Battle for Stones River!

 Battle for Stones River was great this year! I think the final tally was 52 people, great diversity in armies. I also saw a lot of new faces, which is cool because I played that tourney last year and also go to Murfreesboro a couple of times a year to play in tournaments at Grand Adventures.









So here is the list I brought:
1863 Guardians of the Covenant (Codex Dark Angels)
Belial with twin lightning claws
3 Venerable Dreadnoughts with Twin-Linked Lascannons and Heavy Flamer
1 Deathwing Command Squad - all had TH/SS, 1 Cyclone, 1 Apothecary, 1 Standard Bearer
3 Deathwing Squads - 4 TH/SS, 1 Twin Lightning Claws, 1 Cyclone
3 Landspeeder Typhoons with Multi-meltas.

 Some pics I stole from  Just Another Gaming Blog!

 I walked around before the tournament to see what kind of armies where there. As you would expect, there were several Space Wolves, Blood Angels, and IG armies. However I expected many more Dark Eldar armies, there where only 4 out of 52. My biggest surprise was the number of Terminator armies, I think there were 2 deathwing armies and 3 Wolf Guard Terminator Armies, and several SM armies had big units of termies!

On to Scenarios and Matchups. I didn't take any pictures, sorry, but I will run down each scenario and my opponents army list as best I can.
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Round 1: Phillip using CSM

Slaanesh Daemon Prince with wings and Lash of Submission
Chaos Sorceror in Terminator armor, combi-plasma, Lash of Submission
7 Glory marked Terminators, 6 combi-plasmas, 1 chainfist, 1 Reaper autocannon
2 Noisemarine squads, each with 6 NM with sonic blasters, 1 champion with doom siren, Rhino with pintle mounted combi-melta
1 Chaos Space marine squad, 2 melta guns, champion with power fist, Rhino with pintle mounted combi-melta
3 X 2 Obliterators

Guh, my army is all foot sloggers and have 2+ saves, his army punishes foot sloggers, and has tons of AP 2...great first draw...

Mission was secret objectives, each player had to write down which piece of terrain in the enemies deployment zone was their secret objective, and then reveal it in the 3rd turn. Primary was holding your objective, Secondary was holding the bridge with a troop choice, Tertiary was kps. Our game was bloody as hell. I got first turn, setup my army holding Belial and his Deathwing command in reserve to deepstrike towards my secret objective. Then Phillip seized the initiative, wretched bastard! That really made things tough for me, as if the first turn would have stayed with me I could have wrecked all 3 rhinos and probably killed the daemon prince easily...instead my first round of shooting did nothing, and belial and his squad was forced to land in a maelstrom of shit...right infront of all of phillip's combi-plasma termies....

Second turn saw phillip shooting the piss out of belials squad, 7 combi-plasmas, 1 reaper autocannon, and 2 twinlinked plasma guns from oblits later...I have lost 1 terminator! Wow! I felt sorry for the guy, my entire unit should have been gone! He forded his CSM squad and a Noisemarine squad over the river towards his secret objective and obilts shot at some termies to little effect. His termies, sorc and the 2 oblits then charge into my terminators with belial....after the dust settles I have won by 6! He rolls his morale for the termies (oblits got pulverized by THs) and fails, but that Mark of Chaos Glory wins the day as he re-rolls and makes his morale!

Third turn was bad for me in many ways. First he positioned his CSM to make a break towards his objective and tried to block my shooting/assaulting with a smoked rhino, positioned his Noisemarines to be able to fire tons of shots at my termies closing on the CSM and jumped his other NM out to rally towards the bridge. My turn saw my venerable dread charge into the CSM and die to a pf...my shooting fail to kill the Deamon Prince (who only had 2 wounds left, and I shot 3 speeders and 1 termie squad at...), at least I killed the sorc and termies with my TH right? The damn Sorc only got hit one time and he passed his invul....ouch!


Turn 4 saw him move his CSM closer to his secret objective, do a ton of shooting, he assaulted my termies that lived thru the hail of NM shots with the NM and the daemonprince, who was wiped out as expected. His 2 rhinos blew up my speeders, those combi-meltas had scopes! My turn saw Belial and his squad rush over and squat in the objective terrain, a ven dread move towards the bridge and the other Ven dread moving towards his secret objective. My Deathwing squad that is near his objective spreads out to see if the bridge is more important or the objective is.

Turn 5 the daemon prince decides to tempt fate and fly over the river to assault my ven dread near the bridge. his CSM squeeze between 2 rhinos right beside the objective, his NM abandon the hill near the bridge to move towards belial, his other NM  move towards the bridge. The only shooting that matters is him blowing up my venerable dread with 2 long range melta shots thru terrain...ouch. The Prince cries as he assaults the other venerable dreadnought and gets his face caved in. He consolidates towards the bridge. My turn belial continues to be a squatter, termies move over to assault the CSM squad (only 2 termies left) and the venerable dreadnought moves up the bridge to halt the NM from getting more points for him. I assault the CSM, he causes 1 cyclone termie death (which was the one inside the terrain contesting) and the last TH/SS termie stands strong, smacking 2 CSMs)

Phillip Rolls and the game goes on, he moves NM over to shoot belial, moves the other squad towards the bridge, and we fight assault....My TH/SS termie lives on! He kills no one though. My turn belial considers leaving the confines of the cover to fight the NM, but notices that the NM champ has a power sword, and since he forgot his SS today, he decides to just squat some more. Ven assaults NM on bridge. CSM fights the TH/SS termie...and he lives! He fights back and does nothing!

I roll, praying that the game ends, it goes on! Phillip moves closer to my objective, but didn't manage to get close enough to ensure a good run making it into the terrain. NM on bridge throw a melta bomb and knock imobilze, csm fight the TH/SS termie....and he lives! He kills 2 this time, Phillip rolls, and fails his morale! But damn that Glory, he gets to re-roll and sticks around. My turn I pray the ven dread doesn't die, and he doesn't, the TH/SS termie fights on, lives and doesn't kill anyone.

Points tally, we both hold our objective, tied kps, no one owns the bridge, 11 pts a piece and a helluva game!
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Round 2:  David DuBois using Codex: Eldar
Autarch on Jetbike, mandiblasters, laser lance
7 Guardian Jetbikes
2x6 Fire Dragons with exarch in Wave Serpents (scatter lasers)
2x10 Dire Avengers with exarch in Wave Serpents (scatter lasers)
8 Harlequins, 1 Shadowseer, 8 kisses
3 Vyper Jet Bikes, Scatter lasers
3 War Walkers, 2 Scatter Lasers a piece

Str 6 spam, but not a scary one. I've never played against str 6 spam Eldar without 6 Wave Serpents, so I figure I've got this from the get go. I don't remember the mission, it involved catching an objective that was floating down the river, killing your opponents most expensive unit, and probably getting stuff across the river. Its not worth me going into detail, he won first turn, deferred to me. At the end of turn 5 I held the objective, had most of my army across the river, killed his most expensive squad and all he had left was like 5 dire avengers. Poor guy. He can thank Phillip, lol. 20 points to me.
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 Round 3: Keith Hoffman using Codex: IG

Company Command squad in chimera with random wargear, astropath, fleet officer
DH inquisitor lord, psychic hood, tarot, 2 mystics
Infantry platoon
>PCS in chimera 3 plasma guns, 1 plasma pistol, medic
>2 infantry squads in chimeras, melta, lascannon
Veteran squad in chimera with 3 melta, harker
2 Scout Sentinels with autocannons and hks
Banewolf
Leman Russ Demolisher
2 Manticores

I've played Keith before, last time we played I was 3 models and 1 immobilized chimera from tabling him. He has blocked it from his memory, understandably. Mission was hidden objectives, 5 objectives go out on the table face down, when a unit contacts they flip up with a number, 1-3 on it, thats how many objective points it is worth, secondary is get more units accross the river, teriary is hold the bridge. We roll, Keith gets first turn and deferrs to me. He holds the Chimera vets in reserve to outflank.

My first turn sees Belial drop in, scatter 11 inches and mishap, thankfully going back into reserve, a lot of shaken and stunned vehicles and 1 destroyed Manticore. He fires back and destroys a landspeeder (that was in cover) and blows the missiles off another one.

My second turn belial and company make it back in, even with the fleet officer. This time they land on the other side far away from any units. I advance up to contact 2 objectives (2 on the left side of the board, 3 on the right side) and move 2 dreads towards the bridge, I made a fatal error here, I should have kept 1 dread close to the left hand objective....live and learn. My shooting sees some immobilzed, some shaken and another blown up manticore. Keith's turn sees another weapon blown off the landspeeder and a multilaser wrecking my MVP landspeeder on the right (he killed both manticores!) and he crucially puts enough wounds on my middle termie squad for me to have to take a wound on the cyclone, and he was the only one to die. He also imobilized 1 of my dreadnoughts on the left side of the board.

My turn 3 I have this game well in hand. My middle termie squad moves up to flip another objective, 1, and Belial and his squad start hoofing it towards an objective in the middle of the table. My dread moves up to the river on the right side hoping to lend some fire support to the command squad. My landspeeder on the left with no weapons just keeps flying back and forth to get a cover save. I shoot 4 cyclone missiles and 1 tlinked lascannon at the chimera with the PCS that is 15 inches or so away from belial and do nothing...that will hurt later. I shoot at some chimeras in front of the bridge and don't manage much. This will be my defining turn, though I don't realize it. Keith's Vets arrive and come on the left side of the table, conveniently where he needs them to be since I have an objective worth 2 points back there. His PCS moves over behind a hill so his hatch is fully within 12" of my command squad. His demolisher moves over to start munching on my command squad. His shooting is fabulous, though in hindsight he was using the wrong BS for his PCS, those guys hit on 4s, but he was hitting on 3s, fortunately it probably didn't matter, as they only killed 1 guy with shooting this round. But the demolisher shoots, sticks its large blast and then fires his lascannon...which hits and wounds, so now I have 5 wounds to take on 4 guys....I should have put 2 on belial and let his ass die...but I didn't so I lose belial and 1 guy, if I had taken 2 on belial I may have managed the 3 3+s. His vets chimera shoot at my termies on the objective and whittle 1 more away.

My turn 4 I am still winning big, I hold 5 objective points, have 3 squads accross the table, and have a terminator that can shuffle onto the bridge last turn for that objective, all I need is a decent turn of shooting and this game is mine. I shoot 2 squads at the chimera that just came in....and do nothing, command squad blows up the chimera that has the PCS and kills 3 guys in side, but they do not get pinned...shit! and I shoot some lascannons at the other chimeras hoping to stun or shake them, and manage to immobilize the other one...shit. Keith makes his run for it, he moves his chimera up so that even if it gets blown to shreds, his 5th turn he will be able to claim the 2 objective. He moves his PCS up on the hill to unleash 2 plasma guns and a plasma pistol on me, he shuffles his banewolf closer to my lines to throw a flamer on my objective holders next turn. Mostly this turn was Keith moving his stuff into position to attempt a draw or a coo, though he forgets that the bridge is worth points too. His PCS opens up on my command squad, 5 plasma shots on 2 guys that are hitting on 3s...(should be 4s) but he still just manages to kill 1. I can't remember any other major events from turn 4.

My turn 5 sees me sweating, I can see how this is going and I need some good rolls to live. I move my landspeeder 24" to squad near my 2 objective. I shoot 4 more cyclones at the chimera near my objective, still doing nothing. I shoot some random las cannons at the demolisher and do nothing....shiiiiiiiit. Keith jumps his vets out moving up to within 3 of the objective, moves his banewolf over to flame my termies, moves his PCS up to within 3 of the objective across the river. and gets his CCS out to shoot at my last termie that was standing on his objective in the middle of the river. Keiths banewolf throws its chemcannon on both my termies, it wounds on 2+ but is only ap 3....I roll 2 1s....his sentinels then autocannon the speeder, get one pen thru and blow it up....his PCS unleash however many shots they have left and cause like 2 wounds and I fail 1...and Keith deftyly used up 20 minutes of clock shuffling random stuff around and shooting at things that don't matter to ensure no 6th turn. But it was a good game, and even with a 6th turn I couldn't have won it, at best I could have got a few points from holding the bridge. Overall a good game, but I was upset the next day when I looked at my IG codex and noticed the PCS are BS 3 not 4. I'm just glad that it probably wouldn't have had any effect on the game. Keith 16 me 0
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Round 4: Dan Peely using Codex Daemons 
Blood Thirster of Khorne, Blessing
Blood Thirster of Khorne, Blessing
1 Blood Crusher
11 Bloodletters (green)
11 Bloodletters (red)
15 Bloodletters (yellow)
15 Bloodletters (blue)
Nurgle prince, rot, touch
Nurgle prince, rot, touch
Nurgle prince, rot, touch

I have played Dan before in a tournament at grand adventures. I won, but it was a close game, he plays daemons super agressive with no shooting. Bloodletters all have power weapons...this could go bad. I win first turn and defer to him, forcing him to drop where I can shoot him. Mission is table quarters. 1 point for the quarter you start in, 2 for neutral quarters, 3 for your opponents. Primary is who owns most quarter points, secondary is modified kps, teriary is most expensive unit. My unit is command squad, his unit is blue bloodletters.

I deploy castled with Vens up front. He rolls for his preferred wave...doesn't get it, so he has to drop all his bloodletters and the 1 crusher. The bloodletters all land in front of me, crowding to drink the blood of their enemies. The Crusher lands hidden all the way across the board.

My turn 1 I flame, frag, and spit all over as many bloodletters as possible, charging 1 dread into a unit (green) and a termie squad into a whittled down unit (yellow). The dread will be there forever, the termies lose a few but kill the squad, but they don't consolidate away enough to stay out of charge range.

His turn 2 he sees only 1 prince and 1 thirster come in, I opened up my notebook and wrote "game over" my shooting means I can easily kill 1-2 MC a turn. His blue squad charges my termies, they slap and tickle leaving me with 1 guy left. My turn I charge a dread into the blue guys, kill the blood thirster with shooting.

His turn 3 2 Princes arrive, but since he is so aggressive, one mishaps and goes back into reserve. His nurgle prince charges the ven dread that is fighting the green squad at the bottom of the table. Bunch of slaps and tickles. My turn Belial leaves his squad and joins another behind him. The command squad moves to to kill another squad of letters (red). I shuffle around so one squad of termies can join the ven dread vs the blue if needed but can also shoot the prince that just dropped. The other Ven dread moves down to join the fight vs the prince and letters thats at the bottom of the map. My shooting kills the nurgle prince. I wipe out the green squad at the bottom, so now I have 1 dread with no arms and a fresh dread fighting a prince.

His turn 4 gets the prince...We go on but I end up killing everything but 1 wound on the prince in combat and the crusher because he hid the whole game. Bad matchup and worse reserve rolls for him....GW fix daemons!!! Please! Dan 0 me 20.

I ended up finishing 7th overall. If only I could have not lost to Keith...now I will hear about it forever lol. I voted Phillip my favorite opponent, mostly because he was super cool under pressure and we talked all day after our game. I hope his club makes it down for Maul in the Mall.

Well enough Deathwing talk, time to start painting Dark Eldar!