AWC Invitational Round 2

All right after the win in the first round it was on to the second round against the 3rd seeded Mitch Tucker. Mitch was last year's invitational champion and a very good player in his own right. Today he was running mech eldar. He had tooled up his list to kill MEQs and had beaten a coteaz henchman list in the previous round. His list was:

Eldrad

Farseer Doom, Fortune, Spirit Stones, Runes of Witnessing

6 Warlocks all with spears 3 w/destructor 2 w/embolden in serpent w/scatter lasers

9 banshees plus exarch w/executioner in serpent w/scatter lasers

2 x 5 fire dragons in wave serpent w/shuriken cannons

2 x 5 dire avengers

2 x falcons one w/eml one w/bright lance.

The mission had three victory conditions. Primary goal was hold the center. The player with the most victory points within 12" of the center wins this condition. The other two victory conditions were control terrain elements and kill points. In terrain elements and objective marker was placed in the middle of each terrain piece and scoring units had to be within 3" of the objective marker to score. The set up was regular pitched battle. As an a special rule any unit with in 12" of the center is considered fearless. The table was pretty much like all the others with a big ruin or los blocking piece of terrain in the middle and smaller ones scattered throughout the table. I rolled a 3 for grand strategy and made the interceptors and dread scoring.

Mitch won the roll to go first and decided that I should go first. I deployed nothing. I bundled Mordrak and the librarian in the raven with the dread on the back. The termies and strikes would deep strike and the interceptors and purifiers would come on normally. Mitch set all his skimmers up in a mirror image across the middle of his deployment zone with the farseer riding with the banshees and Eldrad riding with the warlocks. I didn't bother trying to seize.

I figured Mitch was going to go for the center and try and snipe a few kill points. I figured having at least four scoring units to his two I should be able to take more objectives and hoped I could down enough Eldar skimmers to win kill points.

My Turn 1

I look through the mission packet again

Mitch's Turn 1

Mitch moves all his skimmers flat out and brackets the center terrain. On my left in order is a unit of fire dragons in a serpent, behind them is the banshees in a serpent and finally 5 avengers in a falcon. The other side is the same except with Eldrad and the warlocks in the second serpent. Eldrads fortunes the two serpents on his side, while the farseer fortunes his own serpent.

My Turn 2

I roll for reserves and get the termies, strikes, interceptors and purifiers but not raven or dread. All right I have to decide how I am going to approach this. I feel that Mitch has made a crucial mistake he has split his forces around the center. If I can take out one flank I can cripple his mobility and we will play a shooting game which I think I can win. I decide to pick on the falnk on my left. The termies drop in mid field near the left edge. The strikes drop in the mid point of the left board tile and the interceptors fly on close to them while the purifiers move on 6" in the middle of my left half of the board. I have all the psycannons in range of the two wave serpents. the termies may be in range of the falcon (I will shoot them last in case I kill the two serpents.) More importantly there will be no shooting from the dragons or charging if their wave serpents are destroyed. Plus I am far enough away none of the other stuff from the other side can threaten me without going through the killing field first. The purifiers shoot the dragons serpent first. I get lucky and kill it on the opening salvo. It becomes wrecked and one of the dragons die the rest cowering behind the wreckage. A very nice start. The interceptors fire next whiffing on the fortuned serpent. The the interceptors fire and stun it. Finally the termies are able to get a shot in and it explodes. I kill two banshees but the pass their pinning test. All right a good turn I have limited his mobility and managed to be free of reprisals for the most part.

Mitch Turn 2

All right Mitch has taken a tough blow lets see how he responds. The banshees looking at all the psycannons and stormbolters decide that they would rather go and hide in the ruins in the middle. The farseer casts cover on them and goes and hides with them in the center ruins. they will play no part in the rest of the battle. The fire dragons also do the same and Eldrad fortunes the I think. The falcon goes and joins the other one in the back. The other two serpents come around the center piece and blast away at the purifiers rhino. They manage to stun and shake it. The falcons both fire at the termies and all that is left is the justicar and the psycannon. They pass their leadership test.

My Turn 3

I roll for reserves and still no raven. I am able to shake off the stunned results on the rhino. The termies duck into cover ready to run and hide. The strikes and the interceptors move forward to get shots on the falcons. The purifiers light up Eldrads falcon immobilizing it and stunning it. The interceptors are able to immobilize the falcon while the strikes stun it. Meanwhile the termies hide behind terrain.

Mitch's Turn 3

Mich is rapidly running out of options. He knows if he gets the dragons and warlocks out and tries to cross no man's land they will have to take a round of shooting first. Plus the raven hasn't come in yet and with Mordrak and the dread inside along with the mind strike missiles it could be deadly trying to cross. Mitch opts to stay where he is and try to kill me. The avengers leave the immobilized falcon and start heading for a terrain piece behind it. The mobile falcon moves towards my board edge to try and get line of site on the termies. The mobile serpent shoots at the purifiers rhino doing nothing. The falcon shoots at the interceptors killing two. The dragons on foot and the banshees get deeper into the ruins. The avengers run into cover

My Turn 4

Hey Mordrak finally comes in. The raven flies 24" to the center of the left side of the board. The purifiers move forward to get close to the falcons. The strikes back up towards the purifiers to get the in forest they are next to. The terminators meditate on the glory of the emperor. Purifiers knock down the fire dragon serpent immobilizing it and stunning it. The strikes stun Eldrads serpent. The multimelta on the raven finishes off the immobilized falcon. the dread shoots at the other falcon immobilizing it and taking off a weapon.

Mitch's Turn 4

The other avengers go and and hide in terrain in the corner. (That is what the picture is the corner of the board where those avengers go to die). Mitch has a few shots that miss and we go on to the next turn.

My Turn 5

Mordrak and the Dread assault and kill the other falcon. The purifiers kill Eldrad's serpent. The interceptors shunt and kill the last avengers.

Mitch's Turn 5

Pretty much waiting for the end

My Turn 6

I kill the last serpent move the interceptors on to another objective.

Mitch's Turn 6

Game ends

Mitch holds the center. However I have come up with 7 kill points to his none and have three objectives to his one. Game to me 2 -1. My second turn really hurt Mitch he was never able to recover form it and I was able to shoot his army to pieces over time. All right on to round three. I look and see it is Jordan Nach with his leaf blower list. Not a list I relish facing in the next mission....