DoomMouse
04-30-2013, 01:32 PM
Me and my cousin entered the battle brothers tournament this year with an Imperial Guard and Blood Angels Alliance. Our team name was ‘Tanks Again’ and our army list was as follows:
Guard
CCS with 3 Meltas in Chimera 135
Veteran Squad with 2 Grenade Launchers and Autocannon in Chimera 145
Veteran Squad with 2 plasma guns in Chimera 145
Vendetta 130
2 Griffons in a Squadron 150
Hydra 75
Leman Russ Demolisher 165
Blood Angels:
Librarian with Blood Lance and Shield of Sanguinius 100
5 Man assault squad with meltagun in razorback with Lascannon and plasma gun 165
Baal Predator 145
Predator tank with Autocannon and Lascannon Sponsons 135
The plan was for the grenade launcher vet squad to hold objectives, the baal to outflank and the longer range heavy support to stay back and rain down death…
Game 1 was against an Eldar – Space Marine Alliance with 2 squads of termis with cyclone missile launchers, pathfinders, dark reapers, an aegis line and quad gun manned by a farseer, some tactical marines and pedro kantor. These guys didn’t last long. The baal turned up behind the aegis line to murder the pathfinders and combined AP2 firepower took down the termis. The griffons sniped off the farseer and half a unit of termis themselves! These guys just didn’t have enough anti tank, and the demolisher absorbed all of it - we tabled them by turn 3, not having lost a model. I felt a bit mean…
Game 2 was against grey knights / imperial guard. They had a dreadknight (walking), 6 termis, interceptors, 2 chimeras full of vets, a vendetta and an infantry platoon to hold the rear. This game was the scouring. Chimera searchlights proved very useful to illuminate targets turn 1 during night fighting. Again, the griffons wiped out half a termi squad turn 1 and went on to account for a full vet squad and most of the interceptors throughout the battle. The hydra pinged their vendetta and massed plasma and melta shots took out the dreadknight. The outflanking baal blew up a chimera, but was gunned down by jumping interceptors the next turn. Flamers and meltas from platoon command squads took out a few chimeras, but largely our army game through unscathed again – we tabled them by turn 4.
Game 3 was ‘big guns never tire’ against a tau – imperial guard alliance, with a riptide, broadside, deep striking stormtroopers with meltas and plasmas, marbo and 2 vendettas and a Valkyrie (and plenty of fire warriors and infantry squads). Our first two turns were largely focussed on taking out the riptide which had blown up a few tanks with its nova charged ion accelerator shot (we didn’t know it was ordnance and had deployed far too close together…) we eventually killed it by turn 3, but only after most of our tanks were dead. By this time, the storm troopers, marbo and vendettas had arrived, utterly destroying our griffons, hydra and chimeras. We were thinking the game was likely to be over by this point, but the company commander led a fightback, using bring it down on multiple squads to kill a vendetta, Valkyrie and riptide in one turn! Towards the end of the game, it was a scramble for objectives, with both sides having a two depleted guardsman units holding two objectives apiece. On the last turn of the game, our demolisher moved in to contest one of their objectives and win us the game, but unfortunately it rolled a 1 for its dangerous terrain test and parked itself 6 inches from the objective. They won 10 – 8. Oh well.
Game 4 on the next day was against a dark angels / blood angels alliance, with 2 tactical squads, 3 ravenwing, a baal, 5 deathwing termis, a stormraven and a deep striking death company unit with a librarian. My razorback was awesome in this game, blowing up the baal turn 1, two termis in turn 2 and the drop pod turn 3. They had a lot of bad luck this game, with the stormraven failing to kill anything and the ravenwing failing to damage a chimera when they assaulted. The hydra destroyed the stormraven and massed firepower wiped their army off the table by turn 4. I think we only lost a couple of space marines this game.
Game 5 was ‘The Emperors Will’ against a Tau / Guard alliance again. Their army included a hammerhead, riptide, manticore, vendetta with plasma vets in, a chimera full of plasma guns, and some kroot, fire warriors, pathfinders with darkstrider and infantry to hold the line. The early game was pretty close, although the hammerhead and riptide tended to immobilise and damage vehicles rather than kill them outright. The riptide charged two chimeras at once and was gunned down by the plasma and meltas within. The baal came on behind the hammerhead and did nothing to it for two turns, then got blown up by pathfinders although the hammerhead was equally awful (we eventually had it when the vendetta came on). My librarian had his transport blown up, and charged through several small imperial guard squads to get to the enemy home objective by turn 5. The griffons again were epic, destroying the manticores rockets and then killing an entire unit of fire warriors (and attached fireblade) in their next round of shooting. Their vendetta came on to destroy the griffons, but was knocked out of the sky by their hydra, on its last hull point. It crashed, killing their last squad of veterans within, and preventing them from taking our home objective. The game ended as a convincing win, with both objectives in our possession.
All in all the tournament went pretty well – we placed 21st out of 104 teams (although if ‘favorite opponent’ votes were discounted we would have come joint tenth – I think its hard to give your opponents a good time when they have nothing that can really hurt any of your units…) Granted, we didn't play many truly competitive lists, but we had no easier a ride than any average team in the tournament - the people we played generally finished around mid table.
The best units we had were the griffons – they got over double the unit kills of any other tank, and were amazing for sniping off heavy weapons and even independent characters (if you roll 12+ dice, they’re going to fail some look out sir rolls). Other things that surprised me was the hydra and the vendetta – with so much armour it seemed people just didn’t have the spare shots to allocate to these, despite the fact that they were our only way of taking out air.
The demolisher withstood an unbelievable amount of punishment and never even died once in any game over the weekend, and the baal predator gave us a great alpha strike capability over any hard to unit we chose. Despite not having any consistent spam units I think this list performed very well, and has shown that its still possible to win with traditional armour lists in the new edition.
Guard
CCS with 3 Meltas in Chimera 135
Veteran Squad with 2 Grenade Launchers and Autocannon in Chimera 145
Veteran Squad with 2 plasma guns in Chimera 145
Vendetta 130
2 Griffons in a Squadron 150
Hydra 75
Leman Russ Demolisher 165
Blood Angels:
Librarian with Blood Lance and Shield of Sanguinius 100
5 Man assault squad with meltagun in razorback with Lascannon and plasma gun 165
Baal Predator 145
Predator tank with Autocannon and Lascannon Sponsons 135
The plan was for the grenade launcher vet squad to hold objectives, the baal to outflank and the longer range heavy support to stay back and rain down death…
Game 1 was against an Eldar – Space Marine Alliance with 2 squads of termis with cyclone missile launchers, pathfinders, dark reapers, an aegis line and quad gun manned by a farseer, some tactical marines and pedro kantor. These guys didn’t last long. The baal turned up behind the aegis line to murder the pathfinders and combined AP2 firepower took down the termis. The griffons sniped off the farseer and half a unit of termis themselves! These guys just didn’t have enough anti tank, and the demolisher absorbed all of it - we tabled them by turn 3, not having lost a model. I felt a bit mean…
Game 2 was against grey knights / imperial guard. They had a dreadknight (walking), 6 termis, interceptors, 2 chimeras full of vets, a vendetta and an infantry platoon to hold the rear. This game was the scouring. Chimera searchlights proved very useful to illuminate targets turn 1 during night fighting. Again, the griffons wiped out half a termi squad turn 1 and went on to account for a full vet squad and most of the interceptors throughout the battle. The hydra pinged their vendetta and massed plasma and melta shots took out the dreadknight. The outflanking baal blew up a chimera, but was gunned down by jumping interceptors the next turn. Flamers and meltas from platoon command squads took out a few chimeras, but largely our army game through unscathed again – we tabled them by turn 4.
Game 3 was ‘big guns never tire’ against a tau – imperial guard alliance, with a riptide, broadside, deep striking stormtroopers with meltas and plasmas, marbo and 2 vendettas and a Valkyrie (and plenty of fire warriors and infantry squads). Our first two turns were largely focussed on taking out the riptide which had blown up a few tanks with its nova charged ion accelerator shot (we didn’t know it was ordnance and had deployed far too close together…) we eventually killed it by turn 3, but only after most of our tanks were dead. By this time, the storm troopers, marbo and vendettas had arrived, utterly destroying our griffons, hydra and chimeras. We were thinking the game was likely to be over by this point, but the company commander led a fightback, using bring it down on multiple squads to kill a vendetta, Valkyrie and riptide in one turn! Towards the end of the game, it was a scramble for objectives, with both sides having a two depleted guardsman units holding two objectives apiece. On the last turn of the game, our demolisher moved in to contest one of their objectives and win us the game, but unfortunately it rolled a 1 for its dangerous terrain test and parked itself 6 inches from the objective. They won 10 – 8. Oh well.
Game 4 on the next day was against a dark angels / blood angels alliance, with 2 tactical squads, 3 ravenwing, a baal, 5 deathwing termis, a stormraven and a deep striking death company unit with a librarian. My razorback was awesome in this game, blowing up the baal turn 1, two termis in turn 2 and the drop pod turn 3. They had a lot of bad luck this game, with the stormraven failing to kill anything and the ravenwing failing to damage a chimera when they assaulted. The hydra destroyed the stormraven and massed firepower wiped their army off the table by turn 4. I think we only lost a couple of space marines this game.
Game 5 was ‘The Emperors Will’ against a Tau / Guard alliance again. Their army included a hammerhead, riptide, manticore, vendetta with plasma vets in, a chimera full of plasma guns, and some kroot, fire warriors, pathfinders with darkstrider and infantry to hold the line. The early game was pretty close, although the hammerhead and riptide tended to immobilise and damage vehicles rather than kill them outright. The riptide charged two chimeras at once and was gunned down by the plasma and meltas within. The baal came on behind the hammerhead and did nothing to it for two turns, then got blown up by pathfinders although the hammerhead was equally awful (we eventually had it when the vendetta came on). My librarian had his transport blown up, and charged through several small imperial guard squads to get to the enemy home objective by turn 5. The griffons again were epic, destroying the manticores rockets and then killing an entire unit of fire warriors (and attached fireblade) in their next round of shooting. Their vendetta came on to destroy the griffons, but was knocked out of the sky by their hydra, on its last hull point. It crashed, killing their last squad of veterans within, and preventing them from taking our home objective. The game ended as a convincing win, with both objectives in our possession.
All in all the tournament went pretty well – we placed 21st out of 104 teams (although if ‘favorite opponent’ votes were discounted we would have come joint tenth – I think its hard to give your opponents a good time when they have nothing that can really hurt any of your units…) Granted, we didn't play many truly competitive lists, but we had no easier a ride than any average team in the tournament - the people we played generally finished around mid table.
The best units we had were the griffons – they got over double the unit kills of any other tank, and were amazing for sniping off heavy weapons and even independent characters (if you roll 12+ dice, they’re going to fail some look out sir rolls). Other things that surprised me was the hydra and the vendetta – with so much armour it seemed people just didn’t have the spare shots to allocate to these, despite the fact that they were our only way of taking out air.
The demolisher withstood an unbelievable amount of punishment and never even died once in any game over the weekend, and the baal predator gave us a great alpha strike capability over any hard to unit we chose. Despite not having any consistent spam units I think this list performed very well, and has shown that its still possible to win with traditional armour lists in the new edition.