Kirkham's Log - For Macragge

[NKirkham24]

I may switch the Intercessors and Impulsor for Infiltrators and use the spare points to upgrade the Tacticals to Devastators? Should give more control of one of my home objectives with the 12” DS denial bubble.

[psyduck]

Sounds like a good plan!

 

So infiltrators sit on back objectives, devs in a pod to go pick up something and the incursors grab another obj, while the rest move on up?

[NKirkham24]

Pretty much. I think it's a fairly flexible list so I should be able to be competitive in most games. Like I say, I need to give it a test run and then tweak it accordingly, but I think it has potential as an all-comers list

[NKirkham24]

So it's been a while since I updated this. 

 

The pandemic is slowly plodding along here in the UK, and while that's been a plus for the amount of time spent on my army, it's not done anything for my ambitions of going to a tournament. 

 

Despite that, yesterday I have booked to attend the Manchester GT in March 2022, to which I intend to take my Ultramarines. 

 

As the GT is quite some time off, I may get to one or two others before then, however, I am officially booked on and will be attending. 

 

I've used my occasional games vs a friend to hone a list (another game is schedule in a fortnights time), the latest iteration of which I will share below:

 

Chief Librarian Tigurius - Might of Heroes, Null Zone, Psychic Fortress

 

Uriel Ventris

 

Primaris Techmarine - Master of the Forge upgrade;

Warlord - Trait: Adept of the Codex, Relic: Seal of Oath

 

Heavy Intercessor Squad (5) - Executor Bolt Rifles, 1 Heavy

 

Infiltrator squad (5) - Helix gauntlet

 

Intercessor Squad (5) - Power sword

 

Bladeguard Veterans (5) - Neo-Volkite pistol on the Sergeant. 

 

Invictor Tactical Warsuit - Incendium Cannon

 

Primaris Apothecary - Chief Apothecary upgrade;

Hero of the Chapter: Selfless Healer

 

Victrix Honour Guard (2)

 

Redemptor Dreadnought - Macro Plasma, OGC, Storm Bolters, Icarus.

 

Redemptor Dreadnought - HOGC, Heavy Flamer, Storm Bolters.

 

Eradicators (3)

 

Eradictors (3) including Multi-Melta

 

Impulsor - Shield dome

 

 

Current thoughts, initially I was thinking of Ventris as Warlord to gain Paragon of War, but I dont know if it's worth it in a competitive setting?

 

This will undoubtedly change over time with at least one more chapter approved to be released between now and the event, the apothecary is already going up in points for example, but if it took place this weekend, that's what i'd go with.

 

Please let me know your thoughts

Edited June 1, 2021 by NKirkham24

[NKirkham24]

So I am off to my first tournament this week, the Manchester GT. My list is as follows:

 

Chief Librarian Tigurius - Might of Heroes, Null Zone, Psychic Fortress

 

Uriel Ventris

 

Primaris Techmarine - Master of the Forge upgrade;

Warlord - Trait: Adept of the Codex & Rites of War, Relic: Seal of Oath

 

Heavy Intercessor Squad (5) - Executor Bolt Rifles

 

Intercessor Squad (5) - Chainsword

 

Intercessor Squad (5) - Power sword

 

Bladeguard Veterans (5) - Neo-Volkite pistol on the Sergeant. 

 

Invictor Tactical Warsuit - Incendium Cannon

 

Judiciar - Imperium's Sword, Armour Indomitus

 

Victrix Honour Guard (2)

 

Redemptor Dreadnought - Macro Plasma, OGC, Storm Bolters, Icarus.

 

Redemptor Dreadnought - HOGC, Heavy Flamer, Storm Bolters.

 

Eradicators (3)

 

Vindicator Laser Destroyer

 

Impulsor - Shield dome

 

I know Ultras are not in the best spot at the moment, but they were my first army and it feels right to take them to my first event as opposed to a more meta-lists like Custodes. 

 

The draw for the 1st round has me up against Leviathan Crusher Stampede. 

 

I know this is a tough draw for me, but any thoughts on how best to counter them, best secondaries to take for this match up etc would be welcome. 

 

Cheers

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I really like your army list and think you can do well. Good luck and may your dice roll hot.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Crusher Stampede I would focus down one big bug at a time.

[Emurian]

Whats the idea behind the vicatrix? Do you have issues shielding your characters? List looks fine overall, this is the only unit that seems to.be somewhat out of place. 70 pts + dropping one BV would free up the points to run an apothecary. Sometimes they just stare all battle, others like my last one facing DE he revived 5 termies and healed 4w throughout the game. You seem to like characters skimming over your lists so why no apothecary?

[NKirkham24]

So, the weekend has come and gone, and the tournament has been attended.

 

Expectations pre tournament, knowing where the army currently sits in the meta and th type of event this was, was to get a win.

 

As I’ve said, the 1st game was against Crusher Stampede.

 

The guy I played, Paul, was great, taking me through some of the jank the big gribblies are capable of.

 

The first mission was abandon sanctuaries and even with rapid redeploy and backlining, I couldn’t avoid a Heirodule charging me 1st turn. I also knew his Harpy could fly over to my home objective and turn on obsec, stealing it from me, but there was little I could do to counter it. Going 2nd in this game was painful as it prevented me at least damaging the Heirodule before it reached me. The Bladeguard and Judiciar tried some work mid table, but ultimately succumbed to a tide of warriors and a swarmlord. Despite taking out a fair few big bugs, I lost 93-46.

 

Round 2 and I played a beautiful World Eaters army featuring a Lord of Skulls, two Termite drills and a ton of Berserkers in Data Scry Salvage. This was a fairly tight game which really hinged on my Judiciar whiffing his wound rolls against a Chaos Lord. The Lord was down to 3 wounds, and with his 6 attacks all hitting, I preceding to only get one wound through without any mortal wounds. He proceeded to survive, butcher the Judiciar and then crash in to my Bladeguard and killed several. The game was pretty close until the end of turn 4, by then the double attacks from the Berserkers ensured I didn’t have enough left to get any more points. I lost 80-50.

 

Game 3 I played Necrons from the Novokh dynasty in Conversion. I played poorly in this game, making mistakes and getting my Dreads into a bottleneck. They then proceeded to be swamped by the Silent King and his retinue of 12 Wraiths. At this stage I knew the game was up really, and eventually lost 97-46.

 

That was the end of day 1. I was happy with my first two games but let myself down with the 3rd.

 

I’ll update about day 2 shortly.

Edited March 29, 2022 by NKirkham24

[NKirkham24]

Overnight, once the pairings for Round 4 went up, I noticed my third opponent had logged our results incorrectly and given me the win. I let the TO know 1st thing Sunday morning, and the scores would be reversed, however it was too close to the 4th round for us to change opponents, so I 'up' on table 59 instead of down on table 80. Accordingly, I had a tougher opponent with a better record. I only thought of this post-event, but this was pretty frustrating as it meant I was less likely to win this 4th match-up because of the error. 

 

Round 4 was against Dark Angels, and featured several characters, along with bodyguard command squads, a deathwing blob (of 8 with mixed weapons) ravenwing apothecary, some inner circle bladeguard, eradicators etc. 

 

Again this game was a close one, but ultimately poor secondary choice cost me. We both took Oath, but with me going 1st and Oath being scored at the end of the battle round, he was always able to clear me off the centre and ultimately racked up more points then me. If i'd have taken Stranglehold and got points at the end of my turn, i'd have probably pipped him, but in the end I lost 72-61.

 

And so to the finale, and I faced Dark Angels again. This time it was almost exclusively Deathwing, facing down 3x10 squads (one combat squaded), the ravenwing apothecary and Talonmaster, and a few other bits. 

 

This time my secondaries were much better, with Engage and Banners alongside assassinate. His lack of speed meant I knew I could get on objectives early and get the banners raised.

 

Despite seal of oath and 2 full turns of shooting, I was unable to remove even one of his 10 man blobs. Another annoying moment was the Invictor hitting Ezekiel 5 times but failing to wound at all thanks to Inner Circle. This would have removed his only psyker in turn 3, and prevent any chance of him scoring psychic interrogation again. After this failure, he went on to get 12 points for this, as Tig repeatedly failed to deny. Thankfully though he probably played too conservatively overall, and I was able to claim max points on primary en route to winning by a single point, 85-84.

 

I was really happy with finally getting a win, and felt I learnt a lot along the way. 

 

Tigurius was MvP for the event, psychic fortress and might of heroes kept the Dreadnoughts kicking for much longer than they otherwise would, despite the failure to deny Ezekiel in game 5.

 

The Dreadnoughts were also great, although in some games, they didnt get the chance to shine. 

[NKirkham24]

Since the Manchester GT, i've discovered a local gaming group  that meet on a Monday near work, so i've been able to get a few more games in, against a bigger variety of opponents. 

 

My first visit, I played against an amazing Raptors army, using the Phobos Army or Renown. We played Tempest, and having to talk out the final turn due to time, I came up just short, 57-50.

 

Last night I played against a T'au army, using T'au sept rules. When I was given the match-up I fully expected to get absolutely hammered. This game was a GT mission, which eventually ended 77-52, a featured a few key moments and a few mistakes from myself. 

 

I made a placement error for a charge through terrain which would have prevented overwatch, and then saw my Invictor melted by said Overwatch. Ventris tried but ultimately failed to kill a commander in combat before being melted by their shooting. A riptide mananged to survive with a wound thanks to it's shrugs after taking 16 damage from Eradicators. Even things like the deployment, being the short table edges and T'au getting 1st turn were against me. 

 

Despite that the Judiciar and the Bladeguard were great, i'd dropped the Impulsor for this game and honestly didn't miss it. They still made combat, and still took out everything they hit. 

 

Ultimately, not knowing the Aerospace secondary of T'au cost me 9 points 1st turn, and failing to kill a pesky stealth suit on the final turn meant he got the full 15 for that. That, along with a poor secondary choice of assassinate (i didn't score any on it ultimately) cost me the game, but I was pleasantly surprised with how long everything lasted.

 

I've definitely taken some learnings from these games and have got a new list try next time, as I prep for a one-day tournament at the end of May. 

[NKirkham24]

I have a 1-day tournament coming up on May 28th, run by Manchester Wargaming Hive.

 

Taking some learnings from the last event, i'm taking the following list:

 

Uriel Ventris

Chief Librarian Tigurius - MoH, Psychic Fortress, Null Zone

Primaris Techmarine - MotF - Warlord, Seal of Oath & Adept of the Codex. 

 

5x Heavy Intercessors

5x Intercessors

5x Infiltrators

5x Incursors

 

5x Bladeguard - volkite on Sgt

4x Bladeguard - volkite on Sgt

Redemptor - Plasma

Redemptor - Gatling

Primaris Apothecary - (CA upgrade) selfless healer

Judiciar - Rites of War, Armour Indomitus

 

3x Eradicators - melta rifles

3x Eradicators - heavy melta rifles

 

I will invariably strategic reserves one of the Eradicators. The forward deploy on the phobos units is to push opponents back, prevent secondary scoring from things like T'au on the aerospace secondary they have, and gives me plenty of movement flexibility for my own secondaries, RnD or Engage etc, using Guerilla Tactics. 

 

I've ditched the Impulsor from the previous list, advancing infantry, using cover with AoC is just more survivable, and the Apothecary can just pick them back up. 

 

Not expecting anything amazing, but looking forward to the event. 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I always take the volkite pistols as well on my BGV sergeants.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I’m very interested to learn how Ventris performs… he looks quite awesome on paper !

[NKirkham24]

He’s good, for the points difference he’s just a better captain. Effectively, gets a couple of free relics and the strat discounts which with AoC, may become a little more important.