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1500pt Local Tournament

Friday, February 22, 2013


There was a small 3 round 1500pt tournament over the weekend at one of the local shops I frequent. Since I have recently been working on converting my marines into a Raptors army, I decided I should take them out for a spin. This was my list:


+++ Vulkan Raptors (1500pts) +++
+ HQ + (190pts)
    * Forgefather Vulkan He'Stan (190pts)
        
+ Elites + (300pts)
    * Dreadnought (150pts)
        Multi-Melta
        * Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon (10pts)
            Heavy Flamer (10pts)
        * Drop Pod (35pts)
            Storm Bolter

    * Dreadnought (150pts)
        Multi-Melta
        * Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon (10pts)
            Heavy Flamer (10pts)
        * Drop Pod (35pts)
            Storm Bolter

+ Troops + (600pts)
    * Tactical Squad (205pts)
        7x Boltgun, Flamer, Multi-Melta, Rhino (35pts) (Repair, Tank), 9x Space Marine (144pts)
        * Space Marine Sergeant (26pts)
            Bolt Pistol, Chainsword

    * Tactical Squad (180pts)
        7x Boltgun, Flamer, Lascannon (10pts), 9x Space Marine (144pts)
        * Space Marine Sergeant (26pts)
            Bolt Pistol, Boltgun

    * Tactical Squad (215pts)
        7x Boltgun, Flamer, Multi-Melta, 9x Space Marine (144pts)
        * Drop Pod (35pts)
            Storm Bolter
        * Space Marine Sergeant (36pts)
            Bolt Pistol, Combi-Melta (10pts) (Combi-Weapon)

+ Heavy Support + (310pts)
    * Predator (85pts)
        Autocannon, Heavy Bolters (25pts)

    * Thunderfire Cannon (100pts)

    * Vindicator (125pts)
        Siege Shield (10pts) (Siege Shield)

+ Fortification + (100pts)
    * Aegis Defense Lines (100pts)
        Quad Gun (50pts)


I really wanted to try out the new drop pods, so the list was mostly built around them. I wanted more of an all comers type list which is why most units have both template weapons and melta so I'd have a chance to do some damage regardless of what my opponent was playing. Vulkan is in there to increase the odds of making things count.


While punching this list out in battlescribe, I couldn't believe how much I was able to fit in with only 1500pts. I guess I'm used to more expensive troop squads and a deathstar taking up all my points. I hadn't run just normal tactical squads as the base of my troop section for a long time and I was quite pleased with their durability. The entire list was pretty hardy but still quite flexible on the board, although I did get shot up pretty good by Tau in my second game.

Overall, this list offered a decent gun line with a variety of weapons with which to hopefully deal with most threats; quad gun for flyers, demolisher cannon for heavy infantry and armor, thunderfire cannon for hordes, etc. I also had a saturation of mech/AV targets with 3 tanks, 3 pods, 2 dreads and 2 artillery pieces. It took an awful lot of shots to neutralize all that armor plus 30 power armored dudes (and it took 7 turns getting shot up by Tau rail guns, missile pods, plasma, etc). All of that combined with the surgical strike from drop dreads to deal with high priority threats made for a fun and solid list! Although my scatter rolls were pretty terrible the entire day -- it was an all-time worst showing for wounds inflicted by my thunderfire and I never got a direct hit with my pods in any of the 3 games. Regardless, those dreads are there to get up in the enemy lines and make them react to them, taking the heat off my gun line, which they did perfectly.



I'm not going to do full turn by turn write ups of each game, just a quick recap of the main stuff.

Game 1: The mission was Crusade (4 objectives) and my opponent was running Space Marines with Imperial Guard allies. Lots of dakka! In hindsight, I shouldn't have elected to go second. I lose my TFC in the first round of shooting, giving up first blood. My second mistake was not combat squadding one of my Tactical squads so I could capture both objectives in my deployment zone (this was a rookie mistake).


I send the Tactical squad in Rhino up the right side toward the enemy objective in those ruins, supported by the Vindi and Predator. On the left, I drop a dread that scorches an entire scout squad that was holding the other enemy objective along with the Master of the Forge (warlord). Later, I drop my other Tactical squad with Vulkan to go after the warlord and his objective.



By the end of the game, I had captured the enemy objective on the right side, was holding one of mine, and contesting the other enemy objective. That plus linebreaker put me at 7 victory points to 1 for a solid win.



Game 2: The mission was Purge the Alien and my opponent was running Tau. This is the one mission my list is not suited to handle well at all -- suicide drop dreads just give up too many free kill points. I think my opponent only had 8 or 9 kill points total to my lists' 13.


The spacing between his models was flawless, ensuring a minimum # of hits in the event my blast templates would actually land remotely on target. I hadn't played against Tau in a long time and wasn't sure exactly how to approach this match up. I think I erred on the side of caution a little too much trying to protect my greater # of KP's. I should have moved more quickly to get into assault faster (I need to remember that Rhinos can now move up to 18" in a turn).



Also, shield drones are pretty sweet. It took a ridiculous amount of shooting over several turns to make a dent in his army. After a full 7 turns, I just didn't have enough to even the spread on KPs and I had been whittled down pretty good from all that shooting. I don't remember the final VP count, but it was a clear loss for me.


Game 3: The mission was Emperor's Will and my opponent was running an all Grey Knight Terminator list. Not a good match up for him at all as he didn't really have a way to deal with any of the armor in my list (I'm sure he had no complaints on the Kill Point match though, haha). The realization of his lists disadvantage caused him to make some high risk / high reward decisions during his deep strike moves. There was barely 6" between the board edge and my backfield units holding my primary objective, yet that's where he aimed to land 4 squads. 2 were lost to mishap rolls of 1's, but the other 2 landed on target, knocking out my TFC and putting the hurt on my Tactical squad manning the Quad gun. At one point he had taken over my own Aegis! But luckily, I had taken over the midfield early, so I wasn't far from getting wherever I needed to be. By turn 4 I had taken back my primary and controlled the enemy objective, as well as rid the board of all GK's. First time I tabled anyone in an event like this, although I failed to get full points as I was inches away from claiming linebreaker. Ah well! 


It was a solid showing for my camo colored marines. A few less mistakes here and there might have seen them finish in the top 3, but overall I'm really happy with how this list played and I had a great time at the event itself!

4 comments:

  1. Hey Joe, was the Tau player named Scooter?
    -RobO

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  2. P.S. Does this mean the bikes are available? ;)

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    Replies
    1. Yes sir, game 2 was against Scooter and his nicely painted Tau!

      And sadly no, I don't think I'm quite ready to part with the bike army... I'll let you know if I'm looking to unload it one of these days ;)

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    2. Nicely painted for sure...bases a bit big. I'm sure that helped the spread. :)
      Sorry Scooter...lol.

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