Well, not the best performance for the Black Templars, but the only thing I can say for sure is that at least I don't keep repeating the same mistakes. I've read more than one GT winner say that it takes about a year for a newb to quit stumbling and become competitive and they may just be right. Well, I do have a few more months to go before the year hits.
My list:
HQ: EC-AACNMTO
2x Castellan (SS/LC,Frags) w/ Term Cmd Squad (1xCML/SB/PF, 1xCML/SB/CF, 1xSB/PF, 1x SS/PW) Tank Hunters
Elites: Ven DN (TLLC/DCCW/HF/XA) Tank Hunters (No, no pod)
2x THDC Terminator Squads (2xCML/SB/PF, 2xSB/PF, 1xSB/CF) Tank Hunters
Troops: 3xCrusaders (5/0, Meltagun, 4xBolter, Drop Pod)
1xCrusaders (5/1, Meltagun, 4xBolter, Neo-BP/CCW, Drop Pod)
1xCrusaders (5/3, Meltagun, 7xBP/CCW, Drop Pod, Frags)
Fast Attack: 6x LS-Typhoons with Heavy Bolters split into three squadrons
Everything but the Drop Pods started on the board in each game. The lone Neophyte in the one Crusader squad was my giveaway troop in scenario 1.
Scenario 1: An IG list from Warchant(?) called "Ultimate Tactical Genius" IIRC. Creed, Chimera full of psykers, twin Vendettas, Al'hareem(sp?) with a full platoon, 3x Hydras, 1xDeathstrike (?, the one shot missile), 2x Leman Russ Demolishers in a squadron, Veteran squad (with scout) & Marbo. The mechanized platoon, Demolishers, and Vets were all outflanking.
This one I walked into with my eyes open and got my pants torn open for me. I took a chance on turn 1 funneling almost everything between two patches of 4+ difficult terrain which on turn two would have had me spread out and nicely setup on turn two to start sweeping the board with the ability to smash anything rolling in on the right flank. I had thought about scattering initially, but it looked like a good chance to take to secure one flank, smash the center and sweep onwards. First turn went well, I lost one Speeder and one Terminator while smashing half of Creed's squad, shaking two of the Hydras, exploding one Vendetta and immobilizing the second. Of course, the second turn a 6 was rolled and here came the BF missile with an 8" blast radius that hit its target right in the middle of my troops. Lost all my Speeders, Dreadnought, and several Terminators. It still wasn't that bad a setup except I couldn't manage to roll kills on any vehicles other than one Chimera (did get a pair of Hydras and a Leman Russ through immobilization, but only after I had done some weapon destroyed hits). All in all, not an unmanageable game for the rest of it, Pod scatter was fine and I started piling up kill points, but a sudden rush of failure in my armor saves for the Crusader squad with the traitor (which did a 12" offset right in front of the onrushing IG platoon) wiped him out before I could withdraw back into the secured zone in the enemy deployment area.
End result: Major Victory for IG mainly from the Traitor killing. 21-3 Big, big lingering question is over the Psyker squad's ability to "Weaken Resolve" when the squad being "weakened" was getting Rites of Battle leadership from another model in another squad. I didn't argue too hard at the time because I had a lot to kill and the TO was having to play a ringer army. That hurt about as much as the missile strike when combined with RZ. If it works as it did in this game then the next time I see IG Psyker squads, I'm going to dump everything I have into them first.
Lessons Learned: Perhaps I should have gone for the center setup, but the flanking move supported/supporting the drop pods still looked too nice. It would get everything moving from left to right with sufficient fire support and melee capability to smash anything outflanking from the left. I think I'd repeat that "mistake" again, gambling on the Deathstrike and dropping my first pod in range to melta it. This one is really "I wish you hadn't rolled that 6", although I'd actually like to repeat that game with me having the first turn.
Scenario 2: Blood Angels. Stormraven with DC Dread, DC squad and Librarian, Vindicator, Rhino with squad, Razorback (not sure it actually had a squad in or not), tactical squad combat squad split on foot, assault squad split for deep strike and Landraider Redeemer with some kind of CC nastiness inside.
Worked fairly well, but this is the one where I actually did the newbie oopsie badly. Lost the roll and went first. I shot down the Stormraven on my first shot, then disarmed the Dreadnought and thinned out the Death Company squad. On turn two one of the Castellan led Terminator squads proved their worth by smashing the remnants of the DC squad with the LC & PW while the PF finished off the Librarian. Blocked the LRR with a drop pod and ended up wrecking it while preventing any advance to the center. Lots of fun doing some shooting. In fact, the fun of shooting was what cost me this game. The last turn, a drop of one of the assault squads grabbed my home objective and a 5" run from their immobilized Rhino got a tactical squad just in range of one of the 2 point objectives. Final: 3-2.
Results: Minor victory for Blood Angels. 14-9 (all my HQs survived and we both got bonus for no HS left)
Lessons Learned: To get an angle and LOS, I walked my "home" objective guys too far away to contest it. Again, to get a shot trying for a kill (in a game where killing didn't matter at all for victory) I didn't move a Crusader squad back to secure the middle objective. Again, to get the shot, I didn't move a pair of Speeder squadrons over to be in contest position on the other two point objective (which IMO would have enabled me to shoot him off his home objective). I held the other hard with the a Crusader squad screened by a Castellan, Term Sgt and Cyclone Term in cover. This one was an outright bungling for me, I had the tempo and the control of the entire situation. At the minimum, except for my going for kills of toys it should have been a minor victory for me by simply moving my Speeders over to contest that two point objective. Moving the Crusader squad back would have resulted in a major victory even with the other errors and if I had kept the contesting done, it actually should have been a massacre. Once the Stormraven & DC were killed, Vindicator immobilized (and being stun locked) and the LRR blocked and then wrecked with the CC squad bubblewrapped, the game was mine to lose and I lost it.
Scenario 3: Codex Marines: Pair of LRC with the SM tank Sgt and Lysander leading a Terminator squad in one, Chaplain leading TLC & TH/SS Assault Terminators in the other, Scout sniper squad in scout cloaks etc with 2+ cover save, pair of Predators, pair of Rhinos with tactical squads.
I went first, this was a bit of a bloodbath, but again showed the value of a SS/LC Castellan leading a Term Cmd squad with the Sgt having a SS when I shot then charged Lysander's crowd after thinning them out with shooting and beat him and them down (I started outnumbered). This was an extremely LOS restrictive board, so it was real hard to focus fire. The only way I opened it up was by sending two LS squadrons flat out across the board to get flank shots. My opponent had some serious bad luck when he fired an assault cannon and storm bolters into one Castellan & his two remaining Terminators and I botched the saving throws so that Lysander was sitting out front to be charged after taking fire. I can balance this by the Chaplain's LRC which ended up immobilized and without any weapons with enough stun for the next 50 turns.
Results: Minor Victory for Black Templar: 14-7 (he had no FA choices)
Lessons Learned: This is the one where I figured out that the Dreadnought either needed to give up Venerable + Tank Hunters or I need to start walking him across the board. I'm sorry, the long range is nice, the +1 to armor pen is nice, but if I'm using it as a backstop fire base/rear area guard, then it can do that for 140 points. I'm just wasting the other 30 points. It wasn't that big a deal though, so I'm not real upset about it. I do need to learn to use my Speeders better I think, not reserving them so much for krak shooting and use that 12" & 24" move more often.
Game two cost me advancing to the next 'Ard Boyz level since it was a bit on the bloody side. Two reasons: First it cost me points and three places in the final tally. Second, it put me on a table with restricted LOS instead of on one of the more open one (lots of area terrain, but not full of two and three story buildings) for the final game where firepower ruled and IIRC from the standings sheet against an opponent I've played several times and know how to handle in open terrain that I think I could have scored at least a major against.
HQ: EC-AACNMTO
2x Castellan (SS/LC,Frags) w/ Term Cmd Squad (1xCML/SB/PF, 1xCML/SB/CF, 1xSB/PF, 1x SS/PW) Tank Hunters
Elites: Ven DN (TLLC/DCCW/HF/XA) Tank Hunters (No, no pod)
2x THDC Terminator Squads (2xCML/SB/PF, 2xSB/PF, 1xSB/CF) Tank Hunters
Troops: 3xCrusaders (5/0, Meltagun, 4xBolter, Drop Pod)
1xCrusaders (5/1, Meltagun, 4xBolter, Neo-BP/CCW, Drop Pod)
1xCrusaders (5/3, Meltagun, 7xBP/CCW, Drop Pod, Frags)
Fast Attack: 6x LS-Typhoons with Heavy Bolters split into three squadrons
Everything but the Drop Pods started on the board in each game. The lone Neophyte in the one Crusader squad was my giveaway troop in scenario 1.
Scenario 1: An IG list from Warchant(?) called "Ultimate Tactical Genius" IIRC. Creed, Chimera full of psykers, twin Vendettas, Al'hareem(sp?) with a full platoon, 3x Hydras, 1xDeathstrike (?, the one shot missile), 2x Leman Russ Demolishers in a squadron, Veteran squad (with scout) & Marbo. The mechanized platoon, Demolishers, and Vets were all outflanking.
This one I walked into with my eyes open and got my pants torn open for me. I took a chance on turn 1 funneling almost everything between two patches of 4+ difficult terrain which on turn two would have had me spread out and nicely setup on turn two to start sweeping the board with the ability to smash anything rolling in on the right flank. I had thought about scattering initially, but it looked like a good chance to take to secure one flank, smash the center and sweep onwards. First turn went well, I lost one Speeder and one Terminator while smashing half of Creed's squad, shaking two of the Hydras, exploding one Vendetta and immobilizing the second. Of course, the second turn a 6 was rolled and here came the BF missile with an 8" blast radius that hit its target right in the middle of my troops. Lost all my Speeders, Dreadnought, and several Terminators. It still wasn't that bad a setup except I couldn't manage to roll kills on any vehicles other than one Chimera (did get a pair of Hydras and a Leman Russ through immobilization, but only after I had done some weapon destroyed hits). All in all, not an unmanageable game for the rest of it, Pod scatter was fine and I started piling up kill points, but a sudden rush of failure in my armor saves for the Crusader squad with the traitor (which did a 12" offset right in front of the onrushing IG platoon) wiped him out before I could withdraw back into the secured zone in the enemy deployment area.
End result: Major Victory for IG mainly from the Traitor killing. 21-3 Big, big lingering question is over the Psyker squad's ability to "Weaken Resolve" when the squad being "weakened" was getting Rites of Battle leadership from another model in another squad. I didn't argue too hard at the time because I had a lot to kill and the TO was having to play a ringer army. That hurt about as much as the missile strike when combined with RZ. If it works as it did in this game then the next time I see IG Psyker squads, I'm going to dump everything I have into them first.
Lessons Learned: Perhaps I should have gone for the center setup, but the flanking move supported/supporting the drop pods still looked too nice. It would get everything moving from left to right with sufficient fire support and melee capability to smash anything outflanking from the left. I think I'd repeat that "mistake" again, gambling on the Deathstrike and dropping my first pod in range to melta it. This one is really "I wish you hadn't rolled that 6", although I'd actually like to repeat that game with me having the first turn.
Scenario 2: Blood Angels. Stormraven with DC Dread, DC squad and Librarian, Vindicator, Rhino with squad, Razorback (not sure it actually had a squad in or not), tactical squad combat squad split on foot, assault squad split for deep strike and Landraider Redeemer with some kind of CC nastiness inside.
Worked fairly well, but this is the one where I actually did the newbie oopsie badly. Lost the roll and went first. I shot down the Stormraven on my first shot, then disarmed the Dreadnought and thinned out the Death Company squad. On turn two one of the Castellan led Terminator squads proved their worth by smashing the remnants of the DC squad with the LC & PW while the PF finished off the Librarian. Blocked the LRR with a drop pod and ended up wrecking it while preventing any advance to the center. Lots of fun doing some shooting. In fact, the fun of shooting was what cost me this game. The last turn, a drop of one of the assault squads grabbed my home objective and a 5" run from their immobilized Rhino got a tactical squad just in range of one of the 2 point objectives. Final: 3-2.
Results: Minor victory for Blood Angels. 14-9 (all my HQs survived and we both got bonus for no HS left)
Lessons Learned: To get an angle and LOS, I walked my "home" objective guys too far away to contest it. Again, to get a shot trying for a kill (in a game where killing didn't matter at all for victory) I didn't move a Crusader squad back to secure the middle objective. Again, to get the shot, I didn't move a pair of Speeder squadrons over to be in contest position on the other two point objective (which IMO would have enabled me to shoot him off his home objective). I held the other hard with the a Crusader squad screened by a Castellan, Term Sgt and Cyclone Term in cover. This one was an outright bungling for me, I had the tempo and the control of the entire situation. At the minimum, except for my going for kills of toys it should have been a minor victory for me by simply moving my Speeders over to contest that two point objective. Moving the Crusader squad back would have resulted in a major victory even with the other errors and if I had kept the contesting done, it actually should have been a massacre. Once the Stormraven & DC were killed, Vindicator immobilized (and being stun locked) and the LRR blocked and then wrecked with the CC squad bubblewrapped, the game was mine to lose and I lost it.
Scenario 3: Codex Marines: Pair of LRC with the SM tank Sgt and Lysander leading a Terminator squad in one, Chaplain leading TLC & TH/SS Assault Terminators in the other, Scout sniper squad in scout cloaks etc with 2+ cover save, pair of Predators, pair of Rhinos with tactical squads.
I went first, this was a bit of a bloodbath, but again showed the value of a SS/LC Castellan leading a Term Cmd squad with the Sgt having a SS when I shot then charged Lysander's crowd after thinning them out with shooting and beat him and them down (I started outnumbered). This was an extremely LOS restrictive board, so it was real hard to focus fire. The only way I opened it up was by sending two LS squadrons flat out across the board to get flank shots. My opponent had some serious bad luck when he fired an assault cannon and storm bolters into one Castellan & his two remaining Terminators and I botched the saving throws so that Lysander was sitting out front to be charged after taking fire. I can balance this by the Chaplain's LRC which ended up immobilized and without any weapons with enough stun for the next 50 turns.
Results: Minor Victory for Black Templar: 14-7 (he had no FA choices)
Lessons Learned: This is the one where I figured out that the Dreadnought either needed to give up Venerable + Tank Hunters or I need to start walking him across the board. I'm sorry, the long range is nice, the +1 to armor pen is nice, but if I'm using it as a backstop fire base/rear area guard, then it can do that for 140 points. I'm just wasting the other 30 points. It wasn't that big a deal though, so I'm not real upset about it. I do need to learn to use my Speeders better I think, not reserving them so much for krak shooting and use that 12" & 24" move more often.
Game two cost me advancing to the next 'Ard Boyz level since it was a bit on the bloody side. Two reasons: First it cost me points and three places in the final tally. Second, it put me on a table with restricted LOS instead of on one of the more open one (lots of area terrain, but not full of two and three story buildings) for the final game where firepower ruled and IIRC from the standings sheet against an opponent I've played several times and know how to handle in open terrain that I think I could have scored at least a major against.
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