1750 Tournament - All batreps and final thoughts added!

[Chaplain Admetus]

Next weekend I will be attending a local 1750 point tournament. This is a first for me in a few important ways - although I've had pretty good tournament success with my Blood Angels before, they've all been in GW events (local store tournaments or Throne of Skulls), this is my first non GW event. As a result, I'm likely to face more potent lists/opposition. Leading on from this, this is the first tournament where it won't be straight-up book missions; each mission has primary, secondary and tertiary objectives based on the book missions. Allies and fortifications are permitted, as is Forge World with the "40k approved" stamp, but no Escalation, Stronghold Assault, or Super-Heavies/Gargantuan creatures.

 

The scoring system gives you 10-0 for a major win on the primary, 7-3 for a minor win, and 5-5 for a tie, a 'major win' being classified as 3 or more Victory Points - Primary Objectives, First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker all count towards this. Secondary objectives are 6-0 for a major win, but 3-3 for a minor win/draw/minor loss. Mission 1 is Crusade (4 objectives)/Kill points, Dawn of War deployment; Mission 2 is Big Guns (4 Objectives)/Kill points, Hammer and Anvil; Mission 3 is Emperor's Will and Relic combined for primary/Kill points, Dawn of War; Mission 4 is Scouring/Kill points, Vanguard Strike; and Mission 5 is Kill Points/3 central objectives, Dawn of War.

 

Tertiary objectives are slightly different, with a list of 5 to pick from, and you must use a different one in each of the 5 games, adding an extra tactical element; Destroy a nominated non-character, non-vehicle enemy unit, keep a nominated non-character, non-vehicle unit alive, have more non-fleeing units than non-fleeing enemy units in your deployment zone, have more non-fleeing units than non-fleeing enemy units in the enemy deployment zone, and win a challenge. Completing the tertiary objective where your opponent fails nets you 4 points, if both players complete it then you each rack up 2. You choose after deployment but before first turn, and then they are simultaneously revealed. Therefore there's a maximum of 20 points available per mission.

 

Since Kill Points are in play every game, I've deliberately tried to keep a low kill-point list, and this is what I've settled on after testing:

Librarian, Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter (Warlord, Fear of the Darkness and Shield of Sanguinius)

Librarian, Jump Pack (Fear of the Darkness and Shield of Sanguinius)

10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Sergeant with Power Axe and Storm Shield

10 Assault Marines, 2 Flamers, Sergeant with Power Sword

10 Tactical Marines, Meltagun, Missile Launcher

Furioso, Frag Cannon, Magna-Grapple, Drop Pod

Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack

Baal Predator, Assault Cannon/Heavy Bolters

2 Multi-Melta Attack Bikes

Stormraven Gunship, twin-linked Multi-Melta/Twin-linked Assault Cannon

7 Devastator Marines, 4 Missile Launchers

 

The alternative is swapping the librarians for Mephiston, and the 2 ablative devastators and Storm Shield for a razorback - thoughts?

 

It's designed to play as a relatively shooty, close-range firepower list, operating best in the 12-24" range, with the assault squads as mop-up and mobile scoring. Librarians can either panic-bomb stuff off the table, or out of position; or if leadership shenanigans are no good I can swap for divination. Terminator librarian footslogs with the tactical squad, or with the devastators depending on powers. I've played 3 tournament practice missions, the first is already up in my batrep thread, the latter two will be going up soon, so to avoid spoilers the results are below:

 

 

Mission 3 vs Necrons (Mephiston version) - 17-3 win
Mission 4 vs Space Wolves (Dual-librarian version) - 18-2 win
Mission 1 vs Astra Militarum - (Dual-librarian version) 18-2 win

 

 

Since I'm not confident in my ability to crush power lists or power tactics, especially where BA are positioned at the moment, and my lack of real tournament experience, I'm setting myself a modest goal - I'm aiming for a total of 50 tournament points or more, which I hope is achievable. Any general tips or tactics, given the missions, or advice on tweaking the list slightly would be greatly appreciated, and I'll whack up updates as they come in where I can, and do full battle reports. I've got a week to prepare, but won't get any more games, so I've done all the tabletop testing I can!

[ianj253]

Don't know how much you play list the spam FMC. However, when going up against them I'd suggest combat squading those assault marines. Keep them in reserves and off the board as long as you can, then deepstrike them spread out so his FMC's can't have there way with you between shooting and Vector strikes. 

[TheHarrower]

I think you are going to have a tough time. There is so much firepower at tournaments these days. Tau and Eldar will shoot you off the table and Necrons with 3 squads of wraiths will be a list where you just can't deal enough damage and you'll eventually lose in close combat. Haven't played The new Astra Militarum yet, but I imagine it'll be giant blobs of stubborn infantry with supporting fire of the AP2/AP3 large blast variety which is bad for 40 infantry models with a 3+. Enough negativity and sorry to start this reply like that. Let's see if we can make this work.

 

First off, one pod is just so tough to run. You are basically handing your opponent first blood as that Furioso is dropping in unsupported. For major changes I would swap the Furioso out for another Baal Predator. The other thing I would do is swap out the Devastators for a Vindicator. These changes will give you some additional threats that'll last longer and give you much needed dakka. Plus, they'll do more damage over the course of the game.

 

For minor changes, I'd try and fit in hurricane bolters on the Storm Raven and take the meltagun out of the Tactical Squad and go with a plasmagun instead. I love me some Mephiston, but 2 Librarians with Fear of the Darkness is nothing to sneeze at and I would probably stick with them. Though for the squad with the Priest, I might go with Unleash Rage/Fear of the Darkness instead. There are a lot of points tied up on upgrades that I might use for another Attack Bike. I'm specifically looking at the terminator armour on the Librarian and the storm shield in the Assault Squad. I'm guilty of going wargear heavy like that so I might just keep it as is. Just a thought. I think those changes would give you a much more effective list. Do the Jump Priest and Jump Libby go with the Assault Squad with 2 meltaguns?

 

I hope this helps. I've played in a LOT of tournaments since 6th hit and I'd imagine the landscape of what you'll face outside of a GW store will be like night and day. Good luck brother. Bring swift retribution to our foes!

[Morticon]

So much depends on your meta.  But, I also think you may be in for a hard battle. 
What are the restrictions on add-ons?  (FW/Escalation etc)

 

I honestly believe you should be going for Mephy. 

Here's what I like in your list:

 

1x Jumpy Squad

1x Baal

1x Raven

1x Fraggy Dread

1x Attack Bikes.

 

I think Corbs, over the jumpy priest is a better bet.  

 

 

I also think you should work in Heavy razor squads - i think for their points, they're invaluable.  This may be a playstyle and it may not suit yours.

 

My suggestions are as follows:

 

Mephiston

Corbulo

Fraggy Pod Fury

 

10x ASM - 2x MG, 1PW, SS

2x 5 ASM - w/ Flamers

2x Heavy razors of choice

1x 5 ASM - w/ Flamer, PW

1x Heavy razor of choice

 

3x Attack Bikes- 2MM, 1HB

1x Baal - HBSS

 

1x Raven

 

 

The theory is that you have protection from most small arms fire.  You still have tactical options with what to put in the raven, and Corbs provides incredible support too.  You lose a little by way of the devs, but can make it up with either Las/Plas razors or TLAC razors. 

 

You also pick up another attack bike which buffs that squad nicely. 

 

In short, I think you have more to deal with everything. Better options for claiming, and more AP2 - its also less static and more fluid.

[knife&fork]

I don't really see how corbs fit into the list above. Is the juicy killpoint really worth 1 reroll and FnP on a 5 man assault squad?

 

If your meta is Tau and Eldar heavy, expect to lose all the attack bikes and at least one of the razors or the Baal turn one.

 

In my opinion fire support should either be extremely aggressive (like sternguard or frag dreads) or durable and passive (devastators behind an aegis, normal predators). Attack bikes and Baal preds fall somewhere in the middle of that. Upgraded razorbacks cost a lot of points for a single gun on a fragile hull. Playing them passively doesn't really help as any gun that can reach you won't struggle with AV11. 

 

What do you have in your collection? No point in me suggesting units you don't have...

 

Are you allowed to switch between codex and rulebook powers every game? 

[Morticon]

Corbs is more than just FNP -and defs more than FNP to the 5man.  With the jumpers moving up together, Corbs should be giving them FNP too.

 

But thats not his strength, his strength is tying up certain units that would otherwise kill the 5man unit or the 10man, even.  He tanks for the squad, keeping the squad alive for far, far, far longer than a regular priest.  He's also great in challenges thanks to init 5 and his rending chainsword, and on top of all of that, theres the reroll - which in tournies is golden. 

 

If you play mephy (which i believe you should for competitive tournies), you sometimes cant afford to fail a psychic test for either wings, sword,  or activating the force weapon. 

 

Same goes with getting a raven on.  You may NEED it on in turn 2, and the reroll helps for that.   

Also, in games with first blood, you have the magna/melta dread - that melta gun shot can make the difference between first blood or not, which can make the difference between win or lose. Corbs helps there too.

[knife&fork]

Corbs is more than just FNP -and defs more than FNP to the 5man. With the jumpers moving up together, Corbs should be giving them FNP too.

But thats not his strength, his strength is tying up certain units that would otherwise kill the 5man unit or the 10man, even. He tanks for the squad, keeping the squad alive for far, far, far longer than a regular priest. He's also great in challenges thanks to init 5 and his rending chainsword, and on top of all of that, theres the reroll - which in tournies is golden.

I guess, but now you have suddenly locked a huge portion of your scoring to work in a certain way. To keep up with the jumpers he'll need to ride in a razor and those are enough of a target as they are, particularly if they also fill the role of fire support.

I've tried tanking with corbs a couple of times, but I have never gotten it to work. High S shooting that denies armor and FnP, focus fire, fast units taking angle where he isn't in front... Every single time I've been forced to use his reroll for a LoS early game. I could see the use of making a low value unit lasting longer, it's just a very expensive buff when you get an entire squad for the amount of points.

If you play mephy (which i believe you should for competitive tournies), you sometimes cant afford to fail a psychic test for either wings, sword, or activating the force weapon.

Same goes with getting a raven on. You may NEED it on in turn 2, and the reroll helps for that.

Also, in games with first blood, you have the magna/melta dread - that melta gun shot can make the difference between first blood or not, which can make the difference between win or lose. Corbs helps there too.

If you play mephy with biomancy (which I belive you should for competitive tournies ) that odd perils is much less of an issue. I agree on the raven, but a coms relay can fill the same purpose if you run the devastators, predators or another support unit that can benefit from the aegis.

In a 2k+ game I wouldn't mind Corbulo one bit, but in a 1750 game the points are tight enough as they are.

[Morticon]

Good points on Corbs, though, I find LoS helps get rid of focus fire shenanigans easily (your failed LoS maybe anomalous?), and if theyre putting S8 shots into his squad, theyre not putting into the rest of the army.  

Question though, why is all that high strength coming his way?

How can the enemy afford to invest all the S8 shots his way when there are attack bikes, a jumper squad, mephiston, a baal and the 3 shooty razors on board?
Is it just unlucky melta coming his way mid/late game or something else?  

It could possibly be a playstyle thing.  The units you have on board, vs. stuff i would have may be different? possibly?

 

Also, bear in mind, in his current list, he's paying 75 points for a jump priest already.   70 or 75 points for an aegis on top of a priest for the jumpers makes me weary. 

 

I'm not in agreement with biomancy for tournies de facto - though that could be location-meta dependent. I think against certain GKs and certain SMs possibly. But S10 and wings are too good to lose to the hope of iron arm on 1 of 2 rolls for powers.

Not to mention, using him in a raven means you have 450 points of 1750 off board, and then in turn2 (maybe) you need to dedicate those points to a very specific location if you intend charging. All the while, shots that Meph could have been tanking are now going to other units in your army (as noted above! Maybe if corbs and meph were on the board, there would be more shots going towards meph instead of corbs?)

 

Id think it weird if your enemy wanted to put shots into a razor with all that bearing down on him, and weirder still to then ignore the other stuff to go after the contents of the razor. 

[Chaplain Admetus]

Thanks guys. I'm actually depressingly limited with my model count at present - my second pod and both my regular furiosos are still in storage from when I moved a year and a half ago, and I moved again last week and most of my stuff is in boxes. I don't have 3 razorbacks at all, best I can rustle up is two, with t-l lascannon turret on one and t-l heavy bolter on the other; hardly optimal. By the same token, I only own two attack bikes, otherwise I'd have no problems with Mort's list. Ditto to The Harrower - I only own one Baal, and don't have a Vindicator (well I do, but I'd have to find it and it's also painted as a Novamarine Vindicator, there's no painting restrictions but it would bug me!)

 

Escalation is out, as is stronghold assault - Forge World is limited availability, if it has the "Warhammer 40,000 Approved" logo then it's in, otherwise no dice. Knowing the meta is useless, as there's players coming from other cities and people that don't normally turn up to club nights, so I have no idea how hardcore some of the lists are going to be; I know that one of my friends is taking armour-spam crons, and another is taking Wolves (outflanking shenanigans).

 

That's the way I'd always played it with psychic powers, but after having another look at the FAQs I'm not so certain - will consult with the TO beforehand and see what he says.

 

I'll try and get a more comprehensive list of available models, but giving what I've been playing with recently I think a minor variant on the above list is probably best as that's what I've been practicing with. I know it's going to be tough with my BA, but I'll try. Honestly, if kill points weren't in play in -every- mission I'd likely be using my Dark Eldar instead.

[Chaplain Admetus]

I should also point out that I had Corbulo in the list before, but scrapped him as he wasn't pulling his weight and downgraded him to a jumper priest to let me add bite to the sergeants, that list (and a game I played with it) is here:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/287664-chaplain-admetus-new-battle-report-thread-game-5-added/?p=3634821

 

Is that list better than either of the above?

[TheHarrower]

I agree with Mort that Corbs can tank better than anyone and he's a unit I almost always bring to the table (the reroll is huge too). In your list though, I think you are better with the Jump Priest. Sitting him in a Tactical Squad is kinda a waste and he'll struggle to keep up with the Jumpers. If only he could have a jump back.

[knife&fork]

Good points on Corbs, though, I find LoS helps get rid of focus fire shenanigans easily (your failed LoS maybe anomalous?), and if theyre putting S8 shots into his squad, theyre not putting into the rest of the army.  

Question though, why is all that high strength coming his way?

How can the enemy afford to invest all the S8 shots his way when there are attack bikes, a jumper squad, mephiston, a baal and the 3 shooty razors on board?

Is it just unlucky melta coming his way mid/late game or something else?  

It could possibly be a playstyle thing.  The units you have on board, vs. stuff i would have may be different? possibly?

 

Focus fire can work both ways. I was primarily thinking of how it can be used to make sure Corbs is unable to tank, not force him to roll LoS as that usually doesn't require any trickery from the opponent. 

 

If Corbs is tanking a high value target (like terminators) then throwing high S low AP fire his way is entirely justified. In this case however everything but Mephiston can be dealt with using high volume of s6-7 fire. Even S5 will do the trick in numbers. The Baal preds have a pretty narrow front arc and will almost certainly expose their side AV if they want to fire the assault cannon.

 

I'm not a fan of that jump priest, but if the model selection is limited then corbs is definitely worth the upgrade.  

 

 

I'm not in agreement with biomancy for tournies de facto - though that could be location-meta dependent. I think against certain GKs and certain SMs possibly. But S10 and wings are too good to lose to the hope of iron arm on 1 of 2 rolls for powers.

 

Not to mention, using him in a raven means you have 450 points of 1750 off board, and then in turn2 (maybe) you need to dedicate those points to a very specific location if you intend charging. All the while, shots that Meph could have been tanking are now going to other units in your army (as noted above! Maybe if corbs and meph were on the board, there would be more shots going towards meph instead of corbs?)

 

Id think it weird if your enemy wanted to put shots into a razor with all that bearing down on him, and weirder still to then ignore the other stuff to go after the contents of the razor. 

 

 

That would be 2 or 3 rolls, and biomancy is a bit better than you give it credit for. The only real stinker is 'haemorrage' and even that can be nasty paired with 'enfeeble' since it's a focused witch-fire. You also have 2 powers that let you regen wounds, an amazing thing to have on any unit with a statline like Mephiston. Unless your are entirely dependent on those S10 attacks biomancy will net you a better return on Mephiston. 

 

I don't see how that is an issue. Having a small footprint when deploying isn't necessarily bad (more cover and los-blockers to go around) and it's not like Mephiston is going to see combat on turn 1 or snipe things from the rear with his plasma pistol. He likely has to stay hidden moving up the board for a couple of turns. With the raven you can put him just about anywhere allowing to you better react if the opponent moves the intended target. Deploying with fleet from an assault skimmer doesn't require pinpoint accuracy. 

 

As stated earlier I don't think there needs to be an overlap when it comes to the kind of shooting they attract. 

[Chaplain Admetus]

I personally would be keeping Mephiston out of the Raven 99% of the time. I don't like the concept of 450 of my 1750 points being potentially out of play for 80% of the game. I think I'm going to go with the Mephiston list after reading through Mort's and K&F's batreps/tactics shenanigans, barring a last minute change of mind - I really am dithering. Another thing I could do is downgrade the tactical marines to a small assault squad and try to squeeze in some vanguard vets - increasing my damage output but at the cost of 5 precious scoring units. Is that viable? If I went that route I really would need the Razor, but it's a risk-reward scenario.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Ok battle brothers, it's Zero Hour! (sort of...) - the list is printed, meaning I'm past the point of no return, and in 12 hours time I'll be halfway through game 1! I'm not likely to be online in the morning before I leave, so this is my pre-tournament thoughts post.

The List:

Mephiston

10 ASM, Dual Flamer, Power Sword

10 ASM, Dual Melta, Power Sword

10 Tactical Marines, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Razorback (heavy bolters)

Priest, Jump Pack, Meltabomb

Furioso, Meltagun, Frag Cannon, Magna Grapple, Drop Pod

2 Multi-Melta Attack Bikes

Baal Predator (Assault Cannon/Heavy Bolters)

Storm Raven (Assault Cannon/Multi-melta)

5 Devastators, 4 Missile Launchers

1750 on the nose - the meltabomb took up my last 5 points, it was that or searchlights... it's on the priest for added flexibility. The list is designed to have a little bit of everything, with normally 5 scoring units - I intend to combat squad the tactical marines most games, along with whichever assault squad has better damaging prospects deep-striking (2 flamers or 2 melta), with the remaining 5 going in the raven or deep-striking. This increases to 7 in Scouring and Big Guns, as I have 2 of each Fast Attack and Heavy Support. Priest is a buff unit, Fragioso is just generally filthy and is designed to get first blood and then make a colossal nuisance of itself - in the unlikely event that my opponent has sufficiently threatening interceptor to drop it on arrival, I'll throw in an empty pod and put it in the raven. Of course, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy, but that is the general game plan!

From an overall tournament perspective, I'm -hoping- to secure one of two goals. Goal 1 - Score 50 tournament points or more (out of 100)/Finish in the top half. Goal 2 - Score better than the Space Wolves or Necrons who I've been playtesting with . Every point counts, so I'll be looking for any opportunity to increase my score to the maximum margin in each game - it's possible for a player with 1 win and 4 losses to finish above a player with 5 wins (a 20-0 win and four 11-9 defeats is 56 tournament points, five 11-9 wins is only 55)

Anyway, I'll desist my tired and delirious ramblings and get some shut-eye, I'll fire up a brief day 1 update with an overview of the meta, general feelings on the list and spoiler-tagged results on games 1-3 tomorrow evening, if I can get some pictures I'll try and get reports up next week. Wish me luck, fellow Sons of Sanguinius!

[knife&fork]

1750 on the nose - the meltabomb took up my last 5 points, it was that or searchlights... 

 

Should have went with the search lights......

 

 

 

 

 

 

:P

 

Good luck tomorrow! 

[Morticon]

Good luck buddy!! Kick some ass.

[Leonaides]

Best of luck, now go kick some buttock!

[Chaplain Admetus]

Cheers guys, day one is down and I'm happy with my performance so far! It's quite a small room, I believe there's only 20 players. As far as armies go, I -think- there are 5 marine players, 2 BA, 2 daemons, 2 Necrons, 1 Eldar, 1 Astra Militarum, 1 Tau, 1 Ork, 2 Chaos, 1 Tyranid, 1 Space Wolves, and one I forget - quite a wide ranging field. There's not many out-and-out cheddar lists, the only two that leapt out were a triple-heldrake list and an utterly, UTTERLY disgusting Farsight deathbomb that's fully expected to win the tournament. It's Swiss pairings, done by tournament points rather than a win-loss record, the first round being totally random. There's also mini-trophies for 'best in race' as well as 1st, 2nd and 3rd place overall, and the wooden spoon, so my new goal is to try and take home the Best Blood Angel trophy!
 
Mini-reports of how I've done so far, spoilered as I intend to do full reports in a few days
 
Game 1 - Crusade (4 objectives), Dawn of War

 

Against Tyranids. 7 Monstrous creatures. Took 'win a challenge' as my tertiary as Meph got that warlord trait, and there were plenty of MCs to force into a challenge. I couldn't roll dice to save my life - furioso failed to frag genestealers when it dropped, I was given 6 armour saves and failed 4 on my devastators, Mephy failed a crucial charge, the works. Playing damage control I managed to just hold myself in contention and aimed for a draw, but I got extremely lucky and managed to nick the game right on turn 5. Binned a hive tyrant in combat that was trying to dislodge my assault marines for a major win on primary, and cutting down a venomthrope on my final turn to take it from a major loss on secondary to a minor loss, and lost tertiary, giving me a 13-7 win.

 

 

Game 2 - Big Guns (4 Objectives), Hammer and Anvil

 

MSU marine spam (Impy Fists) - 6 5-man tactical squads, 3 5-man dev squads, captain, 2 dreads, 3 MM speeders, 3 MM attack bikes, 2 razors. Bad matchup (shooty opponent, lengthwise). Game dragged for ages and my opponent hasn't played much of 6th edition (think he'd not played much since 2nd), meaning it took forever when I was having to explain all the rules (things like area terrain, moving through cover, etc). I took Defend the Base (more units in my DZ than enemy units) as my tertiary as he figured he wasn't getting close. Bad rolls to start off with, but managed to get Mephiston to bin a dreadnought, perils in the process, and lose 3 of his remaining 4 wounds to shooting. Then he went mental, rolling up the table and surviving everything thrown at him bolterwise, clearing out a tactical squad, and contesting an objective (he got Scoring as his WL trait), managing to kill the captain in single combat in the last turn of the game. Was tough fighting my way through a hail of bullets, but I eventually reached him and did catastrophic damage on turn 5, managing to secure myself a 17-3 win.

 

 

Game 3 - Relic/Emperor's Will, Dawn of War

 

Tied for second at this point, I get the short end of the stick and thrown in against the filthy Farsight Bomb on table 1,the biggest tournament cheese list in the room. I'm determined to deny the nay-sayers and at least make a fight out of it. I voluntarily go second and combat squad almost everything. He has a massive deathbomb with Sevrin Loth (to guarantee gate), 5 scouts, 3 suits with loads of burst cannons, 2 solo suits with no weapons, 5 scouts, 3 skyrays. Utter filth. I take Primary Threat and go after his scouts, the plan being to play silly buggers and fly around him where he can't gate to everything at once. I play the game of my life scrapping tooth and nail all the way, and the game goes the full 7 turns - I kill everything except the deathbomb, he kills everything bar my Raven which makes 2 jink saves right at the end to deny him tabling, and I end up with a very respectable 13-7 loss. For contrast, this list only dropped 2 tournament points over the first 2 games

.

 

Overall that leaves me with

37

victory points so far out of a possible 60, with two games to go tomorrow. Pairings are mostly done for round 4, and it looks like I'm playing Necrons. Of the three of us that have been testing/playing together, the Necrons stomped the other Blood Angels in round 1, paid for their own success by getting obliterated by the Farsight-bomb in round 2, then managed to win their third game; the Wolves got hammered by the farsight bomb game 1, beat the other BA game 2, and took a draw against Guard round 3, so not too bad overall.

 

The Tau list is utterly filthy, but nothing else seems too bad other than possibly tri-drake and some biker armies. I'll get some rest tonight, and be back tomorrow with games 4 and 5!

[knife&fork]

Good going so far.

 

What did he have in that deathstar? 

[sockwithaticket]

Give 'em hell, Chap! Sounds like you're going well so far, good luck for tomorrow.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Someone was making comments at the start of game 3 that there were Orks on table 2 and Blood Angels on table 1... I think that threw some people for 6!

 

@K&F - he had Farsight, Commander (fusion/Plasma), 8 battlesuits with a mix of fusion, plasma and missiles, and the puretide chip/c&c node on a bodyguard as apparently -characters- in a farsight list can't take Tau Empire special wargear, but bodyguards aren't characters so can take it... go go gadget loophole but it's a tournament and the TO okayed it ahead of time so I'm happy enough to face against it. Drone controller in there too and an absolute shedload of gun drones. Sevrin to make it fearless AND grant it guaranteed gate of infinity and fearless. It was just revolting. Basically teleports anywhere within 24" of one of the models, gets a bit extra length thanks to the deep-strike circles, can split fire at any number of targets and ignores cover/twin-linked - it also has hit and run if you get it in combat. Very much point and click, pick a couple of units and remove them from play every turn, and there's just about nothing you can do against it short of hoping it fails Gate.

 

This happened in my game - Sevrin failed Gate at a critical point and that gave me a TINY breathing space which was just enough for me to pull some points out of the bag - that and miserable rolls from a Sky Ray on the same turn.

 

[knife&fork]

Yeah, those are nasty. They have some bad matchups, but not many to be honest. 

 

Did you touch it all? Triple or dual frag when they are bunched up has potential.

 

Tank shocks to break them up and self induced cover for focus fire/range dickery can also help. 

[Chaplain Admetus]

Didn't get the chance... when I got the frag cannon in it went straight at the scouts who had snagged the relic and were also my tertiary objective. Sounds defeatist, but I never realistically thought I could win - I went in with the pure and simple objective of 'score as many tournament points as I physically can'. Nearly got tabled, but 'nearly' wasn't good enough :P. I made one mistake at deployment, but the way the game played out it wouldn't have made a difference in the long run - extremely happy with my performance, and it's a shame that game isn't getting a proper batrep (as my phone was low on battery, and I thought I'd get humped in about 8 minutes flat so there wouldn't be much point, turns out I was wrong). Got a few shots here or there but the star was never in danger.

[Morticon]

Someone was making comments at the start of game 3 that there were Orks on table 2 and Blood Angels on table 1... I think that threw some people for 6!

 

Yeah, that thinking bugs me.  I loooooove showing people up and showing that other armies can actually rock it!!

 

Well done dude.  Keep it coming! 

[Chaplain Admetus]

Just about to leave for day 2! State of play summarised (in spoiler tags if anyone actually wants to wait for the reports):

 

After 3 games I'm in 6th place overall, with 37 points. I need 13 points over two games to reach my overall goal of 50, and only 11 to be guaranteed best Blood Angel player, though dependent on scores that could be locked in after game 4. For the secondary goal of finishing ahead of my mates with Wolves and Necrons, I'm currently leading with 37, the Necrons are snapping at my heels with 36, and the Wolves are well in touch with 30 - and we've ALL been violated by the Farsight list

 

 

Angels Sanguine, assemble!!!