Last time, I talked about my rough start to my second escalation league. Week 2's game was technically the same day as I had to make up Week 1, so there wasn't a lot of time to incorporate lessons learned. Although, I did remember to take more photos, so that's a big improvement this time around.

Reminder of what I'm playing again: Grand Master Voldus, Nemesis Dreadknight, and a Strike Squad of 7 Marines.

Round 2: Grey Knights vs. Thousand Sons

Oh boy. Was a little scared at the start of this match, as I have yet to play against Thousand Sons. Basically the evil version of my army (40K lore people, don't correct me, I know it's not *exactly* the same, I'm just generalizing). I knew that a lot of stuff would be happening in the psychic phase at least. My opponents squad consisted of a Warlord, a squad of Rubric Marines that were set off the board to come in later, and a squad of cheaper units comparable to my Strike Squad. Each corner of the board had its own Objective Marker, with two of them on opposite sides of the board being our deployment zones.

What's that red circle? Well, unlike last time, the deployment zones left me with the perfect spot to teleport in units. Last time, I focused on the wrong units and weren't able to get to the ones that I needed to whittle down. Maybe the same tactic would work….if I actually used it correctly. His "strongest" units weren't on the board yet, so I could teleport in behind him and take out his numbers to reduce the amount of shots I'd be taking on his turn.

Second Verse, Same as the First

So let's try this again: I get to go first, so spend 2 CP to teleport the dreadknight over towards his units. Then gate over my Strike Squad and….what do you mean it didn't work? I couldn't roll above a 6? Ok, well I'll spend a CP and reroll it…HOW DID IT GET WORSE! Ugh, well at least the Dreadknight made it. Between a good Psychic phase for him, shooting, and managing to make the charge, the Dreadknight cleaned up his cheaper squad. Wish the Strike Squad could have been there to take out the Warlord, as this would have been a quick game.

Ok, so his turn begins and he manages to put a hurting on the Dreadknight. It's not down yet though, which is good because on my turn I can try again…..OMG AGAIN? I still can't roll high enough to teleport? Ok fine, let's try the CP reroll…ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That's 4 failed Gate rolls in a row! How is this possible? The dreadknight is all by himself as he gets blown up on my Opponent's second turn, which is also when the Rubric Marines come into play.

Well, it's about time…

Having spent 2 turns putting him on the defensive, the Thousand Suns start marching their way to me (or it could have been the other objective to score points, who knows?). Meanwhile my crew is still huddling behind that piece of terrain in the bottom right corner. Why haven't I moved them? Well, first of all, I was at least getting points by being on the objective. Secondly, my strategy with my Strike Squad is to move them with the Gate because if they move in the movement phase they do half the number of shots until they get in close enough. So it depended on the gate going off, which I was having trouble with apparently. Round 3 fixed that, as I managed to get them over to the objective point on the top right side of the picture.

I probably should have gotten them closer so they could have charged them, but having two points vs my opponent's one meant as long as they were there I would get 8 more points each round than him. However, my Strike Squad Marines are not very survivable on their own and between the Rubric Marines and the Warlord my opponent was able to knock them out quickly.

All By Myself…

Well, crap. Now I just have Grand Master Voldus left. This is about the time I start looking to see if I should concede. Only…I'm still ahead on points currently. Many of his secondary objectives are based around his units staying on the board. It's also Turn 3 now, and his units are slow, so he doesn't have enough time to get to other objectives. Only downside is that 2 of my Strike Squad Marines aren't fully painted, so I'm not getting the 10 point bonus for a fully painted army.

What do I do?

I figure I have to put everything on the line in order to pull out the win. If I can get close enough to kill his Warlord, that will score me big points and deny him points from our secondary objectives. Remember that crumbling building in the center of the map? I muster up every ounce of luck and manage to teleport Voldus there, where the Warlord is the closest figure and thus I can target him with my attacks. Between Psychic and Shooting phases, I manage to take out the guy! Helps that I took the Loremaster warlord trait for Voldus, which means that if I roll an 8+ on my psychic tests, he can't attempt to negate them! Huzzah! Now what?

Might as well keep this train going! Voldus charges in and manages to take out most of the rubric marines. Not all of them though, so we have to go to my opponents turn. At this point, it is 1v1 and tensions are high. We even got a few spectators since many of the other games were finishing up. Voldus is down to 1 wound left. Since both figures are engaged in melee with each other, he can't shoot unless he falls back. However, if he falls back, he doesn't get to do a Psychic phase. In this pairing, Psychic is better for him as it does direct damage without having to get through the Roll to hit-roll to wound system that would have to happen for 1 wound to go through. Plus Voldus has a 4+ invulnerability save, so I have a 50/50 change of ignoring any damage anyways.

He decides to stay in melee range and I get a big grin on my face. He won't be able to shoot, and since he can't charge, *I* get to go first in melee combat. I just have to hope that his psychic attack fails…dang it! It passed….but only barely. He needed a 5 and got a 6 off of 2D6s. Since I'm also a Psychic, I can attempt to deny his attack, I just have to roll higher than a 6. My luck was pretty bad at the start of the game, but things have been turning around. The entire game is now hinging on this one dice roll….

And I got an 8! So no attack for him and I clean up the rubric marine in melee. I win! Feels weird calling it a win though, because it feels like the dice rolls were entirely responsible for everything that happened in this game.

What did I learn?

1. In middle school, I played a lot of chess against my math teacher, who was really good at it. One thing he used to reiterate to me is that you have to keep your focus on the win - checking the king. Trying to take your opponent's pieces can cause you to get distracted and provide an opening for your opponent. I really should remember that more, as in 9th edition objectives get you lots of points - killing things doesn't always do that.

2. A strategy is only good if you can implement the whole thing, not just half of it.

3. You got to take the win, no matter how dirty it feels sometimes…

 What's the worst set of dice rolls you've ever experienced? Let me know in the comments below.