Angels Sorrowful at ASTRONOMI-CON 2017

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

On 29 and 30 April, 2017, I brought the Angels Sorrowful to Astronomi-con 2017. For those not familiar with it, it is touted as "the tournament for people who hate tournaments". It has a much more relaxed feel and while still competitive, the guys who go to that tournament all take their fluff seriously. I had several conversations with guys who, like me, almost left the hobby after getting curb-stomped at ITC-style tournaments locally and only attend Astronomi-con now. It has lots of really different/crazy missions that even the playing field for when facing-off against more powerful armies. On at least two battles, I won thanks to the scenario (and me playing to the scenario) where otherwise I would have been smoked like a cheap cigar by the army I faced.

 

The final results have now been posted by the organizers, and I placed 8th out of 40 contestants.

 

First overall had 188/200 points ... I had 174/230 and was only separated from the 4th-7th place finishers by 5 or fewer points. Top score was 188. I could have placed in the top 5 if I had not rushed my army list and polished it a little more fluff-wise and presentation wise for a few bonus points. Also, I only had 16/20 comp because I mis-read the rules, however, I think the best I could have gotten was 18 comp.

 

I got 28/30 for sportsmanship, 30/30 for "army sportsmanship" (i.e. whether my army was considered cheesy or not), and 10/10 for theme. So I pretty much maxed out on those categories. On appearance I got 28/40 which considering how insane some of the armies were -- and no one got a full 40/40 -- is nothing to be ashamed of. To get higher than 28 I'd have to have many more conversions and some scratch-built models. Having a display would net me an additional 3 points.

 

Overall a very successful finish.

 

Interestingly, in battle points I had solid victories against the #5 and #7 finishers. The guy who finished 5th overall I tabled by turn 3 and felt bad about it. I did not play any of the other people that ranked above me. It was interesting to see that as of battle #4 I was ranked #1 overall and the guy I played (based on the Swiss system) in that battle ended the tournament in 16th place.

 

As a flavour of how Astronomi-con scoring works, the guy with the Eldar Ynnari force full of scatter bikes who was tabling people on turn 2/3 throughout the tournament, had a final ranking of 32nd overall.

 

In this thread I intend to post full battle reports but, pro temp, here are summaries:

 

GAME 1

 

Mission called "Hammer and Ambull". Basically a kill point mission with creatures called Ambulls running around who gave bonus secondary victory points if you killed more than your opponent. Game was against a Chaos Word Bearers army with a Daemon Prince and 2 sorcerers summoning daemons like there was no tomorrow. I calculated that it was basically 2000 pts vs 1500 with all the summoning, BUT, I managed to draw the game because I racked up enough kill points from killing daemons and a very clutch charge in the last turn by a Sanguinary Guard squad which saw me wipe out an expensive sorcerer plus marine unit. Devastators killed a Nurgle Daemon Prince in one round of shooting this battle and that pretty much set the tone for how they'd function all tournament.

 

GAME 2

 

Forget the mission name, it involved a central hill that had to be held (winner was whoever had 150 more points worth of stuff on the hill) while a sand storm moved across the board. The sand storm was a non-factor because of how we rolled for it. Game was against an Ultramarines list (which finished the tourney 5th overall) of two 10-man tactical squads in rhinos, 3 grav centurions, 5 terminators, suped-up chapter master, and Sternguard. A lot of things went my way dice-wise and I tabled him by turn 3. Grav devastators killed the termies the turn they deep-struck. Death Company took care of the chapter master with the help of a tactical squad. Sanguinary Guard took care of the rest. 

 

GAME 3

 

"Brooding Terror" my favourite mission of the tournament. It involved 9 "blips" from space hulk. 5 were units of genestealers, 4 were objectives. Whoever held more objectives at the end won the battle. Game was against a pretty brutal Iron hands list with a Sicaran and an insane chapter master in Cataphractii armour with grav gun command squad. The mission helped me big time because it was night fight all battle, plus a "torrential rainfall" special rule mean -1 BS for any shooting over 18". This mitigated some of his overwhelming shooting. His chapter master I killed with just overwhelming numbers of dice. He and his command squad drop pod landed in the middle of my force and I just shot everything I had at him. I got lucky and the marker right next to them was genestealers who charged-in, keeping him tied up. Grav devastators were key in getting enough wounds. At game's end, I held two objective with troop choices, and contested two with the Death Company rhino and the devastators, respectively. Second win of the tournament!

 

GAME 4

 

"Icy Tomb" mission with a bunch of Necron stuff on the table. This one was a little too complex and the Necrons had some defensive batteries that were a little too powerful. The game featured an epic battle between 2 SG squads and a suped up Interrogator chaplain with Black Knight command squad that lasted most of the battle. The SG ultimately were victorious. I really had to use a zone of 3++ save thanks to a void shield the Necrons had to survive his Sicaran and other Black Knight shooting. This would have been a bloodbath but for how I was able to use the table special rules. The Devastators wiped-out a 5-man Squad of Deathwing Knights in one round of shooting though. This ended up as a tie as I held two objectives and he held two objectives.

 

GAME 5

 

"Supply and Command" involved grabbing supply crates. Against a Castellan formation of Black Templars + Celestine with Coteaz for flavour. There was a pretty solid combat lasting quite a while in the centre of the table between the Sanguinor and an assault squad (who he ultimately wiped-out) and then Celestine. I'd have to say this game was my most strategic victory as I really had to move troops around the board and keep an eye on the objectives to plan where SG went. In the end I had 4 crates to his 1. Devastators wiped-out an assault terminator squad in one round of shooting. SG killed lots of scouts because I sent them after units that had grabbed supply crates, resisting the temptation to charge his big tough stuff.

 

GAME 6

 

The infamous game against Ynnari scatbike army from the Warp. The list was pretty filthy, but in fairness, the guy who played it hadn't played 40K in over 6 months, never play-tested the list, and didn't realise until he was at the tournament just how brutal it was. The mission was called "Power Struggle" and involved a battle over a power generator building. Basically, if one side had more than 150 points worth of models inside the power generator at game's end than his opponent, he won.

 

I won the roll to see who was attacker and I chose to be attacker, thinking scatter bikes would not be well suited to defence. It worked out okay to begin, but the Golden Host, who had been money in the bank all tournament for me, really did not work out well this battle. The two Sanguinary Guard squads scattered 11" and 12" respectively (after rerolls -- if I didn't reroll they would have mishapped), towards the edge of the table furthest from the power generator. Then one of them failed a crucial 6" charge. The other one at least wiped out a bike squad while the Sanguinor -- who had scattered 9" away from where I wanted him) charged the Farseer and his bike squad and despite rolling 1 on his first two armour saves, managed to wipe them out.

 

The rest of the battle was him turbo boosting around and getting extra shooting phase after extra shooting phase from the Ynnari special rules, whittling down my force. Finally, by game's end, I had 2 Sanguinary Guard locked in combat in the power generator station with 5 bikes and 3 Devastators locked in combat with 4 Fire Dragons across the table. Nothing else on the table aside from flyers who could not hold the objective therefore it was a tie.

[Boudan]

Thanks for the write-up. Congrats on your finish, obviously a lot of hard work went into your Angels Sorrowful.

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Thanks, Boudan!

 

I was quite happy with the result. It's not Morticon levels of aptitude by any stretch, but considering that:

 

( a ) I've never played BA or marines in a tournament, and only played my first ever games with the Angels Sorrowful starting in February, and even then only play-tested this list twice and played 5 or 6 games overall with BA before the tournament;

( b ) This was only my third tournament under 7th edition rules; and

( c ) I placed in the bottom 10 at Astronomi-con 2014;

 

An 8th place finish is pretty good. The other two BA players were in the bottom third of the overall results.

 

Here are a few pictures of the event:

 

The Angels Sorrowful facing-down foul Nurgle daemons summoned to the battlefield in Battle #1:

 

 

A cool guy named Jim who I met at Astronomi-con 2014 and his Army with the theme of "Make the Imperium Great Again". There is an "executive" order to the right of his display case ordering the construction of the wall separating his army from some Xenos on said display board:

 

 

This kind of Wood-Elf themed Salamanders army was one of the top three for best appearance, although it did not take top honours (those went to a Genestealer cult army that I failed to take a picture of!):

 

 

The Dark Angels army I faced in Battle #4:

 

 

Castellans of the Imperium/Black templar army that I faced in game #5:

 

 

One of the Brother Blood Angels armies:

 

 

It figures that having never seen a Blood Angels army at a tournament in all my years of gaming, that the year I bring a BA force, there are three of us at the event!

 

And for those who missed in in the WIP thread, the Angels Sorrowful themselves, on display:

 

 

 

More pics (taken by the organizers) can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49788502@N02/sets/72157683395002715/with/34281557472/

 

EDIT: Fixed some formatting errors