Objective Secured

Well here I am, the day after my first event with Harlequins. As you might have seen from my last post HERE I did not have very high hopes for the harlies at anything remotely resembling a competitive event. Turns out – I was pleasantly surprised… read on and see the dance of death play out!

I won’t bore you with my list again, you can find it in my last post as I mentioned earlier. I was up until about 3am painting to try and get ready for the event as I am a stickler for using painted armies regardless of the event requirements. Despite my best efforts though, a couple of my Rogue Trader Era Warlocks/Counts as Shadow Seers did not get finished and that kinda bummed me out a bit before I even got to the event. I still got heaps done including a bunker with escape hatch (done in about 20 mins!)

I get to the event – held at GAMAGORI in Wangara here in Western Australia – after about an hours drive… also after about 4 hours sleep, worn out and a little cranky. The energy drink I downed as I got the venue helped a bunch though so I was soon on the up.

Only 18 players at this event but some of the lists were nasty to be sure! A War Convocation was one list I saw along with other nasties like a Skyhammer/Thunderwolf Star, a Ravenwing Bike spam/Acheron Knight to name but 2. All in all it seemed a pretty good field in terms of army mix with I think every codex represented in some form. Forgeworld was also allowed at this event which saw a handful of usage (the aforementioned knight Acheron along with blight drones and plague hulks) that I recall.

Game 1 sees me on the receiving end of a moderately powerful Astra Militarum Tank force played by Nathan “Ratt” and playing Dawn of War, 4 Objectives.

Like I said, moderately powerful. 4 Leman Russ tanks would be tough for me to deal with and the hell hound could very well be a nightmare! The Heavy Weapon teams though would be easy picking for my shuriken cannons and the infantry after that would be fodder for the harlies. For psychic powers, I went with my previous plan and ran 4 different disciplines…

So a good mix all round – Veil and Dance would keep my ministar relatively safe while Gate would make them mobile and vortex would hurt the tanks if I could get it to work. Quicken was also fantastic for the extra run before the charge.

My warlord trait came from the Twilight Chart – picking up The Steps of Mortal Transition – about as useless as possible here since he had nothing I was not going to find hard to kill in a fight without the instant death rule!

The objectives are placed and we end up with 3 on my right and 1 on the left. Ratt wins the roll for table side and chooses to deploy first and go first.

He spreads the tanks across the table with the taurox on my far left with the 2 vanquishers and the chimera alongside it. The HQ Russ are on my right backed up by infantry and heavy weapon teams and the hell hound is deployed centrally to support as needed. Its at this point I see my chance. The large pair of ruined towers in the centre of the table will block the line of sight to one side of his forces if I press down one flank hard. The left hand side in front of the Taurox is a vacant landscape of death with no cover for 15-18″ or so while the right is only marginally better. I deploy on the right and hope for the best. The Wind Riders go to reserves while the rest of the force takes what cover it can. The reapers deploy on top of the bunker while the wraith guard wait outside the bunker so as to allow me to trigger the escape hatch turn 1. The ministar is at the very back of the table out of range of the punisher and executioner tanks.

I roll to seize – and hazaah! Success!

The Harlies barrel forwards with the wraiths embarking the bunker and placing the hatch 12″ forward. As predicted, I pick up first blood with my Shuriken Cannons and the deaths of 2 weapon teams. I manage to get Gate off in the psychic phase and land about 11″ from the HQ Russ. I get Veil of Tears off as well and still have dice for vortex. Success! It then scatters behind the tanks… bummer! I use my run move to spread the ministar out and gain some distance from the tanks.

His turn sees a combination of failures with the 2 star weavers taking a single glancing hit each and the ministar saving the 4 wounds it takes from the hell hounds guns.

My turn 2 and its time to pounce!

I use the hatch to deploy the wraith guard and they line up on the Russ. The ministar surges forward as does the solitaire who aims for the last heavy weapon team. The smaller harlequins squads both disembark as well so I can kill of another squad plus charge the tanks if need be. The psychic phase was uneventful save for my veil of tears so we move to shooting and its everything I hope. Despite no 6’s on the D weapons, the wraith guard still make short work of the Russ, gaining me Slay the Warlord. I take out the infantry and hell hound as well while the Solitaire with a nice 5″ run followed by an 11″ charge catches and ends the last heavy weapon team.

Ratt starts his turn 2 and fails the Valkyrie’s reserve roll.

He moves the closest infantry squad back to block off the route to the left hand side and advances that flank fast looking to loop around me. The Solitaire takes a vanquisher round to the face but thanks to eternal warrior, only takes a single wound. The infantry squad line up and open fire on the small squad of harlies nearest them. The sarges pistol takes a wound off the troupe master and I think to myself I need to look out sir them from here… then a single thrown frag grenade lands bang on and I realise that as I had charged a tank I had left myself wide open to blasts but since there was nothing of note it should be fine. If course he rolls 5 wounds and I fail everyone of them to loose the whole squad!

Turn 3 seems me brave a run across the open with veil of tears and brave a turn of shooting while his turn 3 saw the Valkyrie arrive to deploy a squad to deal with the wraith guard. They only kill 1 however and now its going to be bad.

Turn 4 I declare the solitaires blitz attack who hopes to knock out the taurox while my ministar and lines up against the Vanquishers.

The shooting phase sees me drop a hull point from the Valkyrie and a couple of bodies from the newly arrived veteran squad. The reapers now can see the chimera and wreck it with ease. Charges come around and despite the solitaire making the charge, he loses his second wound to overwatch from the scions inside. With a caress of death I pick up 10 dice (I managed to forget 2 close combat weapons) and say – I need 3 6’s to glance you to death…

Ouch!

The ministar sees the 3 shadowseers make short work of both Russ thanks to their 5 attacks each at strength 6 vs rear armour 10. The wraith guard club 3 guardsmen dead for no loss and sweep them.

Ratt has few choices left. The platoon command make a b-line for the closest objective while the scions line up on the solitaire. The Valkyrie lines up on the bunker but fails to do anything as it had to jink last turn. The scions kill the solitaire with little trouble.

Turn 5 I move my vehicles up to kill the platoon command while the ministar deals with the scions. I also shuffle about to claim objectives and put as many guns as can be spared at the Valkyrie. Shooting see’s me take a second hull point off the valk much to my frustration while the command squad is eviscerated in a tide of shuriken. The scions kill a single player from the ministar on overwatch but the troupe master and shadow seers make quick work of the elite guardsmen. With just a single Valkyrie (on 1 hull point!) on the board which moves up to tray and kill the void weaver (but fails) we roll for game end and it does.

I have all the objectives plus Slay the Warlord, Line Breaker and First Blood while Ratt has nothing. Max win for me!

At this stage, I have already exceeded my hopes for the day by not only winning a game but winning it well. Ratt made a couple of errors – mostly in deployment and we chatted for a while post game agreeing he should have given me first turn so as to be able to stack his force against me. By spreading out, he made it easy for me to concentrate on small pieces of his force and since I was so fast, even on foot, he could not respond quickly enough before I was on his forces again.

A good game against a nice guy!

In my next post – Match up 2 is announced… I am facing Matt, our ATC Eldar player… this is gonna be tough!