Vercingatorix’ NOVA Open Tournament Report Part 1

 

Hi Everyone,

Vercingatorix here writing on Frontline for the first time.  I attended my first big tournament at NOVA this year and had an absolute blast. I got to meet some really cool people and see some absolutely stunning armies. It has motivated me to work on that part of my game. Check the Tactics Corner for more great tournament reports!

My list:

Green Tide:

Warlord: Warboss W/ PowerKlaw & Big Bosspole (Fearless to the whole unit)

95 boys

5 nobs W/ Big Choppas

Ork CAD

Painboy

10 Gretchen w/ Runtherd

10 Gretchen w/ Runtherd

Demon CAD

Fateweaver

Level 2 Herald w/ Disc & Exaulted Rewards

Level 3 Herald w/ Disc & Exaulted Rewards

11 Pink Horrors

11 Pink Horrors

So my list has two tricks. Fateweaver automatically comes with the beam, which allows me to shoot at a point on the ground and kill 1 or 2 guys from the green tide. Then I take a toughness test and the green tide ups its Feel no Pain by 1. This allows me to survive even the most brutal Tyranid/Elder str 6 shooting.

The second is Misfortune, the Green Tide is absolutely fantastic at throwing out a zillion strength 3 attacks, which normally don’t do much. However, if you cast Misfortune on it, all of a sudden their a zillion strength 3 RENDING attacks and most stuff dies. This is beneficial as a lot of lower skilled level opponents won’t realize their unit that normally doesn’t care about strength 3 is all of sudden in big trouble.

First game-

Battle Company!

His list was a Vulcan led battle company with Drop Pods, Centurions, and Whirlwinds. I am pretty happy about this as I had Battle Company in mind when I was building my list.

http://www.feedyournerd.com/uploads/2/4/0/4/24044140/3152399_orig.jpg

This is the only picture I could find online of my games but it should help as all the terrain was virtually identical to this. We both pick end of game objectives and I make him go first.

Green tide front and center, all the demons behind line of sight blocking terrain in the corner. He deployed centurions + vehicles directly across from me in the center.

He picked first blood so he really tried to kill my pink horror unit but only got it down to half strength with Whirlwinds and Devastator drop pods. I fly Fateweaver towards the middle of the board, Screamers assault one 5 man unit, green tide assaults a Misfortuned drop pod and 5 man unit. Amazingly, nothing dies. My opponent’s turn 2 is more tac and dev drop pods near demons in the corner. Following that, another round of Whirlwinds into Pink Horrors and one squad is down to only 1 Pink Horror but stays alive, denying First Blood. In the assault phase I finally kill the Drop Pod with rending, the Screamers finish off their squad. The Green Tide and Screamers eventually clean up all the Drop Pods and marines with them, giving me kill points and moment of bloodshed (a mission objective), while Fateweaver lands for line breaker. We tie on primary, I win on secondary’s and tertiaries. Great guy, but picking First Glood with this much terrain and against my generally ultra-durable army is a tough secondary.

Second Game-

Centurions in Drop Pods plus Dreadnights plus a Culexus. This is a good match up for me. Alan “Pajama Pants” was playing on the next table and came and hugged me. I don’t know if it was for getting Orks to table 11 or my opponents Grav is hilariously bad against Orks and demons.

So I pick turn by turn objectives, he picks end of game objectives. We deploy hammer and anvil so the green tide is sitting on two objectives and about 8 inches from the third. I go first and spread out a little bit but generally just guard my objectives. He drops down in front of the green tide with 6 Centurions, Tigurius and two Dreadknights. The combined firing hoses about 20 Orks…holy cow. I fly Fateweaver up and Screamers go to grab the third objective I placed. Fateweaver gets off Cursed Earth, Screamers give themselves Forewarning, and the Grimoire goes off. Everything is looking good! I cast a 6 dice Psychic Shriek on his Dreadknight from Fateweaver and get double sixes. I use his re-roll get a six again, roll a 1 on perils, roll 11 on leadership and Fateweaver dies. My opponent drops the culexus in a pod next to screamers, turns off forewarning and gets one Banishment off. Everything in his army wipes the screamer unit off the board. From there, his Dreadknights + centurions beat the green tide to death and we call it at turn 4. Ouch.

Third Game

So that was a little disappointing but my goal was to win half my games, so I’m really not too concerned. Also, if you’re dice are that determined to murder one of your own units, there’s nothing to be done.

I play a Necron + Tyranids army for my third game. 3 Flyrants + Necron cad of Immortals + 6 wraiths + Flayed Ones+ C’tan. With that much potential for wounds, buffing FnP is going to be hugely important this game.

This mission is Vanguard Strike deployment with the Relic primary, we both pick end of game objectives. I win first turn and choose to take it. I’m going to grab the Relic with the Screamers and drag it into my deployment zone and sit on it. Unless of course Grimoire on the Screamers double fails, which it does…*sigh*. So I decide to hide the Screamers behind line of sight blocking terrain and the green tide stays out of assault range and buffs their FnP to 4+. The Wraiths grab the relic in his turn and drag it towards his board edge. The Flayed Ones waddle towards me. They have the 2+ save plus re-roll 1’s character with them. I goof hard in my turn and Grimoire the screamers but leave Fateweaver by himself in front of the Flyrants. It was 7 pm and I was tired. I buff the green tide to 3+ feel no pain before Dateweaver dies. The Wraiths make a pretty decent charge and engage the green tide, the Flyyrants shoot down Fateweaver. The Flayed Ones continue waddling towards me. The C’tan picks up the Relic and Immortals stand next to it as well. The green tide finishes off the Wraiths in my turn (attaboy orks!) and I can’t get away from the Flayed Ones any more so I go towards him and cast Misfortune on them. Flayed Ones charge me anyway and we wail on each other for the rest of the game. Screamers hide and try to cast Misfortune again but that psychic phase I get a single 4+ on 17 psychic dice. Next turn the Screamers make it to the center and kill the C’tan in close combat + Flickering Fire but run out of steam, being unable to kill the Immortals leaving him with the Relic and the game. That was the end of my first day and I was a little disappointed but hoping my low score would allow me to play a beatable opponent tomorrow!

That night I went out with Jim, “Jy2” on Dakka and the guys who run Battle for Salvation. I had a blast, though we had to avoid that bar the next night.

After years of early morning regattas the late start time left me feeling pretty refreshed and ready for my game. At least I don’t have to weigh in! Staring at me from across the board is 30 Scatbikes, Farseers, Vipers, and a pair of Fireprisms. Its table quarters and I pick end of game victory points, bizarrely, so does my opponent. I win the roll off and go first, my warlord trait is Night Fight so I move and run the green tide into ruins and buff their FnP to a 4+. My opponent realized to his horror that orks in 3+ cover with a 4+ FnP are really really hard to kill. I roll absolutely awful and still only lose 12 or so. He moves forward with two squads of a Farseer attached to 3 Jetbikes. They both fail their charges. I roll poorly on my move and run and only get the two squads that tried to assault me and some vipers. Annoyingly, a viper blew up and took 9 orks with it. I’m locked during his turn so his army sits their feeling silly and moves to the edge of the board. It doesn’t matter as I finish off the Farseer and Jetbikes at the end of his turn. After consolidation, move, run, then assault, I multi-assault every single unit on the board and he concedes at the bottom of 3 with only 2 vipers and a Fireprism left. After talking with my opponent at the end of the game, he didn’t realize Fortune lets you re-roll saves, or that the mission was by unit, not model count. He assumed the green tide would just go in the middle and own all 4 quarters, heh, I wish. So it was kind of a hollow victory, but I’ll take it.

So after the first 4 games I was 2-2! So I was completing my goal. I had pretty low battle points as both my losses were big losses and only one of my wins was a big win. More to come, soon!