Dark Star GT: Day One Battle Reports!

As promised, here is the start of the battle reports for my games at the Dark Star GT.  I'm going to do these a little different than I have previously.  The main difference being that I'm going to be giving you a huge stockpile of pictures to look at at the beginning (with turn counter), then I'll do the actual battle report after.  They'll be significantly shorter than a lot of my other battle reps, just because I don't think people like reading a detailed play-by-play.  These will be more the abridged versions.  Watching is a different story, but I wasn't willing to drag a video camera around to slow down games.  At least I didn't forget to take pictures this time around.  If you've forgotten, you can find my list here.  :P

One thing to note about these missions is that there is no Primary, Secondary, or Tertiery goals.  The missions DO have three separate goals, however, they are weighted equally.  So to win, you need to have more of them than your opponent.  If you don't, or tie, then it goes to a straight VP scoring (with a difference of more than 185 points).

Game One:  Ed Huyck -- Grey Knights

HQ:
* Castellan Crowe.  [150]

TROOPS:
* Purifier Squad (10) w/ 5x Force Halberds, 1x Daemonhammer, and 4x Incinerators.  [260]
* Purifier Squad (10) w/ 5x Force Halberds, 1x Daemonhammer, and 4x Psycannons.  [300]
* Purifier Squad (10) w/ 5x Force Halberds, 1x Daemonhammer, and 4x Psycannons.  [300]

FAST ATTACK:
* Stormraven Gunship w/ 1x TL-Multi Melta, TL-Lascannon, and 4x Mindstrike Missiles.  [205]

HEAVY SUPPORT:
* Land Raider w/ 1x Multi-Melta.  [265]
* Land Raider.  [255]
* Dreadnought w/ 1x Multi-Melta, Storm Bolter, and Nemesis Doomfist.  [115]

Mission Objectives
* Most Kill Points.
* Most controlled objectives (of 6).
* Control more objectives in your opponent's deployment zone than your opponent does in yours.

Deployment was standard Dawn of War.  Each player rolled to see who would go first, then the "winning" player would pick and place the first of three objectives, with each player alternating until none were left to place.  Ed won the roll and chose to go first.  He opted to leave everything off the board to begin, as did I.  He pulled an illegal move next and had Crowe join a Purifier squad.  Because I didn't want to start arguments on my first game, in the first 10 minutes, I didn't say anything.  Ultimately, it didn't matter, but it could have. 

Anyway, he moves everything onto the board centrally, with the Stormraven moving only 12".  Obviously, since I had nothing on the board, he doesn't have anything to shoot at.  I move onto the board, keeping most of my heavy hitters in the center of the board, with the more fragile troops on the flanks.  It is my plan to use my superior numbers to overwhelm the objectives and claim more than he can, while contesting those that he has to take the win.  My shots fall short due to Night Fighting.

Turn two has Ed moving forward a little ways and having him fire full force into one of my Vindicators and terminators.  The terminators make all of their saves, despite my opponent's amazing rolling, so no losses there.  However, my Vindicator wasn't so lucky.  So begins the "6's of Doom".  One of the Land Raiders use their Power of the Machine Spirit to fire my left Vindicator, rolling a billion sixes to blow it up.  The only time I lost a Vindicator so early.  My turn involves following my game plan by moving along the flanks and claiming my two home objectives.  Then my army fires full force into everything he has.  Penetration rolls galore.........but I roll only 1's and 2's.  Everything is stunned.  So I think...

I catch a break in that my opponent forgets about his psychic power "Fortitude".  Not that he needs it, however.  My opponent disembarks his troops from one of his Land Raiders and the Stormraven, so that he can get some shots off.  Power of the Machine Spirit kicks in again, giving my opponent 3 shots which can hurt my Vindicator (who will wreck some stuff if it shoots).  Queue the sixes!  Boom!  Down goes the Vindicator.  The Purifiers proceed to kill quite a few of my terminators, including one of the CMLs.  My terminators pass their Righteous Zeal tests.  Then on my turn, I continue flanking my forces and shooting.  More penetrating hits, more 1's and 2's.  Fortunately, ONE of my shots takes down the Stormraven.  But at this point, with probably 30+ penetration rolls already in the game and only a couple 3+ rolls out of them all, I'm getting a little annoyed.

By contrast, my opponent continues to use his Power of the Machine Spirit to fight through my stuns (even though he probably would have cast Fortitude) and blow my stuff up with extremely limited firepower.  His good rolling continues through the rest of the game, my bad rolling also does.  Nevertheless, I sense that my opponent has forgotten about the mission objectives and I have perfectly placed my troops and land speeders in a position to win the game at the end of turn 5.  If the game ends, I win because I claim two of the three mission goals.  He rolls and the game continues (of course).  He proceeds to kill the first of my Land Speeders to take out the contesting unit, while busting up most of my Crusader squad on his objective.  On my turn, I once more contest Ed's objective with my second (my planned backup) land speeder.  My shooting is ineffectual, once again.  If the game ends here, I win.  My turn to roll and all I need to do is roll one of my incredibly common low rolls to win.  Do I get it?  Nope!  Ed kills my Land Speeder and the remaining Crusaders on his home objective.  Game over.  He has 11 KPs to my 1 (fail).  He has one of my deployment zone objectives and I have zero.  We both have a single home objective as well.  Loss for me.


Game Two:  Jorell Rohan -- Dark Angels

HQ:
* Belial, Master of the Deathwing.  [130]
* Interrogator-Chaplain w/ Terminator Armor, Combi-Melta, and Crozius Arcanum.  [150]

TROOPS:
* Deathwing Terminator Squad w/ Apothecary, 1x Cyclone Missile Launcher, and 4x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields.  [270]
* Deathwing Terminator Squad w/ 1x Cyclone Missile Launcher, and 4x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields.  [240]
* Deathwing Terminator Squad w/ 1x Cyclone Missile Launcher, and 4x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields.  [240]
* Deathwing Terminator Squad w/ 1x Cyclone Missile Launcher, and 4x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields.  [240]
* Deathwing Terminator Squad w/ 1x Cyclone Missile Launcher, and 4x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields.  [240]

FAST ATTACK:
* Ravenwing Attack Squadron (3 bikers + 1 AB) w/ 2x Meltagun, Teleport Homer, and 1 Attack Bike w/ Multi-Melta.  [190]
* Ravenwing Support Squadron w/ 1x Typhoon and 1x Multi-Melta.  [75]
* Ravenwing Support Squadron w/ 1x Typhoon and 1x Multi-Melta.  [75]

Mission Objectives
* More units completely in your opponent's deployment zone than they have in yours.
* Most controlled objectives (of 3).
* Destroy more than half of opponent's KPs.

Deployment is basically Pitched Battle.  Jorell is a very cool guy that I spent a good deal of time over the weekend talking to.  Probably in the top 5 most enjoyable opponents I've had the pleasure of facing.  His list was one that I feared going into the weekend, as I didn't know if I had enough "Oomph" to kill enough before being overtaken.  Likewise, he was really worried about my Vindicators.  He gave his condolences for my Vindicators, as well as for my poor rolling in game one, noting that he didn't wish bad rolling on anyone.  Little did he know...

I win the roll-off to see who goes first and I elect to let Jorell to go first.  Seeing my Vindicators, he does the conga-line and masterfully spaces his terminators out.  He keeps his Fast Attack choices in reserve, as well as the "Command squad" Terminator squad.  Taking advantage of the hill on my side, as well as plentiful cover, I set up a killing zone with crossing fields of fire.  If you take a look at the picture, you'll see that where he's deployed is bad news bears, even spaced out.  On my right flank, its my goal to use PotMS to zoom into his side of the board with a bunch of units and keep shooting while I'm doing it.  Hopefully they'll last long enough to win that mission goal.

His first turn of shooting doesn't amount to much, but apparently my dice decide they want to make up for their failure last game.  I take out one or two terminators.  His turn sees him advance closer to my forces on one side, but hesitating a little on the other.  He manages to immobilize my right Vindicator, but that doesn't matter...cause its still pointed in the right direction.  I kill more terminators, especially with the Vindicators.  Somehow, he's failing a bunch of his 3+ invulnerable saves.  Somewhere in the middle turns, I decide its a good idea to jump out of my Razorback and attempt to kill off a full squad of Terminators in close combat (the EC-led squad).  It was a huge risk, but I remember saying that I couldn't pull off solid wins without some risk.  Well, the assault turned out WAY better than I could have hoped for...with Jorell failing invulnerable saves on 4 terminators.  Leaving one, who passes his LD test.  On his next turn, he starts getting his reserves, and manages to start killing some stuff (Razorback).  He also detaches his Chaplain and moves him in charge range of that assault.  Unfortunately for him, his gamble to use his bike squad to kill my other Razorback on the right side failed.  This leaves his bikes dangerously exposed (I clean them up in my next turn).  In epic fashion, the Emperor's Champion dispatches the Chaplain and the remaining Terminator (who killed 4 Initiates before he went down), then runs towards an objective.

The rest of the game amounts to me cleaning up his forces, because after turn 3, he doesn't have enough terminators to threaten all of the guns I have being thrown at him.  They die slowly and steadily.  He does manage to kill a Vindicator late in the game, as well as a couple other things, but when we roll to see if the game goes on after turn five (and it does), he concedes.  There was no way I could have lost the win by going on and the only thing that could have happened is me tabling him.  Which is no fun.  Even though he got visibly frustrated, he remained cool-headed the entire time and was still a pleasure to play against.  I win with all three mission goals completed.


Game Three:  Tim Deering -- Space Wolves

HQ: Rune Priest: Chooser of the Slain, Jaws of the World Wolf, Living Lightning
Elite: 3x Wolf Guard Pack: 3x Combi-Melta, Rhino Elite: 3x Wolf Guard Pack: 3x Combi-Melta, Rhino
Elite: 4x Wolf Guard Pack: 4x Combi-Melta, Rhino Troops: 5x Grey Hunters: Meltagun, Rhino Troops: 5x Grey Hunters: Meltagun, Rhino
Troops: 5x Grey Hunters: Meltagun, Rhino
Troops: 5x Grey Hunters: Meltagun, Razorback: Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
Troops: 5x Grey Hunters: Meltagun, Razorback: Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
Fast Attack: Land Speeder: Multimelta
Fast Attack: Land Speeder: Multimelta
Fast Attack: Land Speeder: Multimelta
Heavy Support: 5x Long Fangs: 4x Missile Launcher, Razorback: Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
Heavy Support: 5x Long Fangs: 4x Missile Launcher, Razorback: Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
Heavy Support: 5x Long Fangs: 4x Missile Launcher, Razorback: Lascannon, TL Plasmagun

Mission Objectives
* Most Modified Kill Points (Troops = 1 KP; Transports = 0; Elites, Fast Attack, Heavy Support = 2; HQ = 3).
* Destroy your opponent's most expensive unit (excluding transports).
* Destroy all of your opponent's troops.

This game was a loss from the very beginning due to my matchup.  I got pitted against a competitive player Timmah, who happens to be one of the best players I've gotten to play in a very long time.  Unfortunately, a perfect storm of the mission goals and Tim's super MSU Space Wolves, had me beat.  If the transports gave me even a single KP, I'd have made this a much closer game.  As it was, he had too many troops for 1 KP each hiding in boxes which were worth 0 KPs.  I had quite a few more KPs available in my Elites, FA, and Heavy Support...and they were much easier to kill.  Nevertheless, I was certainly going to try to give the game my best shot, but I needed him to make a big mistake or me get extremely lucky to win.

It turns out that neither would happen.  It was a spearhead deployment, with me winning the roll to go first.  I elected to go first, after considering the possibility of going second and going into reserves.  In the end, I don't think it would have mattered.  I deployed behind cover, mindful of the possibility of a seize initiative.  Because his most expensive unit was Long Fangs, he made sure they were all either out of LOS of most of my stuff, or in cover.  Even with good luck, I'd be hard pressed to kill a squad.  The rest of his stuff was placed in such a manner to give pretty much all his rhino-chassis hulls cover.  I manage to knock out the front Razorback full of Wolf Guard, but that pretty much was all I managed.  His turn didn't turn out much either, just advancing and shooting at my exposed Terminators/Land Speeders.  It was my hope that my land speeders would produce some kills, but in retrospect, they should have stayed in reserve to preserve their precious 2 KPs each.

Fast forward a few turns relatively uneventful turns (see pictures) with us trading KPs, its pretty even across the board.  Our shooting capabilities are pretty matched at this point.  We're tied at six a piece, with me killing a Wolf Guard squad, a Grey Hunter squad, and the Rune Priest.  He killed a Land Speeder or two, and one Terminator squad.  My turn four produces little, other than to force one of his Grey Hunter squads to fall back.  His turn comes around and he quite literally has a turn of insane luck.  His shooting pretty much annihilates everything in my army, leaving me very little to hurt him with.  I don't concede, cause I never concede, but it was pretty much cleanup mode after that for him.  Tim scores 10 KPs, to my 6 KP.  He also killed my most expensive unit (terminators) and I was unable to even dent his Long Fangs.  2 goals to 0.  Loss.