Game 3 was do or die.
There is a cut off for day two at Crucible of Winter and only the top 16 survive. With a loss and a draw on my record, I needed to pull out this game in a big way. Here is my opponents list
Imperial Fists Battalion (Siege Breaker Cohort)
- Captain (Jump Pack/Storm Shield/Thunder Hammer)
- Primaris Chapter Master (Master Crafted Stalker Bolt Rifle/ Hand of Dorn/ The Vox Espiritum)
- 5 Intercessors (Stalker Bolt Rifles)
- 5 Intercessors (Stalker Bolt Rifles)
- 5 Intercessors (Stalker Bolt Rifles)
- 5 Centurion Devastators (Hurricane Bolters and 2 Heavy Bolters)
Imperial Fists Battalion
- Librarian
- Primaris Lieutenant
- 5 Intercessors (Stalker Bolt Rifles)
- 5 Intercessors (Stalker Bolt Rifles)
- 5 Intercessors (Stalker Bolt Rifles)
- Primaris Apothecary
- Thunderfire Cannon
Imperial Fists Spearhead
- Captain (Jump Pack/Storm Shield/Thunder Hammer)
- Eliminators (2 Las Fusil, Bolt Sniper Rifle, Camo Cloaks)
- Eliminators (2 Las Fusil, Bolt Sniper Rifle, Camo Cloaks)
- Relic Leviathan Dreadnought (2x Heavy Flamer, 2x Storm Cannon Array)
The big threats here are the Centurions and the Smash Captains. The Centurions because they kill everything, and the Smash Captain because he kills my Shining Spears with ease in combat. Fortunately we rolled Hammer and anvil and I am much faster than him, so I would be able to pick my fight with the Centurions by using Quicken on my Spears.
We each had a Large NOVA L in our deployment zone and both castled up in our respective ruins. I deployed everything on the table except for one Guardian Squad. He left some Intercessors outside on his right, and put the Thunderfire cannon behind a smaller ruin behind the exposed Marines. The Thunderfire Cannon would also be a problem because it can really slow down my Guardians, but that is what Nightspinners are for. During my opponent’s deployment he put a unit of Eliminators extremely close to my forces. He told me after the game he intended to kill one of my Nightspinners with the Las Fusils the Eliminators were packing.
As for Secondaries I picked Headhunter, Recon, and Gang Buster. My opponent picked Old Skool, Headhunter, and Marked for Death (one Guardian squad, Shining Spears, and both Nightspinners)
I won the roll to go first and saw that Eliminator squad as an opportunity to hide my entire army from shooting with a wrap and trap. I used Phantasm to jump my army a few inches over to the Eliminators, and after movement the Spears were an auto-charge, and the Guardians needed to roll a 4 on the charge. The Nightspinners were hidden and all of the characters were poised behind the Guardians in the middle of the table. I fired both Nightspinners at the Thunderfire Cannon and picked it up, and in the charge phase I secured the wrap and trap on the Eliminators. I did this by charging first with the Guardians and making sure I positioned one model 1” away from an Eliminator and placed the other members of the squad over 1” away from the swinging model, so only that model could swing. I used the pile in and consolidate to surround two of his marines, and repeated that process with my Shining Spears, avoiding a kill by swinging with he Shining Spears “close combat weapon” instead of their Laser Lance. This would effectively give my opponent a non-turn, where he could shoot nothing in my army.
With his Thunderfire dead, he had no valid targets. He moved some Marines and characters around and I killed his Eliminators in close combat by using the Laser Lances ( str 3 since I did not charge, ap4, d2) in his fight phase, and he turned the clock back over to me.
I jumped my Spears 16 inches into his frontline, placing them in shooting and charge range of the marines my opponent placed outside of the ruin. I set up the Spears so half were within 6” of one marines squad, and half were in range of the other. This way they could split their Laser Lance fire, and fire their Shuriken Catapults (ap1 with Hail of Doom) at another squad. If I cleared the third squad I would be able to charge a Techmarine behind it. In the middle of the board I moved up my Guardians and placed my Psykers out of denial range of his Librarian, but in range to Doom and Jinx his Centurions inside the NOVA L.
My plan was to drop my second Guardian squad in his back corner to get Recon and try and clear out his Centurion squad. I was sure to place them out of Auspex Scan range (16” is so good on Guardians!) I was able to get all the powers off with Focus Will aiding Jinx, and in shooting I killed all but one of the Centurions between the Guardians and Nightspinners. My Shining Spears killed two of the Marine squads and charged the Techmarine, killing him as well. I also blitzed my Solitaire into the NOVA L that all of my opponent’s characters were inside, going for the kill on his two smash Captains. I managed to kill one of them, but the other Smash Captain lived on 2 wounds remaining but was still locked in combat with my Solitaire.
In my Opponents turn he focused down the Shining Spears and my Guardian Blob in the Corner, killing the Guardians and chopping the Spears down to a 4 man squad. He wanted to kill the Solitaire with smite from his Librarian so the Smash Captain would be able to stick a charge into my nearby Shining Spears. He knew that if my Solitaire died within an inch of his Captain I would be able to trigger fight in death and potentially kill his Captain. After the Librarian killed the Solitaire in the psychic phase, I killed the Captain and eliminated that threat to my Spears. As for the score, It was 13-5 at the end of turn 2.
In my turn I was feeling strong. I still had four Spears and I spent 2 cp to fall back and shoot with the unit. They went into his NOVA L to hunt down the last Centurion and kill anything else they were able to (Librarian, Captain.) Elsewhere I sent my Guardians and a Troupe Master into a squad of Intercessors and his Dreadnought ( The Dreadnought had been unable to shoot much on the previous turns) on his right side. In the psychic phase, I picked up a couple of marine squads with psychic powers, and in shooting the Spears killed the last Centurion, and the Nightspinners picked up a few marine bodies. In Charging, I picked up the Librarian in the NOVA L, and my Troupe Master was able to tag the Dreadnought in combat. I avoided overwatch here by charging the Intercessors in front of it. At this point, I was very far ahead on points, and tagging the Dreadnought would remove another turn of shooting for my opponent.
In his turn three, he was able to kill all the Shining Spears, but with his Dreadnought tagged he was unable to do any further damage. We ended up talking the rest of the game out from there. The last notable moment of the game for me was managing to tuck my Troupe Master behind a rock to avoid the overwatch and charge the Dreadnought to shut it down for the last turn of the game and be start chipping wounds off it with smites and Guardian fire. For my opponent, it was his Chapter Master Squishing my Shadowseer I had Leroy Jenkins’d into his NOVA L to go character hunting.
I ended up taking the game 39-10
I think the turning point of this game was the turn one wrap and trap of the Eliminators. My opponent never got a solid turn of shooting against my list, and I was able to start maxing primary points immediately, which I did for every turn of the game. This big win was exactly what I needed. With the 39 I managed to sneak into day two in 12th place.
Tune in next week for the first game of day two. I play against a Castellan, and the Solitaire does some serious work!
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