Hello everyone thank you for tuning into our Tuesday Night Fight. It was a very good game and came down to the wire. Also congratulations to the Silvanborn for winning the ITC building. Here is the thoughts from both players after the game.
Don:
I went in to the game expecting to have to worry a fair bit about the Stormsurges with the marker lights spam. After rolling for mission I had realized that rushing down the football field deployment would prove a great challenge and would mean that, even if I did go first, that would mean I would have to take at least two rounds of fire before being able to do any significant damage to Frankie’s tau. I was pretty sure that the best chance I would have is to shove the scouts on marker drone hunting duty. I was able to do a bit of damage to that unit, but not enough to really impact that game. Frankie deployed them really defensively with the Iridium Armour Commander out front to soak bolter rounds. I was really lucky when Frankie kept forgetting to either shoot at or charge the Ironclad Dreadnought, which was providing a bit of pressure on the commander unit, and the stormsurges.
After blowing out the first and closest of the three Land Raiders, I was ready to try to strip off some wounds with the unit that had to pile out. I could only get within ten inches of the stormsurge unit with them. I was hoping for a clutch charge with both, that unit and the Ironclad that turn. After failing the long bomb charge, I had decided to hold off the dreadnought to force Frankie to deal with it in his turn. Each stomp doing an auto pen on anything but a result of a one would have just picked it up. I paid for it with two BS 6 ignores cover Str 10 AP 2 large blasts on my centurions. I was not terribly impressed with the riptide wing in comparison. They were able to strip off a few hull points from one raider and wreck another with their “heels planted”. I made a huge mistake at that point and decided to put the unit that was in the middle of the table towards the riptides. I was overconfident with the other centurion unit and dreadnought being really close to the Stormsurges and Commander. I was playing for “blood” at that point more than for the mission.
The combined firepower of the Ironclad, one Redeemer, and four Assault Centurions was able to do a significant bit of damage to the Stormsurges. With the following assault phase I felt really good with removing one of those gargantuan creatures from the field and not getting sixed out. In that same turn, however I had forgotten how many wounds that the Riptide with the super-hot gun had left and made a mental error of forgetting to split fire on his buddy to right next to him. Accidentally killing that Riptide without split firing hammered the nail in the coffin for that squad.
Then, the Stormsurge started to tap dance all over my chances for victory. He sixed out the four Assault Centurions in combat with him and did so again in the following assault phase to the Ironclad Dreadnought. At that point, it was pretty much over. All I had was that Drop Pod and the Redeemer running around. I tried to snag a tertiary by shooting at his warlord, who had two wounds left, but was unable to put him down. At that point the Stormsurge continued to tap dance his way to victory and the riptides did what they needed to do and grab the relic.
I enjoyed the game immensely. Frankie is a great opponent and a fun guy to play against. We both made some pretty large mistakes. I was feeling pretty confident in my chances for victory right up until the stomps happened, but that is what Stormsurges do. I should have devoted all my resources to them. Thanks to the guys from Frontline Gaming for having me at their studio for an epic game that I will not forget.
Frankie:
I was really worried after seeing Dons list. I was not feeling confident in my armies abilities to kill Land Raiders. Nor did I think the Stormsurges would survive in close combat with those assault centurions. Unfortunately for Don we rolled up Hammer and Anvil deployment giving me at least two shooting phases before he could make combat. He did win the roll to go first which was key and was able to put the pressure on.
My first few shooting phases went really well as I was able to kill two Land Raiders. A lot better than I was expecting but kept forgetting to charge the darn Dreadnaught right in front of me. We both made a few mistakes throughout the game but for the most part we both played really well. Don made it into combat with my Stormsurges which was his goal from the very beginning and would have won the game from it if my dice didnt go hot and make most of the saves he made me take.
Overall a great game and I would like to get a rematch against Don sometime in the future. He is a lot of fun to play against and plays very interesting lists. Hope you all enjoyed the game and hope to see you guys all next Tuesday for our next game.