tanks deployed hull down, whilst I deployed my two Chimeras and a Vet squad hidden away behind a rock outcrop. I left the Colossus in reserve, as it would be useless until the Eldar infantry were out of their vehicles.

First turn was somewhat quick, with the Eldar tanks skimming about and myself shooting some Multilasers at one because I had nothing better to do.

Second turn proceeded with the Crimson Hunter flying in and crippling a Chimera, whilst the Wave Serpent on that flank caused the Vets in the open to break and flee off the board. The other Dire Avenger Wave Serpent was on my right flank behind a bunker and the Falcon in the centre providing fire support.

From this point onwards things turned very brutal. All my reserves arrived this turn, with the Colossus coming onto the left flank with the Blimp, and Marbo the fourth Vet squad showing up on the right to tackle the other Dire Avenger unit. Things started well with Marbo blowing up the Avenger’s Wave Serpant, but the explosion only killed two, the Colossus missed the tightly packed formation, and the Veterans only accounted for two more. Much to my delight (because it never seems to happen) the Blimp came careening onto the field and unleashed on the Crimson Hunter, blowing it out of the sky.

Turn 3 began with the Avengers on the left disembarking and the Avengers on the right moving to intercept the nearby Veterans. The Falcon blew up the forward Chimera, killing 7 of the Veterans inside, whilst the Avengers and Farseer saw to the remnants of the squad. On the right the other Avengers unleashed on the Veterans, who came out remarkably unscathed, before they were assaulted. Despite the Sergeant surviving his challenge with the Exarch the unit broke and were cut down.











In my half of turn 3 the carnage continued. On the left the Blimp hovered and unloaded the CCS, whilst the remaining Chimera moved up. I was about to let rip with the CCS’s Plasmaguns into the Dire Avengers, when I remembered the carnage exploding vehicles cause my own T3 infantry. I changed tact and ordered Bring It Down on the adjacent Wave Serpent, causing it to explode in a fireball which killed four Avengers (which is about what I would have killed with the Plasma firing at them directly due to their pesky Shimmershield). The Veterans and their Chimera in turn fired on the Dire Avengers, killing some more of their number and insta-gibbing the Farseer with a Meltagun. The Blimp levelled its Lascannons at the Falcon in the centre of the field and managed to immobilise it. On the right the Colossus took out 3 of the six remaining Dire Avengers, whilst Marbo shot the Exarch through the skull with his Pistol. He was about to charge into the two survivors, but at 10 inches he reconsidered rather than getting overwatched.

Turn four began with the Falcon exploding the second Chimera, killing six of the Kriegsmen and causing the remaining four to flee. Simultaneously two Dire Avengers were caught in the blast, causing them to also flee! As the pointy-eared gits ran away they fired on and killed two of the CCS as they went by. On the right flank the last two Dire Avengers fired on Marbo, who made his cover saves, before charging into combat. Much to my surprise he killed one with Overwatch, before slitting the throat of the last with his combat knife!

As my half of turn four commenced the four remaining Veterans failed to regroup and fled off the board; these were my last scoring models. Marbo decided to put on his runners and went sprinting off into the Eldar deployment zone for linebreaker. The Colossus and the remaining CCS members fired on the Dire Avengers, bringing their numbers down to two. The Blimp again fired on the Falcon, this time destroying its foe.

Turn five commenced with the last two Dire Avengers tackling the CCS. The regular Avenger’s shooting failed, and he was blown away by one Plasmagunner during overwatch. The other Plasamgunner wasn’t so lucky and his weapon exploded. The Exarch challenged the Commander in combat, but despite his quick reflexes von Draken was able to skewer the Eldar with his Sabre. Thus the game ended.

This was one of the rare occasions where I actually managed to table my opponent. This said however, the game was incredibly viscous and it came right down to the wire. In the end I only had the Colossus and three infantry models left alive.

[majorspeirs]

Game 3
My third game was against James with one of the most individual Chaos armies I’ve ever seen. EVERY SINGLE MODEL IN THE ARMY WAS NAMED!!! The Khorne Lord was “Adam”, whilst the Helldrake was “Clarice”, and the three Terminators “Larry, Curley and Moe”. The bikers had Bible names such as “Herrod, Judas, Exekiel and Noah”, whilst the 65 Cultists had names ranging from “Azazel” to “Quentin, Dominic, Bob and Jane”. It was rather odd to shoot at a unit and saw “Judas and Noah have just been killed by a Colossus shell”! The cultists in particular were an eclectic array of models form all manner of different sources, but the end effect was a chaotic but very cohesive (and cool) army.


James’ list was something along these lines:

Khorne Juggernaught Lord
35 Cultists
20 Cultists
10 Cultists
5x Chaos Marines
5x Chaos Bikers
Helldrake with Baleflamer

The mission was kill points on a standard deployment, and after winning the roll my opponent was surprised when I elected to go second. I didn’t want to go first because when I inevitably castled up in a corner I didn’t want him lining everything ready to run me down. After the Cultist horde sensibly deployed in the middle I deployed the Chimera Vets, one foot Vet squad and the Colossus on as small a footprint as I could manage, tucked away in the far left corner.

The first turn began with the Bikers racing behind the bunker in front of me and the Cultist mob lurching lazily to the left. I killed two of the bikers with the Colossus and another with a Plasmagun.

On turn two Clarice the Helldrake arrived along with the Terminators and some of the Chaos Marines at the back. The Terminators (Larry, Curley and Moe) planned to teleport behind the bunker, but scattered 9 inches in front of the Chimera and Combi-melta-ed it in the face, causing it to explode, killing most of the squad inside and some of the nearby Veteran Squad. Clarice promptly finished the job on the back squad, and only two Engineers from the Chimera surviving (crucially the Sergeant and guy with the Demo Charge). The two remaining bikers Melta-ed and Melta-Bombed the other Chimera but were unable to damage it.


In my turn the Blimp arrived and failed to shoot down the Helldrake (despite achieving a penetrating hit). The Chimera on the left backed away from the bikers, and the Engineers inside hurled their demo charge, but it landed on top of the Chimera (behind the damn hatch!) and immobilised it! The squad’s Shotguns, Flamer and a single Krak Grenade were able to kill one of the Bikers. The two angry Engineers extracted their vengeance on Larry, Curley and Moe with their Demo Charge, killing all three of the damnable stooges.


Clarice the Helldrake came swooping down on my Blimp, and despite causing critical damage the dirigible it managed to maintain flight with only a single Hull Point remaining. The Cultist mob continued to close the distance, whilst the Biker Champion Ezekiel decided to bypass the Chimera and make a run for the more threatening Colossus. Unfortunately for Ezekiel, when he tried to drive over the intervening outcrop he hit a pothole, flew over the handlebars and smashed in his skull on a rock.

(take a good look at the rider, with his cowboy hat)

From here I held on, but in the end the day was lost at around 5-2 kill points. This was a really enjoyable game, and I look forward to playing James again at Eastcon in September. You can see from his farewell wave that Adam is looking forward to our next engagement as well!

[majorspeirs]

Game 4
My last game was against Duc and his heavily converted “Infested Space Marine” Tyranids. This was his list:

Tyranid Prime
30x Gaunts
8x Ripper bases
10x Tyranid Warriors in Mycetic Spore
Skyshield Landing Pad

The mission was three objectives on Pitched Deployment (which we both decided to change to Hammer and Anvil because we like it better). The Rippers were depoyed on about 4 different levels in a Silo complex, whilst the Gaunts deployed on (and off) the landing pad over one of the objectives.

I positioned the Colossus far back on the left behind a hab building and put one veteran squad on an objective in the central river. I had an Engineer squad on either side in their Chimeras to react with Demo Charges when the Spore came down with the Warriors. The fourth vet squad were riding in the Blimp and the CCS had rolled the Outflank Warlord Trait, so I figured I may as well use it.

As it turned out the Engineer squads were waiting for a while, as the Mycetic Spore didn’t come down till turn 4. The first few turns flew by plinking at the Gaunts with two Multilasers, an Autocannon and the Colossus.


After a while the Blimp arrived and shot some Lascannons at the Gaunts as well. The landing shield with its 4+ invul made a huge difference at keeping the Gaunts alive, and with the Prime being there to make them fearless they weren’t going anywhere either.


I didn’t break formation and move for the middle objective because I didn’t want to open up a weak spot for the Warriors to land.

When Marbo arrived I had thought to blow up a few Gaunts as well, but I changed my mind and put him nearby without actually throwing the Demo Charge. My thinking was to possibly goad them off the objective to deal with him, so I could hit them with the Colossus in tight combat formation. What I wasn’t thinking about was that First Blood hadn’t been achieved yet. The Gaunts moved a little so they could shoot at him, and despite causing two wounds my opponent was generous enough to give me a cover save. Marbo made both saves and promptly scampered off around the back of the building to hide, and stayed there for the rest of the game.

Eventually the Spore came down and depositing a ring of Warriors around it. The Lasher Tendrils made a grab for my CCS (who had wandered in from the left flank), but they were unable to get past the formidable protection that their Flak Armour provided.


From here the nearby Engineers spun there Chimera around and leapt out of the back hatch. They moved to screen the other Veterans on the objective, who had clambered over the river bank to put a little more distance between themselves and the Warriors. The Engineers on the other side gunned their vehicle and made a run for the central objective, whilst the Blimp deposited the fourth squad so they could also hold that objective and provide support against the Warriors.

The CCS ordered themselves to Bring it Down onto the Spore, and in a haze of Plasma blasts the Spore disappeared, netting me First Blood (on turn 5!). Following this display the remainder of my units unleashed with a Demo Charge, Meltaguns, Plasmaguns, Shotguns, Lasguns, Multilasers, a Heavy Flamer and even a Krak Grenade or two. They were only just able to wipe out the Warriors.


The game ended here and I had my second victory for the day.



The TO for this event came down with the flu a few days ago. A huge thank you goes to Duc and Nick, who stepped in with no notice to ensure the event still ran. Also a big thank you to my opponents for four interesting, varied and fun games. I had a great day and it was one of the most enjoyable tournaments I’ve been to so far this year.

[treadiculous]

... I'm loving the humour involved!

Great reports, thank you!