Game Corps. 2000 Point Tournament Report

Another week passes , and we find ourselves reflecting the battles that we expirienced in the past few days. Personaly i have to say that my weekend was filled with battles of warhammer 40k against tough and intelligent opponents.

On Sunday 4th, i attended a 2000 point tournament, where 12 players participated. I would call it local, but i would be lying as the players that attended came from far and wide to hone their skills of strategy and perception. These players are not newcomes to the competitive scene in Greece, as many of them have attended a great many other tournaments that are considered as "national".

So enough blabberjabber from this humble servant of the Emperor, with the battle report!

As Dark Angel player i could not even conceive of playing anything but a Ravenwing or Deathwing themed army, so with some help from my mentor, i managed to devise a Ravenwing themed army that used the new C:SM.

The List

Kor'Saro Khan

Librarian (Vortex, Null Zone)

Command Squad (All stormshields, Powerweapons, Fist, Champion)

Assault Termies with a Landraider Redeemer

2 x Land Speeder with MM/HF as seperate units

2 x 10 Man Bike squads (PW, 2 Melta, 1 AB with MM)

5 man Bike squad with 2 flamers

Game 1

The Dark Eldar were to be the 1st enemy. Deployment was DoW and we had 3 objectives. We placed the objectives 12 inches from each other around the centre of the map, they formed a triangle. As a dark eldar with 4 venoms , 2 raiders, 2 ravagers and 1 jetfighter he clearly expected to use speed to his advantage, so you can see how surprised he was when he saw that he faced an army that could exceed him in speed and manouverability.

I won the roll to go 1st. Thinking it more suitable for mission purposes, i combat squaded my 2 squads of bikes into 5 man each, this gave me 5 troops of 5 models each with the ability to turbo boost. I deployed 2 of these squads areound the middle of the board and keeping everything else in reserve to deepstrike/outflank. He chose to deploy Baron Sathonyx an

d 17 of his Hobgoblin buddies in a ruin near his left side, well over 18 inches away from me. After his failure trying to seize the initiative i began my Turn 1.

A rather Disappoing turn that saw me move back my forces about 18 inches to get that 3+ cover save. He brought everything onto the table and fell in a defensive formation in the middle of his side of the table, some pot shots at my bikes, but thanks to night fighting

and 3+ cover saves, not a single Angel of Death was lost.

Turn 2 saw my command squad some from the left, my flamer bikes to come from the right, 1 of the land speeders to deep strike and immobilise itself 8 inches from his "defensive bubble" and my melta squad to come in right behind the command squad. I turbo boosted everything i had on the table in his direction, hoping that T5 will win the day against S3 models. He in turn moved everything 12 inches up , disembarked all his wyches from the raiders and moved the baron and his hobgoblins to engage my 2 squads that had been deployed from the start of the game. He then proceded to shoot me with all his splinter cannons and lances. Effectively wipping out my flamer squad from the right, killing 2 command squad vets, as well as 1 bike from the squad that the baron was about to assault. He assaults his witches onto my command squad, a whole unit of wyches engage the Khan while the other unit of wyches engages the librarian and the squad. The baron and his squad multi charge my 2 squads of bikes. Korsaro not only survives a bucket load of attakcs, he manages to kill 1 wych, while the other squad of wyches kill the librarian but lose 5 units to the champion and the remainder of the vets. He loses combat by 4, and after rolling twice (trophies were near) he flees with both units off the table. The baron surprisingly manages not to do anything to the bikes other then lose 2 of his goblin friends, but passes leadership and stays tied up.

Turn 3 i move up splitting the Khan from his squad, he will later engage a unit of 5 trueborn who disembarked the previous turn but could not help the baron in his assault against the bikes, while the veterans would multi charge the baron and a lone Haemonculi that was sitting on an objective. The trueborn are wiped out by the Khan, the haemonoculi is squashed by a powerfist, and the baron losses combat and flees, but not before killing an impressive 6 bikes with his squad. His turn 3 sees my vets and Khan wiped out due to lance fire and a ridiculus amount of splinter cannons and large blasts from the fighter.

Turn 4 my land raider outflanks from the left but it would prove to be useless as it would need 2 turns to reach the closest objective, it tries to shoot a raider but it cant reach. my remaining forces are 2 bikes from 1 squad, 2 from another and 1 attack bike from a 3rd, i turbo boost to claim 3 objectives, at the moment he is contesting only 1. My opponents tries to shoot everything at 1 of my remaining bike squads, but his bad rolls combined with my luck for that turn see 6 splinter cannons and 6 dark lances do nothing to my 2 bikes, the baron flies off the table. At this point my opponent was saying that theres no point to play on as hes have no chance to win, i argues that he never knew what would happen and we continioued to round 5.

My last land speeder deepstrikes and blows up a venom, my other land speeder manages to stun the fighter. The landraider moves forward another 12 inches and spews out 5 bored terminators that try make a cordron around 1 of the objectives, then i switch the positions of my bikes to get a 3+ save. He shoots my land raider with his dark lances but dosent do anything other then stun, he then moves 1 of his venoms with the wracks to 1 of the objectives, his other venom to another objective and contests my 3rd objective with a raider that carries a single Haemonoculi. If the game ends here, its a draw, he rolls and we continiou.

Turn 6 i switch my bike positions again. And my termies in concert with the mobile Land Speeder take out the Raider and the Haemonoculi. Sadly His wracks assault my remaining 2 bikes giving him his 1st objective, his 2 reamining venoms then kill the 2 bikes that the terminators were guarding , effectively making me lose the 1 objective i held all game, he then turbo boosts his jetfighter to contest my 3rd objective. Game Ends Dark Eldar win with 1-0.

Thoughts Was a very intense game with great movement and lots of close combat and shooting, had i chosen to be unfair and end the game on turn 6 as was my right due to tie limit i would have won, but i honestly believe that a game should be played for games sake and not for winning. My opponent would go on and win 2nd place overall!

Game 2

2 Objectives, pitched battle. I was facing a tau army, and i knew that if i ddnt get in close combat fast enough it would be over for me. I win the roll to go 1st and deploy everything on the table except the land raider. He reserves 3 units of battle suits and 2 fire warrior squads.

Turn 1 sees me Turbo boost all my forces towards him, having deployed as close as i could and adding 24 more inches im effectively around 14-15 inches away from him (damn terrain!). He shoots with his railguns at my land speeders, immobilises 1, and it dies due to turbo boosting, he then takes out a whole 5 man squad with missiles and pathfinders after removing their 3+ cover save.

Turn 2 sees me reach him and bring my land raider from the left side, right where i wanted it. I multi assault a unit of 6 pathfinders and 2 battlesuits with 5 bikes. Blow up 2 of his vehicles (the ones with the missiles) and stun and immobilise both his sky rays. Korsaro assaults 6 pathsfinders and wipes them out, 3 bikes die due to difficult terrain counting as dangerous but manage to assault the last 6 man pathfinder squad, while the vets blow up the last hammer head. The 5 man bike squad does nothing to the pathfinder and the suits, their combat would draw on until the end of the game, where no one would hit the other for 3 turns. His fire warriors come on and kill one squad of bikes that killed the pathfinders. His 2 last battle suit squads arrive and blow the hell out of my 3rd bike squad. Currently im left with 1 squad thats engaged with pathfinders and 1 attack bike thats chilling in difficlut terrain, as well as a landraider , termies and my full command squad.

Turn 3 sees me use my land speeder to flame 2 units of lined up fire warriors and scare them off the table, my land raider to move up to his battle suits, my vets to race their way towards his suits, my termies do absolutely nothing to his vehicles and my librarian scare the fire warriors off the table. In this turn he tried to shoot some plasmas at mmy vets but their 3++ shields saved em.

Turn 4 sees me wipe out both his battlesuits squads with my vets and Khan, while the termies finaly blow up the sky rays. The 5 man bike squad manage to kill 3 pathsfinders and in return lose 3 bikes, another draw.

Turn 5 the only thing left on the table are the 3 remaining pathfinders and 2 suits that have been engaged in combat since turn 2, they eventualy lose combat due to help from the librarian. Game Ends with the Ravenwing claiming a massacre.

Thoughts I believe this was the most fun game i had that day, as both me and my opponent were rather relaxed about the whole affair, i believe he was also rather new to the hobby. We joked around alot, but at the end of the day theres not much he could of done against an army that can assault him on turn 2.

Game 3

Mech blood angels were gna be my opponents for the last game. Kill points, pitch battle. He had around 15/16 kill points against my 10. He won the roll to go 1st. And i decided to keep everything in reserve.

Turn 1 he moves everything to the middle of the table. Vindicator parks right in the middle of his preds , baal preds, rhinos with lasplas and land raider redeemer. I do nothing but sip my coke!

Turn 2 He orders half his army to be obscured by smoke. My Land Raider, 10 man squad and land speeder arrive from reserve. I place the land speeder in front of the Vindicator as it does not have smoke, my land raider moves 12 inches from the right and so do my bikes, they hide behind ruins for a 4+ cover save, how ever my 3 multi meltas are well withing range of their targets, too bad that all 3 miss.

Turn 3 he moves his forces towards me, disembarks a 5 man squad with melta from a rhino, moves his jump pack squad with liby and priest up towards my 10 man bikes. He then unleashes all his shooting at my land raider and bikes. Besides immobilising and stunning my by land speeder 5 times, he manages to shake the land raider with the vindicator and kills 2 bikes with 3 assault cannons, 4 lascannons and 2 autocannons. Abyssmal shooting turn for both of us. All i do is flame his 5 man squad to oblivion with flamestorm cannons and blow up their rhino with a multi melta.

Turn 4 i bring my command squad from the side where the land raider is, as well as a 5 man flamer squad, while the last 10 man squa arrives from the left and turbo boosts in hopes or reaching 2 rhinos filled with 5 man assault troops. Our forces clash with me assaulting his librarian and 10 assault marines, from both sides (terminators and 10 man bikes) and him assaulting the terminators with a chaplain and deathcompany. The combat leaves me a victor by killing most of the squad but failling to hit the librarian with my thunder hammer. My bikes stun 1 predators and immobilise another. Thankfully he stay in combat, i am safe from the vindicator whos cannon is in my terminators face.

Turn 5 he blows up the landspeeder, kills the flamer 5 man bike squad and assaults me with his 2 units of assault marines on the left flank, the both had red thirst. He tries to shoot my land raider with the vindicator but only blows off its assault cannon. not much shooting here, i move up my command squad and send the librarian after the landraider while the khan and his vets try reach the terminators before it is too late. The librarians fails to penetrate and then fails to hit the raider with his melta bombs. The termies die out but not before killing all of his assaults, librarian and priest. The bikers who are now down to 2 lose combat and flee back behind the ruins. The big fight of 10 assault marines vs 10 bikes sees me victorious thanks to a power weapon but he does not fall back so we stay locked.

Turn 6 sees his death company assault my land raider (go Rage!) his vindicator lands a hit on my vets and Korsaro and kills 1, his rhino is blown up by my last land speeder which i forgot to bring in on turn 5, so i had to do it now, he shoots my last 2 bikes with his preds and kills 1 out of 2. He then disembarks 5 assault marines and assaults this lonely bike, which survives an impressive amount of 16 attacks. The Khan wipes out the Death company and the chaplain, while the librarian is finaly killed by Flamestorm cannons and a melta shot. The fight on the left flank sees me victorious again but i cant seem to get the kill point as his Sgt, makes every single armor save i throw at him!

Turn 7 Sees him kill my last bike with his 5 assault marines but in return die to the Khan and his remaining vets. I finaly manage to kill that Sgt and claim a kill point. Game Ends 8-5 with the Ravenwing beeing victorious.

Thoughts This was a very hard game for my opponents as he had way too many KP's the only way he could have won was if he wiped me out.

Conclusion

The tournament lasted 8 hours in total and we had a measly 10 minutes break between each battle, it was a fun and tiring day. I came 4th out of 12 and am pleased with the result considering the tier of gamesmanship that was present. Overall bike lists have potential to win, but they are extremely unforgiving if you make the slightest mistake.