Game 4 vs Sam P (finished 4/88 on day 1, 4-0. finished 5th overall with 5-2 final record)
Sam kicked my ass. There's not a lot of picks here, but I'll try to identify how he did it, what he did right, and what I did wrong. Yes, his dice were rolling well and mine were atrocious, but even without that, he still would've beaten me - it just wouldn't have been a tabling.
His List - Space Wolves
Njal Stormcaller
2x 5 Wolf Scouts, Melta, PW + WolfGuard w/ combi-flamer, PW
7 GH, flamer, rhino (Njal in here)
2 x 5 GH, flamer in HB Razback + WolfGuard
2 x 5 TWC (1 w/ Thunderhammer)
3 Landspeeders MM/HF
2x Predators Las/HB-sponson
Not the most efficient list I've ever seen - and to tell you the truth, based on the two previous games I had played, I was feeling kinda cocky. It seemed nobody knew how to deal with the 2+ FNP that mostly come in on turn 2 and only scatter 1d6". Because of that, I made some mistakes that cost me pretty dearly.
Primary Mission: Table Quarters
Secondary Mission: Objectives
Tertiary Mission: Victory Points
Deployment: Spearhead
Again, I won roll to go first and gave it to him. He castled back in his corner thinking I would have a little more on turn 1, but I just deployed Mephiston behind some cover.
Turn 1
Reincluding the same pic from above... I only have 3 pics from this game, so no need to be stingy. On his turn he moved forward, Njal's ride is the middle rhino. I brought Mephy up to play, hiding from shooting.
Turn 2
One unit of scouts come on, but I have nothing on the table yet, so they go play in the backfield.
He brings his speeders around and puts a couple wounds on Mephiston and then assaults him with his TWC. I get off Preferred Enemy, but Njal stops my Str10 power, ouch... stupid 3+. Mephy puts 4 wounds on the cav (pulls one model, puts wound on TH and normal guy), then dies.
Pic above shows just after my drops - got all but one squad. And my big mistake, right there in the middle... stupid, overconfident schmuck. I did try to drop them close to Njal's ride, but scattered next to a pred. This unit would've cost me the game if I had normal dice rolls. Also, I dropped the wrong unit to the far right - it should've been one of my two units without a powerfist or Sang Priest. Everything else should be over on the left side. At that point he would have the option of eating my right squad with his TWC or coming across to help out on the left - either option should've been a lose/lose. Man, hindsight is 20/20. So are new dice.
Anyhow, my shooting kills the whole scout squad (he probably could've saved the wolfguard, but he didn't try wound allocation there for some reason - maybe he knew he had me in the bag) and removes a weapon from the predator. 2 squads shooting (including 3 fusion pistols) manage to put one wound on the left TWC, so he pulled a normal guy. At this point, I'm thinking it could have gone better, but it aint terrible.
Turn 3
No pic. His other scout squad comes on and he puts brings them in to punish me for shooting away his previous squad. His 3 speeders all move in for HF/MM shots on the squad nearest me (you can see aftermath in pic below) and brings a razback along to help. His scouts kill a SG with a melta shot then prepare to assault. The speeders and HB razback and the squad inside (dismounted) kill all but one SG - and that was with me pulling some fancy wound allocation stuff (the 2 melta wounds went on my fusion pistol guy - so the other 3 dead were all failed 2+ saves). His back razback, the squad inside (dismounted) and the TWC lit up Dante's squad and killed the Sang Priest - stupid 3+ save'll get you every time. The TWC on the right did nothing except move a little to the left to wait for my last squad to drop. He ignored my squad in the center.
The scouts assault my SG, and with 4 guys having 2 attacks with mc-powerweapons and 2 powerfist attacks, I kill... 2 scouts. His attacks kill 2 of my guys - drawn combat. The TWC and the Razback squad assault Dante's squad - I manage to kill 4 guys from the razback squad and put one wound on a TWC and lose everyone except Dante and one SG. I win combat by 1, but both of his units stay. Oof. I should have Hit-n-Run here, then split and reassaulted.
My last squad arrives and I have to choose between hopeless situation on the left, or hopeless situation on the right. I chose the right because there I could at least shoot at something that mattered (the TWC). I drop right next to them. My other big mistake of the night is that I left the squad in the middle there - silly me, I thought my units on the right could handle their stuff. My lone SG left to deal with the 3 speeders and razback/unit goes nowhere because Njal's got the Jumppack-models-are-screwed power going. Shoots at the unit, kills a guy, but then fails to roll assault distance (because it's all dangerous/difficult terrain for me).
Shooting involved my new unit doing nothing to his TWC. Nothing. In the center, I assaulted his tank pred needing 4+ to hit with a bunch of Str5 guys (and a Str9 pfist) and shake it.
The scout assault sees my guys doin nuttin' and his kill an SG - I stay. In Dante's fight, he finishes off the razback squad, and the TWC put a wound on him and kill the other SG. No one's going anywhere.
Turn 4
The TWC kill 2 more SG (I do nothing), I flee combat but he catches and I save the wounds.
The TWC on the left (that you can't see) kill off Dante - there's one model left in their unit. The scouts and my SG swing ineffectively at each other (really, how long can SCOUTS last against close combat elite units???).
On my turn it's pretty clear, this is a table-quarters game, and I have 3 units on the table, he still has 11. But hey, let's make it a game anyway. My unit in the center jumps over to help the unit fighting the TWC - Furious Charge should be good for something, right?
No shooting, so I jump in and kill 2 TWC models, he kills the last of my other squad.
The SCOUTS finish off my 2 SG on the upper right.
Turns 5-6
He only has one unit of mine to worry about, and he sends his razbacks and predators my way. The glorious Wolf Scouts come down to help out vs my last remaining 3 models on the table.
He kills two of mine and I kill one more TWC - I run and get away almost to the table edge, he doesn't get within 6" so I rally on my turn.
I call the game and congratulate Sam.
He tabled me and I managed to kill... 1 scout unit with WG, one GH with WG, got his two TWC units below half, one scout unit below half, and damage one predator... w00t
He wins with 4 quarters to my none, able to grab two objectives, and 2000 vp to my 650(ish) vp
Quick note, Sam was an absolute pleasure to play against. Even though I was deep-striking in incorrect locations and not using my units properly and having terrible dice - it was amazing to see the clinic that he put on for me on isolating and removing certain threats, while ignoring others and accepting what may come (even though nothing did). Sam obviously knew his army and he showed it against me. It took a pretty serious miscalculation on his part, for him to fall apart against Dash's Orks on Day 2.
I hope you were all able to see (even with the lack of pics) the way to NOT play as demonstrated by yours truly, and the way TO play, as Sam did.
To be fair, SangGuard have a lot of trouble vs. a balanced Wolf, Guard, or Sisters list. Unless you're a much better player than your opponent, you'll fail against these pretty much every time.
ReplyDeleteIf you can still have fun in these games, then that says a lot (all positive) about you, IMO. Games where nothing seems to go right can be very hard to take.
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