FLG League Update and a Bat Rep

The FLG League is winding down into its final week and we’ve got an update for you.

The league has been a blast so far and we’ve learned a lot. We hit some time constraints going into the holidays and a lot of guys weren’t able to get all their games in which is understandable due to family obligations. However, we do currently have 2 undefeated players left and assuming some of the gents that still could go undefeated do not do so in the next 6 days, it looks like it will be an Imperium vs. Eldar finals!

Current League Standings

Player #	First Name	Army	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total Score
21	Paul	Imperium	1036	1035	1024	1038	1036	1031	6200
4	Reece	Biel-Tan	1033	1029	1036	1034	1039	1028	6199
7	James	Alpha Legion	1034	27	1037	1038	1037	1039	5212
14	Frankie	Sisters of Battle	1031	1030	17	1037	1029	24	4168
18	John	Drukhari	1029	27		1028	23	1032	3139
15	Anthony	Valhalla	1033	1028	18		9	1029	3117
3	Andrew	Genestealer Cults	17			1035	1031	26	2109
10	Ted	Astra Militarum	13	1032	1030	16		18	2109
6	Jeff	Saim Hann	1020		1029	22			2071
19	Mark	Imperium			1037			1031	2068
11	Steve	Ultramarines	15	1018	14		15	19	1081
16	Cooper	Adeptus Astartes				9	15	1035	1059
5	Adam	Astra Militarum	1029				25		1054
1	Pablo	Imperium		22			1030		1052
13	Quentin	AdMech	11		1036	0			1047
9	Larry	Heretic Astartes	1030				13		1043
20	Kasey	Adeptus Astartes		1023					1023
8	Jason	Grey Knights	15	18	12			20	65
2	Pascal	Chaos	6	20	11	14		14	65
12	Andy	Orks	20	14			13		47
17	Garrett	Necrons	10		7	17			34
22	Yu	Sapace Wolves	10	7	0	0	0	0	17

Interestingly, over the course of the 42 games played so far in the league, we’ve got the following statistic:

• Player going first wins: 18
• Player going second wins: 24

So as we see, going second certainly seems to continue to be advantageous in our format which is a nice balance to the power of going first in 40k presently. We’ve got a bunch of last minute games being scheduled for this final week and we look forward to seeing how it winds up.

Here’s a quick bat rep too between Frankie and myself with a fun and exciting game for us both! Below is the Biel-Tan Brigade I’ve been playing all league and have been having a ton of fun with it and doing quite well so far.

Unit	Force Org	Cost	#	Total	Weapons	Cost	#	Total	Total
Biel-Tan Brigade	Eldar				Command Points	9			965
Asurmen	HQ	175	1	175				0
Avatar	HQ	250	1	250				0
Farseer	HQ	100	1	100				0
Warlock Council	HQ	30	4	120				0
Dire Avengers	Troops	8	5	40	Shuriken Catapult	4	6	24
Dire Avengers	Troops	8	5	40	Shuriken Catapult	4	6	24
Dire Avengers	Troops	8	5	40	Shuriken Catapult	4	6	24
Dire Avengers	Troops	8	5	40	Shuriken Catapult	4	6	24
Dire Avengers	Troops	8	5	40	Shuriken Catapult	4	6	24
Storm Guardians	Troops	7	12	84				0
Swooping Hawks	Fast	6	5	30	Lasblaster	7	4	28
				0	Hawk’s Talon	10	1	10
Warp Spiders	Fast	10	5	50	Death Spinners	8	6	48
Shining Spears	Fast	18	3	54	Twin Shuriken Catapult	5	3	15
				0	Laser Lance	8	2	16
				0	Star Lance	10	1	10
Howling Banshees	Elite	9	9	81	Power Sword	4	8	32
				0	Executioner	7	1	7
Striking Scorpions	Elite	13	6	78	Scorpion Chainsword	1	6	6
				0	Scorpion’s Claw	12	1	12
Fire Dragons	Elite	7	6	42	Fusion Gun	17	6	102
Dark Reapers	Heavy	5	7	35	Reaper Launcher	22	7	154
War Walker	Heavy	50	1	50	Shuriken Cannons	10	2	20
War Walker	Heavy	50	1	50	Shuriken Cannons	10	2	20
Totals			87	1399				600	1999
Command Points:	12				Detachments:	1

And here’s Frankie’s new foot Sisters army that is quite intimidating on the table. So many power armored bodies!

Unit	Force Org	Cost	#	Total	Weapons	Cost	#	Total	Total
Brigade Detachment	Sisters				Command Points	9			1996
Celestine	HQ	200	1	200	Gemini	25	2	50
Canoness	HQ	45	1	45
Canoness	HQ	45	1	45	Power Sword	4	1	4
Ministorum Priest	Elite	35	1	35
Imagifier	Elite	40	1	40
Imagifier	Elite	40	1	40
Battle Sisters Squad	Troop	9	15	135	Storm Bolter	2	1	2
Battle Sisters Squad	Troop	9	9	81	Melta, Poweraxe, Multi-melta	49	1	49
Battle Sisters Squad	Troop	9	9	81	Melta, Poweraxe, Multi-melta	49	1	49
Battle Sisters Squad	Troop	9	9	81	Melta, Poweraxe, Multi-melta	49	1	49
Battle Sisters Squad	Troop	9	9	81	Melta, Poweraxe, Multi-melta	49	1	49
Battle Sisters Squad	Troop	9	9	81	Melta, Poweraxe, Multi-melta	49	1	49
Seraphim Squad	Fast Attack	11	8	88	Inferno Pistol x4	36	1	36
Seraphim Squad	Fast Attack	11	8	88	Inferno Pistol x4	36	1	36
Seraphim Squad	Fast Attack	11	8	88	Inferno Pistol x4	36	1	36
Retributor Squad	Heavy Support	9	9	81	Heavy Bolter x4, Poweraxe	45	1	45
Retributor Squad	Heavy Support	9	9	81	Heavy Bolter x4, Poweraxe	45	1	45
Retributor Squad	Heavy Support	9	9	81	Heavy Bolter x4, Poweraxe	45	1	45
Totals			117	1452				544	1996
Command Points:	12				Detachments:	1

ITC Champion’s Scenario: Crucible of Champions

Deployment: Front-line Assault

Eldar Secondary Objectives:

• Recon
• Kingslayer
• Head Hunter

Sisters’ Secondary Objectives:

• Recon
• Death by a 1,000 Cuts
• Old School

Frankie and I rolled up Crucible of Champions and Front-line Assault. The mission and deployment really favored Frankie’s army as he has lots of Characters for that bonus point and his army wants to get close. Front-line Assault starts the two armies as close to one another as possible. Luckily for me though, I got to choose my deployment zone which was favorable to me as I was able to take a zone with more LoS blocking terrain. Frankie’s army doesn’t care too much about hiding but mine most assuredly does. During deployment, I tried to bait Frankie into overloading a flank and then countering with the Eldar redeployment strat but he wisely stuck to his plan and overloaded the center with a wedge of Sisters. So I ended up with a 3 pronged deployment with the Avatar and Guardians in the middle, Asurmen and the Dires on one flank and the Psykers and Dark Reapers on another.

Frankie won the roll off and chose for me to go first. It was a good call as I didn’t have too much that could really hurt him and in our missions you want to go second for the advantage it gives you in scoring objectives.

Early Game

I made a mistake in the first turn, bringing in both War Walkers to start netting Recon points but handed Frankie a kill on a platter which was also an Old School point and as I killed nothing in my turn due to a lack of units in range and the large unit sizes of the Sisters, I also handed Frankie the kill more units point as well. Not too bright on my part. He was able to take them both out and also charge 3 units of Dire Avengers with Seraphim, tying them up and stopping them from moving. This gave Frankie a significant early game lead.

I countered by moving up to mid-table and overloading a flank with reserves. As there was a large LoS blocking building in the middle of the table, I was able to fight a chunk of his army with a larger portion of my own. This let me deal quite a bit of damage while remaining safe from retribution. On the opposite flank, Asurmen charged into the Seaphim to free up the Dires but Frankie rolled god mode on his 6++’s on I only took out one, lol. The remaining Seraphim then unceremoniously Melta Pistol’d him to death….doh! That was bad. Meanwhile, the Avatar had gone into melee with Celestine to hopefully take her first life early but again, Frankie’s saves were hot and I barely hurt her, taking heavy damage in return. As it stood, Frankie was leading on the scoreboard and stalling me from moving into better board position while he also earned the mission bonus point and was in position to continue to do so.

Mid Game

I needed to start playing more aggressively or Frankie was going to have dominating board control. Disaster struck though when Celestine used an act of faith to slay the Avatar with Celestine forcing me to brun 3 CP to keep him alive as otherwise, she’d be free to charge again that turn. Celestine’s luck continued though as she beat the poor Avatar down in melee for a second time that turn and I was out of CP to res him again. That was bad. On the other flank, the Seraphim continued to be a massive pain, keeping me tied up as they refused to die. My Fire Dragons didn’t help as they missed with 5 of 6 shots on a unit with 2 models remaining, lol. Nice work, boys.

A fun bit of luck though occurred when I sent in my wave two assault units on the desperate mission to contain Celestine. I had managed to Jinx her unit with my Warlock Conclave (who I come to love more and more as I play with them). The Striking Scorpions came in and damn near killed the entire unit in one round of combat! With Mandi-blasters and the basic attacks of the Scorps, they killed both of the Geminae, and the Exarch rolled hot and nearly killed Celestine (lowering her save to a 5++ was clutch) with his claw. The Shining Spears who’d also gone in then easily finished her. The Scorpions then stayed to fight off a unit of Sisters on the middle objective until end game which was tremendously helpful. While that was great, I had really wanted to have the Avatar take her first life as now she was free to deep-strike down behind me and cause havoc with her second life =/ Things were looking rough….

Late Game

I needed some luck and to play ultra aggressively to get back in the game. I had finely freed myself of the dang Seraphim and bum rushed Frankie’s flank dealing heavy damage with the Dires and Fire Dragons. Frankie hit back hard but not hard enough and with the Shining Spears flying over to reinforce them I was able to sweep that flank in a fun infantry battle. Dire Avengers are just so dang good in that environment. That secured my quite a few objectives and swung the kill count in my favor as well as putting another objective firmly in my control.

On the opposite flank, my Aspect Warriors were duking it out with Frankie’s Sisters and we essentially wiped one another leaving only a few models left, one of which luckily for me was a Swooping Hawk Exarch who then camped an objective for the rest of the game earning my some points. However, the turning point of the game was the battle of my Warlocks and Farseer vs. Celestine and her crew. It should have been a wipe-out but my Fraseer went Steven Segal and decided to be hard to kill that day, lol! He tanked Celestine for 3 rounds of combat, making 13 out of 15 4++ saves, it was crazy. He must have been mad that she’d wiped out the Dark Reapers the turn before. This allowed he and the Warlock Conclave to defeat Celestine and her ladies in melee with a combination of Smites and Witchblades in a surprise victory. This was huge as it kept that flank secure for me, maxed out my Head Hunter and Kinglsayer, denied Frankie my Warlord and let me score an objective for a turn or two longer than I normally would have. It also kept Celestine from sweeping up and taking out more of my units.

When the dust settled, there was not much left on the table as we’d pummeled one another. However, the Farseer turning into Neo from the Matrix and living beyond when he should have let me come back from the early game slump to put up a big turn 6 score and win a close one, 28 to 26. Great game!

So, this means that there are only two players left with undefeated records, Paul and his Imperial Soup and myself. Unless another player gets the rest of their games in by Sunday and goes undefeated with more than Paul or I, it will be us in the finals! Should be good fun.

We’ve learned a lot from the League and will run another 40k and also an AoS league before we start rolling out the ITC League Format to help facilitate others jumping in to the fun as well.

 

And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!