2007 Grand Tournament Report
Friday: Apocalypse!
Left for the tournament on Friday morning with three gaming club buddies who were playing Necrons, Imperial Fists, and Tyranids. We got down there in time for the Apocalypse event which was spread over three boards with three players on each side. The setup was each player had 1500 points and a strategic asset to take as the armies were arrayed as “good” vs. “bad”. Teaming up with the good guys I signed up to play on the forest board since the city fight and tau outpost board both had baneblades, titans, and Tyranid bio-titans that I would have been going up against.
Our side was my Saim-Hann warhost, an all drop pod Space Wolf army and another Eldar army heavy on pathfinders and harlequins facing off against Thousand Sons, Imperial Guard, and Eldar.
The mission was to find a crash spaceship hidden in one of the forests while claiming the other forests as objectives. Planning things out we took the anti-plant bombardment, an orbital bombardment, and drop pod assault as our strategic assets. Over all the Space Wolf player was going to drop into the ranks of the Imperial Guard player, our Eldar player was going to take on the other Eldar player and I was going to take on the Thousand Sons.
Starting the game we hit the board with the anti-plant removing all the trees and foliage from the board revealing where the crashed spaceship was and taking away the 5+ cover saves for the Imperial Guard and Eldar army. I saved my orbital bombardment since all the Thousand Sons rubic marines were in there transports.
As the game went on the Space Wolf player dropped in and fought it out valiantly but was eventually overwhelmed and killed to the last man- although taking out scores of IG infantry and two basilisks helped tremendously.
I sent my Vypers on ahead to brightlance and starcannon the T-Sons rhinos taking one down and pinning the men inside as the IG player deep striked storm troopers behind our lines with melta and plasma guns which tore into the other Eldar player on our team. Swinging my Jetbikes and Farseer around I took them out and used mindwar to drop the Imperial Guard HQ.
My jetbikes were then hit with an orbital bombardment pretty much blasting them to nothing as my Vypers moved on killing a Thousand Sons demon prince HQ with massed brightlance and star cannon fire.
Advancing his three rubic marine squads forward to face me there wasn’t much I had left that could hold off the T-Sons advance so I moved back behind cover waiting for them to get as close as they could before my remaining jetbikes were going to move out, fire away and then assault. However, during the next turn the T-Sons did a strategic redeploy moving off to the other side of the board to help out there. (Talking to the player later he figured the remainder of my jetbikes and vypers were no threat.) Freeing up the pressure I moved out with my units as my Farseer mind wared the other TS demon prince HQ killing him as I then claimed objectives with the speed of the vypers and jetbikes.
Ending the game we tied for objective points even thought our side did claim the crashed spaceship since we took such heavy losses. On the other boards/sectors the titans and baneblades pretty much wiped everything out with the “bad” guys claiming two wins and our table a draw.
During the award ceremony for the Apocolypse game later that night I got the Headhunter Award since my army took out/killed the most HQ units in the game, which was very cool with the speed of my Farseer jetbike and mindwar doing the deed.
Saturday: Grand Tournament Day 1
My first game for the day was against another Eldar player who was guardian and harlequin heavy with Eldrad leading the group. The mission was take and hold the center as I basically hung back with my bikes and tried to take out as much as I could with my vypers and fire prism. Eventually I wound up having to close with my jetbikes to take our the harlequins which I completely wiped out with warlock destructor and massed shuriken catapult fire. Taking losses back from all his guardian squads we finished the game with me having three scoring units in the center to his four. Such a close fight!
My second game was against Dark Eldar as my opponent took first turn moving out his skimmers and taking down my vypers and fire prism with darklance fire penetrating them since thay hadn’t moved you. Even with holo-fields I got wiped out. His wytches disembarked, moved, and somehow assaulted both my jetbikes in turn one wiping them out. Disaster! Starting my turn I had two vypers left, and my wave serpent with storm guardians, along with my Farseer. Fighting now for honor I mind warred his HQ and failed with a perils of the warp which my ghosthelm failed to save resulting in an instant kill on my Farseer. I did my best to hold out using cover but got wiped out to the last.
Going into the third game I faced an all warrior and destroyer necron army with a monolith and some scarab swarms. Again fighting as best I could my opponent just outnumbered me and was making awesome WBB rolls. Holo-fields did save my vypers allowing me to at least pull our a draw in points.
Sunday: Grand Tournament Day 2
Starting off the second day I was finally facing a Space Marine army for a cleanse mission with a long deployment. All infantry with terminators in support my opponent deployed along his edge pretty even and infiltrated his scouts to claim another table quarter. I deployed in the center and let him take first turn with nothing to shoot at since I was all behind area terrain. Moved my fire prism to the far left to make him thinking I was going to attack there as my vypers moved right and stared tearing into his first tactical squad. Redeploying a bit to take on my vypers and fire prism I weathered the fire as his terminators came in next to my jetbikes taking out a few with assault fire and storm bolter fire.
I then massed jetbike fire on his terminators and charged the survivors with my storm guardians wiping them out. Continuing to isolate his squads with my vypers and fire prisms I wiped him out to the last man with only loosing one squad of jetbikes.
Going into my last game it was a seek and destroy mission against Tau on a very sparse lava board. Fire warriors, suits, sniper teams and hammerheads all awaited in cover and lined up with lanes of fire.
I took first turn since I saw that my vypers could move out and fire on his tanks hopefully nailing them with penetrating hits before they could start moving and skimming. Guided brightlance fire dropped one and immobilized the other as I weathered some return fire with only a few glanced on my vypers with the holo fields holding them. I dropped some fire prism fire on one squad of fire warriors wiping them out completely as return fire managed to drop my ‘prism with a roll of two sixes on the holo-field.
Calculating the range across the board as best I could I figured it would take me at least two turns to get into range with my jetbikes and my vypers along couldn’t stand up to all that fire so I decided to go for the glory and charge all my units across the board- turbo boosting everything and 24” moving all my vehicles which I know took my opponent by surprise.
Facing the full onslaught of the Tau army I lost a unit of jetbikes and my brightlance on my wave serpent. Now in range on my turn my remaining jetbikes opened fire and then assaulted the first unit of fire warriors wiping them out before consolidating on the next.
Storm guardians poured out of the wave serpent and charged a team of stealth suits downing them before taking heavy losses, passing morale, and then moving into another group of fire warriors cutting them down with a sweeping advance.
The rest of the game was all assaults with my jetbikes moving down the line as my vypers stayed completely behind LOS blocking cover. Finishing the game I lost one squad of jetbikes, my storm guardians, and a fire prism vs. wiping the Tau out to the last=,by far the most exciting and tension filled game of the tournament since I would have been wiped out if he had rolled better shooting down my charge, and that my jetbikes were finally making their saves.
Finishing out the tournament at two losses, one draw, and two wins I was pretty happy with how my Saim-Hann performed.
Armies
“Hey buddy, there is another Saim-Hann here.” Replied my Imperial Fist friend during the lunch break when we were all checking out the other armies laid out on the tables. Checking it out I wouldn’t call it “Saim-Hann” since it only had four jetbikes and a falcon with the rest being harlequins, rangers, guardians, and a wraitlord. Other Eldar armies were all stocking Eldrad, rangers, falcons, and harlequins with the odd vyper and sprinklings of jetbikes here and there.
I expected to see more Space Marine armies here and there but it seemed like most people were playing Tyranids, Tau, Chaos, and Imperial Guard. I saw one ‘sisters army and no demon hunters/grey knights.
Another big lessons I learned that all the missions were “scoring units” only- no victory points so all the armies were troop heavy in small squads for the most scoring units. I think in total I saw one land raider and the Imperial Guard armies only had basilisks and maybe a hellhound. Troops for claiming objectives were everything and with only seven scoring units in my army it was a tough battle going up against armies with two to three times more scoring units then mine.
Award Ceremony
During the awards ceremony at the end of the game my Imperial Fist all terminator army led by Lysander friend took home the Player’s Choice award and I won the baneblade door prize which everybody joked about now they guy with the Saim-Hann army would have something to actually shoot at.
Lots of fun, awesome time, and my right shoulder is actually sore from all the dice rolling.
