Monday, September 14, 2015

NOVA in Review, Part 2: GT Bat Reps, Day 1

As promised in my Bat Rep against Alan Pajamapants, we're moving on to the GT. After losing to Alan in Round 1 in the Invitational, one thing I did with my free time was participating in two display board classes, where I met a few other GT players. After chatting and telling them my list, they jokingly said they hoped to not see me the next day. As luck would have it, Round 1 I saw myself up against Brian. Even worse for him, he was running Lictorshame, which I know very well and is honestly a terrific matchup for my list.

I was running the same list as in the Invitational. Brian's list was:
  • Hive Fleet Detachment:
    • 2x Hive Tyrant: 2xTL Devourers, Electroshock Grubs
    • 2x Tyranit Guard: Adrenal Glands
    • 3x Mucolids
    • 3x Lictors
    • 4 Spore Mines
    • 3x Mawloc
  • Tyranid CAD:
    • Hive Tyrant: 2xTL Devourers, Electroshock Grubs
    • 2x3 Rippers: Deep Strike
    • 3x Lictors
    • 2x3 Spore Mines
    • 4 Spore Mines
    • Bastion: Comms Relay
As I said, I knew how my list matched up against Brian's very well, and didn't really have to think about my mission selection. I took the progressive primary, and Linebreaker, Moment of Bloodshed, and Marked on a Mawloc for my Secondaries. Brian meanwhile took end-game scoring, and Marked for Death on a squad of Warriors, Slay the Warlord, and Heart of the Matter. 

Brian deployed his bastion centrally with spore mines inside, some out by the door, and the two Tyrant Guard behind. I deployed across my line, weighted a bit to my left, with two units of Warp Spiders tucked away in my right corner. I left the marked warriors and my Warlord in reserve, along with the third unit of Warp Spiders. 

I opted not to seize (surprise) and Bryan moved out a bit with his Tyrant Guard. I moved up as well, with one unit of Warp Spiders flying up the board with an 18" Warp Jump and 6" run. The Tomb Blades turbo boosted onto one objective and Scarabs ran onto others leaving me with models on all 6 Objectives. 


In Brian's turn 2, a bunch of his reserves arrived. His  marked mawloc managed to bullseye some Wraiths, resulted in one wound, and then rolled a 1 on his mishap. Shooting was unfortunately ineffective for Bryan, leaving my position very strong.


I spread out to deal with the various Lictors and other ground threats in my turn. Tomb Blades killed off one Lictor, while Warp Spiders took down the Rippers without trouble. In assault, one unit of Wraiths killed another Lictor and another couple Wraith units and a Spyder wounded the Mawlocs. I also made sure to wipe out some Mucolids and Mines. Finally a unit of Scarabs charged and wounded a Tyrant Guard.


In Brian's turn, he used a couple Lictors to wipe out the Scarabs attacking the Tyrant Guard. The Mawlocs, who had Hit & Run in my turn, burrowed to safety. Flyrant shooting killed 2 of the tomb blades but couldn't finish them off.

In my turn, Wraiths moved over to take out the remaining Lictors on the left, while the Warp Spiders shot down the Tyrant Guards. The Warriors and Immortals took pot shots at flyrants to no effect.


The remainder of the game saw me quickly wrap up what was left on the ground in turn 4, leaving me only flyrants to chase for a turn 5 killpoint, which was unsuccessful. Brian concentrated his flyrants on my Marked Warriors and Warlord, but that Necron durability saw them through. The game ended with me taking an 18-4 victory, and a fun game. 

Game two I was matched up against Patrick's mechanized Eldar army in NOVA's Scouring, on Hammer & Anvil Deployment. I will admit to feeling a PTSD freakout seeing Patrick's list:
  • Eldar CAD:
    • Autatch: Fusion Pistol
    • 2x6 Rangers
    • 3x5 Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents: Shuriken Cannons, 2 w/Brightlances, 1 W/Scatter Lasers
    • 10 Storm Guardians: 2 Flamers, Wave Serpent w/Scatter Laser and Shuriken Cannon
    • 3 Hornets
    • Crimson Hunter Exarch
    • Crimson Hunter
    • 2xFire Prism: Shuriken Cannon
I chose end-game scoring while Patrick opted for turn-by-turn. I chose Linebreaker, Moment of Bloodshed, and Marked for death on one Wave Serpent. Patrick opted for Linebreaker, Marked for Death on a Warp Spider squad, and Slay the Warlord. 

Patrick deployed first with his Wave Serpents and Fire Prisms largely centered. The Hornets and Crimson Hunters were in reserve. I deployed with the spiders and most of the scarabs in cover in the center LOS blocker to minimize first turn damage, and kept the Wraiths wide to either side. 

In the first turn Patrick shuffled around and took some shots, wounding one Spyder once, but largely being ineffective. I moved up and managed to pull off a charge on one Wave Serpent. The Tomb Blades also managed to kill off the three rangers holding one objective. The Scarabs took down the Serpent. 

In his turn 2, Patrick was limited to just one point, but got all his reserves on. Shooting was relatively ineffective, though the Scarabs that had destroyed the Wave Serpent were taken out. 


In the bottom of the turn, one unit of wraiths and one unit of scarabs charged the Hornets, while a boosted up unit of Scarabs charged the forward Rangers, with one unit of Wraiths attacking another serpent and the other tying down the Storm Guardians. The Wave Serpent and Rangers were wiped out, and two hornets were taken down, with the third surviving with one hull point. 

In the coming turns, the tide continued, with the remaining tanks getting wiped out in short order, quickly followed by their occupants. 

Parking Lot Achievement unlocked.
The Crimson Hunters worked on hunting down the Marked Warp Spiders, who had mishapped and been placed on my back board edge away from cover. The game continued through turn 7, with only the Crimson Hunters remaining airborne, though I had managed a hullpoint on each. They were unable to take out the Warlord, or claim Linebreaker. In the end, I won 19-8. 

In the final game of the day, I was matched up against EJ, who I played round one of the Forge the Narrative Seasonal back in February. EJ had the smallest model count army I would see at the event, with a starting list of only 18 models:
  • Daemon CAD:
    • Fateweaver (Warlord)
    • Be'lakor
    • 10 Horrors
    • 3 Nurglings
    • 3x Daemon Prince of Tzeentch: Armour, Flight, Level 3. 1 Exalted gift, 2 lesser gifts, 2x2 Greater Gifts, and 1x1 Greater Gift
I opted for progressive scoring while EJ went with End Game. My secondaries were Linebreaker, Moment of Bloodshed, and Marked for Death on the Nurglings. My hope was that I would either get Moment via summoned units, or EJ would avoid summoning. EJ chose to Mark a Spyder, Kill Points, and Linebreaker. Considering he opted for Kill Points, I felt safe in the idea that he wouldn't summon too many units. 


EJ had me deploy first, and I deployed a long front, weighted slightly to the left, and the Marked Spyder in reserves. EJ countered hard to my left, keeping the Nurglings in reserve. He opted to roll to seize and was successful. In his first turn, two of the princes jumped forward onto one of my objectives. The remaining Prince and both HQs jumped in front to screen them a bit while in the air. The horrors moved up into the left LOS blocking ruin and summoned another unit of horrors behind them, who got Possession as their power. 

In my turn, I phased one unit of Wraiths through the screening FMCs and prepared to charge the Prince on my objective. Meanwhile I threw a boosted unit of Scarabs through the left ruin and prepared to charge the horrors. Shooting dealt a couple wounds to Fateweaver, who used his reroll to stay in the air. I charged the horrors, pinning them in place and killing a couple. Meanwhile the Wraiths went in and managed a few wounds to the Prince. 

In EJ's turn, the Nurglings arrived from reserve. He attempted to deep strike them into my lines to force a mishap, and then rolled a 1, using fateweaver's reroll to change it and got a 2, so I placed them in the open near some Wraiths. He also successfully grimm'd the Horrors, who cast Cursed Earth. The other unit of horrors turned into a Keeper of Secrets, whose Initiative 10 would make it immune to incoming Warp Spiders. In the shooting phase, the Warp Storm table boosted Daemonic saves by 1, and Fateweaver ran off the table. A second Prince went in to help his buddy and the Wraiths started losing numbers. 


In my turn, I moved the Wraiths for the Nurglings and the Keeper of Secrets, only scoring one point to begin the turn for holding the Relic. My reserves didn't come in this turn, except the marked Spyder who waddled into cover. The nurglings were easily wiped out while the Keeper of Secrets managed to down one wraith, as did the daemon prince. The combat between the horrors and scarabs continued as mostly a stalemate, while one Wraith held on against the two princes.

In EJ's Turn 3, Fateweaver swooped back on. Psychic attacks on the marked Spyder made short work of it. In combat the two princes finally took down the one wraith, while the third Prince took out a Spyder. The other two combats raged on.

At the bottom of 3, my reserves arrived and I scored two points for holding more of my own objectives and holding the Relic. Warp Spiders dropped in and one got placed in the far right corner by EJ. The other two units killed off a wounded daemon prince who had broken out of combat. Shooting from the Immortals, Warriors, and Tomb Blades took Be'lakor down to a single wound, though he stayed airborne. My free unit of Wraiths jumped on one of the princes to try to hold him down for a while.


In EJ's turn, Be'lakor landed behind the warriors and their objective. To start the psychic phase, Be'lakor cast Invisibility on himself, but suffered a Perils and died. Fateweaver cleared out some scarabs and warriors on the relic with Darkflame and flicker fires. The unengaged prince assaulted some warp Spiders, killed a few, and the survivors jumped away.  The other prince wiped out the Wraiths he was fighting.

In the bottom of 4, I took some pot shots at Fateweaver, maybe doing a wound or two, while Warp Spiders tried working on a Daemon Prince. The combat with the horrors and Scarabs continued to rage, though I threw another Spyder in to keep it safe from psychic shooting.

In the top of 5, EJ moved fateweaver to continue attacking the center, while a daemon prince prepared to assault the remaining warriors blocking off the relic. Powers cleared out the remaining unengaged Scarabs and some of the Warriors. In the Shooting phase, EJ rolled a 7 for Warpstorm, but needing some help, decided to reroll, getting a 3. The Keeper of Secrets took the hit and was taken down to a single wound. In assault one prince wiped out a unit of Warp Spiders, while the other killed off the warriors and contested the Relic.

In the bottom of 5, I finally remembered I could spawn scarabs into combat and helped out the one base with 1 wound by adding two more bases into the combat with the Horrors. Shooting was largely ineffective, though Warp Spiders continued to plink away at one prince. They also ran to contest my left objective. I moved a unit of Wraiths on top of the Relic to prevent EJ from being able to pick it up should the game continue to turn 6. In combats, the Wraiths finally finished off the keeper of Secrets, and the Scarabs started turning the tide on the Horrors. EJ rolled to see if the game would continue and it came up a 2.

Tallying up points, I was able to deny EJ any Primary points, while scoring 5 myself. We both achieved two of our three secondaries. I also scored all my tertiaries while EJ failed to kill a unit in Turn 2. The final score was a 13-7 victory for Arachnophobia.

I ended day one 3-0, and was looking forward to a Round 4 matchup against Frontline Gaming and Team Zero Comp's Frankie. 

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