'Ard Boyz Semi-Final Recap

Saturday Aug 8th marked the semi-finals of this years 'Ard boyz. I played at Phenoix games in Kitchener and had a blast! There was 20 people that showed up to duke it out for the right to represent Canada at the finals in Chicago Sept 19th. I took my Dark Angels (RavenDeathwing). Here's what the army looked like (things were shifted to allow for taking advantage of wound allocation):

HQ
Belial with LC
Sammuel on Jet Bike

Elites
Belials Terminator Squad with Standard, Medic, 3 LC, 2 TH/SS and a Cyclone
5 x Grey Knight Terminators with a psycannon and psychic hood

Troops
Terminator Squad with Assault Cannon and Chainfist
Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer, Chainfist x2, LC
Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer, Chainfist x2, LC
Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer, Chainfist x2, TH/SS
Sammuels Ravenwing Attack Squad 6 bikes with Medic, 2 Meltaguns, Powerfist and Attack bike with Multimelta
Ravenwing Attack Squad with 6 Bikes, 2 Meltaguns, Powerfist and Attack bike with Multimelta

Game 1 vs Necrons:
The Necron list looks strangely light for 2500 pts and consisted of the Night Bringer, Lord with Orb (and other crap), 6 Immortals, 3 Wraiths, 3 squads of 15 warriors, 6 destroyers, 2 tomb spiders, 8 scrabs and a monolith. He had first turn so I scouted closer and then he moved closer still attacking my one bike squad with scarbs. I was in CC with the lord turn 2 and knocked him and his unit and another unit down and proceeded to escort the broken unit off the board while picking apart the rest of the army slowly. The biggest highlight for him was when the monolith arrived and dropped both attack bikes with one of its ordance attacks. The end result was I phased him out turn 5 and had achieved all other bonus points to get a grand total of 24 to start! So needless to say I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Game 2 vs CSM
The list was a double lash list with sorcer, DP, Beserkers in Land Raider, Thousand sons in Rhino, 2 CSM units in Rhino (2 plasma, 2 melta), Chosen in Rhino (2 flamer, 2 melta), 3 Oblits, and a Vindy. It was also a dawn of war msn. I won the roll to go first and deployed at the half way point. He said everything was coming in turn 1. I scout moved and then turbo boosted my bikes into a line along his table edge, my Deathwing assaulting terminators deepstruck to fill the holes. A bad roll for the Comd Squad prevented me from having an unbroken line across his table edge. End result was that he was able to get a wedge into the middle of my line and then a rhino had it's combi-bolter shot off as it squished an attack bike on one flank allowing the rest of his army to roll in as a tight block. Try as I might my re-enforcements would only come in piece meal and the way I was spread out meant I spent a long time moving to get into a position where I could fit. To his credit my opponent was able to keep my off balance and was able to chew up my units a little at a time. End result was I got tabled and didn't get any points.

Game 3 vs CSM
I have never seen a list that appeared to be so under powered and then prove to be so deadly. He had 2 DP with wings, a Greater Demon, 3 Dreads with extra CCW, 4 squads of 10 lesser demons and 6 CSM squads with twin melta or plasma in rhinos. I won the roll to go first and my bike moved around to try and get melta shots on his dreads and 2 rhinos who were on the table. I immobilzed one and stunned the other. I also managed to take out a rhino. Then all of his demons showed up and my bikes all dissappeared!! He continued to take major bites out of the terminators with the DPs and Dreads while soaking up the casuatlies with the lesser demons. On the 4th turn his remaining 4 rhinos loaded with troops showed up just in time to clean up the remaining few terminators (although he really didn't need there help). End result was I got tabled again but had a blast!

So I ended up 13th out of 20, which isn't great but I'm already looking forward to next year. I'm looking at taking something like this all painted up as pre-heresy Imperial Fists (although with the new Space Wolf book coming in Oct, this could change rather quickly).

HQ
Vulkan (will be fistafied!)
Lysander

Elites
5 TH/SS Termies
5 TH/SS Termies

Troops
4 tactical squads with Meltagun and Multimelta in Rhinos

Fast Attack
3 Land Speeders with Hvy Flamer and Multimelta

Hvy Support
2 Land Raiders with Multimeltas

total 2490 pts

One of the options I'm looking at dropping 2 of the speeders for a Drop Pod mounted Dread nought with Multimelta and Hvy Flamer. I'd love to hear what you guys think. I'm hoping to get the coverage of the GD in Toronto up soon by knee surgery is slowing me down a fair amount. I will post a picture of my test models for the Imperials Fist once I get that far, but I can hear the Thunderhawk calling my name so will see what is nexted after the Master of the Ravenwing is all done (and I will post pictures of that).