So I played my very first ever 'Ard Boyz last Saturday, and for having no clue what to expect, I did pretty well. On to recaps!
As I walked in the door of Parker, Banner, Kent, and Wayne Saturday morning, just in time to be fashionably late, I noticed that we only had 8 attendees. Looked like people had gone out of their way to not be at 'Ard Boyz this year. I brought the Daemonhunters, as a friend in the gaming club had asked to borrow all the Eldar stuff I would've brought. Who would've thought? Anyways, my list looked something like this:
Grey Knight Grandmaster with 3 man terminator retinue
5 Grey Knight Terminators
2 Inquisitors with psycannons, 1 Emperor's Tarot, and 2 Mystic Retinue
2 5-man Inquisitorial Stormtrooper squads with Plasma Guns and Rhinos
2 10-man Veteran Squads with Melta guns and Chimeras
3 Scout Sentinels with Autocannons
3 Leman Russes
2 Land Raiders
Match 1: Mechdar
'Lo and behold, the first person I drew to play was the very person that borrowed my Eldar! He had 2 Seer Councils, jetikes, storm guardians, reapers, rangers, a war walker, and 2 squads of Fire dragons: totaling up to 5 wave serpents!
I won the dice roll thanks to the Tarot, and passed first turn to him. He placed his Serpents as close to the deployment line as he could, putting the rangers, bikes, and war walker in reserve, and reapers taking cover on he left side of his deployment zone. I reserved my sentinels, deployed my Land Raiders on the right-hand side, terminators in tow. Leman russes were about midfield, back on the table edge, covered by Rhinos, and the chimeras were on the left. Inquisitors half-hid on a hill in my zone, almost in the back corner. I failed to sieze the initiative, and his first turn began.
Turn one caught me completely off guard. He turbo-boosted all(!) of his Wave serpents into the front of my army. there was no way I could get out of there. some ineffective shooting at my inquisitors, then my turn began. I shot down a Wave serpent housing dragons, but that was pretty much it.
Turn two decided the game. His jetbikes and rangers came in and hung out, turboboosting and running towards the nearest piece of terrain respectively. The rangers didn't make it. He disembarked everything, killed both my Inquisitors retinues, and assaulted my Leman Russes, destroying all but on of them, and leaving the last one without the battle cannon. Also on the death toll were:
1 Land Raider, 1 Rhino, and 2 Chimeras. OUCH!
My turn 2 consisted of busting transports to stop his mobility from getting the rest of my army in clean up. I busted 3 serpents, killed the fire dragons that destroyed the raider in assault, and generally fled with the remains of my army. I killed 3 rangers with autocannon fire, and they failed their morale check, falling back almost off the table.
turns 3 and 4 were about the same, him cleaning up everything near the crater that was once my deployment zone, while what was left of my army skirted the edges of his army. Turn 5 was our last, as we ran out of time after it was over. He spread out, taking 4 of the objective, 3 of which with his jetbikes, and the last covered by his storm guardians in his remaining serpent. my turn consisted of moving my raider forward, disembarked, and barely made the assault into the jetbikes, killing all of them, and making 4 objectives into 2. He got 19 points.
Current Battle Points: 4
Current Victory Points: 1502
We later learned that ours was the bloodiest of all the games.
Match 2: Ultramarines
Match 2 saw me up against an Ultramarines army. The player had just returned from a 2 year hiatus, and didn't know some of the finer rules. Once again, I won the roll off, but this time I took first turn. I deployed my Inquisitors in my single terrain feature(building) in the deployment zone, and branched out my army: Chimera, Rhino, and leman russes on the right, and raiders, chimera, rhino on the left. He deployed his ENTIRE foot slogging section inside his single terrain piece (crater), and My leman russes' job was set: shell it until they were gone. Razorback, rhino, bikes, and dread hung near the back corner, and assault squad and terminators reserved for deep strike. He infiltrated his scouts into the building on my left. he failed to seize, and i took my first turn.
Leman Russes moved more to the right, taking a backline seat as the rest of my army made the beggining advances behind the land raiders. I then proceeded to shell his base, killing 13 marines and forcing 4 morale checks. I weapon destroyed, immobilized, and shook his dreadnought, essentially leaving it out of the fight. not too much more damage was done on my part. His first turn consisted of regrouping a squad and busting a rhino.
Turns 2-6 were a slaghterfest. I don't remember all the details, except the fact that I tabled him, getting 3 of 4 possible table quarters.
Current Battle Points: 27
Current Victory Points: 3998
Match 3: Daemons
This was the matchup I was wanting on the game I didn't want; modified kill points. With a possible 35 kill points in my army, I didn't want to see all my lovely tanks destroyed.
I lost the roll o go first, but was passed it. I deployed my chimeras left, Land raiders right, russes in the middle with their backs covered by my rhinos, and inquisitors in about the center. He chose not to seize and I spent my first turn getting my russes as close to the center as possible, and my raiders swooping far out to the right. Chimeras fell in line behind the rhinos. His first turn saw Fateweaver, a Lord of change, 3 squads of Pink Horrors, and a Daemon Prince coming down. The only thing close enough to bombard was the Lord, and I took advantage of that, putting 3 wounds on it from the get-go. He did no damage in his turn.
Turn 2 had my Sentinels coming in on the right and shooting at Fateweaver, putting a wound on him. I spread out, killing the daemon prince with plasma guns, the LoC with my psycannons, and another wound on Fateweaver with my russes. Land raiders only had room to shoot Pinks. His turn 2 brought down another daemon prince, 2 squads of flamers, and another squad of pinks. He destroyed a squad of stormtropers, a russ, destroying the sentinels, and shook the rhinos and the other 2 russes.
Turn 3 was the deciding turn. I pushed into his force with the raiders, disembarking the terminators, and assaulting three squads of pinks and a squad of flamers. All this was just after killing the fateweaver. That combat held till the last turn. The rest of his stuff came in on his turn, killing both my inquisitors and most of my veterans. turns 4, 5, and 6 were mop up, and all he had left at the end of the game was the Changeling and a single horror.
Final Battle Points: 50
Final Victory Points: 6392
Overall netting was third: First place was the Mechdar player I'd played in round one with 57. Second was a different Daemons list than the one I played.
Hope to see some of you guys in the NC 'Ard Boyz!
