Venom Spam 2nd at a small tournament

The last game was a game of cat and mouse.

So, yesterday I took a train to Kouvola, a small town with an active 40k community. They have a really nice flgs, which also holds tournaments every month, taking turns with 40k and fantasy. I took my venomspam build, with the hellions and incubi. The tournament was a small 14 player and 3 round event. Each round had a primary objective (worth 8 points), secondary objective (worth 4 points) and victory points (worth max 8 points with 300 points intervals).

HQ1: Baron Santhonyx @ 105pts.
HQ2: Haemonculus @ 50pts.

Elites1: 4 trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Elites2: 4 trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Elites3: 5 Incubi @ 110pts.

Troops1: 3 Wracks @ 30pts.
Troops2: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops3: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops4: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops5: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops6: 16 Hellions @ 256pts.

HS1: Ravager @ 105pts.
HS2: Ravager @ 105pts.
HS3: Ravager @ 105pts.

Elites1: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Elites2: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Elites3: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops1: Venom with extra splinter cannon, grisly trophies @ 70pts.
Troops2: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops3: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops4: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops5: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.

Total @ 1847pts.

Round 1:
My opponent was playing a Dark Angels army with 3 godhammer land raiders, 2 regular and one ven dread. The regular dreads had lascannon/missile launcher and the ven dread had an assault cannon. The raiders contained 2 tatical squads and 1 death wing squad made troops by belial. The mission was Spearhead, capture and control (prim.) and killpoints. My opponent made me go first. I deployed as far forward as possible and moved up to get as many blasters into my opponent as possible. Over the course of the game, I destroyed both regular dreads, immobilised the ven and one raider, and tore a lascannon off another raider. Not a whole lot. However, my opponent was playing very static and didn't drive to surround his base in time, as I turbo-boosted stuff forward on t4 to stop the raiders from moving. In the end, VP were a draw, I lost KPs and won capture and control. 12-8.

Round 2:
Against Eldar. He had a good list. Eldar, avatar, 2x5 dragons in serpents, 10 avengers in serpent, 2x5 avengers in falcons, 3 bikes and 3 warwalkers. Mission was pitched battle, capture and control (prim. again!?!), 3 objectives towards the centre of the board. I won the roll to go first, and weighed my options. Eldar skimmers are the masters of contesting, but in the end I decided I would be better off reducing the eldar firepower before Eldrad gets fortune off and went first. Our bases were placed on the same flank, and I deployed trueborn venoms on the deployment line, ravagers at the centre of the board. He deployed opposite my blasters and was alphastruck pretty badly. I took out his firepower and charged my hellions forward. He had to bring out scoring models to torrent the hellions,and then my other infantry units zoomed up and charged his infantry. T4 I already encircled my base objective with vehicles. t5 I also zoomed troops onto all the objectives and the incubi killed off the 3 jetbikes that had zoomed in from reserves onto one of the secondary objectives. Game ends with vp draw and me winning both objectives. 16-4.

Round 3:
This game was against a Space wolves dual raider list: Lord on bike with trimmings, rune priest, 2x lone wolves, rifleman, 2x rhinos, 2x10 grey hunters, 2x5 hunters, 1 godhammer, 1 redeemer and 5 long fangs. Mission was Dow, killpoints (prim.) and three objectives on the centreline. I chose to go first, although with hindsight this wasn't so beneficial. I deployed the hellions with the haemonculus and brought all my stuff on my right flank. Terrain was very limited, so I decided to build my postions behind the two rock boulders that you can see in the image above.

My opponent brings most of his stuff up the opposite flank, but he decides to bring his redeemer, a rhino with 10 hunters and long fangs up the centre. This was the sort of weak point I was looking for. I attacked the centre units meanwhile trying to minimize return fire. His shooting elements are slightly out of range at the start of the game, and aren't rolling too hot. I manage to tear up his stuff in the centre and ensure that the lone wolves don't do anything but scratch some fast moving venoms.

The game ends on t5. I have the secondary objectives, victory points by a 500 point margin and won by 3 killpoints. I made a gamble and brought in my hellions and baron to assault an immobilized rhino in my opponents deployment zone. He reacted by bringing his grey hunters to beat me up, and this way I ensured that I got the secondary objective. However, I should have detached the baron to reduce killpoints and victory points from the squad.

So I finished 2/14
Overall, the event was a blast. First place went to the tournaments only GK player, our very own Joo-o, congratz to him. All the people were very nice and laid back, the shop and terrain were very nice and that last game was very exciting. My last opponent was a very talented player, and in the end it came down to a simple mistake, some bad dice on his part and good dice on my part. The great thing about DE is that it's a very fragile army. This keeps you sweating and the immense mobility allows you to attack targets of opportunity or overload your opponent depending on the situation.