I was a bit more tired than usual at this event but for good reason. We stayed up late the night before awaiting the midnight release of the much anticipated 6th edition rulebooks we all ordered.
Anyway we arrived on time and got to chat about the new rules a bit and looked over the scenarios for the event ahead of us. I had a trusty Redbull and layed out my army, ready for the first match.
This mission was a bit difficult because it was night fight for turns 1-2 and 5-6. This made it a lot harder to utilize my ranged weapons. Our objective was table quarters and our deployment was spearhead. I was faced off against Codex Marines and he ran 3 Vindicators, 2 landraiders, assult Terminator squad, standard Terminator squad, Cassius, Librarian, and 2 Scout units. The first couple
turns minimal damage was done on my part. I lost the Terminator's Raven on turn two and the other on turn three. As for my turn 2 I assulted one Vindicator with my Death Company Dreadnaught nearest to the center of the board and on his side of the table. I also assulted the 5 man Terminator unit in cover(next to the Vindicator) with my Death Company. Needless to say those Terminators were destroyed. My Dreadnaught failed miserably needing only 4+ to hit with 5 attacks so there it stood point blank in front of an undamaged Vindicator. During his turn my Dreadnaught was destroyed and my Terminator unit was also destroyed from his unit of Assault Terminators that were in the Storm Raven's crater. He then proceeded to drop Vindicator rounds on my Death Company to try and wear them down. Their numbers were brought all the way do to one last man. Lamartes. Which is quite good because he then uses his jump pack. For the next couple turns he takes out both Scout squads single handedly while Mephiston destroys one Vindicator. Damage to me from that point is minimal. I lost one 5 man Assault squad and that was it. The Landraider Crusader which was immobilized in the center of the board took shots for the rest of the game and kept getting weapon destroyed results. Finally Mephiston made his was back towards it and finished it off on turn six. In the end we both held two table quarters which was a tie. After the bonus points were tallied up i came out on top.
My second opponent was the guy I rode up to the tournament with, of course! The mission here was 5 objectives. Our deployment for this round was also Spearhead. He won the roll to go first so both of my Storm Ravens went into reserves. The rest of my force was deployed near the back corner of my deployment zone. Except for Mephiston, who of course, lead the fight alone at the front. His turn 1 was fairly uneventful. As for the bottom of turn 1, I didn't have much to return because he made his cover saves on his boosted Raven. Turn 2 he immobilizes one of my Razorbacks. His Baal Predator outflanks and kills a couple Assault Marines in cover. He also brings on his Drop Pod Furioso(which he forgot turn 1) he places it in the back corner of my zone, it scatters off the table and dies due to the Deepstrike mishap table. The bottom of 2, I stun his Raven and boost my Terminator's Raven up the center that came on from reserves. I shot the multi-melta into his Landraider and its only stunned. Mephiston jumps in the center of the board in a tall building waiting for the counter charge. His Storm Raven only moves 6" and fires its missiles and lascannon at two of my vehicles. The immobile Razorback gets its weapon blown off and the other gets stunned. I return fire and take down the raven. Mephiston moves in to charge range. Both of my Storm Ravens team up on his Landraider and it is wrecked. His Assault squad jumps out and joins the combat with Mephiston and his Death Company. Mephiston takes out the rest of the Death Company and I flew my D Co Storm Raven over to have the Death Company Dreadnought join the combat and kills the rest of the Assault squad with its Blood Talons. I move my Assault Marines in to take the objectives and pull the win out of this game as well with a very large amount of bonus points.
On to the final match. I was matched up against an all Nurgle Deathguard army. This was definitely a tough one. The mission was victory points and the deployment was pitched battle. I won the roll to go first. The first couple turns was me trying to shut down his long range shooting. His only range was a lascannon Predator. His other heavies were both possessed Vindicators. My shooting wasn't as effective as I'd hoped but it shut down the Predator for the first few turns in order for me to get my Storm Ravens into position. They were making shots at the Vindicators in order to stop their high strength shots but failed. The Death Company's Raven got destroyed and the Terminator's was left undamaged through the rest of the match. He pushed the majority of his troops up my right side towards my table edge(where there wasn't much to protect them) Mephiston ended up dying to his Deamon Prince but he put 4 wounds on him. That same Prince also took out the Death Company Dreadnought but was slain as well. My Terminators were responsible for killing 2 Vindicators, 14 Plague Marines and a Rhino. All of which took place in his side of the table nearest his deployment zone. Back on my side, the rest of his Plague Marines were working to destroy the troops still holding my deployment zone. In the end he managed to destroy all 3 of the Razorbacks and 1 complete Assault squad in my zone. The other 2 were knocked down to 2 men out of the starting 5.
I won the game in the end by 1 battle point. The craziest part was that it put our overall battle points EXACTLY the same. Our game record was the same and so were our battle points. It was a tie in every way. So no one could decide on how to resolve this so me and my opponent decided we'd roll for it. I ended up winning the roll off and got the 1st place prize. It was a hell of a tournament and a hell of a way to end 5th edition.
