ToS Heat 3 Overview - SoB

[ArmouredWing]

So, last weekend was heat 3 of the ToS and my first foray into the tournie scene. The gaming group I play with have limited experience playing with a wider audience and the main reason for some of us going was to see how good/bad we really are in the grand scale of things. None of us had any expectations because of this but also because we don't tend to play particularly cheesy lists and as a result we threw our hats into the ring using the armies that we tend to use in friendly games.

 

Now, I've got a fair bit of stuff to put down here so I'm going to split this up into bite sized chunks. There's some batreps, some commentry and a bit of analysis throughout and I'll do it in a series of posts primarily to make the whole thing a bit more managable for me to get down and a bit easier for those who have an interest to read.

 

The List

 

Those who have read some of my posts know I've got a belief that footslogging troops units are a viable choice in the game. With this being the case I developed a list that was based around 4 large squads of sisters with a solid long ranged heavy support and a HQ which was to be used as a 'fast attack' that could deploy during the game to hit specific incoming threats (virtually a suicide squad).

 

With that being my remit I'd done a good 12 months playing with a basic list which followed those principles and then tinkered around with various loadouts to see what performed and what didn't.

 

As it turned out the final list for the weekend looked like this;

 

-HQ-

Canoness

Combi Flamer

Power Weapon.

Frags

 

Celestian Retinue

Celestians x 5

Flamer

Heavy Flamer

Frags

 

Transport.

Immolator

Smoke Launcher

Searchlight

 

-Troops-

Squads 1 & 2

Battle Sisters x 14

Veteran Superior

Eviscerator

Book of St Lucius

Meltagun x 2

 

Squads 3 & 4

Battle Sisters x 14

Veteran Superior

Eviscerator

Book of St Lucius

Flamer

Heavy Flamer

 

-Heavy Support-

Exorcist 1 - 'The Syphony of Destruction'

Searchlight

 

Exorcist 2 - 'The Dance of Death'

Searchlight

 

Exorcist 3 - 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'

Searchlight

 

For me this represented a well rounded roster that I felt could handle either mechanised lists, small elite lists or horde lists whilst enabling me to have enough troops to capture objectives but at the same time minimise the number of KP's that it presented to an opponent. Additionally it also gave me a good number of FP's which would primarily be used in the early stages of the game to give my large squads DG for shooting (bolters & flamers) or HotE & DG if I was drawn into CC in the assault phase.

 

I'd played this a good few times over the last few months and found that it performed consistantly, giving me more wins or draws than losses against a number of different opponents.

 

However... the true test was to be the weekend where I would be facing armies that I'd not previously played against.

 

Friday night prior to the event I was seriously doubting whether I'd made a sound decision, in the previous heats WH/SoB had not performed particularly well and they were generally using Mech WH/Sisters. Would my belief be proven disasterously wrong? The weekend would tell...

 

To be continued...

[ArmouredWing]

And so Saturday morning arrived and my pre tournie jitters had disapeared along with the caffine overdose I'd subjected myself to the day before (the 7 coffees throughout the day did not do me any good!).

The 3 of us arrived bright and early at WW champing at the bit for the first game and to get the dice rolling. We got ourselves signed in, found our respective tables and got our armies out onto their transport trays for the weekend.

By this point we'd got about half an hour before kick off and were having a final run down of what we would expect when I was approached by a guy who asked if I post on the B&C. Enter Cpt Idaho onto the scene!

As it turned out this would result in being one of the highlights of the weekend. Idaho was running solo without any of his usual team members and as a result he became an honorary team member along with our non playing support from Phoenix Knight.

Anyway, after exchanging pleasantries and introducing him to the rest of team 'The Good, The Bugs and The Godly' it was time to wish each other luck and get sorted for the first game which was;

Game 1 - 'The Cat Fight' (or 'Girl on Girl Action').

Setup - Seize Ground/Spearhead.

Opponent - Witch Hunters!?!

Needless to say I was somewhat surprised that my first game would be against a predominantly sisters based force with a handfull of IST's thrown in for good measure, especially as there were at most 4 of us playing in the tournie. Of all the opponents I'd considered I may face over the weekend WH/Sisters were not even on my radar.

Anyway, with tables quarters as the deployment and not getting opportunity for the first turn I was facing a full spammolator list with 2 exorcists. This would be interesting.

As it was I fell for the trap I usually set for everyone else, namely targeting the exorcists and ignoring everything else. In the set up my opponent had bunched his transports into what he described as “Tesco’s car park on a Saturday morning”, using his rhinos to provide cover for the rest of his immolators (of which there were many!). The rhinos were parked neatly between 2 bits of cover which were preventing the rest of the mech units from moving around them effectively creating a wall.

Had I have knocked them out/immobilised them he would have had to move away from the centre of the table splitting his units and forcing them away from the bulk of the objectives in the first couple of turns.

Instead I focussed my 3 exorcists on his 2, blowing one and taking the rest of the game to do nothing to his second. This meant my exorcists achieved little throughout the game whilst enabling his mech infantry to mobilise and do their stuff. The bulk of his force were also small squads of celestians, easy to get SotM and nullifying the potential for DG (what I build my units around).

As it was I managed to hold the objectives on the centre of the table and to my right but was pushed away from those of the left side which resulted in a 3 objectives to 2 against me. The VP's at the end of the game told a similar story with the VP gap only being 100pts or so and I walked away knowing I'd made a bad tactical decision in leaving the rhino's alone and wasting my exorcist fire on his exorcists. Still, hats off to my opponent for showing me how a spammolator list is so effective and what it's success hinges on, speed and freedom of movement.

A good game which game which gave me good taste of what problems I present to other players. My opponent had a well deserved win and I’m pleased that I was beaten by one of the sisters players who went on to qualify for the final.

So a loss in the first game...maybe I was looking at a weekend of being panned!!! - W/L/D = 0/1/0.

[ArmouredWing]

Having been beaten in game 1 I grabbed myself a drink and kicked myself for the obvious blunder that I'd made which could have given me a chance, however a loss in game 1 would pitch me against another loser. The sisters player was razor sharp and had not made a single mistake, but he was also an experienced tournie player which made me feel a little better along with the initial nervousness having been swept aside by the end of the first game.

The standard had been set by our Bugs player who'd won his first game but I was relieved that out (Greater) Good member had also narrowly lost.

We adjourned for lunch and met up with Cpt Idaho (who'd also registered a loss) and waited with anticipation for the second game. The draw was made and the game was afoot.

Game 2 - 'Vote for Pedro'

Annihilation/Pitched Battle

Opponent - SM's + Pedro Cantor

now this was a good match up for me. In our games over the past few months Phoenix Knight had run a similar list to this and whilst my W/L/D wasn't great against it I'd got progressively better at knowing what to look out for and what tricks it could pull.

For this type of game I'd started to use a strategy where I would draw my opponent into my troops, advancing to start off with and then moving back whilst rapid firing. My exorcists find some cover and hit at long ranged targets but they sit behind my troops so it makes a frontal assault on them all the more difficult. Finally the HQ and a squad is held in reserve to bolster any part of my table that has become weakened by my opponent. That's the theory anyway.

As it was the game went like clockwork with the only threat of DS termies quickly dispatched by a unit of DG but only after they'd managed to kill an exorcist. The rest of the opposing army kept advancing but were only met by my rapid firing. 2 of my sisters squads were weakened by turn 4 and pulled right back only to be replaced by 2 full strength squads. from my point of view it was a text book game.

I'd also have to say though that this opponent would be the one I'd play again purely because he had a similar attitude to me and it was a very friendly game and he was a genuinly nice guy, not what I'd been led to expect at all from the tournie rumours at all (although another opponent later on would give me my first bad tournie experience).

By the end of the game I'd only lost an exorcist and my immolator but at 2 KP's to 7 (including a squad of DS termies, both sternguard squads and, da DAAAA, Pedro himself in CC mortally wounded by a S8 eviscerator) I'd secured my first victory of the tournie and if all else went bad at least I wouldn't end up at the borttom of the table.

So 2 games in - W/L/D = 1/1/0.

Neeldess to say this really bouyed me up and I walked away head held high. Maybe this list would prove itself after all?

[Eltnot]

Looking forward to reading the following installments.

 

I've always been intrigued by your footslogging approach but don't have the models to field it myself. Nice to read about it in action.

[ArmouredWing]

With my first win (and a convincing one at that) under my belt I felt a lot more relaxed. At least it wasn't going to be a whitewash and maybe this would be the start of a roll for me.

So the next round was announced and my match up was;

Game 3 - 'Absolute Chaos'

Capture & Control/DoW

Opponent - Chaos Daemons

This was going to be totally new territory for me. Firstly I'd no experience what-so-ever against CD's, their powers/gifts/wargear are a total mystery and not knowing what a tournie class CD list looked like (apart form the oblig min 2 soulgrinders) I didn't know what I'd be facing.

The second element to this though was I would be facing one of the large italian contingent that were in residence and I'd heard that at times in the previous 2 heats people were playing using 'sign language' with some of the non brit competators as they didn't have a great command of english.

As it was I'd nothing to really fear from the language barrier although the CD rules were my stumbling point.

the one thing that i did know was that I didn't want first turn because of the way daemons deploy/DS but luck was still not smiling on me and lo my opponent gave me first turn.

It was a tough game but mainly because most of the time the guy was rolling dice and I'd not got a clue what for. What I do know now is that CD's have stupid amounts of attacks and DG isn't worth spit because they benefit from inv saves. That said this was a game that had the potential to go either way. In the first couple of turns I managed to nail a Soulgrinder (exorcist), a GUO (combined fire exorcist & DG sisters squad), a unit of Fiends (combined fire again) whilst also doing considerable damage to the approaching bloodcrushers. I was also particularly pleased with one of my sisters squads going toe to toe with a unit of 5 fiends for the last couple of turns reducing the numbers from 5 to 1 with the combat still in full swing at the end of the game.

To me this indicated that my list was competative and by my reckoning if I'd have had chance to play against this type of list before the tournie where I'd have had chance to get to understand the CD rules I'd have been in contention for a win/draw but alas the end result was 1 objective - 0 against me (mine contested). My second loss of the day.

3 games - W/L/D = 1/2/0.

Not too disapointed we adjourned off for our evening meal and along with Cpt Idaho we ended up quaffing a reasonable amount of Hoegarden throughout the evening and leaving WW in a not entirely stable manner with my hope that day 2 would see some better results for me.

[Baragash]

Pretty sure I beat the Pedro guy in game 4 because he told me about the Evicerator incident straight after my Aspiring Champion ID'd him with his PF (although TBF, Pedro did survive a Vindicator shot to the face standing on his own in turn 2).

 

He was a great guy to play but he wasn't too great on the rules which nearly cost me the game because I decided not to pull him up on them.

[ArmouredWing]

Pretty sure I beat the Pedro guy in game 4 because he told me about the Evicerator incident straight after my Aspiring Champion ID'd him with his PF (although TBF, Pedro did survive a Vindicator shot to the face standing on his own in turn 2).

 

He was a great guy to play but he wasn't too great on the rules which nearly cost me the game because I decided not to pull him up on them.

Ah, well the guy I played was one of Andy Joyce's (GW events manager) team in the white polo shirts.

 

Really nice guy and we had a good laugh throughout the game.

[ArmouredWing]

And so Sunday morning came all too soon. The Hoegarden that had gone down so well the night previous had left me with a slight headache, little did I know that it would pale into insignificance in the 4th game of the weekend.

We grabbed a drink and went to find out where and what our next game was.

As it turned out my next game would be against the first real 'notorious' tournie lists that I was expecting to face...

Game 4 - 'On the lash'

Seize Gorund/DoW

Opponent - Chaos Space Marines (Double lash list).

This was one of the lists that I both had serious fears over whilst looking forward to being able to use ‘Shield of Faith’ properly for the first time. Of all my opponents throughout the weekend this was the only guy I wouldn’t play socially. It was funny (peculiar, not ‘Ha Ha’) because I’d noticed this guy playing on a nearby table the day before and I got the impression that he was giving his opponent a hard time rules wise. When I'd finished the game next to him the day before I mentioned to the rest of my team that “I wouldn’t want to play that guy!”. Irony of ironies the first game of the Sunday saw me matched up against him and my ‘Bugs’ friend playing against the other guy. As it was my suspicions were well founded, there was no banter and he wasn’t there for the enjoyment of the game which was a problem for him because by this point we were playing on the middle board tables.

The battle itself was good in terms of my list and tactical performance. As with the annihilation game I had a set plan and it worked excellently. My opponent was running with standard CSM’s, DG & Berzerkers mounted in a LR. In turn 1 my exorcist successfully lit up (night fighting) his DG rhino and destroyed it meaning his transport option for them was eliminated.

In the subsequent turns his LR rolled in towards one of my big sisters squads and dumped the berzerkers ready for the assault. At this point I understood the principle of this list. Drop the berzerkers, lash the target unit in, assault and eliminate.

Fortunately I’d considered the 2 DP’s that were heading my way and reinforced the sister unit that was closest to the LR/DP’s. This meant that through the use of 'lash' the berzerkers may have been able to assault 1 unit but they would be in open ground for my following turn of shooting by a full squad, however lash number 1 was stopped in it’s tracks by the shield of faith…and then lash number 2 also failed to penetrate my sisters steadfast belief in the Emperor. This meant in the following turn 2 full squads of sisters rapid fired/templated the squad of berzerkers. Combined with DG this meant it was curtains for the traitors and also posed a problem for the DP’s who spent the rest of the game trying to wade through 2 of my sisters squads, 1 of which was still going strong with them by the end of the game.

The end result was 2 objectives – 1, a score that for me didn’t reflect how well I’d done throughout the game. Untouched on the table were 2 troop squads, 2 exorcists, the immolator and the other troop squad was above 50% strength. My immolator was just outside the 3” to contest his claimed objective and one of the untouched sisters squads was within a turn of movement from a 3rd objective. The VP's however did tell a different story as I'd racked up in excess of 1000 against 600ish.

I have to say that my opponent was ‘ahem’ gracious enough to comment that my victory was due to my good and his bad luck throughout the entire game. Still, history is written by the victor and as always in this game you make much of your own luck and in this case his bad luck was predominantly down to bad tactical play as apposed to my outlandish fortune.

Even though I acheived the win the game wasn't my favourite of the weekend purely because of the lack of sportsmanship from my opponent. That said the victory against such a well known list was made all the sweeter, especially when I went over to where my team mate was playing the CSM guy's former opponent to tell him of the victory and his opponent was the first to heartily congratulate me on beating him.

So game 4 - W/L/D = 2/2/0

[WarriorFish]

Thanks for posting, it was a good read! I especially liked the last batrep for obvious reasons :)

[ArmouredWing]

So, I was even stevens. 4 games and a 50% success rate and, I have to say, I went into lunch with a renewed vigour that almost saw me get rid of my hangover.

 

For lunch we again hooked up with Idaho, who's fortunes had been mixed much the same as mine and then got back into the hall to find out who we were facing next.

 

By this point I was starting to wonder if I would be facing anyone other than an enemy in power armour. Of the 4 games 3 were PA opponents, 2 were marines and I really wanted to get to grips with either Orks or Guard to get a taste of some enemies without a 3+ save. The draw was announced and we vied for position to find out who was next...

 

Game 5 - 'You Khan't be serious?'

Capture & Control/Spearhead

Opponent - White Scars (or ANOTHER marine list).

 

Well, I'm not going to pull any punches here but of the entire weekend this was the single game that I STILL can't work out how I could have won.

I did everything I could to put as much space between my objective and the table edge but it simply wasn't enough.

 

My opponent was running an excellent list, his tactics were superb and his army was beautifully painted. A bonus was he was an all round nice guy, we both made mistakes at a couple of points throughout the game and I reciprocated when he was gracious enough to point out mine and let me put it right.

I made no tactical mistakes as far as I can tell because I didn’t have the chance. Outflanking EVERYTHING is a nightmare, especially when it’s bikes moving in 12” and then assaulting 6”. Taking that into account I placed my objective firmly in the centre of my 6’ table edge hoping that I could hold that ground long enough to rapid fire. Alas to no avail, I was drawn into CC by a LS storm and assault scouts in turn 1 and by the time I’d mopped up there khan + Chaplain + assault squad was bearing down on me with a vengeance wiping out my defending everything. I've never played a list that hit so hard, so fast with little or no time to change tac.

 

I did manage to get a footslogging sisters squad within 6" of his objective by the penultimate round, they'd run the gauntlet of being fired upon turn in turn out by his vindicator and enough had survived only to be whittled down by an assaulting tac squad, which they eventually won over, but then were finished off by his defendin tac squad on the objective.

 

For the first time in the tournie I had been virtually tabled with only a single exorcist with weapon destroyed still able to move around the table doing nothing.

 

However I felt no bitterness towards his acheivement. He had played a perfect game and I enjoyed this as much as the win of the first day. An experience to be sure and something that I'll continue to ponder as to what I could have done to hold him back long enough to inflict enough damage on his units.

 

End of game 5 - W/L/D = 2/3/0

[the jeske]

I have to say that my opponent was ‘ahem’ gracious enough to comment that my victory was due to my good and his bad luck throughout the entire game.

not really m8 , guy played a list carried by lash [+LR rush builds should be more geared with Rot or warp time to counter teq and horde] and made a huge mistake . exos or not to LR can survive a shoting from a footslogging sob build[by the way how did you get two melta guns in one squad ? was it MM +melta or melta and combi melta on the VSS?]. It had nothing to do with luck , he just played bad .

 

Gz to a nice week of tournament gaming .

 

Well, I'm not going to pull any punches here but of the entire weekend this was the single game that I STILL can't work out how I could have won.

should have played with 2 canoness jump pack counter units. nice chance to pop khan [or anything with higher T] possible str 8 . good against drop dreads and ok against MC[as tarpit]. against bikes you go +2str and inv save on your turn and on theirs you let yourself get killed , you get back 2 faith and blow up what is left of the unit [what offten drops the unit to 2-3 models as bike units arent big to begin with].

[ArmouredWing]

And so the final game came around.

By the time I'd finished my education at the hands of the White Scars my head was aching and very briefly I considered finding a comfy chair in Bugman's and vegging out BUT the last game was one that I had confidence in winning. Pitched Battle Annihilation is what my list has demonstrated a good track record in and with this in mind I decided to try and get a last win to bump my overall placing up, I knew I'd not qualify but it wouldn't be through a lack of trying.

Game 6 - '(Lightning) Clawing a win'

Annihilation/Pitched Battle

Opponent - Ultramarines + Kahn

Marines, marines everywhere. From my 6 games 5 were against PA. This would be the main disapointment for my weekend. I really wanted to see how I'd do against Orks or Guard as they were forces that I'd never had the pleasure of playing. Never mind. If there's one thing I do know it's marines and why not take an easy win for the last game eh?

My opponent was running an ultras list with khan added into one of his bike units. After taking a pasting from khan in the previous game I was slightly wary, however with this being a pitched battle with my opponent going first and only deploying his whirlwind I decided to hold everything in reserve and bring on my units piecemeal whilst hoping that he would either bring on a lot of units early on (forcing his hand for deployment) or few meaning that I would have a reasonable chance of killing them as they appeared.

With turn 1 having only the whirlwind hiding behind some trees we went straight into turn 2 and on came a solitary unit of 3 turbo charging attack bikes right next to the whirlwind just in view of the extreme right hand of my side of the table. My turn, on came 2 units of sisters (table centre/right) and 2 exorcists (far right) and I proceeded to open fire on the attack bikes killing 2 but failing to finish off the unit which then went onto hide behind the whirlwind. A good start for me.

The following turn 3 saw a rhino come on from my right (outflanking) with a melta/lascannon squad embarked in an attempt to kill one of my exorcists and from my left came a LRC with a squad of LC/TH termies. The subsequent shooting phase resulted in nothing happening and the rhino sat squarely in front of 2 exorcists.

My turn 3 and things were looking very rosey for me. Everything bar the flamer/heavy flamer sisters came onto the table. I placed my melta sisters behind the LR, the last exorcist in the table centre and the immolator parked nicely in front of the rhino in readiness to flame the occupants when I’d blown the rhino up.

In fine form the exorcist blew the rhino apart and the explosion resulted in 2 marines falling in the debris. The immolator opened up but failed to do mare than a couple of unsaved wounds leaving a remaining 6 in the tac squad. That was slightly disappointing but I’d still got an exorcist left…which rolled a 1 for number of missiles and then failed to wound. Bummer! Little did I know but this was the beginning of the end.

My melta sisters let rip on the LRC, missed, then when they charged I rolled a double 6 for HotE, something that I needed as at S6 I failed to damage when I rolled the armour pen.

Next turn saw the LRC dump it’s consignment of LC termies who were looking for a fight with my sister unit in the centre of the table. The LRC span around to bring guns to bear on the melta sisters and opened up with everything, the result of which was 4 dead sisters. ‘Could have been worse’ I said to myself, meltas & vet were intact and hopefully it would be curtains for the LRC in the next turn. However I failed to even consider the unit having to roll for Ld and as a result failed to consider them failing…which they did and as they were on the baseline they were straight off the table.

It was time for the assault termies to get stuck into the first squad of sisters in their path. To deal with this threat my plan was simple, sacrifice the first squad which would give me time to move away to a safe distance so that I could reform and DG rapid fire them so if I didn’t kill them at least they’d be weakened enough to deal with in CC. With this in mind the termies sliced through the first squad in fine form leaving themselves out in the open for my second to deal with… However, I’m not quite sure why but I forgot to either move this squad closer to rapid fire or away to safety (I think my concentration was too focussed on the crapfest on the right side of my table edge mixed with the sinking sensation left over from the other unit hightailing it off the table) and the result was my other big sisters unit was assaulted, 16 successful hits from 4 LC termies, 15 PW wounds without saves, 14 dead SoB. Now this wouldn’t have been so bad but this exact same thing happened a few months ago in a friendly and I vowed that it wouldn’t happen again, heh heh heh, so much for the training!!!

By this point I knew that there wasn’t enough KP’s within my striking range to even draw the game. If I could kill everything I had on the right side of the table I would still be at least 2 KP’s short, as it was I didn’t even manage to do that. At the end of the game there was an immobilised rhino with a single marine embarked, I’d nailed 1 tac squad, 1 rhino and although much of my opponents list was weakened that was going to be the count. He ended up racking up 5 KP’s, 2 troop squads (1 which ran!) 2 exorcists and my HQ unit. Even if the game had of run into a 6th turn I’d have still not been able to do enough. Oh how foolish to have such over confidence prior to the game starting!!!

Hat’s off to my opponent, he was a good sport and commiserated with my ‘bad luck’ (read: bad tactical play) and at the end of the day he capitalised on my errors to secure a convincing win. Fair play to him I didn't have any illusion that the better man had won.

And so to the weekend total W/L/D = 2/4/0.

[ArmouredWing]

The Best of the Best, the Worst of the Rest.

 

On the whole I’d have to say I really enjoyed the GT. Maybe I was lucky in my first experience of a competitive tournie environment but I was fortunate to only have the briefest glimpse of the bad side of such events (Game 4 CSM general I’m looking at you!) and the general level of sportsmanship were far greater than I expected. If there was one thing I noticed it would have to be the less than accurate measuring that most people seemed to adopt but given the short timescales it was excusable especially as I don’t think it had an adverse effect at any point during my games.

 

As I said previously one of the main ‘ups’ was meeting up with Cpt Idaho and hanging out with him throughout the weekend. Here’s hoping to catch up with him at some point in the not too distant future and getting a game in against his Ultras.

 

Another ‘Up’ was my 2 comrades from ‘The Good, the Bugs and the Godly’ making it through to the final scoring a very respectable 16th position (Mr Bugs) and 26th (Mr Greater Good aka ‘Gonefishing’). Needless to say both played a very good set of games, Bugs achieved a very high level of wins and Good clocked up a very impressive number of VP’s over the weekend. I’m looking forward to watching the carnage they leave in their wake during the final.

 

Looking at my performance and list there’s a few things that I would comment on.

 

My Performance

Overall I was pleased with the way I played throughout all 6 games. I like to play a fast game anyway and the time limits didn’t pose too much of a problem to me. Sure, I made a few mistakes throughout the weekend, the one made it very difficult to pull anything back (not killing the transports in game 1) and the second actually cost me the game (Game 6 – Lightning Claw Termies) but generally where I’d made other mistakes such as forgetting to run on the odd occasion or forgetting my reserves for a turn (against Mr CSM in game 4) it didn’t make any difference to the grand scheme of things.

 

I would say that I never felt totally outclassed by any of my opponents (ok, maybe with the exception of the White Scars but the list did play a big part in that) and I was well pleased with 2 wins and a placing of 106th considering I’ve not really played that much outside my gaming group. Even more so because I’d taken a list that no one would usually take to a competitive game of that level.

 

I do think that I need some practise against other opponents to understand some of the nuances that I could face, daemons especially threw me and the one thing I would like to try and do is get a half day game against a daemon player so that I can take time to understand what does what and what I need to focus on first. As it stood though I’m not unhappy with my game, I just need a bit of practise here and there.

 

My List

Ah, my love affair with my SoB list has not been lessened by the weekend and if anything I was very pleased with how hardy they proved themselves, especially when in CC with the fiends & CSM DP’s. As always there are some enemies that I should steer well clear of, LC termies for instance will be forever on my list of things to avoid.

 

Breaking the list down into its components I’d say the following;

 

HQ – I’m a little disappointed that my HQ never got the chance to do what it was built for, primarily ploughing into horde and letting rip with the 4 flamer templates. As it was it never really performed to the level I hoped. In the games I played the templates were only really effective when combined with DG and in a unit of 6 this is never a good way to use FP’s.

With this being the case the HQ is the one thing I’d tinker with by dropping a couple of meltaguns in there instead of flamers, just so that they are a bit more multi tasking . More than once I thought the addition of a meltagun would have been a good choice as I was often left without a viable target for the templates when the HQ immolator arrived in from reserve. The other option could have been an eviscerator or meltabombs but I really do need to get some anti armour in there to deal with some of the harder targets.

 

Troops – I’d have to say that my sisters squads performed exceptionally throughout the weekend and I even heard a couple of comments referring to how hard people thought it would be to face 60+ sisters on the table.

 

The 14 strong units worked exactly as I wanted with early turns of DG chewing through all manner of infantry. As always my Melta squads didn’t do so well, they are notorious in my gaming group for having bad aim but I’ll stick with them purely because their luck has got to change at some point. The other benefit of fielding 4 big squads came from being able to push 2 forward and when they were weakened replace them with the other 2 as need be.

 

In CC HotE worked very well in the first couple of rounds, I knew I could afford to lose a few because it would make SotM all the easier to achieve and as such when it looked like a PF was going to finish the last few off they held the line for another round or so because of the inv Sv.

The eviscerators were also well used and it was lucky I’d reread the rules before I went because I’d always missed the fact that it’s a power weapon. This was to prove the downfall of many a marine and especially in the case of Pedro where HotE meant that it was instant death.

 

On the whole I’d not change my sisters units at all. Each performed above and beyond the expectations of most of my opponents and I hope they found a new level of respect for what they could achieve.

 

Heavy Support – Finally, my exorcists. Well, they didn’t do too badly. Unfortunately I never got the chance to fire all 3 in 1 turn and there were more than a few 1’s on the number of shots they pumped out. Truth be told I need to go back and play with their target priority to find what they should be shooting. They did well in the daemons game and they did draw a lot of fire generally but I was expecting better things, maybe too much but that could be from past experience. As it is they’ll remain a necessary fixture in this list for future tournies as they do still have the potential to be game winners.

 

 

So there you go, the weekend in all it’s glory. Thanks to all of my opponents for providing some good (and where not good then different) gaming and I’m going to look forward to taking my crusade to the ToS next year to see if I can better my performance.

 

Any comments are appreciated but most of all thanks for reading folks!

[GoneFishing]

Great report mate :P

 

I too had a great weekend there, all of my opponents were good fun to play against, which made the weekends war a pleasure - And met some nice folks as well (Lo Idaho).

 

Will definately enter again next year.

[Dezartfox]

Great read :P

 

I played a SoB army with my DW and I certainly learnt that they can be a lot harder than I originally thought..

[SamaNagol]

I feel gutted reading this. :devil:

[Inquisitor Fox]

Excellent reads all of them, and glad to hear you enjoyed yourself!

 

One possible thought on your Game #5 is would it have been possible to utilize your armored vehicles to form a wall against one of the approaches from a table edge, shielding your Sisters from the bikes for a turn or two as they maneuver around the vehicles and resulting wrecks? I know we don't often consider Excorcists as terrain as they're generally more useful against shooting, but I know from my own experience controlling 'fire corridors' and avenues of attack is crucial, especially with such a shooting army as our own Witch Hunters. Yes, the dice determine which side he comes in on, but it would be some protection perhaps.

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

Not too disapointed we adjourned off for our evening meal and along with Cpt Idaho we ended up quaffing a reasonable amount of Hoegarden throughout the evening and leaving WW in a not entirely stable manner with my hope that day 2 would see some better results for me.

 

I think when Captain Idaho about, you need to re-word the "reasonable" bit ;) (hope Idaho see this as a joke :D ), I never see a man drink that much that last year GT Heat 1 & still be fine.

 

Report look cool overall & good to see you enjoy your first GT experince, but where the photos of your battles & cool armies you battle again :devil: But again it was a good report.

 

Have you plans on what GT heat you & your team will attend next year & will is be the SoB again or a brand new army?? (myself current working on some Wolves goodness with Bjorn in the led for heat 1 2010)

 

IP

[number6]

Thanks for sharing, AW. :D I really appreciated your color commentary style of reporting here.

 

And I'm impressed that some of your games were as close as they appeared to be. We've had our "mech v foot" discussion out in the past, so I was eager to see what would happen.

 

Definitely more practice is in order, it sounds like. :devil: Nevertheless, defeating Daemons on first look is something you should be proud of. Daemons will usually just rip through virtually any other foot army they run across. (Though, in your favor, it looks to me like the list you faced was a "grab bag" army rather than a solidly competitive, well-focused one.)

 

Well-earned praise aside, I think if you take a look at some of your comments you'll see hints of recognition of what you and I have discussed here online before. By playing all foot, you nearly always gave up the initiative to your opponent and had to "play from behind" in order to make the game competitive. Which is another way of saying that a big reason why mech armies work is because they are capable of dictating when and where fights will happen; all you can do is react. (Which is mostly what happened during your games.) While the White Scars weren't a mech army, they do bring a similarly high level of mobility to the game, and that is what really spelled your doom there. On paper, you had enough firepower and close combat oomph to beat such an army, but, like any "Air" army (as Silent Requiem would define it), it excels at picking slow enemies apart.

 

I could say more, but your report reinforces for me the idea that you need to "mech up" to play competitive 40K in 5th edition. I think putting at least a couple more Rhinos (and/or Immolators?) in your list to cart some Sisters around would pay huge dividends for you.

 

Looking forward to more of your reports with your army. ;)

[Phoenix Knight]

As I was there supporting our troops (ArmouredWing, Gone Fishing and StormBringer) and being official photographer for the teams efforts. I have to say it was great watching them play although it was painful watching them make some mistakes and not being able to say anything (StormBringer not killing 3 CSMs in favour of a Daemon Prince in one battle in particular and while he won anyway it could have been a tabling).

 

ArmouredWing was unlucky at some critical points as most of these games I thought he was tactically sound from what I saw. But I was very pleased when he fought a list with Pedro as that is my bread and butter list (always vote Pedro!) and we've played this match up many times - I was glad to see him win, even if I had to watch Pedro lose.

 

All 3 of the guys seemed to really enjoy the weekend although despite their efforts to get me to play in the TOS, I have to say Im standing firm in not 'doing' tournies.

 

On a side note I was totally blown away by the winning 'best painted' army. Amazing renegade guard list and their owner/painter was a really nice guy. A well deserved win!

[Captain Idaho]

Nice overview dude!

 

I appreciated you enjoyed my company, and I was grateful for you guys to let me into your circle as an honourary team mate, even if I didn't contribute as much as I would have prefered! I look forward to our next meeting and hopefully can have a game against your SOBs and the Ninja Tau etc. The next Ultras meet up in Nottingham is April so we can hook up then. Be good practice taking on the Ultras players and their various armies (not all Ultramarines - Heresy!) for those of the lucky few who made the final in May (I think it's May?)

 

I think I should add an review of unit selections into my own review, inspired by yours of course.

 

@ Phoenix Knight: I'm sure you can be convinced to join in next year! Oh and I had less posts than we thought - do I score extra cool points?

[GoneFishing]

than we thought - do I score extra cool points?

 

 

Nope - Fraid not mate, you substituted any right to those when you started answering all the Bugmans Warhammer questions correctly!

[Eltnot]

Nice batreps, they make a good read.

 

Reading through, one thing I noticed in the last game was your opponents reserves. Did he say what was to be outflanking and what was just coming on from his table edge at the beginning of the game? From memory you have to declare when you place a unit in reserve if it is deepstriking or outflanking.

[ArmouredWing]

Now in 'Glorious Technicolour' folks!!! (Many thanks to Phoenix Knight for his photographic skills).

 

Just in response to a few of the comments here as I've said I never really felt that my list didn't have the capacity to see off the opposition (WS excepted) and I'll be running something similar for the time being to hone my skills with it a bit more.

 

I could replace elements with 'more suitable' components but generally the squads did what I wanted them to do and generally the performance was down to me being out performed rather than my list. I did consider if a transport option would have seen me better and I've pondered whether I should mount 1 unit in a rhino just as a rapid response unit/objective grabbing unit but I've got a feeling that it would be the first thing to fall when it got onto the table, however it is a consideration. Problem is I like having the weight of numbers to throw in front of people and when one squad becomes weakened there's another to replace it.

Ah, a quandry indeed!

 

The HQ is an interesting point. The squad themselves didn't do an awful lot on the table but the immolator was pretty effective at drawing attention away from my troop squads as people rushed to try and stop it from getting across the table. I am considering replacing it with a jump canoness + seraphim but the one thing stopping me here is the amount of time and effort I've spent on my HQ immolator. Tactically it may be a sound choice but in this case I may have to go for style over substance.

 

Anyway, glad people have enjoyed the reading, take a look back and enjoy the photos.

 

Cheers AW.

[Phoenix Knight]

@ Phoenix Knight: I'm sure you can be convinced to join in next year! Oh and I had less posts than we thought - do I score extra cool points?

 

Maybe, but everyone takes it so seriously, even the guys there 'for fun' have a secret agenda to sweep all before them - give me a narrative game anyday.

 

Cool Points? No, not for the number of posts but definitely for having Optimus Prime as your avatar!