The6thdegree here with an update of how me and my ‘Nids did
at Blog Wars 3.
For a start, I managed to scoop another painting award! This
time for my Swarmlord character, who was up against some stiff competition
(including Siph’s own Vulkan Heston). Swarmy was rewarded with a new monster
case for him and the other big gribblies to live in.
It was great to see so many other Nid players there and
overall I don’t think we did too bad for an old and arguably less-competitive
codex (special shout out goes to Graham from
Claws and Fists for placing 11
th
with his Deep Striking ‘Nids list).
I came 16
th overall (behind Siph who took 7
th
and ahead of Pornstar who almost managed to steal the wooden spoon at 25
th).
How did my
list work out (for those that don’t remember, I took a Nidzilla list including Swarmlord, 2 Trygons, a Tfex, a Tervigon, lots of Hive Guard and
a few Gaunts)? ...I’m not sure to be honest... the list is designed to work in
halves – Swarmlord is bubbled by Hormagaunts (for cover) and sticks with the
Trygons. This is a pretty massive hammer that runs at you waving its
arms/scything talons. The other half hangs back to claim objectives and pop
mech. Almost everything barring the few Gaunts are T6 and its a pretty
survivable list despite only having 2 Synapse points and a couple of Troops.
Game one was against Dextorous Wombat (Peter) and his
Necrons from
Buckaroo Mathhammer. This was the first time I had ever played
against Necrons and Peter was a great opponent who explained what everything
basically did (several times for me...). The game was KPs and I was a bit worried
after he told me he managed to shoot an entire Ork foot army off the table
recently with ease.
Necrons went first and set up bang in the middle of the
table ready to take the assault. I deployed everything up on the right flank and
planned to hit him as hard as I could on one edge and work my way through. Very
little happened on Turn 1 – Peter shuffled his units round to get into firing
positions and I think I might have shaken a Stalker with my Tfex.
Turn 2 and Peter opened up with his Stalkers and fired
everything at range at the Gants but only killed one. The ‘Nids moved up and
wrecked a Stalker and killed a few Warriors.
Turn 3 had Peter firing at the Hormagaunts and killing most of
them whilst I advanced and killed a few more robot things (that then annoyingly
got back up).
Turn 4 and the Necrons learnt the hard way that Tyrannofex’s
have a 2+ save which blunted their attacks on my left flank.
The ’Nids finally
got into range and I threw my Trygons at some annoying robots with swords and
shields that were surprisingly good, the Necron special character and a
Destroyer Lord (???). I learnt the hard way about Mindshackles as one Trygon
repeatedly stabbed itself. Luckily the other Trygon did better and started
hacking away at the tin cans.
Turn 5 and it was damage control for the Necrons as some of
the units not tied up in combat tried to pick off various Hive Guards and the
Swarmlord who had a wound or two missing. Unfortunately Mindshackle didn’t work
this turn and my Trygons riped apart more robots and they ran off the board or
were destroyed (but not the Special Character who decided to get back up). In
my turn the Swarmlord was able to wipe out a unit of Destroyers (???) and the
Trygons went on to do even more damage to nearby units.
The game ended at this point 6KPs – 2KPs (I believe) to the Nids!
It was a great introduction to Necrons and their tricksy toys, but
unfortunately they were unable to put enough hurt out onto the T6 creatures to gain many KPs (as I had hoped).
At this point I got nervous because me and Venerable Brother
(who went on to win BW for a third time) had the same score and could have possibly
faced each other. In hindsight I wish I had because the rest of the day would
have probably been completely different...
Instead game two was against MC Tic Tac (John) from
BloodClaw with his ENTIRE FOOT ARMY CATACHANS. The day went down hill for me at this
point – John was a good opponent who had a well thought out and complementary
army that I couldn’t possibly beat. I don't know the exact numbers but it seemed
like two blobs of 50 Guard – one with lots of Heavy Weapons and one with lots of
hidden Power Weapons. There were then some smaller Heavy Weapons and Penal
Legions squads.
The Heavy Weapon blob set up in the opposite corner from me
in a multistory building and everything else outflanked. My plan was to rush the
middle, hold it for a while and then “expand” out in a later turn.
What actually happened was John brought in his Power Weapon
blob behind me and proceeded to whittle me down for 7 turns. I think on paper
there was no possible way for me to take out the Power Weapon blob – I was
geared up for popping mech and taking out MSU’s, not killing squads of 30-50.
Most of my MCs have 4-7 attacks on the charge and even if they all hit and
killed, the blobs were still swinging back with something like 50 attacks and
20+ Power Weapons. Basically suicide for MC’s; even if I got a few into the
same combat at the same time. So from turn 3 onwards it was a game of attrition with me backing up towards the
centre and shooting 5 guards a turn, taking a wound or two in return from
Lasgun fire and praying for the game to end early. If the it had ended on Turn
5 it would have been a draw, but as it ended on Turn 7, John took the victory
2-1.
I think he would agree it wasn’t the most fun game; he was
rolling tons of dice but not getting many wounds with Lasguns against T6 and I
couldn’t do enough damage to even try to fight back. Amusingly Swarmlord
managed to get into combat with the Heavy Weapons blob around Turn 3 or 4 and
was still there hacking through Guards at the end of Turn 7.
Disheartened, I hoped for a “normal” SM MSU type list in my
last game. I got Daniel Lane’s (from
Buckaroo Mathhammer) Ork foot mob. It
turns out my lists weakness is horde armies and I got drawn against the only two
horde armies in the tournament. Looking back, it wasn’t my luckiest day (more
on that later...).
Before I set up I knew I wouldn’t stand a chance and this
game played out more like a stupid “for laughs” friendly. Weirdly it was the
most fun game of the day...
I don’t remember Daniels entire list, but it seemed to be
half a dozen units of 30 Shootas or Boys, 8 bikers, an “aquired” Carnifex/Dread
and some other shooting things that never really needed to enter the game...
The first two turns went ok...he hadn’t reached me by that
point. Turns 3-7 was a blood bath of epic proportions. Units of 30 Orks kept
on coming and throwing themselves against my central core or Swarmy and the two
Trygons and they stayed on their feet taking down 5 Orks each a turn until
nearly the end of the game (unlike the Tfex who had 20 2+ saves to make and failed
11 of them in one go).
The game really was more an excersise in “how many Orks can
Swarmlord kill when locked in combat”. About 70 I think...
Daniel tabled me on the last turn and took home all the
points. I don’t think I stopped laughing all game.
And that was BW3! A massive thanks to Alex from
From theFang for organising a great tournament again. I think I need to get painting on
my next army so its ready for BW4 in October!
BTW - the day was then topped off when someone drove into me
on the way home and rolled a 5 on the damage table. Just my luck.
