Before we get into the final match of the tournament, I wanted to briefly mention and share some photos of some of the armies in attendance. Here you can see my buddy's awesome looking Nurgle army:
There was IG armored company vs Ultramarines:
Tau vs Blood Angels:
Another Tau army (my 3rd round opponent):
Of course there were Eldar and Space Wolves, my first two opponents, and a handful of others I wasn't able to get a picture of but power armor was well represented at this tournament.
Game 3
I was a bit surprised to find myself on the top table of the final round, especially after taking a few months off from playing and this being my first outing with the new Space Marines codex, but my list ended up being fairly adaptable. The mission for round 3 was Crusade (3 primary objectives) with Vanguard Strike deployment. I was up against Tau which had 2 hammerheads, 2 devilfish with firewarriors, a riptide, 2 squads of pathfinders, a squad of stealthsuits, a commander and some kroot (I don't remember all the details, but it was a much more fluffy/tame Tau list than what you typically see these days).
I think I won the roll off and made my opponent set up first. Then for some reason I rolled to seize the initiative even though I had just won the last round by going last and objectives were the primary again -- of course I end up rolling a 6. I was so surprised (and at the same time internally conflicted because I knew I shouldn't have done that and happily gone second) that I end up making a sloppy mistake. The moment after dropping my dread pods next to two squads of pathfinders, I eagerly light them up with heavy flame, completely forgetting to move the rest of my army. This probably wasn't a huge deal as I still got to torch most of his pathfinders before they could do anything, but my squad of bikes with grav-guns would have been within range of his Riptide if I had remembered to move them.
I should also note that most players waited to use their special strategem cards for this last round, so there were all sorts of crazy orbital bombardments and special effects taking place.
Night fight was in effect so I wasn't able to do much beyond what the dreadnoughts could see. I try to turbo & flat out towards the center for better position next turn and brace for the Tau retaliation.
My dreadnoughts take the majority of the heat; I lose both and a couple bikes from the grav squad.
I end up rolling on all of my reserves turn 2 except for the storm talon. My land speeder storm outflanks on the best possible side and sets up and nice heavy flamer shot on his firewarriors holding an objective inside his back building. Meanwhile, my large bike squad and attached captain aim for the riptide and cause a couple wounds.
I unfortunately didn't take a lot of pictures this round as time was tight and I was really engrossed in the game. It was basically a back and forth slug fest fighting over the middle objective; I held one objective on my side within the Aegis and my opponent was still holding the objective in his back building. He mostly controlled the 3rd objective up until turn 5.
His riptide held up my large bike squad with captain nearly the entire game; this is where Hit and Run would have been huge. I finally take the big suit down on turn 5 but he had a couple strategems that allowed him to regain wounds / resurrect that kept the riptide in action. My assault terminators were wrecking havoc in the middle of the board trying to make their way to his back building, but they just couldn't get there in time (the land raider immobilized itself turn 2 in that forest, so they had to footslog it). I was finally able to claim the middle objective on my turn 5, but he still had his turn to react.
On his last turn he was able to get his Kroot in range to contest my backfield objective and had enough other units to move in and contest the middle objective. The game ended there with him holding 1 objective and the remaining 2 being contested; we both had line breaker, I had slay the warlord and first blood -- I lose 2 - 4 victory points. So close! It came down to the last turn which I am quite proud of, but my opponent, Tom, was the better general and truly deserved the win. He won a really awesome trophy for his effort as well, one which I will certainly try for next year ; )
I was very pleased with how this list performed and I'm pretty sure second place is my best showing in any event I've ever played in. It was an awesome day of gaming and I think everyone had a great time! This tournament marks the last MWC event for the year with a new season kicking off again in February. I'd really like to make it to all of their events next year.
So there you have it, Iron Hands had a strong showing and played well against 3 strong lists. There's a couple things I'd tweak in the list but nothing too drastic. It Will Not Die on a vehicle heavy list is awesome and just enough to make marines that much more durable and a force to be reckoned with. I'll leave you with a picture of the store's guard dog -- he'll kill you with cuteness:
I think I won the roll off and made my opponent set up first. Then for some reason I rolled to seize the initiative even though I had just won the last round by going last and objectives were the primary again -- of course I end up rolling a 6. I was so surprised (and at the same time internally conflicted because I knew I shouldn't have done that and happily gone second) that I end up making a sloppy mistake. The moment after dropping my dread pods next to two squads of pathfinders, I eagerly light them up with heavy flame, completely forgetting to move the rest of my army. This probably wasn't a huge deal as I still got to torch most of his pathfinders before they could do anything, but my squad of bikes with grav-guns would have been within range of his Riptide if I had remembered to move them.
I should also note that most players waited to use their special strategem cards for this last round, so there were all sorts of crazy orbital bombardments and special effects taking place.
Night fight was in effect so I wasn't able to do much beyond what the dreadnoughts could see. I try to turbo & flat out towards the center for better position next turn and brace for the Tau retaliation.
My dreadnoughts take the majority of the heat; I lose both and a couple bikes from the grav squad.
I end up rolling on all of my reserves turn 2 except for the storm talon. My land speeder storm outflanks on the best possible side and sets up and nice heavy flamer shot on his firewarriors holding an objective inside his back building. Meanwhile, my large bike squad and attached captain aim for the riptide and cause a couple wounds.
I unfortunately didn't take a lot of pictures this round as time was tight and I was really engrossed in the game. It was basically a back and forth slug fest fighting over the middle objective; I held one objective on my side within the Aegis and my opponent was still holding the objective in his back building. He mostly controlled the 3rd objective up until turn 5.
His riptide held up my large bike squad with captain nearly the entire game; this is where Hit and Run would have been huge. I finally take the big suit down on turn 5 but he had a couple strategems that allowed him to regain wounds / resurrect that kept the riptide in action. My assault terminators were wrecking havoc in the middle of the board trying to make their way to his back building, but they just couldn't get there in time (the land raider immobilized itself turn 2 in that forest, so they had to footslog it). I was finally able to claim the middle objective on my turn 5, but he still had his turn to react.
On his last turn he was able to get his Kroot in range to contest my backfield objective and had enough other units to move in and contest the middle objective. The game ended there with him holding 1 objective and the remaining 2 being contested; we both had line breaker, I had slay the warlord and first blood -- I lose 2 - 4 victory points. So close! It came down to the last turn which I am quite proud of, but my opponent, Tom, was the better general and truly deserved the win. He won a really awesome trophy for his effort as well, one which I will certainly try for next year ; )
I was very pleased with how this list performed and I'm pretty sure second place is my best showing in any event I've ever played in. It was an awesome day of gaming and I think everyone had a great time! This tournament marks the last MWC event for the year with a new season kicking off again in February. I'd really like to make it to all of their events next year.
So there you have it, Iron Hands had a strong showing and played well against 3 strong lists. There's a couple things I'd tweak in the list but nothing too drastic. It Will Not Die on a vehicle heavy list is awesome and just enough to make marines that much more durable and a force to be reckoned with. I'll leave you with a picture of the store's guard dog -- he'll kill you with cuteness:
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