K-Con 2012 - Game 1

So as some of you will know I went to a tournament yesterday in Dublin. A one day, 5 battle, 1000 point, highlander format, tournament to be precise.

My first battle was against the current best player in Ireland - Jan Karnowski, and his Orks.

Now I would just like to preface this, and the other battle reports I'll be writing shortly, by saying that I forgot to take notes or photos, and when I did get back home late last night I went out on the town for a 'few' drinks. So please excuse any errors.

For reference, my list was as follows...

Librarian - Jump Pack, Powers: Sword and Shield
Sanguinary Priest - Jump Pack
Furioso Dreadnought - Heavy Flamer, Frag Cannon, Drop Pod
Tactical Squad - Missile Launcher, Meltagun, Razorback with TL Heavy Flamer
Assault Squad - 2 Meltaguns, Power Weapon
Landspeeder - Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer
Predator - Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Jans list was what I would describe as a "Not so smart, smart missile"
Grotsnik
Bigmek, SAG, ammo runt, bosspole
14 lootas
30 boyz, cybork body, PK nob, bosspole
10 grots, runtherd
Rokkitbuggie
3 kannons, 3 re-rolls, runtherd, 1 additional krew

Mission is Spearhead deployment with 3 objectives - one in the centre of the table and one in the centre of each table quarter not beind used as a deployment zone.

Deployment

I win the roll off and choose my table edge and choosing my deployment zone the be the left side quarter (as I look at it), setting up half of my combat squad (the half with the missile launcher) in cover near the rear of my quarter, the razorback containing the other half is slightly to the right and infront of them, the predator is then at the rightmost edge of my deployment zone

Jan sets up his lootas in the rear along his board edge in two well spaced lines with the SAG Mek attached, with Grotsniks mob in front and the gretchin between the two, the cannons setup in a building on his left flank. The buggy is in reserve.

My Turn 1

My drop pod comes in , but due to Jans impressive bubble wrapping must deploy in front of Grotsniks mob and target them - the frag cannon and heavy flamer account for a number of orks and a few gretchin who were too close. The Razorback zooms forward using a hill as cover. the predator and missile launcher combat squad open up on the cannons but do little damage to the squad and none to the cannons themselves.

Jan Turn 1

Jan's lootas open fire on the dreadnought but do no damage, his cannons open up on the predator and shake it and then his "smart missile" squad charge the dreadnought and drop pod, grotsnik is too far away to make it into base to base contact but the nob manages it, as none of the boys can damage the dreadnought it becomes a bit of a contest between the dreadnought and nob, the dreadnought inflicts no casualties and the nob immobilises the dreadnought. After pile in moves grotsnik is now in base to base with the drop pod.

My Turn 2

Both the Land speeder and Assault squad turn up, the land speeder deploys near Jan's grots and the assault squad scatters a few inches into a position right in front of the cannons, but conveniently out of sight of the SAG Mek. The Razorback moves around to just behind the land speeder and pops smoke, the predator moves to a better position to gain a cover save against the cannons.

The assault squad open fire on the cannon unit and both meltagun hits and about 90% of the bolt pistol shots end up being allocated against the grots. The Land speeder flames the gretchin squad accounting for about 5 and the missile launcher fires at the same target but scatters into the lootas doing a single casualty. My dreadnought misses with his attacks, Grotsnik attacks the drop pod with his claw, expolding it and killing a number of boys in the process, and the nob fluffs against the dreadnought. Fearless wounds inflict a further few casualties against the squad and Grotsnik is now forced to pile into base to base with the dreadnought.

Jan's Turn 2

The buggy fails to arrive. The cannons shoot at the razorback and blow off its heavy flamer, the lootas fail to damage it (they might have shook it etc - but no permanent damage), but the SAG gun misses and ends up scattering on to the land speeder, blowing it up and taking all but the Runtherd of the gretchin squad with it.

In combat my dreadnought allocates his single attack against grotsnik and finally kills something, the nob stuns the dreadnought but as I'm already immobilised and reduced to one attack anyway it doesn't affect things.

My turn 3

The Razorback moves up and disembarks the combat squad next to the lootas, the assault squad move into position to be able to assault any of the three squads that remain combat effective (lootas, cannons and the boyz mob) the missile launcher combat squad decides to move towards an uncontested objective but rolls a 2 for movement and a 1 for running.

The combat squad do a couple of wounds against the lootas who hold firm but it now looks like my assault squad will not be able to multi-assault them, my predator fires on the cannons and does little to no damage.

This is where I believe I made my first major mistake - To multi-charge the cannons and the boyz squad I'll need to take a difficult terrain test as the cannons are in area terrain. I choose not to for fear of failing to make contact with any unit - especially under the guns of the lootas. I charge into just the boys and do a serious number on the squad, after attacks have been completed they are sitting at 12 guys and fail a further 6 or so armour saves due to fearless.

Jan's Turn 3

Jan's buggy turns up and comes on behind my razorback to line up a shot at rear armour but misses. His lootas and SAG Mek move forwards to engage the combat squad in CC, his cannons fire at the predator but no damage is sustained, and his runtherd moves into cover

In close combat the lootas annihilate the combat squad and use their consolidation move to spread out. The assault squad and dreadnought finish of his boys squad and I use my consolidation move to move towards the last scoring model Jan has - If I can kill it I'm almost assure of a draw.

My Turn 4

The turn of my major mistake that cost me victory.

My razorback is now weaponless so I declare a ram against the artillery unit, specifically the gun model that I can see, as I'm too close to Jan's buggy to do any damage with a ram. After lining up the ram we notice that I will come into contact with an infantry model from the unit and this causes a bit of confusion - Does it still count as a ram, or as a tank shock or both? Its the same unit after all. In the end the judge declared it to be both, but as Jan passed both the morale test and I failed to do damage with the ram it was a bit of a moot point.

I have a choice with my assault squad now - I can shoot at the lone runtherd, or the buggy, but both will leave me under the guns of the lootas and away from the objective, or as I decided to do I can assault the runtherd, kill him and use the consolidation move to get onto the objective, and use the predator to kill the buggy, which missed or failed to do damage.

What I should have done is seperate the librarian from the squad and use it to kill the buggy with its strength 10 attacks and had the assault squad rush the runtherd and the objective while leaving a tail towards the librarian to gain the use of his Shield power.

Instead the runtherd was killed and I was left on top of the hill, in full view of Jan's unit of lootas.

Jan's Turn 4

Jan moved the buggy backwards and opened fire with the cannon and lootas - I managed to make a lot of 5 up cover saves from the SAG (thank heavens for Shield) and didn't even have to take a morale check

My Turn 5

I move my unit from the hill and get them into cover behind it, the predator needs to stop the buggy - either destroy it or stop it from moving and a two on the damage chart appears to have done this for me - until Jan points out that its open topped and I've just blown off its weapon.

Jan's Turn 5

Jan moves his buggy in to contest the objective to draw the game.

Result 11-9 to me due to VP difference.

Things I should have done differently...

- I forgot about the missile launcher combat squad until it was too late to make a run for an objective. I need to stop at the start of a turn and plan it out more - I didn't have as many scoring units as I'm used to.

- Frag cannon is rending - not that it would have made much difference but it might have denied Jan a couple of FNP saves.

- Furiosos are WS6 so I should have been hitting Jan on a 3+ not a 4+, ah well, again very little difference.

- Even in turn 5 I could have seperated the librarian and killed the buggy, but again I'm not used to playing with ICs and it never occured to me to do so.