Event Report - PAW Day 2

And thats that for another month, home and fed from the second day of PAW having met a few more faces included the good Admiral Drax (hello!), next up the 40k GT Grand Final next month - but for now here's a round of today's games.

Game 1 - Pitched Battle - Annilations

vs. Tyranids (New Codex) inc. Hive Tyrant, 1x Termagants, 1x Hormaguants, 1xGargoyles, 2x Zoanthropes, 1x Genestealers with Broodlord, 1x Ymgarl Genestealers, Tervigon, The Parasite of Mortrex, Venomthrope, Trygon

My first encounter with the new Tyranids, on the face of it I was'nt too scared at first, pitched battle and annilation suited me just fine for this mission, especially when I took first turn. I deployed with a refused flank yet again with a layered defence with a leading screen of two merged infantry squads. His deployment saw the Tyranid, Zoanthropes and Hormaguants on my left, the rest on my right - including the Genestealers.

Turn one saw the Tyrant take a couple of wounds, and nearly all the Genestealers - he pushed forward, the Roughriders on my left were taken down by the Zoanthropes as I failed to get them into good cover, and the remaining Genestealers assaulted and wiped out an Infantry Squad screening my Leman Russ. I emptied a fair bit of firepower into the remaining Stealers, reducing the unit to just the Broodlord, I also began targetting the Gargoyles and wiped out the Termagants, the Roughriders on my right charged in only to be beaten off by the Parasite cleaving a lone Gargoyle still which promptly moved off out of sight.

The Broodlord badly damaged the Leman Russ while a newly created unit of Gaunts, supported by the Parasite and some Rippers created by the demise of the Roughriders pushed forward, enaging my screening infantry... cutting them down and creating yet more Rippers... my opponent actually ran out of models for them.

I was now facing down something like 20 swarms, the Ymgarl Genestealers, Gaunts, Parasite and well, it did'nt look good. The Veterans dismounted to try an tackle the Genestealers supported by my Command Squads, my depleated infantry and Demolisher took on the Rippers meanwhile dealing with a surprising number of them - of course the Parasite then managed to create more assault my rear most infantry though they finally brought it down in combat a turn later, the Russ with it's remaining funcitional Heavy Bolters finished off the Venomthrope - just as the Trygon arrived with it's mind set on the Leman Russ. Grabbed another kill point taking out the last Gargoyle which was hiding the other side of the board, the Mortars having been accounted for by the Broodlord.

At this point the game drew to an end due to running out of time with 12 Kills Points to my 6 it was a bit of a massacre, another turn and I'd probably only have had the Valkyrie left.

I've got to say it was a fantastic game though, one of the most enjoyable I've had in a while, a classic bloody encounter between 'nids and Guard. I've got a great deal of respect for the new list, it's nasty, but based on that encounter not as overpowered as many seem to speculate. It's also got some really cool things, he really played like much of the fiction reads in my mind for a cinematic game.

Result - Loss - 6KPs to 12KPs

Game 2 - Pitched Battle - Sieze Ground - 5 Objectives

vs. Tyranids (Old Codex) inc. Tyrant with 2 Tyrant Guard, 6 Warriors, 5 Carnifex, 3xTermagant units with without number, 3 Zoanthropes

Again I was lucky enough to get first turn, I deployed in full in my quarter, while my opponent elected to deploy nothing denying me two turns of shooting, though this did give me the opportunity to reorientate my line to face the fact that he'd now be comming from my left and to get infantry moved onto the central and far right objective giving me an early advantage.

In an early scare a Spore Mine Bombardment almost cost me my Russ, but poor reserve rolls left me facing the Zoanthropes and a pair of Gaunt units, in my turn I brought down a number of Gaunts breaking the screen he placed between the Zonthropes and a unit of a Roughriders which proceeded in to bring down one in combat, another fell to my guns and in an unparrelled display of accurate shooting my Mortar Squad account for all but one of the second unit having achieved very little so far in the weekend. The Gaunts of course came back, again and again, though throughout the game I managed to keep them at bay, the third unit going to ground on an objective in the far right corner. The Carnifex and Tyrant eventually arrived, advanced and began blowing holes in my line - albeit slowly thanks to plentiful cover. I brought the remaining Zoanthrope down and knocked two of the Carnifex down to a single wound before finishing one off in assault with my Veterans as they fought to gain a foothold on one objective in his deployment zone on my left. They were quickly brought down in return by two more Carnifex however. This still left me in a game winning position but for one final roll of the dice as the Tyrant held on shooting and ran into a contesting position on the central objective, resulting in a draw as the game came to an end.

I really could'nt call how the game might have progressed had it gone on - I'd definately not have been able to hold the central objective against the thus undamaged Tyrant and Guard, however I think I'd have been able to deny him of the left hand objective with another turn of firepower on the Gaunts which would have left me on two and him one, but who knows? It was a good game and a suitable fairwell to the old codex.

Result - Draw - Two Objectives to Two Objectives

Game 3 - Spearhead - Capture & Control

vs. Sister of Battle inc. Cannoness on Foot, Jump Pack Cannoess, 4x Battle Sister Squads in Rhino's, 2x Exorcist's, 1xSeraphim Squad

The finally game saw something a little unusual - I was playing my own army! One of my club mates is currently using my Sisters of Battle which I took to the 2008 UK GT, giving me a slight advantage in knowing the army well, on the other hand the terrain leant well to the Sisters, it was an urban zone with several large ruins which effectively blocked my lines of fire while the plentiful cover offered no protection from the Sisters large amount of Flamers. I deployed around a central ruin in my deployment zone the Veterans in the Valk outflanking, while the Sisters deployed with one unit on his base supported by it's Rhino and an Exorcist and the remaining sisters on my right - the Seraphim and Jump Canoness remained in reserve.

I was yet again lucky enough to get first turn though I was unable to draw line of sight to anything except a disemarked Sister unit on his base and their Rhino, these I started to plug at killing a couple of Sisters and Immobilising the Rhino, the Exorcist's returned fire but it was ineffectual as the remaining three Rhino rolled forwards popping smoke.

The arrival of the Veterans saw one of the Exorcist's explode, while Lascannon fire stripped the other of it's armament, I was unable to do more then shake any of the other Rhino's though managed to reduce the Sisters on his base to just one model. The Sisters now attacked, two squads annilating my front Infantry units with Flamer fire - I was able to counter these though, one squad was reduced to two sisters, with no Sister Superior and ran, the other was badly mauled and then sent running my a Roughrider charge though Spirit of the Martyr saved them from heavier casualties.

One Rhino and the weaponless Exorcist now began a Tankshocking spree, squad after squad was forced to move with more then a couple breaking and running off the table, the last intact sister squad meanwhile disembarked wiping out another squad while the newly arrived Seraphim chased the Valkyrie, dispite a severe lack of regular Infantry I was able to almost wipe out the newly arrived Sisters, Coloonel Gravis charging into combat alone and on a single wound cutting down the squad to just two before being knocked unconcious (no really he must have been!) by the nuns. At this point the two remaining Sisters were able to contest my objective while his was secure - a disaster on turn 5.

Thankfully the game went on though, I was able to take out the last two sisters by the skin of my teeth while my Veterans killed the last Sister on his base, the Rhino's then struck again, by now I must have immobilished them several times over but they kept kick starting! One now contested my objective running yet another unit off the board another breaking my Veterans - which is where the game ended. We both had units on his base, neither of them scoring, while mine was contested by a Rhino despite some daring close range shots with Battlecannon and Demolisher Cannon, immobilised, weaponless, but alive!

It was a great way to end the last game as we're old adversaries with many old war stories to tell, probably it was one of the best games we've had though!

Result - Draw - One Objective Contested

Almost the end!

I hope to add some pictures from the event later as Ben from 40k Online kindly offered to send me those he took (I'm told there are pictures from each of my games amongst them!).

I ended up placing 16th - which out of a field of just over 30 I've quite happy with and to top it off I picked up the best Army Award, well chuffed!