Elysian Battle Report - 1000pts
I got in a small game at the local club yesterday.
My List was as follows
Battalion Detachment
2 Company commanders with Auxiliary Grenade Launchers
4 Infantry squads with all lasguns
2 Plasma command squads
2 Tauros Assault Vehicles with Heavy Flamers
1 Tauros Venator with Hunter-killer missile and Twin lascannon
2 Heavy weapon squads with mortars
2 Vultures with Twin Punisher Gatling Cannons
My Opponent was playing Death Guard, and had the following
Batallion and Vanguard detachments
Plagueburst crawler
2 units of nurglings
1 large unit of plague walkers
1 Hellbrute
That Nurgle tree
And a variety of characters including a psyker.
Mission was the Maelstrom mission, Cloak of Shadows, which imposed a -1 to hit on any shooting over 18", and deployment was Hammer and Anvil.
He only kept his tree in Deepstrike reserve, and I reserved both my CCs, 3 Infantry squads and both Command squads.
As expected he got first turn and moved up and shot with what he could, but killed nothing, and maybe put a wound on a Tauros. This was as he had limited firepower to start with, and combined with the -1 to hit from the mission and prepared positions stratagem that I played.
My turn 1 did not go much better. I moved up my planes and Tauros's, and shot at what I could, putting 6 wounds on the plague crawler, and killing a few nurglings. The plague walkers had a -2 to hit, and combines with their 2 5+ saves both Vultures only removed a few models.
His turn 2 he moved up more to get the objectives closer to my lines, and brought in his tree right between them. His shooting was slightly better, putting one of the Vultures down to 2 wounds, and taking some wounds off the Tauros's too, but still not killing anything.
My turn 2 I put my almost dead Vulture into hover mode and flew right next to his psyker. I put my 2 plasma command squads near his plague crawler, and 3 3 infantry squads near my lines, so they could finish off the nurglings and kill as many plague walkers as possible.
So playing the Vengeance for Cadia on the vulture he killed the psyker, even though he was hitting on 6s. All the nurglings died, as did the plague crawler.
His turn 3 he finally got his first kills, killing the wounded Vulture as well as a Flamer Tauros.
From here it was just cleaning up as he had little left to screen his characters. Over the next few turns my Lascannon Venator killed his Hellbrute, my plasma command squads moved up and killed his warlord, and everyone else just kept moving forward and shooting. His guys didn't go down easily, but I had sufficient firepower to get enough wounds through, and I hadn't lost much more by then end of the game.
So an overwhelming victory for the Elysians, but his was a casual list. I have done pretty well in all my games vs Chaos as they rely on their invul saves and don't have the necessary resilience against the sheer number of shots my army can put out.
My List was as follows
Battalion Detachment
2 Company commanders with Auxiliary Grenade Launchers
4 Infantry squads with all lasguns
2 Plasma command squads
2 Tauros Assault Vehicles with Heavy Flamers
1 Tauros Venator with Hunter-killer missile and Twin lascannon
2 Heavy weapon squads with mortars
2 Vultures with Twin Punisher Gatling Cannons
My Opponent was playing Death Guard, and had the following
Batallion and Vanguard detachments
Plagueburst crawler
2 units of nurglings
1 large unit of plague walkers
1 Hellbrute
That Nurgle tree
And a variety of characters including a psyker.
Mission was the Maelstrom mission, Cloak of Shadows, which imposed a -1 to hit on any shooting over 18", and deployment was Hammer and Anvil.
He only kept his tree in Deepstrike reserve, and I reserved both my CCs, 3 Infantry squads and both Command squads.
As expected he got first turn and moved up and shot with what he could, but killed nothing, and maybe put a wound on a Tauros. This was as he had limited firepower to start with, and combined with the -1 to hit from the mission and prepared positions stratagem that I played.
My turn 1 did not go much better. I moved up my planes and Tauros's, and shot at what I could, putting 6 wounds on the plague crawler, and killing a few nurglings. The plague walkers had a -2 to hit, and combines with their 2 5+ saves both Vultures only removed a few models.
His turn 2 he moved up more to get the objectives closer to my lines, and brought in his tree right between them. His shooting was slightly better, putting one of the Vultures down to 2 wounds, and taking some wounds off the Tauros's too, but still not killing anything.
My turn 2 I put my almost dead Vulture into hover mode and flew right next to his psyker. I put my 2 plasma command squads near his plague crawler, and 3 3 infantry squads near my lines, so they could finish off the nurglings and kill as many plague walkers as possible.
So playing the Vengeance for Cadia on the vulture he killed the psyker, even though he was hitting on 6s. All the nurglings died, as did the plague crawler.
His turn 3 he finally got his first kills, killing the wounded Vulture as well as a Flamer Tauros.
From here it was just cleaning up as he had little left to screen his characters. Over the next few turns my Lascannon Venator killed his Hellbrute, my plasma command squads moved up and killed his warlord, and everyone else just kept moving forward and shooting. His guys didn't go down easily, but I had sufficient firepower to get enough wounds through, and I hadn't lost much more by then end of the game.
So an overwhelming victory for the Elysians, but his was a casual list. I have done pretty well in all my games vs Chaos as they rely on their invul saves and don't have the necessary resilience against the sheer number of shots my army can put out.
I take it Gretchin refers to Nurglings, and not to gobbos in speeeece. Otherwise, nicely done on the win. Just a query; if you're playing local games against casual or fluffy lists do you tone your lists down or mix in different stuff that isn't 'competitive'? Just wondering, because I've seen this discussion play out a lot of late (mostly framed around avoiding being 'that guy'), but playing straight Elysians is already moving out of 'that guy' territory; they aren't typical top tier material if typical tournament lists are anything to go by. But then their comparative rarity means folks aren't at all used to playing them; hypermobile Guard is not what folks expect at all. And the difficulty would be to keep other players wanting to front up and play, in order to get practice in for the next tournament as I imagine this is a goal for you, as well as just for fun.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteYes you are correct, I did mean nurglings instead of Gretchin. I'll change that in the post.
But as for the list design issue, I very rarely purposely 'tone down' a list. Much more often I will use models that I haven't used for a while, and the only time I will use the same list is either in a tournament, or practicing for a tournament.
In this case I had no idea what army I was facing and only did up my list for the game the day before. My usual list at the moment is a core of infantry squads with Plasma command squads, mortars and Vultures. This provides a strong core and has a decent amount of both anti-infantry and anti-tank. Then I add in additional units as I see fit.
While I do prefer to win games rather than lose, I don't like crushing my opponent, and actually felt a bit guilty in this case. My opponent was a good sport about it, and even wanted to play it out to the end even though it was obvious where things were headed after turn 3.
I don't want to become 'that guy' and don't think I am headed that way staying with Elysians, but my win percentage has been increasing over the last year, so it is something I should be aware of. And taking lists with a higher percentage of sub-optimal units will both let me better evaluate thei effectiveness and provide more variety for my opponents.
Yeah nothing I've read of yours suggests you're on the way to becoming 'that guy'. I was just curious as it's an issue that seems to be getting a bit of airplay at the moment, though that might just be me seeing a theme that isn't there; it's probably an issue that never really goes away.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using more casual play to try out 'sub-optimal' units; some of the more interesting things that seem to have come out of tournaments have been lists involving 'sub-optimal' units played by skilled players to mess with 'the meta'. Playing mono-Elysians might prove to be just such a meta-messer-up-er-er; here's to hoping.
It's good to see the opportunity in each battle I think, from garagehammer through to tournaments. Balancing the satisfaction of a win with the enjoyment of the game itself for both players, as well as the learning to come from the game, in a context where we are trying to maintain and further build a gaming community, and doing so in different contexts; it's a challenge but a very worthwhile one.
Looking forward to the next bat rep.