Doubles tournament report

Third tournament for this month. Maybe I'm overdoing it? Nah, it's all good. This time would be a bit different though since it was a Doubles format. That means I had to cooperate with someone. I always hated that part...Anyway, Moskitokiller suggested that we should play together and I accepted. Few days later he canceled on me though. Oh, well, what can you do? At that point I guessed I had to miss that one. But few days after he was available again. I've already changed my plans for that Saturday twice. I should be glad I have such a tolerating wife! 

We had to have 750 points each of whatever race we fancied. One HQ and one troops each was mandatory and if we wanted to double up a slot (i.e. two elite units) we had to have at least one unit in each other FOC category (i.e. 1 elites, 1 FA, 1 HS before we could put another HS down). We were supposed to be working around our army lists all week but in typical Greek fashion, Leonidas called me at 9 o'clock in the morning before the tournament to discuss our options. Check out the list and how we fared after the jump. But before you do that make sure you've checked out Invulnerable blog for another report and some very unflattering pictures of me (then again I would need a lot of make up and photoshop manipulation for a decent picture).

I wanted to field my Blood Angels again but on a second thought they wouldn't pair very well with Dark Eldar. So I went for Guard. Leonidas would provide the mobility and Close Combat element and I would bring long range firepower and meltas. We ended up with this list:

HQ

Company Command Squad, 4 Meltas, Chimera (ML, HHF)

Haemonculus, Venom Blade
Haemonculus

Elites
5 Hekatrix Bloodbrides, Syren (Agoniser, PGL), Raider

Troops
Veteran Squad, 3 Meltaguns, Chimera (ML, HHF)
9 Wyches, Hekatrix (Agoniser, PGL), Raider (Enchanced Aethersails)
5 Wyches, Hekatrix  (Venom Blade), Venom (2 Splinter Cannons)

Fast Attack
3 Beastmasters, 5 Khymerae, 4 Razorwing Flocks

Heavy Support
2 Hydras (HHB)
2 Medusas (HHF, Enclosed Crew Compartment)

Our first game was against a father/son combo. The kid was quite young (around 8 years) but I remember the dad from my early days when I used to play Fantasy. We are talking about 15 years ago here. Anyway , they were using Blood Angels and Space Marines with Dante, Sicarius, 5 Death Company with Jumpacks, 2 x Tactical Marines, 5 Sniper Scouts with ML, Dread with TL lascannon and Heavy Bolter inside a drop pod, 3 SM bikers, DC dread and a Stormraven.

We played Kill Points in Pitched Battle and went first. Not knowing if our opponents were going to keep everything in reserves or where they were going to deploy, we placed all our units fairly central. When I realised that Sicarius gave the ability to re-roll the "Seize the Initiative" dice I advised Leonidas to hide his vehicles well behind mine. 

They reserved Dante and the DC (Deep Strike) and the Storm Raven (from table edge) and of course the drop pod. Sicarius gave infiltrate to one of the Tactical SM squad and they deployed quite close to us. Big mistake obviously since they were now in the charge range of the Wyches. Scouts deployed fairly close as well. The other Tactical Squad was deployed inside some ruins near his table edge.

The guys managed to steal the initiative with the help of Sicarius so the Drop Pod landed close to the Medusas and the emerging dread managed to immobilise one of the Medusas thus wrecking it. Scouts shot at a raider but without much success. 

In our first turn the beasties advanced to the tactical squad/Sicarius and his big Wych unit closed in with the bikers. My meltavets disembarked near the Dreadnought and opened fire, managing to destroy it. Hydras opened up on the other tactical squad and kill 2-3 guys.Unfortunately, three of them died in the ensuing explosion, lost their Morale check and fled off the board. Meh!  Hydras opened up on the other tactical squad and kill 2-3 guys.The Hekatrix unit charged the SM unit but didn't manage to wipe them out due to some very unlucky rolls from Leonidas. 

On their second turn, the Stormraven arrived but Dante didn't. It fired at the raider close to it (the one going for the bikes) with the Multi Melta, Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter and easily destroyed it. One of the it's missiles went for my Hydras and managed to destroy it! Wow! The ongoing Hekatrix/SM battle ended in a standstill again.

With haste, the beasties multicharged the remaining tactical squad and Sicarius. The remaining Hydra scored a penetrating hit on the Stormraven but only managed to immobilise it. Command Squad fired from the safety of their Chimera on the Drop Pod and blew it up. The other Chimera closed in with the scouts. Hekatrix finally killed their target and started moving torwards their next victims. The large wych squad closed in with the bikers and made sort work of them.

The DC dread emerged from the Stormraven but didn't manage to reach the wyches that have found sanctuary inside some terrain after a high consolidate roll. Phew! Hydras didn't even scratch it afterwards. Dante and the DC landed precisely next to the Medusa but he failed to destroy it with his infernus pistol. Phew again! The ensuing pie plate to the face left only the commander standing. The beasties finished off Sicarius and the Scouts died from a combined attack of the Chimeras heavy flamers and the Hekatrixes charge. We were running out of time at this point so we ended at turn 3 with a solid victory for us. If this went on for a few more turns we could have definitely killed all the of the opposing units.

Next game was against Mihalis from Home of Cadaver blog and his mate Τηλέμαχος. They were using Space Marines and Black Templars with Emperor's Champion, Biker Master of the Forge with Conversion Beamer, 10 Sniper Scouts with ML, 2 Rhinos with 5 man Crusader squads inside, 10 tactical SM, 7 BT terminators with LC and TH/SS and a SM Land Raider Crusader. I think they were under the impression that they could embark the BT Termies inside the SM Land Raider something that wasn't possible under the tournament rules. They didn't know, they didn't ask? :P

We played Spear Head with Capture and Control. They went first and deployed all their vehicles fairly central to the board, with the scouts very close to our lines (firt turn charge distance from the beasties) and the MotF obviously far way. I placed the two chimeras as close as possible to the center and my other tanks hiding behind them. Leonidas hid the Raiders behind terrain. We needed to keep the small wych unit behind in order to claim our objective.

First turn, the CS chimera blew up from the conversion beam and 4 of the meltagunners died. Ouchie! The Land Raider moved forward. Sniper Scouts opened up on the beasties but didn't do much. The veterans moved forward and disembarked. Land Raider survived from 3 meltaguns in short range and two Medusa shots. Damn! But then Leonidas managed to destroy it with a lucky Dark Lance shot! It had it coming I guess. To add insult to injury the big tactical unit inside got pinned! Scouts didn't get charged by the beasties from a very failed difficult terrain test.

Termies arrived from reserved on the second turn.  The Champion and his unit disembarked from their Rhino ready to charge the helpless meltavets. They shot at them first though. I killed off the sergeant so they fled out of charge range. Classic mistake! Conversion beam blew up an autocannon from one of the Hydras. They still opened up on the termies and killed a couple. Then they got charged by the large Wych squad and the Hekatrixes and died after a couple of turns of close combat (last one rolling a "1" on his Fearless armour save).

Beasties charged the scouts and made short work of them. Medusas opened up on the Champion's squad and only the meltagunner was left standing. Next turn the company commander brought the vets back into the fight and they killed the Crusader melta guy. The other Crusader squad thought that things was getting too hot in the midfield so they retreated back to their objective.Their rhino got charged by the beasties though and the remaining raider drove by in order to double contest it. We had to end there since the time was running out so we scored another solid victory. Things were looking up!

Last game was against Eldar and Space wolves. It was Dawn of War and Seize Ground with 5 objectives. Our opponents only deploys a pathfinder squad and a farseer and kept a speeder in reserve (arriving via deep strike). They got first turn so the Longfangs walked in the right flank and took their places on a top of a building. The falcon with Banshees also arrived on that side getting some cover from buildings. Ten harlequins with a shadow seer came in the left flank and a land raider with Grey Hunters and a Wolfpriest arrived on the same place hiding behind some terrain.

We rushed the large wych squad and the hekatrixes on the right flank to get a second turn charge on the pathfinders and longfangs. My vehicles arrived fairly to the center (bit on the left though) and we moved his small wych squad 24'' forward for...not really know why. That was a mistake obviously but anyway. The land raider blew their venom up on the next turn and they got charged by the harlequins and died. Ouch! The hekatrix raider was also destroyed and they were also pinned. Beasties advanced on the left side as well to reinforce that flank. The hydras shot at the longfangs and killed four of them! I think he failed 4 out of 6 armour saves or something. Unlucky! They kept shooting for the rest of the game but only managed to dispatch both of the squad's survivors on the fifth (and last) turn.

The land raider didn't do much all game. It kept shooting my Chimeras but only managed to destroy the Multilaser from the veteran's vehicle and stun the command squad's (he had some very unlucky armour penetration rolls there). The only issue I had on the left flank was when the Harlequins charged the veteran's chimera on the fourth turn and wrecked it. Veterans went over the dangerous terrain that remained in order to have LOS to the harlequins and shoot at them but they failed 3 dangerous terrain test and broke! Fortunately they only fell back 2'' and the Commander nearby got them back into the fight in the shooting phase. Phew, that was very close. Then the harlequins died to massed lasgun and heavy flamer fire!

The right flank was a mess though. The large wych squad charged the pathfinders and killed them very quickly. Then they got charged by the Banshees and stayed in combat for a few turns up to the point when they got reinforced by the beasties. The latter dispatched the falcon (opponent had forgot to move it in the previous turn) and then finished off the banshees.

The grey hunters emerged on the fifth turn in order to claim the objective in front of them but it was too late. The last remaining raider with a massive 35'' move (rolled 11'' for aethersails) contested it so the game ended with 1 objective for us and none for our opponents. We also had something like 1000 VP more than them so the game was quite one sided.

In the end, all our victories placed us first. It was a victorious day for the Imperial Guard and Dark Eldar alliance. Our friends Lakaidemon and Spirus (from the Imperial Seals guild) placed second so it was double joy for us. We enjoyed our games and had a lot of fun and also placing first didn't hurt much at all. Can't wait now for my next tournament! Here is the table with the standings: