Night Lords Tallarn Commander's Chaos (Night Lords Go To Tacoma)

[Tallarn Commander]

And now I shall finish up my tournament report from last weekend's 40K Tacoma Open.

 

 

 

Game 5 vs. Chaos Space Marines

 

My opponent for this game was awesome. I'd never played him before but I had played some of his friends at a local gaming store I sometimes visit so he had heard about my old-school Night Lords. I'm blessed with no fewer than 7 gaming stores within 30 minutes: Wizard's Keep in Kent, Laughing Dragon In Issaquah, Mox in Bellevue, Mox in Seattle, Nomad Games In Edmonds, Uncles in Redmon, and Mugu in Everett). This game was incredibly fun and, while I enjoyed playing all of my opponents, this opponent was my favorite because he too was super chill.

 

This game resulted in a loss and I was tabled. Here are some photos. My opponent was also playing Renegade Raiders. We commented on how we really liked the detachment because it fits our playstyles and has lots of fun strats.

 

The board at deployment

 

 

Lightning Monitors Enemy Advance

 

In both this game and the previous game the forces were actually fairly balanced and, had I deployed more effectively, the games probably would have been more effective. In both games I put too much on my left flank and not enough on my right flank. So poor Lightning and the Cultists that you see here are rather unsupported. If nothing else I learned a lot from this tournament. If nothing else I think it's a really good idea for me to return to including a 5-trooper Chaos Termie squad because I often tend to screw up deployment in this manner. But I can plop down a Termie Squad on Turn 2 to shore up a flank and greatly ameiliorate the effects of mis-deployment.  :)

 

 

Bat To The Bone vs. Legionaries

 

 

In this game I really saw the benefit of supporting Legionaries with characters. Three months ago I went to a tournament in Aberdeen, Washington (down by the coast). I brought along 3 characters and I found that Legionaries really like character support (especially when I remember the character's rules).

 

 

Chosen Champion Decimus Duels Fabius Bile

 

 

 

 

Game 6 vs. Night Lords!

 

This game featured a mirror match of Night Lords vs. Night Lords. It was a really fun game but he easily slaughtered my forces. He brought 3 Daemon Princes and 3 Warp Talons. 

 

I should bring Warp Talons more this edition. When I do bring them they are probably my most effective unit--they are really good right now. His did really well against me. Except for the one squad of Warp Talons, which was charged and destroyed by, of all things, lowly Chaos Raptors.

 

 

Jackals Legionaries Squad Takes Out Bikers

 

 

Chaos Lord and War Hound Eliminate Cultists

 

 

I realized after the game that Cultists do not have the "Heretic Astartes" keyword and do not benefit from the Renegade Raiders detachment +1 AP vs. enemies on objectives rule. As a result the wound my Cultists did to the lord before getting killed off should not have counted. Oops. But, to balance that out, during the whole tournament I only once remembered my Legionaries' special rules regarding wounding in melee.  :)

 

 

Lightning Misses A Point-Blank Shot Against A Carnivore

 

 

 

Havocs Hang Out In Back

I realized after the game I didn't use my Havocs during the last 2 turns of battle. They were hanging out next to my rather large pile of dead Chaos Marines and I mistakenly thought they were dead. Well, the game was not close anyway. Plus it kept the Carnivore from charging them. That's very Night Lordsy to play 'possum so that you survive the battle.

 

 

Daemon Prince vs. Possessed

My Possessed had just taken out another Daemon Prince. So this Daemon Prince got revenge and killed off the squad.

 

 

Duvalier KO'd By a Carnivore

I miss my old Night Lords Chaos Lord melee upgrade, the Claws of the Black Hunt.

 

 

Cultists vs. Carnivore

 

 

 

All in all, it was a really enjoyable tournament. I saw a bunch of folks in the community who I haven't played in awhile, I learned a lot, a lot of folks geeked out about my old-school army, and I had fun. What more can one ask from a tournament!

 

 

Here are some "after action" thoughts and unit assessments.

 

Units That Performed Above Par

* Predator Annihilators and Lascannon Havocs: easily my best 2 units. I'd be hard pressed to say one is better than the other. In a normal detachment I'd say an Annihilator is better because of its mobility, but in a Renegade Raiders detachment you can advance you Havocs around the board without hurting their ability to fire so they are quite mobile.

 

Units That Performed At Par

* Cultists: cheap action monkeys and objective cappers. Very efficient.

* Chosen and Possessed: They kill stuff in melee, 'nuff said

* Rhinos: workhorse units that delivered units upfield, protected units from fire, granted units access to some wonderful Renegade Raiders strats, and then capped objectives and harassed the enemy

 

Units That Performed Below Par

* Chaos Bikers: this is more of an issue with the matchups I chose for them rather than any inherent weakness in the unit. I found that when I was all cagey with my bikers and used them to beat up on smaller squads then they did very well. They also did great and sacrificing themselves as a mobile screen so that the Raptors and Lord could get screened. But when I charged them up against tougher stuff they died horribly. With more practice, I'll get better at using them this edition.

* Ten-Trooper Legionaries: they nicely capped objectives and chipped away at enemies, but rarely did much damage to the enemy. With a supporting character they would do better. I think I'll drop down to 5-trooper Legionaries Squads for awhile. Although I love my fluffy squads of 10 so I'm sure you'll see them again in the near future.

* Squad of 10 Raptors: they did very little damage to the enemy. And when they captured objectives it was very helpful, but a squad of 5 Raptors could have done that for 90 points less.

* Jump Pack Lord with Lightning Claws: If I had taken a powerfist he would have done better. But he can only hang out with a squad of Raptors and, boy, were my Raptors bad. I'll still use Raptor Lords from time to time, but he will no longer be the mainstay in my lists like he was in 7th through 9th. When I use a Raptor Lord I'll go with a powerfist and I'll probably use him as an "uppy-downy lord" in Dread Talon detachments. Uppy-Downy Lords are Chaos Lords with the "Warp-Fuelled Thrusters" enhancement. On the Night Lords Discord site they are regularly referred to as "Uppy-Downy Lords" and the word is that they do really well.

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to read all this!

 

 

One more thing, as noted above, I really enjoyed the Renegade Raiders detachment. It really gels well with my playstyle. I'll try out the other detachments though too.

 

 

Night Lords, "In midnight clad."