Honey Calgar don't care!

Dread Calgar... he takes what he wants!

I had an opportunity to make it out to a small 2K tournament yesterday, so I dusted off my Honorguard (Counts As GK) army and bumped it up to 2K.  I didn't use the 2K list I posted earlier because some models are still under construction.  Here is what I took:

Draigo
Paladins (5) with DH x2, Halberd x2, Pyscannon x2, and Banner
GKSS (5) with Pyscannon and Pysback with SL
GKSS (5) with Pyscannon and Pysback with SL
GKSS (5) with Pyscannon and Pysback with SL
GKSS (5) with Pyscannon and Pysback with SL
Venerable Rifleman
Rifleman Dread
Stormraven with TLMM and TLPC and SL
Dread Calgar with Teleporter

Overall, I think the list is relatively solid with some decent options.  It's definately something I would play with again.  The tournament itself was a three-round tournament with each of the three deployments.  The objectives for each round were the same: three sieze ground objectives, two capture and control objectives, and KPs.  Winning an objective was worth 10 points, draws were worth 5, and losses 0 for a max of 30 points per round.  I didn't get army lists from my opponents so I am going from memory.

Round 1
Deployment: Dawn of War

Horde SWs
Lord with SS and PF (Not sure how he differed the equipment between the two)
Lord with SS and PF
Greyhunters (10) with MGx2 and Rhino
Greyhunters (10) with MGx2 and Rhino
Greyhunters (10) with MGx2 and Rhino
Greyhunters (5) with MG and Lasback
Greyhunters (5) with MG and Lasback
Greyhunters (5) with MG and Lasback
Longfangs with ML x4 and LC and Lasback
Longfangs with ML x4 and LC and Lasback
Vindicator

Not exactly an army I want to face on round one... lots of shooting, lots of bodies, and a Vindicator to boot.  The board was interesting as it had a massive building in the bottom right corner that had 3 walls (open wall was towards the center of the board.  There was a large river in the middle and some area terrain scattered around.  There was also a large hill in the upper right.  The three orange circles are the Sieze Ground, and the two red circles are Capture and Control.

Setup and Turn 1
I rolled up three scoring units with Grand Strategy and made the DK and Dreads scoring.  I won the roll to go first, which was absolutely huge for this match!  I took first turn and the bottom half of the board and started Draigo and the Pallies on the 24" line at max coherency in cover from the river.  I also threw an empty Pysback right behind them to help spotlight on Turn 1.  He deployed a Lazback on his C&C objective and a full Rhino on the Sieze Ground objective near the hill.  He did not sieze and I then rolled onto the board at max speed.  The three Razors and Dreads pushed up 12" in a block directly between the two middle objectives while the Raven boosted to the middle objective.  The DK used his shunt to move to the right side of the Pallies and empty Razor.  The Pallies and empty Razor shuffled forward.  My shooting was lackluster, as the MM from the Raven stunned the Lazback, and I also shook the Rhino on the right.

He rolled on 6" across the center of the board, with Longfangs and a Razor with Lord on each side and the Vindicator slightly to my left of center.  He had three or four metal bawkses on my right in the shadow of the hill.  His shooting started strong, as the Lascannons knocked the SR out of the air as a wreck.  He then followed up with a Vindicator shell and killed three of the GKSS that had been inside, leaving only the Justicar and Pyscannon who promptly failed morale.  I think he shook the lead Pysback also.  Overall, I had weathered most of the storm and would be in a good position to counter-attack.  I was also lucky because the Raven wreck blocked most of my army from LOS of the Lazbacks and Longfangs on the left, which really made me happy.

Turn 2
On my second turn, the remanants of the GKSS rallied and used their move to hop into the empty Pysback which passed Fortitude.  I then used Calgar's 12" move to put him within charge range of the Longfangs on my right.  The Pallies shuffled forward and everything else moved up behind them.  Shooting stunned and immobilized the Vindicator (which would be in charge range next turn) and stunned a Lazback or two.  Assault saw Calgar murder the Longfangs and run them off the table.  However, he was about to take some payback from MGs hiding nearby.

The SWs retaliated by hopping a squad of Grey Hunters out to rapidfire and melta Calgar.  He also rolled a Rhino up and took two meltagun shots out of the top.  I had really good luck on my invuln saves (would be a theme this game) and I think I lost 1-2 wounds.  The remaining Longfangs dumped fire into the Pallies, but the shots failed to pen the 2+ saves.  While this was going on, he also sent a Lazback with Lord and 5 Grey Hunters around the hill to make a play for rightmost objective.

Turn 3
My turn three turned out to be the decisive blow.  The Pallies shuffled forward within charge range of the Vindicator and a Rhino with Grey Hunters.  Calgar positioned himself to charge the dismounted Grey Hunters.  Everything else moved 6" towards objectives and I may have hopped out a squad or two to shoot at the incoming Lazback with Lord.  Shooting blew up the Lazback and killed most of the squad inside, but they passed pinning and morale.  I also wrecked the Rhino next to the Vindicator with shooting, and the squad had to pile out the side door because of it's proximity to the board edge.  Assault saw Calgar smushing the dismounted Grey Hunters while the Pallies managed to get the multi-charge off against the Vindicator and other Grey Hunter Squad, killing both. 

So far he was down a Longfang squad, two Grey Hunter Squads, the Vindicator and a Lazback while I had lost the Raven and a couple of GKSS guys.  I also had position, as I had basically cut his army in half.  His Longfangs, a Lazback with Lord and Grey Hunters, and an empty Lazback were all that were left on near his C&C objective and Draigo and Pallies could stomp over and destroy them if needed.  The area near the hill was still a parking lot, but I had a beat up Calgar over there with three Razors worth of backup rolling in behind him.  It was also within striking distance of Draigo and the Pallies, so if needed I could split Draigo off to help clear that out while the Pallies marched on the C&C objective.  He needed something big on his turn if he wanted to get back into it.  He proceeded to move up two Rhinos full of Grey Hunters to shoot Calgar with MGs.  However, I rolled crazy hot with my saves and he survived with a final wound left.  He also unloaded into the Pallies, but was unable to cause any serious damage. 

Turn 4
On my fourth turn, I decided that Calgar and the squads of GKs moving towards the hill objective should be able to clear that out, so I moved Draigo and the Pallies towards the C&C objective.  Shooting finished off the Lord and Grey Hunters that had tried to push onto the right objective.  I also dismounted the Lord and Grey Hunters near the Longfangs and C&C objective.  Shooting also blew up one of the Grey Hunter Rhinos near Calgar.  He once again rolled in and ran the unit off the table.  Draigo and the Pallies were just a hair short of getting the charge on the Lord and Hunters, though.

His fourth turn consisted of him pumping more fire into the Pallies and Calgar.  He put two melta wounds on Calgar, but I managed to bounce both of them off of his invulnerable save.  Muhahahaha

Turn 5
My fifth turn was basically cleanup.  By this time I had the remnants of the GKSS on the center objective and two full squads next to the hill objective.  I also had a squad on the far right objective while my Dreads held the C&C objective.  My shooting dismounted the Rhino squad that had been shooting Calgar...  and they were so demoralized that they were pinned.  The GKSS near the hill then proceeded to blow up the last vehicles with Pyscannons and assault.  Calgar stood pat, as he did not want to charge a full Grey Hunter Squad, allow them to rally, kill him, and then take out the GKs near the hill.  Draigo and the Pallies got in with the Lord and Grey Hunters and contested the C&C objective.  At this point the game ended on time and I had won all three objectives for 30 points total.

Summary

I will be the first to admit that I had pretty good luck this game.  I got first turn, three scoring units with Grand Strategy, and Calgar was bouncing melta shots like a champ.  Because I had first turn, I was able to be very aggressive and pin him on his back board edge.  Had he rolled on as two separate forces, he might have kept me out of assault for another turn or two, but it would have still been an uphill battle because of the deployment type.  The Stormraven did exactly what I wanted it to do--attract fire while getting a unit closer to the fight.  I knew it was not going to last against that many Lazbacks and Longfangs, but it didn't have to.  Calgar was an incredible beast throughout the game.  Being able to take out Longfangs on Turn 2 helped a lot, and he just chewed through Grey Hunters while absorbing fire the rest of the game.  He was by FAR the MVP of the match...  and he would continue to do his honey badger impression the rest of the day.

Other two reports to follow shortly.  Next up: Newcrons!