Yesterdays 1850 Tournament, Battlegrounds Plainville, MA

So yesterday Battlegrounds had an 1850 tourney that i suppose we will call my first real tourney in 6th edition since that 1250 was pretty tiny.

My Vostroyans did learn from that 1250 tourney though and learned some more yesterday and i will be changing things up in the army list a bit.

The list

HQ: Company command squad with autocannon team

Troop 1: Vets with 3 plasmas and a chimera

Troop 2: Vets with 3 plasmas and a chimera

Troop 3: Vets with 3 plasmas and a chimera

Troop 4: Vets with 3 flamers and a chimera

Troop 5: Infantry Platoon

Platoon command squad and 2 infantry squads blobbed up with 3 autocannons

3 more autocannons in a heavy weapons squad

Troop 6: Infantry Platoon

Platoon command squad and 2 infantry squads blobbed up with 3 autocannons

3 more autocannons in a heavy weapons squad

Fast Attack 1: Vendetta

Heavy 1: Manticore

Heavy 2: Manticore

Heavy 3: Leman Russ Demolisher

Fortification: Aegis Defense Line (just the walls)

Round 1: Vostroyans vs Grey Knights

My opponent brought an all terminator list and a stormraven. Honestly not the best list but i know he had some better luck in his other 2 games so what do i know.

Standard 12 inch deployment, night fight first round

I went first, he only had 2 squads on the table at the time which i whittled down with overwhelming firepower. Brought his HQ Grand Master down to one wound and then he Periled himself to death. His Paladins came in combat squaded and deep striked into my midst, one squad got shot to pieces by plasma in chimeras before they could get in assault range. The other 5 paladins took some hits but managed to multi-assault one of my blobs and send them running off the board (this will be addressed in my thoughts later).

His Stormraven came in and attempted to drop off some more terminators but mishaped them to death instead (good for me because they tried to land right on top of one of my squads holding an objective in his half of the board). His stormraven was an all star however chewing through one of my squads and blowing up a couple chimeras, i pumped some lascannon shots into it with my Vendetta but couldn't kill it.

Result: Close to max points for me 44 out of 50

Round 2: Vostroyans vs Grey Knights with IG detachment

My opponent brought an interesting list with a little bit of everything. Two Psyrifle dreads, some terminators, some psykers, a purgation squad,a couple strike squads, an IG blob and 2 Griffon mortars and a Bastion.

Old 5th edition style spearhead deployment, no night fight

I went first again (lucky for me) and with all his stuff mostly grouped up in the spearhead deployment it was easy pickings for my pieplate dropping guns. He had his bastion set up close to the middle with the terminators inside which made it a high priority target for my Demolisher, a lucky roll on the scatter die and damage chart and it blew sky high first thing (my opponent was less than pleased). Lobbed a couple missiles from my Manticores into the rest of his lines and took out both his dreads and some random troops.

A phenomenal first turn for me, his first turn managed to take out a few troops stun my demolisher with psycannon fire through the back of bastion due to primaris psyker twin linking and astral aim.

Next turn my Vendetta came in, manticores made short work of his 2 mortar vehicles and that was pretty much the game. Whacked his HQ with some more pieplates, got the table quarters and my HQ into the center to close it out. I don't think he got a single kill point off me.

Result: Close to max points for me 48 out of 50

Roud 3: Vostroyans vs Traitor Guard (hot IG on IG action)

So going into round 3 i knew i was going to face some tough opposition since i was at the top of the pile points wise and sure enough i ended up on table 1 with Bill Souza and his Traitor Guard IG (great chaos paint job by the way)

His list was actually very similar to mine with both of us bringing 2 manticores, he had 2 vendettas while i had 1, both had a bunch of Vets driving around in Chimeras shotting plasma all over the place, he had one large blob while i had 2 smaller ones, i had a ton of autocannons, i had flamers he had flamers, etc

Triangle deployment, no night fight

Bill goes first (doh!) Bill going first gave him the better terrain to hide all his good stuff behind and with such similar lists i knew whoever won the roll to go first was going to inflict more damage right off the start with their manticores.

His first turn launched a bunch of missiles my way as expected and took out a Manticore before he could get a shot off (should of reserved them because im an idiot) and stunned my Demolisher before it could get a shot off. Did some moderate damage to troops and Chimeras

My turn one, returned the favor by blowing up a couple of his Chimeras and troops with my manticore and jockying my Chimeras into position, trying to shoot the hell out of his Chimera carrying his flamers but left a hull point on it (this will become very bad shortly).

His turn 2 and both his vendettas come in, more manticore missiles in the air stun my Demolisher (again) and crack open a couple of Chimeras killing off an entire vet squad. and my last Manticore. The aforementioned flamers got right up to my aegis defense line and flamed  12 or more to death (cant remember exactly) and sent the survivors running.

My turn 2, my Vendetta shows up and promptly blows up one of his vendettas, i manage to kill off all his flamers, one of my vet squads takes out a Chimera, while some other concentrated fire almost forces a check on his blob but with it being 50 guys strong it wasent enough.

The rest of the game my vendetta jinks and jinks and jinks its way to live on until the end, he kills most of my troops with more pieplates and plasma, he kills my HQ right at the end with a pieplate because i completely forgot my Company Commander has a 5+ invuln save (doh!)

results: Bill wins with close to max points, he didnt get a wipe out and we both got the tertiary goal. i got 7 out of 50

Not sure what i came in as the result won't be posted for another day or two but i'm assuming top 25%, we shall see.

EDIT: i got 7th out of 35 players

What i learned and what to change

Reserves: As Bill McFadden pointed out i should of reserved my manticores (well at least one of them, the other had pretty good cover) and probably my demolisher too because Bill Souza went first.

Blobs: Bill McFadden was also aghast that i didn't have a commisar in my blobs for re-rolls and stubborn, what i get for not reading the codex enough, Defiantly a must have considering he running away some of my blobs did yesterday, i also think i may change it up from 2 small blobs to one large blob.

Autocannons: they didn't do as much as i figured, and with these 6 edition armies having very few transports they arent as useful as they once were. Still great for Dark Eldar, Eldar mech, people who do bring transports,  etc. I will likely keep some but certainly not 13 and those 2 heavy weapon squads were 75 points a peice and didn't really do as much as they should of.

Manticores: still all-stars, i need to utilize reserve more in the future

Leman Russ Demolisher: not bad, had a couple all-star moments. considering adding extra armor since it always seems to get stunned.

Vendetta: still not sure about this one... dropping down to one Vendetta from two was certainly the right choice in my opinion and honesly i'm thinking about getting rid of it all together. Granted i haven't put this list up against a Necron flyer list or similar but i may just start going with the idea of ignoring enemy flyers. I might miss the TL lascannons for that odd AV 14 that pops up but we shall see.

Flamers: Bill Souza had a great idea of given his platoon comman squad 4 flamers and putting them in a chimera. My flamer squad was vets in chimera with only 3 flamers and a lot more points, the only downside is the PCS won't be near the blob to issue 1st rank 2nd rank fire but i didn't get to use that a lot anyway. Likely going to steal Bill's idea, why am i going to pay for vets with BS4 for flamers that dont roll to hit?

Plasma: Plasma was definitely the way to go, glad i took out the one melta squad i had because the 12" range is still an issue. I was getting my fair share of "gets hot!" rolls but hey it happens. Bill Souza was also using a Plasma version of his Flamer idea (i think it was his company command squad) and loaded down on options to sit in a table quarter and win it point wise if needed. Another great idea to consider adding.

Aegis Defense Line: At 50 points its a great bargain, the 4+/2+ gone to ground cover save helped me a few times (and with get back in the fight they were able to get right back to shooing) but ti was useless against flamers and barrages... not sure yet if i'm going to keep it

Next tournament at Battlegrounds is going to be a doubles next month (probably 1k or 1250 a piece) which i might be sitting out of unless i find a solid doubles partner. After that the singles invitational at Battlegrounds in December which i'm going to start tweaking this list for.

Need to buy more Vostryoans if i'm going to be blobbing it up some more! off to Ebay!