Quick Reports - 1250 pts Tournament

[Corvus Fortis]

Yesterday I went to my first ever tournament and I want to share impressions. Restrictions were only 3 units of the same type and no FW. CA rules on the first turn, flyer scoring and obsec were used. My list:

 

GMNDK with sword, psycannon, incinerator and teleporter, sanctuary, fttf

Voldus with purge soul, astral aim and vortex

3x5 strikes with defferent weapons (no hammers or staves) with psilencer each, all gate (2x in raven)

Apothecary with hammer, hammerhand (forgot to include relic in the roster, realised only when it was too late to edit it, so no Cuirass) (in raven)

Raven, las,melta, hurricanes

 

My general strategy was to DS turn 1 vs shooty armies or keep Raven at the deployment zone, DS later against armies that wanted to come close.

 

First game - Ministorum + Inquisition

 

Missions are Scouring and Deadlock, Search and Destroy

 

His list:

 

Celestine with 2 girls

Greyfax with Dominate

3xFlamer Immolators

Sisters squad with bolters and meltas in immolator

2xdominion squad with meltas in immolators

Canoness with Eviscerator in immolator with sisters

2xSeraphim with plasma and infernos

 

I deploy on the side with several forest-type landscape, he sets around a barricade. Some LoS-blocking stones in the center, nothing critical.

 

He wins roll, I couldn't intercept. He moves everything in the center to take objectives. No shooting. On my turn I unload a stike squad near another one on objective to deny it if Immolators come to close next turn. Raven moves to another forest on other side of my edge of the table. I DS Voldus to give Raven rerolls. Shooting takes one immolator down to 2 wounds. He moves even closer to my deploy with everything. One immolator goes for 10 strikes, one seraphim supports him. Everything else goes either for raven or objectives. Some bolter shooting with no effect. I DS GMNDK on objective on his side of the table (I got objective 66 and task to take that point). Strikes and apothecary unload to support voldus if immolators get too close. With shooting and smiting from GMNDK and Raven I kill 2 immolators (dominions and sisters) and a squad of seraphims. Disembarked dominion squad reduced to 1 model and fails morale.  Celestine goes for Voldus, kills 2 strikes with shooting, charges and left alone with 1 wound. Greyfax casts Dominate on GMDNK, but I deny with Aegis. Sisters, Canoness and Seraphim shoot Raven and strip-off 8 wounds. After they charge GMNDK, no damage. I strike Canoness with sword, two 1's on to-wound, 3 successfull 4++. I finish Celestine with smites, she rises near GMNDK. Raven hovers and kills Greyfax. With smites and vortex I kill last immolator, finish off dominions with bolters. I gated one strike squad near GMNDK. In Fight phase I deside to deal with Seraphim. GMNDK kills most of them, they fail morale and gone. Canoness deal minor damage. On his turn Celestine charges GMNDK, minor damage. I kill canoness in return. I try to gate another squad to score objective, but fail (next turn too). I charge celestine with Raven and another strike squad and kill her.

 

Sudden death, I score 20 points. Lost only 2 models. 

 

Second Game - Ynnari

 

Missions are Secure and Control, Cleanse and Capture, Hammer and Anvil

 

Her list:

 

Yvraine (Word of Phoenix and another spell for rerolling to hit)

Full pack of Dark Reapers

Serpent with all Shurikens

2xNight Spinners

2xHemlocks (they were casting only smite, I don't recall other spells)

 

Not the most powerful eldar list, but Hemlocks really scary for me.

 

A lot of LoS and Ruins on the table, but Spinners ignore LoS. 

 

I deploy near a ruin, she sets up Yvraine and Reapers in serpent. I win the first turn. She intercepts.

 

Two Hemlocks instantly kill Raven. No one dies on disembarkation. Not without effort I set strikes and apothecary in ruins. Reapers and Yvraine come from serpent but too far to shoot. Spinners kill 2 strikes. On my turn I DS GMNDK and another Strike Squad near serpent. Shooting reduce Reapers to 2 models. I fail charge with GMNDK but Strikes reach Serpent and even do some damage. In my deployment zone with bolters, smites, purge and vortex I reduce one Hemlock to 2 wounds. Reapers and Yvraine embarks, serpent flies away. Shurikens and spinners kill charged strike squad. Hemlocks kill apothecary and strike squad (last model ran away), another one down to 2 men. I finally kill one Hemlock and Gate voldus to help GMNDK. Both succesfully charge Serpent and kill it. No one dies on disembark. but Yvraine now cornered. On her turn Hemlock flies for GMNDK, everything shoot him and he is down to 4 wounds (unlucky with saving throws). Yvraine desperately charges Voldus, does nothing and killed in return. I try to kill hemlock with mindbullets, but he survives with 6 wounds. I am unlucky with saving throws again and GMDNK with Voldus are finished from shooting. She tries to end last strike squad in forest near my edge, but unlucky with hit and wound. We roll for 6th turn but she rolls 2. We count points. We both hold EW objectives, but she has first blood. I did more Maelstrom so it is a draw. 

 

She was very lucky with intercept. With Raven alive I could kill a hemlock turn 1 and all would be much easier. She also always rolled high for number of shots, hemlocks got 5 or 6 most of time, Spinners 8-10. But I was lucky with maelstrom, scored objectives nerby objectives and did kingslayer. Honestly, I didn't think I could survive this and was very happy with a draw.

 

Third game - Imperial Mix

 

Relic, Escalation, Dawn of War.

 

I was disappointed to hear I couldn't gate away with a relic but still thought it was in my favor. Oh, how wrong I was!

 

His list:

 

Guilliman

BroCap on bike with Thunderhammer and shield relic

Chronos in twin-las razorback

Devastators with 2 lascannons and bolters (in razorback)

3x5 scouts

3 astropaths 

3 primaris psykers

2xCulexus

AM commander

 

He totally denies my deepstike with Psykers, infiltrates scouts to take relic turn 1. Devastators are in Razor near RG. I deploy Raven in the center of my deployment zone.

 

I win first turn. He intercepts. Again.

 

Devastators disembark. Culexus deepstrikes to take Relic. 4 lascannons shoot raven, reducing it to 1 wound. I find a small free space to deepstike GMNDK on his side. Everything disembark. I kill 2 packs of scouts but i forgot to cast my smites (it barely was decisive though). I bolter-drill culexus, but only strip off 1 wound. GMNDK kills an astropath and scratches Razor. Raven shoots Razor but again he is lucky with 6+ saves (I must admit, a raven with only 1 wound did pretty well at least at hitting).  Razor is down to 3 wounds but still alive. On his turn, he DSed Culexus near strikes, killed a lot of them with shooting and did a wound to Voldus. I failed to deny any smites, they killed raven and some more strikes. Finally he charges voldus with BroCap and kills him. Apothecary tries to help and even deals 3 wounds. Lascannons shoot gmndk. I made only 1(!) 4++ save with him and only because of cp reroll (sanctuary was denied). GMNDK left only with 2 wounds. On my last turn I deepstrike strike squad near devastators, but I forgot about auspex scan. I loose 2 strikes, bolters and psilencer do nothing.  Here I decide to give up. 

 

Well, I was unlucky. Really unlucky. Intercept and his 6+ saves, no smite denial, he denied sanctuary on gmndk, a lot of failed to-wound rolls, he always rolled 4-5 for damage, I failed a almost all 3+ and 4+ saves. He even made 1d6 smites with astropaths! I think, if not intercepted, I could kill Razor on turn 1 and get rid of lascannons later. Astra Telepathica could've been outranged and taken down easily. Only problem were 2 Culexus. But GMNDK could deal with them with Incinerator. 

 

Rather frustrating game. His list wasn't that strong. But dice gods were against me.

 

I scored 33 points and was 11th of 24. Pretty good, in my opinion, for the first time and with not top-tier army. I made some mistakes with positioning (last game especially) but otherwise I do not feel I did anything wrong. I only got assured that my lost is one of the most powerful GK can field for a 1250 point game. Even incinerator on GK proved a good weapon. Autohit sometimes very helpful when NDK reduced to 3 wounds. If it was 20 pts cheaper it would be a decent alternative to h.psilencer. I also felt the full strenght of our mind bullets when alwost killed a hemlock in a single psychic phase. However, I never got to use Astral Aim. Probably because of too little LoS-blocking terrain. Second Sanctuary could've been more helpful. THe weakest pont of the list is Stormraven. It got killed in first turn twice (ok second time reduced to 1 wound). But if the opponent doesn't have too much 48" shooting, I can place it in safe distance. 

 

Fellow GK player came with 3 GMNDK list and celestine. He is in top 5 with two 20-0 wipe outs in his favor. 

 

Next tournament will be 1500 somewhere in January or February. I'm going to field 2 GMNDKs next time and see how they'll do.

 

[Corvus Fortis]

Another tournament was held last week. This time I brought stronger list with 2 GMNDKs.

 

GMNDK - Sword, Psycannon, Teleporter, FttF, Sanctuary

GMNDK - Hammer, Psycannon, Psilencer, Teleporter, Purge, DLD (because why not? Didn't help me at all of course)

3x5 Strikes (halberd squad, sword squad, falchion squad. All have 1 psilencer, falchion squad has hammer on justicar, 2 squads had gate, falchion squad had HH)

Stormraven - Hurricanes, TLC, TMM

 

The two main downsides compared to my previous lists were less psychic powers and no characters that could hide behind NDK or strikes.

 

Game 1 - Tau

 

Missions - first mission both EW and MoW (cannot recall names), short sides

 

List:

 

2xCrisis Commanders

2xFire Warriors

Stealth Team with Bursts

Crisis squad with Fusions

Crisis squad with Bursts

Broadside with Rail

Every squad had 2 drones - shield or marker

 

The game was auto-win for me. Tournament didn't use CA rules for the first mission, so I always had the first turn before initiative steals. I put 2 GMs to reserves as well as Falchion Squad other squads starts in raven. He puts his FWs to the secon floor of ruins, broadside and fisrt commander on sides of that ruin, all cris and second commaner in reserves, stealth team infiltrate in crater on the objective. He fails to steal.

 

Turn 1

 

Raven flies in front of broadside, Warlord deepstrikes to charge commander, other GM goes for Broadside, strikes DS to take objective in his depoyment zone away from any combat. With smites, shooting and charging I kill both commander and broadside with their drones, kill couple of FWs.

 

He DS burst crisis squad to kill my strikes on the objective, stealth team moves to help them, melta crisis goes for my Warlord. Shooting wipes strike squad, my Warlord fails to save only one wound from fusions. He rolls for damage and is 6. Some minor shooting from FW - no result. Markers fail too.

 

Turn 2

 

Warlord goes for Fusion squad, other GM for burst guys, strikes disembark to charge stealth squad and shoot FW. I cast smite with warlord - double ones. Reroll for CP - one again. Damage - 3. Fine. WL left with 3 wounds. Shooting kills one FW squad and all but 1 stealth, 1 Fusion crisis and scores a wound for Burst crisis. I charge Fusion squad with wl, score 3 wounds, roll for damage - 2,1,1. Fiiine. A crisis survives with single wound left. On other side GM fails a 5 inch charge with double ones again. Strikes charge and kill stealth team. Bolters remove a couble of FW. 

 

Another commander DS in ruins in my depoyment zone to score objective. Surivivng crisis comes out of combat and finishes off Warlord. Burst squad deals 1 or 2 wounds to remaining NDK. 

 

Turn 3

 

One strike squad goes for left fusion crisis, raven flyes for commander, another strike squad gates to help gmndk finish burst squad. After smiting and shooting FW and fusion squad are finished, Raven kills commander, strikes charge remaining fusion crisis, but fails to kill him. 

 

Crisis retreats to ruin and kills 2 strikes with shooting.

 

Turn 4

 

Other strikes squad gates NDK back. Raven flies back for crisis too. All smites goes to drones. I fail to kill 1 wound crisis again with all my shooting and close combat from strikes.

 

He retreats from close combat again, shooting does nothing.

 

Turn 5

 

At last I kill crisis with smites.

 

The game was ridiculous with dice. It had to end turn 3, but this last crisis with 1 wound simply refused to die. 

 

For now Tau is no opponent for GK. No psychic defence and no close combat. Only Railbroad lists with Stormsurges can be a threat. Probably the army with worst internal balance so far. Hope codex will fix blue guys. 

 

I win 20-0 and the second game is against Flesh Tearers. My opponent plays 40k for 9 years. He is the very guy who tabled me last tournament in 2 turns. Fortunately his list is weaker this time.

 

Game 2 - Flesh Tearers

Missions - Scouring, Escalation, Wide Sides

 

Seth

BroCap with hammer and bike, Shield Eternal, Some WL trait I cannot recall

Lt. with Sword

Devastator squad in Rhino - 4 lascannons

Razorback with 2 company vets - twin las, 2xSB

Auxiliary Detachment - Mephiston, Wings, Blood Boil

5 scouts

2x AC VenDreads

 

He deploy everything in center of his side, scouts infiltrate to deny my deepstrike. My deployment is the same. I put raven to the very corner to force him to move to shoot it. He steals the initiative. Last time it went very bad...

 

Turn 1

 

He spreads out to further deny my deepstrike. Devastators disembark. Everything shoot the Raven but he survives with 6 wounds. 

 

I think a lot where to deepstike, but he is well protected. I decide to go in front of him, avioding his BroCap. Two Dreadknights goes in front of scouts. Strikes squad goes to his deployment zone to score objective and kill disembarked company vets. One strike squad disembarks from Raven in ruin to have cover and an objective. I kill all scouts but 1. Raven kills one dreadnought, it explodes and deals wounds to rhino, another dread and kills 3 devastators. Bolters finish devastaros off. Razorback is left with 6 wounds.  I also score FB for killing company vets with bolters.

 

Turn 2

 

BroCap goes for strikes in his deploy. He moves Rhino to cover his characters. Scout tries to run away. Shooting finishes the Raven, 5 strikes comes out, no casulalties. BC charges strikes to loose a wound on overwatch, but kills only 2.

 

Hammer NDK goes forward, Warlord casts Sanctuary on him and retreats to be gated by strikes in ruins. But first my strikes teleport from combat from BC back on objective in my DZ. Some more shooting, and Razor goes to 4 wounds. I kill last scout. 

 

Turn 3

 

Rhino goes forward to stop my GM and strikes - buy some time for other units. BroCap hides behind LoS in the center. Rhino kills one strike with stormbolters and charges them. I do some damage. 

 

GM goes forward but still out of charge range. Shooting leaves Razorback with 2 wounds. I kill rhino and move on. Warlord teleported to his deployment. I kill Lt. with psycannon - he was the closest. 

 

Turn 4

 

Seth and Meph charge Warlord, other NKD still too far to help. I finish razorback and deal some damage to remaining dread. BroCap goes for 3-man strikes squad and kills them all. My warlord left with 9 wounds.

 

I strike back, trying to kill Meph, but he survives with 1 wound! (this probably costed me the victory). GMNDK moves forward, it can charge dreadnought now, but it will take 11+ roll and i do not risk. I divide attacks for Warlord, 2 is enough to kill meph, but Seth suffers no damage.

 

Turn 5

 

Dreadnought charges my Warlord, seth does 6 more wounds. In return I kill dreadnought.

 

On my turn I fail to kill seth, and he finishes the warlord.

 

Turn 6

 

We roll for next turn. Seth goes for another GM (after all the shooting from Dread he is left with 5 wounds) and kills him before attacks, but recieve some wounds from overwatch.

 

I decide to risk. I gate my strikes to score objective in his deploy and shoot seth. Another strike squad, that dropped from Raven in the beginning, has only 3 men left now. I shoot seth from everything, 2 wounds left. He holds the main objective. I think, that if we have continue roll, he will charge me anyway so I risk and chagre him. Swing with hammer - one hit, one wound aaaand... he rolls 4++. I abandon hope and roll for falchions. All hits, one wounds and he fails his save! I need to roll only 3+ now to kill him. I throw a die, accedently shake the table and my NDK, which I left near the edge (table was a bit larger that the field itself), falls down to he floor and breaks apart! Of course, everyone forget the die and helps me to find bits. Fortunately, nothing that the glue cannot handle. Now I look for the roll - it is 6! Seth is dead in cost of NDK. 

 

He wins with a lof of maelstrom done, but left with only his BroCap. Unfortunately, he is warlord, so 1 VP less for me. I loose 6-14. During the small break between rounds I glue back my NDK. Primed and ready for final battle!

 

Game 3 - Chaos soup

 

And again my opponent has a little chance to win just because of his list.

 

Missions - Relic, Cloak and Shadows, Short sides again

 

Nurgle DP with +S relic and wings

2xBloatdrones

Slaanesh DP with wings (warlord)

30 Slaanesh Cultists

2x10 Alpha Cultists

Slaanesh Devastators with LC

Alpha Bikers with combi-bolters

Alpha Sorc with Jumppack

 

Cannot recall his spells, because he failed almost everything but smites. Sorc knew Warp time.

 

He screens with cultists his DPs, Devs and Drones. One 10-man squad goes in the centre to grab relic. Sorc in reserves, bikes are on the other side of his DZ. Nothing new for me. He fails to steal and I go first.

 

 

1 strike squad disembark for Raven and kills cultists with relic. Raven flies to cultist crowd, GMs deepstrike there as well as another strike squad. Extensive shooting kill 15 cultists and leaves a bloat drone with 2 wounds. Cultists autopass morale for CP.

 

Bikes go for relic, sorc deepstrike but fail to cast warptime. Drones and cultist deal some damage to Raven (autogun drill). Devastators miss Raven with only 5+ to-hit. 

 

 

Raven flies closer to bikes after disembarking last strike squad. I gate Warlord to charge bikers. Strikes near relic still too far to grab it. I do a mistake disembarking strike squad closer to cultists then to drones and my smites just kill 3 of them. Shooting leaves only 1 cultist form 30 man squad (including morale loses). I finish drones too. One explodes, killing some more cultists. Shooting kills one biker, I fail to charge with Warlord.  

 

He finally moves his DPs to charge the Raven. He changes for CP one of DPs spell for Death Hex, but fails to cast is on Warlord. Double shooting for devastators kills him, however. Bikers with warptime grab relic, but leave sorc to my shooting. Both DPs fail the charge and loose some wounds to overwatch from Raven.

 

 

Left GMNDK moves closer to DPs to shoot them, as well as 1 squad of strikes near him. Other two squads move to shoot sorcerer. Raven flies to devastators. Smiting and shooting kill al cultists left, sorc, bikers and devastators.

 

He flies his DPs to raven in kills it in close combat. My strikes finally grab relic thanks to GoI. Another strike squad and GM with smiting and shooting kills DP. 

 

We roll for 6 turn and it is. Here my oponent concedes. 20-0.

I do not remember clearly every turn, so decided not to divide the last report. Obviously total was 5. 

 

 

I scored 36 points total and got the 3rd place. My opponent from game 2 was first, second place took Razorbacks of Azrael (it was still index one, codex was released that very day. I'm glad it was the last time).

 

 

I was really lucky with opponents (two counter-match-ups in my favour) and the third one just had way more skill than me. But still the list seems very strong to me especially for such small format. For 1500 tournament I plan to add Voldus and an Incinerator - solid counterflyer measures.