The first event was Death or Glory 2, a favourite of many on the scene. This was an 1,850pt, 5 game tournament held in Ashtead inside the M25, and was run by the guys from the Death or Glory blog (deathorgloryblog.blogspot.co.uk). I was of course running Chaos Space Marines. All of the lists from the event can be found here (http://www.scribd.com/doc/210492634/DoG2-Army-Lists-V2), but because, quite frankly I've got far too much to write to put any effort into it, especially on a brand new keyboard which I am still getting used to typing on, here is a half hearted copy and paste job of my list: Or at least be if the format didn't ruin blogger. So here is a hand typed version, appreciate it:
Chaos Lord:
-Black Mace
-Mark of Khorne
-Terminator Armour
Chaos Lord
-Axe of Blind Fury
-Mark of Khorne
-Terminator Armour
8 Chaos Marines
-Mark of Khorne
-Free Dual Close Combat Weapons
-Meltagun
-Melta Bombs
8 Chaos Marines
-Mark of Khorne
-Free Dual Close Combat Weapons
-Meltagun
-Melta Bombs
10 Cultists
-2 Autoguns
4 Chaos Spawn
-Mark of Nurgle
4 Chaos Spawn
-Mark of Nurgle
-Dirge Casters
-Dozer Blade
Land Raider
-Dirge Casters
-Dozer Blade
Daemon Allies
Bloodthirster
-2 Greater Rewards
10 Pink Horrors
Aegis Defence Line
I should say, if you want to hear more about this tournament, including about my list from various difference sources and from me personally, or are bored for over 7 hours, I would recommend the 40kGlobal Podcast.
So, first game. The lists and our opponent's went up in advance, and I was playing against Sam Limb, who was rocking the following list:
Farseer
-Jetbike
-Mantle of the Laughing God
-Singing Spear
-Runes of Witnessing
Fire Dragons
-Wave Serpent
-Holo Fields
-Scatter Lasers
Dire Avengers
-Wave Serpents
-Scatter Lasers
-Shuriken Cannon
-Holofields
Dire Avengers
-Wave Serpents
-Scatter Lasers
-Shuriken Cannon
-Holofields
Jetbikes
-Shuriken Cannon
Jetbikes
-Shuriken Cannon
Jetbikes
-Shuriken Cannon
7 Warp Spiders
7 Warp Spiders
Wraithknight
-Suncannon
-Scatter Shield
Fire Prism
-Holofields
Fire Prism
-Holofields
The mission was Scouring and Vanguard Strike, and when I first saw this list I was really worried. He has a lot of potential to pop the Land Raiders and he can really bully me about the board so easily in the later game with the Wraithknight once the Bloodthirster inevitably goes down.
However, a couple of things happen that gives me a chance in the right circumstances. First off, I choose deployment zone, and I pick the one with a piece of Line of Sight blocking in it, this means that when I win the roll off to see who goes first, I can give him first turn, so that he now can't get the jump on the objectives with his jetbikes without fear of getting blown away immediately. Secondly, the objective placement is huge. What has happened, is that within about a 2ft x 1ft section of the board, are 4 of the objectives. In this section, we have both of the 2pts, a 3pt and the 4pt objectives, and these are pretty much around the centre of the board, slightly weighted towards my side.
So, what I do is a paste my Aegis defence line right along the board centre. This is so that I can plow forward, take this area, and now I am the one dictating the play.
So, I hide behind the terrain, he tries to shoot at me a little, does no damage, I boost up to the Aegis and that's it for turn 1 as predicted. Now, in turn 2 he catches me off guard a little with an incredibly ballsy play. What he does is he turbo-boosts the Wave Serpent with all of the Fire Dragons in it to the side of my Land Raiders. This essentially concedes free First Blood to me, however, if the Fire Dragons live, I lose a Land Raider. So, I pump some Lascannon shots into it and move a squad of Spawn around ready to charge them if the transport dies. It doesn't, so I charge in the Spawn.
What I do here is try a little trick. I charge it, and make sure with my fleet that I can completely cover the exit for the occupants, because if I wreck a vehicle, not explode, just strip all of its hull points, and the guys inside can't get out, they die, as they have to make the emergency disembark, and then the vehicle wrecks. However, unfortunately, \I get 3 penetrating hits with S5 models, and then it explodes, so the far Dragons are fine. So I'm resigned to losing a Land Raider.
That's exactly what happens, my Axe of Blind Fury Lord's pimp ride explodes. However, I am not resigned to a Fire Prism blowing up the other one (which is in 4+ cover by the way) too. So now, in turn 3, I am really up against it, because pretty much all of my board control, in a mission which is heavily about such things, is gone. So, it's about camping down and trying to hold on. The Bloodthirster and the Spawn are trying to make as much of a nuisance of themselves as possible. If one spawn remains they can still claim but I am trying to be everywhere at once forcing him to ignore the carnage in the centre. The Fire Dragons go down, as do a sqaud of Warp Spiders and the Dire Avenger squads.
In return, the Cultists all die and the Marines are taking casualties. The Bloodthirster falls in turn 4. However, the biggest issue here is the Wraithknight, and this is where my opponent makes a mistake. I have nothing to deal with that Wraithknight, all he has to do, is march it into midfield, and charge me, I am locked in, he's contesting, and I am very very unlikely to ever get out of that combat, that leaves his remaining force to mop up the Spawn and he wins.
However, he spends the entire game shooting, and when it comes to turn 5. I have Spawn on a 3pt objective in his backfield, both of the 2 pt objectives, and the other 3 pt in the centre, he has the 4pt and the 1pt, and we are even on Fast Attack choices, having killed one each. The game ends, and I win 11-6. We play on for giggles, I would still have won turn 6, but he would have tabled me turn 7.
So, all in all a very good game. My opponent made a couple of mistakes, one of which worked though and he got a Land Raider for it but the other cost him the game. That said, it was his first tournament and his general tactical play was of a very high standard. If I were to play him in a tournament again in a years time, I think I would really struggle much harder, and very probably lose the game. That said, he ended up going 3-2 over the weekend, a good record by anyone's standard, much more so for your first tournament, and I would love to play him in the future. Right, my fingers are wrecked, I will upload the second game tomorrow, I am going to repair them in the only way I know. League. See you later.
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