Cheers From Across the Table

[DWest]

We've all had that moment where the fickle dice gods have unexpectedly granted us their favor, resulting in surprise, or at least hilarity. But everybody cheers when it happens for them. I want to hear stories where something the opponent has done has turned out so unbelievably well that you just have to clap for them, or at least give the Nod of Approval.

I'll start -- from my most recent game as a matter of fact: Space Marines (my Ultras) vs. Space Marines (Raven Guard). I had dropped an Ironclad Dreadnought inside my opponent's Aegis line, where it had been having its way with his objective-holders, and after they broke and ran, I consolidated onto the Quad-Gun, where it was going to deal him the insult of dropping his Stormtalon with his own gun [being unsure on the "vehicles can/can't fire Aegis weapons" we had diced it out and it came up yes]. He's got nothing in range that can kill the beast . . . until he remembered he hadn't used his Chapter Master's Orbital Bombardment yet. Neither of us have used the Bombardment yet, so he says offhand "I wonder if this will actually work?". We're looking at the "scatters a full 2d6 inches" rule and how close his only remaining scoring unit on that end of the board is to where the blast is going to land. Opponent picks up the scatter dice, closes his eyes, and chucks them by the Dreadnought.

Pie lands dead-center on the Ironclad. 6 to penetrate (and a 1 to wound the aegis gun), another 6 for damage, and the vaporized dread goes back into the carry case.

Anybody else have a good one?

[Tyrendian]

several great moments from Fantasy (I assume that's "legal" as well despite being in the 40k section?), all a while ago so no idea if those things even still exist^^ also the names might be a bit off - I don't read as much about fantasy as I do about 40k these days, and my books are german...
once my High Elf Dragon Mage charged a unit of Khemri skeleton cav - killed all but two, the two riders whiffed in return - but then came their mounts! (we all know horses are the true masters of any WFB battlefield...) well, two well-placed kicks later, my mage got himself killed by skeleton horses, and his trusty dragon promptly decided to stand guard over his fallen corpse (or rather holding its belly laughing), taking him out of the game...
then there was this one fight between a High Elf prince and an Ogre tyrant, both armed to their teeth. hit each other back and forth, both had one wound left. then the ogre player went "hang on, I've got two Sword Gnoblars (or whatever they are called - those that gave the tyrant two additional attacks at S2)" well, a few dice rolls later, the high and mighty Elf had been slain by what we only imagined was a smashed beer bottle lovingly applied to his face...

then, from 40k...
I was playing Marines against Tau (their old 'dex - was ages ago...). last turn of the game, one single survivor of my Tacs was the only one holding an objective - game was a nice and proper bloodbath. My friend was about ready to concede since he thought he had nothing left to win with... until he bothered to check if his lone broadside could somehow draw a LOS across the whole table and through two intervening buildings on my dude - and sure enough he could. the result was kinda predictable (remember - old Tau codex, when Broadsides still had their "maximum Overkill" guns) - but a hilarious, game changing shot nonetheless...

[Learn2Eel]

I charged my Tzeentch Daemon Prince into a Wraithknight with two heavy wraithcannons. With the Black Mace in tow, it was going to be a dead Wraithknight as long as the Prince made it to combat, and he just happened to be about 2" away! So my opponent rolls his Overwatch; a six to hit. Oh crap. A six to wound. Mega oh crap, though it didn't matter really as any wound would cause instant death. I rolled a 1, a clutch roll that gave me a re-roll. Poof, a three. Bye-bye Daemon Prince, and it pretty much won him the game.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

A while back I was playing a lad in the store (that should tell you how long ago!) who had a reputation for losing horribly.
With two objectives on the board and no kill-points, my tau vs his marines.
I tried to help him, I gave tactical advice (which he ignored), went easy on him, and played defensively to give him an edge.
The dice hated him that day and by turn 4 he had a captain with 1 wound and 3 tactical marines hunkered down on his objective and his terminators in reserve.
My relatively unscathed Tau were sitting pretty, and in my turn 4 strimmed off the Captain and another Marine.
In his the Termies dropped in and had the temerity to shoot and kill some battlesuits. This would not stand.
My army re-deployed and turned those termies into a fine red mist, confident that with a potential 2 turns left nothing could go wrong.
His turn five was spent hiding on the objective, taking pot-shots.
Then the game ended. A draw, that was a moral victory I felt.
Until I measured the distance from my fire warriors to the objective and discovered that they were just (about 3 MM) out of range to score.
I had clutched defeat from certain victory.

[LordGrise]

This is well back in 5th ed days... my Tau vs Chris's Chaos Marines. He's turned his Champion into a Greater Daemon (hope I have that right - Diablo looking thingie, anyways) and the damned thing has taken pretty much the full faith and credence of everything in range - and saved everything. Very end of the turn, I notice half a dozen Fire Warriors hiding in a building over in the corner - I measure, and there is precisely one of my little plastic dudesmen that has range. As I shake the dice, I joke that he's so terrified, he's just sticking his rifle over the wall and shooting blindly.

Hit, wound - and Chris rolls a one. Hoorah, I got a wound on it!

Turned out to be the only wound it took - it pretty much single-handedly ate everything, and did save everything from then on. But that little guy got his bloodstripe (blue line on the outside seam of the legs) that day, and since then, he has always been a Shas'ui (sergeant). No game changer, but Chris applauded, so it counts here...

[Capn Stoogey]

In an apoc game a few months ago, a mate had a Tzeench Daemon prince and a butt load of sorcerers among his army. He booned the crap out of his DP, turning it into an unstoppable monstrosity who went around causing havoc. In one round, he butchered 3 full strength dreadknights!
This one was from me, but it was so awesome I had to share anyway- In another game a few weeks ago, I had a Warhound and a Reaver holding the back line, where a bunch of enemy superheavies were putting on the pressure. In my turn the Warhound finished off a doomhammer and blew up an objective the enemy would have claimed, the Reaver fired the turbo laser and killed a shadowsword. There was a Baneblade with 6 HP left encroaching on our turf so I figured I'd fire the apoc launcher and maybe get lucky and roll a couple of 6s. Being barrage it hit the side armour of 13, ordnance meant I was rolling 2 dice and picking the highest. I managed to hit it with all blasts, and then roll a 6 in each of the pairs, while everyone who told me I should have shot at infantry looked on stunned, leaving it on one HP! I then fired the melta cannon, finishing it off and causing a detonation that took out a few other tanks around it. That was a good round of shooting :)

[Pssyche]

My LONG TIME adversary Scott plays Genestealer Cult/Tyranids and since it came out, we usually play Apocalypse.
He isn't very good to be honest, but always fields a fully painted army no matter what.
Our games last all day and great fun is always had.
Despite fielding as many Gargantuan Creatures and Super Heavies as me, he had never killed any of mine.
Then one fateful day, after three years and umpteen battles of Apocalypse, he managed to kill my Revenant Titan with some outrageous dice rolling.
I was dumbfounded.
But when he threw his arms in the air and ran around the GW Manchester Store shouting "YES!" at the top of his voice several times, all I could do was applaud him.
I went on to trounce him, but we both knew he'd "won" that day.

Oh, and at the time I was 47 and he was around 36...

[Cactus]

I've been on the bitter end of some poor dice rolling more than a few editions ago that my opponent still tells the tale...

I was playing wood elves and a treeman took a charge from a big unit of Brets. The treeman lost combat and fled through a unit of glade riders which included my general. The general fled off the table. In Fantasy at the time, when your general died, your entire army took painc tests. Most of my army was still in my delployment zone and add after 10 or so failed leadership tests, I had a small unit of archers and unit of dryads on the table at the start of turn 2.

However, I once used a halfling hot pot, killed enough cold one riders to cause a panic. My opponent failed two leadership tests and lost a unit of cold ones, a general and battle standard bearer before he even got to move.

[Ursa]

My favorote was about 20 boyz.charged a rhino. No special weapons. 4th edition I think. Only one. Penetrating hit. He rolls a six. Boom. Another 6. 6" boom. Gets all the boyz. I let him roll to wound. Unbelievable roll. 16 wounds. Fifteen dead boyz. Of those nine 1s. Fails his moral roll. The other five or so run and keep running. We laughed for hours. To this day everyone we get together we laugh and say boom.

[Cactus]

My last game was one of those rare games in a tournament that I played in yesterday.

My opponent was a fairly new player who was playing Dark Angels after switching from Chaos Marines. I was playing a really fun list (1 Chaplain, 1 Death Company, 7 Dreadnoughts in Drop Pods) without any scoring units so I was just expecting to putz around for fun.

I had my drop pod assault held back and the only thing on the table at the start of the game was my Death Company and Chaplain hiding behind a building. My opponent had a Belial list full of termies that was going to be deep striking in and the only unit he had on the table was a unit of three bikes. I got to go first.

My drop pods came down, surrounded the bikes, and in three shots removed them from the table and I won in one half turn.

I can't brag about it since he's a new guy and he had never faced a drop pod list before, but this was my first half turn sweep. He laughed about it and I sheepishly told the TO that I won. We played out the rest of the game since we had the better part of an hour and a half to kill.

[Aegwymourn]

It is one whole game turn. Hence why null deployment drop pod lists can still compete. Its one of the few times I can think of they specify game turn and not player turn.

[Pssyche]

Rulebook. P. 122. Victory Conditions.
"If at the end of any game turn, one player has no models on the battlefield, his opponent automatically wins."

I think I would have been sheepish, too telling the Tournament Organiser I'd won under those conditions...

[Cactus]

It is one whole game turn. Hence why null deployment drop pod lists can still compete. Its one of the few times I can think of they specify game turn and not player turn.

At the end of game turn one, he didn't have any models. I don't have the DA book so I'm not sure when his units deep strike in, but he told me that his termies could only come in on turn 2. That's a big whoops if we did it wrong.

[Aegwymourn]

Deathwing terminators are allowed to choose which turn they deepstrike in before or during deployment IIRC. If he chose to come in turn 2 then yes you guys did it correctly.