Our league is doing escalation play starting at 750 and I got my first game in. Our TO was relentless in making sure I had an opponent as I arrived later than most of the usual crowd (but not too late for league start).
I lost, but I had a blast.
I faced a "Zoom-Dar" player with a list roughly like so:
FarSeer
Seer Council x4
2 x Guardian Jetbikes (6)
Warlock w/Embolden
He had a couple psychic powers- Fortune among them. That became important later.
My list was roughly like so:
Emperor's Champion, AAC (finally found something to proxy)
3 Terminators Storm Bolters, Power Fist
2 Terminators Assault Cannon, Power Fist (all with Tank Hunter)
1 Initiate Plasmacannon, I Initiate Flamer, 5 Initiates Bolt Pistol, CCW, 2 Neophytes Bolt Pistol, CCW
Dedicated Rhino w/smoke
4 Initiates Bolter, 1 Flamer
LandSpeeder, Heavy Bolter
We used funky rules (Rules of Engagement) I've never seen before for deployment, with equally weird objective determination rules. We wound up with table quarters as deployment and my objective was to reduce his army to below 25%. His was to control 2 objectives.
I threw out my Landspeeder as a distraction, held the Termies in reserve to Deep Strike, and moved both Cru Squads (one to protect my objective -dime-, and one bunkered up in the Rhino). -- I forgot that the Landspeeder can deepstrike, or I probably should have done that.
(Pardon my ugly army. I am slowly removing the hideous paint from it.)
Before the carnage really gets started...
I left a Cru squad to guard one objective, and sent Termies over to block the other. It didn't hurt that there were Guardians to shoot at that way, either.
You can see the top of my Terminator at the very bottom of the picture. His Guardians are in range.
After the shooting phase was over. Oh yeah, Assault Cannons all the way!
Here's where something I planned to do (and did) worked: I made him come to me in assault.
I used the Rhino and the guys in it to bottle up the pass between the two terrain pieces, and my opponent sent 10 or so jetbikes into that area for close combat. After three full rounds of assaulting, only his Farseer and my EC were left.
I must say, the EC is a frickin BEAST in CC. He simply WOULD NOT DIE and kept dealing damage like no tomorrow. EC took several jetbikes by himself. I had the Farseer dead to rights 4 or 5 times over, but his ability to infinitely reroll failed saves kept him alive. This squad eventually died of attrition to the dang near invulnerable Farseer. I could (and probably should) have moved this squad further onto the field and into his deployment zone to attain my objective. However, having done what I did, I kept his very mobile force bogged down for 3 turns. Not bad overall.
Over on the other side of the board, the Termies were doing their job- scaring the crap out of my opponent. He eventually moved jetbikes towards my objective, which was under the overhang of the building seen in picture 2. Rather than stay put like I planned, I moved forward towards his squad. This is probably where I lost the game. By moving, I opened an avenue for a separate group of jetbikes to zip in and sit on the objective. He used the "bait squad" to keep the Termies busy and hoped simply to survive long enough for the game to end.
The game ended with his Guardian squad blowed up real good, but my Termies more too far away to be contesting the objective marker, so he got a win.
What I learned:
1- Stick with your plans. I originally planned to have Termies baby sit the objective marker, and moved them for some dumb reason I don't even remember.
2- Remember your options. I forgot my Landspeeder could deepstrike. I forgot my Rhino had smoke. I forgot how lascannons work. All of these could have made a big impact on the game if I had used my available options more wisely.
3-Ask questions if you don't know. Between his armaments and his abilities, there was a ton about his Eldar that was more than a little confusing. I asked him to explain it several times for reasons I'll go into below.
What I need to work on:
1- Assault. Despite doing a LOT of it, I am still confused about a couple aspects. I am sure some of it will come with time, but reading the rules again (and maybe again after that) will help as well.
2-Wound Wrapping- I don't understand it, and my opponent did NOT help at all. I'll discuss that later, too.
3-Understanding Deployment - because we are using an alternate rulesset, this will be even HARDER for me. However, if I had understood the PREMISE more clearly, I might have had a much different approach.
On my opponent: He's a very friendly, fun guy. He's easy to talk to and was exceptionally patient as I looked up practically every single rule throughout the game. [I told him it was not because I didn't believe him, it was because I was trying to learn the rules- seeing the rules in connection to what was happening made a HUGE impact and I "get it" a lot better now.] However, there were a couple things that were tough for me to deal with.
He was seriously disorganized. He didn't have any idea that it was League, or that we were using Escalation, and didn't have a list. He started putting models on the table before having anything remotely like a final FOC'd list. He forgot to put 2 models on the board and then "remembered them" on turn 3. (No I didn't let him put them on.) He couldn't explain his model's abilities well. If he had his Codex or rules, I never saw them. He explained wound wrapping in different ways in several instances that lead me to think he either didn't understand it or there was something funny going on.
I'm sure I had things that were tough to deal with, too. I honestly looked up EVERYTHING because I simply didn't know even the base stat lines on my stuff. (I do now!) I asked the same question about 20 times (probably because his answer stunk, but I know it must have been annoying). I rolled like crazy- I think I failed 1 save outright all night.
No matter what, I had a blast. I really enjoyed getting from theory to action. It felt good to DO it, rather than talk about it.
Next week is 750 again, and I'm going to have to work on the list. That Landspeeder either has to go or be rethought...
Congrats on a game fought well and for learning from it.
ReplyDeleteWould allocation is one of those things that's really not that tricky, but also easy to for people to screw up / fudge / still be remembering old rules.
Essentially:
An EVEN number of wounds are spread out to each model in the unit. The defender chooses which models get the extra wound.
The defender then has to roll saves, keeping track of which models they're rolling for. This is important, for the case of special characters, models with different weapons, etc - it's done so that a good save is only helping one model and so special models/gear could be killed rather than just removing basic dudes. You can roll saves together for models that are the same - if 6 marines that are exactly the same took 2 hits each, you can just roll 12 saves.. if one had a meltagun, you'd have to roll his 2 saves separate so you know if he specifically dies.
As far as the Farseer's Fortune power, it should work this way:
Farseer already has a 4+ invulnerable save.
Beginning of each of his turns, he chooses a unit nearby and does a psychic test. (Roll equal or under Ld with 2 dice.. if he took the wargear, Eldar can roll 3 dice and drop highest)
Until his next turn, that unit can reroll any of their failed saves ONCE.
Once a unit's in close combat, they can't use psychic powers anymore or be targeted by them - so at most, he should only have had 1 turn of rerolling failed saves.
Glad you had a good time, despite the problems!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your first game and glad you had fun!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed yourself. What you're doing now is the best way to learn. Play a game and then go back over the rules and things start to clear up a lot.
ReplyDeleteWound allocation is one of those things people either get or they don't. I honestly think that pg. 25 in the rulebook for Complex Units does a good job explaining it. In short, models that are different roll their saves separately, as Dave is explaining. It can get hairy at times but that's the basics of it.
Good go on the first game after such a long time. Practise makes perfect so keep rolling those dices :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you had fun! That is starting off on the right foot then. Early on, the rules will be a bit cumbersome until you play awhile. But it'll become natural sooner than you think! :)
ReplyDeleteFrom the picture, I can see why there wasn't much success with the Land Speeder. Yes, you can deep strike it onto the board. I would probably go that route until you're more familiar with how they play. Because they have very little armor, they kind of need to hang back and hide behind terrain (so they don't get shot at or at least make your opponent work for it), vehicles and the like until they get a nice juicy target to shoot at. Its unfortunate that you didn't get much use from it, as Heavy Bolters decimate Guardians. :(
BTW, what did you end up using as the Emperor's Champion model?
Thanks so much for all of your encouragement, kind words, and help along the way of this process. You guys (and most of the guys at the League) have been a huge help as I figure out what the heck I am doing!
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Loquacious! Even if it was a loss it sounds like it was still a really good experience. Do you know if all the league games will use funky deployment and objective conditions? I'd think it would be easier to get the hang of things if you were able to use the basic missions from book. Congrats again on blasting to pieces your first xenos scum, that's awesome!
ReplyDeleteI don't want to seem like a troll or that I'm starting an argument, but I believe Dave G is wrong about the psycic powers. The only thing close combat restricts is SHOOTING psycic powers. Non-shooting powers take place before any actual phase and do not follow the shooting restriction. So, stuff like doom, guide, and fortune can be used in CC and targeted on a unit in CC.
ReplyDeletekahos_angel is right about the psychic powers- it's what makes Seer Councils worth taking.
ReplyDeleteAnd good job on your first game!
You still have to be able to target the squad in close combat, and squads in close combat can't be targeted.
ReplyDeleteThere's also a Chaos power that goes out of it's way to specify it's useable in close combat.
IT sounds like you had a good time, which is what really counts. I wish that I could have been there but I was really not feeling good.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to come up with a list for my Eldar.
Tom
:-) Check GW's site... They updated the FAQ today for the BT's, and now you have "modern" equipment if they followed the DA's FAQ... Things like Cyclones for the Termis, Storm Shields, etc...
ReplyDelete