So R0ot entertained me with a practice game this week also. I used the game as a method of getting back to guessing ranges accurately and opted for a heavy deep striking deployment. This was obviously the wrong deployment but as I said I was using this as an opportunity to get back some eagle eye range guessing I haven't had with this list since last year's ETC.
A few people have pointed out how pointy clicky Oblit spam Chaos are (much the same people who say Vendetta/Hydra spam are point and click) but I couldn't disagree more and watching a master play these lists is a real treat. One such
master is
Peter Scott who I had the pleasure of watching in game 4 of
Itzacon this year against
Nick Meade, he was able to manoeuvre his Daemon Prince in order to Lash of Submission a unit of Grey Hunters 24" away while being 25" away from the Rune Priest in the same squad!! It's ability like that that seperates point and click players from tactically agile players. No surprise then that Peter went on to win
Itzacon by beating
Barra MacNiocaill in the final.
Shane is playing Black Templars at the ETC for Team Northern Ireland this year. While not a typical tournament choice Black Templars have, after their recent FAQ, become an attractive choice for ETC teams given their newly upgraded Terminator Squads and Land Speeders. This is exactly what Shane was playing, spam S8AP3 rockets on Land Speeders, minimum Las/Plas Initiates Squads and Terminator Squads wielding some badass S9 rockets.
Mission:
Primary: 5 Objectives
Secondary: 1 Objective each (in our deployment zones)
Deployment: Dawn of War
Shane won the roll off and proceeded to deploy some Las/Plas goodness.
I deployed a single Rhino with my icon and squad inside, I figured with nightfighting and then popping smoke on my first turn the icon could survive long enough to get close to the Templar line.
I heavy reserved and everything that could deep strike (apart from the Prince) was going to, with some lucky rolls I wanted to see what overwhelming the Templar line would look like but also how well the force could cope with a non-typical deployment.
Shane used a massive piece of terrain on his side to pop his home objective (which counted for primary
and secondary remember, mine was close to my table edge in the centre, just right for my walking on troops to grab while hustled in a Land Raider.
T1: Shane pops my Rhino with his Krak Rockets....oops.... The boys inside pin themselves and since I have nothing coming on from reserve Turn 1 we go straight to Shane's T2.
My T2 and finally I get to do something! My icon of Chaos Glory and one marine survive Shane's second turn of fire to act as a homing beacon for my deep striking units, I roll and get one Land Raider, 5 Chaos Space Marines, 1 Obliterator unit and both my Terminator units, not the worst!
Shane rightly points out to me that Warp Quake will prevent my Icon of Chaos Glory from doing as much, a good point from him since I have yet to encounter it, encountering it at ETC and not remembering what it does would have been potentially painful...
Shane's remaining speeder from one squad attempts a multi melta shot at my Land Raider but is foiled by a faithful Warhead dice. My Lash Prince decides to show up on Turn 4 to Lash Shane's unit off his objective and into a nice neat little bunch on top of the building his objective is in (I didn't get enough to get them out of the building so opted for the next best option, plasma death).
Unfortunately that didn't work so well and lots of the Plasma missed...hence Shane only took one casualty and passed his Righteous Zeal move using it to move back down a floor (as it's technically closer to me) and right back onto his objective.
Seven Obliterators against the Emperor's Chump? Give me a break, too easy....
Uh-oh....well I still have four Obliterators beside him, should be fine...
Below are my saving throws for Krak rockets fired at the unit.....4 1's!
And as you can see, 1 Obliterator survived! Unfortunately he needed a 5 on 2D6 to assault the unit on Shane's middle ground objective and he didn't get it, even if he had it wouldn't have made a difference as he had me well and truly goosed.
I made a tactical error Turn 5 and me and Shane had a good chat about it mid game (the luxury of which I won't have in a few days....), it's times like this where you can iron out problems with your view of the battle, your units' capabilities and ensuring that your eye is used to the units' ranges or lack thereof. This was you can trust your gut when the time comes that you've practiced most manoeuvres sufficiently.
Shane gypsied my objectives Turn 7, I had the game sealed Turn 6 but it was a fragile win, the game went on and Shane rightfully stole it back.
I realised how much horde this list can handle with it's volume of firepower, specifically Stealer Shock, the Land Speeders can move 12" and lay down a punishing level of firepower with their dual frag templates and heavy bolters. I wonder how our Stealer Shock player would feel about it...
Anyway, a great game, more problems ironed out with the list (by list I mean me) and a bit more experience gained before the ETC.
The winner's banquet:
Many thanks to R0ot for providing the tough opposition and eating the skin off all the KFC.....that's the best part!!
Next up: Barra MacNiocaill's Blood Angels....
Labels: Black Templars, Chaos, ETC, Maynard, Overseas Tournaments, Team Ireland, Team Northern Ireland, Warhammer 40K
Shane used a massive piece of terrain on his side to pop his home objective (which counted for primary and secondary remember, mine was close to my table edge in the centre, just right for my walking on troops to grab while hustled in a Land Raider.
T1: Shane pops my Rhino with his Krak Rockets....oops.... The boys inside pin themselves and since I have nothing coming on from reserve Turn 1 we go straight to Shane's T2.
My T2 and finally I get to do something! My icon of Chaos Glory and one marine survive Shane's second turn of fire to act as a homing beacon for my deep striking units, I roll and get one Land Raider, 5 Chaos Space Marines, 1 Obliterator unit and both my Terminator units, not the worst!
Uh-oh....well I still have four Obliterators beside him, should be fine...
I made a tactical error Turn 5 and me and Shane had a good chat about it mid game (the luxury of which I won't have in a few days....), it's times like this where you can iron out problems with your view of the battle, your units' capabilities and ensuring that your eye is used to the units' ranges or lack thereof. This was you can trust your gut when the time comes that you've practiced most manoeuvres sufficiently. 
