Post by hannibal on Jan 21, 2020 21:50:59 GMT
3 games 1500point maelstrom missions from CA 2019 using Schemes of war. all Dawn of War deployment
My list
Kraken batallion
Flyrant, MRC, AG, TS, Twin devourers, Chameleonic mutation relic.
Malanthrope Warlord
16 Genestealers
16 Genestealers
3 rippers
Kronos Battalion
Flyrant, HVC, MRC
Neurothrope
3 rippers
3 rippers
20 termagants
5 Hive Guard Impaler cannons
Exocrine Adaptive physiology 5++
Game 1 Nick Iron Hands Ambitious Surge.
Master of the Forge, Relic Leviathon dreadnought, two Invictor warsuits, 2 storm talons, 2 thunderfire cannons, a Repulsor executioner and no cover in my deployment zone.
Two things prolonged the inevitable here, Nick deployed in both corners to avoid the Genestealer charge so I was able to move away turn 1 avoid some shooting and hide behind terrain. Also Nick’s dice were stone cold for the first three turns. I made a few positioning mistakes early on which allowed Nick to get more shots of than absolutely necessary but when Nicks dice started to roll average I ended up being tabled turn 6. It was a high scoring game with Nick winning 30 points to 19. I only killed 5 models, both Invictors, both Storm talons and his Warlord. Three highlights for me, 1, The Exocrine blowing apart a Storm talon turn 1. 2, The Kraken Flyrant deep struck in making a 10 inch charge through the woods and ripping apart an Invictor in close combat, 3, every player in the vicinity looking at Nicks army and going urrgh I don’t want to play that, two of whom were Iron hands players. Despite the toughness of his list Nick was a nice guy and it was a fun entertaining game. Nick went on to finish second at the event winning all three games. Spoiler alert. I did not win the event.
Game 2 Sam Custodes Confined Command.
Trajan, Jetbike Captain, banner waver, Telemon dreadnought, Calladius, Pallus, 2 x 3 infantry with stormshields, 3 heavy bolter forge world chaps.
Great another low count shooty army of hard to kill models.
Luckily I went first and took out the Pallus turn 1 with the Exocrine and Hiveguard, I pushed up and took board control. Unfortunately turn 2 I hit like a wet noodle and only killed 1 Custodes. Luckily Sam was having a bad time with his cards so wasn’t able to capitalise. Turn 3 I killed his jetbike captain and two units of custodes infantry. The kraken Flyrant did a great job of passing enough invul saves to tie up Trajan, 3 Custodes and his banner bearer in combat from Turn 2 onwards. Sadly, this was a slow game so we only got to turn 3 and I won 7 to 4. We both struggled with cards and both used the ability to discard our hands turn 1 and redraw and we still both failed to achieve a card turn 1. I got a bit lucky with my Flyrant invul saves but also made a huge error turn 2. Rather than playing the Supremacy card for holding 3 objectives I decided to go for No Prisoners. My flawed thinking was that he had 7 infantry models on the table and I could easily kill them and score objectives later on. Lesson learned.
Game 3. Alex Raven Guard. Critical Objective.
Chapter master, Captain, 2 leautenants, 2 Eliminator squads, Aggressors, 2 Suppressors squads, 6 Intercessor squads, Hellblasters,
As Alex was going first I used Prepared positions and then used a command point to give the Hive Guard +2 cover save as there was a good ruin in my deployment zone. Alex’s first turn was punishing. The Eliminators and sniper characters put 5 wounds on the Malanthrope. Suppressors and bolt rifles killed 4 out of 5 Hive Guard. He also killed 7 Genestealers from 1 unit and 6 from the other. He missed first strike though. I responded by killing the Aggressors and killing an Intercessor squad with the Genestealers. Turn 2 Alex killed the Exocrine and Malanthrope and all but 1 Genestealer. My Flyrants tried to retaliate, one smited, shot and charged an Eliminator squad but only killed two then lost 2 wounds in combat. The other one charged his Warlord Captain only caused 3 damage but lost 6 wounds in return due to his relic power sword. Turn 3 was more of the same and I lost the Termagants, Kronos Flyrant and Neurothrope. With that we were low on time so just talked through my turn to score the cards. Which was a shame as my Flyrant, single Hive Guard and 9 rippers was just about to mount the mother of all comebacks and decimate the Raven Guard from turn four onwards. Alex ended up winning 13 10.
In the end I finished the event in 24 out of 43 so not great.
Learnings.
Exocrines are great, I need two or three…
Genestealers still scare people but two units of 16 without Swarmlord didn’t work, 1 unit of 20 with Swarmlord would have worked better.
Termagants were useless, two units of rippers are better for holding objectives or even for screening.
The Flyrants were surprisingly good and one with Chameleonic mutation relic, invul and Catalyst was very tanky.
Despite needing to kill units using wrap and trap with the Genestealers in games two and three worked really well.
Schemes of war make maelstrom games much better however…
First turn is too important, games tow and three were essentially decided by who went first Maelstrom makes this even worse as there is no reason to go second.
I need to play my army faster, whilst only getting two turn 3 in two games wasn’t solely my fault I could definitely speed up.
