EEC 2017

European Epic Championship 2017

Last weekend I went to Copenhagen, Denmark for EEC 2017. It was a great weekend with a lot of nice people and good gaming. I brought the Space Marine army I have been play-testing for the last months:

TACTICAL [450] - 6 Tacticals, Supreme Commander, Hunter, Rhinos
TACTICAL [275] - 6 Tacticals, Rhinos
PREDATOR [325] - 4 Annihilator, Hunter
SCOUT [175] - 4 Scouts, Razorback, Rhinos
SCOUT [150] - 4 Scouts, Rhinos
ASSAULT [225] - 4 Assault Units, Captain
ASSAULT [225] - 4 Assault Units, Chaplain
THUNDERHAWK [200]
WARHOUND [275] - 1 Warhound Class Titan
WARHOUND [275] - 1 Warhound Class Titan
THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175] - 2 Thunderbolt Fighters
MARAUDER SQUADRON [250] - 2 Maurader bombers

There are some unconventional elements in the list but I really like how the list plays. The 15cm disembark distance of the Assault Marines makes a huge difference when setting up engages from the Thunderhawk. I also used the Assault Captain a lot to do combined engages with both Assault formations once they were on the ground. I was also positively surprised by the performance of the Marauders.  IMHO they are a better option for the Marines to get some barrage points than Whirlwinds.

 

First game

First game against Carsten (Germany One), and I was facing my fellow Space Marines from the Imperial Fist chapter:

TERMINATORS [375] - 4 Terminator units, Chaplain
TERMINATORS [375] - 4 Terminator units, Chaplain
DEVASTATOR [275] - 4 Devastator units, Rapier, 2 Bunkers + Minefields
DEVASTATOR [275] - 4 Devastator units, Rapier, 2 Bunkers + Minefields
TACTICAL [400] - 6 Tactical units, Hunter, 2 Rapier, Rhino
SCOUTS [175] - 4 Scout units, Razorback LAS, Rhino
SCOUTS [150] - 4 Scout units, Rhino
LAND SPEEDERS [200] - 4 Land speeder, Land Speeder Tornado
LAND SPEEDERS [200] - 4 Land speeder, Land Speeder Tornado
THUNDERFIRE BATTERY [250] - 4 Thunderfire Cannons
HYPERIOS PLATFORMS [125] - 3 Hyperios Platforms
2 STORM TALONS [200]

I placed my T&H objectives as wide and as far back as possible to avoid the Devastators. I started advancing down the center and targeted his mobility e.g. the Land Speeders with my air units. By the end of turn one I caught his BTS in an air assault and killed half of the unit with my Assault Marines. 

Turn two and the Terminators came teleporting onto my Blitz and one of the T&H objectives (next to one of my Warhounds). I lost the initiative, and with that one of my Warhounds to the Terminators. In return I could do a combined assault with my Assault Marine formations on the surviving BTS units and wipe them out. Carsten was very unlucky with rallies in the end of turn two which put me in a good position for turn three.

In turn three it was all about breaking threw the defenses Carsten put up around his blitz. There was one Thunderfire battery in bunkers on the Blitz with Scouts in trenches 10 cm in front. I had to use whatever I had left without blastmarkes, including Predator Annihilators, to initiate assaults but in the end the combined force of one Tactical formation, once Scout formation, Predators and a Warhound managed to claim blitz. Carsten had also moved one of his Devastator squads slightly away from one of the bunkers (and the objective they were contesting) to help defend the blitz. Only one unit was still in range of the objective, and with some lucky dice my Thunderhawk managed to kill it and a lone Assault Marine could march across the board to claim T&H. 3-0 victory for me in the 3:rd with BTS, Blitz and T&H.

Second game

This time against Martin (Denmark two) and Iyanden Eldar:

SPIRIT WRAITHGUARD WARHOST [425] - 4x Wraithguard units, Wraithseer, Wraithguard
SPIRIT WRAITHBLADE WARHOST [225] - 4x Wraithblade units, Spiritseer
SPIRIT WRAITHLORD WARHOST [350] - 6x Wraithlord units, Spiritseer
ASPECT WARRIOR TROUPE [200] - 4 Swooping Hawk, Exarch
ENGINE OF VAUL TROUPE [250] - Cobra
ENGINE OF VAUL TROUPE [250] - Scorpion
ENGINE OF VAUL TROUPE [250] - Scorpion
RANGER TROUPE [100] - 4 Ranger
VAMPIRE RAIDER [200]
PHANTOM TITAN [750]

Facing a big shooty Eldar Titan i decided to go activation hunting in the early turns. I started by targeting the Super Heavies, breaking the Cobra and killing a Scorpion early. The final Scorpion went down in a firefight with my Scouts early turn 2. I used my air assault to break his BTS, but it cost me quite a few Assault Marines. I don't remember all the details of turns two and three but I played way too aggressive and by the end of turn three most of my formations were badly damaged. I had done quite a lot of damage in return and we were both down to a handful of activations each, the difference being that one of his activations was a Phantom Titan. I was forced to play for a draw in turn three, and turn four was all about not loosing the game. In the end of turn four I marched my BTS to contest both his T&H objectives (in between hit Phantom and Wraithlords) and I was very happy to get away with a draw

But... since we had time left we rolled for a turn five and to my dismay we both rolled a 2. And to add to my misery Martin won the initiative. He shot up my BTS with the Phantom and retained to finish them off with the Wraithlords (Phantom in support). But this time luck was on my side and he rolled a 1, failing his activation. The Wraithlords shot at the BTS formation but failed to break them. Doing so he left an opening between his formations which I could use to march the BTS onto one of my T&H objectives which was left uncontested. At this point I had 1 unit of Tacticals contesting my blitz, 1 Assault Marine unit claiming his blitz and three surviving Tactical units and a Rhino on one of my T&H. What should have been a 3-1 victory for Martin had turned into a 2-1 victory for me (Blitz and T&H vs. T&H)

Game three

Against Richard (UK) and his Black Legion:

RETINUE [425] - 8 Chaos Space Marines, (Tzeentch), Chaos Warlord (Supreme Commander), Obliterator, Daemonic Pact
RETINUE [340] - 8 Chaos Space Marines, Sorcerer Lord, (Tzeentch), Daemonic Pact, 4 Rhino
RETINUE [340] - 8 Chaos Space Marines, (Tzeentch), Sorcerer Lord, Daemonic Pact, 4 Rhino
CHAOS TERMINATORS [375] - 4 Chaos Terminator, Obliterator, Sorcerer Lord, (Tzeentch), Daemonic Pact
CHOSEN [170] - 4 Chaos Space Marine Scouts, (Tzeentch), 2 Rhino, Daemonic Pact
BIKE COMPANY [325] - 8 Chaos Space Marines Bikes, (Tzeentch), Sorcerer Lord, Daemonic Pact
DEATH WHEEL SQUADRON [275] - Death Wheel
DEATH WHEEL SQUADRON [275] - Death Wheel
HELL BLADES [200] - 3 Hell Blade Fighters
HELL BLADES [200] - 3 Hell Blade Fighters

DAEMON POOL [75] - 5 Lesser Daemon

I was again playing too aggressively and this time Richard was really punishing me for it. It all went bad when he teleported his Terminators onto the unprotected flank of my BTS and won initiative in round two. The power of daemons can be very effective when used correctly... 

By then I had no plan how to win and did my best to not get completely steam rolled. In the end of turn three I landed my Thunderhawk and deployed assault marines on both sides to contest my blitz and the T&H objective he had focused on with three formations. Richard broke or killed two of them but with the third formation I managed to avoid a 5-0 loss. The game ended 3-0 with TSNP, DtF and BTS to Richard. If I would have played better I could probably have denied TSNP but I wasn't playing very well at all this game, and I faced an opponent who knew exactly how to take advantage of my mistakes. 

Game four

Second day and I was facing Theis (Denmark One) and his Steel Legion:

REGIMENTAL HQ [500] - Supreme Commander, 12 Infantry, 7 Chimera
MECHANISED INFANTRY COMPANY [400] - Commander, 12 Infantry, 7 Chimera
TANK COMPANY [700] - 10 Leman Russ, Hydra
SENTINEL SQUADRON [100] - 4 Sentinels
SENTINEL SQUADRON [100] - 4 Sentinels
DEATHSTRIKE MISSILE BATTERY [200] - 2 Deathstrike Missile Launchers
FLAK BATTERY [150] - 3 Hydra
WARHOUND TITAN [275]
WARHOUND TITAN [275]
THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150] - 2 Thunderbolts
THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150] - 2 Thunderbolts

Steel Legion deployed heavily on their left flank with pretty much everything tightly packed together. This time I had promised myself to play it a bit less aggressive. We were advancing on each other down my right flank while my Scouts were marching down the left. Death Strikes failed to activate so I had both my Warhounds alive until turn two. 

Turn two was also quite slow with Theis boxed in on the right flank and me trying to find something to assault without getting a ton of enemy fire support all over me. Finally late turn 2 Theis did a mistake and placed his Warhounds intermingled slightly ahead of the army. I called in my Assault Marines and broke both Titans in an air assault. I had to sacrifice the second Warhound (first one lost to the Death Strikes) to the regimental HQ to block them from engaging the Assault marines, but it was well worth it since the Assault Marines had their eyes on a juicy target for turn 3. Both IG Warhounds failed to rally thanks to some Scouts who had marched their way. 

I won initiative turn three and my Assault formations jumped the Tank Company which had moved within CC range of the jump marines. I won the combat and the Tanks run away broken. My two Scout formations, which had both spend the majority of turn one and two marching, were now behind enemy lines and assaulted the Death Strikes guarding the IG blitz. They killed the two Death Strikes and formed a castle around the IG blitz to protect the objective. My BTS had already secured one of the T&H objectives and in the end I won 2-0 with T&H and Blitz in turn 3.

Final game

Against Andreas (Germany Two) and his Biel-Tan Eldar:

ASPECT WARRIOR WARHOST [375] - Autarch, 8 Dark Reaper
GUARDIAN WARHOST [150] - Farseer, 7 Guardians
SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [300] - 5 Falcon, Fire Storm
SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [300] - 5 Falcon, Fire Storm
SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [300] - 5 Falcon, Fire Storm
SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [375] - 5 Fire Prism, Fire Storm
NIGHT SPINNER TROUPE [175] - 3 Night Spinners
NIGHT SPINNER TROUPE [175] - 3 Night Spinners
WARLOCK TITAN [850] 

I was a bit thrown off my game by his army. It has an insane amount of AT firepower and a very powerful Titan. I'm used to playing more engagement focused armies which is more common in the Swedish scene. 

Anyways, I choose corner deployment mainly because the terrain was in my favor. I had lots of things to hide behind and he did not. Again, i was playing very aggressive. I split my army into two groups and pushed them down one flank each. I tried to stay clear of the Warlock and targeted the grav-tanks. I got a few of them but he got many of my Rhinos in return. I air assaulted his aspects to get rid of his supreme commander in turn one, which cost me all Assault Marines and my Thunderhawk late turn one/early turn two. 

By the end of turn two I was starting to run out of options. Andreas was still more or less in his deployment zone and at this point my plan was to distract him enough to miss the fact that he had no units on my half of the table (desperate plan, I know). I did a kamikaze attack on his blitz with my BTS and a Warhound. I did some good damage but more importantly he spend a lot of activations getting rid of my two formations, and hunting down and killing the BTS. 

When he moved his Warlock to claim a T&H but staying on his side of the table I knew I had a chance to succeed. There were two formations with two broken falcons each on my table half and I had to kill them all (or trust my luck). Unfortunately I had to march my Predators back to my blitz, since they were the only unit in range so they could not participate in the hunt. In a joint effort between a Warhound, Scouts and Thunderbolts I killed them all and won 2-1 (DtF and TSNP vs. BTS) in turn 3.

Summary

It was a very nice weekend with a lot of nice people and good gaming. I'm very happy with my results. I ended up on fourth place individually and Sweden managed to take second place behind the UK team. I played well in two of my games, won two more on the mistakes of my opponents and lost to a better player in the third game. Thanks everyone for a great event, and especially Thomas and friends for organizing.