Game 4: Daemons Vs Salamanders

Okay, we've reached the end of the local tournament I've been posting about.  This was top table, #1 (yours truly) and #2, Farseer Tim.  My Daemons Vs his Salamanders.  The last game we played was a pretty brutal affair... truth be told, I don't remember who won.  I know it was the first time I'd played against an Ironclad Dreadnought before, and I hated the experience.

In that previous game, his Ironclad assaulted a Plague Bearers squad and I'd countered with a Daemon Prince.  I'd knocked off an arm, but that just extended the whole affair out and he kept me there the entirety of the game.  Annoying.  That was also the game where I rediscovered how little I like Null Zone.

Null Zone cost me my game against Nick's Salamanders at BoLSCon 2009 (from Chapterhouse Studios, and Nick was a great guy - I highly recommend him and his products), but that was when I still played my Eldar.  Daemons have a whole other reason to dislike it!

Anyway, I didn't capture too many pictures, because I ended up playing like a maniac.  You see, Evil Homer's opponent forfeited on Table 2, on Turn 2 (there's a story there, but I'm not sure it's mine to tell), giving Evil Homer a major victory.  I knew points were close, so I thought there was a good chance I'd have to score a major against Farseer Tim to take first place on the day.  I knew to have any shot of doing that, I'd have to fit in a full game.  That means push the game, play faster, roll faster, move quicker..!  I probably annoyed the hell out of Tim, but he was a good sport about it.  He knew why... and something that occurs to me as I write this: he could have deliberately played for a draw rather than pushing for a win himself (playing not to win but to cost me a win), and probably cost me the tournament.  I'm sure he knew he could do it, but I'm equally sure he never would have.  He's one of the good guys, and I've got mad respect for him.

But you still have to wear a tinfoil hat around him - his power of suggestion is legendary.

Bah!  5 objectives means I've got to... you know, it only just occurred to me, writing this now, that I literally HAD to table Tim for a major.  I'm pretty sure the victory conditions were to control all the objectives for a major and more than your opponent for a minor.  While I like having major and minor wins as a category, I think that's taking it too far.  If you roll for 5 objectives, like we did, you'd better hope you'd filled out 5 troop slots.  The missions seriously need another look, much like the guys were saying in the recent comments.

In the above shot, you see I've played for my toughest drop, which is all 4 beasts units (Fiends and Khornedogs) and all 3 Daemon Princes.  I consider this my all-or-nothing drop, and while I'm aware many Daemons players advocate this style, I normally don't.  I don't like to win or lose on one roll of the dice, so normally I have my 'shooting / not shooting' split, that way regardless of what I get I can work a plan - either set up charges or drop aggressively for an alpha strike.  The above drop gets all my best units on the table from Turn 1.  Farseer Tim sets up in a line with his Land Raider centralized, balanced by his two Razorbacks.  He's got attack bikes on the wings and in the middle, 5 in all.  I drop, we mix it up... what's to say?  Nothing, except that once again I misjudge how far a Land Raider can move and disgorge troops to assault - doh!

I'm afraid I didn't get the pictures of the middlegame.  Suffice it to say, we mixed it up good.  Tim used Null Zone to great effect, but I managed to neutralize the Terminator Librarian and Terminator Assault Squad... with some help from Farseer Tim, who managed to roll 3 ones for saves in 1 turn!

The picture is rather later in the game, when I was beginning to wonder if I had the goods to win this game!  A unit of Fiends is assaulting a Tac squad in the upper right quadrant, fighting over an objective.  I win, then plant 'bearers there.  My Horrors move left, screened by my Great Unclean One, and take the centralized objective.  My GUC drops Breath on the Land Raider, immobilizes it, then charges, destroying it.  My other two Plague Bearer units have a tight control of the two objectives, but his two Attack Bikes manage to kill a Daemon Prince - who was in combat with them, no less! - and charge off to attack the 'bearers on the left flank.  I end up having to reposition my last unit of Fiends to help them out.  The fight ends up hottest on the last objective, where the Iron Clad is.  I fight hard, but ultimately can't beat the last of his army and claim the major.

Truth be told, I wouldn't have done so even with another turn.  He still had two squads and two vehicles, and certainly wouldn't have just handed them to me on a silver platter!  I was disappointed with a Minor Win, thinking I'd lost the tournament.

But I'd won!  I'd misunderstood the conversation; basically, I'd made a scoring error in my game with Evil Homer, but it was a point (or two, not sure) they weren't going to worry about unless it mattered, and it wouldn't unless I failed to win my game.  As it turned out, I needed a Minor Victory to secure the top spot, which is what I got.

Stressed myself out for nothing!  Still, it was a good game, and Farseer Tim put up a sterling defense.