First ITC Tourney - a beginner's blog

[Brother Worsey]

My local club is hosting it's annual Warzone Mann Singles tourney thru May - 5 rounds over the next 3 Mondays and then a double header on Sat 20th May (followed by presentations and beers in the Woody). Since getting back in I've played about half a dozen games or so, and I'll be honest - it's been fun but brutal. Mostly because I still don't know all the rules but I'm getting there, and I spent the last few days knocking up a crib sheet for each of my units that gives me all the key points in one box. Whilst I fully expect to be fighting it out for the coveted Wooden Warhammer I'm really looking forward to it, so I thought I'd write up a short blog of my escapades and see if I can't bring a bit of glory to the First!

I've come up with the following list - starting with built painted forces already at my disposal and then rounded out as best as possible with the help of Brother Solrac (kudos for your patience). It might not be the best, it might have lots of holes in it, but I'm sort of used to it and it's what I'm taking (feel free with C&C but not much I can do now):

Single Demi LB

Chaplain, bike, auspex

Tac sq - Grav, combi grav, rhino

Tac sq - Grav, rhino

Tac sq - MM, combi plasma, rhino

Ass sq - Flamer x2, combi flamer, Deathwind pod

Dev sq - Las x 4, rhino

Command sq - Apoc, Melta x 4, Deathwind pod

Scouts - ML, Sniper x 4

RWAS - Speeder w AC & HB, 2 x MM Att Bikes

RWSF

Libby L2, Bike, Eye of the Unseen

BK's x 4

BK's x 4

DS

Usual rules, 26 entrants. Will try and grab a pic or two each week and write up notes as best I can.

Week 1 tonight - first up it's Mission 3, and an all Imperium smackdown against the sons of Ultramar. Pretty sure he's rocking the big man as well. Should be...erm...fun.

[Solrac]

Good luck mate! Remember list building is a small part of the game with tactics and setup being a larger portion. Remember what you have learnt in your past games and try and think a few moves ahead and you'll do just fine.

[Grand Master Raziel]

I'd suggest what you could have done better in your list, but Brother Solrac probably already has that covered, plus with 8th around the corner we're going to be looking at a whole new way of doing things anyway.  Instead, I'll just suggest you not invest too much attention in trying to take out Guillman right away.  Degrade his striking power by taking out softer targets first.

[Brother Worsey]

Sage words Grand Master Raziel, just a little too late! Close loss on kill points 7-5 and wider maelstrom 5-2 meant a somewhat disastrous 17-1 (yes, it hurts typing that) loss overall, and mid table respectability after rd1. I've spent the last few days drawing up the layout and unit movements as best I can remember and replaying it, but having done them all there's prob not much value putting them all up I'll stick with deployment and T4. It's easy to see where you (think) you went wrong afterwards!

 

Deployment

http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr236/Worsey73/Mobile%20Uploads/Deployment_zps3yb202jk.jpg

 

T4

http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr236/Worsey73/Mobile%20Uploads/End%20Turn%204_zpsexnzjack.jpg

 

His scouts deployed inside the building top right proved a royal pita, taking out my scouts and devs on my building walkways over several turns. His assault units did very little when they arrived with the rest of his Skyhammer in T2, save for one mishap unit. Even when this happened I felt like I had the upper hand simply by virtue of having more units on the table, especially when the BK/DS combo swept in and took out one of the newly arrived units in T2 and the Dread (d) fell to my melta pod in T3. My problem was maelstrom - his pod in the bottom right dropped into the 12" table edge scoring zone and it felt like he rolled that objective every time. I on the other hand rolled same and found myself with a mystical inability to get anywhere near his table edge, especially with my LS and 2 x AB's as I got these stuck trying to take out his pod for the kill point. Bad move. Ditto his scouts on top of the tower on the left, well placed just inside the 12" scoring zone (I must remember that myself) until I got rid of them in T3. I also lost a unit cheaply in T4 by charging my 2 remaining Assault marines to try and capture objective 3, one died on the way in and the other wiped out in cc. As soon as I made the move I knew it was a mistake. Instead I should have moved them out of harms way and not given up a KP, much as he did with his remaining Assault sq by hiding 3 marines in the building by his table edge. Winning by not dying rather than winning by killing the other guy makes sense sometimes. All in I left feeling like that was one that got away and I turned a solid draw into a poor defeat.

 

Guilliman: He set up behind a building, and it was pretty clear which direction he was going. I wasn't too fussed - he was walking straight into Grav crossfire and it would take him 3 turns to get to me. Fine. Guilliman dies T3. Joy shortlived when he comes back with W1 but still straight in front of my 2 Grav units. Gets up, pummels Rhino. Guilliman dies T4. Gets back up with 2 wound start of T5. Pummels other Rhino. Bit frustrated how this ended up iih - I didn't go after him as such, as I knew he was walking directly into the only real chance I had of taking him out. That said, I would have been better served by flipping one of the Rhino's round and taking out the Dev sq that dropped in to the corner of the table behind me, so yes I chased a lost cause not so much by going after him, but rather not keeping out of his way and letting him tie up 3 of my units a second (and third) time. The annoying thing was that I'd been drumming it into my head not to worry about RG too much, and was quite pleased when I saw how he'd deployed. When he gets stuck in though, he's nightmare.

 

The BK/DS combo worked well. Melta pod also did it's job taking out the Dread straight away. 

 

The one thing that annoyed me slightly was the other guy kept wandering off to look at the other tables nearby, and I had to keep getting him back to our table during my turn. Prob wouldn't have made a difference - I just think he was bored during my turn, and I don't think he's any more experienced than I am tbh so I didn't complain.

 

Anyway, week 2 on Monday. Mission 1 up next, and I continue the trend of facing off against the cast of GSIII with a rumble against Voldus and his Grey Knights. Lots of psychic shenanigans, and I'll be trying to keep out of close combat. 

[Grand Master Raziel]

Sorry to hear about giving up the loss.  Use it as a learning experience.

 

For doing batreps, you can make things easier on yourself by snapping pictures of the table with your phone, then post those later.

[Brother Worsey]

A really enjoyable match up last night against a beautifully finished and themed force of Grey Knights comprising 4 DreadKnights, 1 Castigator, 2 units of Knight Termies and Voldus.

 

 

Deployment: I ended up going first, and deployed the Tac rhinos, charging fw to take up position and pop smoke as nothing to shoot at. Las devs sat on my home objective with a good field of fire. The only thing he deployed was his Castigator on top of his home objective (forgive the few unpainted figures in the pics on my side, just haven't had time to get everything done around work/house stuff, and I also forgot to take my flame damage markers hence rhinos upside down (which bugs me as it doesn't look realistic)):

 

http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr236/Worsey73/Mobile%20Uploads/20170508_191104_zpsctpcv2gi.jpg

 

 

Dropped the Melta pod this side of the rocks in front of his Castigator T1 and then took 4W off him - a pretty good start. Then he brought in 3 Dreads and a unit of Termies via deepstrike and took out a Rhino. T2 saw me take out the Castigator with my Melta Command, with the BK's arriving from reserve as did his remaining DreadKnight and Termies. Even though I still had my flamer pod and RWAS in reserve at this point and so still held the advantage on numbers of units, he then started unloading with Psycannon and torrent flamers after buffing all his units with Sanctuary and Force... 

 

 

T3

 

http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr236/Worsey73/Mobile%20Uploads/20170508_201350_zpsdwlyfndg.jpg

 

Outflanked my RWAS near to his home objective. My Las Devs were down to 2 but still holding my home objective, and another of my Rhinos ended up immobilised on the left flank, although this handily tied up one route his Dread could take to my home EW objective so not too fussed. More so when Brother Hochmann hauled his Grav cannon out the rear door and took up a position to protect the flank further. Bit of a disaster when BK's soaked up a charge in his turn but lost 2 riders, failed a Ld test on an 11 and then charged 9" off my table edge taking Sebastius, the Keeper of the Covenant, and Brother Chaplain Almric with them. My opponent goes for a 3 point hold on objectives - he's holding 3 as well at the end of his turn, and it's tight on Maelstrom points, 5-4 to him. Could be the winner if he makes it but I'm not phased.     

 

 

T4:  I really need to stop thinking of my RWAS as one unit (and deploying them in close together as such) as I moved them apart in T4 to counter his Dread with the torrent flamer from roasting all 3 at once, so his Dread is now sat on his home objective with the LS and 2 AB's hitting him with AC/HB/MM death and he can only hit one at once. Paid dividends when his Dread lost his last 2W to a long range (47"!) LasDev and LS AC, and that's his bid for a 3 point Maelstrom defeated, whilst serving up a kill point Maelstrom for me. I dropped my flamer pod behind his remaining unit of Termies and hit him with 3 flamers and Deathwind and solitary AB Melta. Seeing the devastation wrought up on his fellow Brothers, Voldus charged into my Tac squad only to suffer as Grav overwatch crushed his armour to a bloodied pulp.

 

Midway through T4:

 

http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr236/Worsey73/Mobile%20Uploads/20170508_212336_zpsodaxzml6.jpg

 

 

T5: The LS eased forward to take my opponent's home objective and set up the victory.  The remaining Terminator Sgt, enraged by the fall of his Grand Master set out on a valiant last stand to hold objective II and took everything that I threw at him. His valor will be writ large in the annals of Knight history. The single remaining Dread took out the Lasdev's with his torrent flamer and moved round to my home objective, that was also occupied by Brother Thurstan. With a roll of 1 for a further T6 and a handshake I took the Primary 8-0, split the Maelstrom 4-4, and got pipped on the bonus 2-3 for a much improved 14-7 win.

 

 

What went well this week: Got lucky with the fairly open table but overall I played the mission really well. Panicked a bit when he sent almost everything in via deepstrike, proceeded to get off Sanctuary and Force on nearly all his units and took out a rhino and Tac sq. I don't recall ever denying any of his powers manifested! When the BK's disappeared along with Sebastius and Brother Chaplain Almric I did think I was in trouble for a while, but then realised I had more units with enough firepower to see it through. Rolled and played the Maelstrom quite well too, and even when he went for a winning 3 point Maelstrom points I knew I was in the box seat if I made the right moves.

 

 

What didn't go well: Bad sniper deployment - they did nothing behind that outcrop before getting roasted by the Dread. BK's - need to pick my approach and stick with it (a bit like taking a penno). I also seem to give up a lot in my first turn so need to work on my deployment a bit more.

 

 

Fun game though, and my opponent has chance for pay back as we're up next in the BB league. Looking forward to finding out who I'm playing next Monday too.

 

 

To the glory of Mortikah, and the Lion!

[Grand Master Raziel]

Congrats on the win!  You had to play against a lot of hard units.

 

I'd like to point out a bit of a mistake.  If you had your Chaplain joined to your unit of BKs, then that makes the unit Fearless.  You would not have even had to take a Leadership test, much less fail it and fall back off the table.

[Brother Worsey]

Very diplomatically put, cheers On the plus side it means there's less of 7e rules in my brain to get pushed out when I learn 8e rules.

Wk3 match up pairs me against KDK and mission 4 - The Scouring. Had a fun practice game against this guy a few weeks ago and I know he'll be packing a Monster Dreadclaw w 20 CSM's on board and a couple of Maulerfiends but little ranged firepower. Don't think he's got much in the way of FA either so he can score points I can't. Really need to get lucky on the table draw but looking forward to seeing if I can build on last week.

Might be easier with an extra 300 odd points of bikes!

[Brother Worsey]

Managed to draw same table as week 2 which was a real bonus. The game panned out pretty much how I expected given his lack of ranged shooting, and a couple of CC's went in my favour too (the Blood God will not be pleased).

Deployment: RWAS on the left flank, Tac Rhinos centre rear holding objs, Las Devs on right flank with a good view of the centre field. Sebastius, Brother Chaplain Almric and the BK's held in reserve. He deployed his Maulerfiends on his right flank, Fleshounds aplenty in the centre and left, and 2 units of Bloodletters holding the 2 objs in his depoyment zone.

T1: He's got to come to me as fast as he can. It's all he can do really, so the only real movement from the Lions of Mortikah (my newly anointed 5th Co battlegroup) was to inch the Grav rhinos forward a tad. Flamer pod dropped in and wiped out most of his Bloodletters on his 3 point obj. He dropped his Dreadclaw centre field just outside my zone, and started spraying missiles everywhere as his Fleshounds raced forwards, supported by the ominous sight of two Maulerfiends ( they move a long way!). A sqaud of bikes pulled a U and raced back to find the now flaming carcasses of their fellow Bloodletters. They take their furious anger out on the drop pod, the Deathwind launcher casing ruptures and the pod is no more.

http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr236/Worsey73/Mobile%20Uploads/20170515_192834_zpsb5sjznu1.jpg

T2: Vet Sergeant Ivanov drops in with his Command squad and lays waste to the Dreadclaw, and it disappears in a huge explosion from the incessant Melta. Sebastius, Almric and the Knights arrive on the right flank supported by the DS, and with Assault squad Krasnitch rout the daemon bikers, and wipe out the last of the Bloodletters. I own this end of the table, which is what I wanted - thinking is he's got two turns to get to me and in those two turns I can hopefully steal his deployment zone. Assault squad can sit on the 3 pointer, and the bikes can focus on other targets. His Berserker squad charges my Rhino as his Fleshounds close on Ivanov. One Maulerfiend drops the LS, leaving it immobile on the battlefield with just the AC working despite taking heavy damage itself, whilst the other takes out an AB. Suddenly the left flank is in trouble.

http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr236/Worsey73/Mobile%20Uploads/20170515_201825_zpsoucc2flh.jpg

T3: Sebastius and the Knights turn and head back towards their own lines. Brother Hochmann leaves the wrecked carcass of his Rhino, and hauls his Grav Cannon clear before ripping into the enemy. Squad Gormann disembarks their transport and turns to hold the left flank, supporting the lone AB. The Las Devs get off a round before a pack of howling death rips into them, shredding power armour apart. The Maulerfiend rips the Command pod into pieces before moving onwards. A summoned Bloodthirster scatters off the table, and I breathe a big sigh of relief as that could have turned the table dramatically had he materialised in my back field. As the Bloody Lord closes in, Ivanov barks into his vox: "Hold them. Hold them here!" before flicking the button on his chainsword. As the gears whirr into life, he strides into lone combat.

T4: Sebastius and Almric split and take a group of Knights, Sebastius looking to take back the ground given up on the right, whilst Almric looks to finish off the Bloodletters and take control of the second objective, a 1 pointer. At this point I'm looking at the table and thinking the victory is here if I play it right, so I park the DS on top of a 2 point objectiv, so I now control 9 points of objectives. Ivanov continues his fruitless struggle, finding that when he does break through the foe's guard his chainsword simply bounces off the fell armour. Knowing if he can keep the combat alive for long enough, he can buy time for his Brothers to seize the upper hand. On the right flank, and having seen his fellow Devastators torn apart by his side, Brother Kusnetz drops his Lascannon and succeeds in holding off the Fleshounds. The Maulerfiend continues a path of bloody destruction as another Rhino bursts into flame.

http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr236/Worsey73/Mobile%20Uploads/20170515_212119_zpsxctlvulp.jpg

T5: Growing weary, Ivanov slows briefly. Despite his superior physiology, even an Astartes grows tired in lone combat against a superior foe, and the Blood Lord cleaves a wide gouge in Ivanov's chestplate with his keening axe. Sebastuis Knights charge into the fray with Brother Kusnetz, Corvus Hammers dropping 2 Fleshounds before the Knights wheel their bikes away. Almric seizes yet another objective and at this point my opponent is calculating out loud how may he's going to lose by. The Maulerfiend closes in on one of my Tac squads. Throwing prayer to the Blood God, he summons a unit of Bloodletters and simply hurls them into the face of Brother Hochmann and his full BS overwatch.

The Blood God cares not whose blood is spilled in his name.

--

18-2 for the Lion! I had a couple of things go my way - the challenge form his Lord which vet Sergeant Ivanov took up, and kept up for 3 rounds. Despite hitting on 6s (once) and not actually causing any wounds, and faced with a foe wielding an AP2 axe Ivanov made every single FNP that was asked of him before falling in round 3. 2W you say? I'll see those 2W with a double 5 thankyouverymuch The Melta Command also tied up the Fleshounds for 2 turns as did the LasDevs. Taking the Dreadclaw straight away was a definite boon, and when the summoning mishap with the Bloodthirster came in I knew it was going to be my day. First time I actually thought my tactics worked reasonably well.

So it's up to the heady heights of 11 out of 24 ( I make it into game 6) and double game Saturday. Really looking forward to it (although I have an 11 mile trail race early doors in the north of the island so need to eat well) and first up is a Mission 5 slugfest against Macragge's finest and the Big Man himself. I won't be trying to better my record of 2 kills this time round. I'd like to just have him walk about the table doing nothing all day if I can manage it. Quikc break and then into game 2, prizes and finally the Woody for some well earned Bugman's.

For Mortikah, and the Lion!

[Brother Worsey]

Hey all

Bit of a short final update unfortunately!

Game 1 - Ultramarines force with RG in the lead supported by a couple of heavy tanks, Dread, Tacs and Las Dev squads w Rhinos. I got this one nailed on. Left RG alone and he wandered around the right side of the table away from the bulk of my forces. When nec I sacrificed an empty rhino or two to keep him occupied and save more valuable units. Managed to chip him down to 2W by the end but wasn't really interested. I got a lucky Outflank with my Melta RWAS and the two bikes came in behind his heavy tanks and took them down immediately (none of that 1 pen hit and BOOM! lark in 8e I guess), and from thereon in I just took his units down one by one to the remaining RG by turn 5, and wound up an 18-0 winner.

Game 2 - Up the nosebleed heights of 5 out of 26 and a match up against a skilled Necron player fielding a dirty list of some sort of spider type thing with a targetting array (gotta love how I know what I'm talking about) - I think it was a compulsory choice - and then nothing else but troops. No vehicles or flyers. I popped my head into the kitchen at half time in between games and and said to the guy organising, "Necrons - what do they do then?", and he says "they get up". Hmmmmm. In fairness my opponent was quite generous in his "don't put your RWAS there, they'll get decked next turn", but at the same time he called me for a bad dice roll too (which is cool by me - a lesson learned). Not having a clue how to play them I got summarily schooled and he called it in T4 before I got tabled, and I was happy to accept. , that stand up roll is annoying!

So, an 11th place finish with P5 W3 L2 (bit annoyed about game 1, should really have won that iih) and it was ace! Have now put the Guardians in the box, along with the books - currently selling/moving house so have had to tidy my stuff away, and not much point doing anything else until 8e lands. I will be buying the Chaos and Xenos codices though - know thine enemy! Maybe a few Primaris will help eh.

For Mortikah, and the Lion!