In typical fashion, I started Saturday with a hangover. Forcing myself to eat some food and drink as much of the awesome Las Vegas tap water (bottled water within the venue was $5 per 8oz), I was ready to start the 1500pt tournament. Here’s my list.
Standard Army
Resistance Standard [1499/1500 pts]
Warlord’s HQ [295 pts]
- Alexander: M3 Alexander(Senior), AT-77 Lifthawk [215 pts]
- Barrel Bomber: Barrel Bomber(+AA Cannon) [80 pts]
Vehicle Detachment [193 pts]
- Gun Wagons: 3x Gun Wagon, NT-1 Kraken [113 pts]
- Barrel Bomber: Barrel Bomber(+AA Cannon) [80 pts]
Vehicle Detachment [293 pts]
- Gun Wagons: 3x Gun Wagon, NT-1 Kraken [113 pts]
- Cyclones: 3x AH-16 Cyclone [180 pts]
Resistance Band [350 pts]
- Berserkers: 2x Berserkers, AT-77 Lifthawk, 3x MT-90 Jackson [162 pts]
- ^ Sharing ^ Fighters: 2x Resistance Fighters [48 pts]
- ^ Sharing ^ Fighters: 2x Resistance Fighters [48 pts]
- Fire Wagons: 3x Fire Wagon, NT-1 Kraken [92 pts]
Infiltrators [298 pts]
- Freeriders: 2x Freeriders [70 pts]
- Veterans: 2x Occupation Veterans, NT-1 Kraken, 2x Battle Bus [148 pts]
- ^ Sharing ^ Veterans: 2x Occupation Veterans [80 pts]
Infiltrators [70 pts]
- Scout ATVs: 2x Scout ATVs [70 pts]
Game 1 I am matched against JD Welch. The mission is Military Complex, and I get deja vu as I run over his list. Drive on Angelos with Valkyries, walk on Nemesis, 2 individual walk on Phobos, 4 Apollos, 2 Medusa with Tritons, 2 Immortals with Tritons, and a pair of Helios in Neptune. Perhaps I forgot something, but that seems about right. This is very similar to a list I played against a month prior, same mission too!
So I had a fairly good idea how this was going to go. My home objective building was a death trap and I would want to press directly to the center buildings. My idea was to take the center building and the central building in front of my home building. The other central building I would turn into my own death trap with Barrel Bombers, Alexander, and whatever other shooting I had. This way I would win 2 buildings to his 1 and hopefully have enough time to get at least one of the objectives off, winning the game.
There were a few small buildings on my edge which when combined with the knowledge that a Nemesis would walk on as the last activation made directing Kraken traffic a bit tricky, but I managed to keep them all hidden. My Bombers went straight at the center, which may have been dumb, as the Helios came directly at them. My Cyclones joined the Bombers. Alexander took a position in the back where he was hidden from an opportunistic Nemesis. Infantry moved forward as fast as possible, with the exception of the Veterans who hugged cover.
Top of two, I connect the center building to the building the Veterans are hiding behind with a monorail. JD wins activation and kills a Barrel Bomber with the Helios. Over the next two turns these would be jammed by Scout ATVs and dispatched by Cyclones. He continued to work on my home building bringing it down to 4 DP. My Fighters and Berserkers made it into the central building, and a Medusa got into the central building I aimed to blow up. His Immortals and other Medusa do not find their home objective. The Valkyries jump to this building from the table edge building they were in. My Veterans get into the building connected to the central, so if he were to challenge the center building I could reinforce quickly.
In turn 3, JD reinforces the Lone Medusa in the center building with Valkyries and the other Medusa. I’m pretty happy about this until he activates the Medusa occupying the building and rolls a 6, finding the objective and ferrying it back to his building and handing it to the Immortals. This more or less makes the game unwinnable as I need to find both of the other objectives in the central buildings and get them off. Not that I was extremely down, there was still a hail mary pass to attempt. Thankfully the Fighters and Berserkers come up with the objective and begin moving to the other central building. The demo trap still goes off, killing the 2 squads of Valkyries and Medusa, but it’s a bit hollow with the objective already out. His Immortals locate the home objective and take both objectives found off the table.
Being very confident that I was up on kill points after drowning the Valks and Medusa in masonry, I decided to attempt a win. I sent one squad of Fighters into my home building with 4 DP left. At worst he drops it and I lose a squad of Fighters, but hopefully something goes amiss and maybe I find it, or maybe he assumes he’ll drop it and leave that until last and find the dice desert him. The Free Riders join the other Fighter and Berserker in the central building.
The rest of the game is very much him shooting at buildings while I try and get objectives out. He drops the 4 DP building easy, as he should, and masonry takes out the Fighters in the central building. The Free Riders fail their search on T5 and bail out of the building as they’ll need to get w/ Objective off. T6 the Berserkers roll a miracle 6, which is what they need to find it, and kick it out to the Jackson of the deceased Fighters, which was carrying the objective from the center building. He goes his full move to the Free Riders and passes the objectives off. The Free Riders gun it for the table edge and come up a quarter inch short. This was my error as had taken more care while moving them the previous turn they would have had that extra quarter inch. So the game ends 4-2 and JD wins with no kill point bonus.
Fairly frustrated with the game, between loathing Military Complex versus drive on demo lists and making a dumb error, I figure I am out of the running and move on to the next game. Remember how I mentioned I had deja vu last game? Well that’s because my next opponent Rich is who I played against a month prior. Yay, more PHR drive on demo. It’s also humorous as Rich and I seem to be paired every tournament, without fail.
His list was slightly different, as he had no Neptunes, but another pair of Helios. Only one Medusa, but a squad of Sirens in Triton. He had one less Apollo, but two drive on Taranis. A Nemesis and of course two Valkyrie squads in Angelos. The mission was Recon. This Recon awards a point no matter the roll. The only time an opponent would lose the chance to search was if a 6 was rolled, which creates a focal point. There were only 9 searchable buildings, which were all central in a loose 3×3 grid pattern. 3 large centerline buildings, and 1 large, 2 medium buildings on the quarter lines.
So more drive on demo, means more of the same overall play; dominate the center. I move everything on behind cover, but misjudged when placing the Alexander as the Nemesis walks on and takes a hull down shot. 4 DP later, I’m questioning my competence. The rest goes to plan as I do not enter any buildings on my quarterline, as he halves the amount of DP the medium ones have.
Next turn he wins activation and hits another hull down shot and I am without commander. He searches his home buildings and his back center building is a FP. Well I know which building I’m going to ping to death the rest of the game. His Sirens end up in a center building on my right, and I have 1 squad of fighters in the center building. Free Riders cut back and enter the large building on my side. My air assets huddle behind the large center building with my fighters. I ping the buildings that house Valkyries, thinning them out with masonry. The Sirens go down fast to Fire Wagons.
Next turn, my fighters are joined by Valkyries. The other Valkyries enter the center left building. My Free Riders join them after finding intel, and a Veteran squad enters the center right building.
My Fighter squad finds Intel, and decides to get out while the gettin’s good. The Valkyries they stood up are then killed by masonry as the Barrel Bombers drop their Goliaths doing an impressive amount of damage, but not enough to drop the building. The Lifthawk moves to the center left building deploying the other Fighter and Berserker squads who were patiently waiting on board up until this point. I’m feeling pretty good at this point as even though he was a few points up on me (from searching the buildings on his side), half of his infantry was dead and the second squad of Valkyries were going up against Free Riders, Fighters, and Berserkers. It is also worth mentioning that on the other side of the center building the Medusa, Apollos, and Angelos had moved up.
My Barrel Bombers go around the center building and drop frags on the PHR, aiming at the Apollo closest the Medusa. The Cyclones add their large template to this as well. Unfortunately, this first salvo only did one DP to an Apollo (if I remember correctly), but it is enough to flush the Medusa out. She kills a Jackson belonging to the Fighters in the center left building. In that building, the Valkyries die to the combined efforts of my infantry. The Veterans on the other side find a Focal Point. His Immortals, the last of his Infantry are going the long way around avoiding my Gun Wagons, trying to find another point. I deploy the Fighters in the Lifthawk into the large building on my side I have already searched to deter them.
Next turn the stranded Fighters small arms the Medusa, maybe doing one DP. The two surviving Free Riders bolt to the closest building on his side and with so much pressure in the center the Veterans cut back to search a Medium building on my side that I had passed. My Bombers drop their last Frag, this time killing an Apollo and Angelos (again I think that is how it went). The Immortals get around the side of me, but I deployed some Gun Wagons to reaction fire and the one wagon that can see manages to down the Triton. The Veterans turn up another focal point. I believe at this point we get warned on time and it becomes evident we won’t be able to finish. We quickly play out the rest, which was killing all buildings with focal points. I win by two points and a small kill point bonus, putting me at 21 tournament points.
My third game was against Adrian (from Australia!) and his Scourge. Secure the flanks was the mission. He was running an Oppressor with Harbinger, 8 Prowlers, 4 Minders, 6 drive on Hunters, 3 drive on Reapers, 3 Ravagers with Harbinger, and an Annihilator. My plan was to see if I could get him into the center building before, you guessed it, bombing it.
My Alexander setup on point again, though without a Nemesis across the table he was in the open and fired on his objective building. Between him and shots from Lifthawks and Krakens the Scourge Warriors searching all died to masonry. I sent my Cyclones down a flank to pressure the Annihilator which had set up in a position to bombard my advance towards the right focal point.
The Prowlers get dropped right in front of my forces and manage to ambush the Kraken with Veterans. This kills one of the buses with the survivors spilling out. I was sweating as I wasn’t sure if he would enter the center building. He had put his other Warriors in there, but he had Destroyers and I really wanted to get them too as they are point heavy and could be dangerous later. Thankfully he decided to call me and put the Destroyers in, ending the debate raging in my head about how to proceed if only the Warriors were in the center building. The bombs dropped, and with support from the rest of the army so did the building. My home objective by this point had been found and ferried off in a Jackson.
Now came the Scourge. The Prowlers had done their job wonderfully as 4 of the surviving Hunters were bearing down on me and the Oppressor dropped as well. The Veterans in the open died, but the other squad in the bus made it to my home building and would take up firing positions from their for the rest of the game. Everything was trying to finish the Prowlers, but two managed to get away and ended the game on a focal point. The Scout ATVs harassed the Ravagers which helped the Barrel Bombers survive a little longer. My Cyclones caused the Annihilator to reposition, but the Reapers dropped two of the Cyclones in return.
So at this point I am up 2-0, but I have to make sure to win a focal point in order to win, otherwise if I just contest both we would draw. My Gun Wagons try to kill the Oppressor’s Harbinger, but only succeed in drawing the Oppressor’s ire. The other Gun Wagons blew up in their Kraken when struck by the Annihilator. The surviving Gun Wagons and Scout ATVs continue to fight as they head to the left focal point. These were lucky as they managed to survive and contest that focal point with the Oppressor directly on them.
My Alexander is picked up and with the Fire Wagons in Kraken and Lifthawk with one Fighter squad and Berserkers head towards the focal point on my right. The surviving Cyclone at this focal point with surviving Bomber kill off most of the reapers, but the Hunters were headed their way. I use the Free Riders to try and prevent their advance, as well as the Veterans firing, but the 4 Hunters make it there. I drop my Alexander in position for a last turn advance on to the Focal Point against the 4 Hunters, an Annihilator that had flown over and would land on the point T6, and 2 surviving Ravagers that had repositioned. The infantry entered a building and used their RPGs, but to no effect on the Hunter they targeted. The Free Riders finally blew up a Hunter, and Kraken and Lifthawks helped kill the other Hunters. This cleared the road for the Alexander to blast the Annihilator, doing max damage, and the Maelstrom launcher managed to finish it off and also take out a Ravager. This secured the win 5-3, and I managed a kill point bonus of 2. Adrian took pictures and plans to do his own write up of his games, so eventually you should be able to see the game from his perspective.
I was a bit surprised to find out I managed third. I had not thought about placing at all after the loss in the first round. JD took first and his team mate James took second with a list featuring 8 Angelos with Valkyries. JD went on from our first game and won huge in both games netting 4 kill point bonuses in each, so I feel a bit reconciled as I gave the winner the closest game. Even if I hadn’t botched the draw, assuming everything else went the same, the placings would have turned out the same. The only thing I am left wondering is how it all would have shaken out if one of the missions had been something like Ground Control or Surging Strike where points could not be denied early in the game. But all of this really doesn’t matter, LVO 2016 was a lot of fun, and my list surprised me, as I had only run this list once before the event. Next time I plan to go over my thoughts on my list and units since I wrote about them back in November (https://dzcrollinghot.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/running-with-the-ferals/).
Rolling Hot 