Battle Report: Witch Hunters vs. Space Wolves 5-19-07

Bully vs. C. - 1500 points - Cleanse (Wolves choice)

C.'s looking to start playing the Witch Hunters now, so we had a little 1500 point match-up this weekend for her to try them out. She had 1 cannoness, 1 callidus assassin, 1 inquisitor, 7 repentia with mistress and priest, 2 x 10 battle sisters, 10 seraphim, an exorcist, an immolator, and two penitent engines. Wolves had 1 wolf guard battle leader, 1 rune priest with terminator bodyguard in a drop pod, 4 wolf scouts, 2 x 7 grey hunters led by a wolf guard in a drop pod, 8 blood claws led by a wolf guard in a rhino, and a vindicator.

Turn 1

Witch Hunters: The penitent engines are irritated at starting the game off in the rear and they roll for holy rage and sprint forward a bit. One of the battle sister squads settles into the area around the statue in their adjacent quarter and the tanks also swing wide into the same quarter.

Space Wolves: The Vindicator pulls up even with the rhino as it turns a bit itself, trying to get in position for the blood claws to hop out next turn.

Turn 2

Witch Hunters: The repentia, urged on by their mistress's neural whips, roll for holy rage and charge forward another full 6" to make contact with the wolves' rhino. As they lay into it with their savage eviscerators, the rhino explodes and four are killed. The battle leader, wolf guard, and blood claws are entangled in the smoking crater left by their destroyed transport. The witch hunters tanks swing further out.

Space Wolves: The terminators decide to come in a bit early and their drop pod deep strikes next to the seraphim. Luck turns a cold shoulder and only one of the flying nuns is destroyed by their sizeable wave of plasma and assault fire. Even worse, one of the plasma guns overheats and kills its bearer. Lesson: don't mess with the daughters of the emperor. The rune priest does his best to call up a blizzard and give his squad a little cover. The vindicator flips a huey and hauls back to its former position.

Turn 3

Witch Hunters: The seraphim use divine guidance to wipe out the terminators in righteous flame and bolter fire, blizzard be damned. The callidus assassin slinks out of her hiding place in the ruined chapel and charges toward the pinned blood claws, killing four immediately with her neural shredder and laying down four more in close combat. The repentia and mistress also charge into the blood claws and battle leader, but without frags they are destroyed before they can do any damage. A blood claw armed with a powerfist manages to destroy the assassin in the end.

Space Wolves: Both squads of grey hunters and the wolf scouts arrive on the table, killing five battle sisters with their opening salvoes of bolter and plasma fire. The machine spirits of the grey hunter drop pods target the aged inquisitor and manage to kill him with their storm bolters. Another plasma gunner is overcome by a weapon misfire. The battle leader and blood claws stagger away from their rhino crater and take cover in the chapel ruins.

Turn 4

Witch Hunters: The battle sisters shoot up the grey hunters, killing three of them and forcing them to fall back. The pentitent engines get holy rage again and charge into the closest drop pod. They try in vain to make it explode, leaving it a hulking wreck that the grey hunters can still hide behind.

Space Wolves: The grey hunters and wolf scouts move around the side of the destroyed drop pod and bring down one of the penitent engines with plasma shots. The other grey hunters regroup, and the vindicator pulls wide to threaten the immolator.

Turn 5

Witch Hunters: The last penitent engine charges the grey hunters in holy rage and kills three of them. The powerfists are unable to hit him back. The seraphim move closer to the middle of the table, and the immolator moves next to the exorcist and fires off its smoke launchers for a little extra protection. The exorcist shoots one of the blood claws in the chapel.

Space Wolves: The battle leader and last couple of blood claws move back away from the enemy armor. The vindicator fires its demolisher cannon at the immolator, shaking it. The scouts try to kill just one battle sister and bring their squad below 50% but cannot make it happen. The penitent engine puts down two more grey hunters.

Turn 6

Witch Hunters: The exorcist takes one last shot at the vindicator, but even with 6 shots is unable to do any damage. The seraphim fly over next to a drop pod in an attempt to straddle the two quarters. The penitent engine kills another two grey hunters, leaving only the powerfist troopers who are unable to return the favor, only shaking it. They break and flee from the crazed walker.

Space Wolves: The vindicator finishes the duel of the tanks by shaking and destroying the main weapon of the exorcist. One squad of grey hunters kill one of seraphim and the other one shoots at the cannoness but can't pierce her 2+ save.

Witch Hunters win, solid victory.

Battle Report: Tyranids vs. Chaos 5-19-07

Bully vs. C. - 2000 points - Seek and Destroy

Hive Fleet Vivax is now all ghosted up and I'm almost ready to start wading into their proper paint jobs. But I'm impatient and they're ready enough, so we pitted the two evils in my collection against one another. Nids had 1 hive tyrant, 1 broodlord with 8 genestealers, lictor, 2 x 3 warriors, 2 x 12 genestealers, 2 x 20 termagants, 1 zoanthrope, and 1 carnifex. Chaos had 1 demon prince, 6 possessed, 8 terminators, 2 obliterators, 8 berzerkers, 8 bloodletters, and 8 havocs.

Turn 1

Chaos: The havocs kill 2 genestealers and the terminators and obliterators squish 6 termagants in the shooting phase.

Tyranids: The horde moves up. One terminator is killed by the hive tyrant's venom cannon. The venom cannon in the warrior squad shakes the rhino.

Turn 2

Chaos: The havocs and bikes shoot up the broodlord's approaching squad, killing five. The terminators and obliterators kill two more in a second genestealer squad. The bloodletters arrive next to the berzerkers.

Tyranids: A tyranid warrior kills one berzerker with a barbed strangler, but the fearless squad cannot be pinned by the exploding seedpod. In assault, the broodlord smashes two of the khorne bikers, and his last genestealer brother is killed. Genestealers closest to the havocs charge into them, killing four immediately and the rest are wiped out with a sweeping advance. The genestealers hunker down in the crater.

Turn 3

Chaos: The terminators shoot four genestealers. The berzerkers charge up and shoot at the closest genestealer squad but miss or fail to wound them. Together with the bloodletters they charge into close combat and wipe out the genestealers, but every berzerker but the aspiring champion is killed in the process. The demon prince flies over cover and smashes into the termagants, killing six of them. The rhino plows into the nearby termagant squad.

Tyranids: Termagants finish off the berzerker aspiring champion with their fleshborers. The carnifex charges into the melee between the termagants and demon prince. The big demon tries to wound the carnifex but cannot. The lictor arrives and charge into the terminators along with the nearest squad genestealers. The terminators kill three genestealers but lose six of their own and flee off of the table. The victorious 'nids consolidate into the obliterators standing nearby.

Turn 4

Chaos: The chaos rhino drives into the tyranid warriors, spins around and kills one gaunt with its combibolter. The possessed grow tired of waiting in the rear and charge into the carnifex. The demon prince slaughters four more gaunts. The carnifex kills one possessed and only the possessed champion wounds the big monster back. The obliterators kill two of the offending genestealers. The bloodletters charge into the gaunts and kill fourteen of them, losing one of their own in the process.

Tyranids: The bloody hole where the possessed champion's powerfist punched into the carnifex stitches itself up as the wound regenerates. The hive tyrant and warrior squad charge into the big combat next to them. Both the carnifex and tyrant wound the demon prince, but the possessed champion punches another nasty wound into the carnifex. The tyranid warriors kill one possessed. The bloodletters finish off the gaunts. One obliterator is wounded and one genestealer is killed.

Turn 5

Chaos: The bloodletters charge into a warrior squad and five of them are killed by the faster tyranids. One warrior is wounded. The carnifex and other warrior squad finish off the possessed, and the hive tyrant brings down the demon prince. The lictor kills the wounded obliterator just before the last genestealer is killed.

Tyranids: The lictor wounds the last obliterator, the warriors finish the bloodletters, and the last possessed are killed by the carnifex and other warrior squad.

Turn 6

Chaos: The lictor finishes off the obliterator; chaos is totally destroyed.

Tyranids win, crushing victory.

And Now, Some Irrational Indulgence in Dice Superstition

The forces of karma sit up and pay careful attention when you’re rolling dice. The muted clack of hard plastic on felt is like a siren call to their subtle, mysterious manipulations. Arrogance, impatience, or maternal epithets are all bound to screw you in the end. Here are five things about dice and rolling that I’ve learned from innumerable games of 40k over the years. I’ve numbered them two to six because, honestly, who likes ones? Your opponent, that’s who.

2. Get your own dice - There’s no excuse for showing up without your own set. If you forgot them at home, don’t bother asking to borrow, just leave. Sit in your closet for the rest of the day and think about what you’ve done. You’re a jackass. Don’t use your opponent’s bones, even if convenient or expedient. If just one enemy die gets mixed up with a bunch of yours, the bad mojo will spread like wildfire in your hand and contaminate the whole set. The next thing you know, you just lost half your terminators to lasgun fire.

3. Match your curtains and drapes - Color coordinated dice might seem ridiculous, but nothing says devoted generalship like a set of dice that match your force’s color scheme. Besides the aesthetic benefits, you’re much less likely to mix up the dice pools, thereby preventing “creeping dice loss” (I imagine they go the same place as lost socks?), as well as warding off nasty enemy dice cooties. Seriously, that shit is real.

4. Slow your roll - A calm, collected throw is always best. Negative energy from arrogance or frustration might not affect the roll result itself; sometimes flying dice have a way of seeking out the most susceptible model on the board and demolishing it entirely. The slightest cocky swagger in your pitching arm could send that perfectly painted mini (perched precariously on yonder wrecked watchtower) toppling down to an early grave in your bitz box.

5. Two is better than one - Five-sixths might seem like a huuuuuge fraction, but it isn’t. That single centered dot has ears, and it’s listening to your words very carefully. Speak its name, and watch it rise to the top to answer your call. I’m taking a risk myself by printing this, but don’t ever say you need “anything but a one.” What you want is a “two or better.”

6. I’m killing you with mind bullets - I’ve never seen any proof that human beings can use telekinesis, but maybe (just maybe) we just don’t know how to look for it. Visualize the results you need and chant away, preferably to yourself. More than once a plaintive wish has pushed a wavering die over in the right direction.

Karel's Wrapup

Thanks to everyone who played in the tournament last weekend. I know both I and C. had a great time, and I think everyone present would be willing to play another in a couple months. Overall, the game size (1500) and random missions worked pretty well, but we may want to retool the way we pick the pairings. Eric was a really good sport and I think he learned a lot, but experience-wise his second round was a bit of a mismatch.

In the future, I think we should consider pairings based on seeds for the 1st game. A player’s seed could be determined by rank in their last tournament, and maybe have newcomers always start out at the bottom for their first tournament. For second round pairings and overall tourney ranking, we need to decide whether we want to use total victory points or have folks earn what I’ll call “juju-points,” based on what type of victory/loss they experienced. I think the latter is most common at normal tournaments; it’s normally used at Dragon's Lair to good effect. The two methods produce slightly different results - in the Karel's Folly tourney, using the total VP method resulted in this ranking (the official results):

1st: C.
2nd: Mack
3rd: Bully
4th: Marcos
5th: Pat
6th: Eric

Just for the sake of providing an example, using the sliding scale the result would be:

Tied for 1st: C. & Bully
2nd: Mack
3rd: Marcos
4th: Pat
5th: Eric

In this case, it didn't make much of a difference (ok, besides bumping me past Mack - suck it, Necrones de Guerra!), but it decides the 2nd round loser/drawer brackets a bit better. We can still draw for pairings in cases of juju-point ties or to keep folks from playing the same person twice in the same tourney.

Ghost Ride The Whip

Ghos ridin, ghos ridin. Some people I know will put a unit on the top of full transports to represent the folks riding inside. Typically they choose a sergeant or an independent character, someone of power, stature and/or gravitas. Because you don't want just any goon out there on the top, no, you need a real thug ghost riding that whip, holding it down, keeping it real, and above all, giving your enemies an eyeful of the whupass that lies just inside his can.