Rune Priest
3 Wolf Guard
Dreadnought
10 Grey Hunters
10 Grey Hunters
Long Fangs
Vindicator
The Rune Priest was tooled up almost to the max, while the Long Fangs took a combination of Heavy Bolters and Multi-melta.
For the most part, the vast majority of the army was fully painted in time for the Tournament with the sole exception of the Dreadnaught. Thankfully, Mark was kind enough to lend me his own fully painted Dread so I was able to field a fully painted army.
Game 1: Salamanders vs Blood Angels
My first game was against a Blood Angels army that contained a heavy contingent of Jump Infantry backed up by a Tactical Squad and a pair of Attack Bikes. The mission was Seize Ground with the Pitched Battle Deployment.
My opponent Raymond was plagued with some pretty shoddy rolls, which when combined with my Tempest Wrath psychic power forcing his Jump infantry to take Dangerous Terrain rolls as the came ever closer to my Librarian. With some impressive shooting phases by my Long Fangs and Grey Hunters eventually whittled down his army to the point that I was able to concentrate my forces against his Tactical Marines. In the final turn, Raymond made a noble last stand, with such ferocity that even Sanguinius himself would have been proud. Against a power weapon, a force weapon and a Power fist in the squad, the outcome was all but predetermined.
Result: 20 points
Game 2: Dark Angels vs Salamanders
The second game was against the bye-buster army that Mark created
for the Tournament using his Dark Angels.
The very mobile MSU army list was not exactly suited for the Annihilation
mission with a Dawn of War deployment.
Once again, my concentrated fire approach went very well, allowing
me to pound on transports until the units inside were forced to disembark and
could use the Grey Hunters to shoot them to death. The game ended with a second victory, though
in this case, I was unable to kill his Jump-pack Chaplain, I wasn’t able to
secure the extra Tournament Points.
Results: 15 points.
Game 3: Salamanders vs Blood Angels
The third game was against a custom Chapter using the Blood Angels
codex. The army contained a number of
different elements including a Tactical Squad, Assault Marines, Dreadnought, a
Devastator Squad and a custom-made Attack Bike using a Landspeeder Kit and old
Trukk components. The mission for this
game was a Seize Ground using the Spearhead deployment.
It’s at about this stage that you, dear reader may see a pattern
forming. Considering I chose this Codex
for its Assault potential, I was spending an awful lot of my time holed up in
cover shooting the snot out of everything that stuck its head out and presented
itself as a target. As in the previous
two games, I played the shooting game again, determined that Damo, my valiant
opponent wasn’t going to shift me from my objective. Additionally, I was determined to use my
overwhelming weight of fire to hopefully blow him off my objective.
The plan went well enough, though I continued to forget to use my
Tempest’s Wrath psychic power that allowed Damo’s Assault Marines to close in
and blow the main weapon off my Vindicator.
Focusing fire on the squad holding his objective, he was forced to
re-deploy his Assault Marines, pulling them back cement his hold of his home
objective and pulling off a tie.
Result: 15 points
Game 4: Salamanders vs Chaos Marines
The fourth and final game was an Annihilation mission with Pitched
Battle deployment. This was a solid army
run by Ryan, an opponent that almost always guarantees a fun game. His army was Khornate themed, consisting of 3
Vindicators and two squads of Marines in Rhinos led by Kharne the
betrayer.
3 Vindicator Tanks is a level of shooting power that is difficult
to counter with the army that I created.
Thankfully, with a flurry of good shooting rolls, I managed to disable
or destroy all 3 Vindicators over the course of two shooting phases. A series of unfortunate assaults, including
the pointless sacrifice of my Dreadnought in a pointless assault against Kharne’s
unit (that bastard is a monstrous creature in combat WTF?!?!?!?!?) saw my
entire army shredded with the exception of my Long Fang unit, and Ryan’s
assault force reduced to just Kharne (I use the word ‘just’ very loosely here). It’s like saying ‘I managed to reduce my
opponent’s army to just a Warhound Titan.’
Surging forward, Kharne rushed towards my remaining Long Fangs, only
barely stopping short of assault range due to the presence of a section of
defensive barricade. Desperate and
running out of options, my Long Fangs did the one thing they know best – Filled
the air between them and their target with the Emperor’s Wrath causing three
wounds in the process – 2 from the Heavy Bolters and 1 from the Multi melta. With desperate anticipation, I watched as
Ryan rolled the two armour saves inflicted by the Heavy Bolters, failing
both. With one wound left, it was down
to the cover save from the Multi melta.
As the dice tumbled across the table, my heart stopped as the dice came
to rest on a.... three – killing Kharne outright and winning me the game.
Result: 20 points
With the fourth and final game completed, it was all over except
for the awards ceremony. Ryan walked
away with a well-earned Third Place, while Damo secured both second place and
player’s choice for best army (also very well deserved). In a shocking twist of fate, I was actually
awarded First Place (a shock for everyone I can assure you, especially me!). Hopefully this is the beginning of a very
positive 2012. The secondary effect has
been that I’ve gotten quite jazzed about 40K again, which will hopefully mean
that I’ll be painting more Space Marines as well.
Well, that’s all for this Tournament Report, I’m hoping it wasn’t
too long and drawn out. If you have any
suggestions to make it more interesting (more pictures is already on my list), feel free to let me know.
Catch you all later,
Trev
Congratulations on the win Trev.
ReplyDeleteSome interesting lists there I have to say. I'm surprised there weren't more spam really. At 1000 points in our tournament scene, you'd come up against Purifier spam, or Lash Prince & 9 Oblits, Venom Spam or BA with 6 Predators.
A lot of players in our area pretty much play whatever they think is cool as opposed to the latest internet hotness. There are one or two exceptions to this though, but thankfully those players either cannot afford to buy all the necessary components for that type of list, or lack the in-game skill needed to make the list work effectively.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, we've got a good group of players here that, for the most part, use fluff to determine how their army is built.