Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Woods of Thoth: Inner Circle Combat Patrol Mini-Tournament


Combat patrol

Rymo Voir’la stood before his great commander. The heat of the settlement dome comforted him after months of campaigning on the cold lands of Thoth. He stood at attention. Fio’la attendants flanked Old Shatter Hands as he addressed the ground troop captain.

“My lord, the Fire Warriors are ready. Devilfish transports serviced and operational.”

“Good, my cousin. Take your Shas’la and patrol the parameter. Eliminate any ground forces. A Piranha Patrol Wing will accompany you. I’ve also arranged for a number of Kroot Scouts to guide you and the Shas'la. The woods of Thoth are rife with enemy troops. The Kroot will sniff them out."

"But sir, the Kroot are---"

"If I want your opinion, Shas'ui, I'll give it to you! The Aun have commanded it. Keep an eye on them, report any abnormalities. ”

"Affirmative, sir."

Club night with Inner Circle this week was a mini combat patrol tournament. There were 3 rounds of games to determine the winner in about 3 hours. Each player had 500 points and could build force within the following parameters.

1) No 2+ saves, well that means no broadsides for me

2) No vehicle with an armor value higher than 33 (devilfish ok, piranhas ok but no hammerheads)

3) No model with more than 2 wounds (Crisis Suits ok but that means no Shas’El)

4) No unit valued at higher than 250.

5) No single model valued at 100 points or higher.

6) FOC: HQ 0-1, Troops 1-3, Fast Attack 0-1, Elites 0-1, Heavy Support 0-1.


Within those parameters I constructed a mobile force with plenty of bodies and 2 troops choices.

2 XV8s with Twin-Linked Missile Pods and Flamers.

2 Piranhas with Fusion Blasters and Targeting Arrays.

10 Fire Warriors with Shas’Ui.

1 Devilfish Transport with Disruption Pod.

10 Kroot.

This list was designed to have plent of anti-infantry firepower, mobility and the ability to knock out Rhinos if needed.


Game 1 Tau Patrol vs. CylonDave’s Traitor Guard.

CylonDave’s models were all forgeworld Guard Renegades and were painted in a dark blue colors scheme that matched really well with the winter-board we played on. He had an infantry force of about 45 guardsmen with special weapons and heavy bolters. He deployed in a line so first off I noticed that outflanking kroot could ambush a flank and wipe it out. I alos noticed a few meltaguns so I was pretty conservative with my Devilfish until they were neutralized. CylonDave sent some units out in the open to claim objectives. My fire warriors and XV8s opened fire and caused significant casualties. My piranhas had no tanks or vehicles to hunt so they deployed their drones and zipped back and forth on my side of the board to claim cover saves. Kroot outflanked and wiped out a unit in close combat then consolidated into a wood to gain a 3+ cover save. One volley of fire was dead on as CylonDave blasted away with heavy bolters and I rolled four 1’s for my cover-save, even after going to ground. The Kroot then promptly ran away. The last turn I was able to move out to control one objective and contest the two others. Tau victory.


Game 2. Tau Patrol vs. Mike’s Tyranids.

Mike seemed fairly new to the game but had a pretty compact force of Tyranids. He had two units of Genestealers with scything talons, and 5 warriors with one Venom Cannon and four Deathspitters.

He set up everything and took first turn. I foolishly set up in a firing line and outflanked my Kroot. I say foolishly because I really underestimated the damage that those deathspitters could cause on my Fire Warriors. He took out 6 of them in the first volley of fire. My turn the Fire Warriors jumped in their 'fish and sped away. The XV8s jumped from cover, fired at Genestealers and jumped behind the 'fish (circling the wagons tactic.). Then I started to feed the 'Nids my gun drones to tie them up a bit and allow for punishing volleys after the assault had left them in the open. At one point I even got him to assault my Devilfish, shaking it and then my XV8s jumped out to flame the bunched up unit of ‘Stealers to a crisp (grilled lobster anyone?). Then my Kroot outflanked into a wood and soaked up a lot of fire, taking zero casualties. By turn 5 I had wiped the Nids off the board. No need to claim objectives. Tau Victory.


Game 3. Final Round. Winner takes all. Tau Patrol Vs. Dameon's Loyalist Marines

I played Dameon in this round who had brought a tight list to this mini tournament. 2 razorbacks, and 3 speeders in a squadron, bristling with fire power: heavy bolters and maxed out Typhoon missile launchers. He set up in a corner and took first turn. I set up in the opposite corner and infiltrated my Kroot into a wood. I turbo-boosted my piranhas to one corner and he fired at my Kroot who went to ground for a 2+ cover save. Then I decided I needed to get in his face and distract him a bit. I boosted my piranhas right up in his corner. If he ignored them for my 'Fish or Kroot, the piranhas would waste a Razorback and my disembarking Drones would have had shots at the Speeders. He poured all his fire into the Piranhas, destroyed one and stunned the other. The drones disembarked, passed the pinning test and hid behind cover. My turn I moved out with my Devilfish and the got a few shots off. No Damage. Turn 5, Dameon moved his Razorbacks onto objectives. I took one in my turn and contested one of his. Roll for Game End: a ONE. Game over. As there are no draws in this tournament so we went by kill points. Dameon got 2 kill points and I got ZERO. Marine Victory! Dameon’s patrol wins the whole thing. Congrats!

21 comments:

Martin said...

Nice report (I was the other Tau player that night).

Thanks as well for the advice afterwards. I'll be trying out some wagon circling next time I think.

CJ said...

what a nice tournament, sounds like it was a lot of fun and had some decent restrictions.

Some more pictures would have been nice always nice to see the small armies looking all cool :).

the marine player won but where did you end on the charts?

anyway nice report and cool army picture as always :)

Cheers CJ

Tim said...

CJ, yeah I brought my camera but I decided not to take pictures this time. Sometimes that is a little awkward when you're trying to squeeze in 3 games in one night. it was a real cool tournament actually. Small, laidback, quick games, lots of action. Did I mention every board was 4x4? I recommend this format for a change of pace to the usual 1850-3 hour games. Each of these games was like 30 to 40 minutes.

Hey Martin! Thanks for the comment. I'll see you next time right?

Simon said...

Combat Patrol is one of my favorite ways to play 40k. Do you happen to remember how the marines in the Razorbacks were set up? I'm tinkering with a very similar list that I might bring to the Adepticon Combat Patrol tournament.

Tim said...

yeah the marines list was like this:

razorback, twinlinked heavy bolters. 5 marines, no upgrades

razorback, twinlinked heavy bolters. 5 marines, no upgrades

Landspeeder Squadron (3)
2 with heavy bolter and typhoon missile launcher
1 with 2 heavy bolters

That was it. shooty and durable.

CJ said...

4 x 4 makes a lot of sense for such small games. really seems like a nice thing to do in a evening. I wish I could organize something like this at my own game club. To bad they are to hung up on Fantasy.

I can see how taking pictures is a time killer in such short games. to bad it's always nice to see small armies fully painted and looking good.

Maybe next time ;)

Cheers CJ

Simon said...

Thanks for the list. Would you say his list would have been more or less effective with the speeders set up to have multi-meltas and heavy flamers?

I'm leaning more towards the melta/flamer combiniation since I don't want to rely on heavy bolters to try to crack open AV 11 or 12. Plus, the speeders can still be effective against infantry with the flamers.

Thanks again.

Tim said...

No, I think it was a solid list. He used the typhoons' krak missile (4 shots together) to penetrate any armor. Remember too that this is 500 points. I'm not sure that melta is that necessary at this points level, the highest AV you're likely to encounter is 12. Krak missiles can do that for ya.
my fusion blasters only fired once or twice in the whole thing.

CylonDave said...

It was a fun game Old Shatter Hands. I haven't had a chance to really bring my rebel troops to the table since they are still under construction for lager games, but for 500 it was fun. This of course is only the vanguard of my chaos forces....Once the Lord Arkos and the Anarchys Heart arrive...then the fun starts! ;)

Sholto said...

CP is a great way to play, and this tournament sounded great. Enjoyed the reports - thanks.

Tim said...

CylonDave, Bring it!

Sholto, CP rules!

Pearlygates said...

I think your Battle Report has just won me over!!! I don't like playing games less than 1000pts, but seeing the perameters you have to go by gives your army a whole new perspecive!

I think I will try a Combat Patrol game tonight.

What was a Chaos army doing with Speeders??? Sounds like cheating! If that's allowed, I'm taking a tau army to a tournement with Tyranids and Spacemarines! ok, that's too over the top!

But still, is he not breaking the rules doing that?

CJ said...

pearlygates,

it's not a chaos marine player ;) it's a normal Loyalist marine list. And those guys can just take speeders like they are some kind of Saim Hann army in powerarmour. damm cheater :P

Cheers CJ

suneokun said...

CP rocks... I often play 500pt games at home and they're often the most fun as the game really makes or break before you even get to turn 3. The list looked good, although the piranha's were a little pointless.

I've found that stealth teams rule at this sort of scale. The firepower is great, giving you a small durable unit. That said they would take up your precious 'elite' slot - and I wouldn't give them up for the crisis suit builds - too useful.

Pearlygates said...

CJ,

I just re-read the Battle Report and have now realised I read it incorrectly! The guy's name is Dameon, where I thought it said 'Daemon Loyalist' Space marine....thinking it was chaos.

Thanks.

Tim said...

suneokun, actually the piranhas were not at all pointless. In my last game, I probably couldn't have managed a draw without them...well it didn't matter as I lost due to kill points. I took piranhas because I knew every mission was going to be an objective based mission and I needed a fast unit to move out to contest...plus getting one piranha unit actually gives you two units (piranhas and drones). I didn't think they were pointless by any means. Piranhas are the hidden gems of the Tau army list...one day I'll show you all!

Tim said...

suneokun, actually the piranhas were not at all pointless. In my last game, I probably couldn't have managed a draw without them...well it didn't matter as I lost due to kill points. I took piranhas because I knew every mission was going to be an objective based mission and I needed a fast unit to move out to contest...plus getting one piranha unit actually gives you two units (piranhas and drones). I didn't think they were pointless by any means. Piranhas are the hidden gems of the Tau army list...one day I'll show you all!

Sholto said...

I used to play quite a lot of Combat Patrol, and one of the nastiest units was six stealths with marker drones and gun drones. I could fit in 6 Fire Warriors, and that was 400 pts, but the stealths put out so much firepower they just wiped out one enemy unit per Turn. Brutal. I stopped using them after a couple of games, since they were meant to be friendly!

CJ said...

heheh had a same madness list.

2 x 6 Jetbikes with a Shurikan cannon

3 vypers with scatterlasers and underslung Shurikan cannon

27 S6 shots :P mean :P

Cheers CJ

Tim said...

CJ, Saim hann armies seem like so much fun!

CJ said...

I can't say I disagree there Old Shatter Hands ;). They are hard at these low points (damm expensive bikes) but so fast and they still put out a decent amount of Fire Power :).

not to forget the 4+ coversave screens to on the vypers thanks to the Jetbikes :P

Cheers CJ