After Action Report - 3/5/15 Tournament (batreps to follow)

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

I am going to start writing-up batreps tomorrow and post them as I can, but in the mean time I wanted to post some thoughts on my 0-2-2 record over a four-game 1850 point tournament I just attended. I'm not one of those guys who is able to post about win after win and put crazy 50-0-0 records in my signature. I do think that we tend to learn more from failure than success, though, and I hope that my brothers at the B&C will benefit from the humblings I receive! At first I was disappointed that I still have yet to win a game of 7th outright (although at least a few of my games I consider victories even if on paper they technically weren't as I will discuss later). But after having overnight to digest, I think I did pretty well considering:

 

1) These were my first games ever in the local meta outside my friend's basement, so going in I knew next to nothing about the local meta

2) The local meta is very cut-throat and competitive and I faced some truly brutal lists

3) I had not played any practice games with the army I brought

4) I hadn't played a single game since July 2014

 

Considering that I held my own in all four games, and only one of them was a true spanking, I think I did pretty well. Still there's lots of room for improvement and not all of it has to do with my listbuilding. For example, I forgot to deploy my servo-skulls in 3/4 games and this could have made a big difference considering that my deep strikers mishapped A LOT (I can partly blame the dice, I mean, what are the odds of rolling at least 10 every scatter and the arrow allows going in the one direction that meant doom? Yet remembering to deploy my servo skulls, assuming they hadn't been dispersed, probably would have cancelled most of those mishaps). I also forgot the psychic phase several times, forgot to issue orders  often(or didn't want to take the time to look up what other orders I had access to), and was not nearly smart enough about spacing my troops and putting important characters in the back as I needed to be.

 

Meta-specific Lessons

 

I learned that drop-pods are king in the local meta. I imagine they are popular everywhere this edition. Most armies had them. I faced them in 2/4 games, and the games I didn't featured comparables (like shunting Grey Knights). I am thinking it is time for Coteaz to be added to my army.

 

Knights are also very popular, although I only faced one. Thanks to my opponent seizing the initiative (another very bad eventuality that Coteaz will help me avoid) I had no way of testing my tank-hunting abilities on it and after it annihilated most of one flank in turn 1 I decided just to avoid it afterwards. That was actually not too difficult and may be the best way to deal with them.

 

Despite the above, I was bemused to find that there wasn't a tonne of anti-tank. Or at least they didn't have enough AT to handle three Russes and four Chimerae over three turns. The majority of my vehicles survived through every battle, save the one where the Knight rolled awesome and wiped out a whole flank in one turn in that one game.

 

7th Edition Lesson

 

Don't know why people say assault is dead in 7th. Shooting is pretty good, but assault is still the best way to kill the enemy en masse I found, and prevent them from shooting the heck out of you. For Guard who die in droves to shooting, I found "hiding" in close combat with shooty enemy stuff that doesn't grant saves to be the way to go.

 

Studs and Duds

 

So, of the units I brought, here are some quick thoughts ...

 

Pretty much all of the Inquisitorial stuff was solid.

 

My suicide Valkyrie-Plasma squad ("the Krazy Krutackers") was surprisingly effective. They consisted of a crusader, 3 plasma acolytes, two bullet-catchers, and a psyker inside a Valkyrie. Maybe a bit expensive for what they do considering the price of the Valkyrie, but incredibly fun. The potential is there in longer games (1850 pts is way to big for 2 hour tournament games IMO) for the Valkyrie to drop into hover mode and shuttle stuff around in Maelstrom games. I did this a bit in game 1 and I'd say the squad were my MVPs killing close to their own value worth of terminators and their Valk snagging an objective no one else could reach.

 

The "Swiss Army Knife" version of Lord Inquisitor Soulis and warband was also very good. Unit consisted of OH inquisitor in power armour with power sword, two meltagun acolytes, two crusaders, one DCA, two bullet-catcher acolytes and a psyker in a chimera. I know that usually jack-of-all trade units are frowned upon, but I found the unit incredibly useful. Since I knew they could handle just about any situation I used them as a linebacker/problem-solver unit. They did damage in both shooting and HTH. I just wish I had had time to finish Soulis' TDA because it would have been great having the psycannon and would have boosted their out-of-truck surviveability and HTH capabilities. I didn't find the bullet-catchers to be two necessary but at 4 pts each why not. In future I would add a third meltagun, TDA/psycannon to the inquisitor, and a mystic (expensive but would have been SO lifesaving to be able to drop Scions scatter-free within six of this unit which was usually right in the thick of things where I could really use some backup yesterday). So this squad is a keeper although it makes me shed a tear for all the $$ and effort I put into the Land Raider for their first incarnation.

 

The Scions, when they didn't mishap and thus never make their appearance (I rolled the dreaded 1 mishap result twice, forgot about the unit once, and the other times the game ended before they had a chance to reappear), were quite solid, although as expected they died right after arrival and delivering an alpha strike. It is nice to receive reinforcements but I'm thinking mounting them in Taurox Primes may be better especially given my discovery about the local meta not featuring a pile of vehicles or anti-tank. The Command Squad with 3x meltas is pretty much a guaranteed "delete tank" type unit. They one-shotted a whole squadron of Wyverns in their first appearance and a predator in another. The problem was, given the relative scarcity of tanks and preponderance of heavy infantry they weren't quite as good as they could have been. So I'm going to try Taurox Primes and if those go well I am going to get two more Primes to do the formation (twin linking on Scions is amazing as I learned when I got my orders off).

 

So that's the inquisition. I'll just post my Astra Militarum review here too, but keep it more brief. Wyverns are disgusting. Thank the Emperor my Scions destroyed the ones I faced at the top of turn 2 giving them only one shooting phase. One phase was more than enough though, thank you very much. I think it's time I hacked off the barrells on my Hydra and make it a Wyvern because the Hydra just isn't worth the points, sadly.

 

I don't know why people say close-combat blobs are dead. Mine was a boss with the priest. I plan to invest more into them by giving the priest an eviscerator and giving the sergeants their power swords back (this would have increased their killiness so much and I'd have been killing-off marine units rather than locking them in combat for three turns). I should never had listened to the interwebs on this score. So glad that at the last second I removed the autocannons from my platoon and gave them a priest. The PCS in chrimera was a waste though. Better to spend the points on putting a unit that's actually important in a chimera. Those 65 points would have been better spent elsewhere.

 

Roughriders were pretty good. They got the charge off in 3/4 games and over the space of four games killed their more than their own points worth. They are made of tissue paper when it comes to shooting. I wish I had a full squad of 10 so that they would have hit harder on the charge. When I didn't roll like garbage they brought the pain. The big problem is that they cannot wipe out marines in one turn and as I've learned, if you don't wipe them out, the damage you did to them doesn't matter a whole lot. When not fighting fearless Noise Marines I won combat by enough to break the enemy, but thanks to ATSKNF they were right back in the fight so I didn't accomplish much. Still, I'm stubborn, and they weren't nearly bad enough for me to say they're bad. I think bringing two squads of 10 with 2x meltaguns in each could actually be good since those make for very fast moving meltaguns (no one else has a 18" threat range on meltas since cruising speed = snap shots).

 

I really want to love my veterans in carapace -- the DKoK Grenadier models are just so cool. But once again they just didn't do much. Drove around in their chimera and fired their meltaguns at some stuff. Not sure they're worth the points.

 

Tanks were okay but not enough killing power, except in the last game where my Russes caught Khorne Berzerkers out in the open and murdered them.

 

Ratlings did a nice job of plinking wounds off high T stuff like dreadknight and thunderwolves. For 50 pts they weren't bad, but I think another 10 guardsmen in the blob may have been points better spent.

 

I think I'm going to take a break from tournament gaming. They are great learning experiences, but I simply do not have the prep time to be competitive. Now that I have 1850 points of models painted (there were 6 painted infantry models -- not including my BA stuff -- plus my Land Raider left behind on my shelf) I think I'm better to attend the slightly more casual gaming nights at the local store since I can change lists from game-to-game, I can learn my rules better, and it is less of a time investment all in one lump. I'm going to focus now on increasing the number of Scions and getting the Taurox Primes painted to go all =][= and MT.

 

... plus work on my BA. As I think about the BA list I am building towards, it was crafted with the help of a local guy, and it would have done a lot better at this tournament and with way fewer rules to remember (no psykers, no orders, no special deployment), so I think that will be my tournament army eventually.

 

[angrom]

Good to hear your return.

Definitely Coteaz is a auto pick for any =I= army, and in 1500+ i also take Karamazov (he may look overpriced but he really worth the points)

After several games with inquisition only what i can say is astra millitarum don't bring anything that inquisition cannot do better (besides of Tanks)

Henchmen are very versatile but i play them with specialization. (ie: 8 acolytes with bolter, 3 plasma, 1 psyker  OR  8 acolytes bolter with 3 melta 1 psyker)

I play them as cheap as possible (they will be mass murdered anyway even with a 4+ save). Just try to take the best of the terrain for cover saves.

Also 2 team of 3 servant plasma inquisitor power armor and few acolytes do wonder on the table, and for cheap fire power just acolytes with storm bolter *11 and a psyker give a lot of shots for dirty cheap.

The more i play inquisition the more i love it even in competitive, the only thing sad is as we don't have a normal formation chart (ie troops, elites, support etc) we have to take multiple detachment to fill an army and most player didn't understand that.

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Thanks for the thoughts, angrom.

 

Yeah, I realize I need to take advantage of the cheapness of Inquisition more. They can put out a lot of firepower. They get murdered right away, as you say, but so do Scions and triple the price to what the hey. As an illustration of this, I was initially salivating over the idea of putting Coteaz with a Scion command squad kitted out with 4x Hotshot Volleyguns (finally a use for volley guns -- they would shred deep-striking marines in drop pods). Then I realised that for the same price as that Scion unit I can have 2x plasma servitors, 3x plasma acolytes, a psyker, some other basic acolytes and a Chimera with psybolt ammunition for them to hide in. I was going to put them behind an Aegis then remembered Wyverns and figured a can to hide in is better.

 

I did some basic math hammer, and the two above-noted units will actually kill roughly the same number of power armoured models, but the =][= version can also ruin the day of anything with 2+ save or higher toughness and is more rugged since its inside a Chimera. So that's how I think I'll roll since all five of those plasma weapons can fire out the hatch.

 

Re: Karamazov, I can definitely see how an orbital strike every turn could be pretty good, plus he would do well in HTH against anything that deep-struck nearby. Would be a very fun model to build too. Now THAT would be a model worthy of Lord Inquisitor Soulis! Do you run him solo or with a retinue?

 

Unfortunately in the local meta, to try to cut down on the worst excesses, I can only run one =][= detachment, so for the rest I have to fill with Scions which is the closest I can get to all =][= army.

[angrom]

Unfortunately in the local meta, to try to cut down on the worst excesses, I can only run one =][= detachment, so for the rest I have to fill with Scions which is the closest I can get to all =][= army.

 

Yes sadly that is exactly what i feel when i said that most players didn't understand the inquisition codex (if we can call it a codex).

I don't think it was really impossible for GW to come with a detachment organization with some rules like " you can make any mix in your Henchmens but as soon as you have death cult assassin or crusader or priest in the unit this one take a elite slot, if you put servitor with heavy weapon it take a support slot, otherwise it is troops"

Even harlequins, Scion and scitari have a normal detachment organization.

 

For Karamazov he bring a 12" reroll for Ld test which is really great to avoid your numerous unit to run away at the first wound, also he bring some Rad grenades and some descent combat skill so in a unit of crusader with a priest and some assassins he really is a threat.

And the best is the S10 Ap1 Ordnance , Lance blast. which mean that if you hit a vehicle (not hard with a blast), you glance on 2+ and penetrate on 3+ anything (even a land rider) and then a 4+ roll and it is a destroy (so almost a 1/2 chance to blast a tank every turn)

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Yeah I was looking at my codex last night and Karamazov is really quite good ... I don't know why I didn't model Lord Inquisitor Soulis up as Karamazov before.

 

My fear is Wyverns though since he cannot go inside a vehicle. Maybe if facing Wyverns, I could hold him in reserve if I do not roll for first turn. He is able to fire his orbital relay on the move so he could enter play via reserve and shoot with a pretty good potential to ice the whole Wyvern squadron in one shot given the size of the template. And hopefully deep-striking Scions would be arriving same time just to be safe. Everyone else can hide inside vehicles.

 

I think I didn't bring him previously because of a perceived lack of mobility, but given all the drop-podding and shunting that is in vogue around here that's just fine. They will come to me and then he can beat them down. If I have a few 4 pt Acolytes, with careful spacing and positioning I could even drop an orbital strike on the unit I want to charge to soften it up (if its is terminators or something that needs softening) then wade in.