Escalation League and quick battle reports

[Galron]

Pillars of black smoke rose and billowed across the field. A nearby skorpekh destroyer stabbed a wounded green armored intercessor through his chest plate. The Celestial Emperor floated slowly across the latest scene of violence as he savored his win over the human space marines.
"EMPEROR. SALAMANDER REINFORCEMENTS APPROACH." An immortal on picket duty commed.
The ancient Emperor grinned in a horrific gold metal smile in the direction of the immortal's squad. "LEGION! WE RIDE!" He ordered waving his still blood dripping scythe and his host began a mad charge towards the new arrivals.
 
I felt sorry for my opponent on this one. We both kind of piled in the center and I got first turn. There was a circle 16 inches wide in the center where we couldnt deploy, but he had infiltrators on the center objective. It turned into a mosh pit. I fielded the same list as above.
He fielded
Argax
a primaris CHaplain
a primaris librarian
2 5 man intercessors
2 5 man infiltrators
6 flamer aggressors
Redemptor
2 3 man Eradicators
1 5 man assault terminator squad in deep strike
 
I piled almost everything right on the deployment line outside the circle. My Heavy Destroyers were on the right side. The Immortals and Tomb Blades were on the left side. He deployed his infiltrators on the center objective and the left objectives. His aggressors were just outside the circle opposite of my guys. One squad of eradicators was off to the left of his aggressors with the chaplain. Argax was with the aggressors. One of his intercessor squads was on his objective. The libby, eradicators and other intercessors were near the board edge threatening to move into that quarter.
 
T1: I won the roll off. Gave the Wraiths and Heavy destroyers my will be done. Everyone was pretty much in that relentless march bubble and surrounded the infiltrators and approached the aggressors. Night bringer moved up. Immortals close to the left objective advanced into its capture radius challenging the infiltrators on the other side of it. Nightbringer killed an infiltrator and all three eradicators with its powers. Shooting on the left by the tomb blades and left immortals killed the left Infitrators leaving me with that objective. The heavy destroyers killed 2 of the three other eradicators. Melee: Scarabs charged the aggressors to eat their overwatch, predictably they didnt survive 60 hits. Nightbringer actually failed his charge into the aggressors. The Wraiths however did not, nor did the skorpekhs and skopekh lord into the center infitrators. All but one aggressor were killed and all the infiltrators died. The wraiths consolidated into Argax who was trapped in the center of the circle of aggressors and couldnt intervene, but killed two wraiths but one came back. The last aggressor ran for his life. His T1: He shuffled things around. Put drake shield on the redemptor giving it T8. He did 3 damage to the NightBringer and then charged the Skorpekh lord with the redemptor killing him and moved into contact with the Skorpekhs who did a few damage to him. Wraiths did 3 damage to Argax who killed two wraiths and another one came back.
 
My T2: Wraiths disengaged and got in position for a charge on the chaplain and intercessors guarding his home objective. Skorpekhs stayed in contact with the Redemptor with my Will be done. NightBringer moved to almost in between the Redemptor and Argax with him being slightly closer to Argax. Heavy Destroyers moved onto the right objective which also gave them LOS to the LIbrarian. Nightbringer flubbed the Anti-matter meteor but gaze of deathed Argax to death. Heavy Destroyers nuked the Librarian fairly easily. The tomb blades killed an intercessor and a half with their particle beamers. Good enough, and the CCB killed the last wound from the other one. Wraiths charged the chappie and intercessors killing the chappie and only one intercessor. Nightbringer barely managed to bring down the Redemptor with only two wounding hits. It exploded and did a bit of damage. Oh and Ophyidans dropped down 9 inches from the other intercessors and made their charge as well killing 3 of them.
 
My opponent conceeded at this point. leaving me with a 94 to 8 win. So remembering all of the things I forgot from the previous game helped. I went over my notes above earlier this afternoon just to remember. His dice rolls were sub par but getting that nasty first turn unfortunately reminds my of one of my least favorite parts of 9th edition and the you go I go system. 40k needs a revamp to an alternating or random system like Bolt Action has to limit the 1st turn destruction. I killed over 800 points of his force in turn 1 and 600+ points in turn 2. He had 4 intercessors and 1 Eradicator left on the board, with 2 intercessors locked in combat with wraiths. His assault terminators were still in deep strike and might have been able to charge someone on an objective but thats about it. I would have swarmed it the next turn.
 
I still dont know who I am playing next week. I am going to play a patrol with CCB, technomancer, 5 skorpephs, 5 wraiths, a couple other odds and ends and an Auxiliary Superheavy detachment with a Seraptek Construct. Kind of depends though on the points in the league.Hitting 94 was a pretty big boost and if I can play a competitive list and come out on top, it might be worth it to try.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Galron

[Galron]

The necron force continued its drive deep into Imperial territory. The Jade Palace, the remains of which were rebuilt by the human vermin after the millennia of abandonment by his own dynasty, was now in sight. The Celestial Emperor urged his legion forward. His advance scout Tomb Blades reported the trespassers were alerted to his presence. He had a surprise for these interlopers. N'toth had a construct hidden near the former seat of power for his dynasty. Now within range, his Chief Technomancer sent the signal to activate it. Gold armored warriors rushed to defensive positions. Three giant dreadnoughts loaded down with weapons of destruction made a golden wall before the gates of the palace.

 

The ground trembled as the packed dirt began to shift. First one then two jade legs each as large as one of the already huge custodes dreadnoughts broke free from the ground. An entire section of the earth lifted up with dirt and debris raining  down from the smooth sides revealing a gold spined back of some sort of monstrous leviathan. It began to move forward and even more debris fell. A golden spider's head with multiple baleful "eyes" turned to stare malevolently at the gold armored custodes, The green eyes turned bright as systems checks completed and the behemoth which appeared more like a spider than anything else reared up raising its enormous forearm weapons. On each side, arcane weapons as large as three or four men charged up, arcing with power. It bellowed an ear shattering blast of noise from its Horns of Jerico in challenge to the golden interlopers who dared challenge it, so loud it caused bricks and debris to fall from the ruins of the former Imperial outpost..

 

The custodes, to their credit, did not flinch at the site of the huge "spider" set to charge into their small defense force. A lone hero of the Imperium stood in between the golden dreadnoughts, visibly scratching a line with his huge polearm weapon in a hissing arc on the stone courtyard before him. This action infuriated Hsian and he ordered an immediate charge.

 

So the last game of the league before the tournament next week. This was another take 2, take 3, take more mission(really getting bored with these). My opponent was the #5 guy in the league who was to be my first Custodes opponent of 9th. This is actually his last game with Custodes because there are apparently like 5 local players being band wagon players and building custodes armies when the new dex comes out. I came in to it with a derp list just for the hell of it not expecting to be able to get enough points to make it to the top.

 

My list: Patrol- Novokh

CCB blood scythe, Implacable conquorer WLT,

Technomancer with cloak

Night Bringer

6 Skorpekhs

5 wraiths

2 5 man immortals

crypto-thralls

3 Heavy Destroyers

Aux Superheavy

Seraptek Heavy Construct with the particle singularity generators

 

He fielded(and note I am not familiar with custodes units so I am trying)

Trajen

Captain on bike with the 3++ relic

2 3 man sagitarius guard

6 man Venetari with the super pistols(these guys were insanely good in almost every phase)

3 of the big dreadnoughts with 4 shot lascannon guns, missile launchers, heavy heavy flamers+ he spent 3 CP to make them reroll charges.

4 dudes with shields and swords(?)

Long board edge to long board edge. I wont the roll off

 

T1: I had both immortals and the cryptothralls on all three objectives and behind LOS blocking terrain. My Heavy destroyers got MWBD and floated to the top of a 4 story building. Seraptek moved its full distance forward. The wraiths, Skorpekhs, CCB, technomancer, and nightbringer. Shooting had the heavy destroyers do decent damage to one dreadnought. Seraptek split fire and dropped an undamaged dread to 1 and knocked the other down to 4 wounds remaining. His T1: He moved his venetari forward from their safe spot in the corner. The dreads moved forwards as did his Sagetarium in the middle leaving Trajen on his center objective. He moved his right side Sag guys up to where he thought there was a window in the terrain(we play if you are in a building, you still have to have openings to shoot out of or be shot through). His shooting is nasty as the Venetari kill three skorpekhs, of which one gets up. The 4 wound dread shoots the Nightbringer and wraiths killing a Wraith. The undamaged dread shoots the skorpekhs killing three, one gets up. The 1 wound dread manages to put a wound on the Seraptek. Assault has him charge his 4 wound dread into the wraiths killing 3 with one getting back up. I dont think they damaged him back.

 

My T2: My wraiths disengaged with the dread and moved towards the Venetari after the technomancer brought one back. A skorpekh came back as well bringing them up to 3. Seraptek ran forward toward the wall of gold in the center as did the Skorpekhs. Nightbring jumped the dread towards the center. The CCB moved forward as well to the very center of the board with his technomancer next to him. Nightbringer Anti-matter meteored the 4 wound dread doing 3 damage. I took Code of Combat secondary but rather than leave a functional dread in my center field I killed it with a heavy destroyer. CCB killed the one wound one in the backfield with his gauss cannon. Sraptek annihilated the undamaged one. Big charges took place having the wraiths assault the Venatari killing 3 or 4. They responded by killing 3 of my wraiths although 1 came back. The seraptek and the skorpekhs chraged the sagetrium and managed all together to kill ONE and I lost a skorpekh in return.

 

In a nut shell since most things that matter were dead by this point. CCB charged and killed the captain after hitting him with multiple weapons. Nightbringer never made it into close combat. CCB also killed the last of the shield guys. Seraptek did eventually drop to his middle bracket because of Trajen who he did eventually kill. I ended up clearing the table giving me a 94-20 win.

 

I can see why the Seraptek gets a bad rap. While I found it highly effective here where I got the first turn and was able to quickly kill all of his big heavy AT on turn 2, I can see how a more spread our gunline can tear it apart. He chose to not shoot out of proportion fire at the Nightbringer and thus NB had full freedom of movement to toss his powers around. It was a fun game with a great opponent though. Brings me up to #1 for now but the #s 2 and 3 havent fought yet and unless both of them really hurt each other and prevent points, one or both of them will jump past me. Hoping to hold onto 2nd.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Galron

[Galron]

Had the tournament to top off the league. Not really a tournie player, I dislike the cut throat nature of them but I figured I would see if the local one was ok. There was about 15 players playing the boring set piece terrain which negates the entire first step of playing which is picking the best terrain. I hate symmetrical terrain set ups with a passion. Why bother with the picking of deployment zones when they are all the same? So there were 2 Death Guard, 3 Necrons, 2 Blood Angels, 1 Grey knight, 1 Knights, 1 1k Sons, 1 sisters, and I forget the rest. It used Worst Coast Pairings(I will never call the left coast anything positive).

 

My army CCB- Thrall of Silent King, warscythe, Eternal Orb(Never used :/ )

Technimancer- cloak, dermal Ablator(never used)

Technomancer0 cloak WLT Implacable Conqueror

5 Skorpekhs

5 Wraiths

5 Locust Destroyers

3 Heavy Destroyers

2 5 man Immortals

1 2 man cryptothralls

3 scarabs

1 Tomb Spider Nightbringer

 6" pregame move and everyone is OBSEC

 

My first game was with a Blood ANgel player I beat earlier in the league. He had a bunch of jump pack guys and biker HQs. For some reason he did not deep strike anything despite knowing we were playing short end to short end.I skipped my pregame move and just shot the crap out him. My locusts killed 2 sang gaurd squads an intercessor squad and I think something else. Night Bringer killed the chapter master and then the inceptors and priest dude. I won pretty handily at 40-91

 

Second game I thought I lost until we counted points. He played a Knight household where everyone rerolled all hit rolls in close combat, they all regen,all three big guys had these insane lightning cannons, super plasma guns and an insane flamer that autowounds everything on a 2+. He had very few guns that didnt do 3 damage per hit. I got backed up into my corner and ended with an immortal squad and technomancer. I killed one big guy and all four Armingers, but he had 1 complete big guy and one with heavy damage he simply paid a point to be full profile the whole game. I won 74-65 somehow. First round I killed 2 armingers and did really heavy damage to a big guy. Nightbringer wiffed on his damage though and died on T1.

 

Last game was a meat grinder. I went against an LVO and traveling tourney player who showed up to hang out with a fried(knight player, neither were in the league). He played 1k sons. I made a huge mistake in my turn 1 which cost me the game although it dragged out for the entire 2.5 hours. He went first and really didnt do much damage. Killed an immortal squad with 10 scarab terminators. My mistake was I didnt stick to my plan. I set up with two prongs, all the locusts and tomb blades on one flank and all the melee stuff on the right flank. I had a pretty good turn, charged nightbringer into the terminators and him combined with some other stuff killed 9 of them. Skopekhs charged in and killed Arimahn a spawn, 3 rubrics. My mistake was I sent the Wraiths to the center to fight a volkite contemptor and some kind of crazy dinobot that hot spells and had an insane amount of sweep attacks. I got the contemptor down to 1 wounds and did a fair amount to the weird beast thing. I should have kept the wraiths in my big death star and cleared that corner and ignored the two in the middle. The beast thing just gradually wiped down the squad. Nightbringer got his invul stripped off him and died to a daemon prince. In the dumbest thing I have seen in 40k, he charged my locust destroyers with a rhino. They were on top of a 5" building. A stupid rhino tied up a unit on top of a building. Lamest thing I have seen in a long time. golly gee.

 

So this game ended a loss with at 45-58.

Then somehow despite being at top table, my opponent won and I didnt even make 4th place. Either make the placings on points or make them on rankings, grrr. I have since learned that I missed 4th place by 6 points and 3rd by less than 20. #1 only won due to actually winning, but would have been 3rd by actual points.

 

My opponent dinged me on one Engage on all fronts because I had one destroyer out of the squad with his base 1/4" in another quarter.

One thing I noticed in my last two games was my army nova'd really well in the first round and felt I had it in the bag only to have it ripped away. Oh well, I going to go paint tau and eldar. Thats the end of the league.

Things I learned- Surprisingly not a single Mortarion was present, nor was Magnus, but Nightbringer was very important in all three games. He gave that big single punch plus pseudo psychics that was needed

-Canoptek Spider- Useless. Better to find the points for a TombStalker for the same job

-Dont split up your force. My left side in the last game did well and held out to the end. The other side that I split up, easily could have wiped out his entire corner by Turn 2's combat phase and would have stayed inside of the big bubble for reanimations from the techno. Still kicking myself for that.

I still hate tournaments.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Galron