'Ard Boys Regionals Wrap Up: Part II "So, How Did the List Do?"

First let's look at my anticipation of what armies would do well and where the battles would be fought. 

Yes, I know this one tournament is a small data sample and so comparing to nationwide results has limited applicability.

However, from the perspective of the individual, in this case me, it contains 100% of the data needed.

So who won in Michigan, USA?

Deamons 1st, Grey Knight's 2nd, Grey Knight Purifier spam (my second round opponent) 3rd.

Midfield aggressive armies for the win with 5/6 troops....check. As I spent round two and three at the top tables and had a good view...battles fought in the middle of table...check.

A side bar here. Mission Two (most troop units within 6" of center of table) was generally a cluster.

In the venue I attended many tables had very large cumbersome line of sight blocking terrain directly in the center of the table. 

While providing further challenge it also gave an even larger advantage to midfield aggression armies as they could rush the center...which was large so you could reach it faster;  worry about less enemy fire...as it was enormous and blocked much line of sight; then camp and shoot with a great cover save...especially it able to modify with tech marine, shrouding, etc. This does not even get into the actual real physical problems of messing with your models in that cluster.

In my second game my opponent had 5 terminators w/grenade launching techmarine in one storm raven and 5 paladins w/shrouding libby in another. I thought for sure he would rush the large set of ruins mid table..bolster it then use shrouding to receive 2+ cover...then just insert all troops unit, block and tank shock any of my units with vehicles and use remaining units of his to attack/block line of sight my units. Since I could not have assaulted him off with my list and his out shoots me at close range with a 2+ cover save to boot I thought the game was a wash when I saw his list and the table....however this did not occur to him and the game took a different route.

Lastly on the missions and predictions, I did not anticipate that the third mission in many instances would be greatly hampered by limited time. Not rolling for mission type till turn three in effect made the mission much more unpredictable as turn three was the next to last turn of the game. It would have been more effective to assume the game would be decided by table quarters or terrain pieces (66%) and deploy/play accordingly. One game turn was not enough to play the mission as intended.

Alright on to my list. What worked? What did not?

The list I ended up taking was this:

HQ1: Njal Storm Caller [245]
HQ2: Rune Priest, Bike, Jaws, Living Lightening [135]

E1: Wolf scouts: #5, melta gun [85]
E2: Wolf Scouts: #6 sniper riflesx5, missile launchr [115]
E3: Wolf Guard:#5 [185]
.....wolf guard #1,#2 no upgrades (18ea)
.....wolf guard #3, #4..combi melta, pwr fist (43ea)
.....WG #5..TDA, cyclone (63)

T1:Grey Hunters: #5, flamer, HB Rzrback [115]
T2:GH's: #5, melta, HB Rzrback [120]
T3:GH's: #5 melta, Asslt Cnn Rzrback [155]
T4:GH's:#5, melta, Asslt Cnn Rzrback [155]
T5:GH's: #7, melta, wolf banner, mark of wulfen, rhino [170]
T6:Gh's: #7, melta, wolf banner, mark of wulfen, rhino [170]

F1:Swift Claws: #5, melta, multi melta Attk Bike, melta bombs[200]
F2:Speeder: #1 HB Typhoon missile launcher [90]
F3:Speeder: #1 Multi melta, hvy flmer [70]

H1:Long Fangs: #5, 4 Missile launcher, Twin linked Lascannon Rzrback [190]
H2:Long Fangs:#6, 3 Hvy Bolter, 2 Plasma cannon, TL LC Rzrback [220]
H3:Predator: Autocannon, Hvy Bolter Sponsons [85]

Total 2500pts

I did swap out the Swift Claw bikers power fist for melta bombs last minute the change enabled me to drop a land raider Game 1, and weakened me in Game 2 and 3; where in each game I made the mistake of allowing them to be assaulted.

I have played SW's now a total of 6 times. Three when the codex first came out and three this last Saturday...so some inexperience did appear. I was informed of a couple FaQ's or SW rules. This is unacceptable on my part and I need to improve. This combined with general ring rust (lack of play time) affected how much I was able to get the most out of each unit.

Njal: Mixed bag. Found out he has no invul save unless in terminator armor. I had read, reread his entry and somehow convinced myself he had a 4+. I was wrong. He died once de-meched in game two to GK Mind Strike missiles without even a whimper. Game three he went down swinging but not having an invul really hurts him. His bonus round powers did ok. Going second saw me unable to use a few of them (so, yes I played this part correctly). I did a good job of not forgetting to use his powers. Where he is most useful is the 3+ blocking save against enemy psychic powers and his ability to use any power. I used most often the storm caller (5+ cover) and murderous hurricane (killed 5 terminators, 11 marines on the day). I never fired jaws once.

Rune Priest on a bike: Sad face, total fail. This guy should of had...chooser, melta bomb, runic armor, and been able to cast lightening and murderous hurricane. He died too easy and did not support the swift claws well.  I also found myself wanting to split him off and he was not well equipped to do so. The above changes would have made him more expensive, but much more useful in almost every way. Jaws is not a good power when facing primarily I5 or higher armies and I thought of that but did not make the change. I did debate on it for quite a bit on the drive to the game store. I choose wrong. I will say I am not going to give up on him just yet. One outing is too little in my opinion to make a conclusive decision.

Wolf Scouts: Sad face. Refused to come in till too late. Killed one Rzrback on the day. Died horribly each game. On the day they ended up an 85 point handicap.

Sniper Wolf Scouts: Big smile. They did quite well. I deployed them to their death game three. But, they tore things up game 1 and 2. The popped two rhinos, several marines, and a few other things I can't remember. I was pleasantly surprised and plan to add a few points into the unit for another body or two to increase the rending possibilities.

Wolf Guard: The two red shirts did their duty. The two PF/Combi melta only died and died more expensively. The cyclone missile launcher WG I ran solo all day and he took a good toll on the enemy. He was easy to hide and took out more than one vehicle. I like running him by himself.

Troops: The MVP of the troop choices were the two assault cannon razorbacks. They tore up tanks and infantry alike all three games. My opponents hardly targeted them. I kept them midfield and in as much cover as possible. Generally the two rhino squads advanced with the Hvy Bolter squads moving towards the assault cannon squads in the process. This worked ok, the boards were very congested.  But my two assault cannon squads accounted for two storm ravens, a couple dozen infantry, couple rhinos and more stunned, shaken, wpn destroyed results than I can count.  My larger troop squads...blah...they were eaten alive by purifiers in two games.  But, too early to dismiss them.  The small rzrback squads did ok and provided blocking and sacrificial moves well. They did bait a purifier squad out of their rhino game 3 only later to eat plasma cannon fire. On the day though, I found little use for their meltas.

Swift  Claw Bikers: Mixed bag. They took out a land raider very handily game 1. Then in game 2 and 3 I made the mistake of allowing them to be assaulted. I used to do this with my Necron Destroyers for a long time.  So, they really can't not be held accountable if I don't use them well. I will say had I took murderous hurricane(MH) on my rune priest they would have done much better. Since MH makes the target unit move as in difficult/dangerous terrain in addition to shooting affect it would greatly enhance their ability to get close and still not get assaulted.

The two speeders: Cyclone/Hvy bolter....liked it. The Multi-melta/Hvy flamer...disliked it. The MM/HF speeder did not support my list well. I wanted the MM for the tank killing...but I miss the one shot way too much for such a fragile platform. I will either run with a MM/Assault Cannon...or use the points for a second Wolf Guard with cyclone missile launcher.

Missile Toting Long Fangs:  Did well. Will find the points for the 5th guy. Though they were not awesome, they did well. The TL LC Rzrback also provided additional needed firepower.

Hvy Bltr/Plasma Cannon Long Fangs: MVP of the day. These guys ate dozens of marines for lunch. The plasma cannons especially. Had I took a second unit of these fellas I can honestly say I would have won game 2 and probably game 3.

Predator: Mixed bag. Killed a marine or two. These things are just awesome on paper, but rarely perform well for me. I will probably save this tank for my campaign force or very low point games, using the points in higher games to pack in long fangs with plasma cannons and hvy bolters.

In retrospect what list would have performed better?

(Note here: Most times you can not use a list retrospection overmuch as it would have changed the outcome of your next round opponent. In this instance however, I had a perfect score round 1. So, round two would have been identicle. Round three may have saw me against Deamons or GK's again. I like the list improvement versus deamons as well.)

HQ1: Rune Priest, Chooser, MH, Storm Caller [110]
HQ2: Rune Priest, Bike, melta bomb, chooser,  MH, Living Lightening [150]

E1: Wolf Scouts: #8 sniper riflesx6, missile launchr [151]
E2: Wolf Guard:#5 [268]
.....wolf guard #1,#2, one combi melta, one storm bolter upgrades (23 and 21 points)
.....wolf guard  #3, #4 ..combi melta, frost axe (38ea)
.....WG #5..TDA, cyclone (63)

....Assault Cannon Rzr Back (75)

T1:GH's: #5, melta, Asslt Cnn Rzrback [155]
T2:GH's: #5 melta, Asslt Cnn Rzrback [155]
T3:GH's:#5, melta, Asslt Cnn Rzrback [155]
T4:GH's: #7, melta, wolf banner, mark of wulfen, rhino [170]
T5:Gh's: #7, melta, wolf banner, mark of wulfen, rhino [170]

F1:Swift Claws: #4, melta, multi melta Attk Bike, melta bombs[170]
F2:Speeder: #1 HB Typhoon missile launcher [90]
F3:Speeder: #1 Multi melta, Asslt Cannon [100]

H1:Long Fangs: #6, 5 Missile launcher, Twin linked Lascannon Rzrback [215]
H2:Long Fangs:#6, 3 Hvy Bolter, 2 Plasma cannon, TL LC Rzrback [220]

H2:Long Fangs:#6, 3 Hvy Bolter, 2 Plasma cannon, TL LC Rzrback [220]

Total 2499pts

With removing Njal, melta wolf scouts, the pred, and one troop choice; I added 3 asslt cannon rzrbacks, more useful IC's, more melta, a third long fang squad, 2 more sniper scouts, and an assault cannon on the speeder, for a total effect of much increased midfield mobile firepower and increased tank hunting without losing infantry damaging fire nor tactical effectiveness.

Thanks for the read,

BDS