woensdag 18 juli 2012

Tournament report: Belgian Open

I had a lot of fun at the tournament. All my opponents were fun to play against. And with 3 wins, a draw and a loss, Skyrar's Dark Wolves held their ground. I ended on the 13th place out of 34 players. During the second day I also had to display my army as I was nominated for best painted. I didn't win best painted. That award went to the dark eldar player I played against on the first day. We both got 9 out of 10 from the judges but he got 17 votes from the audience while I got 10. Still not bad! With painting and the quiz calculated into the ranking, I ended on the 6th place, a very pleasing result.

Now, let's see what 6th edition will bring for my army ...

Tournament battle vs Orks

My last battle at the Belgian Open 2012 saw me facing off against an ork player. He braught Ghazghkull, Snikrot and his commandos, a big mek with kustom force field, three units of killa kans with mixed weapons, two units of defkopta's, two units of 20 choppa boyz, two units of 20 shooty boyz and two units of gretchin. This last mission was purely victory points. Each player could nominate one unit of his opponent that would count double for victory points. You had to destroy at least 600 points more than your opponent to win this battle. All other results would end in a draw. Deployment was dawn of war.

I won the roll to go first and let my opponent choose sides and deploy. He deployed his two units of choppa boyzs in the middle of the board. He kept the gretchin in reserve. He also kept the deffkopta's and Ghazghkull and the commando's in reserve to outflank. I deployed the shooty terminators, the wolfpriest and a unit of grey hunters on one side of the board, 18 inches from the closest orc boyz unit. I tried to seize but didn't. I chose a unit of choppa boyz to count double. He chose a unit of scouts.



In my opponent's first turn, he moved and ran all his units except for the gretchin on from this board edge. On his right he moved up a unit of shoota boyz and a unit of kill kans. On his left, he moved up all the other units. His choppa boyz moved and ran forward and tried to get into terrain but didn't make it.
In my turn 1 I dropped down Logan and the longfangs in a center location. The shooty terminators dropped down on his right flank and tried to take out the killa kans, destroying one. The second unit of grey hunters dropped down next to Logan and the longfangs. Both my speeders moved up from my board edge. I also moved the units that had deployed towards Logan's bubble and away from the board edges where Snikrot, Ghazghkull and the commando's could come on from. His choppa boyz took some damage from my shooting but they held their ground.







In my opponent's second turn, both units of gretchin came on but the commando's and the deffkopta's didn't. He moved them on from his board edge, spaced out so my wolf scouts couldn't come in that easily from his own board edge. He moved his units to the left forward and started to shoot the killa kans at my units. The choppa boyz that I had designated moved back and into terrain. His other choppa unit moved forward and into terrain. He assaulted my shooty terminators with the killa kans and the shoota boyz but they held their ground.
In my shooting phase, I concentrated fire on both choppa units, reducing them both their numbers but they held their ground. The shooty terminators were destroyed in the combat with the orks and the killa kans. My first landspeeder also added flamer fire to the choppa boyz. But the other one was out of range so he turboboosted towards my opponent's lines. My runepriest cast murderous hurricane on the first unit of killa kans on my opponent's left, doing no damage, but slowing the down. My first unit of scouts came on, the one my opponent had designated, and I moved them into terrain near his boar edge.





On my opponent's third round, the commando's and the deffkopta's still didn't arrive. With his movement blocked on the left as he didn't want to risk wrecking the squadroned killa kans, my opponent only moved his units forward and shot at my units but failed to hurt me. The choppa boyz assaulted the speeder. The shoota boyz and the killa kans destroyed the shooty terminator's drop pod.
In my third turn, my second unit of scouts arrived. They assaulted and destroyed a unit of gretchin. The second landspeeder moved up and flamed his shoota boyz. Logan and the longfangs started to move more towards the middle of the table so I could keep line of sight on the retreating choppa boyz. The assault terminators and the grey hunters shuffeled sideways to stay in range of Logan's bubble. Although I reduced the boys of both choppa units, they continued to make their morale saves. One of my empty drop pods also arrived which I dropped own in a corner on my side of the board. I moved the second landspeeder who couldn't shoot this turn out of the combat. The runepriest repeated the murderous hurricane on the killa kans.







In my opponent's fourth turn, Ghazghkull and the deffkopta's arrived. One unit of deffkopta's came on near the empty drop pod. He called his waaagh. He moved up the large unit of choppa boyz. I declared I was going to use my banner in both units of grey hunters. He didn't assault with the choppa boyz but he did a multi-assault with Ghazghkull, the commando's and the deffkopta's against my assault terminators, the runepriest and the grey hunters. I failed most counterattack rolls but used Logan's bubble to give hem another attack anyway. I stopped his assault, killing all the deffkopta's, commando's and snikrot but I lost all the grey hunters except for the wolfguard and some of the assault terminators. I also put one or two wounds on Ghazghkull. The wolfguard was not in pile in range so consolidated into terrain. With the shoota boyz he assaulted both the landspeeder and the scouts he had designated. My scouts were butchered but the landspeeder survived. With the killa kans, he also shot down the second landspeeder.
In my turn, I moved the surviving landspeeder back. Ghazgkull killed the runepriest but my two remaining assault terminators held. I assaulted the remaining shoota boyzs with the second scouts squad. Logan left the unit of longfangs and joined the second unit of grey hunters. They assaulted the second unit of choppa boyz and whiped them out. I did lose several of the grey hunters in the process. The longfangs shot down two of the last four choppa boyz in the other unit but they still held their ground.








We didn't have time to continue and when we calculated victory points, we had less than 100 points difference. There was no way either of us would have won this battle anyway either if the game had continued. 600 points difference is a lot. So I ended the tournament with a draw.

Tournament battle vs Grey Knights

The second day of the Belgian Open, the top 8 players from the first day were put in one bracket and would fight for best general while the rest of the players were put in the second bracket and would fight for best luitenant. I started day two in the top of the secodn bracket. My first battle of the second day saw me facing another grey knight army. This time it consisted of coteaz, a librarian, henchmen in chimeras, a large unit of purifiers with razorback, three dreadnoughts and two stormravens. The mission was a modified capture and control with one objective each and then a third near the center of the board. Deployment was spearhead.

I won the roll to go first and let my opponent choose sides and deploy. He deployed his forces so I couldn't drop down behind him and get easy rear armour shots. Coteaz also forced me to try to come in away from his ride as he and the unit of purifiers he was with, could shoot at me if I landed too close. He kept one unit of henchmen on foot in reserve. I deployed nothing. I didn't seize. He placed his objective near his table edge while I placed mine near the middle of the table so there were two objective near the middle of the table.



In my opponent's first turn, he moved his units forward and he popped smoke on all vehicles except for one dreadnought he thought would be safe.
In my first turn, I dropped down Logan and the longfangs in the middle of the table, right in front of his stormravens with death cult assassins. My shooty terminators and the runepriest dropped right next to the long fangs. I dropped my assault terminators near his objective. The assault terminators blew up the unprotected dreadnought but the rest of my shooting was foiled by smoke or bad dice rolls.





In my opponent's second turn, he moved his stormraven with the librarian up. He disembarked the death cult assassins from the other stormraven. The stormraven's mindstrike missiles took out the runepriest while the assassins destroyed the shooty terminators. He focused a lot of fire on the assault terminators and took them all down.
In my second turn, a unit of wolf scouts arrived. I let them walk on from my board edge. Together with logan and the longfangs, they tried to shoot down the stormraven with the librarian but failed to destroy it. Both units assaulted it and Logan managed to wreck it. Since I had the stormraven completely surrounded, he lost the units inside as well. The first unit of grey hunters also arrived. I dropped them on top of my objective. They took some shots at the other stormraven but couldn't hurt it. The drop pods took some shots at the death cult assassins and killed a few but he held his ground.










In my opponent's third turn, he moved his assassins up but he didn't make it into assault as he had to go through difficult terrain. He disembarked the purifiers and took some shots at the scouts and the long fangs. The grey hunters suffered shots from the second stormraven. He also destroyed their drop pod. His henchmen arrived near his objective.
In my third turn, the second squad of grey hunters arrived and I dropped them on top of his objective. They destroyed a nearby chimera. My second unit of scouts also arrived but from the wrong table edge. I moved and ran them into terrain. One of my speeders arrived but failed to hurt anything. The assassins were shot down.










In my opponentes fourth turn, he concentrated fire on the first unit of grey hunters, killing all but the wolfguard. He also destroyed the landspeeder. Thinking this would be the last turn, he assaulted my grey hunters on his objective with both henchmen squads. He lost the first one this round. He moved his purifiers up towards Logan and the longfangs but they had to go through the same area of difficult terrain.
In my turn, One of my landspeeders deep struck in and took out another dreadnought. The grey hunters took out the second unit of henchmen and consolidated onto his objective and into cover. The scouts tried assaulted the stormraven but failed to hurt it. At this moment I had two objectives claimed and I still contested the third. He had no scoring troops left.





We got the green light from the judges to play another round. In his turn, he moved his stormraved next to my lone wolfguard holding the objective. While he did contest it now, the wolfguard managed to survive all the shots coming his way. He didn't risk a tankshock with his razorback but did move it through terrain to contest the objective my grey hunters were holding. The purifiers made it into combat with the longfangs and Logan.
In my turn, I moved my landspeeder closer. The grey hunters and the landspeeder shot at the razorback and immobilized it. I then assaulted it and destroyed it. The purifiers destroyed Logan and the longfangs.








With one objective held and both others contested, I scored another win.