Sunday, March 13, 2011

Local RTT Mini-Batreps and my Oopsies!


Well something happened to me yesterday that hasn’t happened to me in a long time. I actually had a losing record at a local RTT. That’s right. I went 1-2 yesterday w/my Nids. So this article is going to be a little different mini write up and it’s going to focus more on my thoughts of where I went wrong in the two games I lost. The venue itself had pretty poor terrain which would have made a little bit a difference game 2 but I still should have won that one without the terrain J

I’ll be recapping all of my major mistakes at the end of the game. And there were a few.

First off my list:

2xPrime w/Dual Boneswords & Toxin Sacs
3x2 Hive Guard
2x10 Spinegants
2xTervigons w/Catalyst, Toxin, Adrenal
18 Genestealers
2xCarnifex w/Dual TL-Devs
Trygon

So I really like how the list performed honestly overall. It’s solid, it’s resilient, and it’s nasty. It was my inexperience playing with it that cost me my third game and a stupid tactical mistake based on inexperience w/the  Adepticon missions that caused the other one.

All the Adepticon Primer missions can be found here :

So my first game was against Dark Eldar. It was Adepticon Primer Mission #3. His list from memory:

Baron
2xHaemons w/Liquifiers
5 Trueborn w/4 Blasters, Dracon, Venom Blade, Venom w/dual splinter cannons
2x10 Wracks w/2 Liquifiers, Acolyte, Venom Blade, Raider, Flicker Fields
1x10 Warriors w/Splinter Cannon, Raider, Night Shields, Flicker Fields, Splinter Racks
20 Warriors w/2 Dark Lances
15 Hellions w/Boss, Stunclaw
Ravager w/Nightshields, Ficker Fields
Razorwing w/Nightshields, Flicker Fields

He had the first turn and I deployed to control 2-3 of the objectives by the end of the game. I also forward infiltrated my Genestealers so they could pounce turn 2 on the 20 Warrior unit. My opponent made an initial mistake of moving forward w/a Wrack unit to engage the Genestealers and the game went bad for him from there. The Genestealers by themselves killed off a Wrack unit, the 20 Warriors, the Trueborn, and a Raider. My opponent also failed a crucial leadership test w/the Baron in the Hellion unit when it was under half strength thanks to the brain worms on the Carnies devourers and fled off the table. I pulled in all 3 of the objectives.

My second game was against IG and it was Adpeticon Mission #1. His list from memory:

Creed Command Squad w/4  Melta in Chimera
Marbo
3xVets w/Demo, 3 Melta
PCS w/4 Flamers in Chimera
4xInfantry squads w/Auto-cannons, Power Weapons,  Commissar (in only 1 squad) w/Power Weapon
3xVendetta
Leman Russ Squadron of 2 w/Hull Lascannons

I won the roll to go first so I deploy centrally in my deployment zone. So he deploys w/his Vendettas and his Leman Russ Squadron on one side and all his other units deployed to the right. I infiltrate my Genestealers centrally 18” shy of his entire line. He didn’t seize and then I made my first mistake. I sent my Genestealers off to the right w/FnP. I should have sent them after the tanks to get the Mission objective for most expensive unit.  I’d also poorly deployed my Hive Guard and left 1 Squad completely out of it. I also made a mistake later in the game when I detached my prime from a carnifex which resulted in a 3 KP swing in his favor. I still could have pulled off a win if it went 7 turns but it ended on 6. He won 2 objectives to 1.

My game 3 was against a Space Wolf player and it was Adepticon Mission #2. His list from memory:

Wolf Lord on TW w/TH, SS, 3+ Talisman, Bear
Wolf Lord on TW w/Dual WC’s, Beast Slayer, Belt
Runepriest w/LL&JotWW
3 Wolfguard w/Combi-Meltas, PF
3x7 Grey Hunters w/Melta, Banner, Rhino
5 TWC w/3 SS, 1 Powerfist
2x6 Long Fangs w/5 Missile Launchers

So this was my whopper of a mistake game. Some of my mistakes might have been because I wasn’t in the running anymore but I’d probably have made the same mistakes based on inexperience w/the current force org. So I won the roll to go first. It’s spearhead so I deployed w/my Fexstars on each side of my formation (mistake 1) w/my genestealers held back for infiltration. He deployed and mostly centrally w/his TWC slight right and his RP in a rhino slightly left. I forward deployed my genestealers to receive a charge from his TWC (second mistake). I went  first and moved forward but didn’t redeploy my other fexstar like I should have (third mistake). On his turn he charges and kills all but one Genestealer in exchange for a few wounds and a single standard TWC going down. I move out and assault my trygon and fexstar (mistake 4) into the melee. At the end of all the scrimmage He’s got his TWC Hammer lord and I lost 75% of my CC hitters. The game when suitably downhill from there J

So I have to say I’m glad to have had this happen before Adepticon. I made some glaring errors in deployment and movement of my army over the course of the last two games. But most of us only learn thru losing. I hadn’t played against a proper TWC hammer until yesterday either. So a recap of what I should have done differently:

Game 2
-Should have had the Genestealers cut left for the Leman Russes instead of heading for the blob. I should have let the Fexstar, Tervigon, the out of position Hive Guard and a spawned gaunts deal w/the blob and HQ units while the rest of my forces went after his Vendettas and Lemans. Pretty basic screwup on my part on target priority.

Game 3
So I should have done a lot of things differently. What it really comes down to is I should have sledge hammered him. Instead of getting fancy and letting him dictate the pace. Proper deployment and spreading would have kept the JotWW away from big stuff but also forced his TWC to chew thru a buffer before hitting them with unhurt Genestealers on the charge. I should have concentrated my Fexstars as well. Basically it went wrong from the very beginning and didn’t get any better as I compounded mistake after mistake.

So all in all I’m happy with how my army performed. I think it’s a solid enough force to do what I want it to do and come out on top 9/10(ish). I might have one more practice tourney before Adepticon so that should be good if I can manage it. Hope my mistakes help some of you other guys out there when your building and playing your lists.

11 comments:

Ghostin said...

Thanks for posting - was thinking as I read it I would have done the same thing you did in game 3. Very useful to hear your thoughts on what to do differently.

Ben said...

Are the spinegaunts still in because you don't want to rebuild/repaint, or do you prefer them to vanilla termagants?

I'd be very interested in a more detailed look at your game 2. How do you think it would have gone if he seized or got first turn? Most of my games against mech IG seem to include some sort of Line of Death where cover breaks down and everything that tries to cross it dies...

Hulksmash said...

If he'd seized or gone first he might have managed to remove an extra MC though it's more doubtful as that was when my layering was actually perfect. In regards to terrain there was almost none. A single hill that barely would be half a Trygon and 2-3 very small area terrain spots. Basically cover didn't exist for all intensive purposes.

I've found that most of my games against IG I normally can cross that line if I work it right. But I've been playing on almost naked tables honestly in 2/3 GT's I've been to lately which has caused me to get good fast at proper layering.

And spinegaunts are still in cause I was painting the 18 genestealers the night before instead of the 20 regular gants I also needed to paint :)Might as well have not bothered since out of 26 people maybe 8 were painted....

Hulksmash said...

GT's in the last comment equal RTT's.

Ben said...

So now you definitely owe us that layering article. ;) Are you using the fexstars to get cover for the trygon/tervigons?

I'm thinking of running a similar list, but with a dakkatyrant/guard in place of one of the fex stars. Add a few extra points to pick up OA for the tyrant, and suddenly the melee component of the fex/tervigon blob is quite a bit scarier. Thoughts?

Terminus Est said...

Anyone can with with TWC spam... Nidz are somewhat of a challenge to do well with... I think it is always good to lose right before going into a big tourney - really makes you focus.

G

hyv3mynd said...

Lol good point BBF. I actually agree. I feel like I need 1-2 casual games per week to stay frosty. There's so many factors to stay focused on I tend to make more mistakes the longer it's been since my last game.

Thanks for writing up the losses Hulk. I do it also in my blog to maintain transparency and learn from my mistakes.

As to the list, I liked the ravener ones better. Big units of genestealers and trygons are good in CC, but are especially weak without redundancy. Single choices of either become obvious targets to experienced generals who know their own weaknesses.

Anyways, keep us informed on the batreps and tournies. Pics would rock if you can manage sometime =)

Purgatus said...

You lost?

You're dead to me.

Just kidding. Good writeup and excellent thoughts.

Your experiences will be digested and incorporated into the Hive Mind.

I hope you do well at Adepticon.

Marshal Laeroth said...

Aye Hulk, Misty's terrain seems to be steadily being broken/destroyed by disrespectful players over the past year. At this time last year, all the tables could EASILY have the 25% terrain coverage without a problem.

I'm going to talk to Cedan about correcting the issue. :/

Hulksmash said...

Hey Marshal! What were you playing? You should have said HI :)

@Purg

O Noes!!!! I dead to you! :) Thanks bro, glad you like the thoughts.

@Hyv3

I agree with you. It's why I'm debating between a couple of options for my final list. I'll be posting that thread in a few minutes. I'll work on pics. From Adepticon for sure!

Marshal Laeroth said...

I wasn't able to get the night off from work to come and throw down. I work at the Burnsville Red Lobster, so Saturday nights are somewhat difficult to have off. :)

But yeah, the terrain has definitely gotten its wear and tear over the past couple years. You will even notice during games that some players will sit there and pick the foam out from the board. Its like...wtf are you doing?

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