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Author Topic: 2000 pts Alaitoc for local tournament  (Read 3644 times)

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Offline Scorn

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Re: 2000 pts Alaitoc for local tournament
« Reply #20 on: January 8, 2018, 08:57:43 PM »
An extra 12 points is easy enough to find.  Morale would effectively cease to be an issue for them.  I don't tend to cast defensive powers or buffs on them (rather they benefit a lot from Doom). 

A little harder to keep 6 units around Asurmen than 3 but should still be doable.

Interesting idea.
Rejoice.  Despair. 
Fate does not care.
Each knotted mind entwined. 
Each soul another's bind.
And blind though we are led. 
In time we do know when, to cut a thread.
-Erfworld

Offline Scorn

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Re: 2000 pts Alaitoc for local tournament
« Reply #21 on: February 24, 2018, 09:39:17 AM »
Much delayed update time! 

So the tournament happened a couple weeks ago, the Vancouver Wetcoast GT. ITC event attended by 66 people and hosted by a great crew. 

A bunch of frantic list testing and painting occurred in the final two weeks in the leadup to the event. Big thanks to Eli (who will never see this post) for all his assistance painting.

Decided during the testing that I wasn't comfortable running different craftworlds detachments through the army, I liked the idea of mono-craftworld, felt fluffier.  As such, knowing it's not the most competitive choice that was the direction I wanted to go.

Other things that came up, deep striking Fire Dragons were not working for me, small units of Dark Reapers were getting shot off the board Turn 1 too readily and my forward elements were too fragile so I was struggling to secure Linebreaker, Behind Enemy Lines, Recon, etc.

And, most painful of lessons learned, Asurmen wasn't pulling his weight.

So, with all that in mind, here was the new list.

The Aspect Host of Alaitoc

Battalion 1
Farseer with Singing Spear, Doom, Fortune, Relic Shiftshroud
Autarch with Swooping Hawk Wings, power sword, shuriken pistol
5 Rangers
5 Rangers
5 Rangers

Battalion 2
Spiritseer with Protect/Jinx, Warlord Trait Seer of the Shifting Vector
Spiritseer with Conceal/Reveal

5 Dire Avengers including Exarch with two Avenger shuriken catapults
5 Dire Avengers including Exarch with two Avenger shuriken catapults
5 Dire Avengers including Exarch with two Avenger shuriken catapults
5 Dire Avengers including Exarch with two Avenger shuriken catapults

5 Swooping Hawks including Exarch
5 Swooping Hawks including Exarch

Crimson Hunter Exarch with bright lances

Wave Serpent with triple shuriken cannons, spirit stones
Wave Serpent with triple shuriken cannons, spirit stones

Spearhead 1
Warlock Conclave with two Warlocks, Quicken/Restrain and Protection/Jinx
10 Dark Reapers including Exarch with Tempest Launcher
3 Dark Reapers including Exarch with Tempest Launcher
3 Dark Reapers including Exarch with Tempest Launcher
3 Dark Reapers including Exarch with Tempest Launcher
3 Dark Reapers including Exarch with Tempest Launcher

Basic game plan was to airdrop in an instant firebase of Autarch, Farseer, 10 Dark Reapers, and two squads of Swooping Hawks.  With the range of the Hawks and the Reapers enemy screening units were hard pressed to deny me an effective landing zone.

Each Wave Serpent held two minimum squads of Dark Reapers, one squad of Dire Avengers (in case someone managed to down a Serpent on Turn 1 I didn't want to risk losing any Reapers) and a Spiritseer. The two other squads of Dire Avengers would set up at the forward edge of my deployment zone, the Rangers would screen and the Crimson Hunter would typically start in the backfield.  Due to ITC rules for ruins I was typically able to hide the Warlock Conclave out of line of sight on Turn 1 without concern.

The #1 thing was I was missing was a close combat counter attack unit but I simple ran out of time to convert and paint Shining Spears so I would have to count on the combined power of Smite and seers to fend off assaults.

Missions were the standard ITC missions (1 through 5) played on very well appointed tables (really impressed).

For ITC secondaries I was typically going to take Old School, Recon and Behind Enemy Lines as they weren't dependent on enemy army composition and with my Deep Striking Aspect Castle I thought these should be readily achievable (more on that later).

Results:
Game 1:  Dark Angels
Game 1 was against the youngest player at the event running a nicely painted Dark Angels army (did I get pictures? Of course not, I was in a hurry and there was no time for that!).  He was running the following:

Venerable Dreadnought
Librarian
Captain
2 Lieutenants

Three tactical squads
Two squads of Intercessors

Big squad of Hellblasters with fancy plasma
5 Terminators

3 Ravenwing Bikers

Storm Raven

Deployment was Hammer and Anvil, he got first turn, I failed to seize.

So this was going to be my first game at an ITC event where I'd been warned lists could get rather competitive and instead I run up against a crop of Dark Angels ripe for harvesting via reaper launcher.

My opponent was a very nice person who was clearly experiencing some tournament jitters as such this was a very slow moving game as he deliberated a lot of moves and looked up a lot of rules.  Nevertheless we got through 3 turns.

The game plan went relatively smoothly.  I'm not sure what was up with his deployment but I think he may have prioritized killing me over securing objectives.  I dropped my fire base into his backline on my Turn 1 and started ripping through Troops choices.  He plunged ahead with the Storm Raven, Ravenwing, Deathwing and Hellblasters, chewed through a bunch of my screening Rangers and some of the Dire Avengers and then got eaten by Dark Reapers and the remaining Avengers with psychic support.

The Crimson Hunter had an inconclusive duel with the Storm Raven before moving on to softer targets.

His stalwart Venerable Dreadnought, Librarian, Captain dream team did well but I just went around them and left them on one flank battering through the Wave Serpents.

In the end a comfortable victory for me but I really felt the timing issue.  Could have easily racked up the points or tabled him in another turn or two. 

Victory!

Game 2:  Space Wolves and Space Marines
Game 2 was against an extremely friendly player from a well-represented local club.  He brought the following:

Njall Stormcaller
Rune Priest in Terminator armour
Pack of Wolfen with storm shields
Pack of Wolfen with storm shields
5 Terminators

Space Marine Captain
Space Marine Librarian
5 Scouts with bolters
5 Scouts with bolters
5 Scouts with bolters

Predator with twin lascannons and heavy bolter sponsons
Predator with twin lascannons and heavy bolter sponsons
Predator with twin lascannons and heavy bolter sponsons

Deployment was Front-line Assault.

So his game plan was straight forward, firebase of predators surrounding the Captain in the backlines, scouts to screen and push mid-field objectives and a whole lot of Wolf based nastiness to drop straight on to me.  And that's what he did!

I screened the mid-field with Rangers, guarded the flanks with Dire Avengers, set up the Serpents full of Reaper goodness as out of line of sight as I could and promptly won first turn!

And got seized on!

He brought in a Wolfen unit on each flank and ate the token Ranger and Avenger units that were waiting for him.  His predators bravely tried to down a Serpent but between penalties to hit, Serpent Shield and spirit stones he picked only a few wounds off (a consistent theme through my games).

I dropped my firebase deep into his lines on my left flank and counter attacked (okay counter-launched inescapably accurate missiles) and knocked the Wolfen unit off my right flank right out of the game with the small units of Reapers.  He then proceed to make a truly prodigious number of saves with the other Wolfen unit and kept a few of them on the board.

His next turn the Terminators and Rune Priest put in an appearance in the hole his Wolfen had made.  They pushed my objective hard but on my turn the psychic counter attack began.  Smites and Serpent shields care not for Thunder Shield invulnerable saves.  I cleared out my back lines, threw the remaining Avengers into a concerted push for the central objective, used the Hunter to go character sniping and basically cleared the board aside from the Predators (even with killshot they weren't making much of a dent in my army.

We got through three turns and called the game there as we wouldn't get through another full game turn at that point.

Victory!

Interlude:  So far I'd won two games (albeit against not the strongest lists I thought I would run into). My biggest struggles so far had been time and points.  With only getting through three turns I was limited on how many points I could get for Recon and Behind Enemy Lines secondary objectives. Old School was more reliable as I was always getting three points (First Strike, Last Strike, Linebreaker) and felt I could regularly get Slay the Warlord as well.  I resolved to try and play faster, rack up some more points and consider switching up the selected secondary objectives.

More to come...


Post Merge: February 24, 2018, 01:31:53 PM
In the future, please use the modify button. Double posting is against the forum rules, and for that reason, the system merged your posts.

Game 3:  Tau

Game 3 was to be the last game of the first day.  Up against another member of the club my Game 2 opponent belonged to, another great player, fun guy.

He brought:
Commander with four fusion guns
Commander with four fusion guns
Coldstar
Fireblade
Two FW Commanders with a multitude of multi-barreled guns (didn’t catch the name…)
One squad of breachers
Two squads of firewarriors
Two squads of pathfinders
Devilfish
Tidewall Droneport
Y’Vahra   
So many drones…countless drone, all of the drones

Deployment was Dawn of War (I think).

So my opponent was known as a very good player and I haven’t played against Tau since…6th edition (the bad old days of Taudar) so this was going to be enlightening I was sure.

I played cagey with deployment and was able to wait until his whole army was deployed before putting down the Wave Serpents.  I deployed for a strong right flank hit from my on the board units while planning to drop the Aspect Castle on to my left flank.

And I won first turn!  And didn’t get seized on!

So getting a crash course from a friendly opponent on the nature of drones I resolved to kill them all.   I dropped my Aspect Castle on my left flank but had to hang back off an objective due to his screening units.  This was quickly followed by some slightly below average rolling on my part, some solid saving throws on my opponent’s part and by the end of my turn I killed all of the drones on the table (every single one!) and took a couple wounds off the big guy.
His turn, more drones!  Drones from the sky, drones from the droneport, drones from everywhere (well those two spots but still).

And then the pain.  The Y’Vahra surged forward and super flamer-ed the Hunter out of the sky.  And the Commanders spewed fusion and multi-shot death just everywhere.  Wave Serpents and Rangers died in sad numbers.

My second turn consisted of clearing the second round of drones away and wiping out firewarriors from both flanks.  I knocked a few wounds off the Y’Vahra but not enough to make a difference.  My winged Autarch soloed a ruin full of firewarriors and pathfinders.  I was proud of him.

His turn consisted of the remaining breachers as well as the commanders killing my Warlord Spiritseer and downing some of the small Dark Reaper squads out of the ruin they were hiding in.
My third turn saw a desperate attempt to catch up on points that I’d fallen behind on. I grievously wound the Y’vahra down to two wounds.  My psychic forces leapt into more violent action and killed his Warlord Commander.  I wasn’t willing to charge the Y’Vahra and risk the superflamer so I left him alone after that.  I catch up on points!  I’m in the lead!

On his Turn 3 he cleaned up the remaining small squads of Dark Reapers, killed some more seers, plunged his Pathfinders  and charged his Y’vahra into the last of my Dire Avengers (literally the last one) that holding an objective.  I confidently declared that I would kill him on overwatch.  A 5 and a 6 to hit.  Double 6s to wound.  He fails both invulnerables.  And spends his last command point to re-roll one of them.  And makes the save on the re-roll.  The Dire Avenger is squished, all the more sadly for the brief spot of hope he had created.

My opponent racks up a number of points (more objectives than me, more kills than me, behind enemy lines, linebreaker, etc).

Defeat!

A really great game, I learned a lot (about Tau, about my army, about competitive play). The difference in skill between us was apparent but a super friendly opponent who was a delight to play against.

My major takeaway was that I need to pay more attention.  As an example, for one turn I forgot to move my large unit of Dark Reapers onto an objective.  As a consequence even when I did move on to the objective I failed to envelope the objective and my opponent was able to rush it in his last turn and deny me a point.

So that’s the end of Day 1.  I’m exhausted, I’ve played three game of 40K over a total of 7.5 hours of game time.  I go home, collapse, reheat day old pizza and pass out.

Day 2!

Minor complaint, the best coast pairing app does not like me, does not like my phone, probably doesn’t like my face.  As such, I wasn’t able to view opponents’ army lists.  Not a big deal but it would save me time now if I could have saved them.  I did notice a lot of discussion on the morning of Day 2 regarding everyone’s upcoming opponents, definitely felt a little behind as my opponent said he’d been thinking about my list all night and what to do…but at least I was scary.

Game 4:  Chaos Soup (Deathguard, Daemons, Chao Space Marines):
Malignant Plaguecaster
Other Deathguard Buffing  Character
10 Poxwalkers
Plague Burst Crawlers x4
Bloat Drones x3

Epididemius
Herald of Nurgle
3 Bases of Nurglings
3 Bases of Nurgings
30 Bloodletters

Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer
Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer
30 Cultists
10 Cultists
10 Cultists

Deployment was Dawn of War.

This was another type of list I didn’t have any real experience playing against.  My regular opponents don’t really go for the whole soup approach, I knew of the various units by reputation but seeing them all combined was interesting.  Further this was the first opponent that could outscreen me with Forward Operatives deploying the 30 strong cultist blob, the Nurglings deploying mid-field a hell of a bomb coming in with the Bloodletters and they’re extended charge range.

So, with all that in mind I made a hash of deployment. 

So what I should have done was acknowledge that my frontlines were going to get overrun by Daemons ASAP, deploy a screen of Dire Avengers in a long line to absorb that charge and not get enveloped so as to maintain my ability to fall back.  Then deploy my shooting units farther back and and plan for a beta strike to knock the Bloodletter bomb and the Forward Operatives cultists down.  I’ve got 5 Tempest Laucnhers, 10 Swooping Hawks, a pair of Wave Serpents I could do this.  Knowing he lacks shooting I should also have deployed my 10 strong Dark Reaper squad on the board to take advantage of Forewarned.

So instead, the Aspect Castle went into reserve (coasting on auto-pilot here, should have stopped and thought more), I spread myself too think across the length of the board and deployed my characters too close to the front lines.

He deploys smart and covers the mid-field in Nurglings and Cultists which hampers my ability to screen with Rangers.

Oh and I lost the roll off to deploy infiltrating style units

But hey I got first turn I can do this! 

Then I got seized on!

So the Bloodletter bomb goes off and the Cultists get buffed and I lose a bunch of Rangers and Dire Avengers and the Bloodletters charge a Wave Serpent, my Warlord and some Dire Avengers.  The Wave Serpent lives like a champ the Avengers die and the Warlord hangs on; but the brave Spiritseer does get enveloped which prevents me from falling back which means those Bloodletters aren’t getting shot.

So I drop my units in my backfield (only viable drop zone left) and salvage what I can of this mess.  Commit the psykers to killing the Bloodletters as I can’t shoot them.  Smite and witchblades, singing spears and staves do a decent job and over the next three turns I whittle the Bloodletters away.  A barrage of tempest launcher and lasblaster fire does in the cultists.  But I’m not scoring Behind Enemy Lines and I’m not scoring Recon.  He’s killing way more units than me as I’m targeting 30 strong squads and he’s picking off my small units.

The Crimson Hunter goes on a do or die run to drop his Warlord that he’s left exposed to my suicidally brave flyer but he passes saves like a hero and takes a total of two wounds from my anti-tank rated firepower.

The whole time I’m getting bombarded by plague mortars, bloat drones are liquefying squads left and right and I’m playing catch up the whole time.

We eke out three turns but only by blitzing through the third turn in 20 minutes flat.  There’s no way I’m coming back no matter how long the game goes so no hard feelings there.  Nevertheless I think his first turn took almost an hour which wasn’t ideal.

Defeat!

Not as fun as my previous defeat, not going to lie, but if you want to win you’ve got to be able to lose.

Major takeways included a painful lesson in how to deploy against an army that’s just as good me my own at putting pressure on before the game even starts. 

I also need to be more willing to mix up the secondary objectives, Reaper would have given me four points for killing the cultists and the Bloodletters and I think I didn’t score more than two points on any of the secondaries I selected.

Lessons learned, nice guy to play against and neat to see a very different army in action.

Game 5:  Orks!

I haven’t played Orks yet in 8th Edition either (my usual opponents include Astra Militarum, Space Marines, Tyranids, Eldar, Harlequins, Dark Eldar, Chaos Space Marines).

He brought the following:
Big Mek
Weird Boy
Weird Boy
Pain Boy
30 Boys
30 Boys
10 Boys
10 Boys
10 Tank Busters
3 Flyers (at least a few of which blow up in a massive explosion)
Gorkanaught
Morkanaught

Deployment was Vanguard Strike (Excellent).

Well, middle-aged dog meet new tricks.   I know Da Jump is coming out to throw a mob of 30 Boys at me.  So, I’m going to deploy my 10 strong Dark Reapers to take advantage of Forewarned and light them up when they get flung at me.  Second I’m going to take Reaper instead of Behind Enemy Lines (as I have no desire to get close to Orks with anything) because I’m going to have to kill those big mobs getting thrown at me.

So I think I deploy well, castle up in the corner, the 10 strong Dark Reapers on a convenient hill to give them a commanding line of sight, Avengers making a skirmish line across the front, Rangers deploying in a secondary skirmish line in front of the Avengers.  No holes left for Da Jump.

He fills his deployment zone with 90 Boys and all the trimmings.  Characters are clustered up in the ruin in the back.  The planes are ready to strafe me and the two big walkers are anchoring each flank.

But hey I get first turn! 

And get seized on!

My opponent surges forward slogging Boys toward me while the planes dive into my lines (more on this later).  Based on my aggressive screening he doesn’t think he can effectively launch 30 Boys towards me and make contact with anything significant.  So instead he launches the Tankbusters forward.  As I get ready to Forewarn and obliterate them we have a discussion about whether this actually works or not.  Da Jump isn’t coming in from reinforcements and unlike the Tau early warning system there’s no FAQ stating that Forewarned works in this case, so we decided that it wouldn’t  apply, oh well.

His shooting is…ineffective due to judidicuous use of Lightning Fast Reactions his planes’ shooting at one Wave Serpent is neutered, the Tankbusters at the other Wave Serpent ding the paint and the Rangers weather Ork shooting nicely.

On my turn I deploy all of the remaining Dark Reapers and Dire Avengers out of the transport, send the Serpents and the Hunter out to secure Recon, drop one Hawks squad try and snipe a character from the ruin (only room for one squad sadly).

In my shooting phase I obliterate the Tankbustes and nuke a flyer which proceeds to blow up spectacularly and do a fair bit of damage to my lines taking mortal wounds off from the Wave Serpent and some Dire Avengers.

On his turn the advance continues and he begins the process of consolidating mobs of Boys so now he’s got a squad of 40.  This squad advances onto the centre objective in the middle of board.  His shooting and assaults nuke my one Hawk squad and kill the first unit of Rangers in the centre of the board and claim that objective.  The Gorkanaught crashes into my left flank while the Morkanaught is busy crushing those Hawks in his backfield (well worth the distraction as far as I’m concerned.

On my turn I line up an amazing series of shots on this giant mob in the centre.  They’re out of Kustom Forcefield and Painboy range.  Dark Reaper Exarchs, second squad of Swooping Hawks, all of the Dire Avengers, the Wave Serpent, some Rangers, we’re ready to go.  Jinx and Doom both go off on the Orks.

Then I get distracted firing the normal Reapers at the plane before I realize what I’m doing I’ve launched a mighty salvo of starshot missiles at one of the planes.  If it dies it will devastate all of my tiny squads.  Amazing the inescapably accurate Reapers fluff the role completely the plane lives, good job lads.  Back on task to that giant mob with a Shoot Me sign in the middle of the board. I light them up, kill just over 20.  Why only 20?  Because I forgot to fire both the Hawks and the Serpent.  Argh.  Why do I forget?  Because I am very excited to charge my Autarch, Farseer, Warlord, the other Spiritseer and the Warlock Conclave into the Gorkanaught. I proceed to carve it to pieces.  Spectacular.  It then explodes.  Also spectacular.  Due to some very lucky rules despite this explosion catching everyone I just described above I lose a total of one Warlock from the Conclave and a handful of mortal wounds otherwise.  Whew.
More Boys are Da Jumped this time into my backlines while the dregs of his infantry hold the centre of the board. 

The Morkanaught is slowly rolling up my right flank, fine, he can have it.  He shoots the last of the Rangers as well as the Crimson Hunter off the board. 

The Boys now in my backfield shoot and assault my tiny squads of Reapers and kill some of them. 

In my turn I fall back and launch what weaponry I can at them and kill most of them while my Avengers claim the centre of the board.  Why am I able to do this?  Because a hero Dire Avenger Exarch tanks the Morkanaught due to his Battle Fate invulnerable save .

I hold the centre after wiping out yet more Boys.  My Psykers and Autarch go headhunting and kill the Weirdboys and Big Mek securing me Warlord.

I end up with a one point win.  It could have been a lot more if I'd remembered to finish shooting and finish that centre squad off when I had the chance.

Victory!

Great game, tons of fun and I think my opponent felt pretty good about a close fought game against Reaper spam. The game shouldn't have been so close but that's what I get for not paying attention.

Post event thoughts to come.

Post Merge: February 24, 2018, 09:39:24 PM
In the future, please use the modify button. Double posting is against the forum rules, and for that reason, the system merged your posts.

Post-game Thoughts:
What a great weekend, most 40K I've ever played in two days, new people, new armies, great environment, etc.  Big thanks to the organizers and all the attendees, really positive and fun environment.

What would I do differently?
Practice more, definitely an easy one.  I had played official 0 practice games with the list I ended up taking, this was definitely a problem but life gets in the way of 40K sometimes.

When playing ITC events you need to think very carefully about what Secondary Objectives on a game by a game basis, I was definitely lulled by two relatively straight forward first games where I was largely free to achieve my Secondaries as I saw fit.  The later three games were very different in that regard but with some different objective selection I could have achieved more.

Speed.  This comes with practice but I feel like my army was only really getting going by the time most games ended.  With the exception of the game against Chaos Soup I felt like my results would only get better if the games went on longer.  If I'm faster this may actually come to pass (or I'm completely wrong).

With regard to my list things basically fell into three categories:
Excellent:  Dark Reapers, Rangers, Swooping Hawks, Autarch, Wave Serpents, all the Psykers
Good:  Dire Avengers
Okay:  Crimson Hunter

Overall though, I need a counter attack close combat unit and more horde control, badly.  Once someone got into my lines if I couldn't Smite them down they were causing problems. 
« Last Edit: February 24, 2018, 09:39:24 PM by Scorn »
Rejoice.  Despair. 
Fate does not care.
Each knotted mind entwined. 
Each soul another's bind.
And blind though we are led. 
In time we do know when, to cut a thread.
-Erfworld

Offline bca11

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Re: 2000 pts Alaitoc for local tournament
« Reply #22 on: February 26, 2018, 12:02:26 AM »
How many times can you get seized on in one tournament?

Thanks for the report. I wish we had large multi-day events like that in my area, but there probably aren't 66 people that even play within an hour's driving distance from me.

Offline Scorn

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Re: 2000 pts Alaitoc for local tournament
« Reply #23 on: February 26, 2018, 10:16:34 AM »
The answer is apparently three, I can get seized on three times in five games.

I was really impressed at the event and the turnout.  Apparently the number of attendees roughly doubled from last year but they still had plenty of space, tables, terrain, etc.

The crowd of people, even in convention space, playing meant that I definitely shouted myself a bit hoarse by the end of the whole thing though and there's a lot of taking things on faith as you it's very hard to keep up with exactly what your opponent is doing.

Random afterthoughts:
-Ended up finishing 29/66 with three wins and two losses, I am content with that but I must admit that as my two losses were against what I felt to be the "competitive" lists I was expecting (Commander Spam and Chaos Soup) I would like to improve
-The winner of the event and the only person to rack up five wins plays Ynnari with a mix of Alaitoc and Saim-hann
-Second place was the Tau player I lost to in Game 3 with four wins and a draw
Rejoice.  Despair. 
Fate does not care.
Each knotted mind entwined. 
Each soul another's bind.
And blind though we are led. 
In time we do know when, to cut a thread.
-Erfworld

 


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