Post tournament ramblings

[Remtek]

Had a great weekend playing warhammer and thought i would do a small recap. I'm a terrible writer so apologies for the stale sentences!

 

Disclaimer: This is a soup list with which does not making any sense for any narrative (character spam) but i really enjoy playing IG + BA and thought i would try out a few of the new white scar chars since their playstyle is similar to BA.

 

My list:

Blood Angels Batallion
Libby Dread (warlord)
Smashcpt
3 x 5 scouts
3 x 4 bikes
Sanguinary Ancient, melta pistol and fist
7 vv vets, 5 stormshield 9 chainsword

Valhallen brigade
3 x Company Commander
6 x 10 Infantry Squads
2 x Platoon Commanders
1 Comissar
3 x 3 Mortar teams
3 x scout sentinel, multi laser

White Scar Supreme command
Bike captain, teeth of terra, stormbolter
Bike captain, TH/ss
Bike captain, TH/ss
Libby w jump pack

 

Game 1


3 Caladius grav tanks, 3x3 custode bikes, 2 shield captains and 2 dreads.

Tough match right off the bat! He went first but the terrain was quite good. I was able to hide most of my stuff, but lost 3-4 bikes to caladiuses. Vanvets and the 2+ relic hammer in reserve. He did not push to hard due to smashcaptains and libby dread.

The next turns would see my chars killing the vertus bikes and a dread, i was unable to push on the tanks so ended up trying to hide stuff midfield. Turn 3 the VV dropped down and managed to wrap a dread which enabled guardsmen and bikes to charge it and spread out on 2 objectvies keeping them safe until turn 5. Turn 6 was a bloodbath with not much left midfield, but the small lead on points was enough for a minor victory.

Minor victory - Postgame thoughts.

The vanguard vets really saved me in this one, having stormshields to tarpit the dread. The white scar captains did underhwelming dmg, but utility and speed was really nice. The BA 2+ hammer captain and libby dread did most of the work.



Game 2

Playing one of my local friends venomspam with 3 ravagers and 20 wyches, 2 raiders, 5 mandrakes and 2 planes with distintigrators.

This was one of the lists i wanted to dodge as dark eldar have all the tools to kill my scoring units and can somewhat ignore smashcaptains. They just score so well with their superior mobility and anti infantry cabability.

I won the roll off and choose to go second to try and get a point lead as we both have a ton of kill points making hold more very important.  His first turn: Killed my scouts hiding midfield, a scout sentinel trying to hide and some bikes. In my turn i decided to push with white scar chars into his transports and play more defensive with my scoring units hoping they would tank alot of dmg. I placed my libby dread backfield vulnerable to planes which was a gamble. Mortars did 4 wounds to a ravagers and that was basically it for shooting   I killed his 2 raiders with wyches inside and a venom in the assault phase.

In his turn he cleared more troops and killed one of the white scar captains. The planes just managed to kill libby dread so the gamble didt pay off . The other captains were locked down by wyches with shardnets.

My turn 2 i used the the valhallen order on mortars to shoot into close combat and cleared most of the wyches. The 2+ hammer captain dropped down next to 2 ravagers and a venom. He used his last vect on decent of angels, but i was lucky enough to roll a 6+1 which turned into a 10 with cp re-roll. The captain went on a rampage killing both ravagers and the venom fighting twice.  The VV dropped down and charged a plane, but only did 5 dmg. I should of probably waited with vv and charged infantry.

The next turns was alot of back and forth, but he pretty much ran circles around me, i was still able to have a lead until turn 4, but on 5 he closed the cap and pushed ahead. We both clocked out out on turn 5, due to the massive amounts of units on the table.

Minor loss - Postgame thoughts
This is one of those matches were you really want some long range anti tank. The bikes really had issues moving around this game due to a high amount of terrain. I should of probably deployed these more aggressive as i lost all my infiltrate and scout sentinels instead. One of my favorite games as my lucky turn 2 made it a real nailbiter.


Game 3

Playing my ETC teammates new ultramarines. He was running 6 aggresssors, 2 invictors, a redemptor, chaplain, tiggy, captain, lieutenant, droppod with 4 gravcannons, thunderfire cannon, ml land speeders and some msu tacticals with a ML in each.

The terrain was again really good. He won the roll to go first. I deployed super defensive except for the scouts and sentinels which scout moved into a the same ruin midfield. The bikes were way back and 50 guardsmen in a ruin close to the edge of deployment.

He re-deployed invictors a bit more defensive on the right flank as they had the long range guns and would simply just die to captains if played to aggressive . They do not have the dreadnought keyword, so unable to use the half dmg strat.

Turn 1 he dropped down the pod so he could see the 15 scouts and 3 sentinels in the mid ruin. He did some splitfire but really whiffed his rolls. The thunderfire cannon killed a few scouts. Rest of his army could not see so they moved up cautiously. The bikes advanced  into the same ruin as scouts.  In my turn i killed the grav devs and got hold more with 10 guardsmen pushing out getting a small point lead.

Turn 2 he shot his thunderfire cannon and invictor on the flank but failed to wipe them. Only looseing 1 unit of guardsmen (the ones that pushed out for hold more). In my turn i killed an invictor and sacrificed a smashcaptain to kill the thunderfirecannon.

The last 4 turns was pretty much the same, i did not want to push until he had used up his CP (defensive strats) and he kept saving his CP . The way the objectives were midfield it me a huge advantage. I think we ended on turn 6 with both having well over a thousand points left.
Major victory - Postgame thoughts

Again the vanguard vets were extremly useful killing a troop hiding in a ruin midgame.Making him have to go back with some units to deal with them. I think the MVP in this one was just having a big ruin in middle. The bikes did not push until turn 6, but managed to grab alot of points in the last turn. It's really tricky to push vs marines now, the redemptor having the ability to halve dmg and be -1 to hit/t8, or only being able to wound aggressors  on a 4+ can really mess up for smashcaptains or other suicide units.


Game 4

Playing vs my former ETC captains Tau: 3 riptides with ats, target lock, 2 cib commanders, shadowsun, 2 broadsides, some troops and a ton of shield drones. Having practiced alot vs Tau i was quite comfortable with this matchup, the white scar walord trait to stop fallbacks would really come in handy here.

I choose to go second, but was unable to hide my bikes correctly, so i lost 6 to 2 riptides. The fnp from banner saved quite a  few here. I was able to clear a good amount of drones in my turn and the bike captain moved up 22" with the relic bike and charged into 2 riptides with ignore overwatch. I was lucky enough to do 5 mortal wounds to drones with the white scar mortal power too, which meant one riptide did not have drones. The libby dread and other bike smashcpt charged into his riptide, but lost the captain due to greater good from cib commander. The libby dread killed the riptide and i had the 2 others within 1 of the no fallback guy.

In his turn 2 one of the riptides failed to fallback and at this point he had to little firepower left to make it a game.

Major Victory - Postgame thoughts
The no fallback warlord trait is just disgusting vs Tau and the missions favor board control making it a really tough matchup for the tau.


Game 5

Vs foot custodes. 3 x 3 sargaterus troops (FW heavy bolter dudes) 2 units of the FW jump pack guys, Trajann, a bike shield captain, banner guy and 9 or 10 wardens with 6+++. (They typically come down within 3" of a banner for 3cp).

I was quite happy with this matchup since it is mostly combat vs combat. I was lucky enough to get second turn and deployed scouts in the middle and characters almost on the line.

In his turn he killed some guardsmen and bikes and moved up his units a little bit. In my turn i was able to get a few mortals with psykers and sacrificed a WS captain for hold more and killing 4 FW jump pack guys and getting a small point lead.

In his turn he almost he almost cleared the units screening libby so he could shoot it, but a few scouts survived. I had deployed all characters more than 8" behind screen, so the warden could not declare them landing 3" away. He dropped down and charged the wardens on the right flank killing some guardsmen and grabbing his 4th objective.

In my turn i advanced the jp libby, but rolled a 1 that i re-rolled into a 2, missing the nullzone range by 1 inch vs wardens. I had already comitted libby dread and the white scar captain to charge them, so there was no turning back! I picked up the dmg 4 white scar hammer since they have a 6+ fnp, the libby dread also having 4 dmg should be able to cripple the warden star. I charged both in and put in roughly 20 attacks (with fighting twice) but only killed 2 or 3 wardens. They swiftly dispatched the white scar captain and held with libby dread.

In his turn 3 he really went to town on mye guadsmen and libby crippling my backfield. In my turn 3 i dropped the 2+ hammer captain in his backfield wiping out 3 custode troops and move move moved my IG chars into his backfield.

The last 3 turns re-minding me of the Benny Hill show, i was running away and he was chasing me down on centre objectives. The BA captain went on a complete rampage killig 3 more troops, trajann and the banner guy. On the bottom of turn 6 we had counted  points and were on a dead draw. My only play was make a long charge with myBA smashcaptain into his shield captain and killing it for a 1 point win. He rolled snakeeyes and the game ended.

Draw - Post game thoughts

Crazy game and a ton of fun. The foot custode list is one of those lists that don't seem that scary on paper, but they can be really hard to kill and will dominate midfield objective holding. In retrospect i should have moved my libby first to make sure nullzone was in range. I think a better play would be to only send in one character to thin them out and moveblock them with guardsman, them being on the flank.

 

Post tournament list thoughts.

All opponents were a blast to play againts, both allowing take backs and playing with intent. Managed to grab a 5th place in the end being 1 point shy of the second spot. First time this tournament has had mandatory check clocks and it was well received with most people. So many games finished naturally. With the new space marines out good terrain is even more important. It feels like everything they can see will die.

 

Vanguard vets

I am liking these more and more. Their ability to come down and kill scoring units reliably and then be really annoying to kill in return makes them so useful. In some games they just keep rolling 3++ saves which can really affect opponents flow/target priority.

 

Bikes:

The terrain in the tournament was great, but this made bikes really underpeform. The amount of firepower in 4 of the matches meant they had to hide several turns and it's so much more difficult to move bikes out of terrain compared to infantry.

 

Scouts:

Scouts are always great, but i really want to try out the primaris ones more. Especially incursors.

 

BA chars:

Dmg wise they outperformed white scars by far and felt essential in every game, but they drain alot of commmand points!

 

Valhallen allies

I could not find the ekstra points for catachan, so thought i would give valhallan a go. The ability to get firesupport into ongoing combats is really useful, and the half dmg from moral often leaves you with 2 guardsmen instead of loosing the whole squad.

 

White scar allies

 

Only being able to take one warlord trait really cripples these guys dmg wise. Hitting and wounding on 3s is often half of the attacks whiffing. The teeth of terra captain was amazing at less than 100 pts. I think for allies it be better dropping atleast one hammer captain and taking a chaplain or phobos char.

 

 

[Are Verlo]

Don´t be so hard on your self. I think it was a good read. Informative and to the point. But then again, I´m not a native spreaker and have a relaxed stance on grammer, syntax and punctuation ;-P

 

As Remtek said the LoS blocking terrain was great. And that made a lot of CC-armies viable at the event.

 

And it brought a smile to my lips that you timed out once yourself ( I timed out twice).

[Morticon]

Great to read!! Thanks for sharing.