Sunday, March 18, 2012

If I'm on Youtube, I'm Famous... Right?


A video someone made showcasing the armies at Sat's Tournament

I was able to take my Honorguard to a tournament in Syracuse yesterday, and they performed pretty well again.  The meta was tougher than normal, with multiple GK, BA, SW, and Necron players.  The tournament required you to take at least one choice from each Force Org chart.  Luckily, I didn't have to change my 2K Honorguard list to meet that criteria.  I would normally do battle reports, but my memory is pretty fuzzy.  I am going to give very short summaries:

My list:
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 Pysfleman
Pysfleman Dread
Stormraven with TLMM and TLPC and SL
Dread Calgar with Teleporter
Game 1:
Capture and Control
Dawn of War

Necrons
Trazyn
Destroyer Lord with Res Orb, Scythe, Weave, Warscythe, and Mindshackle
20 Warriors with Lord with Scythe, Res Orb, and Mindshackle
20 Warriors with Lord with Scythe, Res Orb, and Mindshackle
4 Heavy Destroyers
5 Warscythe Lychguard
2 Monoliths

My opponent was very new to Necrons and did not have a codex with him, so this was a slow game.  I won the roll to go first, so Draigo and Pallies started in the center of the board while everything else rolled in behind them to play catchup.  He came in on one corner with his Warriors and Monoliths to cover his objective while everything else came further towards the middle near Draigo and the Pallies.  He clustered his Warriors extremely tightly, so the Mindstrikes and Plasma Cannon were able to force 30+ wounds on one turn!  The Stormraven also used its MM to kill both Monoliths.  The rest of my shooting wiped out the Destroyers then the Lychguard while the Pallies attacked Trazyn and the Destroyer Lord (which was a mistake on my part).  Mindshackles were extremely annoying, as was Trazyn getting up 3+ times, so the Pallies and Draigo were tarpitted for most of the game.  At the end of the game, the Stormraven was contesting his objective while Calgar and three squads of PA Honorguard were grinding down the 20 Warrior blobs.  Another GKSS was sitting on my objective for a Major Win.  (Minor was tied objectives with more Victory Points)

Game 2
Sieze Ground (5 objectives--Hold 3 more than your opponent for a Major Win)
Spearhead

Blood Angels
Tycho
Libby with Unleash and Shield
Honorguard Squad (pimped out)
Assault Squad (10) without packs
Assault Squad (5) with TLLC Razorback
Assault Squad (5) with TLLC Razorback
Baal Pred with HBs
Stormraven
Stormraven

My first game took so long that we had to play through the lunch break to finish.  So when I started the second game, my brain was already fried.  I won the roll to go first and thought I could probably cripple his Stormravens before he got to move.  However, the first few turns I had pretty bad target priority and even worse vehicle damage chart rolls (Calgar penned the Baal Pred four times and rolled four 1's.  I almost gave the game away when I rolled up the Stormraven next to one of his Ravens, planning to charge the contents, but forgot to actually get them out.  He then proceeded to blow it up and killed most of the Pallies.  However, he was not able to get a charge off, so Draigo soloed Tycho, the Librarian, and the Honorguard Squad while the Pallies split off on their own.  I made the mistake of charging the large Assault Squad with a GKSS because I forgot about the Sang Priest and Sarge both having PWs.  Calgar got punked by the two small Assault Squads, but luckily I ran one of them off the board when they failed a morale check from shooting.  I also forgot that Sang Priests were ICs that I could pick out, which would have made things much easier.  Luckily I was able to scramble and get three objectives and contest the objective his Assault Squad was on.  It was a bloody game as I had him down to an immobilized Raven and a small Assault Squad with Sang Priest against my Ven Dread, a full GKSS, a lone survivor of a GKSS, and my Razorbacks.  I was very happy to eke out the Major Win, considering how fried I was from my first game.  My opponent played a great game, and had a chance to knock it down to a Minor, but his Assault Squad was not able to kill the Razorback contesting his objective.

Game 3
Kill Points (Have 5 more KPs for Major Win)
Pitched Battle

Eldar
Farseer with Fortune/Doom, Singing Spear, and Runes
Avatar
Dire Avengers (5) with Wave Serpent
Dire Avengers (5) with Wave Serpent
Stormguardians with Wave Serpent
Firedragons (5) with Wave Serpent
Firedragons (5) with Wave Serpent
Howling Banshees with Wave Serpent
Swooping Hawks
Fire Prism
Fire Prism

He had a mix of EMLs and ShurCats, so my Pysbacks were not looking forward to this matchup.  He won the roll to go first, so I figured rather than trying for an all out shooting war, I would go full reserve.  Even if I came in piecemeal, I could refuse flank and buy myself time for the rest to come in.  Luckily, everything but three Psybacks came in on Turn 2.  I came in on the far right corner, limiting his ability to get to me for a turn or two.  His luck was terrible, as he was not able to kill the Stormraven and I was knocking Wave Serpents out of the sky left and right with the Psyflemen and the Stormraven's MM.  I was able to kill the Banshee Serpent, and killed most of the squad with Pysbacks, which forced his hand.  He tried ramming with a Firedragon Serpent and blew himself up and pinned the guys inside.  The other squad of Firedragons hopped out near the Stormraven and tried along with the Prisms, Avatar, and Singing Spear to bring it down.  However, everything bounced off, and he was left terribly exposed.  My counter attack basically ended the game, as Draigo ate the Farseer and remaining Banshees while two GKSS killed off both squads of Firedragons.  The Pallies did two wounds to the Avatar with shooting, but fluffed their CC with him... even with Prefered Enemy.  Calgar was able to catch up to the Swooping Hawks and wipe them out in CC.  Draigo and the Avatar eventually squared off.  Draigo took a wound or two but was still able to drop the Avatar with a Forceweapon.  By this point my shooting had killed off both Prisms and all the Wave Serpents, so my opponent called it.  I definately think I played a good game, but my opponent's dice were the worst I have seen in a while.  On the other side of the coin, I was very lucky with my reserves and vehicle damage rolls.  Had the dice been more even, it might have been a different game, but I think it basically boiled down to who got the charge off (and whether the Firedragons could get a crack at the Pallies).

I ended up winning the tournament as the only player with three Major Wins.  Overall, I was once again impressed with the Honorguard list.  I didn't feel outmatched army-wise in any of the games, even though I wished I had more S8+ shooting when I was facing the Double-Raven BA list.  I was also stoked that there were not any real complaints about GKs being cheesy and most people seemed to like the paintjob on the Honorguard.  I think that was more satisifying than even winning the tournament, as that is something that dice or fried brains cannot impact in any way.

I was going to use my winnings to pick up a box of GKTs to replace the metal Pallies, but they were sold out.  I took this as a sign that my Honorguard army is done for now and I should start focusing on Necrons....

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