The list
Eldrad
Avatar
10 defenders w/ star cannon, warlock w/ conceal spear & pistol
10 defenders w/ star cannon, warlock w/ destructor spear & pistol
5 path finders
6 fire dragons (exarch w/ dragon's breath & hgeavy flamer)
6 Harlequins (shadow seer , troupe master all w/ kisses)
1 vyper w/ scatter laser & shuriken cannon
6 warp spiders (surprise assault & dual spinners)
1 wraithlord w/ brightlance & wraithsword
1 falcon w/ star cannon,shuriken cannon, SS,HOLO,VE,SE
1 falcon w/ star cannon,shuriken cannon, SS,HOLO,VE,SE
2 HQ
3 TROOP
3 ELITE
2 FAST
3 HEAVY
51 models
11 scoring units
Note: I only used star cannons today as those were the only models I had available at the time (my new army was not with me). I now don't use any at all.
I did not have the space or time to take proper notes but here is the best of my recollection:
Game 1 saw me facing off against an Iron warrior player w/ the dreaded 9 obliterators. He also had 3 dreadnaughts, a daemon prince as well as the usual assorted heavy weapon & tac sqauds. The name of the mission eludes me but it was basically VP oriented. I won roll for initiative and elected to take first turn. Eldrad fortuned the avatar each turn as well as himself once the enemy was near. The third power usually went to guide or doom something as needed. My opponent's dice rolling were rather poor most of the game which is not something you want when faced with a pair of falcons (lol). The high points of the game:
The harlies destroyed an 8 man tac/close combat unit on the charge. My warp spiders dropped in behind a dread and destroyed it. They blew the weapon off of a second one before dying to a hail of obliterator fire. (deepstrike for them is soo helpfull)
I never had an issue with wraithsight because the lord was always parked with a guarduan unit in hard cover...just sit & snipe w/ bright lance.
The overall game was pretty close. I scored it 879 to 616 which was enough for a win for me. Considering he had hard cover for all of his obliterators I think I did pretty good.
Game 2 saw me facing a world bearers army. Blood thirster, lord on a bike, bloodletters, deamonettes, 2 auto cannon havoc units, several other heavy weapons in tac units and 2 obliterators (to my best recollection)
The mission was "black box". No VP's were used which meant we were going to have to dog pile the objective. A quick glance of the mission told us that we only needed to have a scoring unit 6" away from the objective.
I won roll for initiative and elected to go first. Guided the falcons & fortuned the avatar. Despite firing both falcons, the vyper, the path finders, 2 guardian units & the wraithlord I only managed to kill 3 marines (cover saves). Soon he's able to drop the daemon bomb making every one of his reserve rolls and successfully inviting the blood thirster. This whole thing hit my left flank wrecking the guardians and putting 2 wounds on the wraithlord. (lol that's what daemons do right?) I moved my right flank closer to the action to prepare for the inevitable assault. The Avatar & eldard managed to take the blood thirster down with Eldrad dealing the killing blow (his second bloodthirster kill in a month lol). I also killed the remainder of the first tac unit I had shot up. As the closing turn neared I knew that I would have to do tremendous damage to actually win the game but I could draw it with no issues at all as I could contest without a reasonable chance for him to dislodge me. On turn 5 I jetted both falcons onto the objeective as well as the Avatar who had fortune on him. The harlies slammed into his midline units casuing havoc & killing everything in their kill zone.Time was called so we would only play the bottom of the turn which was his. With a lucky series of rolls he managed to shoot down both falcons much to my surprise. He partially moved the tac unit towards the objective to contest it. We shook hands for a great game and went to calculate battle points....upon reading the mission objective a little better it clearly stated that you had to be completley within 6" of the objective with the scoring unit in order for it to count. Looking at the board he did not fulfill this while my Avatar did which would net me the win. A great guy and gracious opponent (very fun to play against) he didn't fight about it and conceeded the win.....I couldn't take it.
Had he read the mission properly (or me for that matter) he could have simply moved the bloodletters up to contest it. I allowed him to go back and do it giving him the draw instead of a loss. I'm not really sure why I did it but it just felt right at the time....I've often let people go back and shoot units that they forgot to shoot or move units that they forgot to move.....I've never really just given away one of my wins before....lol
Game 3 saw me facing another world bearers player. Blood thirster (rhino delivery method), 2 units of daemoneetes, bloodletters, defiler, 2 obliterators, 4 tac units w/ assorted heavy weapons (all tank hunters) Lord on a bike.
The mission was to get more scoring units into your opponents deployemnt zone than he can get into yours. (no VP's were used again). The mission also had us set up 4 markers that could be used to teleport troops down onto the board touching one of the markers....this allowed you to put anything with a wound charateristic into reserve to use the depstrike rules....models did not deviate that touched a marker. It was also nightfight rules with a -6" range to any weapon that had a range of 24" or more.
I kept both guardian units, the wraithlord and the spiders in reserve hoping to unlease some of that short range firepower on his daemons once summoned. The warithlord I was going to deepstrike next to his defiler as there was a marker in that area.
I won the initiative roll (I normally never get intiative but today is my day I guess lol) and elected to go first. I took a few shots at a tac unit in the woods but due to terrain & night fight I was only able to kill 2 models. On his next turn he shook the falcon and moved his stuff forward to prepare for the daemon bomb.I failed all my reserve rolls except for a single unit of guardians. The fortuned Avatar kept plodding forward and the shaken falcon jetted accross the board to his flank....awaiting next turn to unload death upon him. The teleported guardians unloaded everything onto the biker lord failing to wound him (turbo boosted lol)
On his turn he made all of his reserve rolls and invited the blood thirster successfully. The biker lord and bloodletters hit my guardians in the woods and the thirster and the rest of the bloodletters charged the avatar. Eldard was directly behind them in support. The guardians managed to heroically cut down a bloodletter before losing half of their number. The avatar wailed on the bloodthirster dealing him 2 wounds(thatnks to doom). Over the couse of the next three turns this combat raged on with the avatar & eldrad killing the blood thister, all the bloodletters and the lord on the bike breaking all but one o his scoring units in my delpoyment zone.
The harlies disembarked from my other falcon and tore into his tac unit in the woods. He tried to counter charge me with some daemonettes on his turn but the harlies wrecked them before they could do any real damage (lost 1 harlie). The tac unit killed another one and then I broke off and hit them again (wash rinse and repeat)...The harlies only had 2 models left but killed 3 units.
My opponent lost his obliterators in a deepstrike attempt so I thought I'd be daring and try for a perfect deepstrike with my spiders. If I didn't land on target behind the defiler I could only deviate one direction without going off of the board....I deviated in that direction! (lol).....no rear armour so I fire at his tac unit instead killing 3 of them. The defiler then assaults them and my spiders hold it off until the wraithlord deepstruck in and assaulted it the folling turn...3 penetrations later and a destroyed defiler.
By game end I had 4 scoring units in his deployment while he had only 1 in mine which netted me the win.
Overall thoughts: Fortune on the avatar + the fact that my units are fearless is amazing. The avatar took a single wound in game 2 and game 3 while easliy killing far more points than he was worth.
The pathfinders who normally do well for me had the misfortune of watching my opponent make nearly every save or cover save as needed. I did get a turn of firing on a doomed blood thirster but he also made evey save lol.
The dragons didn't seem much action at all but are still one of our most solid choices.
The harlies are worth their weight in gold....I think if I used more than 6 that I would get real complaints about them ...
The spiders as a deepstrike unit worked out well. I only wanted them to drop behind rear armour and pop some tanks...they pretty much performed as expected.
The falcons are still a great tank. Shoving them ino the teeth of the enemy guns I only lost 3 of them total in all the games which is a little above normal for me but still pretty good considering the firepower that they absorb.
I miss the mobility of my mech list but this mostly foot list performs reasonably well.....
Overall I placed second. The guy who won best overall is the gentleman who I gave the draw to......which means I forfeited best overall and the prize to do what I though was the honorable thing and I'm good with that. His army was also beautifully painted & converted whic helped his "soft" scores quite a bit......something that I'll soo be able to do as well.
Overall, A fun tourney.
