Cowcon 2011 Report

So I headed back up to Rockhampton to catch up with friends and get in some games in the event that I used to run.  I had decided to take my Sisters as they took up less room in the car than the large Eldar case and so would be easier to transport along with a my desert table as the Pig Pen had to make another appearance (a 12" by 12" fenced off area filled with Ork boars that counts as dangerous terrain.  The boars accounted for an immobilised Rhino and Landraider along with two terminators in one game a few years ago).  Wonna picked me up from my parent's place on Friday night to help setup, but the old time dance went longer than expected and it was 11:30pm before we even started setting out the tables, leaving me to crawl into bed at 1:30am on the Saturday.  To help make sure things went smoothly, Wonna picked me up at 6:30am to head over to the hall and get ready for the day with last minute preparations.  The bugger had got himself a coffee on the way but it wasn't until midway through my first game that I finally got some caffiene into my sleep deprived body.

Game 1 versus Collin Donaldson, Eldar, Annihilation, Pitched Battle
Farseer
2x 10 Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents
5 Wraithguard in Wave Serpent
2x Fire Prisms

I've played Collin a few times, both at the club and at other tournaments.  I won the roll for first turn and deployed fairly standardly, but I made the first of many mistakes that game and forgot to blob my IG platoon together for less kill points.  On turn two I forgot to disembark two units with meltaguns to shoot at tanks before beginning the shooting.  I then forgot to charge an immobilised Fire Prism on turn three with my Seraphim.  That caffiene hit couldn't kick in fast enough for me apparently, and I lost narrowly 5 kill points to his 6.  I did however manage to pick up three out of four bonus points for table quarters and was 2.5VP's away from grabbing the fourth.  Gained: 9 BP's

Game 2 versus Callan Reah, Eldar, Milk the Cows (3 objectives, you get 1 point for each objective that you hold uncontested at the end of your turn from turn two onwards), Spearhead
Karandras
Autarch with wings
3x 10 Striking Scoprions
2x 5 Rangers
2x 5 Pathfinders
2 War Walkers
3 War Walkers

I again setup first and deployed aggressively to the fore, hoping to get onto the objectives and clear them off with flamers early on.  Callan then surprised me but outflanking his entire army except for the Autarch who deepstruck instead.  I pushed up and used the time wisely to run units into positions and bring my Exorcists into a protective circle near the central objective.  I made my guesses of ranges well and left my rhino transports just outside his charge range.

My Canoness ran interference until his units became bunched up and my Rhinos deposited flame weilding Sisters who removed Striking Scorpions aided by Divine Guidance with a vengance.

I did make the mistake of focusing too much on the primary objective and failed to get most of the secondary objectives, but instead won overwhelmingly with 12 tokens to 0.  Gained: 17BP's

Game 3 versus Luke Williams, Space Marines, Escape Capsule (Dawn of War, single objective that arrives near the centreline at the end of turn 2 or 3.  The person with the most VP's of scoring units within 6" wins with scaling for draw, minor and major wins.)
Chaplain Cassius
5 Assault Terminators (4 TH/SS 1 LC's)
Land Raider
Techmarine with Thunderfire Cannon
2x 10 Tactical Marines (PF, Lascannon, Plasmagun) in Rhinos
10 Scouts with Telion (Sniper Rifles)
Vindicator
Triple Las Pred with Chronus

Luke deployed first and put down his Techmarine with thunderfire, and the scout squad up in buildings.  I deployed my blobbed infantry squads and platoon command in building and attached my Canoness to cause havoc if an opportunity arose early on.  Luke's thunderfire cannon fired when the sun rose on the bunched up guardsmen and in one round killed about 2/3rds of the unit, Ouch.  In return an Exorcist popped out from behind a building and smashed the techmarine and his cannon into scrap metal.  I used my Exorcists on each flank to strike at his side armour on the Vindicator and Predator and quickly removed them from the game.  Luke's terminators were quickly dispatched by a combined charge or my Canoness and her Celsetian Retinue and the Seraphim, but after the Seraphim hit and ran away to engage other targets.  Chaplain Cassius soloed the Celestians for about three rounds of HtH before finally losing his last wound.  The objective crashed down on the side of the table where I only had one BSS squad and Luke jammed both of his tactical squads onto the objective via lucky deployment.  At the end of turn five I was looking down the barrel of a minor loss or at best a draw, but turn six and seven saw my other units bounce across the pig pen (safely) to the objective and my Jump Canoness and the remaining Celestians cleared the marines from the area.  Gained 19 BP's

Game 4 versus Dan Corkran, Grey Knights, Pitched Battle, 5 Objectives
Librarian
5 Paladins built for wound abuse
3x 5 Grey Knights (Thunderhammer and Psycannon) in Las/Plas Razorbacks
5 Grey Knights (Thunderhammer and Psycannon) in Psybolt Heavy Bolter Razorback
3x Dreadnoughts with twin linked Autocannons and Psybolt ammo

Before I left at the end of Day one, Wonna already had the draw up for day two which would see me face off against Dan Corkran.  Dan and I have played a few times at the local club but this would be the first time I would face him in a tournament.  He was fielding a tough Grey Knights army that I knew I would struggle to beat, and on top of that Dan had played my sisters before and lost against them.  His ability to analyze his losses and learn from them is pretty good so I decided I needed a plan to help me through the first game tomorrow.
Plan A: Get Dan drunk at the dinner that night.
This plan failed miserably when I found out that Dan wasn't going out and had head to bed by 9:30pm.

Plan B: Play differently.
I figured if I played in a manner different to how I normally would, I might through Dan off, which sounds simple, but is hard to do when you have mech sisters which really only play one way.  I decided that there was no way that I could smash Dan's army so I opted instead to play for the Minor Win/Loss or a draw.  I would advance and grab nearby objectives, and then stop and hold them staying just off the objectives so that I could move up and ambush incoming units.  Better than Plan A at least.

Dan of course won the roll for sides and stole the side with the best cover for his Razorbacks and Dreads which left me little cover for my tanks.  I made things worse by deploying one of my Exorcists right out on a flank and it proved to be just out of range and immobilised itself on the first piece of terrain it touched.  Dan's shooting knocked out two transports on the first turn so the sisters advanced on foot running between the limmited cover towards the objectives.  I beat Dan to three of the objectives (one near my deployment zone) and settled in to hold off the wave of firepower that began to knock me off it.  Thankfully my Jump Canoness held him up by assaulting units in his back lines, but I again forgot to give the Celestian invulnerable saves and most of them were killed by Plasma fire.  My Canoness went down when she failed her Ld test to get an invun save and was buried under power weapon attacks.  The game flowed back and forth around his back field, but his Paladins sat just outside my rapidfire range and tried to shoot my sisters off the objective.  I think Plan B worked as I would normally have pushed forward agressively and Dan wasted precious time before pushing up to contest after he realised I wasn't moving.  At the end of turn 5 I held 3 objectives to his two, but in turn 6 he contested two of the objectives whilst holding his two with only 1 and 2 Grey knights huddles out of site of my units.  A very close game that was great to play against a very skilled player.  Gained: 6 BP's

Game 5 versus Adam Bullmore, Nurgle Chaos Space Marines, Annihilation, Spearhead
Nurgle Sorcerer
Deamon Prince with Warptime and Wings
2x 7 Plague Marines (powerfist and two meltaguns) in a Rhino
7 Plague Marines (powerfist and two plasmaguns) in a Rhino
Vindicator
2x Defilers

I deployed first in an agressive posture, hoping to knock out his Defilers early and then dominate the game by picking off his tanks and out manuevoring him.  Unfortunately Adam positioned roughly the same so I knew things would get messy early on.  I remembered to blob my guardsmen this time though :)  I decided to switch things up and shift my forces to the right to bring him off balance, unfortunately my Exorcists decided to play a slow waltz or something and only rolled one's and two's for their shots most of the game.  I did however manage to bottle neck him around some central spires as he struggled to get around one of his Defilers.  I shot and charged units as they came through the gaps, staving off the bulk of his forces whilst conserving mine.  Combats dragged on however and my faith pool ran down quickly, especially once he turned one of my Canonesses into a giant bunny spawn (pictured above).  I just managed to finish of his units in the nick of time with only one faith point and my Jump Canoness on one wound and the Seraphim all but wiped out.  My lead however had been maintained and finished on 11KP's to 5KP's for a major victory.  Gained 18BP's

I slowly packed up my gear as I was chatting to a few of the Townsville guys, discussing various things and the awards started whilst I was still away putting my miniatures in their cases.  I had just walked over to the rest of the group when Wonna called out my name for second place.  What? Huh?  I thought I was going to be near the top but I certainly didn't think I was going to place after suffering two losses and only getting a smattering of bonus points.  I also got a Black Library book for bringing along my table of terrain so I was very happy when I finally got home on sunday afternoon.  Unfortunately the late nights and days of thinkings had taken their toll and I've gotten a bit of a cough which was very painful on the flight back to Brisbane.

Other shots from the weekend:

All in all, a great weekend with good mates and lots of laughs all round.  Next year Cowcon is expecting to increase the limit from 40 to 50 players which will cement it in as one of the largest events in Queensland with only Quarter Master and Orktoberfest currently larger.

Eltnot.

Battle Report Sisters of Battle vs Ulthwe Eldar

Last Sunday I managed to get in a game versus my mate Ross and his Ulthwe Eldar.  You can find his blog HERE.  I took some photos of the game with the intention of doing up a battle report, which I have done, but the following should be stated first:

Yes I know the lighting is bad, I will bring down more lights next time.
Yes my camera work is shaky, I will try using a timer next time, and failing that, fork out the cash for a tripod.
Battle Chronicler prefers a North/South engagement, not the East/West layout that I used which causes labels to switch constantly.
I will endeavour to get better starting photos for the map in the future.

With that out of the way, this batrep has been done using Battle Chronicler which I hope to use again in the future.  It took me a while to create the units and learn how to use it, but now that I've created my army, it will take me less time in the future.  The actual diagrams took less than an hour after I''d created the unit and map etc.

Armylists:
Witch Hunters - Sister of St Joseph
Eldar - Ulthwe

Deployment
Ross won the roll for choosing sides and opted for me to choose, I picked the side with the pig pen for some extra cover for my guardsmen.  I deployed with my armoured elements split into two groups backed up by an Exorcist each.  The Guard platoon deployed centrally to provide covering fire and to old the objectives located near my deployment area.  The Canoness and Seraphim deployed behind my North flank Rhinos to help push through onto the objectives there.  Ross deployed his War Walkers and Dark Reapers opposite my armoured forces on the Northern flank.  His Wave Serpents with the Storm Guardians, Dire Avengers and Farseer deployed centrally hoping to swing to either flank.  The Wraithlord, Wraithguard and Defender Guardians deployed on the Southern flank.

Ross' Ulthwe deployed.

Turn 1

 Ross failed to steal the initiative, so I began my first turn by rolling forward with my Rhinos, popping their smoke launchers as they went to reduce the impact of incoming fire (I will need to create some sort of smoke token for BC).  The Seraphim and Canoness jumped up behind the Rhinos, heading towards the Dark Reapers and War Walkers.  The Guard squad to the North pushed up into the first floor of the building, and the Exorcists manoeuvred for optimal firing positions.  I started by firing both Exorcists into each of Ross' Wave Serpents and in a wave of luck, wrecked the Storm Guardians' ride, pinning the unit, and exploding the other containing the Dire Avengers and Farseer (I also need some crater markers).  The guard unit then ran to the top of their building for a good firing position, and the Seraphim ran for some extra cover.  My Guardsmen failed to hit the Wraithlord with their missile launchers.

 With an abysmal start, Ross went to work on trying to bring the game back in his favour, pushing hard up on the Southern flank whilst the War Walkers ducked out from behind their building ready to fire on the oncoming transports.  Between the Wraithguard and Wraithlord, he managed to immobilise and stun one Rhino on the Southern flank, but the Walkers only managed to stop my Immolator from shooting next turn.  The Dark Reapers shot at the Seraphim but they were saved by Spirit of the Martyr.

 An Exorcist lines up the Wraithlord.

Turn 2

With Ross' forces now committed on the Southern flank, and looking at what I had to face them, I decided to pull back my forces to give my other units more time to whittle them down.  The second BSS squad's rhino pulled back behind the building whilst the first squad got out of their damaged vehicle and made a run for the safety of the building.  On the Northern flank I pushed up aggressively and disembarked my units ready to fire whilst the Seraphim jumped up behind ready to counter attack.  Between Exorcist two and my Guard platoon I was able to take out the Wraithlord threatening the Southern flank, whilst Exorcist 1 and my Celestian squad managed to either shake or weapon destroy all of the War Walkers leaving them defenceless for the next turn.  BSS 3 opened up on the Dark Reapers knocking them out with bolters and flamers.

The Sister Squad removes the Dark Reapers from the equation in a storm of fire and flame.

Ross was really under the pressure now, but kept on coming.  His Wraithguard moved up ready to assault the immobilised Rhino supported by the Dire Avengers and Defender Guardians.  His War Walkers also moved up along the with the Storm Guardians on the Northern Flank.  Shoot mainly consisted of trying to whittle down BSS 1 and fleeting with the Storm Guardians.  The Wraithguard charged the Rhino blowing it up meanwhile the War Walkers and Storm Guardians charged BSS 3 in a hopes to break it and remove a valuable scoring unit from that flank, however the sisters held.

 The charge of the Ulthwe.

Turn 3

In my turn I shot up the Wraithguard some more, hoping to reduce them with the Exorcists, but a timely fortune and their high toughness kept them strong.  On the Northern flank things went a little better with the Seraphim and Celestians charging the War Walkers bringing them down in a hail of Eviscerator attacks and causing the Storm Guardians to flee.

 Sisters push the Guardians back.

With not many options left Ross charged the Wraithguard into BSS 2 hoping to break them, but in a score of abysmal dice rolls neither side managed to score any wounds.  We decided to call it there as it was getting a little late and with the Wraithguard not likely to go anywhere any time soon, not much was likely to change.

Conclusion
I realised early on that I had made a mistake in my deployment, as my goal was to push through with the attack on the Northern flank, whilst using the Southern flank as a I diversion/optimistic attack designed to hold up the enemy or take a lightly defended objective.  However I only had minimal scoring units on the Northern flank and had the game not gone so well for me, I may not have had enough bodies left alive to claim the objectives.  As it was, BSS 3 was whittled down to only four members, and came close to being swept away.  Ross failed to use cover enough in his deployment which led to the loss of his mobility early on which really crippled him.  We discussed this after the game along with a few tweaks for the list, mainly to drop the Dark Reapers for either a unit of Jetbikes or some Rangers for taking down MC's.

Please feel free to leave any feedback on the format of the report or any suggestions on improvements for next time.

Eltnot.

RSGA Apocalypse Game 19-12-2010

I headed into the club the other day to help Wonna run the end of year Apocalypse battle.  It was much smoother run in the past thanks to a few handy changes that had been implemented since the last time (such as making people pay in advance for the day to ensure that they actually turned up and didn't screw up the balance).  I stayed unitl just after lunch to do the pizza run and took a few photos of the first and second turns.  It seems a lot of fun was had by all though and the smoothness of the event is promising for future events.

The teams were spilt into four chaos armies versus three space marine forces, an Eldar force and a smaller contingent of Imperial Guard.  In the end the forces of evil won holding three objectives to none, probably due to their aggressive playstyle and their more co ordinated attack.

Enjoy the pictures:

Turn 1

From the other end of the table

Wes failed to call down an Orbital Bombardment but the weather did instead

fester's Hellblade screams over the forces of good strafing them

Another shot of the Hellblade

The two sides shape up to each other

A very large Greater Daemon of Nurgle (mostly made from expanding foam)

The Alliance of Good consults with one another

The forces of Chaos push into the enemy's lines

Sons of Horus Terminators bring up the rear of one flank

Dark Angels try to hold off a Daemon invasion

Wes' Orbital Bombardment arrives

Nurgle Terminators hunt the damaged Baneblade...

...and take it out in a storm of melta shots

 

 A general overview of the battle

Eltnot.